DUTCH PRIEST ENDORSES PEDOPHILIA

http://obamareleaseyourrecords.blogspot.com/2011/05/jerome-corsi-to-release-details-on-key.html
SOMETHING FUNNY ABOUT OBAMAS SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBER
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1hheX7uTak&feature=player_embedded

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BygadqqiFH8&feature=player_embedded
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqvvqGqpkgE&feature=player_embedded
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6W9z_-eKOG0&feature=player_embedded
Corsi: Trump Conspired With Obama To Neutralize Birther Controversy Paul Joseph Watson Infowars.com May 23, 2011

As he prepares to release shocking new evidence and name the people who he claims were behind the forgery of Barack Obama’s long form birth certificate, author Jerome Corsi sensationally accused short-lived Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump of working with Obama to neutralize the birther controversy.Appearing on the Alex Jones Show, Corsi said that he now completely discounted the apparent efforts of Donald Trump to force the release of Obama’s birth certificate, stating,I’m completely convinced at this point Donald Trump was subterfuge, that he…. was working with Obama.Corsi explained how he was in contact with Trump and that Trump requested several copies of his book before it was released.Trump’s role according to Corsi was to beat the drums big and craft a false resolution to the controversy in order to make the press go to sleep and get his $60 million dollar television contract with NBC, owned by General Electric, which is closely allied with the Obama administration.Regarding who actually helped the administration create the forgery, Corsi pointed out that they were stuck with the guys who were close to them, because putting out a proposal for outside experts to forge the document would have been far too risky.I’m pretty well on the trail of linking the characteristics of this document to someone who’s going to have a lot of explaining to do, said Corsi, adding that he was hot on the trail of one individual who may have had a hand in this, and that his identity would be released this week.The forger is someone who does not work in government, he works in the media and is close to the administration and would have been within the circle of friends that may have been called on to do the forgery or participate in the forgery, said Corsi.

Corsi said that the information contained in his book, Where’s the Birth Certificate?, and the new revelations he was about to unleash would mean the Obama administration would not survive, because the evidence proves the administration has tried to preserve itself using criminal fraud.I got a call about three weeks before it was released from one of my sources in Hawaii and I was told that the new long form birth certificate had been forged, had been slipped into the log book, said Corsi, noting that efforts to create the fake began shortly after reporter Mike Evans let slip that Hawaii Governor and close friend Neil Abercrombie had been shocked at his failure to find Obama’s long form birth certificate, and were timed to pre-empt the release of Corsi’s book.During the interview, Corsi listed numerous examples of where the new birth certificate was clearly forged, including an obvious misspelling on the stamp and a smiley face that appears in the signature of the doctor once the document is blown up to 800 per cent, both of which don’t occur in the hundreds of other examples of the signature that Corsi has studied.The letters in the document also share identical pixelations despite the fact that they are purportedly from a typewriter, which would produce different pixelations if transferred to an electronic document every time. The identical pixelations prove that the document was created on a modern computer.Another aspect of the birth certificate pointing to forgery is the fact that the electronic PDF document released by the White House clearly shows evidence of kerning – where parts of letters overlap each other for a pleasing visual effect – this is produced by modern computers and was not possible on 1960′s typewriters.

The administration will not show the original, in 1961 there were no computers, where’s the original paper birth certificate if it exists? asked Corsi, adding that the original document needs to undergo forensic analysis. Corsi visited the Hawaii Department of Health as well as the Kapi’olani Medical Center in an attempt to see the original certificate or patient records for Obama’s mother Ann Dunham, but was told that police would be called if he didn’t vacate the premises.During an interview with a Denver radio station last week, Corsi said he was about to release bombshell evidence that proved the alleged Obama birth certificate released last month was a composite of three different birth certificates from other individuals born at the same hospital.I’m going to be telling the entire world about this scandal over the next few weeks, Corsi said in a separate interview.This is going to make Watergate look like a political sideshow by comparison.In an effort to derail the success of Corsi’s book, Esquire Magazine then put out a hoax article claiming that publisher Joseph Farah had ordered the book to be pulled from store shelves. Farah is considering whether to launch a lawsuit in response.

Commentary on Obama’s speech on Israel May 20, 2011 By Lee Kaplan-Obama’s speech on Israel portends trouble ahead for America: Commentary By Lee Kaplan, investigator, communications director

Obama’s speech regarding Israel illustrates that the hacks in the US State Department and Obama’s Palestinian radical friends within the Chicago political machine have won. President Obama showed he is still in tune with his former Pastor’s rhetoric to goddamn America because of a perceived policy of persecution by the US abroad, no matter how untrue it is. Damning America includes also damning the Little Satan, Israel.Put in simple English, the President said this: We are facing a nuclear Iran and I don’t want to go to war to stop Iran because America is perceived as a bully in the world anyway and such a war would stop the flow of oil and ruin our economy. The Iranians are Shiites and traditionally the Shiites hate the Sunnis and vice versa. The Saudis are also a variant of Sunnis and they too fear Iran. In the past, we kept friendly relations with the Arab dictators in our national interest. We also kept a friendship with Israel as a fellow democracy, but those days are numbered; Israel was a strategic ally against the old Soviet Union when the Russians were allying with the Arabs, but now that policy is obsolete. The Palestinians want to replace Israel with an Arab state and if we count the populations of the Arab states as part of a pan-Arab oligarchy in the region along with the Palestinians, the numbers just aren’t on Israel’s side. We won’t support 6 million Jews against 250 million Arabs. If the Jews want to survive at all with our help, they’ll need to do whatever we tell them. The Saudis want this. So we want this.

The Muslim Brotherhood are Sunnis. If we line up with them, and convince the Arab world that we are their allies, then we will have a counterbalance to Iranian hegemony in the region, and they will no longer attack us. Israel, in turn, can twist in the wind. While it’s true that Usama Bin Laden came out of the Muslim Brotherhood, we think that now that we’ve shown we eliminated him, by embracing them and weakening Israel, we will convince them to join us and not fight us. The Brotherhood also has to fear Iranian nuclear ambitions. This is one reason we made it a point to finally kill Bin Laden in Pakistan, invading their sovereignty to do so, something we could have done years ago. As we embrace the Arab world and the Muslim Brotherhood, they will hand Zawahiri over to us on a platter, wait and see. We will buy ourselves out of this war and make our enemies our friends. Al Qaeda is weakened, and we can court new leadership among the militant Islamists of the world.
This is one reason why we are supporting the insurgents against Gaddafi. We went with the lesser of two evils to promote our long term goals in the region. We won’t help insurgents against Syria because Syria is aligned with Iran and is opposing Israel on behalf of the Palestinians.The terrorists with the suits and the PhDs have won the war against America at this point. Obama is a president who is from the college intelligentsia where everything is theoretical even if not practical on the ground. He probably sat at cafes during lunch as a law professor, and listened to Palestinian intellectuals who discussed international law and human rights as they supported the biggest welfare scam and bloody totalitarian movement in history, the biggest violators of international law and human rights, the Palestinian revolution. It no doubt was all so simple to him; if not for the Jewish lobby, things would be settled with an Arab majority in the region, the Jewish state gone or neutralized. and the oil flowing freely. It was and is this same college atmosphere that the State Department has used to promote the idea of Israel eventually being gone, replaced by some other state that would make the Arabs happy. Just visit any US campus and see the weekly hysteria of demonstrations calling for boycotts of Israel that are against federal law but allowed by the government. Obama has been calling for a contiguous Palestinian state that will divide Israel in half, the first step to dismantling the Jewish state.

