STORM TO HIT AMERICA MIDATLANTIC

Medvedev signs Russia's military doctrine
FEB 5,10

MOSCOW – Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has signed the country's new military doctrine regulating the stance the country takes in conflict situations.The doctrine, which Russia is adopting through 2020, does not include a provision for pre-emptive nuclear strikes, as officials had previously suggested might have been present.The document says Russia reserves the right to use nuclear force in response to a nuclear attack or one of equivalent magnitude.Russia's conventional military forces are in dilapidated shape, increasing Moscow's dependence on its Cold War-era nuclear arsenals.The expansion of Western military alliance NATO is named first in a list of main external threats to the country.

Putin criticizes his party after opposition rally By MANSUR MIROVALEV, Associated Press Writer – FEB 5,10

NOVO-OGARYOVO, Russia – Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on Friday criticized his party following an unusually large opposition protest, saying it has fed the country with empty promises.Putin's attack on the United Russia party follows last weekend's protest in the Baltic Sea port of Kaliningrad where thousands rallied against the government in the largest anti-Kremlin protest in years.You can't promise everything to everyone at once, Putin told the United Russia leaders who gathered at his suburban residence outside Moscow. You can't turn into a Mr. Promiser who promises things to get to power and doesn't keep the promises.United Russia controls federal parliament as well as local legislatures and serves as a power base for Putin, who has not ruled out a return to the presidency in 2012. Government officials often go out of their way to ban proposed opposition protests.

Putin is the leader of United Russia. The carefully-choreographed arrangement is intended to cast Putin as a supreme leader above the political fray who continues to call the shots even after his eight-year presidency.By criticizing United Russia, Putin apparently sought to keep a distance from the party, which some critics have compared to the Soviet Communist Party.It's evident and right that citizens make complaints, Putin said.A well-organized government is always able to solve any problems while the lack of such authority leads to anarchy.Putin told United Russia leaders that they must offer efficient ways of solving problems and not be afraid to admit and correct its mistakes. Direct contact with citizens is absolutely necessary,he said.Neither he, nor any leaders of the United Russia on Friday made any public reference to Saturday's protest in Kaliningrad, that drew around 10,000 people according to organizers. Police said about 6,000 people showed up.The rally was followed by Sunday's protests in Moscow which drew several hundred participants, and similar demonstrations in St. Petersburg and several other Russian cities. The protests come before municipal elections planned for March in several Russian regions. Clearly worried, the government dispatched top officials to Kaliningrad to check the situation.The protests came before municipal elections planned for March in several Russian regions.Most top federal and regional officials in Russia are United Russia members, and the opposition has accused the party of using its leverage to rig regional elections in October. Independent election observers and opposition parties, including the Communists, protested what they said were mass electoral violations, citing evidence of multiple voting and ballot stuffing.
Putin's successor as president, Dmitry Medvedev, told United Russia in November that it should stop trying to manipulate elections and learn to win fairly.Associated Press writer Vladimir Isachenkov contributed to this report.

REBUILT 3RD TEMPLE (THE EU DICTATORS TEMPLE)

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

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

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

REBUILT 4TH TEMPLE (THE TRUE MESSIAHS TEMPLE)

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

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

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

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

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

FROM WND'S JERUSALEM BUREAU-Will Rockefeller build 3rd Temple?
Internet abuzz with report of biblical proportions ... February 03, 2010
11:55 pm Eastern By Aaron Klein 2010 WorldNetDaily

Temple Mount in Jerusalem
JERUSALEM – A Rockefeller is raising capital to rebuild the Jewish Temple, said the news release published on CNN Money's Internet site and other news sources. The plan would include a united Jewish and Palestinian Arab state. A Jewish group promoting the rebuilding of the Temple was reported to be cooperating. The story spread virally through the evangelical Christian blogosphere. But it was all part of an elaborate hoax. The release, filed with MarketWire and republished at CNNMoney.com, claims Supriem David Rockefeller is director of a company, Kinti Holdings group, which is working with a Jewish Temple organization to rebuild the Third Temple.

States the release: Kinti Holdings will be raising funds to go towards building the Third Temple in Jerusalem in strict coordinance with The Temple Institute, Rabbi Hiam Richman and The Palestinian National Interest Committee (PNIC) and supporting Husam Bajis for President of Palestine.Richman, international director of the Temple Institute, a Jewish Temple activist group, told WND the release is a scam.The Temple Institute strongly protests the use of its name and that of Rabbi Chaim Richman in a series of fraudulent press releases and advertising claims that are now circulating on the Internet,read the Temple Institute's official response to the release.

Understanding the future from the past, get Prophecies for the Era of Muslim Terror
Continued the Institute's response: The claims made by these men ... are false and malicious, and their apparent intentions are to take advantage of the Temple Institute's sincere supporters and rob them of funds. The Temple Institute advises its friends and supporters to avoid being taken in by this scam.The original Rockefeller press release about rebuilding the Third Temple, however, has been spreading like wildfire on Christian websites and blogs. The release was filed with MarketWire, a leading newswire service. A spokesman for Marketwire did not immediately return a WND request for comment. Is it not uncommon for newswire services to post releases without first fact-checking the content. CNNMoney.com routinely reprints business press releases. The company that filed the release, Kinti Holdings, has a track record of making strange announcements. On Monday, Kinti filed a release using the Rockefeller name and claiming it is seeking a debt/equity swap with any and all national brand name corporations.Another release claimed the company is partnering with Supriem David Rockefeller and his $500 million worth of entertainment business. The release says Rockefeller is a financial magnate with strong ties to the entertainment industry.Yesterday, hours after a WND request for comment on the Third Temple announcement was sent to the sole e-mail address listed for Kinti, the company posted a statement claiming, Kinti is now conducting Due Diligence of a Major National Brand Name Chain concerning debt for equity and will enter into a mandatory quiet period.

The management section of Kinti's website states, All of the previous Officers, Directors and Board of Directors have resigned. Richard Byrd has been appointed the new CEO and the only member of the Board of Directors.The company claims to own a mine in Guyana, South America, but doesn't specify where the mine is other than pointing to a Google Earth map. The site posts a picture of what it claims is a mining permit from Guyana.

Who is Supriem David Rockefeller? As for Supriem David Rockefeller? A spokesman for the Rockefeller Foundation told WND he doesn't exist. A routine web search for the name brings up scores of conspiracy websites claiming, among other things, that Supriem is a secretive 34-year old heir to the Rockefeller dynasty who is fighting for a New World Order. One site says it found Supriem really is a con artist and convicted thief who goes by different names and lives in Williamson County, Tennessee. Some outlandish claims about Surpiem include:Supriem has DNA from different races, including Anunnaki, Draco Triple Helix, Elohim and more. He has triple helix blue blood in a chimera state with red blood and more than one DNA sequence, which is what chimera is. His triple helix is the reptilian blood.Supriem has a fortune in the trillions and is seeking to finance a high-speed bullet train.

Supriem exerts enormous influence over Bill Clinton, George H.W. Bush and Henry Kissinger, who are working on a counter-New World Order.

Rebuilding Third Temple

While the Third Temple press release may be a hoax, the Temple Institute is anything but. The group is involved in restoring a Jewish presence to the Temple Mount, where current Israeli laws bar Jews from ascending the Mount during most hours of the day while Muslims are granted nearly 24-hour access. The Temple Institute also focuses on preparation for the rebuilding of the Third Temple. The group has been preparing ritual objects suitable for Temple use. Many of the more than 90 ritual items to be used in the Temple have been re-made to the highest standards the Temple Institute.

The First Temple was built by King Solomon in the 10th century B.C. It was destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 B.C. The Second Temple was rebuilt in 515 B.C. after Jerusalem was freed from Babylonian captivity. That temple was destroyed by the Roman Empire in A.D. 70. Each temple stood for a period of about four centuries. The Temple was the center of religious worship for ancient Israelites. It housed the Holy of Holies, which contained the Ark of the Covenant and was said to be the area upon which God's presence dwelt. All biblical holidays centered on worship at the Temple. The Temples served as the primary location for the offering of sacrifices and were the main gathering place for Israelites. According to the Talmud, the world was created from the foundation stone of the Temple Mount. It's believed to be the biblical Mount Moriah, the location where Abraham fulfilled God's test to see if he would be willing to sacrifice his son Isaac. The Temple Mount has remained a focal point for Jewish services for thousands of years. Prayers for a return to Jerusalem and the rebuilding of the Temple have been uttered by Jews since the Second Temple was destroyed, according to Jewish tradition. The Al Aqsa Mosque was constructed in about A.D. 709 to serve as a shrine near another shrine, the Dome of the Rock, which was built by an Islamic caliph. Al Aqsa was meant to mark what Muslims came to believe was the place at which Muhammad, the founder of Islam, ascended to heaven to receive revelations from Allah. Jerusalem is not mentioned in the Quran. It is mentioned in the Hebrew Bible 656 times. Islamic tradition states Muhammad took a journey in a single night on a horse from a sacred mosque – believed to be in Mecca in southern Saudi Arabia – to the farthest mosque and from a rock there ascended to heaven. The farthest mosque became associated with Jerusalem about 120 years ago.

