Monday, April 18, 2011

DIS-HONOR KILLINGS IN AMERICA-AGAINST ISLAMIC WOMEN

THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU LET AN INDEPENDENT CENTRAL BANK (FEDERAL RESERVE)OWN YOU INSTEAD OF HAVING YOUR OWN CASH COW COMPANY BY YOUR OWN GOVERNMENT.YOU GET RATED LOWER FOR NOT PAYING YOUR BILLS.THE MEDIA IS QUICKLY SAYING THE ECONOMY IS GREAT TO COVER UP THIS DEBT DEFAULT BY THE AMERICAN GOVERNMENT.AND THE MEDIA IS SAYING THIS I JUST A NORMAL HAPPENING,IT MEANS NOTHING TO INVESTORS.WHAT A HOGWASH SCAM BY THE MEDIA TO COVER UP THAT AMERICA IS BROKE AND CAN NOT COVER THEIR DEBT.

S&P cuts U.S. outlook to negative on fiscal worry
-APR 18,11


NEW YORK (Reuters) – Standard & Poor's on Monday downgraded its credit outlook for the United States, citing a material risk that policymakers may not reach agreement on a plan trim its large budget deficit.While the agency maintained the country's top AAA credit rating, it said that authorities have not made clear how they will tackle long-term fiscal pressures.S&P said the move signals there's at least a one-in-three chance that it could cut its long-term rating on the United States within two years.Because the U.S. has, relative to its AAA peers, what we consider to be very large budget deficits and rising government indebtedness and the path to addressing these is not clear to us, we have revise dour outlook on the long-term rating to negative from stable, S&P said in a release.U.S. government bond prices fell after S&P's announcement, while stock futures extended losses and the dollar pared gains against the euro.The headline has enough of a shock value. The initial reaction is that this is negative for dollar assets across the board. said Lou Brien, a market strategist with DRW Trading in Chicago.Outstanding public U.S. debt has swelled to more than 60 percent of total output in the aftermath of the 2007-2009 financial crisis, and with a budget deficit projected at more than $1 trillion, is set to grow further.A U.S. Treasury official said the S&P negative outlook underestimates the ability of U.S. lawmakers to tackle the country's fiscal challenges.(Editing by James Dalgleish; )

LAURIE ROTH & GUEST ON WORLD INTERNET CONTROLS THE ENERGY GRID SYSTEM
FRI APR 15,11 HOUR 1-2-3

http://therothshow.com/show-archives/april-2011/
JONES ON THE GOVERNMENT INTERNET TAKEOVER ALSO
http://rss.nfowars.net/20110417_Sun_Alex.mp3

April 16, 2011 - Hour 1
Jan and Pastor Eric Douma discuss the toxic subversion of the Bible thanks to Rob Bell and friends. At issue are the consequence of hell and the possibility of universal salvation for all. The book examined is Bell's newest, Love Wins: The Book About Heaven, Hell, and the Fate of Every Person Who Ever Lived. Is this just classic postmodernism or the reappearance of modern liberalism that has always failed? How does left-wing politics play into this? Many sound bytes are played to show the blood-drained gospel of Rob Bell and other Emergent leaders. www.twincityfellowship.com
http://olivetreeradio.com/OTM2011_04_16A.mp3

April 16, 2011 - Hour 2
Jan and Eric Douma continue their discussion from hour one the first 30 minutes. Jan concludes with a commentary on Earth Day coming up April 22. Millions of Christians will knowingly or naively bow down to mother earth on Earth Day. Even evangelical organizations will promote serving God and saving the planet. This day is filled with paganism and pantheism but it no longer seems to matter to Christians.
http://olivetreeradio.com/OTM2011_04_16B.mp3

Water wars? Thirsty, energy-short China stirs fear
By DENIS D. GRAY, Associated Press - Sun Apr 17, 12:00 am ET


BAHIR JONAI, India – The wall of water raced through narrow Himalayan gorges in northeast India, gathering speed as it raked the banks of towering trees and boulders. When the torrent struck their island in the Brahmaputra river, the villagers remember, it took only moments to obliterate their houses, possessions and livestock.No one knows exactly how the disaster happened, but everyone knows whom to blame: neighboring China.We don't trust the Chinese, says fisherman Akshay Sarkar at the resettlement site where he has lived since the 2000 flood.They gave us no warning. They may do it again.About 800 kilometers (500 miles) east, in northern Thailand, Chamlong Saengphet stands in the Mekong river, in water that comes only up to her shins. She is collecting edible river weeds from dwindling beds. A neighbor has hung up his fishing nets, his catches now too meager.Using words bordering on curses, they point upstream, toward China.The blame game, voiced in vulnerable river towns and Asian capitals from Pakistan to Vietnam, is rooted in fear that China's accelerating program of damming every major river flowing from the Tibetan plateau will trigger natural disasters, degrade fragile ecologies, divert vital water supplies.A few analysts and environmental advocates even speak of water as a future trigger for war or diplomatic strong-arming, though others strongly doubt it will come to that. Still, the remapping of the water flow in the world's most heavily populated and thirstiest region is happening on a gigantic scale, with potentially strategic implications.On the eight great Tibetan rivers alone, almost 20 dams have been built or are under construction while some 40 more are planned or proposed.

China is hardly alone in disrupting the region's water flows. Others are doing it with potentially even worse consequences. But China's vast thirst for power and water, its control over the sources of the rivers and its ever-growing political clout make it a singular target of criticism and suspicion.Whether China intends to use water as a political weapon or not, it is acquiring the capability to turn off the tap if it wants to — a leverage it can use to keep any riparian neighbors on good behavior, says Brahma Chellaney, an analyst at New Delhi's Center for Policy Research and author of the forthcoming Water: Asia's New Battlefield.Analyst Neil Padukone calls it the biggest potential point of contention between the two Asian giants, China and India. But the stakes may be even higher since those eight Tibetan rivers serve a vast west-east arc of 1.8 billion people stretching from Pakistan to Vietnam's Mekong river delta.Suspicions are heightened by Beijing's lack of transparency and refusal to share most hydrological and other data. Only China, along with Turkey, has refused to sign a key 1997 U.N. convention on transnational rivers.Beijing gave no notice when it began building three dams on the Mekong — the first completed in 1993 — or the $1.2 billion Zangmu dam, the first on the mainstream of the 2,880-kilometer (1,790-mile) Brahmaputra which was started last November and hailed in official media as a landmark priority project.The 2000 flood that hit Sarkar's village, is widely believed to have been caused by the burst of an earthen dam wall on a Brahmaputra tributary. But China has kept silent.Until today, the Indian government has no clue about what happened, says Ravindranath, who heads the Rural Volunteer Center. He uses only one name.Tibet's spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, has also warned of looming dangers stemming from the Tibetan plateau.

It's something very, very essential. So, since millions of Indians use water coming from the Himalayan glaciers... I think you (India) should express more serious concern. This is nothing to do with politics, just everybody's interests, including Chinese people, he said in New Delhi last month.Beijing normally counters such censure by pointing out that the bulk of water from the Tibetan rivers springs from downstream tributaries, with only 13-16 percent originating in China. Officials also say that the dams can benefit their neighbors, easing droughts and floods by regulating flow, and that hydroelectric power reduces China's carbon footprint. China will fully consider impacts to downstream countries, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu recently told The Associated Press. We have clarified several times that the dam being built on the Brahmaputra River has a small storage capacity. It will not have large impact on water flow or the ecological environment of downstream.For some of China's neighbors, the problem is that they too are building controversial dams and may look hypocritical if they criticize China too loudly.The four-nation Mekong River Commission has expressed concerns not just about the Chinese dams but about a host of others built or planned in downstream countries.In northeast India, a broad-based movement is fighting central government plans to erect more than 160 dams in the region, and Laos and Cambodia have proposed plans for 11 Mekong dams, sparking environmental protest.Indian and other governments play down any threats from the Asian colossus. I was reassured that (the Zangmu dam) was not a project designed to divert water and affect the welfare and availability of water to countries in the lower reaches, India's Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao said after talks with his Chinese counterpart late last year.But at the grass roots, and among activists and even some government technocrats, criticism is expressed more readily.Everyone knows what China is doing, but won't talk about it. China has real power now. If it says something, everyone follows, says Somkiat Khuengchiangsa, a Thai environmental advocate.