This is the point where Israel either steps up to plate for itself or finds itself a footnote in history. The flotillas of anarchists and Arab sympathizers, the ISM activists who riot every week in the West Bank or in Gaza are all part of the State Department’s encouragement of the Palestinian state that will counterbalance Iran in a new Cold War and make the Saudis happy. But just as in Afghanistan with the mujahedin against the Russians, while it may mean an immediate short term goal, it will come back to bite us on the ass. The Saudis used mercenaries and unrelenting propaganda to help defeat the Serbs and set up two Muslim states in Europe. They even got NATO to bomb the Serbs with American help. Obama’s message to Israel is to twist slowly in the wind as America pursues its next folly with totalitarians and abandons another democratic ally. Well, not exactly abandons, just slowly allows it to die on the vine. This is Czechoslovakia and Hitler all over again, only more nuanced, we just don’t know it.Only time will tell. The Israelis in turn can only stall for time. This is why the Arabs are pushing to have the UN declare a Palestinian state without preconditions. Israel’s best bet is to annex what it needs and tell the UN it can do what it wants with the rest as long as the Arabs are demilitarized. Our best bet in America is to pray for another president in the next election. If he’s a Republican, he shouldn’t be from the Bush family either, that also had a revolving door for Saudi interests and talked one thing, but did the State Department’s bidding.

Vatican protocol favours Van Rompuy, snubs Barroso VALENTINA POP 20.05.2011 @ 18:28 CET

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - The Vatican snubbed EU commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso at a ceremony for the late Pope John Paul II earlier this month in favour of EU Council head Herman Van Rompuy.According to Italian daily Corriere della Sera, Barroso, his wife and Italian commissioner Antonio Tajani were on 1 May in the Vatican held back by guards when they tried to enter a special zone where VIPs came to meet Pope Benedict XVI and to kiss his ring.A bishop later intervened in Barroso's favour, but it was too late to meet the pontiff and Barroso left in choler.

Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi on Friday (20 May) told the Italian Catholic news agency Asca that Barroso was not on the guest list because it had been previously communicated to the Holy See that it would be the president of the European Council, Herman Van Rompuy, who would greet the Pope on behalf of the EU institutions.The meeting was restricted to heads of state and government, Lombardi added, saying that since Van Rompuy chairs summits in Brussels he was considered to be the appropriate EU guest.There is no reason to speak of lesser esteem and appreciation for the European institutions by the Holy See. The greeting by the Pope to President Van Rompuy indeed intended to show this appreciation.In a press conference on Friday, Barroso's spokeswoman tried to downplay the incident and said that the state of our relations with the Vatican is very good.President Barroso went to the beatification ceremony of Pope John Paul II because he wanted to pay homage to his memory and what he represents in inspiring people around the world about the values of freedom, peace and human dignity.The protocol confusion ... will not disturb our relations with the Vatican,she said.It's sorted and behind us now.

Ashton to face tough questions from EU ministers
ANDREW WILLIS 20.05.2011 @ 23:14 CET

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton is preparing for a showdown with foreign ministers on Monday (23 May) about nagging problems in her European External Action Service (EEAS).The service's future budget and the work of overseas EU delegations are among sensitive issues to feature in the lunchtime debate. The stock-taking exercise - 18 months into Ashton's mandate - comes after a lacerating attack on the high representative by one EU foreign minister two weeks ago.Austria and the three Benelux countries have submitted papers on how they feel the effectiveness of the service can be improved, with a list of proposals also expected from Ashton's side.Austria's paper, seen by EUobserver, begins by saying: "Close co-operation between the diplomatic services of member states and the EEAS in Brussels and in third countries is the prerequisite for the Union's success in joint external action. It notes several times the need for better information exchange and calls for better distribution of sensitive documents, blaming current problems on security concerns and restrictions at EU delegations.Austria also calls for greater trust between EU and member state embassies.EU delegations sometimes seem to 'clean' their own reports submitted to the EEAS headquarters before sharing them with member states, which has led to certain irritations,it says.The Benelux paper makes similar points, according to a source familiar with it.

Referring to the various heads of the the European Council, European Commission and the EEAS, the Benelux source said: There must be better co-ordination between EU institutions in relation to international events. It's ridiculous that Van Rompuy, Barroso and Ashton all issue different communiques.Consular work and the basic structure of the EU's diplomatic corps needs to be improved, the source added: Have you seen the organigram? It's not at all clear who is talking to whom.Monday's debate comes amid a recent wave of Ashton-bashing.In an interview with Belgian daily Le Soir earlier this month Belgian foreign minister Steven Vanackere spoke of his frustration, saying he found the [foreign policy] analysis prepared by the staff of Ashton rather disappointing.France is among others chiding the EU less openly over its response to the Arab spring.We expect she will answer these criticisms on Monday,a diplomat from a large member state noted.Compounding tensions, austerity-era EU capitals were stunned when Ashton asked for a 5.8 percent increase in her budget last month.A diplomat from a mid-sized EU country linked the bad atmosphere to the budget debate:We do not think that criticism now is by chance, coming just ahead of EU negotiations on the long-term multi-annual budget. When you discuss money, it's the moment of truth.Ashton herself is expected to say how she will better manage her monthtly EU forieign ministers' meetings.A senior EU official close to the high representative said she plans to take a less-is-more approach, possibly limiting the length of ministers' interventions in future.We don't want to keep adding items to the agenda so that there is no time for discussion. We must pick a list of priority topic, the source said.Ministers can see how many minutes they have taken up, but it hasn't gone further than that yet,the official explained.

EU institutions to create new cyber defence unit
VALENTINA POP 20.05.2011 @ 18:16 CET

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - EU institutions are setting up a joint team of internet security experts some three months after the European Commission was hacked in a bid to get sensitive data on external relations and monetary issues.The attack in March - just a few days ahead of an EU summit on military strikes in Libya and on the eurozone debt crisis - saw commission systems attacked in a very well-organised and targeted way, focusing on three or four keywords on external relations and monetary issues,according to a senior EU official.It was probably espionage, but this is very difficult to prove. We don't expect to ever know if it was the case or not, the source added.The contact did not reveal if any data was actually stolen. The commission has not launched a criminal investigation at this stage and is still assessing the level of damage.It has in the past three months beefed-up its email security.Up until the attacks email accounts could be accessed remotely by typing in a password. But now users have a special security token - a small device which generates a seconadry password reuqred to log on.Brussels is also setting up a new Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT) to stave off future attacks.The unit will pull together existing IT security departments from the commission, the EU parliament and the EU Council to handle cyber attacks on all EU institituions and to share intelligence in real time with CERTs in EU membr states. The new body is to run tests in June and to be fully operational by 1 October.Otmar Lendl - the head of the Austrian CERT - told EUobserver the new measure will not make EU systems impregnable.

Prevention is very difficult. It's like fire - even if you have a good firebrigade which sets up the best firewalls, you will still have fires. But CERTs certainly will help you deal with anything that happens and get a clearer response, as well as putting sensors in place and tools to monitor networks, so that you detect an attack early on.Detecting the fact that an attack is taking place is in itself not an easy thing. The next step is to find out how the hacker got into the system, what documents have been accessed or changed and if any timebombs or backdoors have been left behind to allow future access.At EU level, there are a lot of own little kingdoms, it's not centralised like in a company - so it will be a difficult task, Lendl explained.National CERTs dealing with governments (GovCERTs)also have to deal with various ministries, cities, local administrations and other stakeholders. So it's not unusual,he added.

