THE SAUDI CONNECTION TO DESTROY AMERICA BY ISLAM
MUST LISTEN - 3 HRS LAURIE ROTH,DOUG HAGMANN AND WALID SHOEBAT DISCUSS THE MUSLIM TAKEOVER OF AMERICA THROUGH MEDIA AND BUYUPS AND JIHAD ALSO.
http://therothshow.com/show-archives/february-2010/
LISTEN TO FRI FEB 12,2010
911 NEW PHOTOS.
http://homelandsecurityus.com/?p=3501
IT WOULD NOT SURPRISE ME IF THIS ARAB WAS INVOLVED IN THE 911 ATTACKS SINCE SO MANY CAME FROM SAUDI ARABIA.
Who is influencing and controlling FOX?
Most folks have believed that Fox TV and their many conservative shows is the last bastion of conservative safety left on TV. You have your Sean Hannity, Bill’ Reilly, Greta Van Susteren asking the hard legal questions and more. But with all the conservative, multi millionaire and popular conservative voices, did you also know that the second largest owner of Fox, parent corporation Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp is Prince Ahwaleed bin Talal of Saudi Arabia. Prince Ahwaleed has been buying his anti Semitic and Muslim way right into American life. Let us review just how generous he is a moment. He purchased a 5.6% stake in News Corp. in 2005, second from the top now. He manipulated Islamic study departments into place by giving $20 million each to Georgetown and Harvard Universities.
Ahwaleed is a man who gave $500,000 to CAIR, Council on American Islamic Relations, and then there is the mother load of $27 million in 2002 to the families of Palestinian suicide bombers. Naturally, he called them martyrs.The prince is also rather close to James, Murdoch’s son who is known for his anti-Israel views and left wing radical environmental and global warming nonsense. He is not a man of mystery in anyway. Before he jumped in bed with Murdoch and his son James, he revealed his true heart on Arab News. Just some of the things he said were: Arabs should focus more on penetrating U.S. public opinion as a means to influencing decision making rather than boycotting U.S. products…….Arab news stated Arab countries can influence U.S. decision making if they unite through economic interest, not political…..We have to be logical and understand that the U.S. administration is subject to U.S. public opinion.
What ever happened to the tough guys on Fox taking on Islamic radicals?
Back in 2001, you may recall Bill O’Reilly interviewing al-Arian. He was so in his face back then that al-Arian practically implicated himself, many giving O’Reilly the credit for getting him arrested for ties to Islamic terrorists. Bravo to O’Reilly back then. What ever happened to the tough guy who dug for the truth? How come he has seemed to be in bed with Obama from the very beginning instead of exposing the sea of Islamic kiss up, public betrayal and neo-Marxism? It is as if someone has neutered him.Diana West, writer for the www.washintonexaminer.com reminded us all that Prince Ahwaleed was the guy who, right after 9/11 offered then New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani $10 million with the notice that the attacks were in response to U.S. foreign policy. Basically, we were to believe that we brought on the attacks but we Ahwaleed was offering us money to soften the blow. How could we forget our proud moment as Americans when Rudy through it back in his face. Back then, Fox hosts were hard on Ahwaleed as well. Hannity & Colmes commented that this was a bad guy and so did other hosts. Now Ahwaleed, Mr. try to buy us off back in 2001, is now the second largest owner of the company that owns FOX. Isn’t that precious?
No one can truly say just how this Muslim control influences Fox, yet Alwaleed bragged if you recall, saying he had called Fox to make sure their coverage of the Muslim riots in France weren’t described as ‘Muslim’ riots in France. I remember that! Fox never has denied this by the way. By the way, THEY DID TALK ABOUT THOSE RIOTS IN MUTED WAYS BUT YES, THE RIOTS WERE NOTHING BUT MUSLIM RIOTS! I am all for capitalism and fair commerce, but does it really protect our freedom of speech and the truth in media, especially in a time of war with Muslim radicals, when our most conservative network FOX is largely controlled by a rich Muslim who wants control? Are they completely on drugs or is it us who is on drugs for slowly allowing ourselves to boil in water while the temperature keeps getting higher.Question everything and don’t assume news is honest and real anymore unless you have checked it out.
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).
Saturday, 13 February 2010
John Loeffler Steel on Steel.: Changes in the Wind/ with Ambrose Evans-Pritchard : the EURO CRISIS- America's Financial Reckoning Day,
http://britanniaradio.blogspot.com/2010/02/john-loeffler-steel-on-steel.html#links
The European Union Friday February 12, 2010 16:01 by European Anarkismo Conference - Anarkismo
Motion passed at the recent European Anarkismo Conference
We must remove the economical, political and civil obstacles that are limiting our freedom and equality in our daily lives, and call into question their concept of participation in the organization of society. For us, direct participation is only possible on the basis of mutual aid and solidarity.
The European Union
The Treaty of Lisbon came into effect one year ago, with the global economic crisis at its height. This Treaty gives the European Commission absolute power to issue directives guaranteeing competitive European businesses access to the world's markets and operational security within them. Furthermore, the Court of Justice guarantees only one freedom, the freedom of the market and the defence of free competition as a condition to casualize the workforce, society and the environment of the 27 Member States. The new Treaty brings the prospect of the deregulation of the entire production system and servies in the fullest sense, enabling practical application of the Bolkestein Directive which open the door to the complete privatization of healthcare, edication, water and pensions.This strategy takes no account of the devastation caused by the current global economic crisis, and sweeps away public services (healthcare, transport, education, water, housing) both on a symbolic level and on a real level. It introduces the market as an instrument for concession (services of general interest) and for satisfaction (someone who saves can gain access to private healthcare, integrated pensions, etc.). This is the Europe that, from 1st January 2009, forbids tax policies for redistributing wealth, public spending, social safeguards and benefits, while allowing tax havens to be created.
Naturally, the first victims of these policies of dismantlement are women, who so often find that they have to struggle alone in their daily task of providing care (to children, parents, family members). This is particularly felt in certain countries where, without any social assistance women are even having to give up jobs for this.In this situation, the labour market and related policies can only be governed by the golden rules of neo-liberal capitalism: free deregulation (flexibility) and total, widespread casualization of the workforce (with the removal of social and labour rights).In a Europe that is growing together with the global crisis, this means only two things: the use of social dumping and the rejection of the right to strike for those who ask for equal working conditions in de-located and re-located companies, all in the name of social competition and the market economy.
Ever since the 2007 agreement on flexicurity, flexibility for companies to manage the workforce already means in effect total freedom of labour organization, which at the same time supposedly has the apparent aim of guaranteeing security for workers, with all the necessary adaptability that is asked of them from constantly changing jobs and during periods of continual training.Thus, in a jobs market devastated by the crisis, we see a relaunching of the watchword competitivity, which in turn brings about not only social dumping and therefore the privatization of services that are essential to the population, but also an effort to reduce labour costs through instruments linked to policies that increase flexibility, workforce mobility and the capacity to adapt.Germany, France and Italy - countries once held to be strong in the field of social security and tough in the field of labour rights - have reshaped the internal labour market, reaching the level of Spain, Ireland and the United Kingdom in areas such as unemployment benefit, fewer protections against dismissal, increasing retirement age, flexible contracts, weakening social safety nets, etc.
EU immigration policies are also affected to the logic of the market and to double standards: on the one hand there is a need for labour from non-EU citizens due to the aging of the European working class (this manpower is necessary and sufficient to ensure the type of casual work required by competition); and secondly, there are policies that deny the right of citizenship, that feed racism accusing migrants of clandestinity, that use repression and control in order to give support to unequal, aggressive and exploitational relations between the North and South, especially in the Europe-influenced Mediterranean area.For European and immigrant workers, flexibility thus in effect means availability to work on the basis of the needs of production. For companies in a time of crisis, when millions of jobs are being cut, nothing could be better than this. The labour market thus becomes a mere mechanism, which nonetheless acts and moves, is governed by rules (laws, executive orders, ad hoc legal decisions, directives, etc.) and by institutions, in order to avoid dealing with any form of social conflict.And by following this fragmentary social and economic model, the social and labour struggles have been broken up into a thousand pieces, thus losing all their effectiveness. We need to see a recomposition of the rights and immediate interests of workers and citizens in a new unitary and industrial conception and organization of all paid work.We must oppose the logic of the segmentation and flexibility of global capitalism's social and productive models and resolutely fight for the rights of all men and women, for labour rights, social rights and civil rights.We must remove the economical, political and civil obstacles that are limiting our freedom and equality in our daily lives, and call into question their concept of participation in the organization of society. For us, direct participation is only possible on the basis of mutual aid and solidarity.We must oppose their concepts of competition and competitivity with the polar opposites: our concepts and our practice of solidarity.
All coherently alternative labour, social and political forces need to support the rights and interests of the workers, in a society organized on the basis of solidarity and not competition, on the basis of respect, freedom and equality and not on the basis of authoritarianism, of individualism and of the absence of democracy. There is really only one answer, the only possible response on the basis of these values and these choices:
SOCIAL MOBILIZATION:
•for a Europe of European and migrant peoples and workers
•to defend our interests in employment matters, income, social gains and solidarity
•to build popular power and democracy from below
•to defend and create collective grassroots, self-managed spaces within the community and in the workplace in order to give firm roots to the anti-capitalist struggle
•to build the libertarian alternative to the barbarism of the crisis caused by capitalism and by States.
FSA accuses private equity industry of arrogance as buy-out heads rail against AIFM regulations12 Feb 2010. Source: AltAssets
The UK's Financial Services Authority has accused the private equity industry of arrogance after prominent buy-out figures criticised the proposed Alternative Investment Fund Management (AIFM) directive regulations, according to reports.
Speaking at the Super Return conference in Berlin, Better Capital CEO Jon Moulton (pictured) asked why the asset class was being regulated by the EU when it already faced clinically insane levels of regulation in the UK, according to the Financial Times.FSA asset management sector leader Dan Waters was quoted in the newspaper as saying,It is the arrogance of that statement that no regulation is needed that has got the industry in trouble in the first place. We are where we are, we must deal with it.The cause of the conflict is the EU’s proposed AIFM (AIFM) directive, which would require fund managers to obtain regulator clearance for funds, increase the level of transparency in their activities and hold at least €125,000 in capital. Four sessions were reportedly devoted to regulatory issues at the conference, underlining the level of concern held by the industry about new forms of enforcement.
Commenting on the spat, Eversheds' Mark Spinner said,In my view it is the morbid fascination the market has with the earnings of the private equity executives that is at the root of the problem and not the perceived lack of regulation. I do not think any serious participant in the private equity industry does not accept that a degree of regulation is both needed and a good thing.However the draconian measures proposed by the draft AIFM directive have not been properly thought through,added Spinner, a partner and head of private equity at the law firm.The directive is reportedly going to be voted on in July this year and could come into effect by 2012.2010 AltAssets.
Turkish foreign policy and the EU in 2010 (II)Thursday, February 11, 2010
AHMET DAVUTOĞLU
Today’s multifold challenges such as the financial crisis, energy security, illegal migration, epidemic diseases, climate change, organized crime, cross-cultural and religious intolerance, extremism and terrorism can only be addressed through genuine and effective solidarity in the Eurasian space.If we are to eradicate all forms of intolerance and discrimination based on religion or creed, to promote a democratic and equitable international order, to obtain robust economic growth and to achieve sustainable development, then Turkey’s membership in the European Union will only help render the latter a leading global player in the 21st century.Yet, fifty years since the beginning of the contractual relationship between Turkey and the EU, the debate on Turkey’s European vocation has not waned. These views, also nourished by the politics of identity, disregard Turkey’s well-established place in European history. The last 200 years of Turkish history are marked by various struggles, both internally and externally. The most important was fought for political, economic and social modernization, and it transcended generations. Both the transformers in the Ottoman Empire and the founding fathers of modern Turkey were influenced by the cornerstones of European history like the Renaissance, Reformation, Enlightenment and the French Revolution. Mustafa Kemal Atatürk’s reforms toward solidifying the modernization of Turkey are the ramifications of this revolutionary mindset. The next stop in this journey of transformation and modernization is Turkey’s membership in the EU.
With significant challenges and opportunities before us, we must now put the tiresome debates on Turkey’s European vocation to rest and focus on the added value inherent in this accession: Turkey, seeking membership in the EU, generates peace at home, peace in the world. It is the only country that is simultaneously a member of G-20, NATO and the OIC. We are also a non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council. It is the world’s 17th, and Europe’s sixth largest economy. It is a bulwark for democracy, the rule of law, respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms; that is, European ideals and values.In this new era ushered in by the Lisbon Treaty, the EU is preparing to emerge stronger on the world stage through a new institutional structure. At this juncture in time, I also see a new opportunity to bring in a fresh wind of optimism into Turkish-EU relations. It is a time for new ideas, new ways of thinking. We must seize this opportunity to move our relations into an ever closer union.The EU is the successful outcome of a dynamic integration process. Through the EU, Europe has been able to leave behind past conflicts. Thanks to the culture of dialogue and compromise, it has become a beacon of liberty, stability and peace. The Lisbon Treaty will further solidify the political unity of the EU. An internally stronger EU is tantamount to a more effective and visible EU on the global stage. The smooth implementation of the Lisbon Treaty and mobilizing popular support for enlargement in general – and Turkey’s membership in particular – appear to be two strategic tasks that lie ahead in this respect. We hope that with the entry into force of the treaty, the argument that was put forward by some countries that enlargement could not proceed without institutional reform will finally be buried. At this new juncture where the EU is in search of a new soul, it is exceptionally important that a positive style and substance prevail in Turkey-EU relations.
The process of accession negotiations is lengthy and difficult. We were aware of this fact before we set out on this journey. Yet, we face several political obstacles in stark contradiction to the commonly agreed framework for the negotiations. This serves only to undermine the credibility of the EU. As membership will not happen overnight, the ultimate decision on this issue should not be prejudged from today. By that day, Turkey will have attained the same standards and norms as that of the EU, and this will definitely be to the interest of all sides concerned.Turkey’s accession process follows an irreversible course. The negotiations continue to advance at the technical level. No single week goes by without an expert meeting taking place in Brussels, Ankara or elsewhere. Our legislation in every field – from environment to food safety to education – is being revised. The massive work carried out by the Turkish and EU officials has brought about a silent revolution. There is a consistent quality to this side of the picture vis-à-vis the political rhetoric on the other side.Let me repeat that membership in the EU is the strategic objective of our foreign policy. We will undertake whatever is necessary. My government is determined to advance its comprehensive reform agenda with this aim in mind. The components of our homework are clearly and extensively stated in regular reports of the European Commission. We take good note of these to-do lists and undertake to accomplish whatever is necessary. On the other hand, we also believe that the EU should do more to preserve the credibility and consistency of political Europe. Our list would be shorter, comprised of only three items:
1- The EU should abide by the principle of pacta sund servanda;*
2- The EU should not allow bilateral issues to hold back the accession negotiations; and
3- It should not let Turkey’s accession process be manipulated for domestic politics.
I am of the opinion that there are basically two paths the EU can take. Either it will be a global power with a dynamic economy or remain a continental power with a more inward-looking perception. The starting point should be to focus on a functioning and productive relationship between Turkey and the EU. At present, Europe is going through a transformation in many ways. With the adoption of the Lisbon Treaty, Europe will undertake new responsibilities on a global scale. European leaders now have a chance to demonstrate their resolve in preparing the EU for the challenges of the 21st century, both internally and, even more decisively, on the global stage.We are fully committed to the EU process and determined to advance our reform agenda. Indeed, in the last seven years my government launched and implemented an ambitious reform campaign. Our reforms aim not only to comply with the Copenhagen political criteria but also to respond to the aspirations and expectations of the Turkish people for the highest standards of democracy and rule of law. Turkey will pass this test successfully, no matter how demanding it will be. We see this process as a formidable challenge, which presents Turkey an opportunity to reinvigorate its strong potential. I firmly believe that this will be a road of remarkable achievement.
* Latin for agreements must be kept.
- Mr. Ahmet Davutoğlu is Turkey’s foreign minister. This piece was originally published in Turkish Policy Quarterly.
EU E-COMMERCE RULES
http://www.inbrief.co.uk/electronic-commerce-regulations.htm
With rescue of Greece, Europe veers down a new path FEB 13,10
Say goodbye to the European Union as half-a-billion Europeans know it.
By pledging to come to Greece’s rescue, the EU did something it has never done in its 53-year history, and certainly never in the 11 years of the euro’s existence: extend a financial lifeline to a sovereign member of its club. Greece’s out-of-control spending triggered a debt crisis that, left unchecked, would almost certainly bankrupt the country and generate a financial maelstrom in other ailing EU economies, threatening the viability of the euro itself.The message from the EU leaders who drafted the rescue plan was direct: No country that uses the euro will be allowed to go bust because the monetary union is sacrosanct. The 16 EU countries that use the euro have a shared responsibility, EU president Herman Van Rompuy said Thursday in Brussels.The promise to save Greece from defaulting on its debt sends the EU off in a new direction. Since the European Economic Community, the EU’s ancestor, was created by the Treaty of Rome in 1957, each member country has been accountable for its own financial health. The launch of the euro did not change this principle, at least not until Greece’s largely self-imposed financial wounds turned critical in recent months. From now on, it appears, the strongest countries, notably Germany and France, will guarantee the financial stability of the weakest.
In time this can only lead to the erosion of economic and political sovereignty among the countries that use the euro.In a recent note, Russell Jones, a strategist with Royal Bank of Canada’s investment arm in London, said: The historical fact is that no monetary union has survived without political and fiscal union.The announcement of the rescue plan, rumoured for weeks, came a day after a civil servants’ strike shut down schools, airports and other public services across Greece in protest of the socialist government’s austerity plans. No details of the plan were released on Thursday; they may not come until euro zone finance ministers meet in Brussels on Monday. There is an accord,Jose Manuel Barroso, the president of the European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, told reporters in Brussels.Greece won’t be left alone, but there are rules, and these rules must be adhered to.Greece’s rescue may not be needed; the EU leaders stressed that Greece had not asked for it. And the support provided so far is largely statements by officials, rather than concrete moves.But if a rescue has to be launched, it would probably take the form of loans or loan guarantees from individual euro zone countries, based on their relative economic size. The International Monetary Fund would offer technical expertise, but no direct financial support. Investors and strategists welcomed the news of the rescue plan. Once is it is clear that the European Monetary Union will not abandon any member, we believe the crisis will fade,said UBS strategist Katherine Klingensmith.
But the markets were underwhelmed by the lack of detail, and possibly by lack of conviction that Greece’s government, led by Prime Minister George Papandreou, will hold up its end of the bargain. It has promised to rein in spending by freezing public servants’ wages, reforming pensions, raising fuel taxes and other measures. Last year, Greece’s budget deficit was 12.7 per cent of GDP, the widest in the EU and more than four times greater than the EU’s 3-per-cent limit. Stocks and bonds made tepid gains Thursday, but the euro sank almost 1 per cent against the dollar shortly after the EU leaders announced their commitment to support Greece.The question is whether the Greek government has the political will to keep a tight austerity plan in place for several years. Wednesday’s strike may be the first of many. Another general strike is planned for Feb. 24. In a note published last week, UBS economists said: We think that there is a risk, in the near future, to have social unrest which eventually could push the Greek government to cancel or simply water down the austerity plan.But others think that Greek workers – the country of 11 million has some 700,000 civil servants at the national level – know their country faces ruin unless sacrifices are made. We have an opportunity to change, said Constantine Katsigiannis, the Athens business lawyer who is president of the Hellenic-Canadian Chamber of Commerce.We have our back against the wall, big time. There is nowhere to go.He fears, however, that any EU-directed rescue on its own will not cure Greece’s main problem – lack of competitiveness. For Greece to thrive, it needs structural reform, such as shrinking the bloated bureaucracy and streamlining regulations. Any cuts that take place aren’t serious unless they are combined with serious economic reform measures,he said.
11 February 2010 6:37 PM Hail to the Chief: Belgian, pointless and in charge
Well, that was the most unenlightening appearance since Punxsutawney Phil came out of his lodge to check his shadow.This afternoon Herman Van Rompuy emerged from the secret meeting of the European Council, the 27 European Union prime ministers and presidents, to announce their decision on what to do about the Greek crisis. It was: We support the efforts of the Greek government and their commitment to do whatever is necessary.And, err, that more or less was it.
The bond markets are treating Greece as if it has typhoid, the EU-invented eurozone may unzip and leave the economies of Greece, Portugal, Spain, Italy and Ireland in economic chaos, and all the EU 27 can do under the leadership of Van Rompuy is agree that they will give undefined support to Greece -- and may even adopt additional measures.At the press conference after the meeting, one of the first questions out of the pack was from a journalist who noted the markets had reacted weakly to the statement, and what did Van Rompuy say to that? (By the way, weakly,is about the best anyone could expect from such an absolute refusal by the European Council to say whether the EU, or some group of EU countries -- for which, read Germany and one or two others -- would support Greece by buying its bonds or lending it money.)
Van Rompuy snapped back that I haven't been following the markets because I have been working this afternoon.Tripe. Either he still doesn't know how a President of the European Council is supposed to keep informed, or he just resented anyone calling attention to the fact that his text, as he kept calling it, failed to impress the markets. Or both. He made the statement hours before the press conference. He had time for a briefing from one of his highly-paid eurocrat staff between the time the meeting ended and his meeting with the press. Either he knew his statement tanked in the markets, or he was too dull-witted to find out that it had.
Any actual dig-out is now going to be agreed next week by the Finance Ministers of the 16-member eurozone; or by the Finance Ministers of the 27 members of the EU. Or, again, by both. Because whatever is agreed, it seems certain that it will a) break EU treaty law forbidding bail-outs (so, like the death warrant of Charles I, the men taking an ax to the law will want to have as many signatures as possible on the document) and b) involve British money, despite Britain not being the the eurozone.
In between being weak in the bond markets, Van Rompuy was showing a bit too much taste for muscle when it comes to increasing his own influence. He announced that, starting later this year, he wants the Council to meet every month instead of just a few times a year. It seems Van Rompuy imagines he can turn the Bundeskanzlerin, Le President de la France, Her Majesty's First Lord of the Treasury, Il Presidente del Consiglio dei Ministri della Repubblica Italiana, and all the rest of them into his personal Scout pack. Let's see if they put up with it, or start dropping out after the first couple of pointless monthly Van Rompuy meetings on the grounds that they have better things to do.For, how long could anyone take being closed up in a room listening to some unelected Belgian politician of whom no one had ever heard before last December? There Van Rompuy was this afternoon, sitting alongside José Manuel Barroso, the not-too-bright unelected President of the European Commission. The only one missing from the line-up was the doubly-unelected nobody British Baroness Ashton, who is now High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy.This is absurd. These three jumped-up jokers claim to speak with a voice superior to the voices of the most ancient nations of Europe. I mentioned to an admirable economist I know that what we have running the EU now are Groucho, Harpo and Chico.Wrong, he said. What we have running the EU now are Tony Hancock, Hattie Jacques and Sid James.I stand corrected.
February 11, 2010
Did Goldman's help cook up the big fat Greek lie?
I was just folding up my laptop to move over to the Council building for the informal economic summit, -- how do I know now's the time to make the move? I can hear the security helicopters overhead and the police sirens in the street. These leaders do think they are important -- when this item from the Eurointelligence news summary caught my eye. A report in the German newspaper Der Spiegel says that Goldman Sachs helped Greece to present fraudulent accounts.The story so far on the Greek accounts: when the new government took over in Athens four months ago, they found that the outgoing government's claim that the deficit was just five percent was a fiction. The real deficit, Prime Minister Papandreou, seen here, assured us, was actually a shocking near-13 percent. It now seems that was not the full shock. A report out yesterday indicates the deficit last year actually reached 16 percent of national output.
As the old Russian proverb has it: The Greeks tell the truth, but only once a year.
It's these dodgy accounts which have helped set the bond markets against Greece and triggered the present doubts about the survival of the euro.According to Eurointelligence's translation of Der Spiegel's story: Greece's debt managers agreed a huge deal with the savvy bankers of US investment bank Goldman Sachs at the start of 2002. The deal involved so-called cross-currency swaps in which government debt issued in dollars and yen was swapped for euro debt for a certain period -- to be exchanged back into the original currencies at a later date.Such transactions are part of normal government refinancing. Europe's government's obtain funds from investors around the world by issuing bonds in yen, dollar or Swiss francs. But they need euros to pay their daily bills.Years later the bonds are repaid in the original foreign denominations.But in the Greek case the US bankers devised a special kind of swap with fictional exchange rates. That enabled Greece to receive a far higher sum than the actual euro market value of 10 billion dollars or yen. In that way Goldman Sachs secretly arranged additional credit of up to $1 billion [£642m] for the Greeks.
This credit disguised as a swap didn't show up in the Greek debt statistics. The reporting rules at Eurostat -- the European Commission agency for statistics -- don't comprehensively record transactioins involving financial derivatives:The Maastricht rules can be circumvented quite legally through swaps,says a German derivatives dealer.Now, on to the summit, waiting for leadership from Herman Van Rompuy. Oh, dear God, that it should come to this...
