1ST TEMPLE MOUNT AWARENESS DAY IN ISRAEL TODAY

DOCTOR DOCTORIAN FROM ANGEL OF GOD
then the angel said, Financial crisis will come to Asia. I will shake the world.

JAMES 5:1-3
1 Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you.
2 Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are motheaten.
3 Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days.

REVELATION 18:10,17,19
10 Standing afar off for the fear of her torment, saying, Alas, alas that great city Babylon, that mighty city! for in one hour is thy judgment come.
17 For in one hour so great riches is come to nought. And every shipmaster, and all the company in ships, and sailors, and as many as trade by sea, stood afar off,
19 And they cast dust on their heads, and cried, weeping and wailing, saying, Alas, alas that great city, wherein were made rich all that had ships in the sea by reason of her costliness! for in one hour is she made desolate.

EZEKIEL 7:19
19 They shall cast their silver in the streets, and their gold shall be removed: their silver and their gold shall not be able to deliver them in the day of the wrath of the LORD: they shall not satisfy their souls, neither fill their bowels: because it is the stumblingblock of their iniquity.

REVELATION 13:16-18
16 And he(FALSE POPE) causeth all,(WORLD SOCIALISM) 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

WORLD MARKET RESULTS
http://money.cnn.com/data/world_markets/
CNBC VIDEOS
http://www.cnbc.com/id/15839263/site/14081545/?tabid=15839796&tabheader=false

HALF HOUR DOW RESULTS TUE MAR 16,2010

09:30 AM +2.71
10:00 AM -1.79
10:30 AM +7.63
11:00 AM +34.24
11:30 AM +34.24
12:00 PM +27.66
12:30 PM +21.77
01:00 PM +16.55
01:30 PM +13.83
02:00 PM +8.39
02:30 PM +35.60
03:00 PM +28.04
03:30 PM +36.35
04:00 PM +43.83 10,685.98

S&P 500 1159.46 +8.95

NASDAQ 2378.01 +15.80

GOLD 1,126.00 +20.60

OIL 81.81 +2.01

TSE 300 12,089.40 +80.60

CDNX 1578.53 +17.02

S&P/TSX/60 710.08 +5.34

MORNING,NEWS,STATS

YEAR TO DATE PERFORMANCE
Dow +12 points at 4 minutes of trading today.
Dow -21 points at low today.
Dow +51 points at high today so far.
GOLD opens at $1,122.80.OIL opens at $80.88 today.

AFTERNOON,NEWS,STATS
Dow -21 points at low today so far.
Dow +51 points at high today so far.

WRAPUP,NEWS,STATS
Dow -21 points at low today.
Dow +51 points at high today.

PRIVACY RIGHTS-MARCH 15,10-AUDIO CATHERINE ALBRECHT
http://therothshow.com/show-archives/march-2010/

TODAY MAR 16,2010 8 AM LISTEN TO ISRAEL NATIONAL RADIO FOR THE TEMPLE MOUNT PRAYING AND REBUILDING HOPEFULLY SOON.YOU CAN TALK LIVE AND ASK QUESTIONS FROM 8-10AM EST ON TEMPLE TALK FOR AWARENESS OF THE TEMPLE MOUNT DAY.

REBUILT 3RD TEMPLE (THE EU DICTATORS TEMPLE)

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

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

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

REBUILT 4TH TEMPLE (THE TRUE MESSIAHS TEMPLE)

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

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

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

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

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

3RD TEMPLE REBUILDING
TAMAR YONAH TALKS TO OKTAR ABOUT 3RD TEMPLE ON MOUNT
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Radio/News.aspx/1332
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Radio/Author.aspx/1179
TAMAR INTERVIEWS RABBI ABOUT OKTAR ON 3RD TEMPLE
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Radio/News.aspx/1275
SECRET OF THE COPPER SCROLL
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Radio/News.aspx/1324
FUTURE OF THE 3RD TEMPLE
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Radio/News.aspx/1281
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Radio/News.aspx/1242
JOEL RICHARDSON INTERVIEW WITH OKTAR
http://tr.harunyahya.tv/videoDetail/Product/14800/AN_INTERVIEW_WITH_MR._ADNAN_OKTAR_BY_JOEL_RICHARDSON_(JUNE_22,_2009)
TRANSCRIPT OF OKTAR-RICHARDSON INTERVIEW
http://tr1.harunyahya.com/Detail/T/EDCRFV/productId/15166/ADNAN_OKTAR_S_MEETING_WITH_JOEL_RICHARDSON_(CONSERVATIVE_CHRISTIAN_WRITER_AND_SPEAKER)
TEMPLE INSTITUTE
http://templeinstitute.org/
MARCH 16 UPDATE-LAST 30 MINUTES
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Radio/News.aspx/1979
MARCH 16,10 INFORMATION
http://www.templeinstitute.org/temple-mount-awareness-day.htm

REMEMBER MARCH 16,2010 ISRAEL WANTS TO START REBUILDING THE 3RD TEMPLE BY LAYING THE CORNERSTONE ON THE TEMPLE MOUNT.GET IN CONTACT WITH NETANYAHU AND DEMAND THE ISRAELIS GET TO REBUILD THE 3RD TEMPLE NOW AND PRAY AT ALL TIMES ON THE TEMPLE MOUNT TO THE GOD OF ISRAEL AND THE WORLD KING JESUS.AND ALSO TO SACRIFICE TO JESUS.

Jews and the Just-World Theory by Rabbi Chaim Richman MAR 14,10

Contact the PM's office and tell him that the Temple Mount situation must change. This article explains why, but for more information, click http//www/ templeinstitute.org/temple-mount-awareness-day.htm.

This Tuesday, March 16th, is Rosh Chodesh, the first day of the Hebrew month of Nisan. This day marks the day of the dedication of the desert Tabernacle and, according to Jewish tradition, the first day in which the Shechina (the Divine Presence) rested in this world. It was the first day in history of a functioning Temple service and thus it was chosen as the first annual International Temple Mount Awareness Day.Why a Temple Mount Awareness Day,and why now? Because the situation vis a vis the rights of all non-Moslems at the Temple Mount has deteriorated beyond what any healthy society can tolerate—especially one that prides itself in guaranteeing the religious freedoms of all its citizens. There are indications that a total disengagement of Jews from the Temple Mount , psychologically and physically, is in preparation. This despite numerous high and lower court decisions recently handed down that uphold the rights of Jews to pray on the Temple Mount . In fact in a recent decision, the judges ruled that not only must Jews be allowed to visit without the discriminatory practices that currently govern over their visits, but that the police must come up with some sort of arrangement that will enable public, collective Jewish prayer.

However despite these decisions the Wakf, with police support, continue to contravene all human rights and religious freedom for all non-Moslems at the Mount. Each week, more draconian measures are enacted against Jews visiting the site. Jews are now told that they may not move their lips or close their eyes; they must not stand still in one place; they are forbidden to bow down—and they must not cry. They have also recently been prohibited from taking photographs. This, in addition to discriminatory and degrading identification procedures, Wakf and police escorts, forced waiting, limitation of group size, and more. This day was intended as an opportunity to educate and remind the Jewish people why the Temple Mount is important. One activity planned for this day was a visit in accordance with Jewish law to the permitted areas of the Gentiles arriving at the Temple Mount , are shocked and incredulous to learn that before ascending the Mount, they are searched not just for weapons, but for a Bible.

Temple Mount .

Unfortunately several generations of Israelis as well as Jews all over the world, have grown up since the 1967 Six Day War, with a total disconnect from the Temple Mount . For the majority of Jews, the road to the Temple Mount ends at the Western Wall. And spiritual-seeking Gentiles as well, arriving at the Temple Mount , are shocked, offended and incredulous to learn that before ascending the Mount, they are searched not just for weapons, but for a Bible. They are even more outraged to be told that no non-Moslem prayer may be uttered at the very site which is synonymous for them with G-d’s promised blessings for all mankind.It is precisely the Moslem stranglehold over our holiest site, and this lack of religious freedom and guaranteed, basic human right of prayer, that International Temple Mount Awareness Day was meant to call attention to, to highlight, and to protest. However, it has now been announced that Jerusalem District Police have closed the Temple Mount to visitors for the next three days due to fears of Moslem riots. According to police, there are two reasons for the closure. Firstly, intelligence reports indicate that Arabs are planning to riot in response to the dedication of the Hurva synagogue in Jerusalem ’s Old City , which was destroyed by Jordanian shells in Israel ’s 1948 War of Independence— literally moments after an assurance had been given that Jordan would not harm any of the city’s Jewish holy sites.Apparently, the Arabs are taking quite seriously an obscure Jewish tradition that links the rebuilding of this synagogue with the commencement of rebuilding the Holy Temple . And secondly: the proclamation by Jewish extremists that marks this day as the first annual Temple Mount Awareness Day.This could lead to uncontrolled confrontations,said Jehad Abu Znaid, a leading member of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas Fatah party. This is a Jewish provocation against Muslims' feelings.How ironic that in the very place which the prophets of Israel tell us is the secret of world peace, the very place which is to be the house of prayer for all nations, care must be taken to insure that there be no religious freedoms— lest Muslim sensitivities are offended and used as an incitement to violence.

The organizers of International Temple Mount Awareness Day have already made their intentions for this day perfectly clear, and they are a matter of public record. This day was never meant to convey any sort of incitement or provocation. As the Temple Institute’s Yitzchak Reuven stated in his editorial on Friday, all who feel a connection to the place of the Holy Temple (should) join us as we ascend the Mount. The gathering is intended to be one of religious expression and is not political in nature.Nothing could be more guileless, pure, or innocent than sincere, heartfelt prayer. Nothing could be less threatening than a Jew, on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, eternal capital of the Jewish people and capital of the Nothing could be more guileless, pure, or innocent than sincere, heartfelt prayer.democratic, Jewish State of Israel, praying in the spot where his forefathers prayed. Unless, of course, Jewish prayer —or any non-Moslem prayer— is considered a provocation. Any schoolchild knows that giving into a bully’s demands only leads to more abuse. Yet time and time again, referring to Jewish prayer on the Temple Mount , the Moslems warn that Al Aksa is in danger; the Jews are storming the Temple Mount and they say that if the Jews come, there will be violence. The cycle is well-known: The police ban the Jews from visiting rather than the Moslems who are threatening violence. The Muslim genie is out of the bottle, and there’s no way he will go back in. Police Commissioner Dudi Cohen warned Friday that Israel would not allow disturbances, but said it was important to maintain an open channel of communication with all the parties involved in order to preserve the peace and make it possible for everyone to worship as they wish.

However, once again the police have demonstrated that blaming the victim is the best and most expedient policy…and that in the equation of making it possible for everyone to worship as they wish, religious freedom for Jews in the State of Israel counts for absolutely nothing.In sociological terms, the concept of blaming the victim means to hold the victim of a crime, an accident, or any type of abusive maltreatment to be entirely or partially responsible for what has occurred in their life. When people want to believe that the world has to be fair, and they find it hard or impossible to accept a situation in which a person is unfairly and badly hurt, they develop the idea that somehow, the victim must have surely done something to deserve their fate. This is known as the Just-World Hypothesis. I humbly put forth a new theory for the sociologists to consider, henceforth to be known as: The Jewish Just-World Hypothesis.We seem to have developed a prodigal talent for laying the blame squarely on the Jews. What’s wrong with us? Before a Jewish audience in Tel Aviv, Vice-President Biden criticizes the Israeli government for announcing that homes for Jewish families will be built in Jerusalem …and receives an ovation. Secretary of State Clinton humiliates Netanyahu for his decision— which she said could jeopardize American and Arab League plans for the resumption of peace talks— and our Prime Minister apologizes, and scurries to create a special task force to make sure this sort of thing doesn’t happen again.One of the ironies of the controversy caused by Prime Minister Netanyahu’s inclusion of Hebron in his Heritage Sites plan lies in the name of the city itself. Hebron traces back to a root in both Hebrew and Arabic denoting friend or unite.The classic Torah commentaries point out that Hebron is named as such because Abraham is the friend of G-d.At a time when the world was wallowing in paganism, Abraham was the first Monotheist, and brought the message of One G-d to all humanity. In Islamic teaching as well, G-d chose Abraham as his friend, reflected in his Arabic name Ibrahim al-Khalil.

But like any friendship, being on such intimate terms with the Creator carries not only privileges but obligations. Indeed, the superlative Jewish ethic of tikkun olam – literally, fixing the world – denotes our people’s Divinely-mandated obsession with accepting ultimate responsibility for all humanity. The Torah relates that G-d felt He must reveal to Abraham his decision to overthrow Sodom : And the Lord said, Shall I conceal from Abraham what I am doing? And Abraham will become a great and powerful nation, and all the nations of the world will be blessed in him. For I have known him because he commands his sons and his household after him, that they should keep the way of the Lord to perform righteousness and justice...(Gen. 18:17).To perfom righteousness and justice. So that’s what it means to be a friend of G-d. And indeed our people, long obsessed with championing the civil rights of others, have been at the forefront of every humans rights campaign — but when it comes to Jewish rights in the State of Israel, nothing sums it up better than this verse from the Song of Songs (1:6): They (the nations) made me a keeper of the vineyards, yet my own vineyard I did not keep.Isn’t it time we take a look at who we are, where we come from, and where we are going? How long can we continue to abandon the holiest place we have? How long will we allow others to tell us that our intention to build a If our presence, our history, and our prayers are all obstacles to peace, what have we to look forward to? house in Jerusalem , or to claim our forefather’s tombs as our own, or to pray at the Temple Mount , is extremism? If our presence, our history, and our prayers are all obstacles to peace, what have we to look forward to? These are the issues that International Temple Mount Awareness Day was intended to address. I was mulling over the significance of all this in my head this morning as the bus I was riding in downtown Jerusalem slowly made its way through traffic. As it turned a corner a large hotel started to come into view through the window; a long advertising banner was draped down its side from its roof all the way down to the street. I could make out ‘March 16th’ in huge bold letters! Yes, I thought! Everyone’s excited, getting ready for March 16th, Rosh Chodesh Nisan, Temple Mount Awareness Day! But no. March 16th, the new H & M opens in Jerusalem . Who needs the Temple Mount when we have Swedish fashion? My own vineyard I did not keep.

LISTEN TO THE SHOW HERE INFOWARS.COM
http://www.infowars.com/
OBAMA DECEPTION
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eAaQNACwaLw
FALL OF THE REPUBLIC MOVIE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8LPNRI_6T8&feature=player_embedded
ENDGAME GLOBAL ENSLAVEMENT
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1070329053600562261
BOHEMIAN GROVE NWO OCCULTISTS
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-82095917705734983
WITCHCRAFT IN THE WHITE HOUSE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AmaiX86sUoc&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IF2eILED00s&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZARWvlz_yKI&feature=channel_page
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sbh7KrUwawI&feature=channel
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4IG0tmvCozU&feature=channel
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NgP-SyrooKI&feature=channel
OBAMA SCAM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9V1nmn2zRMc&feature=player_embedded
PHIL BERG - OBAMA CRIMES
http://obamacrimes.com/
LAURIE ROTH SHOW
http://therothshow.com/
DOUG HAGMANN
http://homelandsecurityus.com/
CANADA FREE PRESS-JUDI MCLEOD
http://www.canadafreepress.com/

AND THE OTHER ISSUE WE MUST KEEP ON THE TABLE AND IN PEOPLES MEMORY IS THAT BARRY SOETORO IS REALLY BARACK OBAMAS REAL NAME AND HE WAS BORN IN KENYA NOT AMERICA.BARRY SOETORO AKA BARACK OBAMA IS NOT ELLIGABLE TO BE THE PRESIDENT OF THE USA GOVERNMENT.EVERYTHING HE SIGNS IN BARACK OBAMA IS ILLEGEL,BECAUCE HIS REAL NAME IS BARRY SOETORO.AMERICAS CONSTITUTION WILL BE IN SHAMBLES ONCE THIS SCAM IS FINALLY REVEALED TO THE WORLD.

BY THE TIMELINE IN OBAMAS OWN BOOKS-OBAMA WENT TO PAKISTAN ON HIS INDONESIAN PASSPORT.ANOTHER ISSUE OUT OF 400 PEOPLE AT COLUMBIA THAT GRADUATED THE YEAR OBAMA OR BARRY SOETORO DID,NO ONE COMES FORWARD TO SAY THEY KNEW HIM.HOW COME AT HAWAII HOSPITAL WERE OBAMA CLAIMS HE WAS BORN,NO NURSES OR ANYBODY CAME FORWARD TO SAY THEY WITNESSED OR TOOK PART IN THE BIRTH.THIS BARRY SOETORO OR AKA BARACK OBAMAS LIFE IS A COMPLETE FRAUD.AND AMERICA IS CONNED TO BELIEVE THE LIE.WHY WOULD SOETORO AKA OBAMA SPEND 2 MILLION DOLLARS TO STOP ALL THESE LAWSUITS IF THERES NO COVERUP.HE WOULD JUST SHOW THE PROOF OF EACH EVENT-PLACE OF BIRTH,CERTIFICATE AND REAL NAME BARRY SOETORO INDONESIAN PASSPORT.

OBAMA WATCH CENTRAL-Not again! Meet Obama's new controversial pastor
Champion of communism, socialism called U.S. destroyer of human life March 15, 2010
5:14 pm Eastern By Aaron Klein 2010 WorldNetDaily

Jim Wallis

Rev. Jim Wallis, a member of President Obama's faith council who is described as a spiritual adviser to the president, is a socialist activist who has championed communist causes and previously labeled the U.S. the great captor and destroyer of human life.Wallis was in the news last week urging Christians to stop watching Fox News host Glenn Beck's program for Beck's remarks against churches that preach social justice.The Associated Baptist Press described Wallis as a politically progressive evangelical and longtime advocate for the poor.The Huffington Post identified Wallis as a Christian author and social justice advocate.Wallis, however, is a long time socialist advocate and founder of a far-left magazine, Sojourners, that has championed communist causes. He currently serves on Obama's White House Advisory Council on Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships. He reportedly is a spiritual adviser to Obama and has known the president for years. Wallis began his activism as a protester and then later Michigan leader of the Students for a Democratic Society, the 1960's antiwar group from which Bill Ayers' Weatherman domestic terrorist organization splintered. Discover the Networks said that as a theology student, Wallis founded an anti-capitalism magazine called the Post-American, which identified wealth redistribution and government-managed economies as the keys to achieving social justice.