Livni: World Watching Israel-US Ties
by Maayana Miskin MAY 22,11

United States President Barack Obama's positions should be adopted by Israel, Opposition head Tzipi Livni said Sunday, in response to Obama's AIPAC speech.The principle of Israeli security and the need to reach the point of two national homelands, one of them the state of Israel... is primarily an Israeli interest, she stated. She later said, When Israel understands first and foremost what its own interests are, it can get support from any United States government.Livni warned that Israel needs good ties with the United States. It is important to understand that the world is watching the relationship between Israel and the United States, especially those who still do not accept our existence here. Part of the state of Israel's power of deterrence is due to their understanding that we are working together.That is what makes Obama's message so important not only for internal Israel politics, not only for internal American politics, but for the region, she continued.Obama's latest remarks, which included a declaration that borders of a new Arab state should be based on the 1967 lines,do not show a change in American policy, Livni argued. Obama is representing a long-term American policy, she said.

She concluded, When we wish to do so, we can enlist the support of the United States with the understanding that this is a mutual interest. This is very important for the state of Israel. For Israel's security, for its power of deterrence, and so that we can move the process forward once and for all and prevent unilateral processes in the UN.(IsraelNationalNews.com)

Likud MKs: Obama Zigzagging
by Gil Ronen MAY 22,11

MK Danny Danon (Likud) responded to U.S. President Barack Obama’s AIPAC speech by saying that Obama must understand that Israel will not pay his private tuition as he tries to understand the essence of the conflict.The U.S. president, he added,is zigzagging in accordance with whatever will bring him more votes and justify the Nobel Peace Prize he received. We must stand firm in order to make sure that this does not come at the expense of Israel.MK Carmel Shamah, also from the ruling party, credited the Prime Minister for causing what he saw as a meaningful shift in Obama’s attitude. The wisdom and determination shown by the Prime Minister bore fruit in Obama’s speech, he said.President Obama voiced an absolute and explicit no to the ‘67 borders and to Hamas, and expressed boundless support for Israel as a Jewish and democratic country and to safeguarding its security.Yesha Council Chairman Danny Dayan was less impressed. No borders based on the 67 lines, with or without corrections, with or without the blocs, is defensible. If a PLO state is created, there will be contiguous Muslim territory from Afghanistan to Kfar Saba.Only the River Jordan, the Jordan Valley and the Judea and Samaria mountain ridge can provide security for Israel,he said.Only holding on to Hevron, Beit El and (Israel National News.com)

AIPAC Panel Reaffirms Support for Israel
by Elad Benari and Fern Sidman, INN NY Correspondent MAY 23,11
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/144399

A special panel discussion took place on Sunday at the annual AIPAC conference in Washington, DC. Participants in the panel were Ari Fleischer, who served as White House Press Secretary to former U.S. President George W. Bush, Ralph Reed, political activist and president of Century Strategies, and CNN commentator Paul Begala.
Begala said during the discussion that while the economy will be a major issue in the 2012 U.S. presidential election, Americans should also ensure that national security is a top priority, and that means continued support for Israel.Reed, who noted the fact that he is an evangelical Christian who is extremely pro-Israel, said that not every Israel supporter is Jewish and praised Israel for its loyalty to the U.S. and its long time stability. Referring to President Barack Obama’s earlier speech at the conference, Reed said that he waits for the day when a U.S. administration does not have to clarify its position on Israel.Fleischer said that the security of the land of the Israel is what is in his heart and noted that foreign policy will be a large factor in the next presidential race. He added that if the Democrats win the Jewish vote in the 2012 election, three to one, that would mean a Republican victory.(IsraelNationalNews.com)

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

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

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

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

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

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

HALF HOUR DOW RESULTS MON MAY 23,2011

09:30 AM -2.43
10:00 AM -141.25
10:30 AM -146.44
11:00 AM -136.43
11:30 AM -154.01
12:00 PM -160.07
12:30 PM -160.14
01:00 PM -150.11
01:30 PM -152.01
02:00 PM -135.55
02:30 PM -106.44
03:00 PM -110.82
03:30 PM -123.32
04:00 PM -130.78 12,381.26

S&P 500 1317.37 -15.90

NASDAQ 2758.90 -44.42

GOLD 1,516.20 +7.30

OIL 97.45 -2.65

TSE 300 13,652.30 +27.20 (CANANA IS ON HOLIDAY)

CDNX 2031.44 +29.22

S&P/TSX/60 781.64 0.66

MORNING,NEWS,STATS

YEAR TO DATE PERFORMANCE
Dow -159 points at 4 minutes of trading today.
Dow -168 points at low today.
Dow -1 points at high today so far.
GOLD opens at $1,509.20.OIL opens at $97.06 today.

AFTERNOON,NEWS,STATS
Dow -168 points at low today so far.
Dow -1 points at high today so far.

WRAPUP,NEWS,STATS
Dow -168 points at low today.
Dow -1 points at high today.

GOLD ALLTIME HIGH $1,573.50 (NOT AT CLOSE)

STORMS HURRICANES-TORNADOES

LUKE 21:25-26
25 And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity;(MASS CONFUSION) the sea and the waves roaring;(FIERCE WINDS)
26 Men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken.

THE FIRST JUDGEMENT OF THE EARTH STARTED WITH WATER-IT ONLY MAKES SENSE THE LAST GENERATION WILL BE HAVING FLOODING
GENESIS 7:6-12
6 And Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of waters was upon the earth.
7 And Noah went in, and his sons, and his wife, and his sons’ wives with him, into the ark, because of the waters of the flood.
8 Of clean beasts, and of beasts that are not clean, and of fowls, and of every thing that creepeth upon the earth,
9 There went in two and two unto Noah into the ark, the male and the female, as God had commanded Noah.
10 And it came to pass after seven days, that the waters of the flood were upon the earth.
11 In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened.
12 And the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights.
GOD PROMISED BY A RAINBOW-THE EARTH WOULD NEVER BE DESTROYED TOTALLY WITH A FLOOD AGAIN.BUT FLOODIING IS A SIGN OF JUDGEMENT.

Flooding becomes widespread in eastern Montana
– Sun May 22, 1:05 am ET

BILLINGS, Mont. – Flooding in Montana caused the cancellation of several high school graduations and fishermen were trapped by washed out roads on Saturday, while swelling rivers led to voluntary evacuations in a community near Billings, meteorologists with the National Weather Service said.Much of the eastern two-thirds of the state is dealing with flood warnings or actual flooding as a slow-moving storm has dumped rain across the region for several days, in some areas as much as six inches since Thursday. The National Weather Service in Billings predicted rainfall would lighten overnight in southeastern Montana.The stormy weather began to hit the region as the state braces for more possible flooding after harsh winter and late spring snow storms deepened mountain snowpack to levels nearly double their average levels.The ironic thing is we really haven't begun to bring the snow out above 8,000 feet of elevation, said Billings-based meteorologist Joes Lester.This event is from rain.Flooding has damaged several roads, bridges and culverts and farm fields are being inundated in southeastern Montana, said James Zabrocki, the director of Custer County's Disaster and Emergency Services in southeastern Montana.