Europe's Five Undeclared Nuclear Weapons States Are Turkey, Germany, Belgium, The Netherlands and Italy Nuclear Powers? by Michel Chossudovsky Global Research, February 12, 2010
According to a recent report, former NATO Secretary-General George Robertson confirmed that Turkey possesses 40-90 Made in America nuclear weapons at the Incirlik military base.(en.trend.az/)
Does this mean that Turkey is a nuclear power?
Far from making Europe safer, and far from producing a less nuclear dependent Europe, [the policy] may well end up bringing more nuclear weapons into the European continent, and frustrating some of the attempts that are being made to get multilateral nuclear disarmament,(Former NATO Secretary-General George Robertson quoted in Global Security, February 10, 2010)Is Italy capable of delivering a thermonuclear strike?...Could the Belgians and the Dutch drop hydrogen bombs on enemy targets?...Germany's air force couldn't possibly be training to deliver bombs 13 times more powerful than the one that destroyed Hiroshima, could it?...Nuclear bombs are stored on air-force bases in Italy, Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands — and planes from each of those countries are capable of delivering them.(What to Do About Europe's Secret Nukes.Time Magazine, December 2, 2009)
The Official Nuclear Weapons States
Five countries, the US, UK, France, China and Russia are considered to be nuclear weapons states (NWS),an internationally recognized status conferred by the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). Three other Non NPT countries (i.e. non-signatory states of the NPT) including India, Pakistan and North Korea, have recognized possessing nuclear weapons.
Israel: Undeclared Nuclear State
Israel is identified as an undeclared nuclear state. It produces and deploys nuclear warheads directed against military and civilian targets in the Middle East including Tehran.
Iran
There has been much hype, supported by scanty evidence, that Iran might at some future date become a nuclear weapons state. And, therefore, a pre-emptive defensive nuclear attack on Iran to annihilate its non-existent nuclear weapons program should be seriously contemplated to make the World a safer place. The mainstream media abounds with makeshift opinion on the Iran nuclear threat.
But what about the five European undeclared nuclear states including Belgium, Germany, Turkey, the Netherlands and Italy. Do they constitute a threat? Belgium, Germany, The Netherlands, Italy and Turkey: Undeclared Nuclear Weapons States While Iran's nuclear weapons capabilities are unconfirmed, the nuclear weapons capabilities of these five countries including delivery procedures are formally acknowledged.The US has supplied some 480 B61 thermonuclear bombs to five non-nuclear NATO countries including Belgium, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Turkey. Casually disregarded by the Vienna based UN Nuclear Watchdog (IAEA), the US has actively contributed to the proliferation of nuclear weapons in Western Europe.
As part of this European stockpiling, Turkey, which is a partner of the US-led coalition against Iran along with Israel, possesses some 90 thermonuclear B61 bunker buster bombs at the Incirlik nuclear air base. (National Resources Defense Council, Nuclear Weapons in Europe , February 2005) By the recognised definition, these five countries are undeclared nuclear weapons states.The stockpiling and deployment of tactical B61 in these five non-nuclear states are intended for targets in the Middle East. Moreover, in accordance with NATO strike plans, these thermonuclear B61 bunker buster bombs (stockpiled by the non-nuclear States) could be launched against targets in Russia or countries in the Middle East such as Syria and Iran( quoted in National Resources Defense Council, Nuclear Weapons in Europe , February 2005)Does this mean that Iran or Russia, which are potential targets of a nuclear attack originating from one or other of these five so-called non-nuclear states should contemplate defensive preemptive nuclear attacks against Germany, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands and Turkey? The answer is no, by any stretch of the imagination.
While these undeclared nuclear states casually accuse Tehran of developing nuclear weapons, without documentary evidence, they themselves have capabilities of delivering nuclear warheads, which are targeted at Iran. To say that this is a clear case of double standards by the IAEA and the international community is a understatement.
The stockpiled weapons are B61 thermonuclear bombs. All the weapons are gravity bombs of the B61-3, -4, and -10 types.2 .Those estimates were based on private and public statements by a number of government sources and assumptions about the weapon storage capacity at each base.(National Resources Defense Council, Nuclear Weapons in Europe , February 2005)
Germany: Nuclear Weapons Producer
Among the five undeclared nuclear states, Germany remains the most heavily nuclearized country with three nuclear bases (two of which are fully operational) and may store as many as 150 [B61 bunker buster ] bombs (Ibid). In accordance with NATO strike plans (mentioned above) these tactical nuclear weapons are also targeted at the Middle East.While Germany is not categorized officially as a nuclear power, it produces nuclear warheads for the French Navy. It stockpiles nuclear warheads (made in America) and it has the capabilities of delivering nuclear weapons. Moreover, The European Aeronautic Defense and Space Company - EADS , a Franco-German-Spanish joint venture, controlled by Deutsche Aerospace and the powerful Daimler Group is Europe's second largest military producer, supplying .France's M51 nuclear missile.
Last update - 13:45 12/02/2010 Hamas: Next war with Israel will be regional conflict By News Agencies and Haaretz Service
Hamas political leader Khaled Meshal warned on Friday that should another war erupt with Israel, the majority of battles would not be contained to the Gaza Strip as they were during the conflict last winter. Meshal told the London-based Al-Hayyat that Hamas was not interested in seeing another war, but would embark on steadfast defense of the Palestinian people should one begin. Speaking during a visit to Russia, Meshal accused Israel of making threats of war in Gaza, Lebanon and Syria.
He said the quickening tide of military threats was the result of Israel's leadership under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberma and Defense Minister Ehud Barak - the latter to whom he referred as the most extremist.The Hamas leader also blamed Israel over the failure in Russian attempts to mediate between the two enemies, with regard to peace negotiations and efforts to see abducted Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit released from Palestinian captivity.Meshal's visit to Russia angered Israeli officials, who sent a letter of protest to Moscow over the matter.
OPINION: EXTRAFEBRUARY 11, 2010, 10:55 A.M. ET.Blame China for Iran's Nukes
Beijing's friendship with Tehran makes war in the region more likely By MICHAEL DANBY
Iran's threat to punch the West will exacerbate the worries of many people who follow events in the Middle East and are increasingly worried the world is sleep-walking towards a new regional war. The causes of this possible war are typically categorized as, first, Iran's determination to build nuclear weapons, and second, the world's apparent inability to stop it.But a third cause often gets overlooked: If there is a war, a large part of the responsibility will rest with Beijing. China has assumed the status of a great power, including a veto at the U.N. Security Council. But instead of becoming a responsible member of the community of leading states, acting jointly with other powers to avert the prospect of wars, China is using its new-found power in ways that make war more likely.China's military and diplomatic power have increased enormously over the past 20 years. But unlike the world's other leading powers, China is a poor country economically and a dictatorship politically. After decades of rapid growth, China's per capita GDP is still only $6,500–less than Ecuador or Angola, and only 14% of per capita GDP in the United States.
China's approach to Iran can be explained by the political situation at home: The Chinese people have come to expect constantly rising standards of living, and this the greatest weakness of the Chinese Communist regime. The Chinese people will tolerate the communists' monopoly of power only so long as their living standards keep rising.The weak link in this system is China's inadequate energy sources. Even with coal, nuclear power and its huge hydro-electricity schemes, China is short of energy, and its dependence on imports is growing. Australia, as a major exporter of coal and natural gas, has been one of the major beneficiaries. But China's greatest need is for oil, and this Australia cannot supply.
Associated Press
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, right, shakes hands with Iranian First Vice President Mohammad Reza Rahimi during a meeting at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Thursday October 15, 2009.China can buy all the oil it wants on the international market, but the communist leaders don't want China's prosperity—and their own hold on power—to be dependent on a free market they don't trust. They want control and certainty. They see the way to get these things is through deals with selected oil-exporting countries, preferably ones which are at political odds with western powers, so that their need for friends and protectors is greater.This explains China's deep involvement with Sudan–one of the world's nastiest regimes, responsible for the deaths of up to 300,000 people in Darfur. Sudan now supplies nearly 10% of China's oil imports. It's a cozy deal–China gets a secure oil supply and Sudan gets arms and diplomatic protection. The Sudanese regime knows it will never face U.N. sanctions, because China uses its Security Council veto to protect it.An even bigger supplier of oil to China is Iran. China now gets 15% of its oil from Iran, and is Iran's second-biggest customer after Japan. As with Sudan, China pays for its oil by protecting Iran against U.N. sanctions over its nuclear program. Even with Russia threatening to support sanctions against Iran, China's foreign minister has made clear that Beijing opposes sanctions.This is a very dangerous game. President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad is determined to build nuclear weapons and has threatened Israel with destruction many times. He may be bluffing, but this is not a risk Israel can afford to take. If the international community cannot restrain Iran, the government of Israel will face great pressure to take pre-emptive steps to protect the country against attack.Thus, China's greed for secure oil imports and its willingness to deal with outlaw regimes to get these imports is causing a breakdown in the world's only system for disciplining countries that endanger peace. If the U.N. sanctions break down in Iran, this opens up a serious danger of war—and China will bear a heavy share of the blame.Mr. Danby is a member of the Australian Parliament and chair of the Foreign Affairs Subcommittee.
SocGen’s Edwards Sees Euro Breakup as Feldstein Predicts ChangeBusiness Exchange By Alexis Xydias
Feb. 12 (Bloomberg) -- The Greek budget crisis is a symptom of imbalances that will lead to the breakup of the euro region, according to Societe Generale SA strategistAlbert Edwards, and Harvard University Professor Martin Feldstein said monetary union isn’t working in its current form.Southern European countries are trapped in an overvalued currency and suffocated by low competitiveness, top-ranked Edwards wrote in a report today. Feldstein, speaking on Bloomberg Radio, said a one-size-fits-all monetary policy has fueled big deficits as countries’ fiscal records differ.The problem for countries including Portugal, Spain and Greece is that years of inappropriately low interest rates resulted in overheating and rapid inflation, Edwards wrote. Even if governments could slash their fiscal deficits, the lack of competitiveness within the euro zone needs years of relative (and probably given the outlook elsewhere, absolute) deflation. Any help given to Greece merely delays the inevitable breakup of the euro zone.The euro has slumped 9.9 percent against the dollar since November on concern countries including Greece will struggle to tame their budget deficits. The common currency and stocks in the region dropped yesterday as European leaders closed ranks to defend Greece in a plan that investors said lacked details.
Euro Falls
The euro fell for a third day against the dollar, to $1.3626 as of 5:01 p.m. in London. Europe’s recovery almost stalled in the fourth quarter, as gross domestic product in the 16-nation euro region rose a less-than-expected 0.1 percent from the third quarter, the European Union’s statistics office in Luxembourg said today.
While the European Central Bank sets interest rates for the region’s 16 economies, the practice until now has been that each country has to steer its economy and can set its own tax and spending plans.They have a single monetary policy and yet every country can set its own fiscal and tax policy,Feldstein, 70, said.There’s too much incentive for countries to run up big deficits as there’s no feedback until a crisis,he said.Tommaso Padoa-Schioppa, a former European Central Bank executive board member and Italian finance minister, said today there was no possibility of a partition of the euro area.
Padoa-Schioppa
I don’t think there is any prospect for such an event and I don’t think it makes much sense to talk about it,he said in an interview on Bloomberg Television.
Edwards was voted second-best European strategist in the 2009 Thomson Extel survey after his then-colleague James Montier and is known for his bearish views on equities. In 1996 he angered southeast Asian governments by predicting the currency meltdown that struck the region a year later. The poll also named Societe Generale as the top economics and strategy research firm for a third straight year.In a 1997 article, Feldstein wrote that while it is impossible to predict whether political clashes will lead to war, it is too real a possibility to ignore in weighing the potential effects of monetary and political union.After a three-month long plunge in Greece’s bonds amid speculation it was facing the threat of default, the euro region’s leaders yesterday ordered the country to slash its budget deficit and warned investors they would be willing to defend the country from speculative attack if necessary.
Portuguese, Spanish Bonds
Portuguese and Spanish bonds also declined earlier this month on concern those countries may also need to cut spending.Prime Minister George Papandreou’s drive to get Greece’s ballooning budget under control is being challenged in the streets by striking schools, hospitals and airline employees.Unlike Japan or the U.S., Europe has an unfortunate tendency towards civil unrest when subjected to extreme economic pain, Edwards wrote. Consigning the countries in southern Europe with the weakest finances to a prolonged period of deflation is most likely to impose too severe a test on these nations.The budget crisis in Greece may escalate in the way the Asian currency meltdown of 1997 paved the way for the Russian default and the collapse of Long-Term Capital Management LP in 1998, Edwards added.This is a different chapter in the same book, he wrote, adding that the need to tighten deficits is a particular issue for the U.S. and U.K.There will be more crises to follow Greece, both inside and outside of the euro-zone.To contact the reporter on this story: Alexis Xydias in London ataxydias@bloomberg.net.Last Updated: February 12, 2010 13:04 EST
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.
Snowballs did have a chance in the South By KATE BRUMBACK and MELISSA NELSON, Associated Press Writers – Sat Feb 13, 3:35 am ET
ATLANTA – It doesn't take much snow to shut down the Deep South.Even before the first flake fell, flights were canceled Friday at the world's busiest airport in Atlanta. A Starbucks on the Gulf Coast closed for the day, citing a steady drizzle and temperatures in the mid-30s as inclement weather. Classes were canceled nearly everywhere.As much as 7 inches fell in central South Carolina, one of the hardest-hit areas. The powder wasn't expected linger, though, like it has in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast. That region was hit with back-to-back blizzards in the past week that dumped 3 feet of snow.The Southern snow knocked out power to thousands and caused hundreds of accidents. Near Montgomery, Ala., a car plunged off an icy road into a pond, killing two brothers ages 4 and 2, State Trooper Kevin Cook said. The boys' mother, who was driving, survived.
In the Dallas area, students celebrated the day off.
I was like, yes! said 14-year-old Ashleigh Hartsock, a high school student in suburban Frisco whose Facebook page was going crazy with messages rejoicing over the school closure.She was among many Texans who braved the cold with a comical lack of winter gear. In a city that gets an average of 2 inches of snow a year, heavy boots, thick gloves and sleds were scarce.Several kids at a Frisco park attempted to sled down a slight incline that passes for a hill in the Dallas area. Wearing knit gloves covered in plastic baggies and grocery bags over their tennis shoes, they rode garbage can lids, tops to plastic containers and pieces of cardboard.If they have to miss a school day, at least they can get out in it and have some fun, said Lauren Harbour, whose children, ages 10, 8 and 6, were trying out the various makeshift sleds.Federal forecasters said every state but Hawaii had snow on the ground somewhere Friday, a freakishly rare occurrence. It was even snowing along East Coast beach towns.I knew it could happen, but I didn't expect much snow down here, said Frank Pinter, Savannah's street maintenance supervisor, who moved here four years ago from northern Ohio.It's such an unusual event for this area, we don't maintain a stockpile of salt or anything.Airlines scrapped more than 1,800 flights, many of them at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, which sees 2,700 arrivals and departures on an average day. Of that total, hundreds were halted at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, which got more than a foot of snow from Thursday into Friday.
The cancelations quickly jammed up air traffic around the country.It's frustrating, said Russ Cereola, a New York salesman trying to fly home from Atlanta.There's no snow on the ground yet, and they're canceling flights. Now I understand inbound stuff is probably canceled, but this is a little nuts.Many places were seeing snow for the first time in a generation or longer, and some people weren't quite sure what to do.We don't even sell snow shovels. They'd have to go to the old-time coal shovels, which is the closest thing I have, said Todd Friddle, the manager at a Lowe's home-improvement store in the Charleston, S.C., suburb of Mount Pleasant.In the Florida Panhandle town of Century, 44-year-old Steve Pace scraped some snow from the hood of his truck and formed a snowball to throw at his 6-year-old grandson, Kaleb. It snowed for only about 10 minutes before giving way to rain again, but it was enough.I've only ever seen snow on TV till now, Kaleb said, smiling. For the first time in its 88-year history, Grandview Florist in the Panhandle community of Gonzalez had to reschedule Valentine's Day deliveries for winter weather. Owner Marie Pierce, 77, managed the chaos while creating arrangements from lilies and roses in the back of the rural shop. The schools and some businesses are closed, so we are sending our drivers to customers' homes instead,said Pierce, whose grandmother started the shop in 1923.Melissa Nelson reported from Pensacola, Fla. Associated Press writers Jay Reeves in Birmingham, Ala., Bruce Smith in Charleston, S.C., Shelia Byrd in Jackson, Miss., Desiree Hunter in Montgomery, Ala., and Cain Burdeau in New Orleans contributed to this report.
Cyclone slams American Samoa with 100 mph winds By FILI SAGAPOLUTELE, Associated Press Writer – FEB 13,10
PAGO PAGO, American Samoa – A Pacific storm with hurricane-force winds churned across sparsely populated islands of American Samoa and took aim Saturday for the capital region of the U.S. territory, which is still recovering from a deadly autumn tsunami.Tropical Cyclone Rene hit the territory's eastern Manu'a islands Friday before growing in strength, with winds reaching 86 mph and gusts to 103 mph by late evening.Several Manu'a residents reached by phone by The Associated Press said the winds have been extremely strong but they have not heard of any reports of injuries or major damage. Telephone links, however, have been intermittent, and it was difficult to assess damage because it was still dark.They're getting clobbered from the back side, said Meteorologist Mase Akapo Jr. with the National Weather Service in Pago Pago.Heavy rain fell on parts of Tutuila, the territory's most populous island, early Saturday morning, and some low-lying areas were flooded, but the brunt of the storm had not yet hit. The cyclone was expected to be 50 miles east of Pago Pago, the capital, by 6 a.m.NWS forecaster Carol Baqui in Pago Pago said Rene swirled for a time around the Manu'a islands before it finally settled north.She said the capital region should begin feeling some of the storm's force before dawn Saturday.Baqui warned of possible damaging high seas along coastlines with waves reaching 18 feet.
Emergency officials in the capital said there were reports that high winds had downed some trees and electrical lines. The officials also said there was one death indirectly caused by Rene — a 50-year-old man died Friday morning after falling from a two-story building while boarding it up to protect it from the storm.Territorial Gov. Togiola Tulafono called for calm, urging residents to be aware and be safe.
Referring to the tsunami that killed more than 200 people in the Samoan islands and Tonga in September, Gulafono said as we recover from the events of last September 29th, it is a good feeling that we have placed high priority to help ourselves by preparing and spreading the emergency awareness message.Rene may also threaten Samoa, the Tokelau Islands, Tonga and Fiji.Diani Donu, forecaster at Fiji's Nadi Tropical Cyclone Center, said Rene is expected pass about 90 miles southeast of Apia, the capital of nearby Samoa, bringing strong gales and heavy seas.The center said earlier that the cyclone might pass between the Tonga and Fiji, avoiding a direct hit.Broadcasters in the two countries were urging people to seek shelter, stay indoors and avoid using boats.New Zealand Red Cross was assisting preparations on Tonga, Nuie and the Cook Islands. International operations manager Andrew McKie said the organization was issuing warnings ... securing infrastructure and making sure all satellite phones are charged and working.
The NWS said the eye of the storm will likely brush Tutuila.Residents on Tutuila boarded up windows Friday and stocked up on bottled water, flashlights and candles. Most major businesses closed Friday as did all public and private schools. All 29 public schools in the territory, which has about 65,000 residents, were opened for use as emergency shelters. About 300 people already were using the shelters.The U.S. Coast Guard was advising vessels bound for Pago Pago to reroute. Cyclone Heta, the last major cyclone to smash through the region, hit Samoa and American Samoa in January 2004, damaging more than 4,600 homes in American Samoa, the American Red Cross said at the time. It also devastated up to 90 percent of the crops on Samoa.
Associated Press Writers Ray Lilley in Wellington, New Zealand, and Audrey McAvoy in Honolulu contributed to this report.
Wild storms cause Sydney flash floods
Sat Feb 13, 1:04 am ET
SYDNEY (AFP) – Flash flooding hit parts of Sydney after the heaviest rainfall in a decade to hit the Australian city, officials said Saturday, in a wild storm that felled trees and caused widespread blackouts.Almost 100 millimetres (four inches) of rain fell in little more than an hour in some parts of the city, a weather bureau spokesman said, turning streets to rivers and leaving scores of people stranded.For the city (centre) we recorded 65 mills of rainfall in the evening, and that's about a one in five to ten year event, he said.More than 1,000 people called emergency services requiring rescue or to report damage from the surging waters, which brought down trees and caused the roof of a popular city nightspot to cave in.It was one of our busiest storm response nights for several years,a fire rescue spokesman said.The torrential rains cut power to a number of regions, blacking out traffic signals in the city's central shopping and business district.Forecasters warned of further floods Saturday night, as a second storm gathered.Heavy rain and thunderstorms are expected to cause flash flooding in western parts (of New South Wales state) this afternoon and evening,the Bureau of Meteorology said.
EARTH DESTROYED WITH THE EARTH
GENESIS 6:11-13
11 The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.(WORLD TERRORISM,MURDERS)(HAMAS IN HEBREW IS VIOLENCE)
12 And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth.
13 And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence (TERRORISM)(HAMAS) through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth.
EARTHQUAKES
MATTHEW 24:7-8
7 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.
8 All these are the beginning of sorrows.
MARK 13:8
8 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom:(ETHNIC GROUP AGAINST ETHNIC GROUP) and there shall be earthquakes in divers places, and there shall be famines and troubles: these are the beginnings of sorrows.
LUKE 21:11
11 And great earthquakes shall be in divers places, and famines, and pestilences; and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven.
Strong quake near Tonga; no injuries reported
Sat Feb 13, 12:48 am ET
WELLINGTON, New Zealand – A strong magnitude 6.3 earthquake hit near the South Pacific kingdom of Tonga on Saturday, the U.S. Geological Survey reported, but no tsunami alert was issued and there were no immediate reports of injury or damage.
The quake, centered 60 miles (95 kilometers) southwest of the capital, Nuku'alofa, was a shallow 6 miles (10 kilometers) below the ocean's surface, the agency said.It hit as Tonga — a 170-island archipelago about halfway between Australia and Tahiti — braced for tropical cyclone Rene, currently a Category 3 cyclone packing winds up to up to 93 miles (150 kilometers) an hour. On its present track, the storm is gathering strength and could pass close to the islands that are home to more than 100,000 people.
In September, nine people in Tonga were killed on the northern island of Nuiatoputapu by a tsunami spawned by an earthquake off Samoa. The tsunami killed 183 people in Samoa and another 34 in American Samoa.The most recent local temblor was a powerful 6.8 magnitude quake that struck about 75 miles (120 kilometers) out to sea off Nuku'alofa on Nov. 25, sending panicked residents into the streets at night. There was no serious damage or injuries.Tonga is part of the Pacific ring of fire, a series of rifts in the earth's surface and volcanoes that reach from Chile through Alaska and down the western Pacific to south of the islands state.
Judge demands details on $150 million SEC-BofA deal By Jonathan Stempel – Thu Feb 11, 7:33 pm ET
NEW YORK (Reuters) – A federal judge weighing a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission $150 million settlement with Bank of America Corp (BAC.N) has demanded more details on why bank shareholders were left in the dark about problems at Merrill Lynch & Co before approving that company's takeover.U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff in Manhattan ordered the bank and regulator to reveal whether anyone urged disclosure of Merrill's mounting losses between September 2008 and December 5, 2008, when bank shareholders voted to approve the merger. He also sought details on whether disclosure was sought over the bank's allowing Merrill to pay out $3.6 billion in bonuses.In addition, Rakoff demanded more documents on the December 10, 2008 firing of bank general counsel Timothy Mayopoulos, and the role of the bank's law firm Wachtell Lipton Rosen & Katz LLP in deciding what to reveal about Merrill's losses, which grew to total $15.8 billion in the fourth quarter of 2008.Rakoff ordered the SEC and Bank of America to answer these and other questions by February 16. He plans to decide by February 19 whether to approve the accord, which calls for shareholders to recover the $150 million, and sets governance and disclosure changes at the largest U.S. bank, including on executive pay.Bank of America spokesman Bob Stickler and SEC spokesman John Nester said their respective parties will answer Rakoff's questions by the Tuesday deadline.
Rakoff expressed many of the concerns behind the questions at a hearing on Monday on the proposed settlement, which would end separate SEC lawsuits accusing the bank of hiding Merrill's losses and misleading shareholders about the bonuses.Greater disclosure, however, could complicate Bank of America's efforts to defend a civil fraud lawsuit filed last week by New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo. That lawsuit alleged there were discussions involving the bank as early as mid-November 2008 over whether to reveal Merrill's losses.Rakoff rejected in September an earlier $33 million accord over the bonuses as too lenient and because it did not hold individuals responsible.At the Monday hearing, he praised some elements of the revised accord. If he rejects it, however, both sides face a trial on the bonuses, set to begin on March 1.Other questions that Rakoff asked on Thursday included whether he could appoint a pay consultant and independent auditor for the bank if the SEC and Bank of America cannot agree on who should be hired.He also asked whether he could direct how the $150 million is distributed, to ensure that shareholders supposedly harmed by the merger would be able to recover. The SEC has said the sum would go to shareholders who might have voted against the merger or sought a lower price if they knew Merrill's losses.Cuomo also filed civil fraud charges against Kenneth Lewis and Joe Price, who were, respectively, the bank's chief executive and chief financial officer at the time of the merger.Lewis retired from the bank at year end, while Price is now its consumer and small business banking chief. Brian Moynihan, who replaced Lewis as chief executive, is not a target of Cuomo's probe, the attorney general's office said last week.Bank of America shares closed Thursday down 4 cents at $14.63 on the New York Stock Exchange.