According to research by Israeli Author Shmuel Berkovits, Islam historically disregarded Jerusalem as being holy. Berkovits points out in his new book,How Dreadful Is this Place! that Muhammad was said to loathe Jerusalem and what it stood for. He wrote Muhammad made a point of eliminating pagan sites of worship and sanctifying only one place – the Kaaba in Mecca – to signify the unity of God. As late as the 14th century, Islamic scholar Taqi al-Din Ibn Taymiyya, whose writings influenced the Wahhabi movement in Arabia, ruled that sacred Islamic sites are to be found only in the Arabian Peninsula and that in Jerusalem, there is not a place one calls sacred, and the same holds true for the tombs of Hebron.A guide to the Temple Mount by the Supreme Muslim Council in Jerusalem published in 1925 listed the Mount as Jewish and as the site of Solomon's Temple. The Temple Institute acquired a copy of the official 1925 Guide Book to Al-Haram Al-Sharif, which states on page 4,Its identity with the site of Solomon's Temple is beyond dispute. This, too, is the spot, according to universal belief, on which David built there an altar unto the Lord.

Get a Jewish reading of ancient prophecies-Rabbi says Bible predicted what would happen to Israel in diaspora February 04, 2010 12:15 am Eastern 2010 WorldNetDaily

When scientists revealed in 2008 that an analysis of rings on stalagmite from a cave near Jerusalem showed the climate of the region got drier shortly after the Roman dispersion of the Jews in A.D. 70, it was no surprise to Rabbi Menachem Kohen of Brooklyn. In his book, Prophecies for the Era of Muslim Terror: A Torah Perspective on World Events, he had explained the dramatic climate change that took place when the Jews were forced from their homeland. Rabbi Kohen wrote that the land suffered an unprecedented, severe and inexplicable (by anything other than supernatural explanations) drought that lasted from the first century until the 20th – a period of 1,800 years coinciding with the forced dispersion of the Jews. Kohen saw the cataclysm as a miraculous fulfillment of prophecy found in the book of Deuteronomy – especially chapter 28:23-24. And thy heaven that is over thy head shall be brass, and the earth that is under thee shall be iron. The LORD shall make the rain of thy land powder and dust: from heaven shall it come down upon thee, until thou be destroyed.A year later, University of Wisconsin geologists analyzed the chemical composition of individual rings that formed the stalagmite growing up from the floor of the Soreq Cave near Jerusalem between 200 B.C. and A.D. 1100. Geologists John Valley and Ian Orland concluded the climate was drier in the eastern Mediterranean between 100 A.D. and A.D. 700, with steep drops in rainfall around 100 A.D. and A.D. 400 – a period of waning Roman and Byzantine power in the region.

Researchers from the Geological Survey of Israel and Hebrew University in Jerusalem helped with the study, which appeared in an issue of the journal Quaternary Research. The scientific study was tied to research into global warming. Before the Jews entered Canaan, it was described in the Bible as a land flowing with milk and honey. If you read what Israel's climate and natural landscape was like from the time Joshua crossed the Jordan right up until the time of Jesus, it sounds like a heavily forested land. There were amazing crops raised by the people who inhabited the land when the Jews arrived. For 1,800 years, it hardly ever rained in Israel. This was the barren land discovered by Mark Twain. So-called Palestine was a wasteland – few lived there. Beginning in A.D. 70 and lasting until the early 1900s –about 660,000 days – no rain. A survey of rainfall charts in Israel beginning in the early 1800s leading up to through the 1960s also confirms the severe drought ended when the Jews began to return. The heaviest periods of rainfall during that 150-year period came in and around 1948 and 1967 – the years of Israel's independence and its most stunning military victory.

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.

Snow storm has Mid-Atlantic scrambling for staples By SARAH KARUSH, Associated Press Writer – FEB 5,10

WASHINGTON – Stores ran low on milk, bread and snow shovels and federal workers were sent home early Friday as the second major snow storm in less than two months bore down on a winter-weary Mid-Atlantic.Up to 28 inches of heavy, wet snow accompanied by powerful winds were forecast in Washington, Baltimore and surroundings. That could be a historic snowfall for the nation's capital, where the record stands at 28 inches in January, 1922.Airlines canceled flights across the region and school districts closed for the day ahead of the winter storm forecast from Virginia and West Virginia across Maryland into southern New Jersey and Pennsylvania. It was already snowing hard in Richmond, Va., on Friday morning.Residents in the Washington area scrambled for food and supplies, but many found they were too late.As you see, I'm in front of Whole Foods and half of the food is gone already, Denise Wright said on a shopping trip for staples.Colleen Sport, who just moved to the area from Atlanta, was at the Home Depot in Falls Church, Va.I was looking for salt and shovels and of course they're out, said Sport, 42.Now I'm just hoping to get shelving and work inside.

In Alexandria, Va., James Ivery, 60, and his wife had already bought supplies but were back at a Harris Teeter supermarket Friday morning to get out of the house one last time before the storm. Many shelves and bins were emptied of milk, vegetables, eggs and cold cuts.It just seems like people are panicking. I don't think it's going to be too bad,Ivery said.As long as I got power and satellite service, I'll be fine.
The federal government, the region's largest employer, told workers they could take Friday off as unplanned leave and prepared to shut offices four hours early.Metro, the Washington-area rail system, warned it would likely have to close all but the underground portions of the system during the storm. Trains cannot operate outside when snow accumulations reach 8 inches because the snow cuts off access to the electrified third rail that powers the trains.Across the region, state officials were deploying thousands of trucks and employees and had hundreds of thousands of tons of salt at the ready.This is not a good mix, said Joan Morris, a spokeswoman for the Virginia Department of Transportation.Heavy, wet snow with gusting winds is going to make it a very tough storm for us. I expect visibility will be very poor in spots, and we'll have to deal with drifting snow.The National Weather Service warned snow accumulations of 18 inches to 28 inches are expected from Baltimore to northern Virginia and parts of West Virginia.Blizzard warnings were in effect in much of Delaware and southern New Jersey from Friday afternoon to Saturday night, with strong winds and blowing, drifting snow.Philadelphia could get about a foot of snow and 12 to 20 inches are expected in the Pittsburgh area.The combination of wet snow and strong winds could make conditions even more treacherous than the Dec. 19 storm, which dumped more than 16 inches of snow on Washington.

Snowfalls of this magnitude — let alone two in one season — are rare in the area. According to the National Weather Service, Washington has gotten more than a foot of snow only 13 times since 1870. The biggest snowfall is believed to have occurred in 1772, before official records were kept. As much as 3 feet fell in the Washington-Baltimore area during that storm, and both George Washington and Thomas Jefferson mentioned the event in their diaries, according to the weather service. Virginia's General Assembly canceled Friday's floor sessions and committee meetings, the first time anyone could remember that the threat of snow had sent the whole legislature home. Officials urged people to stock up on supplies Thursday night and warned of a tough evening commute Friday. Virginia Del. Tim Hugo was hurrying out of a Thursday afternoon committee meeting so he could get home to Fairfax County, a Washington suburb that's supposed to get hit. I'm heading out of here now because I don't want my wife stranded at home with 2 feet of snow in the drive, he said. Southwest Airlines canceled Friday afternoon flights at Baltimore, Philadelphia and Washington airports. Amtrak canceled most trains heading south from Washington, D.C. Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell, who has been in office less than a month, declared his second snow emergency, authorizing state agencies to assist local governments. The assistance includes deploying National Guard soldiers and emergency response teams.

