CHINA - END OF THE DOLLAR NEAR

http://www.prisonplanet.com/bombshell-government-admits-fluoride-hurting-children.html (VIDEO)
Bombshell: How Fluoride Is Killing You and Your Children
Aaron Dykes & Alex Jones Prison Planet.com Saturday, January 15, 2011

A significant milestone in the fight against fluoride emerged quietly and without major notice from the mainstream news last week. After decades of ignoring the research about the dangers and hailing water fluoridation as one of the 10 greatest health achievements of the 20th Century (CDC), the government is calling for a reduction in the amount of fluoride it adds to public water supplies, citing its negative effect on teeth (dental fluorosis). For the first time since 1962, the standard for fluoride will be lowered from 1.2 to 0.7 milligrams per liter.Because fluoride from water builds up over time in the human body, this reduction will not eliminate the dangers of fluoride– which include risk of bone cancer, bone fractures, thyroid disorder, brain inflammation, lowered IQ and mental functions, sterility or reduced fertility and more. However, it is a good sign that the powers-that-be are losing ground on the fluoride debate. Further, the reduction of fluoridation is proof that the warnings from activists, critics and health professionals have been heard after all.

As Alex Jones points out in the video, many of those health professionals who have been blowing the whistle on fluoridation for decades are employees or union contractors of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and other governmental regulation agencies. Their objections, based on alarming scientific studies such as the one linking fluoridation with a seven-fold increase in bone cancer for boys, have heretofore been almost wholly ignored, until now. One reason for this government admission, by the way, likely has to do with limiting liability for those harmful effects, or even establishing immunity for districts who adhere to lowering the fluoride standard against future claims to harm.At the same time, hundreds of other chemicals including many toxic ingredients like lead, arsenic, radium and uranium are also found in public drinking water. Many of these dangerous toxins are put into the water as part of the fluoride-cocktail administered in the many municipalities across the United States and other Western countries, or are leached into the supply via the acidic levels of fluoride. The compound is often not simply sodium fluoride, but a mix of toxic waste byproduct [see chart for hydrofluosilicic acid] created in the process of scrubbing phosphate fertilizer plants and in other high industry applications, such as aluminum.Furthermore, while fluoride is scheduled for reduction in public water supplies, it is still very common and often dangerously concentrated in many food products at levels of many more parts per million than water and in pesticides used for food production, and in the soils where those pesticides are used.

Though these other fluoride dangers are significant enough that we need to continue educating and informing our fellow friends, neighbors and families, those who have long spoken out about this issue can cherish one victory on the road to taking back our nation, our lives and our health. Now, with this important government admission, we must push for complete removal of added fluoride from public water in our areas.
Further, as advisors to government bodies around the world attempt to argue for forced mass-medication by adding substances like lithium to public water, we must argue against forced consent and demand one of our most integral human rights– that no government of man can make a law to force medicate us against our will. We have a human right to say no, especially when we know better.

Iran joins Venezuela, Libya to say no harm in $100 oil
By Ramin Mostafavi – Sun Jan 16, 8:36 am ET

TEHRAN (Reuters) – OPEC's leading oil price hawk Iran joined Venezuela and Libya on Sunday to say it saw no need for the cartel to consider raising crude supplies to rein in crude prices now near $100 a barrel.Iranian Oil Minister Massoud Mirkazemi said some members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries saw no need for producers to act even if prices went to $120 a barrel. The comments will be of concern for consumer countries worried that rising commodity costs are igniting inflation and jeopardizing economic recovery.None of the OPEC members find $100 concerning or irrational. Some of the OPEC members see no need for an emergency meeting even with prices at $110 or $120, Mirkazemi, OPEC president for 2011, told a news conference.None of the members have asked for an emergency meeting and I think for a long time there would be no such request, Mirkazemi said.As holder of the rotating OPEC presidency, Iran has responsibility for coordinating any emergency meeting with OPEC's Vienna based secretariat. The next scheduled meeting is not until June 2.Venezuelan Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez said on Sunday that $100 was fair value for crude, a position that Libya also backs.Benchmark Brent crude broke $99 a barrel on Friday, a 27-month high, while U.S. oil futures rose to $91.54, well above the $70-$80 range that OPEC's most influential member Saudi Arabia says is comfortable for both producers and consumers.

WILL SAUDI ACT TO CONTAIN PRICES?

The comments from Iran, Venezuela and Libya will leave consumer countries wondering whether more moderate producer Saudi Arabia and its Gulf allies Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates are prepared to take action to prevent prices escalating further.One delegate from a Gulf OPEC member state told Reuters on Thursday OPEC could hold an emergency meeting if oil prices exceed $100 and stay there.Influential Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi said in December that Riyadh was still committed to a $70-$80, a price high enough for producers to invest in new capacity but low enough to encourage world economic recovery.Many in OPEC routinely blame speculators for rising prices but most analysts and industry figures say prices are increasing now because of a recovery in world fuel demand.The market is bullish because there is increasing demand in emerging markets, Christophe De Margerie, the chief executive of French oil major Total said at an industry event in Abu Dhabi on Sunday.

The world economy is just recovering. It would have been better for the prices not to go too high too quickly.Oil hit a record $147 a barrel in 2008 and while analysts do not expect a repeat of that any time soon there are fears that if OPEC does not signal its intention to add supplies, prices could rise significantly above $100.We believe OPEC has an historic opportunity in 2011 to either show its might by keeping oil prices steady or instead to allow further price increases that could put the global economic recovery at risk, said Sabine Schels, commodity strategist at Merrill Lynch Bank of America in London.We are more inclined to believe that Saudi Arabia will act responsibly and encourage OPEC members to increase output early this year.