The cases are SEC v. Bank of America Corp, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, Nos, 09-06829 and 10-00215.(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel; additional reporting by Rachelle Younglai in Washington, D.C.; editing by Andre Grenon)
Mexico should boost trade with EU: Calderon Fri Feb 12, 5:34 pm ET
MEXICO CITY (AFP) – Mexican President Felipe Calderon said Friday that his country must reduce its economic dependence on neighbouring United States and seek greater trade opportunities with Europe.Standing beside visiting Prince Andrew of Britain, Calderon said that a key strategy for Mexico is to diversify its trade and investment (and) reduce its dependence on the United States.The opportunity is primarily in the European Union, Calderon told reporters.The president confidently stated that the Duke of York's three-day visit would help strengthen the bonds of cooperation and promote better mutual investment between Mexico and Britain.More than 80 percent of Mexico's foreign trade is with its northern neighbour the United States, a movement of goods that has soared since the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) was implemented along with Canada in 1994.The Mexican economy, the second largest in Latin America behind Brazil, shrank by around 6.8 percent in 2009, in a drop spurred by the US economic crisis, according to official figures released late last month.According to a recent UN study, Mexico's gross domestic product will grow by three percent this year, while the Bank of Mexico projects a rise of between 2.5 and 3.5 percent.
UN: Time needed to resume NKorea nuclear talks By KWANG-TAE KIM, Associated Press Writer – Sat Feb 13, 8:11 am ET
SEOUL, South Korea – A top U.N. envoy said Saturday it could take some time before North Korea rejoins stalled international talks aimed at ending its nuclear weapons programs.North Korea, believed to have enough weaponized plutonium for at least a half dozen bombs, walked away from disarmament-for-aid negotiations and conducted a second nuclear test last year, drawing tightened U.N. sanctions.North Korea has called for a lifting of the sanctions and peace talks formally ending the 1950-53 Korean War before it returns to the disarmament talks, which also involve South Korea, the U.S., China, Russia and Japan.This process is a negotiated one and they are talking. My impression is that these talks may go on for a bit of time as they decide to get back, U.N. political chief B. Lynn Pascoe told reporters in Seoul after visiting Pyongyang, North Korea's capital.Pascoe, the highest-ranking U.N. diplomat to visit the North since 2004, earlier said he made it quite clear to the North Koreans that we wanted the talks to be re-engaged very quickly to move forward and without preconditions.
His comments came amid a flurry of diplomatic efforts to revive the nuclear negotiations, including a trip in recent days by North Korean nuclear envoy Kim Kye Gwan to Beijing for talks with his Chinese counterpart.The North's Foreign Ministry said in comments carried by its official Korean Central News Agency that both sides had an in-depth discussion on the issue of boosting the (North Korea)-China relations and matters of speeding up the denuclearization of the peninsula.On his return from China, Kim said the issue of resuming the nuclear talks "is still under consultation (with China),Japan's Kyodo News agency reported from Pyongyang. He declined to give any details on his talks with China, noting "we are in the process of diplomatic contacts.South Korea's Dong-a Ilbo newspaper reported Saturday that North Korea is strongly pushing for Kim to visit the U.S. for a bilateral meeting in March, but the U.S. has not authorized a visa for him. It cited unidentified diplomatic sources.But U.S. State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley told reporters Friday there were no plans for a visit by Kim, and no current U.S. discussions with North Korea about such a trip.A bilateral meeting between the North Korean envoy and U.S. officials would be a strong sign that the push to get the disarmament talks back on track is gaining traction. It would also confirm a warming in relations between the U.S. and North Korea, wartime rivals that do not have diplomatic relations.Meanwhile, some 100,000 North Koreans rallied in Pyongyang on Saturday to support the government's policy of building a great, prosperous and powerful country,the North's state-run television said.Associated Press writers Hyung-jin Kim in Seoul, Alexa Olesen in Beijing and Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations contributed to this report.
NOTICE RELIGIOUS PEOPLE AND RABBIS ARE RADICALS,BUT ISLAM IS THE PEACE OF THE EARTH.MEANWHILE ISLAM BEHEADS AND IS ON A POWER TRIP LIKE THE NEW WORLD ORDER NUTCASES,WHILE CHRISTIANS AND JEWS ARE CLASSIFIED HATERS.TRUTH IS DEFINATLY TURNED UPSIDE DOWN AND TO LIES FROM HELL.
Isolated and battered, Israeli doves hold protest By DIAA HADID, Associated Press Writer – Sat Feb 13, 3:57 am ET
JERUSALEM – Israel's battered pro-peace camp is showing signs of life with a weekly Jerusalem protest by a motley collection of anarchists, intellectuals and radical rabbis, but they face a public increasingly hostile to their point of view.Activists have gathered each Friday since November in the east Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah to protest the eviction of Palestinians from their homes to make room for Jewish settlers. The demonstrations have become a rallying cry for the shrunken left and freedom of speech advocates who say their country has become increasingly intolerant of dissent since waging a bruising winter war in Gaza.Activists point to a recent campaign vilifying a prominent human rights campaigner, arrests of protesters and attempts by government officials and right-wing groups to halt international funding of Israeli organizations they deemed disloyal.It's about time the left in Israel protest against the way the right-wing is kidnapping our future and our life,said Israeli author David Grossman, a leading dove, at a recent protest.
In the latest protest Friday, some 250 demonstrators assembled by a road blowing on shrieking whistles and loudly banging on drums. You have no shame! they chanted at Jewish settlers.Several police officers watched warily across the road, backed by riot police wielding batons and assault rifles.The weekly demonstrations in Sheikh Jarrah began after Israeli police evicted Palestinian families from the flash point neighborhood and allowed Jewish settlers to move into their homes.Numbers swelled after police began arresting protesters. Activists shared protest videos on YouTube and Facebook. Anarchists mingled with rabbis, veteran activists, former politicians whose left-wing views have edged out of the mainstream and prominent Israelis like Moshe Halbertal, who helped draft the Israeli army's code of ethics.Anger over the evictions and the apparent crackdown on freedom of speech inspired Holocaust survivor and veteran activist Max Moray, 84, to join a recent protest after years of shirking them. It was the first protest for Ariel Gommershtadt, 26. The only other demonstration he'd ever attended was one he helped disperse as an army conscript, he said.
While the peace protests are the largest in years, turnout has hovered at 200 to 400 — highlighting their dramatic fall in popularity from the days when the left could draw crowds in the hundreds of thousands.Israel's left-wing activists have diverse backgrounds but broadly support the creation of a Palestinian state in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem — territories Israel seized in the 1967 Mideast war — and the evacuation of Jewish settlers from those areas.The left was devastated by the failure of peace efforts in the 1990s and the eruption in 2000 of violence between Israel and the Palestinians that included suicide bombings targeting civilians. The cause took another knock last winter when Israel waged a three-week war in Gaza that left 1,400 Palestinians and 13 Israelis dead.Today, polls show solid public support for the hawkish government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. If elections were held today Netanyahu's Likud Party would go from 27 seats to 35 seats in the 120-member parliament, according to a survey published in the Haaretz daily last week.In contrast, Meretz, the flagship party of Israel's left, clings to three seats. The Labor Party, the center-left movement that dominated Israeli politics for decades, joined Netanyahu's rightist coalition as a junior member.A U.N.-sponsored report last year that accused Israel of committing war crimes during last year's winter offensive in Gaza fueled a backlash against left-wing activists. Israel's government shunned the U.N. commission, headed by jurist Richard Goldstone, that drafted the report and many accused the rights groups that testified of damaging the country's image.In Israel today there is a rage against Goldstone and his report that I have rarely seen, analyst Yossi Klein Halevi said.Hawkish Israeli organizations have lobbied Israel's parliament to find a way to halt international funding to rights groups that testified to the U.N. commission. Traitors, said political scientist Gideon Doron to describe what most Israelis thought of them.
And this month, they took their campaign to the public when a hard-line group published newspaper and billboard ads carrying a crude caricature and criticism of ex-lawmaker Noami Chazan, head of an organization that funded groups that testified.
Chazan was sketched as having a horn, an image suggestive of anti-Semitic caricatures of the 1930s in Europe. Before Chazan was targeted by the hard-line ad campaign, she described the Sheikh Jarrah protests as the struggle for the future of democratic rights in (Israel) in one of her regular columns in the English-language daily, The Jerusalem Post. The paper ran the ad attacking her and her column was dropped after she threatened legal action. Today it is against Naomi Chazan, she said in an Israel Radio interview,but tomorrow it will be against every citizen who expresses his opinion.
THESE PALESTINIANS PROTESTERS ARE GODLESS JUST LIKE THE AVATAR MOVIE SO THEY BLEND RIGHT IN.THIS IS PROOF HOW FAR AWAY FROM THE BIBLE PEOPLE HAVE GONE,WHEN THEY TURN TO SATAN WORSHIPPING MOVIES TO GET AN IDLE TO WORSHIP INSTEAD OF THE ONE AND ONLY TRUE GOD KING JESUS CHRIST..
Palestinian protesters pose as Na'vi from Avatar
Fri Feb 12, 2:23 pm ET
JERUSALEM – Palestinian protesters have added a colorful twist to demonstrations against Israel's separation barrier, painting themselves blue and posing as characters from the hit film Avatar.The demonstrators also donned long hair and loincloths Friday for the weekly protest against the barrier near the village of Bilin.They equated their struggle to the intergalactic one portrayed in the film.
Israel says the barrier is needed for its security. Palestinians consider it a land grab.The protests have become a symbol of opposition. They often end in clashes with Israeli security forces involving stones and tear gas.The Avatar protest comes a day after the Israeli government began rerouting the enclosure to eat up less of the Palestinian village.
Saturday, February 13, 2010
Friday, February 12, 2010
STOCK RESULTS FEB 12,2010
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, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:(CHIP IMPLANT)
17 And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.
18 Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.(6-6-6) A NUMBER SYSTEM
WORLD MARKET RESULTS
http://money.cnn.com/data/world_markets/
CNBC VIDEOS
http://www.cnbc.com/id/15839263/site/14081545/?tabid=15839796&tabheader=false
HALF HOUR DOW RESULTS FRI FEB 12,2010
09:30 AM -7.37
10:00 AM -125.23
10:30 AM -120.77
11:00 AM -123.43
11:30 AM -113.59
12:00 PM -97.46
12:30 PM -46.71
01:00 PM -49.81
01:30 PM -99.76
02:00 PM -92.43
02:30 PM -33.10
03:00 PM -64.32
03:30 PM -72.40
04:00 PM -45.05 10,099.14
S&P 500 1075.51 -2.96
NASDAQ 2183.53 +6.12
GOLD 1,092.80 -1.80
OIL 74.13 -1.15
TSE 300 11,469.81 +34.30
CDNX 1498.75 +6.08
S&P/TSX/60 670.11 +0.38
MORNING,NEWS,STATS
YEAR TO DATE PERFORMANCE
Dow -118 points at 4 minutes of trading today.
Dow -154 points at low today.
Dow +0.16 points at high today so far.
GOLD opens at $1,082.90.OIL opens at $73.80 today.
AFTERNOON,NEWS,STATS
Dow -154 points at low today so far.
Dow +0.16 points at high today so far.
WRAPUP,NEWS,STATS
Dow -154 points at low today.
Dow +0.16 points at high today.
CRUDE OIL +2.4 MILLION BARRELS
GASOLINE +2.3 MILLION BARRELS
DISTILLATE INVENTORIES -356 MILLION BARRELS
REFINERY UTILIZATION +1.41% TO 79.1%
NATURAL GAS INVENTORIES -191 BCF
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, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:(CHIP IMPLANT)
17 And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.
18 Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.(6-6-6) A NUMBER SYSTEM
WORLD MARKET RESULTS
http://money.cnn.com/data/world_markets/
CNBC VIDEOS
http://www.cnbc.com/id/15839263/site/14081545/?tabid=15839796&tabheader=false
HALF HOUR DOW RESULTS FRI FEB 12,2010
09:30 AM -7.37
10:00 AM -125.23
10:30 AM -120.77
11:00 AM -123.43
11:30 AM -113.59
12:00 PM -97.46
12:30 PM -46.71
01:00 PM -49.81
01:30 PM -99.76
02:00 PM -92.43
02:30 PM -33.10
03:00 PM -64.32
03:30 PM -72.40
04:00 PM -45.05 10,099.14
S&P 500 1075.51 -2.96
NASDAQ 2183.53 +6.12
GOLD 1,092.80 -1.80
OIL 74.13 -1.15
TSE 300 11,469.81 +34.30
CDNX 1498.75 +6.08
S&P/TSX/60 670.11 +0.38
MORNING,NEWS,STATS
YEAR TO DATE PERFORMANCE
Dow -118 points at 4 minutes of trading today.
Dow -154 points at low today.
Dow +0.16 points at high today so far.
GOLD opens at $1,082.90.OIL opens at $73.80 today.
AFTERNOON,NEWS,STATS
Dow -154 points at low today so far.
Dow +0.16 points at high today so far.
WRAPUP,NEWS,STATS
Dow -154 points at low today.
Dow +0.16 points at high today.
CRUDE OIL +2.4 MILLION BARRELS
GASOLINE +2.3 MILLION BARRELS
DISTILLATE INVENTORIES -356 MILLION BARRELS
REFINERY UTILIZATION +1.41% TO 79.1%
NATURAL GAS INVENTORIES -191 BCF
AFGHANS SAY QUICK,CAREFUL ATTACK
THIS DOES NOT SURPRISE ME,THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION IS FILLED WITH EX GOLDMAN SACHS WORKERS AND NEW WORLD ORDER INSIDERS.(CROOKS)
Goldman Sachs accused of rigging Robin Hood tax vote
FEB 12,10
LONDON (AFP) – Goldman Sachs came under attack from online campaigners on Friday over allegations that one of its computers was used to rig a vote on the imposition of a so-called Robin Hood tax on bankers.The Robinhood Tax campaign claimed that one of the two computers used to spam the Internet poll with no votes on Thursday, belonged to the investment bank.Technical staff for the Robinhoodtax.org.uk said that the website registered more than 4,600 negative votes over a 20-minute period starting at 3.41pm.The number of no votes jumped from 1,400 to 6000 before the site's security was tightened.A Goldman spokesman said the bank had just received this information and is investigating fully.The online campaign -- calling for the introduction of 0.05 percent tax on banking transactions -- has garnered considerable celebrity backing, including Four Weddings and a Funeral writer Richard Curtis and Love Actually actor Bill Nighy.The venture also has the support of groups like children's charity Barnado?s, the The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), the National Union of Teachers (NUT ) and Unite -- Britain's largest trade union.Campaigners say the tax based on Nobel Laureate economist James Tobin?s idea from 1972 has the potentiality to generate 255 billion pounds worldwide annually.
EARTH DESTROYED WITH THE EARTH
GENESIS 6:11-13
11 The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.(WORLD TERRORISM,MURDERS)(HAMAS IN HEBREW IS VIOLENCE)
12 And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth.
13 And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence (TERRORISM)(HAMAS) through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth.
EARTHQUAKES
MATTHEW 24:7-8
7 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.
8 All these are the beginning of sorrows.
MARK 13:8
8 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom:(ETHNIC GROUP AGAINST ETHNIC GROUP) and there shall be earthquakes in divers places, and there shall be famines and troubles: these are the beginnings of sorrows.
LUKE 21:11
11 And great earthquakes shall be in divers places, and famines, and pestilences; and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven.
THE DEATH TOTAL IN THE HAITI QUAKE IS CLOSE TO 230,000 DEAD,300,000 INJURED AND 1 MILLION LEFT HOMELESS.
BIBLE PREDICTS EARTH QUAKE - DISEASE IN HAITI
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Radio/News.aspx/1892
PATHAN TRIBES (ONE OF LOST 10 TRIBES OF ISRAEL)
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Radio/News.aspx/1925
THE BIBLE TRUE LITERALLY
http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=124716
Active hurricane season forecast, fears for Haiti by Juan Castro Olivera – Thu Feb 11, 8:55 pm ET
MIAMI (AFP) – The 2010 hurricane season beginning in June will be more active than usual and there is an increased chance that devastated Haiti will be hit by a strong hurricane, US weather experts have said.The 2010 Atlantic hurricane season will be somewhat more active than the average, Colorado State University's (CSU) top hurricane expert William Gray told AFP.He said there was a 49 percent chance that a tropical storm would track close to Haiti this year.Gray's team predicts between 11 and 16 tropical storms will form in the Atlantic this year, up from the average nine to 10.They expect between six and eight of those to become full-fledged hurricanes, by comparison with the usual five to six that gain the designation each year.The team forecasts up to five of those storms will become major hurricanes, reaching the top three categories in the Saffir-Simpson scale, producing wind speeds ranging from 111 to 155 miles (96 to 155 kilometers) per hour.The chance that the Caribbean as a whole will be hit by a major hurricane is 58 percent -- above the normal 42 percent probability of the past century, according to their study conducted in December.Gray said Haiti's vulnerability to a major hurricane this season was not significantly higher than usual.
The average is around 10 to 15 percent that Haiti would be hit any one year, he said, adding that in 2010 the average is a little bit higher now, but not much.On Thursday, Haiti was hit by its first torrential rain since the January 12 earthquake, which killed at least 217,000 people and left more than one million homeless, living in precarious, makeshift camps.The normally weak infrastructure in Haiti is now virtually non-existent, and so a hurricane would be devastating, CSU team researcher Phil Klotzbach told AFP.It should also be pointed out that it does not even take a full-fledged hurricane to do a tremendous amount of damage to Haiti, he added. Tropical Storm Jeanne in 2004 dropped about 12 inches of rain near Gonaives, and over 2,000 people died.For the 2010 hurricane season, we have 49 percent probability of a tropical storm tracking within 50 miles (80 kilometers) of Haiti, Klotzbach said.International relief organizations working in Haiti are already concerned about the onset of the 2010 rainy season on the island, which begins in April.French Red Cross president Jean-Francois Mattei on Thursday warned of the impending disaster the season could bring, including torrential rains, flooding and landslides.The hurricane season -- from June to November -- often brings death and grief to the Western hemisphere's poorest nation, which is practically denuded of its moisture-absorbing tropical forests.In the 2008 hurricane season, Haiti was pounded by four storms that left more than 800,000 people homeless and devastated its agriculture.Last year, Haiti, the Caribbean, and the US mainland were spared from major storms during a relatively calm hurricane season, thanks to the storm-dampening effects in the Atlantic of the El Nino climate pattern. Gray, whose 25 years of studies have made him one of the leading US experts on hurricanes, predicted that El Nino activity will be mostly dissipated by August when we get into the hurricane season,favoring greater storm activity.
Moderate quake hits eastern Cuba
FEB 12,10
HAVANA – A magnitude-5.4 earthquake hit eastern Cuba early Friday, rattling nerves but causing no reported injuries or damage.The temblor hit just after 7 a.m. Friday, centered about 35 miles (55 kilometers) southeast of Baracoa, near the easternmost tip of the island, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. That is just 160 miles (255 kilometers) from Port-au-Prince, Haiti, where a Jan. 12 quake destroyed much of the city and killed countless thousands.Yes we felt it. We felt it strong, said Maira Legra, whose son runs a home offering lodging to tourists in the colonial beach-side city of Baracoa. There was no problem. I was in bed because it was early, but I didn't get up.
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).
I SEE WHY IT OPENS WOUNDS,THE FRENCH ARE SELLING THE RUSSIANS A SHIP THAT THE EU WILL BE NUKING IN THE FUTURE TO PROTECT ITSELF AND ISRAEL FROM THE RUSSIA-MUSLIM ARMY.
DANIEL 11:40
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;(NOTICE MANY SHIPS-WAR SHIPS) and he shall enter into the countries, and shall overflow and pass over.
French warship deal opens wound in EU and Nato
ANDREW RETTMAN 11.02.2010 @ 21:02 CET
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Lithuania and Latvia have said that France's handling of an arms deal with Russia has breached good faith with its EU and Nato allies and may be in violation of an EU weapons code. We learned [about the deal] from media, Lithuanian defence minister Rasa Jukneviciene told EUobserver in an interview on Thursday (11 February). If our partners would have consulted about the intended sale of the Mistral within EU or Nato this would have certainly enhanced the spirit of solidarity within both organisations.Maris Riekstins, the foreign minister of Latvia, said: We would love to have seen a different sequence of events. We would be in a much better position if we had been consulted beforehand and then there had been a public announcement.France on Monday revealed that it is in advanced talks with Russia to sell a Mistral class warship. The vessel can deploy 900 marines, 40 assault vehicles and 16 helicopters, as well as acting as a floating command centre for 150 military staff. If the deal goes ahead, it would be the first major arms sale by a Nato country to Russia since World War II.The French announcement comes after Russia last September held large scale war games in Kaliningrad and Belarus, described by one Estonian defence analyst as a simulated invasion of Poland and Lithuania.Russian admiral Vladimir Vysotsky at the time said that if Russia had had a Mistral ship during the Georgia war in 2008 it could have won the conflict in 40 minutes.
Lithuania's Ms Jukneviciene plans to raise the Mistral sale at a meeting of EU defence ministers in Mallorca later this month. Latvia's Mr Riekstins denied that he is lobbying Nato to block the deal. But he also called for wider debate before it goes through.We haven't given any particular instructions to our diplomats in Nato to enter into a specific campaign. But an exchange of views in the EU and Nato families, a clarification of the issues on the table, is what should be done, he said. There is no EU law governing arms sales by member states. But in 2008 the bloc adopted a political commitment not to sell weapons or components to countries which violate human rights, pose a risk to regional stability or hurt the security interests of EU allies.The code was signed into life by the French EU presidency four months after the Georgia war. Every EU country is bound by rules regarding the control of exports of arms and dual use technology, Mr Riekstins said.Our lawyers consider that such a sale would allow ambiguous interpretations in regard of compliance with several important criteria of this code, Ms Jukneviciene said. Having in mind the unpredictability of Russian politics, we cannot exclude that this military equipment may be used for illegitimate purposes inconsistent with our values and principles.Karl Kaas, an analyst at the International Centre for Defence Studies in Tallinn, noted that Austrian and Finnish-made sniper rifles have in recent years been used by Russian special forces in Chechnya and Georgia's rebel region of South Ossetia.Otfried Nassauer from the arms control NGO, the Berlin Information-center for Transatlantic Security, said: Surely you could make such an argument [that the Mistral sale would violate the code]. But you would run into the problem of double standards. Germany has sold submarines to Pakistan which could theoretically be used to launch nuclear-armed cruise missiles.
French diplomats and EU officials declined to speak on the record. But one contact said that Russia is not the kind of country which is the target of the code, mentioning North Korea instead. Meanwhile, Estonia, another small post-Soviet republic, which arguably has the worst relations with Russia of any EU state, has opted to stay out of the dispute for now. Technically speaking Russia is qualified as a partner for both Nato and the EU and there are no restrictions in force against arms sales to this country. Thus it could become only a moral or political issue, Estonian foreign minister Urmas Paet told this website.We are not excluding anything but this issue should not become a divisive factor for Nato and the EU.
PLANNED PARENTHOOD ALLOWS ILLEGAL ACTIVITY - VIDEO
http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=124825
FROM JEROME CORSI'S RED ALERT-Will Israel join the European Union?
Italy's Prime Minister Berlusconi makes proposal in state visit to Jerusalem
February 08, 2010 11:34 am Eastern 2010 WorldNetDaily
Editor's Note: The following report is excerpted from Jerome Corsi's Red Alert, the premium online newsletter published by the current No. 1 best-selling author, WND staff writer and columnist. Red Alert subscriptions are $99 a year or $9.95 per month for credit card users. Annual subscribers will receive a free autographed copy of The Late Great USA, a book about the careful deceptions of a powerful elite who want to undermine our nation's sovereignty.While in Israel, Italy's president of the Council of Ministers, Silvio Berlusconi, proved once again that Italy is one of Israel's most committed allies by suggesting that he would like to see Israel invited to join the European Union, Jerome Corsi's Red Alert reports. At first glance the proposal did not seem to have been made seriously, except that the EU is considering extending membership to Turkey, so why not extend membership to Israel? Corsi wrote. Clearly, Berlusconi's envisioned measures that might prevent Middle East violence from extending into Europe. If the proposal were to advance within the EU, Islamic states would almost certainly respond by launching anti-Italy demonstrations and boycotting Italian-made goods, Red Alert reported.
