PERSECUSSION,BEHEADINGS
JESUS PERSECUTED BIGTIME
PSALMS 14:1
1 The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good.
ISAIAH 53:4
4 Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.
MATTHEW 9:34
34 But the Pharisees said, He casteth out devils through the prince of the devils.
JOHN 8:41
41 Ye do the deeds of your father. Then said they to him, We be not born of fornication; we have one Father, even God.
JOHN 10:20
20 And many of them said, He hath a devil, and is mad; why hear ye him?
PHILIPPIANS 2:10-11(JESUS GETS REVENGE)
10 That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth;
11 And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.(JUDGEMENT SEAT OF CHRIST AND FOR SINNERS, THE GREAT WHITE THRONE FINAL JUDGEMENT).
WE ARE CHRISTIANS WE WILL BE TREATED THE SAME.
2 TIMOTHY 3:1-5 (WHY WE ARE PERSECUTED BY THE WORLD)
1 This know also, that in the last days perilous (DANGEROUS) times shall come.
2 For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,
3 Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good,
4 Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God;
5 Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.
MATTHEW 5:10-12
10 Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
11 Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake.
12 Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.
MATTHEW 24:9
9 Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name’s sake.
JOHN 15:18-20
18 If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me (JESUS) before it hated you.
19 If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.
20 Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also.
REVELATION 6:9-11
9 And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain(BEHEADED) for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held:
10 And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?
11 And white robes were given unto every one of them; and it was said unto them, that they should rest yet for a little season, until their fellowservants also and their brethren, that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled.
REVELATION 20:4
4 And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.
SAVING NEHA PARTS 1 & 2
http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/WFive/20100311/w5_saving_neha_100311/
THIS IS A STORY OF A MUSLIM FAMILY IN PAKISTAN THAT BECAME CHRISTIANS AND LITTLE NEHA WAS RAPED BY ANOTHER MUSLIM FOR CONVERTING TO CHRISTIANITY.THEN ONE MAN AND A CHURCH HELPED BRING THE PERSECUTED CHRISTIAN FAMILY TO CANADA.PRAISE GOD(KING JESUS)FOR THIS MUSLIM FAMILY COMING TO THE TRUTH THAT JESUS IS THE ONLY WAY TO SALVATION NO OTHER WAY.AND HOW PEACEFUL ISLAM IS THAT THEY RAPE A 5 OR 6 YEAR OLD GIRL AS REVENGE OF THE FAMILY BECOMING CHRISTIANS.NEHAS REWARD IN HEAVEN WILL BE GREAT WHEN SHE SEES JESUS FACE TO FACE.
I COMMEND W-5 FOR THIS STORY.AND THIS PRECIOUS MUSLIM FAMILY FOR TRUSTING JESUS AND BEING SAVED.
http://watch.ctv.ca/news/w5/saving-neha/#clip276131
http://watch.ctv.ca/news/w5/saving-neha/#clip276132
Rescue mission to save a persecuted family No clip was passed on the query string W5 Staff Date: Sat. Mar. 13 2010 7:03 PM ET - (I SEEN DEC 20,10 FOR 1ST TIME)
In her short life, Neha Munir has survived horrors that no child should ever experience. At just two-and-a-half years old she was the victim of rape in her native Pakistan. An unimaginable crime committed because her Christian father would not convert to Islam. Abid Hussein, the man who attacked Neha, worked with her father on a dairy farm, which was also home to her family. Neha's father, Munir Masih, said he was repeatedly pressured to convert to Islam by Neha's attacker and other employees of the farm. The attack against his daughter, he said, was payback for his refusal to embrace Islam. Christians make up roughly two percent of the estimated 175-million Pakistanis, the vast majority of whom are Muslim. The country was created, at the partition of British India, as the homeland of South Asian Muslims. As members of a religious minority, the Masih family found themselves as second-class citizens, fighting to get medical care for Neha -- despite the sexual assault. It was also a struggle to get police to investigate the attack. Yet, even in a country inured by violence, how could the assault of a toddler go un-noticed? Within days, a prominent Pakistani human rights activist, Shahbaz Bhatti, who later would become the country's first Christian Minister of Minorities Affairs, came to the family's aid.
Bhatti and his organization, All Pakistan Minorities Alliance, brought the attention of Pakistan's national media to Neha's attack and her family's plight. He helped Neha obtain medical care and forced the justice system to ensure that her attacker was prosecuted. Two years after the rape, the man who so savagely violated Neha was sentenced to life in prison.Yet the trial and conviction of the attacker only triggered further victimization of Neha's family. Munir Masih claimed that at the dairy farm where he worked, the owner, a prominent Muslim, had tried to get him to drop the charges and threatened to kill the family if they did not.Fearing for their lives the Masih family went into hiding, seeking refuge within Pakistan's Christian minority. They moved from safehouse to safehouse, all the while seeking a way to escape their homeland and to provide Neha a new, non-sectarian home. In 2007, three years after the attack, Munir Masih met Majed El Shafie, founder of a human rights organization dedicated to helping persecuted Christians. Recorded by El Shafie's personal cameraman, Munir Masih explained why he worried for the life of Neha, her four siblings, his wife and himself:They (the religious extremists) are after our lives and they want to kill us, he said. Twenty-four hours we (are) under threat that any time we can be killed.
One Free World International
Majed El Shafie founded One Free World International as a human rights organization to help persecuted minorities. He too was persecuted in his native Egypt after he embraced Christianity and began an underground movement. He claims that he was arrested and jailed for agitating for Christians. He showed W5 scars on his back that he says he received after being tortured in prison. Within a year he fled Egypt and found his way to Canada in 2002. Two years later, he started OFWI.El Shafie learned of Neha's plight from contacts within the Pakistani-Canadian community and decided he had to help the little girl and her family. What began was years of lobbying, trips to Pakistan and subterfuge to bring the Masih family to Canada. I gave her my word and my promise that I would get her out of there, El Shafie said, recalling his first meeting with Neha and her family.One of the main hurdles El Shafie faced was obtaining Canadian immigration documents that would allow Neha and her family to come to Canada. Luckily, he had an important contact: Canada's Minister of Immigration, Jason Kenney, whom he had worked with on other human rights cases.The details of the Masih family's ordeal compelled Kenney to do something that he has only done twice before, personally issuing the family a special Temporary Resident Permit to guarantee they could enter Canada and eventually apply for permanent residence.We can't go into every country in the world, in every unjust situation and sort of, metaphorically speaking, airlift people to Canada, Kenney told W5, as he stressed that the special immigration papers had been issued due to the uniqueness of the Masih family's situation.When you see a girl who has suffered what she did, when you see a family that lost all of its sense of hope and dignity, I just felt absolutely compelled to do whatever we could to help them.