Between the December storm and several smaller snowfalls, the region's road crews have had plenty of practice in the past two months. Maryland highway officials said they have spent about $50 million so far clearing and treating roads this winter. That's almost twice the $26 million that had been budgeted. The Virginia Department of Transportation said it already spent the $79 million budgeted for statewide snow removal and was tapping into emergency maintenance funds. Once that $25 million reserve is exhausted, the department said it will have to dip into other programs to cover its costs. Associated Press writers Kathleen Miller in Falls Church, Va., Nafeesa Syeed in Alexandria, Va., and Steve Szkotak in Richmond, Va., contributed to this report.

1 killed in Cyclone Oli in French Polynesia
Fri Feb 5, 4:27 am ET

PAPEETE, Tahiti – An official in French Polynesia says swelling ocean waters driven by Cyclone Oli have left at least one person dead on the South Pacific archipelago.
High Commissioner Eric Spitz says waters carried away the 40-year-old man as pounding rain and winds of up to 200 kilometers (120 miles) per hour lashed the Austral Islands, hundreds of kilomteres (miles) south of Tahiti.Officials said late Thursday local time that the storm was moving faster but losing intensity as it headed southeast toward Tubuai. Waves six (20 feet) to eight meters (26 feet) high were anticipated.Hundreds of homes have been damaged in the storm and more than 4,000evacuated as a safety precaution in more populated areas.

Unseasonable cold to hit next week
Thu Feb 4, 1:20 pm ET

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Unseasonably cold weather should settle over key heating fuel consuming regions of the United States next week in the wake of heavy snow expected this weekend, weather forecasters predicted Thursday.In the Northeast, the world's biggest heating oil market, and the Midwest, a large natural gas demand center, temperatures are set to drop over the weekend and into next week.Further out, some see weather becoming milder, rebounding toward normal in the following week.Brief periods of cold weather in the wake of this weekend's storm could be followed by a warm-up,said Jim Rouiller, a senior energy meteorologist at Planalytics.

Here is a breakdown of the forecasters' predictions for the two regions:

NORTHEAST

- Planalytics sees temperatures in the eastern U.S. anywhere from 4 to 12 degrees below normal next week, becoming milder after that.

- Weather 2000 predicts temperatures in New York will fall as much as 10 degrees below normal in the coming days, warming slightly to around 4 degrees below usual in the following week.

- MDA EarthSat expects New York will be 10 degrees below normal on Sunday, becoming slightly milder, but still below normal, as the week goes on.

- Telvent DTN (formally Meteorlogix) sees below-normal temperatures on Saturday, continuing into next week.

MIDWEST

- Telvent DTN predicts below-normal temperatures from Friday, dropping to as much as 7 degrees below usual on Monday but rebounding toward normal as the week goes on.

- Weather 2000 sees temperatures as much as 13 degrees below normal in the coming days.(Reporting by Edward McAllister)

Stocks fall on mixed jobs report, debt worries By STEPHEN BERNARD, AP Business Writer – FEB 5,10

NEW YORK – Stock indexes fell Friday following mixed news from the Labor Department's monthly employment report.The Dow Jones industrial average dipped below the 10,000 line.Concerns about mounting debt problems for European governments weighed on the market again. Stocks had tumbled around the world Thursday as worries about the global economy deepened, and the Dow and other major indexes were headed for their fourth straight weekly loss.The government's closely watched jobs report said that the unemployment rate unexpectedly fell in January to 9.7 percent from 10 percent, even though analysts expected an uptick.At the same time, however, employers cut 20,000 jobs, more than the 5,000 economists expected, according to Thomson Reuters. The two numbers are calculated from different surveys.Timothy Speiss, head of Eisner LLP's Personal Wealth Advisors group, said the improving unemployment rate was a good sign, but investors are well aware that the problems in the economy that have stocks falling in recent weeks are still there.There will be excitement, relief about the number,Speiss said.But we need to keep going.In early afternoon trading, the Dow fell 60.16, or 0.6 percent, to 9,942.02. The Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 5.84, or 0.6 percent, to 1,057.27, while the Nasdaq composite index fell 3.92, or 0.2 percent, to 2,121.51.

Three stocks fell for every one that rose on the New York Stock Exchange, where volume came to 517.6 million shares, compared with 501 million traded at the same point Thursday.The Labor Department revised some of its past statistics lower, painting a grimmer picture about how bad the economy was hurt during the recession. The economy has shed 8.4 million jobs since the downturn began in December 2007, compared with a previous estimate of 7.2 million.December job cuts were also revised lower. In the final month of 2009, employers cut 150,000 jobs, not the 85,000 previously reported.Analysts say there were some encouraging signs in the report. The number of average hours worked and hourly pay both improved, as did the number of employers adding temporary workers. The hiring of temporary employees usually precedes companies adding permanent jobs during a recovery.The underemployment rate, which includes part-time workers looking for full-time work and discouraged workers, fell to 16.5 percent from 17.3 percent. Some analysts say that is a better representation of the job market than the unemployment rate.Jobs may not be a plus yet,said John Merrill, chief investment officer at Tanglewood Wealth Management. But, he added: the trend is unmistakable. It's clearly positive.The latest drop in stocks reflects concerns three members of the euro currency bloc — Greece, Spain and Portugal — will have trouble tightening budget controls to manage mounting deficits, helping to derail a recovery in Europe. Trouble mounted in Portugal Friday as opposition parties defeated a government austerity plan.Stocks fell sharply in late January after China said it would rein in loose bank lending standards to cool its economy and avoid speculative bubbles. President Barack Obama's calls for tighter regulations on U.S. banks contributed to the slide.

Overseas markets fell again Friday following the global rout the day before.

Japan's Nikkei stock average fell 2.9 percent, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng tumbled 3.3 percent. Britain's FTSE 100 fell 1.5 percent, Germany's DAX index dropped 1.5 percent, and France's CAC-40 tumbled 3.4 percent. Demand for safer investments rose as stocks tumbled. The dollar rose again Friday, while Treasury bond prices inched higher. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note, which moves opposite to its price, fell to 3.58 percent from 3.61 percent. Gold prices fell. Oil fell $3.12 to $70.03 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies rose 0.56, or 0.1 percent, to 590.24.

Oil tumbles again, below $70 a barrel By Chris Kahn, Ap Energy Writer – FEB 5,10

NEW YORK – Oil prices fell Friday for the third straight day, weighed down by a stronger dollar and persistent doubts about the health of the global economy.
Benchmark crude for March delivery lost $3.38, nearly 5 percent, to $69.76 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It fell as low as $69.50 a barrel, the lowest since Dec. 15.Energy prices started the year on a high note, surging as economists predicted that China, India and other developing nations would aggressively boost petroleum imports to feed their growing economies.But China has since taken steps to control risky bank lending and cool off its economy. And Greece, Portugal and Spain have pushed the euro lower as they struggle to handle massive budget deficits.The U.S. Dollar Index, which measures the greenback versus other major currencies, jumped Friday to its highest level since July. Oil, which is priced in U.S. currency, tends to fall when the dollar strengthens and makes barrels more expensive for holders of foreign money.Even a surprise drop in the unemployment rate — from 10 percent to 9.7 percent — wasn't enough to encourage investors. Manufacturers and retailers may have added jobs, but the government report showed the economy has a long way to go.Meanwhile, Americans are burning much less fuel than previous years. The Energy Information Administration said this week that U.S. petroleum consumption has dropped for four straight weeks.There's a lot of oil sloshing around out there, said Jim Ritterbusch, president of energy consultancy Ritterbusch and Associates. If I were to give a fair price for oil it would be closer to $60" a barrel.

Retail gasoline prices increased this week for the first time since the middle of January. The national average added a half penny at $2.664 a gallon, according to AAA, Wright Express and Oil Price Information Service.A gallon of regular unleaded is 2.1 cents cheaper than a month ago, but it's 75.7 cents more expensive than the same time last year.In other Nymex trading in March contracts, heating oil dropped 7.8 cents at $1.8576 a gallon, and gasoline fell 7.6 cents to $1.8748 a gallon. Natural gas added 11.1 cents to $5.527 per 1,000 cubic feet.In London, Brent crude gave up $2.28 to $69.85 on the ICE futures exchange.Associated Press writers Pablo Gorondi in Budapest, Hungary and Alex Kennedy in Singapore contributed to this report.

