STORM-COLLLD WEATHER HITS ONTARIO CANADA

OPEN Thought Where will the new world order unfold?
Published: 15/12/2010 at 12:00 AM BANGKOK POST
Newspaper section: Database

When Amazon took down the WikiLeaks site from its EC2 cloud, it opened a whole new can of worms as to what can be put in the cloud and what cannot. But for some, there will be a collective sigh of I told you so, and the loser in this, again, might well be the United States, while the winner... well, that would be whoever moves quickly enough to take advantage of the upcoming exodus.Rewind a few years when the leader in cloud computing, salesforce.com, opened its second data centre in Singapore. Away from the official headlines of needing a second data centre somewhere, it was tactfully acknowledged that Salesforce lacked traction in many Muslim countries, such as Malaysia and Indonesia, that feared their data being under American jurisdiction, and in particular the US Patriot Act.Later, it was openly acknowledged that many customers were requesting their data be housed in Singapore for fear of US jurisdiction.Something like the world's largest cloud computing infrastructure vendor, Amazon, pulling the plug on a service led some to say it was because of pressure from the US Senate. Amazon says it was because it violated their terms of service and that WikiLeaks did not have the rights to publish the stolen information.

Assange was quoted as saying that WikiLeaks servers were placed in a variety of countries to test their commitment to free speech. That Amazon did what it did proved his point and undoubtedly strengthened his argument. But that is a matter that many others can debate over in the land where they actually pretend to have free speech.President Obama's talk of wanting an Internet killswitch makes things even scarier. But even if the killswitch were here today, would they really risk bringing the world economy to a halt because of biggest attack on US diplomacy in history? On the one hand, just talking about the killswitch would accelerate the shift in power away from the US and many have said that turning it on as it has been discussed would only move the power to Europe. On the other, a killswitch would only result in network traffic being routed through Europe and marginalise the US even further.Suppose the early reports were right and Amazon did pull it because of pressure from a US senator. Many IT departments would now be rethinking their cloud strategy.What if they were under some other type of pressure, such as foreign ownership or antitrust issues? Could a phone call from a senator similarly shut down their operations if they depend on the cloud? What are the alternatives? I have a funny feeling Salesforce is getting a lot of calls right now from companies who want to move out of the US.Back in Thailand, we have similar concerns. Many years ago, I interviewed the nice people at Internet Thailand who said the biggest problem with law enforcement was not so much the Computer Misuse Act, but copyright and patent law. Under such laws, servers can be seized indefinitely, meaning a shared server with one person selling counterfeit goods would mean all the sites based on it would be taken down.

I remember asking how they would deal with virtualisation once it was adopted and my interviewee looked up to the skies and could only pray.It is questionable how much of an alternative destination Europe can be for the rest of the world. For operations within Europe itself, choosing a cloud that is within the EU and a safe harbour for the myriad of EU data protection laws is probably necessary anyway. But those laws could make it unnecessarily difficult for companies who deal with personal or medical information.In the short term, data centres in places such as Singapore will benefit. But Singapore is running out of power very quickly and is struggling to cope with the immense resources needed. Where else is there with plentiful power and fibre connectivity? Before the WikiLeaks event hit, I had a long talk with Professor Rohan Samarajiva, CEO of think-tank LirneASIA, which focuses on a lot of telco and regulation. The discussion about the aborted 3G bit and the role of the regulator aside, we did touch on his vision for Asia in the next 50 years.

The Professor likened it to a piece of science fiction based on the social, economic and demographic forces we see today. His conclusion was that the centre of the world would be where the new silk road between West and East meets cheap power.Today, we have Google locating their data centres near to hydro-electric power plants where power is cheap and reliable. Looking at the world map and how the fibre optic networks have been laid down, the conclusion was clear.Where East meets West and with plentiful water would be the feet of the Himalayas. Setting up power plants there and the economic knock on effects would change the region entirely and give rise to a new world order - one where the hangovers of British India would be wiped out forever.Time will tell if this piece of social science fiction proves to be prophetic.

Israel shoots down object near nuclear reactor Thu Dec 16, 2010 10:52 AM EST.world-news, israel, ml, reactor, nuclear-reactor Associated Press

JERUSALEM — The Israeli military says the air force has shot down a suspicious object hovering over southern Israel, where Israel's main nuclear reactor is located.

The military said Thursday the object was apparently a balloon and that officials were investigating. Airline flights over Israel's south were halted during the encounter. No further details were immediately available.Israel Radio reported the object was shot down in the area of the Dead Sea, in the general region of the nuclear reactor, next to the desert town of Dimona.Israel enforces a strict airspace quarantine in the area of the facility. Foreign experts have concluded Israel has made hundreds of nuclear weapons. Israel's policy is to neither confirm nor deny it has nuclear bombs.

