MORSI RETIRES GENERALS

KING JESUS IS COMING FOR US ANY TIME NOW. THE RAPTURE. BE PREPARED TO GO.

Israel tests SMS missile alerts as Iran chatter grows

AFP – 7 hrs ago AUG 12,12

Israel on Sunday began testing an SMS system for warning the public of an imminent missile attack as chatter over a possible strike on Iran dominated the Israeli press headlines.As testing began, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel had chalked up "a significant improvement" in its home front defence capabilities, mentioning its highly-vaunted anti-missile systems such as Iron Dome and Arrow 2."There has been a significant improvement in our level of defence capacity on the home front: with Iron Dome, with the Arrow, in terms of protection and shelters, in advanced warning systems and in other areas," he said at the start of the weekly cabinet meeting."But all the threats which are directed towards the Israeli home front are dwarved by another threat -- different in both its scope and its essence. And so I repeat: Iran must never be allowed to get nuclear weapons."With front page stories in two papers suggesting Tehran had made progress towards the manufacture and assembly of a nuclear warhead, Israel's Home Front Command began final tests of the SMS warning system which is expected to be operational by September."The Home Front Command will today start conducting nationwide testing of the 'Personal Message' alert system, which will end on Thursday," said a statement indicating that SMS texts in Hebrew, Arabic, English and Russian would be sent to subscribers on Israel's three main networks: Cellcom, Pelephone and Orange.The idea is that the SMS system could be used to warn the population of an imminent missile attack by Iran or Lebanon's Hezbollah militia if Israel strikes Tehran's nuclear facilities which it believes is a front for developing a bomb.

In recent days, talk of a possible strike on Iran has dominated the headlines, largely coming from unsourced officials quoting intelligence reports, none of which it was possible to verify."Iran has made progress toward nuclear warhead," was the headline in the Haaretz newspaper."The Iranians greatest progress recently is in the manufacture and assembly of a nuclear warhead," the paper said, quoting the official who was drawing his information from an intelligence report which an Israeli newspaper said was recently presented to US President Barack Obama.Although US officials declined to comment on the report, Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak referred to it directly last week, saying it "brings the American assessment much much closer to ours" and makes the Iranian issue "a bit more urgent.""Not prepared for war" was the headline in Yediot Aharonot, which questioned Israel's readiness to both mount a decisive military strike and to cope back home with the expected fallout."Will those preparations be enough to deal a crushing blow to Iran's nuclear facilities and allow Israel to cope with the repercussions of such an attack?" it said. "It is not at all clear that that is the case."It quoted statistics saying 700,000 civilians did not have bomb shelters, only half of Israel's population of 7.8 million people had gas masks, and that work to fortify 70 percent of the country's hospitals would not be completed until 2015.Although Israel charges that its arch foe Iran is driving for a nuclear bomb, the US intelligence services say only that they suspect it is seeking a weapons capability but that no decision has been taken on actually making one.Israel is widely suspected to have the region's sole, if undeclared, nuclear arsenal.

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(THE FALSE POPE WHO DEFECTED FROM THE CHRISTIAN FAITH) causeth all,(IN THE WORLD ) both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:(MICROCHIP IMPLANT)
17 And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark,(MICROCHIP IMPLANT) or the name of the beast,(WORLD DICTATORS NAME INGRAVED ON YOUR SKIN OR TATTOOED ON YOU OR IN THE MICROCHIP IMPLANT) or the number of his name.(THE NUMBERS OF HIS NAME INGRAVED IN THE MICROCHIP IMLPLANT)-(ALL THESE WILL TELL THE WORLD DICTATOR THAT YOUR WITH HIM AND AGAINST KING JESUS-GOD)
18 Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast:(WORLD LEADER) for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.(6-6-6) A NUMBER SYSTEM (6006006)OR(60020202006)(SOME KIND OF NUMBER IMPLANTED IN THE MICROCHIP THAT TELLS THE WORLD DICTATOR AND THE NEW WORLD ORDER THAT YOU GIVE YOUR TOTAL ALLIGIENCE TO HIM AND NOT JESUS)(ITS AN ETERNAL DECISION YOU MAKE)(YOU CHOOSE YOUR OWN DESTINY)(YOU TAKE THE DICTATORS NAME OR NUMBER UNDER YOUR SKIN,YOUR DOOMED TO THE LAKE OF FIRE AND TORMENTS FOREVER,NEVER ENDING MEANT ONLY FOR SATAN AND HIS ANGELS,NOT HUMAN BEINGS).OR YOU REFUSE THE MICROCHIP IMPLANT AND GO ON THE SIDE OF KING JESUS AND RULE FOREVER WITH HIM ON EARTH.YOU CHOOSE,ITS YOUR DECISION.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9PX-vW4VccY&feature=player_embedded#!
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-investor/markets/indexes/