Canada's jobless rate falls to 8.3 pct in January
Fri Feb 5, 8:48 am ET

OTTAWA – Canada's unemployment rate fell to 8.3 percent in January as 43,000 part-time jobs were added.Statistics Canada said Friday it's the fourth employment gain in six months.The unemployment slipped from 8.4 percent in December.

European debt fears plague world markets again By Pan Pylas, Ap Business Writer – FEB 5,10

LONDON – European and U.S. stock markets fell sharply again Friday despite a surprise improvement in the U.S. unemployment rate, as investors fretted about the debt crisis enveloping Europe after Portugal's lawmakers defeated the government over its deficit reduction plan.In Europe, the FTSE 100 index of leading British shares closed down 78.39 points, or 1.5 percent, at 5,060.90, while Germany's DAX slid 98.90 points, or 1.8 percent, to 5,434.34. The CAC-40 in France plunged 125.49 points, or 3.4 percent, to 3,615.55.On Wall Street, the Dow Jones industrial average was down 70.43 points, or 0.7 percent, at 9,931.75 around midday New York time while the broader Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 6.78 points, or 0.6 percent, to 1,056.33.Some stability emerged in the markets — at least the selling tide was stemmed — by the news that the U.S. unemployment rate dropped unexpectedly in January to 9.7 percent from 10 percent even as employers shed 20,000 jobs helped shore up investor confidence about the pace of the U.S. recovery.The drop in the U.S. unemployment rate came as a welcome relief to markets battered over the last couple of days by mounting worries about the debt crisis afflicting Europe.

However, that relief proved short-lived.

The stock market's fairly indifferent reaction to the labour market data suggests that the overarching mood remains one of caution, said John Higgins, an analyst at Capital Economics.On a different day, a significant drop in the unemployment rate might have been expected to elicit a more positive response, especially after what has been a fairly tough few weeks, he added.The news that the opposition parties defeated the Portuguese government's austerity plan provided another reminder, if any were needed, that European countries will find it extremely difficult to get a grip on their public finances. Instead, the opposition parties passed their own bill that lets the country's regions rack up even more debt.Already, investors have severe doubts that Greece's new government can deliver the cuts it has promised. The Greek plan, which has been cautiously backed by the European Commission and the European Central Bank, is to get the budget deficit down from around 12.7 percent of the country's gross domestic product in 2009 to below 3 percent in 2012.But with strikes looming — customs and tax officials have already begun a 48 hour strike in protest at the planned austerity measures — investors remain skeptical at best.It has been a worry for Greece for weeks but it is now spreading like wildfire, driving equity markets lower, causing further concerns both about medium-term growth prospects and in currency markets,said Kit Juckes, chief economist at ECU Group.

Unsurprisingly, those concerns have dogged the stock markets in Greece, Portugal and Spain all week. Greece's main composite index was down another 3.7 percent, while Portugal's PSI was 1.4 percent lower while Spain's IBEX fell 1 percent.All this uncertainty is hitting the euro hard as investors think a bailout of the periphery countries is becoming more likely by the European Union. There are even fears over the very future of the eurozone itself.The euro fell below $1.36 for the first time since May last year, trading at $1.3595 late afternoon London time — the single currency has been undermined by concerns about credit problems in its peripheral members ever since the issue reared its ugly head in November, while the dollar has attracted support through its supposed safe haven status during times of risk aversion.Commodity and energy prices have also been hit hard by the meltdown in risk assets — benchmark crude for March delivery was down a further 19 cents at $72.95 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange after losing $3.84 Thursday.Earlier in Asia, stock markets responded to the massive falls recorded in the previous session in Europe and the U.S., where the Dow Jones industrial average slid 2.6 percent, its worst performance in nine months.Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 sank 2.9 percent, or 298.89 points, to 10,057.09, while China's Shanghai Composite Index fell 1.9 percent, or 55.91, to 2,939.40. Hong Kong's Hang Seng buckled 3.3 percent to 19,665.08. Elsewhere, South Korea's Kospi slid 3.1 percent to 1,567.12, Taiwan's market dived 4.3 percent and Australia's S&P/ASX benchmark dropped 2.3 percent.AP Business Writer Joe McDonald in Beijing contributed to this report.

Portuguese govt defeated on austerity measures By BARRY HATTON, Associated Press Writer – FEB 5,10

LISBON, Portugal – Portuguese opposition parties defeated a government austerity plan on Friday and passed their own bill that lets the country's autonomous regions rack up even more debt. The move raised new questions about European countries' ability to control their swollen budget deficits.The vote was also likely to rattle the world's financial markets, which are already concerned that the financial troubles gripping Greece may spread to other vulnerable eurozone countries such as Portugal and Spain.Portugal's minority Socialist government had fiercely opposed the opposition bill, since it contradicted earlier promises to crack down on ballooning debt. Yet the bill passed 127 to 87, appearing to show that Portugal, western Europe's poorest country, has little appetite for painful austerity measures.Later Friday, some 30,000 civil servants marched through downtown Lisbon to protest a public sector pay freeze — another unpopular debt-reducing measure. Unions say they will also organize strikes.The government's defeat in Parliament came after senior officials spent hours in closed-door meetings trying to hammer out a compromise. The government says the opposition bill punches a euro400 million ($550 million) hole in its budget over the next four years by allowing the regions to go deeper into debt.

Despite the setback, the government has shown no intention of resigning.

Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Jorge Lacao described the opposition bill as irresponsible, saying it sent an extremely negative signal to international markets.
For (a government) to have credibility in its management of spending, for it to inspire confidence in the country and in international markets, we need to be in charge of budgeting, Lacao said, adding that the government will try to alter the 2010 state budget to nullify the opposition measure.That could bring further political friction, however, as right-of-center parties have previously promised to abstain from the state budget vote next month, ensuring its passage.Portugal's 2009 deficit is expected to hit 9.3 percent of gross domestic product, a national record. The government has pledged to bring the deficit to below 3 percent — the limit for countries using the shared euro currency — by 2013 by cutting government jobs, freezing civil servants' pay and curbing other spending. So far, it has not raised taxes.In addition, Portugal's public debt is expected to climb to 85.4 percent of GDP this year, up from 76.6 percent in 2009, as the government invests in the economy and increases welfare payouts amid rising unemployment.The Socialist government had proposed capping the debts of the Azores and Madeira autonomous regions, which receive money from Lisbon. The regions have resorted to loans to make up what they claim is a shortfall in what they need. Madeira already has debts of euro1.2 billion ($1.6 billion), according to the government.The opposition bill allows them each to add euro50 million ($68 million) of debt annually over the next four years.Finance Minister Fernando Teixeira dos Santos went on television late Thursday to declare that the opposition bill would have grave consequences for state finances.We couldn't send a worse signal at this juncture,he said, vowing to use all the legal and political means he had to stop the bill from taking force.

After the vote, the Lisbon Stock Exchange closed down 1.4 percent.Greece, meanwhile, is under intense pressure from markets and other European Union governments to get a grip on its deficit, which stands at 12.7 percent of economic output for 2009. Prime Minister George Papandreou's government has pledged to reduce the deficit to 2 percent in 2013 and announced an austerity program that includes higher taxes and salary freezes for civil servants.The program has won the backing of the European Union, although the EU will be keeping a close eye on Greece's figures to ensure it sticks to the plan. A Greek government default would be a serious blow to the shared euro currency, but both Greece and the EU have insisted that Greece will not need a bailout. As in the banking crisis of 2008, the financial markets are looking at who may be next to suffer Greek-like budget difficulties. Portugal and Spain are now in the spotlight as their public finances have deteriorated badly during the last couple of years. Italy, Ireland and Belgium are also on the radar, while non-euro member Britain has been warned that it may lose its triple A credit rating if it doesn't introduce measures to bring its massive budget deficit down. AP Business Writer Pan Pylas in London contributed to this report.

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Markets turn on Portugal as EU trade union opposition grows-European civil unrest is set to rise following a series of tough government measures (Photo: 12543)ANDREW WILLIS Today FEB 5,2010 @ 09:23 CET

There was no let-up in the turmoil caused by European budget deficits on Thursday (4 February), with investors turning their attention to the weak state of Portugal's public finances.The country's stock market plunged nearly five percent, the biggest daily fall since November 2008, and bonds yields rose, even as opposition parties proposed to increase public spending on the Atlantic islands of Madeira and the Azores.Portuguese finance minister Fernando Teixeira dos Santos from the centre-left Socialist party implored members of parliament not to follow through with the opposition regional finance bill, warning it would only add to investor doubts. In a televised address, he said it would send the the worst possible message to financial markets, at a time when Europe's peripheral states are under intense scrutiny.

Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece and Spain - occasionally referred to collectively has the PIIGS countries - have drawn extensive heat from markets since the financial crisis began, although a series of hairshirt budgets in Ireland has started to provide some let-up from investors. Greek plans to rein in its budget deficit won European Commission support this week, with Mr Teixeira dos Santos promising that Portuguese plans, expected later this month, would be no less ambitious.Portugal had taken over from Greece as the main victim of the animal spirits of financial markets, said the finance minister, adding that the concerns were not justified.

European Central Bank president Jean-Claude Trichet also sought to soothe fears over the eurozone on Thursday, saying the bloc's average deficit of around six percent compared very flatteringly to other countries such as the US where is close to 10 percent. For his part, Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero attempted to convince investors that his Socialist government had a solid grip on the country's budgetary problems. Speaking at a closed-door gathering at the US Chamber of Commerce in Washington on Thursday, he stressed the point that Spain's deficit was a consequence of stimulus spending that had now peaked, and pointed to fresh austerity measures outlined last week.

Strikes

Despite the panoply of remarks intended to allay market fears, doubts remain over the ability of European governments to push through spending cuts and tax increases without causing social unrest. Spanish unions on Thursday threatened massive protests in response to the government's plans to slash spending in a bid to save €50 billion by 2013. The country's employees are also concerned by the recent proposal from Madrid to increase the age of retirement by two years to 67.The backlash in Greece against government measures also escalated on Thursday, with the country's customs and tax officials launching a 48-hour strike that shut down ports and border crossing points.Greece's largest union, the General Confederation of Greek Workers, which represents private sector employees, also announced plans to hold a one-day strike on 24 February as a sign of solidarity with public sector workers, set to bear the brunt of Athens' tough new measures.

Damning report hits out at EP expenditure
ANDREW WILLIS Today FEB 5,10 @ 16:45 CET

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - A damning report by a member of the European Parliament's own budgetary control committee is set to question the very fundamentals of the institution's budgetary discharge procedure, with its author coming under considerable pressure from the institutions's bureau as a result. Still in the process of being finalised, the report's rapporteur - Belgian Green MEP Bart Staes - told EUobserver the document ultimately asks one simple question: Is it correct that parliament should sign off on its own accounts? While the council of ministers, representing member states, also has to approve parliament's expenditure, a gentleman's agreement means scrutiny is kept to a bare minimum. The upcoming document, set to form the basis for committee debate on parliament's 2008 expenditure over the coming weeks, will direct strong criticism towards the legislature's procurement procedure and raises concerns over recent calls to increase money for MEP assistants before a proper review is carried out.The 31-pager will also raise the alarm over the substantial increase in the number of negotiated procedures rather than open tender contracts awarded by parliament throughout 2008, criticising the administration's suggestion prior to the report's drafting that their number is simply difficult to reduce further.As well as this, sources point to the roughly €7 million spent on studies by parliament each year, suggesting there is a huge level of overlap with studies coming out of other institutions such as the European Commission.

Taxpayers' money

The report is likely to be peppered with references to the need to show taxpayers their money is being spent correctly, in order to strengthen public confidence in the institution. Assurances that parliament's 2008 budget of €1.4 billion was spent correctly should stem from rigorous auditing systems, rather than trust alone, it will say. Parliament's internal functioning is largely directed by the institution's secretary general and members of the bureau - a coterie of big-wigs made up of the parliament's president, 14 vice-presidents and five quaestors. In the past, the bureau has taken a number of decisions with enormous financial consequences, over and above the position of the parliament's MEPs sitting in plenary. Deputies, for example are keen to stop parliament picking up the tab when there is a shortfall in the private pension fund used by numerous MEPs, but the bureau has overruled them in previous years. Parliament's pension fund recorded a staggering €121 million deficit at the end of 2008, with a further €277 million still to be paid to members. This, the report will say, is a clear example of the risks involved with the parliament's current multi-layered governance structure, with the potential to cause serious damage to the institution's reputation. To tackle this multitude of problems, the report will call for increased scrutiny and transparency regarding parliament's finances, with far greater accountability to the wider public so that the list of scandals that has racked the institution in recent years can be avoided in future.
Last year saw one of the worst cases of misspent money come to the public's attention, with former UK MEP Tom Wise sentenced to two years in prison after he admitted to expenses fraud.

Europe to sell helicopters to Taiwan
ANDREW WILLIS Today FEB 5,10 @ 16:44 CET

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - EU-China relations have been placed under increased strain following news that a European firm is to sell a number of helicopters to Taiwan, the disputed island over which China claims sovereignty. The revelation comes just a day after China hauled the EU to the World Trade Organisation over a long-running shoe tariff dispute.Reports on Friday (5 February) said Taiwan's military is set to buy three helicopters from German manufacturer Eurocopter, a subsidiary of EADS, with an option to buy up to 17 more.Taiwan's defence ministry spokesman Martin Yu said the contract for the EC-225 search-and-rescue helicopters was valued at $111 million. The European deal comes hot on the heels of last week's news that Taiwan will buy roughly $6.4 billion-worth of arms from US companies, prompting Chinese condemnation and threats of sanctions.

Whether Europe will now come in for the same response is yet to be seen. Some analysts suggest Beijing's response may be more muted due to an unwillingness to fight on two diplomatic fronts as the same time. Recent murmurings within the EU over a possible lifting of the bloc's arms embargo with China could also result in a softer response from the Asian powerhouse.

Icelandic PM warns EU over Icesave
LEIGH PHILLIPS Today FEB 5,10 @ 09:24 CET

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - The prime minister of Iceland, Johanna Sigurdardottir, has warned the European Commission of the damage that could be caused by making links between the ongoing Icesave banking dispute and the economic support being delivered by the International Monetary Fund (IMF).Meeting with the commission president, Jose Manuel Barroso, and enlargement commissioner Ollie Rehn, in Brussels on Thursday (4 February) she underlined potential unfortunate and damaging effects of any link made by member states between the Icesave issue and the second review of Iceland's economic programme with the IMF,according to a statement from her office, referring to the row between between the north Atlantic nation and the Netherlands and the UK.

After the Icelandic Icesave internet bank collapsed in 2008, depositers in the UK and the Netherlands were compensated by their governments to the tune of €3.8 billion. The Hague and London now are demanding Reykjavik pay them back. The government has agreed to do so, but the terms are considered onerous by a majority of the population. Under the terms of the agreement the loan will be paid back over 15 years with interest, with estimates suggesting every household will have to contribute around €45,000.The president of the country refused to sign the government bill that approved a schedule of payments to the two governments, provoking a referendum on the matter due on 6 March, which analysts and pollsters expect the government to lose.Many Icelanders believed that they were the victims of imperfect EU legislation and that many believed the burden to be unfairly distributed between the three countries involved, Ms Sigurðardóttir told the EU leaders. The prime minister also noted how important the IMF loans and related loans from the Nordic countries and others are for the rebuilding of Iceland's economy.We discussed frankly the Icesave issue and the situation in Iceland, she said.It is extremely important to explain to key players in the EU the situation in which Icelanders find themselves and to explore all possible avenues for solutions and of course everything was on the table.Ms Sigurdardottir also underlined that EU accession procedures should not be held up by the current dispute during a discussion with the two commissioners over the state of play with the country's membership application.

Romania to host new version of US missile shield
VALENTINA POP Today FEB 5,10 @ 09:30 CET

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS – Romania on Thursday announced it had agreed to the new US anti-missile defence shield envisaged by the Obama administration after scrapping initial plans in Poland and the Czech Republic.In a brief statement, Romanian President Traian Basescu said the country's top security body had accepted Mr Obama's invitation to host parts of the American anti-missile defence shield. Mr Basescu stressed that the system was aimed against threats coming from countries such as Iran, not Russia, in anticipation of potential criticism from Moscow. Previous plans tabled by the George W. Bush administration, which would have put the interceptors in Poland and a radar in the Czech Republic, had been seen as a direct threat to Russia. The Obama administration decided to scrap those plans, an announcement that caused a stir in Warsaw, especially as a result of the timing, made on the very day when the country was remembering the 60th anniversary of the Soviet invasion.Mr Basescu also pointed to the fact that the previous version would not have covered his country's territory in case of an Iranian attack, as the range of the Polish-based shield would have reached its limit somewhere in western Romania. The Romanian Parliament has the last say on the deal, with the new facilities expected to become operational in 2015.

