WORST STORM IN AMERICAN HISTORY

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.

IRAN TO ENRICH AUDIO
http://live.radioamerica.org/loudwater/player.pl?upload=1710&name=wnd

East Coast digs out from storm for record books By PATRICK WALTERS, Associated Press Writer – FEB 11,10

PHILADELPHIA – Crews in Maryland worked to rescue dozens of motorists stranded on highways in snow drifts up to 8 feet and utility workers scrambled to restore power to more than 100,000 customers a day after a powerful storm disrupted the lives of some 50 million people from the southern plains up through the East Coast.Snowbound airports resumed limited operations but many flights were still canceled or delayed. School systems in the path of the storm remained closed for a second day, including in Baltimore, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C., although New York City school children headed back to class after only their third snow day in six years.In Washington, the federal government was closed for a fourth straight day. The nation's capital joined Philadelphia and Baltimore in logging their snowiest winters in history.Paul Kocin, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Washington, D.C., said the storm compares to some of the greatest ever largely because of its timing. He estimated 50 million people were affected.The big difference is that it occurred within a week and a half of three other storms, Kocin said. The combination of storms is almost unprecedented — the amount of snow, the amount of impact.The latest storm dumped over 19 inches in Baltimore, 10 inches in Washington, D.C. and 16 inches in Philadelphia. About 20 inches fell in central New Jersey and totals ranged from 10 to 16 inches around New York City.About 50 people spent the night in their vehicles on Maryland sections of U.S. 340 and U.S. 15 in snow that drifted 6 to 8 feet, authorities said Thursday.We have had staff working overnight, monitoring cell phone contact with folks, checking on their welfare, Tom Owens, director of Frederick County Emergency Services. He said emergency workers reached some vehicles on foot during the night, but most of those stranded, including a family with children, chose to stay in their vehicles rather than take shelter at nearby fire stations.

The cars got stuck Wednesday afternoon during the peak of a 23-inch snowfall, Owens said.Rescue workers, including the National Guard, broke through drifts as high as 12 feet as they tried to bring in tow trucks to remove jackknifed tractor-trailers that caused the blockages about 60 miles west of Baltimore, Owens said.Yue-Chung Siu, 25, got up early to be at work at his family's bagel store in Philadelphia by 5:30 a.m. Thursday. He said his normal 30 minute commute from Bensalem turned into an hour and 45 minutes because of detours and poorly plowed roads.He recalled the record-breaking blizzard of January 1996.I was a little kid, so I had a lot of fun, Siu said. Now, it's like half-fun, half-hassle.D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty said it would take another 24 hours to see a lot of normal government operations.Then we have a nice, long weekend and the city should be back on its feet by Tuesday, he told CBS' The Early Show.Fenty has come under growing criticism for the city's snow removal efforts and for still not having cleared snow from the previous storm.He said the city has spent at least double its normal budget on snow removal and expects to ask the federal government for help.The storm had halted flights throughout the Mid-Atlantic region, but by Thursday morning flights began to arrive at Dulles International Airport in Washington, D.C., and Reagan National Airport also reopened. Both of Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport's two main runways reopened, but officials warned that flight cancellations would continue because of the storm. One primary runway was open at Philadelphia International Airport on Thursday morning, and all three New York area airports were up and running, although many flights remained canceled. Newark Liberty International Airport was packed with passengers stranded by the storm, and others just trying to make needed connections. Among them was Lorraine Martinez of El Centro, Calif., part of a 49-member church group — mostly senior citizens — who had traveled to Israel to tour historic religious sites.

They arrived in Newark around 4 a.m. Thursday and had expected to depart for San Diego on a Continental Airlines flight about seven hours later. The carrier instead told them they may not be able to get a flight out until Monday. We're still waiting, and their trying to accommodate us, but nothing (so far), Martinez said, noting that many group members were running short on prescription medications. She also said many could not afford to pay for hotels if they're forced to stay in the New York-Newark area through the weekend. As of Wednesday, Baltimore had 72.3 inches so far this winter, the Washington area had 54.9 inches and Philadelphia had 70.3 inches. The previous records for snowiest winters were 62.5 inches in Baltimore in 1995-96; 54.4 inches in Washington in 1898-99; and 65.5 inches in Philadelphia in 1995-96. Electric crews in New Jersey were working to restore power to more than 40,000 homes and businesses that lost electricity. More than 70,000 utility customers in Pennsylvania were without power. Some never got it back after the last storm. More than 11,000 customers in Virginia were still in the dark. In West Virginia, 800 National Guardsmen were helping to clean up after the state's latest winter storm. The storm has been blamed for at least nine deaths, including a man killed in a pileup on Interstate 80 in central Pennsylvania. But the news wasn't all bad. Washington has not had a homicide in a week. Ski areas were doing brisk business, when people could get to them. And private contractors were making money plowing driveways and parking lots. Associated Press writers Kathy Matheson in Philadelphia; Ula Ilnytzky, Kiley Armstrong and Jennifer Peltz in New York; Brett Zongker, Brian Bakst, Sarah Brumfield and Ann Sanner in Washington; Sarah Karush in Alexandria, Va.; Alex Dominguez in Baltimore; Kathleen Miller in Arlington, Va.; Ben Nuckols in Bel Air, Md.; Dan Nephin in Bentleyville, Pa.; Samantha Henry in Newark; and David Dishneau in Hagerstown, Md., contributed to this report.

Epic snow removal costing W.Va. $1 million a day
FEB 11,10

CHARLESTON, W.Va, – West Virginia is spending about $1 million a day to clear snow after two epic blizzards hit the East Coast.The state Division of Highways says the costs had totaled $43 million as of Monday, before the second storm struck. At $1 million a day, the costs would be edging closer to the total budget for snow removal this winter of $54 million.Division spokesman Brent Walker said Thursday that expenses include not only salt and equipment, but also overtime for drivers working 12- to 16-hour days and payment to private contractors.If snow removal costs exceed $54 million — a possibility with another 6-8 weeks of winter weather ahead — funds in other areas will have to be cut. Walker said that could mean cutbacks in maintenance, paving and mowing in the spring and summer.

Haiti quake toll rises to 217,000 by Andrew Beatty and M.J. Smith – Thu Feb 11, 12:52 am ET

PORT-AU-PRINCE (AFP) – Haiti raised the death toll from last month's quake to more than 217,000, while the focus turned to providing shelter for the homeless before heavy rains and hurricane season come.There are people who put forth the figure of 230,000, but we have counted a bit more than 217,000. These are verified figures, Interior Minister Paul Bien-Aime said.The government also declared a day of mourning for Friday to mark one month since the quake struck, bringing death and destruction on an unprecedented scale to the desperately poor Caribbean nation.There are around 1.2 million people without shelter, David Pappiat of the British Red Cross told a summit in Montreal attended by Red Cross and Red Crescent delegations from 23 countries and two international bodies.We're trying to set up shelters that can withstand the coming rainy season, the hurricane season, and that can last three to five years, said Haitian Red Cross president Michael Amedee Gedeon.The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement has deployed some 600 people to Haiti to help with relief efforts.Related article: Haiti still reeling after horrific quakeShelter is a huge issue,agreed Lewis Lucke, US coordinator for relief and recovery in Haiti, speaking in Port-au-Prince.

Nothing really compares in terms of (this) monumental challenge, for right now and for the coming weeks before the rainy season and months before the hurricane season, he said.Lucke said relief workers aimed to supply everyone with plastic sheeting by May 1, the nominal start of the rainy season.The relief effort received a boost from private donors, whom the United Nations said had given more money than the single biggest national donor, the United States.Individuals and businesses were said on Wednesday to have given 118 million dollars to help quake victims since the disaster, more than the 115 million donated by the US government.Related article: Downtown Port-au-Prince, home to the homeless.Still, massive problems loom, and the security situation in the makeshift camps and across Port-au-Prince remained precarious.More than 50 looters besieged a quake-hit supermarket Wednesday, just hours after a fresh part of it collapsed as contractors searched for the remains of those buried by the January 12 quake.Half a dozen shots were fired as owners tried to disperse the mob -- some of whom were armed with knifes -- as people raided the supermarket's underground depot, making off with toy cars, garden chairs and other goods.On Tuesday night rescue workers spent around six hours trying to dig out another group of looters believed trapped in a five-story supermarket when its roof fell in, bringing slabs of tangled steel and concrete down on top of them.Although the coordination of the massive international aid effort has improved beyond recognition from the chaotic early days after the quake, one month on relief still fails to reach some of those most in need.Related article: WHO halts free drug delivery

I know that the world is helping us and many nations are sending us food and medicine, said 40-year-old Clotilde Muratus.We need help and we will need help for a long time, but unfortunately we haven't yet seen that we are receiving much help, she told AFP as she watched with resignation a UN food distribution she could not access. Meanwhile, 10 US Baptist missionaries charged with kidnapping 33 children after the earthquake appeared together in court again Wednesday, along with some of the children's parents. Judge Bernard Saint-Vil interrogated the American church group members separately on Monday and Tuesday, and is speaking to some of the parents this week. The 10 Americans from the New Life Children's Refuge have claimed they harbored no ill-intent in taking a busload of children they thought were orphans across the border into the Dominican Republic. But some of the children's parents have said they had reached a deal to give away their kids. Johnny Antoine, 33, the father of a 10-month-old child he entrusted to the group of missionaries, said he wanted to see the Americans freed. Antoine said he had willingly given his child over because his house had collapsed and he had little means to care for the infant. He said he spoke to the missionaries' leader, Laura Silsby. She said she came to Haiti to help me, he said, adding he had hoped his child would be returned to him later after receiving care and schooling. A US diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the Americans had been receiving regular consular visits.