Get Liberty and Tyranny: A Conservative Manifesto for an explanation of what it means to be an America. In 1971, Wallis renamed his magazine Sojourners. He has since served as editor of the publication. Sojourners' official statement of faith urges readers to refuse to accept [capitalist] structures and assumptions that normalize poverty and segregate the world by class.Sojourners has published a slew of radicals, including socialist activist Cornel West and James Cone, considered the founder of Black Liberation Theology, which spawned the likes of Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Obama's pastor of nearly 20 years. Wallis' magazine actively lobbied for communist regimes that seized power in Latin America in the late 1970s, including the Sandinista dictatorship in Nicaragua. Sojourners in the 1980s was a fierce opponent of the U.S. nuclear buildup, claiming the policy was an intolerable evil irreconcilably at odds with Christianity. Discover the Networks notes how Sojourners originally formed a socialist commune in Washington, D.C., where members shared finances and launched anti-capitalist activism. In his 1976 book, Agenda for Biblical People, Wallis called the U.S. the great power, the great seducer, the great captor and destroyer of human life, the great master of humanity and history in its totalitarian claims and designs.Wallis continues to openly support socialism. Along with socialist activist West, Wallis in 1995 founded Call to Renewal, a coalition of religious groups demanding the spread of U.S. wealth to promote social justice.As a guest on MSNBC last week, Wallis stated social justice is at the heart of the Bible. The God of the Bible is the God of justice,he said.Though the poor are in the center of God's concern... Poverty breaks the heart of God. And it breaks the heart of the church. So, this is about Christians who may disagree on politics. Republicans, Democrats, it doesn't matter. Left or right. We have different views on the role of government. Doesn't matter, But justice is integral to the gospel.

FAITH UNDER FIRE-City that banned Bible studies has Judgment Day-We understand the importance of maintaining religious freedom March 15, 2010 8:45 pm Eastern By Bob Unruh 2010 WorldNetDaily

Officials in an Arizona city where workers recently told members of a small church they are not allowed to hold Bible studies in a home and then backed up the warning with an official opinion from the city planner – an issue on which WND reported – say they now hope to make changes that will allow such religious activity. Officials in Gilbert, Ariz., today told WND in an e-mail that the changes apparently were in the works even as the city continued handing out warnings. This is a community with patriotic citizens who study and defend the Constitution, Vice Mayor Linda Abbott said in the e-mail.We understand the importance of maintaining religious freedom.

WND reported on Friday that the city had ordered a group of seven adults to stop gathering for Bible studies in a private home because such meetings are forbidden by the city's zoning codes. Pastor Joe Sutherland of Oasis of Truth Church was told in a letter from code compliance officer Steve Wallace that the people were not allowed to meet in a home for church activities under the city's Land Development Code. Then the church obtained a written letter from Mike Milillo, the city's senior planning, providing confirmation:The assembly activities associated with the church, including Bible studies, church leadership meetings and church fellowship activities are not permitted.The ban had prompted the Alliance Defense Fund to launch an appeal with the city over the decision.Daniel Blomberg, one of the attorneys who worked on the appeal, said, The interpretation and enforcement of the town's code is clearly unconstitutional. It bans 200,000 Gilbert residents from meeting in their private homes for organized religious purposes – an activity encouraged in the Bible, practiced for thousands of years, and protected by the First Amendment.Yes, the Bible is completely true, but you may never have heard the spectacular, ultimate destiny God has in store for you. It's far more glorious than just floating around on clouds in heaven! Find out what you've never been told, direct from your very own Bible! Now the statement released by the city has been headlined: Gilbert remains committed to religious freedom.Under the names of the mayor, vice mayor and members of the council, the announcement sent to WND today said some six weeks ago members of the council learned that a zoning code intended to help neighborhoods with traffic, parking and safety concerns was being interpreted by town staff to mean that small church groups could not meet in homes. The council immediately asked town staff to make changes to the code and not enforce the code while changes were being considered,the announcement said.

Unfortunately, without the town council's knowledge, one church group had already been told to stop holding meetings in their home. Last week the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) filed an appeal for the Oasis of Truth Church located in Gilbert. While town staff had anticipated presenting to the town council proposed zoning changes at the next town council meeting (scheduled for March 23), ADF's appeal reached the media on Friday, March 12, causing concern that town of Gilbert restricted religious freedom guaranteed in the Constitution.Mayor John Lewis called it unfortunate that the council didn't know what employees were doing. Gilbert is known as a family-oriented community and our faith groups are a vital part of our town. We want to keep it that way, he said. The announcement said there was overwhelming support on the council to expedite changes in the code.Yesterday, Mayor Lewis and Acting Town Manager Collin DeWitt attended the Sunday worship services of the Oasis of Truth Church. DeWitt said, We had a wonderful experience as we met with the three leaders of the church and their families. We are glad that they selected Gilbert as their home,the town announcement said. The city said town attorneys were being asked to include the ADF and the church in the review process. Dale Schowengerdt, who worked with Blomberg on the case, told WND the city also had confirmed it would not enforce the code while it was being changed, a process that could take several weeks.

It is a very good sign,he said. WND reported a similar situation in San Diego County. In that case, officials eventually withdrew a warning letter and a cease-and-desist order they had issued against a pastor who had been holding a weekly Bible study in his home. I want to offer my apology to you, your wife and your congregation for the unfortunate events of the past several weeks, said the letter from Walter F. Ekard, chief officer of the county.My review of the situation shows that no administrative citation warning should have been issued and that a major use permit is not required for the Bible study you have in your home.

TO ME THE FACE ON THE SHROUD OF TURIN WAS THE FACE I SEEN IN MY ROOM WHEN I WAS 6 YRS OLD.THAT FACE WAS JESUS,SO I BELIEVE THIS SHROUD IS TRUELY JESUS' BURIAL-RESURRECTION CLOTH.I DON'T KNOW WHY KING JESUS VISITED ME AND PRAYED FOR ME IN MY ROOM BUT NEVER SAID A WORD TO ME.MAYBE I WAS TO TELL THE WORLD THE FACE I SEEN ON JESUS IN MY ROOM IS THE SAME FACE ON THE SHROUD OF TURIN.MAYBE KING JESUS WANTED TO PROOVE TO THE WORLD THROUGH A 6 YR OLD THAT A PERSON CAN REMEMBER A FACE AND THAT FACE EVERYONE ON EARTH WILL BOW DOWN TO AND SAY HE IS GOD TO THE GLORY OF THE FATHER IN THE VERY NEAR FUTURE.COME QUCKLY KING JESUS THE GOD OF ISRAEL AND THE WHOLE EARTH.

I ALSO FIND IT INTERESTING THAT WHEN I WAS 6,IT WAS 1966 AROUND JANUARY OR FEBRUARY WHEN JESUS CAME INTO MY ROOM.JUST A YEAR AND A FEW MONTHS LATER ISRAEL RECAPTURED JERUSALEM AND THERE WAS A CENTENNIAL SIGN I ALWAYS PASSED BY ABOUT A MILE FOM MY HOME SAYING 1867-1967,I WAS ALWAYS AMAZED AT THAT BLUE AND WHITE CENTENNIAL SIGN.NOW I WONDER WAS GOD PREPARING ME TO STICK UP FOR HIM AND ISRAEL AND JERUSALEM WAY BACK WHEN I WAS 6 YRS OLD.ONLY GOD-KING JESUS KNOWS FOR SURE.I WILL BE ABLE TO ASK HIM AT THE INVESTIGATION OF MY LIFE WHEN I STAND IN FRONT OF HIM AND GIVE AN ACCOUNT OF THE GOOD AND BAD I HAVE DONE IN MY BODY.

A PICTURE OF THE FACE ON THE SHROUD(OUR KING JESUS I TRUELY BELIEVE)
http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=128104

Church opens Shroud of Turin to public-Debate continues over whether linen relic is burial cloth of Jesus March 15, 2010 10:22 pm Eastern 2010 WorldNetDaily

The Catholic Church in Turin, Italy, will exhibit the Shroud of Turin, a linen relic millions have believed to be the actual burial cloth of Jesus Christ, from April 10 through May 23, the fifth public exposition since 1898 and the longest in the shroud's modern history. The official website created by the Archdiocese of Turin for this year's exhibition estimates 2 million people will travel to Turin to view the shroud. Pope Benedict XVI is scheduled to visit the shroud May 2.

The burial cloth of Jesus Christ?

The Shroud of Turin bears the full-body, back-and-front image of a crucified man that very closely resembles the New Testament description of the passion and death of Jesus Christ. Even after the 1978 Shroud of Turin Research Project subjected the shroud to scientific analysis, how the image was formed on the 14-foot-long linen cloth remains a subject of debate. Photographic analysis has shown the reddish-brown image on the Shroud of Turin to be a negative that is best seen when the process of photography reverses it. The photographic negative of the face of the man in the Shroud of Turin demonstrates how a photographic negative makes the image of the crucified man more clearly visible to the naked eye. In 1988, the Vatican permitted laboratories at the University of Oxford, the University of Arizona and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich to subject small samples cut from the shroud to radiocarbon dating analysis. The conclusions of the three laboratories that the shroud dated from A.D. 1260 to 1390 led many to believe it is a medieval forgery. However, Raymond Rogers, a chemist from the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory who was a participant in the 1978 Shroud of Turin Research Project, published a paper in a scientific journal arguing the sample of the shroud selected for the 1988 radiocarbon testing was contaminated by expert Medieval reweaving undertaken to repair it after a disastrous fire in 1532. WND reporter and columnist Jerome R. Corsi has written a novel on the Shroud of Turin, The Shroud Codex, scheduled for publication by Simon and Schuster April 13. In February, Corsi traveled to Turin, where he obtained press credentials to attend the Shroud Exhibition as a journalist. From Turin, Corsi traveled to the Vatican in Rome where he met with the Vatican press office and with a representative of the Pope's Cultural Council to inform the Vatican of WND's plans to cover the Shroud Exhibition in Turin.

WND plans over the next month to publish a series of articles exploring the history and the science of the Shroud of Turin. The Archdiocese of Turin has created an Internet website to allow those wishing to attend the Shroud of Turin Exposition to obtain reservations electronically.

GOP Leads Backlash against Obama; Democrats Uneasy
by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu MAR 15,10

(IsraelNN.com) Republican Party leaders attacked the Obama administration Monday with unusually harsh language, charging it with an irresponsible position against an ally.In an effort to ingratiate our country with the Arab world, this administration has shown a troubling eagerness to undercut our allies and friends, said the GOP’s only Jewish Republican Congressman, Eric Cantor of Virginia.

He went so far as to say that the dispute jeopardizes America's national security.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has taken the heat for the current crisis that erupted when a government minister announced the approval of the fourth of seven stages for building new homes for Jews in the Ramat Shlomo neighborhood. Totally Jewish, it is located in a part of Jerusalem that was restored to Israel in the Six Day War when Jerusalem was reunited, but not recognized as such by the United States. The initial media and political blows were delivered to Prime Minister Netanyahu, who apologized to visiting U.S. Vice President Joe Biden for the timing of the announcement with his arrival that was aimed at promoting American-mediated talks between the Palestinian Authority and Israel for a new PA state.However, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton followed up with an unprecedented and scathing public attack on the Prime Minister. Republican legislators did not miss a beat as most political commentators stated that Clinton over-reacted.Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, the leading Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, charged that the Obama government’s condemnations of an indispensable ally and friend of the United States…undermine both our allies and the peace process, while encouraging the enemies of America and Israel alike.She noted that President Obama has taken softer approaches towards the Palestinian Authority, Syria and Iran. Senator Sam Brownback’s office stated,It' is hard to see how spending a weekend condemning Israel for a zoning decision in its capital city amounts to a positive step towards peace.

Democrats also are uneasy over the crisis, which comes only eight months before Congressional elections. Polls have shown that President Obama’s political stature is sinking. Laura Rozen of Politico.com wrote on Monday that Democratic legislators are looking for some kind of political leadership from U.S. Middle East envoy George Mitchell, who is a former senator and is President Obama’s make-or-break representative in the PA-Israeli struggle.She quoted a senior Democratic foreign policy leader as saying that the failure of top Obama officials and Mitchell to make contact with Congressman is the the same exact mistake of the first two Clinton years with majorities in both Houses. You'd think they would have learned the lesson of never take your allies for granted at least after this year.Veteran Middle East peace negotiator Aaron David Miller told Rozen,The tree they're up on this one is very tall. Paradoxically, it may be up to Bibi [Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu] to help them climb down.

LAND FOR PEACE (THE FUTURE 7 YEARS OF HELL ON EARTH)

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

THE WEEK OF DANIEL 9:27 WE KNOW ITS 7 YRS

Heres the scripture 1 week = 7 yrs Genesis 29:27-29
27 Fulfil her week, and we will give thee this also for the service which thou shalt serve with me yet seven other years.
28 And Jacob did so, and fulfilled her week: and he gave him Rachel his daughter to wife also.
29 And Laban gave to Rachel his daughter Bilhah his handmaid to be her maid.

DANIEL 9:26-27
26 And after threescore and two weeks(62X7=434 YEARS+7X7=49 YEARS=TOTAL OF 69 WEEKS OR 483 YRS) shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary;(ROMAN LEADERS DESTROYED THE 2ND TEMPLE) and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined.(THERE HAS TO BE 70 WEEKS OR 490 YRS TO FUFILL THE VISION AND PROPHECY OF DAN 9:24).(THE NEXT VERSE IS THAT 7 YR WEEK OR (70TH FINAL WEEK).
27 And he( THE ROMAN,EU PRESIDENT) shall confirm the covenant with many for one week:(1X7=7 YEARS) and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease,(3 1/2 yrs in TEMPLE SACRIFICES STOPPED) and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.

ISAIAH 28:14-19 (THIS IS THE 7 YR TREATY COVENANT OF DANIEL 9:27)
14 Wherefore hear the word of the LORD, ye scornful men, that rule this people which is in Jerusalem.
15 Because ye have said, We have made a covenant with death, and with hell are we at agreement; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto us: for we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves:
16 Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation: he that believeth shall not make haste.
17 Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet: and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place.
18 And your covenant with death shall be disannulled, and your agreement with hell shall not stand; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, then ye shall be trodden down by it.
19 From the time that it goeth forth it shall take you: for morning by morning shall it pass over, by day and by night: and it shall be a vexation only to understand the report.

THIS IS A SUCH A PEACEFUL PARTNER IN PEACE IF YOU CATCH MY DRIFT.THESE ARABS AND MUSLIMS ARE SO PEACE LOVING TO THEIR FRIENDS AND NEIGHBOURS.

SYNAGOGUE REOPENS
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/136528

Hamas Official: Annihilate the Filthy Jews
Reported: 00:42 AM - Mar/16/10

(IsraelNN.com) Abdallah Jarbu, Hamas deputy minister of religious endowments, said in an interview aired on Al-Aqsa TV on February 28, 2010: They [the Jews] want to present themselves to the world as if they have rights, but, in fact, they are foreign bacteria – a microbe unparalleled in the world. It's not me who says this. The Koran itself says that they have no parallel: You shall find the strongest men in enmity to the believers to be the Jews.May He annihilate this filthy people who have neither religion nor conscience. Translated from Arabic by Memri Research Institute.

WSJ Op-Ed: EU Needs to Stop Pro-Arab Anti-Israel Policy
Reported: 03:28 AM - Mar/16/10

(IsraelNN.com) A Wall Street Journal Op-ed written by Emanuele Ottolenghi bashes the European Union's tradition of pressuring and criticizing Israel while letting off Arab dictatorships: And so it goes: Authoritarian Arab regimes whose policies run contrary to European interests and values get off the hook, while Israel—a democracy and Europe's best economic partner in the area—stays in the doghouse.Clearly, there is much to be gained in an ever-closer relation between Brussels and Jerusalem, writes Ottolenghi, and Israel's experience in such disparate fields as homeland security and renewable energy technologies makes closer cooperation particularly desirable from a European standpoint.

US wants Israel to cancel Jerusalem building plan By MARK LAVIE, Associated Press Writer – Mon Mar 15, 7:05 pm ET

JERUSALEM – The Obama administration is demanding that Israel call off a contentious building project in east Jerusalem and make a public gesture toward the Palestinians to help defuse one of the worst U.S.-Israeli feuds in memory, officials on both sides said Monday.But Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu showed little sign of yielding, saying Jewish construction in east Jerusalem in no way hurts Palestinians. A Jerusalem city spokesman suggested Jewish building there would continue.

Announcement of the plan to build 1,600 apartments for Jews in the Ramot Shlomo neighborhood came during Vice President Joe Biden's visit last week, embarrassing him and the Obama administration, angering Palestinians and endangering the start of indirect peace negotiations that are to be mediated by a U.S. envoy.Adding to tensions was a ceremony Monday in the walled Old City in east Jerusalem, where Jews rededicated an ancient synagogue destroyed after the war that followed Israel's creation in 1948. Israeli police sent in reinforcements to prevent riots. The synagogue is in the Jewish Quarter, but Palestinians still saw the colorful celebration as an affront.After a weekend of rare broadsides from top U.S. officials, including Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, American demands became clear Monday. The U.S. wants Israel to cancel the construction plan, U.S. and Israeli officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because no announcement was made.American officials said they were also insisting that Israel take significant steps to get peace talks back on track. These might include releasing Palestinian prisoners or turning over additional West Bank land to Palestinian control.Washington, the officials added, also has demanded that Israel officially declare that talks with the Palestinians will deal with all the conflict's big issues, including final borders, the status of Jerusalem and the fate of Palestinian refugees who lost their homes during the war that followed Israel's 1948 creation.

But Netanyahu appeared unreceptive to the main demand, defending four decades of construction for Israelis in east Jerusalem.The building of those Jewish neighborhoods in no way hurt the Arabs of east Jerusalem and did not come at their expense, he told his parliament on Monday.Netanyahu has apologized for the timing of the project's approval but has not said he will cancel it.Palestinians say Jewish building in east Jerusalem, an area they hope to make their capital, eats up land they want for a future state, cuts off east Jerusalem from the rest of the West Bank and prevents the expansion of Arab neighborhoods. The Palestinians also point out that much of the land used for Jewish construction was expropriated from Arab owners.

Stephan Miller, a Jerusalem spokesman, said the city will not change its policies — meaning Jewish construction in the part of the city Palestinians claim will continue.We are developing the entire city for the benefit of all residents, he said.
Most Israelis accept the Jewish neighborhoods in east Jerusalem as part of Israel, differentiating them from West Bank settlements, which many Israelis oppose. But since the world does not recognize Israel's annexation of east Jerusalem, the international legal status of the neighborhoods is the same as the settlements, which are considered illegal.The unusually harsh U.S. criticism has undercut Netanyahu's efforts to play down the crisis. Israeli newspapers reported Monday that Israel's ambassador to Washington, Michael Oren, told Israeli diplomats in a conference call Saturday night that their country's relations with the U.S. haven't been this tense in decades.Israel does not stand to benefit from antagonizing its most important ally, but Netanyahu has historically taken a hard line against territorial concessions to the Palestinians. A curb on east Jerusalem construction also could fracture his hawkish governing coalition.Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit called for international moves against Israel, calling its Jerusalem policy absurd, an evasion, maneuvering and an attempt to suffocate the Palestinians.

