JEWISH KING JESUS IS COMING AT THE RAPTURE FOR US IN THE CLOUDS-DON'T MISS IT FOR THE WORLD.THE BIBLE TAKEN LITERALLY- WHEN THE PLAIN SENSE MAKES GOOD SENSE-SEEK NO OTHER SENSE-LEST YOU END UP IN NONSENSE.GET SAVED NOW- CALL ON JESUS TODAY.THE ONLY SAVIOR OF THE WHOLE EARTH - NO OTHER.
1 COR 15:23-JESUS THE FIRST FRUITS-CHRISTIANS RAPTURED TO JESUS-FIRST FRUITS OF THE SPIRIT-23 But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming.ROMANS 8:23 And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.(THE PRE-TRIB RAPTURE)
CHINA AND KINGS OF THE EAST MARCH TO ISRAEL 2ND WAVE OF WW3 (200 MILLION MAN ARMY)
REVELATION 16:12-16
12 And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates;(WERE WW3 STARTS IN IRAQ OR SYRIA OR TURKEY) and the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared.(THE TURKEY ATATURK DAM ON THE EUPHRATES CAN BE SHUT AND DRIED UP ALREADY BY TURKEY)
13 And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon,(SATAN) and out of the mouth of the beast,(WORLD DICTATOR) and out of the mouth of the false prophet.(FALSE POPE)
14 For they are the spirits of devils, working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty.(WERE 2 BILLION DIE FROM NUKE WAR)
15 Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame.
16 And he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon.(ITS AT THIS TIME I BELIEVE WHEN AMERICA GETS NUKED BY RUSSIA ON THE WAY TO THE MIDEAST)
DANIEL 11:44 (2ND WAVE OF WW3)
44 But tidings out of the east(CHINA) and out of the north(RUSSIA, MUSLIMS WHATS LEFT FROM WAVE 1) shall trouble him:(EU DICTATOR IN ISRAEL) therefore he shall go forth with great fury to destroy, and utterly to make away many.( 1/3RD OF EARTHS POPULATION)
REVELATION 9:12-18
12 One woe is past; and, behold, there come two woes more hereafter.
13 And the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God,
14 Saying to the sixth angel which had the trumpet, Loose the four(DEMONIC WAR) angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates.(WORLDWIDE WAR)(TURKEY-IRAQ-SYRIA)(EUPHRATES RIVER CONSISTS OF 760 MILES IN TURKEY,440 MILES IN SYRIA AND 660 MILES IN IRAQ)
15 And the four(DEMONIC WAR) angels were loosed,(WORLDWIDE WAR) which were prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, for to slay the third part of men.(1/3 Earths Population die in WW 3 2ND WAVE-2 billion)
16 And the number of the army of the horsemen were two hundred thousand thousand:(200 MILLION MAN ARMY FROM CHINA AND THE KINGS OF THE EAST) and I heard the number of them.
17 And thus I saw the horses in the vision, and them that sat on them, having breastplates of fire, and of jacinth, and brimstone: and the heads of the horses were as the heads of lions; and out of their mouths issued fire and smoke and brimstone.(NUCLEAR BOMBS)
18 By these three was the third part of men killed, by the fire, and by the smoke, and by the brimstone, which issued out of their mouths.(NUCLEAR BOMBS)
Commission makes no judgement in China race row By Eric Maurice-EUOBSERVER
BRUSSELS, 31. Oct, 15:07-The European Commission declined on Monday (31 October) to comment on declarations by commissioner Guether Oettinger that were considered as offensive to China and Wallonia.The EU executive spokesman Margaritis Schinas told journalists that Oettinger gave "detailed information" about the incident in an interview to German daily Die Welt and that the institutions had "nothing to add".Oettinger, the German member of the commission, was filmed at a meeting with business people in Hamburg last week using a German equivalent of "slant eyes" to refer to Chinese people.He also joked about members of a Chinese delegation in Brussels who had their hair "combed from left to right with black shoe polish”.The commissioner told Die Welt that the video has been edited and his words taken out of context. He admitted “a somewhat sloppy statement" but said it was "in no way meant disrespectfully towards China”.Schinas said he would "refrain from any characterisation or value judgement that one can make on the explanations" given by Oettinger."We have to listen to what Guenther Oettinger has to say," he said.