OZONE DEPLETION JUDGEMENT ON THE EARTH DUE TO SIN

ISAIAH 30:26-27
26 Moreover the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold, as the light of seven days, in the day that the LORD bindeth up the breach of his people, and healeth the stroke of their wound.
27 Behold, the name of the LORD cometh from far, burning with his anger, and the burden thereof is heavy: his lips are full of indignation, and his tongue as a devouring fire:

MATTHEW 24:21-22,29
21 For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.
22 And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake (ISRAELS SAKE) those days shall be shortened (Daylight hours shortened)
29 Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken:

REVELATION 16:7-9
7 And I heard another out of the altar say, Even so, Lord God Almighty, true and righteous are thy judgments.
8 And the fourth angel poured out his vial upon the sun; and power was given unto him to scorch men with fire.
9 And men were scorched with great heat, and blasphemed the name of God, which hath power over these plagues: and they repented not to give him glory.

Heatwave roasts Rio, kills 32 in southern Brazil
Wed Feb 10, 4:14 pm ET

RIO DE JANEIRO (AFP) – The worst heatwave to hit Rio de Janeiro in 50 years turned the city into a pre-Carnival furnace Wednesday, and killed 32 elderly people further south, officials said.According to the Inmet national weather service, recorded temperatures in Rio were well above 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees) -- and felt more like above 50 degrees.The heatwave in Rio is seen as historic. February right now is the hottest month for the past 50 years, meteorologist Giovanni Dolif told the O Globo daily.On Monday and Tuesday, the scalding conditions proved deadly for 32 elderly residents in Santos, a city close to Sao Paulo and 350 kilometers (220 miles) south of Rio.Half of them succumbed in their homes and the other half died as they sought help in clinics, a spokeswoman for the city's health service told AFP.

The heatwave made Rio the hottest place on the planet on Tuesday, save for Ada, a town in eastern Ghana, according to data from the World Meteorological Organization.
Rio's recorded temperature that day was 46.3 degrees Celsius -- less than even the Sahara desert, which came in at a milder 33 degrees.Dolif said being in Rio was worse than being in a dry desert because seaside humidity gave the temperature a suffocating boost, making it feel much higher.El Nino, the phenomenon in which unusually hot Pacific Ocean waters disrupt weather patterns, was blamed for the heatwave by preventing the formation of clouds.Rio's heatwave was forecast to continue into the weekend, when the city's famous four-day Carnival starts.Sapped residents in the city have taken to going to the beaches at night to seek a respite from the heat.Doctors were recommending cold showers and lots of liquids to mitigate the risks of heat exhaustion and dehydration.

DANIEL 7:23-24
23 Thus he said, The fourth beast(THE EU,REVIVED ROME) shall be the fourth kingdom upon earth,(7TH WORLD EMPIRE) which shall be diverse from all kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, and shall tread it down, and break it in pieces.(TRADE BLOCKS)
24 And the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise:(10 NATIONS) and another shall rise after them;(#11 SPAIN) and he shall be diverse from the first, and he shall subdue three kings.(BE HEAD OF 3 KINGS OR NATIONS).

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

Stocks climb after EU pledges support for Greece By STEPHEN BERNARD and TIM PARADIS, AP Business Writers – FEB 11,10

NEW YORK – Stock indexes rose after European leaders pledged to help Greece with its growing debt crisis.Greece's debt problems have been spooking global markets for weeks, and hopes that a rescue was on the way helped lead stocks higher in the U.S. and Europe over the past three days.The Labor Department's report that first-time claims for jobless benefits fell more than expected last week was also supporting the market.Expectations had been building that a Thursday summit of European leaders would produce a solution for the problem, but the verbal commitment that emerged to provide unspecified help to Greece later only partly assuaged investors' concerns. European officials are not expected to disclose specifics of the plan until early next week.We're close to weathering the Greece situation, said Stephen Wood, chief market strategist at Russell Investments.Greece's fiscal crisis has been undermining confidence in Europe's shared currency, the euro, which fell again against the dollar after the anticlimactic summit in Europe.Fiscal problems at other weak European economies including Portugal and Spain have also been weakening faith in the euro, which is shared by 16 countries but has no central fiscal authority. Runaway deficit spending in weaker states like Greece has tested the market's faith in the euro countries to keep their budgets under control.In early afternoon trading, the Dow Jones industrial average rose 78.15, or 0.8 percent, to 10,116.53. The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 7.80, or 0.7 percent, to 1,075.93, while the Nasdaq composite index rose 25.39, or 1.2 percent, to 2,173.26.

Bond prices fell after weak demand at a government auction of 30-year Treasury notes. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note, which moves opposite its price, rose to 3.76 percent from 3.69 percent late Wednesday.The dollar was mixed other major currencies. The euro fell on the possibility of a bailout for Greece. Gold rose.Crude oil rose 77 cents to $75.29 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.The Labor Department said the number of newly laid-off workers seeking unemployment benefits fell by 43,000 to a seasonally adjusted 440,000, the lowest level in a month. Economists polled by Thomson Reuters were expecting claims to fall to 465,000.The sharp drop came after claims rose in four of the previous five weeks. The recent increase in claims put investors on edge about whether an economic recovery would be sustainable. High unemployment is one of the biggest obstacles to a rebound.Two other reports scheduled to be released Thursday were postponed because of two major snowstorms that have shut down the federal government in recent days. The Commerce Department will delay, at least for one day, reports on monthly retail sales and business inventories.In corporate news, the utility company FirstEnergy said it is buying rival power provider Allegheny Energy for about $4.7 billion in stock. It will also assume about $3.8 billion in debt.Allegheny jumped $2.45, or 11.7 percent, to $23.47, while FirstEnergy fell $2.07, or 5 percent, to $39.39.Stocks fell modestly Wednesday, erasing steep early morning losses as investors became more comfortable with Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke's plan to unwind stimulus measures the central bank launched to support the economy.

Bernanke said the Fed will likely start to tighten credit by increasing the interest rate it pays on deposits with the central bank. The Dow ended the day down 20 points after recovering from a loss of nearly 100 points. More than two stocks rose for every one that fell on the New York Stock Exchange, where volume came to 500.9 million shares compared with 477.1 million traded at the same point Wednesday. The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies rose 5.14, or 0.9 percent, to 600.96.
Britain's FTSE 100 rose 0.6 percent, Germany's DAX index fell 0.6 percent, and France's CAC-40 lost 0.5 percent. Japanese markets were closed for a national holiday.

Euro under pressure after EU deal on Greece
FEB 11,10

LONDON (AFP) – The European single currency fell against the dollar on Thursday as traders fretted about a lack of detail in a European Union deal to help debt-troubled Greece, dealers said.At about 1543 GMT, the euro fell to 1.3628 dollars, compared with 1.3732 dollars late in New York on Wednesday.It seems now that the EU has made a decision to help Greece -- but just what that help entails is still a mystery, said analyst James Hughes at financial spread-betting firm CMC Markets.

European leaders pledged solidarity to debt-stricken Greece on Thursday but held back from offering an immediate cash bailout.Billions of euros needed to rescue Athens will first and foremost have to come from further slashing of its own spending, in return for which eurozone members should be ready to safeguard financial stability in the eurozone area as a whole, according to EU president Herman Van Rompuy.Markets were anticipating strong supportive action to avert growing fears that the debt contagion could hit the entire euro area.Van Rompuy, chairing his first European Union summit, announced a deal after two hours of intense negotiations in Brussels centred on German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou.In recent weeks, the euro has been rocked by mounting concerns about rocky public finances in the eurozone -- particularly in peripheral members Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece and Spain.Last Friday, the single currency had tumbled to 1.3586 dollars -- which was the lowest level since May 20, 2009.

Van Rompuy: Eurozone will bail out Greece if needed
ANDREW WILLIS Today FEB 11,2010 @ 14:13 CET

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - The European Union has formally stated what has been discussed in private for weeks: a bailout for Greece will be available if needed. The announcement is designed to calm market jitters that have recently wreaked havoc on stocks and bonds in a number of weaker peripheral eurozone members. The EU's new permanent president Herman Van Rompuy made the statement on the steps of the Bibliotheque Solvay, and old library in a central Brussels park where EU leaders are meeting for an informal summit on economic issues on Thursday (11 February).Euro area member states will take determined and co-ordinated action if needed to safeguard financial stability in the euro area as a whole,he said. The former Belgian politician also stressed that no aid would be immediately forthcoming, however.The Greek government has not requested any financial support,he said. Flanked by European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso, Mr Van Rompuy said the EU fully supported the efforts of the Greek government in implementing a long list of austerity measures outlined in a plan last month. We call on the Greek government to implement all these measures in a rigorous and determined way,said Mr Van Rompuy. Athens intends to reduce its budget deficit by four percent this year after it reached 12.7 of GDP in 2009.

The commission is set to closely monitor Greece's implementation of the tough measures that led to strikes on Wednesday around the country. The European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund will also play a role in the tough surveillance.The commission will closely monitor the Greek implementation in liaison with the ECB, and will propose necessary additional measures, drawing on the expertise of the IMF,said Mr Van Rompuy.