Jerusalem is the most explosive issue in the Israel-Palestinian conflict. Israel captured east Jerusalem in the 1967 Mideast war and annexed it, claiming the whole city as its capital. No other country has recognized the annexation.At the emotional and religious center of the dispute is Jerusalem's Old City, with shrines holy to Jews, Christians and Muslims. For a fourth straight day, Israel deployed hundreds of police around the area and restricted Palestinian access in anticipation of possible unrest. Israel also maintained a closure that barred virtually all West Bank Palestinians from entering Israel. In the West Bank, Israeli troops dispersed 70 Palestinians hurling rocks and burning tires north of Jerusalem, the military said, wounding at least four people. In Egypt, meanwhile, thousands of students at six universities protested against Israel, shouting, Arm us and send us to Al-Aqsa, Islam's third holiest site, also located in the Old City. Today, about 180,000 Israelis live in east Jerusalem, in addition to nearly 300,000 Jewish settlers in the West Bank. Israel withdrew its 8,000 settlers from Gaza five years ago, though it continues to control that territory's borders, airspace and sea coast. Palestinians hope to establish a state in the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem.
Associated Press writers Sarah El Deeb in Cairo and Matthew Lee in Washington contributed to this report.

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.

Stubborn storm darkens, floods much of Northeast By DAVID PORTER, Associated Press Writer – Mon Mar 15, 7:30 pm ET

BOUND BROOK, N.J. – Torrential rains and high winds pounded the Northeast for a third day Monday, taking a heavy toll on people and property in a region that only recently restored power or finished digging out from the last of several major winter storms.The rain and accompanying wind have toppled trees, flooded roads and forced hundreds of people to evacuate their homes. At least nine people have died in storm-related accidents, and nearly a half-million people lost power at the peak of the storm in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York and Connecticut.The disruption reached the nation's capital, where high water levels caused a large barge to bump into a column supporting the 14th Street bridge, though the U.S. Coast Guard reported no damage to the bridge or barge and said the bridge was open to traffic.

The governors of Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island each declared a state of emergency as the rains closed roads and spilled rivers and streams over their banks.The National Weather Service reported wind gusts of up to 50 miles per hour that dropped more than 8 inches of rain on some areas of Massachusetts, with another inch or two expected later Monday.In Connecticut, nearly 54,000 electrical customers remained without power, down from a high of more than 85,000, and at least three deaths in the state were associated with the storm.In Boston, the storm threatened to overwhelm the wastewater system, forcing officials to begin a controlled release of untreated wastewater into Boston Harbor.Some parts of Maine received as much as eight inches of rain, and utility officials blamed high winds for broken tree limbs that fell on power lines and caused outages in the eastern towns of Deer Isle and Stonington.The ferocious storm led to near-record numbers of 911 calls in New York. New York City experienced its second-highest volume of 911 calls ever. It got 65,000 between 11 p.m. Friday and 11 p.m. Saturday, second only to the 96,000 made during the 2003 blackout.More than 140,000 residential and business electrical customers were still without power in the New York City area, and hundreds of cold, dark schools were closed. Utilities handed out dry ice to save foods from rotting in warm refrigerators.

While the rain tapered off south of New York on Monday morning, wind-whipped precipitation still fell in New England.Workers put up sand bags around the entrance to a subway station near Boston's Fenway Park on Monday morning as the Muddy River rose. The Massachusetts Port Authority said the weather was causing some delays and cancellations at Logan International Airport, and several roads and highway ramps in the state were closed.The release of wastewater into Boston Harbor poses a minimal risk to public health because the sewage will be diluted by rain water, said Fred Laskey, executive director of the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority, acknowledging that it was a storm of historic proportions.There also were road closures in southeastern New Hampshire due to flooding. In New Jersey, Gov. Chris Christie declared a state of emergency, allowing National Guard troops to be called up if needed. Schools closed in Massachusetts, Connecticut and New York on Monday.

In low-lying Bound Brook, N.J., site of several major floods in the past decade, Mayor Carey Pilato credited a $100 million flood control project, begun after the remnants of Hurricane Floyd caused major flooding in 1999, with sparing a six-block area of the town that had been hit hard then and during a nor'easter in 2007.Mark Wilson, director of a soccer academy that sits in the middle of Bound Brook's hardest-hit area, said the first-floor carpets were damaged and the basement was filled with water. Still, he said, this round of flooding paled in comparison with 2007, when his company was in the middle of renovating.We had 4 feet of water throughout the whole building, and under that was a half-inch of river silt, he said.There was a certain degree of faith that it wasn't going to happen again, and here we are three years later. But it's definitely a big improvement.In Atlantic City, snow plows that just weeks earlier had been dealing with the worst snowstorms in more than 100 years were pressed back into work, scraping away tons of seaweed that had floated several blocks inland and made parts of a major highway into and out of the gambling resort impassable. Still, at least 600 residents remained in the local high school and a church while inspectors checked their houses and utility crews turned off gas lines as a precaution. Across the state, more than 100,000 customers were without service Monday, down from a peak of 235,000. In Connecticut, two major utility companies said more than 57,000 customers were still without power, down from about 80,000. Officials said it may be Thursday before service is restored to some New Jerseyans who lost electricity during the storm, Rhode Island officials were briefly concerned about whether a dam on the Pawtuxet River in West Warwick would break but later said there was no immediate threat. The storm carried wind gusts as high as 70 mph and came about two weeks after heavy snow and hurricane-force winds left more than 1 million customers in the Northeast in the dark, many of them in New Hampshire. The storm has killed at least nine people across the region, including several who were hit by falling trees or limbs. Contributing to this report were Associated Press writers Wayne Parry in Atlantic City; Bill Newill in Trenton; Ray Henry in West Warwick, R.I.; Karen Matthews in New York; Jim Fitzgerald in White Plains, N.Y.; Bob Salsberg in Boston; and David Sharp and Clarke Canfield in Portland, Maine.

Tropical Storm Hubert kills 36 in Madagascar
Mon Mar 15, 1:55 pm ET

ANTANANARIVO, Madagascar – Madagascar's disaster officials say at least 36 people have died and more than 38,000 were made homeless by Tropical Storm Hubert.The storm hit the southeast coast of the Indian Ocean island nation on Wednesday.Officials also said Monday that many rice plantations, roads and homes have been affected or destroyed by flooding. Disaster officials also say that some evacuation teams cannot reach disaster victims because of flooded roads.Madagascar lies off the southeastern coast of Africa and is in the main storm path of the Indian Ocean basin.It normally has three or four major cyclones each year. Fame, Ivan and Jokwe killed more than 100in Madagascar in 2008 and affected 300,000 others.

State of disaster in cyclone-hit Fiji
MAR 15,10

SUVA (AFP) – The Fiji government declared a state of disaster in the cyclone-ravaged nation Tuesday as the scale of damage began to emerge after 17,000 people fled to evacuation centres.Cyclone Tomas cut a swathe of destruction through the north and east as winds averaging 165 kilometres (102 miles) an hour lashed the Pacific island group for a second day.The main island of Viti Levu was spared the worst of the devastation but there were reports of extensive damage from the second largest island, Vanua Levu, and eastern outlying islands, officials said.A state of disaster was declared in the north and east of the country after the National Disaster Council, under military leader Voreqe Bainimarama, met Tuesday to assess the first damage reports.The National Disaster Council has declared a state of disaster in the northern division and eastern division, National Disaster Management Office operations officer Anthony Blake said.We have so far got a tally of over 50 homes destroyed -- a very serious issue. We expect these figures to increase for the next few days, Blake told reporters.The full extent of the devastation was still unclear as communications to many of the smaller islands and isolated areas on Vanua Levu remained cut Tuesday.Authorities were particularly worried about the northern islands of Cikobia and Qelelevu, because there had been no communications since they were hit by the cyclone on Monday, Blake said.Telecommunications and electricity remained out in many parts of Vanua Levu, and water and sewerage supplies were also affected.Healthcare facilities and police stations were among the buildings damaged in Vanua Levu.

There were no new reports of casualties after a woman drowned in rough seas at the weekend as the cyclone approached.More than 17,000 people had fled to evacuation centres by Tuesday -- mostly in the north of the country -- as the storm damaged buildings and crops, cut communications and power, and flooded many low-lying areas.
By Tuesday, Tomas was over the Lau group, to the east of Viti Levu and Vanua Levu, Fiji Meteorological Services director Rajendra Prasad said.He said the average wind speed had eased from 175 kilometres to 165 kilometres an hour on Tuesday morning.The cyclone is expected to maintain its peak intensity for 12 hours or so before commencing a gradual weakening trend, Prasad said.The ferocity of the storm was easing in northern areas of the country, he said.On Gau island to the east of Viti Levu, Lamiti village head teacher Solomone Rasiga told Fiji commercial radio the villagers sheltered overnight from fierce winds and heavy rain.The wind is very strong, there is a lot of damage to crops, he said. Houses near the sea had been badly damaged and some small houses and outbuildings near the river had been washed away, he said. The impact of Cyclone Tomas is expected to lessen from Tuesday evening as it moves to the south of Fiji. Schools and government offices remained closed and a curfew was extended until early Wednesday for all areas except the relatively lightly affected western region of Viti Levu. The international airport at Nadi in Viti Levu's west reopened Tuesday although domestic air and shipping services remained suspended.

Teams forcibly evacuate Mozambique flood victims
Mon Mar 15, 8:30 am ET

MAPUTO, Mozambique – Authorities say rescue teams have evacuated 6,000 people, some of them forcibly, from flood-stricken districts in central Mozambique.Authorities said Monday that many impoverished households refused to be relocated for fear of losing their belongings, though their homes were surrounded by rising flood waters.

Joao Zambiza, head of disaster relief in the Zambezia province, said people had to be evacuated to avoid death.Six people have drowned because of flooding since late February. Officials also fear that an outbreak of the waterborne disease cholera will worsen.Cholera already has killed 42 people in the southern African country in recent weeks.

North Dakota braces for floods By Rod Nickel – Mon Mar 15, 8:12 pm ET

WINNIPEG, Manitoba (Reuters) – Melting snow will cause major flooding along the Red River in North Dakota by Tuesday with water levels just below the record set in 2009 during one of the worst floods in the state's history, the National Weather Service said on Monday.The floodwaters will not only endanger homes but could also delay the planting of spring wheat and sugar beets in an important U.S. farming region.Some 1,500 miles to the east, days of torrential rain from a nor'easter parked off the coast caused extensive flooding in the Northeastern United States and New England.

Massachusetts' governor declared a state of emergency for the entire state, and authorities in Boston dumped raw sewage into the harbor.The region's heaviest rain and strongest winds will continue to target southern Maine through southern New Hampshire and Massachusetts.Around Fargo, North Dakota, the early melt has hastened flood-fighting preparations. The city has filled 740,000 sandbags in about two weeks, said Fargo's city's communications manager, Karena Carlson. Volunteers will start piling the sandbags into dikes on Tuesday with the help of 300 to 400 National Guard troops.Things are happening a little earlier than we anticipated, but with enough volunteers, I think we'll be able to get things done, she said.The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has started building dikes of dirt and clay to protect public infrastructure like roads and water plants in parts of North Dakota and Minnesota, said spokesman Mark Davidson.A year ago, flooding caused the evacuation of hundreds of homes in North Dakota, including some by helicopter. A lower forecasted crest means that is not likely this year, said Lieutenant Colonel Rick Smith of the North Dakota National Guard.We are prepared to do that if called upon ... but I don't foresee that.Farmers could not plant crops last year on 464,000 acres in the Red River Valley's 12 counties in North Dakota and Minnesota, according to the USDA's Risk Management Agency. That included 215,000 unplanted acres that were insured for corn, 97,000 wheat acres and 68,000 soybean acres.

This year's flood is occurring 10 to 12 days earlier, which could help farmers' chances of getting crops planted, said Jay Hochhalter, a conservation program specialist with the United States Department of Agriculture in North Dakota.It definitely is a plus, he said.(Fields) are black. They're going to draw more heat to warm the soils up and dry them out.Spring wheat planting normally starts between April 15 and April 20, with seeding of corn and sugar beets later in the month, Hochhalter said.Spring wheat futures at the Minneapolis Board of Trade shrugged off news of the flood and were pressured by a stronger U.S. dollar and plentiful global supplies of wheat.The spot May contract finished down 6-1/4 cents at $5.07-1/4 per bushel. Wheat futures rose above $8 during last year's floods.

SNOWMELT NOT YET BEGUN IN EARNEST

The Red River had risen to 25.21 feet by late afternoon on Monday in Fargo, the state's biggest city in the Red River Valley, just over the moderate flood stage, said Greg Gust, warning co-ordination meteorologist for the Weather Service. It should reach the major flood stage of 30 feet by late Tuesday night and crest at 38 feet by the weekend. Temperatures will remain above-freezing until Thursday, Gust said. You throw mild temperatures and rain into the snow pack and that combination has sped things up tremendously, Gust said. Last year at Fargo, the Red River reached a record 40.84 feet, damaging hundreds of homes in the state and forcing hundreds more to evacuate. Last week was the earliest on record that the minimum temperature averaged above freezing at Fargo, Gust said. Parts of the state also received 1.5 inches (38 mm) of rain last week. The river flows north into the Canadian province of Manitoba, which has also had an earlier-than-normal melt. In the U.S. Midwest, where rain and snowmelt have combined with saturated soils to heighten concerns about planting delays, flooding is already happening on several Iowa rivers, including the Des Moines River and Cedar River, said Pat Slattery, public affairs specialist for the Weather Service in Kansas City, Kansas. The Mississippi and Missouri rivers are also flooding, Slattery said. We're getting the early flooding now and really the snowmelt hasn't started in real earnest,he said.

More rains forecast across much of the Midwest this week threaten to delay corn and soybean plantings, said forecaster Mike Palmerino of Telvent-DTN Weather on Monday.
Rain has persisted in parts of the Northeast U.S. as long as four days. In eastern Massachusetts, flooding closed roads and shut down schools and businesses in some communities.The sheer volume of water is the number one problem right now, Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick said on Monday. Heavy rains forced the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority to empty untreated sewage into Quincy Bay for the first time since 2005. In Rhode Island, the Pawtuxet River overflowed its banks, flooding some major roads and causing evacuations. The river is at a record high level and has yet to crest, authorities said. Crews in New Jersey, New York and Connecticut were cleaning up after rain and high winds on Saturday left many roads under water and downed thousands of trees. At one point, more than 500,000 homes had lost power in the region. (Reporting by Rod Nickel; Additional reporting by Ros Krasny in Boston; Editing by Marguerita Choy and Peter Cooney)

EARTH DESTROYED WITH THE EARTH

GENESIS 6:11-13
11 The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.(WORLD TERRORISM,MURDERS)(HAMAS IN HEBREW IS VIOLENCE)
12 And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth.
13 And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence (TERRORISM)(HAMAS) through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth.

EARTHQUAKES

MATTHEW 24:7-8
7 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.
8 All these are the beginning of sorrows.

MARK 13:8
8 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom:(ETHNIC GROUP AGAINST ETHNIC GROUP) and there shall be earthquakes in divers places, and there shall be famines and troubles: these are the beginnings of sorrows.

LUKE 21:11
11 And great earthquakes shall be in divers places, and famines, and pestilences; and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven.

6.7-magnitude aftershock hits Chile coast: USGS
MAR 16,10

WASHINGTON (AFP) – A 6.7-magnitude aftershock has struck off Chile's coast, some 72 kilometers (45 miles) from Concepcion, among the cities hardest hit by last month's 8.8-magnitude quake, US seismologists said.The US Geological Survey said the quake hit at a depth of 35 kilometers (21.7 miles) at 0222 GMT Tuesday, but no tsunami watch was issued.No destructive widespread tsunami threat exists based on historical earthquake and tsunami data, the monitoring office said.However, earthquakes of this size sometimes generate local tsunamis that can be destructive, it added.A tsunami that followed the massive February 27 quake in Chile wiped out entire coastal villages.Questions over why a tsunami warning was not issued more quickly after that temblor led to the firing of the head of Chile's navy Oceanography Service.The latest aftershock was one of over 200 to rock the South American nation since the February quake.

Strong 6.6 magnitude quake hits northern Japan
Sun Mar 14, 5:00 am ET

TOKYO, Japan (AFP) – A strong, 6.6 magnitude earthquake hit northern Japan Sunday afternoon, but no tsunami warning was issued, US and Japanese authorities said.The quake struck at 5:08 pm (0808 GMT) in the Pacific off Fukushima prefecture, 250 kilometres (155 miles) north of Tokyo, the US Geological Survey (USGS) and the Japanese Meteorological Agency said in separate statements.It is possible that the tidal level would change slightly. But there is no worry about damage, the Japanese agency said.

There were no immediate reports of casualties or damage.The quake was strong enough to sway skyscrapers in Tokyo, where national television networks had issued flash warnings of a possible large quake before the tremors could be felt in the capital.
The USGS put the quake's depth at 26.4 kilometres (16.4 miles), while the Japanese agency said it was 40 kilometres (24.8 miles) deep.Some train services in the region, including the Shinkansen bullet trains, stopped immediately after the quake, but gradually resumed normal operations.

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).

ALL I HAVE TO SAY IS READ THESE SCRIPTURES,EUROPE PREVAILS OVER USA IN STRENGTH AND POWER AND DICTATORSHIP.

Financial reform efforts pit US against Europe By STEVENSON JACOBS, AP Business Writer - MAR 16,10

NEW YORK – U.S. policymakers are struggling to agree on new rules to avoid another financial crisis.A global consensus? Even harder.Efforts are raging on three continents, with at least as many ideas about the proper fixes. Unless the U.S., Europe and Asia adopt uniformly strict regulations, banks and high-risk traders will shift operations wherever rules are loosest. Experts warn another crisis could follow.The global proposals are clashing on several levels. Among the differences:

- The Obama administration wants to restrict banks' size and ability to take risk. European officials have called that plan unworkable in a region with roughly 40 cross-border banks.

- European Union officials want to crack down on financial derivatives, which they blame for worsening Europe's debt crisis. Derivatives are instruments whose value depends on underlying assets, such as mortgages or currencies. U.S. regulators favor making derivatives trading more transparent. But they've resisted calls to restrict it.

- In Asia, Chinese regulators are forcing banks to set aside more reserves to prevent a U.S.-style credit binge. And India has maintained rules that were already stricter than many in the West.

A report last week on Lehman Brothers' 2008 collapse reminded the world of the matter's urgency. The report said regulators missed Lehman's accounting tricks, which made the firm appear stronger than it was. Lehman's bankruptcy, the biggest in U.S. corporate history, shocked global markets and triggered the $700 billion financial bailout.But 18 months later, no deal on stricter rules is in sight — domestically or globally. Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd proposed his own bill Monday — without Republican support. And the U.S. and Europe seem far apart on such issues as how to oversee bank accounts and mortgages and whether banks can do proprietary trading. That's when they use their own money to make high-risk bets. If those bets go bad and a bank goes under, taxpayers could be on the hook.The Lehman disaster underscores the enormous imperative to tighten international rules, said Kenneth Rogoff, a Harvard professor and former chief economist of the International Monetary Fund. Yet he doubts countries can agree.

