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ISAIAH 17:1,11-14
1 The burden of Damascus. Behold, Damascus is taken away from being a city, and it shall be a ruinous heap.
11 In the day shalt thou make thy plant to grow, and in the morning shalt thou make thy seed to flourish: but the harvest shall be a heap in the day of grief and of desperate sorrow.
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 evening tide trouble; and before the morning he is not.(ASSAD KILLED IN OVERNIGHT RAID) This is the portion of them that spoil us,(ISRAEL) and the lot of them that rob us.
AMOS 1:5
5 I will break also the bar of Damascus, and cut off the inhabitant from the plain of Aven, and him that holdeth the sceptre from the house of Eden:(IRAQ) and the people of Syria shall go into captivity unto Kir,(JORDAN) saith the LORD.
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)
PSALMS 83:3-7
3 They (ARABS,MUSLIMS) have taken crafty counsel against thy people,(ISRAEL) and consulted against thy hidden ones.
4 They have said, Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation; that the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance.
5 For they (MUSLIMS) have consulted together with one consent: they are confederate against thee:(TREATIES)
6 The tabernacles of Edom,(JORDAN) and the Ishmaelites;(ARABS) of Moab, PALESTINIANS,JORDAN) and the Hagarenes;(EGYPT)
7 Gebal,(HEZZBALLOH,LEBANON) and Ammon,(JORDAN) and Amalek;(SYRIA,ARABS,SINAI) the Philistines (PALESTINIANS) with the inhabitants of Tyre;(LEBANON)
Holy Land prepares for papal visit-AFP-By Daphne Rousseau -MAY 22,14-YahooNews
Jerusalem (AFP) - Two days before Pope Francis arrives in the Holy Land, Israelis and Palestinians were putting the finishing touches Thursday on a flurry of festive preparations for the visit.Municipal workers in the West Bank city of Bethlehem were busy hanging huge banners in Manger Square outside the Church of the Nativity, where Francis will celebrate mass on Sunday.Giant posters of the pontiff with Palestinian leaders were also being mounted on lampposts near the main Israeli checkpoint leading to the city.Local Christians and pilgrims are hoping to get a glimpse of the pope, even from afar, as he passes through Bethlehem and Jerusalem to visit holy sites and meet other religious leaders on a visit the Vatican has billed as a "pilgrimage of prayer.""I'm happy the pope is coming, but also worried he might not deliver a strong enough message of support for Palestinian Christians," said Louis Michel, who runs a souvenir stall outside the Church of the Nativity.
- 'Purely religious' -
Francis said on Wednesday his trip would be "purely religious," aimed at praying for peace in the Middle East and improving relations with other branches of Christianity.Argentine Rabbi Abraham Skorka, an old friend of Francis, said the pontiff would try to avoid political pitfalls in the sensitive region by dividing his visits equally between Jewish sites in Israel and Muslim or Christian landmarks on Palestinian territory.But on the Palestinian side of Israel's vast separation barrier, people feel the visit will retain a political edge regardless."This is how Palestine is -- religion and politics are interconnected," Bethlehem Mayor Vera Baboun told AFP as she watched some 200 municipal workers hanging banners in Manger Square.Many of the banners have been produced by the Ramallah-based Palestinian Museum, and combine biblical paintings of suffering with photos of modern-day Palestinians being evicted from demolished homes or dragged away wounded from clashes with Israeli soldiers.
- Flags and barriers -
"The paintings interpret episodes from the life of Christ as a means of glorifying God and spreading His teachings, but the photographs glorify nothing; they simply bear witness to mundane episodes in the often difficult lives of Palestinians today," a museum statement said.In Jerusalem, preparations for the pontiff's arrival are somewhat more muted, overshadowed by a stepped-up security and police presence.Some 8,000 extra police officers are to be deployed on Jerusalem's streets for the duration of the visit.On Wednesday, Israel placed three young Jewish extremists under house arrest on suspicion they were planning to disrupt the pontiff's visit, police said.Restriction orders have already been imposed on two students from a Jewish seminary at Mount Zion, where the pope will on Monday hold a mass at the Upper Room where Jesus held the Last Supper.The ground floor of the same building is revered by Jews as the tomb of King David, prompting several weeks of protest linked to the pope's visit.And the innumerable police barriers set up inside the Old City's Christian quarter are often more noticeable than the 1,000 or so Israeli, Vatican and Jerusalem municipality flags that town hall has begun putting up.Movement will be severely restricted in the Old City, which is home to many Palestinian Christians."They say it's for security, but it's political," grumbled Elias, a spice shop owner who only gave his first name."They want to make it seem like we (Christians) don't exist."The three-day visit kicks off Saturday when Francis flies to Jordan. He will travel on to Bethlehem Sunday morning, then to Israel, where he will spend the rest of the day and Monday in Jerusalem before heading home.
