LIBYA WANTS A FLOTILLA TO ISRAEL

EARTH DESTROYED WITH THE EARTH(BECAUSE OF SIN AND GODLESS PEOPLE)

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.

MISSIONARIES WITH MIXED METOFORS
http://britanniaradio.blogspot.com/2010/07/07102010-missionaries-with-mixed.html#links

6.2-magnitude quake shakes Pacific near Guam: USGS
Sat Jul 10, 8:45 am ET

WASHINGTON (AFP) – A strong 6.2-magnitude earthquake shook the Pacific near the US territory of Guam Saturday at a depth of 10 kilometers (6.2 miles), seismologists said, but no tsunami warning was immediately issued.The quake hit around 9:43 pm in Guam (1143 GMT) some 296 kilometers (184 miles) southeast of the territory's capital Hagatna, said the US Geological Survey.There was no indication of a tsunami from the US Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre.

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.

Thousands evacuated in China as dam threatens to burst
Sun Jul 11, 7:48 am ET

BEIJING (Reuters) – Flooding, landslides and torrents of mud have killed 50 people in southern China and the government has evacuated thousands of people from homes near an overfilled, leaking reservoir, officials and state media said.The Wenquan reservoir in northwestern Qinghai province is holding more than three times its safe capacity -- over 230 million cubic meters of water when it was designed for a maximum of 70 million the Xinhua news agency said.If it bursts, the city of Golmud, around 130 km (80 miles) away and home to more than 200,000 people, could be flooded with water up to 4 meters (yards) deep in some areas. More than 9,000 people in immediate danger have already been evacuated.Power and water plants are at risk, and the high-altitude railway to Tibet is some 40 km (25 miles) away so could also be affected, Xinhua said, citing the local government.The reservoir has been badly maintained because the area is usually prone to drought. Water levels are still rising because of snowmelt in nearby mountains, and heavy rains are forecast for Sunday night and Monday, Xinhua added.In south China, more than 17 million people spread across nine provinces have been affected by downpours since the start of July, the ministry said in a statement on its website (www.mca.gov.cn), with 50 people dead, and 15 missing.Some 42,000 homes have collapsed, and another 121,000 damaged and hundreds of thousands of hectares of crops have been spoilt or destroyed. Early estimates put the cost of the rains as high as 8.9 billion yuan ($1.3 billion).(Reporting by Emma Graham-Harrison; Editing by Jeremy Laurence)

Rio Grande rises in Texas city that bears its name By CHRISTOPHER SHERMAN and MICHELLE ROBERTS, Associated Press Writers – Sat Jul 10, 12:32 am ET

RIO GRANDE CITY, Texas – Upstream communities began to assess the damage Friday wrought by a Rio Grande that jumped its banks in the Texas city of Laredo, while down river people marveled warily at a river that bore little resemblance to the lazy waterway that usually divides border cities.The Rio Grande continued rising in the city that bears its name to more than three feet above flood stage, according to the National Weather Service. The river was expected to rise at least another two feet to more than 55 feet.Meanwhile, authorities in Mexico confirmed four people drowned Thursday when the Las Vacas creek overflowed near Ciudad Acuna, across the river from Del Rio, Texas. Coahuila state prosecutor Alberto Vasquez said the badly decomposed bodies hadn't been identified.Longtime Texas residents said they had not seen the Rio Grande reach these heights since Hurricane Beulah in 1967. The difference so far is that the area mercifully received little rain from the tropical depression that came ashore Thursday near the mouth of the Rio Grande.Hugo Canales enjoyed a pleasant breeze and a break in the gray clouds from a swing in his front yard. Normally the seat affords him a view of the onion and grain fields below. On Friday, it was a vast expanse of brown water, broken only by a green tree line more than a half-mile away that usually marks the edge of the Rio Grande.The river would have to rise several more feet before it threatened Canales' house and those of his neighbors, and he laughed at the idea of it flooding from upstream waters while the skies were sunny.It's bad to get flooded without rain,he said.

City Manager Juan Zuniga hoped the lack of rain would stave off any threat of serious flooding.If we get any substantial rain that will cause problems for us, Zuniga said. His more pressing concern was how much water would be released from the Falcon Dam upstream.The International Boundary and Water Commission more than doubled the amount of water passing through Falcon on Thursday, and Zuniga waited to hear if it would be increased again. The IBWC was analyzing data and had not made a decision to release more water at midday Friday.The other factor was how much water would enter the Rio Grande from Mexico through the Rio San Juan. A Mexican reservoir not far from the border across from Rio Grande City, it has a spillway that does not allow authorities to control how much water leaves once it tops the barrier.Jose Lopez, 80, lives next to a creek that normally feeds the Rio Grande. Water has been backing up in the creek during the last two days, and Lopez was readying his yard Friday.He showed an eroded line about three feet up his house's stucco wall where he said floodwaters from Hurricane Gilbert in 1988 flowed past his house.Everything inside was lost, the stove, the beds,Lopez said. This time Lopez said he would try to leave if it looked like the creek would flood again.But where am I going to go? My wife is ill. We don't have other family here.Downstream, Hidalgo County issued a voluntary evacuation recommendation for the small community of Los Ebanos Friday afternoon. It sits on a small knob of land surrounded on three sides by the Rio Grande and is not protected by levees.