-He added that the commission's president, Jean-Claude Juncker, did not ask his commissioner for explanations because he was "100 percent busy with Ceta", the EU-Canada trade deal that was signed on Sunday.He also said that no further question would be asked because "we don't have an FBI at the commission to investigate commissioners".Oettinger was also reported as saying that Wallonia, the Belgian region that delayed the signing of the EU-Canada trade agreement, was “a micro-region run by communists that blocks all Europe”.But that comment is not on the video and Schinas explained that there should be a distinction between what is really said and what is reportedly said."Wallonia is governed by its democratically elected leaders," he said when asked who were the communists mentioned by Oettinger. Wallonia minister-president Paul Magnette is a Social-Democrat.He insisted that the commission had "the highest respect for all Europe's regions that are primordial for Europe's competitiveness and cohesion".On Sunday, Juncker had himself taken a jab at Walloon leaders. He said "the commission's interlocutor is not the Walloon region, but the federal Belgian government", adding: “Belgians should think pretty carefully about how it works in the context of international trade negotiations.”The controversy over Oettinger's remarks comes as he is about to be promoted vice-president of the commission, in charge of budget, to replace Kristalina Georgieva who is taking a job at the World Bank.Oettinger was due to go to Greece on Monday, but the visit was cancelled, due to "unexpected commitments", Schinas said while refusing to say what kind of commitment.
Hong Kong leader raises prospect of controversial legal request to Beijing-[Reuters]-November 1, 2016-YAHOONEWS
HONG KONG (Reuters) - Hong Kong's leader has signalled he might ask Beijing to use a rarely invoked power to interpret the city's Basic Law mini-constitution to end a political crisis over a fledgling independence movement.Any such move will spark fears for Hong Kong's autonomy and vaunted legal system, officials, judges and lawyers say privately.Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying's remarks on Tuesday come ahead of a Hong Kong government-requested legal hearing that could effectively bar two recently elected pro-independence lawmakers from the legislature of the global financial hub.Some local officials and judges have grown privately fearful that the emergence of independence issues could see Beijing force tough new laws on the city, or interpret the Basic Law to explicitly curb pro-independence legislators.The city's rule of law and freedom of speech is jealously guarded by many in the former British colony after it returned to Chinese rule in 1997 under the principle of "one country, two systems", allowing it wide-ranging freedoms.Speaking ahead of a weekly executive meeting on Tuesday, Leung went further than other officials in raising the prospect that his government could request Beijing to interpret the Basic Law."We hope to do our utmost to resolve it within Hong Kong, but we cannot rule out this possibility," Leung told local media.Justice Secretary Rimsky Yuen has said previously said that there was no need for an interpretation at this point, and said later on Tuesday he still "hopes" the issue can be handled locally.The government has asked the courts to review a decision by the legislature's president allowing pro-independence lawmakers Yau Wai-ching, 25, and Baggio Leung, 30, to re-take their oaths of office. The hearing starts on Thursday.The pair, who represent a new breed of more radical activists moving into the political mainstream, had their swearing-in oaths invalidated last month over language and a banner that was deemed derogatory to China."Apart from the case in court ... there is a high possibility that other things might be triggered by their oaths and their words and actions afterwards," the chief executive said, explaining why he had postponed a trip to Beijing.In response, the two lawmakers said in a joint statement that if an interpretation was to take place, it would mean the Chinese Communist Party ruled over Hong Kong directly.Pressure has built in recent weeks from local Beijing loyalists and the president Legislative Council last week delayed their swearing-in until the High Court rules.Beijing's chief representative in Hong Kong did not mention the possibility of an interpretation in a speech later on Tuesday but said the lawmakers "seriously violated" China's constitution, the Basic Law and the relevant Hong Kong laws."Any speech and action promoting Hong Kong independence should be punished according to the law. There is no reason to be lenient," said the head of the Liaison Office, Zhang Xiaoming.Once taboo, calls for self-determination and independence have risen since the 79 day struggle in late 2014 when tens of thousands took to the streets for 79 days of protests against reforms that failed to deliver full democracy for leadership.(Reporting By Greg Torode. Additional reporting by Venus Wu.; Editing by Michael Perry and Alison Williams)