Neither the Indian nor Chinese government responded to specific questions from the AP about the dams, but Beijing is signaling that it will relaunch mega-projects after a break of several years in efforts to meet skyrocketing demands for energy and water, reduce dependence on coal and lift some 300 million people out of poverty.Official media recently said China was poised to put up dams on the still pristine Nu River, known as the Salween downstream. Seven years ago as many as 13 dams were set to go up until Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao ordered a moratorium. That ban is regarded as the first and perhaps biggest victory of China's nascent green movement.An improper exploitation of water resources by countries on the upper reaches is going to bring about environmental, social and geological risks, Yu Xiaogang, director of the Yunnan Green Watershed, told The Associated Press. Countries along the rivers have already formed their own way of using water resources. Water shortages could easily ignite extreme nationalist sentiment and escalate into a regional war.But there is little chance the activists will prevail.
There is no alternative to dams in sight in China, says Ed Grumbine, an American author on Chinese dams. Grumbine, currently with the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Yunnan province, notes that under its last five-year state plan, China failed to meet its hydroelectric targets and is now playing catch-up in its 2011-2015 plan as it strives to derive 15 percent of energy needs from non-fossil sources, mainly hydroelectric and nuclear.The arithmetic pointing to more dam-building is clear: China would need 140 megawatts of extra hydroelectric power to meet its goal. Even if all the dams on the Nu go up, they would provide only 21 megawatts.The demand for water region-wide will also escalate, sparking perhaps that greatest anxieties — that China will divert large quantities from the Tibetan plateau for domestic use.

Noting that Himalayan glaciers which feed the rivers are melting due to global warming, India's Strategic Foresight Group last year estimated that in the coming 20 years India, China, Nepal and Bangladesh will face a depletion of almost 275 billion cubic meters (360 billion cubic yards) of annual renewable water.Padukone expects China will have to divert water from Tibet to its dry eastern provinces. One plan for rerouting the Brahmaputra was outlined in an officially sanctioned 2005 book by a Chinese former army officer, Li Ling. Its title: Tibet's Waters Will Save China,
Analyst Chellaney believes the issue is not whether China will reroute the Brahmaputra, but when. He cites Chinese researchers and officials as saying that after 2014 work will begin on tapping rivers flowing from the Tibetan plateau to neighboring countries Such a move, he says, would be tantamount to a declaration of war on India.Others are skeptical. Tashi Tsering, a Tibetan environmentalist at the University of British Columbia who is otherwise critical of China's policies, calls a Brahmaputra diversion a pipe dream of some Chinese planners.Grumbine shares the skepticism. The situation would have to be very dire for China to turn off the taps because the consequences would be huge, he said.China would alienate every one of its neighbors and historically the Chinese have been very sensitive about maintaining secure borders.Whatever else may happen, riverside inhabitants along the Mekong and Brahmaputra say the future shock is now.A fisherman from his youth, Boonrian Chinnarat says the Mekong giant catfish, the world's largest freshwater fish, has all but vanished from the vicinity of Thailand's Had Krai village, other once bountiful species have been depleted, and he and fellow fishermen have sold their nets. He blames the Chinese dams.Phumee Boontom, headman of nearby Pak Ing village, warns that If the Chinese keep the water and continue to build more dams, life along the Mekong will change forever. Already, he says, he has seen drastic variations in water levels following dam constructions,like the tides of the ocean __ low and high in one day.Jeremy Bird, who heads the Mekong commission, an intergovernmental body of Laos, Cambodia, Thailand and Laos, sees a tendency to blame China for water-related troubles even when they are purely the result of nature. He says diplomacy is needed, and believes engagement with China is improving.
Grumbine agrees.Given the enormous demand for water in China, India and Southeast Asia, if you maintain the attitude of sovereign state, we are lost, he says. Scarcity in a zero sum situation can lead to conflict but it can also goad countries into more cooperative behavior. It's a bleak picture, but I'm not without hope.
Associated Press writers Tini Tran and David Wivell in Beijing contributed to this report.

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

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

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

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

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

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

HALF HOUR DOW RESULTS MON APR 18,2011

09:30 AM -3.25
10:00 AM -206.84
10:30 AM -212.18
11:00 AM -232.34
11:30 AM -220.07
12:00 PM -210.25
12:30 PM -203.55
01:00 PM -216.54
01:30 PM -213.35
02:00 PM -181.79
02:30 PM -177.77
03:00 PM -152.16
03:30 PM -144.25
04:00 PM -140.24 12,201.59

S&P 500 1305.14 -14.54

NASDAQ 2735.38

GOLD 1,497.00 +11.00

OIL 107.36 -2.30

TSE 300 13,702.30 -96.80

CDNX 2238.60 -52.31

S&P/TSX/60 783.74 -4.99

MORNING,NEWS,STATS

YEAR TO DATE PERFORMANCE
Dow -173 points at 4 minutes of trading today.
Dow -246 points at low today.
Dow -1 points at high today so far.
GOLD opens at $1,490.70.OIL opens at $108.05 today.

AFTERNOON,NEWS,STATS
Dow -246 points at low today so far.
Dow -1 points at high today so far.

WRAPUP,NEWS,STATS
Dow -246 points at low today.
Dow -1 points at high today.

GOLD ALLTIME HIGH $1,498.00 (NOT AT CLOSE)

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).

Polish EU presidency hires top PR firm
ANDREW RETTMAN 15.04.2011 @ 18:00
CET

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - The Polish administration has hired PR firm Burson-Marsteller to help it run its EU presidency later this year in a contract worth €1 million.A Warsaw-based Polish spokesman, Konrad Niklewicz, told this website the deal was signed a few days ago. Work is to start immediately, in the run-up to the presidency launch in July, and to last into early 2012.The Brussels and Warsaw branches of the US-based PR company will train Polish press spokespeople, set up the presidency website, carry out worldwide media monitoring, organise study trips to Poland for foreign journalists, put on social and cultural events and encourage MEPs to get behind presidency priorities. Niklewicz said Burson-Marsteller will not be doing any pro-Polish media spin.In terms of contact with journalists, they will help us with training and logistics. But in terms of the content, the substance of what we say to journalists, this will be our own responsibility, he explained.It's normal to seek professional help with these types of things. It doesn't mean we lack the skills ourselves. On the contrary, it means we want to make sure everything runs as smoothly as possible.Polish diplomats are wary of their lack of experience in the field of crisis management communications and of anti-eastern-European snobbery among colleagues from older EU member states.Poland also has a lingering image problem dating back to the germanophobe, eurosceptic and russophobe rhetoric of the Kaczynski-twin government in 2006 and 2007.Poland is now seen as one of the most active and committed countries in the EU. Out of all the member states, Poles are among the most enthusiastic about European integration. This is the message that we want to base our presidency on, Niklewicz said.Poland's reputation has changed. I think the constructive politics of Prime Minister Tusk, his attempts to create a positive dialogue with Russia, has had an effect. We're seen differently now, not just in Brussels, but in London, Paris and Berlin as well.

Niklewicz noted that the Burson-Marsteller fee will actually be paid out of the EU budget. The cash comes from so-called 'counterpart funds' given to Warsaw when it joined the Union in 2004 and earmarked early on for its turn at the EU helm.
Warsaw's own presidency budget of around €110 million will also pay for more than 100 extra staff to be sent to the Polish EU embassy when it opens its new premises near the Schuman roundabout in the heart of the EU quarter on 23 May. It will also cover consultancy fees for the Brussels-based economic think-tank, Breugel.Burson-Marsteller is one of the top three lobby firms in the EU capital, with a turnover of around €10 million.In terms of Polish-Russian relations, it also works for Russian oligarch-turned-dissident Mikhail Khodorkovsky to raise awareness of Russian human rights abuses in the EU institutions. Other clients include Ukrainian oligarch Rinat Akhmetov, an ally of Russia-friendly Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych.A contact in the PR sector in Brussels said Burson-Marsteller was keen to get involved with Warsaw to boost its reputation as the company of choice of a presidency country.

MEPs suggest Van Rompuy shift EU summits to Strasbourg
ANDREW WILLIS 15.04.2011 @ 17:42 CET


EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Keen to end to their monthly jaunts to the French city of Strasbourg, a group of MEPs have suggested that European Council President Herman Van Rompuy hold his summits there instead.The idea is one of several contained in a paper published this week by a cross-party group of euro-deputies, whose task is to find an acceptable means of moving parliament's plenary sessions to Brussels where the bulk of its committee work is currently carried out.A recent poll suggested as many as 90 percent of MEPs favour the switch from Strasbourg, dubbed 'Stressbourg', but France is bitterly opposed, concerned that the exodus of bon vivant parliamentarians will hurt the city's many restaurants and hotels. The Strasbourg School of Management has put the cost of the parliament leaving at €200 million a year.Paris says EU treaty rules are on its side, issuing a resounding non when MEPs voted last month to merge two plenary sessions into the same October week in both 2012 and 2013, in a bid to cut down on the costs and annoyances of the infamous traveling circus.French minister for European Affairs Laurent Wauquiez told the MEPs he would see them in the European Court of Justice, another EU institution targeted by the euro-deputies as they try to provide the veto-holding French with an attractive source of alternative revenue.The report's authors suggest creating a European City of Justice by moving the European Court of Justice (and possibly justice-related agencies such as Europol and Eurojust) to Strasbourg.This would complement the Court of Human Rights, especially now that the EU's Charter of Fundamental Rights has added internal competence, as well as the EU's Ombudsman, whose modest office is based in Strasbourg.

