VOA-BBC MEDIA ARMS OF US,IRAN SAYS

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.

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.

RON PAUL
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-wk0NrXM1c&feature=player_embedded
JAMES TRAFICANT
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gKrlTfMMncM&feature=player_embedded
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQ8mFbLDnlA&feature=player_embedded
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpJZwwi2C2M&feature=player_embedded
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I59N3_QLSVM&feature=player_embedded
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ci3seaa_75A&feature=player_embedded

Study: Warming to bring stronger hurricanes By SETH BORENSTEIN, AP Science Writer – FEB 21,10

WASHINGTON – Top researchers now agree that the world is likely to get stronger but fewer hurricanes in the future because of global warming, seeming to settle a scientific debate on the subject. But they say there's not enough evidence yet to tell whether that effect has already begun.Since just before Hurricane Katrina hit Louisiana and Mississippi in 2005, dueling scientific papers have clashed about whether global warming is worsening hurricanes and will do so in the future. The new study seems to split the difference. A special World Meteorological Organization panel of 10 experts in both hurricanes and climate change — including leading scientists from both sides — came up with a consensus, which is published online Sunday in the journal Nature Geoscience.We've really come a long way in the last two years about our knowledge of the hurricane and climate issue, said study co-author Chris Landsea, a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration top hurricane researcher. The technical term for these storms are tropical cyclones; in the Atlantic they get called hurricanes, elsewhere typhoons.The study offers projections for tropical cyclones worldwide by the end of this century, and some experts said the bad news outweighs the good. Overall strength of storms as measured in wind speed would rise by 2 to 11 percent, but there would be between 6 and 34 percent fewer storms in number. Essentially, there would be fewer weak and moderate storms and more of the big damaging ones, which also are projected to be stronger due to warming.An 11 percent increase in wind speed translates to roughly a 60 percent increase in damage, said study co-author Kerry Emanuel, a professor of meteorology at MIT.

The storms also would carry more rain, another indicator of damage, said lead author Tom Knutson, a research meteorologist at NOAA.Knutson said the new study, which looks at worldwide projections, doesn't make clear whether global warming will lead to more or less hurricane damage on balance. But he pointed to a study he co-authored last month that looked at just the Atlantic hurricane basin and predicted that global warming would trigger a 28 percent increase in damage near the U.S. despite fewer storms.That study suggests category 4 and 5 Atlantic hurricanes — those with winds more than 130 mph — would nearly double by the end of the century. On average, a category 4 or stronger hurricane hits the United States about once every seven years, mostly in Florida or Texas. Recent category 4 or 5 storms include 2004's Charley and 1992's Andrew, but not Katrina which made landfall as a strong category 3.Outside experts praised the work.The study does a good job of summarizing the current understanding of storms and warming, said Chunzai Wang, a researcher with NOAA who had no role in the study.James Lee Witt, former director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, said the study should be a stern and stark warning that America needs to be better prepared and protected from the devastation that these kinds of hurricanes produce.The issue of hurricanes and global warming splashed onto front pages in the summer of 2005 when MIT's Emanuel published a paper in Nature saying hurricane destruction has increased since the mid-1970s because of global warming, adding it would only get worse.Several weeks later Hurricane Katrina struck, killing 1,500 people and the 2005 hurricane season was the busiest on record with 28 named storms and seven major hurricanes. But then other scientists led by Landsea disputed the conclusions that storms were already increasing in number or intensity.Now Landsea and Emanuel are co-authors on the same paper with Knutson.

In 2007, the authoritative Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change said it was more likely than not that man-made greenhouse gases had already altered storm activity, but the authors of the new paper said more recent evidence muddies the issue.The evidence is not strong enough that we could make some kind of statement along those lines, Knutson said. It doesn't mean the IPCC report was wrong; it was just based on science done by 2006 and recent research has changed a bit, said Knutson and the other researchers.Lately, the IPCC series of reports on warming has been criticized for errors. Emanuel said the international climate panel gave an accurate summary of science that existed at that point.On the Net Nature Geoscience: http://www.nature.com/ngeo

32 reported dead in storm on Portuguese island By DANIEL WOOLLS, Associated Press Writer – Sat Feb 20, 5:42 pm ET

MADRID – Flooding and landslides swept away cars and knocked down houses as a violent storm killed at least 32 people Saturday on the Portuguese island of Madeira, a news agency reported.The Lusa agency quoted the vice president of the Madeira regional government, Joao Cunha e Silva, as saying another 68 people have been hospitalized in the island's main city, Funchal.Madeira is the main island of a Portuguese archipelago of the same name, in the Atlantic off the northwest coast of Africa.Floods tore down houses as the storm hit early Saturday. Roads were blocked by fallen trees and rocks carried by flood waters, and some bridges were also downed, Lusa said.Phone lines were knocked out, forcing emergency rescue services to appeal over local radio stations for off-duty doctors and nurses to report for duty.

Local authorities called in employees to operate heavy machinery like bulldozers to clear roads and remove debris. People in low-lying areas of Funchal fled as flood waters rose, Lusa said.Madeira regional president Alberto Joao Jardim spoke to European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso, who is Portuguese, to appeal for emergency aid from the European Union.Portuguese Prime Minister Jose Socrates promised that help would be sent from the Portuguese mainland.

Portugal floods kill 42, some people feared buried By ARMANDO FRANCA and HAROLD HECKLE, Associated Press Writers – FEB 21,10

FUNCHAL, Madeira Islands – Rescue workers dug through heaps of mud, boulders and debris Sunday in Madeira, searching for victims buried by flash floods and mudslides that already killed at least 42 people on the popular Portuguese island.More than 120 others were injured and an unknown number were missing, possibly swept away or smothered, authorities said, adding that the death could still rise. Another 250 people were forced to flee their homes and go to shelters.The worst storm to hit the Atlantic Ocean island since 1993 lashed the capital of Funchal on Saturday, turning some streets into raging torrents of liquid brown mud, water and debris.We heard a very loud noise, like rolling thunder, the ground shook and then we realized it was water coming down,said Simon Burgbage, of Britain.Madeira is the main island of a Portuguese archipelago of the same name, in the Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of Africa.The flash floods were so powerful they carved their own paths down mountains and through the city, churning under bridges and even tearing some down. Residents had to cling to railings to make sure they weren't swept away. Cars were consumed by the force of the water, and the battered shells of overturned vehicles that had been swept downstream littered the streets.It was horrible, there were cars on rooftops, there were vans and trucks that had fallen and been totally crushed, said German tourist Andreas Hoisser.

The water swept even a heavy fire truck downstream, slamming it into a tree.The death toll will likely increase, given the circumstances of this flood, regional social services spokesman Francisco Ramos said, adding there were still great difficulties with communications on the island, since phone lines were ripped out by the deluge.People are scared, some have lost loved ones and things are very complicated because of that,said Madeira-born Luisa Jardin.Firefighters used pumping equipment to try to drain an underground parking garage at a downtown department store close to where the heaviest floodwaters descended. Local authorities feared shoppers may have been trapped below ground by the muddy deluge.The store is totally destroyed, damaged, full of slurry, said owner Joao Andrade.A medical team backed up by divers and rescue experts arrived Sunday aboard a C-130 transport plane at the archipelago, 550 miles (900 kilometers) southwest of Lisbon. The plane was also carrying telecommunications equipment.The weather improved Sunday morning, making it easier for rescue workers to move around. Still, some roads and bridges were washed away and others were littered with uprooted trees, cars and boulders, hampering search and rescue efforts.By midday Sunday, tourists could be seen strolling and taking photographs in Funchal. Streets just a few yards away from the channels where the muddy deluge raced toward the sea were largely unscathed.But more rain hit later in the day, raising fears of new mudslides on the mountainous island.Prime Minister Jose Socrates said he was profoundly shocked by the severity of the floods and promised the government would help Madeira recover as quickly as possible.Army units based on the island mobilized rescue teams, debris removal crews, bridge specialists and two helicopters to help with the disaster.The island is popular with British tourists. The British Foreign Office in London said it was urgently investigating reports that a British national had gone missing in the flooding. It also said a small number of Britons had been hospitalized on Madeira. The island's most famous son, Real Madrid football star Cristiano Ronaldo, was horrified by the floods. Nobody can remain indifferent to the disaster, he told journalists in Madrid.I want to express my willingness to, as far as I can, help agencies and authorities to overcome the effects of this devastation.Heckle and Paul Logothetis reported from Madrid. Raphael G. Satter in London also contributed to this report.