Escape
With Kenney's help and the Canadian government opening its doors, El Shafie returned to Pakistan to help the Masih family escape. Fearing attack or reprisal, El Shafie says he had to obtain the family's Pakistani passports through backdoor channels and on the pretence that they would return to Pakistan after a short visit to Canada. Even the trip to the airport in Islamabad was fraught with danger. Still under threat of death, and aided by El Shafie, Neha's family quietly slipped into the international air terminal and boarded a flight to Toronto. Only once the plane had reached cruising altitude and had left Pakistani airspace could they breathe a sigh of relief. Fifteen hours later they arrived at Toronto's Pearson airport to the delight and applause of Canadian Christians, many of whom assisted in the rescue by offering financial donations to help pay for the trip.The family is now safe in Canada but the situation in Pakistan remains tense. Recently, as Pakistan has become embroiled in the war against terror -- pitting pro-Taliban elements against the government -- minorities have been targeted as allies of the West and, in particular, the United States.This is a country which is at war with religious extremism, said Sahebzada Khan, Pakistan's Consul General in Toronto, who acknowledges his country faces a serious problem. These religious extremists are not just killing minorities, they are killing our way of life.For the moment though, Neha and her family have escaped the persecution, the violence and the death threats. One Sunday morning they attended church at the Toronto Airport Christian Fellowship, welcomed by their Canadian Christian brethren, many of whom helped finance the Masih family's rescue and escape.No longer having to live their lives in the shadows, Neha and her family are embracing their new lives in Canada, where they can practice their religion without fear of persecution or retaliation.
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.
Report Ready on Israeli Sovereignty on the Temple Mount
by Hillel Fendel DEC 21,10
State Comptroller Michal Lindenstrauss has prepared a report on Israel’s approach to Waqf excavations on the Temple Mount and on Israeli sovereignty there in general. Only a small portion will be made public, at a date of the Comptroller's choosing.
A subcommittee of the Knesset Control Committee, named the Audit Committee of the Security Establishment re: Foreign Affairs, has reviewed the report and determined which sections can be published. Subcommittee chairman MK Otniel Shneller (Kadima), a religious Jew who lives in Samaria, discussed the issue on Arutz Sheva’s newsmagazine.The facts are straightforward, Shneller said: As of a few months ago, the Islamic Waqf [the religious Islamic body that oversees the Temple Mount – ed.] conducted a dig at the Solomon’s Stables area of the Temple Mount, in the south-eastern part of the Mount. It removed truckloads of dirt in order to build a large mosque there, causing mortal harm to historic remnants of the Jewish People. This mosque now functions today.The Temple Mount, the location of the two Holy Temples, is Judaism's holiest site, and is considered Islam's third-holiest site.
Shneller: Situation Has Totally Changed for the Better
A week ago, Shneller said, our committee approved a very few parts of the report for publication. It is a very sensitive issue, so I will just review here what will be made public: A report on the large digs at Solomon’s Stables, and maintenance work under the Al-Aqsa mosque, and the like. The report mainly deals with how we, Israel, actualize our sovereignty on the Temple Mount. It notes the problems, what can be done, and what has been done. And the conclusion is as follows: Many improvements have been made over the past few months, and everything is now done there in full coordination with the police, the Israel Israel Antiquities Authority, the Attorney-General’s office, the relevant ministerial committee, and the Jerusalem municipality. The situation has totally changed.Arutz Sheva’s Shimon Cohen said, What you’re saying is that the public will never learn what all the problems were, but we should rest assured that everything is now OK.Shneller did not deny this, but said, The issue is tremendously sensitive. Other countries such as Jordan and Morocco are also involved; we want to make sure that we don’t lose our hold on the Temple Mount. We don’t want to make grand declarations and then lose on the ground.
Cohen said, For instance, the new mosque at Solomon’s Stables- what about the very fact that there is another mosque on the Temple Mount, and Muslims come to pray there regularly in massive numbers? Is that something that should be allowed to continue? Shneller responded, The report does not deal with prayer arrangements on the Temple Mount. I can just say that there are currently no digs taking place at all there, but rather only very defined and approved maintenance works.(IsraelNationalNews.com)
Strong Objections to Fischer’s Political Currency
by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu DEC 20,10
Menachem Begin’s son Benny - a Minister Without Portfolio in Israel's government - is fighting an attempt by Bank of Israel Governor Stanley Fischer to place his father’s picture on Israeli currency notes. Fischer also wants former Prime Minister Yitzchak Rabin's portrait on a currency note.Fischer announced Sunday that he thinks the shekel bills should note what he called the historical importance of two political leaders who signed peace agreements. Menachem Begin signed a peace treaty with Egypt in 1979, and Rabin signed the Oslo Accords with Yasser Arafat, head of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), in 1995 at a White House ceremony hosted by then-President Bill Clinton.However, the Begin family repeated on Monday its previous opposition to the idea. Minister Benny Begin explained to Globes that he did not warn Fischer because nobody has spoken to me.Fischer also wants shekel bills to portray two people from the literary field: Nobel Prize winner Shai Agnon, who already is pictured on a bill, and the poet known by her first name Rachel.
Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz also opposes Fischer's political agenda, but Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu apparently has approved the proposal, which must pass a Cabinet vote before being implemented. The new pictures are to become a part of the public’s wallets in 2012.Fischer’s recommendations came after a currency design committee, headed by retired High Court Justice Yaakov Turkel, recommended that story writer Leah Goldberg be one of the personalities to be portrayed on the denominations of 20, 50, 100 and 200 shekels.Last year, Kadima Knesset Member Dalia Itzik introduced a legislative bill stating that currencies must depict women and men that contributed significantly to society and the state, including intellectuals, Nobel Prize winners and leaders.Fischer ran into trouble last year when he proposed that the currency notes be replaced with pictures of Rabin, Begin, David Ben Gurion, Israel’s first Prime Minister, and Zionist leader Theodore Herzl.