Other options include shunting the little talked-about European Committee of the Regions out of its shiny Jacques Delors building in Brussels and sending them south, with France's rejoining of Nato also enabling a potential relocation of the military alliance's headquarters.This is less likely now that Nato has embarked upon a €800 million building project in Brussels,concede the MEPs.A further suggestion talks about setting up a diplomatic training college for European external action service (EEAS) officials in Strasbourg, where proximity to the Council of Europe should also create useful synergies for EU diplomats.The ideas are likely to prove unpopular with the other EU institutions however, with a spokesman for Van Rompuy simply noting that all 27 member states would need to agree before he shifted his non-smoking summit dinners to France.An official from the Committee of the Regions also said his institution was strongly opposed to any relocation.We are definitely against it, he told this website.The members of the committee come to Brussels only five times a year, and it's key that they have good access to other EU officials when they do.Also the budgets of the two institutions are totally different.

Rehn on eurozone rescue: Mission Accomplished A European Lehman has been prevented, says Rehn (Photo: aranjuez1404)LEIGH PHILLIPS 15.04.2011 @ 19:12 CET

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - EU economy chief Olli Rehn has declared the eurozone rescue mission accomplished.In a speech to the Brookings Institution, a Washington-based conservative think-tank on Thursday (14 April), he said: While I cannot yet say Mission accomplished, I am increasingly confident that we are entering into the endgame of the crisis management phase.He later went on in his address, which was released on Friday, to tell his American audience that the task had indeed been accomplished.Preventing a European Lehman has not been a simple task, with 27 fiscal authorities and 11 central banks - we never had the genius of Alexander Hamilton to draw on, like you did, unless you count Jacques Delors for this too - but the task has nevertheless been accomplished.He admitted that the turbulence in sovereign debt market is not over yet. But we are quite confident that with the Portuguese programme, we will have contained the problem.Spain has decoupled from the other three countries, he said. The bloc's greatest fear is a potential bail-out of the eurozone's fourth biggest economy, a rescue that would come with an estimated price-tag of €420 billion.He also took on the many commentators [that] have claimed that our single currency has failed and have predicted a break-up of the eurozone.The euro's critics are wrong to claim that [the crisis] will lead to its failure or break-up. The euro will not only survive but is coming out of the crisis stronger than before.

He argued that this was a result of the creation of financial stability mechanisms, the ongoing austerity and structural adjustment across the bloc, the delivery of a system of economic governance for the EU.We are already seeing results in terms of economic recovery, he said.He concluded by repeating the mantra EU leaders have chanted from the very beginning of the area's crisis that the bloc will do whatever it takes to save the single currency.The euro is not just a technical monetary arrangement, but rather the core political project of the European Union.However, across town, the assessment of the EU's rescue mission from the International Monetary Fund was not quite so upbeat.Also speaking in the US capital at the annual spring joint meeting of the IMF and the World Bank, the president of the international lender, Dominique Strauss-Kahn said that the world should not be complacent and that the European response to the crisis is insufficient.We are arguing here in the IMF for at least six months that there is a need for a more comprehensive plan on the European side. The piecemeal approach, dealing with interest rates one day and something else another day, is not working well,he said.He warned that bailed out countries needed to stick to their agreed austerity plans and that European banks still require recapitalisation.Of the wider global crisis, he said: The apex of the crisis is behind us, but it would be part of the complacency I am trying to avoid to believe that we are in the post-crisis era.

Ring-fencing Spain

European leaders in the wake of the Portuguese bail-out have all been at pains to point out how Spain has decoupled from the rest of the PIGS economies and that the other three peripheral economies are now ring-fenced.And investors appear to agree, with the yield on Spanish bonds moving in the direction of the core-eurozone countries rather than Greece, Portugal and Ireland.The optimists credit Madrid's efforts to drastically cut public spending and slash the budget deficit to under 10 percent, reform its labour market and to pump capital into its banks. They also note that Spain's government debt is relatively low at 60 percent.But economists are not unanimous on Spain's prospects.The pessimists are quick to remind that the country has half the growth rate of Portugal and double its unemployment.In 2010, Portugal's economy grew 1.2 percent while Spain suffered an anaemic 0.6 percent.Unemployment in Portugal stands at 11.1 percent while Spanish joblessness is the highest in the developed world, 20.5 percent, with youth unemployment at 43.5 percent, and growing.

Additionally, while the headline government debt figure is low, much public spending is devolved to the 17 regions, where the central government has little control and allegations of off-balance sheet spending refuse to disappear.Atop this, private sector debt is huge and some also worry that house prices still have far to fall. Such a development would increase the foreclosure rate, which in turn would further knock the balance sheets of the country's cajas, or savings banks. Exacerbating this is the European Central Bank's likely intention to continue to hike interest rates.
The country's banks also have run up around €100 billion in exposure to their bailed-out next-door neighbour.Last week, the country's central bank chief, Miguel Angel Fernández Ordonez, warned that 2011 could be the worst year yet for Spanish banks.
2011 will be another year of adjustment, and for the banking sector, it will be one of the worst,he said.

ISRAELS INHERITED LAND IN THE FUTURE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytWmPqY8TE0&feature=player_embedded

DEUTERONOMY 7:7-8
7 The LORD did not set his love upon you, nor choose you, because ye were more in number than any people;(ISRAEL) for ye were the fewest of all people:
8 But because the LORD loved you,(ISRAEL) and because he would keep the oath which he had sworn unto your fathers, hath the LORD brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you out of the house of bondmen, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.

ZECHARIAH 2:8
8 For thus saith the LORD of hosts; After the glory hath he sent me unto the nations which spoiled you: for he that toucheth you toucheth the apple of his eye.

JEREMIAH 3:14
14 Turn, O backsliding children, saith the LORD; for I am married unto you:(ISRAEL) and I will take you one of a city, and two of a family, and I will bring you to Zion:

ISAIAH 42:1
1 Behold my servant, whom I uphold; mine elect,(ISRAEL) in whom my soul delighteth; I have put my spirit upon him: he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles.

ISAIAH 45:4
4 For Jacob my servant’s sake, and Israel mine elect, I have even called thee by thy name: I have surnamed thee, though thou hast not known me.

ISAIAH 65:9,22
9 And I will bring forth a seed out of Jacob, and out of Judah an inheritor of my mountains: and mine elect (ISRAEL) shall inherit it, and my servants shall dwell there.
22 They shall not build, and another inhabit; they shall not plant, and another eat: for as the days of a tree are the days of my people, and mine elect (ISRAEL) shall long enjoy the work of their hands.

ISAIAH 56:5
5 Even unto them (ISRAELIS) will I give in mine house and within my walls a place and a name better than of sons and of daughters: I will give them an everlasting name,(ISRAEL) that shall not be cut off.

And here are the bounderies of the land that Israel will inherit either through war or peace or God in the future. God says its Israels land and only Israels land. They will have every inch God promised them of this land in the future.
Egypt east of the Nile River, Saudi Arabia, Israel, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, The southern part of Turkey and the Western Half of Iraq west of the Euphrates. Gen 13:14-15, Psm 105:9,11, Gen 15:18, Exe 23:31, Num 34:1-12, Josh 1:4.ALL THIS LAND ISRAEL WILL DEFINATELY OWN IN THE FUTURE, ITS ISRAELS NOT ISHMAELS LAND.

Israel and Colombia Sign Open Skies Agreement
by Elad Benari APR 18,11


Israel and Colombia signed a bilateral Open Skies agreement last week, according to a report on the Port2Port website.The agreement was signed between Avi Ben Hur, Deputy Director of International Relations in Israel’s National Civil Aviation Administration (NCAA) and Dr. Santiago Castro Gómez, Director General at UAEAC, Civil Aeronautics of Colombia.According to the report, the newly signed agreement will expand air traffic between Israel and Colombia, by allowing airlines of both countries to offer direct flights between Bogota and Tel Aviv and to code-share flight between Israel and Colombia.Israel and Colombia will benefit from the agreement since it will allow flexibility and easy transport of passengers between the two countries.Colombia has close diplomatic ties with both Israel and the United States. Israel is a prime exporter of weaponry to Columbia and the two countries cooperate in the fields of security and technology.Several weeks ago Colombia announced that it will not join the parade of Latin American nations that have recently recognized the Palestinian Authority as a sovereign country.Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos Calderon told the World Jewish Congress on that as a matter of principle his government would not recognize any unilateral declaration of statehood by the PA.