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.

Haiti PM: Gov't to take land for temporary camps By MICHELLE FAUL, Associated Press Writer – Fri Feb 19, 6:58 pm ET

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive says the Haitian government will appropriate land to build temporary camps for earthquake victims. The decision, announced in an interview with The Associated Press, is potentially explosive in a country where a small elite owns most of the land in and around the capital.That elite, a traditionally corrupting force in Haitian politics, has the power to bring down the government.The government owns some land but not enough, Bellerive said in an interview Thursday, meaning he has no choice but to take over private terrain.He would not say how much land will be appropriated.A report posted at the Web site of the International Organization for Migration on Friday said a minimum of 450 hectares (1,112 acres) of flat, non-flood plain land is needed to settle 100,000 displaced people and Haiti's government has identified only 19 hectares (47 acres).The Jan. 12 quake left 1.2 million homeless, roughly half of them in Port-au-Prince, meaning the government would need to find a total of at least 2,700 hectares (6,672 acres) for quake survivors in the capital, where about a third of Haiti's nearly 10 million people are concentrated along with the government and almost all industry.Bernard Fils-Aime, a businessman, property owner and president of the American Chamber of Commerce in Haiti, said he was not aware of anyone in the business community being approached by the government about land. He said the issue would need to be treated cautiously.

Land is one of our very scarce resources and an issue that has underlined many political conflicts in Haiti since independence,Fils-Aime said. He said he was sure the issue could be negotiated amicably but warned: You don't want to create more conflict.Aid agencies have criticized the government for dragging its feet on the thorny land issue as relief agencies work against the clock to find temporary settlements for the homeless before the spring rainy season.Human Rights Watch said Friday that there is little evidence that meaningful efforts have been made to negotiate the land acquisition and secure proper land titles. It is essential that this be given priority and that any appropriations be done in a non-arbitrary and non-discriminatory manner.The relief agency Oxfam International warned last week that The temporary camps where people have congregated are fast becoming over-crowded slums.The government ... needs to clarify whether there is government land available or if it needs to confiscate private land instead. These decisions need to be taken quickly.The Haitian government has seemed to operate on a slower timetable. On Friday, the economist leading a government emergency commission on shelter held a news conference, saying government panels will make decisions in three to four weeks, and that the homes will be built in five or six months.

In the meantime, Charles Clermont said, people in the private sector have offered to build 20,000 to 30,000 temporary homes on private land and, presumably, sell them to the government.Impromptu camps have sprung up on every bit of available land — school and university grounds, public gardens, a golf course, the central Champ de Mars plaza or simply on sidewalks. But the camps, many made of little more than bed sheets propped up by sticks, have little sanitation, and early sporadic downpours already are adding to the misery of their residents.Health workers warn the rains can bring disease in the camps — something Haiti's already strained health system can hardly handle.Haitian law provides for the government to seize land as long as it is in the public interest and the owners are fairly compensated, said lawyer Benissoit Jude Detournel, who handles property disputes.There has to be a just and equitable indemnity, taking into account the market value of the property, Detournel said. He said setting a price is difficult now in the quake's aftermath. The government has appropriated land in the past without conflict — to build a wider road on the western outskirts of Port-au-Prince four years ago, to protect underground water aquifers 14 years ago and to construct government buildings in downtown Port-au-Prince in the 1970s, said Jean-Andre Victor, an agronomist who worked on a failed government attempt to survey land ownership in 2003. But Detournel said his firm still is litigating for owners of land expropriated by the government near the Port-au-Prince airport in the 1980s to build a free-trade zone of factories that churn out T-shirts and other products sold in the United States.

Compensation was paid at the time, but more people showed up later demanding payment, he said. Squatters, corrupt notaries and judges often means multiple individuals can hold title to the same properties, he said. Detournel said his firm takes few land dispute cases because you can end up dead, or with someone casting a Voodoo spell on you.In and around Port-au-Prince, most land is owned by the 11 families generally referred to as the elite who have business monopolies and control the government through corruption, said Reginald Abraham, a Haitian-American property developer among more than 2 million Haitians in the diaspora. They embed with the government, they decide what's going to happen to the land. They have the government blocking people like me who want to come home and help rebuild Haiti. Abraham said his Haiti United Group, aimed at encouraging Haitians abroad to invest in the country, has more than 900 projects just sitting on government desks including plans to develop Gonave island and Isle a Vache as well as building a much-needed port on the southern peninsula. Bellerive is clearly aware of the stakes. He told the AP on Thursday, in a separate interview, that the government could fall as political opponents capitalize on its inability to respond strongly to the Jan. 12 earthquake. Camp-dwellers are also offering resistance. Many don't want to move out of the debris-choked capital, which would separate them from family, jobs and aid. An Oxfam survey of 110 people showed less than a third of them willing to move out of the capital. Meanwhile, those camps are becoming ever more miserable. Leonel Martine, a 42-year-old electrician, said a light overnight shower Friday left his camp in ankle-deep water and soaked the mattress he shares with his wife, his daughter and two grandchildren.My wife spent the night standing, holding the baby, he said.Associated Press writers Frank Bajak and Jonathan M. Katz contributed to this report.

IAEA suspects Syrian nuclear activity at bombed site By Mark Heinrich – Thu Feb 18, 4:47 pm ET

VIENNA (Reuters) – Uranium particles found at a Syrian desert complex bombed to ruin by Israel in 2007 point to possible covert nuclear activity at the site, the U.N. atomic watchdog said Thursday.It was the first time the International Atomic Energy Agency lent public support to Western suspicions that Israel's target was a nascent nuclear reactor that Washington said was North Korean in design and geared to making weapons-grade plutonium.Previous IAEA reports on its two-year investigation into the affair, impeded by a lack of Syrian cooperation, said only that the uranium particles raised concern because they did not come from Syria's declared inventory.

The presence of such particles points to the possibility of nuclear-related activities at the site and adds to questions concerning the nature of the destroyed building,said the confidential report by new IAEA Director-General Yukiya Amano, obtained by Reuters.Syria has yet to provide a satisfactory explanation for the origin and presence of these particles,he wrote, dismissing Damascus's contention that the traces came with munitions used by Israel to wreck the complex.In what analysts called another departure from predecessor Mohamed ElBaradei, Amano prodded Syria to adopt the IAEA's Additional Protocol, which permits unfettered inspections beyond declared nuclear site to ferret out any covert atomic activity.

SYRIAN STONEWALL

U.N. inspectors examined the site at Dair Alzour in June 2008 but Syria has barred renewed access and also not let them visit three military sites, whose appearance was altered by landscaping after the IAEA first asked to check them.The Vienna-based IAEA has also been checking whether there could be a link between the particles uncovered at Dair Alzour and similar unexplained traces detected in swipe samples taken at a Damascus nuclear research reactor later in 2008.The report said Syria had refused a meeting in Damascus last month to address the issue. But inspectors now planned to visit the research reactor on February 23 to take more test samples and examine relevant source documents related to the experiments.Some analysts say the Damascus findings raised the question whether Syria used some natural uranium intended for the alleged reactor at Dair Alzour in tests applicable to learning how to separate out bomb-grade plutonium from spent nuclear fuel.Syria, an ally of Iran which is under IAEA investigation over nuclear proliferation suspicions, has denied ever having an atom bomb program and has said the intelligence is fabricated.Syria has not cooperated with the agency since June 2008 in connection with the unresolved issues related to the Dair Alzour site and the other three locations allegedly functionally related to it,said the U.N. watchdog report.As a consequence, the Agency has not been able to make progress toward resolving the outstanding issues.