France and Germany to announce Greek rescue plan
ANDREW WILLIS Today FEB 11,10 @ 09:29 CET

France and Germany are set to pledge their solidarity with Greece on Thursday (11 February), in a sign to investors that the embattled Greek state will not be allowed to default on debt obligations. Despite a detailed plan from Athens last month setting out spending cuts and revenue raising measures, market doubts over the health of Greek public finances have grown in recent weeks, weighing heavily on Greek stocks and causing bond yields to shoot up. French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel are set to make the announcement at a joint press conference after a meeting of EU leaders in Brussels.The declaration is unlikely to contain many details however, after a video-conference of EU finance ministers on Wednesday failed to agree on the components of a rescue package.

Subsequent telephone calls between Paris and Berlin also failed to finalise a plan, with Germany reportedly sceptical about signing up to a Greek bailout without further assurances from Athens. Eurozone and EU finance minister meetings next week could be tasked with fleshing out details. The initiative by leaders of Europe's two largest economies could merge into an EU-wide plan, said French sources close to Mr Sarkozy, reports Le Monde. The idea is that there be a strong Franco-Geman engagement, something which doesn't prevent a subsequent decision by the 27,said the source.The problem is that amongst the 27 there is also Greece, Portugal, Spain, which are currently being attacked. It would be odd if these countries financed a Greek rescue plan,the contact added.Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou lunched in Paris with Mr Sarkozy on Wednesday. Before the meeting, Mr Sarkozy spoke with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, said the Elysee presidential palace.Among the options being considered to help Greece are bilateral loans, the creation of credit lines, or government guarantees to underwrite Greek bond issues, say diplomats.

French, German and EU officials repeatedly denied last month that a bailout was being considered. Not to be outdone by the Franco-German initiative, the Visegrad group comprising the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia are also set to hold a pre-summit meeting.Mr Sarkozy has previously questioned the purpose of the now regular reunions. A diplomat from one of the Visegrad countries said the meeting was called by the current chair, Hungary. There are plenty of top level meetings in various formats before each summit. There is no rule against it, the diplomat told EUobserver. Initially scheduled to take place at 10.00am local time, Thursday's EU summit, which will take place in an old library in a central Brussels park, has been set back two hours by EU permanent president Herman Van Rompuy due to a snowfall.

Oil rises for 4th day on demand forecast By Chris Kahn, Ap Energy Writer – FEB 11,10

NEW YORK – Crude prices continued to rise this week as a European energy watchdog said global oil demand will grow this year, more than previously expected.Benchmark crude for March delivery on Thursday added 69 cents at $75.21 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. In London, Brent crude increased 62 cents to $73.16 a barrel on the ICE futures exchange.The Paris-based International Energy Agency pushed its estimate for global oil demand slightly higher Thursday, saying that consumption in developing nations will increase. The IEA revised its 2010 demand forecast from 85.3 million barrels daily to 85.5 million barrels.However, the agency said that oil demand in North America has virtually stalled as a result of the sharp economic recession, cheaper energy alternatives (natural gas and coal) and behavioral changes (notably the smaller size and greater efficiency of new vehicles sold).Meanwhile, the Labor Department said first-time claims for jobless benefits dropped by 43,000 to a seasonally adjusted 440,000. The report raised hopes that the economy may add jobs soon and increase demand for oil and gasoline.Oil continued to rise even after a blizzard dumped more than a foot of snow along parts of the East Coast. The weather grounded thousands of commercial flights and forced motorists in numerous cities to work from home.Wednesday's storm smothered Baltimore in over 19 inches, Washington in 10 inches and 16 inches in Philadelphia. New York City was covered with 10 to 16 inches.The storm forced Continental to cancel at least 900 flights on Wednesday. United and Southwest canceled 600 apiece and American scrubbed hundreds of flights as well.

Gasoline prices continued to fall Thursday, dropping a half-cent overnight to a new national average of $2.636 a gallon, according to auto club AAA, Wright Express and Oil Price Information Service. A gallon of regular unleaded is now 11.5 cents cheaper than last month, but it's still 69.6 cents more expensive than the same time last year.In other Nymex trading in March contracts, heating oil rose 1.86 cents to $1.9655 a gallon, and gasoline added less than a penny to $1.9313 a gallon. Natural gas gained 3.7 cents to $5.329 per 1,000 cubic feet.Associated Press writers David Koenig in Dallas, Mae Anderson in New York, Pablo Gorondi in Budapest, Hungary and Alex Kennedy in Singapore contributed to this report.

EU regional assembly elects first female president
VALENTINA POP Today FEB 11,10 @ 09:10 CET

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS – EU's regional assembly elected Italian Euro-federalist Mercedes Bresso as its first female president, who pledged to raise the profile of the little-known institution.We will no longer just ask that regional and local authorities are taken into consideration, Ms Bresso said in a speech following her election on Wednesday (10 February) in Brussels by the Committee of the Regions (CoR).We will not just be the yes-man. We will enter the political debate with substantial proposals and we will not – if it is required - shy away from political controversy,she added.A young institution among EU's consultative bodies, CoR was established in 1994 and has so far carried out its work relatively unnoticed under the discreet chairmanship of a Belgian centre-right politician – Luc Van den Brande.

Ms Bresso's ambitions in raising the visibility of her institution rely on some recently acquired powers following the entry into force of EU's new legal framework, the Lisbon Treaty: It can now take the EU commission to court if it issues legislative proposals which are actually the competence of national, regional or local authorities.The three decision-making institutions of the EU – the parliament, commission and council of ministers – are also now bound to consult the Committee of the Regions in several new policy areas, such as energy and climate change.A former Socialist MEP and president of Italy's north-western region of Piedmont, the 65-year old described herself as an old-school Euro-federalist, believing in strong EU institutions and community funding. During her five-year mandate, Ms Bresso said she would staunchly oppose a re-nationalisation of regional policy, meaning less EU funds for the bloc's poorest regions.The issue has already come up last fall, in a leaked paper of the EU commission, as it was brainstorming where to get the money for instance for the new diplomatic service which will be set up in the coming years. Since agriculture and regional policy are currently the biggest slices of the EU pie, any future discussions on the reformed budget are likely to touch again on the issue.Ms Bresso also signaled interest in citizen-born legislative proposals, another novelty of the Lisbon Treaty.Drawing from their vast experience regarding citizens' initiatives in our member states, regions and cities will play a role in initiating, federating and carrying forward European citizens' initiatives. This will make Europe more transparent, democratic and diverse,she argued.Her interest in putting ordinary people at the centre of EU policy making was shared by Spanish minister for regional policy, Manuel Chaves, representing the rotating EU presidency. He said Madrid was looking at several initiatives aimed at developing people's rights and freedoms and gender equality.

Ripples of discontent as MEPs reject US bank data deal
VALENTINA POP Today FEB 11,10 @ 14:35 CET

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS – The European Parliament on Thursday (11 February) rejected a bank data deal with the US that would have allowed American investigators to track European transactions in the search for terrorist funding. The US qualified the vote as a serious setback to EU-US counter-terrorism co-operation. The deal was rejected by a large majority: 378 MEPs voted in favour of scrapping the agreement, with 196 against and 31 abstentions.EU lawmakers called for a better deal, which should include tougher data protection measures, despite warnings from Washington, the European Commission and the Spanish EU presidency that the rejection of the interim agreement would lead to a security gap for US and European citizens alike.The interim agreement had been in force since 1 February pending the consent of Parliament, which has gained new powers in the field after EU's new legal framework, the Lisbon Treaty, came into force. It would have been in force only for a maximum of nine months, in which a more wide-ranging final agreement was to be negotiated.

The proposed interim agreement is simply a bad deal. The rule of law is important and currently our laws are being broken and under this agreement they would continue to be broken. Parliament should not be complicit in this, said Liberal Dutch MEP Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, who drafted the report in favour of scrapping the deal.
The US expressed its disappointment over the decision of the European Parliament, after having urged MEPs to postpone the vote so that those who were new to the issue could have a more informed opinion over the data protection measures included in the package.The outcome is a serious setback to US-EU counter-terrorist co-operation. We are now evaluating the options we have on how to proceed further from here, a spokesperson for the US mission to Brussels told EUobserver.In past days, Washington deployed intense diplomatic efforts to try to change the minds of MEPs, especially after a key committee last week recommended the rejection of the deal. After calling top EU officials on the phone, US secretary of state Hillary Clinton wrote a letter together with treasury secretary Timothy Geithner to the President of the European Parliament, Jerzy Buzek, in which they stressed the importance of the pact. If the legislature rejects it, this would jeopardize a valuable and carefully constructed counter-terrorism programme of importance to countries affected by terrorism around the world,the letter, seen by EUobserver, says.

The interim deal was put together by the Swedish EU presidency last year to help the US out of legal loophole, as the main company dealing with international bank transactions, Swift, was about to re-configure its database structure, no longer keeping information on European transactions on US soil.Swift became embroiled in a scandal back in 2006 when news broke that the US was secretly using information on European transactions as part of the War on terror launched by the Bush administration following the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington on 11 September 2001.The Belgian-based company had subsequently pledged to re-configure its architecture, so that it would no longer keep European data on US soil, which was automatically accessible to American investigators. But EU governments and the commission, as well as a minority of MEPs, are convinced that the programme has been useful to countering terrorist attacks.This is a serious setback in the fight against terrorism as the agreement has supplied vital leads against those terrorists responsible for planning or committing attacks against EU citizens,a spokesperson for the British government said on Thursday.European diplomats raised concerns that the US would now walk away from negotiating an agreement with the EU and go for bilateral deals with member states, which would lower the standards for data protection.I'd like to know how MEPs think they have improved things by voting against this agreement. It's only by negotiating directly with the US that we've secured the stronger data safeguards that the parliament wanted. Now the US can walk away, ignore any concerns we have and stop providing the vital leads we need to help to prevent terrorist attacks,one EU diplomat told this website.