Pope to hear from Syria's refugees in Jordan-AFP-By Musa Hattar -MAY 22,14-YahooNews-Pope Francis leaves after his general audience at St Peter's Square on May 21, 2014 at the Vatican
Amman (AFP) - Pope Francis will hear first-hand accounts of the horrors of Syria's war when he meets refugees in Jordan Saturday as he begins a three-day visit to the Holy Land.The Argentine pope will meet Christians and Muslims forced to leave their homes and flee to the neighbouring desert kingdom, now home to more than 600,000 refugees and the first stop on Francis' trip ahead of Israel and the Palestinian territories.He will pray with the refugees and hundreds of disabled youths, cancer patients and orphans at Wadi al-Kharrar on the eastern bank of the river Jordan, where many Christians believe Jesus was baptised by John the Baptist.Many pilgrims who will flock to see him there, and at an open-air mass in the capital Amman, want Francis to use his visit to make a strident call for peace across the border in Syria."He needs to see the situation of Christians in Syria. He needs to see what terrorism did to them and to their heritage," said Norma, 30, from the ancient Christian settlement of Maalula, recently recaptured from rebels by President Bashar al-Assad's forces."In the past we lived in harmony and coexistence, but now Syrian Christians are in danger," she said, reflecting the view of many Christians -- Roman Catholic and Orthodox -- who sided with Assad, fearing the harsh Islamist ideology of some rebel factions.Rula Hajjar, a 26-year-old Christian woman who fled the northern Syrian city of Aleppo told AFP: "We want the pope to highlight the suffering and agony of the Syrians and work on restoring peace to Syria."
- 'Pope not doing enough' -
In all, some 450,000 Syrian Christians have been displaced by the conflict since it began in March 2011, according to Gregory Laham, Syrian Patriarch of the Melkite Greek Catholic Church.Father Rifat Bader, spokesman for the papal visit to Jordan, said Francis' trip would be a show of support for Christians across the region."Christian brothers from Syria and Iraq have fled violence and religious persecution. Christians in the region have become under threat since the war on Iraq in 2003."Over the past decade, Bader said, "two million Christians have left the Middle East."Some Christian refugees accuse the pope and other religious leaders of complacency."The pope and Christian clerics are failing Christians in the region by not doing enough to demand their rights and protect them," said Nadi Daoud, 59, an Egyptian Copt, who was forced to leave his restaurant business behind in Syria."They need to push hard to end what is happening in Syria. We want Christians to live in peace," said Daoud as he waited outside a church to receive an aid voucher from the Catholic charity, Caritas, which provides assistance to 350,000 refugees of Jordan's refugees.Ghazi Sayegh, 40, who fled the Damascus suburb of Jaramana, said: "There is a systematic forced displacement of Christians in the region."We want the pope to get the right message and help restore peace in Syria so we can go home."Although only 250,000 Jordanians identify themselves as Christian -- in a Muslim country of seven million -- Prime Minister Abdullah Nsur told journalists the visit would show the kingdom as an oasis of peace in a turbulent region of "blood, wars and repression".The 77-year-old pontiff will begin his visit with a courtesy call to King Abdullah II and Queen Rania before celebrating mass at Amman's international stadium.Later Saturday, he will head to the baptism site in the Jordan Valley, some 50 kilometres (30 miles) west of the capital.He will leave Amman on Sunday morning by helicopter to the West Bank city of Bethlehem, where he will celebrate mass in Manger Square, before heading to Israel in the evening.
No signs Syria is handing over remaining chemical weapons-By Anthony Deutsch - May 22,14-YahooNews-Containers on the Ark Futura, a Danish-chartered cargo vessel, carry precursors to sarin gas, part of the effort to extract chemical weapon stockpiles from Syria, in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea
AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Syria has made no progress in relinquishing a last batch of chemical weapons it says is inaccessible due to fighting, making it increasingly likely it will miss a final deadline to destroy its toxic stockpile, Britain said on Thursday.The British deputy representative to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) told delegates in The Hague that packaging material had arrived for the 100 metric tonnes (110 metric tons) of toxic chemicals."But there is still no sign of any movement of chemicals, nor any indications of a time scale for a move," said the statement, a copy of which was obtained by Reuters.Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, embroiled in civil war with rebels fighting to oust him, agreed last year to hand over the country's entire chemical weapons stockpile after hundreds of people were killed in a sarin gas attack near Damascus.The agreement with Russia and the United States averted Western military strikes threatened in response to the worst chemical weapons atrocity in decades, which has been blamed by Washington on Assad's government.His government, which denies the allegation and blames the rebels, still has roughly 7 percent of 1,300 tonnes it declared to the OPCW, enough highly toxic material to carry out a large-scale attack.It has missed several deadlines, most recently its own promise to hand over the remaining chemicals by April 27. It has also failed to destroy a dozen facilities that were part of the chemical weapons program.Under the deal, Syria's entire stockpile is supposed to have been destroyed by mid-2014, but "it is growing ever clearer that the 30 June deadline will not be met", the British statement said.