The issue, along with the IAEA's hardening concern about a possible covert Iranian nuclear weapons program, will be on the agenda of the first of four quarterly meetings by the IAEA's 35-nation board of governors starting on March 1.(Editing by Jon Hemming)

Blair: Israel-Palestinian peace talks to resume By JON GAMBRELL, Associated Press Writer – Sat Feb 20, 12:04 pm ET

ABUJA, Nigeria – Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair said Saturday that he hoped peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians will resume in the coming weeks after negotiations stalled over Jewish settlements on occupied lands.Blair, who has served as the leader of the so-called Quartet of Mideast peacemakers since 2007, spoke to The Associated Press in an interview Saturday in Abuja, Nigeria's capital.He said special U.S. Mideast envoy George Mitchell has made progress in attempting to resume negotiations between the two sides. However, he cautioned that bringing both sides back to peace talks depended on more than just the issue of Israeli settlements on occupied Palestinian land, including east Jerusalem.The Palestinians say there is no point in negotiating while Israel expands the settlements.Settlements are important, but they're not the only issue, Blair said.The real question is can we provide Israel with security and the Palestinians with a genuine, credible belief that they will have a viable state.Blair has served since June 2007 as leader of the Quartet, which includes the United States, the United Nations, the European Union and Russia. He said the early support of U.S. President Barack Obama for resuming the peace process helped.He remains deeply committed and the fact that he started the Middle East process right at the beginning of his presidency is a big help,Blair said.He's got a lot of time now to get this thing moving. I think his leadership is a very hopeful sign.

Blair said that easing tensions between Israelis and Palestinians also would help Nigeria, Africa's most populous nations that's split between a Muslim north and a Christian south, by showing two faiths with a violent past can make peace with each other. Violence between the two faiths in Nigeria, often sparked by political infighting, has killed thousands in the last decade.Blair, who launched the Tony Blair Faith Foundation after leaving office, attended an event Saturday highlighting a new effort between Christian and Muslim leaders to distribute mosquito nets in a country ravaged by malaria. The former prime minister pointed to that cooperation as a hopeful sign in the nation of 150 million people.In the end, Nigeria's going to have to work this out for itself,he said.But the benefit of interfaith action, such as this against malaria, is you've got Christians and Muslims sitting down and working together. It's got to be better than fighting with each other.

Israel to include West Bank shrines in heritage plan
FEB 21,10

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israel said on Sunday it wanted to include two Jewish shrines in the occupied West Bank in a national plan to rehabilitate some 150 Jewish and Zionist heritage sites, drawing condemnation from the Palestinians.Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was quoted in a statement as saying that Rachel's Tomb, near the city of Bethlehem, and the Tomb of the Patriarchs, a site holy to Muslims and Jews in the tinderbox city of Hebron, would be part of the plan.I also intend to include Rachel's Tomb ... and the Tomb of the Patriarchs, Netanyahu said during a special cabinet meeting held in Tel Hai, a historical site in northern Israel where Jews and Arabs fought battles in 1920.Since I was asked, I would like to make my intentions clear, and this is what will be.Israeli media reported that the two disputed sites had been included in the plan only after pressure from nationalist ministers in Netanyahu's right-leaning coalition government.The Fatah party of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said in a statement that the decision was an attempt by Netanyahu's government to wreck international efforts aimed at returning to (peace) talks,which were suspended over a year ago.Rachel's Tomb, which lies between Jerusalem and Bethlehem and is revered by Jews as the gravesite of the matriarch Rachel, is guarded by Israeli soldiers and surrounded by a fence.

Israeli security is also tight at the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron, where a Jewish settler shot and killed 29 Muslim worshippers in 1994 before being beaten to death at the scene. Some 400 Jewish settlers live in heavily guarded enclaves in the city, which is also home to some 150,000 Palestinians.This particular violation is especially dangerous because it will add to the religious component of the conflict in a way that might bring dangerous consequences, said Ghassan Khatib, a spokesman for the Palestinian government in Ramallah.Netanyahu, who last year ordered a limited 10-month freeze on settlement construction in the West Bank, says he is ready to resume peace talks immediately and without preconditions.Abbas says peace talks cannot resume without a full settlement freeze that includes East Jerusalem.
(Reporting by Joseph Nasr, Tom Perry and Mustafa Abu Ganeyeh, Writing by Joseph Nasr; Editing by Kevin Liffey)

France wants Middle East peace talks kick-start: PM
FEB 21,10

AMMAN (Reuters) – France is considering recognizing a Palestinian state before its borders have been negotiated in an effort to kick-start Middle East peace talks, French Prime Minister Francois Fillon said on Sunday.France's Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner told French weekend newspaper Journal du Dimanche he was tempted by the idea of international recognition of a Palestinian state even before its borders were negotiated.Kouchner's proposal showed France's willingness to accelerate the (peace) process, to take initiatives which will kick off negotiations which are taking too long to start,Fillon told a news conference in Jordan.French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Fillon plan to meet Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Paris on Monday.Peace talks were halted more than a year ago over the war in the conflict in the Gaza Strip and have not resumed, due largely to a Palestinian demand that Israel first impose a complete freeze on building in the West Bank and East Jerusalem and Israel's refusal to do so.(Reporting by Sophie Louet; Writing by Sophie Taylor; Editing by Jon Hemming)

Jordan, France call for international peace conference
Sun Feb 21, 9:42 am ET

AMMAN (AFP) – Jordan and France called for an international conference that would support efforts to achieve peace between Israel and the Palestinians.The two sides welcome all efforts that back the peace process, including holding an international conference at a suitable time and in coordination with all parties, visiting French Prime Minister Francois Fillon and his Jordanian counterpart, Samir Rifai, said in a joint statement at a news conference in Amman.Fillon, who arrived in Jordan from Syria on Saturday, said Amman and Paris share the same views that the there is no other option but peace, peace that is built on clear foundation.There should be a viable, independent and democratic Palestinian state that lives side by side with Israel, he added.I will tell King Abdullah II that we share the same feelings about peace. I don't think wasting more time is in the interest of peace.The Palestinians have insisted that Israel halt all its settlement activity in the whole West Bank before they will agree to new peace talks.Jordan's main concern is to achieve peace, said Rifai, whose country signed a peace accord with Israel in 1994.

Israel rejects recognition of Palestinian state
Sun Feb 21, 3:41 am ET

JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israel on Sunday rejected the idea of foreign countries recognising a Palestinian state without a negotiated peace agreement, after France's foreign minister hinted at such a scenario.Imposing this kind of semblance of a partial solution from outside goes against the very idea of peace, a senior Israeli official told AFP on condition of anonymity.Granting recognition when the issues of the conflict have not been settled would add fuel to the fire. This would only push the Palestinians to be even more intransigent and thus make any compromise impossible,he added.France's Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said over the weekend he could envision the recognition of a Palestinian state even before its borders are drawn up.The issue before us at the moment is the building of a reality: France is training Palestinian police, businesses are being created in the West Bank, Kouchner told France's Journal du Dimanche.It follows that one can envision the proclamation soon of a Palestinian state, and its immediate recognition by the international community, even before negotiating its borders,he said.Kouchner's comments came ahead of a visit to Paris by Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas.Palestinian prime minister Salam Fayyad, meanwhile, says he is intent on building institutions for a de-facto Palestinian state, which he aims to complete by 2011 regardless of whether peace talks have advanced with Israel.