Israel shoots down object near nuclear reactor
DEC 16,10

JERUSALEM – The Israeli air force on Thursday shot down a suspicious object hovering over southern Israel, where the country's main nuclear reactor is located.Israel's military said the object was apparently a balloon and that officials were investigating.Airline flights over Israel's south, between Tel Aviv and the Red Sea resort of Eilat, were halted during the encounter, the military said. No further details were immediately available.Israel Radio reported the object was shot down near the Dead Sea, in the general area of the nuclear reactor, which is located next to the desert town of Dimona. Israel enforces a strict airspace quarantine around the facility.Foreign experts have concluded that Israel has made nuclear weapons there. Israel's policy is to neither confirm nor deny it has nuclear bombs.In 1986, an ex-technician at the Dimona facility gave documents and photographs to a British newspaper that led experts to conclude that Israel had hundreds of nuclear weapons at the time.Israel considers the desert reactor a prime target for attack by its enemies. Security in the area is especially tight.

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/
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HALF HOUR DOW RESULTS THU DEC 16,2010

09:30 AM +2.43
10:00 AM -18.34
10:30 AM -18.46
11:00 AM -9.46
11:30 AM +29.28
12:00 PM +34.51
12:30 PM +30.99
01:00 PM +40.40
01:30 PM +50.72
02:00 PM +46.32
02:30 PM +41.63
03:00 PM +44.06
03:30 PM +33.57
04:00 PM +41.78 11,499.25

S&P 500 1242.87 +7.64

NASDAQ 2637.31 +20.09

GOLD 1,371.70 -14.50

OIL 87.83 -0.79

TSE 300 13,181.20 -47.80

CDNX 2105.21 +4.87

S&P/TSX/60 783.17 -2.41

MORNING,NEWS,STATS

YEAR TO DATE PERFORMANCE
Dow +13 points at 4 minutes of trading today.
Dow -20 points at low today.
Dow +30 points at high today so far.
GOLD opens at $1,375.00.OIL opens at $88.37 today.

AFTERNOON,NEWS,STATS
Dow -36 points at low today so far.
Dow +57 points at high today so far.

WRAPUP,NEWS,STATS
Dow -36 points at low today.
Dow +57 points at high today.

GOLD ALLTIME HIGH $1,427.40 (NOT AT CLOSE)

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.

Area digs out after wintry wallop Local News Owen Sound Sun Times
WEATHER: Military called in to help stranded motorists near Sarnia
By DENIS LANGLOIS, SUN TIMES STAFF DEC 15,2010

The blockbuster storm that walloped Grey-Bruce for three straight days this week is expected to taper off by tonight, weather experts say.Police were reopening local highways in Bruce County and western Grey County and road crews were finally able to get at snow-filled side streets in Owen Sound Tuesday as the worst of the storm came to an end.Meteorologists say the northeastern section of Grey County will be the last to get relief as lake-effect snow continues to dump on the Meaford-Blue Mountains area.After that, we don't see any blockbuster snow squall events in our future, but we may see weaker, lake-effect snow on and off, said Weather Network meteorologist Chris Scott.So there's a little bit of good news here in that once we can get through Wednesday night, we don't have any more wicked squalls that are the road-closing type of squalls for at least the next week or so.The storm began Sunday when a system from the north dumped up to 25 centimetres of snow across Grey-Bruce. The system, now in Quebec, left in its wake a trail of cold, northwest-e rly winds, which generated heavy lake-effect snow off of Lake Huron and Georgian Bay.Upwards of 54 centimetres of snow fell on northern Grey County between Sunday and 8 a.m. Tuesday, according to Environment Canada meteorologist Geoff Coulson. More was expected to fall Tuesday night and into today in parts of the region.

It's a lot of snow, for sure, Coulson said.The storm prompted officials to close every Grey-Bruce school, including the Owen Sound campus of Georgian College, on both Monday and Tuesday.Canada Post cancelled mail delivery in Owen Sound and most of Grey-Bruce.Blue Mountain officials also closed the area's largest ski resort Tuesday due to the storm and nearby road closures.Large sections of key area roads, including highways 21, 26, 6 and 10, were also closed.But by Tuesday afternoon, the sun was shining in Owen Sound and the snow had tapered off.As of 5 p.m., the Ministry of Transportation reported that almost all provincial highways in the area had reopened, except Hwy. 21 between Port Elgin and Grand Bend, Hwy. 26 from Owen Sound to Clarksburg and Hwy. 9 from Walkerton to Kincardine.Public works officials in Owen Sound, after consulting with city police, lifted the city's lone road closure-- 8th St. E. between 16th and 28th avenues -- Tuesday afternoon.Police also ended its call for motorists to stay off city streets unless absolutely necessary.