He said the Tongue River could hit a record crest and that the Powder River at Locate is nearing its crest.On the Crow Reservation in the south-central part of the state, officials canceled graduations at Lodge Grass High School and Plenty Coups High School in Pryor due to flooding.Tribal spokesman Ben Cloud told the Billings Gazette that an incident command center has been set up in Crow Agency, and Cedric Black Eagle, the tribe's chairman, declared a state of emergency on the reservation.
Much of the state has been anticipating flooding for at least a week and it appears to have started in earnest.It's the cumulative effect that's the problem, said Victor Proton, a senior meteorologist based in Glasgow.There are multiple creeks out of their banks.He said an unknown number of anglers became stranded in the Charles M. Russell National Wildlife Refuge when roads washed out. He said authorities were formulating a plan Saturday afternoon on how to get them out.He said water was flowing over State Highway 191 in central Montana in Fergus County due to the dam that broke.On Friday, Gov. Brian Schweitzer met in Great Falls with emergency officials from six counties to prepare for possible flooding.Montana Disaster and Emergency Services Director Ed Tinsley told the Great Falls Tribune that agencies are preparing for flooding in many areas because of the potential.Proton said the state has received about three times more rain than normal so far this year.That's on top of having our all-time record snow over the winter,he said.None of this has helped.No injuries have been reported so far, the meteorologists said.They said the flooding could become worse on Sunday but could subside somewhat as the rain moves out of the area on Monday.But Lester noted problems will likely continue as water moves downstream.We're going to keep having some flooding issues for several days, he told The Associated Press on Saturday.Maybe all of next week even. The water has to go someplace, and there's lots of it.Information from: Billings Gazette, http://www.billingsgazette.com

Tornadoes batter central US, kill unknown number
MAY 22,11

JOPLIN, Mo. – Tornadoes ripped through parts of the Midwest on Sunday, killing at least one person in Minneapolis and an unknown number of others in Missouri, where a massive twister flattened a large area of one city and heavily damaged a hospital.

Damage was widespread across part of the southwest Missouri city of Joplin. John Campbell, operations director for the Missouri State Emergency Management Agency, confirmed fatalities have been reported, but he did not yet have an exact number or specifics.Phone communications in and out of the city of about 50,000 people about 160 miles south of Kansas City were largely cut off.St. John Regional Medical Center was evacuating nearly 100 patients after the hospital took a direct hit from the tornado, said Cora Scott, a spokeswoman at the hospital's sister facility. The patients were being taken to other hospitals.Witnesses said windows were blown out on the top floors of the hospital.Scott said she did not yet have any confirmation of deaths or injuries at the hospital. The Springfield hospital was sending ambulances and other resources to Joplin to help the response.The storm was part of a series that battered the Midwest on Sunday night. Tornado warnings and watches were posted from Texas to Michigan.Jeff Lehr, a reporter for the Joplin Globe, said he was upstairs in his home when the storm hit but was able to make his way to a basement closet.

There was a loud huffing noise, my windows started popping. I had to get downstairs, glass was flying. I opened a closet and pulled myself into it, he said.Then you could hear everything go. It tore the roof off my house, everybody's house. I came outside and there was nothing left.He said people were walking around the streets outside trying to check on neighbors, but in many cases there were no homes to check.
There were people wandering the streets, all mud covered, he said.I'm talking to them, asking if they knew where their family is. Some of them didn't know, and weren't sure where they were. All the street markers were gone.Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon activated the National Guard and declared a state of emergency. Nixon said the state and low law enforcement agencies were coordinating search and rescue and recovery operations.In Minneapolis, city spokeswoman Sara Dietrich said the death was confirmed by the Hennepin County medical examiner. She had no other immediate details. Only two of the 29 people injured there were hurt critically.In Wisconsin, a powerful storm caused significant damage in La Crosse, tearing roofs from homes and sending emergency responders to search damaged buildings for anyone trapped inside, officials said. La Crosse County sheriff's dispatcher Tim Vogel described the damage as significant but told The Associated Press there were no immediate reports of serious injuries.

Those storms followed a tornado Saturday night that swept through a small eastern Kansas town, killing one person and destroying at least 20 homes, as severe thunderstorms pelted the region with hail that some residents described as the size of baseballs, authorities said Sunday.Kansas Division of Emergency Management spokeswoman Sharon Watson identified the victim as Don Chesmore, 53, of Reading. He was in a mobile home that flipped. He was taken to a hospital in Emporia, where he was pronounced dead.

EARTH DESTROYED WITH THE EARTH(BECAUSE OF SIN AND GODLESS PEOPLE)

GENESIS 6:11-13
11 The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.(WORLD TERRORISM,MURDERS)(HAMAS IN HEBREW IS VIOLENCE)
12 And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth.
13 And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence (TERRORISM)(HAMAS) through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth.

HOSEA 4:1-3
1 Hear the word of the LORD, ye children of Israel: for the LORD hath a controversy with the inhabitants of the land, because there is no truth, nor mercy, nor knowledge of God in the land.
2 By swearing, and lying, and killing, and stealing, and committing adultery, they break out, and blood toucheth blood.
3 Therefore shall the land mourn, and every one that dwelleth therein shall languish, with the beasts of the field, and with the fowls of heaven; yea, the fishes of the sea also shall be taken away.

Iceland hit by volcano, Europe routes so far open
By Omar Valdimarsson – Sun May 22, 6:54 am ET

REYKJAVIK (Reuters) – The eruption of Iceland's most active volcano is unlikely to cause a repeat of last year's major disruption to air traffic, an expert said, despite the island having to shut its main airport and maybe closing its airspace.
The Grimsvotn volcano burst into life on Saturday in what experts said was a stronger eruption than its last outbreak in 2004. The plume from the volcano shot 20 km (12 miles) into the sky, forming a huge, bubbling mass which seeped above the clouds high over the North Atlantic island.Experts have said it will probably not cause the same kind of disruption as when Eyjafjallajokull erupted last April, grounding European airlines for days, as its eruptions tend to be smaller and the particles from it less likely to disperse so far into the atmosphere.Authorities halted flights then due to fears that dust and ash would get into aircraft engines and cause accidents after the cloud was blown into European air traffic lanes.

There is no reason to expect Grimsvotn's current eruption to produce the volume of finely fragmented ash that caused such disruption during last year's Eyjafjallajokull eruption, said Open University Volcano Dynamics Group expert David Rothery.There will be re-routing of some transatlantic flights, but I doubt that it will become necessary to close European airspace. The eruption is also expected to cause local flooding because of escape of meltwater, he said.Europe's air traffic control organization said on Sunday: There is currently no impact on European or transatlantic flights and the situation is expected to remain so for the next 24 hours.Aircraft operators are constantly being kept informed of the evolving situation, the Brussels-based organization said.The Isavia civil aviation authority said it had decided to shut the island's main airport, which is about 30 miles from capital city Reykjavik.The ash distribution forecast over the next six hours shows that the ash from the volcano will spread over Iceland today, leading to the closure of most Icelandic airports as the day goes on, it added in a statement.Isavia on Saturday imposed a flight ban of 120 nautical miles around the area.Grimsvotn lies under the Vatnajokull glacier in southeast Iceland, the largest glacier in Europe.
When it last erupted in 2004 transatlantic flights had to be re-routed south of Iceland, but no airports were closed.(Reporting by Omar Valdimarsson in Reykjavik, Patrick Lannin in Stockholm, Kate Kelland in London and Christopher Le Coq in Brussels; Editing by Alison Williams)

Bigger Icelandic eruption, but less airline angst By JILL LAWLESS and GUDJON HELGASON, Associated Press – Sun May 22, 6:53 pm ET