Hu Highlights Need for U.S.-China Cooperation, Questions Dollar By ANDREW BROWNE JAN 16,11

BEIJING—Chinese President Hu Jintao emphasized the need for cooperation with the U.S. in areas from new energy to space ahead of his visit to Washington this week, but he called the present U.S. dollar-dominated currency system a product of the past and highlighted moves to turn the yuan into a global currency.Associated Press

Chinese President Hu Jintao delivers a speech at a plenary session of the Communist Party of China Central Commission for Discipline Inspection in Beijing on Jan. 10. Mr. Hu's state visit to Washington begins Wednesday.We both stand to gain from a sound China-U.S. relationship, and lose from confrontation, Mr. Hu said in written answers to questions from The Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post.Mr. Hu acknowledged some differences and sensitive issues between us, but his tone was generally compromising, and he avoided specific mention of some of the controversial issues that have dogged relations with the U.S. over the past year or so—including U.S. arms sales to Taiwan that led to a freeze in military relations between the world's sole superpower and its rising Asian rival.On the economic front, Mr. Hu played down one of the main U.S. arguments for why China should appreciate its currency—that it will help China tame inflation. That is likely to disappoint Washington, which accuses China of unfairly boosting its exports by undervaluing the yuan, making its products cheaper overseas. The topic is expected to be high on U.S. President Barack Obama's agenda when he meets Mr. Hu at the White House on Wednesday.

Mr. Hu also offered a veiled criticism of efforts by the U.S. Federal Reserve to stimulate growth through huge bond purchases to keep down long-term interest rates, a strategy that China has loudly complained about in the past as fueling inflation in emerging economies, including its own. He said that U.S. monetary policy has a major impact on global liquidity and capital flows and therefore, the liquidity of the U.S. dollar should be kept at a reasonable and stable level.

Mr. Hu arrived in the U.S. Apriul 12, 2010.
..Mr. Hu's responses reflect a China that has grown more confident in recent years—especially in the wake of the global financial crisis, from which it emerged relatively unscathed.Mr. Hu reiterated China's belief that the crisis reflected the absence of regulation in financial innovation and the failure of international financial institutions to fully reflect the changing status of developing countries in the world economy and finance. He called for an international financial system that is more fair, just, inclusive and well-managed.Mr. Hu, who also heads China's ruling Communist Party, rarely interacts with the international media. The Wall Street Journal submitted a series of questions to China's Foreign Ministry for Mr. Hu to answer. The Washington Post also submitted questions. The Foreign Ministry supplied Mr. Hu's responses to seven questions—but did not address questions about imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo, China's growing naval power and complaints about alleged Chinese cyberattacks, among others.Mr. Hu's veiled criticism of the Fed reflects widespread feelings among developing nations that U.S. interest-rate policy is devaluing the dollar, prompting flows of capital overseas and creating inflation elsewhere. China and other developing countries would like the Fed to factor in those consequences when it makes decisions. Fed officials counter that their mandate is to bolster the U.S. economy and that a stronger U.S. economy is in the interests of China and other countries, which depend heavily on trade and investment from the U.S.

This could be a major issue of contention between Messrs. Hu and Obama. The U.S. blames Chinese currency undervaluation—not Fed policy making—for worsening competitive and inflation problems overseas.This is a new ballgame in the first inning, says Eurasia Group's Ian Bremmer about China's rise. In an interview with WSJ's Rebecca Blumenstein, Bremmer discusses the growth of Chinese economic and military power and President Hu's U.S.visit.Some of Mr. Hu's most significant comments dealt with the future of the dollar and currency exchange rates.The current international currency system is the product of the past, he said, noting the primacy of the U.S. dollar as a reserve currency and its use in international trade and investment.The comment is the latest sign that the dollar's future continues to concern the most senior levels of the Chinese government. Beijing fears not only that loose U.S. monetary policy is fueling inflation, but that it will erode the value of China's holdings of dollars within its vast foreign-exchange reserves, which reached $2.85 trillion at the end of 2010.China's central bank governor, Zhou Xiaochuan, created an international stir in March 2009 by calling for the creation of a new synthetic reserve currency as an alternative to the dollar. Mr. Hu's comments add to the sense that China intends to challenge the post-World War II financial order largely created by the U.S. and dominated by the dollar.Mr. Hu called attention to China's accelerating effort to expand the role of its own currency, describing recent moves to allow greater use of the yuan in cross-border trade and investment—while acknowledging that making it a fully fledged international currency will be a fairly long process.

China's moves already have spawned a thriving market for offshore trading of yuan in Hong Kong, and are widely seen as first steps toward making the yuan an international currency in line with China's new prominence as the world's second largest economy. Mr. Hu offered an enthusiastic endorsement of what are officially described as currency pilot programs. They fit in well with market demand as evidenced by the rapidly expanding scale of these transactions, he said.Mr. Hu didn't signal any changes on the most sensitive aspect of China's currency policy: the exchange rate. Last week, U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner reiterated the U.S. position that a stronger yuan is in China's own best interests, because it would help tame rising inflation that has become a key risk to China's rapid growth, which is underpinning the global economic recovery. A stronger yuan would reduce the price of imports in local-currency terms.But Mr. Hu shrugged off the U.S. argument, saying that China is fighting inflation with a whole package of policies, including interest-rate increases, and inflation can hardly be the main factor in determining the exchange rate policy.Further, Mr. Hu suggested that inflation was not a big worry, saying prices were "on the whole moderate and controllable. He added: We have the confidence, conditions and ability to stabilize the overall price level.The U.S. argues that the yuan's real exchange rate—that is, the exchange rate as adjusted for the higher inflation level in China than the U.S.—is rising at a 10% annual rate. Treasury officials have argued to China that its policy options are limited—either it can boost the exchange rate to fight inflation, or inflation will effectively boost the value of China's currency.While the U.S. says some Chinese economic officials buy that argument, it hasn't been widely adopted within China, as Mr. Hu's comments illustrate. But the U.S. feels that economics and time are on its side. Even so, the administration and Congress will continue to press China to boost the pace of its currency appreciation.Mr. Hu renewed a Chinese pledge to offer a level playing field in China for U.S. companies, which have complained about aggressive Chinese moves to usurp their technology and shut them out of massive government-procurement contracts.