HALF HOUR DOW RESULTS MON AUGUST 13,2012

09:30 AM-2.43
10:00 AM -11.94
10:30 AM -61.25
11:00 AM -59.58
11:30 AM -88.22
12:00 PM -80.33
12:30 PM -86.16
01:00 PM -71.07
01:30 PM -70.07
02:00 PM -61.16
02:30 PM -45.18
03:00 PM -30.54
03:30 PM -52.11
04:00 PM -38.52 13,169.43

S&P 500 1404.11 -1.76

NASDAQ 3022.52 +1.66

GOLD 1,613.50 -9.50

OIL 92.85 -0.02

TSE 300 11,838.33 -52.56

CDNX 1197.37 +6.37

S&P/TSX/60 675.15 -3.52

MORNING,NEWS,STATS

YEAR TO DATE PERFORMANCE
Dow -35 points at 4 minutes of trading today.
Dow -91 points at low today.
Dow -1 points at high today so far.
GOLD opens at $1,620.80.OIL opens at $93.43 today.

AFTERNOON,NEWS,STATS
Dow -91 points at low today so far.
Dow -1 points at high today so far.

WRAPUP,NEWS,STATS
Dow -91 points at low today.
Dow -1 points at high today.

GOLD ALLTIME HIGH $1,902.60 (NOT AT CLOSE)

FAMINE

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

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

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

France, U.S. to call for G20 meeting if needed on grain

Reuters, 13/08 11:03 CET

PARIS (Reuters) – The United States and France are closely watching rising grain and soy prices and will be ready to call for an emergency meeting of G20 agricultural officials if needed, France’s agricultural minister said on Monday.“France … and the United States remain attentive to any new fact that could justify a meeting of the rapid response forum,” Agricultural Minister Stephane Le Foll wrote in a statement.Last month, France activated the G20 grain action body that deals with agricultural market information and said it would call an emergency meeting of the forum – which was created last year to manage market crises – if the grain situation in the United States and Russia were to worsen.The United States, where severe drought has led to a global surge in cereal prices, will take over the helm of the grain action body in October over which France currently presides.(Reporting By Alexandria Sage; editing by Daniel Flynn and Keiron Henderson)

EARTHQUAKES

ISAIAH 42:15
15  I will make waste mountains and hills, and dry up all their herbs; and I will make the rivers islands, and I will dry up the pools.

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

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

LUKE 21:11
11 And great earthquakes shall be in divers places,(DIFFERNT PLACES AT THE SAME TIME) and famines, and pestilences; and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven.