With the requirement that EU countries not occupy territory that is not recognized as part of its own, Berlusconi could respond that a condition of Israel joining the EU would be for Israel to completely turn over the West Bank as well as the Gaza to the administration of the Palestinian Authority,Corsi noted.Moreover, with the EU nations of Greece, Spain and Portugal about to experience economic collapse over continued high levels of unemployment and unsustainable levels of public debt, the EU could use among its members right now a strong economy such as Israel's.In his visit to Yad Vashim, Jerusalem's Holocaust museum, Berlusconi left an emotional hand-written message saying: Our soul cries out that it is not true, it cannot be true, and then, facing reality, shouts never, never again.The Italian newspapers also pointed out that Israel is considering the purchase of 40 of Italy's most advanced M-346 fighter jets at a cost of over 1 billion pounds ($1.365 billion). Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responded in kind, stating, Israel has no greater friend than Italy. Berlusconi is also pursuing the sale of 48 M-346 fighter jets to the United Arab Emirates at a cost of 1.4 billion pounds (or $1.9 billion), but so far Italy has refrained from proposing that the UAE should be allowed to join the EU.
During his visit to Israel, Berlusconi also delivered an obvious message to Iran's President Ahmadinejad, saying, We will not close our eyes before a state that wishes to destroy a country that is our friend.Still, Italy remains Iran's second trading partner, behind Germany. In 2008, Italy was responsible for approximately 6.1 billion pounds (or $8.4 billion) in trade with Iran, approximately 25 percent of the total trade conducted between the EU and Tehran. Red Alert noted, Berlusconi won no friends among the Palestinians after his speech to the Knesset in which he claimed Israel was justified in launching rocket attacks in the Hamas-controlled Gaza during December 2008 that killed 1,400 Palestinians. Berlusconi recalled Italy's vote against the United Nations report on Israel's December 2008 Operation Cast Lead against Hamas in the Gaza, in which Israel rejected the report presented to the U.N. Human Rights Council by an independent fact-finding committee headed by the South African prosecutor Richard Gladstone. The so-called Goldstone Report sought to criminalize Israel for responding with military force to the Hamas-launched rocket attacks on Israel from the Gaza. Red Alert's author, whose books The Obama Nation and Unfit for Command have topped the New York Times best-sellers list, received his Ph.D. from Harvard University in political science in 1972. For nearly 25 years, beginning in 1981, he worked with banks throughout the U.S. and around the world to develop financial services marketing companies to assist banks in establishing broker/dealers and insurance subsidiaries to provide financial planning products and services to their retail customers. In this career, Corsi developed three different third-party financial services marketing firms that reached gross sales levels of $1 billion in annuities and equal volume in mutual funds. In 1999, he began developing Internet-based financial marketing firms, also adapted to work in conjunction with banks. In his 25-year financial services career, Corsi has been a noted financial services speaker and writer, publishing three books and numerous articles in professional financial services journals and magazines.
Muted market response to EU Greek pledge
ANDREW WILLIS 11.02.2010 @ 19:31 CET
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Market reactions were mixed on Thursday (11 February) after the EU issued a political pledge to bail out Greece if needed. Spreads between Greek bonds and the benchmark German Bund narrowed, European shares ended mostly lower, and the euro slid against the dollar in afternoon trading. Earlier in the day, EU permanent president Herman Van Rompuy read out a statement on the steps of the Bibliotheque Solvay library in central Brussels after a two hour meeting with an inner core of EU leader policy makers. Euro area member states will take determined and co-ordinated action if needed to safeguard financial stability in the euro area as a whole, said the former Belgian prime minister. With daily proceedings for the 27 leaders originally scheduled to take place at 10am, but later postponed 12 noon, insiders suggested snow had been used as an excuse to free up a morning slot for emergency talks on Greece. Mr Van Rompuy, European commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, European Central Bank president Jean-Claude Trichet and Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou met in private to agree the statement's wording, before later presenting it to remaining EU leaders for approval. But analysts said markets were waiting for clearer details of the bailout plan before reacting. All they've done is throw verbal political support behind Greek efforts, said Brian Dolan, chief currency strategist at Forex.com, reports AP.
Diplomats also suggested greater details would not be immediately forthcoming as there was still some disagreement over the best way to funnel support towards Athens, with the EU statement making clear the Aegean state had yet to request any aid.As the largest EU economy, Germany would be expected to stump up the greatest slice of any emergency funding, but Berlin's hand has been restricted by domestic constitutional requirements. Additionally, there is a problem of perception. Countries such as Ireland, which have implemented a series of tough austerity measures, could take issue if Greece were suddenly handed an easier passage.
EU 2020 Strategy
With Greece taking up much of the allotted time, leaders were restricted to under two hours discussion on the EU's 2020 economic strategy over an extended lunch.
Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso achieved broad support for a paper outlining three EU objectives that should be agreed, he said, if Europe is to return to sufficient and sustainable growth. These include the need to boost research and development in order to step up the bloc's productivity, educational reform to help citizens find jobs, and measures to promote greener growth.Mr Van Rompuy produced a paper on the governance aspects of the proposed 10-year plan, also calling for a limited number of objectives, which should then be transferred into differentiated national targets. EU leaders appear to be shying away from the idea of possible sanctions for those member states that fail to live up to their agreed targets, instead moving in the direction of financial rewards for high achievers. More detailed conclusions on EU objectives are expected at the regular March European summit.
EU sanctions against Iran within days, says minister
VALENTINA POP Today FEB 12,10 @ 09:28 CET
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - The European Union could announce very strong sanctions against Tehran within days or weeks, Finnish foreign minister Alexander Stubb said on Thursday (11 February). Last week, Iran declared itself a nuclear state, prompting the US to call for tougher sanctions.The UN security council should take the lead on sanctions, but if that is not successful we'll do it through the EU. I would estimate, in a matter of days or weeks, Mr Stubb said at a press conference in Ottawa, after meeting his Canadian counterpart.Sanctions would involve a financial embargo and issues related to energy, he said.China and Russia have a veto right in the UN security council and could block efforts spearheaded by the US to adopt tougher sanctions on Iran. This week, Moscow expressed frustration with Tehran over the nuclear dossier. But China is more reserved on the matter.Last Thursday, in festivities marking the anniversary of the 1979 Islamic revolution, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced that his country had begun production of highly enriched uranium in defiance of the West. The head of Iran's atomic energy organisation said the first stock of 20 percent fuel was produced and delivered to scientists, he said in a speech before a crowd of several hundred thousand supporters.Mr Ahmadinejad stressed Iran was now a nuclear state which had nothing to hide and would not be bullied. They [the Americans] want to dominate our region, but the Iranian people will never let them do that, he added.
Iran also turned down an offer brokered by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) last year to ship uranium out of the country, enrich it and return it for use in medical research.The US doubts that Mr Ahmadinejad's claims are true, but is pushing for tougher sanctions, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said Thursday. Not taking the IAEA up and its partners up on a very commonsense offer, leads, quite frankly, the world to believe that Iran has other ideas,Mr Gibbs said.As for EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, she has so far kept a cautious line on the possibility of further sanctions. Speaking at an international security conference in Munich last Saturday, Ms Ashton said that the possibilities for dialogue are not exhausted.She did however react to the violent crackdown on opposition protesters in Tehran this week. In a statement issued on Thursday, Ms Ashton said the EU noted with great concern the arrests and violence against opposition leaders.The choices this regime is making vis-a-vis its people and the international community are the wrong ones. No amount of inflated rhetoric can hide that. The regime is letting its own people down; and they deserve better, she said.
Al Qaeda Planned Karni Crossing Attack
by Hana Levi Julian FEB 12,10
(IsraelNN.com) Thursday's air strike by Israel Air force pilots thwarted an intended suicide bombing planned by the international al-Qaeda terrorist organization, according to Israeli military sources.The planes fired rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs) at a squad of terrorists who were preparing to carry out a terror attack near the Karni Crossing, killing one. The joint IDF-ISA (Israel Security Agency, also known as “Shin Bet”) operation eliminated the lead terrorist, a member of Global Jihad, and wounded a second one as well. Military sources said al-Qaeda had masterminded the terrorist operation.Local Palestinian Authority Arab sources claimed the terrorist who was killed in the strike, Fares Ahmed Jaber, was not a Global Jihad member, however. They claimed that Jaber was a member of the al-Quds Brigades, the armed wing of the Islamist Palestinian Islamic Jihad group. Although the group has carried out numerous suicide bombings in the past, there have been no major attacks since 2007, when an operative allegedly connected with the organization blew up a small bakery in Eilat, killing three workers.
Officials in the IDF Southern Command told Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu during his tour of the region last month that al-Qaeda would attempt to infiltrate terrorists into Israel disguised as Sudanese refugees. They warned that al-Qaeda operatives are attempting to sneak through the holes in the Egyptian border to set up a terror cell in Israel.One of the three Hamas-linked terrorist groups that combined forces in the attack that led to the kidnapping of IDF soldier Gilad Shalit in on June 25, 2006 was the Army of Islam, led by the Gaza-based Doghmush clan, which is reportedly connected with al-Qaeda. The Army of Islam terror group was also responsible for the March 2007 kidnapping of the British Broadcasting Corporation's (BBC) Gaza City bureau chief Alan Johnston, who was held hostage for nearly four months before he was finally allowed to go free. Gilad Shalit is still being held captive; his condition and whereabouts are unknown.
Terrorists Set Off Bomb Near IDF Patrol; No Soldiers Hurt
by David Lev FEB 12,10(IsraelNN.com)
Israel Radio reported that the other terrorists got away, and that aircraft were patrolling the skies over Gaza, searching for them.On a patrol of the Gaza border fence Friday morning, a Golani unit came across a group of four Gaza Arab terrorists who were placing an explosive device along the fence, apparently intending to detonate it when patrols passed by. The troops opened fire at the terrorists, who began running away – but not before they set off a large explosion. Fortunately, none of the soldiers were hurt in the incident near the Kissufim crossing.Troops continued firing at the terrorists, supported by air power. Reports from Gaza said that one of the terrorists was killed in the battle. Israel Radio reported that the other terrorists got away, and that aircraft were patrolling the skies over Gaza, searching for them.
In a separate incident, Gaza terrorists began firing at IDF patrols in an area east of the Al-Burej refugee camp. None of the Israeli forces were hurt. Troops fired back, reportedly wounding two terrorists. Gaza terrorists also fired a mortar shell at the western Negev Friday morning. No injuries or damage were reported.Friday was the second day in a row that terrorists attempted to attack soldiers along the Gaza border. On Thursday, a gang of terrorists opened fire at IDF soldiers. Soldiers returned the fire, as the terrorists fled into a populated area. Gaza sources said that two people were wounded from the IDF fire. No soldiers were wounded. Israeli planes dropped leaflets on the area, instructing people to remain in their homes, and then began shooting at the gang of terrorists, one of whom was reportedly killed in the battle.
Ahmedinajad: We’ve Upgraded Our Enriched Uranium
by Hillel Fendel FEB 12,10
(IsraelNN.com) The US Defense Secretary says sanctions on Iran are only weeks away, and Russia hints it will join in as well. In honor of the 31st anniversary of the Islamic takeover in Iran, President Mahmoud Ahmedinajad continues to provoke the West, saying his country is proceeding quickly towards nuclear power. Only two days after the announcement that Iran had begun stepping up its enrichment program of uranium from 3.5% purity to 20%, Ahmedinajad told a crowd of tens of thousands that the deed is already done. He said that the 20% uranium has already been delivered to the scientists working on producing nuclear power.
Ahmedinejad: We're Not Afraid of You
The dictator said, though, that Iran does not plan to produce nuclear weapons. If we wanted to make a bomb, we would announce this,he said. Our nation has the courage to say what it means, and we’re not afraid of you [the West].Uranium enriched to a 90% level of purity is necessary for nuclear weapons. Experts say that if Iran can enrich uranium to 20%, it could theoretically proceed and reach the 90% level. The Iranian dictator, whose forces fired at anti-government protestors earlier in the day, said his government has the ability to enrich uranium even to 80%, but we won’t do it, because we don’t need it.The West doesn’t entirely believe Ahmedinajad, and international sanctions against Iran appear to be closer than ever. U.S. President Obama said that Iran is headed towards nuclear arms, and that sanctions are apparently the next step.He insisted that the door for negotiations is still open, however.Russia, too, has implied that sanctions will have to be imposed on Iran, and said that the Western fears of Iranian nuclear weapons are justified. China, however, still objects to sanctions, though less vocally than in the past; its veto on the UN Security Council could thwart the plan to impose them.
Israel Under Threat Again
Meanwhile, Iranian media also reported on Thursday that in a talk with Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad, Ahmedinajad said that should Israel use military force in the region, it must be destroyed.If the Zionist regime makes the same mistakes and initiates a military mission, the Iranian is said to have told the Syrian by phone, there will be an obligation to fight it with the maximum force in order to put an end to it once and for all. He said that Iran has trustworthy information that Israel is planning such a mission.
FROM JOSEPH FARAH'S G2 BULLETIN-New cold war gaining steam-Intel report reveals China's new tone February 12, 2010 12:50 am Eastern 2010 WorldNetDaily
Editor's Note: The following report is excerpted from Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin, the premium online newsletter published by the founder of WND. Subscriptions are $99 a year or, for monthly trials, just $9.95 per month for credit card users, and provide instant access for the complete reports.
Black Hawk helicopters
LONDON – A secret intelligence report warns a number of Western nations soon could be caught up in a new cold war brewing between China and the United States, according to a report from Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin. The dispute apparently was sparked by a Washington decision to arm Taiwan with $6.4 billion of state-of-the art weapons systems. The deal includes 60 Black Hawk helicopters, 114 Patriot anti-missile missiles and 12 Harpoon missiles. Now the impact could be felt in Britain as well as Germany, France and other European nations that have substantial trading relationships with China. For the U.K., the slowest nation to recover from global recession, any threat to its business relations with China could be devastating.
Keep in touch with the most important breaking news stories about critical developments around the globe with Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin, the premium, online intelligence news source edited and published by the founder of WND. The threat is contained in a highly confidential report about the U.S. sale to Taiwan and Washington's criticism of China's position on Tibet, climate change, Internet freedom and human rights that has poisoned relationships between the Obama administration and Beijing. The collective views of global industrialists, internationalists, economists and heads of companies who trade with China have been analyzed by MI6 strategists for the intelligence service's political chief, Foreign Secretary David Milliband. Sources close to Milliband say he is alarmed that the Chinese leadership could use the arms sale to Taiwan as a reason to sell a range of its latest weapons to Syria and Iran to kick-start the trading cold war. Both those countries already present strategic problems for Britain and other nations which trade with China. Certainly Britain would strongly object to China arming either country,said a Foreign Office source in London. But the MI6 analysts conclude that senior members of the People's Liberation Army have argued, China must pressure the United States and those countries who trade with China and do not criticize American policies.One of the Beijing leaders, Liu Menxiong, last week insisted, If Washington can arm Taiwan we should be allowed to trade what we like and with who we wish. The North Koreans have stood up to America and nothing has happened to them. And Iran is doing the same. We should support them.
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.
Cold may cut plans for New Year travelers in China
Fri Feb 12, 3:17 am ET
BEIJING – Severe rain and snowstorms may create delays and dangerous road conditions for millions of travelers going home for the Lunar New Year this weekend, China's national meteorological bureau warned Friday.The weeklong Lunar New Year holiday, which begins Saturday, is a time to return home for tens of millions of China's migrant workers who live in the country's cities.Meteorologists urged travelers to closely monitor weather reports during the holiday period for harsh weather that could lead to icy roads and low visibility, according to a report posted on the China Meteorological Administration Web site.China has experienced an especially harsh winter this year, with record-breaking blizzards in China's western regions of Xinjiang and Tibet and to the north in Inner Mongolia and Heilongjiang province.The cold front, which will bring snowstorms to northern China, will continue for one to two days, the report said. Rain is expected throughout southern China.
The weekend is the most important holiday of the year in China. The Ministry of Railways has estimated that 210 million passengers — more than Russia's population — will ride the rails during the 40-day New Year travel season, up 10 percent from the previous year. The holiday officially lasts six days, but many workers take a month off.In 2008, heavy snowfalls and cold weather badly hampered travel during the New Year period, stranding millions of people at train stations. The snow that year was the worst in China in five decades, caused billions of dollars in economic losses and led to the deaths of 100 people.
THESE CLIMATE CHANGE NUTS JUST WILL NOT STOP AS I SAID THE OTHER DAY.
US climate skeptics seize on blizzard by Shaun Tandon – Thu Feb 11, 10:06 pm ET
WASHINGTON (AFP) – US opponents of climate change action are seizing on a record snowfall in Washington in hopes of killing legislation to curb carbon emissions, which already faced uncertain political prospects.Environmentalists have launched a swift counter-attack, pointing out that Olympics host Vancouver is facing a dearth of snow and saying the extreme weather may in fact offer proof, not a rebuttal, of changing climate patterns.With Washington and other eastern cities digging out from the heaviest snow in decades, conservatives have gone on the offensive and mocked leaders who warned about the planet's heating -- in particular, former vice president Al Gore.It's going to keep snowing in DC until Al Gore cries uncle, Senator Jim DeMint, a Republican from South Carolina, wrote on micro-blogging website Twitter.Republican Senator James Inhofe of Oklahoma, a leading climate change skeptic, joined his family in building an igloo on Capitol Hill with signs reading Al Gore's new home and Honk if you love global warming.I know that somebody is going to end up tearing it down, Inhofe said on his blog. Because there are a lot of people who can't take a joke.President Barack Obama sharply changed US policy on climate change when he took office last year. The House of Representatives in June approved the first nationwide plan to force cuts in carbon emissions blamed for global warming.But the legislation has bogged down in the Senate, where Obama's Democratic Party last month lost a seat to a Republican who opposes action on the heat-trapping gases.
Senator John Kerry, the leading force behind the legislation, dismissed suggestions that the snow could bury the bill.The inside-the-Beltway conventional wisdom that this issue has stalled is dead wrong,said Kerry, a Democrat from Massachusetts.
Comprehensive legislation will not only speed economic recovery, but it will put our country on the path to sustainable long-term economic growth, Kerry said.But Senator Charles Grassley, a Republican from Iowa, said he heard Obama tell Democrats the Senate bill would not include a so-called cap-and-trade system -- which would restrict emissions but allow a trade in credits.I think that the chances of that going through are very, very bad, he said, pointing in part to a backlash to the unruly Copenhagen summit in December.Environmentalists accused climate skeptics of misunderstanding the science behind snowstorms.While few meteorologists linked the blizzard directly to climate change, some said it showed the El Nino effect -- where unusually warm sea surface temperatures in the Pacific Ocean move east, pulling rainfall along with them.Jeff Masters, director of meteorology at the Weather Underground website, said that the snow proved little more than that we get pretty darn cold in the winter.If it's cold enough to snow, you will get snow, he said.We still have winter, even though temperatures have warmed on average about one degree Fahrenheit (0.5 Celsius) over the past 100 years.The Obama administration has pledged to move ahead on climate change. It has signed on to an accord from the Copenhagen summit with a pledge to cut US emissions by 17 percent by 2020 from 2005 levels.
A 2007 report by a UN panel of scientists said that human-caused climate change was unequivocally a fact and that it would threaten droughts, floods and other severe weather along with the survival of entire species if unchecked. The IPCC has since come under fire after admitting that one assertion, that Himalayan glaciers were at risk, was unsubstantiated. Leaked emails from the scientists also showed what critics believe are attempts to restrict debate. The IPCC's 'consensus' is slowly eroding away in the face of embarrassing disclosures about the poor quality of data and information it has used to make projections about climate change,Inhofe said. But the panel has stood by the bulk of its work, as have policymakers in most nations.
Eurozone recovery falters, Germany flat By Pan Pylas, Ap Business Writer – FEB 12,10
BRUSSELS – The 16 countries that use the euro barely grew in the fourth quarter, as a modest recovery stalled amid turmoil in financially troubled members such as Greece and a disappointingly flat performance from Germany, the biggest euro economy.
The figures lagged well behind fourth-quarter growth in the United States and raised concerns that Europe could slip back into recession as government stimulus efforts expire and the continent struggles with a government debt crisis in some countries.
Eurozone gross domestic product grew by only 0.1 percent in the last three months of 2009 from the previous three-month period, EU statistics agency Eurostat said Friday.
Export powerhouse Germany turned in zero growth as consumption levels remained weak — reinforcing analysts' thinking that sustained growth in Europe will have to wait until household spending picks up decisively.The eurozone growth figure fell short of expectations for a 0.4 percent increase and stoked worries the eurozone may dip back into recession.The euro took a further battering for the euro on currency markets. By late morning London time, the euro was trading at near nine-month lows $1.3535, a full cent lower than where it was when the German figures came out.
Today's data shows that the recovery in the euro area is a long way off from being self-sustained, said Jorg Radeke, an economist at the Centre for Economic and Business Research.The third quarter increase of 0.4 percent had encouraged hopes that the eurozone recovery would be solid, especially as U.S. growth spiked sharply higher — it was up a quarterly 1.4 percent — during the period and China continues to grow strongly.However, the recovery in the third quarter now appears likely to have been due to temporary factors like government spending boosts, a build-up in inventory levels and car scrappage schemes that pay people to trade in old cars, particularly in Germany.A real concern in the markets now is that upcoming austerity programs in places like Greece, Spain, Portugal and Ireland will continue to depress activity in those countries and further undermine the overall eurozone recovery.
Given the state of the public finances across many euro member states, fiscal tightening may be too early in many of those countries struggling to maintain growth,said Radeke from the Centre for Business and Economic Research.The Eurostat figures clearly showed that the countries most affected by the debt crisis are struggling.Greece, which is in the midst of a debt crisis that made EU leaders to pledge support on Thursday, saw its output shrink by 0.8 percent. Portugal's output was unchanged following two solid quarterly increases, and Spain's economy contracted by a further 0.1 percent as it continues to suffer from its property market collapse and near 20 percent unemployment levels.The third quarter recovery in Italy also proved to be short-lived as the eurozone's third largest economy shrank by 0.2 percent during the period.France, the eurozone's second-largest economy, appears to have been the main reason behind the overall rise in the fourth quarter in the eurozone, as it posted a respectable 0.6 percent increase in output.
The fourth quarter figures cap a miserable economic year — for 2009 as a whole, the eurozone economy, which includes around 330 million people, contracted by a massive 4percent.Though most economists as well as the European Central Bank expect growth this year, it's unlikely to be remarkable, especially as there are signs of underlying weakness in France — much of the growth there in the fourth quarter was due to car sales, which were boosted by the upcoming scaling back of the car scrappage scheme at the end of the year.An anaemic core and a deflating periphery point to weak eurozone GDP growth this year, said Michael Taylor, an economist at Lombard Street Research. As if further proof were needed that the euro area recovery is not going to plan, separate Eurostat figures showed that industrial production plunged 1.7 percent in December from the previous month. The wider 27-country EU, which includes non-euro members such as Britain and Sweden as well as east European countries including Poland and Hungary, saw fourth quarter GDP rise by 0.1 percent, the same as the eurozone.
China raises bank reserve level to cool credit By JOE McDONALD, AP Business Writer – FEB 12,10
BEIJING – China ordered banks Friday to increase reserves for a second time in a month to cool a credit boom without resorting to interest rate hikes that might derail a recovery in the world's third-largest economy.Chinese leaders worry that a stimulus-driven torrent of lending is fueling a dangerous bubble in stock and real estate prices. They also are concerned that the flood of money surging through the economy is adding to inflation.Beijing declared China had emerged from the global crisis after economic growth rebounded to 10.7 percent in the final quarter of 2009. But authorities say the global outlook is still uncertain, and analysts expect them to try to avoid rate hikes even as they start winding down their stimulus.Banks were ordered Friday to increase reserves by half a percentage point — to 16.5 percent for large lenders and to 14.5 percent for smaller institutions. Rural lenders that serve farmers were exempted to guarantee adequate credit for agriculture.The move was in line with expectations that Chinese authorities were trying to control credit and keep the recovery on track, analysts said. But it still sent European bourses and Wall Street stock futures into the red.The message coming out of China in recent weeks has been quite clear — policymakers are becoming more concerned about containing inflationary expectations and managing the risk of asset price bubbles as a result of last year's aggressive expansion of credit, Jing Ulrich, JP Morgan's chairwoman for China equities, said in a report.We have already seen some scaling back of incentives that have spurred record sales in the domestic property sector and authorities have made clear that they will step up scrutiny of property lending to curb overly rapid price gains in some cities.