All foreign companies registered in China are Chinese enterprises, Mr. Hu said, responding to concerns that China discriminates in government procurement against foreign businesses as part of its drive to encourage so-called indigenous innovation.He added: Their innovation, production and business operations in China enjoy the same treatment as Chinese enterprises.The U.S. has been pressing China to revamp its plans for indigenous innovation, which foreign companies say put them at a disadvantage in competition with China's state-owned firms, which limits the types of government development projects and requires that companies get government approval to participate. China has pledged to join the World Trade Organization's government procurement agreement, which limits a country's ability to discriminate. But the U.S. and other countries say that so far China's WTO offer is inadequate because it exempts provinces, municipalities and state-owned enterprises. Last month China pledged to amend a buy-Chinese provision. During the Hu visit, the U.S. hopes to see some other commitments on this front from China.Mr. Hu began his answers with a relatively upbeat assessment of China-U.S. relations, which he said had on the whole enjoyed steady growth since the start of this century.He spoke of expanding cooperation from economy and trade into new areas like energy, infrastructure development and aviation and space. We should abandon the zero-sum Cold War mentality, he said, and respect each other's choice of development path.On the diplomatic front, Mr. Hu entirely glossed over what has been one of the most dramatic developments of the past year—a series of disputes between a more assertive China and its neighbors that has given the U.S. an opening to shore up its relations with a part of the world that felt neglected by Washington while it fought wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.In the past year, China has feuded with Japan over the seizure of a Chinese fishing boat and its crew off disputed islands; opened deep differences with South Korea because of its subdued response to military provocations by North Korea; and alarmed countries in Southeast Asia by declaring the South China Sea and its energy and mineral riches one of its core interests.Mutual trust between China and other countries in this region has deepened in our common response to tough challenges, and our cooperation has continuously expanded in our pursuit of mutual benefit and win-win outcomes, Mr. Hu said, ignoring the regional turmoil.
—Jason Dean in Beijing and Bob Davis in Washington contributed to this article.

DOCTOR DOCTORIAN FROM ANGEL OF GOD
then the angel said, Financial crisis will come to Asia. I will shake the world.

JAMES 5:1-3
1 Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you.
2 Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are motheaten.
3 Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days.

REVELATION 18:10,17,19
10 Standing afar off for the fear of her torment, saying, Alas, alas that great city Babylon, that mighty city! for in one hour is thy judgment come.
17 For in one hour so great riches is come to nought. And every shipmaster, and all the company in ships, and sailors, and as many as trade by sea, stood afar off,
19 And they cast dust on their heads, and cried, weeping and wailing, saying, Alas, alas that great city, wherein were made rich all that had ships in the sea by reason of her costliness! for in one hour is she made desolate.

EZEKIEL 7:19
19 They shall cast their silver in the streets, and their gold shall be removed: their silver and their gold shall not be able to deliver them in the day of the wrath of the LORD: they shall not satisfy their souls, neither fill their bowels: because it is the stumblingblock of their iniquity.

REVELATION 13:16-18
16 And he(FALSE POPE) causeth all,(WORLD SOCIALISM) both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:(CHIP IMPLANT)
17 And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.
18 Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.(6-6-6) A NUMBER SYSTEM

WORLD MARKET RESULTS
http://money.cnn.com/data/world_markets/
CNBC VIDEOS
http://www.cnbc.com/id/15839263/?tabid=15839796&tabheader=false

HALF HOUR TORONTO STOCK EXCHANGE RESULTS MON JAN 17,2011

09:30 AM -2.43
10:00 AM -29.90
10:30 AM -26.40
11:00 AM -24.20
11:30 AM -17.20
12:00 PM -12.50
12:30 PM -10.90
01:00 PM -2.20
01:30 PM -5.00
02:00 PM -4.10
02:30 PM +2.00
03:00 PM +6.70
03:30 PM +1.70
04:00 PM -24.00 13,440.10

S&P 500 HOLIDAY

NASDAQ HOLIDAY

GOLD 1,361.10 +0.60

OIL 91.02 -0.52

TSE 300 13,440.10 -24.00

CDNX 2275.45 +4.40

S&P/TSX/60 770.34 -1.34

MORNING,NEWS,STATS

YEAR TO DATE PERFORMANCE
Dow -26 points at 4 minutes of trading today.
Dow -30 points at low today.
Dow +6 points at high today so far.
GOLD opens at $1,359.70.OIL opens at $91.30 today.

AFTERNOON,NEWS,STATS
Dow -30 points at low today so far.
Dow +6 points at high today so far.

WRAPUP,NEWS,STATS
Dow -30 points at low today.
Dow +6 points at high today.