Later on Sunday, Abbas is due to meet with Kouchner in the French capital and with President Nicolas Sarkozy the following day.Abbas has agreed in principle to a US proposal that he hold indirect talks with Israel under Washington's mediation, but has requested a number of guarantees.The Palestinians broke off peace talks after Israel launched a devastating assault on the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip in December 2008, and they insist on a halt to Jewish settlements construction in the West Bank.

Blair: Israel-Palestinian peace talks to resume By JON GAMBRELL, Associated Press Writer – Sat Feb 20, 12:04 pm ET

ABUJA, Nigeria – Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair said Saturday that he hoped peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians will resume in the coming weeks after negotiations stalled over Jewish settlements on occupied lands.Blair, who has served as the leader of the so-called Quartet of Mideast peacemakers since 2007, spoke to The Associated Press in an interview Saturday in Abuja, Nigeria's capital.He said special U.S. Mideast envoy George Mitchell has made progress in attempting to resume negotiations between the two sides. However, he cautioned that bringing both sides back to peace talks depended on more than just the issue of Israeli settlements on occupied Palestinian land, including east Jerusalem.The Palestinians say there is no point in negotiating while Israel expands the settlements.Settlements are important, but they're not the only issue, Blair said. The real question is can we provide Israel with security and the Palestinians with a genuine, credible belief that they will have a viable state.Blair has served since June 2007 as leader of the Quartet, which includes the United States, the United Nations, the European Union and Russia. He said the early support of U.S. President Barack Obama for resuming the peace process helped.He remains deeply committed and the fact that he started the Middle East process right at the beginning of his presidency is a big help,Blair said.He's got a lot of time now to get this thing moving. I think his leadership is a very hopeful sign.Blair said that easing tensions between Israelis and Palestinians also would help Nigeria, Africa's most populous nations that's split between a Muslim north and a Christian south, by showing two faiths with a violent past can make peace with each other. Violence between the two faiths in Nigeria, often sparked by political infighting, has killed thousands in the last decade.Blair, who launched the Tony Blair Faith Foundation after leaving office, attended an event Saturday highlighting a new effort between Christian and Muslim leaders to distribute mosquito nets in a country ravaged by malaria. The former prime minister pointed to that cooperation as a hopeful sign in the nation of 150 million people.In the end, Nigeria's going to have to work this out for itself, he said.But the benefit of interfaith action, such as this against malaria, is you've got Christians and Muslims sitting down and working together. It's got to be better than fighting with each other.

Israel unveils new drone fleet that can reach Iran By TIA GOLDENBERG, Associated Press Writer – FEB 21,10

TEL NOF AIR FORCE BASE, Israel – Israel's air force on Sunday introduced a fleet of huge pilotless planes that can remain in the air for a full day and fly as far as the Persian Gulf, putting rival Iran within its range.The Heron TP drones have a wingspan of 86 feet (26 meters), making them the size of Boeing 737 passenger jets and the largest unmanned aircraft in Israel's military. The planes can fly at least 20 consecutive hours and are primarily used for surveillance and carrying diverse payloads.At the fleet's inauguration ceremony at a sprawling air base in central Israel, the drone dwarfed an F-15 fighter jet parked beside it. The unmanned plane resembles its predecessor, the Heron, but can fly higher, reaching an altitude of more than 40,000 feet (12,000 meters), and remain in the air longer.With the inauguration of the Heron TP, we are realizing the air force's dream, said Brig. Gen. Amikam Norkin, head of the base that will operate the drones.The Heron TP is a technological and operational breakthrough.Israeli officials refused to say how large the new fleet is or whether the planes were designed for use against Iran, but stressed it was versatile and could adapt to new missions. The plane's maker, state-owned Israel Aerospace Industries, has said it is capable of reaching the Persian Gulf, which would put Iran within its range.The Heron TP has the potential to be able to conduct new missions down the line as they become relevant,said Maj. Gen. Ido Nehushtan, commander of Israel's air force.Israel believes Tehran is trying to develop nuclear weapons and has repeatedly hinted it could strike Iran if diplomatic efforts to curb the nuclear program fail.

Israeli defense officials said the Heron TP could be a useful tool against Iran, whose leaders have repeatedly called for the Jewish state's destruction. In addition to providing surveillance, the aircraft can jam enemy communications as well as assist in communications between ground control and manned air force planes.The officials requested anonymity because they were discussing sensitive military technology.The Heron TP has been in development for about a decade, but the aircraft first saw action during Israel's offensive against Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip just over a year ago.Palestinian witnesses have long claimed that Israeli drones fire missiles in Gaza, both before and during the Israeli offensive. Israel has never confirmed that its unmanned aircraft are capable of firing missiles.Israel first began using drones in the early 1970s, and its fleet has steadily increased since then. The unmanned planes are now considered an integral part of the military and tend to accompany air and ground forces on various missions.

Stock market nears correction mode but pulls back By TIM PARADIS, AP Business Writer – FEB 21,10

NEW YORK – Call it the almost correction.A jump in stocks last week is a sign that the market is stabilizing after a slump that began in mid-January. The drop sent the Standard & Poor's 500 index down 9.2 percent — short of the 10 percent pullback that generally defines a correction.The clearest evidence yet of stocks' new strength came after the Federal Reserve said it was raising the interest rate it charges banks. The announcement didn't sink the market although it was the kind of news that only weeks ago would have sent stocks tumbling.The market's drop and latest bounce underscore the importance of occasional pullbacks, even if they can't be called corrections. Analysts worry when markets leap higher that investors are getting too optimistic, too complacent or too greedy. Those attitudes can set the market up for a plunge when economic or corporate news turns bad.A correction might be healthy for the market but can be hard on investors. They start worrying that the slide will accelerate and turn into a bear market. That's a plunge of at least 20 percent.The S&P 500 index jumped 3.1 percent for the week. That advance doused some of the concerns that investors would keep dumping stocks after a year of almost uninterrupted gains.You never know if it's going to be the pause that refreshes or the beginning of a new bear market roar until you get through it, said David Bianco, head of U.S. equity strategy at Banc of America Securities-Merrill Lynch in New York.

Bianco is encouraged by the market's recovery after it neared the correction threshold.We got there and then we rebounded, he said.That strikes me as a good signal.The latest climb is all the more impressive because the Fed said late Thursday it would raise the discount rate, the interest it charges banks for short-term loans. The move is part of the central bank's plan to dismantle emergency supports it put in place as the financial crisis grew. Weaning the market from low-cost cash is necessary to head off inflation but clipping supports too soon could send the economy spinning.The Fed had earlier signaled its intentions about bank loans and analysts said the rate increase was in some ways just symbolic because it affects a small slice of loans. Still, it's important that investors didn't panic. Low interest rates have been one of the biggest drivers of the market's rally in the past year. Many analysts looked at Fed's move as a welcome sign that economy has rebounded enough to endure some tough love.Standard & Poor's Chief Investment Strategist Sam Stovall said in a research note that the rate change was an indication that the training wheels are off, and we are once again on our own.The Fed's decision could have pounded the market if investors hadn't already begun to expect more restrained lending conditions. Just as important, the recent drop in stocks calmed fears of an overheated market.A tame report on inflation Friday also reassured investors that the Fed will be able to keep interest rates for consumers low to help revive the economy. The Labor Department said consumer prices excluding food and energy fell in January for the first time since 1982.Stocks have yet to see a full-blown correction since they began surging off of 12-year lows in March. Until the latest drop, the steepest slide had been 7 percent from mid-June to mid-July.The most recent tumble came on worries about shaky finances in Greece and China's efforts to keep its economy under control.Concern grew that the slide would be a repeat of last year. By March 9, the S&P 500 index had fallen 56.8 percent from its peak in October 2007. It's still down 29.1 percent from its high.When they begin to see some of that retrenchment again it certainly brings back some memories of what we've been through in the last 18 months,said Jim Baird, partner and chief investment strategist for Plante Moran Financial Advisors in Kalamazoo, Mich.