REYKJAVIK, Iceland – An Icelandic volcano was flinging ash, smoke and steam miles (kilometers) into the air Sunday, dropping a thick layer of gray soot in an eruption far more forceful — but likely far less impactful — than the one that grounded planes across Europe last year.The country's main airport was closed and pilots were warned to steer clear of Iceland as areas close to the Grimsvotn (GREEMSH-votn) volcano were plunged into darkness. But scientists said another widespread aviation shutdown is unlikely, in part because the ash from this eruption is coarser and falling to Earth more quickly.The volcano, which lies beneath the ice of the uninhabited Vatnajokull glacier in southeast Iceland, began erupting Saturday for the first time since 2004. It was the volcano's largest eruption in 100 years.The ash from Grimsvotn — about 120 miles (200 kilometers) east of the capital, Reykjavik — turned the sky black Sunday and rained down on nearby buildings, cars and fields. Civil protection workers helped farmers get their animals into shelter and urged residents to wear masks and stay indoors. No ash fell on the capital.Scientists said the eruption was unlikely to have the same global impact as last year's eruption 80 miles (130 kilometers) away at the Eyjafjallajokull (pronounced ay-yah-FYAH-lah-yer-kuhl) volcano, which left 10 million travelers stranded around the world.

It is not likely to be anything on the scale that was produced last year when the Eyjafjallajokull volcano erupted, University of Iceland geophysicist Pall Einarsson told The Associated Press.That was an unusual volcano, an unusual ash size distribution and unusual weather pattern, which all conspired together to make life difficult in Europe.Still, Icelandic air traffic control operator ISAVIA established a 120 nautical mile (220 kilometer) no-fly zone around the volcano, closed Keflavik airport, the country's main hub, and canceled all domestic flights. It said Keflavik would stay shut until at least noon Monday, canceling about 40 international flights.

Trans-Atlantic planes — including Air Force One, due to carry President Barack Obama to Ireland later Sunday — were told to stay away from Iceland.The European air traffic control agency in Brussels, Eurocontrol, however, said there was no impact on European or trans-Atlantic flights further south and said it did not anticipate any impact through Monday.Britain's Meteorological Office, which runs Europe's Volcanic Ash Advisory Center, said the plume from the volcano would spread largely northeast until Monday, but some ash would creep south and east, toward the crowded skies over northern Europe.Where it goes after that depends on the intensity of the eruption and weather patterns.A Met Office spokeswoman said if the eruption continues at its current rate, the U.K. could be at risk of seeing some volcanic ash later this week. She spoke on condition of anonymity because she wasn't authorized to be quoted by name.University of Iceland geophysicist Magnus Tumi Gudmundsson said the Grimsvotn eruption was much bigger and more intensive than last year's eruption and 10 times as powerful as Grimsvotn's last explosion in 2004.There is a very large area in southeast Iceland where there is almost total darkness and heavy fall of ash, he said.But it is not spreading nearly as much. The winds are not as strong as they were (last year).He said the ash now is coarser than in last year's eruption, falling to the ground more quickly.Grimsvotn's eruption in 2004 lasted for several days and briefly disrupted international flights. The volcano also erupted in 1998, 1996 and 1993.Sparsely populated Iceland is one of the world's most geologically unstable countries, sitting astride the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, where the Eurasian and North American continental plates rub up against one another. Frequent earthquakes push magma from deep underground toward the surface, and volcanic eruptions are common. The ground is covered by hardened black lava from past eruptions and steam belches from the earth — harnessed by Icelanders for geothermal power.Volcanic eruptions in Iceland often spark flash flooding from melting glacier ice but rarely cause deaths. Usually they only have a local impact, but when they do draw the world's attention, it's in a spectacular way.The 1783 eruption of the Laki volcano spewed a toxic cloud over Europe, killing tens of thousands of people. Crops failed and famine spread.

In April 2010, the Eyjafjallajokull eruption prompted aviation officials to close Europe's air space for five days out of fear that the ash could harm jet engines. Thousands of flights were grounded, airlines lost millions of dollars and weary travelers slept on airport floors across northern Europe.Some airline chiefs complained that regulators had overreacted. But a study last month in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences concluded the shutdown had been justified. It said the hard, sharp particles of volcanic ash blasted high into the air could have caused jet engines to fail and sandblasted airplane windows.Scientists said there were already signs that the latest eruption was tapering off.The intensity of the eruption has decreased markedly overnight," Matthew Roberts of the Icelandic Meteorological Office told the BBC, saying the ash plume had fallen to about 6 miles (10 kilometers) high.Gudmundsson said the duration of the latest eruption would probably be short.In two or three days, the worst should be over,he said.Jill Lawless reported from London.

FALSE TEACHERS,PROPHETS,DECIEVERS

MARK 7:6
6 He answered and said unto them, Well hath Esaias prophesied of you hypocrites, as it is written, This people honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.

LUKE 16:15
15 And he said unto them, Ye are they which justify yourselves before men; but God knoweth your hearts: for that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God.

TITUS 1:16
16 They profess that they know God; but in works they deny him, being abominable, and disobedient, and unto every good work reprobate.

MATTHEW 24:4-5,11,24-25
4 And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you.
5 For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many.
11 And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many.
24 For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.
25 Behold, I have told you before.

1 TIMOTHY 4:1-2
1 Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils;
2 Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron;

MARK 13:22-23
22 For false Christs and false prophets shall rise, and shall shew signs and wonders, to seduce, if it were possible, even the elect.
23 But take ye heed: behold, I have foretold you all things.

2 TIMOTHY 3:13
13 But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived.

DEUTORONOMY 18:10-12
10 There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch,
11 Or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer.
12 For all that do these things are an abomination unto the LORD: and because of these abominations the LORD thy God doth drive them out from before thee.

JUDE 10-13
10 But these speak evil of those things which they know not: but what they know naturally, as brute beasts, in those things they corrupt themselves.
11 Woe unto them! for they have gone in the way of Cain, and ran greedily after the error of Balaam for reward, and perished in the gainsaying of Core.
12 These are spots in your feasts of charity, when they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear: clouds they are without water, carried about of winds; trees whose fruit withereth, without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots;
13 Raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame; wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever.

MATTHEW 10:32-33
32 Whosoever therefore shall confess me(JESUS) before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven.
33 But whosoever shall deny me (JESUS) before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven.

Shock after Dutch priest endorses pedophilia
By TOBY STERLING, Associated Press – Sat May 21, 7:20 am ET

AMSTERDAM – The Dutch Catholic Church and the Salesian order are investigating revelations that a Salesian priest served on the board of a group that promotes pedophilia with the full knowledge of his boss.The order's top official in the Netherlands, Delegate Herman Spronck, confirmed in a statement that the priest — identified by RTL Nieuws as 73-year-old Father Van B. — served on the board of Martijn, a group that campaigns to end the Dutch ban on adult-child sex.

The group is widely reviled but not outlawed.