You're dealing with different accounting standards, different political systems and different banking systems, Rogoff said.It will be very hard to create one-size-fits-all regulations.A lobbying blitz by Wall Street banks has helped drive the sides apart. Banks argue that some U.S. proposals would give overseas rivals an unfair edge. Especially in their sights is a proposed Consumer Financial Protection Agency to oversee consumer products.The House and Senate plans would create a council to monitor threats to the financial system. Both would also set a resolution authority to close large failing firms. But key differences remain. One involves the proposed consumer agency. The House favors a freestanding agency; the Dodd bill would place it inside the Federal Reserve.Europe is weighing some similar reforms. The economic bloc would create three authorities: to govern banking, insurance and markets in all 27 member nations. A watchdog would monitor financial stability. It would also look for any financial-asset bubbles or banks embracing too much risk.But trans-Atlantic discord is flaring. The Obama administration wants to bar the biggest banks from using their own money to make high-risk bets. It would also limit the size of banks.

The European Union has rejected that plan. In Europe, banks already have been getting smaller. Regulators insisted they shrink to compensate for government aid.
Trying to apply sweeping rules about the structure, content and range of activities of banking entities is too difficult,British Business Secretary Peter Mandelson said this month.In addition, European officials have threatened to restrict trading of certain derivatives linked to government debt, called naked credit default swaps. Naked swaps are a type of insurance in which investors don't actually hold the insured bonds. European officials argue the swaps have worsened Europe's crisis by magnifying bets that Greece and other indebted nations will default. Many experts disagree. They say ballooning deficits — not derivatives — have weakened confidence in Greece and other EU nations. Still, EU officials want the U.S. to help crack down on those swaps. The House and Senate bills would likely require most derivatives trades to go through clearinghouses to make them more transparent. But they wouldn't limit their use. Another conflict is over hedge funds, which are lightly regulated private investment vehicles. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has voiced concern that disclosure rules that Europe is weighing could block U.S. hedge funds and private equity firms from Europe's market. EU proposals would likely require big funds operating in Europe to regularly disclose their trades and risk exposure. The idea is to prove they don't threaten the financial system. By contrast, the Senate bill would require only that big hedge funds pay into a resolution fund to pay for dismantling failing firms. Andrew Busch, a global strategist at BMO Capital Markets, warns that firms would exploit any differences in countries' rules. Risky activities banned in one country could shift to another with friendlier rules. You would invite regulatory shopping — really, country shopping,Busch said.It's as easy as flipping a switch.

Even the banking industry acknowledges the risk. You could have a race to the bottom to those countries and jurisdictions that have weaker protections, said Scott Talbott, chief lobbyist for the Financial Services Roundtable, which includes the largest banks. The banks argue that the U.S. effort risks stifling financial activity and are fighting elements of it. There has to be a balance in how you regulate, or you make banks less competitive, Talbott said. For a model on how to tighten rules, U.S. and European officials may look East. Asia's banks were relatively unscathed by the West's crisis. In part, that was because China wasn't deeply integrated into the global system. In other cases such as India, regulation was already stricter than in the West. Some Asian countries have further intensified efforts to reduce risk. Chinese regulators in 2008 required banks to hold more reserves to guard against loan failures. In addition, China wants to increase oversight of banks that were ordered to boost lending last year to back Beijing's stimulus. We used to learn from Western developed countries, but later we found their systems had problems, so we'll have to amend our system and hope it will develop in a healthy and steady way, said Wei Tao, an analyst for China Securities Research. Gary Gensler, head of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, has struck an optimistic note about a global accord on derivatives. He said last week that U.S. authorities are working well with overseas regulators. Others say some disagreement is helpful. Banking analyst Bert Ely said a diversity of regulations can point to flaws in a country's rules and to better solutions elsewhere. If everyone adopts the same rules and we're wrong, then we all go running off the cliff together when the next crisis hits,Ely said. AP Writers Jim Kuhnhenn in Washington; Aoife White in Brussels; Bonnie Cao and Joe McDonald in Beijing; Erika Kinetz in Mumbai, India; Jeremiah Marquez in Hong Kong; Jay Alabaster in Tokyo; and Kelly Olsen in Seoul contributed to this report.

Dodd unveils sweeping financial regulation plan By JIM KUHNHENN, Associated Press Writer – Mon Mar 15, 7:52 pm ET

WASHINGTON – A new Democratic Senate bill to tame the financial markets would give the government new powers to break up firms that threaten the economy, force the industry to pay for its failures and create an independent consumer watchdog within the Federal Reserve.Legislation unveiled Monday by Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd falls shy of the ambitious restructuring of federal financial regulations envisioned by President Barack Obama or contained in legislation already passed in the House.But the 1,336-page bill, which includes provisions negotiated with Republicans, would still be the biggest overhaul of regulations since the New Deal. It comes 18 months after Wall Street's failures helped plunge the nation into a deep recession.In its sweep, the bill would touch all corners of the financial sector, from small-town mortgage brokers to the highest penthouse office suites on Wall Street. Lobbyists were already mobilizing to change several of its features.

Americans are frustrated and angry, as we all know, Dodd, D-Conn., said.They've lost faith in our markets, and they wonder if anyone is looking out for them.In announcing his bill at a news conference, Dodd stood alone, a sign of the difficult task ahead of him in forging a bill that can pass the Senate. None of the 10 Republicans on his committee endorsed his plan. Several Democrats have voiced dismay at Dodd's decision to reject a plan for a freestanding consumer agency, an Obama regulatory centerpiece.The bill would create a powerful nine-member Financial Stability Oversight Council, chaired by the treasury secretary, to look out for the systemwide health of the financial sector and to stop financial firms from becoming too big to fail.The council could place large, interconnected financial institutions under the supervision of the Federal Reserve. And it would have the authority to approve the breakup of large complex companies if they pose a threat to the nation's financial system.Dodd partially embraced Obama's call for a so-called Volcker Rule. Named after former Fed Chairman Paul Volcker, the proposal would limit the size of some of the largest financial institutions and ban commercial banks from conducting certain trades on their own accounts. Dodd's bill sets a goal for ending risky trading and hedge-fund investments by depository banks but calls for a study before any regulations are written and enforced.Like the House bill, Dodd's proposal would create a mechanism to shut down large, failing firms, with shareholders and unsecured creditors bearing the losses. Management also would be removed. The costs of such a shutdown would be covered by a $50 billion fund financed by the largest financial firms.

The Federal Reserve, under Dodd's plan, emerges as a leaner institution with new powers to regulate the size and the activities of the nation's largest financial firms. The Fed, once threatened with the loss of all its regulatory powers, will now oversee all bank holding companies with assets of $50 billion or more. But it would also be given power to regulate and even break up large interconnected companies, such as the insurance conglomerate American International Group, whose failure could pose a risk to the economy.The bill creates restrictions for previously unregulated exotic products and financial instruments. It requires hedge funds that manage more than $100 million to register with the Securities and Exchange Commission. And it gives shareholders the right to cast a nonbinding vote on executive compensation packages.Dodd's consumer proposal is perhaps the most contentious piece of his package. The financial industry is fiercely opposed because it separates consumer regulations from the functions of other financial regulators.But Dodd would give the oversight council the power to veto regulations written by the consumer bureau. Consumer advocates objected to that provision, but their criticism was tempered because they had expected worse.Unlike current law, states would have the power to write and enforce regulations that are tougher than those passed by the federal consumer bureau, a priority of consumer groups. State attorneys general also would have the power to file lawsuits to enforce rules passed by the consumer bureau.

Obama, eager to make Wall Street regulations a political and legislative cause, called Dodd's bill a strong foundation, but he signaled he wanted to make it tougher.
I will take every opportunity to work with Chairman Dodd and his colleagues to strengthen the bill and will fight against efforts to weaken it, he said.Dodd wants his committee to begin debating the bill next Monday and intends to complete the committee's work within the week. Republicans objected, saying the complex legislation requires more time.Forcing the banking committee to vote on this proposal in a single week is unrealistic and undercuts the potential for bipartisan agreement,said Sen. Richard Shelby of Alabama, the top Republican on the committee.

Fed weighs how and when to signal higher rates By JEANNINE AVERSA, AP Economics Writer - MAR 16,10

WASHINGTON – Debate is heating up within the Federal Reserve over how and when to signal that the days of record-low interest rates are numbered.A rate hike isn't imminent. But at their meeting Tuesday, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and his colleagues will likely focus on how to telegraph that higher rates are coming once the economic recovery is more deeply rooted. Eventually, Fed policymakers will need to start bumping up rates to head off inflation.It will be a challenging maneuver. Fed officials will want to signal a move to higher rates in advance so borrowers and investors aren't jarred. And they will need to send a signal that isn't confusing.The Fed has held rates at a record low near zero since December 2008. Bernanke and other Fed officials have said low rates are still needed to underpin economic growth.But they need to decide whether to keep or modify their yearlong pledge to hold rates at record lows for an extended period. Economists generally think extended period means at least six more months.The Fed could drop that commitment altogether. Or it could pledge to keep rates low only for some time or vow to keep policy accommodative.Or it could change its language in some other way to stress that credit will be tightened when the time is right. Any such step would signal that the days of easy money are fading.

Inside the Fed, debate is intensifying.

Thomas Hoenig, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, has pushed to change the signal. At the Fed's last meeting in late January, Hoenig dissented from the extended period pledge. He favored saying rates would stay low for some time. He thought that would give the Fed more flexibility to start raising rates.Some economists aren't ruling out a change in language at Tuesday's meeting. Others don't think a change will come until the Fed's next meeting on April 27-28.During the Depression, the Fed tightened policy too soon and cut off the recovery before it was self-sufficient, said Joel Naroff, president of Naroff Economic Advisors.The Fed doesn't want to make that mistake again. I think that they are willing to stay with very easy money longer than they might normally because of all the damage that has been done to the economy.The recession wiped out 8.4 million jobs. And with companies still wary of ramping up hiring, the unemployment rate — now at 9.7 percent — is likely to stay high.Even though the jobless rate hasn't budged for two months and companies aren't cutting as many jobs as they did a year ago, hiring is tepid. Consumer and business spending is sufficient to keep the economy growing only modestly. The housing and commercial real-estate markets are wobbly. Lending remains tight.Cautiously optimistic is where the Fed is right now, said William Cheney, chief economist at John Hancock.But it is heavy on the caution and light on the optimism.That helps explain why the Fed is expected to keep its key rate at a record low Tuesday. It has held its target range for its bank lending rate at zero to 0.25 percent since December 2008. In response, commercial banks' prime lending rate, used to peg rates on certain credit cards and consumer loans, has remained about 3.25 percent — its lowest in decades.Super-low rates benefit borrowers who qualify for loans and are willing to take on more debt. But they hurt savers. Low rates are especially hard on people living on fixed incomes who are earning measly returns on savings accounts and certificates of deposit.The Fed could start boosting rates as early as June — if economic growth accelerated. A more likely time is this fall, economists say.Investors also will be looking to see if the Fed makes any changes to an economic-support program that's lowered mortgage rates and bolstered the housing market. Under that program, the Fed is scheduled to end its mortgage-securities purchases from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac at the end of this month.Some analysts fear that once the program ends, mortgage rates could rise. That could weaken the recovery in housing and the overall economy. The Fed has left the door open to extending the program if the economy weakens.

Finance ministers to discuss Greek bail-out options
ANDREW WILLIS 15.03.2010 @ 09:25 CET

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - EU finance ministers meeting in Brussels on Monday and Tuesday (15-16 March) are set to discuss a range of different mechanisms to transfer financial aid to Greece, despite continued resistance in a number of EU capitals.
Reports suggest two principle options are being studied: One would see the provision of direct member-state loans to Greece, with the second the enabling of the European Commission to borrow money on international capital markets and then extend loans to Athens.The EU already has a balance-of-payments facility, under which the commission can raise and lend money to non-eurozone states, with Romania, Latvia, and Hungary all recipients from the facility last year. EU rules prevent the 16 euro area members from receiving funds from the facility however. Although no figures for a potential Greek bail-out are likely to come forward at this week's finance meetings, agreement on a potential support mechanism would mark a further milestone in EU economic integration. EU economy commissioner Olli Rehn has signaled that any financial support will be strictly tied to the enforcement of fiscal and structural reforms in the Greece's ailing economy. The borrowing needs of the country's centre-left administration are estimated at roughly €54 billion for 2010, of which €20 billion will be required for the months of April and May. The government successfully raised €5 billion earlier this month, but only after offering investors attractive rates that Athens is keen not to repeat.

Despite the upcoming discussions, a number of key European states are still reluctant to announce any bail-out plans, hoping instead that sufficient belt-tightening from Athens will be enough to allay market scepticism and bring down the country's borrowing costs. There will be no reason to make decisions about financial aid, German finance minister Wolfgang Schaeuble told the Bild Zeitung newspaper on Sunday. French finance minister Christine Lagarde has also indicated she is against an announcement this week. I'm certainly not expecting any decision being made, or any button being pressed, or any button being selected to be pressed, because it's totally premature, she told reporters in New York.The European Commission will present a report on Greece to the EU finance ministers who are expected to endorse the country's recently announced additional austerity measures of €4.8 billion. The emphasis is now likely to switch to implementation. The Greek parliament is set to vote on new tax legislation by the end of March, as the government seeks to boost its revenues, and legislation to increase the statutory retirement age is set to come the following month.However, a growing number of strikes and a new forecast suggesting the country's recession this year could be worse than previously anticipated are complicating the government's position, warn analysts.

EU foreign ministers ponder their post-Lisbon role
HONOR MAHONY 15.03.2010 @ 09:23 CET

EUOBSERVER / SAARISELKA - With some foreign ministers feeling slightly disenfranchised by the European Union's new legal set-up, they are seeking to find a new public role for themselves in the EU.Capitalising on this sentiment, Finland's foreign minister Alexander Stubb invited six of his EU counterparts, plus the Turkish foreign minister, for an informal brainstorming session on foreign policy strategy and possible future tasks for EU ministers in Lapland's Saariselka, some 250km north of the Arctic Circle.Speaking ahead of the discussions, which lasted roughly six hours over the weekend, Mr Stubb said: A lot of us are going through a bit of an existential crisis. I admit that. Many of us are a little bit disappointed that we don't participate in the European councils anymore.Under the Lisbon Treaty, foreign ministers no longer take part in EU summits while Catherine Ashton has become the new voice of the European Union in foreign policy.This is our new reality. We have to be more flexible with our role in the future, said Mr Stubb. He suggested making more use of foreign ministers as special political envoys for different kinds of crisis situations.

This was the topic of our meeting - how to co-ordinate, how to balance because we were just at the beginning of the implementation of the Lisbon Treaty, said French foreign minister Bernard Kouchner. He later added that special envoys must be chosen from within the gang of foreign ministers.Ms Ashton, also present at the Lapland meeting, was for her part open to the idea. After the discussions, she said that so long as the EU is speaking with one voice,the voice does not always have to be mine.We have to think about what is the best use of my time but also the best use of 27 foreign ministers either in groups or individually or altogether to deal with all of the issues that we are looking at,said Ms Ashton, who already has 46 pre-set meetings lined up for the period from September to the end of the year.Several of the ministers - France, Spain, Italy, Estonia, Sweden, Finland and Turkey were represented - praised the small informal setting, which included few officials and no note-takers.Swedish foreign minister Carl Bildt said it was useful, while France's Mr Kouchner pointed to the fact the ministers had hours rather than just minutes to discuss issues. He suggested more small-group discussions based on a rotation of ministers and devoted to one particular topic.Mr Stubb has already indicated he wants to showcase more of his native Finland, suggesting a further two to three meetings in the Lake District and in the Finnish Archipelago.

I think these type of informal discussions are what we need inside the European Union because it gives food for thought for our long term decisions, said Mr Stubb, indicating that he would in future invite Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov to be the outside commentator on EU foreign policy - a role Turkey's foreign minister Ahmet Davutoglu played over the weekend.Others warned against formalising small-group gatherings, however.Let's keep the informality, Mr Bildt told this website. He was also less gung ho about the foreign minister as special envoy idea, saying: We started a discussion about that but I think that will take its time.

Ukraine gives positive appraisal of new-model EU
ANDREW RETTMAN 15.03.2010 @ 09:21 CET

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Ukraine's ambassador to the EU, Andriy Veselovsky, has given an upbeat appraisal of the EU's new institutional set-up.Fresh from chaperoning Ukraine's recently-elected president, Viktor Yanukovych, through a long series of meetings on his first official visit to Brussels last month, the diplomat told reporters in Brussels that the post-Lisbon Treaty union has a clear division of labour.At the top tier, European Commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso speaks as the EU's government, while EU Council head Herman Van Rompuy is a strategist, Mr Veselovsky explained.Moving down the ladder, EU top diplomat Catherine Ashton is a specialist in bilateral relations, such as Ukraine-Belarus or Ukraine-Romania ties. Neighbourhood commissioner Stefan Fuele handles technical matters, such as Ukraine's Free Trade Agreement or its ratification of European Energy Community laws.

Meanwhile, European Parliament chief Jerzy Buzek articulates EU values, having explained to Mr Yanukovych the great weight the union places on democratic elections. Mr Veselovsky said the EU's loose leadership structure reflects the political reality on the ground.If you travel from Finland to Portugal, or from the UK to Bulgaria, you will see that Europe contains great differences both geographically and mentally. The mentalities are so different that to govern them with one voice is impossible, he said.It is very wise not to speed up integration too much, or you risk frightening people. Maybe in 10 years, Mr Van Rompuy will govern and not just preside over the Council.Not everything the union does looks reasonable from the outside, however. Mr Veselovsky said he does not understand why Ms Ashton came in for criticism for skipping an internal EU meeting to come to the Yanukovych inauguration. He called France's recent decision to sell warships to Russia despite complaints from its EU allies strange.The ambassador, who is an ardent supporter of Ukraine's EU accession, said that the limits of the European Union should be defined by culture as well as geography.The political limits are wherever people do not want to be part of Europe, where they do not think of themselves as European. Wherever you go in Ukraine, you have this [positive] answer. But in Russia you have another view: No, we are Russian. We only want to be part of Great Russia,he explained.

Mr Veselovsky also revealed that the commission is in June planning to give Ukraine a roadmap for visa-free travel.Full compliance is likely to take years. But the ambassador pointed to the Euro 2012 football championship, to be held in Ukraine and Poland, for a possible test run.That's how our new visa rules started out, he added, referring to Ukraine's decision to lift visas for EU citizens during the Eurovision Song Contest in Kiev in 2005, which were never reimposed.