The Rio Grande crested in downtown Laredo at more than 42 feet before dawn Friday. The water remained high, with water pushing against a bridge that remained closed, but officials did not anticipate any more evacuations.

Those who were evacuated Thursday were expected to be out of their homes for a couple of more days, until the Rio Grande subsides enough to allow storm water and overflown creeks and tributaries to drain there.It still may be a while before things are back to normal,said city spokeswoman Xochitl Mora Garcia. At least a few blocks of homes had cars in their driveways with water up to their windows, but city officials were still trying to determine how many homes were affected. Mora said more than 50 homeowners had called the city by Friday afternoon to report damage. They began Friday asking residents to call and report damage.In Laredo, where roughly half of all U.S.-Mexico trade crosses, authorities on Friday reopened one of the international bridges on the northwestern edge of the city, but one downtown bridge remained closed and a second was severely restricted. The vehicle inspection station on the Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, side was under several feet of water. Traffic was also restricted on the World Trade International Bridge — a route that moves roughly 8,000 tractor trailers a day between the two countries — but it remains open.Flooding and dam releases cut the highways connecting Nuevo Laredo with Monterrey, threatening one of the nation's main trucking routes.Patricia Araujo of Mexico's Communications and Transportation Department said flood releases from the Venustiano Carranza dam in Coahuila swelled the Salado river, sending water over a bridge in neighboring Nuevo Leon state early Friday. With water covering about a mile of the free and toll highways, the department organized an alternative route by Friday afternoon.Araujo said there were no figures immediately available on how truck traffic had been delayed by the highway closures.Dozens of houses in low-lying neighborhoods of Nuevo Laredo were flooded late Thursday, with water rising as high as four feet in some places. Firefighters using ropes, small boats and muscle power managed to lasso about a half-dozen truck cargo containers floating in the Rio Grande, to prevent them from smashing into or damaging bridges. Michelle Roberts reported from Laredo. Associated Press writers Jorge Vargas in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico; and Oscar Villalba in Piedras Negras, Mexico; Mark Stevenson in Mexico City; and Jeff Carlton in Dallas contributed to this report.

CHRISTIANS PERSECUTED WORLDWIDE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OXjlkaM-ikY&feature=player_embedded

Presbyterian Report Attacks Israel as NazisCompliment in Presbyterian Report Embarrasses J-Street by Gil Ronen JULY 11,10

The General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA) convening in Minneapolis will debate this week whether to endorse an official church study committee report that compares Israel to the worst regimes of the 20th century, including Nazi Germany. The report, which also mentions ultra-liberal Jewish lobby group J Street as a sign of hope, seems to have embarrassed that group.J Street Vice President Rachel Lerner called out to the Presbyterians to reject the study.She said that the report’s authors never consulted her group before choosing to mention it.She added that with the passage of this study, the Church will alienate us and as a result our activists will not want to work with you and this will damage completely the possibility of a future relationship.She said she was saddened and angered by the report. However, Lerner clarified that even if the study is adopted, J-Street will not be issuing a directive to its local branches to cease partnering with local Presbyterian churches.Presbyterian Alan Wisdom also asked his fellow church members to reject the report. In his testimony in Minneapolis, he said that the report likens Israel to a Nazi state,to South Africa under apartheid, and to the former Soviet Union.Wisdom was quoted by Mark Tooley, President of the Institute on Religion and Democracy, in an article in FrontPage Magazine.

The report mentioned Hamas as being militant but fails to note that its charter calls for Israel’s annihilation. It also claims that Iran poses no danger even if it acquires nuclear weapons because it has not invaded any other country for centuries. The study further urges that the U.S. cut off aid to the Jewish state in order to bring Israel to compliance.New York Times religion reporter Gus Niebuhr, grand nephew of pro-Zionist Christian ethicist Reinhold Niebuhr, warned fellow Presbyterians that the terribly imbalanced report would obscure Presbyterian influence in America.Niebuhr was joined by Presbyterian pastor and Christian Century magazine publisher John Buchanan.Early reports suggest Presbyterians will tone down the report somewhat,Tooley wrote, more explicitly affirming Israel’s right to existence and deleting some of the harsher anti-Israel rhetoric.In June 2004, the U.S. Presbyterian Church's General Assembly adopted a resolution that called on the church to initiate a process of phased, selective divestment in multinational corporations operating in Israel.(IsraelNationalNews.com)