The conditions are improving, but it's sporadic. There are still wind gusts, said Owen Sound Police Services Insp. Vince Wurfel.John Johnston, the city's operations director, said winter road crews have been working around the clock since Sunday.A break in the heavy flurries allowed plow operators to focus on quieter side streets in the city for much of the day Tuesday, he said. Some streets had not been plowed since the storm began.We've had a lot of people calling, wondering if we'll ever get to them. Every street will be looked after, he said.Public transit buses were back on the roads by 9 a.m. Tuesday, after the city's operator decided to cancel all routes Monday.Most taxis were also back on the streets in Owen Sound, after some companies opted to pull cabs off the roads Monday.Len Nightingale of Bayshore Taxi said he was swamped with calls Tuesday as storm-stayed customers ventured out to do errands.Bluewater District School Board principals and superintendents decided early Tuesday morning to close schools across Grey-Bruce for the second day in a row due to dangerous conditions on both roads and sidewalks, said Alana Murray, superintendent of secondary education.To have all the schools closed at the same time is a very rare occurrence, she said.

It was worse in other areas.

Military choppers were called in to help airlift the estimated 350 motorists left stranded on Hwy. 402 between London and Sarnia. The highway was closed late Monday night after local authorities declared a state of emergency.The tired and cold motorists spent the night in their vehicles through the extended whiteout, in many cases sharing their rides to save energy and heat.But the helicopters were having trouble at first helping in the rescue operations due to weather conditions.While police advised residents that travel in the area was virtually impossible, tow trucks and road crews slowly began to make headway in restoring service by Tuesday afternoon.David Beath was among the first to be rescued after spending 26 hours trapped in his car.When traffic stopped (Monday morning), I thought it was just an accident and I didn't think too much of it, said Beath, a food and beverage manager for Best Western in London, who had just dropped his kids off at school in Sarnia down the highway and was heading to work.Then as time went on and we weren't moving and the weather got worse I realized this was something bad.When the sun went down, I thought to myself, Oh man, this is going to be a long night, he said. I woke up a couple times shivering, so I turned the car back on. But it would take 20 minutes or so to warm up because I was just sitting there.It was pretty cold. I could see other cars but most people were staying inside, like the radio was telling us to do. There was one trucker who came by about 10 p.m. letting people know that if they were running out of gas they could jump in his truck because he had enough gas to go all night.In the morning, he said people began to get out of their cars and dig themselves out. Soon some of the trucks were able to break through the bigger drifts, and he was able to follow in their tracks.

Others had help from police.

Homes in the area have opened their doors to help serve as warming centres for those stranded.The people of this town are really coming together. They've given us blankets, warm clothes, food. There's a couple here who have brought us into their home. We could be here for another day, said Robert Williams, who was driving a U-Haul with his wife and their two-month-old infant, in the process of moving from Ontario to Iowa, when they became stuck in the snow.The couple won't let us do anything to repay them. They're such nice people.The storm also hammered Quebec and Atlantic Canada.In southern Quebec, whiteout conditions slowed traffic to a crawl in many areas.In the Gaspe region in eastern Quebec, where temperatures have been milder, heavy rain and violent winds prompted civil security officials to issue storm-surge warnings. Wind gusts topped 110 km/h in some areas, and residents in coastal areas braced for storm surges.Landslides blocked two regional highways there.
In Nova Scotia, the roof of a seniors' centre caved in, schools were closed in Labrador, heavy rains caused waist-deep flooding in parts of New Brunswick and schools remained closed across the region.As many as 70,000 people were without power across the Maritime provinces.dlanglois@thesuntimes.ca Article ID# 2890659

Drivers stranded by snowstorms did the right thing
– Wed Dec 15, 7:35 am ET

BUFFALO, N.Y. – It's not quite winter yet, yet three times this season, long lines of motorists have found themselves stranded on highways for uncomfortable, unnerving hours, wondering what to do next. Though it sounds like a nightmare, experts say they did the right thing by staying put.Colin Steward spent 25 hours stuck in his car, napping, phoning relatives and updating Facebook from his BlackBerry, the 50-year-old said Tuesday in a phone interview from his car.He was among some 300 people who spent a frigid night on Highway 402 near Sarnia, Ontario, after drifting snow and blinding whiteouts made a mess of things Monday. Buses and military helicopters freed everyone by Tuesday afternoon.What can I do?, Steward said. I'm not impressed — it's Canada.Experts say the advice to stay in your car if stranded is especially true if there's no other shelter in sight and there's still gas in the engine to power the heat.There's nothing you can do out in the middle of nowhere, said Ben Jones, a state trooper in Indiana, where more than 100 motorists were trapped in their cars during heavy lake-effect snow near Valparaiso on Monday.It's best to just use your cell phone and stay in your vehicle until we can get out there and get somebody to get you out of there, Jones said.The Department of Homeland Security urges travelers to know what they're headed into when they get on the road, and to be prepared with a disaster kit that includes blankets and a shovel.

