OIL OPS UNAFFECTED BY STORM

ISRAELIS AND CONSPIRACY THEORY TRUTHS (FACTS) P-1
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Radio/News.aspx/2441
ISRAELIS AND CONSPIRACY THEORY TRUTHS P-2 (FACTS)INFILTRATION
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Radio/News.aspx/2457

EUROPEAN UNION ARMY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytWmPqY8TE0&feature=player_embedded

DANIEL 7:23-25
23 Thus he said, The fourth beast (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.(TRADING BLOCKS)
24 And the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings(10 NATIONS) that shall arise: 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 NATIONS)
25 And he (EU PRESIDENT) shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time.(3 1/2 YRS)

DANIEL 8:23-25
23 And in the latter time of their kingdom, when the transgressors are come to the full, a king (EU DICTATOR) of fierce countenance, and understanding dark sentences,(FROM THE OCCULT) shall stand up.
24 And his power shall be mighty, but not by his own power:(SATANS POWER) and he shall destroy wonderfully, and shall prosper, and practise, and shall destroy the mighty and the holy people.
25 And through his policy also he shall cause craft to prosper in his hand; and he shall magnify himself in his heart, and by peace shall destroy many: he shall also stand up against the Prince of princes;(JESUS) but he shall be broken without hand.

DANIEL 11:36-39
36 And the king (EU DICTATOR) shall do according to his will; and he shall exalt himself, and magnify himself above every god, and shall speak marvellous things against the God of gods, and shall prosper till the indignation be accomplished: for that that is determined shall be done.
37 Neither shall he regard the God of his fathers,(THIS EU DICTATOR IS JEWISH) nor the desire of women, nor regard any god: for he shall magnify himself above all.(CLAIM TO BE GOD)
38 But in his estate shall he honour the God of forces:(WAR) and a god whom his fathers knew not shall he honour with gold, and silver, and with precious stones, and pleasant things.
39 Thus shall he do in the most strong holds with a strange god,(DESTROY TERROR GROUPS) whom he shall acknowledge and increase with glory: and he shall cause them to rule over many,(HIS ARMY LEADERS) and shall divide the land for gain.

REVELATION 19:19
19 And I saw the beast,(EU LEADER) and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against him that sat on the horse,(JESUS) and against his army.(THE RAPTURED CHRISTIANS)

France proposes EU reaction force for natural disasters
MATEJ HRUSKA 16.08.2010 @ 09:29 CET

French President Nicolas Sarkozy has called for the EU to set up a joint rapid reaction force to handle natural disasters such as earthquakes, wildfires and floods.

In a letter to European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso published on Sunday (15 August), Mr Sarkozy addressed the issue of the EU's ability to react under its own name in connection to the recent floods in Pakistan.Pakistan flood refugees: France wants the EU to create a common reaction force to help out during natural disasters (Photo: IOM Pakistan Flood Response)It seems essential, for obvious political and humanitarian reasons, that Europe shows its solidarity with the Pakistani people visibly. The interest of Europe is also to ensure the development and stability of this country, he wrote.Following the earthquake in Haiti and wildfires in Russia, says the letter, the EU must take the necessary measures and build a real EU reaction force ... that draws on the resources of the member states.

France is to draw up proposals for the force in the near future, it adds.Last week French junior minister for EU affairs, Pierre Lellouche, said the EU should create a European emergency force representing the real means of mutual aid in case of emergency.Paris announced Sunday that a plane with 60 tonnes of humanitarian aid will be sent to Pakistan, with Mr Sarkozy saying France is prepared to use its Nato military forces to help transport the aid.France has already allocated €1 million to Pakistan since the start of the floods, which are estimated to have affected 20 million people. Last Wednesday (11 August), the commission said it would provide Pakistan with €10 million in immediate emergency aid, in addition to €30 million allocated in July. EU foreign ministers are to also discuss a long term aid plan for Pakistan at an informal meeting in September.With wildfire smog returning to Moscow over the weekend, Russia itself indicated it would be interested in joining a multilateral crisis response force.The United States and the EU have now come to the same conclusion. I think we will come to this, and such capabilities will have to be established,he told the Ria Novosti news agency.