IMF tells Europe to inject more stimulus
The International Monetary Fund has called on the European Central Bank to prepare fresh emergency action to stabilise debt markets, throwing its weight behind calls for renewed monetary stimulus to offset budget cuts. By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, International Business Editor Published: 9:12PM BST 08 Jul 2010

The ECB has so far purchased ?59bn of Greek, Portuguese, Spanish, and Irish bonds Photo: BLOOMBERG Markets are not yet convinced of the central bank's commitment to scaling up purchases if necessary to prevent a further deterioration in market functioning,said the IMF's Global Financial Stability Report.The IMF called on Europe's authorities to make their €500bn (£420bn) rescue fund is fully operational and to explain how they intend to shore up banks that fail stress tests. Test results will need to be complemented by a plan that specifies how capital-deficient institutions would be handled. Bank reporting and disclosure standards, in general, need to be improved,it said. With the US trapped in depression, this really is starting to feel like 1932 Europe’s toothless bank tests making matters worse Credit Suisse said Deutsche Postbank, Italy's Monte Dei Paschi, Greece's Piraeus, ATE, and Helenic Postbank, as well as a clutch of Spanish cajas and German Landesbanken, are likely to fail a rigorous test and will need fresh capital. The Swiss bank said the real value of the probe is to test whether authorities themselves are ready to rescue any bank in trouble. The backstop funds include Germany's SoFFin with €50bn left, the FROB fund in Spain which has nearly exhausted its €12bn pre-funding, Italy's Tremonti fund with €8bn left, as well as the EU's huge Stability Facility in extremis.While the IMF stopped short of calling for the ECB to launch full quantitative easing (QE), it is clearly worried that the bank's passive policies have allowed credit to wilt and led to fresh strains in interbank lending markets and sovereign debt.Downside risks to the recovery have risen sharply. Bank funding pressures may accelerate the ongoing deleveraging process. It is too early to tell if actual bank lending growth will worsen in the euro area, after recently stabilising at barely positive year-on-year rates,it said.

In spite of a recent rebound in June, issuance from European firms was especially anaemic, and smaller than in the period surrounding the Lehman bankruptcy. If these tighter conditions continue, they could begin to have a significant impact on the availability of credit to corporates.The ECB has so far purchased €59bn of Greek, Portuguese, Spanish, and Irish bonds, but has sought to drain any stimulus through sterilisation operations.Jean-Claude Trichet, the ECB's president said yesterday that the need for fresh purchases was progressively diminishing but pledged that the bank would continue to provide lenders with unlimited liquidity for the time being.

With German industry was booming, he said there is no risk of double-dip recession. I see perhaps a tendency from the outside to be excessively pessimistic. The numbers we have are not confirming this pessimism,he said.The IMF's implicit criticism comes amid press reports that the US Federal Reserve is drawing up plans for fresh monetary stimulus in case recovery stalls, including more bond purchases. The news story has been widely seen as kite-flying by doves on the Fed Board to test the response to a fresh burst of QE.

BIS plays with fire, demands double-barrelled monetary and fiscal tightening
The Bank for International Settlements has warned authorities across the developed world that they cannot rely on ultra-low interest rates to cushion the blow of austerity measures.By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, International Busienss Editor
Published: 10:26PM BST 28 Jun 2010

The Bank for International Settlements says in its 2010 annual report that tighter fiscal and monetary policy is required. Both fiscal and monetary policy may have to be tightened at the same time and ­before recovery is entrenched, a chilling possibility for asset markets. Macroeconomic support has its limits,said the bank's annual report.The Swiss-based bank for central bankers said ultra-low rates and massive fiscal stimulus saved the world from an economic meltdown during the credit crisis, but the balance of advantage has since shifted.ECB must buy hundred of billions of bonds Such powerful measures have strong side-effects, and their dangers are becoming apparent. The time has come to ask how they can be phased out,it said.

There are limits to how long monetary policy can remain expansionary. Keeping interest rates near zero for too long, with abundant liquidity, leads to distortions and creates risks for financial stability. We cannot wait for the resumption of strong growth to begin the process of policy correction.The clarion call for higher rates and an end to quantitative easing is controversial and pits the BIS against the International Monetary Fund in an epochal policy battle. If wrong, the BIS strategy risks pushing the global economy into depression.Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the IMF chief, warned against zealous self-flagellation at the G20 summit.It could be a catastrophe if all the countries were tightening, it could totally destroy the recovery.Gabriel Stein, of Lombard Street Research, said the BIS is playing with fire. Fiscal and monetary tightening were tried in tandem in the early 1930s and it didn't work then. The BIS ought to know better,he said.The bank said the US and Europe made the fatal error of holding rates too low after the dotcom bust, fearing a slide towards deflation. The effect was to fuel asset bubbles and depress credit yields, pressuring lenders to chase risk. Our recent experience with exactly these consequences a mere five years ago should make us extremely wary this time around, it said.The BIS warned that central banks are luring banks into a fresh trap by shoring up lenders with cheap access to short-term funding, which is then used to buy long-dated bonds at higher yield – the so-called sovereign carry trade. Some have already been caught out badly in Greek debt.Financial institutions may underestimate the risk associated with this maturity exposure. They might face difficulty rolling over their short-term debt. An unexpected tightening of monetary policy might cause serious repercussions,it said.The parallel with post dotcom errors is likely to rile critics. Housing markets and banks were robust at the time, whereas the damage now is deeply structural in the US, Britain and Europe. Yet the BIS has clearly concluded that it is better for indebted economies to take their punishment early rather than dragging out the ordeal as in Japan.