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

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYB-yxxsbig&feature=player_embedded
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cm388ZgQfl4&feature=player_embedded
Confirmed: Stuxnet Was False Flag Launched by Israel and U.S.
Kurt Nimmo Infowars.com January 16, 2011

On Saturday, the Gray Lady of establishment propaganda, the New York Times, passively admitted that the Stuxnet virus responsible for crippling Iran’s nuclear energy program was engineered by Israeli and U.S. intelligence. Officially, neither American nor Israeli officials will even utter the name of the malicious computer program, much less describe any role in designing it, writes the Times. But Israeli officials grin widely when asked about its effects.A number of computer scientists, nuclear enrichment experts and former officials, say the covert race to create Stuxnet was a joint project between the Americans and the Israelis, with help from the Germans and the British. The effort to sabotage Iran began during the Bush administration. In early 2009, Bush signed off on an effort to undermine the electrical and computer systems around Natanz, Iran’s major enrichment center. Obama was briefed on the plan before he took office.In addition to gumming up Iran’s enrichment hardware, the U.S. and Israel have engaged in an assassination campaign aimed at the country’s scientists.In November of last year, Iranian president Ahmadinejad accused Israel and the United States of killing a nuclear scientist and wounding another with a pair of bomb attacks. In January of 2009, a senior physics professor was assassinated. In 2007, Iranian state TV reported that nuclear scientist, Ardeshir Hosseinpour, died from gas poisoning. Israel’s Mossad was suspected. During the news conference, Ahmadinejad also admitted to the Stuxnet attack.

In November, it was reported that the Stuxnet virus had infected 44,000 computers worldwide.Stuxnet is a double-edged sword. In addition to setting back Iran’s nuclear program, the sophisticated malware engineered by the U.S. and Israel at the Dimona complex in the Negev desert has been exploited to push for restrictive cybersecurity measures in the United States.The very fact that Stuxnet exists shows that we can no longer pretend that a cyber attack on our critical infrastructure is hypothetical and hyperbolic, declared Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee chairman Joe Lieberman in November. You’re talking about a very well-resourced and structured adversary.Lieberman and Susan Collins, the panel’s ranking Republican, used Stuxnet to push for their cyber-security bill, entitled The Protecting Cyberspace as a National Asset Act of 2010.The bill would amend the Homeland Security Act of 2002 and extend the already-broad definition of critical infrastructure to the internet and would allow Obama to shut down not only entire areas of the internet, but also businesses and industries that fail to comply with government orders following the declaration of a national emergency, thus increasing fears that the legislation will be used as a political tool.Right now China, the government, can disconnect parts of its Internet in case of war and we need to have that here too, Lieberman said in June.The Senator’s reference to China is a telling revelation of what the cybersecurity agenda is really all about. China’s vice-like grip over its Internet systems has very little to do with war and everything to do with silencing all dissent against the state, Paul Joseph Watson wrote at the time.

In September, Alex Jones pegged Stuxnet as a false flag event. See the rest on the Alex Jones Channel.Lieberman and Collins are not the only enemies of a free and open internet. Also in 2009, senators Jay Rockefeller and Olympia Snowe proposed the CyberSecurity Act of 2009 that would give Obama similar all-encompassing powers over the internet. Under that legislation, the Commerce Secretary would be given the power to have access to all data over networks deemed as critical infrastructure.
Rockefeller has said that we would be better off if the internet was never invented. He added that the internet represents a serious threat to national security. In addition, according to Rockefeller, corporate media that wanders from the government generated script also represents a threat. There is a bug inside of that wants to get the FCC to say to Fox News and MSNBC… out, off, he said during a hearing on retransmission negotiations between broadcasters and cable providers. We have journalism that is always ravenous for the next rumor, but insufficiently hungry for the facts that can nourish our democracy.Advanced malware designed by intelligence agencies will continue to be used to advance the argument that the government has to institute totalitarian control over the internet in order to save us. Our globalist control freak rulers will not rest until they neuter the internet. Stuxnet is simply another tool in the quest for that objective.

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.

Rural Australian towns brace for high river peaks
– 2 hrs 7 mins ago JAN 16,11

MELBOURNE, Australia – Australia's flooding crisis headed south Monday into Victoria state, where record floods were predicted for several rural communities facing rivers swollen from heavy upstream rains.Officials expected floodwaters to drown out highways and isolate dozens of towns in the northeastern part of the state in some of the worst flooding there in a century.Residents are wary after three weeks of devastating flooding caused 28 deaths in the northeastern state of Queensland. The region's key Murray-Darling river basin links that state with New South Wales and Victoria to the south, and drains into the sea via South Australia on the south-central coast.In Victoria, State Emergency Services spokeswoman Natasha Duckett warned that the Victoria town of Horsham could face a major flood during Monday's expected peak of the Wimmera River, and electricity supplier Powercor was sandbagging its substation there to ensure it remained dry.The Wimmera River is higher than the levels seen in September 2010 and it's still rising, Duckett said. The township could be bisected with a waterway right through the middle of town and the (Western) Highway cut.Up to 500 properties in the town of about 14,000 people could be affected.More than 3,500 people have evacuated their homes in north-central Victoria state, with 43 towns and 1,500 properties already affected by rising waters.

The flooding in Queensland left a vast territory underwater and caused 28 deaths, most of them from a flash flood that hit towns west of Brisbane on Jan. 10. Fourteen people are still missing.Flooding has also spread from Queensland into New South Wales, where nearly 7,000 people are reliant on airdrops of food and other supplies after being isolated by floodwaters.

Wet winter storm raises avalanche alerts in Rockies
By Laura Zuckerman - JAN 16,11

SALMON, Idaho (Reuters) – A mass of unusually moist Pacific air swept the northern Rockies on Sunday, dumping wet snow in the mountains and heavy showers in the valleys as forecasters warned of increased avalanche hazards in several states.The threat of heavy runoff in the Pacific Northwest from the same warm, wet front also prompted the National Weather Service to post flood advisories across several counties in Washington state and southern Oregon.Rainfall in the Northwest was expected to total between 1 to 3 inches, while icy roads made driving difficult in parts of the Rockies.Rain freezing on highway surfaces forced the closure of a section of Interstate 94 northeast of Billings in south-central Montana, according to the state Department of Transportation. And freezing rain driven by high winds made for treacherous travel conditions on I-90 in southwest Montana near Bozeman.