The US has determined that Romania is well-suited for the location of this system to provide protection for European Nato Allies, the US embassy in Bucharest said in a statement.Foreign minister Teodor Baconschi said the plan was first presented to Mr Basescu during a visit by US vice-president Joe Biden to Bucharest in October but was not made public.Romania is already hosting US training facilities for its military, part of a Pentagon shift from large Cold War-era centres in Germany toward smaller and more flexible installations closer to the Middle East. It was also embroiled in a scandal surrounding alleged secret CIA prisons as part of the so-called rendition programme developed by the Bush administration during the war on terror, in which individuals were secretly flown out of countries like Afghanistan to intermediate locations before being released or transferred to the prison in Guantanamo, Cuba.Back in Washington, US State Department spokesman Philip Crowley said this announcement was a first step in terms of the new anti-missile shield architecture, which would later also include ship-based interceptors in the Black Sea.Mr Crowley also noted that Poland was still in talks for a northern land-based missile site. That development is still under consideration and discussion with Poland,he said.The spokesman insisted as well that the new shield was not aimed at Russia, but against the emerging threat coming to the region from Iran.

France and Germany to unveil 10-year plan
VALENTINA POP 04.02.2010 @ 09:28 CET

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy on Thursday (4 February) are set to unveil their own economic and political strategy document, the Franco-German Agenda 2020,in an attempt to put some substance in the widely advertised but not always smoothly working partnership between the EU's two major economies.The plan, including 80 separate measures, ranges from economic and fiscal initiatives to common school books and simpler rules for Franco-German marriages. It is set to be published at the end of a joint ministerial council meeting of the two countries, chaired by both Mr Sarkozy and Ms Merkel in the Elysee palace.The two leaders have in the past disagreed on several issues, especially on economic recovery. Mr Sarkozy supportd an EU-wide stimulus package, while Ms Merkel ibelieves this should be done at the national level. With the Thursday meeting, marking exactly 100 days after the German chancellor's re-election and her first trip abroad – to Paris, Ms Merkel is to signal that the Franco-German partnership is up and running again.We want to see in the coming years how we can take joint initiative on important topics, a source from Ms Merkel's entourage told Deutsche Presse Agentur. The idea of having a full joint ministerial session was aimed at letting the new German ministers get to know their French counterparts, after last year's elections changed Ms Merkel's coalition partner.Mr Sarkozy, for his part, has put the Murat room at disposal for this joint session, the same room where his own ministers usually gather every Wednesday morning, Le Figaro writes.However, Mr Sarkozy's proposal of a Franco-German minister was rejected by Berlin for political and institutional reasons,the French paper notes. Instead, the respective EU affairs ministers in some cases will be able to join meetings of the other cabinet.

The plan itself is centred on six themes, with economic and fiscal policy featuring prominently. A common observatory of economic policies is to be set up, as well as a stronger co-operation in this field. Nothing is foreseen, however, on how to deal with ailing economies in the euro-zone, such as in the Greek and Spanish cases.On the research and education front, the 2020 Agenda aims to double the number of college and doctors' degrees in Franco-German universities. Joint research teams are also planned, as well as a science train travelling through both countries advertising research and science to youngsters.In foreign affairs, Paris pledges to support Berlin's efforts to gain its own permanent seat on the UN Security Council, the decision-making body of the international organisation. Currently, permanent members with veto rights remain the five victors of the Second World War: France, Great Britain, the US, China and Russia. Meanwhile, the name Agenda 2020 is hardly original. The European Commission has already been working since last year on the eponymous ten-year plan to replace the failed Lisbon Strategy that, according to its aims, should have managed by 2010 to make Europe the most competitive economic area in the world.

EU surmounts carbon capture impasse
LEIGH PHILLIPS 04.02.2010 @ 09:16 CET

European Union member states have come to agreement on the division of spoils in the bloc's plan to launch a controversial technology to bury carbon underground or under the sea bed.In 2008, EU countries backed a proposal from the European Parliament on how to support the development of carbon capture and storage (CCS) that would see the sale of 300 million carbon permits through the emissions trading scheme funding a dozen pilot projects around the union.CCS is a controversial technology whose boosters say it is the only realistic way to significantly reduce emissions from power plants - particularly very dirty coal-fired ones - and heavy industry. Critics meanwhile describe it as an expensive, energy inefficient distraction from renewable energy and efficiency measures that will not be commercially viable before 2030, long after developed nations' greenhouse gas emissions are supposed to have peaked.

But the months-long divide within the bloc however centred on who would get to hand out the funds from the sale of the carbon permits - estimated to amount to around €3.8 billion at current depressed market prices for a tonne of carbon.In the end, on Tuesday it was decided that it is to be the European Investment Bank that will take care of the distribution of funds, although some member states would have preferred that it be their own treasuries that took the final decision on the divvying up of the cash.Countries also agreed to drop a requirement for matching funds from national revenues. A certain undecided minority proportion of the funds will also be delivered to innovative renewable energy technologies.The pact must be approved by the EU parliament, which, with the initial proposal for CCS funding coming from the chamber, it is likely to do. However, some environmentalists are steadfastly opposed to the technology, calling it a subsidy for the coal industry dressed up as a climate solution.

The Greens in the European Parliament decried the final agreement.

The agreement would see public funds ...pumped into coal-fired power plants at the expense of renewable energy, warned Luxembourg MEP Claude Turmes.Unproven Carbon Capture and Storage is set for another big pay day.The EU will never achieve the necessary reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2020 if it continues to support outdated, dirty fossil fuels.

Cyber-scam artists disrupt emissions trading across EU
LEIGH PHILLIPS 03.02.2010 @ 17:42 CET

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Emissions trading registries in a number of EU countries were shut down on Tuesday (2 February) as a result of a phishing scam tricking traders into giving away their emissions allowances.Although emissions trading was still able to continue via the European Emissions Exchange, registries in nine member states - Belgium, Denmark, Spain, Hungary, Italy, Greece, Romania and Bulgaria Germany - closed to prevent any further losses, according to reports in the German press. Other national registries, notably those in Austria, the Netherlands and Norway, were quicker to react and while registration was suspended in these countries as well, they reopened on Tuesday.The European Commission told EUobserver that illegal transactions so far had only been reported in Germany and the Czech Republic. Brussels says that the registries will re-open once they have taken the appropriate measures to deal with the scam, including warning users and resetting passwords.Similar to online banking scams in which an email directs you to a website that is a copy of your own bank's webpage, and then asks for your bank details, these criminals reproduced the sites of the German and Czech registries. The criminals sent emails last Thursday to firms in Europe, Japan and New Zealand, asking them to offer up their registration details. A handful of firms fell for the trap and ended up giving away their CO2 emissions allowances to the crooks, who will now be able to sell them on. Financial Times Deutschland on Wednesday reported that one firm had lost €1.5 million as a result.

The European Commission, like any bank or online shop facing the same situation, is caught between the need to get out the word to firms to prevent them falling for the trap and undermining confidence in the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) by publicising the fact.We have to be careful not to blow this out of proportion, EU environment spokeswoman Barbara Helfferich told EUobserver.This happens to banks, Visa, Mastercard about once or twice a month. And this is the same sort of thing. I receive these emails all the time. I just delete them.It's not something intrinsic to the ETS. This could happen to anyone.That said, the immediate action we are taking is to see if we can shut down the illegal websites. We will then analyse in detail how this happened and see if there are any fresh guidelines we need to draw up to prevent future such events.The latest ETS scandal follows in the wake of news last week that an unnamed eastern European country was trying to sell on used credits and last December's warning by Europol, the European police agency, that as much as 90 percent of emissions trading was a result of carousel tax fraud costing national coffers around €5 billion euros.

There's an element of Laurel and Hardy-style incompetence to this, but it raises some more serious issues,said Oscar Reyes of Carbon Trade Watch, an environmental NGO critical of the ETS.There has been a spate of emissions trading fraud cases recently, and this is unlikely to be the last of them because the ETS is beset with loopholes.When the EU ETS failed to reduce emissions in its first phase, we were told that it had at least succeeded in establishing a functioning market. Now we're seeing that the rush to carbon trading was a botched job.