Palestinian Authority ready for peace talks, Ashton says
LEIGH PHILLIPS 13.08.2010 @ 09:29 CET

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - The Palestinian Authority is ready for direct talks with Israel, with Ramallah likely to give a definitive go-ahead perhaps as early as Sunday (15 August), according to EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton.The EU high representative made the comments in a letter to European foreign ministers ahead of their informal meeting after the summer break.President Abbas is very close to accepting direct talks, but has requested a few more days for final consultations, she wrote to the bloc's 27 foreign policy chiefs, who are to meet from 10 to 11 September in Brussels, in a letter seen by EUobserver.In principle, President Abbas should be in a position to give a definitive answer by Sunday or early next week.The two sides have engaged in indirect talks since the spring.Once Mr Abbas has signed off on talks, direct negotiations would then begin later in August,according to the Ashton text. He will only agree to talks so long as Israel for its part endorses a 19 March statement by the Quartet, the international body promoting the Middle East Peace Process, she writes. The statement lays out that Israel stop settlement construction in the West Bank, leading to a comprehensive peace agreement with the Palestinians within 24 months. Such a peace deal would see the creation of a Palestinian state based on the borders that existed prior to the 1967 Six-Day War.

It has long been understood that while the 1967 borders would form the basis of a deal, some adjustments and land swaps will be necessary.The signal from Ms Ashton comes as Israel's partial 10-month freeze on settlement construction in the West Bank is coming to a close on 26 September.Mr Abbas has throughout the process insisted on a clear framework of discussion topics based on Quartet demands, so that if terms offered by Israel do not match up with those required by the EU, US, UN and Russia, the Palestinian Authority will not appear to be rejecting a peace deal.Any new talks are to exclude the militant group Hamas, which is listed as a terrorist entity by the EU and which has in the past fought bloody battles with the Abbas camp, but which controls the Gaza Strip.

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 AUG 17,2010

09:30 AM +2.29
10:00 AM +59.79
10:30 AM +44.96
11:00 AM +87.80
11:30 AM +128.67
12:00 PM +140.81
12:30 PM +132.90
01:00 PM +134.95
01:30 PM +177.33
02:00 PM +164.33
02:30 PM +171.69
03:00 PM +154.85
03:30 PM +157.59
04:00 PM +103.84 10,405.85

S&P 500 1092.54 +13.16

NASDAQ 2209.44 +27.57

GOLD 1,227.90 +1.60

OIL 75.71 +0.48

TSE 300 11,728.60 +175.90

CDNX 1463.60 +6.44

S&P/TSX/60 683.64 +11.78

MORNING,NEWS,STATS

YEAR TO DATE PERFORMANCE
Dow +65 points at 4 minutes of trading today.
Dow -0.16 points at low today.
Dow +153 points at high today so far.
GOLD opens at $1,226.40.OIL opens at $76.10 today.

AFTERNOON,NEWS,STATS
Dow -0.16 points at low today so far.
Dow +177 points at high today so far.

WRAPUP,NEWS,STATS
Dow -0.16 points at low today.
Dow +177 points at high today.

GOLD ALLTIME HIGH $1,260.90 (NOT AT CLOSE)

IDF: Killed Terrorist Was Involved in Previous Fatal Attack
by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu and Elad Benari AUG 16,10
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-BFyO0hd2-s&feature=player_embedded

Terror returned to the Gaza Belt area Monday night as two Kassam rockets were fired at the western Negev, and Israeli soldiers killed two terrorists when a cell tried to plant bombs at the Gaza security fence. One soldier was lightly wounded.The rockets exploded in fields next to a kibbutz, and no damage or injuries were reported.The Islamic Jihad terror organization said the dead terrorists belonged to its organization. The IDF later confirmed that one of the two dead terrorists was identified as Bassem Dragma. Dragma, a senior Islamic Jihad operative, took part in a clash in late March near Kibbutz Kissufim on the Gaza border, during which Major Eliraz Peretz and Staff Sergeant Ilan Sviatkovsky were killed. A gunfight broke out when the IDF spotted the terrorist cell, and the wounded soldier is being treated at Soroka Medical Center in nearby Be’er Sheva.Previous rocket attacks have been followed by an almost immediate Israeli retaliation, usually the bombing of rocket manufacturing and warehouses as well as smuggling tunnels. Terrorists in Hamas-controlled Gaza have escalated activity the past two weeks as pressure grows on the Palestinian Authority, headed by the rival Fatah faction, to agree to direct talks with Israel on the creation of a new Arab country within Israel’s borders.
(IsraelNationalNews.com)