Forecasters from Montana, Idaho and Washington state said avalanche hazards were high where accumulations of heavy, wet snow was making steep slopes unstable.They cited the elevated risk of natural or human-caused avalanches in back-country areas of western Montana, central Idaho near the ski resort of Sun Valley, Mount Hood in Oregon and the Olympic and Cascade ranges of Washington state.Conditions were especially grim in the mountains east of Flathead Lake near Glacier National Park, where avalanches last weekend killed one snowmobiler and trapped several others. That fatality brought the avalanche death toll in the Rockies so far this season to six.Avalanche danger also prompted the Idaho Transportation Department to shut down 12 miles of a state highway between the state capital Boise and Sun Valley.In the Idaho Panhandle, the U.S. Forest Service issued a high alert for avalanches for upper elevations of the inland Northwest -- which also includes eastern Oregon and eastern Washington -- except on groomed ski runs.Moisture rolling through the Northern Rockies Sunday afternoon was at the highest levels recorded in mid-January for the past 30 years, said Jessica Nolte, meteorologist with the National Weather Service office in Missoula, Montana.It's 250 percent above what would normally be observed, she said.What was rain in parts of Montana and Idaho was falling as snow in northwest Wyoming near Yellowstone National Park, where forecasters predicted as much as a foot of snow.The same storm was expected to dump up to 16 inches of snow near the exclusive resort town of Jackson, Wyoming by early Monday evening.
(Additional reporting by Wendell Marsh in Washington; Writing by Steve Gorman; Editing by Jerry Norton)

Fresh rain hampers Brazil rescue, death toll rises
by Antonio Scorza – Sun Jan 16, 4:08 pm ET

NOVA FRIBURGO, Brazil (AFP) – The Brazilian military sent troops and helicopters Sunday to rescue stranded survivors of floods and landslides that killed more than 625 people but the operation was stymied by more bad weather.After rains resumed in the afternoon, the air force had to call back helicopters that had been sent as a lifeline to 80 people stranded since Wednesday in the village of Brejal, in the mountains near Rio de Janeiro, a spokesman said.The weather conditions do not permit us to advance in the rural areas and to help people who are isolated, said Rio firefighter Colonel Pedro Machado. We can only make short flights. The teams on the ground are also having a lot of difficulty.The military had hoped to evacuate people in hamlets cut off by rivers of water and mud that carved massive destruction in the Serrana region just north of Rio de Janeiro.Bodies that were buried under rubble and sludge would have to wait until teams with heavy equipment could get to the communities, something that could take days because roads were destroyed.Soldiers, civil defense workers, police and rangers were seen gathering in Nova Friburgo, reinforcing teams that so far have pulled 283 bodies from decimated parts of the town.

General Oswaldo de Jesus Ferreira, coordinating the military response, told O Globo newspaper that the 500 troops sent to the Serrana would not only recover bodies but also clear roads and distribute food.The military had 38 vehicles, including two ambulances, and 11 helicopters based out of Teresopolis, another hard-hit town where 268 people died.Although the toll Sunday stood at 626 dead, workers transporting bodies said they feared the overall count will rise as rescuers reached outlying hamlets.I think in the end we'll see more than 1,000 bodies, said a funeral worker in Teresopolis, Mauricio Berlim. In one village near here, Campo Grande, there were 2,500 homes and not one is left standing.President Dilma Rousseff has declared three days of mourning, while Rio authorities said their state will observe a full week of mourning starting Monday.At least 14,000 people have been made homeless, officials said, and Rio governor Sergio Cabral declared a state of emergency in seven municipalities.Authorities made an urgent appeal for donations of blood, bottled water, food and medicine, and for medically trained people to help.At least four refrigerated trucks were parked in front of a makeshift morgue inside a Teresopolis church to take bodies as decomposition and disease became concerns.The disaster, which media called the worst tragedy of its kind in Brazil's history, struck sleeping families Wednesday before dawn.Seasonally heavy rains were suddenly intensified by a cold front, dumping a month's worth of precipitation in just eight hours, causing torrents of water and mud that wiped out everything in their path.

Water, food and electricity were still lacking in some areas of the Serrana four days after the disaster, with authorities struggling to deliver supplies over fully or partially collapsed roads. Telephone communications were unreliable though progressively being restored.A municipal official in Teresopolis, Solange Sirico, told Brazilian television there was a risk of epidemics breaking out as bodies decomposing in the tropical heat mingled with water runoff. Also, in all the mountain region, there is a danger of snakes, scorpions and spiders, she added.
Forecasters warned that the wet weather was likely to last for a few more days. We are predicting a light but steady rain, which is not good because it could lay the conditions for more landslides, said the head of the national weather institute, Luiz Cavalcanti.Originally a 19th-century getaway for Brazilian aristocracy, the Serrana region has come to rely on tourism for its livelihood.Nova Friburgo, founded by the Swiss in 1819, has ongoing close ties with Geneva, where the foreign ministry said a team of expert relief workers would arrive later Sunday to assess the community's urgent needs.

Brazil rains kill more than 600 as epidemic feared
By Sergio Queiroz – Sun Jan 16, 3:27 pm ET

NOVA FRIBURGO, Brazil (Reuters) – Rains that devastated a mountainous region north of Rio de Janeiro have killed at least 626 people, Brazil's Civil Defense agency said on Sunday, as fears of more storms and disease outbreaks overshadowed rescue operations.Nearly five days after rains sparked floods and massive landslides in one of Brazil's worst natural disasters, the death toll continues to rise steadily as rescuers dig up corpses buried by rivers of mud and reach more remote areas.TV images showed rescue workers looking for people under mounds of debris, a task made difficult by more rain since Saturday.The government has made available 586 military personnel for rescue operations, 8,000 food baskets and 7 metric tons of medicine and other supplies, it said in a statement.O Globo newspaper said the army has helped with the rescue of 110 families in isolated areas in Teresopolis, where 268 people have died, but people affected by the floods increasingly complain about what they see as a lack of government help in distributing basic goods and finding bodies.