Two earthquakes in Iran kill 300 and injure 5,000

By Yeganeh Torbati | Reuters – 10 hrs ago AUG 12,12

DUBAI (Reuters) - Overcrowded hospitals in northwest Iran struggled to cope with thousands of earthquake victims on Sunday as rescuers raced to reach remote villages after two powerful quakes killed nearly 300 people.Thousands huddled in makeshift camps or slept in the street after Saturday's quakes for fear of more aftershocks, 60 of which had already struck. A lack of tents and other supplies left them exposed to the night chill, one witness told Reuters."I saw some people whose entire home was destroyed, and all their livestock killed," Tahir Sadati, a local photographer, said by telephone. "People need help, they need warm clothes, more tents, blankets and bread."The worst damage and most casualties appeared to have been in rural villages around the towns of Ahar, Varzaghan and Harees, near the major city of Tabriz, Iranian media reported.Tabriz resident Ahmad, 41, told Reuters his cousin living in a village near Ahar was killed and his body found."Nobody knows what happened to his wife and two daughters," aged 4 and 7, Ahmad said. "We fear that if rescuers don't get to them soon, they will lose their lives too if they're still alive."
But Iranian officials said rescue operations had ended by Sunday afternoon and that all those trapped beneath the rubble had been freed, Iran's English-language Press TV reported.Many villages are hard to reach by road, hindering rescue efforts. Hospitals in Tabriz, Ardabil and other cities nearby took in many of the injured, residents and Iranian media said, and there were long queues of survivors waiting to be treated.
"I wanted to go there last night to help but heard there was bad traffic and that it wasn't safe enough," Ahmad said. "People in those villages need help."Abbas Falahi, member of parliament for Ahar and Harees, said people in some villages were still "in dire need of food and drinking water", the semi-official Mehr news agency reported."Despite the promises of officials, little first aide has been distributed in the region and most people are left without tents. If the situation continues, the toll will rise," he said.Aidin, a Tabriz resident, said he went to give blood at a local hospital on Saturday and saw staff struggling to cope with the influx of patients. Most patients had been taken there by their families, he said, indicating a shortage of ambulances.
Ahar's 120-bed hospital was full, said Arash, a college student in the town. There were traffic jams on the narrow road to Tabriz as victims tried to reach hospitals, he said by telephone.
VILLAGES DESTROYED
"People are scared and won't go back into their houses because they fear the buildings aren't safe."
The U.S. Geological Survey measured Saturday's first quake at 6.4 magnitude and said it struck 60 km (37 miles) northeast of the city of Tabriz, a trading hub far from Iran's oil-producing areas and known nuclear facilities.The second, measuring 6.3, struck 11 minutes later near Varzaghan, 49 km (30 miles) northeast of Tabriz.More than 1,000 villages in the area were affected by the earthquakes, Ahmad Reza Shaji'i, a Red Crescent official, told the Iranian Students' News Agency (ISNA). Some 130 villages suffered more than 70 percent damage, and 20 villages were completely destroyed, he said."We saw some villages that were truly destroyed," said Sadati, the photographer who was documenting the quake aftermath. "One good thing was that the earthquake happened during the day, so many people were not in their homes. If it had happened at night the casualties would have been far worse."Close to 300 people were believed to be dead, said Reza Sadighi, Ahar's local governor, Fars news agency said. National emergency head Gholam Reza Masoumi said 5,000 people are believed to be injured, according to ISNA.Nearly 100 ambulances and 1,100 Red Crescent workers were deployed, Shaji'i said, along with 44,000 food packages and 5,600 tents for shelter. The relief agency had enough supplies and most residents in the area had access to clean water but Shaji'i asked residents to donate cash to the relief effort.Tehran officials sent condolences to the victims and declared two days of mourning in the province, ISNA reported.About 36,000 people in the quake-hit area have been given emergency shelter, Masoumi was quoted as saying by ISNA.Iranian lawmaker Mohammad Hassan-Nejad warned that if relief efforts did not speed up, the death toll would swiftly rise."Relief groups have still not reached many villages, because in normal conditions some of these villages are several hours away," he told ISNA. "Currently the roads are closed and the only way to reach these villages is by air."
COLLAPSED BUILDINGS
Photographs posted on Iranian news websites showed numerous bodies, including children, lying on the floor of a white-tiled morgue in Ahar and medical staff treating the injured in the open air as dusk fell on Saturday. Other images showed rescue workers digging people out of rubble - some alive, many dead.Twenty-eight year old Narges in Tehran said she saw dozens of people in a hospital waiting to donate blood for the victims.Iran is crisscrossed by major fault lines and has suffered several devastating earthquakes in recent years, including a 6.6 magnitude quake in 2003 that reduced the historic southeastern city of Bam to dust and killed about 31,000 people.Saturday's quakes struck in East Azerbaijan province, a mountainous region that neighbours Azerbaijan and Armenia to the north. Buildings in Tabriz, the provincial capital, are substantially built and ISNA reported nobody in the city had been killed or hurt.Homes and business premises in Iranian villages, however, are often made of concrete blocks or mud brick that can crumble and collapse in a strong quake.Water, electricity, and phone lines in the area of Varzaghan are all down, further hindering rescue efforts, Iran's English-language Press TV reported.Tabriz residents left their homes and crowded the streets following the two quakes, those in the city said. "Everyone was scared last night," a resident said by telephone. "They set up tents and were sleeping in the streets and in parks."(Additional reporting by Marcus George and Zahra Hosseinian; Writing by Andrew Torchia and Marcus George; Editing by Jon Hemming)