Obama Denies Turkey Warning Report
by Elad Benari AUG 17,10

The White House has denied a report that the US has threatened Turkey that arms sales would be in danger due to Turkey’s tougher stance towards Israel and its vote against Iran sanctions.Earlier on Monday, the Financial Times reported that President Barack Obama had warned Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan that if his country wants to purchase United States weapons, it must change its foreign affairs policy regarding both Israel and Iran.An anonymous senior official told the paper: The president has said to Erdogan that some of the actions that Turkey has taken have caused questions to be raised... about whether we can have confidence in Turkey as an ally.The official added that doubts over Turkey's loyalties will make Congress less likely to approve weapons requests.However, Obama has emphatically denied the story in the Financial Times, according to a report by White House pool reporter Jonathan Weisman of the Wall Street Journal.White House spokesman Bill Burton told the press: The president and Erdogan did speak about 10 days ago, and they talked about Iran and the flotilla and other issues related to that. We obviously have an ongoing dialogue with them. But no such [arms] ultimatum was issued. There’s no ultimatum.Turkish diplomatic sources confirmed that there has never been any such ultimatum by the US. The sources admitted, however, that Turkey’s standing in Congress has been hurt as a result of Turkish-Israeli diplomatic tensions.

Tensions between Israel and Turkey escalated in late May, when members of the Turkish pro-terror group IHH were killed in a clash with IDF soldiers during the raid on the Gaza aid flotilla. Two weeks ago, Israel agreed to take part in a United Nations inquiry into the events of the flotilla. Headed by former New Zealand Prime Minister Geoffrey Palmer, the investigating committee includes representatives from Israel, Turkey and the United States.Turkey hopes to buy U.S. weapons including the missile-bearing Reaper drone. The weapons are to be used to fight Kurdish separatists in the country's north. Turkish leaders are concerned that fighting will become more intense as the U.S. withdraws from Iraq.(IsraelNationalNews.com)

Netanyahu, Greece Agree on Security and Tourism Cooperation
by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu AUG 16,10

Greece and Israel deepened ties in the fields of tourism and security Tuesday with the first visit to Athens by an Israeli Prime Minister despite left-wing anti-Israeli protests.In addition to issues of economic cooperation and prosperity for the two countries, like tourism, we also discussed issues of defense cooperation and security,said Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. We need a peaceful region--a peaceful Middle East region with direct talks with the Palestinian authority--the agenda on that is not fixed. We also hope that this trip will be a first step to keep improving bilateral relations with Greece.His host, Prime Minister George Papandreou who visit Israel last month, told Prime Minister Netanyahu, We can deepen and broaden our relations with Israel in commercial relations, large investments and tourism as well as security. We are in the same neighborhood and Greece has a vital interest in a two-party solution for Israel and the Palestinians, and we want to contribute to the economy and safety of the region.He pointed out that Greece is not substituting Turkey as an ally of Israel. Good relations between Greece and Israel should be complementary and not competitive with relations between Turkey and Israel,Prime Minister Papandreou stated.Turkey’s long-standing friendship with Israel soured quickly since the Operation Cast Lead war against the terrorist infrastructure in Hamas-run Gaza and the growing dominance of Iran in Middle East politics.(IsraelNationalNews.com)

GROUND ZERO MOSQUE COMPLIANCE
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Radio/News.aspx/2453

Hamas Backs Ground Zero Mosque
by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu AUG 16,10

Muslims must build a mosque near Ground Zero because we have to build everywhere, Hamas senior leader Mahmoud al-Zahar told WorldNet Daily’s Aaron Klein in an interview on WABC radio in New York.We have to build the mosque, as you are allowed to build the church and Israelis are building their holy places, he said. In every area we have, [as Muslims] we have to pray, and this mosque is the only site of prayer, especially for the people when they are looking [to be] in the group, not an individual, he said.Al-Zahar claimed that Hamas, designated by the United States as a terrorist organization, is representing the vast majority of the Arabic and Islamic world, especially the Islamic side and that American Muslims, like all others, are united in a common cause.Hamas’ support for the mosque near the site of the former World Trade Center came 24 hours after U.S. President Barack Obama’s widely regarded gaffe in supporting the mosque and then doubling back on his comments. Speaking Friday night to Muslim guests, President Obama stated, Let me be clear: As a citizen and as President, I believe that Muslims have the same right... to build a place of worship and a community center on private property in Lower Manhattan, in accordance with local laws and ordinances. This is America, and our commitment to religious freedom must be unshakeable.