Fischer was enticed by Netanyahu to move to Israel and become a citizen in order to be eligible to take over the job as governor of the Central Bank. Netanyahu has been widely credited for having creating the conditions in the beginning of the decade for Israel’s unprecedented economic growth and stability when he was Finance Minister in the Sharon government.Fischer took the helm and has brought universal respect for the Bank, whose policies helped Israel weather the global financial disaster two years ago and retain stability and growth.However, his politics are far from those of Prime Minister Netanyahu. He has indicated that Israel should do whatever it can to establish the Palestinian Authority as a new Arab country. Fischer also was once the boss of Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, who worked as an economist at the International Monetary Fund, where Fischer was the chief economist.Among previous statements, Fischer has said, I generally prefer to stand by the agreements we have signed with them [the Palestinian Authority]. So that is at least one rationale for transferring the money [of taxes collected by Israel for the PA]. There are all kinds of other rationales, but that is my starting point.(IsraelNationalNews.com)
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/?tabid=15839796&tabheader=false
HALF HOUR DOW RESULTS TUE DEC 21,2010
09:30 AM +2.43
10:00 AM +32.21
10:30 AM +47.42
11:00 AM +44.77
11:30 AM +43.03
12:00 PM +44.62
12:30 PM +49.31
01:00 PM +50.90
01:30 PM +48.97
02:00 PM +50.31
02:30 PM +46.13
03:00 PM +49.95
03:30 PM +51.70
04:00 PM +55.03 11,533.16
S&P 500 1254.60 +7.52
NASDAQ 2667.61 +18.05
GOLD 1,387.10 +1.00
OIL 89.70 +0.33
TSE 300 13,365.20 +171.90
CDNX 2155.83 +8.68
S&P/TSX/60 782.87 +10.04
MORNING,NEWS,STATS
YEAR TO DATE PERFORMANCE
Dow +33 points at 4 minutes of trading today.
Dow -0.07 points at low today.
Dow +53 points at high today so far.
GOLD opens at $1,385.10.OIL opens at $89.86 today.
AFTERNOON,NEWS,STATS
Dow -0.07 points at low today so far.
Dow +53 points at high today so far.
WRAPUP,NEWS,STATS
Dow -0.07 points at low today.
Dow +55 points at high today.
GOLD ALLTIME HIGH $1,427.40 (NOT AT CLOSE)
SHARPTON CALLS FOR FCC TALK RADIO HEARINGS
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0OKk0yrMz44&feature=player_embedded
Monitoring America: The Government’s Development Of A Vast Panopticon Spy Network Steve Watson Infowars.com December 21, 2010
The Washington Post today reports on the vast growing domestic spying apparatus that the federal government is using, in conjunction with the Pentagon, to target millions of law-abiding American citizens who have not been accused of any wrongdoing.In a lengthy report entitled Monitoring America, the Post details how a vast centralized snooping machine is being constructed and employed by local, state and federal agencies as well as military investigators, to collect, store and analyze swathes of personal information.Everything contained within the Post’s article has already been reported and covered in depth by this website and others in the alternative media that have consistently warned of the threat of the exponential rise of the big brother spy system over the past decade.The report details Homeland Security head Janet Napolitano’s recent See something, say something campaign, which encompasses the federal government hooking up with Wal-Mart, Amtrak, major sports leagues, hotel chains and metro riders to encourage citizens to file suspicious activity reports if they see any activity they think could be criminal or terroristic.The government defines a suspicious activity as observed behavior reasonably indicative of pre-operational planning related to terrorism or other criminal activity related to terrorism.As we reported recently, critics of the program have been literally dubbed insane by it’s coordinators, despite legitimate concerns over asking citizens to effectively spy on each other for the government.
The Washington Post report notes that such suspicious activity reports are just one piece of information being collected at the local and state levels and fed into a vast Guardian database via fusion centers, which ultimately connect to the FBI, the DHS and even the Department of Defense.According to the report, the spook network includes 4,058 federal, state and local organizations.Intelligence centers run by states across the country have access to personal information about millions of Americans, including unlisted cell phone numbers, insurance claims, driver’s license photographs and credit reports.Dozens of the fusion centers were created after 9/11 to identify potential threats and improve the way information is shared. The centers use law enforcement analysts and sophisticated computer systems to compile, or fuse, disparate tips and clues and pass along the refined information to other agencies.
The centers have received billions in funding from the Department of Homeland Security and also work in conjunction with the military arm of the DHS, NORTHCOM.They also have subscriptions to private information-broker services that keep records about Americans’ locations, employment history, financial holdings, associates, relatives, firearms licenses and the like.Some of these data-brokers, such as one in Maryland called Entersect, claim to hold records about 98 percent of Americans.The Washington Post report also details how equipment developed for use against insurgents and fighters in combat situations such as Afghanistan is now being employed by police and law enforcement agencies to collect information on the American people.From military-grade infrared cameras, to hand-held, wireless fingerprint scanners, to facial recognition surveillance cameras, to license plate readers, to Predator drones along the borders – all are being used to snap pictures and video and record swathes of information. This will all then be fed into a giant database, cross referenced with every other piece of information collected, analyzed and stored.This year for the first time, the FBI, the DHS and the Defense Department are able to search each other’s fingerprint databases, said Myra Gray, head of the Defense Department’s Biometrics Identity Management Agency, speaking to an industry group recently. Hopefully in the not-too-distant future, she said, our relationship with these federal agencies – along with state and local agencies – will be completely symbiotic.
The justification is, as always, the war on terror, but the targets of the information gathering are everyday Americans.As the Washington Post report also notes, Homeland Security and its state and local partners have routinely targeted peaceful and lawful groups and individuals as part of its surveillance reporting.As we have seen from the MIAC report, DHS spying on tea Party and second amendment activists in Pennsylvania and a host of other examples in recent years, the federal government has little interest in Muslim extremists and has instead targeted Americans knowledgeable of their rights and critical of big government as the primary domestic terror threat. The feds have defined terrorist propaganda as any material critical of the state. The Department of Defense characterizes peaceful protest as low level terrorism in its own report.Over the years we have seen countless instances of unaccountable government and military programs that have been in operation for decades, all centered around covertly spying and gathering information on American citizens.We have extensively documented such programs from COINTELPRO through to Operation CHAOS, the Defense Department’s Counterintelligence Field Activity and the recent NSA warrantless wiretapping.Large corporations such as Google, AT&T, Facebook and Yahoo to name but a few are also intimately involved in the overarching program. Those corporations have specific government arms that are supplying the software, hardware and tech support to US intelligence agencies in the process of creating a vast closed source database for global spy networks to share information.We are now witnessing the coordination and mass consolidation of scores of these operations into one all encompassing panopticon program.After 9/11 the work of 16 different intelligence agencies, including the CIA and the giant National Security Agency, which eavesdrops on international communications, as well as the Energy Department and the Drug Enforcement Administration was centralized under the office of the Director of National Intelligence.