On the commission side, officials received the news with regret.Following today's vote in the European Parliament, we will have now to reflect together with our US partners on the possible negotiation of a new agreement,home affairs commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom said in a statement.Her colleague in charge of justice and fundamental rights, Viviane Reding, added that: EU-US relations are critical of the freedom and security of our citizens. This is why we will work with our US partners to ensure that the new Swift agreement will at the end be able to receive the consent of the European Parliament.

Commissioner favours EU rules on body scanners
VALENTINA POP Today FEB 11,10 @ 09:25 CET

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS – The EU commission will produce a report on the impact of body scanners on health, privacy and security in April, transport commissioner Siim Kallas told MEPs on Wednesday. The safety and security of passengers is the major priority for me as transport commissioner,Mr Kallas said on his first day in office, during a debate with MEPs on the use of body scanning technology in airports. The report will form the basis for a decision on introducing EU-wide rules on their use.

Mr Kallas argued that after the attempted terrorist attack on a US flight on Christmas Day, which departed from Amsterdam, the reality of the threat to civil aviation was obvious. But questions on how much added value the introduction of stricter and more privacy-intruding measures brings were also justified. The Netherlands and UK have introduced full body scanners in their airports and other countries are also looking into this possibility. The European Parliament in 2008 rejected a proposal from the commission which would have set out common rules for an EU-wide roll out of the technology. Back then, they equated the existing technology to a virtual strip search.I intend to present to you in April a report on imaging technology and its use at EU airports. This report will address the questions raised in the EP resolution from 2008. We need to look at these questions seriously, Mr Kallas said.He added that Europe should make up its mind if these concerns are better addressed at national or EU level. To my mind, an EU framework would be better. I say this based on our experience of a common approach since 9/11 [the terrorist attacks on US soil in 2001], and with a view to the efficiency of the single market for aviation. An EU framework guarantees uniform standards, in relation both to security and to respect for individual rights,he argued.The Estonian commissioner underlined, however, that body scanners are no universal panacea and that fighting terrorism needs several and co-ordinated measures – intelligence, profiling, search methods and international co-operation.

Meanwhile, in the UK, a popular Indian actor has accused London airport authorities of allowing scanned images to be reprinted and circulated. Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan said he autographed his own revealing scan, after a female security staff printed it. Heathrow officials strongly denied the allegations and said the story was completely made up. Last week, UK transport secretary Lord Adonis said that the images which are captured by body scanners are immediately deleted after the passenger has gone through.

Internet Censorship Protest Shuts Down Australian Government Websites
Paul Joseph Watson Prison Planet.com Thursday, February 11, 2010
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MG--42sjAvA&feature=player_embedded
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qUTuCRN0isw&feature=player_embedded

Hackers protesting government censorship of the Internet have shut down several Australian government websites in a demonstration against the announcement that filters would be imposed to block access to websites deemed offensive by the authorities.The campaign was launched by the anti-Scientology group Anonymous in response to plans to implement a mandatory and wide-ranging internet filter modeled on that of the Communist Chinese government.This is not the first time the group has attacked government websites, having launched a similar stunt last September.The main government website, www.australia.gov.au, and parliament’s www.aph.gov.au were both affected along with the sites for Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and Communications Minister Stephen Conroy, reports AFP.No one messes with our access to perfectly legal (or illegal) content for any reason, said a statement released by the group.

The Australian government attacked the campaign as not a legitimate form of political statement.Despite the Australian government promising that the Internet filter would only be used to block access to child pornography and other illegal websites, the watchdog group Electronic Frontiers Australia warned that the law will also allow the government to block any website it desires under vague definitions.In March 2009, the Wikileaks website published a leaked secret list of sites slated to be blocked by Australia’s state-sponsored parental filter.The list revealed that blacklisted sites included online poker sites, YouTube links, regular gay and straight porn sites, Wikipedia entries, euthanasia sites, websites of fringe religions such as satanic sites, fetish sites, Christian sites, the website of a tour operator and even a Queensland dentist.The filter will even block web-based games deemed unsuitable for anyone over the age of fifteen, according to the Australian government.Calls to mandate Internet users to obtain licenses, in other words government permission, before they can post to the web have grown in recent weeks, with top Microsoft executive Craig Mundie insisting at the recent Davos Economic Forum that the Internet should be policed.Within days, Time Magazine enthusiastically jumped on the bandwagon to back Mundie’s proposal, as authorities push for a system even more stifling than in Communist China, where only people who have been approved by the authorities would be allowed to express free speech.

ISPs across the world, including in supposed democratic countries like the UK, the US and New Zealand, have periodically blocked access to Alex Jones’ websites without justification and only restored access after a barrage of complaints.As we have highlighted before, although the merits of hacking as a form of protest can be debated, what seems certain to happen is that governments will launch a false flag cyber attack which will cause a major catastrophe that can then be blamed on the free Internet, acting as a pretext to tighten the screws on plans for centralized regulation and censorship which are already in place.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NU4RjI9ZhKA&feature=player_embedded
State Department Admits: Detroit Christmas Bomber Was Deliberately Allowed to Keep US Entry Visa, Board His Flight Webster G. Tarpley Infowars.com
February 11, 2010
http://www.infowars.com/state-department-admits-detroit-christmas-bomber-was-deliberately-allowed-to-keep-us-entry-visa-board-his-flight/

The Detroit Christmas bomber was deliberately and intentionally allowed to keep his US entry visa as the result of a national security override issued by an as yet unknown US intelligence or law-enforcement agency with the goal of blocking the State Department’s planned revocation of that visa. This is the result of hearings held on January 27 before the House Homeland Security Committee, and in particular of the testimony of Patrick F. Kennedy, Undersecretary of State for Management. The rickety US government official version of the December 25 Detroit underwear bomber incident, which has been jerry-built over the past month and a half, has now totally collapsed, and key elements of the terrorism-spawning rogue network inside US agencies and departments are unusually vulnerable to a determined campaign of exposure.These developments decisively confirm the analysis offered by the present writer in a Dec. 28, 2009 television interview on Russia Today.1 On that occasion, my estimate was that Mutallab was a protected patsy being used by rogue elements of the US intelligence community for the deliberate and intentional creation of a high profile incident with the goal of obtaining a large-scale political effect. On January 4, Richard Wolffe reported on the MSNBC Countdown program that the Obama White House was investigating whether the Detroit Christmas incident had been intentionally created by an intelligence network with an alternative agenda.2 It was in this report that Wolffe posed the alternative of cock-up or conspiracy.3 Unfortunately, Obama opted for the screw-up version on January 5.

Based on what was already known a few days after this incident, it was clear that normal screening and surveillance procedures had been scrapped and aborted in order to allow the youthful patsy Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab of Nigeria to board his flight from Amsterdam in the Netherlands to Detroit. Mutallab’s father, a rich, well known, and reputable Nigerian banker had gone to the US Embassy in his country and formally warned a State Department official as well as a CIA representative that his son was in Yemen and in all probability consorting with terrorists. Under normal circumstances, this report alone would have been more than enough to get Mutallab’s US visa revoked in the same way he had already been denied entry to Great Britain. He also would normally have been placed on the no-fly list, thus setting up two insuperable obstacles to getting on his Detroit bound flight and winging off to produce an incident which caused several weeks of public hysteria in this country, completely with demands for body scanners in airports. In addition, the US intelligence community had reports that a Nigerian was training with the purported Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula in Yemen. Obama had called a December 22 meeting with top CIA, FBI, and DHS officials because of reports of a terrorist attack looming during the Christmas holiday.The January 27 hearings of the House Homeland Security Committee were also addressed by Michael Leiter, the AWOL Director of the National Counterterrorism Center, along with Jane Holl Lute, the Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security, who was sent in place of HHS Secretary Janet Napolitano, who boycotted the hearings. But the important testimony came from Kennedy, whose responsibilities include Consular Services, and therefore visas. In his opening statement, Kennedy offered a tortured circumlocution to describe what had happened. Attempting to head off the question of why the State Department had not revoke Mutallab’s visa, Kennedy stated: Continue reading State Department Admits: Detroit Christmas Bomber Was Deliberately Allowed to Keep US Entry Visa, Board His Flight.

A crisis of sovereignty as well as debt By Patience Wheatcroft
The European Union is in need of a new economic strategy.W S J

The veracity of that statement might seem indisputable, as various EU countries, led by Greece, struggle to avoid being crushed by their accumulated debts. But in the surreal bureaucratic thinking of the EU, the reason it needs a new economic strategy has as much to do with the fact that its previous one is nearing its expiry date as any desperate need to deal with the current crisis. In March 2000, the EU set out its strategy for the next decade. It wasn't unambitious. In fact, it showed an heroic determination to ignore what was going on elsewhere in the world, for at the heart of the economic policy was a new strategic goal: to become the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world capable of sustainable economic growth with more and better jobs and greater social cohesion.It seems almost cruel now to revisit the document which explained how this was to be achieved. There was to be an emphasis on modernizing the European social model, investing in people and combating social exclusion and a drive to improve the quality and sustainability of public finances.Such was the blinkered, Eurocentric vision of the world that it hadn't focused on the challenges rising from China and India. The latter Monday said its growth was now steaming ahead at 7.2% a year, a level of dynamism EU countries couldn't dream of emulating. It seems unlikely that, when they meet in Brussels on Thursday for a special economic summit, the EU's leaders will devote much time to assessing just how far short they have fallen of the targets they set in 2000. Neither are they likely to want to dwell on the reasons for such abject failure. The concise explanation though is that talking is easy, doing is much harder. Europe's leaders continue to utter grand pronouncements. This weekend, they were doing so in the suitably chilly environment of Iqaluit, Canada's Inuit capital, at a meeting of G-7 finance ministers.