Ashton to push for resumption of Israel-Palestine peace talks
HONOR MAHONY 13.03.2010 @ 18:45 CET

EUOBSERVER / SAARISELKA - On the eve of her first trip to the Middle East, EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton has said she will urge a restart of peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians.Speaking in Northern Finland, where she is taking part in informal discussions with seven other foreign ministers, Ms Ashton said she will make it clear ...that we want to see the parties get back to talks.We know the solution lies in their negotiation: I believe the time is right to do that while things are quite calm comparatively.The EU's top diplomat is travelling to the region just as plans for indirect talks between the two sides have been put in doubt after Israel gave the go-ahead for plans to build a further 1,600 homes for Jewish settlers in occupied East Jerusalem. The timing - the housing move was announced just before US vice president Joe Biden was due to meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu - and the substance of the decision have been criticised by Washington and Brussels.

Ms Ashton aims to appeal to Mr Netanyahu to use his domestic popularity to help start the talks. The relative calm of recent months is the moment at which a leader has to display leadership by taking his people to the possibility of long-term calm and prosperity, and that can only be done by a settlement, she said. Spanish foreign minister Miguel Moratinos, also present at the Finnish meeting, said the Ashton visit is: very timely and very important. He also underlined the urgency of getting the talks back on track.If we wait for more than two years, it will be too late, because ...there will be no object to negotiate, because there will be no land, and there will be no subject with whom to negotiate, because the Palestinian moderate leadership will not be able to maintain themselves as a peaceful partner, he said.

The EU ministers were conscious of the limits of what Ms Ashton can achieve on her trip.Finnish minister Alexander Stubb, who organised the get-together in Lapland, said the EU should not expect too much from the visit, noting that if the Israelis allow her into Gaza, which is ruled by the militant Hamas group, it will be very significant and symbolic.Israel at the beginning of the week said it would authorise entry to the Gaza strip for Ashton but the political dynamics have changed following the housing decision.Swedish foreign minister Carl Bildt, a widely respected foreign affairs strategist in the EU, said Israel's decision has opened the question of whether it is really committed to peace talks.There have been distinctly mixed signals recently. The government says that they are interested in re-starting the peace negotiations, but I think the signal that was sent the other day ...sent of course a decidedly bad signal, he said.It's now up to the Israeli government to really prove that they want the peace that is essential.Summing up her own intentions for the visit, widely seen as her biggest public foreign policy test to date, Ms Ashton said: It's my opportunity to meet with the key players in the region, the key people who will make a difference to the region in the end.Secondly, [it is] the chance to go and visit perhaps particularly Israel, Palestine. I am going into Gaza to see how EU aid is being spent. I am responsible for that and it is very important to get a chance to see how we are doing.

EU's gas pipe to Caspian Sea faces make or break decision
VALENTINA POP 15.03.2010 @ 18:09 CET

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS – Countries bordering the Caspian sea need to sign supply contracts this year for Europe's long-planned Nabucco gas pipeline if the project is to go ahead, with a ‘big push' expected from the European Commission and member states involved, one of the stakeholders told this website.Eight years into the preparation phase of the EU's most ambitious pipeline project, stakeholders are now increasingly nervous about securing the necessary gas supplies from Caspian littoral countries to make the investment worth while.We are basically sitting at the borders of Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan and waiting. We're in discussions, but we need now to pull this together to get the supply commitments, Jeremy Ellis, head of business development at German energy company RWE, one of the Nabucco stakeholders told EUobserver in a phone interview.The two countries, both of whom border the sea, have grown increasingly wary of the actual construction of the pipeline, as the years went by without the project coming to pass.The main hurdle now is giving Caspian producers the confidence that Nabucco is coming, because it is a big decision for them, to start committing these resources westwards, Mr Ellis said.One argument in favour of the project, in the businessman's view, is that Turkey has finally ratified a key agreement on transit conditions for the pipeline, which was sealed last year in Ankara between the five states involved: Turkey, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary and Austria.

More political backing, with a planned visit to the region by both the European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso and energy commissioner Gunther Oettinger is also aimed at pushing things forward.The commission earlier this month approved financial support to the tune of €200 million.We are going to see a lot more visibility and a big push in 2010 from the European Commission in helping us to pull this over the line. Everything that's been requested from the supplier countries, we've delivered. Now people need to make some decisions, he said.Energy commissioner Oettinger however admitted that the EU aid may be used elsewhere if Nabucco does not go ahead this year.The 3,300-kilometre-long pipeline would deliver 31 billion cubic metres annually, mainly from Azerbaijan and neighbouring Turkmenistan, with the possibility of including Iraqi and Egyptian gas at a later stage.The confidence problems in Caspian littoral countries towards the European project are re-inforced by Russia's promotion of a rival pipeline, South Stream, which would run on the seabed of the Black Sea and redistribute the same Caspian gas via Russia.Moscow is not the only competitor of the EU's central Asian energy ambitions. At the end of last year, China also scored against Europe's interests when it inaugurated a major new gas pipeline from Turkmenistan, pumping 40 billion cubic metres a year.However, the Nabucco people remain convinced that their project will bring Caspian littoral countries a better deal.It is a question of choice: Nabucco offers the cheapest transportation route directly to Europe and the best value for their gas, Mr Ellis said, while agreeing that economic rationale sometimes yields to political decisions, especially in that region.

Russia not on board

Meanwhile, a Russian minister has strongly rejected the idea of his country joining Nabucco, an idea floated by Gazprom's Italian partner in the South Stream project, ENI.We are not discussing these issues at all, energy minister Sergei Shmatko told reporters in Moscow. He added that South Stream was more competitive than Nabucco, but maintained that they were not rivals.Russia has gas to fill the pipeline and has signed agreements with transit countries for the onshore section of the link, Mr Shmatko said. Austria, the proposed terminus country for South Stream's northern branch, has yet to sign an agreement with Russia.In the Nabucco camp, however, South Stream is still seen as years behind the European project and costing at least twice the price of the onshore pipeline.

We failed on species extinction, admits EU
LEIGH PHILLIPS 15.03.2010 @ 17:33 CET

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - European Union environment ministers officially gave up on a decade-old target to stop the depletion of the continent's animal and plant species on Monday. We have missed our 2010 biodiversity target, obviously, European environment commissioner Janez Potocnik told reporters in Brussels following his first attendance at an EU environment council.We must not repeat that mistake.This is year we want to establish [new] baseline targets and develop a convincing strategy on how to ensure we won't fail again, he added.At a meeting of EU premiers and presidents in Gothenburg in 2001, the EU pledged to put an end to biodiversity loss by the end of 2010 - the International Year of Biodiversity. According to the commission, this was the result of an incomplete implementation of nature protection laws and insufficient integration of extinction considerations into other policies, despite the existence of an EU biodiversity action plan.The ministers were seriously concerned that both the EU and the global biodiversity 2010 targets have not been met, that biodiversity loss continues at an unacceptable rate entailing very serious ecological, economic and social consequences.In response, EU ministers have extended their own deadline by ten years, setting a new, mid-term headline target that all species loss within the EU will be ended by 2020 and a long-term target that by 2050, ecosystems will be appropriately protected and restored to prevent such losses in the future.The ministers requested the European Commission to submit a detailed plan for a post-2010 biodiversity strategy.Commissioner Potocnik said that the failure showed the need for an international body tackling biodiversity issues - Something like the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change,adding that EU ministers certainly stand behind such a proposal.

According to experts, more than a third of species are facing extinction and an estimated 60 percent of the earth's ecosystems have been degraded in the last 50 years.At the global level, discussions on the review of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) are already under way ahead of an international summit on the topic in Najoya, Japan from in October.Protecting biodiversity is not just something in terms of intrinsic value, but also useful for human life. Ecosystems make a contribution to human welfare and economic prosperity, said Spanish environment minister Elena Espinosa.Green groups, long aware of that the 2010 pledge was never going to be met, welcomed the new target date, noting that the ministers had gone for the most stringent of four policy framework options suggested by the commission last January.According to BirdLife International, said it is good to see that the Council voted for the strongest option on offer.

However, others warned of repeating the same mistakes. A similar decision was made in 2001 and nine years later the target was not achieved, warned WWF, which called on the biodiversity target adopted by ministers to be endorsed by EU premiers and presidents at the end of this month and for biodiversity to be integrated in the bloc's ten-year growth strategy, currently under discussion.It's all lip service unless biodiversity is fully reflected in key cross-cutting EU policies and strategies,the group said.

Euro ministers say have Greek aid plan if needed By Jan Strupczewski and Brian Love – Mon Mar 15, 6:52 pm ET

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Finance ministers from the 16-country euro zone agreed on Monday to mobilize financial aid for Greece rapidly if needed but revealed little of how their standby plan for the debt-stricken nation would work.After talks in Brussels, the ministers published a statement saying they had agreed the technicalities of what would be the first rescue in the history of the monetary union that gave birth to the euro in 1999.It (the Eurogroup of ministers) clarified the technical modalities enabling a decision on coordinated action and which could be activated swiftly in the case of need, the statement said.The objective would not be to provide financing at average euro zone interest rates, but to safeguard financial stability in the euro area as a whole.Jean-Claude Juncker, Luxembourg prime minister and chairman of the talks, said Athens had not requested help and that such aid, if deployed, would not involve loan guarantees, one of the options mooted ahead of the Brussels gathering.We think the question (of aid for Greece) will not arise, Juncker told a news conference.European Monetary Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn said Greece was taking bold action to reduce its deficit and rein in a debt that is worth more than its economic output.He and Juncker stuck to the statement's terms and fended off questions about how much money would be involved or what constituted the so-called technical modalities.

Austrian Finance Minister Josef Proell said Monday's talks did not focus on how much money to have on standby.Today there was no discussion at all of sums, he said.
Greece this month unveiled extra austerity measures to knock its deficit from 12.7 to 8.7 percent of gross domestic product, including cuts in public sector pay and tax hikes. A poll on Sunday showed most Greeks saw it as a good step.The measures and the euro zone's verbal backing have helped ease the premium Greece must offer over benchmark German bonds as it seeks to refinance some 20 billion euros ($27.5 billion) in debt that it has to roll over in April and May.But the so-called spread, or debt financing premium, remains unsustainable, analysts say, and policymakers are looking at what could be done to insulate Athens against market turbulence and a risk of default that has hurt the euro.

NO DETAILS

French Economy Minister Christine Lagarde said the aim had been to agree the technical modalities of the plan which would be put into effect if the need was to be felt, that is to say if markets do not understand the reality and the depth of the austerity plans.This is not a mechanism that is necessary today, she said.We indicated that the examination of the technical modalities is a work of anticipation but there is no reason to anticipate implementation. So I won't go into the technical details.Dutch Finance Minister Jan Kees De Jager said any help would be tied to tough conditions of the kind that the International Monetary Fund applies when rescuing countries in trouble.If we talk about measures, for example about loans, they will follow the same kind of methodology as the IMF, he said. Germany, Europe's biggest economy and the country that would be the linchpin of any support, is reluctant to bail out Greece and above all to rush into anything before Athens shows it is willing to take the painful steps needed to fix its finances. Market prices for Greece's debt initially rose on hopes of a more detailed commitment by the meeting, but analysts said a failure to give one could spark more selling.
Officially, the final decision on any aid for Greece would be for EU leaders if it came to that, Juncker said.

Ex-NY bank president first accused of TARP fraud By Grant McCool – Mon Mar 15, 6:19 pm ET

NEW YORK (Reuters) – The former president of New York's privately held Park Avenue Bank was arrested on Monday on fraud charges, the first person accused of attempting to steal U.S. government bailout funds in the financial crisis.The charges came just three days after regulators seized the bank, which had $520 million in assets.A 10-count criminal complaint said Charles Antonucci devised an elaborate round-trip loan transaction that he told others was his own $6.5 million investment in Park Avenue Bank, misleading bank regulators. Antonucci made false statements in the bank's application for $11.2 million from TARP, the Troubled Asset Relief Program, according to the complaint.Antonucci is the first person ever to be charged with attempting to defraud the TARP and we expect he will not be the last, Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said at a news conference.He declined to give further details of the continuing investigation, other than to say prosecutors and New York state bank regulators would be making a review of banks that appear to be having problems.

Antonucci, 59, appeared in Manhattan federal court and was released on $2 million bond. He did not enter a plea, but his lawyer said he would plead not guilty.Neil Barofsky, the special inspector general of TARP, told the news conference that Antonucci launched a criminal enterprise as soon as the U.S. Treasury announced its historic program to bail out the banks in late 2008.The charges today send a powerful message to those who tried to steal from the TARP, those who have stolen from the TARP and those who are contemplating similar fraudulent action, Barofsky said.You will be tracked down; you will be caught; you will be arrested; and you will be brought to justice.Bharara described a complex fraud, including a line of credit through a company called Easy Wealth; overdrafts to companies controlled by an unidentified co-conspirator; leases on personal property paid by the bank; a counterfeit certificate of deposit; and a $100,000 defrauding of the pastors of a church in Coral Springs, Florida.A second person, identified as Carlos Peralta, was charged with involvement in the scheme to defraud the church pastors. He was arrested in Colorado and was expected to appear in court in Denver.On Friday, regulators closed Park Avenue Bank and its deposits were sold to Valley Valley National Bank, part of Valley National Bancorp of Wayne, NJ.The regulators determined Park Avenue Bank was badly managed and critically undercapitalized, according to a statement on Friday by the New York State Banking Superintendent.

Antonucci was president of the bank from June 2004 to October 2009 and the alleged offenses occurred between October 2008 and February 2009, according to the court document.Investigators from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) first received a tip in Ecuador that someone there was interested in making an illegal business deal with Antonucci, ICE special-agent-in-charge James Hayes told reporters.

The criminal complaint said that while the bank's TARP application was under review by the FDIC, Charles Antonucci encouraged and caused other individuals acting on behalf of the bank to encourage the FDIC to grant the bank's TARP application, in part on the basis of Antonucci's purported personal investment of $6.5 million in new capital.Antonucci and others repeatedly singled out Antonucci's $6.5 million capital investment as evidence that the bank was viable and deserving of TARP funds.
Instead, the complaint said, the investment was a sham, round-trip transaction using the bank's own funds and was designed, at least in part, to deceive regulators about the bank's capital position.In November 2008, Park Avenue Bank applied for a bailout of less than $12 million under the TARP program, but withdrew its application over concerns about restrictions on banks that receive taxpayer money, bank chairman Donald Glascoff said a year ago. Antonucci was arrested on Monday morning at his home in Fishkill, New York. The charges include self-dealing, bank bribery, embezzlement and fraud on the New York state banking department, U.S. Federal Deposit Insurance Corp and TARP. If convicted, he would face up to 30 years in prison on some of the charges. These charges are what they are -- charges, Antonucci's lawyer, Charles Stillman, told reporters. (Reporting by Grant McCool; additional reporting by Edith Honan; editing by Gerald E. McCormick, Robert MacMillan and Andre Grenon)

OPEC members happy with oil output quota by Ben Perry - Mon Mar 15, 7:44 pm ET

VIENNA (AFP) – Key OPEC members on Monday said there was no need for the cartel to change its official oil output target owing to the current supply, demand and price situation amid a world economic recovery.The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries has no need to disturb a balanced oil market, Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Nuaimi told reporters ahead of the cartel's latest meeting to set production levels.
Asked if OPEC should change its official output quota at a meeting in Vienna on Wednesday, Nuaimi, whose country is the cartel's biggest oil producer, said: Why should we change? The market is in balance, the price is great, inventories are coming down, so why do we need to do anything? He added: Based on what we see, everybody's happy with the market. We are extremely happy with the market. The economy is doing well, (and it) will do better down the road. I don't see any reason to disturb this happy situation.The cartel's second largest producer Iran meanwhile said that OPEC should not raise its official output ceiling as there was still no sign of any increase in world demand.There is no increase in demand in the market and supplies have not decreased much, Oil Minister Masoud Mirkazemi told reporters before heading to Vienna.

OPEC, which pumps about 40 percent of the world's crude oil, has an official target level of 24.84 million barrels a day but is producing more than this.The head of Libya's National Oil Company said his country would call on fellow OPEC members at this week's meeting to comply with existing quotas.There is no need for a change to the output ceiling, Libyan oil chief Shukri Ghanem told reporters on arrival in Vienna, home to OPEC's headquarters.The market is over supplied. We are (instead) going to call for compliance, he added.Algerian Oil Minister Chakib Khelil meanwhile dismissed calls for OPEC to raise its official output level to reflect the cartel's real production.I don't think it would be a good idea,he told reporters.It would give the wrong signals if we do that.OPEC, a grouping of 12 Middle Eastern, African and Latin American oil producing countries, has had an official output level, excluding production by Iraq, of 24.84 million barrels a day since January 2009.

However the cartel pumped out 26.70 million barrels a day in February, excluding Iraq, and 29.24 million with production from the unsettled nation, the International Energy Agency estimated on Friday.OPEC members are keen for greater compliance with the official output quota amid its concern that demand for oil could weaken as governments look to end unprecedented measures that have put countries on a road to economic recovery.Khelil meanwhile predicted that crude prices would hold pretty well until the end of 2010.Oil prices slid about 1.50 dollars on Monday but remained close to 80 dollars a barrel -- a level deemed reasonable by OPEC members. Oil prices tumbled from historic highs of more than 147 dollars in July 2008 to about 32 dollars in December in response to the global recession but have since clawed back ground on economic recovery hopes.

The Pope's Role in a German Priest's Sex-Abuse Scandal By TRISTANA MOORE / BERLIN – Mon Mar 15, 10:25 pm ET

Back in April 2005, Germany was overjoyed when a native son was elevated to the papacy. But in the past week, the Catholic Church in the country has faced a barrage of criticism from politicians and the media as well as from the faithful - and much of the ire is focused on the German who is now Supreme Pontiff in Rome. On Monday, March 15, the daily SÜddeutsche Zeitung splashed the headline Benedict XVI Remains Silent on a front-page story describing how the Pope declined to comment on the growing priestly sexual-abuse scandal in his native Germany during public prayers in the Vatican on Sunday.The abuse scandal has been a nightmare, Alois GlÜck, president of Germany's lay organization, the Central Committee of German Catholics, tells TIME.It's one of the worst crises that we've seen in the Catholic Church here in Germany.The Catholic Church has been on the defensive in Germany since January, when at least 50 cases of sexual abuse from the 1970s and '80s were reported at the Jesuit high school, Canisius College, in Berlin - with two priests linked as alleged perpetrators. That was the catalyst. Within weeks, dozens of victims came forward with accusations at other Catholic schools and institutions. With up to 200 allegations of abuse, 22 out of Germany's 27 Roman Catholic dioceses have been affected by the scandal. Even the famous choir of Regensburg, in Bavaria, which the Pope's brother Georg Ratzinger led for 30 years, has been drawn into the scandal, after former choirboys described a system of sadistic punishments and sexual lust. (The retired Georg Ratzinger says he didn't know about the alleged sexual-abuse incidents.)