The government reported Thursday that January bank lending rocketed to 1.4 trillion ($200 billion) — nearly one-fifth of the planned 2010 total. That was despite a Jan. 12 order to banks to raise reserves, also by 0.5 percent, and repeated commands to keep lending at sensible levels.Also Thursday, the government said the rise in housing costs in 70 Chinese cities accelerated in January, jumping 9.5 percent from a year earlier, up 1.3 percentage points from December's growth rate.Land prices surged by 106 percent last year, according to Standard Chartered Bank, and Chinese newspapers are filled with reports of well-heeled investors paying record prices for luxury apartments and villas.Commercial banks have said they will tighten controls on lending.The country's biggest lender, Industrial & Commercial Bank of China Ltd., said this week it will reject loans to real estate and industrial projects deemed too dirty, energy-intensive or unnecessary.Banks are expected to scale back lending to roughly 7.5 trillion yuan ($1.1 trillion) this year, after handing out some 9.5 trillion yuan ($1.4 trillion), the industry's top regulator, Liu Mingkang, said last month.Analysts say Beijing's move in raising reserves while leaving the total loan target for the year unchanged indicates it will let banks lend the full amount but is trying to force them to smooth out lending over the year instead of making the bulk of loans in the first few months as they usually do.On the Net:People's Bank of China: http://www.pbc.gov.cn
Euro slumps to lowest point vs dollar since May
FEB 12,10
LONDON (AFP) – The European single currency slumped close to a nine-month dollar low point on Friday when markets took a dim view of eurozone growth data and half-baked EU proposals to help debt-ridden Greece.Investors also sought the safe-haven dollar after China ordered financial institutions to increase the amount of money they keep in reserve, as Beijing looked to rein in rampant lending amid fears of asset bubbles.
On other world markets, stocks diverged and crude oil prices slid.In late morning trading here, the euro tumbled to 1.3532 dollars, the lowest level since May 19. That compared with 1.3695 in New York late on Thursday.The euro is weakening in response to ongoing market concerns over the eurozone sovereign debt crisis, said Neil MacKinnon, economist at Russian investment bank VTB Capital.Today's eurozone economic data does not help either. To add to the fire, China raised required reserve ratios again, which is putting risk assets under pressure again.Late on Thursday, EU leaders stopped short of offering bailout funds to rescue Greece, a eurozone member. Deep problems in Greek public finances have highlighted the parlous debt of other crisis-hit countries such as Italy and Spain.The union's 27 leaders vowed determined and coordinated action if needed to safeguard the financial stability in the euro area as a whole, but they have yet to provide details of any action.Official data on Friday showed that Europe's economic recovery has stalled, with the heavyweight German economy grinding to a halt in the fourth quarter of 2009 and Italy switching back to contraction.Economic growth in the 16 nations using the euro single currency was a meagre 0.1 percent over the previous quarter compared to 0.4 percent growth in the third quarter, data agency Eurostat said.Gross domestic product (GDP) -- the combined value of all the goods and services produced in an economy -- fell by 4.0 percent last year in the eurozone.
Weaker GDP figures out of Germany and the eurozone has raised uncertainty over the pace of the economic recovery within Europe helping to sap earlier equity gains, said City Index analyst Joshua Raymond.The figures are a bit of a surprise and have raised tension in Europe, that despite yesterday's agreement to help Greece, the economic recovery within the eurozone may be slower than first hoped.In recent weeks, the euro has been plagued by concerns about rocky public finances in the eurozone -- particularly in peripheral members Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece and Spain.The prospect of an eventual Greek debt default has stalked markets for weeks, with the cost of borrowing shooting through the roof for Athens.Public finances across the world have taken a hammering from emergency fiscal stimulus measures and bank bailouts to counter recession, and tax revenues have been cut by the downturn.
Without specific detail of any (EU) support package (for Greece), there is risk that the eurozone debt crisis escalates which could easily turn into a currency crisis, MacKinnon warned.Lloyds Banking Group economist Kenneth Broux labelled the EU meeting a political bailout -- and added that next week's upcoming meeting of eurozone finance ministers should clarify matters. The summit was a political bailout and lacked substance on the framework of how assistance would work in practice, Broux said. There simply is no rulebook. I hope and expect the Ecofin meeting next week will fill in the blanks, and this will restore some degree of confidence that has deserted the peripheral EU debt markets.European stock markets diverged near the half-way stage on Friday, with Frankfurt up 0.15 percent, London down 0.42 percent and Paris shedding 0.33 percent. Wall Street had rallied Thursday as sentiment was lifted by the EU pledge to help Greece stave off a debt crisis and better-than-expected US labor market data. In Asia on Friday, markets were generally higher in quiet trade ahead of Sunday's Lunar New Year and the start of a week-long holiday in China. Tokyo finished 1.29 percent higher but Hong Kong fell 0.11 in a late bout of profit-taking. Meanwhile in Beijing on Friday, the People's Bank of China said the deposit reserve ratio would be raised by 50 basis points as of February 25, the second increase since the start of the year. The ratio is the minimum amount of money that banks must keep in reserve and not use for lending or other purposes. The announcement is the latest sign the government is moving to control an explosion in new lending that has raised fears of inflation, economic overheating and a possible rash of bad loans.
Oil prices slide on back of strong dollar
FEB 12,10
LONDON (AFP) – World oil prices plunged on Friday as traders took their cue from the strengthening US dollar and eyed a crucial update on energy stockpiles in the United States, analysts said.New York's main futures contract, light sweet crude for delivery in March, fell 1.64 dollars to 73.64 dollars a barrel.Brent North Sea crude for March delivery plunged 1.48 dollars to 72.64 dollars a barrel.Oil sank after the European single currency fell close to a nine-month dollar low, as markets took a dim view of eurozone growth data and unclear EU proposals to help debt-ridden Greece.
In late morning London trade, the euro tumbled to 1.3532 dollars, the lowest level since May 19. That compared with 1.3695 in New York late on Thursday.A stronger dollar usually dampens demand for oil because it makes dollar-priced crude more expensive for buyers using weaker currencies.While European key players and the IMF will not allow a complete failure of Greece, the euro is likely to remain under pressure from the issue and similar concerns for other countries in the region, said analysts at the JBC Energy consultancy in Vienna.EU leaders stopped short Thursday of offering a bailout to rescue eurozone member Greece. Deep problems in Greek public finances have highlighted the parlous debt of other crisis-hit countries such as Italy and Spain.Investors also sought the safe-haven dollar after China ordered financial institutions to increase the amount of money they keep in reserve, as Beijing looked to rein in rampant lending amid fears of asset bubbles.The development was an additional concern for the oil market because China is the world's second biggest energy consuming nation after the United States.Later Friday, traders will digest a key US inventories report for the week ending February 5. The report, usually published on Wednesdays, was delayed due to a snowstorm in the northeastern US.This week, crude futures have edged higher as investors mulled the prospect of EU financial support for crisis-hit Greece -- and as the US east coast experienced its second huge snowstorm in less than a week.The International Energy Agency forecast on Thursday that world oil demand and prices would rise this year, driven higher by strong growth in emerging economies, revising upward its earlier forecasts.
The Paris-based agency said demand was now expected to be 86.5 million barrels per day in 2010 compared to a forecast last month of 86.3, while average prices will rise to 75 dollars per barrel from 58 in 2009.Global daily demand is now estimated at 84.9 million barrels per day (mbd) in 2009, and thus the IEA is predicting a 1.6-mbd increase.Demand growth is expected to come entirely from outside the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), a grouping of 30 developed economies including Britain, France, Germany, Japan and the United States.
Afghans plea for quick, careful attack on Marjah By NOOR KHAN, Associated Press Writer – FEB 12,10
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan – Tribal elders in southern Afghanistan pleaded Friday for NATO forces to wage their imminent offensive on the Taliban stronghold of Marjah quickly and carefully to protect civilians in and around the town.The group of 34 elders said in a letter to provincial officials that their people are frightened and worried they won't be watched after, according to Abdul Hai Agha, an elder from Marjah.We said in this letter that if you are doing this operation in Marjah, do it quickly,Agha told The Associated Press by phone from the nearby provincial capital of Lashkar Gah. They also urged the troops to do their best to avoid civilian casualties during the assault and have food and shelter ready in nearby towns for refugees.U.S. and Afghan forces have ringed Marjah, sealing off escape routes. On Thursday, Taliban defenders repeatedly fired rockets and mortars at units poised in foxholes along the edge of the town, apparently trying to lure NATO forces into skirmishes before the big attack.The offensive in Helmand province — the largest in the nine-year Afghan war — has been telegraphed for weeks. Military officials have said they hope advertising the assault would give civilians more time to get to safety but many of the elders say they're now stuck in a terrifying limbo — unsure how soon the attack will start but certain it will be devastating when it does.
NATO forces have estimated 125,000 people live in the fighting zone. Civilian deaths during military operation are a hot-button issue in Afghanistan, and U.S. commanders have issued strict orders to limit the use of force when civilians are at risk.
Provincial spokesman Daoud Ahmadi said the governor's office had received the letter and that many of the requested measures were in place.We have arranged space for 7,000 families in nearby towns, along with food and items like blankets and dishes, Ahmadi said. He said about 450 families — an estimated 2,700 people — have already sought refuge in Lashkar Gah, about 20 miles (30 kilometers) northeast of Marjah. Many of them took up with relatives but more than 100 were being sheltered by the government, he said.On Friday, the road between Marjah and Lashkar Gah was clogged with cars and trucks filled with people fleeing ahead of the assault, according to AP Television News footage. Many said they had to leave quickly and secretly to avoid recrimination from Taliban commanders.We were not allowed to come here. We haven't brought any of our belongings; we just tried to get ourselves out, said an elderly woman in a black headscarf who was on a minibus with three of her sons. Bibi Gul said she had three more sons she had to leave behind.Others said they had to wait to leave when Taliban commanders weren't watching.Police searched the vehicles for any signs of militants, in one case prodding bales of cotton with a metal rod in search of hidden weapons.The plea from elders came a day after Afghanistan's interior minister met with about 300 tribal leaders in Lashkar Gah to explain the goals of the operation and ask for their support.It was unclear whether the government's dialogue with elders had delayed the start of the offensive.
During the meeting, Helmand's governor urged the elders to use any connections they have with Taliban fighters in and around Marjah to ask them to lay down their weapons and come over to the government side.Gov. Gulab Mangal asked the elders to use any avenue you have, direct or indirect, to tell the Taliban who don't want to fight that they can join with us, according to the chief of Helmand's provincial council, Mohammad Anwar Khan.On their side, the elders begged for limited use of air strikes because of the potential for civilian deaths, Khan said.It was unclear whether the governor's plea was likely to lead to action. Another one of the elders at the meeting, Mohammad Karim Khan, said he would not dare to start going up to Taliban in his area and telling them to give up their guns to the government. We can't talk to the Taliban. We are farmers and poor people and we are not involved in these things like the politicians are, said Khan, who is not related to the provincial council chief. But one of the main drafters of the letter to government officials said he and some others had been reaching out to local Taliban commanders.
We have talked to some of the Taliban over the phone and we have told them: This is your country. Don't create problems for your fellow Afghans and don't go on a suicide mission,said Abdul Rehman Jan, an elder who lives in Lashkar Gah. However, Jan said they don't expect to be able to bring anyone in because most of the Afghan Taliban have already fled the area. Militant commanders from the Middle East or Pakistan have stayed on and they want to fight,Jan said. In the east, meanwhile, villagers accused a joint Afghan-NATO force of killing civilians during an overnight raid in Paktia province. NATO said it killed several insurgents on the compound and troops found the bodies of two men and two bound-and-gagged women when they searched it. Afghan officials in Paktia said they are investigating the deaths of five people in a home near the provincial capital of Gardez. Police Chief Gen. Azizudin Wardak said the five — two men and three women — were killed Thursday night during a party. One man worked for the police and another worked for the attorney general's office, he said.
Who killed them? We still don't know,he said. Also in Paktia province, the Taliban claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing on a U.S. military base Thursday that injured five Americans. The base is 400 miles (640 kilometers) northeast of Marjah.
Associated Press Writer Amir Shah contributed to this report from Kabul. (This version CORRECTS Corrects that Agha is from Marjah, sted Nad Ali in graf 2. ADDS at least one elder talking to Taliban, investigation into deaths in Paktia. AP Video.)
Iran supreme leader lauds state rally, warns West By NASSER KARIMI, Associated Press Writer – FEB 12,10
TEHRAN, Iran – Iran's supreme leader praised the mass turnout at the government-backed rally marking the 1979 Islamic Revolution and warned the West to stop putting obstacles in his country's path, state Press TV reported Friday.Ayatollah Ali Khamenei thanked the tens of millions across the country who celebrated Thursday's anniversary, saying the turnout at rallies reflected the nation's strength.During Thursday's anniversary celebration, security forces clamped down hard on scattered anti-government demonstrations in the Iranian capital.Police clashed with opposition activists, firing tear gas to disperse them and paintballs to mark them for arrest. Groups of hard-liners also attacked senior opposition figures — including the wife of the head of the reform movement.The massive government rally in central Tehran dwarfed the opposition gatherings, which were far smaller than other outpourings of dissent in recent months. Still, Thursday's events showed authorities must rely on full-scale pressures to keep a lid on demonstrations.Khamenei said Thursday's rally should be a wake-up call for the domestic enemies and deceived groups who claim to represent the people.He blasted the West, saying it was time for foreign enemies to abandon futile efforts to subjugate Iran.The past 31 years are not enough to awaken a few arrogant and bullying states to their futile efforts to dominate this Islamic nation,said Khamenei, who has final say on all state matters.
The authorities had worried ahead of the anniversary that any significant protests or clashes would be seen as a major embarrassment on a day intended to showcase national achievements and unity.An array of riot police, undercover security agents and hard-line militiamen — some on motorcycles — had fanned out across Tehran on Thursday in what appeared to be the largest deployment since the post-election mayhem.Hard-liners and security forces prevented opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi and his wife, Zahra Rahnavard, from attending an opposition gathering. Plainclothes Basij militiamen beat the 65-year-old Rahnavard with clubs on her head and back until her supporters formed a human ring around her and whisked her away, according to Mousavi's Web site.Hard-liners also attacked the car of another opposition leader, Mahdi Karroubi, and smashed its windows.Karroubi's son Taghi said his brother Ali, 36, was detained by security forces on Thursday and badly beaten. He was later released and the family took him to a hospital in serious condition, suffering from internal bleeding and a broken arm.He was severely tortured. They beat him to the verge of death, said Taghi Karroubi, speaking Friday on the phone to a reporter outside Iran.However, Thursday's clashes were significantly less violent than previous opposition protest in late December, when eight people died and hundreds were arrested.Authorities also jammed the Internet and mobile phones to disrupt the opposition. In Tehran, Internet speeds dropped dramatically and e-mail services such as Gmail were widely blocked.Three major international broadcasters condemned Iran over its deliberate electronic interference in their broadcasts.
The BBC, Deutsche Welle and Voice of America said in a joint statement the jamming began Thursday. They said Iran was broadcasting freely around the world while denying its own people programs coming from the outside.Iran's elite Revolutionary Guard, which was in charge of security for the rally, issued a statement Friday echoing Khamenei's words and saying the anniversary showed the will of the nation could not be defeated and is strong as steel.The government has regularly accused the U.S. and Britain of fomenting Iran's unrest. It has put more than 100 opposition activists and figures on trial since August on charges of fomenting the postelection turmoil. Ten have been sentenced to death and dozens to prison terms ranging from six months to 15 years. In a nationally televised address from the anniversary gathering, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad defied the West and boasted that Iran has become a nuclear state. He dismissed new U.S. sanctions and denigrated President Barack Obama's efforts to repair relations. Ahmadinejad said Iran has produced the first batch of 20 percent enriched uranium — sufficient strength to power Iran's research reactor — though he did not say how much uranium had been enriched. Such a process has been at the heart of a U.N.-drafted proposal to provide Iran with reactor-ready fuel in exchange for its stockpile of low-enriched uranium. Iran has repeatedly blocked the plan with conditions and caveats. The announcement of the higher-enriched uranium adds to Western worries that Iran has long-term goals to develop nuclear arms — even though it is still below the 90 percent-plus level needed for a weapon. Iran denies the accusation and insists it only seeks to produce energy and medical isotopes. Associated Press Writer Scheherezade Faramarzi in Beirut contributed to this report.
I WONDER COULD IRAN BE READY TO SHOOT AN ELECTRO MAGNETIC PULSE BOMB IN THE AIR OVER AMERICA TO CRIPPLE IT.ONLY TIME WILL TELL WAS THIS STORY A TEST RUN.IRAN MIGHT BE LEADING AMERICA ON WITH THE URANIUM SCARE WHILE SECRETLY GETTING AN EMP IN A ROCKET TO DESTROY AMERICAS ECONOMY.
Iran accused of jamming foreign broadcasts
FEB 12,10
LONDON (AFP) – Three international broadcasters on Friday accused Iran of deliberately jamming their output.
Britain's BBC, German broadcaster Deutsche Welle and the Voice of America said the interference began on Thursday as Iran celebrated the anniversary of the 1979 Islamic Revolution.They accused Iran of broadcasting freely around the world while denying the Iranian people programmes coming from outside the country.BBC World News was the latest TV channel to be jammed this week.We condemn any jamming of these channels, said a joint statement by Peter Horrocks, Director of BBC World Service, Erik Bettermann, Director of Deutsche Welle and Dan Austin, Director of Voice of America.It contravenes international agreements and is interfering with the free and open flow of international transmissions that are protected by international treaties.The jamming violates article 45 of the constitution of the International Telecommunication Union that prohibits signal interference and we look to the international regulatory community to take a firmer stance on this deliberate act of jamming.The broadcasters called on satellite operators and regulators to take urgent action to put pressure on Iran to stop this activity.
The Iranian authorities are using the same satellite services to broadcast freely around the world including broadcasts in English and Arabic; at the same time they are denying their own people programmes coming from the same satellites from the rest of the world, they added.BBC Persian, the corporation's London-based Farsi-language TV channel, has angered Iranian authorities by broadcasting interviews and comment from opposition supporters.The contested re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in June sparked the most serious unrest in Iran since the 1979 Islamic revolution.The leader of prayers in Tehran on Friday insisted the Iranian people were putting on a show of solidarity for the Islamic revolution anniversary despite the attempts of enemies to wreck the event with protests.
Greek PM says EU took too long to show support by ELENA BECATOROS, Associated Press Writer – FEB 12,10
ATHENS, Greece – Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou on Friday criticized the European Union as timid and too slow to express unified support for his country during its financial crisis, a day after Greece won backing — but no detailed bailout plan — at an EU summit.Speaking during a Cabinet meeting on his return from the meeting Thursday in Brussels Papandreou said that while the country had received a statement of support, delays and conflicting statements over the past few months had made things worse.In the last few months of this crisis, the EU gave its political support. There is also institutional support of our program, Papandreou said during the Cabinet meeting.But in the battle against the impressions and the psychology of the market, it was at the very least timid, he said.For what the future holds regarding the crisis there were, in the last months in the EU, multiple voices, differences and diverging statements. Speculation about our country which created a psychology of imminent collapse. Prophesies which risked becoming self-fulfilling.
Greece's debt crisis has plunged the euro, the currency used by 16 EU nations, into the worst turmoil it has seen since it was launched 11 years ago. Papandreou, who took office in October, blamed the previous government's criminal policies for falsifying statistics that meant the incoming Socialists had to revise the budget deficit figures to 12.7 of economic output for 2009, far above the 3.7 percent estimated the previous spring.The markets have hammered Greece in recent weeks, pushing up the spreads, or difference between 10-year Greek bonds and a the German benchmark bonds which measure the market's perception of a risk of default. Greece's problems have also weighed on the euro.There was a lack of coordination between the various bodies of the Union, the Commission, the member states, the European Central Bank. Even differing opinions within those bodies, Papandreou said, adding that there were divergent opinions as to what should be done: multiple doctors with differing prescriptions over the patient that is Greece.On Thursday in Brussels, the 16 eurozone countries promised to take determined and coordinated action, if needed, to safeguard financial stability in the euro area as a whole.But they left out any detail about what they might do to prevent the country from defaulting on its massive debt, and markets reacted coolly. The spreads on Greek 10-year bonds rose to 2.98 percentage points Friday afternoon, up from about 2.70 percentage points on Thursday night, but still down from 3.5 percentage points the week before. The Athens Stock Exchange was down 1.98 percent in late afternoon trading.Papandreou's government has announced an austerity program that includes freezing civil servants' salaries, cutting bonuses and stipends and hiking taxes and the average retirement age by two years to 63. Unions have responded with strikes, although turnout for protest marches during a civil servants' strike on Wednesday was low.
Papandreou said that Greece faced a long road to recovery.This battle isn't over, he said during the Cabinet meeting. I would say it's just beginning, with an important decision by the European Union to support the efforts of Greece, to support the eurozone.French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde said the moment of truth for Greece will come in March and that the European Union and IMF will be watching closely to make sure Athens fulfills its promises to pay off debts.Asked whether European finance ministers would firm up details of possible aid to Greece at a meeting Monday, Lagarde said in an interview on French radio RMC, We will discuss it without doubt. She would not elaborate.Greece will need financing in the spring. We have an appointment in March to see whether they have done what they said they would do. It will be a moment of truth, she said.Greece will report back to EU nations in March on progress on its debt-fighting measures, and based on that progress, the EU and the European Central Bank could order tougher action that Greece may find difficult to implement. The EU is seeking help from International Monetary Fund experts to make that March assessment.Lagarde said it was important that we recognize, without seeking IMF financing, that we say there are people whose job it is to go and verify that plans are respected, that measures are taken, and that we will use their expertise in the field to see whether the Greeks are doing what they committed themselves to or not.Associated Press writer Angela Charlton in Paris contributed to this report.
France does not believe Iran's nuclear claim
Fri Feb 12, 6:01 am ET
PARIS – France does not believe Iran's claim that it is capable of enriching uranium to near weapons-grade levels, the country's foreign minister said Friday.Bernard Kouchner told Europe 1 radio that the Americans don't believe, not any more than us, that Iran is currently capable of enriching uranium to 80 percent.But Iran's claim adds to the dangerousness of the situation, he said.Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said this week that Iran has the capacity to enrich uranium more than 20 percent or 80 percent but that it doesn't intend to build a bomb. A 90 percent-plus level is needed for a weapon.White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said Thursday that Iran's leadership has made a series of statements about its nuclear prowess based on politics, not physics. We do not believe they have the capability to enrich to the degree to which they now say they are enriching, he said in Washington.Still, the Obama administration said such claims were still disturbing and fed fears that Iran's long-term goal is to make nuclear weapons.Iran says its nuclear program is for energy and medical isotopes.France has joined the United States in pushing for a new, fourth round of sanctions against Iran for defying U.N. demands to suspend uranium enrichment. Kouchner said France is working now to persuade China, Brazil and other U.N. Security Council members to back new measures.
Shah's son wants help for Iran's opposition By ELAINE GANLEY, Associated Press Writer – Thu Feb 11, 9:33 pm ET
PARIS – Reza Pahlavi, whose father, the shah of Iran, was toppled from power 31 years ago, said Thursday the international community must step up its support for Iran's opposition movement and stop focusing on the country's nuclear program.In an interview with The Associated Press, Pahlavi said nations such as the United States should not even bother with a new round of sanctions regarding Iran's nuclear program, if punitive measures merely maintain the status quo.Instead, he suggested the kind of encouragement that helped end South Africa's apartheid system and influenced the breakup of the Soviet Union.Pahlavi, 50, said that should include dialogue with Iran's opposition, which has kept up periodic street protests in the country since the disputed June presidential elections despite a fierce crackdown.
He also said the opposition needs outside technological support to beat government eavesdropping and Internet crackdowns in Iran, and to stay connected with the outside world.The world is facing a regime today that is totalitarian, racist, fascist, and yet what has been done about it? he said in Paris during a visit from the U.S., where he lives outside Washington D.C.To this day no one has officially said ... enough is enough, he said.As he spoke, Iran celebrated the birth of the Islamic Republic in 1979 and the overthrow of Pahlavi's father, the late Mohammed Reza Pahlavi.The shah's son said Western leaders must reach out to Iran's opposition movement, but instead they have displayed bashfulness,hesitancy or even passivity.
He criticized what he called President Barack Obama's tepid outreach to the Iranian people and their exiled opposition.He noted that 40 Nobel Prize winners appealed to Obama and other world leaders this week in a New York Times ad to let the Iranian people know that we are on their side.I never thought I would see the day when Joan Baez sings ... in Farsi, Pahlavi said, referring to the folk singer's recent version of We Shall Overcome — sung partially in the Iranian language.For God's sake, it has become an international cry going unheeded by world leaders.Pahlavi recommended tacit dialogue with Iran's opposition and diplomatic outreach to isolate the regime.
Iranian officials claim foreign powers are behind the country's reform movement, but Pahlavi insisted that is not correct.Western nations are pressing for a possible fourth set of U.N. sanctions on Iran for its failure to comply with U.N. resolutions aimed at guaranteeing it cannot produce nuclear weapons.Pahlavi said a window of opportunity may slip away while the world is dilly-dallying over sanctions, instead of focusing on issues such as human rights abuses in Iran.External sanctions against the regime do not suffice. You have to bring into your calculation ... an element of pressure from within, he said. And the only way (to) do that is by strengthening the hand of the people inside the country.If sanctions are going to be all you're going to be doing while keeping the status quo, don't even bother, he said. Pahlavi said he wants to see a peaceful transition, via civil disobedience, to a parliamentary democracy with a clear separation of religion from government.He said he favors a referendum so Iranians can choose their form of government, and he predicted change could come within a matter of months — if not maybe a couple of years tops — if society is empowered and dialogue not limited to the regime. Nothing bars the world from having a line of dialogue with the opposition and that, strangely, has been absent,he said. The level of support that Pahlavi or other exiled opposition movements have inside Iran today is unclear. Three decades after the Islamic Revolution, Iranian youth, the majority population, has never known the country as a monarchy. Last month, authorities hanged two men convicted of belonging to outlawed monarchist groups and plotting to overthrow the Islamic regime.