Taiwan's KMT party tells China it is pushing for peace-[Reuters]-By Faith Hung and Paul Carsten-November 1, 2016-YAHOONEWS
TAIPEI/BEIJING (Reuters) - Taiwan's opposition Kuomintang (KMT) party is pushing for peace with mainland China and holds out the possibility of a peace pact, the party's chairwoman told Chinese leader Xi Jinping on Tuesday, the party said.Xi, general secretary of the Communist Party and China's president, met a delegation led by KMT chairwoman Hung Hsiu-Chu at Beijing's Great Hall of the People, the Xinhua news agency reported.Taiwan, which relies on the United States for arms sales, has ruled itself as a rival to China since the end of a Chinese civil war in 1949. Beijing sees the island as a renegade province that must be reunited with the mainland, by force if necessary.Hung, once a presidential candidate, said the KMT would play an active role in pushing for the "institutionalisation" of peaceful relations between the two sides and for the possibility of a peace pact, the KMT said in a statement released in Taiwan.Relations between the mainland and Taiwan have deteriorated since the island's pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) took power in May after winning an election.In his meeting with Hung, the Chinese president said Taiwan's changing politics would not affect the meaning of the 'One China' principle, China's state radio said.China's position on this issue will not waver or be blurred in the slightest, the broadcaster cited Xi as saying.Beijing cut an official communication mechanism with Taiwan in June, after Taiwan's President Tsai Ing-wen of the DPP refused to commit to the "One China" principle that Taiwan is part of China.In response to comments made in the meeting, Taiwan's China policy-making body reiterated its desire for China to resume talks."A peaceful development of cross-strait ties is the responsibility of both sides... We should both make mutual gestures of goodwill, to resolve our differences via constructive dialogue," said the Mainland Affairs Council in a statement.The previous KMT administration had agreed to recognize the "1992 consensus", which states that there is only one China, with each side having its own interpretation of what that means.The KMT, a bitter rival of Beijing for decades, has in recent years been seen as more pragmatic about ties based on economic cooperation.Communist forces defeated the KMT in the civil war, and the KMT forces fled to the island.(Additional reporting by Monitoring Desk in Beijing; Editing by Clarence Fernandez and Hugh Lawson)
Niger Delta leaders ask Buhari to withdraw army from oil producing communities-[Reuters]-November 1, 2016-YAHOONEWS
ABUJA (Reuters) - The Nigerian army needs to withdraw from oil producing communities in the restive Niger Delta to help curb militancy in the oil hub, a local leader said on Tuesday."We presented a 16 point request to the president (Muhammadu Buhari) which includes the withdrawal of the military in oil producing communities in the region," King Alfred Diete-Spiff, a Niger Delta leader, said after meeting Buhari in Abuja."We don't want the communities militarised."(Reporting by Felix Onuah; Writing by Ulf Laessing; Editing by Mark Potter)
WORLD POWERS IN THE LAST DAYS (END OF AGE OF GRACE NOT THE WORLD)
EUROPEAN UNION-KING OF WEST-DAN 9:26-27,DAN 7:23-24,DAN 11:40,REV 13:1-10
EGYPT-KING OF THE SOUTH-DAN 11:40
RUSSIA-KING OF THE NORTH-EZEK 38:1-2,EZEK 39:1-3
CHINA-KING OF THE EAST-DAN 11:44,REV 9:16,18
VATICAN-RELIGIOUS LEADER-REV 13:11-18,REV 17:4-5,9,18
WORLD TERRORISM
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.
GENESIS 16:11-12
11 And the angel of the LORD said unto her,(HAGAR) Behold, thou art with child, and shalt bear a son, and shalt call his name Ishmael;(FATHER OF THE ARAB/MUSLIMS) because the LORD hath heard thy affliction.
12 And he (ISHMAEL-FATHER OF THE ARAB-MUSLIMS) will be a wild (DONKEY-JACKASS) man;(ISLAM IS A FAKE AND DANGEROUS SEX FOR MURDER CULT) his hand will be against every man,(ISLAM HATES EVERYONE) and every man's hand against him;(PROTECTING THEMSELVES FROM BEING BEHEADED) and he (ISHMAEL ARAB/MUSLIM) shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren.(LITERAL-THE ARABS LIVE WITH THEIR BRETHERN JEWS)
ISAIAH 14:12-14
12 How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer,(SATAN) son of the morning!(HEBREW-CRECENT MOON-ISLAM) how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!