On the spending side, the bank called for immediate front-loaded fiscal consolidation in key industrial states.Public debt-to-GDP ratios are on unsustainable trajectories,rising from 76pc of GDP in 2007 to 100pc in 2011. The picture is worse than it looks since the crisis has permanently reduced output, and aging costs are soaring.Yet fiscal austerity may be less of a drag on recovery than presumed. Denmark slashed its primary deficit by 13.4pc of GDP from 1983-1986, yet eked out growth of 3.9pc a year. Sweden grew by 3.7pc during its hair-shirt episode in the 1990s, Canada by 2.8pc, and Belgium by 2.3pc.These cases do not tell us what would happen if half the world tightens at the same time, feeding on each other. Even so, the BIS data challenges Keynesian claims about fiscal stimulus. State spending merely crowds out private activity.Besides, governments have no choice. They must retrench to appease the bond vigilantes in the new era of sovereign frailty. A sudden loss in market confidence would be far worse,said the BIS.

Balkan leaders discuss EU integration
Fri Jul 9, 2:52 pm ET

DUBROVNIK, Croatia (AFP) – European Union and Balkan leaders held talks on Friday to discuss the region's integration into the bloc and the challenges it faces due to the global economic crisis.All of us here are striving for the same goal -- eventual integration of southeastern European countries in the Euro-Atlantic political and security framework,Croatian Prime Minister Jadranka Kosor said on opening the two-day meeting.About 15 prime ministers and foreign ministers from the region and the European Union gathered in the southern Adriatic resort of Dubrovnik, the Croatian foreign ministry said.Croatia hopes to conclude membership talks with Brussels by the end of the year and become a full-fledged EU member by 2012.Croatia sends a positive message to all countries aspiring to join the European family, Kosor said, adding that Zagreb would strongly support the others on that path.The integration of the volatile Balkans region, torn apart by wars in the 1990s, would strengthen the security of European territory, she said.President Ivo Josipovic said that EU membership would determine the development of this part of the world in a permanent and key way.Both the EU and this gathering should send a clear message that there is a place in the EU for all southeastern European countries -- it is a message of optimism, encouragement,Josipovic said.French Prime Minister Francois Fillon said the region's future was within the EU, but stressed that if the countries want to join the bloc they need to undergo deep transformations in all fields.That is why Croatia's success in the process of joining the EU is so important,he said, adding that Zagreb could serve an example in the region.EU enlargement commissioner Stefan Fuele and several NATO officials also attended the meeting.Other prime ministers in attendance were Bulgaria's Boyko Borisov, Poland's Donald Tusk, Slovenia's Borut Pahor, Albania's Sali Berisha and Hashim Thaci of Kosovo.Serbia boycotted the meeting to protest the presence of representatives from Kosovo, which unilaterally declared independence from Serbia in 2008, a move recognised by the United States and most EU member states, but challenged by Belgrade.Serbia is challenging the legality of Kosovo's independence declaration before the UN International Court of Justice, which is expected to give a non-binding opinion in the coming months.Fillon in Dubrovnik said he hopes that the ICJ's opinion helps establish a productive dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina.We all wish for this calm dialogue, since it will strengthen the stability of the Western Balkans and since it is needed for both Serbia's and Kosovo's approach to the EU,Fillon said.

Dubai World property arm sells off Malaysia stake
Sun Jul 11, 5:51 am ET

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates – A property arm of struggling state conglomerate Dubai World is backing out of a plan to build luxury homes in Malaysia as it looks to shore up its finances.The cash-strapped company's Limitless division is selling off its stake in a partnership with Malaysia's Bandar Raya Developments to develop waterfront land in the southern city of Nusajaya.Limitless will generate about $23.8 million in the deal, according to a regulatory filing on Malaysia's stock exchange.

Limitless said in a statement Sunday that it continues to review our business activity to reflect market conditions.The company's parent Dubai World needs cash as it works to pay back $23.5 billion in debt.