It's all about safety, agreed AAA spokesman Shaun Seufert in Buffalo, where hundreds of cars and trucks were stopped for nearly 24 hours on Interstate 90 on Dec. 1 and 2.
He listed the must-haves for winter driving: fully charged cell phone, small shovel, food and water, heavy gloves, scarf and hat, and a warning device to signal other drivers, like flares or reflective triangles.Experts say stranded drivers should run the engine about 10 minutes every hour to warm up and to crack the window and keep the tailpipe clear of snow to avoid carbon monoxide poisoning.The reminders came as snow and bitter cold that plagued the Midwest for days landed on parts of Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York. The frigid air stretched into the deep South, where hard freeze warnings worried Florida vegetable farmers. Hundreds of schools were closed or opening late.

Tornado hits small Ore. town; no injuries reported
– Tue Dec 14, 9:01 pm ET

AUMSVILLE, Ore. – Steven Worden was cutting a customer's hair just before noon on Tuesday when the roof of his barber shop blew off.Worden, 56, watched the east wall of the store begin to collapse. The top of the wall, constructed of cinder blocks, fell in pieces all around him — his arms were bloodied as he shoved away the blocks and his customers scrambled for safety.I thought it was the end, Worden said.No serious injuries were reported in the rare tornado that struck the small town of Aumsville about 45 miles south of Portland on Tuesday, tearing roofs off buildings, hurling objects into vehicles and homes and uprooting trees.

But the damage was extensive.

Trees crashed into porches. A semi-trailer rolled in a field.We saw a trampoline fly over a church. It was like the Wizard of Oz, said Gara Adams, who works at Neufeldt's Restaurant on Main Street in Aumsville.Next door to Worden's barber shop, Juanita Nichol was working at T.G. Nichol Plumbing Inc. on Tuesday morning when she left to have work done on her car. Ten minutes later, a funnel cloud darkened the sky of the tiny town of 3,560 people.The storm tore down the front wall of the plumbing store, ripped off the roof and destroyed part of another wall.Think how God and his perfect timing took me away from that building, Nichol said.The central part of town — where the barber shop and plumbing store stand — saw the heaviest damage. In a neighborhood, six families were displaced in the storm and required temporary housing, Oregon Red Cross spokeswoman Lise Harwin said. The Red Cross opened a shelter at the Mt. View Wesleyan Church in Aumsville, where workers delivered food, beverages and debit cards that pay for people's groceries and clothing.Oregon Gov. Ted Kulongoski said the state will provide help to the city and county once it's requested. He said residents in other parts of the state should consider contributing to Aumsville families.

What all Oregonians should do now is reach out and see what they can do to help the people here, Kulongoski said, because this is going to be a tough Christmas for the people in Aumsville.Tornadoes in Oregon are rare. The twister Tuesday was the first to touch down in the state since Dec. 9, 2009, when a tornado hit Lincoln County near the coast, according to a list from the National Weather Service. Eleven homes and three cars were damaged, but no one was hurt.It was one of four Oregon tornadoes in the past decade, all causing only property damage, the weather service says.On Tuesday, Aumsville City Administrator Maryann Hills said people in City Hall listened as the loudest hail I've ever heard pounded the roof of the building. Then, a funnel cloud appeared and debris ripped from the roofs of houses began to fly toward downtown.In a neighborhood near Main Street, dazed residents emerged less than an hour after the storm to inspect the damage to their houses and those of their neighbors. The Aumsville Fire Department warned people away from fallen power lines, and a member of the fire department threatened onlookers with jail time if they violated the order.Justin Profitt, 22, said he was watching a movie in his bedroom when he heard a rattling noise and looked outside to see his fence had fallen. I was freaking out, Profitt said. I have lived in Oregon all my life and I never thought I would actually see a tornado.A flagpole at the city's fire station was bent in half, and a tree had fallen on the porch of a one-story home. Joshua Farrer, 34, said he looked outside his house shortly before noon and saw a semi-trailer roll three times in the severe wind. He saw an outdoor table and a trampoline fly by his house. When I heard it coming over the house, I thought the house was going to come down,Farrer said.More than three hours after the storm, gray skies held over the city.Gerald Macke, of the National Weather Service in Portland, said the tornado touched down at about 11:45 a.m, according to reports from emergency managers who spotted the funnel cloud.

The weather service has sent storm teams to the area, who will use GPS devices to help measure the breadth of the storm and its wind speed.Jan Mitchell, spokesman for Pacific Power, said about 5,700 customers lost power, and it was too early to say how soon power would be restored.In the 1990s, at least 16 tornadoes touched down, most causing minor damage. No people were injured, but six calves were killed at a dairy near Newberg in December 1993.On April 5, 1972, a tornado that started in Portland crossed the Columbia River and killed six people, injured about 300 more and causing $3 million in damage in the Vancouver area.