FAITH UNDER FIRE-FedEx relents on mandatory leave over cross-Manager says dress code bans Christian emblem February 04, 2010 11:45 pm Eastern 2010 WorldNetDaily

Cross banned by FedEx
A FedEx employee who this week was ordered onto an administrative leave for wearing a Christian cross to work has been told she can return to her job – with her cross.
They called me earlier. I can go back to work tomorrow. I get to wear my cross, Lisa Graves told WND today.Actually I'll find out what's going on [when I go in].She said the company volunteered to pay her for the time she was banished from the office, but the policy still is a concern since the company interpreted it as banning the cross. The case involving Graves developed in the Springfield, Mo., region where the company has several stores. She explained earlier this week to KY3 Television there that she was approached by her supervisor and given the option of hiding the cross or being placed on leave for the dress code violation. A statement released by the company at the time said, Our team member is still employed with the FedEx office and is on leave for not complying with our dress code until she comes into compliance. She signed the code upon hiring and at least three times since, including in the last 30 days. Her administrative leave is attributed to being out of uniform for multiple months. There are personal insignia limitations in the dress code but religious exceptions are given when requested and validated.Graves said she wasn't told about any exceptions,but that she was never granted one.

The company policy states that banned items of jewelry include political and personal insignias. Graves told the television station she had no idea a cross was considered a personal insignia.She's worked in the Springfield office for more than two years, and explained to station reporters she loves her work but loves her Christian beliefs even more. To hide that would be a conscious act of denying Christ and my faith,she told the station. She reported she was told last week by a supervisor she could not keep visible her cross necklace. Then this week she was approached again. I was asked by my immediate supervisor to hide it again and I told them I couldn't do that. I wouldn't do that,she said. It worries me. I have a family. I'm a single mother,she said then. She said the necklace will remain an issue. I can't find peace in putting this away so as to not offend someone else,she said. A company spokeswoman told WND that the company had decided to allow the cross if it was on a shorter chain so that it would be against Graves' throat, rather than in front of her uniform shirt. The spokeswoman also said there was an issue over the type of pants worn, and that was resolved, too. Graves said she hopes that the company is abandoning the policy, not simply making a one-time exception. Graves' case also hearkens back to an almost-identical case that still is ongoing in the United Kingdom.

There, an appeal has been launched over a rule imposed by British Airways on employees allowing Muslims to wear a hijab, Jews to wear skullcaps, Sikhs to wear religious bracelets but banning a Christian woman from wearing a tiny silver cross necklace. Nadia Eweida (Courtesy London Daily Mail) Nadia Eweida is attempting to overturn an employment tribunal's decision that the airline's actions were not religious discrimination. WND previously reported on the case that began in 2006 when Eweida was sent home from work after refusing to remove the cross because BA officials claimed it violated their dress code. According to a recent report from the Christian Institute, a charity committed to upholding the truths of the Bible, Eweida is represented in court by Karon Manghan, Queen's Counsel. Manghan said Eweida wished at the material times to wear a small, plain, silver cross visibly as a manifestation of her beliefs and personal expression of her faith.British Airways, she added, permitted adherents of other religious faiths to express their beliefs through certain visible symbols, such as the Sikh bracelet, the Jewish skull cap and the Muslim hijab.The airline argued that wearing the cross was Eweida's choice, but it was not required of her Christian faith. Ingrid Simler, the legal counselor for the airline, said,Ms. Eweida reflects her religious belief in a way similar to the way people wear symbols for … gay rights – that it reflects their core beliefs but it has nothing to do with religion.Eweida, a Heathrow check-in worker who is a Coptic Christian, later was returned to her position when the airline loosened its regulations. But the appeal followed when the Reading Employment Tribunal concluded the airline was allowed to ban a cross pendant that is visible. The tribunal's opinion said other symbols such as turbans and bangles cannot be concealed and so are allowed.

Lawyer seeks release of US missionaries in Haiti By FRANK BAJAK, Associated Press Writer – FEB 3,10

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – A lawyer for 10 U.S. Baptist missionaries who tried to take three dozen children out of the country said Friday he would ask a judge to let his clients go free until their trial on kidnapping charges.The missionaries were taken to a downtown courthouse Friday to appear before an investigative judge in a closed hearing, said Jean-Louis Martens, a senior Haitian judicial official.They were escorted into the building one by one by Haitian police who covered their heads with a blue sheet so that they could not be photographed. None of the Americans responded to reporters' shouted questions.Defense attorney Edwin Coq told reporters he would ask the judge to grant the missionaries provisional release, a type of bail without money posted, until their trial, a date for which has not been established.I hope that they will be released today, Coq said.The investigating judge charged the Americans on Thursday with kidnapping for trying to take 33 children across the border into the Dominican Republic on Jan. 29 without documentation.Coq has said that the group's leader, Laura Silsby, knew she couldn't remove the youngsters without proper paperwork, but he characterized the other nine missionaries as unknowingly being caught up in actions they didn't understand.They were naive. They had no idea what was going on and they did not know that they needed official papers to cross the border. But Silsby did, he said.

Silsby waved to reporters Thursday but declined to answer questions as the missionaries were taken back to the holding cells where they have been held since Saturday. She had expressed optimism before the hearing.We expect God's will be done. And we will be released, she said.The missionaries' detention has raised concerns among other countries including France, whose foreign ministry on Friday urged the Haitian government to quickly set up a bilateral commission to look into adoption procedures. French families have taken in 277 Haitian children since the quake.Family members of the detained Americans released a statement late Thursday saying they were concerned about their relatives jailed in a foreign country.

Obviously, we do not know details about what happened and didn't happen on this mission, the statement said.However, we are absolutely convinced that those who were recruited to join this mission traveled to Haiti to help, not hurt, these children.
The Baptist group, most of whose members are from two Idaho churches, had said they were rescuing abandoned children and orphans from a nation that UNICEF says had 380,000 youngsters in that plight even before the quake.But at least two-thirds of the children involved in the case, ranging in age from 2 to 12, have parents, although the parents of some told The Associated Press they gave them up willingly because the missionaries promised the children a better life.Each was charged with one count of kidnapping, which carries a sentence of five to 15 years in prison, and one of criminal association, punishable by three to nine years. Coq said the case would be assigned a judge and a verdict could take three months.The magistrate, Mazard Fortil, left without making a statement. Social Affairs Minister Jeanne Bernard Pierre, who earlier harshly criticized the missionaries, declined to comment. The government's communications minister, Marie-Laurence Jocelyn Lassegue, said only that the next court date had not been set.Obviously this is a matter for the Haitian judicial system, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton told reporters Friday.We're going to continue to provide support, as we do in every instance like this, to American citizens who have been charged and hope that this matter can be resolved in an expeditious way. But it is something that a sovereign nation is pursuing based on the evidence that it presented.Members of Idaho's congressional delegation said in a statement Thursday that they are working to ensure the missionaries have access to legal help and medical attention. Silsby had begun planning last summer to create an orphanage for Haitian children in the neighboring Dominican Republic. When the earthquake struck she recruited other church members, and the 10 spent a week in Haiti gathering children for their project.

Most of the children came from the ravaged village of Callebas, where people told the AP they handed over their children because they were unable to feed or clothe them after the quake. They said the missionaries promised to educate the children and let relatives visit. Their stories contradicted Silsby's account that the children came from collapsed orphanages or were handed over by distant relatives.
She also said the Americans believed they had obtained in the Dominican Republic all the documents needed to take the children out of Haiti. The Dominican consul in Haiti, Carlos Castillo, told the AP on Thursday that the day the Americans departed for the border, Silsby visited him and said she had a document from Dominican migration officials authorizing her to take the children from Haiti. Castillo said he warned Silsby that if she lacked adoption papers signed by the appropriate Haitian officials her mission would be considered child trafficking.We were very specific,he said.Associated Press Writer Matthew Lee in Washington; Abel Guzman in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic; and Paisley Dodds and Ben Fox in Port-au-Prince contributed to this report.