PACKED FOR SHIPMENT
There was confusion earlier this week about how much progress there had been in transporting the remaining chemicals to the Syrian port of Latakia, from where they will be shipped overseas for destruction.The Pentagon said on Tuesday "it is starting to be moved as we speak," and senior diplomats from two other Security Council member states told reporters on Wednesday there were indications the Syrians were preparing to dispatch the remaining stockpile.A diplomat in the Middle East said the remaining chemicals have been packed in containers, but that the joint U.N.-OPCW operation overseeing the destruction still lacks access to the site.The Syrian army has launched a military operation in the area, where the chemical storage site is being monitored remotely by camera, to clear the way for transport of the toxins, the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said.The operation to destroy Syria's chemical stockpile is a complex logistical undertaking, involving a dozen countries and hundreds of millions of dollars.The most toxic chemicals are to be destroyed onboard the Cape Ray, a converted U.S. cargo ship, after being dropped off by Norwegian and Danish vessels now waiting in the Mediterranean.The remaining bulk chemicals are to go to commercial destruction facilities in Britain, Finland and Germany.(Additional reporting by Dominic Evans in Beirut and Louis Charbonneau at the United Nations; Editing by Mark Heinrich)
Ukraine forces, pro-Russian rebels clash as election looms-By Pavel Polityuk and Natalia Zinets 5 hours ago-May 22,14-Pro-Russian activists guard a checkpoint outside the eastern Ukranian city of Luhansk
KIEV (Reuters) - Ukraine said on Thursday its forces had rebuffed overnight attacks by armed pro-Russian separatists on an army checkpoint and a border crossing and called for an emergency session of the U.N. Security Council to discuss Moscow's role in the violence.With tensions rising ahead of Sunday's presidential election in Ukraine, security sources said eight soldiers had been killed in fighting at the checkpoint, while some border guards were hurt when "dozens" of gunmen tried to enter Ukraine from Russia.The election is meant to stabilize Ukraine after mass street protests toppled Moscow-backed president Viktor Yanukovich in February, but the separatists have vowed to prevent the poll going ahead in eastern towns where they have seized control.The United States and European Union say they will impose broad sanctions on Russia, which annexed Ukraine's Crimea peninsula in March after Yanukovich's fall, if it tries to derail the election.The pro-Western interim government in Kiev urged people across the country to take part in the election in order to "defeat" Russian President Vladimir Putin and the rebels.Opinion polls suggest confectionary magnate Petro Poroshenko, an ally of the former president who later joined protests against him, will win the election, billed as the most important since Ukraine won independence from Moscow in 1991.Top Ukrainian security official Andriy Parubiy told a news conference he expected more separatist violence in the coming days "because their whole concept is aimed at disrupting the presidential elections"."I would like to appeal to all citizens of Ukraine, not only to those in the east: on Sunday ... we must all go and vote ... Going to the elections, holding the elections means defeating Putin," Parubiy told a news conference.Security sources said that along with the eight killed, at least 18 Ukrainian security personnel were wounded in clashes with the separatists, who have declared "people's republics" in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions after referendums this month.The main clash took place about 20 km (12 miles) south of the city of Donetsk, an industrial hub of one million people.The defense ministry said gunmen had opened fire on an army checkpoint near the town of Volnovakha but gave no death toll.
RUSSIA ACCUSED
In the Luhansk region, Ukrainian border guards repelled a cross-border incursion by dozens of separatists armed with grenade launchers and rifles, the border service said.Ukraine's foreign ministry said a Russian helicopter had also violated Ukrainian airspace late on Wednesday."Russia continues to violate its international obligations and principles of international relations, hypocritically ignoring the Geneva agreement (designed to reduce tensions in Ukraine), deliberately choosing tactics to further aggravate the situation in Ukraine," the ministry said in a statement.Interim Prime Minister Arseny Yatseniuk said Kiev was ready to submit evidence of what he called Moscow's attempts "to escalate the conflict" to an emergency session of the U.N. Security Council, of which Russia is a permanent member.Moscow, for its part, accused Kiev on Thursday of stepping up military operations in eastern Ukraine and of failing to implement measures aimed at ending the crisis.NATO has accused Russia of amassing tens of thousands of troops across the border from eastern Ukraine. On Thursday, Moscow announced it had moved some troops and military equipment from the Ukraine border area but NATO's top military commander said Russia's forces in the region remained "very large".Kiev says Sunday's election cannot be held in parts of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions and says Moscow is deliberately seeking to undermine Ukrainian democracy, a charge echoed by the United States and the EU.Russia denies the legitimacy of the current Kiev government and has asserted its own right to intervene on behalf of Russian speakers outside Russia's borders.Election front-runner Poroshenko has urged voters to hand him victory in Sunday's first round of voting, suggesting that Ukraine's deteriorating security situation might otherwise derail the election before a second round can be held.If no candidate wins more than 50 percent of the vote on Sunday, a second round will be held on June 15.A poll watchdog has said it expects a turnout of at least 70 percent of voters nationwide in Sunday's election, despite the loss of Crimea and the turmoil in the east.(Writing by Gareth Jones; editing by Philippa Fletcher)
Biggest attack in years kills 31 in China's troubled Xinjiang-By Michael Martina -May 22,14-YahooNews
URUMQI, China (Reuters) - Explosives hurled from two vehicles which ploughed into an open market in China's troubled Xinjiang region killed 31 people on Thursday, state media reported, the deadliest act of violence in the region in years.China called the attack in the regional capital of Urumqi a "serious violent terrorist incident" and domestic security chief Meng Jianzhu vowed to strengthen a crackdown on the "arrogance of terrorists". Ninety-four people were wounded.China has blamed a series of knife and bomb attacks in recent months on separatist militants from Xinjiang, the traditional home of the ethnic Muslim Uighurs.The cross-country vehicles rammed into shoppers in an open market, Xinhua news agency reported, citing witness reports. Explosives were flung out of the windows, and one of the vehicles exploded.At the rainsoaked scene of the attack late in the evening, surrounded by police vans, elite police units guarded a cordoned-off candlelight display for victims.Police kept away onlookers trying to take photographs and blocked foreign reporters from approaching the area.One witness told Reuters he saw the aftermath of the blasts on his way to work. "The air was full of the smell of gunpowder and the sound of sobbing," he said. "There were simply too many (casualties), old folks who were at the morning market."A business owner told Xinhua he had heard a dozen loud explosions at the market near Renmin Park in downtown Urumqi.