EU considers 25 bln euros for debt-hit Greece: report
Sat Feb 20, 5:17 pm ET

BERLIN (AFP) – The European Union could provide debt-ridden Greece with up to 25 billion euros (34 billion dollars) in aid, Monday's edition of the German magazine Der Spiegel says, citing suggestions from Germany's finance ministry.The amount each country would contribute would be calculated according to its relative position in the European Central Bank, Der Spiegel explains.Germany would therefore contribute nearly 20 percent of the potential aid package, the equivalent of up to five billion euros, which would be made up in part of loans and guarantees.European leaders have pledged their solidarity with Greece, which has a total debt estimated at about 300 billion euros, but the EU has not announced any concrete financial aid.The EU has confirmed a series of measures to put Greece under a new form of budgetary surveillance.Greece is committed to reducing a public deficit of 12.7 percent of gross domestic product by four percentage points over the course of 2010. Countries in the single euro currency zone are subject to a three percent limit.Athens has also announced a major savings programme which will be controlled by the European Commission.

Gas shortage raises Egyptians' anger at government By HADEEL AL-SHALCHI, Associated Press Writer – Sat Feb 20, 3:44 am ET

CAIRO – It's something Egyptians rely on daily: the ambooba, the steel canister of government-subsidized cooking and heating gas, hooked to the stove or water heater in the cramped homes of nearly everyone in this country's large population of poor.
So in recent weeks, when the amboobas stopped coming, the angry outcry spread fast.
A winter shortage has sent authorities scrambling to find a solution and has once again fueled criticism that the government of this key Mideast U.S. ally is unable to deal with the problems of its people. For many, it raises memories of acute shortages of cheap subsidized bread in 2008 that raised similar frustration and anger.Every year this butane crisis gets a little worse, so why doesn't the government take a stand and provide for its people, said Mahmoud al-Askalani, a spokesman with the consumer group Citizens Against the High Cost of Living.In Cairo's low-income neighborhood of Bashteel this week, women helped each other balance the empty 3-gallon (12-liter) cylinders on their heads as young boys pushed bicycles laden with cylinders to a government distribution center, where they are supposed to get them refilled or exchange them for new ones at a subsidized price.

Hundreds of men and women lined up for hours into the night waiting for fuel tanks and trucks carrying cylinders to arrive. All the women here have walked here to sit for hours hoping that a truck of butane will show up today,said one woman, Um Ahmad, sitting on her empty ambooba as she waited in line for two hours at Bashteel.When the trucks did arrive, people swarmed over them, elbowing their way to grab a cylinder before they all disappeared.In the past two weeks, local papers reported clashes between frustrated consumers armed with switchblades. Police say two people were killed last week, crushed as they clung to a moving truck loaded with cylinders. On a radio show, a young boy called in saying all he hoped for was for his family to get an ambooba so his mother could cook dinner — prompting the host to mourn,Is this what Egyptians' hopes are reduced to, gas to cook with? The troubles fuel what has been a frequent public refrain in recent years — that the government, headed for the past 29 years by President Hosni Mubarak, has grown out of touch with the population as the influence of powerful businessmen has grown. More than 40 percent of Egypt's population of 80 million lives on less than $2 a day.At the same time, the government is burdened with a rickety, decades-old system of subsidies and other benefits meant to provide cheap basics of food and supplies for the poor. The system is riddled with inefficiency and disorganization, as well as corruption and black markets.The crisis of the gas cylinders embodies the government's failure to draw up a realistic plan to resolve the problems in Egypt, wrote Mohammad Shordi in the daily al-Wafd newspaper.It is a simple matter of supply and demand, and the government should simply close the gap between the two.The cause of the shortage remains unclear.According to a study performed by al-Askalani's group, demand for butane only increased by 8 percent this winter, which he said shouldn't have caused such stark shortages in poor neighborhoods in Cairo, where some were left without butane cylinders for weeks. The study found that government delays in paying for imported butane caused a delay in shipments sent to Egypt.The government, in turn, has blamed bad weather, which it said forced ports to close this month, delaying gas shipments. The shortage was exacerbated by the black market, where factory owners buy the subsidized butane meant for home use.

The government has ordered four more distribution stations set up to handle the spike in demand, and while residents of some areas closer to downtown Cairo claimed the crisis was slightly lifting, others are still waiting in lines for as long as eight hours in many suburbs of the city.The shortages at distribution centers, where a cylinder costs the equivalent of about 50 cents, has forced many people to resort to the black market, where the price soars to nearly $12.Even though Egypt produces close to 48 billion cubic meters of natural gas a year, it lacks the refineries to process the gas into usable butane. For this, Egypt must import 2 million tons of butane at a cost of $3 billion from countries like Algeria and Saudi Arabia.For many Egyptians the current gas shortage smells similar to 2008's subsidized bread crisis in which at least seven people died in clashes while waiting in bread lines. It got so bad, Mubarak ordered the army to increase the production and distribution of subsidized bread to cope with the shortages. The army and the Interior Ministry, which controls the police, own bakeries that they normally use to feed their own employees. We dealt with the bread crisis by eating rice and pasta,Badreya Hamdy, a woman from the Cairo slum of Kit Kat, told local media.But what should we use to make up for this kind of shortage?

MUSLIM NATIONS

EZEKIEL 38:1-12
1 And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
2 Son of man, set thy face against Gog,(RULER) the land of Magog,(RUSSIA) the chief prince of Meshech(MOSCOW)and Tubal,(TOBOLSK) and prophesy against him,
3 And say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshech(MOSCOW) and Tubal:
4 And I will turn thee back, and put hooks into thy jaws,(GOD FORCES THE RUSSIA-MUSLIMS TO MARCH) and I will bring thee forth, and all thine army, horses and horsemen, all of them clothed with all sorts of armour, even a great company with bucklers and shields, all of them handling swords:
5 Persia,(IRAN,IRAQ) Ethiopia, and Libya with them; all of them with shield and helmet:
6 Gomer,(GERMANY) and all his bands; the house of Togarmah (TURKEY)of the north quarters, and all his bands:(SUDAN,AFRICA) and many people with thee.
7 Be thou prepared, and prepare for thyself, thou, and all thy company that are assembled unto thee, and be thou a guard unto them.
8 After many days thou shalt be visited: in the latter years thou shalt come into the land that is brought back from the sword, and is gathered out of many people, against the mountains of Israel, which have been always waste: but it is brought forth out of the nations, and they shall dwell safely all of them.
9 Thou shalt ascend and come like a storm, thou shalt be like a cloud to cover the land, thou, and all thy bands, and many people with thee.(RUSSIA-EGYPT AND MUSLIMS)
10 Thus saith the Lord GOD; It shall also come to pass, that at the same time shall things come into thy mind, and thou shalt think an evil thought:
11 And thou shalt say, I will go up to the land of unwalled villages; I will go to them that are at rest, that dwell safely, all of them dwelling without walls, and having neither bars nor gates,
12 To take a spoil, and to take a prey; to turn thine hand upon the desolate places that are now inhabited, and upon the people that are gathered out of the nations, which have gotten cattle and goods, that dwell in the midst of the land.

ISAIAH 17:1
1 The burden of Damascus. Behold, Damascus is taken away from being a city, and it shall be a ruinous heap.