According to Timothy Geithner, the U.S. secretary of Treasury:The European authorities gave us a very comprehensive review of the program now in place to address the challenges faced by the Greek economy.If Mr. Geithner was truly reassured by what he heard, then either he must be gullible in the extreme, which wouldn't be ideal, given the job he holds, or he was told rather more than the rest of the world has heard. The markets are making it very clear that they are anything but sanguine over Greece's ability to cope with its plight unaided. Opinion polls show the majority of Greeks approve the austerity measures the government has announced, but a looming general strike this week indicates that individuals' approval is theoretical and doesn't apply to measures that will hit them personally. Hence the conviction that some sort of bailout for the country will prove to be essential.As the finance ministers sledded away from their conference, a less positive view of the proceedings came from the former chief economist of the International Monetary Fund. The G-7 is fundamentally useless, declared Simon Johnson. He added: The G-7 countries are completely asleep at the wheel.While Mr. Geithner may have been persuaded that the Greek situation was controllable, Mr. Johnson recognized what the markets fear. There's a very serious crisis inside the euro zone, he said. Greece is only the worst of the offenders against economic probity and it may not be the only country to require a bailout. The euro, which not so long ago harbored grandiose dreams of being a reserve currency, now looks sickly.

It was never going to be easy to make a single currency work for so many diverse countries with very different economic models. A central bank setting interest rates in a vacuum, while constituent governments have control over fiscal and economic policy, always looked flawed. That is why the economic policy set down in 2000 talked of the need to pursue fiscal consolidation.This was, you see, the work of the Lisbon European Council. It was the talk of closer integration of the various EU countries which caused such angst among those who argued that the EU should be limited in its ambitions, a single market but not a single political entity. Yet the problems now enveloping the bloc will give impetus to those who still want to pursue the latter model. Spain has already indicated that it will use Thursday's meeting to call for a more unified EU. Spain took over the rotating presidency of the EU at the beginning of this year. The country's prime minister, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, said last week that he believed the economic plan for the next ten years should involve a move to a single economic policy for the EU, covering spending, investment and tax policies. The Lisbon Treaty allows more coordination. We should make sure to give the Commission new powers, he said, a view apparently endorsed by France's President Nicholas Sarkozy. Having remained outside the single currency, Britain will be on the sidelines of such a debate. Many in the country were dubious about the implications of the Lisbon Treaty and its eventual acceptance by the government without a referendum was a cause of some controversy. But if the stronger countries in the euro zone are going to have to come to the aid of the weaker ones, then they may rightly feel that they need to have more input into how those countries are run. Assurances from the Greek premier that he will put his house in order may not be enough to persuade Germany that sufficient change will be wrought. This crisis isn't just about sovereign debt; it could end up being about sovereignty itself.

DISEASES

REVELATION 6:7-8
7 And when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth beast say, Come and see.
8 And I looked, and behold a pale horse:(CHLORES GREEN) and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword,(WEAPONS) and with hunger,(FAMINE) and with death,(INCURABLE DISEASES) and with the beasts of the earth.(ANIMAL TO HUMAN DISEASE).

GLOBALIZATION IS KILLING THE GLOBE
http://www.infowars.com/globalization-is-killing-the-globe-return-to-local-economies/

China threatens world health by unleashing waves of superbugs -China's reckless use of antibiotics in the health system and agricultural production is unleashing an explosion of drug resistant superbugs that endanger global health, according to leading scientists.By Peter Foster in Beijing 6:25PM GMT 05 Feb 2010

Data from Chinese hospitals shows a very frightening picture of high-level antibiotic resistance Photo: PHOTOSHOT Chinese doctors routinely hand out multiple doses of antibiotics for simple maladies like the sore throats and the country's farmers excessive dependence on the drugs has tainted the food chain. Studies in China show a frightening increase in antibiotic-resistant bacteria such as staphylococcus aureus bacteria, also know as MRSA . There are warnings that new strains of antibiotic-resistant bugs will spread quickly through international air travel and internation food sourcing.Hospital bacteria such as MRSA becoming resistant to disinfectants.We have a lot of data from Chinese hospitals and it shows a very frightening picture of high-level antibiotic resistance,said Dr Andreas Heddini of the Swedish Institute for Infectious Disease Control.Doctors are daily finding there is nothing they can do, even third and fourth-line antibiotics are not working.There is a real risk that globally we will return to a pre-antibiotic era of medicine, where we face a situation where a number of medical treatment options would no longer be there. What happens in China matters for the rest of the world.

Particular alarm has been raised by resistance rates of MRSA in Chinese hospitals, which has more than doubled from 30 per cent to 70 per cent, according to Professor Xiao Yonghong of the Institute of Clinical Pharmacology at Beijing University. Last year researchers found a new strain of MRSA in Chinese pigs imported into Hong Kong and called for urgent new studies into its potential to infect humans after an infection of the new strain was confirmed in Guangzhou, where many of the pigs were farmed.A Beijing-based health expert with access to unpublished surveys showed that the situation in China was actually worse earlier studies had indicated.The Chinese Ministry of Health has all the data, the expert warned,but they seem unable or unwilling to believe it. The situation has global implications and is highly disturbing.The Chinese Ministry of Health failed to respond to requests for an interview or information by phone, email and fax over a three-day period.New prescription guidelines to restrict antibiotic use being issued by the Chinese Ministry of Health in 2004.The guidelines are not being followed effectively, added Professor Xiao, over just the last five years, for example, our studies show the rate antibiotic-resistant E.coli has quadrupled from 10 per cent to 40 per cent.

Public health experts say the rampant over-use of antibiotics in China is primarily caused by China's under-funded healthcare system where hospitals derive up to half of their operating income from selling drugs. In some cities, such as Chongqing, almost half of all drugs sold are antibiotics.In Chinese hospitals our data shows that 60 per cent of in-patients are being prescribed antibiotics compared with the WHO guideline of 30 per cent, added Professor Xiao who also heads China's National Antibiotic Resistance Investigation Network.China's State Food and Drug Administration bans the sale of antibiotics without prescription but a survey by the The Daily Telegraph found the drugs were still easily obtainable over-the-counter.

Three out of five chemists agreed to sell antibiotics after a cursory consultation with the patient who complained of a sore throat.At one outlet a pharmacist handed over a course of the second-generation antibiotic, Cefuroxime Axetil, with minimal hesitation.Asked if the sale could get her into trouble she said that the pharmacy would get a doctor to write the prescription later to cover their sales records. She added that even doctors from the nearby Capital Institute of Pediatrics came to buy antibiotics without prescription.When the surveillance is strict, we won't risk selling antibiotics, Ms Zhang added. Asked to elaborate, she explained,For example during the 2008 Olympic Games period, we didn't sell them.

China PLA officers urge economic punch against U.S.
Chris Buckley BEIJING Tue Feb 9, 2010 12:00pm

Members of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) Air Force Aviation stand at attention during a training session at the 60th National Day Parade Village in the outskirts of Beijing, September 15, 2009. Credit: Reuters/Joe Chan
BEIJING (Reuters) - Senior Chinese military officers have proposed that their country boost defense spending, adjust PLA deployments, and possibly sell some U.S. bonds to punish Washington for its latest round of arms sales to Taiwan.

World

The calls for broad retaliation over the planned U.S. weapons sales to the disputed island came from officers at China's National Defence University and Academy of Military Sciences, interviewed by Outlook Weekly, a Chinese-language magazine published by the official Xinhua news agency.The interviews with Major Generals Zhu Chenghu and Luo Yuan and Senior Colonel Ke Chunqiao appeared in the issue published on Monday.The People's Liberation Army (PLA) plays no role in setting policy for China's foreign exchange holdings. Officials in charge of that area have given no sign of any moves to sell U.S. Treasury bonds over the weapons sales, a move that could alarm markets and damage the value of China's own holdings.While far from representing fixed government policy, the open demands for retaliation by the PLA officers underscored the domestic pressures on Beijing to deliver on its threats to punish the Obama administration over the arms sales.Our retaliation should not be restricted to merely military matters, and we should adopt a strategic package of counter-punches covering politics, military affairs, diplomacy and economics to treat both the symptoms and root cause of this disease, said Luo Yuan, a researcher at the Academy of Military Sciences.Just like two people rowing a boat, if the United States first throws the strokes into chaos, then so must we.Luo said Beijing could attack by oblique means and stealthy feints to make its point in Washington.

For example, we could sanction them using economic means, such as dumping some U.S. government bonds,Luo said.The warnings from the PLA come after weeks of strains between Washington and Beijing, who have also been at odds over Internet controls and hacking, trade and currency quarrels, and President Barack Obama's planned meeting with the Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan leader reviled by China as a separatist.