While donations of food, water and clothing are pouring in from around the country, many people in remote areas lacked basic supplies.The water started to cover the stairs and we placed some of the things over others, but it was impossible (to save anything) with the power of the water. Everything collapsed and we only had time to save ourselves, said 49-year-old Maria de Lourdes, who is unemployed. Everything I owned, I lost.The extent of the damage has posed a challenge for Dilma Rousseff, Brazil's new president, and exposed major flaws in emergency planning and disaster prevention in a country that aspires to attain developed-nation status in coming years.Rousseff visited the region on Thursday and pledged a swift relief effort, but that has yet to materialize in some of the hardest-hit areas. Anger from survivors so far has been directed mostly at state and local authorities. The federal government has earmarked 780 million reais ($463.5 million) in emergency aid and Rousseff declared three days of mourning.State health authorities have warned the population about diseases that could be contracted by drinking or other contact with contaminated rain water. The Civil Defense agency has also distributed vaccines against tetanus and diphtheria, according to its website.(Writing by Ana Nicolaci da Costa; editing by Stuart Grudgings and Mohammad Zargham)

Trichet urges enhanced Europe standby fund
– Sun Jan 16, 2:18 pm ET

PARIS (Reuters) – European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet urged Ireland and Greece to live up to commitments made in return for financial help and said a broader European safety fund should be beefed up.Trichet was speaking on a French talk show on the eve of a regular meeting of euro zone finance ministers which was set to discuss an increase in the effective lending capacity of the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF).The feeling among governors of the European Central Bank is that this fund, taken as it stands at the moment we speak, needs to be enhanced, qualitatively and quantitatively, Trichet said on the show, hosted by French RTL radio, LCI television and newspaper Le Figaro.We know what quantity means. On quality, that means in terms of how it is used, which must be with as much flexibility and agility as possible, he said.The EFSF fund can borrow money on the market with euro zone government guarantees of up to 440 billion euros but because it wants to have a triple A credit rating, the effective amount it can lend to countries in need is only around 250 billion euros.Potential bids for help from Portugal and Spain would stretch its resources to the limit.The European Commission and the ECB called last week for boosting the effective capacity of the EFSF as well as expanding its scope of operations. Germany, the biggest euro zone economy, is key to any agreement on changes.(Reporting by Brian Love, Catherine Bremer and Jean-Baptiste Vey; Editing by Marguerita Choy)

IMF to visit Spain on routine inspection
– Sun Jan 16, 1:28 pm ET

MADRID/WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A mission from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) will visit Spain on Monday to carry out a routine study of the country's financial system, as part of an annual global report, officials said on Sunday.Concerns over Spanish banks' exposure to the collapsed property market remain acute and are major reasons behind market distrust of Spanish and other poorly performing countries on the fringes of the euro zone.But the IMF said Spain's economic policies were not on the agenda for discussion.An IMF staff team is currently traveling to a number of countries as part of its preparatory work on the April 2011 Global Financial Stability Report -- the IMF's regular report on global financial conditions, an IMF spokeswoman said. Spain is among the countries the team is visiting.(Reporting by Feliciano Tisera and Sonya Dowsett; Additional reporting by Tim Ahmann in Washington; Editing by David Holmes and Marguerita Choy)

FAMINE

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

FAMINE

MATTHEW 24:7-8
7 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.
8 All these are the beginning of sorrows.

MARK 13:8
8 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be earthquakes in divers places, and there shall be famines and troubles: these are the beginnings of sorrows.

LUKE 21:11
11 And great earthquakes shall be in divers places, and famines, and pestilences; and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven.

Gunbattles, food shortages temper Tunisians' joy By ELAINE GANLEY and BOUAZZA BEN BOUAZZA, Associated Press – Sun Jan 16, 7:46 pm ET

TUNIS, Tunisia – Major gunbattles erupted outside the palace of Tunisia's deposed president, in the center of the capital, in front of the main opposition party headquarters and elsewhere on Sunday as authorities struggled to restore order and the world waited to see if the North African nation would continue its first steps away from autocratic rule.Police arrested dozens of people, including the top presidential security chief, as tensions appeared to mount between Tunisians buoyant over Zine El Abidine Ben Ali's departure and loyalists in danger of losing major perks.There were cheers and smiles in much of Tunis, the capital, as residents tore down the massive portraits of Ben Ali, some of them several stories high, that hung from lampposts and billboards and were omnipresent during his 23-year reign.Prime Minister Mohamed Ghannouchi said on state TV that a new national unity government will most certainly be announced Monday to open a new page in the history of Tunisia.
There are three legal opposition parties that could be included in the government Ghannouchi has been directed to form by the interim president, Fouad Mebazaa. Negotiations are advanced, Ghannouchi said Sunday night.Worries among Tunisians, however, grew with the violence and worsening shortages of essentials such as milk, bread and fresh fish.We're starting to feel it now, said Imed Jaound at the Tunis port, which has been closed since Friday, when Ben Ali fled to Saudi Arabia.

A gunbattle broke out around the presidential palace late Sunday afternoon in Carthage on the Mediterranean shore, about 15 kilometers (10 miles) north of Tunis. The army and members of the newly appointed presidential guard fought off attacks from militias loyal to Ben Ali, said a member of the new presidential guard. Helicopters were surveying the zone.The militias emerged from a forest to charge, the guard member said by telephone. He told The Associated Press the militia are numerous and are using various kinds of arms but gave no further details. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to be publicly named.Residents of Carthage — a center of power in ancient times but now a Tunis suburb popular with tourists — said they have barricaded themselves inside their homes amid the shooting. Many soldiers surrounded the palace, but it was unclear whether any of the interim government's leaders were.One Carthage resident said she saw four men in a taxi speed through a military checkpoint at the end of her street and toward the palace nearby. Soldiers shot at the taxi and the men inside returned fire.The resident, who asked not to be named because of security concerns, said her neighbors saw other armed men break through checkpoints in civilian cars. The gunbattle lasted about four hours before calm returned in the evening, she said.