PSALMS 83:3-7
3 They (ARABS,MUSLIMS) have taken crafty counsel against thy people,(ISRAEL) and consulted against thy hidden ones.
4 They have said, Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation; that the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance.
5 For they (MUSLIMS) have consulted together with one consent: they are confederate against thee:(TREATIES)
6 The tabernacles of Edom,(JORDAN) and the Ishmaelites;(ARABS) of Moab, PALESTINIANS,JORDAN) and the Hagarenes;(EGYPT)
7 Gebal,(HEZZBALLOH,LEBANON) and Ammon,(JORDAN) and Amalek;(SYRIA,ARABS,SINAI) the Philistines (PALESTINIANS) with the inhabitants of Tyre;(LEBANON)

DANIEL 11:40-43
40 And at the time of the end shall the king of the south( EGYPT) push at him:(EU DICTATOR IN ISRAEL) and the king of the north (RUSSIA AND MUSLIM HORDES OF EZEK 38+39) shall come against him like a whirlwind, with chariots, and with horsemen, and with many ships; and he shall enter into the countries, and shall overflow and pass over.
41 He shall enter also into the glorious land, and many countries shall be overthrown: but these shall escape out of his hand, even Edom, and Moab, and the chief of the children of Ammon.(JORDAN)
42 He shall stretch forth his hand also upon the countries: and the land of Egypt shall not escape.
43 But he shall have power over the treasures of gold and of silver, and over all the precious things of Egypt: and the Libyans and the Ethiopians shall be at his steps.

EZEKIEL 39:1-8
1 Therefore, thou son of man, prophesy against Gog,(LEADER OF RUSSIA) and say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshech (MOSCOW) and Tubal: (TUBOLSK)
2 And I will turn thee back, and leave but the sixth part of thee, and will cause thee to come up from the north parts,(RUSSIA) and will bring thee upon the mountains of Israel:
3 And I will smite thy bow out of thy left hand, and will cause thine arrows to fall out of thy right hand.
4 Thou shalt fall upon the mountains of Israel, thou, and all thy bands,( ARABS) and the people that is with thee: I will give thee unto the ravenous birds of every sort, and to the beasts of the field to be devoured.
5 Thou shalt fall upon the open field: for I have spoken it, saith the Lord GOD.
6 And I will send a fire on Magog,(NUCLEAR BOMB) and among them that dwell carelessly in the isles: and they shall know that I am the LORD.
7 So will I make my holy name known in the midst of my people Israel; and I will not let them pollute my holy name any more: and the heathen shall know that I am the LORD, the Holy One in Israel.
8 Behold, it is come, and it is done, saith the Lord GOD; this is the day whereof I have spoken.

JOEL 2:3,20,30-31
3 A fire(NUCLEAR BOMB) devoureth before them;(RUSSIA-ARABS) and behind them a flame burneth: the land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness; yea, and nothing shall escape them.
20 But I will remove far off from you the northern army,(RUSSIA,MUSLIMS) and will drive him into a land barren and desolate, with his face toward the east sea, and his hinder part toward the utmost sea, and his stink shall come up, and his ill savour shall come up, because he hath done great things.(SIBERIAN DESERT)
30 And I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke.(NUCLEAR BOMB)
31 The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the LORD come.

Makeshift bomb thrown at Cairo synagogue, no dead
Sun Feb 21, 8:23 am ET

CAIRO – A man hurled a suitcase containing a makeshift bomb at Cairo's main downtown synagogue in the early hours Sunday morning, but there were no injuries or damage, police said.According to the police report, a man entered a hotel located on the fourth floor of a building across from the synagogue at around 3 a.m. and as he was checking in, abruptly threw his suitcase out the window.The case contained four containers of gasoline each attached to a glass bottle of sulfuric acid meant to shatter on impact and ignite the makeshift bomb, said police, who speculated the man may have panicked.The bag, which also contained clothes, cotton strips, matches and a lighter, fell onto the sidewalk in front of the hotel and briefly caught fire before being extinguished. There were no injuries and no damage to the historic synagogue.The suspect fled the scene and is now being sought by police.Egypt's once thriving Jewish community largely left the country 50 years ago during hostilities between Egypt and Israel, but a number of heavily guarded synagogues, open only to Jews, remain.The downtown synagogue, Egypt's largest, is the only one still conducting services for the Jewish high holidays, which are sometimes attended by Israeli diplomats.

The temple, known as Shaar Hashamayim, or the Gate of Heaven, was built in 1899 in a style evoking ancient Egyptian temples and was once the largest building on the wide downtown boulevard.Egypt's Jewish community, which dates back millennia and in the 1940s numbered around 80,000, is down to several dozen, almost all of them elderly.
Egypt and Israel fought a war every decade from the 1940s to the 1970s until the 1979peace treaty was signed.Despite that treaty, Egyptian sentiment remains unfriendly to Israel, and anti-Semitic stereotypes still occasionally appear in the Egyptian media.Since an Islamist insurgency based in southern Egypt was quashed in the 1990s, there have been few organized terrorist attacks in Egypt's Nile valley and the capital Cairo. However, there have been a number of amateurish attempts to target foreigners over the years.In February 2009 a crude explosive device planted in a bazaar popular with tourists killed a French teenager.

YOU CAN ADD CNN TO THE CIA LIST.

Iran: VOA, BBC arms of US, British spy agencies By ALI AKBAR DAREINI, Associated Press Writer – Sat Feb 20, 2:11 pm ET

TEHRAN, Iran – Iran's police chief on Saturday accused the Voice of America and the BBC of being the arms of U.S. and British intelligence agencies, and warned of severe repercussions for journalists and activists caught having contacts with them, state media reported.Gen. Ismail Ahmadi Moghaddam, whose police forces have played a key role in the government crackdown on protesters since Iran's disputed presidential election, was quoted by the official IRNA news agency as saying opposition activists have cooperated with the BBC and the Voice of America with the aim of weakening and overthrowing the (ruling) system.The BBC is the arm of MI-6 (Britain's foreign intelligence agency) and VOA belongs to the CIA Moghaddam said, according to IRNA. Those who cooperate with foreign services through transmitting photos, reports, news and anti-revolutionary actions ... should know that all their actions are monitored.We will settle accounts with them when the time comes, Moghaddam warned.Tehran has repeatedly accused the U.S. and Britain of fueling the country's postelection unrest in a bid to oust the Iran's clerical rulers. It also frequently accuses its opponents of being in league with the country's enemies, and Moghaddam's comments appear to be part of Tehran's efforts to discredit the opposition by linking them with foreign powers.The Voice of America and the BBC, which are funded by the U.S. and British governments respectively, have their own Persian radio and TV services, which many Iranians tune in to despite a ban on satellite dishes and government attempts to jam the airwaves.

Last month, a top Iranian Intelligence Ministry official banned Iranians from having any contact with 60 foreign news organizations, Iranian opposition Web sites, human rights groups and nongovernment organizations. The official accused the media of provoking street riots in Iran.The intelligence official, who was not identified by name, specifically mentioned VOA and BBC as well as a dozen other Persian-language opposition radios and news Web sites, saying the government will consider cooperation with the news outlets as collaboration with the nation's enemies.
Moghaddam also vowed to crush possible opposition protests during celebrations for the Persian New Year next month.Iranians regard the holiday as a chance to purify the soul for the new year, or Nowruz, which begins on March 21. Opposition supporters say they may hold street protests to coincide with the event.Iran's opposition used a religious holiday in late December to rally its supporters, holding massive demonstrations in the streets of Tehran. On that day, at least eight people were killed in clashes between security forces and demonstrators in the worst bloodshed since the height of the unrest last summer.The turmoil erupted last June after Iran's disputed presidential election. The opposition claimed that its leader Mir Hossein Mousavi was the rightful winner and that hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's win was fraudulent.The opposition says more than 80 protesters were killed in the postelection crackdown, although the government puts the number of confirmed dead at less than 40.Also Saturday, the personal Web site of a senior opposition figure, Mahdi Karroubi, appeared to be hacked by a group calling itself the Sun Army.Instead of the page's regular content, the group posted its name and a photo of the founder of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, as well as his successor — now Iran's current leader — Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.A text posted on a black background called Karroubi a puppet sheik and traitor to Islamic Iran.