13 For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north:
14 I (SATAN HAS EYE TROUBLES) will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.(AND 1/3RD OF THE ANGELS OF HEAVEN FELL WITH SATAN AND BECAME DEMONS)
JOHN 16:2
2 They shall put you out of the synagogues: yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service.(ISLAM MURDERS IN THE NAME OF MOON GOD ALLAH OF ISLAM)
Documents show Islamic State obsessions: beards and concubines-[Reuters]-By Babak Dehghanpisheh and Michael Georgy-November 1, 2016-YAHOONEWS
ZARQA/SHURA, Iraq (Reuters) - After Islamic State conquered villages in northern Iraq, it spelled out in minute detail the rules of its self-proclaimed caliphate, from beard length to alms to guidelines for taking women as sex slaves.Islamic State documents and posters, obtained in villages captured by Iraqi forces, highlight a tight and comprehensive system of rule by the militants, who went to great lengths to explain their extremist philosophy.The documents and other materials, printed with Islamic State logos, were found by Reuters in offices used by the group until a few days ago. Members of the Iraqi forces told Reuters the documents originated from Islamic State, although this could not be independently verified.Iraqi security forces and Kurdish peshmerga fighters have seized several villages and towns during an offensive against the northern city of Mosul, Islamic State's last stronghold in the country.When Islamic State swept through the north in 2014, it announced a self-proclaimed caliphate, which appealed to some fellow Sunnis who felt marginalized by the Shi'ite-led central government.But that appeal faded as Islamic State enforced its medieval thinking with brute force, beheading anyone deemed an opponent.Slick, colorful posters, pamphlets and documents highlight Islamic State's intense focus on dictating what it called proper Islamic behavior for the citizens of its caliphate.Violations of its rules meant punishment such as public whipping or being hauled off to Mosul for execution, according to several villagers who recently escaped from Islamic State areas.A green wallet-size insert lays out guidelines for how to pray properly. It shows a young boy undertaking ablutions. "Wash your feet from the direction of your toes down to your heels," it said.-GOLD BRACELETS-A five-page pamphlet with pictures of gold bracelets, diamond rings and wheat on the front spelled out instructions on how to give alms, an obligation under Islam. Failure to do so would mean a penalty.In the village of Shura, where seven Islamic State suicide bombers were recently shot dead as they rushed toward Iraqi forces, militants kept meticulous records of who had given alms. Entries showed whether an individual owned gold, property or a car. Monthly salaries were also noted.Unlike al Qaeda, its predecessor in Iraq, Islamic State made its name in the jihadi world by becoming the first militant group to capture significant amounts of land in the Middle East, hold it and then set up an administration.But air strikes by a U.S.-led coalition targeting Islamic State's leaders and its sources of income have dealt a major blow to the caliphate.Islamic State's inclination to codify its system of rule extended to what it called the spoils of war.A pink and red pamphlet includes 32 questions and answers on how to deal with female captives.A senior Islamic State cleric has the authority to distribute female captives among its fighters, it said."Non-Muslim women can be taken as concubines," according to the leaflet.Militants can own two sisters as concubines but only have sex with one."Pre-pubescent girls can be taken as concubines. You cannot have penetrative sex but you can still enjoy them," the leaflet added.One question in the pamphlet asks whether a group of militants can share a concubine. The answer: only a single owner can sleep with a concubine.After blazing through northern Iraq, Islamic State took hundreds of women from the Yazidi minority as sex slaves.Under Islamic State's rules, women were required to largely stay at home or wear head-to-toe black coverings if they ventured out. Men wore short pants which were deemed Islamic along with beards of appropriate length.One of the pamphlets begins by defining a beard as "hair that grows on your face and your cheeks".There were few forms of entertainment under Islamic State, which banned the internet and music along with cell phones.A ban on satellite dishes deprived Iraqis of news of the outside world. In a huge slick poster, entitled "Why I Should Destroy My Dish", the jihadists provided 20 reasons, revolving mostly around the immorality of satellite television programs.Reason 8: "Because satellite channels show stories of love and naked women and inappropriate language."Reason 10: "Because satellite channels normalize men being effeminate and sissies."(Writing by Michael Georgy; editing by Giles Elgood)