Of course we reject this and distance ourselves from this personal initiative on the part of the priest, Spronck said in a statement. Membership in such organizations does not fit with the ethos of the Salesian order.However, Spronck's own superior in Belgium said he will investigate both Spronck and Van B., after both men were quoted by RTL Nieuws as saying such relationships aren't always harmful.Superior Jos Claes told Belgian television on Saturday he couldn't imagine that both men would not be disciplined, but said he must make sure of the facts first.Society thinks these relationships are harmful. I disagree, RTL quoted Van B. as saying. He served on Martijn's board from 2008 until 2010, when its founder was arrested for alleged possession of child pornography, a case that is ongoing.Van B. told RTL he remains a member of Martijn and now lives in a retirement home in eastern Netherlands.In a second interview, RTL quoted Spronck as saying he was aware of Van B.'s pedophilia and membership in Martijn, and even of two instances where the priest had been fined by police for exposing himself in public. But he said he didn't think that was sufficient reason to ban him from the order.Removing someone from the order is something you would only do in the case of grave moral transgression, such as rape. There was never any question of that, Spronck was quoted as saying.

Spronck added that adult-child sexual relations do not necessarily have to be damaging, including with children as young as 12.Spronck and his organization could not be reached Saturday for comment. According to its website, the Dutch arm of the Salesians has 14 employees and 400 volunteers and aims to help poor children.Dutch Catholic Church spokesman Pieter Kohnen said Saturday that, even with sex abuse scandals rocking the church worldwide, this particular case was unbelievable and the church utterly rejects pedophilia. He said if Superior Claes did not act quickly to reform the Dutch Salesian order's leadership, the matter would be referred to Rome.
RTL's report detailed Van B.'s movements over two decades, through three dioceses and six parishes in the Netherlands where the priest often departed under a cloud of suspicion.Pastor Rudy de Kruijf in the eastern city of Wijchen said Van B. had helped him as recently as Christmas, but his church ended contact immediately when it learned of his past.Kohnen said the Church has done extensive background checks on all employees since 2004, but in Van B.'s case that would not have helped since he was a volunteer.Thousands of past cases of alleged sexual abuse by Dutch priests are under investigation by an independent but church-funded commission in the Netherlands.The Dutch church, which has more than 4 million members, set up a body to deal with abuse allegations in 1995. But the independent commission was formed last year after shocking abuse cases were uncovered just as similar stories were snowballing in neighboring Germany.Several of the most prominent abuse cases coming to light recently in the Netherlands have also involved Salesians at boarding schools and orphanages in the 1950s and 1960s.

When Doomsday Isn't, Believers Struggle to Cope
LiveScience.com Stephanie Pappas, LiveScience Senior Writer,
LiveScience.com – Sat May 21, 10:31 pm ET

If you're reading this, Harold Camping's predictions that the end of the world would start Saturday (May 21) failed to pan out.That's good news for most of us, but Camping and his followers were looking forward to the end. After all, they believed that they were likely to be among the 200 million souls sent to live in paradise forever. So how do believers cope when their doomsday predictions fail? It depends, said Lorenzo DiTommaso, a professor of religion at Concordia University in Montreal who studies the history of doomsday predictions.If you have a strong leader, the group survives, DiTommaso told LiveScience.Sometimes the group falls apart. Most often, the answer given by the group is that the prophecy is true, but the interpretation was wrong.In 1994, Camping predicted a September doomsday, but hedged his bets with a question mark. On his website (familyradio.com), Camping wrote that he had misunderstood a key biblical passage, but since that time, biblical evidence for a 2011 end had greatly solidified.

Doomsdays without doom

The classic study of doomsdays gone bad took place in 1954. A Chicago woman named Dorothy Martin predicted a cataclysmic flood from which a few true believers would be saved by aliens. Martin and her cult, The Seekers, gathered the night before the expected flood to await the flying saucer. Unbeknown to them, however, their group had been infiltrated by psychologist Leon Festinger, who hoped to find out what happens when the rug of people's beliefs is pulled out from under them.Festinger's study, which became the basis of the book When Prophecy Fails (Harper-Torchbooks 1956), revealed that as the appointed time passed with no alien visitors, the group sat stunned. But a few hours before dawn, Martin suddenly received a new prophecy, stating that The Seekers had been so devout that God had called off the apocalypse. At that, the group rejoiced — and started calling newspapers to boast of what they'd done. Eventually, the group fell apart. Martin later changed her name to Sister Thedra and continued her prophecies.Other failed doomsday prophets have struggled to keep their followers in line. One self-proclaimed prophet, Mariana Andrada (later known as Mariana La Loca), preached to a gang of followers in the 1880s in the San Joaquin Valley of California, predicting doomsday by 1886. But Andrada was not consistent with her predictions, and believers began to defect. Trying to keep one family from leaving, Andrada told them one of them would die on the journey. Sure enough, the family's young son soon fell violently ill and passed away. The family accused Andrada of poisoning him. She was arrested and found not guilty, but never returned to preach to her followers.

Searching for explanations

How Camping's followers will cope with a failed doomsday prediction depends on the structure of the group, said Steve Hassan, a counseling psychologist and cult expert who runs the online Freedom of Mind Resource Center. [After Doomsday: How Humans Get Off Earth]The more people have connections outside of the group, the more likely it is that they're going to stop looking to [Camping] as the mouth of God on Earth, Hassan told LiveScience.Information control is one of the most important features of mind control.In his experience, Hassan said, about a third of believers become disillusioned after a failed prediction, while another third find reason to believe more strongly. The remaining group members fall somewhere in between, he said.
Doomsday groups in history have run a gamut of responses after failed predictions, said Stephen Kent, a sociologist at the University of Alberta who studies new and alternative religions. On occasion, a leader will admit he or she was wrong; other groups will come up with a face-saving explanation. Some groups may blame themselves, rationalizing that their lack of faith caused the failure, Kent told LiveScience. Other groups blame outside forces and redouble their efforts.One of the options is for the group to say, Society wasn't ready, Jesus felt there weren't enough people worthy of rapturing. Hence, we've got to go out and convert more people,Kent said.

After the apocalypse

Often, a failed prediction leads to splinter groups and re-entrenchment. After Baptist preacher William Miller predicted the end of the world on Oct. 22, 1844 — a date thereafter known as The Great Disappointment when nothing happened — his followers struggled to explain their mistake. One subset decided that on that date, Jesus had shifted his location in heaven in preparation to return to Earth. This group later became the Seventh-Day Adventist church.Sociologists and doomsday experts agree that Camping is likely convinced of doomsday rather than perpetuating a hoax or running a scam. A con artist, Hassan said, would never set himself up for failure by giving a firm date.A belief in doomsday gives followers a clear sense of the world and their place in it, Kent said. Those comforting beliefs are difficult to maintain after the world fails to end.This could be a fairly sad day for these people, Kent said.There will be some greatly disheartened people who may be terribly confused about what didn't happen.You can follow LiveScience senior writer Stephanie Pappas on Twitter @sipappas. Follow LiveScience for the latest in science news and discoveries on Twitter @livescience and on Facebook.

NYSE working with Shanghai on international board
By Samuel Shen and Kazunori Takada – Fri May 20, 5:53 am ET

SHANGHAI (Reuters) – The New York Stock Exchange is working with China to launch the country's international board that will allow foreign firms to list on the mainland, in a move seen as a crucial step in developing its capital markets.Chinese officials have yet to provide details of the international board, seen as a centrepiece in Shanghai's attempt to become an international financial center by 2020, though they have said it could be launched later this year.NYSE Euronext (NYX.N) Chairman Jan-Michiel Hessels said his exchange was working with Chinese authorities on the board and his company would be strongly interested in listing on it.We are strongly interested. As an even stronger leading stock exchange we feel we should be listed on the international board, he told Reuters on the sidelines of a financial conference in Shanghai.It's up to the authorities to see if we are still the favorite candidate.HSBC (HSBA.L), Unilever (ULVR.L) and Standard Chartered Plc (STAN.L) have said they want to list on the international board, which was originally slated to be launched in 2010.Hessels also said the bourse was working with Chinese authorities in helping develop a derivatives market.China has been taking various steps, including the planned launch of the international board, aimed at developing the country's capital markets and building Shanghai into a global financial center on par with the likes of New York and London.