POISONED WATERS

REVELATION 8:8-11
8 And the second angel sounded, and as it were a great mountain burning with fire was cast into the sea: and the third part of the sea became blood;
9 And the third part of the creatures which were in the sea, and had life, died; and the third part of the ships were destroyed.
10 And the third angel sounded, and there fell a great star from heaven, burning as it were a lamp, and it fell upon the third part of the rivers, and upon the fountains of waters;
11 And the name of the star is called Wormwood:(bitter,Poisoned) and the third part of the waters became wormwood; and many men died of the waters, because they were made bitter.(poisoned)

REVELATION 16:3-7
3 And the second angel poured out his vial upon the sea; and it became as the blood of a dead man: and every living soul died in the sea.(enviromentalists won't like this result)
4 And the third angel poured out his vial upon the rivers and fountains of waters; and they became blood.
5 And I heard the angel of the waters say, Thou art righteous, O Lord, which art, and wast, and shalt be, because thou hast judged thus.
6 For they(False World Church and Dictator) have shed the blood of saints and prophets, and thou hast given them blood to drink; for they are worthy.

White House confident latest BP effort will work
JULY 11,10

WASHINGTON – A senior adviser to President Barack Obama says the administration is confident that BP's latest effort to contain the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico will work.At the same time, Obama adviser David Axelrod acknowledges that BP's engineers are in uncharted waters when it comes to dealing with the leak.BP and Coast Guard officials hope the work on the new containment system can be completed in three to six days.BP hopes it will result in all leaking oil being collected as engineers continue to work toward setting up a relief well. Axelrod says Obama has been briefed on the latest efforts.Axelrod appeared on Fox News Sunday and ABC's This Week.

US criminal probe into BP oil spill ongoing
JULY 11,10

WASHINGTON (AFP) – The US Justice Department is still investigating the causes of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill to determine whether to bring criminal charges, Attorney General Eric Holder said Sunday.The investigation is ongoing. We are in the process of accumulating documents, talking to witnesses on both the criminal side and the civil side,he told CBS Face the Nation.But Holder said there was no timetable to decide whether charges would be brought against BP, which leased the Deepwater Horizon rig from Transocean, the world's largest offshore drilling contractor based in Houston, Texas.The rig exploded on April 20 killing 11 workers and then sank two days later, unleashing the nation's worst ever environmental disaster with tens of thousands of barrels of crude gushing into the sea every day.

Our primary concern at this point is getting the spill stopped, Holder said, as the crisis entered it 13th week and BP engineers raced to install a new cap the British energy giant hopes will contain all the leaking crude.A system installed by robotic submarines a mile down on the sea floor has been siphoning up oil to surface vessels for the past few weeks, but the slick has washed ashore in four southern US states, devastating industries such as fishing and tourism.Holder was quick to stress that when he announced the probe on June 1, he had been careful not to mention BP by name as it was not the only party involved with the Deepwater Horizon rig.What I did say was that we had opened a criminal investigation but did not indicate who the subject of the investigation was,Holder said.And that is a very serious thing because there are a variety of entities and a variety of people who are the subjects of that investigation. And for people to conclude that BP is the focus of this investigation might not be correct.At congressional hearings back in May, BP, Transocean and Halliburton blamed each other for the spill as executives from all three oil titans were grilled by US lawmakers.BP says rig owner Transocean was responsible for the failure of the giant blowout preventer valve which made it impossible to regain control of the well, but Transocean said all the operations were run by BP.The finger was also pointed at Halliburton, the oil services company which was responsible for vital cement work around the wellhead, which should have sealed the exploratory well until full production began.

Mental health a growing concern after Gulf spill By Matthew Bigg – Sun Jul 11, 1:16 am ET

VENICE, Louisiana (Reuters) – Gulf Coast native Kindra Arnesen is so anxious about the effects of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill she is packing up her family and leaving town.Stress? Dude my clothes are falling off me (because of weight loss). The level of stress here is tremendous. My husband has aged 10 years in two months, Arnesen said on Friday as she loaded possessions into a van outside her trailer home in Venice.Fears are growing of an increase in stress-related illness and mental health problems from the BP Plc spill. Anecdotal evidence abounds but mental health officials say they lack data about the scale and scope of suffering.Arnesen recently set up the Wives of Commercial Fishermen network to respond to pressures in the community. Two days ago, a friend told her he was so upset about his failure to get hired by BP's cleanup program he was considering suicide.Arnesen has her own worries. Her husband cannot work as a shrimper because authorities have closed swathes of Gulf waters to fishing and her children and other relatives have fallen sick from what she believes are airborne toxins from the leak.The mental health impact here ... (and) the level of uncertainty is taking a toll on people and that's a huge, huge concern,Arnesen said. She declined to say where she and her two children would settle but said her husband would stay behind to work for BP on the cleanup.