Why such rampant centralization? Why is the military now so intent on fusing itself with the federal government via Homeland security and through the FBI and why are the targets of their operations always American citizens? We are constantly bombarded with the notion that the biggest threat we face is from those who reject and abhor western values, yet the government and military continue to relentlessly focus their anti-terror activity directly upon freedom loving American people, while telling them they would be completely insane to voice any concern.
Reding slams US over data privacy
VALENTINA POP Today DEC 21,10 @ 09:29 CET
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Justice commissioner Viviane Reding on Monday criticised the US for lacking interest and not having yet appointed a proper negotiator on an over-arching data protection agreement with the EU. Her words came as the bloc's own data protection supervisor slammed the EU internal security strategy for being unclear about privacy.From the outset, we have noted an apparent lack of interest on the US side to talk seriously about data protection, Ms Reding said in a statement, two weeks after holding talks with US attorney general Eric Holder and interior minister Janet Napolitano. She said that the US is interested in negotiations on specific data-sharing deals with Europe, but that there was less movement on the over-arching data protection agreement she had the mandate to negotiate.They have not even appointed a negotiator, Ms Reding pointed out, adding she expects the telephone number of the negotiator before the end of the year.The over-arching agreement is somewhat of a nightmare for the US administration, as the American legal system in the area of data protection is much more sectoral than in Europe. One of the conditions, however, of the European Parliament to approve further deals with the US on data transfers, is to have such a principled agreement in place. The EU legislature in February vetoed a data sharing agreement allowing US anti-terrorism investigators to tap on bank transfer information. When further protections were added to the so-called Swift deal, such as an EU supervisor sitting in Washington and checking that no abuse occurs, MEPs approved the second version, which became operational on 1 August.
Washington has meanwhile started talks on renewing an existing "Passenger Name Records" agreement, which obliges airlines to inform US authorities 72 hours before departure all the details of their passengers. If someone is on a terrorist watch list or a suspect of serious cross-border crime, that person is not allowed to board and can be arrested. But information is also used to see who is sharing a phone number or the same credit card with someone who is watch-listed, which broadens the use of data more than the European Parliament would like.US authorities claim that over 3,000 positive hits were made since 2007 by using PNR data to identify people connected to terrorism, drug trafficking, human trafficking and to dismantle child pornography rings.They also maintain that no data mining is being done to randomly check for people or that any meal preferences are used to do racial or religious profiling.But as US cables published by WikiLeaks reveal, Washington has several parallel data sharing agreements - mostly signed on a bilateral level with European governments - which can land them the same results if an EU-wide deal fails.The Swedish government, for instance, was outed by WikiLeaks as wanting to keep discussions about anti-terrorism data sharing with the US away from public scrutiny.
According to a cable from November 2008, officials from the Swedish Ministry of Justice and Ministry of Foreign Affairs had a strong degree of satisfaction with current informal information sharing arrangements with the American government. Having the deals subjected to parliamentary scrutiny could place a wide range of law enforcement and anti-terrorism operations in jeopardy, the Swedish officials said.
Member states do business with the US and don't tell anyone, not even their own parliaments. So the things the European Parliament can do on PNR for instance, are marginal, because if Washington doesn't get it that way, they do it bilaterally, Dutch Liberal MEP Sophie in't Veld told this website. Ms in't Veld is the MEP in charge of drafting the Parliament's opinion on the final PNR agreement.Meanwhile, on 17 December 2010, the European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS) issued an opinion on the Commission's communication on the EU's Internal Security Strategy which aims at targeting the most urgent security threats facing Europe, such as organised crime, terrorism, cybercrime, the management of EU external borders and civil disasters.
Internal security
Meanwhile, as Ms Reding was bashing US authorities, the EU data protection supervisor (EDPS) issued an opinion about the commission's own internal security strategy, slamming what it called a lack of detail on how privacy will be ensured.In view of the potentially privacy intrusive nature of measures to be taken under the strategy, a right balance needs to be ensured between the objective of ensuring citizens' safety and the effective protection of their privacy and personal data, the EDPS said in a statement.The EDPS regrets that although the communication refers to privacy and data protection as fundamental rights, the EU commission does not explain how this will be ensured in practice,it noted.In particular, the EU executive fails to address the issue of the data subjects' rights and to embed privacy options into the systems being developed - the so-called privacy by design concept.EDPS also recommends impact assessments on the implementation of future instruments and recalls the need for a real assessment of all existing instruments to be used in the framework of the Strategy before proposing new ones.
EARTH WORSHIP
DEUTERONOMY 17:3-4
3 And hath gone and served other gods, and worshipped them, either the sun, or moon, or any of the host of heaven, which I have not commanded;
4 And it be told thee, and thou hast heard of it, and enquired diligently, and, behold, it be true, and the thing certain, that such abomination is wrought in Israel:
2 KINGS 23:5
5 And he put down the idolatrous priests, whom the kings of Judah had ordained to burn incense in the high places in the cities of Judah, and in the places round about Jerusalem; them also that burned incense unto Baal, to the sun, and to the moon, and to the planets, and to all the host of heaven.
EU and Switzerland to link carbon trading systems
ANDREW WILLIS Today DEC 21,10 @ 08:54 CET
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Talks to link greenhouse gas emissions trading systems (ETS) in the EU and Switzerland are set to start early next year after EU environment ministers handed the European Commission a negotiating mandate on Monday (20 December). The move marks the first time the EU has sought to link its ETS to a similar system outside the bloc, with the small Alpine nation of almost eight million inhabitants already operating a voluntary ETS as an alternative to a domestic fuel tax.EU sources say the negotiations could be conducted in under a year, complementing the scheme's extension to Norway, Liechtenstein and Iceland where similar trading system did not previously exist.Under the current phase of the EU's ETS (2008-2012), pollution permits are handed out to energy-intensive sectors free-of-charge. The number of free permits is set to be scaled back in 2013 after member states' experts reached a deal in Brussels last week.Many environmental NGOs brandished the deal as a capitulation to industry concerns however, while Poland is also raising objections.