Xinjiang has been plagued by violence for years, but rights activists and exile groups say the government's own heavy handed policies in the region have sowed the seeds of unrest.Photos posted on social media purportedly of the blast, but not verified by Reuters, showed a column of smoke and chaos at the market, with bloodied people lying on the tree-lined road near small stands selling fruit, vegetables and eggs."There were two vehicles that drove like crazy towards the morning market," another witness who declined to give his name told Reuters by telephone. "The market was total chaos. Hawkers and shoppers started running everywhere... it was definitely a terrorist act. I'm so angry."Other photos showed riot police on the scene and bodies lying amid flames. Produce and debris were scattered across the street.Dilxat Raxit, spokesman for the exiled World Uyghur Congress, said in an e-mail to Reuters that while he was unsure who carried out the attack, he believed Beijing's policies in the region should be examined."The volatility of the situation and Beijing's repressive policies in the area have a direct relationship to this," Raxit said. "I urge Beijing not to use this incident as an excuse to expand repressive policies, and instead to adjust policies to ameliorate a deteriorating situation."
"TERRORISTS SWOLLEN WITH ARROGANCE"
The Xinjiang government could not be immediately reached for comment, but China's Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said the attack "should be condemned jointly by the Chinese people and the international community"."The Chinese government has the confidence and the ability to combat the terrorists," Hong said at a daily news briefing. "These terrorists are swollen with arrogance. Their schemes will not succeed."In a posting on its Chinese-language microblog account, the U.S. Embassy said it offered condolences to victims of the "violent attack", but stopped short of labeling it terrorism.In contrast, Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed condolences over what he called the "terrorist act" in Urumqi in a telegram to Chinese President Xi Jinping on Thursday, the Kremlin said, a day after a visit to Shanghai that produced a landmark agreement on supplies of Russian natural gas to China.President Xi said police would tighten security at possible targets and vowed to "severely punish terrorists", Xinhua reported.The attack was the deadliest in a recent series targeting crowded public places in China. In March, 29 people were stabbed to death at a train station in the southwestern city of Kunming.A bomb and knife attack earlier this month at an Urumqi train station killed one bystander and wounded 79. A car burst into flames at the edge of Beijing's Tiananmen Square in October, killing five people.China has said Islamist militants from Xinjiang carried out the attacks. Separatist groups in Xinjiang are seeking to form their own state called East Turkestan.Xinjiang, resource-rich and strategically located on the borders of central Asia, is home to the Uighur people, who speak a Turkic language and are culturally distinct from China's ethnic Han majority.Violent riots shook the region in 2009, when hundreds of locals took to the streets in Urumqi, burning and smashing vehicles. Dozens were killed in the unrest.Exiles and rights groups say China's repressive policies, targeting Uighurs' religious freedom and economic opportunities, were to blame for unrest.In recent weeks, China has intensified a crackdown on Uighurs in the region, jailing dozens for spreading extremist propaganda and manufacturing arms, among other charges.Christopher Johnson, a former China analyst at the CIA, said China's leadership may eventually realize that a policy of constantly tightening controls on Xinjiang may not be effective in preventing attacks."I'm kind of doubtful that they are going to announce some sort of more liberal policy," said Johnson, who now works at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington."But sooner or later I think they are going to have to come to that reality because the evidence is just smacking them in the face."(Additional reporting by Joseph Campbell in Urumqi, Megha Rajagopalan, Li Hui, Shao Xiaoyi, Bi Xiaowen, Sui-Lee Wee and Paul Carsten in Beijing and Steve Gutterman in Moscow; Editing by Nick Macfie, Simon Cameron-Moore and Ron Popeski)
ISAIAH 17:1,11-14
1 The burden of Damascus. Behold, Damascus is taken away from being a city, and it shall be a ruinous heap.
11 In the day shalt thou make thy plant to grow, and in the morning shalt thou make thy seed to flourish: but the harvest shall be a heap in the day of grief and of desperate sorrow.