Thousands of Gulf Coast fishermen face financial ruin because of the spill. Some say the stress is worse than after Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast in 2005.Then it was possible to get back to work despite the destruction. Now it is impossible to say when waters will reopen especially since oil continues to gush into the Gulf.At the same time, many fishermen now rely on BP's cleanup program as a financial lifeline and while that has provided a windfall for a few, others have yet to find employment.

FINANCIAL STRAIN

We hear it over and over again,said environmental scientist Wilma Subra of the Louisiana Environmental Action Network, a nonprofit group with deep community roots. It is the stress because of the possibility of not being able to earn a living and pay their bills.Some experts caution it is possible to falsely perceive an uptick in a health phenomenon just by looking for it. But crisis counseling teams working with Gulf fishermen say anecdotal reports point to increased anger and anxiety and a lot of marital discord,said Acquanetta Knight, director of policy and planning at the Alabama Department of Mental Health.Data on the problems should be available in the next two weeks, she told reporters on Friday.Residents suffering mental distress may hesitate to seek help because of a fiercely individualistic culture and strong ethic of self-reliance on the Gulf, where many earn their living working long hours alone on the water.This is sometimes a population that's not so accustomed to utilizing traditional services,said Pamela Hyde, administrator of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.Hyde said her agency, part of the Department of Health and Human Services, is looking at national suicide and domestic violence hotlines and state mental health agency reports to find data.Louisiana, Alabama, and Mississippi state mental health agencies have requested millions of dollars from BP to help pay for expanded mental health monitoring and services.In a June 28 letter to the energy company, the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals asked for $10 million and warned that health effects from the spill will be an ongoing challenge.
The department first requested funds for mental health care on May 28. BP has not yet responded to the request.(Additional reporting by Emma Ashburn in Washington; Editing by Bill Trott)

Hezbollah says it has list of targets in Israel By BASSEM MROUE, Associated Press Writer - JULY 11,10

BEIRUT – A senior official with the militant Hezbollah group said Sunday they have a list of military targets inside Israel to strike in any future war.Hezbollah commander in south Lebanon, Sheik Nabil Kaouk, made his comments in response to Wednesday's release by Israel's military of maps and aerial photographs of what it described as a network of Hezbollah weapons depots and command centers in south Lebanon.The Israeli material included detailed maps and 3-D simulations showing individual buildings that the military said were rocket storehouses. Some were said to be located close to schools and hospitals.The Hezbollah official told the state news agency that the Israeli leaders were trying to restore their confidence by presenting a list of targets in southern Lebanon after the Israeli public opinion lost faith in the army.Kaouk noted that Israel's announcement comes on the anniversary of their defeat in the 2006 war in which Hezbollah battled Israel to a stalemate and some 1,200 Lebanese and 160 Israelis died.

Though the border has remained quiet for the last four years, Israel and Hezbollah have exchanged threats in recent months.During the 2006 war, which started after Hezbollah captured two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border attack, Israel launched a massive air, sea and ground campaign, while Hezbollah fired around 4,000 rockets into Israel.The war ended with a U.N. resolution that imposed a blockade on weapons destined for Hezbollah and banned the group from operating near the Israeli border.

Israel says the resolution and international peacekeeping forces in Lebanon have been largely ineffective. Israel believes Hezbollah has increased its prewar arms stockpile to more than 40,000 rockets.Israeli defense officials say the range of the group's arsenal now includes Israel's main population center in and around Tel Aviv.
Hezbollah leader sheik Hassan Nasrallah said the group now can hit anywhere in Israel.Let the enemy's leaders know that we have a bank of targets that is full and they all know that all their drills and threats will collapse in front of the resistance's surprises in any future war,said Kaouk.

Abbas: No point in direct talks with Israel now By MOHAMMED DARAGHMEH, Associated Press Writer – Sun Jul 11, 7:32 am ET

RAMALLAH, West Bank – The Palestinian president, who is under U.S. pressure to resume direct talks with Israel, said that doing so under current circumstances would be pointless.Mahmoud Abbas sounded determined not to return to the table unless Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu commits to an internationally mandated settlement freeze and agrees to pick up talks where they left off under the Israeli leader's predecessor in December 2008. However, it could become increasingly difficult for him to stick to his position as the Obama administration pushes harder to revive the negotiations.Netanyahu hasn't agreed to either demand, and has so far curbed but not frozen settlement activity. He insists negotiations should be held without any preconditions.Later this week, White House envoy George Mitchell is to meet with Abbas and is expected to lay out some gestures Israel is prepared to make to bring Abbas back to the table, said an Abbas aide.The Palestinians were not informed about the nature of the gestures, said the aide, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to brief reporters on the issue. Israeli defense officials said Israel was considering expanding the role of Palestinian security forces in West Bank towns and removing additional checkpoints that hinder the movement of people and goods. They spoke on condition of anonymity because no final decision had been made.Any decision on resuming talks would not be made without Arab backing, the Abbas aide said. Arab foreign ministers are to discuss the fate of negotiations later this month, he added.