MILITARY SPENDING BOOST

Chinese has blasted the United States over the planned $6.4 billion arms package for Taiwan unveiled in late January, saying it will sanction U.S. firms that sell weapons to the self-ruled island that Beijing considers a breakaway province of China.China is likely to unveil its official military budget for 2010 next month, when the Communist Party-controlled national parliament meets for its annual session.
The PLA officers suggested that budget should mirror China's ire toward Washington.
Clearly propose that due to the threat in the Taiwan Sea, we are increasing military spending, said Luo.Last year, the government set the official military budget at 480.7 billion yuan ($70.4 billion), a 14.9 percent rise on the one in 2008, continuing a nearly unbroken succession of double-digit increases over more than two decades.The fresh U.S. arms sales threatened Chinese military installations on the mainland coast facing Taiwan, and this gives us no choice but to increase defense spending and adjust (military) deployments, said Zhu Chenghu, a major general at China's National Defence University in Beijing.In 2005, Zhu stirred controversy by suggesting China could use nuclear weapons if the United States intervened militarily in a conflict over Taiwan.The United States switched official recognition from Taiwan to China in 1979. But the Taiwan Relations Act, passed the same year, guarantees Taiwan a continued supply of defensive weapons.China has the world's biggest pile of foreign currency reserves, much of it held in U.S. treasury debt. China held $798.9 billion in U.S. Treasuries at end-October.But any attempt to use that stake against Washington would probably maul the value of China's own dollar-denominated assets.China has condemned previous arms sales, but has taken little action in response to them. But Luo said the country's growing strength meant that time has passed.China's attitude and actions over U.S. weapons sales to Taiwan will be increasingly tough, the magazine cited him as saying.That is inevitable with rising national strength.(Editing by Jeremy Laurence)

http://www.prisonplanet.com/ferguson-and-faber-sovereign-debt-crisis-will-spread-world-wide-u-s-debt-is-unsafe.html

Ahmedinajad: We’ve Upgraded Our Enriched Uranium
by Hillel Fendel FEB 11,10

(IsraelNN.com) The US Defense Secretary says sanctions on Iran are only weeks away, and Russia hints it will join in as well. In honor of the 31st anniversary of the Islamic takeover in Iran, President Mahmoud Ahmedinajad continues to provoke the West, saying his country is proceeding quickly towards nuclear power. Only two days after the announcement that Iran had begun stepping up its enrichment program of uranium from 3.5% purity to 20%, Ahmedinajad told a crowd of tens of thousands that the deed is already done. He said that the 20% uranium has already been delivered to the scientists working on producing nuclear power.

Ahmedinejad: We're Not Afraid of You
The dictator said, though, that Iran does not plan to produce nuclear weapons. “If we wanted to make a bomb, we would announce this,he said.Our nation has the courage to say what it means, and we’re not afraid of you [the West].Uranium enriched to a 90% level of purity is necessary for nuclear weapons. Experts say that if Iran can enrich uranium to 20%, it could theoretically proceed and reach the 90% level. The Iranian dictator, whose forces fired at anti-government protestors earlier in the day, said his government has the ability to enrich uranium even to 80%, but we won’t do it, because we don’t need it.The West doesn’t entirely believe Ahmedinajad, and international sanctions against Iran appear to be closer than ever. U.S. President Obama said that Iran is headed towards nuclear arms, and that sanctions are apparently the next step. He insisted that the door for negotiations is still open, however.Russia, too, has implied that sanctions will have to be imposed on Iran, and said that the Western fears of Iranian nuclear weapons are justified. China, however, still objects to sanctions, though less vocally than in the past; its veto on the UN Security Council could thwart the plan to impose them.

Israel Under Threat Again
Meanwhile, Iranian media also reported on Thursday that in a talk with Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad, Ahmedinajad said that should Israel use military force in the region, it must be destroyed.If the Zionist regime makes the same mistakes and initiates a military mission, the Iranian is said to have told the Syrian by phone, there will be an obligation to fight it with the maximum force in order to put an end to it once and for all. He said that Iran has trustworthy information that Israel is planning such a mission.

Legal Forum: Don't Help Hamas Change Money to Pay Smugglers
by Gil Ronen FEB 11,10

(IsraelNN.com) The Legal Forum for the Land of Israel has learned that the Hamas leadership in Gaza recently asked Israel to help it change NIS 500 million into dollars or dinars in Ramallah. The Forum added that according to the report it received, the reason Hamas needs the money is that smugglers who operate between Gaza and Egypt refuse to be paid with shekels.The Legal Forum turned to the Attorney General, Yehudah Weinstein, and requested that the government refrain from changing Hamas' money.The smugglers whom Hamas wishes to pay with the money busy themselves with bringing in weapons and ammunition that are intended for terror actions, the Forum noted.The Forum added: It was just this week that missiles from Gaza hit Israel. Israel's intelligence agencies have informed the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee and government ministers of the smugglers' activity. Agreeing to the request for changing the money would – on the face of it – constitute an act of assistance to terror, and a clear infringement of the law that forbids funding of terror activities. Therefore we ask that you instruct the Prime Minister and Defense Minister to give instructions not to change these funds.The Forum added that in spite of the Law against Funding of Terror that forbids the transfer of goods to a terror entity, the High Court has dismissed the Forum's motions regarding the transfer of funds that are supposed to pay the salaries of Palestinian Authority employees in Gaza. These funds continue to be transported by the truckload into Gaza, although there is no certainty that the money does not reach terror organizations.

Time Magazine Digging Up Trouble in Jerusalem
by Hana Levi Julian FEB 11,10

(IsraelNN.com) The United States-based Time Magazine complained this week that the archaeological activities of the City of David Foundation, also known as Ir David or Elad, are making life difficult for President Barack Obama.Specifically, on a political level,wrote Time's Jerusalem bureau chief Tim McGirk,it complicates efforts by the White House to enable both Palestinians and Israelis to share Jerusalem as their respective capitals, a key demand of the Palestinians.The article, which claimed the willful jumbling of science and faith is threatening Jerusalem's precarious spiritual balance,essentially accuses the City of David Foundation, which McGirk refers to as a right-wing Jewish settler organization,of hijacking Israel's political agenda. It also implies the organization is forcing Muslims to accept the Jewish truth of Biblical historical statements through archaeological discoveries.But the claim doesn't stick. Those parts of Jerusalem that were restored to the city in the 1967 Six Day War, which took place more than 40 years ago, have long since been annexed. Their status, and that of the city itself, is not negotiable, according to Mark Regev, spokesman for Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu.

Regev told Israel National News in an interview earlier this month that there was no intention to divide the capital, now or in the future. The prime minster's position is clear and unchanged. Jerusalem is the united capital of Israel and will remain such in the future, he said.Time did note that the City of David Foundation has the support of the Israeli government at city and national levels as well as the backing of the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA), which monitors all archaeological activity. However, it failed to point out that the City of David, known as Silwan in Arabic, has only been an Arab village since the 1930s. Some 60 percent of the land is Jewish-owned, including a number of acres purchased by Baron Edmond James de Rothschild in the early 20th century, prior to the appearance of the Arab villagers.

McGirk also omitted the fact that Jewish families lived in Shiloah (its Hebrew name) as early as 1882. The Jewish residents were literally driven from their homes by Arab attackers in the late 1920's.During the city administrations of then-Mayors Teddy Kollek (1965-1993) and Ehud Olmert (1993-2003), some 88 illegal Arab structures were built in the area, which is zoned as a public green area marked for preservation and development of parks and tourism. The illegal buildings have since been marked for demolition by the administration of Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat.

SEX SINS

1 CORINTHIANS 6:9,14-18
9 Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind,
10 Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.
14 And God hath both raised up the Lord, and will also raise up us by his own power.
15 Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ? shall I then take the members of Christ, and make them the members of an harlot? God forbid.
16 What? know ye not that he which is joined to an harlot is one body? for two, saith he, shall be one flesh.
17 But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit.
18 Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body.

GALATIONS 5:19-21
19 Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness,
20 Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies,
21 Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.

SINS OF PEOPLE

2 TIMOTHY 3:1-5
1 This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come.
2 For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,
3 Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good,
4 Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God;
5 Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.
6 For of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts,
7 Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.

1 TIMOTHY 1:9
9 Knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners, for unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers,
10 For whoremongers, for them that defile themselves with mankind, for menstealers, for liars, for perjured persons, and if there be any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine;

DECIEVERS WAXING WORSE AND WORSE.

2 TIMOTHY 3:13
13 But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived.

MORE SIN SIGNS

EPHESIANS 5:5-8
5 For this ye know, that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.
6 Let no man deceive you with vain words: for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience.
7 Be not ye therefore partakers with them.
8 For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light:

HOMOSEXUALS.(SODOMITE RAINBOW GROUP)

GENESIS 19:5
5 And they called unto Lot, and said unto him, Where are the men (2 ANGELS) which came in to thee this night? bring them out unto us, that we may know them.(HAVE HOMO SEX WITH THEM:THATS HOW PERVERTED SODOM AND GOMORRAH WAS)

ROMANS 1:18-32
18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness;
19 Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them.
20 For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:
21 Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.
22 Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools,
23 And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things.
24 Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves:(HOMOSEXUALITY,AND ALL SEX SINS)
25 Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.
26 For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature:(LESBIENS)
27 And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly,(SODOMITES) and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet.(AIDS ETC)
28 And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient;
29 Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers,
30 Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents,
31 Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful:
32 Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.