After his remarks caused an uproar coast-co-coast in the United States, he said the following morning, I was not commenting and I will not comment on the wisdom of making a decision to put a mosque there.He explained that Muslims have the right build a mosque near Ground Zero but that he was not interfering with what he called a local decision.The plan for a mosque has torn apart American feelings, some claiming that freedom of religion allows for a mosque to be built and others arguing that it would be totally insensitive to the feelings of those who were wounded and to relatives of the dead. Several planners of the mosque also have been linked to groups supporting Muslim terror.President Obama’s backtracking echoed a similar clarification during his presidential campaign, when he told the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) pro-Israel group, Jerusalem will remain the capital of Israel and it must remain undivided. Shortly afterwards, he explained, Well, obviously it's going to be up to the parties to negotiate a range of these issues. And Jerusalem will be part of those negotiations… As a practical matter, it would be very difficult to execute [a policy of the capital remaining undivided.]Later, he further explained that he actually meant that a barbed wire fence should not divide the city, as it did when Jordan occupied eastern, southern and northern Jerusalem. Jordan did not allow Christians or Jews to visit their holy sites under its control, including the Western Wall, except for visiting dignitaries.(IsraelNationalNews.com)

Iran Plans Third Nuclear Plant
by Maayana Miskin AUG 16,10
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytWmPqY8TE0&feature=player_embedded

Iran will begin building a third nuclear enrichment site within a year, the head of Iran's atomic program Ali Akbar Saleh announced Monday. He did not name the location of the planned facility, but said it will be built somewhere that cannot be targeted in an air strike.Iran has one operational nuclear enrichment plant in the city of Natanz, and a second is being built at a mountain site in Fordo.Iranian officials say their country's nuclear program is meant to provide energy for civilian use. However, they have refused to grant international inspectors access to nuclear facilities. In addition, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has threatened to wipe Israel off the map, and Iran is openly supportive of terrorist groups that target Israel and Western nationals, including Hamas and Hizbullah. These are moves that add to Western suspicion that Iran's nuclear program is not peaceful in nature.

Ahmadinejad announced last year that his country would build ten new nuclear enrichment plants once appropriate sites were found. According to Saleh, the search for new sites has ended successfully.In July, Saleh announced that Iran will open a nuclear power plant in September in the city of Bushehr. At the time he downplayed concerns over international sanctions aimed at stopping Iran's unsupervised nuclear program, saying such sanctions could slow down the job but will not stop activities.

Both the United States and the European Union voted this summer to impose tougher sanctions on Iran over its nuclear program. The new sanctions seem to be having an effect on the Revolutionary Guards, whose industrial wing has been forced to halt development projects that were heretofore funded by international companies that have now pulled out.(IsraelNationalNews.com)

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.

Mexican butterflies threatened by severe storms
Mon Aug 16, 5:55 pm ET

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Fabled monarch butterflies are facing a new threat from severe storms that have devastated some sanctuary forests in Mexico, conservation groups said on Monday.The Nature Conservancy said in a news conference that storm damage in Mexico's 13,000-hectare (32,124 acre) monarch reserve is yet another blow to the fragile butterflies, which arrived in Mexico in record low numbers last season after a 2,000-mile journey from spots as far north as Canada.Illegal logging has long threatened the butterflies in western Mexico, where clouds of orange and black butterflies are a common sight during the winter.But the 117 hectares (289 acres) damaged this winter were due instead to torrential rains and heavy winds, said Omar Vidal, head of World Wildlife Fund Mexico.We can say that extreme climate events will be more frequent and more intense, Juan Bezaury, Mexico representative for The Nature Conservancy, told reporters.February is typically one of the driest months in Mexico, but days of heavy rain, hail and sleet this year knocked countless butterflies from their perches.Many scientists blame recent extreme weather events on climate change caused by greenhouse gasses including industrial carbon.Mexico, host of the next round of United Nations climate talks that begin in late November, has pledged to reduce carbon emissions by 50 million tonnes in 2012.It says sustainable forestry and reforestation will be a key part of its strategy for curbing carbon emissions.(Reporting by Caroline Stauffer; editing by Missy Ryan and Todd Eastham)