Colombian Vice President Francisco Santos Calderon visited Israel in the summer of 2009, where he met with Minister of Foreign Affairs Avigdor Lieberman, President Shimon Peres, and other government officials.The governments of Israel and Colombia must ratify the Open Skies agreement before it goes into effect.Meanwhile, Port2Port also reported that the first three months of 2011 saw an impressive recovery of Israel’s Diamond Industry.The website cited a report released last week by Israel Ministry of Industry, Trade and Labor’s Diamond Controller Shmuel Mordechai, who noted that The first quarter of 2011, compared to 2010, indicates a large increase in exports of polished diamonds and rough diamonds and in imports of polished and rough diamonds to Israel.Mordechai states in the report that net polished diamond exports in the three months stood at $2.1 billion US, which is up 45.7% from $1.4 billion US in the first quarter of 2010. Net rough diamond exports were valued at $1.2 billion US, up 39.6% from the first quarter of 2010.The United States accounted for 45% of total exports, said the report, with Hong Kong behind it at 26%, Switzerland at 9%, Belgium at 8%, China at 2% and the rest of the world at 10%.
(IsraelNationalNews.com)

MUSLIM NATIONS

EZEKIEL 38:1-12
1 And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
2 Son of man, set thy face against Gog,(RULER) the land of Magog,(RUSSIA) the chief prince of Meshech(MOSCOW)and Tubal,(TOBOLSK) and prophesy against him,
3 And say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshech(MOSCOW) and Tubal:
4 And I will turn thee back, and put hooks into thy jaws,(GOD FORCES THE RUSSIA-MUSLIMS TO MARCH) and I will bring thee forth, and all thine army, horses and horsemen, all of them clothed with all sorts of armour, even a great company with bucklers and shields, all of them handling swords:
5 Persia,(IRAN,IRAQ) Ethiopia, and Libya with them; all of them with shield and helmet:
6 Gomer,(GERMANY) and all his bands; the house of Togarmah (TURKEY)of the north quarters, and all his bands:(SUDAN,AFRICA) and many people with thee.
7 Be thou prepared, and prepare for thyself, thou, and all thy company that are assembled unto thee, and be thou a guard unto them.
8 After many days thou shalt be visited: in the latter years thou shalt come into the land that is brought back from the sword, and is gathered out of many people, against the mountains of Israel, which have been always waste: but it is brought forth out of the nations, and they shall dwell safely all of them.
9 Thou shalt ascend and come like a storm, thou shalt be like a cloud to cover the land, thou, and all thy bands, and many people with thee.(RUSSIA-EGYPT AND MUSLIMS)
10 Thus saith the Lord GOD; It shall also come to pass, that at the same time shall things come into thy mind, and thou shalt think an evil thought:
11 And thou shalt say, I will go up to the land of unwalled villages; I will go to them that are at rest, that dwell safely, all of them dwelling without walls, and having neither bars nor gates,
12 To take a spoil, and to take a prey; to turn thine hand upon the desolate places that are now inhabited, and upon the people that are gathered out of the nations, which have gotten cattle and goods, that dwell in the midst of the land.

ISAIAH 17:1
1 The burden of Damascus. Behold, Damascus is taken away from being a city, and it shall be a ruinous heap.

PSALMS 83:3-7
3 They (ARABS,MUSLIMS) have taken crafty counsel against thy people,(ISRAEL) and consulted against thy hidden ones.
4 They have said, Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation; that the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance.
5 For they (MUSLIMS) have consulted together with one consent: they are confederate against thee:(TREATIES)
6 The tabernacles of Edom,(JORDAN) and the Ishmaelites;(ARABS) of Moab, PALESTINIANS,JORDAN) and the Hagarenes;(EGYPT)
7 Gebal,(HEZZBALLOH,LEBANON) and Ammon,(JORDAN) and Amalek;(SYRIA,ARABS,SINAI) the Philistines (PALESTINIANS) with the inhabitants of Tyre;(LEBANON)

DANIEL 11:40-43
40 And at the time of the end shall the king of the south( EGYPT) push at him:(EU DICTATOR IN ISRAEL) and the king of the north (RUSSIA AND MUSLIM HORDES OF EZEK 38+39) shall come against him like a whirlwind, with chariots, and with horsemen, and with many ships; and he shall enter into the countries, and shall overflow and pass over.
41 He shall enter also into the glorious land, and many countries shall be overthrown: but these shall escape out of his hand, even Edom, and Moab, and the chief of the children of Ammon.(JORDAN)
42 He shall stretch forth his hand also upon the countries: and the land of Egypt shall not escape.
43 But he shall have power over the treasures of gold and of silver, and over all the precious things of Egypt: and the Libyans and the Ethiopians shall be at his steps.

EZEKIEL 39:1-8
1 Therefore, thou son of man, prophesy against Gog,(LEADER OF RUSSIA) and say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshech (MOSCOW) and Tubal: (TUBOLSK)
2 And I will turn thee back, and leave but the sixth part of thee, and will cause thee to come up from the north parts,(RUSSIA) and will bring thee upon the mountains of Israel:
3 And I will smite thy bow out of thy left hand, and will cause thine arrows to fall out of thy right hand.
4 Thou shalt fall upon the mountains of Israel, thou, and all thy bands,( ARABS) and the people that is with thee: I will give thee unto the ravenous birds of every sort, and to the beasts of the field to be devoured.
5 Thou shalt fall upon the open field: for I have spoken it, saith the Lord GOD.
6 And I will send a fire on Magog,(NUCLEAR BOMB) and among them that dwell carelessly in the isles: and they shall know that I am the LORD.
7 So will I make my holy name known in the midst of my people Israel; and I will not let them pollute my holy name any more: and the heathen shall know that I am the LORD, the Holy One in Israel.
8 Behold, it is come, and it is done, saith the Lord GOD; this is the day whereof I have spoken.

JOEL 2:3,20,30-31
3 A fire(NUCLEAR BOMB) devoureth before them;(RUSSIA-ARABS) and behind them a flame burneth: the land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness; yea, and nothing shall escape them.
20 But I will remove far off from you the northern army,(RUSSIA,MUSLIMS) and will drive him into a land barren and desolate, with his face toward the east sea, and his hinder part toward the utmost sea, and his stink shall come up, and his ill savour shall come up, because he hath done great things.(SIBERIAN DESERT)
30 And I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke.(NUCLEAR BOMB)
31 The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the LORD come.

Iranian Intelligence Minister Resigns...or is Fired
by Chana Ya'ar APR 17,11


Iran's intelligence minister has resigned, although he will maintain a position as an adviser in the government of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.The announcement was published Sunday by the state-run IRNA news agency, which gave no details about the resignation.President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad accepted Heidar Moslehi's resignation and appointed him as his adviser in charge of security matters, the news agency reported.
However, according to an unnamed source quoted by the semi-official FARS news agency, the minister was fired.Heidar Moslehi was deeply involved in the government crackdown on 2009 protests led by the opposition Green Party following elections that many insisted were rigged.Moslehi was appointed as head of the country's Ministry of Intelligence during the same period, on 5 August 2009.Seasoned Iranian diplomat and former foreign minister Manouchehr Mottaki also recently left the government, having been fired by Ahmadinejad in December 2010. (Israel National News.com)

PA Demands Release of Terrorist Killers
by Maayana Miskin APR 18,11


The Palestinian Authority called Sunday for the release of all PA Arab prisoners held by Israel, including terrorists and other murderers. PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas announced that he will not make peace with Israel until all prisoners are released.
Abbas' demand came as Israeli forces announced that they had captured two PA Arab men responsible for the murder of five members of the Fogel family in Itamar. He is asking for the release of the men, along with many others convicted of similar crimes.The face of the PA campaign for prisoner release, Nael Barghouti, is also a murderer. Barghouti has served 33 years of a life sentence for a murder committed in the course of a terrorist attack. He has spent the longest term in prison of any PA Arab, and is referred to as dean of the Palestinian prisoners or by the honorific Abu An-Nur (lit. Father of the light).PA officials referred to Nael Barghouti as a political prisoner during Sunday's events calling for prisoner release.Events to promote the release of all PA Arabs in Israeli jails were held throughout Judea, Samaria and Gaza. In Jenin, prisoners' families protested outside the local Red Cross building. Mayor Kadoura Moussa expressed hope that This year will be the year in which all prisoners from the West Bank, Gaza, Al-Quds [Jerusalem], and the 1948 territories [Israel], in all Israeli prison, will be released.