Warsaw is concerned the deal to scale back free permits will discriminate against the country's high usage of coal, although changes are unlikely to the agreement, officials suggest.Tension over carbon permits resulted in a heated brawl in the Ukrainian parliament last Thursday after investigators accused opposition leader and former prime minister Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko of misusing funds from the 2009 sale of emissions permits to Japan.The punch up between opposition and government MPs left six people hospitalised. Equally controversial, although less violent, EU environment ministers on Monday signed off on a compromise agreement reached between EU experts last week on limiting CO2 emissions from vans over the coming decade. EU climate commission Connie Hedegaard defended the final decision as an important compromise, conceding that car-manufacturing nations such as Germany, France and Italy had won concessions. Under the deal, new vans sold in the EU will only be allowed to emit 175g CO2/km in 2017 and 147g CO2/km in 2020. The original Commission proposal was for 135g CO2/km in 2020.The automotive industry, which has benefited from billions of euros of taxpayers money in subsidies, low interest loans and research grants has once again bullied politicians into getting an easy ride, said Kerstin Meyer at the time, a campaigner with the NGO Transport & Environment. Environment ministers also reached a political agreement to toughen EU rules on biocides - a range of toxic chemicals used to control pests including rat poisons and wood preservatives.If approved by the European parliament, the new rules would step up the list of EU restrictions already in place since 2000.
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).
Ramallah: 10 EU states to upgrade Palestinian missions
LEIGH PHILLIPS 20.12.2010 @ 09:28 CET
The Palestinian Authority's chief negotiator, Saeb Erekat, has said that 10 EU member states are ready to upgrade the status of the occupied territories' representative offices in their capitals.The move would mark a step closer for the representations to enjoying the status of embassies of a sovereign country.Mr Erekat made the comments on Sunday (19 December) in an interview with the Jerusalem Post, the conservative Israeli daily.
He did not say which member states.
Should the move take place, it will follow on from a similar upgrade announcement made on Wednesday by Norway, which is not a member of the European Union.The country is to upgrade the status of the Palestinian mission in Oslo from that of general delegation to diplomatic mission while the head Palestinian diplomat will enjoy the rank of ambassador, but use the title head of the Palestinian mission.Upgrading of the Palestinian representation to Norway is in recognition of the efforts made by the Palestinian Authority, said a spokesman for the Norwegian foreign mission, Bjorn Svenungsen, the AP reports. In the last three years, since the donor conference in Paris in 2007, the Palestinian Authority has come a long way in laying the foundation for the establishment of a Palestinian state.Meanwhile, Ecuador, Paraguay and Peru are expected to recognise the state of Palestine based on its 1967 borders. Similar announcements have come from Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and last week Bolivia.In a fresh diplomatic gambit, Ramallah on Friday called on European countries to recognise Palestine as a state.However, last week, EU foreign ministers agreed that they would recognise such a state only when appropriate.
China very concerned by European debt crisis
ANDREW WILLIS Today DEC 21,10 @ 09:22 CET
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - China is keeping a close eye on Europe's ongoing debt crisis and has urged the bloc's policymakers to turn tough rhetoric into real action.The comments by China's commerce minister Chen Deming on Tuesday (21 December) come as senior EU and Chinese officials meet in Beijing for the third High-Level Economic and Trade Dialogue between the two sides. We are very concerned about whether the European debt crisis can be controlled, Mr Chen said at a briefing during the day-long talks.We want to see if the EU is able to control sovereign debt risks and whether consensus can be translated into real action to enable Europe to emerge from the financial crisis soon and in a good shape, he added.EU leaders meeting in Brussels last week agreed to an EU treaty change in order to set up a permanent stability mechanism to help struggling eurozone states once the current range temporary funds come to an end in 2013.European Politicians have faced criticism over their actions to shore up the eurozone however, with the International Monetary Fund calling for a more comprehensive response to the crisis earlier this month. China does not disclose how much of its estimated $2.65 trillion in foreign reserves is invested in euros or how large its holdings of eurozone sovereign debt are.
Speaking at start of the high-level dialogue, Chinese Vice Premier Wang Qishan said Beijing backed the initiatives Europe had taken so far to secure financial stability, including bail-outs for Greece and Ireland this year.It is in the fundamental interests of China and the EU to further strengthen mutually beneficial economic cooperation, said Mr Wang, pointing to concrete Chinese actions to help some EU members combat their sovereign debt crises.During a visit to Greece in October, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao pledged his support for the embattled country and stated China did not have plans to reduce its holding of European sovereign bonds.Traveling to Portugal last month, Chinese President Hu Jintao promised support the southern European country but held off from making specific promises to buy Portuguese bonds.The bilateral economic dialogue was agreed on by Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso at the 10th China-EU summit in November 2007 as a means to combat a range trade disputes and improve ties.Mr Wang told Tuesday's meeting that trade between the two sides had rebounded sharply after a dip in 2009, with the volume for the first 11 months this year reaching $433.9 billion, up 33 percent year on year.The EU is being represented by EU competition commissioner Joaquin Almunia, trade commissioner Karel De Gucht and economy commissioner Olli Rehn.
HUNDREDS PROTEST ARAB TAKEOVER
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/141250
Girl Hurt as Gaza Rocket Explodes Near Kibbutz Kindergarten
by Gil Ronen DEC 21,10
Gaza terror squads fired a short-range Kassam-type rocket at an Israeli kibbutz Tuesday morning, lightly injuring a 15-year-old girl. Shrapnel from the explosion struck the girl's leg. A Magen David Adom emergency crew evacuated her to Barzilai Hospital in Ashkelon.Two people suffered emotional shock from the event. Several buildings in the kibbutz were damaged.The head of the Hof Ashkelon local authority, Yair Farjun, said following the attack that the continued fire endangers our lives and disrupts life's routine. I believe in the ability of the IDF to carry out the necessary actions in order to stop the fire. On our part, we will continue to take security precautions to the extent this is possible.The IDF and Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) cooperated overnight in attacks by IAF aircraft on several targets in Gaza. Among the targets attacked were three terror tunnels in northern Gaza. In the southern part of the border, the IAF attacks struck a terror tunnel, a smuggling tunnel and a third site of unspecified terror activity.The IDF said that the tunnels attacked were meant to enable terrorists to cross into Israel and carry out terror attacks against Israeli soldiers and civilians. A similar tunnel served the terrorists who killed two soldiers at Kerem Shalom in 2006 and kidnapped a third - Gilad Shalit. (IsraelNationalNews.com)
Analysis: A New Kind of Intifada
by Chana Ya'ar DEC 20,10
On Sunday, a group of Arab youths attacked a group of Jewish tourists walking along the Ramparts on the Old City Walls, about 15 minutes past the Lion’s Gate. The attackers hurled melon-sized rocks at the tourists, who fled in panic. No one was reported physically injured in the attack.There has been an upswing in Arab terrorist attacks on Jews over the past month, according to the Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet).According to the latest statistics, there were a total of 52 attacks last month, compared to 44 in October. This included 10 attacks in the Jerusalem area, as opposed to six attacks a month earlier, in October. There were 20 attacks in Judea and Samaria last month and the same number in October. Of the 30 attacks in November, only one was due to a rock attack; the rest were firebombs that were hurled at their victims. In the Gaza Belt area, there were 22 attacks, compared with 18 in October. Four of the attacks were rocket launchings, 12 were mortar shellings, four were small arms shootings and two were anti-tank missile launchings. One Israeli citizen was wounded on November 18, when a rock was hurled at him in Judea. An Israeli officer was likewise injured in October when he was targeted in a firebomb attack in Jerusalem.In addition to the above, throughout November, five rockets and 28 mortar shells were fired at Israel in 16 different attacks, compared with three rockets and 20 mortar shells fired in 13 attacks in the month prior. Moreover, for the first time since the end of Operation Cast Lead, Israel’s counter terrorist war against the Hamas rulers of Gaza, a long-range Grad Katyusha rocket was fired from the region at Ofakim.