In the absence of direct talks, U.S. envoy George Mitchell has been shuttling between the Israeli and Palestinian leaders.Abbas said in a speech late Saturday that he has no incentive to resume direct talks.We have presented our vision and thoughts and said that if progress is made, we will move to direct talks, but that if no progress is made, it (direct negotiations) will be futile, Abbas said.If they (the Israelis) say come and let's start negotiations from zero, that is futile and pointless,Abbas added.Netanyahu reiterated Sunday that he is ready to move to direct talks immediately.The goal is to promote the political process and to try to reach a peace settlement, he said.The condition is guarding Israel's security scrupulously.
Netanyahu said in New York last week that if Abbas agreed to sit down with him in direct talks, then a peace agreement could be hammered out within a year.President Barack Obama called Abbas last week, following the U.S. president's meeting with Netanyahu. The White House said Obama and Abbas talked about ways to revive direct talks soon.The Palestinians have said that after 17 years of intermittent talks, they don't want to start all over again, especially with an Israeli leader who has retreated from positions presented by his predecessors.Abbas' aide Yasser Abed Rabbo told Palestinian radio Sunday that the Palestinians don't want to enter open-ended negotiations with Israel.There must be a ... timetable, a framework for these negotiations, he said.We will not enter new negotiations that could take more than 10years.The Palestinians want to establish a state in the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem, territories Israel captured in the 1967 Mideast War. They have said the 1967 borders must be the baseline for negotiations, but that they are ready to swap some land to enable Israel to keep some of the largest settlements it has built on occupied land since 1967.Netanyahu says he will not relinquish any part of Jerusalem and has not presented his own border plan.

Israel warning as Libya aid boat eyes Gaza landing by Hazel Ward – Sun Jul 11, 8:12 am ET

JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israel on Sunday vowed to prevent a Libyan aid ship from running the Gaza blockade after it appeared to be heading for the besieged enclave despite a flurry of diplomatic efforts to divert it to Egypt.Israel will not let the boat reach Gaza, minister without portfolio Yossi Peled told Israel's public radio a day after the 92-metre (302-foot) freighter Amalthea set sail from the Greek port of Lavrio, south of Athens.Allowing vessels to reach the Hamas-run Gaza Strip without being checked would have very serious consequences for Israel's security, he said.

There was confusion over the ship's destination on Sunday -- with organisers saying it was staying the course for Gaza, despite diplomatic reassurances from Greece that it was headed for the Egyptian port of El-Arish.We are heading for Gaza. We will not change direction, Mashallah Zwei, a representative of the Kadhafi Foundation, a Libyan charity, told AFP by satellite phone from on board the Amalthea.He insisted the foundation was not seeking a confrontation or a provocation, when asked about the risks of a repeat of an Israeli naval raid on an aid flotilla on May 31 that killed nine Turks.Zwei said the ship was currently close to Crete and would likely reach Gaza in about two days.Israel's Defence Minister Ehud Barak said the attempt to reach Gaza, which has been subjected to an Israeli naval blockade for the past four years, was an unnecessary provocation.The goods can be transferred to the Gaza Strip through Ashdod port after being checked,a statement from his office said late on Saturday.However, we will not allow the entry of arms, weapons or anything which will support fighting into Gaza. We recommend that the organisers either let the ship be escorted by navy vessels to Ashdod port (in southern Israel) or that is sails directly to the port of El-Arish in Egypt.Barak's office had earlier said the defence minister spoke with Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman and asked if Egypt would agree to accept the boat at the port of El-Arish.

It was not immediately clear if Egypt had acceded to Barak's request but the ship's agent and the Greek foreign ministry had on Saturday assured Israel that the Moldova-flagged vessel, chartered by a charity linked to Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi, was heading for El-Arish.The Kadhafi Foundation, headed by Seif al-Islam Kadhafi, the son of the Libyan leader, insisted however that the ship, loaded with 2,000 tonnes of foodstuff and medications and a crew comprising six Libyans, a Moroccan, a Nigerian and an Algerian, had not changed its course.The ship is heading toward Gaza as planned,executive director Youssef Sawan told AFP by telephone from Tripoli, saying the mission was purely humane.His comments were backed up by Arab Israeli parliamentarian Ahmed Tibi. The ship is heading into Gaza as originally planned, said the MP who is in touch with the charity.Israel's top diplomat Avigdor Lieberman has been talking with his counterparts in Greece and Moldova in a bid to encourage the Amalthea to call off its mission, a statement from his office said.The foreign ministry believes that due to these talks, the ship will not reach Gaza,it said.Last month's disastrous Israeli naval assault provoked a major diplomatic crisis with Ankara and unleashed a torrent of international criticism. Global pressure over the incident has since forced Israel to significantly change its policy on Gaza, and now it only prevents the import of arms and goods that could be used to build weapons or fortifications.Israel had even approached UN chief Ban Ki-moon with a request asking the international community to exert its influence on the government of Libya to prevent the ship from going to Gaza, media reports said. Jordanian activists and trade unionists, meanwhile, said they plan to head to Gaza overland on Tuesday through the Egyptian border carrying aid relief and medical supplies.Last month, Egypt banned a group of Jordanian trade unionists from Gaza through its Rafah crossing, saying they had failed to give prior notice of their arrival.