In Shechem, a rally on behalf of terrorist prisoners was attended by Issa Qaraqe, the PA's Minister of Prisoners' Affairs. Qaraqe has frequently praised terrorists in the course of his work for the PA. On Sunday, he said, Struggle is the story of the Palestinian people.Schools under PA rule dedicated one hour on Sunday to teaching students that all PA Arab prisoners should be released from jail. Mosques and churches joined the cause as well, calling to free prisoners in speeches and ringing the bells in a display of solidarity.In Gaza, Hamas called to secure the release of PA terrorists by kidnapping Israeli soldiers.(IsraelNationalNews.com)

Man Sentenced in Honor Killing – 17 Years Later
by Maayana Miskin APR 17,11


Nabil Abu-Hadir of the Shuafat neighborhood of Jerusalem was sentenced Sunday for murdering his sister Taghrid Diab 17 years ago in an honor killing. Abu-Hadir was found guilty of stabbing his sister to death at a Jerusalem bus stop as her three young children cried and begged him to stop.The 17-year delay in delivering justice was due to the fact that Abu-Hadir fled Jerusalem following the murder, running to the nearby city of Bethlehem, which is controlled by the Palestinian Authority. There, he worked as a university lecturer and raised a family.Abu-Hadir was sentenced to life in prison. In addition, he was ordered to pay each of Taghrid's children 100,000 shekels.The children testified in court that they were left psychologically scarred by witnessing the murder and then growing up without a mother. It is easy to understand the children, and to see that their suffering was very great, wrote judges Yaakov Tzeven, Miryam Mizrachi and Rafi Carmel.It is painful and difficult to grow up without a mother; and seven times harder after a child saw his mother stabbed 23 times before his eyes.Something like that would leave a mark on the heart and soul of any person, all the more so a young child.

Abu-Hadir's other relatives showed support for him in court. During his trial, sister Hana Abu-Hadir said, This involved my brother and my sister. But she is with G-d now, and he did not commit this murder. The court did not consider Nabil's wife and children.Abu-Hadir's attorney has expressed hope that the Supreme Court will overturn his client's conviction. He accused the state of destroying evidence that could have led the court to find Abu-Hadir innocent.Nabil Abu-Hadir argues that during the time of the murder he was in another sister's home. Judges found him guilty based on both eyewitness testimony and his own suspicious behavior, including his behavior on the day of the murder, his lack of interest in Taghrid's death, and his flight to Bethlehem.(IsraelNationalNews.com)

Justice in US-Islam Honor Murder
by Prof. Phyllis Chesler APR 15,11


Western-Islamic honor killings are 91% Muslim. The UK is already doing something about it, in the USA one murderer was sentenced to 34.5 years in prison.Arizona Judge Roland Steinle has just sentenced Faleh Almaleki to 34½ years in prison. According to live reporting from the courtroom, the judge noted that Almaleki showed no remorse after the murder, that he did not forgive his daughter, that he did what suited his own purpose. The judge also said this was the hardest case he had to face in his six years on the bench. He found no mitigating factors and sentenced Almaleki to 34 and 1/2 years: 15 years for the aggravated assault of Khalaf, 3 and 1/2 years for leaving the scene of an accident, and 16 years for the second-degree murder of his daughter. He was facing a maximum total of 46 years.Thus, today we have witnessed Iraqi-American Faleh Almaleki being sentenced in Phoenix, Arizona for having honor murdered his 20-year-old daughter Noor and for having attempted to murder Amal Khalaf, the woman who was trying to protect her. In October of 2009, he followed the daughter, whom he had tormented all her life, to a shopping mall, lurked outside, then boldly ran over her precious, lovely body with a two-ton Cherokee jeep. He also tried to run Amal Khalaf down and managed to injure her seriously. Then he fled. Faleh flew to England via Mexico, but was arrested at Heathrow Airport and sent back for trial.

He made his escape with the help of his wife, Seham, Noor's mother, and his son, Ali. Seham made sure Faleh had his diabetes medicine with him; perhaps she packed a little bag for him too. Seham was no kinder to Noor than her father was. Seham cursed Noor on a regular basis and made life at home so impossible that Noor left. She moved in with the sympathetic Amal, whose son, Marwan, Noor may have begun to date. Seham soon cursed the woman who dared give Noor shelter.What exactly was Noor's crime? She had refused to remain in an arranged marriage in Iraq. She wanted to live in America, not Iraq. Noor also insisted on dressing like a modern, American girl—worse, she dared to choose her own boyfriend, another Iraqi-American. In her family's eyes, she was a whore, a disobedient daughter who deserved to die. Their honor depended on her death.Noor is not the first young girl who has been honor murdered in the United States. Daughter-stalking, daughter-monitoring, and daughter-killing by the family of origin is one of the distinguishing features of a classic honor killing. This is very different from American domestically violent femicide, which usually targets wives who are murdered by husbands who commit the crime alone, not with the assistance of their own families of origin or with the victim's family of origin. (This is sometimes the case in honor killings.) Battered wife-murder in America is not usually an expression of a family conspiracy plot, nor are such killers seen as heroes.Faleh Almaleki was convicted of second-degree murder, aggravated assault, and two counts of fleeing the scene of a serious-injury accident. He claimed that it was all accidental, that he only meant to drive past his daughter and spit at her. He claimed that he lost control of the car.
I cannot imagine what it might be like growing up in a family and in a culture where you know, in advance, that your own parents, brothers, sisters, first cousins, and uncles might be the ones who will one day kill you. I would think that trust and intimacy would be difficult and that paranoia, based on reality, would run rampant.

I do not believe that most Americans understand how profoundly different a shame and honor culture is from our own. I do know that the media has consistently misled American readers about what an honor killing is and who commits most honor killings in America, Canada, and Europe. Based on my 2010 study, it is clear that 91% of all honor killings in the West are committed by Muslims. Yes, Hindus and Sikhs commit the rest, but otherwise, they confine their honor killings to India and do not export them to the West. It is not relevant whether Islam, Sharia law, pre-Islamic tribal customs, a misunderstanding of either tribal law or Islam are responsible for such murders. What is relevant is that leading Islamic religious and political figures have not abolished such crimes or excommunicated such murderers.
In America, a murder is a murder and must be treated as such. There are no cultural justifications or multi-cultural justifications that belong in an American court of law.In 1989, in St Louis, Missouri, 16 year-old Palestina Isa was the first young girl who was known as a victim of an honor killing on American soil. Her crime? She was academically ambitious and dared to have an African-American friend, a boy (not a romantic interest). But Palestinians, like many Muslims, are anti-African and anti-black and they viewed Palestina as a whore. She was routinely beaten and often turned up at school with bruises and a black eye. Her mother and sisters clamored for her death. Her mother held her down for 20 minutes while her father stabbed her 13 times. Based on FBI tapes of the actual murder, (the FBI was monitoring him as an Abu Nidal terrorist), Zein Isa was convicted of murder and sentenced to death. He died in prison of diabetes. Palestina's mother Maria's death sentence was commuted to life imprisonment without parole.In 2006, in Ottawa, Canada, 16-year-old Aqsa Parvez was strangled to death by her brother (at the instigation of her father) because she refused to wear a hijab. The father and the brother were both convicted of second-degree murder and were given sentences of 18 years to life. However, her mother, who sweet-talked her into returning home from the shelter for battered women, was not charged with complicity.