EGYPT

ISAIAH 19:1-5
1 The burden of Egypt. Behold, the LORD rideth upon a swift cloud, and shall come into Egypt: and the idols of Egypt shall be moved at his presence, and the heart of Egypt shall melt in the midst of it.
2 And I will set the Egyptians against the Egyptians: and they shall fight every one against his brother, and every one against his neighbour; city against city, and kingdom against kingdom.
3 And the spirit of Egypt shall fail in the midst thereof; and I will destroy the counsel thereof: and they shall seek to the idols, and to the charmers, and to them that have familiar spirits, and to the wizards.
4 And the Egyptians will I give over into the hand of a cruel lord; and a fierce king shall rule over them, saith the Lord, the LORD of hosts.
5 And the waters shall fail from the sea, and the river shall be wasted and dried up. 

JEREMEIAH 49:35-37 (IN IRAN AT THE BUSHEHR NUKE SITE SOME BELIEVE)
35  Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Behold, I will break the bow of Elam,(IRAN/BUSHEHR NUCLEAR SITE) the chief of their might.(MOST DANGEROUS NUKE SITE IN IRAN)
36  And upon Elam will I bring the four winds from the four quarters of heaven,(IRANIANS SCATTERED OR MASS IMIGARATION) and will scatter them toward all those winds; and there shall be no nation whither the outcasts of Elam shall not come.(WORLD IMMIGRATION)
37  For I will cause Elam (IRAN-BUSHEHR NUKE SITE) to be dismayed before their enemies, and before them that seek their life: and I will bring evil upon them, even my fierce anger,(ISRAELS NUKES POSSIBLY) saith the LORD; and I will send the sword after them, till I have consumed them:(IRAN AND ITS NUKE SITES DESTROYED)

ISAIAH 17:1,12-14
1 The burden of Damascus. Behold, Damascus is taken away from being a city, and it shall be a ruinous heap.
12  Woe to the multitude of many people, which make a noise like the noise of the seas; and to the rushing of nations,(USELESS U.N) that make a rushing like the rushing of mighty waters!
13  The nations shall rush like the rushing of many waters: but God shall rebuke them, and they shall flee far off, and shall be chased as the chaff of the mountains before the wind, and like a rolling thing before the whirlwind.
14  And behold at eveningtide trouble; and before the morning he is not.(ASSAD) This is the portion of them that spoil us,(ISRAEL) and the lot of them that rob us.