Iranian authorities have blocked Karroubi Web sites and those of his party in the past. The Internet is the opposition leaders' main form of communication with their supporters.

Obama statue returns to public view in Jakarta By ROD McGUIRK, Associated Press Writer – FEB 21,10

JAKARTA, Indonesia – A statue of Barack Obama as a boy was placed late Sunday night at the Jakarta elementary school the U.S. president once attended, after its display in a public park prompted backlash in the Indonesia capital.The re-placement of the bronze statue a week after it disappeared from public view was a low-key event officiated by the school's principal and three local education officials. Scores of proud students had been among the crowd of 500 watching when Jakarta's mayor unveiled the statue in the nearby park in December.The likeness based on a childhood photograph shows a 10-year-old Obama smiling at a butterfly perched on his outstretched thumb.The late night schedule was aimed at finishing before almost 500 students arrive for school Monday, not an attempt to keep a low profile, said the main fundraiser for the statue, Ron Mullers. The statue's removal from the park also was done on a Sunday night.Many Indonesias are proud of Obama's connections to Indonesia, but detractors of the statue's park display argued an Indonesia hero should be honored instead. A Facebook campaign attracted more than 50,000 supporters of the statue's removal, and court action was initiated to force it.Mullers accused them of politicizing a statue meant to inspire Indonesian children to follow their dreams.This is a statue of boy named Little Barry who went to this school; it's not President Obama,Mullers said.Opponents had mixed feelings about the statue's new position at Menteng 1 Elementary School where it remains clearly visible from the street through a front gate.

Heru Nugroho, leader of the Facebook campaign to remove the statue, said he was not happy,but declined to comment further.Another opponent involved in the court action, Yenni Rosa Damayanti, said she was satisfied that the statue was no longer in a public park.We should not erect statues of other countries' presidents in public parks when so many of Indonesia's heroes are not immortalized, she said. She added that she didn't mind the new location because the school had history with Obama.
Central Jakarta Education Office head Zainal Soleman and Vice Principal Solikhin, who goes by one name, helped three laborers set the statue in its wet concrete base.

Soleman said it was welcomed by the school.It will inspire and motivate the children every day,he said.The statue's original cost was $10,000 but the relocation increased it to $50,000, according to Mullers, an American living in Jakarta. Sponsors provided the additional money, he said.It wasn't cheap, but I'm glad it's now in the best place for it, said Mullers, who chairs the Jakarta-based Friends of Obama Foundation.He said the president's staff has indicated Obama plans to visit the school and sign the statue's pedestal during his first presidential trip to the country in late March.Obama, whose American mother married an Indonesian after divorcing his Kenyan father, went to school in the capital from 1967 to 1971.

REVELATION 13:16-18
16 And he(FALSE POPE) causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:(CHIP IMPLANT)
17 And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.
18 Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.(6-6-6) A NUMBER SYSTEM

Greek Financial Crisis: Will It Lead to Demise of Euro? By Bruce Crumley / Paris – Sat Feb 20, 11:15 am ET

The frenzied betting by financial markets against the stability of Greek government bonds is a clear indication that many investors don't believe Athens will find a way to deal with its massive debt - at least not without an equally huge European bailout. But beyond the market speculation lies a longer-term question that is tormenting the 16 euro-zone nations: Could the Greek crisis be the beginning of the end for the common currency, just eight years after its first notes and coins were issued? Might the doubts and pressures that are driving the euro's value downward lead to the eventual implosion of Europe's most concrete achievement thus far? The responses, of course, depend on who you ask. However, it's clear that if levelheaded economic experts are even pondering the viability of Europe's monetary union, the situation is grave indeed.This is a very deep crisis for the euro and all of Europe because what we have is a terrible debt and deficit problem that virtually all European nations share and no collective structures to deal with any of it,says Philippe Moreau Defarge, a European affairs expert at the French Institute on International Relations. Europe is being forced to recognize it isn't as rich or as well-organized as it thought, and faces several long, hard years of finding its way back to solid ground.

And what about the future of the euro? I think it's quite possible we could see the euro gone in several years - or at least reduced to a currency only used by France, Germany and a few small nations keeping it alive, says Bob HanckÉ, an expert on European political economics at the London School of Economics.The problem is that monetary union was never followed up by political union to coordinate budget and taxation practices and create euro-zone institutions and capacities to help member economies adapt to changes and turmoil. The result is member governments are left very few ways to deal with the current attack on Greek debt and the severe pressure that it's putting on the euro.The rest of the euro-zone countries can come to the rescue. Indeed, these countries - led by France and Germany - have pledged twice this month to do what's necessary to see Greece through its deficit crisis and defend the common currency. If need be, officials say, that will include a financial bailout of Greece, providing the funds to allow Athens to make its debt payments as the government slashes spending and raises taxes, no matter how unpopular this may be with its taxpayers.Permitting what will essentially become an existential assault on the euro by financial markets isn't something leaders are going to let happen - the political and economic consequences would simply be too grave, says a French government adviser who preferred to remain anonymous because of the sensitivity of the situation.The pressure being applied by market speculation is making things harder, but far from impossible. The euro isn't going away.

However, HanckÉ describes a scenario in which continued market doubts could drive the value of Greek bonds to junk status, confounding outside efforts to bail Athens out and forcing Greece to simply abandon the euro before it drags the currency down to nothing. Once that happens, markets then turn successively on indebted countries like Spain, Portugal, Italy and Ireland until they're driven out as well,HanckÉ explains. At that point, even if a core of countries continue using the euro after so many others have left, the currency will have lost it's main original function as being the means by which greater European integration and common governance is attained.Though worried about the underlying causes of the crisis - overspending by governments that led to spiraling budget deficits and public debts - Moreau Defarge believes member states will indeed take whatever efforts are required to save the euro.There's nothing for any of them to go back to, he says.This is the present and future they've chosen.But he's convinced the euro zone will be forced to further integrate their economies, coordinate budgets and tax structures as well as cede budgetary and oversight powers to a central body tasked with preventing collective calamities from happening - and distributing emergency funds when problems do arise. Some observers even hope that, far from killing the euro, the crisis may remedy its structural failings. Europe has always advanced when forced by necessity,editorial writer Bernard Guetta noted in the LibÉration newspaper on Wednesday.So it's now that things will start to happen.

French drivers fill up tanks as oil strike spreads
FEB 21,10

PARIS (AFP) – French drivers rushed to fill their tanks Sunday after striking workers at oil giant Total raised the threat of petrol shortages as families hit the road for the mid-term school holidays.An AFP reporter saw one station in the western town of Rennes closed because it had run out of petrol and dozens of vehicles massing at another, seeking urgently to fill their tanks.City centre filling stations were also busier than usual in Toulouse, in the south, where at least one ran out of diesel. One driver told AFP he was filling up as a precaution to avoid getting stranded because of the strike.Total's management said Friday it had started gradually halting refining operations after unions announced an open-ended stoppage at all of its six French refineries, in protest at the closure of a plant in Dunkirk.