DRUG PUSHERS AND ADDICTS
REVELATION 18:23
23 And the light of a candle shall shine no more at all in thee; and the voice of the bridegroom and of the bride shall be heard no more at all in thee: for thy merchants were the great men of the earth; for by thy sorceries (DRUGS) were all nations deceived.
REVELATION 9:21
21 Neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries (DRUGS), nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts.
EARTH DESTROYED WITH THE EARTH
GENESIS 6:11-13
11 The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.(WORLD TERRORISM,MURDERS)(HAMAS IN HEBREW IS VIOLENCE)
12 And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth.
13 And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence (TERRORISM)(HAMAS) through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth.
Mexico prez presents new plan for violent city By ALICIA CALDWELL, Associated Press Writer – Thu Feb 11, 11:32 pm ET
CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico – Relatives of youths killed in a recent massacre interrupted and jeered President Felipe Calderon as he pledged Thursday night to spend more on social programs to curb runaway drug gang violence in this border city.If you had a son killed, you would have looked for the murderer even under rocks, a sobbing Luz Davila, whose two teenage sons were among 15 killed in the Jan. 31 attack, told Calderon.But I don't have the resources.Inside a convention center, Calderon said the government will invest in sports centers for youths, more schools and day care centers and provide financial aid to 25,000 families living in poverty. He was widely criticized for not visiting Ciudad Juarez sooner after the massacre, in which gunmen burst into a party and opened fire with automatic weapons.Many of the victims were teens with no known criminal ties, and the attack outraged even hardened residents of Juarez.Police have arrested two men in the attack. One of them, told investigators that drug cartel gunmen went to the neighborhood looking for a member of a rival gang but that once they arrived they were ordered to kill everyone.
Those listening Thursday demanded the president do more to stop the wave of violence that killed more than 2,300 people last year. The bloodshed has the city of 1.3 million people across the border from El Paso, Texas, one of the world's deadliest metropolises.Outside the meeting, police dragged away dozens of demonstrators demanding that Calderon resign. The protesters held signs reading Calderon out! Police forced them across the street, shoving them through muddy puddles.Calderon also met privately with relatives of some of the youths killed in the massacre and apologized for initially saying the attack was a result of a fight between rival drug gangs.Whatever may have been the meaning of my words, I offered the parents my most heartfelt apology if any of my words offended them or the memory of their children, he said afterward.When Calderon referred to the apology at the public meeting, a group of women stood up and turned their backs to the president.Human rights activists at the meeting demanded the army leave Juarez, saying soldiers have abused their power and gone after scapegoats. But Calderon again said he won't withdraw troops despite criticism that their presence has exacerbated violence.If I were certain that withdrawing the Mexican army would end the violence in Juarez, be sure that I would do it. But I'm afraid the opposite would happen, Calderon said.
Calderon has deployed 5,500 soldiers to Ciudad Juarez trying to stop vicious gangs battling for drug-dealing turf and lucrative trafficking routes into the United States, but violent crime has surged.The president said 400 federal agents will focus on investigating kidnappings and extortion in the city.Businessman Manuel Ortega said thousands of Juarez businesses have closed because of extortion. Juarez won't be able to stand another year like last year,he said.Calderon urged Ciudad Juarez residents to let him know of ways to improve on his proposal and said he would return next week.Mexico's government has arrested or killed the leaders of several drug cartels, but drug-related killings have continued. More than 15,000 have died since Calderon launched his crackdown in December 2006.Also Thursday, federal police arrested a rural strongman who allegedly led a group of marijuana and opium poppy growers in southern Guerrero state who sold their crops to the Sinaloa and La Familia drug cartels. The Public Safety Department said in a statement it arrested Rogaciano Alba as he drove near the western city of Guadalajara. It said Alba had been hiding in the state of Jalisco with the help of the leaders of the Sinaloa cartel. Alba hadn't been seen since gunmen killed 17 of his relatives and associates in two attacks in Guerrero state in 2008. Until recently, Alba was the most powerful man in Petatlan, a mountain town near the resorts of Ixtapa and Zihuatenejo, known for drug trafficking and illegal logging.
IF ITS A GODLESS NATION OBAMA IS THE FIRST TO TALK WITH IT.NO DOUBT ABOUT IT.ESPECIALLY MUSLIM NATIONS.OR AMERICA HATERS.
Report: NKorea's top nuclear envoy to visit US By KWANG-TAE KIM, Associated Press Writer – FEB 12,10
SEOUL, South Korea – A top North Korean nuclear envoy will visit the United States for rare bilateral talks next month, a news report said Friday as diplomats pushed to revive negotiations on ending Pyongyang's nuclear program.Plans call for North Korea's Kim Kye Gwan to travel to the U.S. in March, South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported from Beijing, citing an unidentified source. In Washington, State Department spokesman Fred Lash said late Thursday that he had not seen the report.
U.N. political chief, B. Lynn Pascoe, said after concluding a four-day trip to North Korea on Friday that he was unaware of plans for Kim to travel to the U.S.North Korea, believed to have enough weaponized plutonium for at least half a dozen atomic bombs, walked away from disarmament-for-aid negotiations last year during a standoff over its nuclear and missile programs.However, after tightened sanctions and financial isolation, the impoverished nation has reached out to Washington, Seoul and Beijing in recent months.Pascoe, the highest-ranking U.N. diplomat to visit North Korea since 2004, said he met with North Korea's president and foreign minister and argued strongly that the six-party talks should be resumed without preconditions or further delay.However, the North Korean side did not seem prepared to immediately return to the international disarmament talks, he said.The attitude right now as I said is that certainly they were not happy with the sanctions and they were certainly not eager, not ruling out but not eager, to return to the six-party talks, said Pascoe.Pascoe said he was reluctant to describe the North Korean position in any more detail because the U.N. is not directly involved with the negotiations.The disarmament talks involve the two Koreas, the U.S., Japan, Russia and host China.A bilateral meeting between the North Korean envoy and U.S. officials would be a strong sign that the push to get the disarmament talks back on track was gaining traction. It would also confirm a warming in relations between the U.S. and North Korea, wartime rivals that do not have diplomatic relations.
Earlier, spokesman P.J. Crowley said U.S. officials haven't ruled out future meetings with the North Koreans, but we believe firmly that the next meeting that U.S. representatives and others should have with North Korea is through a formal six-party meeting.North Korea wants sanctions eased and a peace treaty with the U.S. formally ending the 1950-53 Korean War if it returns to the six-party talks. Seoul, Tokyo and Washington have all urged Pyongyang to return to the disarmament talks and show progress on denuclearization before any discussions on a peace treaty or sanctions.Associated Press writers Hyung-jin Kim in Seoul, Alexa Olesen in Beijing and Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations contributed to this report.
Goldman Sachs accused of rigging Robin Hood tax vote
FEB 12,10
LONDON (AFP) – Goldman Sachs came under attack from online campaigners on Friday over allegations that one of its computers was used to rig a vote on the imposition of a so-called Robin Hood tax on bankers.The Robinhood Tax campaign claimed that one of the two computers used to spam the Internet poll with no votes on Thursday, belonged to the investment bank.Technical staff for the Robinhoodtax.org.uk said that the website registered more than 4,600 negative votes over a 20-minute period starting at 3.41pm.The number of no votes jumped from 1,400 to 6000 before the site's security was tightened.A Goldman spokesman said the bank had just received this information and is investigating fully.The online campaign -- calling for the introduction of 0.05 percent tax on banking transactions -- has garnered considerable celebrity backing, including Four Weddings and a Funeral writer Richard Curtis and Love Actually actor Bill Nighy.The venture also has the support of groups like children's charity Barnado?s, the The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), the National Union of Teachers (NUT ) and Unite -- Britain's largest trade union.Campaigners say the tax based on Nobel Laureate economist James Tobin?s idea from 1972 has the potentiality to generate 255 billion pounds worldwide annually.
EARTH DESTROYED WITH THE EARTH
GENESIS 6:11-13
11 The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.(WORLD TERRORISM,MURDERS)(HAMAS IN HEBREW IS VIOLENCE)
12 And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth.
13 And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence (TERRORISM)(HAMAS) through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth.
EARTHQUAKES
MATTHEW 24:7-8
7 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.
8 All these are the beginning of sorrows.
MARK 13:8
8 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom:(ETHNIC GROUP AGAINST ETHNIC GROUP) and there shall be earthquakes in divers places, and there shall be famines and troubles: these are the beginnings of sorrows.
LUKE 21:11
11 And great earthquakes shall be in divers places, and famines, and pestilences; and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven.
THE DEATH TOTAL IN THE HAITI QUAKE IS CLOSE TO 230,000 DEAD,300,000 INJURED AND 1 MILLION LEFT HOMELESS.
BIBLE PREDICTS EARTH QUAKE - DISEASE IN HAITI
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Radio/News.aspx/1892
PATHAN TRIBES (ONE OF LOST 10 TRIBES OF ISRAEL)
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Radio/News.aspx/1925
THE BIBLE TRUE LITERALLY
http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=124716
Active hurricane season forecast, fears for Haiti by Juan Castro Olivera – Thu Feb 11, 8:55 pm ET
MIAMI (AFP) – The 2010 hurricane season beginning in June will be more active than usual and there is an increased chance that devastated Haiti will be hit by a strong hurricane, US weather experts have said.The 2010 Atlantic hurricane season will be somewhat more active than the average, Colorado State University's (CSU) top hurricane expert William Gray told AFP.He said there was a 49 percent chance that a tropical storm would track close to Haiti this year.Gray's team predicts between 11 and 16 tropical storms will form in the Atlantic this year, up from the average nine to 10.They expect between six and eight of those to become full-fledged hurricanes, by comparison with the usual five to six that gain the designation each year.The team forecasts up to five of those storms will become major hurricanes, reaching the top three categories in the Saffir-Simpson scale, producing wind speeds ranging from 111 to 155 miles (96 to 155 kilometers) per hour.The chance that the Caribbean as a whole will be hit by a major hurricane is 58 percent -- above the normal 42 percent probability of the past century, according to their study conducted in December.Gray said Haiti's vulnerability to a major hurricane this season was not significantly higher than usual.
The average is around 10 to 15 percent that Haiti would be hit any one year, he said, adding that in 2010 the average is a little bit higher now, but not much.On Thursday, Haiti was hit by its first torrential rain since the January 12 earthquake, which killed at least 217,000 people and left more than one million homeless, living in precarious, makeshift camps.The normally weak infrastructure in Haiti is now virtually non-existent, and so a hurricane would be devastating, CSU team researcher Phil Klotzbach told AFP.It should also be pointed out that it does not even take a full-fledged hurricane to do a tremendous amount of damage to Haiti, he added. Tropical Storm Jeanne in 2004 dropped about 12 inches of rain near Gonaives, and over 2,000 people died.For the 2010 hurricane season, we have 49 percent probability of a tropical storm tracking within 50 miles (80 kilometers) of Haiti, Klotzbach said.International relief organizations working in Haiti are already concerned about the onset of the 2010 rainy season on the island, which begins in April.French Red Cross president Jean-Francois Mattei on Thursday warned of the impending disaster the season could bring, including torrential rains, flooding and landslides.The hurricane season -- from June to November -- often brings death and grief to the Western hemisphere's poorest nation, which is practically denuded of its moisture-absorbing tropical forests.In the 2008 hurricane season, Haiti was pounded by four storms that left more than 800,000 people homeless and devastated its agriculture.Last year, Haiti, the Caribbean, and the US mainland were spared from major storms during a relatively calm hurricane season, thanks to the storm-dampening effects in the Atlantic of the El Nino climate pattern. Gray, whose 25 years of studies have made him one of the leading US experts on hurricanes, predicted that El Nino activity will be mostly dissipated by August when we get into the hurricane season,favoring greater storm activity.
Moderate quake hits eastern Cuba
FEB 12,10
HAVANA – A magnitude-5.4 earthquake hit eastern Cuba early Friday, rattling nerves but causing no reported injuries or damage.The temblor hit just after 7 a.m. Friday, centered about 35 miles (55 kilometers) southeast of Baracoa, near the easternmost tip of the island, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. That is just 160 miles (255 kilometers) from Port-au-Prince, Haiti, where a Jan. 12 quake destroyed much of the city and killed countless thousands.Yes we felt it. We felt it strong, said Maira Legra, whose son runs a home offering lodging to tourists in the colonial beach-side city of Baracoa. There was no problem. I was in bed because it was early, but I didn't get up.
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).
I SEE WHY IT OPENS WOUNDS,THE FRENCH ARE SELLING THE RUSSIANS A SHIP THAT THE EU WILL BE NUKING IN THE FUTURE TO PROTECT ITSELF AND ISRAEL FROM THE RUSSIA-MUSLIM ARMY.
DANIEL 11:40
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;(NOTICE MANY SHIPS-WAR SHIPS) and he shall enter into the countries, and shall overflow and pass over.
French warship deal opens wound in EU and Nato
ANDREW RETTMAN 11.02.2010 @ 21:02 CET
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Lithuania and Latvia have said that France's handling of an arms deal with Russia has breached good faith with its EU and Nato allies and may be in violation of an EU weapons code. We learned [about the deal] from media, Lithuanian defence minister Rasa Jukneviciene told EUobserver in an interview on Thursday (11 February). If our partners would have consulted about the intended sale of the Mistral within EU or Nato this would have certainly enhanced the spirit of solidarity within both organisations.Maris Riekstins, the foreign minister of Latvia, said: We would love to have seen a different sequence of events. We would be in a much better position if we had been consulted beforehand and then there had been a public announcement.France on Monday revealed that it is in advanced talks with Russia to sell a Mistral class warship. The vessel can deploy 900 marines, 40 assault vehicles and 16 helicopters, as well as acting as a floating command centre for 150 military staff. If the deal goes ahead, it would be the first major arms sale by a Nato country to Russia since World War II.The French announcement comes after Russia last September held large scale war games in Kaliningrad and Belarus, described by one Estonian defence analyst as a simulated invasion of Poland and Lithuania.Russian admiral Vladimir Vysotsky at the time said that if Russia had had a Mistral ship during the Georgia war in 2008 it could have won the conflict in 40 minutes.
Lithuania's Ms Jukneviciene plans to raise the Mistral sale at a meeting of EU defence ministers in Mallorca later this month. Latvia's Mr Riekstins denied that he is lobbying Nato to block the deal. But he also called for wider debate before it goes through.We haven't given any particular instructions to our diplomats in Nato to enter into a specific campaign. But an exchange of views in the EU and Nato families, a clarification of the issues on the table, is what should be done, he said. There is no EU law governing arms sales by member states. But in 2008 the bloc adopted a political commitment not to sell weapons or components to countries which violate human rights, pose a risk to regional stability or hurt the security interests of EU allies.The code was signed into life by the French EU presidency four months after the Georgia war. Every EU country is bound by rules regarding the control of exports of arms and dual use technology, Mr Riekstins said.Our lawyers consider that such a sale would allow ambiguous interpretations in regard of compliance with several important criteria of this code, Ms Jukneviciene said. Having in mind the unpredictability of Russian politics, we cannot exclude that this military equipment may be used for illegitimate purposes inconsistent with our values and principles.Karl Kaas, an analyst at the International Centre for Defence Studies in Tallinn, noted that Austrian and Finnish-made sniper rifles have in recent years been used by Russian special forces in Chechnya and Georgia's rebel region of South Ossetia.Otfried Nassauer from the arms control NGO, the Berlin Information-center for Transatlantic Security, said: Surely you could make such an argument [that the Mistral sale would violate the code]. But you would run into the problem of double standards. Germany has sold submarines to Pakistan which could theoretically be used to launch nuclear-armed cruise missiles.
French diplomats and EU officials declined to speak on the record. But one contact said that Russia is not the kind of country which is the target of the code, mentioning North Korea instead. Meanwhile, Estonia, another small post-Soviet republic, which arguably has the worst relations with Russia of any EU state, has opted to stay out of the dispute for now. Technically speaking Russia is qualified as a partner for both Nato and the EU and there are no restrictions in force against arms sales to this country. Thus it could become only a moral or political issue, Estonian foreign minister Urmas Paet told this website.We are not excluding anything but this issue should not become a divisive factor for Nato and the EU.
PLANNED PARENTHOOD ALLOWS ILLEGAL ACTIVITY - VIDEO
http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=124825
FROM JEROME CORSI'S RED ALERT-Will Israel join the European Union?
Italy's Prime Minister Berlusconi makes proposal in state visit to Jerusalem
February 08, 2010 11:34 am Eastern 2010 WorldNetDaily
Editor's Note: The following report is excerpted from Jerome Corsi's Red Alert, the premium online newsletter published by the current No. 1 best-selling author, WND staff writer and columnist. Red Alert subscriptions are $99 a year or $9.95 per month for credit card users. Annual subscribers will receive a free autographed copy of The Late Great USA, a book about the careful deceptions of a powerful elite who want to undermine our nation's sovereignty.While in Israel, Italy's president of the Council of Ministers, Silvio Berlusconi, proved once again that Italy is one of Israel's most committed allies by suggesting that he would like to see Israel invited to join the European Union, Jerome Corsi's Red Alert reports. At first glance the proposal did not seem to have been made seriously, except that the EU is considering extending membership to Turkey, so why not extend membership to Israel? Corsi wrote. Clearly, Berlusconi's envisioned measures that might prevent Middle East violence from extending into Europe. If the proposal were to advance within the EU, Islamic states would almost certainly respond by launching anti-Italy demonstrations and boycotting Italian-made goods, Red Alert reported.
With the requirement that EU countries not occupy territory that is not recognized as part of its own, Berlusconi could respond that a condition of Israel joining the EU would be for Israel to completely turn over the West Bank as well as the Gaza to the administration of the Palestinian Authority,Corsi noted.Moreover, with the EU nations of Greece, Spain and Portugal about to experience economic collapse over continued high levels of unemployment and unsustainable levels of public debt, the EU could use among its members right now a strong economy such as Israel's.In his visit to Yad Vashim, Jerusalem's Holocaust museum, Berlusconi left an emotional hand-written message saying: Our soul cries out that it is not true, it cannot be true, and then, facing reality, shouts never, never again.The Italian newspapers also pointed out that Israel is considering the purchase of 40 of Italy's most advanced M-346 fighter jets at a cost of over 1 billion pounds ($1.365 billion). Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responded in kind, stating, Israel has no greater friend than Italy. Berlusconi is also pursuing the sale of 48 M-346 fighter jets to the United Arab Emirates at a cost of 1.4 billion pounds (or $1.9 billion), but so far Italy has refrained from proposing that the UAE should be allowed to join the EU.
During his visit to Israel, Berlusconi also delivered an obvious message to Iran's President Ahmadinejad, saying, We will not close our eyes before a state that wishes to destroy a country that is our friend.Still, Italy remains Iran's second trading partner, behind Germany. In 2008, Italy was responsible for approximately 6.1 billion pounds (or $8.4 billion) in trade with Iran, approximately 25 percent of the total trade conducted between the EU and Tehran. Red Alert noted, Berlusconi won no friends among the Palestinians after his speech to the Knesset in which he claimed Israel was justified in launching rocket attacks in the Hamas-controlled Gaza during December 2008 that killed 1,400 Palestinians. Berlusconi recalled Italy's vote against the United Nations report on Israel's December 2008 Operation Cast Lead against Hamas in the Gaza, in which Israel rejected the report presented to the U.N. Human Rights Council by an independent fact-finding committee headed by the South African prosecutor Richard Gladstone. The so-called Goldstone Report sought to criminalize Israel for responding with military force to the Hamas-launched rocket attacks on Israel from the Gaza. Red Alert's author, whose books The Obama Nation and Unfit for Command have topped the New York Times best-sellers list, received his Ph.D. from Harvard University in political science in 1972. For nearly 25 years, beginning in 1981, he worked with banks throughout the U.S. and around the world to develop financial services marketing companies to assist banks in establishing broker/dealers and insurance subsidiaries to provide financial planning products and services to their retail customers. In this career, Corsi developed three different third-party financial services marketing firms that reached gross sales levels of $1 billion in annuities and equal volume in mutual funds. In 1999, he began developing Internet-based financial marketing firms, also adapted to work in conjunction with banks. In his 25-year financial services career, Corsi has been a noted financial services speaker and writer, publishing three books and numerous articles in professional financial services journals and magazines.
Muted market response to EU Greek pledge
ANDREW WILLIS 11.02.2010 @ 19:31 CET
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Market reactions were mixed on Thursday (11 February) after the EU issued a political pledge to bail out Greece if needed. Spreads between Greek bonds and the benchmark German Bund narrowed, European shares ended mostly lower, and the euro slid against the dollar in afternoon trading. Earlier in the day, EU permanent president Herman Van Rompuy read out a statement on the steps of the Bibliotheque Solvay library in central Brussels after a two hour meeting with an inner core of EU leader policy makers. Euro area member states will take determined and co-ordinated action if needed to safeguard financial stability in the euro area as a whole, said the former Belgian prime minister. With daily proceedings for the 27 leaders originally scheduled to take place at 10am, but later postponed 12 noon, insiders suggested snow had been used as an excuse to free up a morning slot for emergency talks on Greece. Mr Van Rompuy, European commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, European Central Bank president Jean-Claude Trichet and Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou met in private to agree the statement's wording, before later presenting it to remaining EU leaders for approval. But analysts said markets were waiting for clearer details of the bailout plan before reacting. All they've done is throw verbal political support behind Greek efforts, said Brian Dolan, chief currency strategist at Forex.com, reports AP.
Diplomats also suggested greater details would not be immediately forthcoming as there was still some disagreement over the best way to funnel support towards Athens, with the EU statement making clear the Aegean state had yet to request any aid.As the largest EU economy, Germany would be expected to stump up the greatest slice of any emergency funding, but Berlin's hand has been restricted by domestic constitutional requirements. Additionally, there is a problem of perception. Countries such as Ireland, which have implemented a series of tough austerity measures, could take issue if Greece were suddenly handed an easier passage.
EU 2020 Strategy
With Greece taking up much of the allotted time, leaders were restricted to under two hours discussion on the EU's 2020 economic strategy over an extended lunch.
Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso achieved broad support for a paper outlining three EU objectives that should be agreed, he said, if Europe is to return to sufficient and sustainable growth. These include the need to boost research and development in order to step up the bloc's productivity, educational reform to help citizens find jobs, and measures to promote greener growth.Mr Van Rompuy produced a paper on the governance aspects of the proposed 10-year plan, also calling for a limited number of objectives, which should then be transferred into differentiated national targets. EU leaders appear to be shying away from the idea of possible sanctions for those member states that fail to live up to their agreed targets, instead moving in the direction of financial rewards for high achievers. More detailed conclusions on EU objectives are expected at the regular March European summit.
EU sanctions against Iran within days, says minister
VALENTINA POP Today FEB 12,10 @ 09:28 CET
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - The European Union could announce very strong sanctions against Tehran within days or weeks, Finnish foreign minister Alexander Stubb said on Thursday (11 February). Last week, Iran declared itself a nuclear state, prompting the US to call for tougher sanctions.The UN security council should take the lead on sanctions, but if that is not successful we'll do it through the EU. I would estimate, in a matter of days or weeks, Mr Stubb said at a press conference in Ottawa, after meeting his Canadian counterpart.Sanctions would involve a financial embargo and issues related to energy, he said.China and Russia have a veto right in the UN security council and could block efforts spearheaded by the US to adopt tougher sanctions on Iran. This week, Moscow expressed frustration with Tehran over the nuclear dossier. But China is more reserved on the matter.Last Thursday, in festivities marking the anniversary of the 1979 Islamic revolution, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced that his country had begun production of highly enriched uranium in defiance of the West. The head of Iran's atomic energy organisation said the first stock of 20 percent fuel was produced and delivered to scientists, he said in a speech before a crowd of several hundred thousand supporters.Mr Ahmadinejad stressed Iran was now a nuclear state which had nothing to hide and would not be bullied. They [the Americans] want to dominate our region, but the Iranian people will never let them do that, he added.
Iran also turned down an offer brokered by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) last year to ship uranium out of the country, enrich it and return it for use in medical research.The US doubts that Mr Ahmadinejad's claims are true, but is pushing for tougher sanctions, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said Thursday. Not taking the IAEA up and its partners up on a very commonsense offer, leads, quite frankly, the world to believe that Iran has other ideas,Mr Gibbs said.As for EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, she has so far kept a cautious line on the possibility of further sanctions. Speaking at an international security conference in Munich last Saturday, Ms Ashton said that the possibilities for dialogue are not exhausted.She did however react to the violent crackdown on opposition protesters in Tehran this week. In a statement issued on Thursday, Ms Ashton said the EU noted with great concern the arrests and violence against opposition leaders.The choices this regime is making vis-a-vis its people and the international community are the wrong ones. No amount of inflated rhetoric can hide that. The regime is letting its own people down; and they deserve better, she said.