US expert warns EU on returning jihadists By Andrew Rettman-EUOBSERVER
BRUSSELS, 29. Oct, 19:32-Jihadists who left Europe to fight In Iraq and Syria will come back in greater numbers as the Islamic State (IS) group loses territory there, a former US security chief has warned.“Some of them are now coming back as we make progress against Daesh [another name for IS] in places like Mosul [in Iraq] or in other places in the field. More of those foreign fighters will leave there and … some of them will return home”, Michael Chertoff, the former head of the US department of homeland security, said on Saturday (29 October).“Tracking those people and making sure they don’t take advantage of the Schengen framework will be an issue of special urgency over the next year”, he said, referring to the EU’s open-border zone.Chertoff, who spoke at the Tatra summit, a conference in Bratislava, is part of a pressure group calling for more intelligence sharing between the US and EU states.He noted that the US has a visa-waiver programme with most EU countries which could also be abused.He said if the EU states wanted to protect the waiver it meant “we have to work closely together to identify people here who may come back from Syria and who might want to come to the US to carry out attacks”.Chertoff’s warning echoed that of Julian King, the EU security commissioner, who recently told Die Welt, a German newspaper, that a surge in returning foreign fighters was “a threat we must be prepared to face” if IS lost territory in Iraq.He said there were 2,500 European fighters in the Mosul area in Iraq alone.Chertoff, as well as David Omand, a former director of the British intelligence unit, the GCHQ, said on Saturday that, foreign fighters aside, the threat of a cyberattack on EU or US targets was higher than in the past.“You don’t have to bring people into a country to blow up something or to disrupt it, you can do it online,” Chertoff said.He said IS did not need to have high-level IT experts to mount an attack because they could buy the cyber capabilities that they would need from organised crimes groups on the internet.“If you have the money, you can buy the malware on the dark web and use it”, he said, referring to a hidden part of the internet.Omand said it was also “inevitable” that there would one day be a terrorist attack using drones.“We’ve already spotted Daesh doing that in Syria, so the idea is in people’s heads and it’s not so difficult to acquire drones”, he said.He said the best way to stop such an incident was to rely on local police looking out for people “practicing or rehearsing that kind of attack”.He added that he had not seen any sign that IS had acquired chemical or biological weapons from Syria’s arsenals.“I’m retired, so I don’t have access to classified information any more … but I haven’t heard of such a development. I haven’t seen it. If they had those kinds of agents, they would have used them, or, at least, boasted about them”, he said.
U.N. peacekeepers failed to respond to South Sudan hotel attack - inquiry-[Reuters]-November 1, 2016-YAHOONEWS
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - United Nations peacekeepers known as UNMISS failed to respond to an attack on civilians by South Sudanese government troops at the Hotel Terrain in the capital Juba in July, less than a mile from a U.N. compound, a U.N. inquiry found on Tuesday.It found a "lack of preparedness, ineffective command and control and a risk-averse or 'inward-looking' posture resulted in a loss of trust and confidence - particularly by the local population and humanitarian agencies - in the will and skill of UNMISS military, (and) police to be proactive and show a determined posture to protect civilians under threat."(Reporting by Michelle Nichols; Editing by James Dalgleish)
Islamic State kills 40 near Mosul, tries to move 25,000 to use as shields, U.N. says-[Reuters]-By Tom Miles-November 1, 2016-YAHOONEWS
GENEVA (Reuters) - Islamic State militants killed 40 former members of the Iraqi Security Forces near Mosul on Saturday and threw their bodies in the Tigris river, U.N. human rights spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani said on Tuesday, citing reports from the field.IS also tried to transport about 25,000 civilians from Hammam al-Alil, a town south of Mosul, on dozens of trucks and minibuses during the hours of darkness early on Monday, probably for use as human shields in defense of IS positions, she said.Most of the trucks, which were heading toward the Tal Afar district, turned back under pressure from patrolling aircraft, but some buses did reach Abu Saif, 15 km (10 miles) north of Hammam al-Alil, she said."We have grave concerns for these and tens of thousands of other civilians who have reportedly been forcibly relocated by ISIL (Islamic State) in the past two weeks," she said.IS fighters were taking people closer and closer to Mosul city and