WW3 THE 3 WAVES THAT MARCH TO ISRAEL

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Iraq gets U.N. green light for civil nuclear program
By Louis Charbonneau - DEC 15,10

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – The U.N. Security Council on Wednesday gave Iraq the green light to develop a civilian nuclear program, ending 19-year-old restrictions aimed at preventing the country from developing atomic weapons.In two other resolutions, the 15-nation council also wound up the controversial oil-for-food program for Iraq and set June 30, 2011, to end all immunities protecting Baghdad from claims related to the period when former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein was in power.The adoption of these important resolutions marks the beginning of the end of the sanctions regime and restriction on Iraq's sovereignty, independence and recovery, Iraq's Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari told the council.Our people will rejoice for having turned a chapter on the aggressive, belligerent and defiant behavior of the previous regime toward international law and legitimacy, he said.

After its 1990 invasion of Kuwait, Iraq was hit with a series of U.N. measures that banned imports of chemicals and nuclear technology that could be used in its covert atomic, chemical and biological weapons programs. Those restrictions were in place for two decades.Baghdad will keep paying 5 percent of its oil revenues as war reparations, most of it to Kuwait, despite Iraq's calls for a renegotiation of those payments so it can use more of its oil money for needed development projects.Iraq still owes Kuwait nearly $22 billion in reparations, Western diplomats said. Zebari told reporters that there are hundreds of claims against Iraq that have been made by governments and private individuals.It was not immediately clear what the total value of those claims were.In a statement read out by U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, the council welcomed improvements in Iraq's relations with its neighbor Kuwait and encouraged it to quickly fulfill its remaining obligations under ... resolutions pertaining to the situation between Iraq and Kuwait.The council agreed to the statement unanimously.

COMMITMENT TO NON-PROLIFERATION

Diplomats said this included Iraq's recognition of the borders of Kuwait, a country that Saddam's government had called the 19th province of Iraq. There are also unresolved issues related to Kuwaiti archives and missing people.Biden, who chaired the meeting in the U.S. capacity as Security Council president this month, said the moves were in recognition of Iraq's commitment to non-proliferation.The United States plans to withdraw its remaining troops from Iraq next year and wants to portray the country as returning to normalcy despite continuing violence.Of course, there are good political reasons for the U.S. to show progress in Iraq, said one senior council diplomat from another country.The only resolution that was not adopted unanimously was the one on oil-for-food. France abstained, which a diplomat told Reuters was because it felt the text lacked sufficient assurances that the Paris-based bank BNP Paribas will not take any financial hits over its involvement in the program.French Ambassador Gerard Araud told the council that the resolution did not have all the guarantees we consider necessary to wrapping up the program. He did not elaborate.The U.N. oil-for-food program, which ran from 1996 to 2003, was created to help Iraqis cope with U.N. sanctions after Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990. The program allowed Baghdad to sell oil in order to buy humanitarian goods, but became the focus of fraud investigations after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.

In February the council said it would lift civil nuclear curbs on Iraq after it ratified a number of international agreements, including the so-called Additional Protocol on intrusive U.N. International Atomic Energy Agency inspections. The council lifted the restrictions even though Iraq's parliament has yet to ratify the IAEA protocol.The resolution urges Iraq to ratify that protocol as soon as possible and calls for a 12-month review of progress. Iraq has promised to implement the protocol before ratification.The IAEA protocol's intrusive inspection regime, aimed at smoking out secret nuclear activities, stemmed from the IAEA's discovery in 1991 of Iraq's clandestine atomic bomb program.Before they invaded Iraq in March 2003, the United States and Britain had accused Baghdad of reviving its covert nuclear, chemical and biological arms programs. The allegations turned out to be incorrect.
(Editing by Xavier Briand)

South Korea suspects North has more uranium sites
By Jack Kim and Chris Buckley – Tue Dec 14, 2:47 pm ET

SEOUL/BEIJING (Reuters) – South Korea said on Tuesday it suspects the North has been secretly enriching uranium at more locations besides its main nuclear site, which could mean it has more material for building nuclear bombs.South Korean Foreign Minister Kim Sung-hwan said he could not confirm a media report that Pyongyang had three to four plants to enrich uranium but he suspected there were facilities in the North in addition to the Yongbyon nuclear complex.It is a report based on what is still intelligence and let me just say that we have been following this issue for some time, he told a press briefing.The prospect of more plants capable of producing materials that could be used in a nuclear weapons program raises the risk that North Korea expands its nuclear plans as it seeks to wrest concessions and aid from restarting disarmament talks.Last month, North Korea shelled an island close to a disputed maritime boundary with the South, killing four people and prompting the United States to send an aircraft carrier to join military drills with South Korea in a show of strength.Our policies have failed, said Hajime Izumi of Shizuoka Prefectural University in Japan. The situation has caught fire and we are watching it burn.U.S. nuclear expert Siegfried Hecker, who visited Yongbyon last month, had already raised concerns that the North had alternative sites for uranium enrichment.