In 2008, in Irving, Texas, a suburb of Dallas, 18-year-old Sarah Said and 17-year-old Amina Said were shot to death by their highly abusive Egyptian-born father because of their Western ways. (He physically, sexually, and psychologically abused them from the time they were children.) Nevertheless, both Sarah and Amina were academically talented, dressed like Westerners, and had infidel boyfriends who were actually trying to help them save their lives. Their American-born mother had lured them back home to their deaths. The father escaped and is still a fugitive, and their mother was never charged for her complicity in the murders.
The laws in America allow for conspirators to also be tried. Thus far, that has not happened here. It has happened in Europe.For example, in 2006, in Denmark, Ghazala Khan was shot to death by her brother at the order of her father because she had married an unapproved man. A Danish court sentenced nine members of the family to lengthy jail terms for their part in the conspiracy: the father got life; the brother, an aunt and two uncles got 16 years; and four other members of the family got sentences of between 8 and 16 years.Great Britain passed legislation which allowed police to return British-Muslim girls and women whose families had tricked or kidnapped them into marriages in southeast Asia against their will. If the police had knowledge of this and could find such women, and if they indeed asked to be repatriated, the police did just that. In 2004, Great Britain also began re-classifying old murders. In 2006, in London, Banaz Mahmod was raped and strangled to death by two of her cousins and a hired gun at the order of her father and uncle. Her crime was that she had left an arranged marriage. The two cousins fled to Iraq after the murder; they were the first suspects ever to be extradited from Iraq to Britain. All five men involved were sentenced to life in prison; the men will be eligible for parole after 17-23 years.Immigration, cultural identity, and religious freedom are complex and emotionally charged issues. Immigrants need to bring something of home along with them; food, language, religious practices have, in the past, been assimilation-friendly. Many Muslim immigrants are sophisticated and Western-oriented; some are even staunchly secular and/or anti-Islamist. However, the kinds of Muslims (or Sikhs and Hindus) who commit honor murders on our soil are not. They are importing barbarism and criminal misogyny. The remedies will be costly and take a great deal of time and will include a combination of careful screening procedures, combined with citizenship, police, judicial, and social work education.
I don't think this will solve the problem. I am not sure what will, other than closing our doors to Muslim immigration which is something that I cannot in good conscience recommend. Many Muslims and other immigrants from Third World countries are in flight from at-home tyranny; many Muslim girls and women are in flight from being honor murdered or genitally mutilated in their home countries. Do we really want to close our doors to them? Nissan 11, 5771 / 15 April 11

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.

Storms kill 45 across 6 states; damage widespread
By The Associated Press – Sun Apr 17, 8:27 pm ET


Here is a look at six states hit hard by twisters that carved their way through the South, killing at least 45 people. More than 240 tornadoes were reported from the storm system.NORTH CAROLINA: At least 21 were killed by Saturday's storms that spawned some 60 tornadoes in the southeastern part of the state. One of hardest hit areas was Bertie County, where 11 people died. Gov. Beverly Perdue says federal help is expected to help clean up the devastation that nearly brought her to tears. Saturday was North Carolina's deadliest day for tornadoes since 1984, when 22 killed 42 people and injured hundreds.I can replace the house, but I can't replace my babies. And that's what I thought about. I'm alive. My babies are alive. — Askewville's Justin Dunlow who survived along with his two young children when winds ripped to shreds their doublewide mobile home.

VIRGINIA: At least seven have been killed, three of whom in Gloucester County where a tornado cut a 12-mile swath, uprooting trees, destroying homes and injuring dozens. The tornado ripped the roof off Page Middle School and overturned school buses and cars. Flooding also is a problem in the state. Flash flooding killed two Waynesboro residents and several people were rescued from rising water.She'd put her kids in the bathtub and got on top of them. The tornado blew the house off the foundation, and everything in the house shattered, and is flattened to the ground. — Gloucester's Randy Cook walking through debris of sister's home.ALABAMA: Seven were killed across the state and Gov. Robert Bentley has declared a state of emergency for all counties. The first race of a busy weekend at the Talladega Superspeedway was postponed until Saturday morning. Thousands of people were camping in open fields and getting ready for three days of races and they all made it through the storms. Four separate tornadoes hit Marengo County over the span of about five to six hours.The tornado hit and jumped and hit and jumped again. It would do some damage and then move on. — Autauga County Chief Deputy Sheriff Joe Sedinger about Boone's Chapel where three adult family members were killed Friday by tornado that ripped through homes.

ARKANSAS: Seven people were killed including a woman and her 8-year-old son when winds knocked a tree into their home in the capital city of Little Rock. Five others died as powerful straight-line winds blew through. All but one of the deaths occurred when people, including three children, were crushed by falling trees.I don't recall anything even approaching this. — Gov. Mike Beebe.OKLAHOMA: Casualties from the storm system started in the state on Thursday when two older people were killed in the small town of Tushka and dozens were injured. Gov. Mary Fallin has declared a state of emergency for 26 counties as at least five tornadoes touched down, four in the southeastern part of the state and a fifth in the central part of the state.We're trying to salvage what we can. It's devastating. It's just horrible. Thank God we have so much help. — Tushka's Stacy George, who lives across the street from a school where the second story of the main building collapsed into the first.
MISSISSIPPI: One person was killed when at least three tornadoes hit the state on Friday. A state of emergency was declared for 14 counties. Some of the worst damage was in Clinton where a portion of a bank blew onto the interstate.You could just feel the house fall down. The whole back side of the house is gone. All you could see was this black cloud.— 23-year-old Phillip Gregory who got home about the time a tornado was forming in his neighborhood in Clinton, just west of Jackson. He and family members huddled in a bathtub.

POISONED WATERS

REVELATION 8:8-11
8 And the second angel sounded, and as it were a great mountain burning with fire was cast into the sea: and the third part of the sea became blood;
9 And the third part of the creatures which were in the sea, and had life, died; and the third part of the ships were destroyed.
10 And the third angel sounded, and there fell a great star from heaven, burning as it were a lamp, and it fell upon the third part of the rivers, and upon the fountains of waters;
11 And the name of the star is called Wormwood:(bitter,Poisoned) and the third part of the waters became wormwood; and many men died of the waters, because they were made bitter.(poisoned)

REVELATION 16:3-7
3 And the second angel poured out his vial upon the sea; and it became as the blood of a dead man: and every living soul died in the sea.(enviromentalists won't like this result)
4 And the third angel poured out his vial upon the rivers and fountains of waters; and they became blood.
5 And I heard the angel of the waters say, Thou art righteous, O Lord, which art, and wast, and shalt be, because thou hast judged thus.
6 For they(False World Church and Dictator) have shed the blood of saints and prophets, and thou hast given them blood to drink; for they are worthy.

Fears over mental impact of Japan disaster
by Kimiko de Freytas-Tamura - APR 17,11


ONAGAWA, Japan (AFP) – The forbearance shown by survivors of Japan's quake-tsunami has been lauded in the West, but psychologists worry not talking about the hurt could be doing long-term damage.Commentators have heaped praise on the emotional resilience of people who have lost everything, but, say some, the surface calm masks deep undercurrents of emotion.To be honest I really feel like breaking down and crying -- because I'm sad, said evacuee Kenichi Endo, 45, briefly screwing his eyes shut.I've lost my father, my pet, my car, my savings. I've lost everything. But, everyone here is the same. If I cry, everyone else will, so I can't, he told AFP in a shelter in Onagawa town, clenching his fists into tight balls.Unbearable tragedy was heaped on Japan on March 11 when a 9.0 magnitude quake unleashed a gigantic wave on the country's northeast, killing more than 13,500 people and leaving over 14,000 missing.More than five weeks on and tens of thousands of evacuees are still living in school gymnasiums and other public buildings, sharing their sleeping space with dozens -- sometimes hundreds -- of other people.Under these conditions, emotion remains tightly regulated.Instead, grief appears at unexpected times -- while sleeping, listening to music or even while eating.The one thing I really want now is privacy, said Ken Hiraaki, an evacuee in another shelter. At night I hear people groaning in their dreams. But sometimes my wife wakes me up because I am groaning too.The unwillingness of many survivors to openly discuss their sadness is worrying health professionals, who say it makes them vulnerable to depression and long-term problems.Many people now are in a phase of acute stress disorder, which is a totally natural response to this level of trauma, said Ritsuko Nishimae, a clinical psychologist working with international aid group Doctors Without Borders (MSF) in Minamisanriku.If they are not able to get proper support psychologically, there is an increased possibility that they could develop post-traumatic stress disorder, she said.

In Japan depression continues to carry a stigma it has long shed in much of the West. This is especially marked in rural areas such as the disaster-struck northeast, where community and family ties are strong.It is only in the past decade that metropolitan Japan has begun to tackle taboos on mental illness, with around 900,000 people a year treated for depression, a condition referred to euphemistically as heart flu.Psychiatrists, who are known as heart carers, say many more people could benefit from treatment.When you say psychiatry, people become extremely sensitive. They think it is embarrassing, said Naoki Hayashi, a psychiatrist from Tokyo working in an evacuation centre in Rikuzentakata.They look at me quizzically, as if they're saying, Who are you? So instead of telling them I'm a psychiatrist I just tell them I am a doctor, he added.Survivors feel guilty if they talk about their hurt because everyone is suffering. They feel they can't just come out and talk about it and that's particularly strong in rural areas.Japanese medical groups have sent 115 heart carers to the disaster zone, but only 25 are doctors, with the rest being nurses and other medical staff. At the evacuation centre in Onagawa there was little to indicate the heart caring room was anything out of the ordinary, its tatami mats and low table making it look like an ordinary dining room.The centre's residents were all aware that it was there, but, despite the attempts of professionals to make the room non-threatening, few had ventured in to seek help.Japanese people don't like talking about themselves and their problems to strangers. I'd rather talk to my friends or family, said Keiko Katsumata, 57.