YUAN CONVERTIBILITY

Speaking at the same conference, China's central bank governor said the increased use of the yuan in trade and investment settlement will pave the way for the currency to become fully convertible, although the process will be gradual.Zhou Xiaochuan did not offer any time frame.Beijing has been trying to boost the global clout of its currency by promoting the use of the yuan in foreign trade, investment settlement and signing bilateral currency swaps with other countries.The yuan is widely expected to eventually become a major world reserve currency, along with the dollar and euro. Analysts say for that to happen, however, China would need to make the yuan fully convertible, and the government has given no clear indication of when that might happen.When there is a certain amount of cross-border use of the yuan, there will be a natural demand that the yuan will move toward full convertibility in a gradual and orderly manner, Zhou told the Lujiazui forum, an annual gathering of Chinese officials and executives in Shanghai.The cross-border use of the yuan, at the initial stage, means the use of yuan in trade and investment activities. Meanwhile, we also allow the yuan to be used in financial deals in a cautious and prudent manner, Zhou said.K. C. Chan, Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury of Hong Kong, urged Beijing to deregulate its market more quickly to allow easier flows of the Chinese currency across the border.

China also said offshore yuan funds should be allowed to flow in and out of the mainland capital markets more easily, which would also help promote Shanghai's global status.A channel for offshore yuan to flow back to the mainland market will help develop Shanghai to become an international financial center, he told reporters on the sidelines of the conference.Zhou made headlines in March 2009 by proposing to replace the dollar eventually as the world's main reserve currency with a beefed-up version of the Special Drawing Rights (SDR), the International Monetary Fund's accounting unit.The idea is considered premature by some, but Zhou has spearheaded a programme to boost the use of the yuan in trade and investment to ensure the currency becomes a major component of the SDR.(Additional reporting by Zhou Xin and Kevin Yao in Beijing; Editing by Jacqueline Wong)

Asian markets slump on worsening Euro debt crisis
By PAMELA SAMPSON, AP Business Writer – MAY 22,11

BANGKOK – Asian markets were sharply lower Monday amid signs of U.S. economic sluggishness and escalating worries about Europe's debt crisis after Italy and Greece were slapped with credit downgrades.Oil prices fell to near $99 a barrel Monday in Asia as a stronger U.S. dollar made commodities more expensive for investors with other currencies.Japan's Nikkei 225 slid 1.4 percent to 9,474.83; South Korea's Kospi tumbled 1.8 percent to 2,073.01 and Hong Kong's Hang Seng index slumped 1.6 percent to 22,817.95.Shares of Japanese auto maker Honda Motor Corp. were down 1.6 percent as the company announced its workers would take 14 days off this summer because of production interruptions caused shortages of parts. The work days will be made up for those days later in the year.Operations at Honda, like scores of other manufactures, were severely hindered following a devastating earthquake and tsunami on March 22 struck Japan's industrial northeast. The region, largely wiped out, was home to hundreds of companies that manufacture parts for the country's powerhouse manufacturing industry.

In Europe, meanwhile, Standard & Poors cut its ratings outlook for Italy's debt from stable to negative Saturday, citing the country's poor growth prospects and concerns about the government's ability to reduce public borrowing. But with a ratings outlook still at A+/negative, Italy remains in far better shape than Greece.Credit ratings agency Fitch cut Greece's long-term credit rating further into junk status on Friday, saying the indebted country faces challenges changing its economy and government to reduce debt. Investors remain concerned that Greece will have to stretch out its debt repayments or pay creditors less than what they're owed. Europe's banks, especially those in Greece, hold lots of Greek bonds, and a restructuring could hurt them.Also in Europe, Spain is holding regional elections this weekend, leading to speculation that new politicians might say the country is even more deeply in debt than the current government had forecast. That raises the possibility that Spain would need to seek a bailout, following the path of Greece, Ireland and Portugal.In New York on Friday, stocks closed broadly lower for a third straight week on signs that U.S. consumer demand may be weakening.Retailers Gap Inc. and Aeropostale Inc. each lost more than 14 percent Friday after cutting their profit forecasts for the year, in part because of higher costs for raw materials and sluggish sales. That was a worrying sign for investors who had counted shoppers to lead a recovery in spending.The Dow Jones industrial average fell 0.7 percent to 12,512.04. The Standard & Poor's 500 index lost 0.8 percent to 1,333.27. The Nasdaq composite dropped 0.7 percent to 2,803.32.May is traditionally a weak month for the stock market. Traders have little to base buying and selling decisions on with corporate earnings season officially over and economic news scarce.Benchmark crude for June delivery was down $1.11 to $98.99 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.The euro dropped against the greenback to $1.4085 from $1.4201 in late trading in New York on Friday. The dollar strengthened to 81.93 yen from 81.57 yen.

Mideast peace talks would face huge obstacles
By DAN PERRY, Associated Press – Sun May 22, 6:43 pm ET

JERUSALEM – President Barack Obama wants Israelis and Palestinians to return to the bargaining table, and he repeated the call Sunday in a speech to Israel supporters. But it seems unlikely this will happen anytime soon — and even if it did, the sides would find a formidable array of obstacles to agreement.Obama is clearly aware of this, telling the American Israel Public Affairs Committee that no matter how hard it may be to start meaningful negotiations under the current circumstances, we must acknowledge that a failure to try is not an option.Even as we are clear-eyed about the difficult challenges before us ... I hope we do not give up on that vision of peace, he added.Among these challenges are huge gaps on important issues between Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a right-winger for whom acquiescence to the very idea of Palestinian independence — popular around the world and now widely accepted in Israel, too — was a major ideological leap.But even if a more compliant Israeli leadership should return to power, any negotiators would face some daunting obstacles:

BORDERS

Obama made waves with his declaration Thursday that a peace treaty should be based on the 1967 lines with mutually agreed swaps. It differed only in nuance from previous U.S. positions — a point Obama stressed Sunday — but hearing the principle stated clearly by the U.S. president had been a major Palestinian objective, and it touched a deep nerve in Israel, too.Netanyahu swiftly declared the 44-year-old lines indefensible from a military point of view. And a look at the map shows why: Israel would be about 10 miles (about 15 kilometers) wide at its narrowest point; the West Bank surrounds the Israeli part of Jerusalem on three sides; and, on a clear day, the West Bank's strategic highlands are clearly visible from Tel Aviv, where about a quarter of Israelis live. If there is any chance that a future Palestine could turn hostile, these borders are a challenge.Are they sacrosanct — or somehow enshrined in international law? American officials are generally careful to use the word lines and not borders when referring to the demarcation that lasted from the end of the 1948-49 war after Israel declared independence until the 1967 war when it expanded its territory. That is no coincidence: these are temporary armistice lines between Israel and Jordan in the case of the West Bank, and Israel and Egypt in the case of Gaza. Those two countries captured the areas — previously part of British-ruled Palestine — in that 1948-49 war.Might Israel keep some of its 1967 booty?