Benedict himself has been linked to the latest controversies. In the early 1980s, a priest suspected of abuse was transferred to the Pope's former archdiocese in Munich - and that case has raised further awkward questions about the Church's handling of abuse allegations. Last Friday, the Archdiocese of Munich and Freising confirmed in a statement that serious mistakes were made in the 1980s after the priest, known as Father H, was moved from the western city of Essen to Munich and was allowed to continue with his pastoral work. According to the SÜddeutsche Zeitung, Father H had been transferred from Essen after he allegedly forced an 11-year-old boy to engage in oral sex.Church officials in Munich said the Pope, who as Joseph Ratzinger was Archbishop of Munich from 1977 to 1982, was involved in the decision to house the priest at the archdiocese so he could receive therapy. But the archdiocese insisted that the decision to reassign the priest to pastoral work was taken by Archbishop Ratzinger's then deputy, Vicar General Gerhard Gruber, who said he took full responsibility for the decision to allow the priest to return to work. Father H was convicted in 1986 of sexually abusing minors, receiving a suspended prison sentence and a fine. Despite the jail sentence, the priest controversially carried on with his pastoral duties. On Sunday, some members of the congregation in Bavaria where the priest used to work walked out of Mass in protest, furious after reading reports about the history of abuse. On Monday, the Archdiocese of Munich and Freising announced that Father H was being suspended immediately from his pastoral duties (ministering to tourists in the Bavarian spa town of Bad TÖlz) because he had violated the conditions under which he was allowed to work, which prohibited contact with young people. Church officials in Munich said there were no new reports of sexual abuse linked to the priest. His superior, Prelate Josef Obermaier, resigned on Monday.

It's very disappointing that the Pope has kept silent on this issue, says Chris Weisner, spokesman for the Catholic reform group We Are Church. Many Catholics in Germany had hoped that the Pope would have expressed a word of personal sympathy for the victims of abuse,he said. Indeed, on the Good Friday before Ratzinger became Pope in 2005, he issued a resounding call for reform in the Church, saying,How much filth there is in the church, and even among those ... in the priesthood - widely believed to have been a reference to the abuse scandals affecting the Church's standing in North America and other parts of the world. The Church's reputation in Germany has taken a beating from the daily drip of new allegations. A poll published by the TNS Emnid Institute on Sunday found that 71% of Germans believe the abuse scandal has damaged the credibility of the Catholic Church.The Vatican issued stern statements over the weekend suggesting there was a plot to smear the Pope. The head of Germany's Catholic Church, Archbishop Robert Zollitsch, held a private audience with the Pope at the Vatican on Friday. After their meeting, the head of the German Bishops' Conference said he'd briefed the Pope on the situation in Germany. With great shock, keen interest and deep sadness, the Holy Father took note of what I had to say,Zollitsch told reporters. The Archbishop said the Pope had encouraged German bishops to proceed with determination and courage in investigating the allegations of abuse, and added that church leaders in Germany would intensify preventive measures in schools and local communities and conduct a review of current guidelines on priests suspected of abuse. The aim, he said, was to uncover the truth and have an honest clarification of the incidents, even if they took place years ago.It remains to be seen if that will be enough to allay the frustrations of Catholics who feel the Church has been keener on protecting accused priests than comforting their alleged victims. Catholic grass-roots groups say the Church should set up more telephone hotlines so victims of abuse can report cases easily and needs to be more proactive in dealing with errant priests.The Church should actively cooperate with state prosecutors in making public abuse cases and step up preventive measures, like background checks and training young priests and children to identify and avoid sexual abuse,says Weisner.In the past, the Church's priority was to protect itself, and this encouraged a culture of cover-up and looking away,says GlÜck, the lay Catholic leader.The priority now should be to care for the victims and review some of the structures within the Church.

NUCLEAR WEAPONS WILL BE USED.

PSALMS 97:3
3 A fire goeth before him, and burneth up his enemies round about.

REVELATION 14:18-20
18 And another angel came out from the altar, which had power over fire; and cried with a loud cry to him that had the sharp sickle, saying, Thrust in thy sharp sickle, and gather the clusters of the vine of the earth; for her grapes are fully ripe.
19 And the angel thrust in his sickle into the earth, and gathered the vine of the earth, and cast it into the great winepress of the wrath of God.
20 And the winepress was trodden without the city,(JERUSALEM) and blood came out of the winepress, even unto the horse bridles, by the space of a thousand and six hundred furlongs.(200 MILES) (THE SIZE OF ISRAEL)

ISAIAH 66:15-18
15 For, behold, the LORD will come with fire, and with his chariots like a whirlwind, to render his anger with fury, and his rebuke with flames of fire.
16 For by fire and by his sword will the LORD plead with all flesh: and the slain of the LORD shall be many.
17 They that sanctify themselves, and purify themselves in the gardens behind one tree in the midst, eating swine's flesh, and the abomination, and the mouse, shall be consumed together, saith the LORD.
18 For I know their works and their thoughts: it shall come, that I will gather all nations and tongues; and they shall come, and see my glory.

ISAIAH 26:21
21 For, behold, the LORD cometh out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity: the earth also shall disclose her blood, and shall no more cover her slain.(WW3,1/2 earths population die).

ISAIAH 13:6-13 KJV
6 Howl ye; for the day of the LORD is at hand; it shall come as a destruction from the Almighty.
7 Therefore shall all hands be faint, and every man's heart shall melt:(FROM FRIGHT)
8 And they shall be afraid: pangs and sorrows shall take hold of them; they shall be in pain as a woman that travaileth: they shall be amazed one at another; their faces shall be as flames.
9 Behold, the day of the LORD cometh, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate: and he shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it.
10 For the stars of heaven and the constellations thereof shall not give their light: the sun shall be darkened in his going forth, and the moon shall not cause her light to shine.
11 And I will punish the world for their evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; and I will cause the arrogancy of the proud to cease, and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible.
12 I will make a man more precious than fine gold; even a man than the golden wedge of Ophir.
13 Therefore I will shake the heavens, and the earth shall remove out of her place, in the wrath of the LORD of hosts, and in the day of his fierce anger.

ISAIAH 24:17-23 KJV
17 Fear, and the pit, and the snare, are upon thee, O inhabitant of the earth.
18 And it shall come to pass, that he who fleeth from the noise of the fear shall fall into the pit; and he that cometh up out of the midst of the pit shall be taken in the snare: for the windows from on high are open, and the foundations of the earth do shake.
19 The earth is utterly broken down, the earth is clean dissolved, the earth is moved exceedingly.
20 The earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard, and shall be removed like a cottage; and the transgression thereof shall be heavy upon it; and it shall fall, and not rise again.
21 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the LORD shall punish the host of the high ones that are on high, and the kings of the earth upon the earth.
22 And they shall be gathered together, as prisoners are gathered in the pit, and shall be shut up in the prison, and after many days shall they be visited.
23 Then the moon shall be confounded, and the sun ashamed, when the LORD of hosts shall reign in mount Zion, and in Jerusalem, and before his ancients gloriously.

2 TIMOTHY 3:1
1 This know also, that in the last days perilous (DANGEROUS) times shall come.

JOEL 2:3,30
3 A fire devoureth before them; and behind them a flame burneth: the land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness; yea, and nothing shall escape them.
30 And I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke.

ZECHARIAH 14:12-13
12 And this shall be the plague wherewith the LORD will smite all the people that have fought against Jerusalem; Their flesh shall consume away while they stand upon their feet, and their eyes shall consume away in their holes, and their tongue shall consume away in their mouth.
13 And it shall come to pass in that day, that a great tumult from the LORD shall be among them; and they shall lay hold every one on the hand of his neighbour, and his hand shall rise up against the hand of his neighbour.

EZEKIEL 20:47
47 And say to the forest of the south, Hear the word of the LORD; Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I will kindle a fire in thee, and it shall devour every green tree in thee, and every dry tree: the flaming flame shall not be quenched, and all faces from the south to the north shall be burned therein.

ZEPHANIAH 1:18
18 Neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them in the day of the LORD'S wrath; but the whole land shall be devoured by the fire of his jealousy: for he shall make even a speedy riddance of all them that dwell in the land.

MALACHI 4:1
1 For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the LORD of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.

REVELATION 8:7
7 The first angel sounded, and there followed hail and fire mingled with blood, and they were cast upon the earth: and the third part of trees was burnt up, and all green grass was burnt up.

REVELATION 9:18
18 By these three was the third part of men killed, by the fire, and by the smoke, and by the brimstone, which issued out of their mouths.

HALF OF EARTHS POPULATION DIE DURING THE 7 YR TRIBULATION.(THESE VERSES ARE JUDGEMENT SCRIPTURES NOT RAPTURE SCRIPTURES)

LUKE 17:34-37
34 I tell you, in that night there shall be two men in one bed; the one shall be taken, and the other shall be left.
35 Two women shall be grinding together; the one shall be taken, and the other left.
36 Two men shall be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left.
37 And they answered and said unto him, Where, Lord? And he said unto them, Wheresoever the body is, thither will the eagles be gathered together.(Christians have new bodies,this is the people against Jerusalem during the 7 yr treaty)(Christians bodies are not being eaten by the birds).

MATTHEW 24:37-51
37 But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
38 For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark,
39 And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
40 Then shall two be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left.
41 Two women shall be grinding at the mill; the one shall be taken, and the other left.
42 Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come.
43 But know this, that if the goodman of the house had known in what watch the thief would come, he would have watched, and would not have suffered his house to be broken up.
44 Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh.
45 Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his lord hath made ruler over his household, to give them meat in due season?
46 Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing.
47 Verily I say unto you, That he shall make him ruler over all his goods.
48 But and if that evil servant shall say in his heart, My lord delayeth his coming;
49 And shall begin to smite his fellowservants, and to eat and drink with the drunken;
50 The lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for him, and in an hour that he is not aware of,
51 And shall cut him asunder, and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

WW3 THE 3 WAVES THAT MARCH TO ISRAEL

AMOS 9:10
10 All the sinners of my people shall die by the sword, which say, The evil shall not overtake nor prevent us.

DANIEL 11:40-45
40 And at the time of the end shall the king of the south( EGYPT) push at him:(EU DICTATOR IN ISRAEL) and the king of the north (RUSSIA AND MUSLIM HORDES OF EZEK 38+39) shall come against him like a whirlwind, with chariots, and with horsemen, and with many ships; and he shall enter into the countries, and shall overflow and pass over.
41 He shall enter also into the glorious land, and many countries shall be overthrown: but these shall escape out of his hand, even Edom, and Moab, and the chief of the children of Ammon.(JORDAN)
42 He shall stretch forth his hand also upon the countries: and the land of Egypt shall not escape.
43 But he shall have power over the treasures of gold and of silver, and over all the precious things of Egypt: and the Libyans and the Ethiopians shall be at his steps.
44 But tidings out of the east(CHINA 2ND WAVE OF WW3) and out of the north(RUSSIA, MUSLIMS WHATS LEFT FROM WAVE 1) shall trouble him:(EU DICTATOR IN ISRAEL) therefore he shall go forth with great fury to destroy, and utterly to make away many.( 1/3RD OF EARTHS POPULATION)
45 And he shall plant the tabernacles of his palace between the seas in the glorious holy mountain; yet he shall come to his end, and none shall help him.

REVELATION 14:18-20
18 And another angel came out from the altar, which had power over fire; and cried with a loud cry to him that had the sharp sickle, saying, Thrust in thy sharp sickle, and gather the clusters of the vine of the earth; for her grapes are fully ripe.
19 And the angel thrust in his sickle into the earth, and gathered the vine of the earth, and cast it into the great winepress of the wrath of God.
20 And the winepress was trodden without the city,(JERUSALEM) and blood came out of the winepress, even unto the horse bridles, by the space of a thousand and six hundred furlongs.(200 MILES) (THE SIZE OF ISRAEL)

The Third and Final Wave of WW3 is when all Nations march to Jerusalem, but JESUS bodily returns to earth and destroys them,sets up his KINGDOM OF RULE FOR 1000 YEARS THEN FOREVER.

2ND WAVE CHINA AND KINGS OF THE EAST MARCH TO ISRAEL

REVELATION 16:12
12 And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates; and the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared.(THIS IS THE ATATURK DAM IN TURKEY,THEY CROSS OVER).

DANIEL 11:44 (2ND WAVE OF WW3)
44 But tidings out of the east(CHINA) and out of the north(RUSSIA, MUSLIMS WHATS LEFT FROM WAVE 1) shall trouble him:(EU DICTATOR IN ISRAEL) therefore he shall go forth with great fury to destroy, and utterly to make away many.( 1/3RD OF EARTHS POPULATION)

REVELATION 9:12-18
12 One woe is past; and, behold, there come two woes more hereafter.
13 And the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God,
14 Saying to the sixth angel which had the trumpet, Loose the four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates.(IRAQ-SYRIA)
15 And the four angels were loosed, which were prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, for to slay the third part of men.(1/3 Earths Population die in WW 3 2ND WAVE)
16 And the number of the army of the horsemen were two hundred thousand thousand:(200 MILLION MAN ARMY FROM CHINA AND THE KINGS OF THE EAST) and I heard the number of them.
17 And thus I saw the horses in the vision, and them that sat on them, having breastplates of fire, and of jacinth, and brimstone: and the heads of the horses were as the heads of lions; and out of their mouths issued fire and smoke and brimstone.(NUCLEAR BOMBS)
18 By these three was the third part of men killed, by the fire, and by the smoke, and by the brimstone, which issued out of their mouths.(NUCLEAR BOMBS)

China knows its duties in Iran nuclear tussle: Saudi
Mon Mar 15, 2:52 pm ET

RIYADH (AFP) – China fully knows what it should do as a global power in the effort to halt Iran's nuclear push, Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal said in an interview published Monday.China is perfectly aware of the scope of its responsibilities and its obligations, including in the position it holds on the international stage and as a permanent member of the (UN) Security Council, Prince Saud told Al-Riyadh newspaper.He underscored that China is a member of the six-party international group dealing with the Iran nuclear crisis, adding Riyadh supports the group's work, and he hoped Iran would cooperate with its efforts.We hope that Iran would cooperate with those efforts, and to see an end to the crisis in a way that would serve in making the region free of all weapons of mass destruction, nuclear weapons in particular, he said.Saud was responding to a question about Riyadh's official denial last Friday that Saudi officials had discussed with visiting US Defence Secretary Robert Gates pressuring China to support more sanctions on Iran.

Gates told journalists two days before that it was a part of his talks with Saudi King Abdullah and other officials, but in an official statement the Saudi government said the issue was not discussed.Washington has been seeking Saudi help in pressuring China to distance itself from Iran to support a new round of UN sanctions on Tehran.China depends on both Saudi Arabia and Iran for a large part of its crude oil imports.The US and European allies hope new sanctions could help stop Iran's alleged push to develop nuclear weapons, but China's lack of support has made it unlikely the proposed sanctions would be approved by the Security Council.According to the Washington Post last week, Prince Saud made a quiet trip to Beijing in early March to discuss the issue.Saudi officials have neither confirmed nor denied the report.

China takes over from West as Iran's main economic partner by Laurent Maillard – Mon Mar 15, 12:23 pm ET

TEHRAN (AFP) – China has emerged as Iran's top economic partner, investing heavily in the energy sector and filling the gaps left by Western firms forced out by international sanctions.In 2009, China became Iran's premier trade partner, with bilateral trade worth 21.2 billion dollars against 14.4 billion dollars three years earlier.The figures confirm the exponential growth in commercial ties between the two countries, which were almost non-existent 15 years ago, when trade volumes amounted to just 400 million dollars.According to official data, Western sanctions have opened the way for Chinese companies, which last year directly supplied Iran with 13 percent (7.9 billion dollars) of its imports.Iranian estimates also suggest that an equivalent amount was imported indirectly through the United Arab Emirates in 2009.The West is pressuring China, one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, to back further sanctions against Iran over its controversial nuclear programme.But new sanctions could harm the Asian powerhouse's burgeoning economic ties with the Islamic republic and Beijing insists diplomacy is the best way to end the standoff.British Foreign Secretary David Miliband is in China this week for talks in which Iran's nuclear programme and sanctions are certain to be raised.Prior to China's ascendancy, Germany was Iran's largest importer for more than 20 years.

Now the growth in Sino-Iranian trade ties is expected to continue in 2010 with the recovery of the global economy, according to a European analyst.Chinese companies are also making investments in a number of major projects in Iran, like the construction of a motorway linking Tehran and the Caspian Sea, via the Alborz mountains.China is investing significantly in Iran's energy sector, although its oil purchases from the Islamic republic are a meagre 11.4 percent, far behind Angola and Saudi Arabia, which supply more than half of Beijing's crude imports.With some 15 to 20 billion dollars worth of oil and gas contracts signed and an equivalent amount of new investments being negotiated, according to oil experts in Tehran, energy-hungry China has emerged as Iran's largest foreign investor.There is only Beijing which is still investing massively in Iran, said one expert, speaking on condition of anonymity.The political pressures, financial problems caused by the banking restrictions and the uncertain economic returns have discouraged companies like Total, Shell, ENI and Statoil from renewing their investments in Iran, he added.

China, which does not have these constraints and is concerned with securing its long-term energy needs, has taken the lead since 2005.Iranian Oil Minister Masoud Mirkazemi backs this arguments, saying Chinese leaders will not allow others to intervene when it comes to Beijing's ties with Tehran.We have good cooperation with China. I congratulate the Chinese leadership which is seeking its nation's interest and wants to have a secure source of energy,Mirkazemi told reporters on Monday.
China National Petroleum Corp, the country's largest oil firm, and its subsidiary Petrochina agreed last year to invest some eight to nine billion dollars in one gas and two oil projects in Iran. The oil projects are in Khuzestan, in southwestern Iran, while the gas project is at the giant South Pars field in the Gulf, where the Chinese firms replaced France's Total. Sinopec, China's largest oil refining company, has also been involved since 2007 in exploiting Khuzestan's Yadavaran oil field, which envisages an investment of nearly three billion dollars. Britain's Financial Times said in a report this month that Chinese companies are now supplying one-third of Iranian imports of petroleum products following the withdrawal of major Western suppliers.However, analysts say the development of Sino-Iranian relations could run up against serious obstacles. Tehran wants China to invest, but at the same time it is very protective of its own businesses,said Hatef Haeri, who runs Bedigest.com, an Iranian economic information service.