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 evening tide trouble; and before the morning he is not.(ASSAD KILLED IN OVERNIGHT RAID) This is the portion of them that spoil us,(ISRAEL) and the lot of them that rob us.
AMOS 1:5
5 I will break also the bar of Damascus, and cut off the inhabitant from the plain of Aven, and him that holdeth the sceptre from the house of Eden:(IRAQ) and the people of Syria shall go into captivity unto Kir,(JORDAN) saith the LORD.
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)
PSALMS 83:3-7
3 They (ARABS,MUSLIMS) have taken crafty counsel against thy people,(ISRAEL) and consulted against thy hidden ones.
4 They have said, Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation; that the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance.
5 For they (MUSLIMS) have consulted together with one consent: they are confederate against thee:(TREATIES)
6 The tabernacles of Edom,(JORDAN) and the Ishmaelites;(ARABS) of Moab, PALESTINIANS,JORDAN) and the Hagarenes;(EGYPT)
7 Gebal,(HEZZBALLOH,LEBANON) and Ammon,(JORDAN) and Amalek;(SYRIA,ARABS,SINAI) the Philistines (PALESTINIANS) with the inhabitants of Tyre;(LEBANON)
Holy Land prepares for papal visit-AFP-By Daphne Rousseau -MAY 22,14-YahooNews
Jerusalem (AFP) - Two days before Pope Francis arrives in the Holy Land, Israelis and Palestinians were putting the finishing touches Thursday on a flurry of festive preparations for the visit.Municipal workers in the West Bank city of Bethlehem were busy hanging huge banners in Manger Square outside the Church of the Nativity, where Francis will celebrate mass on Sunday.Giant posters of the pontiff with Palestinian leaders were also being mounted on lampposts near the main Israeli checkpoint leading to the city.Local Christians and pilgrims are hoping to get a glimpse of the pope, even from afar, as he passes through Bethlehem and Jerusalem to visit holy sites and meet other religious leaders on a visit the Vatican has billed as a "pilgrimage of prayer.""I'm happy the pope is coming, but also worried he might not deliver a strong enough message of support for Palestinian Christians," said Louis Michel, who runs a souvenir stall outside the Church of the Nativity.
- 'Purely religious' -
Francis said on Wednesday his trip would be "purely religious," aimed at praying for peace in the Middle East and improving relations with other branches of Christianity.Argentine Rabbi Abraham Skorka, an old friend of Francis, said the pontiff would try to avoid political pitfalls in the sensitive region by dividing his visits equally between Jewish sites in Israel and Muslim or Christian landmarks on Palestinian territory.But on the Palestinian side of Israel's vast separation barrier, people feel the visit will retain a political edge regardless."This is how Palestine is -- religion and politics are interconnected," Bethlehem Mayor Vera Baboun told AFP as she watched some 200 municipal workers hanging banners in Manger Square.Many of the banners have been produced by the Ramallah-based Palestinian Museum, and combine biblical paintings of suffering with photos of modern-day Palestinians being evicted from demolished homes or dragged away wounded from clashes with Israeli soldiers.
- Flags and barriers -
"The paintings interpret episodes from the life of Christ as a means of glorifying God and spreading His teachings, but the photographs glorify nothing; they simply bear witness to mundane episodes in the often difficult lives of Palestinians today," a museum statement said.In Jerusalem, preparations for the pontiff's arrival are somewhat more muted, overshadowed by a stepped-up security and police presence.Some 8,000 extra police officers are to be deployed on Jerusalem's streets for the duration of the visit.On Wednesday, Israel placed three young Jewish extremists under house arrest on suspicion they were planning to disrupt the pontiff's visit, police said.Restriction orders have already been imposed on two students from a Jewish seminary at Mount Zion, where the pope will on Monday hold a mass at the Upper Room where Jesus held the Last Supper.The ground floor of the same building is revered by Jews as the tomb of King David, prompting several weeks of protest linked to the pope's visit.And the innumerable police barriers set up inside the Old City's Christian quarter are often more noticeable than the 1,000 or so Israeli, Vatican and Jerusalem municipality flags that town hall has begun putting up.Movement will be severely restricted in the Old City, which is home to many Palestinian Christians."They say it's for security, but it's political," grumbled Elias, a spice shop owner who only gave his first name."They want to make it seem like we (Christians) don't exist."The three-day visit kicks off Saturday when Francis flies to Jordan. He will travel on to Bethlehem Sunday morning, then to Israel, where he will spend the rest of the day and Monday in Jerusalem before heading home.