Al Qaeda Planned Karni Crossing Attack
by Hana Levi Julian FEB 12,10
(IsraelNN.com) Thursday's air strike by Israel Air force pilots thwarted an intended suicide bombing planned by the international al-Qaeda terrorist organization, according to Israeli military sources.The planes fired rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs) at a squad of terrorists who were preparing to carry out a terror attack near the Karni Crossing, killing one. The joint IDF-ISA (Israel Security Agency, also known as “Shin Bet”) operation eliminated the lead terrorist, a member of Global Jihad, and wounded a second one as well. Military sources said al-Qaeda had masterminded the terrorist operation.Local Palestinian Authority Arab sources claimed the terrorist who was killed in the strike, Fares Ahmed Jaber, was not a Global Jihad member, however. They claimed that Jaber was a member of the al-Quds Brigades, the armed wing of the Islamist Palestinian Islamic Jihad group. Although the group has carried out numerous suicide bombings in the past, there have been no major attacks since 2007, when an operative allegedly connected with the organization blew up a small bakery in Eilat, killing three workers.
Officials in the IDF Southern Command told Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu during his tour of the region last month that al-Qaeda would attempt to infiltrate terrorists into Israel disguised as Sudanese refugees. They warned that al-Qaeda operatives are attempting to sneak through the holes in the Egyptian border to set up a terror cell in Israel.One of the three Hamas-linked terrorist groups that combined forces in the attack that led to the kidnapping of IDF soldier Gilad Shalit in on June 25, 2006 was the Army of Islam, led by the Gaza-based Doghmush clan, which is reportedly connected with al-Qaeda. The Army of Islam terror group was also responsible for the March 2007 kidnapping of the British Broadcasting Corporation's (BBC) Gaza City bureau chief Alan Johnston, who was held hostage for nearly four months before he was finally allowed to go free. Gilad Shalit is still being held captive; his condition and whereabouts are unknown.
Terrorists Set Off Bomb Near IDF Patrol; No Soldiers Hurt
by David Lev FEB 12,10(IsraelNN.com)
Israel Radio reported that the other terrorists got away, and that aircraft were patrolling the skies over Gaza, searching for them.On a patrol of the Gaza border fence Friday morning, a Golani unit came across a group of four Gaza Arab terrorists who were placing an explosive device along the fence, apparently intending to detonate it when patrols passed by. The troops opened fire at the terrorists, who began running away – but not before they set off a large explosion. Fortunately, none of the soldiers were hurt in the incident near the Kissufim crossing.Troops continued firing at the terrorists, supported by air power. Reports from Gaza said that one of the terrorists was killed in the battle. Israel Radio reported that the other terrorists got away, and that aircraft were patrolling the skies over Gaza, searching for them.
In a separate incident, Gaza terrorists began firing at IDF patrols in an area east of the Al-Burej refugee camp. None of the Israeli forces were hurt. Troops fired back, reportedly wounding two terrorists. Gaza terrorists also fired a mortar shell at the western Negev Friday morning. No injuries or damage were reported.Friday was the second day in a row that terrorists attempted to attack soldiers along the Gaza border. On Thursday, a gang of terrorists opened fire at IDF soldiers. Soldiers returned the fire, as the terrorists fled into a populated area. Gaza sources said that two people were wounded from the IDF fire. No soldiers were wounded. Israeli planes dropped leaflets on the area, instructing people to remain in their homes, and then began shooting at the gang of terrorists, one of whom was reportedly killed in the battle.
Ahmedinajad: We’ve Upgraded Our Enriched Uranium
by Hillel Fendel FEB 12,10
(IsraelNN.com) The US Defense Secretary says sanctions on Iran are only weeks away, and Russia hints it will join in as well. In honor of the 31st anniversary of the Islamic takeover in Iran, President Mahmoud Ahmedinajad continues to provoke the West, saying his country is proceeding quickly towards nuclear power. Only two days after the announcement that Iran had begun stepping up its enrichment program of uranium from 3.5% purity to 20%, Ahmedinajad told a crowd of tens of thousands that the deed is already done. He said that the 20% uranium has already been delivered to the scientists working on producing nuclear power.
Ahmedinejad: We're Not Afraid of You
The dictator said, though, that Iran does not plan to produce nuclear weapons. If we wanted to make a bomb, we would announce this,he said. Our nation has the courage to say what it means, and we’re not afraid of you [the West].Uranium enriched to a 90% level of purity is necessary for nuclear weapons. Experts say that if Iran can enrich uranium to 20%, it could theoretically proceed and reach the 90% level. The Iranian dictator, whose forces fired at anti-government protestors earlier in the day, said his government has the ability to enrich uranium even to 80%, but we won’t do it, because we don’t need it.The West doesn’t entirely believe Ahmedinajad, and international sanctions against Iran appear to be closer than ever. U.S. President Obama said that Iran is headed towards nuclear arms, and that sanctions are apparently the next step.He insisted that the door for negotiations is still open, however.Russia, too, has implied that sanctions will have to be imposed on Iran, and said that the Western fears of Iranian nuclear weapons are justified. China, however, still objects to sanctions, though less vocally than in the past; its veto on the UN Security Council could thwart the plan to impose them.
Israel Under Threat Again
Meanwhile, Iranian media also reported on Thursday that in a talk with Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad, Ahmedinajad said that should Israel use military force in the region, it must be destroyed.If the Zionist regime makes the same mistakes and initiates a military mission, the Iranian is said to have told the Syrian by phone, there will be an obligation to fight it with the maximum force in order to put an end to it once and for all. He said that Iran has trustworthy information that Israel is planning such a mission.
FROM JOSEPH FARAH'S G2 BULLETIN-New cold war gaining steam-Intel report reveals China's new tone February 12, 2010 12:50 am Eastern 2010 WorldNetDaily
Editor's Note: The following report is excerpted from Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin, the premium online newsletter published by the founder of WND. Subscriptions are $99 a year or, for monthly trials, just $9.95 per month for credit card users, and provide instant access for the complete reports.
Black Hawk helicopters
LONDON – A secret intelligence report warns a number of Western nations soon could be caught up in a new cold war brewing between China and the United States, according to a report from Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin. The dispute apparently was sparked by a Washington decision to arm Taiwan with $6.4 billion of state-of-the art weapons systems. The deal includes 60 Black Hawk helicopters, 114 Patriot anti-missile missiles and 12 Harpoon missiles. Now the impact could be felt in Britain as well as Germany, France and other European nations that have substantial trading relationships with China. For the U.K., the slowest nation to recover from global recession, any threat to its business relations with China could be devastating.
Keep in touch with the most important breaking news stories about critical developments around the globe with Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin, the premium, online intelligence news source edited and published by the founder of WND. The threat is contained in a highly confidential report about the U.S. sale to Taiwan and Washington's criticism of China's position on Tibet, climate change, Internet freedom and human rights that has poisoned relationships between the Obama administration and Beijing. The collective views of global industrialists, internationalists, economists and heads of companies who trade with China have been analyzed by MI6 strategists for the intelligence service's political chief, Foreign Secretary David Milliband. Sources close to Milliband say he is alarmed that the Chinese leadership could use the arms sale to Taiwan as a reason to sell a range of its latest weapons to Syria and Iran to kick-start the trading cold war. Both those countries already present strategic problems for Britain and other nations which trade with China. Certainly Britain would strongly object to China arming either country,said a Foreign Office source in London. But the MI6 analysts conclude that senior members of the People's Liberation Army have argued, China must pressure the United States and those countries who trade with China and do not criticize American policies.One of the Beijing leaders, Liu Menxiong, last week insisted, If Washington can arm Taiwan we should be allowed to trade what we like and with who we wish. The North Koreans have stood up to America and nothing has happened to them. And Iran is doing the same. We should support them.
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.
Cold may cut plans for New Year travelers in China
Fri Feb 12, 3:17 am ET
BEIJING – Severe rain and snowstorms may create delays and dangerous road conditions for millions of travelers going home for the Lunar New Year this weekend, China's national meteorological bureau warned Friday.The weeklong Lunar New Year holiday, which begins Saturday, is a time to return home for tens of millions of China's migrant workers who live in the country's cities.Meteorologists urged travelers to closely monitor weather reports during the holiday period for harsh weather that could lead to icy roads and low visibility, according to a report posted on the China Meteorological Administration Web site.China has experienced an especially harsh winter this year, with record-breaking blizzards in China's western regions of Xinjiang and Tibet and to the north in Inner Mongolia and Heilongjiang province.The cold front, which will bring snowstorms to northern China, will continue for one to two days, the report said. Rain is expected throughout southern China.
The weekend is the most important holiday of the year in China. The Ministry of Railways has estimated that 210 million passengers — more than Russia's population — will ride the rails during the 40-day New Year travel season, up 10 percent from the previous year. The holiday officially lasts six days, but many workers take a month off.In 2008, heavy snowfalls and cold weather badly hampered travel during the New Year period, stranding millions of people at train stations. The snow that year was the worst in China in five decades, caused billions of dollars in economic losses and led to the deaths of 100 people.
THESE CLIMATE CHANGE NUTS JUST WILL NOT STOP AS I SAID THE OTHER DAY.
US climate skeptics seize on blizzard by Shaun Tandon – Thu Feb 11, 10:06 pm ET
WASHINGTON (AFP) – US opponents of climate change action are seizing on a record snowfall in Washington in hopes of killing legislation to curb carbon emissions, which already faced uncertain political prospects.Environmentalists have launched a swift counter-attack, pointing out that Olympics host Vancouver is facing a dearth of snow and saying the extreme weather may in fact offer proof, not a rebuttal, of changing climate patterns.With Washington and other eastern cities digging out from the heaviest snow in decades, conservatives have gone on the offensive and mocked leaders who warned about the planet's heating -- in particular, former vice president Al Gore.It's going to keep snowing in DC until Al Gore cries uncle, Senator Jim DeMint, a Republican from South Carolina, wrote on micro-blogging website Twitter.Republican Senator James Inhofe of Oklahoma, a leading climate change skeptic, joined his family in building an igloo on Capitol Hill with signs reading Al Gore's new home and Honk if you love global warming.I know that somebody is going to end up tearing it down, Inhofe said on his blog. Because there are a lot of people who can't take a joke.President Barack Obama sharply changed US policy on climate change when he took office last year. The House of Representatives in June approved the first nationwide plan to force cuts in carbon emissions blamed for global warming.But the legislation has bogged down in the Senate, where Obama's Democratic Party last month lost a seat to a Republican who opposes action on the heat-trapping gases.
Senator John Kerry, the leading force behind the legislation, dismissed suggestions that the snow could bury the bill.The inside-the-Beltway conventional wisdom that this issue has stalled is dead wrong,said Kerry, a Democrat from Massachusetts.
Comprehensive legislation will not only speed economic recovery, but it will put our country on the path to sustainable long-term economic growth, Kerry said.But Senator Charles Grassley, a Republican from Iowa, said he heard Obama tell Democrats the Senate bill would not include a so-called cap-and-trade system -- which would restrict emissions but allow a trade in credits.I think that the chances of that going through are very, very bad, he said, pointing in part to a backlash to the unruly Copenhagen summit in December.Environmentalists accused climate skeptics of misunderstanding the science behind snowstorms.While few meteorologists linked the blizzard directly to climate change, some said it showed the El Nino effect -- where unusually warm sea surface temperatures in the Pacific Ocean move east, pulling rainfall along with them.Jeff Masters, director of meteorology at the Weather Underground website, said that the snow proved little more than that we get pretty darn cold in the winter.If it's cold enough to snow, you will get snow, he said.We still have winter, even though temperatures have warmed on average about one degree Fahrenheit (0.5 Celsius) over the past 100 years.The Obama administration has pledged to move ahead on climate change. It has signed on to an accord from the Copenhagen summit with a pledge to cut US emissions by 17 percent by 2020 from 2005 levels.
A 2007 report by a UN panel of scientists said that human-caused climate change was unequivocally a fact and that it would threaten droughts, floods and other severe weather along with the survival of entire species if unchecked. The IPCC has since come under fire after admitting that one assertion, that Himalayan glaciers were at risk, was unsubstantiated. Leaked emails from the scientists also showed what critics believe are attempts to restrict debate. The IPCC's 'consensus' is slowly eroding away in the face of embarrassing disclosures about the poor quality of data and information it has used to make projections about climate change,Inhofe said. But the panel has stood by the bulk of its work, as have policymakers in most nations.
Eurozone recovery falters, Germany flat By Pan Pylas, Ap Business Writer – FEB 12,10
BRUSSELS – The 16 countries that use the euro barely grew in the fourth quarter, as a modest recovery stalled amid turmoil in financially troubled members such as Greece and a disappointingly flat performance from Germany, the biggest euro economy.
The figures lagged well behind fourth-quarter growth in the United States and raised concerns that Europe could slip back into recession as government stimulus efforts expire and the continent struggles with a government debt crisis in some countries.
Eurozone gross domestic product grew by only 0.1 percent in the last three months of 2009 from the previous three-month period, EU statistics agency Eurostat said Friday.
Export powerhouse Germany turned in zero growth as consumption levels remained weak — reinforcing analysts' thinking that sustained growth in Europe will have to wait until household spending picks up decisively.The eurozone growth figure fell short of expectations for a 0.4 percent increase and stoked worries the eurozone may dip back into recession.The euro took a further battering for the euro on currency markets. By late morning London time, the euro was trading at near nine-month lows $1.3535, a full cent lower than where it was when the German figures came out.
Today's data shows that the recovery in the euro area is a long way off from being self-sustained, said Jorg Radeke, an economist at the Centre for Economic and Business Research.The third quarter increase of 0.4 percent had encouraged hopes that the eurozone recovery would be solid, especially as U.S. growth spiked sharply higher — it was up a quarterly 1.4 percent — during the period and China continues to grow strongly.However, the recovery in the third quarter now appears likely to have been due to temporary factors like government spending boosts, a build-up in inventory levels and car scrappage schemes that pay people to trade in old cars, particularly in Germany.A real concern in the markets now is that upcoming austerity programs in places like Greece, Spain, Portugal and Ireland will continue to depress activity in those countries and further undermine the overall eurozone recovery.
Given the state of the public finances across many euro member states, fiscal tightening may be too early in many of those countries struggling to maintain growth,said Radeke from the Centre for Business and Economic Research.The Eurostat figures clearly showed that the countries most affected by the debt crisis are struggling.Greece, which is in the midst of a debt crisis that made EU leaders to pledge support on Thursday, saw its output shrink by 0.8 percent. Portugal's output was unchanged following two solid quarterly increases, and Spain's economy contracted by a further 0.1 percent as it continues to suffer from its property market collapse and near 20 percent unemployment levels.The third quarter recovery in Italy also proved to be short-lived as the eurozone's third largest economy shrank by 0.2 percent during the period.France, the eurozone's second-largest economy, appears to have been the main reason behind the overall rise in the fourth quarter in the eurozone, as it posted a respectable 0.6 percent increase in output.
The fourth quarter figures cap a miserable economic year — for 2009 as a whole, the eurozone economy, which includes around 330 million people, contracted by a massive 4percent.Though most economists as well as the European Central Bank expect growth this year, it's unlikely to be remarkable, especially as there are signs of underlying weakness in France — much of the growth there in the fourth quarter was due to car sales, which were boosted by the upcoming scaling back of the car scrappage scheme at the end of the year.An anaemic core and a deflating periphery point to weak eurozone GDP growth this year, said Michael Taylor, an economist at Lombard Street Research. As if further proof were needed that the euro area recovery is not going to plan, separate Eurostat figures showed that industrial production plunged 1.7 percent in December from the previous month. The wider 27-country EU, which includes non-euro members such as Britain and Sweden as well as east European countries including Poland and Hungary, saw fourth quarter GDP rise by 0.1 percent, the same as the eurozone.
China raises bank reserve level to cool credit By JOE McDONALD, AP Business Writer – FEB 12,10
BEIJING – China ordered banks Friday to increase reserves for a second time in a month to cool a credit boom without resorting to interest rate hikes that might derail a recovery in the world's third-largest economy.Chinese leaders worry that a stimulus-driven torrent of lending is fueling a dangerous bubble in stock and real estate prices. They also are concerned that the flood of money surging through the economy is adding to inflation.Beijing declared China had emerged from the global crisis after economic growth rebounded to 10.7 percent in the final quarter of 2009. But authorities say the global outlook is still uncertain, and analysts expect them to try to avoid rate hikes even as they start winding down their stimulus.Banks were ordered Friday to increase reserves by half a percentage point — to 16.5 percent for large lenders and to 14.5 percent for smaller institutions. Rural lenders that serve farmers were exempted to guarantee adequate credit for agriculture.The move was in line with expectations that Chinese authorities were trying to control credit and keep the recovery on track, analysts said. But it still sent European bourses and Wall Street stock futures into the red.The message coming out of China in recent weeks has been quite clear — policymakers are becoming more concerned about containing inflationary expectations and managing the risk of asset price bubbles as a result of last year's aggressive expansion of credit, Jing Ulrich, JP Morgan's chairwoman for China equities, said in a report.We have already seen some scaling back of incentives that have spurred record sales in the domestic property sector and authorities have made clear that they will step up scrutiny of property lending to curb overly rapid price gains in some cities.
The government reported Thursday that January bank lending rocketed to 1.4 trillion ($200 billion) — nearly one-fifth of the planned 2010 total. That was despite a Jan. 12 order to banks to raise reserves, also by 0.5 percent, and repeated commands to keep lending at sensible levels.Also Thursday, the government said the rise in housing costs in 70 Chinese cities accelerated in January, jumping 9.5 percent from a year earlier, up 1.3 percentage points from December's growth rate.Land prices surged by 106 percent last year, according to Standard Chartered Bank, and Chinese newspapers are filled with reports of well-heeled investors paying record prices for luxury apartments and villas.Commercial banks have said they will tighten controls on lending.The country's biggest lender, Industrial & Commercial Bank of China Ltd., said this week it will reject loans to real estate and industrial projects deemed too dirty, energy-intensive or unnecessary.Banks are expected to scale back lending to roughly 7.5 trillion yuan ($1.1 trillion) this year, after handing out some 9.5 trillion yuan ($1.4 trillion), the industry's top regulator, Liu Mingkang, said last month.Analysts say Beijing's move in raising reserves while leaving the total loan target for the year unchanged indicates it will let banks lend the full amount but is trying to force them to smooth out lending over the year instead of making the bulk of loans in the first few months as they usually do.On the Net:People's Bank of China: http://www.pbc.gov.cn
Euro slumps to lowest point vs dollar since May
FEB 12,10
LONDON (AFP) – The European single currency slumped close to a nine-month dollar low point on Friday when markets took a dim view of eurozone growth data and half-baked EU proposals to help debt-ridden Greece.Investors also sought the safe-haven dollar after China ordered financial institutions to increase the amount of money they keep in reserve, as Beijing looked to rein in rampant lending amid fears of asset bubbles.
On other world markets, stocks diverged and crude oil prices slid.In late morning trading here, the euro tumbled to 1.3532 dollars, the lowest level since May 19. That compared with 1.3695 in New York late on Thursday.The euro is weakening in response to ongoing market concerns over the eurozone sovereign debt crisis, said Neil MacKinnon, economist at Russian investment bank VTB Capital.Today's eurozone economic data does not help either. To add to the fire, China raised required reserve ratios again, which is putting risk assets under pressure again.Late on Thursday, EU leaders stopped short of offering bailout funds to rescue Greece, a eurozone member. Deep problems in Greek public finances have highlighted the parlous debt of other crisis-hit countries such as Italy and Spain.The union's 27 leaders vowed determined and coordinated action if needed to safeguard the financial stability in the euro area as a whole, but they have yet to provide details of any action.Official data on Friday showed that Europe's economic recovery has stalled, with the heavyweight German economy grinding to a halt in the fourth quarter of 2009 and Italy switching back to contraction.Economic growth in the 16 nations using the euro single currency was a meagre 0.1 percent over the previous quarter compared to 0.4 percent growth in the third quarter, data agency Eurostat said.Gross domestic product (GDP) -- the combined value of all the goods and services produced in an economy -- fell by 4.0 percent last year in the eurozone.
Weaker GDP figures out of Germany and the eurozone has raised uncertainty over the pace of the economic recovery within Europe helping to sap earlier equity gains, said City Index analyst Joshua Raymond.The figures are a bit of a surprise and have raised tension in Europe, that despite yesterday's agreement to help Greece, the economic recovery within the eurozone may be slower than first hoped.In recent weeks, the euro has been plagued by concerns about rocky public finances in the eurozone -- particularly in peripheral members Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece and Spain.The prospect of an eventual Greek debt default has stalked markets for weeks, with the cost of borrowing shooting through the roof for Athens.Public finances across the world have taken a hammering from emergency fiscal stimulus measures and bank bailouts to counter recession, and tax revenues have been cut by the downturn.
Without specific detail of any (EU) support package (for Greece), there is risk that the eurozone debt crisis escalates which could easily turn into a currency crisis, MacKinnon warned.Lloyds Banking Group economist Kenneth Broux labelled the EU meeting a political bailout -- and added that next week's upcoming meeting of eurozone finance ministers should clarify matters. The summit was a political bailout and lacked substance on the framework of how assistance would work in practice, Broux said. There simply is no rulebook. I hope and expect the Ecofin meeting next week will fill in the blanks, and this will restore some degree of confidence that has deserted the peripheral EU debt markets.European stock markets diverged near the half-way stage on Friday, with Frankfurt up 0.15 percent, London down 0.42 percent and Paris shedding 0.33 percent. Wall Street had rallied Thursday as sentiment was lifted by the EU pledge to help Greece stave off a debt crisis and better-than-expected US labor market data. In Asia on Friday, markets were generally higher in quiet trade ahead of Sunday's Lunar New Year and the start of a week-long holiday in China. Tokyo finished 1.29 percent higher but Hong Kong fell 0.11 in a late bout of profit-taking. Meanwhile in Beijing on Friday, the People's Bank of China said the deposit reserve ratio would be raised by 50 basis points as of February 25, the second increase since the start of the year. The ratio is the minimum amount of money that banks must keep in reserve and not use for lending or other purposes. The announcement is the latest sign the government is moving to control an explosion in new lending that has raised fears of inflation, economic overheating and a possible rash of bad loans.
Oil prices slide on back of strong dollar
FEB 12,10
LONDON (AFP) – World oil prices plunged on Friday as traders took their cue from the strengthening US dollar and eyed a crucial update on energy stockpiles in the United States, analysts said.New York's main futures contract, light sweet crude for delivery in March, fell 1.64 dollars to 73.64 dollars a barrel.Brent North Sea crude for March delivery plunged 1.48 dollars to 72.64 dollars a barrel.Oil sank after the European single currency fell close to a nine-month dollar low, as markets took a dim view of eurozone growth data and unclear EU proposals to help debt-ridden Greece.
In late morning London trade, the euro tumbled to 1.3532 dollars, the lowest level since May 19. That compared with 1.3695 in New York late on Thursday.A stronger dollar usually dampens demand for oil because it makes dollar-priced crude more expensive for buyers using weaker currencies.While European key players and the IMF will not allow a complete failure of Greece, the euro is likely to remain under pressure from the issue and similar concerns for other countries in the region, said analysts at the JBC Energy consultancy in Vienna.EU leaders stopped short Thursday of offering a bailout to rescue eurozone member Greece. Deep problems in Greek public finances have highlighted the parlous debt of other crisis-hit countries such as Italy and Spain.Investors also sought the safe-haven dollar after China ordered financial institutions to increase the amount of money they keep in reserve, as Beijing looked to rein in rampant lending amid fears of asset bubbles.The development was an additional concern for the oil market because China is the world's second biggest energy consuming nation after the United States.Later Friday, traders will digest a key US inventories report for the week ending February 5. The report, usually published on Wednesdays, was delayed due to a snowstorm in the northeastern US.This week, crude futures have edged higher as investors mulled the prospect of EU financial support for crisis-hit Greece -- and as the US east coast experienced its second huge snowstorm in less than a week.The International Energy Agency forecast on Thursday that world oil demand and prices would rise this year, driven higher by strong growth in emerging economies, revising upward its earlier forecasts.
The Paris-based agency said demand was now expected to be 86.5 million barrels per day in 2010 compared to a forecast last month of 86.3, while average prices will rise to 75 dollars per barrel from 58 in 2009.Global daily demand is now estimated at 84.9 million barrels per day (mbd) in 2009, and thus the IEA is predicting a 1.6-mbd increase.Demand growth is expected to come entirely from outside the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), a grouping of 30 developed economies including Britain, France, Germany, Japan and the United States.