JEREMEIAH 49:23-27
23  Concerning Damascus.(SYRIA) Hamath is confounded, and Arpad: for they have heard evil tidings: they are fainthearted; there is sorrow on the sea;(WAR SHIPS WITH NUKES COMING ON SYRIA) it cannot be quiet.
24  Damascus is waxed feeble, and turneth herself to flee, and fear hath seized on her: anguish and sorrows have taken her, as a woman in travail.
25  How is the city of praise not left, the city of my joy!
26  Therefore her young men shall fall in her streets, and all the men of war shall be cut off in that day, saith the LORD of hosts.
27  And I will kindle a fire (NUKES OR BOMBS) in the wall of Damascus, and it shall consume the palaces of Benhadad.(ASSADS PALACES POSSIBLY IN DAMASCUS)

Egypt president Mohamed Morsi forces top generals to retire

Hussein Tantawi and Sami Enan step down as defence minister and chief of staff as Morsi revokes military's interim powers guardian.co.uk, Sunday 12 August 2012 17.08 BST

Hussein Tantawi has been replaced as Egypt's defence minister by General Abdel-Fatah el-Sissi. Photograph: Amel Pain/EPA

Egypt's president, Mohamed Morsi, has ordered Egypt's two top generals to retire and revoked a military-declared constitutional amendment that gave them wide powers.Field Marshall Hussein Tantawi, who led Egypt after Hosni Mubarak was ousted, retires as defence minster and Sami Enan steps down as chief of staff.
The decisions are effective immediately, presidential spokesman Yasser Ali said in a news conference broadcast on state TV on Sunday.The cancelled constitutional declaration was issued by the ruling army council in June and aimed to limit presidential powers as the election that brought Morsi to office drew to a close.The new Morsi-appointed defence minister is Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi. A senior judge, Mahmoud Mekki, has been appointed vice-president. Tantawi and Enan have become presidential advisers.