Pope to hear from Syria's refugees in Jordan-AFP-By Musa Hattar -MAY 22,14-YahooNews-Pope Francis leaves after his general audience at St Peter's Square on May 21, 2014 at the Vatican
Amman (AFP) - Pope Francis will hear first-hand accounts of the horrors of Syria's war when he meets refugees in Jordan Saturday as he begins a three-day visit to the Holy Land.The Argentine pope will meet Christians and Muslims forced to leave their homes and flee to the neighbouring desert kingdom, now home to more than 600,000 refugees and the first stop on Francis' trip ahead of Israel and the Palestinian territories.He will pray with the refugees and hundreds of disabled youths, cancer patients and orphans at Wadi al-Kharrar on the eastern bank of the river Jordan, where many Christians believe Jesus was baptised by John the Baptist.Many pilgrims who will flock to see him there, and at an open-air mass in the capital Amman, want Francis to use his visit to make a strident call for peace across the border in Syria."He needs to see the situation of Christians in Syria. He needs to see what terrorism did to them and to their heritage," said Norma, 30, from the ancient Christian settlement of Maalula, recently recaptured from rebels by President Bashar al-Assad's forces."In the past we lived in harmony and coexistence, but now Syrian Christians are in danger," she said, reflecting the view of many Christians -- Roman Catholic and Orthodox -- who sided with Assad, fearing the harsh Islamist ideology of some rebel factions.Rula Hajjar, a 26-year-old Christian woman who fled the northern Syrian city of Aleppo told AFP: "We want the pope to highlight the suffering and agony of the Syrians and work on restoring peace to Syria."
- 'Pope not doing enough' -
In all, some 450,000 Syrian Christians have been displaced by the conflict since it began in March 2011, according to Gregory Laham, Syrian Patriarch of the Melkite Greek Catholic Church.Father Rifat Bader, spokesman for the papal visit to Jordan, said Francis' trip would be a show of support for Christians across the region."Christian brothers from Syria and Iraq have fled violence and religious persecution. Christians in the region have become under threat since the war on Iraq in 2003."Over the past decade, Bader said, "two million Christians have left the Middle East."Some Christian refugees accuse the pope and other religious leaders of complacency."The pope and Christian clerics are failing Christians in the region by not doing enough to demand their rights and protect them," said Nadi Daoud, 59, an Egyptian Copt, who was forced to leave his restaurant business behind in Syria."They need to push hard to end what is happening in Syria. We want Christians to live in peace," said Daoud as he waited outside a church to receive an aid voucher from the Catholic charity, Caritas, which provides assistance to 350,000 refugees of Jordan's refugees.Ghazi Sayegh, 40, who fled the Damascus suburb of Jaramana, said: "There is a systematic forced displacement of Christians in the region."We want the pope to get the right message and help restore peace in Syria so we can go home."Although only 250,000 Jordanians identify themselves as Christian -- in a Muslim country of seven million -- Prime Minister Abdullah Nsur told journalists the visit would show the kingdom as an oasis of peace in a turbulent region of "blood, wars and repression".The 77-year-old pontiff will begin his visit with a courtesy call to King Abdullah II and Queen Rania before celebrating mass at Amman's international stadium.Later Saturday, he will head to the baptism site in the Jordan Valley, some 50 kilometres (30 miles) west of the capital.He will leave Amman on Sunday morning by helicopter to the West Bank city of Bethlehem, where he will celebrate mass in Manger Square, before heading to Israel in the evening.
No signs Syria is handing over remaining chemical weapons-By Anthony Deutsch - May 22,14-YahooNews-Containers on the Ark Futura, a Danish-chartered cargo vessel, carry precursors to sarin gas, part of the effort to extract chemical weapon stockpiles from Syria, in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea
AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Syria has made no progress in relinquishing a last batch of chemical weapons it says is inaccessible due to fighting, making it increasingly likely it will miss a final deadline to destroy its toxic stockpile, Britain said on Thursday.The British deputy representative to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) told delegates in The Hague that packaging material had arrived for the 100 metric tonnes (110 metric tons) of toxic chemicals."But there is still no sign of any movement of chemicals, nor any indications of a time scale for a move," said the statement, a copy of which was obtained by Reuters.Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, embroiled in civil war with rebels fighting to oust him, agreed last year to hand over the country's entire chemical weapons stockpile after hundreds of people were killed in a sarin gas attack near Damascus.The agreement with Russia and the United States averted Western military strikes threatened in response to the worst chemical weapons atrocity in decades, which has been blamed by Washington on Assad's government.His government, which denies the allegation and blames the rebels, still has roughly 7 percent of 1,300 tonnes it declared to the OPCW, enough highly toxic material to carry out a large-scale attack.It has missed several deadlines, most recently its own promise to hand over the remaining chemicals by April 27. It has also failed to destroy a dozen facilities that were part of the chemical weapons program.Under the deal, Syria's entire stockpile is supposed to have been destroyed by mid-2014, but "it is growing ever clearer that the 30 June deadline will not be met", the British statement said.