So Chinese companies face real mistrust in Iran, and must also overcome big cultural and linguistics barriers.For its part, Beijing could be reluctant to sacrifice other more important interests if Western pressure intensifies. Zhu Weilie, head of the Middle East Studies Institute at Shanghai International Studies University, said Iran's trade influence with China was far outweighed by China's commercial ties to the West. The US certainly matters most to China in terms of interests, he said. China has extremely big trade volumes with the US, Europe and Japan, while trading volumes between China and Iran are just 20 billion dollars a year.Two-way trade between China and the United States totalled 409 billion dollars in 2009, according to the US Congressional Research Service.

MUSLIM NATIONS

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

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

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

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

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

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

Israel reopening of historic synagogue angers Palestinians by Michael Blum – Mon Mar 15, 5:39 pm ET

JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israel on Monday reopened a landmark synagogue in Jerusalem's walled Old City, saying it should symbolise religious tolerance, 62 years after the building was destroyed in fighting with Jordan.In a video message because he was unable to attend personally, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the synagogue brought a message of coexistence.We permit believers of other faiths to conserve their places of worship. We proudly protect our heritage, while at the same time allowing others freedom of religion, he said.But the rededication came against a backdrop of heightened political and religious tensions in the holy city, with thousands of police deployed after clashes with Palestinian demonstrators.

Palestinian rivals the secular Fatah and Islamist Hamas were united in their condemnation of the move.Exiled Hamas political leader Khaled Meshaal slammed it as a falsification of history, and warned it could cause the Middle East to explode.
Hamas also declared Tuesday a day of rage and alarm and called on Arabs and Muslims to come to the aid of Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa.Israel is playing with fire and touching off the first spark to make the region explode, he said.Hatem Abdel Qader, who oversees Jerusalem affairs for Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas's Fatah, said: This is not just a synagogue.This synagogue will be a prelude to violence, extremism and religious fanaticism, and that will not be limited to extremist Jews but includes members of the Israeli government.

The United States however, called Palestinian comments incitement.We are deeply disturbed by statements made by several Palestinian officials mischaracterising the event in question, which can only serve to heighten the tensions we see, State Department spokesman Philip Crowley told reporters.We call upon Palestinian officials to put an end to such incitement, he said, without singling out officials by name.The ceremony was attended by parliament speaker Reuven Rivlin, ministers and the chief rabbis of Israel.Yona Metzger, the Ashkenazi chief rabbi, placed at the entrance of the synagogue a mezuza -- the parchment scroll inscribed with a verse from the Torah and placed in a case which Jewish families hang on door frames.

Monday's ceremony came as Israel barred men under the age of 50 and non-Muslims from entering the Al-Aqsa mosque compound for a fourth day running after clashes between police and Palestinians in and around the site.Meshaal, the leader of Hamas which rules the Gaza Strip, denounced the ceremony.We warn against this action by the Zionist enemy to rebuild and dedicate the Hurva synagogue. It signifies the destruction of the Al-Aqsa mosque and the building of the temple, he said in Syria.

Al-Aqsa and the rebuilt Hurva synagogue are around 700 metres (yards) apart in the Old City. The Al-Aqsa compound is Islam's third holiest site after Mecca and Medina in Saudi Arabia. It is also Judaism's holiest site because it was the location of the Second Temple, destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD. The synagogue was first built in 1694 and destroyed 21 years later by Ottoman authorities who held power at the time. The site lay empty for many years and acquired the name Hurva, Hebrew for ruin, before being rebuilt in 1864 and becoming a centre for the Jewish community in the Holy Land. It was blown to pieces in 1948, after Jordan captured the Old City from the newly established state of Israel, during the battle for control of Jerusalem. The synagogue's latest incarnation is the result of a 20-million-dollar (15-million-euro) government-funded restoration project. The ceremony was held hot on the heels of a controversial Israeli decision to build 1,600 new Jewish settlements in predominantly Arab east Jerusalem, leading the Palestinians to rule out peace talks until the move is reversed.

Merkel: Iran sanctions needed
Mon Mar 15, 10:26 am ET

BERLIN – German Chancellor Angela Merkel says new sanctions are needed against Iran to pressure the country into settling the dispute over its nuclear program.Speaking to reporters Monday after talks with Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri, Merkel said Iran had rejected all constructive offers put forward by the group of six nations negotiating with Tehran.She says: We are about to enter the stage where sanctions should be taken against Iran.The U.S., Britain, France and Germany have been pushing a fourth round of sanctions against Iran, while China and Russia have been calling for diplomatic negotiations.Iran insists its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes, while the U.S. and its allies maintain it aims to develop nuclear weapons.

Egypt stock market falls on Mubarak health worries
Mon Mar 15, 11:00 am ET

CAIRO (AFP) – Share prices fell in Egypt on Monday over what analysts said were concerns about the health of President Hosni Mubarak who has not appeared in public since surgery in Germany on March 6.Egypt's benchmark EGX 30 index fell 3.84 percent by the close, after a fall of 2.40 percent on Sunday.There is uncertainty in the stock exchange, particularly among Egyptian investors, due to worries about the health of President Mubarak, an expert at a large financial house in Cairo told AFP on condition of anonymity.This will carry on until he makes an appearance, a financial analyst said, echoing the view of many in the sector.Another analyst said the drop was caused by bad communication over the president's health. Other bourses are steady or doing fine. There is no other reason for the drop in the Egyptian market,he said.

Mubarak, 81, is said to be recovering after having his gall bladder and a growth in the small intestine removed. Official statements from his medical team say the operation went well and that the tissue removed was benign.The president was in a witty mood and his recovery progressing normally, according to the latest update on Saturday.But the veteran leader has not made a public appearance since his operation more than a week ago and no photograph of him in the German hospital has been made public.There is also no indication of when Mubarak is expected back in Egypt.Egypt is waiting for a photo of President Mubarak, read a headline in the opposition daily Al-Dustur, although a presenter on state television said he could soon address the Egyptian people by telephone from his hospital room.The octogenarian, who has been in power for 29 years, has temporarily delegated powers to Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif, in line with the constitution. He has yet to announce if he will run in next year's presidential election.

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).

DRUG PUSHERS AND ADDICTS

REVELATION 18:23
23 And the light of a candle shall shine no more at all in thee; and the voice of the bridegroom and of the bride shall be heard no more at all in thee: for thy merchants were the great men of the earth; for by thy sorceries (DRUGS) were all nations deceived.

REVELATION 9:21
21 Neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries (DRUGS), nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts.

New HIV infections increasing among homosexuals By EDITH M. LEDERER, Associated Press Writer - MAR 16,10

NEW YORK – New HIV infections are increasing among homosexuals, drug users and prostitutes who don't seek help because of laws that criminalize these practices, the head of the U.N. AIDS agency said Monday.Michel Sidibe, the head of UNAIDS, said it is unacceptable that 85 countries still have laws criminalizing same sex relations among adults, including seven that impose the death penalty for homosexual practices.He called a proposed Ugandan law that would impose the death penalty for some gays very unfortunate and expressed hope it will never be approved.At a time when UNAIDS is scaling up its program and seeking universal access to HIV treatment, Sidibe said he was very scared because bad laws are being introduced by countries making it impossible for these at risk groups to have access to services.You have also a growing conservatism which is making me very scared, Sidibe added.We must insist that the rights of the minorities are upheld. If we don't do that ... I think the epidemic will grow again, he warned. We cannot accept the tyranny of the majority.Sidibe told a group of journalists at a luncheon hosted by the United Nations Foundation that in countries from China to Kenya and Malawi, about 33 percent of new HIV infections are in men having sex with men, a significant increase.

By contrast, he said that in the Caribbean where most countries don't have repressive laws, only between 3 and 6 percent of HIV infections are in male homosexuals.Even in the United States, where laws are not restrictive and the gay community was the first to tackle AIDS, Sidibe said it is shocking that more than 50 percent of new HIV infections last year occurred among homosexuals. And he said in the 19-25 age bracket the infection rate was even higher.It seems like we have come full circle in the United States, he said.After almost no cases a few years ago we are seeing again this new peak among people who are not having access to all the information, the protection that is needed.In addition to failing to adequately deliver the right messages about AIDS prevention, Sidibe blamed complacency in a new generation that has access to treatment.He added that this was not just a problem in the U.S. but in Europe and in Africa as well.Sidibe said drug users are also getting the HIV virus that causes AIDS in high numbers.You have 70 percent of new infections occurring in Eastern Europe and Central Asia among drug users, but they are criminalized,he said.They don't have access to services. They have to hide themselves and go underground.

Of the 16 million people in the world who are injecting drugs, almost 3 million are HIV positive, and among them less than 4 percent have access to treatment and less than 8 percent have access to services, Sidibe said.It's the same for men having sex with men, he said.In Nigeria, where there are 1,000 new HIV infections every day, over 30 percent are in vulnerable groups — drug users, sex workers and homosexuals, he said.Sidibe called for a prevention revolution including a campaign in major cities around the world like the anti-smoking campaigns launched in recent years.

94 people in SW China found to have lead poisoning
Mon Mar 15, 6:50 am ET

BEIJING – At least 94 people living near a lead factory, most of them children, have tested positive for lead poisoning, state media said Monday, prompting authorities to order the closure of the plant. Hundreds more people are still waiting for test results.Reports of lead poisoning have emerged around the country since last year, highlighting the heavy environmental cost of China's rapid economic development.

Authorities organized medical tests for some 1,600 residents in four villages within an 2,600-foot (800-meter) radius of the Zhongyi Alloy Co. in Longchang county of Sichuan province's Neijiang city, the official Xinhua News Agency reported Monday.
Ninety-four residents, including 88 children, were found to be suffering from lead poisoning, while 745 others were waiting for their test results.Seven children were being treated in the provincial capital of Chengdu, while the others were under observation at home, the report said.Zhongyi, which authorities suspected was to blame for the lead poisoning, was ordered closed, Xinhua said.The illnesses were discovered after a local resident was found in a health checkup to have excessive levels of lead and the matter was reported to the county environmental protection bureau.An official in the Longchang county government's information office, surnamed Liu, said Monday he had no new information.Excessive amounts of lead in the body can harm the nervous and reproductive systems and cause high blood pressure and anemia. In severe cases, it can lead to convulsions, coma and death.

Canada home resales cool for 2nd straight month By Ka Yan Ng – Mon Mar 15, 3:20 pm ET

TORONTO (Reuters) – Sales of existing homes in Canada dipped for a second straight month in February, but remained high on a year-over-year basis, as the market may be moving into more balanced conditions, data showed on Monday.The Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) said a total of 42,799 homes changed hands last month, down 1.5 percent from January, as a large gain in sales in Toronto were offset by declines in Vancouver and other British Columbia housing markets.The report was welcomed by Finance Minister Jim Flaherty, who said the country's cooler home resales data was headed in the right direction. He also repeated that there is no evidence of a housing market bubble in Canada.Across Canada, sales rose 44 percent from the same month last year, a smaller gain in national activity from the previous three months. This was in line with economists' views that year-over-year comparisons are likely to shrink in coming months because the recovery of the housing market started in February 2009.After a relatively short spell of low consumer confidence during the global financial crisis, Canadian homebuyers quickly returned to the market, taking advantage of record low interest rates, and made the housing sector one of the cornerstones of the domestic economic recovery. The overall pace of the rebound in the past 12 months has encouraged debate about a housing bubble.Looking beyond the buoyant year-on-year gains in sales and prices, most of the underlying statistics reveal that the broader housing market is beginning to simmer down after last year's amazing turnaround,said Doug Porter, deputy chief economist at BMO Capital Markets.

It appears that the housing market will pull up just short of bubble territory.
Buyers looking to get into the market before interest rates likely start rising this year, and ahead of new mortgage rules in April, could also contribute to a burst of sales before the sector cools in the second half of the year.We should see the Canadian housing market move slowly back into a balanced-market position as higher mortgage rates and prices begin to temper demand, said Millan Mulraine, economics strategist at TD Securities.Also, rising supply -- new listings rose for a fifth straight month, up 2.4 percent -- could take the steam out of the housing markets as the year progresses, said Gregory Klump, CREA's chief economist..CREA said the national average home price in February rose 18.2 percent from a year earlier to C$335,655 ($329,074).The Winter Olympics, which were held in the host city of Vancouver and nearby areas, may have played a factor in lower sales in the province last month so activity will be closely watched in March, the real estate group said.

Unit sales in British Columbia were down 13.3 percent in February from January, compared with a 3.3 percent advance in Ontario. Both these markets are expected to see a heated spring housing season before new harmonized sales tax regimes come into effect in July.(Additional reporting by Walden Siew in New York; editing by Rob Wilson)

TSX ends lower on oils, materials
Mon Mar 15, 4:12 pm ET

TORONTO (Reuters) – Toronto's main stock index ended lower on Monday as declines in its energy and materials sectors outweighed a rise in financial issues.The Toronto Stock Exchange's S&P/TSX composite index unofficially closed down 11.79 points, or 0.1 percent, at 12,002.03.(Reporting by John McCrank; editing by Peter Galloway)

Canadian dollar ends 11-day run higher, bonds firm
By Ka Yan Ng – Mon Mar 15, 5:00 pm ET

TORONTO (Reuters) – The Canadian dollar tipped lower against the U.S. currency on Monday as easing oil prices and lower stock markets caused investors to pause for the first time after an 11-day stretch of gains.But even as risk appetite waned, the currency held near its 20-month highs. Another day of gains was not in the cards, however, as prices for oil, a key Canadian export, dropped below $80 a barrel and monetary policy concerns mounted.The Canadian dollar climbed in the overnight session, peaking at C$1.0165 to the U.S. dollar, or 98.38 U.S. cents, but was mainly lower for much of the North American session.It closed at C$1.0197 to the U.S. dollar, or 98.07 U.S. cents, down from Friday's close at C$1.0183 to the U.S. dollar, or 98.20 U.S. cents.The trade is pretty crowded long Canada. It's not out of context to see a bit of Canadian dollar pullback, said John Curran, senior vice president at CanadianForex, a commercial foreign exchange dealing firm.

He said that even though the currency managed to break a key resistance level last week, he's not convinced the Canadian dollar is ready to move out of its recent ranges. He said a shakeup is needed, and that it could possibly stem from Friday's February Canadian inflation data.Among upcoming economic data, the consumer price index for February is the most likely to firm up views on whether the Bank of Canada will speed up its schedule for raising interest rates.Decisions from U.S. and Japanese central bank policy meetings this week, attempts to resolve Greece's debt woes and worries that China may further tighten its monetary policy are other factors that could affect markets as investors seek to gauge the progress of global economic recovery.The broader outlook for the Canadian currency is positive, said Steve Butler, director of foreign exchange trading at Scotia CapitalThe fundamentals in Canada look relatively strong, he said.When you compare us to the States, the U.K., the euro zone, the story in Canada looks better,These fundamentals are among reasons fueling ripening conditions for the Canadian dollar to again test parity with the greenback.

BOND PRICES FIRM

Canadian bond prices reclaimed some ground on Monday, after having largely been on the decline since investors started pricing in domestic interest rate hikes after a recent series of strong data.The strength also mirrored moves in the bigger U.S. Treasuries market, where prices rose against a backdrop of soft stock markets and scarce buying ahead of Tuesday's Federal Reserve one-day policy meeting.Investors widely expect the U.S. central bank to stick to the near zero percent interest policy it adopted in December 2008 to support the economic recovery, but it is uncertain about signals about its exit strategy.The two-year government bond rose 3 Canadian cents to C$99.87 to yield 1.567 percent, while the 10-year bond was up 37 Canadian cents at C$102.01.Canadian bonds outperformed their U.S. counterparts across the curve. The difference between 10-year yields widened 4.5 basis points to 20.8 basis points.(Reporting by Ka Yan Ng; editing by Peter Galloway)

THE RAM-JET BILL IS ON BY THE DEMOCRATES,THE RAM THROUGH QUICK BILL.

Dems start countdown toward health care vote By DAVID ESPO, AP Special Correspondent - MAR 16,10

WASHINGTON – Democratic congressional leaders showed signs of progress Monday in winning anti-abortion Democrats whose votes are pivotal to President Barack Obama's fiercely contested remake of the health care system.Obama expressed optimism Congress would approve his call for affordable and nearly universal coverage as he pitched his plan on a trip to Ohio, while Republican Sen. Jim DeMint of South Carolina, among the bill's sharpest opponents, said he was less confident than before that it could be stopped.They'd have to be remarkable people not to fall under the kind of pressure they'll be under, DeMint said of rank-and-file Democrats.

The pressure was turned up Monday as the House Budget Committee, on a 21-16 vote, took an essential first step toward the House vote, which could come next weekend. Obama and his supporters labored in the capital and on Air Force One.Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, who flew with President Barack Obama, then walked into an Ohio senior citizen center with the chief executive in time to hear a voice from the audience yell out, Vote yes.A smiling Obama turned to the liberal lawmaker and said, Did you hear that, Dennis? Then, turning back to the audience, he added, Go ahead, say that again.Vote yes! came back the reply.Kucinich, who said later he remains uncommitted, is one of 37 Democrats currently in the House who voted against Obama's legislation when it cleared the House last fall.In addition, the White House is laboring to hold the support of several other Democrats who voted for the earlier bill, but only after first supporting strict anti-abortion limits. Those would be altered the second time around.At least two have signaled they are open to supporting the president. One of them, Rep. James Oberstar of Minnesota, is in the leaning yes column, said a spokesman, John Schadl.When we bring the bill to the floor, then we will have the votes,said Speaker Nancy Pelosi.Obama sounded similarly confident in an interview with ABC News. I believe we're going to get the votes, we're going to make this happen, said the president, who has traveled to three states and lobbied numerous lawmakers in recent days.

Outside interests on both sides pressured wavering lawmakers.The National Right to Life Committee, which opposes abortions, wrote to lawmakers that support for the Senate bill would be a career-defining pro-abortion vote.Union groups and other supporters announced a $1.3 million advertising campaign urging 17 House Democrats to vote for the measure, and officials at the Service Employees International Union threatened to withdraw support from Democrats who vote against the bill if it loses.
It was more than a year ago that Obama asked Congress to approve legislation extending health coverage to tens of millions who lack it, curbing industry practices such as denying coverage on the basis of pre-existing medical conditions, and beginning to slow the growth of health care nationally. His plan would require most Americans to buy health insurance, fine most who fail to do so and provide government subsidies to help middle-income earners and the working poor afford it.
Sweeping legislation seemed to be on the brink of passage in January, after both houses approved bills and lawmakers began working out a final compromise in talks at the White House. But those efforts were sidetracked when Republicans won a special election in Massachusetts — and with it, the ability to block a vote on a final bill in the Senate.