That largely depends on how hard the Palestinians press, and how much leverage they can summon up. U.N. Security Council Resolution 242 of 1967 seemed to leave the door open — calling for withdrawal of Israeli armed forces from territories occupied in the recent conflict.It avoided use of the territories and left everyone to debate whether this meant Israel could keep some areas.On Sunday, Obama predicted the sides eventually "will negotiate a border that is different than the one that existed on June 4, 1967 ... to account for the changes that have taken place over the last 44 years, including the new demographic realities on the ground.That was a reference to the settlements Israel has built — and one the Palestinians will not appreciate.
Borders were supposed to be the simplest issue in peace talks, yet in a numbing two decades of talking the sides could never quite agree.Gaza is simple enough, because Israel does not challenge the pre-1967 line and removed its relatively few settlers from the territory in 2005.But more than a quarter million Israelis live throughout the West Bank now — in addition to a similar number living in the occupied sector of Jerusalem which is adjacent to the West Bank. Most of the settlers live close to the pre-1967 border. That makes it seemingly practical to include them in a redrawn Israel. Obama accepts this idea, but calls for land Israel receives to be swapped for unpopulated parts of Israel adjacent to the West Bank.But must the swaps be equal in size? And how much land can they involve?

Obama did not specify — and the second question is critical, because there are at least two major settlements — Ariel and Maale Adumim — that have tens of thousands of residents and are deep enough inside to disrupt things badly for the Palestinians. Palestinians know that going around Maaleh Adumim — if it were part of Israel — would turn a 15-mile (25-kilometer) drive from Ramallah to Bethlehem, major West Bank centers, into a circuitous ordeal. Israelis have tended to assume creative cartography will finesse the issue. But if the swaps will be tiny, that probably means these two settlements would be evacuated.The failure to agree even on borders suggests the issue is more complicated than it appears. For the Palestinians, getting even all of the West Bank and Gaza means accepting the loss of almost four-fifths of historic Palestine — and they're in no mood to give up yet more. And the Israelis — looking at the current map, and not so much at history — are basically uncomfortable with the smallness of their state.

JERUSALEM

Dividing Jerusalem is even tougher than negotiating the West Bank borders.The walled Old City, an area of less than a square kilometer (mile), houses some of the world's holiest sites for Jews, Muslims and Christians. Neither Israel nor Palestine could easily give it up to the other. Before 1967, it was part of Jordan — but a 1947 U.N. partition plan for Palestine called for internationalization of a wide area around the entire city after a British departure.During past peace talks, the sides spoke of each controlling its own holy sites — but were not known to have reached a detailed understanding of how two states could divide between them an ancient enclave full of warrens and alleyways, ancient ruins and underground tunnels and excavations. Would there be a border? Who would be in charge of security? At one point there was even talk of the most explosive site — known as the Temple Mount to Jews, and Haram as-Sharif to Muslims — being placed under divine sovereignty to sidestep the problem.But even beyond the Old City, Jerusalem's current demographics defy a division anywhere near as clean as, for example, the wall that once divided East and West Berlin.After 1967, Israel expanded the municipal borders into the West Bank. Over the years it has ringed the Arab-populated part of the city with Jewish neighborhoods. The Palestinians call them settlements no different from those in the West Bank, and indeed, some have the appearance of distinct hilltop communities. Some 200,000 Jews now live in such developments in the occupied area of the city, alongside about 300,000 Palestinians and 300,000 Jews in the western part of Jerusalem.The sides have discussed the principle of each keeping those areas of the city where its people live — but again, without much detail. On the ground, such a division would yield an astoundingly kaleidoscopic jumble, with islands of Jews surrounded by Palestinian areas and vice versa. A light railway planned for the city could end up crossing several borders a minute.

Jerusalem's mayor, Nir Barkat, put aside arguments about national rights and religious holy sites and argued plainly, in a meeting with foreign media this month, that a division of the city was no longer a practical possibility.Yet to the Palestinians, Jerusalem is the heart of their country, and it is difficult to see them accepting a merely face-saving formula — such as access to, or some sovereignty over, their holy sites. Peace probably requires doing what Barkat argues is impossible.

REFUGEES

The Palestinians have always demanded a right of return for Palestinian refugees and their millions of descendants to their families' previous homes in Israel — even though in most cases the homes, and in some even the villages, no longer exist.For Israelis across the political spectrum this is a non-starter. The main reason they did not annex the West Bank and Gaza — and the reason why many are willing to part with such strategic territories — can be boiled down to a desire to ensure their Jewish majority.On occasion, Palestinian officials would hint that a formula was possible that would satisfy everyone — perhaps, for example, with the right declared in principle but implemented only for a small number. A 2002 peace initiative by the Arab League made only indirect reference to the refugees, giving some Israelis hope.

But the deep Palestinian yearning is still there, seeming to grow stronger with each generation that grows up disenfranchised in countries such as Syria and Lebanon. Youth who have never seen their ancestral land carry keys to vanished family homes. Earlier this month, thousands risked their lives trying to breach Israel's borders, and several were killed by bullets fired from rattled Israeli troops.At the White House on Friday, Netanyahu said the Palestinians must be told clearly that a return is not going to happen. With this statement, the often divisive Netanyahu spoke for the vast majority of Israelis. In his speech a day earlier, Obama had sidestepped the vexing issue.According to the original timetable of the 1990s, a comprehensive deal ending a century of conflict was to be reached by May 1999. That never happened, and still seems far from imminent today. What, then, are the alternatives?

For one thing, the Palestinians say they will ask the United Nations for recognition of a state along the pre-1967 lines in September. Obama is trying to dissuade them.
If the Palestinians proceed, the gambit promises to be messy. Since the United States can veto any move in the Security Council, the Palestinians' bid would likely pass only in the General Assembly that has declarative but not practical powers. Still, such a recognition could spark other moves, including economic boycotts against Israel and mass public protest in the West Bank. Israel does not take it lightly.A host of other scenarios, in the short and long term, could possibly unfold:

-An interim deal: Israel would probably jump at a plan establishing a Palestinian state on most of the West Bank and all of Gaza, leaving Jerusalem and the other issues for later, and not requiring the Palestinians to forswear all future claims. The Palestinians, fearing the temporary will become permanent, reject this out of hand — but world pressure might change this.
-A unilateral pullout: In 2006, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said he would unilaterally pull out of most of the West Bank, essentially implementing the interim scenario without Palestinian agreement. The Gaza precedent now works against this in Israeli public opinion: Israel pulled out of the coastal strip, Hamas militants soon seized it, and the area has been used as a launching pad for rockets against Israel. But some variant of unilateral pullout may regain favor, especially if Israel faces mass Palestinian unrest that gets out of hand. Some speak of removing some settlers — but keeping the army in place for now.
-Outside intervention: It seems far-fetched today, but some Palestinians speak of asking the U.N. for a trusteeship over their areas, not unlike the British mandate over all of Palestine conferred by the League of Nations in 1922. Israel would find it tough to rebuff. It seems unlikely except as a very last resort, because it would probably require the dismantling of the Palestinian Authority and a sort of admission that the Palestinians aren't ready for independence.
-A binational state: Few on either side say they want this today. But if Israel cannot extricate itself from the West Bank, in the long run it would face pressure to give the Palestinians the right to vote, much as South Africa did when ending white minority rule. The Palestinians are already about half the population in Israel plus the West Bank and Gaza — and barring massive Jewish immigration they will very likely become the majority through their faster birthrate. In an irony of history, Jewish nationalism — in bonding Israel to the areas it conquered in 1967 — would have helped bring down the Jewish nation-state.