PFLP Announces Intent to Start Third Intifada
A senior official with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) meanwhile announced Sunday that terrorists groups based in the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority have formally decided to launch a third intifada - an Arab word for uprising.Khalida Jarrar, a senior member of the Palestinian Legislative Council did not, however, specify which terrorist organizations had agreed to participate. She also noted there is still much that the groups disagree on.The decision to return to the popular intifada has been taken and at present the problem is the method of practice, Jarrar commented to the Iranian Fars News Agency. Ending all internal differences and reviving unity and integrity in Palestine is the solution to all problems of the Palestinians, she added. It was not clear why Jarrar, who is based in Ramallah, was speaking with FNA.On Friday, Jarrar was quoted by the Ma’an news agency as saying that all PA factions should formulate a unified stance against Israel.The PFLP leader also criticized Arab foreign ministers at last week’s meeting in Cairo of the Arab League for directing the United States to make firm recommendations to Israel and the PA on borders for its hoped-for new Arab state.
Jarrar accused the Arab ministers of engaging in an attempt to evade their responsibility towards the issue of Palestine, according to Ma’an. Arab countries must stop counting on the U.S. administration,she said.
Arson, Ecological Damage are New Weapons
Although the raging inferno that swept through the northern Carmel area earlier this month was started by accident, at least 25 other fires followed in other forests that were not. Arsonists targeted the Peace Forest outside Jerusalem 18 times in the past month, but few of the fires were reported in the Israeli media.The Hebrew-language daily Ma’ariv quoted police who said the attacks were deliberately hushed up so as not to inspire action by more potential terrorists. The newspaper referred to the situation as a true intifada and warned that leftist Israel media are soft-pedaling attacks by Arab terrorists.In addition, a newly released report by Israel’s Environment Ministry has noted that streams in Judea and Samaria are being fouled with raw sewage discharged by PA Arabs. The report cites the lack of sewage treatment facilities in the Palestinian Authority, combined with the deliberate lack of cooperation between the PA government and Israel as causes for the pollution.
Itche Meir, chairman of the Municipal Environmental Associated of Samaria, told Arutz Sheva’s Hebrew news service last week that he believes there is also some damage being inflicted by the Arabs deliberately. This is a type of ecological Intifada, he said.They found out that this hurts us so they exploit it.(Israel National News.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.
Weather chaos continues to hit UK airports
– Tue Dec 21, 3:43 am ET
LONDON (Reuters) – Snow and freezing temperatures continued to ground flights to and from Britain on Tuesday, with travelers hoping to get away for Christmas likely to suffer delays and cancellations for several more days.British Airways said it expects to make a significant number of cancellations to its short-haul services from London's Heathrow airport, which will again operate with just one of its two runways on Tuesday.Severe weather continues to cause significant disruption to our operation and will do so in the run up to Christmas, the airline said in a statement on Tuesday.Currently Heathrow has only one of its two runways operational and many areas of the airfield remain unusable, including areas around parked aircraft.
Ferrovial-owned BAA, which operates Heathrow, said the airport's south runway would remain closed on Tuesday, as on Monday, meaning the airport would be operating at significantly reduced capacity.Thousands of passengers have been stranded at Heathrow, the world's busiest international airport, for days as flights have been delayed and canceled.Arctic conditions have caused major disruption to operations since Saturday, with BA expecting the travel chaos to continue. The Met Office has issued severe weather warnings for most of the UK for the remainder of the week.
BAA said 27 flights had arrived at Heathrow and 10 had departed by 0745 GMT (2:45 a.m. ET) on Tuesday -- more than at the same point on Monday.BAA has confirmed a limited schedule of flights to and from the airport, at least until 06.00 on Wednesday 22 December, BA said. We have adjusted our schedule to fit with the capacity of the airport for both flight departures and arrivals.The British government on Monday said it had relaxed regulations on night flights at Heathrow, allowing for arrivals until 0100 GMT each day until Christmas.
The harsh winter weather has grounded flights across northern Europe for days.
Eurocontrol, the umbrella group for air-traffic control across 38 countries, said more than 22,000 flights across Europe were canceled on Monday but that more services would likely operate on Tuesday.London's Gatwick Airport re-opened at 0600 GMT after closing overnight.We expect to operate the vast majority of our flights into and out of London Gatwick and London City, although some flights may be subject to delays, BA added.Analysts believe the freezing conditions are hitting BA's profit by around 10 million pounds ($15.55 million) a day.Shares in BA were 1 percent up at 268 pence by 0830 GMT, in line with the FTSE100 bluechip index, up 0.75 percent.
(Reporting by Rhys Jones, Editing by Rosalba O'Brien)
Latest powerful storm bears down on California By RAQUEL MARIA DILLON, Associated Press - DEC 21,10
LOS ANGELES – The latest in a series of powerful storm systems is bearing down on California, pelting mountain areas with heavy rain, snow and high winds, prompting evacuations and leaving thousands without power.Virtually the entire state has been affected by the storms that began Friday, dumping moisture from far Northern California south to San Diego. More than 12 inches of rain have fallen in parts of the Santa Monica Mountains in the south and 13 feet of snow has accumulated at Mammoth Mountain ski resort.Downtown Los Angeles had received 5 1/4 inches of rain since Friday morning, more than a third of the average annual precipitation.In the Wrightwood area, about 15 people were evacuated Monday night after the Sheep Creek Wash overflowed and threatened homes, the San Bernardino County Fire Department told the Los Angeles Times. At least three homes sustained water damage.Also in San Bernardino County, a woman was rescued from her pickup truck Monday night after being swept away in rain-swollen Lytle Creek in the San Bernardino National Forest.