Survivors of World War II are usually even less open to the idea.Even if I do see a doctor like that, he won't solve my problems. I've experienced war, I've gone through a lot. That's where my strength comes from, said 77-year-old Toshiko Sawamura.We, the older generation, are different from the younger generation. They are weaker.

Gas in 6 states, nation's capital tops $4 a gallon
By The Associated Press – Sun Apr 17, 6:38 pm ET


WASHINGTON – Add New York to the growing list of states where gas prices are topping $4 per gallon.On Sunday, the Empire State became the sixth state to top $4 for the average price of a gallon of gas, joining Alaska, California, Connecticut, Hawaii and Illinois, according to AAA's Daily Fuel Gauge. The average price of gas also rose to more than $4 per gallon in Washington, D.C., on Saturday.The next states to join the list could be Michigan, which has gas for $3.95 per gallon on average, and Indiana, where the average price is $3.94. Nevada, Washington and Wisconsin are close behind.Hawaii has the highest price in the U.S. at $4.48 per gallon. Wyoming has the lowest, at $3.54.The national average for gas has increased for 26 straight days, and is now at $3.83 per gallon. That's up 29 cents from a month ago. Retail surveys suggest motorists are reacting to higher prices now by buying less fuel. Still, the government expects pump prices to keep climbing this summer as vacationers take to the highways.For American drivers, the $4 mark harkens back to the summer of 2008, when oil rose to $147 per barrel and gas prices topped out at $4.11 per gallon before the economy went into a tailspin.The rapid increase at the pump follows a parallel rise in oil. Since Labor Day, oil has risen 48 percent and U.S. gas prices have gone up 42 percent. The increases gained momentum in mid-February when a popular rebellion in Libya turned violent and shut down the country's exports. Crude has jumped 30 percent since then, with gas prices gaining 22 percent.

End of QE2 has some investors fearing fall in June
By MATTHEW CRAFT, AP Business Writer – Sun Apr 17, 2:32 pm ET


NEW YORK – Could the financial markets be heading for a June swoon? The answer likely hinges on what happens after the Federal Reserve's $600 billion effort to boost the economy expires. Some investors warn that the end of the program, known as QE2, will upend the stock market and push other markets in unexpected directions.
Under QE2, the Fed buys Treasurys from investors who can then put the money in stocks and other investments. Economists call it quantitative easing, and it is the second time the Fed has used the tactic.Since last August, when Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke outlined the plan, the Standard & Poor's 500 index has gained 26 percent. Many also say it's partly to blame for rising commodity prices on everything from silver to cotton.It's the most important factor that explains markets the way they are now, says David Rolley, co-head of global fixed income at the fund manager Loomis Sayles. So the most important question is what happens when QE2 stops? Ask investors and you get a variety of opinions. Bill Gross, manager of the world's largest mutual fund at Pimco, fears the worst. Take away the largest buyer of Treasurys and, he says, their prices are likely to fall and long-term interest rates likely to rise. That could hurt the economic recovery, and it's one reason his fund has dropped nearly all of its Treasury debt.

Other investors and economists, including those at Goldman Sachs, believe QE2 will expire without a stir. A top Fed official agrees.I wouldn't expect to see a financial market reaction to the termination of that program, said Janet Yellen, vice chair of the Fed's Board of Governors, in a speech in New York. She said that investors have already priced in the end of QE2.Skeptics point to last April when a Fed program to buy mortgage bonds ended. A report by David Rosenberg, chief economist at Gluskin Sheff, outlined what happened between April 23 and August 27:
_The Standard & Poor's 500 index lost 153 points, or 13 percent.
_The yield on the 10-year Treasury sank from 3.84 percent to 2.66 percent, as fears over a double-dip recession sent investors into safer investments.
_Gold rose from $1,140 an ounce to $1,235.

Sure, there's the possibility that the economy can stand on its own two feet now, Rosenberg says. But we haven't seen that happen yet.Another risk? Many investors believe the Fed will extend QE2, despite signs the economy is strengthening. Thirty percent of the 70 economists and money managers surveyed by CNBC in March expect the Fed to keep buying. Failure to do so could sour investors on the stock market.Many investors have become addicted to the Fed's help, says Robert Arnott, chairman of Research Affiliates, a money management firm.Most expect it to be over but secretly hope it won't, he says.There's a whole lot of wishful thinking out there.
Complicating everything is the debate over raising the federal borrowing limit. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner recently said the government may hit the $14.25 trillion debt ceiling as soon as May 16. If Congress fails to raise the limit, the government will lose the ability to sell new bonds to pay off debts coming due. In the worst-case scenario, the government could default, leading to a financial crisis.
All hell breaks lose, Arnott says. To be sure, the economy is more stable than last year. Unemployment has dropped from 9.8 percent to 8.8 percent in four months. Consumer spending has increased for eight months. Fed officials have turned their attention to rising food and fuel prices.Many see the end of Fed support as a badge of good health.We have to take the training wheels off at some point, says Richard Skaggs, equity strategist at Loomis Sayles. He dismisses Rosenberg's argument that stocks could fall and bonds could rise in a repeat performance of 2010.

The past doesn't really repeat itself, Skaggs says.Earlier this year, Skaggs was worried that the Fed's bond-buying was causing stocks to rise too quickly, setting the stage for a fall in June. But stocks dropped in March in response to the earthquake in Japan's earthquake, rising oil prices and other world events.Now Skaggs believes markets rest on more stable ground. When the Fed wraps up its program, the economy and financial markets may wind up better off if it means oil, wheat and other commodity prices drop. I've gone from being nervous to having my fingers crossed,he says.

China raises bank reserves again By Don Durfee and Sally Huang – Sun Apr 17, 8:13 am ET

BEIJING (Reuters) – China raised banks' required reserves on Sunday for the fourth time this year, extending the fight against excessive liquidity and stubbornly high inflation in the world's second-largest economy.The reserve rate rise, which followed an increase in benchmark bank interest rates on April 5, was the seventh since China stepped up efforts against inflation in October and underscored the government's determination to keep the economy on an even keel.The move was not a surprise -- investors predicted more tightening after last week's data showed an acceleration in inflation, and more worryingly, sustained capital inflows that threaten to keep inflationary pressure high.This rise continues the tightening measures of the central bank, said Lin Songli, an economist with Guosen Securities in Beijing. The first-quarter GDP shows that the whole economy is good, so there is still space for tightening.The central bank has also raised interest rates four times since October, slapped price control measures on certain commodities, and clamped down on property speculation.But price pressures driven by soaring global commodity prices and abundant liquidity continue to plague the Chinese economy.

Central bank chief Zhou Xiaochuan said on Saturday that policy tightening will continue for sometime, as inflation is higher that the government is comfortable with.And last week, Premier Wen Jiabao signaled a hawkish stance for the coming months, saying that the government would use all tools at its disposal to wrestle inflation under control.The 50-basis-point increase, effective from April 21, lifted the required reserve ratio for the country's biggest banks to a record 20.5 percent. It will lock up about 350 billion yuan ($53.6 billion) of cash that banks would otherwise be able to lend.