Egypt's president retires defense minister

By HAMZA HENDAWI and SARAH EL DEEB | Associated Press – 7 hrs ago AUG 12,12

CAIRO (AP) — Egypt's Islamist president ordered the retirement of the defense minister and chief of staff on Sunday and made the boldest move so far to seize back powers that the military stripped from his office right before he took over.It was not immediately clear whether President Mohammed Morsi's surprise decisions had the military's blessing. But the appointment of outgoing Defense Minister Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi and Chief of Staff Gen. Sami Annan as presidential advisers suggested that the nation's top two soldiers may have agreed, perhaps reluctantly, in advance. Morsi awarded them two of the country's highest honors.Adding to the sweeping changes in the military leadership, the president also ordered the retirement of the commanders of the navy, air defense and air force, but named two of them to senior positions. He appointed a senior judge, Mahmoud Mekki, as vice president. Mekki is a pro-reform judge who publicly spoke against election fraud during Hosni Mubarak's 29-year rule before he was ousted in last year's uprising.Hours after announcing the shake-up, a confident looking Morsi appeared at a religious ceremony to hand monetary awards to young Muslims from Egypt and elsewhere who have learned the Quran, Islam's holy book, by heart. Thousands of jubilant Morsi supporters, meanwhile, gathered at night to celebrate in Tahrir Square, birthplace of the uprising that ousted Mubarak 18 months ago. Another crowd of supporters formed outside the presidential palace in Cairo's suburb of Heliopolis.Mohammed Aboul-Ghar, a founder of the new Egyptian Social Democratic Party — a secular group critical of the military as well as Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood — said the power struggle has now been settled in Morsi's favor."The military council was forced out of power and lost its position and this was inevitable," he said. "In the power struggle, the military council was increasingly weakened because of its decisions" and its failure to secure a more straightforward path to democratic transition, he said.Morsi, a U.S.-educated engineer, has been intensely seeking to assert his authority in the face of the powerful military. On Wednesday, he fired the nation's intelligence chief after militants killed 16 Egyptian soldiers along the border with Israel in Sinai. He was sacked after it was disclosed in the Egyptian media that he failed to act on an Israeli warning that an attack was imminent in the Sinai peninsula.Egypt's first democratically elected president and the first who does not hail from the military, Morsi has since the Aug. 5 attack on the soldiers made two visits to Sinai in the company of top commanders, chaired several meetings with the armed forces' top brass and made a point of calling himself the supreme commander of the armed forces during televised speeches.The Muslim Brotherhood won both parliamentary and presidential elections in the first free and fair votes in Egypt's modern history. The group had been repressed under Mubarak, who ran a secular state.The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF), which ruled Egypt for 17 months, stripped the presidency of many of its key powers before it handed the reins of office to Morsi on June 30. Tantawi was the head (SCAF) and Annan was No. 2 on the ruling council.The two men appointed to replace them were also members of the SCAF — something that could indicate either the military's agreement to the shuffle or splits at the highest level of the armed forces.Days before the inauguration, the ruling generals decreed constitutional amendments that gave them the power to legislate after the military dissolved parliament, as well as control over the national budget. It also gave them control over the process of drafting a new constitution.With Sunday's moves, Morsi restored to his office the powers taken from him, taking back control of the constitution drafting process and the right to legislate.He decided that if the 100-member panel currently drafting the document did not finish its work for whatever reason, he will appoint a new one within 15 days and give it three weeks to finish its work. The draft will then be put to a vote in a national referendum within 30 days. Parliamentary elections will follow if the draft is adopted.His decisions were announced at a time of day when life in Egypt grinds to a halt as Muslims prepare to eat the sunset meal that breaks the 15-hour, dawn-to-dusk fast every day in the holy month of Ramadan."The question is now will these decisions end that conflict and the duality of powers or will there be resistance?" said analyst Gamal Abdel-Gawad. "These are huge changes."Morsi was able to take the higher moral ground since taking office as an elected leader, while Tantawi and his generals on the SCAF continued to be vilified by rights groups for mismanaging the transitional period and accused of human rights violations, such as killing protesters, torturing detainees and hauling before military tribunals at least 12,000 civilians.Presidential spokesman Yasser Ali said told a news conference aired on state TV that Morsi named a career army officer, Lt. Gen. Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, to replace Tantawi and Lt. Gen. Sidki Sayed Ahmed to replace Annan.El-Sissi and Mekki were sworn in shortly after the announcement.The outgoing navy commander, Lt. Gen. Mohab Mameesh, was named executive chairman of the Suez Canal, the strategic waterway linking the Red Sea and the Mediterranean and a major source of revenues for the country.Lt. Gen. Abdel-Aziz Seif, the outgoing air defense commander, was named head of a major industrial military complex owned by several Arab nations and established in the 1970s.A senior member of the SCAF, Maj. Gen. Mohammed el-Assar, was named assistant defense minister. Another career army officer, Lt. Gen. Reda Mahmoud Hafez, was named minister of state for military production to serve under Prime Minister Hesham Kandil, a former water minister promoted by Morsi earlier this month.

Israeli PM: Iran threat dwarfs all others

Associated Press – 15 hrs ago AUG 12,12

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel's prime minister says the threat from Iran dwarfs all others the Jewish state faces.Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told his Cabinet on Sunday: "Iran must not be allowed to obtain nuclear weapons."Netanyahu said recently that no decision had been made on whether to attack or not. There is no way to know however whether hints from Israel's leadership indicate actual policy positions, or are part of a disinformation campaign meant to pressure Iran to abandon its nuclear ambitions.Netanyahu and other leading officials have noted that tough international sanctions have not succeeded Iran to abandon its suspect uranium enrichment program — a process that has civilian uses but could also be used to build bombs.Tehran says its nuclear program is peaceful, designed mainly to produce energy.

Aleppo battle rages as both sides report atrocities

AFP – 3 hrs ago AUG 12,12

The Syrian army pressed its assault on rebels in commercial capital Aleppo on Sunday, while both sides reported atrocities and Arab foreign ministers postponed a planned meeting on the 17-month conflict.