ON CAPITOL HILL-Obama czar's homo-genda proposed for U.S. schools Congressional legislation called a sexual revolutionary's dream February 10, 2010
11:08 pm Eastern By Bob Unruh 2010 WorldNetDaily

A homosexual congressman from Colorado has proposed a law critics say would give controversial federal school safety czar Kevin Jennings – a longtime homosexual-rights advocate – almost unlimited authority to mandate indoctrination in public schools at taxpayer expense. It doesn't get much more fascist than this! It's a sexual revolutionary's dream, wrote Linda Harvey of Mission America. Under the legislation by Democrat Rep. Jared Polis, Jennings can create pro-homosexual programs and policies to their hearts' delight, Harvey wrote. Jennings founded the Gay, Lesbian Straight Education Network and now heads the office of Safe and Drug Free Schools at the Department of Education.Polis' proposal would provide special protections for students who claim they are discriminated against because of their perceived sexual orientation. The bill would call down the wrath of the federal government on offenders by classifying actual or perceived sexual orientation or gender identity alongside race, color, sex, disability or national origin as factors on which protections are based. In a statement announcing his proposal, H.R. 4530, Polis said, Every student has the right to an education free from harassment and violence. This bill will protect the individual freedoms of our students and enshrine the values of equality and opportunity in our classrooms.But it actually won't, according to an analysis by Harvey. Instead, she said it will allow Jennings a virtual open door to set up whatever pro-homosexual programs he would choose.

Learn what a top shrink says is troubling leftists, in The Liberal Mind: The Psychological Causes of Political Madness! While I have no hard evidence, it's got Kevin Jennings' fingerprints all over it,Harvey said. His safe and drug free schools plan can take full advantage by creating new rules schools would have to follow.

Polis declined to return telephone and e-mail requests for comment. If a school receives federal funds from one of these agencies or any other, it is subject to the new rules that agency devises to conform to this bill, Harvey explained.And states can be held liable for violations, so state governments will have incentives to put pressure for compliance on local schools.The goal should be protecting all students for all reasons, not just those involved in certain special-status behaviors, Harvey wrote. WND has reported how Jennings is president of the board of the Tectonic Theater Project, which created The Laramie Project, a play about the 1998 murder of University of Wyoming homosexual Matthew Shepard that condemns traditional biblical views on homosexuality as hateful and bigoted. It was last May when, WND broke the news of Jennings' federal appointment to oversee safety in the nation's public schools after he had boasted of using the theme to promote homosexuality and other alternative sexual lifestyles to students.

Find out how corruption is packaged, perfumed and marketed to us as good and wholesome. The culture-war classic The Marketing of Evil is now available as a 4-disc AUDIOBOOK – read by the author, David Kupelian! Multiple WND messages left with the U.S. Department of Education and Jennings' office have not been returned. WND has reported Jennings founded the Gay, Lesbian, Straight Education Network, his influence over a conference for teachers and children that included instruction in various homosexual acts such as fisting, multiple efforts at the congressional level to have him removed, his responsiveness when a porn publisher asked for his help in writing a book, his financial sponsorship of radical homosexual art and his membership in the sometimes-violent radical Act Up homosexual organization. The sexually graphic books the Jennings-founded GLSEN recommends for children also have been the subject of reports. When Polis announced his plan, which has been endorsed by several dozen other members of Congress, he said the Student Non-Discrimination Act (SNDA) would protect students with alternative sexual lifestyles. Every day innocent students fall victim to relentless harassment and discrimination from teachers, staff, and fellow students based on their sexual orientation, said Polis. These actions not only hurt our students and our schools but, left unchecked, can also lead to life-threatening violence.Harvey, however, said there's simply an absence of data to back up such sweeping statements. The purpose of this bill is not what is being stated, but is quite simply to mandate in public schools one acceptable viewpoint on the issue of homosexuality, using purported violence or harassment as the rationale, and the power of the feds as the hammer, Harvey said.

The goal is to silence those who may warn about or object to student expression of homosexuality or gender confusion. Such warnings might literally save a child’s life.
She said ultimately, if the law is adopted and the resulting rules are as expected, the only safe schools in the nation would be where there is no dissent about the promotion of homosexuality. The phony concept of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered identity is the shaky foundation of this bill. Are certain kids different types of humans? No. There is no science to back up the existence of a gay gene or anything like it, and it is very harmful to label and stereotype young people with questionable lifestyles and high-risk behaviors, Harvey warned. She continued,There is no constitutional right to homosexual behavior or cross-dressing as stated in this bill. Some see a right to privacy in the Constitution, which is not one of its amendments. But even that wouldn't cover what's being proposed. This bill is an attempt at installing a very public declaration and public affirmation of verifiably high risk practices and, if engaged in at all, private matters.She also explained the claims of equal protection under the 14th Amendment simply don't apply. Polis' bill claims students who are lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender have been and are subjected to pervasive discrimination, including harassment, bullying, intimidation and violence, and have been deprived of equal educational opportunities, in schools in every part of our nation.

Not so, explained Harvey.

All students have equal protection now, just not for highly questionable behavior. Would students who are obese have the right to proclaim this a right under equal protection' so that any school nutrition programs would then become discrimination'? These are behaviors, not simply viewpoints, she said. Polis proposes that every federal department or agency that distributes money to any educational program must implement the provisions. He calls for courts to award equitable relief, compensatory damages, costs of the action, and remedial action to those who claim they are victims of discrimination. He also provides that states, also, could be sued, creating an incentive for state bureaucracies to implement and enforce federal provisions. A similar plan has been pending in Congress for federal agencies' employment already. Columnist Robert Knight wrote about what he described as the gay quota bill.It turns private sin into a public right and brings the force of government against morality itself. Any such law is a violation of our unalienable rights as proclaimed in the Declaration of Independence. To put it more simply, a statute that directly contradicts God's moral law is illegitimate, he wrote. The federal Employment Non-Discrimination Act remains pending. Knight said it falsely equates a changeable condition (sexual desire) with race and ethnicity.WND Columnist Janet Porter noted President Obama's White House web site has endorsed the concept:

President Obama supports the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, and believes that our anti-discrimination employment laws should be expanded to include sexual orientation and gender identity. While an increasing number of employers have extended benefits to their employees' domestic partners, discrimination based on sexual orientation in the workplace occurs with no federal legal remedy.Mass Resistance has launched a petition to have Jennings removed, as has GrassrootsNation. At the Washington Times, a series of editorials addressed worries over Jennings' influence on children. Teaching children sexual techniques is simply not appropriate. Unfortunately, it is part of a consistent pattern by some homosexual activists to promote underage homosexuality while pretending that their mission is simply to promote tolerance for so-called alternative lifestyles, the newspaper said. It is outrageous that someone involved in this scandal is being paid by the taxpayers to serve in a high-powered position at the Education Department, of all places. At some point, [Education Secretary Arne] Duncan, Mr. Jennings, Obama administration spokesmen and the president himself are going to have to start answering questions about all this. Refusing to do so won't make the issue go away.

Huge rally and protests mark Iran revolution By NASSER KARIMI, Associated Press Writer – FEB 11,10

TEHRAN, Iran – Hundreds of thousands of Iranians massed Thursday in central Tehran to mark the anniversary of the revolution that created the country's Islamic republic, while a heavy security force fanned out across the city and moved quickly to snuff out opposition counterprotests.Police clashed with protesters in several sites around Tehran, firing tear gas to disperse them and paintballs to mark them for arrest. Gangs of hard-liners also attacked senior opposition figures as they tried to attend the rallies — including the wife of the head of the reform movement.

Plainclothes Basiji militiamen beat 65-year-old Zahra Rahnavard with clubs on her head and back until her supporters formed a human ring around her and whisked her away, according to the Web site of her husband, Mir Hossein Mousavi.The celebrations marking the revolution's 31st anniversary were an opportunity for Iran's clerical regime to tout its power in the face of the opposition movement, which has managed to keep up periodic street protests since the disputed June presidential elections despite a fierce crackdown.The opposition turnout was dwarfed by the huge crowd at the state-run celebrations. Many were bused in to central Azadi, or Freedom, Square to hear an address by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who proclaimed a new success in Iran's uranium enrichment program and dismissed new U.S. sanctions.And the massive security clampdown appeared to succeed in preventing protesters from converging into a cohesive demonstrations. Large numbers of riot police, members of the Revolutionary Guard and Basij militiamen, some on motorcycles, deployed in back streets near key squares and major avenues in the capital to move against protesters.

Opposition Web sites spoke of groups of protesters in the hundreds, compared to much larger crowds in past demonstrations.One protester told The Associated Press she had tried to join the demonstrations but soon left in disappointment. There were 300 of us, maximum 500. Against 10,000 people, she told an AP reporter outside Iran. She said there were few clashes.It means they won and we lost. They defeated us. They were able to gather so many people, she said. But this doesn't mean we have been defeated for good. It's a defeat for now, today. We need time to regroup.Another protester insisted the opposition had come out in significant numbers, but the problem was that we were not able to gather in one place because they (security forces) were very violent.Both spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation by authorities, who have jailed protesters for talking to foreign media.