Afghans plea for quick, careful attack on Marjah By NOOR KHAN, Associated Press Writer – FEB 12,10
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan – Tribal elders in southern Afghanistan pleaded Friday for NATO forces to wage their imminent offensive on the Taliban stronghold of Marjah quickly and carefully to protect civilians in and around the town.The group of 34 elders said in a letter to provincial officials that their people are frightened and worried they won't be watched after, according to Abdul Hai Agha, an elder from Marjah.We said in this letter that if you are doing this operation in Marjah, do it quickly,Agha told The Associated Press by phone from the nearby provincial capital of Lashkar Gah. They also urged the troops to do their best to avoid civilian casualties during the assault and have food and shelter ready in nearby towns for refugees.U.S. and Afghan forces have ringed Marjah, sealing off escape routes. On Thursday, Taliban defenders repeatedly fired rockets and mortars at units poised in foxholes along the edge of the town, apparently trying to lure NATO forces into skirmishes before the big attack.The offensive in Helmand province — the largest in the nine-year Afghan war — has been telegraphed for weeks. Military officials have said they hope advertising the assault would give civilians more time to get to safety but many of the elders say they're now stuck in a terrifying limbo — unsure how soon the attack will start but certain it will be devastating when it does.
NATO forces have estimated 125,000 people live in the fighting zone. Civilian deaths during military operation are a hot-button issue in Afghanistan, and U.S. commanders have issued strict orders to limit the use of force when civilians are at risk.
Provincial spokesman Daoud Ahmadi said the governor's office had received the letter and that many of the requested measures were in place.We have arranged space for 7,000 families in nearby towns, along with food and items like blankets and dishes, Ahmadi said. He said about 450 families — an estimated 2,700 people — have already sought refuge in Lashkar Gah, about 20 miles (30 kilometers) northeast of Marjah. Many of them took up with relatives but more than 100 were being sheltered by the government, he said.On Friday, the road between Marjah and Lashkar Gah was clogged with cars and trucks filled with people fleeing ahead of the assault, according to AP Television News footage. Many said they had to leave quickly and secretly to avoid recrimination from Taliban commanders.We were not allowed to come here. We haven't brought any of our belongings; we just tried to get ourselves out, said an elderly woman in a black headscarf who was on a minibus with three of her sons. Bibi Gul said she had three more sons she had to leave behind.Others said they had to wait to leave when Taliban commanders weren't watching.Police searched the vehicles for any signs of militants, in one case prodding bales of cotton with a metal rod in search of hidden weapons.The plea from elders came a day after Afghanistan's interior minister met with about 300 tribal leaders in Lashkar Gah to explain the goals of the operation and ask for their support.It was unclear whether the government's dialogue with elders had delayed the start of the offensive.
During the meeting, Helmand's governor urged the elders to use any connections they have with Taliban fighters in and around Marjah to ask them to lay down their weapons and come over to the government side.Gov. Gulab Mangal asked the elders to use any avenue you have, direct or indirect, to tell the Taliban who don't want to fight that they can join with us, according to the chief of Helmand's provincial council, Mohammad Anwar Khan.On their side, the elders begged for limited use of air strikes because of the potential for civilian deaths, Khan said.It was unclear whether the governor's plea was likely to lead to action. Another one of the elders at the meeting, Mohammad Karim Khan, said he would not dare to start going up to Taliban in his area and telling them to give up their guns to the government. We can't talk to the Taliban. We are farmers and poor people and we are not involved in these things like the politicians are, said Khan, who is not related to the provincial council chief. But one of the main drafters of the letter to government officials said he and some others had been reaching out to local Taliban commanders.
We have talked to some of the Taliban over the phone and we have told them: This is your country. Don't create problems for your fellow Afghans and don't go on a suicide mission,said Abdul Rehman Jan, an elder who lives in Lashkar Gah. However, Jan said they don't expect to be able to bring anyone in because most of the Afghan Taliban have already fled the area. Militant commanders from the Middle East or Pakistan have stayed on and they want to fight,Jan said. In the east, meanwhile, villagers accused a joint Afghan-NATO force of killing civilians during an overnight raid in Paktia province. NATO said it killed several insurgents on the compound and troops found the bodies of two men and two bound-and-gagged women when they searched it. Afghan officials in Paktia said they are investigating the deaths of five people in a home near the provincial capital of Gardez. Police Chief Gen. Azizudin Wardak said the five — two men and three women — were killed Thursday night during a party. One man worked for the police and another worked for the attorney general's office, he said.
Who killed them? We still don't know,he said. Also in Paktia province, the Taliban claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing on a U.S. military base Thursday that injured five Americans. The base is 400 miles (640 kilometers) northeast of Marjah.
Associated Press Writer Amir Shah contributed to this report from Kabul. (This version CORRECTS Corrects that Agha is from Marjah, sted Nad Ali in graf 2. ADDS at least one elder talking to Taliban, investigation into deaths in Paktia. AP Video.)
Iran supreme leader lauds state rally, warns West By NASSER KARIMI, Associated Press Writer – FEB 12,10
TEHRAN, Iran – Iran's supreme leader praised the mass turnout at the government-backed rally marking the 1979 Islamic Revolution and warned the West to stop putting obstacles in his country's path, state Press TV reported Friday.Ayatollah Ali Khamenei thanked the tens of millions across the country who celebrated Thursday's anniversary, saying the turnout at rallies reflected the nation's strength.During Thursday's anniversary celebration, security forces clamped down hard on scattered anti-government demonstrations in the Iranian capital.Police clashed with opposition activists, firing tear gas to disperse them and paintballs to mark them for arrest. Groups of hard-liners also attacked senior opposition figures — including the wife of the head of the reform movement.The massive government rally in central Tehran dwarfed the opposition gatherings, which were far smaller than other outpourings of dissent in recent months. Still, Thursday's events showed authorities must rely on full-scale pressures to keep a lid on demonstrations.Khamenei said Thursday's rally should be a wake-up call for the domestic enemies and deceived groups who claim to represent the people.He blasted the West, saying it was time for foreign enemies to abandon futile efforts to subjugate Iran.The past 31 years are not enough to awaken a few arrogant and bullying states to their futile efforts to dominate this Islamic nation,said Khamenei, who has final say on all state matters.
The authorities had worried ahead of the anniversary that any significant protests or clashes would be seen as a major embarrassment on a day intended to showcase national achievements and unity.An array of riot police, undercover security agents and hard-line militiamen — some on motorcycles — had fanned out across Tehran on Thursday in what appeared to be the largest deployment since the post-election mayhem.Hard-liners and security forces prevented opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi and his wife, Zahra Rahnavard, from attending an opposition gathering. Plainclothes Basij militiamen beat the 65-year-old Rahnavard with clubs on her head and back until her supporters formed a human ring around her and whisked her away, according to Mousavi's Web site.Hard-liners also attacked the car of another opposition leader, Mahdi Karroubi, and smashed its windows.Karroubi's son Taghi said his brother Ali, 36, was detained by security forces on Thursday and badly beaten. He was later released and the family took him to a hospital in serious condition, suffering from internal bleeding and a broken arm.He was severely tortured. They beat him to the verge of death, said Taghi Karroubi, speaking Friday on the phone to a reporter outside Iran.However, Thursday's clashes were significantly less violent than previous opposition protest in late December, when eight people died and hundreds were arrested.Authorities also jammed the Internet and mobile phones to disrupt the opposition. In Tehran, Internet speeds dropped dramatically and e-mail services such as Gmail were widely blocked.Three major international broadcasters condemned Iran over its deliberate electronic interference in their broadcasts.
The BBC, Deutsche Welle and Voice of America said in a joint statement the jamming began Thursday. They said Iran was broadcasting freely around the world while denying its own people programs coming from the outside.Iran's elite Revolutionary Guard, which was in charge of security for the rally, issued a statement Friday echoing Khamenei's words and saying the anniversary showed the will of the nation could not be defeated and is strong as steel.The government has regularly accused the U.S. and Britain of fomenting Iran's unrest. It has put more than 100 opposition activists and figures on trial since August on charges of fomenting the postelection turmoil. Ten have been sentenced to death and dozens to prison terms ranging from six months to 15 years. In a nationally televised address from the anniversary gathering, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad defied the West and boasted that Iran has become a nuclear state. He dismissed new U.S. sanctions and denigrated President Barack Obama's efforts to repair relations. Ahmadinejad said Iran has produced the first batch of 20 percent enriched uranium — sufficient strength to power Iran's research reactor — though he did not say how much uranium had been enriched. Such a process has been at the heart of a U.N.-drafted proposal to provide Iran with reactor-ready fuel in exchange for its stockpile of low-enriched uranium. Iran has repeatedly blocked the plan with conditions and caveats. The announcement of the higher-enriched uranium adds to Western worries that Iran has long-term goals to develop nuclear arms — even though it is still below the 90 percent-plus level needed for a weapon. Iran denies the accusation and insists it only seeks to produce energy and medical isotopes. Associated Press Writer Scheherezade Faramarzi in Beirut contributed to this report.
I WONDER COULD IRAN BE READY TO SHOOT AN ELECTRO MAGNETIC PULSE BOMB IN THE AIR OVER AMERICA TO CRIPPLE IT.ONLY TIME WILL TELL WAS THIS STORY A TEST RUN.IRAN MIGHT BE LEADING AMERICA ON WITH THE URANIUM SCARE WHILE SECRETLY GETTING AN EMP IN A ROCKET TO DESTROY AMERICAS ECONOMY.
Iran accused of jamming foreign broadcasts
FEB 12,10
LONDON (AFP) – Three international broadcasters on Friday accused Iran of deliberately jamming their output.
Britain's BBC, German broadcaster Deutsche Welle and the Voice of America said the interference began on Thursday as Iran celebrated the anniversary of the 1979 Islamic Revolution.They accused Iran of broadcasting freely around the world while denying the Iranian people programmes coming from outside the country.BBC World News was the latest TV channel to be jammed this week.We condemn any jamming of these channels, said a joint statement by Peter Horrocks, Director of BBC World Service, Erik Bettermann, Director of Deutsche Welle and Dan Austin, Director of Voice of America.It contravenes international agreements and is interfering with the free and open flow of international transmissions that are protected by international treaties.The jamming violates article 45 of the constitution of the International Telecommunication Union that prohibits signal interference and we look to the international regulatory community to take a firmer stance on this deliberate act of jamming.The broadcasters called on satellite operators and regulators to take urgent action to put pressure on Iran to stop this activity.
The Iranian authorities are using the same satellite services to broadcast freely around the world including broadcasts in English and Arabic; at the same time they are denying their own people programmes coming from the same satellites from the rest of the world, they added.BBC Persian, the corporation's London-based Farsi-language TV channel, has angered Iranian authorities by broadcasting interviews and comment from opposition supporters.The contested re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in June sparked the most serious unrest in Iran since the 1979 Islamic revolution.The leader of prayers in Tehran on Friday insisted the Iranian people were putting on a show of solidarity for the Islamic revolution anniversary despite the attempts of enemies to wreck the event with protests.
Greek PM says EU took too long to show support by ELENA BECATOROS, Associated Press Writer – FEB 12,10
ATHENS, Greece – Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou on Friday criticized the European Union as timid and too slow to express unified support for his country during its financial crisis, a day after Greece won backing — but no detailed bailout plan — at an EU summit.Speaking during a Cabinet meeting on his return from the meeting Thursday in Brussels Papandreou said that while the country had received a statement of support, delays and conflicting statements over the past few months had made things worse.In the last few months of this crisis, the EU gave its political support. There is also institutional support of our program, Papandreou said during the Cabinet meeting.But in the battle against the impressions and the psychology of the market, it was at the very least timid, he said.For what the future holds regarding the crisis there were, in the last months in the EU, multiple voices, differences and diverging statements. Speculation about our country which created a psychology of imminent collapse. Prophesies which risked becoming self-fulfilling.
Greece's debt crisis has plunged the euro, the currency used by 16 EU nations, into the worst turmoil it has seen since it was launched 11 years ago. Papandreou, who took office in October, blamed the previous government's criminal policies for falsifying statistics that meant the incoming Socialists had to revise the budget deficit figures to 12.7 of economic output for 2009, far above the 3.7 percent estimated the previous spring.The markets have hammered Greece in recent weeks, pushing up the spreads, or difference between 10-year Greek bonds and a the German benchmark bonds which measure the market's perception of a risk of default. Greece's problems have also weighed on the euro.There was a lack of coordination between the various bodies of the Union, the Commission, the member states, the European Central Bank. Even differing opinions within those bodies, Papandreou said, adding that there were divergent opinions as to what should be done: multiple doctors with differing prescriptions over the patient that is Greece.On Thursday in Brussels, the 16 eurozone countries promised to take determined and coordinated action, if needed, to safeguard financial stability in the euro area as a whole.But they left out any detail about what they might do to prevent the country from defaulting on its massive debt, and markets reacted coolly. The spreads on Greek 10-year bonds rose to 2.98 percentage points Friday afternoon, up from about 2.70 percentage points on Thursday night, but still down from 3.5 percentage points the week before. The Athens Stock Exchange was down 1.98 percent in late afternoon trading.Papandreou's government has announced an austerity program that includes freezing civil servants' salaries, cutting bonuses and stipends and hiking taxes and the average retirement age by two years to 63. Unions have responded with strikes, although turnout for protest marches during a civil servants' strike on Wednesday was low.
Papandreou said that Greece faced a long road to recovery.This battle isn't over, he said during the Cabinet meeting. I would say it's just beginning, with an important decision by the European Union to support the efforts of Greece, to support the eurozone.French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde said the moment of truth for Greece will come in March and that the European Union and IMF will be watching closely to make sure Athens fulfills its promises to pay off debts.Asked whether European finance ministers would firm up details of possible aid to Greece at a meeting Monday, Lagarde said in an interview on French radio RMC, We will discuss it without doubt. She would not elaborate.Greece will need financing in the spring. We have an appointment in March to see whether they have done what they said they would do. It will be a moment of truth, she said.Greece will report back to EU nations in March on progress on its debt-fighting measures, and based on that progress, the EU and the European Central Bank could order tougher action that Greece may find difficult to implement. The EU is seeking help from International Monetary Fund experts to make that March assessment.Lagarde said it was important that we recognize, without seeking IMF financing, that we say there are people whose job it is to go and verify that plans are respected, that measures are taken, and that we will use their expertise in the field to see whether the Greeks are doing what they committed themselves to or not.Associated Press writer Angela Charlton in Paris contributed to this report.
France does not believe Iran's nuclear claim
Fri Feb 12, 6:01 am ET
PARIS – France does not believe Iran's claim that it is capable of enriching uranium to near weapons-grade levels, the country's foreign minister said Friday.Bernard Kouchner told Europe 1 radio that the Americans don't believe, not any more than us, that Iran is currently capable of enriching uranium to 80 percent.But Iran's claim adds to the dangerousness of the situation, he said.Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said this week that Iran has the capacity to enrich uranium more than 20 percent or 80 percent but that it doesn't intend to build a bomb. A 90 percent-plus level is needed for a weapon.White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said Thursday that Iran's leadership has made a series of statements about its nuclear prowess based on politics, not physics. We do not believe they have the capability to enrich to the degree to which they now say they are enriching, he said in Washington.Still, the Obama administration said such claims were still disturbing and fed fears that Iran's long-term goal is to make nuclear weapons.Iran says its nuclear program is for energy and medical isotopes.France has joined the United States in pushing for a new, fourth round of sanctions against Iran for defying U.N. demands to suspend uranium enrichment. Kouchner said France is working now to persuade China, Brazil and other U.N. Security Council members to back new measures.
Shah's son wants help for Iran's opposition By ELAINE GANLEY, Associated Press Writer – Thu Feb 11, 9:33 pm ET
PARIS – Reza Pahlavi, whose father, the shah of Iran, was toppled from power 31 years ago, said Thursday the international community must step up its support for Iran's opposition movement and stop focusing on the country's nuclear program.In an interview with The Associated Press, Pahlavi said nations such as the United States should not even bother with a new round of sanctions regarding Iran's nuclear program, if punitive measures merely maintain the status quo.Instead, he suggested the kind of encouragement that helped end South Africa's apartheid system and influenced the breakup of the Soviet Union.Pahlavi, 50, said that should include dialogue with Iran's opposition, which has kept up periodic street protests in the country since the disputed June presidential elections despite a fierce crackdown.
He also said the opposition needs outside technological support to beat government eavesdropping and Internet crackdowns in Iran, and to stay connected with the outside world.The world is facing a regime today that is totalitarian, racist, fascist, and yet what has been done about it? he said in Paris during a visit from the U.S., where he lives outside Washington D.C.To this day no one has officially said ... enough is enough, he said.As he spoke, Iran celebrated the birth of the Islamic Republic in 1979 and the overthrow of Pahlavi's father, the late Mohammed Reza Pahlavi.The shah's son said Western leaders must reach out to Iran's opposition movement, but instead they have displayed bashfulness,hesitancy or even passivity.
He criticized what he called President Barack Obama's tepid outreach to the Iranian people and their exiled opposition.He noted that 40 Nobel Prize winners appealed to Obama and other world leaders this week in a New York Times ad to let the Iranian people know that we are on their side.I never thought I would see the day when Joan Baez sings ... in Farsi, Pahlavi said, referring to the folk singer's recent version of We Shall Overcome — sung partially in the Iranian language.For God's sake, it has become an international cry going unheeded by world leaders.Pahlavi recommended tacit dialogue with Iran's opposition and diplomatic outreach to isolate the regime.
Iranian officials claim foreign powers are behind the country's reform movement, but Pahlavi insisted that is not correct.Western nations are pressing for a possible fourth set of U.N. sanctions on Iran for its failure to comply with U.N. resolutions aimed at guaranteeing it cannot produce nuclear weapons.Pahlavi said a window of opportunity may slip away while the world is dilly-dallying over sanctions, instead of focusing on issues such as human rights abuses in Iran.External sanctions against the regime do not suffice. You have to bring into your calculation ... an element of pressure from within, he said. And the only way (to) do that is by strengthening the hand of the people inside the country.If sanctions are going to be all you're going to be doing while keeping the status quo, don't even bother, he said. Pahlavi said he wants to see a peaceful transition, via civil disobedience, to a parliamentary democracy with a clear separation of religion from government.He said he favors a referendum so Iranians can choose their form of government, and he predicted change could come within a matter of months — if not maybe a couple of years tops — if society is empowered and dialogue not limited to the regime. Nothing bars the world from having a line of dialogue with the opposition and that, strangely, has been absent,he said. The level of support that Pahlavi or other exiled opposition movements have inside Iran today is unclear. Three decades after the Islamic Revolution, Iranian youth, the majority population, has never known the country as a monarchy. Last month, authorities hanged two men convicted of belonging to outlawed monarchist groups and plotting to overthrow the Islamic regime.
DRUG PUSHERS AND ADDICTS
REVELATION 18:23
23 And the light of a candle shall shine no more at all in thee; and the voice of the bridegroom and of the bride shall be heard no more at all in thee: for thy merchants were the great men of the earth; for by thy sorceries (DRUGS) were all nations deceived.
REVELATION 9:21
21 Neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries (DRUGS), nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts.
EARTH DESTROYED WITH THE EARTH
GENESIS 6:11-13
11 The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.(WORLD TERRORISM,MURDERS)(HAMAS IN HEBREW IS VIOLENCE)
12 And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth.
13 And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence (TERRORISM)(HAMAS) through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth.
Mexico prez presents new plan for violent city By ALICIA CALDWELL, Associated Press Writer – Thu Feb 11, 11:32 pm ET
CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico – Relatives of youths killed in a recent massacre interrupted and jeered President Felipe Calderon as he pledged Thursday night to spend more on social programs to curb runaway drug gang violence in this border city.If you had a son killed, you would have looked for the murderer even under rocks, a sobbing Luz Davila, whose two teenage sons were among 15 killed in the Jan. 31 attack, told Calderon.But I don't have the resources.Inside a convention center, Calderon said the government will invest in sports centers for youths, more schools and day care centers and provide financial aid to 25,000 families living in poverty. He was widely criticized for not visiting Ciudad Juarez sooner after the massacre, in which gunmen burst into a party and opened fire with automatic weapons.Many of the victims were teens with no known criminal ties, and the attack outraged even hardened residents of Juarez.Police have arrested two men in the attack. One of them, told investigators that drug cartel gunmen went to the neighborhood looking for a member of a rival gang but that once they arrived they were ordered to kill everyone.
Those listening Thursday demanded the president do more to stop the wave of violence that killed more than 2,300 people last year. The bloodshed has the city of 1.3 million people across the border from El Paso, Texas, one of the world's deadliest metropolises.Outside the meeting, police dragged away dozens of demonstrators demanding that Calderon resign. The protesters held signs reading Calderon out! Police forced them across the street, shoving them through muddy puddles.Calderon also met privately with relatives of some of the youths killed in the massacre and apologized for initially saying the attack was a result of a fight between rival drug gangs.Whatever may have been the meaning of my words, I offered the parents my most heartfelt apology if any of my words offended them or the memory of their children, he said afterward.When Calderon referred to the apology at the public meeting, a group of women stood up and turned their backs to the president.Human rights activists at the meeting demanded the army leave Juarez, saying soldiers have abused their power and gone after scapegoats. But Calderon again said he won't withdraw troops despite criticism that their presence has exacerbated violence.If I were certain that withdrawing the Mexican army would end the violence in Juarez, be sure that I would do it. But I'm afraid the opposite would happen, Calderon said.
Calderon has deployed 5,500 soldiers to Ciudad Juarez trying to stop vicious gangs battling for drug-dealing turf and lucrative trafficking routes into the United States, but violent crime has surged.The president said 400 federal agents will focus on investigating kidnappings and extortion in the city.Businessman Manuel Ortega said thousands of Juarez businesses have closed because of extortion. Juarez won't be able to stand another year like last year,he said.Calderon urged Ciudad Juarez residents to let him know of ways to improve on his proposal and said he would return next week.Mexico's government has arrested or killed the leaders of several drug cartels, but drug-related killings have continued. More than 15,000 have died since Calderon launched his crackdown in December 2006.Also Thursday, federal police arrested a rural strongman who allegedly led a group of marijuana and opium poppy growers in southern Guerrero state who sold their crops to the Sinaloa and La Familia drug cartels. The Public Safety Department said in a statement it arrested Rogaciano Alba as he drove near the western city of Guadalajara. It said Alba had been hiding in the state of Jalisco with the help of the leaders of the Sinaloa cartel. Alba hadn't been seen since gunmen killed 17 of his relatives and associates in two attacks in Guerrero state in 2008. Until recently, Alba was the most powerful man in Petatlan, a mountain town near the resorts of Ixtapa and Zihuatenejo, known for drug trafficking and illegal logging.
IF ITS A GODLESS NATION OBAMA IS THE FIRST TO TALK WITH IT.NO DOUBT ABOUT IT.ESPECIALLY MUSLIM NATIONS.OR AMERICA HATERS.
Report: NKorea's top nuclear envoy to visit US By KWANG-TAE KIM, Associated Press Writer – FEB 12,10
SEOUL, South Korea – A top North Korean nuclear envoy will visit the United States for rare bilateral talks next month, a news report said Friday as diplomats pushed to revive negotiations on ending Pyongyang's nuclear program.Plans call for North Korea's Kim Kye Gwan to travel to the U.S. in March, South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported from Beijing, citing an unidentified source. In Washington, State Department spokesman Fred Lash said late Thursday that he had not seen the report.
U.N. political chief, B. Lynn Pascoe, said after concluding a four-day trip to North Korea on Friday that he was unaware of plans for Kim to travel to the U.S.North Korea, believed to have enough weaponized plutonium for at least half a dozen atomic bombs, walked away from disarmament-for-aid negotiations last year during a standoff over its nuclear and missile programs.However, after tightened sanctions and financial isolation, the impoverished nation has reached out to Washington, Seoul and Beijing in recent months.Pascoe, the highest-ranking U.N. diplomat to visit North Korea since 2004, said he met with North Korea's president and foreign minister and argued strongly that the six-party talks should be resumed without preconditions or further delay.However, the North Korean side did not seem prepared to immediately return to the international disarmament talks, he said.The attitude right now as I said is that certainly they were not happy with the sanctions and they were certainly not eager, not ruling out but not eager, to return to the six-party talks, said Pascoe.Pascoe said he was reluctant to describe the North Korean position in any more detail because the U.N. is not directly involved with the negotiations.The disarmament talks involve the two Koreas, the U.S., Japan, Russia and host China.A bilateral meeting between the North Korean envoy and U.S. officials would be a strong sign that the push to get the disarmament talks back on track was gaining traction. It would also confirm a warming in relations between the U.S. and North Korea, wartime rivals that do not have diplomatic relations.
Earlier, spokesman P.J. Crowley said U.S. officials haven't ruled out future meetings with the North Koreans, but we believe firmly that the next meeting that U.S. representatives and others should have with North Korea is through a formal six-party meeting.North Korea wants sanctions eased and a peace treaty with the U.S. formally ending the 1950-53 Korean War if it returns to the six-party talks. Seoul, Tokyo and Washington have all urged Pyongyang to return to the disarmament talks and show progress on denuclearization before any discussions on a peace treaty or sanctions.Associated Press writers Hyung-jin Kim in Seoul, Alexa Olesen in Beijing and Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations contributed to this report.
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