Russia beats back fires as weather changes by Stuart Williams – Mon Aug 16, 12:18 pm ET

MOSCOW (AFP) – Russia on Monday said it was beating back the country's worst ever wildfires, including one close to a secret nuclear site, as thunderstorms and torrential rain drenched parts of the parched country.The peat and forest fires in the countryside of central Russia have killed more than 50 people and raised concerns about the security of potentially dangerous strategic sites located in the vicinity of the blazes.A huge worry has been fires in a nature reserve close to Russia's main nuclear research centre in Sarov -- a town closed to foreigners as in Soviet times -- but the authorities said they had taken a major step to resolving the crisis.The situation is stable and controllable. There are no fires on the territory of Sarov, said the head of the emergencies ministry's branch for the Volga region, Igor Panshin.If the positive dynamic continues then a withdrawal of the contingent in Sarov will begin in the coming week.The emergencies ministry said that the fire, in the district of the village of Popovka, 17 kilometres (10 miles) southeast of Sarov, which had extended to 1,000 hectares (2,470 acres) at the weekend, had been localised and ringed-in.Nationwide the area affected by wildfires had been reduced by another 8,000 hectares to 45,800 hectares, the ministry said. At the peak of the crisis, an area of almost 200,000 hectares was in flames.Officials also said the situation around Moscow was under control but Russia's tough-talking Prime Minister Vladimir Putin took issue with that line of thought.The problem is that such control does not suit anyone, the Interfax news agency quoted Putin as saying at a meeting in the town of Kolomna outside Moscow.Such a situation is unacceptable, he said.

Earlier officials showed Putin a technique for flooding peat bogs that have dried out over the years polluting the air, the government said, adding the works to fill up the peat bogs had started a week ago.Officials over the past days sought to downplay the true scale of the disaster and the federal government has yet to confirm that daily mortality rates in Moscow doubled as a result of the heatwave and smog.Temperatures in Moscow were 29 degrees Celsius (84 degress Fahrenheit), well down on the highs of almost 40 degrees seen over the last days, with little sign of the smog from the wildfires that had blanketed the city for days.Moscow was braced for torrential rain and high winds later after tens of thousands in northwest Russia were left without electricity overnight when a storm ripped through the region.The emergencies ministry in the Leningrad region around Russia's second city of Saint Petersburg said almost 100,000 people in 1,500 towns and villages in northwest Russia were left without electricity.The storm, which was also felt in Saint Petersburg, saw high winds and driving rain and felled several trees and even a crane. Train traffic was also affected.But as the fires eased, a new controversy blazed as allegations emerged that Emergencies Minister Sergei Shoigu had personally ordered the blocking of an official website which warned of radioactive dangers from the wildfires.The Roslesozashchita state forest watchdog had warned that hundreds of hectares of land had burned in the Bryansk region of western Russia, an area still contaminated by the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster. Deputy director of the watchdog, Alexei Bobrinksy, told AFP the website has not been working since Friday afternoon.The Kommersant daily said the company hosting the site, Multikhost, had been telephoned at the weekend by the authorities and ordered to block the website. However the company insisted it had not blocked the site.

The paper said that Shoigu had personally ordered that the site was sorted out as it had published false information about the fires in the Bryansk region.The fires and heatwave have triggered a major crisis in Russia affecting nearly all areas of life, in particular the agriculture industry which has seen one quarter of Russian crops destroyed. Russia at the weekend implemented a ban on the export of grain which has proved highly controversial and forced up world wheat prices to two-year highs.