Now, nearly two months later, lawmakers have embarked on a two-step approach that requires the House to approve the measure passed by the Senate, despite misgivings on key provisions. That would be followed by both houses quickly passing a second bill that makes numerous changes to the first. In the Senate, that second bill would come to a vote under rules that deny Republicans the ability to filibuster. The details of the second, fix-it measure were closely guarded — and subject to last-minute changes. In general, officials have said they would provide more money for lower-income families unable to afford health care and states that already provide above average coverage for the poor under Medicaid, as well as improved prescription drug coverage under Medicare. The legislation is expected to delete a provision in the Senate bill that singled out Nebraska for favorable treatment under a requirement to expand Medicaid coverage. Instead, Democrats may provide as much as $15 billion to a dozen states and the District of Columbia, all of which already provide at least some of the coverage.Officials said one sticking point remained a Senate-passed provision establishing an independent commission with authority to force greater reductions in future Medicare payments to providers. House Democrats want to curtail the board's powers, but rules may forbid any changes under the complex rules covering the Senate's debate of the measure. The cost of the overhaul is expected to total $950 billion or more over a decade. It would be covered by higher taxes on the wealthy as well as on some health care providers and high-cost insurance plans. Several hundred billion dollars would also be cut from planned Medicare increases, much of the burden falling on companies that provide private coverage to seniors under Medicare Advantage. Vice President Joseph Biden also traveled to Ohio, where he attended a fundraiser for first-term Rep. Steve Driehaus, D-Ohio. Driehaus voted for the House version of a health care overhaul in November, and has not yet stated his position on the new legislation. Associated Press reporters Ben Feller, Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar, Erica Werner, Alan Fram, Chuck Babington, Ann Sanner and Sam Hananel contributed from Washington. Seanna Adcox contributed from South Carolina.

Is Mad Captain Barack Now Steering America Towards the Gates of Hell? Does Obama Employ the Marxist Doctrine of Creative Destruction? By Kelly O'Connell Sunday, March 14, 2010

Having watched Barack Obama’s sole economic recovery strategy of spending hand-over-fist to heal our economic malaise and rampant deficits, we must ask if his theory is a cipher for the mythic phoenix? Is Barack a classical Marxist seeking to fix a broken society via torching our economy to ashes, confident it will arise again, healed by socialism and communism? During a turbulently reckless period he seeks a massive government-directed health care bill. Obama now demands wild expenditures on top of record deficits, in the midst of a prolonged recession, against record unemployment. So, what other motivation does such illogical decision making suggest?
Is Barack a mad Ahab chasing the giant, evil specter of Capitalism across the globe, hoping to harpoon and sink it to the bottom of the deep? Even Obama is intelligent enough to know his strange belief that Keynesian deficit-spending always equals growth may not work. In fact, it hasn’t so far, a year later. So what is his Plan B”? Well ,perhaps there is no secondary plan because he only means to ruin the economy. It’s a distinct possibility that Barack actually intends to bankrupt the US into accepting the socialism he touted to Joe The Plumber Wurzelbacher. In fact, to engage in such an attack against the world’s greatest capitalist nation would merely make him a superstar acolyte to his Marxist progenitors.

It is essential non leftists understand that just because Marxism has been logically, scientifically and historically disproved, it does not mean it is a spent force. Instead, because of it’s evangelical spirit, it becomes even more dangerous once discarded and ignored, remaining like a zombie faith. Marxism does espouse a Doctrine of Destruction that must be implemented by its true followers at every level. It teaches capitalism is theft, and that the rich steal what they have amassed from the poor. So the only just response is to confiscate the stolen wealth and return it to the impoverished workers. There isn’t much more to Marxism than this, but this judgmental and self-righteous conceit is as sacred to a communist as Mecca is to a proper Muslim.

Anatomy of Marx’s Creative Destruction
A. Socialist Revolution

At the very center of Marxism is the call for total Revolution.The book Facts on Communism, Vol. I, The Communist Ideology says,the Marxist doctrine of the Socialist Revolution is the core of Communist ideology. The main strategy for forcing Marxist revolution is fomenting crisis. While most Westerners recoil at the thought of a major economic collapse, knowing the resultant human pain and heartache, Marxists salivate at the possibility. Their theory teaches them capitalism must surely fail, and so they have plans ready for when this occurs, and they also design stratagems to make certain it does.Ironically, Karl Marx would claim neither China nor Russia were ideal places for a socialist revolution, since they were both so primitive, having little economic development. In fact, America is logically the best place to start a genuine communist revolution since it is the most advanced capitalist state, which is exactly the kind of place Marx called to take over. When the capitalist cycle marks its zenith, then is the time for revolutionaries to move. The proletariat were those who should launch the strike, which are, according to Webster’s: the class of industrial workers who lack their own means of production and hence sell their labor to live. The revolution should happen by any means possible, especially violence, to free the proletariat to launch their dictatorship, which shall utterly destroy capitalist society, remaking it upon a socialist and then finally communist model. This, according to Facts on Communism.

B. Abstract Theory of Strategies

There are several basic strategies Marx taught for fomenting revolution, later vouchsafed by Vladimir Lenin, founding Russian dictator. First, the revolution is led by the Communist Party. This group directs the revolutionary struggle by way of propaganda, agitation and opportunism. All Party members must be a cadre of professional revolutionaries, ready to strike at a moment’s notice at the first chance. The Party is also a self-chosen priesthood to which has been entrusted all truth; the Party itself being the only existent holder of veracity. The Party expects and exacts iron discipline; no deviation is allowed. Lenin’s Two Revolutions strategy focuses on first helping any group interested in upheaval to overthrow society, and then later attacking those same groups found not morally pure, ie non-proletariat revolutionaries. Finally, both legal and illegal activities are countenanced, whatever might help the cause of revolution, at the time, states Facts on Communism.

C. Concrete Communist Revolutionary Strategies

Clarence B. Carson, in his magnificent study Basic Communism, It’s Rise, Spread and Debacle in the 20th Century, lists nine historic precipitating strategies for socialist revolution in his chapter Stratagems and Tactics for International Communism.

(1.) Communist International: The Comintern was an international group formed to foment revolution worldwide in Russia in 1919, ending in 1943, doing much to teach world delegates tactics and theories on how to cause a leftist a revolution.

(2.) The Party: The Communist Party in all countries has the duty to train and direct professional revolutionaries, or the vanguard of the elite, revealing how deeply indebted communism is to top-down control and group-think. Membership is not given, but earned. Being a member of a leftist type organization, say, an environmentalist group, anti-corporation cabal, or peace organization,(often communist front groups – see below) is commonly the first sign someone has earned a Party meeting invite. A future member will not be offered Party membership until a lengthy apprenticeship is done, which includes doing projects, helping community organizing, and memorizing Marxist-Leninist doctrines. Marxist acolytes also study current events, economics, socialist theory, revolutionary strategies, and even public speaking, while also fund-raising and recruiting new members. Non-communist friendships are discouraged. Bouts of intense self-scrutiny and harsh criticism are encouraged. The desire is to create a boot-camp effect causing an almost evangelical level of personality overhaul for future members. The term brainwash comes to mind, here.

(3.) Labor Unions: Communists have always targeted unions and their members, seeing these as a classic example of the sacred proletariat. The modern labor union not only arose around the time of socialism, but was deeply affected by it during its genesis. Unions have a certain collectivist logic, which ties in with communist theory. Many union leaders were socialists before they signed up to their local. A union can have a minority socialist membership, yet these vigorous advocates often control the agenda through sheer zeal. Many American unions have been dominated by socialists and communists, including the AFL/CIO, United Mine Workers, United Auto Workers, etc etc. Many strikes have been coordinated to sabotage work and terrorize bosses ad owners.

(4.) Communist Fronts: A communist front is simply an organization which does not appear socialist, but was either started or is controlled by communists to achieve their ends. These were popular in the day of government crackdowns on leftism. But this tactic is still employed. J. Edgar Hoover mentioned this phenomenon, writing the Party… has operated hundreds of major fronts in practically every field of Party agitation: peace, civil rights, protection of the foreign born…abolition of H-bomb tests, exploitation of nationality and minority groups, etc. Modern examples would include ACORN and the ACLU. Carson writes that the general dogma of Marxism is so stultifying, that the only way communists can attract thoughtful members is to draw in those who have a concrete agenda, like immigration rights, etc.

(5.) Subversion: Communists seek to undermine a non-socialist country by encouraging acts and beliefs that pervert or corrupt by an undermining of morals, allegiance or faith, according to Carson. Anything that debases the populace will be attempted, such as attacks upon the family structure, traditional religions, ideas of sexual propriety, notions of authority, the legal profession, Art theory, etc. Further, intellectual assaults against common sense ideas regarding economics, the monetary system, any university degree discipline, or desecration of great national symbols, etc will all be attempted. A classic example of this has been achieved by the Political Correctness movement, which was explicitly designed by German intellectual Marxists to undermine America. They were called the Frankfort School, and immigrated to the States to avoid Hitler’s wrath.

(6.) Espionage: Any country can use espionage to gain advantage on another. But, as one writer put it about the old Soviets, they…employed espionage in ways that no other nation in all of recorded history had ever attempted. Such appears true today about the Chinese, who relentlessly probe American government Internet sites, and launch many probes and attacks to test Yankee defenses. It was also during the Clinton administration that Loral Space shared details of rocketry that allowed the Chinese to stunningly invert their 90% failure rate with their ICBM missile launches to one of 90% success. Loral, coincidentally, donated a million dollars to the DNC before being allowed to sell technology to China, but ended up paying a $14 million fine in 2002 for passing missile technology to them. J. Edgar Hoover listed the chief areas of communist espionage, being scientific R&D; strength and methodology of US armed forces; American intelligence and counterintelligence; US international relations; and American anti-communist tactics.

(7.) Sabotage: Much like members of a Muslim radical jihad sect, a true communist will always be, at least in his or her heart, at war with capitalism and non-socialist countries. Before the USSR fell, the KGB secret police was massively involved in global disinformation campaigns that furthered the goals of communist Russia. Today, there is more concern with groups inside America doing whatever they can to undermine the US from inside. For example, the tactic of financial crisis driven by ramping up demands on the social state to create financial crisis, such as espoused in the Cloward-Pivin doctrine, is such leftist sabotage. (further discussed below)

(8.) Terrorism: Soon after the Russian Revolution, terror was the singular defining characteristic for Lenin, and then employed by Stalin and Mao with spectacular results in terms of sheer murders and tamping open dissent. Since then, countless global Marxist uprisings have been punctuated by terrorist campaigns, such as led by the Communist Party of Peru, aka the Shining Path (Sendero Luminoso), who killed many innocents. Also Castro’s Cuba has tortured and killed countless residents, and Cambodia’s Pol Pot and his Khmer Rouge, who killed two million Cambodians from 1975 to 1979. Overall, the Communists killed at least 175 million in the 20th century in their terror campaigns against their own people. US terrorists, such as William Ayers and the Weathermen attempted to terrorize Americans into accepting socialism.

(9.) Civil War: Vladimir Lenin returned to Russia from Europe in his sealed train and immediately began agitating for a civil war. Why? Because he knew that if Russians engaged in such action, it would make it much easier for his tiny group to take over the country. This ended up being a significant factor in he and his party ascending to power. Such an outcome in America would be met by most Marxists with joy since they know that, short of a military upheaval, it will be quite difficult to overcome a country with such a strong history of capitalism, gun rights, and open democracy.

Cloward-Piven Strategy to Cause Economic Collapse
Does Obama have something like a Cloward-Piven principle in mind for shaking out resistance to his economic plans to force Americans to accept socialism by necessity? The “Cloward-Piven Strategy” was designed by Columbia University professors Richard Cloward and wife Frances Piven. Their strategy was simply a method used by leftists to encourage as many eligible people as possible into signing up for all the social welfare programs available. This is meant to then bankrupt the system. After this occurs, the plan is to push a country towards socialism. But the general strategy can also be adapted to other methods of bankrupting a nation.David Horowitz’s site Discover the Networks lists some recent apparent innovations in the Cloward-Piven Strategy, which include ACORN’s demand for new lending rules. This caused irresponsible sub-prime (ie, unqualified borrowers) to get loans which helped start the recent financial crisis. Further policies apparently meant to undermine US financial stability and foment socialist revolution include the banking bailout TARP and its $700 billion buyout of troubled assets, which has already been shown to have been misused. Also the $787 billion Stimulus Bill, which in addition to creating a supposed economic stimulation, also revoked the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act, the welfare-reform legislation passed by the Republican Congress and signed by President Clinton in 1996.

According to the Heritage Foundation, 32% of the Stimulus Bill, averaging $6,700 in new means-tested welfare spending was set aside for every poor individual in America. Horowitz says these funds are earmarked for such programs as: Temporary Assistance to Needy Families; Medicaid; food stamps; the Women, Infants, and Children food program; public housing; Section 8 housing; the Community Development Block Grant; the Social Services Block Grant; Head Start; and the Earned Income Tax Credit.Yet such welfare bankrolling is only the iceberg’s tip. Heritage states, Once the hidden welfare spending in the bill is counted, the total 10-year fiscal burden (added to the national debt) will [be] $1.34 trillion. This amounts to $17,400 for each household paying income tax in the U.S.Heritage noted increased welfare spending in the Stimulus Bill, being Obama’s Make Work Pay refundable tax credit. They state, This credit represents a fundamental shift in welfare policy. At a cost of around $23 billion per year, this credit will provide up to [$400] in cash to low income adults who pay no income taxes. For the first time, the government will give significant cash to able-bodied adults without dependent children. Since most of these individuals have little apparent need for assistance, the new credit represents spreading the wealth for its own sake. The lack of connection between this credit and economic stimulus is evident in the fact that the first payments under the program will not be made until April 2010.Other perceived plans to damage the US economy by Obama include the attempted Climate Change legislation and its staggeringly expensive Cap & Trade legislation. This could drain trillions of dollars out of the world economy every year, killing millions of poor, per annum. Also the Detroit car maker bailout, the rampant printing of fiat currency. But the $2.5-$3 trillion dollar Obamacare bill is the piece de resistance of government profligacy. Some Democrats now even admit it will cause health care costs to skyrocket, while decreasing treatment and overall quality, but the program is still being touted as done in the name of fairness and justice. How laughable. But regardless of the worth of any particular program, simply basing a large part of the yearly government budget upon perpetually borrowed funds means that the state must, at some point, go bankrupt.

Conclusion
Wasn’t it was odd to hear Barack deny his Baltimore address that he is Bolshevik? This reveals more nominal familiarity with the vocabulary of the Russian Revolution than his own armed force’s vocabulary, such as the common term corpsman! But fellow uber-leftist adviser Rahm Emmanuel’s statement one should never let a crisis pass without extracting some normally unacceptable concession, is even more of a socialist slip. Do both men have a heart full of communism, as nonchalantly work toward the demise of the free market and laissez-faire? Creative Destruction means that if a Marxist destroys a bad capitalist society, a better socialist one will arise magically in its place. Will wanton economic chaos and wreckage really create paradise on earth? Do these two ultra leftists genuinely believe such madness?

Barack Obama has experienced an almost total lifelong immersion in socialism. He has had a nearly complete dependence upon leftist and even communist contacts and friends during his childhood, education and rise to power. Therefore, wouldn’t it be exceedingly odd if Barack weren’t at least a little bit communist at heart? But perhaps, like Moby Dick’s Ahab, Obama hisses to himself about the capitalist whale, from hell’s heart I stab at thee; for hate’s sake I spit my last breath at thee. But the question remains – What will the average patriotic American do now that this administration has been outed for what and who they really are?

Now they are in a diabolical race to destroy the spirit of its people.Democrats Scorched Earth Tactic Against American People By Sher Zieve Sunday, March 14, 2010

Upon the attempted invasion of the Soviet Union by Leftist Dictator Hitler’s German Army, in June 1941 another infamous Leftist tyrant—Josef Stalin—ordered: The Red Army, the Red Navy, and all citizens of the Soviet Union must defend every inch of Soviet soil, must fight to the last drop of blood for our towns and villages, must display the daring, initiative and mental alertness characteristic of our people.
In case of forced retreat of Red Army units, all rolling stock must be evacuated, the enemy must not be left a single engine, a single railway truck, not a single pound of grain or gallon of fuel. Collective farmers must drive off all their cattle and turn over their grain to the safe keeping of the state authorities, for transportation to the rear. If valuable property that cannot be withdrawn, must be destroyed without fail! So, both Soviet soldiers and Soviet civilians burned their fields, their homes and anything and everything else to keep the German Army from winning the war. It was called the Scorched Earth Policy in which one left-wing tyrant fought another.

Using their own twisted version of this same policy, the Democrats are now in the process of ramming and shoving the ObamaCare Death Plan down the throats of the American people. This is occurring despite ALL polls showing the majority of We-the-People are against it; with some polls ranging as low as 53% and others as high as 71% against the American Marxist-Democrat tyrannical government’s attempts to force its totalitarian legislation upon an unwilling people. The US Marxist-Democrat Party knows, with certainty, that the American people no longer support its blatantly overt attempts to enslave them. The leader of this same political party and his minions have already bankrupted the country. Now they are in a diabolical race to destroy the spirit of its people. By the way, did you know that Obama sent most of our job stimulus money overseas?

Note: As a reminder, the entire US and now worldwide financial fiasco and disaster began with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac—both Democrat-controlled entities and both Democrat Party slush funds. Then, to top it off, there was the electronic run on the banks in September 2008. A run that virtually ensured the Usurper Obama’s election. And, for those of you who still like to blame Bush for the financial disaster—despite evidence to the contrary—I ask the following question: If the Democrats were in charge of the financial organizations that caused the crash and had blocked any and all attempts to provide oversight of these companies, why didn’t you on the Left work to stop your incompetent leaders? Legitimate Conservatives worked against—and still do—any and all of those who are destroying our country.Now, we are faced with the greatest threat to our existence as a free nation that the once-great USA Republic has ever seen or experienced; a Mephistophelian program that spells out in its thousands of pages the end game destruction of our country. And the destruction is coming from within the domestic confines of the United States of America. Each time the American people have voiced their disapproval for ObamaCare and its decidedly non-health oriented package to Obama or the ruling Congressional leaders, the now open Marxists in our midst have become more adamant against them and threaten them with even more severe bondage and penalties if they don’t shut up and swallow. The unholy triumvirate of Obama, Pelosi and Reid have told us—with both their words and actions—time and time again if we don’t voice our approval for their Orwellian tactics they will make things far worse for us. And they have. When we object, they figuratively burn us out via deprecation, threats and even physical violence as was witnessed as an Obama SEIU member beat up a Town Hall attendee. Their methods may not seem quite as harsh as Stalin’s but, bear in mind—the results are similar. The Democrats are now waging an all-out war against the American people and implementing their own scorched-Earth policy; one that will leave the American people with nothing and their rulers with everything.Then, when they have successfully forced us into depression and submission Obama & Co will begin to implement the rest of its anti-human and anti-American policies. Can we still successfully use peaceful means against these tyrants? Can we? Please tell me what they are.