The exiled opposition said pro-government militia had executed 10 civilians in a roundup in the flashpoint central city of Homs, while the official SANA news agency reported the murder of one of its staff, in the latest case of a pro-government journalist being killed.The Arab League gave no reason for the indefinite postponement of its planned meeting in Saudi Arabia that had been due to discuss a replacement for international envoy Kofi Annan who announced his resignation earlier this month.On Tuesday, Saudi Arabia is to host an Islamic summit focused on Syria to drum up support for the anti-regime revolt. Arab foreign ministers of the Gulf held talks late Sunday in the Saudi city of Jeddah to prepare for the summit.

In Aleppo, troops shelled rebel-held districts as fighting flared anew around a southwestern neighbourhood that rebel fighters had quit last week, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.The Shaar, Tariq al-Bab, Sakhur, Hanano and Bustan al-Qasr neighbourhoods all came under bombardment, as the army pressed a ground offensive it launched on Wednesday to recapture areas seized by rebels since July 20, the group said.The Britain-based monitoring group also said that "communications of all forms have been cut off in the city of Aleppo as well as large areas of the province since the morning."In the city of Homs, three children on a minibus were killed as they tried to flee with their parents from the Shamas district, where a military operation took place, it said.The Observatory said 150 people were killed across the country on Sunday, including 49 civilians, 56 rebels and 45 regular soldiers.In Damascus, gunfire was reported in the Qadam neighbourhood. Outside the capital, machinegun fire was heard in the town of Al-Tal, where 15 civilians were killed in shelling and clashes the previous day.They were among 148 people -- 85 civilians, 43 soldiers and 20 rebels -- killed across Syria on Saturday, according to the Observatory.On the situation in the capital, the pro-government Al-Watan newspaper spoke of "foiled bids to break the calm in Damascus, which was cleansed of terrorist groups who terrified residents."In Aleppo, the paper said that the army was poised to assault the Sukari neighbourhood in the south of the city, after its recapture of the nearby Salaheddin district on Thursday.Activist groups said 10 civilians were executed in a roundup of military-aged men in the Shamas district of Homs."Militiamen detained nearly 350 people from the Shamas district, assembled them in a courtyard and executed 10 of them," activist group, the Syrian Revolution General Council, said."The fate of the nearly 340 others is unknown and we fear greatly that they have met the same fate as the 10 martyrs," the group added.-- State media targeted --
--------------------------
The official SANA news agency said the head of its home news department, Abbas Ali, was assassinated by an "armed terrorist group" at his home in Jdaidet Artuz outside the capital on Saturday evening.On Friday, rebels abducted three state television journalists as they accompanied government troops operating near Damascus, the Syrian Observatory said.It came after a bomb attack on state television headquarters wounded several people last week and after an Al-Qaeda linked group claimed the abduction and murder earlier this month of state television presenter Mohammed al-Saeed.As speculation mounted over who will succeed Annan when he steps down as international envoy later this month, UN chief Ban Ki-moon called for a "flexible UN presence in Syria" even after the mandate of the troubled observer mission he set up expires."A continued UN presence in Syria that goes beyond our important humanitarian work would allow systematic and meaningful engagement with the Syrian stakeholders, inside the country," the UN chief said.

The observer mission mandate is set to expire on August 19, after the Security Council voted last month to extend it for a "final" 30 days.The mission -- originally 300 military observers and now reduced by half -- was deployed in April to oversee a peace plan, which should have begun with a ceasefire that never took hold.In mid-June, the observers suspended patrols as fighting intensified.The Security Council is scheduled to debate the future of the UN mission on Thursday, but so far there is little consensus on the conflict which the Observatory says has cost more than 21,000 lives since it began 17 months ago.Diplomats in New York say veteran Algerian diplomat Lakhdar Brahimi, a former top Arab League official, has been tipped to replace Annan.In the desert of northern Jordan, French military medics started on Sunday to set up a field hospital at the neighbouring country's main camp for Syrian refugees, outside the city of Mafraq.Jordan is hosting more than 150,000 Syrian refugees.