Gulf of Mexico oil ops unaffected by storm threat
Mon Aug 16, 10:36 am ET

HOUSTON (Reuters) – Oil and natural gas producers have not cut back production in the northern Gulf of Mexico because of a brewing tropical storm threat, the companies said on Monday morning.Leading U.S. Gull oil producer BP Plc said offshore operations managers were watching the remnants of Tropical Depression 5, which re-entered the Gulf overnight.BP production at its Mississippi Canyon platforms, southeast of New Orleans, were continuing as planned, but crews were beginning preparations for a possible storm.The system has a 60 percent chance of becoming a tropical cyclone in the next 48 hours, according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center. The system is expected to come ashore near New Orleans late Tuesday or early Wednesday.BP's Mississippi Canyon platforms are Horn Mountain, Pompano, Merlin, Na Kika and Thunder Horse, which has production in excess of 200,000 barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil.Energy major Chevron Corp said there was no impact to operations or production, but it was closely monitoring the weather system.The Louisiana Offshore Oil Port LLC also reported normal operations. Tropical Depression 5 is expected to move ashore well east of the LOOP's offshore loading platform in the Gulf.Anadarko Petroleum Corp, Marathon Oil Corp and LyondellBasell's Houston refinery said operations were continuing as planned.We're watching developments closely, as always, but operating normally,said Marathon spokesman John Poretto.

U.S.-regulated areas of the northern Gulf of Mexico provide 30 percent of the nation's oil production and 11 percent of natural gas output. More than 40 percent of the nation's refining capacity stretches along the Gulf Coast from Corpus Christi, Texas, to Pascagoula, Mississippi.(Reporting by Erwin Seba, Janet McGurty and Rebekah Kebede; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)

Pakistan flood survivors protest slow aid By ASHRAF KHAN, Associated Press Writer – Mon Aug 16, 10:08 am ET

SUKKUR, Pakistan – Angry flood survivors in Pakistan blocked a highway to protest slow delivery of aid and heavy rain lashed makeshift housing Monday as a forecast of more flooding increased the urgency of the massive international relief effort.

Pakistan's worst floods in recorded history began more than two weeks ago in the mountainous northwest and have spread throughout the country. Some 20 million people and 62,000 square miles (160,000 square kilometers) of land — about one-fifth of the country — have been affected.The scale of the disaster has raised concerns it could destabilize the country, which is pivotal to U.S. hopes of defeating al-Qaida and the Taliban.Hundreds of victims blocked a major highway with stones and garbage near the hard-hit Sukkur area, complaining they were being treated like animals. Protester Kalu Mangiani said government officials only came to hand out food when media were present.They are throwing packets of food to us like we are dogs. They are making people fight for these packets, he said.The U.N. children's agency warned 3.5 million children were at high risk of deadly waterborne disease such as diarrhea and cholera. It said it did not have enough funds to distribute clean water to victims, or give them medical care.The Sindh irrigation minister, Jam Saifullah Dharejo, said the dam in Sukkur faced a major test of its strength as floodwaters coursed down the Indus River into Pakistan's highly populated agricultural heartland.

The coming four to five days are still crucial,he said.U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon flew over the flood-hit area Sunday and said he had never seen a disaster on such a scale. He urged the international community to speed up assistance.The world body has appealed for an initial $460 million to provide relief, of which about 60 percent has been given.Britain's deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg accused some nations of failing to offer sufficient support.The response from some sections of the international community has been lamentable, Clegg said, without naming the countries he believed had failed to offer appropriate help.Britain's government has so far provided 16.8 million pounds (US$26 million) in emergency aid in response to the floods, making it one of the largest foreign donors.The European Union also announced it was considering forming a task force to better coordinate emergency aid in the future after French President Nicolas Sarkozy said the EU's euro 40 million ($51 million) in humanitarian aid was insufficient.The latest flooding over the weekend hit a poor region on the border between Sindh and Baluchistan provinces.Sher Khan Bazai, the top government official in Nasirabad district, said 25,000 families had been made homeless by waters 8 feet (2.5 meters) high in some places. About 4,000small villages had been either cut off or washed out.

Water is everywhere, he said.Once the floods recede, billions more dollars will be needed for reconstruction and getting people back to work in the already-poor nation of 170 million people. The International Monetary Fund has warned the floods could dent economic growth and fuel inflation. While local charities and international agencies have helped hundreds of thousands of people with food, water, shelter and medical treatment, the scale of the disaster has meant many millions have received little or no assistance.Associated Press writer Abdul Sattar in Quetta contributed to this report.