U.S. State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said Washington had long been concerned about such secret activity by North Korea.We're very conscious of the fact that in the recent revelations to American delegations, what they saw did not come out of thin air, he said, referring to Hecker's recent trip.While China has urged South Korea, the United States, Russia and Japan to restart six-party talks with the North on nuclear disarmament, South Korea's allies have refused until Pyongyang gives a firm commitment on nuclear disarmament.

CHINA URGES CALM AND RESTRAINT

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu told reporters that the senior Chinese envoy to North Korea, Dai Bingguo, had agreed in talks in Pyongyang that nuclear negotiations needed to resume.Both agreed that all sides should exercise calm and restraint, and maintain a responsible attitude to prevent tensions from escalating, playing a positive role in preserving the peace and stability of the peninsula, Jiang said.Hecker was given a tour of the Yongbyon complex on his visit there in November and saw more than 1,000 centrifuges in a building that officials in Seoul and Washington were aware was a uranium enrichment facility.Hecker was said to have been stunned by how modern and updated the centrifuges looked, unlike the clearly aging nature of the rest of the North's nuclear facilities.David Albright, president of the Institute for Science and International Security, said the revelations helped fill in parts of the North Korean nuclear puzzle but raise new questions about the extent of the North's activities.Intelligence agencies have had a list of suspect sites for a long time. What's happening with the new information is they're zeroing in on sites more and trying to identify where this activity could have been taking place, he said.Uranium enrichment could give the North a second source of fissile material for weapons on top of its plutonium production program at the Soviet-era nuclear program at Yongbyon, which was frozen under a now-defunct international disarmament deal.

The report of additional uranium enrichment facilities came after Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov chided North Korea over its nuclear program and condemned an artillery attack on a South Korean island that killed four people last month.North Korean news agency KCNA again on Tuesday accused Seoul of having misled public opinion over the shelling of the island, saying that it was the result of a provocation that aimed to kick off the military clash.Most analysts do not expect North Korea to launch a new round of attacks any time soon, although the shelling of the island was the first time since the Korean War that it had targeted a civilian area.Earlier this year, the South said the North had torpedoed one of its naval vessels, the Cheonan, killing 46 sailors, something that Pyongyang denies.Although tensions have subsided, South Korea on Monday launched a new series of live-firing drills at sea, although these are far away from the so-called Northern Limit Line, the maritime boundary between the countries.(Additional reporting by Andrew Quinn and Paul Eckert in Washington, Yoko Kubota in Tokyo and Chris Buckley in Beijing; Editing by Andrew Marshall and Eric Beech)

1,000 detained in Russia to prevent ethnic clashes
By DAVID NOWAK, Associated Press - DEC 15,10

MOSCOW – Fearing more clashes between racist hooligans and mostly Muslim ethnic minorities, police detained more than 1,000 people in Moscow and several other Russian cities Wednesday, after weekend rioting in the capital left dozens injured.
Hundreds of riot police outside the Kievsky station in central Moscow hauled into police vans mostly young men and teenagers who were shouting racist slogans and raising their hands in Nazi salutes. Some were lined up against buses and searched by police. Officers confiscated an arsenal of weapons, including traumatic guns, knives and metal bars, police spokesman Viktor Biryukov said.Police rounded up about 60 protesters in St. Petersburg, where radical groups also planned a gathering Wednesday.Riot police prevented clashes in Krasnodar and Rostov-on-Don, southern Russian cities with large non-Slavic populations where ethnic clashes have been frequent in recent years, officials said. Dozens of mostly young men have been detained in central Russia and Siberia, Russian news agencies reported.Resentment has been rising among Slavic Russians over the growing presence in Moscow and elsewhere of people from the southern Caucasus region, most of them Muslims. People from other parts of the former Soviet Union, including Central Asia, Armenia and Azerbaijan, also face ethnic discrimination and are frequent victims of hate crimes.

While ethnic Russians amount to about four-fifths of Russia's population of 142 million, the country is also home to some 180 ethnic groups. The Caucasus region with its mountainous terrain and isolated valleys is home to at least 100 ethnicities including Chechens, who waged two separatist wars against Moscow after the collapse of the Soviet Union.Analysts say it was the Chechen conflict, with atrocities and killings of civilians committed by both Russian federal forces and militant Islamists, that triggered the rise of xenophobia and neo-Nazism in Russia — and the growing resentment of Caucasus natives to ethnic Russians and Moscow's rule.