We strongly fear that next week, fuel shortages will be on the agenda, CGT union representative Charles Foulard told reporters ahead of talks on Sunday with management over the five-day old strike.Hours later, he walked out of the talks. The negotiations have broken down. We have nothing but verbal proposals and no commitments from the management, he said.Refining at Dunkirk has been halted by a strike that started last month. Unions said another refinery in Donges, western France could shut down from Monday and another at Grandpuits, near Paris from Tuesday.Total supplies about half of France's filling stations. It insisted there was no immediate risk of shortages, while the French Petroleum Industry Union said the country's depots had up to three weeks' worth of fuel.But the leader of the CGT, Bernard Thibault, warned: A country like France does not have the capacity and the reserves to live for long with its refineries shut down, in comments on television station France 2.The energy giant sparked the protest when it announced last month that it was studying a permanent closure of a refinery in Dunkirk, which employs 370 people directly and 450 sub-contractors.Total insists no jobs will be cut and it will not close any other refineries. It has come under government pressure to guarantee jobs after President Nicolas Sarkozy said that fighting unemployment was a top priority.Industry Minister Christian Estrosi met with Total's chief executive Christophe de Margerie and said afterwards that Total was committed to doing everything to keep the Dunkirk site open even if it stopped refining.

The company says it is working to adapt to falling demand due to the economic crisis and a shift towards cleaner energy.Things have changed drastically in this business, Margerie said in an interview in the weekly Journal du Dimanche.Total posted a 44-percent year-on-year drop in profits in 2009 due to falling prices but vowed to keep investing, eyeing partnerships with China and gas projects in Iran. Profits fell to 7.8 billion euros (10.9 billion dollars).We are working to make our sites adapted to the change in demand,Margerie said.This resource must remain competitive in the long term.

Vatican: Number of Catholics rising worldwide
Sat Feb 20, 8:18 am ET

VATICAN CITY – The Vatican says the number of Catholics as a percentage of the worldwide faithful is growing slightly.The Holy See says that from 2007 to 2008 Roman Catholics grew from 17.33 percent of the global population to 17.4 percent.The statistics are included in a yearbook presented Saturday to Pope Benedict XVI.The yearbook says the number of priests rose from 2000-2008 but that the number of nuns worldwide fell 7.8 percent.The number of nuns rose significantly in Asia and Africa over those eight years but not enough to make up for sharp drops in Europe and America.

TSX ends week with 8th straight rising day By John McCrank – Fri Feb 19, 5:38 pm ET

TORONTO (Reuters) – Toronto's main stock market index edged higher on Friday, marking its eighth straight rising session, as gains in energy and financial issues outweighed a slide among gold miners.Oil sands-focused company Cenovus Energy Inc was the top heavyweight gainer of the day, up 3.3 percent at C$27.48, with Suncor Energy the No. 3 gainer, up 0.8 percent at C$31.93.Concerns that a strike in French refineries along with geopolitical tensions over Iran's nuclear situation led to supply worries, which pushed the price of U.S. crude oil futures higher for the fourth day in a row.Financial shares were mainly higher on the notion that they will continue to benefit from the stronger Canadian economy, said Elvis Picardo, analyst and strategist at Global Securities in Vancouver.Royal Bank of Canada pushed up 0.6 percent to C$57.09 and Toronto-Dominion Bank rose 0.4 percent to C$66.38. Manulife Financial gained 0.9 percent to C$19.65.Trade was somewhat cautious as the market digested an unexpected hike in the U.S. Federal Reserve's discount rate, which is the rate at which the U.S. central bank lends to banks.The move suggested to some that the Fed was close to raising its fed funds rate, its main policy tool, despite assurances from Fed policymakers to the contrary.

The good news is that the markets have totally taken it in stride and I guess the thinking is that it is part of the normalization process and not a precursor to aggressive tightening down the road, Picardo said.The Toronto Stock Exchange's S&P/TSX composite index ended 14.45 points, or 0.1 percent, higher at 11,709.29. Eight of the index's 10 main groups were higher, with the energy and financial groups both up 0.3 percent.For the week, the index gained 2.1 percent.This is the eighth straight day that the market is up and it hasn't been straight up, it's been little by little, up 50 points here and 100 points there ... so it's telling us that there is still a lot of cash out there, said Irwin Michael, portfolio manager at ABC Funds.Gold producers were the biggest drag on the index, giving back some of the healthy gains they made earlier in the week on strong quarterly results.Goldcorp was the index's No. 1 decliner, falling 1.3 percent to C$40.32. Agnico Eagle and Kinross Gold followed, down 3.4 percent to C$60.72, and 2.3 percent to C$19.23 respectively.

Solid quarterly results this week from some blue-chip companies have helped added to the TSX's streak.On Friday, Brookfield Asset Management added to the growing list of estimate beaters with a strong performance from its renewable power and office property businesses. The stock rose 1 percent to C$24.19.($1=$1.04 Canadian)(Reporting by John McCrank; editing by Peter Galloway)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JxYR-v0_jPE&feature=player_embedded
CNN Broadcasts Major Cyber War Game Propaganda
Kurt Nimmo Infowars.com February 20, 2010
http://www.infowars.com/cnn-broadcasts-major-cyber-war-game-propaganda/

CNN rolled out a slick propaganda presentation this evening. It is called Cyber Shockwave and it posits a cyber attack on the United States.From the NewsonNews website:CNN will air a two-hour production, We Were Warned: Cyber Shockwave, based upon exclusive television access to a national security cyber war game scenario. The simulated event was developed by The Bipartisan Policy Center and will debut Saturday, Feb. 20 and Sunday, Feb. 21 at 8pm, 11pm and 2am ET on CNN. The scenario was created by Fmr. CIA Director, General Michael Hayden (ret.) as well as the co-chairs of the 9/11 Commission, Fmr. Rep. Lee Hamilton (D-IN) and Fmr. Gov. Thomas Kean (R-NJ).The simulation includes the usual government insiders acting as government officials (no acting required — they are all former government officials) who have gathered in the situation room to confront a cyber attack shutting down telecommunications and the power grid on the east coast.Additional participants who served various roles for the scenario are: Fmr. U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff, Fmr. Director of National Intelligence John Negroponte, Fmr. White House Homeland Security Advisor and CNN contributor Fran Townsend, Fmr. Director of Central Intelligence John McLaughlin, Fmr. U.S. Senator Bennett Johnston, Jr. (D-LA), Fmr. National Economic Council Director Stephen Friedman, Fmr. U.S. Deputy Attorney General Jamie Gorelick, Fmr. White House Press Secretary Joe Lockhart, Fmr. National Security Agency General Counsel Stewart Baker, and Gen. Charles Wald, USAF (Ret.), former Deputy Commander of the United States European Command.How should the government deal with the threat? Federalize the National Guard to deal with unruly mobs freaking out over the loss of electricity. Nationalize utility companies so the NSA and the government get electricity. The participants also recommended new powers be granted to the president. Not surprisingly, they declared the president has the authority to take unprecedented action against the states and the private sector under the Constitution.

CNN and the participants agreed the slick propaganda presentation is aimed at the American people.Infowars.com will post video of the simulation when it becomes available.Earlier in the week, a new computer virus infected almost 75,000 computers worldwide — including 10 U.S. government agencies — collecting login credentials from online financial, social networking sites and email systems and reporting back to hackers, according to the New York Daily News. The FBI, Department of State and Department of Homeland Security were notified. The attacks are attributed to criminal hackers.On February 4, the House overwhelmingly passed The Cybersecurity Enhancement Act (H.R. 4061), a bill that requires the Obama administration to conduct an agency-by-agency assessment of cybersecurity workforce skills and establishes a scholarship program for undergraduate and graduate students who agree to work as cybersecurity specialists for the government after graduation, according to The New York Times. The bill represents yet another intrusion into the private sector by the Obama administration and Congress.Rep. Michael McCaul, a Texas Democrat, says he is optimistic about the bill’s chances in the Senate. When you’re talking about science and technology and national security,said McCaul,those are elements we should all be able to work together (on); Democrat, Republican, and that’s what we saw on the House floor,McCaul told Homeland Seucirity Newswire.