US commits to recover all bodies from Haiti hotel By MIKE MELIA and MICHELLE FAUL, Associated Press Writer – Fri Feb 5, 9:25 am ET

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – An hour before the earthquake struck, 19-year-old Britney Gengel phoned her mother in Massachusetts, bursting with joy: She had found her calling on a college trip to help orphans in Haiti.Now, as recovery crews continue to scour the collapsed Hotel Montana where Britney and 14 other Americans are believed buried in the rubble, Len and Cherylann Gengel are waiting with dread for another call — this time confirming their daughter's fate.It is a living hell on Earth to be in this limbo, Len Gengel said.Gengel's daughter and three other students from Lynn University in Boca Raton, Fla., are believed to have been trapped inside the Montana when the Jan. 12 quake struck, turning the six-story landmark into a tangle of broken concrete in the flash of an eye. Some 100 people are believed buried there.The U.S. is pursuing the cases of about 4,000 Americans unaccounted for in Haiti, according to State Department spokesman Noel Clay. He said that number could drop dramatically because many are Haitians with U.S. citizenship who travel frequently between the two countries and are more difficult to track. So far, the U.S. has confirmed 79 American deaths.The departments of state, defense and health and human services are working together to recover, identify and repatriate remains of American citizens in the absence of functioning local mortuaries and commercial flights out of Haiti, said David Searby, a spokesman at the U.S. Embassy.

The Hotel Montana attracted an international clientele of tourists, aid workers and diplomats with its sweeping views from the hills above Port-au-Prince. None of the capital's ruins has been more thoroughly searched. Crews from the U.S., Brazil, France, Mexico, Canada and Haiti have all combed the debris, which pancaked so dramatically that the roofline comes within inches of the ground.U.S. Army Col. Norberto Cintron, who is in charge of the recovery effort, said it will continue until workers find and identify the remains of all who were lost there. He expects it to take six to eight weeks.My instructions are to try to find everyone that was in this building, Cintron said.We want to make sure we do this in a humane, dignified way, especially for the families.It's a slow process: spray the mass of broken concrete and twisted metal beams to clear the dust that covers everything, including bodies. If there are none, signal a frontloader to lift the debris. If there is the smell of death, work carefully with jackhammers and other tools to search for and extricate the body.A team from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is there to identify remains pulled from the hotel, and American soldiers from the 82nd Airborne Division provide security. Inside the hotel gates, Cintron said 60 to 80 workers from outfits including the Army Corps of Engineers are working on recovering bodies.At the Hotel Montana, about 21 people were pulled out alive and, so far, 28 bodies have been recovered, according to Cintron. It is the site where perhaps the largest number of Americans has yet to be recovered.The engraved wedding ring on the finger of one smashed body pulled out last week helped workers identify her as Sandra Liliana Rivero Gonzalez, a Colombian manager for Delta Airlines. Two other bodies removed on Sunday, a man and a woman, were crushed beyond recognition and put into body bags to be taken away for identification from dental and other medical records.

The families of those victims are the lucky ones amid unspeakable horrors. Bulldozers and frontloaders clearing the mini-mountains of debris that were once downtown Port-au-Prince likely are carrying away human remains. Haiti's government says more than 115,000 bodies have been recovered — most dumped unceremoniously in mass graves outside the capital at Titanyen.Despite the overwhelming scale of the catastrophe, the Haitian official in charge of planning reconstruction, Patrick Delatour, said the government has no issue with Americans dedicating so many resources to the Montana.The Haitian government is not in any position to assign value to those efforts of independent agencies, he said.U.S. citizens who survived the quake were still being evacuated from Haiti: On Friday, three planes carrying 147 evacuees arrived in South Carolina, one of three states designated as repatriation sites. None of those on the Friday flights required hospitalization, although some were checked by doctors, said state Emergency Management Division official Derrec Becker. The evacuees made connecting flights or rented cars to complete their journeys home, Becker said.In the days after the quake, which killed an estimated 150,000 to 200,000 people, relatives of the Americans missing at the Montana angrily implored the U.S. government to do more to find their loved ones. Some believe their campaign led to a stepped-up recovery effort. I just don't think the State Department had their act together. They do now. I think it took pressure from family members and congressmen, said Sally Baldwin, of Fort Worth, Texas. Her son Brendan Beck, a 35-year-old civil engineer, was doing development work in Haiti and is believed lost in the Montana. Len Gengel said he took comfort from seeing the recovery effort firsthand during a Jan. 23 visit. In a tearful meeting, Cintron pledged to find Britney, who had arrived in Haiti the day before the quake. Col. Cintron showed me a picture of his two daughters and cried in my arms, promising — promising me he would bring our girls home, said Gengel, a builder from Rutland, Mass.

A rescue worker who searched the rubble of Britney's hotel room told her father it was empty. He said Britney's body would likely be found in a hallway because people run to escape when earthquakes strike. Besides Britney and her classmates, two Lynn University faculty members are also missing. Survivors said the hotel's sudden collapse left them only a few seconds to escape. Hotel employee Laurene Leger was sitting at a desk, planning ahead for Valentine's Day events and the opening of a new bar, when she heard rumbles and felt the earth agitating. She yelled to two colleagues to run, grabbing the hand of one to urge her along as they fled through the business center and the lobby. By then it was over. It couldn't have been more than five seconds, seven. We turned back and all the top stories had crashed into the ground floor, she said. Gengel takes some consolation from the joy that came through in the last call from his daughter. He said Britney signed up for the week-long mission with the aid group Food for the Poor because she wanted to help the less fortunate, and Haiti is the poorest of the poor.Even though she did not speak Creole, she told her mother that communicating with the orphans was not difficult: You just do. You just do.She said she found her calling and that she was going to come back filled with happiness, Len Gengel said.She was happy.

India launches naval exercise off Andamans
FEB 5,10

PORT BLAIR, India (AFP) – India kicked off Friday a 13-nation naval exercise off its Andaman archipelago it said was aimed at improving disaster management and not an attempt to form a security bloc.The exercises are the biggest naval event off the India-administered island cluster since 2007 when a smaller exercise involving Australia, India, Japan, Singapore and the United States, riled giant neighbour China.Under questioning at a seminar organised to coincide with the drill, India's navy chief denied that the exercise was aimed at intimidating China, with which the country fought a brief border war more than four decades ago.Verma said the drill, codenamed Milan, which means meeting in Hindi, was purely aimed at improving coordination among Indian Ocean navies and not an attempt to form any regional security alliance.It is not a multilateral exercise but more of coming together for disaster relief and humanitarian assistance, Verma, host of the six-day drill, said in local capital Port Blair.The navies of Australia, Bangladesh, Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand, the Philippines, New Zealand and Vietnam took part.Eight nations sent nine warships while the remaining four were represented by senior naval officials. An unspecified number of Indian vessels are also part of the drill.

China has been eyeing India with suspicion since it announced in 2005 ambitious acquisition plans for its navy and new military hardware that would give it greater clout in the strategic energy corridors of the Indian Ocean.The Indian navy, besides constructing or buying ships, submarines and aircraft, has also been building ties with countries in the region to expand its reach in the Indian Ocean.After the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, India's navy played an international role, deploying warships to help devastated Sri Lanka and Indonesia in what analysts said was a bid to project itself as a regional power with offshore military strength.

Australia blocks Iran shipments over weapons fears: PM
Wed Feb 3, 10:12 pm ET

SYDNEY (AFP) – Australia has blocked three cargo shipments to Iran under laws aimed at preventing nuclear proliferation, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said Thursday.Defence Minister John Faulkner invoked the rarely used Weapons of Mass Destruction Act to block the shipments, Rudd said.If you look at the threat to regional and global peace which Iran poses in its current nuclear weapons programme, there is no alternative other than robust international action including in areas such as this, Rudd told public broadcaster ABC.We believe that national security, the national security interests of Australia, also demand this course of action, he added.The centre-left leader would not be drawn on the contents of the shipments, saying only that Australia had acted because we believe we must play the role of a responsible international citizen.The Australian newspaper reported that at least one of the banning orders, all made in recent months, blocked a cargo of pumps which could have been used to cool nuclear power plants.If you look at the status of Iran's nuclear weapons programme, and their consistent thumbing of the nose to the International Atomic Energy Agency, the international community more broadly... there are no alternatives other than to maintain a hard line, Rudd said.The United States and key allies Wednesday urged Iran to follow up on a surprise statement from President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad by formally committing to a UN-brokered deal to swap enriched uranium for nuclear fuel.

Ahmadinejad's apparent overture was overshadowed by a rocket launch into space, which heightened fears Iran was developing ballistic weapons and was condemned by the White House as a provocative act.The West fears Tehran's uranium enrichment programme is masking efforts to produce atomic weapons, a claim vehemently rejected by the Islamic republic.Iran strongly denies that either its space or atomic energy programmes are intended to build a bomb.