Despite poverty and instability, the Caucasus region has Russia's highest birth rate, and tens of thousands of young people flee home for central Russia and Siberian oil towns in search of jobs and a better future.The Kievsky train station, where most of the detentions took place, is popular with street merchants from the Caucasus. The majority of those detained were Slavic Russians, although some ethnic minorities from the Caucasus were also taken into custody.Police declined immediate comment on when those detained would be released or whether they would face charges.
An expert on hate crimes predicted, however, that most of them would be released shortly.Police will ride them around town and let them go; they won't find enough place for them in police stations, Alexander Verkhovsky of the Sova center told the Gazeta.ru online daily.Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanin said no injuries were reported.
Police will severely punish any provocations and violence, he said in televised remarks.Authorities sought to prevent the kind of rioting that took place outside the Kremlin on Saturday, when mainly soccer fans chanted Russia for Russians! during clashes in which dozens of people were injured. Many soccer fans are linked with neo-Nazis and other radical racist groups that mushroomed in Russia after the 1991 Soviet collapse.

The violence over the weekend had raised new doubts about the government's ability to control the rising tide of xenophobia, which poses a serious threat to Russia's existence as a multiethnic state. It also embarrassed the Kremlin just days after FIFA awarded the 2018 World Cup to Russia, and raised questions about Russia's ability to safely stage international sporting events, including the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi.The weekend rally began as a protest against the killing of a member of the Spartak Moscow soccer team's fan club, who was shot with rubber bullets during clashes with Caucasus natives at a bus stop earlier this month. Spartak fans claimed corrupt policemen detained one suspected killer following the fight, but released others because they had powerful backers in the Caucasus.Moscow police chief Vladimir Kolokoltsev acknowledged Monday that investigators had made a mistake and said three more suspects have been arrested. Russian media have been abuzz with rumors that some people from the Caucasus could try to take revenge for Saturday's riots, even as community leaders described the allegations as a provocation and called for calm.Anxieties about what would happen Wednesday were palpable hours before protesters starting gathering. A shopping mall just outside the train station shut down hours ahead of schedule, and most stands at a nearby flower market — operated mostly by people from the Caucasus — were closed. Authorities towed cars in anticipation of possible clashes and helmeted police were on standby on a square and around the mall early in the morning.A video in which anti-Caucasus slogans were interlaced with footage of ethnic minorities from southern Russia beating up policemen and Slavic men was posted on the website of the Spartak fan club Wednesday.They don't respect our traditions, the slogans said in reference to the Caucasus natives.Now is the time to show them who's in charge. They went too far.On Monday, President Dmitry Medvedev urged police not to hesitate to use force to put down riots, saying that leaving hate crimes unpunished would jeopardize stability.
Hate attacks in Russia peaked in 2008, when 115 people were killed and nearly 500 wounded, according to Sova, an independent watchdog.Some Russia experts noted links between nationalist groups and some part of officialdom. Opposition groups claim that pro-Kremlin youth organizations have hired soccer fans and racists to carry out attacks on Kremlin critics.Mansur Mirovalev in Moscow, Sergei Venyavsky in Krasnodar and Irina Titova in St. Petersburg contributed to this report.

Arabs against peace talks without clear borders
by SARAH EL DEEB, Associated Press - DEC 15,10

CAIRO – Arab foreign ministers spoke out Wednesday against any talks between Israel and the Palestinians, direct or indirect, unless the U.S. takes a firm stance on the future borders of a Palestinian state.The Arab position, reflecting growing Palestinian frustration, is pushing the U.S. to endorse the original 1967 borders as the baseline for negotiations between the two parties.While the Arabs are not backing a return to negotiations at this stage, they are not advocating any alternatives yet, such as a unilateral declaration of a Palestinian state.The United States' peace efforts suffered a major setback after Washington abandoned efforts to coax Israel to freeze Jewish settlement in areas the Palestinians want for a future state.Last week, American officials said they would keep talking to both sides and now plan to discuss the so-called core issues of the conflict, including the borders of a Palestinian state and security arrangements, separately with Israelis and Palestinians.The negotiation track between the Palestinians and Israelis is futile. There is no return to talks. Any resumption is conditioned on a serious offer that ensures the end to the Arab-Israeli conflict based on the peace process references, a final statement from the Arab ministers said.The Palestinians say they want a state in the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem, territories captured by Israel in the 1967 Mideast War. They say they are willing to swap 1.9 percent of the land to enable Israel to keep some of the settlements.