PACKED FOR SHIPMENT
There was confusion earlier this week about how much progress there had been in transporting the remaining chemicals to the Syrian port of Latakia, from where they will be shipped overseas for destruction.The Pentagon said on Tuesday "it is starting to be moved as we speak," and senior diplomats from two other Security Council member states told reporters on Wednesday there were indications the Syrians were preparing to dispatch the remaining stockpile.A diplomat in the Middle East said the remaining chemicals have been packed in containers, but that the joint U.N.-OPCW operation overseeing the destruction still lacks access to the site.The Syrian army has launched a military operation in the area, where the chemical storage site is being monitored remotely by camera, to clear the way for transport of the toxins, the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said.The operation to destroy Syria's chemical stockpile is a complex logistical undertaking, involving a dozen countries and hundreds of millions of dollars.The most toxic chemicals are to be destroyed onboard the Cape Ray, a converted U.S. cargo ship, after being dropped off by Norwegian and Danish vessels now waiting in the Mediterranean.The remaining bulk chemicals are to go to commercial destruction facilities in Britain, Finland and Germany.(Additional reporting by Dominic Evans in Beirut and Louis Charbonneau at the United Nations; Editing by Mark Heinrich)
Ukraine forces, pro-Russian rebels clash as election looms-By Pavel Polityuk and Natalia Zinets 5 hours ago-May 22,14-Pro-Russian activists guard a checkpoint outside the eastern Ukranian city of Luhansk
KIEV (Reuters) - Ukraine said on Thursday its forces had rebuffed overnight attacks by armed pro-Russian separatists on an army checkpoint and a border crossing and called for an emergency session of the U.N. Security Council to discuss Moscow's role in the violence.With tensions rising ahead of Sunday's presidential election in Ukraine, security sources said eight soldiers had been killed in fighting at the checkpoint, while some border guards were hurt when "dozens" of gunmen tried to enter Ukraine from Russia.The election is meant to stabilize Ukraine after mass street protests toppled Moscow-backed president Viktor Yanukovich in February, but the separatists have vowed to prevent the poll going ahead in eastern towns where they have seized control.The United States and European Union say they will impose broad sanctions on Russia, which annexed Ukraine's Crimea peninsula in March after Yanukovich's fall, if it tries to derail the election.The pro-Western interim government in Kiev urged people across the country to take part in the election in order to "defeat" Russian President Vladimir Putin and the rebels.Opinion polls suggest confectionary magnate Petro Poroshenko, an ally of the former president who later joined protests against him, will win the election, billed as the most important since Ukraine won independence from Moscow in 1991.Top Ukrainian security official Andriy Parubiy told a news conference he expected more separatist violence in the coming days "because their whole concept is aimed at disrupting the presidential elections"."I would like to appeal to all citizens of Ukraine, not only to those in the east: on Sunday ... we must all go and vote ... Going to the elections, holding the elections means defeating Putin," Parubiy told a news conference.Security sources said that along with the eight killed, at least 18 Ukrainian security personnel were wounded in clashes with the separatists, who have declared "people's republics" in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions after referendums this month.The main clash took place about 20 km (12 miles) south of the city of Donetsk, an industrial hub of one million people.The defense ministry said gunmen had opened fire on an army checkpoint near the town of Volnovakha but gave no death toll.
RUSSIA ACCUSED
In the Luhansk region, Ukrainian border guards repelled a cross-border incursion by dozens of separatists armed with grenade launchers and rifles, the border service said.Ukraine's foreign ministry said a Russian helicopter had also violated Ukrainian airspace late on Wednesday."Russia continues to violate its international obligations and principles of international relations, hypocritically ignoring the Geneva agreement (designed to reduce tensions in Ukraine), deliberately choosing tactics to further aggravate the situation in Ukraine," the ministry said in a statement.Interim Prime Minister Arseny Yatseniuk said Kiev was ready to submit evidence of what he called Moscow's attempts "to escalate the conflict" to an emergency session of the U.N. Security Council, of which Russia is a permanent member.Moscow, for its part, accused Kiev on Thursday of stepping up military operations in eastern Ukraine and of failing to implement measures aimed at ending the crisis.NATO has accused Russia of amassing tens of thousands of troops across the border from eastern Ukraine. On Thursday, Moscow announced it had moved some troops and military equipment from the Ukraine border area but NATO's top military commander said Russia's forces in the region remained "very large".Kiev says Sunday's election cannot be held in parts of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions and says Moscow is deliberately seeking to undermine Ukrainian democracy, a charge echoed by the United States and the EU.Russia denies the legitimacy of the current Kiev government and has asserted its own right to intervene on behalf of Russian speakers outside Russia's borders.Election front-runner Poroshenko has urged voters to hand him victory in Sunday's first round of voting, suggesting that Ukraine's deteriorating security situation might otherwise derail the election before a second round can be held.If no candidate wins more than 50 percent of the vote on Sunday, a second round will be held on June 15.A poll watchdog has said it expects a turnout of at least 70 percent of voters nationwide in Sunday's election, despite the loss of Crimea and the turmoil in the east.(Writing by Gareth Jones; editing by Philippa Fletcher)
Biggest attack in years kills 31 in China's troubled Xinjiang-By Michael Martina -May 22,14-YahooNews
URUMQI, China (Reuters) - Explosives hurled from two vehicles which ploughed into an open market in China's troubled Xinjiang region killed 31 people on Thursday, state media reported, the deadliest act of violence in the region in years.China called the attack in the regional capital of Urumqi a "serious violent terrorist incident" and domestic security chief Meng Jianzhu vowed to strengthen a crackdown on the "arrogance of terrorists". Ninety-four people were wounded.China has blamed a series of knife and bomb attacks in recent months on separatist militants from Xinjiang, the traditional home of the ethnic Muslim Uighurs.The cross-country vehicles rammed into shoppers in an open market, Xinhua news agency reported, citing witness reports. Explosives were flung out of the windows, and one of the vehicles exploded.At the rainsoaked scene of the attack late in the evening, surrounded by police vans, elite police units guarded a cordoned-off candlelight display for victims.Police kept away onlookers trying to take photographs and blocked foreign reporters from approaching the area.One witness told Reuters he saw the aftermath of the blasts on his way to work. "The air was full of the smell of gunpowder and the sound of sobbing," he said. "There were simply too many (casualties), old folks who were at the morning market."A business owner told Xinhua he had heard a dozen loud explosions at the market near Renmin Park in downtown Urumqi.