Other gunfights broke out near the PDP opposition party headquarters and a two-hour-long gunbattle raged behind the Interior Ministry, long feared during Ben Ali's reign as a torture site. Residents of the city center heard constant volleys of gunfire throughout much of the afternoon; they were ordered to stay away from windows and keep their curtains closed.The prime minister said Sunday night that police and the army have arrested numerous members of armed groups, without saying how many.The coming days will show who is behind them, Ghannouchi said. He added that arms and documents have been seized from those arrested.We won't be tolerant towards these people, the prime minister said.The security chief, Ali Seriati, and his deputy were charged with a plot against state security, aggressive acts and for provoking disorder, murder and pillaging, the TAP state news agency reported.

Police stopped vehicles as the city remained under a state of emergency. More than 50 people were arrested on suspicion of using ambulances, rental cars and government vehicles for random shootings, a police official told The Associated Press. A crowd of 200 in Tunis cheered one such arrest Sunday. Before the gunbattle at the opposition party headquarters, police arrested a group of nine Swedish boar hunters traveling in taxis toward a nearby hotel after their flight home was canceled, one of the Swedes, Ove Oberg, said. Police roughed the men up and accused them of being terrorists, Oberg said, recounting his ordeal before a group of journalists. When they saw this gun, they went crazy, he said, referring to a hunting rifle in the trunk of the taxi.Six of the men were released, some with their clothes stained with blood, while three others remained in police custody Sunday evening.Dozens of people have died in a month of clashes that were initially between police and protesters angry about repression and corruption but now appear to be between police and Ben Ali loyalists.A Paris-based photojournalist, Loucas Mebrouk von Zabiensky, 32, of the EPA photo agency, was in critical condition after being hit in the face Friday with a tear gas canister, according to a French consular official in Tunisia. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity because of embassy rules, did not provide other details or an explanation of an earlier announcement that the photographer had died.

Mebazaa, a former parliament speaker who was sworn in as interim president Sunday, has told Ghannouchi to create a national unity government and urged him to consult with the opposition, who were marginalized under Ben Ali. Presidential elections are to be held in 60 days.The downfall of the 74-year-old Ben Ali, who had taken power in a bloodless coup in 1987, served as a warning to other autocratic leaders in the Arab world. His Mediterranean nation, a popular tourist destination known for its wide beaches, deserts and ancient ruins, had seemed more stable than many in the region before the uprising that began last month.Hundreds of stranded tourists were still being evacuated from the country Sunday. The U.S. State Department issued a travel warning suggesting that U.S. citizens forgo travel to Tunisia and consider leaving if already there. It authorized the departure of nonessential U.S. Embassy personnel and of all family members of U.S. staff at government expense.Tunisia's foreign minister will brief Arab leaders meeting in Egypt this week on the upheaval surrounding Ben Ali's ouster.In Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told his Cabinet that the unrest in Tunisia illustrated the widespread instability plaguing the region and underscored the need for strong security arrangements in any future peace deal with the Palestinians. Palestinians accused the Israeli leader of searching for excuses not to negotiate.Many Tunisians were especially overjoyed at the prospect of life without Ben Ali's wife Leila Trabelsi and her family. Leaked U.S. diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks had discussed the high levels of nepotism and corruption displayed by Trabelsi's clan. But U.S. State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley rejected any notion that WikiLeaks disclosures led to the revolution in Tunisia, saying Sunday that Tunisians were already well aware of the graft, nepotism and lavish lifestyles of the former president and his relatives.

Tunisian media reported one brother-in-law of the president, Imed Trabelsi, was attacked by an angry mob at Tunis airport and died. The reports could not be immediately confirmed.Ordinary Tunisians concentrated on two key needs Sunday — food and security.Many scoured the capital for food as calm returned to some residential areas. Most shops remained closed Sunday, others were looted and bread and milk were running short.Fish mongers were selling two- or three-day-old fish, said Ezzedine Gaesmi, a salesman at the indoor market in Tunis, where many stands were empty. There's no fresh fish. If it continues for two or three more days, we'll close, he said.Overnight citizen patrols armed with bats, sticks and golf clubs were being organized in both wealthy and working-class neighborhoods. Fatma Belaid stayed up late to serve rounds of coffee to patrols in her section of Tunis.Everyone participates as he can, she said.A well-known human rights advocate returned home to the embattled — but in many ways, hopeful — country. Souhayr Belhassen, president of the International Federation of Human Rights, said her long-repressed countrymen appear poised for unprecedented freedoms.We can start to hope, agreed Nejib Chebbi, a founder of the opposition PDP party. But he said the key question is whether a new government will be pluralistic or again dominated by Ben Ali's RCD party.If the RCD is dominant, we're not out of the woods, he said.Juergen Baetz in Berlin, Diaa Hadid in Jerusalem and Jenny Barchfield in Paris contributed to this report.

Israeli PM: Tunisia reflects regional instability
By DIAA HADID, Associated Press – Sun Jan 16, 11:37 am ET

JERUSALEM – Israel's prime minister said Sunday that the unrest in Tunisia over the weekend shows why Israel must be cautious as it pursues peace with the Palestinians.

Benjamin Netanyahu told his Cabinet that the violence surrounding the ouster of Tunisia's longtime president illustrated the widespread instability plaguing the Middle East. He also said it underscored the need for strong security arrangements in any future peace deal with the Palestinians.We need to lay the foundations of security in any agreement that we make, he said. We cannot simply say 'We are signing a peace agreement,' close our eyes and say We did it because we do not know with any clarity that the peace will indeed be honored, he said.