The woman called for help on her cellphone as water rose inside her cab up to the dashboard, San Bernardino County fire spokeswoman Tracey Martinez told the Los Angeles Times.After a four-hour ordeal, Martinez said the woman was pulled to safety and taken to a hospital in good condition.Flooding also was reported in Trabuco Canyon in Orange County.Nearly 21,000 Southern California Edison customers were without power late Monday due to the storm, said Edison spokeswoman Vanessa McGrady. The hardest-hit area was the city of Torrance, south of Los Angeles, with more than 4,600 outages. She said crews would be working throughout the night to restore service.Unaccustomed to driving and dressing for so much rain, Southern California residents tried to go about their business — creeping on the freeways, dodging puddles downtown and doing last minute holiday shopping.At a grocery store in La Canada Flintridge, Justin Buck trotted back and forth across the parking lot, collecting shopping carts in a clear plastic rain slicker.
I dreaded coming to work today, the 31-year-old said.This coat isn't keeping me dry either. The water runs off my back, down onto my legs and drips into my boots. It's not that cold actually. You just get tired of being wet all the time.While adults grumbled, children didn't seem to mind the rain. Grade-schoolers in rubber boots splashed in the downspouts and pre-teens pretended to be too cool for rain gear.I love the rain because we get to stay in during gym class and watch movies. And at lunchtime, the kids run outside and come back all soaked and try to hug you, said 12-year-old Amy Becerra said as she bounced up and down and giggled.Her mother, Nancy, who was struggling with an umbrella, disagreed. She complained that the constant rain was depressing, kept her inside all weekend and made driving scary.About 40 residents of the San Joaquin Valley farming community of McFarland were briefly evacuated Monday morning.Gary Farrell, general manager of the McFarland Parks and Recreation District, said Santa Fe Railroad crews kept Poso Creek free of debris so it wouldn't overflow.Resident Cristian Abundis, who lives on a street where water ran a foot deep, returned from an evacuation center and quickly started filling sand bags.
We just want to be prepared, he said, dropping the bags around his doors and driveway. Elsewhere, a small twin-engine airplane was reported missing on a 65-mile flight from Palm Springs to Chino. Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Ian Gregor says a wreckage was found near Lake Perris but investigators won't be certain that it's the missing plane until they can get to the scene on Tuesday, if weather permits.Residents of La Canada Flintridge were among those keeping a wary eye on the rain after a 250-square-mile wildfire last year denuded a large swath of the San Gabriel Mountains. More than 40 homes in the foothils just north of Los Angeles were damaged or destroyed by a mudslide in February.Elsewhere, a 20-mile stretch of scenic Pacific Coast Highway between Malibu and Oxnard was closed after a rock and mudslide Sunday night. The California Highway Patrol said no one was hurt. The same highway also was closed for a time in Orange County by a mudslide at Dana Point.
Associated Press writers Gillian Flaccus in Santa Ana, Terence Chea and Jason Dearen in San Francisco, Garance Burke in Fresno and Sue Manning in Los Angeles contributed to this report. Jeff Nachtigal reported for the AP from McFarland.
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.
Strong earthquake kills 7 in southeast Iran
DEC 21,10
TEHRAN, Iran – Rescue teams managed to pull all survivors from under the rubble Tuesday after a magnitude 6.5 earthquake struck a remote area in southeastern Iran late the previous night, killing seven and injuring 33 people.Iranian state TV said the strong quake hit Hosseinabad, a small town of a few hundred residents in a sparsely populated Chah Malek region in the country's southeast late on Monday.
Mahmoud Mozaffar, head of the rescue department of Iran's Red Crescent, told state TV that four of the fatalities were school students, three of them girls. He said the rescue operation ended around noon Tuesday and that no more fatalities were expected.Earlier Tuesday, Mohammad Barzang, the governor of Rigan, another small town in the stricken area, said collapsed houses in three remote villages had buried dozens under the rubble.Barzang said relief teams were dispatched to the area and that more than 2,000 families needed tents to live in since their houses were damaged up to 60 percent.The area is not far from the historical city of Bam, site of a devastating 2003 earthquake of similar strength that killed more than 26,000 people.Telephone contacts with the stricken area were cut and the water supply system was badly affected but electricity was restored, the TV reported. It said the epicenter was at a depth of 3 miles (5 kilometers), about 60 miles (100 kilometers) from Bam.The official IRNA news agency said as many as 40 aftershocks rocked the region following the quake, including one magnitude 5 tremor.Even moderate quakes have killed thousands of people in the past in the Iranian countryside, where houses are often built of earthen bricks.Iran is located on seismic fault lines and is prone to earthquakes. It experiences at least one slight earthquake every day on average.
SIGNS OF THE END OF THE AGE (NOT THE WORLD) THE WORLD GOES ON FOREVER.
GENESIS 1:5,14
5 And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.
14 And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years:(ISRAELS HOLY DAYS AND SABBATH STARTS AT 6PM) And for SIGNS (PROPHECY SIGNS TO HAPPEN IN THE FUTURE, OUR DAY)
SIGNS IN THE SUN, MOON AND STARS
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.
Moonwatchers treated to total lunar eclipse
DEC 21,10
NEW YORK – Skywatchers got an early holiday present this year: A total eclipse of the moon.Hanging high in the sky, the moon slowly turned from bright silver into a red disk early Tuesday.A total lunar eclipse occurs when the Earth casts its shadow on the full moon, blocking the sun's rays that otherwise reflect off the moon's surface. Some indirect sunlight still pierces through to give the moon its eerie hue.
The 3 1/2 hour celestial spectacle was visible from North and Central America where skies were clear. Portions of Europe and Asia only caught part of the show.The totality phase — when the moon was completely immersed in Earth's shadow — lasted 72 minutes.Since the year's only total lunar eclipse coincided with winter solstice, the moon glowed high in the sky.The last time this occurred was more than three centuries ago on Dec. 21, 1638. It will happen again on Dec. 21, 2094, according to U.S. Naval Observatory spokesman Geoff Chester.Lunar eclipses are safe to watch with the naked eye, unlike solar eclipses.The next total lunar eclipse will occur in June 2011 and will not be visible from North America.