Xinjiang has been plagued by violence for years, but rights activists and exile groups say the government's own heavy handed policies in the region have sowed the seeds of unrest.Photos posted on social media purportedly of the blast, but not verified by Reuters, showed a column of smoke and chaos at the market, with bloodied people lying on the tree-lined road near small stands selling fruit, vegetables and eggs."There were two vehicles that drove like crazy towards the morning market," another witness who declined to give his name told Reuters by telephone. "The market was total chaos. Hawkers and shoppers started running everywhere... it was definitely a terrorist act. I'm so angry."Other photos showed riot police on the scene and bodies lying amid flames. Produce and debris were scattered across the street.Dilxat Raxit, spokesman for the exiled World Uyghur Congress, said in an e-mail to Reuters that while he was unsure who carried out the attack, he believed Beijing's policies in the region should be examined."The volatility of the situation and Beijing's repressive policies in the area have a direct relationship to this," Raxit said. "I urge Beijing not to use this incident as an excuse to expand repressive policies, and instead to adjust policies to ameliorate a deteriorating situation."
"TERRORISTS SWOLLEN WITH ARROGANCE"
The Xinjiang government could not be immediately reached for comment, but China's Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said the attack "should be condemned jointly by the Chinese people and the international community"."The Chinese government has the confidence and the ability to combat the terrorists," Hong said at a daily news briefing. "These terrorists are swollen with arrogance. Their schemes will not succeed."In a posting on its Chinese-language microblog account, the U.S. Embassy said it offered condolences to victims of the "violent attack", but stopped short of labeling it terrorism.In contrast, Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed condolences over what he called the "terrorist act" in Urumqi in a telegram to Chinese President Xi Jinping on Thursday, the Kremlin said, a day after a visit to Shanghai that produced a landmark agreement on supplies of Russian natural gas to China.President Xi said police would tighten security at possible targets and vowed to "severely punish terrorists", Xinhua reported.The attack was the deadliest in a recent series targeting crowded public places in China. In March, 29 people were stabbed to death at a train station in the southwestern city of Kunming.A bomb and knife attack earlier this month at an Urumqi train station killed one bystander and wounded 79. A car burst into flames at the edge of Beijing's Tiananmen Square in October, killing five people.China has said Islamist militants from Xinjiang carried out the attacks. Separatist groups in Xinjiang are seeking to form their own state called East Turkestan.Xinjiang, resource-rich and strategically located on the borders of central Asia, is home to the Uighur people, who speak a Turkic language and are culturally distinct from China's ethnic Han majority.Violent riots shook the region in 2009, when hundreds of locals took to the streets in Urumqi, burning and smashing vehicles. Dozens were killed in the unrest.Exiles and rights groups say China's repressive policies, targeting Uighurs' religious freedom and economic opportunities, were to blame for unrest.In recent weeks, China has intensified a crackdown on Uighurs in the region, jailing dozens for spreading extremist propaganda and manufacturing arms, among other charges.Christopher Johnson, a former China analyst at the CIA, said China's leadership may eventually realize that a policy of constantly tightening controls on Xinjiang may not be effective in preventing attacks."I'm kind of doubtful that they are going to announce some sort of more liberal policy," said Johnson, who now works at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington."But sooner or later I think they are going to have to come to that reality because the evidence is just smacking them in the face."(Additional reporting by Joseph Campbell in Urumqi, Megha Rajagopalan, Li Hui, Shao Xiaoyi, Bi Xiaowen, Sui-Lee Wee and Paul Carsten in Beijing and Steve Gutterman in Moscow; Editing by Nick Macfie, Simon Cameron-Moore and Ron Popeski)