Palestinians accused the Israeli leader of searching for excuses.If there was a tsunami in Asia, a flood in Latin America or a lunar eclipse, Netanyahu would use it as a pretext not to negotiate, said chief negotiator Saeb Erekat.Netanyahu, who leads the hawkish Likud Party, has long made security a top demand for any future peace deal with the Palestinians.Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad has spent several years reforming his security forces, which now include hundreds of officers who have received U.S. training.Both U.S. and Israeli officials have praised the progress of the Palestinian forces in cracking down on militants and maintaining law and order in the West Bank.Israeli officials say the forces are limited in their capabilities. They also note that the Gaza Strip, the other territory claimed for a future Palestinian state, is ruled by the Hamas militant group.The Palestinians have refused to negotiate with Israel until Netanyahu renews a freeze on Jewish settlement construction in captured areas claimed by the Palestinians.Israeli officials said they were concerned — but not overly worried — over the safety of Tunisia's tiny Jewish community, which is concentrated on the southern island of Djerba and in the capital, Tunis.Tunisia has experienced looting, arson and random violence since autocratic President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali was driven from power Friday.Tunisia's 2,000 Jews generally have good relations with the Muslim majority, but in 2002 an al-Qaida suicide bombing targeting a synagogue on Djerba killed 19 people, including 14 German tourists.I don't think they will face problems but we have to take everything into account and get prepared if something will happen, but I don't think it will," said Israel's deputy prime minister, Silvan Shalom, who was born in Tunisia and moved to Israel with his family as an infant.His views were echoed by Israel's Foreign Ministry and tour operators who send Israelis to Tunisia.

Israelis frequently visit Tunis for tourism and to discover their roots. There are some 100,000 Israeli Jews of Tunisian descent, according to Michael Laskier, a North Africa expert at Israel's Bar-Ilan University.Tunisian Jews speaking anonymously to Israel Radio said they feared for their safety, but no violence has been reported against them.We saw the situation deteriorate in seconds, said one man who identified himself as a local community leader. The gangs are taking advantage of the fact that there is no government. Nobody is in charge here.

Plan for 1,400 apartments in contested Jerusalem
By AMY TEIBEL, Associated Press – Sun Jan 16, 11:28 am ET

JERUSALEM – Israeli authorities said Sunday they are moving ahead with a new proposal to build 1,400 apartments in east Jerusalem, enraging Palestinians who denounced the plan as another settler land grab.Palestinians have already broken off peace talks with Israel for refusing to halt construction in east Jerusalem and the West Bank. They claim these areas, which Israel captured in 1967, and the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip for a future state. Jewish settlement construction has angered the United States as well.Jerusalem officials confirmed they were aware of the plan, but would not say when the city's planning committee, which needs to approve such projects, would vote on it.Jerusalem City Hall continues to advance construction for Arabs and Jews alike according to the master plan, the spokesman's office said. New construction in Jerusalem is necessary to the development of the city.Israel occupied and annexed east Jerusalem after the 1967 Mideast war and claims the entire city as its capital.The international community has never recognized the annexation, and considers Israeli housing developments in east Jerusalem to be illegal settlements. The Palestinians hope to make east Jerusalem their capital.

The latest plan, to build 1,400 apartments in the existing Jewish area of Gilo, is being promoted by the Jerusalem Development Authority, a joint corporation of the Israeli government and the Jerusalem municipality.Gilo is a sprawling development of some 40,000 people on Jerusalem's southern edge, built on lands captured in 1967.
Although construction would likely not begin for years, the Palestinians said the new plan undermined hopes for peace.This proves our point that the Israeli government has chosen settlements and not peace, said senior Palestinian official Saeb Erekat.He urged the U.S. to hold the Israeli government fully responsible for the breakdown in peace talks and to support an upcoming Palestinian initiative to get a U.N. Security Council condemnation of Israeli settlement construction.Erekat said Palestinian officials would be meeting with European leaders, whom they hope to persuade to support the move at the U.N.Word of the plan also elicited a new round of U.S. condemnation.We find unilateral actions of this sort to be counterproductive in efforts to get sides to negotiate on the core issues, U.S. Embassy spokesman Kurt Hoyer said.

Last week, the U.S. harshly criticized Israel for demolishing a historic hotel in an Arab neighborhood of east Jerusalem to make way for 20 apartments for Jews.If approved, the Gilo project would create territorial contiguity between the Gush Etzion settlement bloc south of Jerusalem and the city itself, said Meir Margalit, a Jerusalem councilman from the dovish Meretz Party.He predicted it would take years to build the project, which would also require Interior Ministry approval, but warned it would nonetheless damage peace prospects. Since talks broke down in September, the U.S. has been trying to find a compromise formula to bring the sides back to the negotiating table.I hope (the plan) will roil the Americans and shake them out of their coma, Margalit said. If there is any chance to bring the Palestinians back to negotiations, then we have to stop this project.Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office refused to comment on the project, noting only that Netanyahu believes Jewish and Arab residents of Jerusalem should be free to live wherever they want in the city.

Some 200,000 Jews now live in east Jerusalem. Privately, Palestinian negotiators have said they expect the Jewish areas, which Israel calls neighborhoods, to remain under Israeli sovereignty under any final peace accord. But construction there antagonizes the Palestinians because they see it cementing Israel's claims to the entire city.Building there has become increasingly contentious since President Barack Obama called for a full halt to settlement construction after taking office.
An Israeli announcement to build homes in east Jerusalem made while Vice President Joe Biden was visiting early last year caused a chill in relations for several months. Israel was forced to put that project on hold.