Authorities banned foreign media in Iran from covering the pro-reform protests, while allowing them to cover the official anniversary ceremonies, including Ahmadinejad's speech, but there is a ban on covering opposition protests. Tehran residents also reported Internet speeds dropping dramatically and e-mail services such as Gmail being blocked in a common government tactic to foil opposition attempts to organize.Thousands upon thousands marched along the city's broad avenues toward Azadi Square to celebrate the anniversary of the 1979 Islamic Revolution, according to footage on state TV. There, the massive crowds waved Iranian flags and carried pictures of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic state, and his successor as supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.State buses ferried many to the square. State media touted the turnout as a show of support for the government — though to an extent, celebrations for the revolution cross partisan lines, and many Iranians who oppose Ahmadinejad but support the clerical leadership turn out annually. Among those attending was influential former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, an opposition supporter.In his nationally televised address in the square, Ahmadinejad proclaimed that Iran has produced its first batch of uranium enriched to a higher level, 20 percent — and boasted that Iranian scientists are capable of going even further, to 80 percent. But we don't ... because we don't need it, he said.A day after Washington announced new sanctions on Iran over its nuclear program, Ahmadinejad vowed the Iranian nation will never give in to bullying and illogical remarks.He repeated Iran's stance that it is not building a nuclear weapon and does not intend to do so, adding, If we wanted to manufacture a bomb, we would announce it.Iran's move to further enrich uranium — from around 3 percent purity to 20 percent — has drawn sharp criticism from the United States and its allies, which accuse Tehran of seeking to develop a nuclear bomb. Uranium enriched to 90 percent can be used to build a warhead.

Ahmadinejad made no mention in his speech of Iran's political turmoil.

For days ahead of the anniversary celebrations, anti-government Web sites and blogs have called for a major turnout in counterprotests. Groups of opposition protesters gathered Thursday in several locations around Tehran, wearing green clothes and waving green balloons — the opposition's signature color. Security forces fired tear gas to disperse a group of protesters who were trying to march toward Azadi Square as they chanted death to the dictator, the opposition Web site Kaleme said, reporting an unknown number of arrests. Police and Basijis on motorbikes swept toward central Tehran, where protesters and security forces clashed in several locations, it reported. The heaviest violence appeared to be in Sadeqieh Square, about a half-mile (one kilometer) from the anniversary rally, where riot police fired paint-filled balls at hundreds of protesters chanting opposition slogans, witnesses said. The witnesses spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retribution from authorities. The assault on Mousavi's wife took place in the square, and government supporters also blocked Mousavi himself from joining the protests, his Web site said. Hard-liners also attacked the convoy of another senior opposition leader, Mahdi Karroubi, as he headed to the square, his son Hossein Karroubi told The Associated Press. The attackers smashed the windows of his car, forcing him to turn back from joining the protests, he said. Security forces also briefly detained Khomeini's granddaughter and her husband, who are both senior pro-reform politicians, according to the couple's son, Ali. The granddaughter, Zahra Eshraghi, and her husband Mohammad Reza Khatami, who is the brother of a former pro-reform president, were held for less than an hour before being released, their son told the AP.

The opposition claims that Ahmadinejad's victory in the June 12 election was fraudulent and that the true winner was pro-reform leader Mir Hossein Mousavi. Hundreds of thousands marched in the streets against the government in the weeks after the vote, prompting a massive wave of arrests. Nevertheless, the opposition has succeeded in continuing to hold regular protests, often timing them to coincide with days of important political or religious significance in attempts to embarrass authorities. The tone of the rallies has shifted from outrage over Ahmadinejad's re-election to wider calls against the entire Islamic system, including Khamenei.

Tensions have mounted further since the last large-scale marches, in late December, which brought the most violent battles with security riots in months. At least eight people were killed in clashes between protesters and police, and security forces have intensified arrests in the weeks since. In January, two people who were put on trial alongside opposition politicians and protesters were executed for allegedly plotting to overthrow the state. Authorities have announced that 10 other opposition supporters have also been sentenced to death — a move many believe was aimed at intimidating protesters. AP correspondent Scheherezade Faramarzi in Beirut and Ali Akbar Dareini in Dubai contributed to this report.

ONCE AGAIN THE MUSLIM NATIONS ARE HOT HEADED ABOUT WESTERN VALUES.

No Valentine's: Saudi religious police see red By ABDULLAH AL-SHIHRI, Associated Press Writer – FEB 11,10

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia – The Saudi religious police launched Thursday a nationwide crackdown on stores selling items that are red or in any other way allude to the banned celebrations of Valentine's Day, a Saudi official said.Members of the feared religious police were inspecting shops for red roses, heart-shaped products or gifts wrapped in red, and ordering storeowners to get rid of them, the official said. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to reporters.

Red-colored or heart-shaped items are legal at other times of the year, but as Feb. 14 nears they become contraband in Saudi Arabia. The kingdom bans celebration of Western holidays such as Valentine's Day, named after a Christian saint said to have been martyred by the Romans in the 3rd Century.Most shops in Riyadh's upscale neighborhoods have removed all red items from their shelves. A statement by the religious police, informally known as the muttawa, was published in Saudi newspapers, warning shop owners against any violations.Those who don't comply will be punished, the statement said, without spelling out what measures would befall the offenders.The Valentine's Day prohibition is in line with Saudi's strict Wahhabi school of Islam that the kingdom has followed for more than a century. The birthplace of Islam also bans several Muslim holidays except the two most important ones because it considers them religious innovations that Islam doesn't sanction.

Even birthdays and Mother's Day are frowned on by the religious establishment, although people almost never get punished for celebrating them.Many Saudis, who still want to mark the popular Valentine's, do their shopping weeks before the holiday.Each year, the religious police mobilize ahead of Feb. 14 and descend on gift and flower shops, confiscating all red items, including flowers.Attitudes toward Valentine's Day vary across the Arab world, with devout Muslims opposing the holiday as a Western celebration of romantic love that corrupts Muslim youth.The Egyptian capital, Cairo, is a sharp contrast to the Saudi restrictions, with shops and restaurants going overboard in red ribbon and heart decorations.Dubai, a conservative Muslim city-state with a Western outlook, is every year taken over by a Valentine craze. Luxury hotels are draped in red, offering romantic dinner specials. Malls and cafes are decorated with giant hearts and flower shops offer promotional deals on roses and fancy bouquets.Apparently prompted by the Saudi ban, a group in the Philippines advocating the welfare of Filipino overseas workers — a million of whom work in Saudi Arabia and another million elsewhere in the Middle East — cautioned its countrymen to celebrate Valentine's Day only in private and refrain from publicly greeting anyone with Happy Valentine's across the region.

We are urging fellow Filipinos in the Middle East, especially lovers, just to celebrate their Valentine's Day secretly and with utmost care, said John Leonard Monterona of the Migrante group.He said the group advised against carrying anything that is red, including toys, hearts, and flowers, or even wearing red dresses or T-shirts. Instead, he urged Filipinos to visit Internet cafes to chat with their loved ones, give them a call or send text messages.Associated Press Writers Hrvoje Hranjski in Manila, Philippines, and Barbara Surk in Dubai, United Arab Emirates contributed to this report.

Israel rerouting barrier near West Bank village By MOHAMMED DARAGHMEH, Associated Press Writer – Thu Feb 11, 8:14 am ET

RAMALLAH, West Bank – Opponents of Israel's contentious separation barrier in the West Bank scored a long-awaited victory Thursday when the government began rerouting the enclosure to eat up less of a Palestinian village that has become a symbol of anti-wall protests and the site of frequent clashes.The move comes 2 1/2 years after Israel's Supreme Court ruled that the barrier must be moved to ease the hardship of Palestinians in the village of Bilin. Some Palestinians welcomed the development but stressed it fell far short of their demand to dismantle the entire enclosure.Weekly protests near Bilin have become a symbol of the Palestinians' struggle against the barrier's encroachment on West Bank land, which they claim for their future state. Six protesters have been killed and dozens injured in clashes with Israeli forces over it.Bulldozers were on site Thursday and tracks for the new route were being laid down. Anti-barrier activist Khatib Abu Rahmeh said the Israeli military informed village officials that the new route would return 346 acres (140 hectares) of farmland to the village and adjacent communities.Once the new route is built, the section of barrier currently standing around Bilin will be removed, Abu Rahmeh said. It's a victory for our struggle, but still a small victory until we achieve the big one: Removing the wall, he said.

Israeli defense officials confirmed preliminary work was being done but did not provide details. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the rerouting before it was officially confirmed.Also Thursday, an Israeli airstrike killed a Palestinian militant and wounded another in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip. The Israeli military said it struck militants who were about to attack Israel.The Israeli-Gaza border has been relatively quite since last winter's war ended with an unwritten cease-fire in the coastal strip, though occasional exchanges of fire still erupt.Israel began building the West Bank separation barrier in 2002 after a spate of deadly Palestinian attacks on Israelis.

Some 575 acres (232 hectares) — more than half of Bilin's land — were confiscated to build a barrier loop around the expanding Jewish settlement of Modiin Ilit, cutting off villagers from their fields.Protesters have gathered every Friday in the village for the past five years. Soldiers have fired tear gas, stun grenades, and live rounds to disperse them, saying the protests are illegal and that the harsh tactics are a response to rock-throwing and violent rioting.Hundreds of Palestinian, Israeli and foreign demonstrators have been injured, and one Palestinian protester has been killed in clashes with Israeli forces. Five other Palestinians have been killed in demonstrations against the barrier in the nearby village of Naalin.Soldiers also have been injured, including one who lost an eye.In late 2007, Israel's Supreme Court ordered the government to modify the route through Bilin, dismissing its argument that the current route was necessary to protect residents of the Jewish settlement. The judges ordered the government to come up with a new route in a reasonable period of time.Dozens of court cases like the Bilin appeal have held up construction of the barrier, or forced rerouting of completed sections. Once finished, the barrier is expected to be a 430-mile-long (690 kilometers) route of towering cement slabs, electronic fencing, trenches and patrol roads.In a number of instances, the high court has ruled in favor of easing hardships caused to Palestinians and moving the route closer to the cease-fire line at the end of the 1948-49 war that followed Israel's creation.