Holy Land Patriarch voices hope for peace By DANIELLA CHESLOW, Associated Press - DEC 21,10
JERUSALEM – The top Roman Catholic clergyman in the Holy Land lamented the stalemate in Mideast peace efforts on in his annual pre-Christmas address Tuesday but said he still sees reason for hope.In his annual pre-Christmas address, Latin Patriarch Fouad Twal urged his followers not to give up, despite a deadlock in Israeli-Palestinian peace talks that has extended for nearly three months.We suffer from the failure of direct peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, Twal said, but added, This should not lead us to despair.Twal, a Palestinian, noted that Palestinian firefighters helped battle a huge forest fire in northern Israel early this month. He called the effort a very significant gesture that could be the beginning of a fruitful collaboration in the future, when peace is established in this troubled land.President Barack Obama personally launched direct talks between Israel and the Palestinians in September, saying he hoped to broker a peace accord within a year.The negotiations broke down just three weeks later with the expiration of a limited Israeli freeze on settlement construction. Palestinians say they will not return to negotiations unless Israel halts settlement construction in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, territories they claim for a state.Twal, speaking at the patriarchate's headquarters in Jerusalem's Old City, urged Europe to take a greater role in peace efforts. This process is still a monopoly of the United States, he said.
Twal noted that a record 3.4 million tourists are visiting the Holy Land this year, many of them Christian pilgrims. He said he is grateful for the fantastic solidarity of Christians around the world with the Palestinian community.We are not alone, we are not abandoned, we are not forgotten, he said.Christians make up a small minority in Israel and the Palestinian areas. Twal ministers to some 70,000 Catholics across Israel, the Palestinian Authority, Cyprus and Jordan.Rev. David Neuhaus, vicar for the Hebrew-speaking Christian population in the Holy Land, said there are about 210,000 Christians living in Israel and the Palestinian territories. In addition, most of the 210,000 foreign workers are Christians, he said, along with thousands of illegal migrants who have fled hardship in Africa.
China urges North Korea to accept nuclear inspectors
By Wee Sui-lee and Sylvia Westall – Tue Dec 21, 4:37 am ET
BEIJING/SEOUL (Reuters) – China on Tuesday urged North Korea to follow through on its offer to allow U.N. nuclear monitors into the country as a way to alleviate international tensions during a standoff with the South.China, North Korea's only major ally, has continually urged dialogue to resolve the crisis and has been reluctant to blame its neighbor for the shelling of a South Korean island last month, in which two Marines and two civilians were killed.South Korea held further live-fire drills on the island on Monday, raising fears of all-out war, but the North did not retaliate. Instead, it offered to accept nuclear inspectors it has kicked out of the country before.North Korea has the right to use nuclear power for peaceful purposes, but also at the same time must allow IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) inspectors in, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said in Beijing.All parties should realize that artillery fire and military force cannot solve the issues on the peninsula, and dialogue and cooperation are the only correct approaches.New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson said on his return from a visit to Pyongyang, where he acted as an unofficial envoy, that North Korea had promised to allow in inspectors to make sure it is not processing highly enriched uranium.He told reporters North Korea had shown a pragmatic attitude in his unofficial talks.
The specifics are that they will allow IAEA personnel to go to Yongbyon to ensure that they are not processing highly enriched uranium, that they are proceeding with peaceful purposes, Richardson said in Beijing, referring to the North's main nuclear site.But analysts said it was unclear how much access IAEA inspectors would really get because North Korea has limited their oversight in the past. They also said the major worry was whether there were other nuclear sites hidden outside of Yongbyon.The question that remains is whether this is the only facility. A uranium enrichment programme is much easier to hide than a plutonium one, said Andrei Lankov at Kookmin University in Seoul.South Korea and the United States suspect North Korea has more sites geared to enriching uranium outside Yongbyon, the complex which is at the heart of the North's plutonium weapons programme.It consists of a five-megawatt reactor, whose construction began in 1980, a fuel fabrication facility and a plutonium reprocessing plant, where weapons-grade material is extracted from spent fuel rods.Lankov said the North's suggestion of compromise after provocation was a usual tactic of the impoverished state that had worked in the past to win aid.They create a crisis, they show that they are dangerous and drive tensions high, he said. Then they show they could make some concessions.
If IAEA inspectors were allowed to carry out such monitoring, it could help to address a key concern about North Korea's uranium enrichment work because highly-enriched material can be used in atomic weapons.Seoul shares rose 0.8 percent, broadly in line with other regional markets, to end at a three-year high on Tuesday, as anxiety over tension on the Korean peninsula eased, but the won currency remained under pressure.The mood on Yeonpyeong Island had eased after the previous day's drill, with military personnel visibly relaxed and preparing to sail back to the mainland.
DEEDS, NOT WORDS
North Korea, which has refused full IAEA oversight since 2002 and expelled inspectors last April, has said it only wants to enrich uranium to the low level used to make fuel for a civilian atomic power programme. But in order to check this, the IAEA would need continued, unfettered access to all of North Korea's uranium enrichment activities. It would usually require frequent inspections, video cameras and special seals to ensure that none of the material is being diverted for military use.Richardson said of the North's offer: I believe that's an important gesture on their part, but there still has to be a commitment eventually by the North Koreans to denuclearize, to abide by the 2005 agreement that says they will terminate their nuclear weapons activities....Now there has to be deeds and not words,he said. He said the offer might pave the way for the resumption of six-party talks that also involve the United States, Russia, Japan, China and South Korea -- although Washington, Seoul and Tokyo have been cool to this idea, reluctant to reward perceived bad behavior.I think this provides an opportunity, this incident, for a new chapter in easing tensions. It's not going to resolve the problems in the peninsula, but maybe it's an opportunity for all sides to get serious, especially North Korea, he said.A key South Korean government official said the recent aggression by the North was closely linked to the succession from ailing leader Kim Jong-il to his youngest son, Kim Jong-un, and was intended for its domestic audience as much as for anybody.
We don't want to give them the misperception that their provocations will help their national interest, he said.The U.N. Security Council remained deadlocked in its efforts to ease tensions on the Korean peninsula, but North Korea's refraining from retaliation and the nuclear offer made to U.S. trouble-shooter Bill Richardson offered some breathing space.But the South Korean government official, who declined to be identified, said Seoul could not take the North Korean offer seriously as it was not official. He said the five parties had to agree first on what to offer the North.Then we can pursue six-party talks. But the next six-party talks will be the grand bargain. That means a target year (for dismantlement) and the whole picture in the next round, not partial elements.Shen Dingli at Shanghai's Fudan University, said North Korea's latest moves did not mean that it was moving any closer to abandoning its nuclear weapons programme.North Korea wants nuclear weapons and won't abandon them, and if there are new six-party talks it will defend that right.(Additional reporting by Chris Buckley in Beijing, Jack Kim and Miyoung Kim in Seoul, Kim Do-gyun on Yeonpyeong; Writing by Nick Macfie; Editing by John Chalmers and Alex Richardson)