The ministers said the failure of Washington to force Israel to stop settlement building on territories occupied in 1967 demands that the American administration declares clearly the two states' borders be based on the 1967 borders.Israel has not agreed to the idea of the 1967 as a baseline. Some parties in Israel's coalition government oppose any land concession, while others are ready to make them, but on a lesser scale than what the Palestinians would consider acceptable.Qatar's Foreign Minister Sheik Hamad bin Jassem Al Thani said the Arabs are skeptical the U.S. will be able to pressure Israel on core issues if it failed to force a settlement freeze, saying during his opening statement that the Arabs can't provide support for the return to talks, whether direct or indirect, under these circumstances.Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas has relied on an Arab League endorsement to give himself political coverage before engaging first in indirect and then direct talks with the Israelis.The Israeli position is now becoming clear that it attempts to divert the negotiation track into what the Israeli government wants, and to render the peace everyone is talking about into a peace with an Israeli hue without any consideration for the Palestinian and Arab rights, said Sheik Hamad.But the Qatari minister said Arabs and the Palestinians at this stage are unable to pursue any other solutions but the peace talks.At least this time, we will stop the talks until the Americans can come up with something new.The U.S. Mideast envoy returned to the region on Monday, seeking to revive the troubled peace efforts and met with the two sides, and with Egypt's president and the secretary general of the Arab League.U.S. State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said as the meeting was underway that Washington continues to look for ongoing support by regional players on our joint efforts.

U.S. Secretary of State Hilary Clinton has said she wants to push the parties to address core issues that have repeatedly scuttled two decades of peace efforts: the final borders between Israel and a future Palestine, the fate of millions of Palestinian refugees displaced as a result of Israel's creation in 1948, and resolving the disputing claims to east Jerusalem, home to sensitive Jewish, Muslim and Christian holy sites.But the administration has said little on how it will pursue these goals.

Anti-austerity riots erupt amid Greece strike By NICHOLAS PAPHITIS and DEREK GATOPOULOS, Associated Press – Wed Dec 15, 1:44 pm ET

ATHENS, Greece – Protesters clashed with riot police across Athens on Wednesday, torching cars, hurling gasoline bombs and sending Christmas shoppers fleeing in panic during a general strike against the government's latest austerity measures.Police fired tear gas and flash grenades as the violence escalated outside parliament and spread to other parts of the capital.Angry unions triggered the 24-hour strike to protest new labor reforms and pay cuts as Greece struggles to reshape its economy under conditions set by a euro110 billion ($146 billion) international bailout. The strike also grounded flights, closed factories, disrupted hospitals and shut down trains, ferries and buses across the country.It was the seventh strike this year by unions appalled at a wave of austerity policies meant to pull Greece out of its worst financial crisis since World War II.In Athens, youths wearing black masks and ski goggles used sledgehammers to smash paving stones and hurled the rubble at police. A post office near parliament briefly caught fire, forcing employees and bystanders to run for safety.Christmas shoppers fled as rioters hurled petrol bombs wrapped in bundles of firecrackers, causing small explosions when they landed. Rioting youths torched several cars, overturned trash bins and vandalized storefronts, tossing Christmas decorations into the street.

At least 10 people were detained Wednesday and five were hurt, including a conservative politician who was beaten in the street by protesters. Two people were injured in Athens and three in Greece's second largest city, Thessaloniki, where another anti-austerity protest turned violent.Wednesday's violence erupted after 20,000 protesters marched to parliament in Athens chanting No sacrifice for the rich!
Crippled by high budget deficits and a mountain of debt, Greece was saved from bankruptcy in May by an international rescue loan package. In return, the Socialist government slashed pensions and salaries, hiked taxes, raised retirement ages and eased restrictions on private sector layoffs.Late Tuesday, the government won a key vote in parliament on new labor reforms that include deeper pay cuts, salary caps and involuntary staff transfers at state companies. The new law also reduces unions' collective bargaining power in the private sector, allowing employers to substantially cut salaries.Unions said Wednesday's strike aimed to pressure the Socialists into slowing down the spending cuts they said were hurting average Greeks.

There is huge participation in this strike ... I believe it will put pressure on the government, Stathis Anestis, deputy leader of Greece's largest union, the GSEE, told The Associated Press. We want the government to take back the latest labor law that will hurt workers' rights.Journalists are also holding a 24-hour strike, causing blackouts for TV, radio and internet news, and newspapers will not be published on Thursday.Everything is horrible. Right now I am so mad, said Katiana Vrosidou, a cleaning lady waiting in vain for a bus in downtown Athens to go to work.All opposition parties opposed the reforms Tuesday, which left-wing parties claim will take labor relations back to the Middle Ages.But Prime Minister George Papandreou's Socialists insisted they needed to turn around loss-making public corporations while saving private sector jobs by allowing struggling businesses to cut costs.Public transport workers held a 24-hour strike Tuesday, causing traffic jams across Athens as commuters carpooled and used taxis to get to work. Further transport strikes are planned for Thursday and Friday.Theodora Tongas, Costas Kantouris and Thanassis Stavrakis contributed to this report.