Israel PM to discuss peace moves with Mubarak
Sun Jul 11, 5:59 am ET

JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday he will head for Egypt this week to update Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on latest developments in talks with the Palestinians.On Tuesday, I will travel to Cairo for a meeting with Mubarak, the fifth such meeting in a year, Netanyahu said at the weekly cabinet meeting.We will discuss our intention to move to direct negotiations with the Palestinians, he said.For the past two months, Israel and the Palestinians have been engaged in a series of US-backed proximity talks which has seen US envoy George Mitchell shuttling between the two sides.But Israel wants to shift to direct negotiations -- in a move which was publicly backed by US President Barack Obama when he met with Netanyahu in Washington last week.The two leaders also discussed a series of confidence building measures aimed at bolstering trust between Israel and the Palestinians -- a subject likely to come up in Tuesday's talks.Netanyahu and Mubarak last met on May 3 in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, a few days before the start of the indirect peace talks.Direct negotiations between the two parties broke down in December 2008 when Israel launched a massive 22-day war on Gaza.Last week, two of Netanyahu's senior aides travelled to Cairo for talks with Egypt's intelligence chief Omar Suleiman to prepare for a possible visit by the premier, media reports said.The two countries maintain a cold diplomatic relationship although Egypt, which in 1979 became the first Arab state to sign a peace treaty with Israel, has often acted as broker in Israeli-Palestinian talks.

Israel police quiz ex-PM again over Holyland scandal
Sun Jul 11, 6:27 am ET

JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israel's former prime minister Ehud Olmert was questioned by the fraud squad on Sunday for a third time over his alleged involvement in a huge property scandal, a police spokesman said.Ehud Olmert went on Sunday to the brigade headquarters in Lod, near Tel Aviv, said Micky Rosenfeld, without giving details of the questioning.In May, the fraud squad had questioned the 64-year-old two times within the same week about the so-called Holyland affair.He is already on trial on three unrelated counts of fraud and bribery.The investigation reportedly centres on his alleged role in a scandal involving bribes from developers building a grandiose residential project in Jerusalem called the Holyland complex.In April, prosecutors named Olmert as a key suspect in the Holyland affair in which he is suspected of having taken bribes totalling some 3.5 million shekels (one million dollars).The bribes were allegedly given during construction of the massive complex in the 1990s, a period when Olmert was mayor of Jerusalem. He has denied any such charges.In December, Olmert also pleaded not guilty to charges of corruption linked to three other cases. He resigned under pressure in September 2008 after police recommended he be indicted.He is accused of unlawfully accepting gifts of cash-stuffed envelopes from Jewish-American businessman Morris Talanski and of multiple-billing for foreign trips.Olmert has also been charged with cronyism in connection with an investment centre which he oversaw when he was trade and industry minister between 2003 and 2006.All the charges relate to a period before Olmert became premier in 2006.

FAMINE

REVELATION 6:5-6
5 And when he had opened the third seal, I heard the third beast say, Come and see. And I beheld, and lo a black horse; and he that sat on him had a pair of balances in his hand.
6 And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts say, A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny; and see thou hurt not the oil and the wine.(A DAYS WAGES FOR A LOAF OF BREAD)

FAMINE

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: 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.

Sahel region of Africa facing acute food crisis: Oxfam
Fri Jul 9, 6:21 pm ET

DAKAR (AFP) – Aid agency Oxfam warned Friday that the food crisis gripping the Sahel region of Africa was reaching disastrous levels and called on governments and the international community to act now.The eyes of the world have trouble seeing this crisis,the group's deputy regional director Raphael Sindaye told reporters, but it threatened 10 million people in north-central Africa.The already extremely alarming situation is clearly going to become disastrous,Gilles Marion, Oxfam's director in Mali, added. Families had already been reduced to just one meal a day, he said.With crops failing across the region, women had been reduced to breaking up anthills or scavenging for wild plants in the search for food, they said.The crisis stretched across the region, they said, taking in Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Niger and northern Nigeria.Scant and irregular rainfall since last year set off the crisis.When the pastures did not grow back from December-January, the animals suffered,in northern Mali, said Marion.