MORE TIGHTENING AHEAD

The latest economic data showed China's turbo-charged economic growth barely slowed in the first quarter, giving the government more confidence to press ahead with policy tightening.I think there will be more required reserves hikes in the coming months, or even this month, but the possibility of an interest rate rise this month is not that big, said Zhu Jianfang, chief economist at Citic Securities in Beijing.
The latest Reuters poll conducted on April 6 showed analysts believe the central bank will raise banks' required reserves three times this year by a total of 150 basis points and increase interest rates just once more this year.But although economists have argued recently that the central bank was near the end of its interest rate tightening cycle, China's economic growth is still cruising near double digits and the scope for China's government to continue tightening may be bigger than previously anticipated.The inflation picture is still worrisome and bank lending rebounded in March, said Zhao Xijun, economist at Renmin University in Beijing. I think the central bank will raise interest rate in the coming weeks -- probably in June.March's inflation data showed consumer prices rising to 5.4 percent in the year to March, the fastest rate since July 2008, from 4.9 percent in the first two months of the year.At the root of China's rising prices is the vast amount of money flowing into economy. Reserve requirements are a direct way of ring-fencing that excess cash, keeping banks from lending out a large chunk of it and thereby slowing money growth.China's foreign exchange reserves swelled by nearly $200 billion in the first quarter to more than $3 trillion, indicating hefty capital inflows given that China had a $1.02 billion trade deficit during the first three months.Meanwhile, Chinese banks extended 679.4 billion yuan ($104 billion) in new local currency loans in March, while the broad M2 measure of money supply rose 16.6 percent from a year earlier, both above market expectations.(Writing by Kevin Yao; Editing by Mike Nesbit)

Grave risk world trade talks to fail: WTO's Lamy
By Doug Palmer – Sat Apr 16, 2:02 pm ET


WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Nearly a decade worth of work to reach a world trade deal is on the verge of failure, World Trade Organization Director General Pascal Lamy said on Saturday in a plea for countries to rise above their own narrow interests for the good of the global economy.The WTO system is in grave risk of not being able to conclude a round started almost 10 years ago, Lamy told members of the International Monetary Fund just a few months after Group of 20 leaders urged negotiators to strike a deal by the end of this year in the long-running talks.Lamy, in a prepared text of his remarks, said the negotiations were stalling on the last hurdles of the Doha round of world trade talks launched in late 2001 with the goal of helping poor countries prosper through trade.He asked finance ministers attending this weekend's meetings of the IMF and the World Bank to go back to your capitals and ask your leaders to consider the cost of failure of these negotiations, both from a micro perspective, as from a macroeconomic point of view.The urgent appeal came as chairs of key WTO negotiating committees were expected to present new documents next week in Geneva showing wide gaps in the negotiations on agriculture, manufactured goods and services at the heart of the talks.The failure of intensified efforts since the start of the year to bridge those differences has caused many to wonder the point of continuing the nearly 10-year-old talks -- and some to conclude they are already dead.

The United States, which has been under pressure since the start to agree to deep cuts in its farm subsidies as part of a deal, has pressed big emerging countries such as China, India and Brazil to make better offer to open their markets to more agriculture, manufactured goods and services exports.Trade ministers from those countries, meeting this week with Russia and South Africa, rallied around a July 2008 draft WTO text they said offered a delicate balance of trade-offs but the United States says it fails to provide enough new export opportunities to make the deal attractive.On Tuesday, European Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht said there was no reason to be optimistic about the chances of success in the Doha talks and said the European Union had to start thinking instead about Plan B, an apparent reference to more bilateral and regional free trade deals.U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk a day later accused China, India and Brazil of shirking their responsibility to further open their markets, not just for the benefit of the United States but for poor countries that make up the bulk of the WTO's 153 members.No three economies have benefited more from trade liberalization over the last 10 years than China, India and Brazil. That's a good thing, Kirk said in a speech.If I can just be blunt, the question is whether they are willing to walk in the room, close the door and hammer out a deal, Kirk said.Lamy did not blame any individual countries in his remarks, but urged governments to look at the wider picture and keep some distance from narrow national interests.Countries can't afford to take for granted the rules-based world trading system that has prevented a repeat of the tit-for-tat trade actions that many blame for the Great Depression, Lamy said.We are not only just forgetting the lessons of the distant past, but also of the recent past, when the system shielded us from worst economic woes, Lamy said.(Reporting by Doug Palmer; editing by Leslie Adler)

Gaddafi presses Libyan rebels, West says no troops
By Alexander Dziadosz – Sun Apr 17, 8:37 pm ET


AJDABIYAH, Libya (Reuters) – Forces loyal to Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi kept up an offensive on the rebels' eastern frontline outpost of Ajdabiyah, while the West again ruled out sending ground troops to help the rebel cause.One witness said he saw around a dozen rockets land near the western entrance to Ajdabiyah, which rebels wanted to use as a staging post to retake the oil port of Brega. Many fled on Sunday as loud explosions boomed across the town.There are still some guys out there at the western gate but the situation isn't very good, said Wassim el-Agouri, a 25-year-old rebel volunteer waiting at Ajdabiyah's eastern gate.We want weapons, modern weapons, said rebel Ayman Aswey, 21.If we had those, we could advance against them.Sunday marked a month since the U.N. Security Council passed a resolution authorising force to protect civilians in Libya, leading to an international air campaign.But despite NATO air strikes against Gaddafi's armor, rebels have been unable to hold gains in weeks of back-and-forth fighting over the coastal towns in eastern Libya.With NATO troops bogged down in Afghanistan, Western countries have ruled out sending ground troops, a position reinforced by the British prime minister on Sunday.What we've said is there is no question of invasion or an occupation -- this is not about Britain putting boots on the ground, David Cameron told Sky News in an interview.

He said outside powers would help in every other way to stop Gaddafi unleashing this hell on people in Misrata and other towns up and down the Libyan coast, including providing non-lethal equipment to the rebels.European Council President Herman van Rompuy said he viewed the Libyan rebel council as a valuable discussion partner ... that embodies the Libyan people's aspirations, a political vote of confidence for a force that has struggled militarily.

STREETS DESERTED

Ajdabiyah's streets were almost deserted by mid-afternoon and rebels barricaded the roads with concrete blocks, tree branches and anything else they could find.Rebel pick-ups patrolled the streets and men took up positions across the town with machineguns and rocket-propelled grenade launchers. Others returned to positions at the western gate with their weapons pointed west and south into the desert.We are ready for a street war. We are prepared. We have got dynamite and we've got grenades, said rebel fighter Emtar el-Farjany, who was holding a stick of dynamite.
Some rebels on Saturday made it into the outskirts of Brega, 50 miles to the west, but many others retreated to Ajdabiyah after six were killed by rockets fired by Gaddafi loyalists on the exposed coastal road joining the two towns.By Sunday, scores of volunteer fighters and civilian cars carrying men, women and children streamed east from Ajdabiyah up the coast road toward Benghazi, where the popular revolt against Gaddafi's 41-year rule began on February 17.In western Libya, the rebel-held city of Misrata has been under government siege for seven weeks, leading to a growing humanitarian crisis. Hundreds of civilians are believed to have been killed in the fighting and shelling of the city.A rebel spokesman said Gaddafi's forces bombarded Misrata again on Sunday, killing at least six people. Abdel Basset Mezerik said at least 47 people were also wounded. The United States, France and Britain said last week they would not stop bombing Gaddafi's forces until he left power, although when or if that would happen was unclear.The rebels pushed hundreds of kilometres toward the capital Tripoli in late March after foreign warplanes began bombing Gaddafi's positions to protect civilians, but proved unable to hold territory and were pushed back as far as Ajdabiyah.From a military point of view, one can currently see there is a stalemate, the head of Germany's intelligence service, Ernst Uhrlau, told the Hamburger Abendblatt newspaper.One cannot predict at the moment how much longer Gaddafi can hold onto power. The area around Tripoli is much stronger in terms of the population and the tribes than the east, he said.

Earlier on Sunday a sandstorm obscured the flat expanse of desert stretching west from Ajdabiyah to Brega. Rebel Ahmed al-Zuwaihi blamed the weather for a lack of NATO air strikes.The weather is no good today. NATO hasn't hit anything, he said.It's a big opportunity for Gaddafi and he's taking advantage of it. He might enter Ajdabiyah today. Today the planes are not going to hit anything.NATO warplanes instead bombed the area of Al-Hira, 50 km (30 miles) southwest of the capital Tripoli and also hit the city of Sirte, Libyan state television said. Bursts of anti-aircraft fire were heard in Tripoli on Sunday evening.

SNIPERS

In Misrata, rebels say they have faced daily bombardment from Gaddafi's forces. The U.S.-based rights group Human Rights Watch has accused Gaddafi's forces of using cluster bombs -- which scatter bomblets over a wide area, increasing civilian casualties. The Libyan government has rejected the allegations. A rebel spokesman, called Abdelsalam, said there was fighting around Misrata's main thoroughfare Tripoli Street.Snipers are firing in all directions, he said.For three days, it was very tough. Gaddafi troops were launching powerful attacks. They have been firing artillery, mortars.Food was running short and long queues formed outside bakeries. Some streets were fast becoming unrecognizable.The Libyan government blames militants allied to al Qaeda for the fighting. Foreign Minister Abdelati Obeidi held talks with U.N. envoy Abdelilah Al-Khatib in Tripoli and condemned the unjustified crusader colonial aggression on Libya.He said Libya was ready to comply with U.N. resolutions to implement a ceasefire and allow the delivery of humanitarian aid, according to the Jana state news agency.(Additional reporting by Mussab Al-Khairalla in Tripoli, Mary-Louise Gumuchian in Sfax and Sami Aboudi in Cairo; Writing by Michael Roddy; Editing by Alex Richardson)

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