putting them close to their offices and to installations that could constitute military targets, Shamdasani said."That seems to support the assertion that they are planning to use these people as human shields, as well as ensuring that the area is heavily populated with civilians to frustrate a military operation against them," she said."They are also killing some people that they are abducting, especially people who formerly belonged to the Iraqi Security Forces."The 40 former Iraqi soldiers killed on Saturday were among civilians who had been abducted earlier from the al-Shura sub-district of Mosul and from villages around Hammam al-Alil.There may be many more, Shamdasani said, adding that the U.N.'s reports were "raw information" from reliable sources and were by no means comprehensive.Although there would be a "temptation for revenge" against captured IS fighters, the U.N. had not documented any such abuses, and it welcomed the Iraqi government's pledge to put protection of civilians at the heart of their strategy, Shamdasani said.She also said there were no reports of coalition air strikes killing civilians, including those people being held as human shields.(Reporting by Tom Miles, editing by Larry King)
Refugees languish in Greek limbo as alarm grows in Brussels-[Reuters]-By Karolina Tagaris-November 1, 2016-YAHOONEWS
ATHENS (Reuters) - Seven months after the European Union and Turkey struck an agreement to turn back the tide of Syrians fleeing west, not a single refugee has been sent back from Greece, and Brussels is losing its patience as overcrowded camps grow violent.The agreement reached in March was designed to reduce the number of migrants crossing into Europe from Turkey, after more than a million people arrived in Europe last year, most reaching Greek islands by boat and continuing by land to Germany.Under the deal, the European Union declared Turkey "a safe third country", meaning those who make the crossing can be returned there, even if found to have fled Syria or other countries as refugees deserving protection. Turkey agreed to take them back, in return for a range of EU concessions.At around the same time, Balkan countries along the land route north closed their borders, so that migrants who once poured across Greece to reach other parts of Europe are now trapped there and prevented from pressing on.For the most part, the goal of stemming the tide has been achieved so far. Only 17,000 people, around half of them Syrians, have made the hazardous sea crossing from Turkey since the deal was signed, a tiny fraction of hundreds of thousands that arrived the previous year to pass through Greece.But for the deal to continue to work for the longer term, European officials and experts say refugees will have to be sent back to Turkey. As long as those crossing are still able to stay in Greece, there is a risk that more will decide to come."There's the deterrence effect. If it's proven that people are being turned back, it can force people to think twice about even trying," said James Ker-Lindsay, an expert on southern Europe at the London School of Economics.Only about 700 people who arrived since the deal was signed - just four percent of the total - have gone back to Turkey, and none was ordered back after being recognised as a refugee.Of those who returned, most were economic migrants from countries like Pakistan and Bangladesh who left without seeking asylum in Greece. Around 70 people who did claim asylum in Greece gave up on the process and asked to leave before it was over. The rest are still in Greece, prey for smugglers who offer to take them to northern Europe.Some 61,000 migrants are still scattered across Greece, including 15,900 in overcrowded island camps that have grown violent as the delays mount, with around 2,500 more arriving each month. The camps are now holding three times as many people as they held when the deal was signed, and twice as many as they were built for.The EU blames the delays on Greek inefficiency."The goal of ensuring returns ... has mostly been hampered by the slow pace of processing of asylum applications at first instance by the Greek Asylum Service and of processing of appeals by the newly-established Greek Appeals Authority," the EU Commission said in a progress report."Further efforts are urgently needed by the Greek administration to build a substantially increased and sustained capacity to return arriving migrants, which is considered to be the key deterrent factor for irregular migrants and smugglers."Athens says it is simply overwhelmed and cannot speed up the painstaking process of evaluating claims. It has asked the EU to send more staff, but European officials say that would not help without more effort from Greece to improve its system.Interviews with asylum-seekers and officials involved in the process suggest Greek staff are indeed stretched, but red tape, inefficiency, the lack of a unified plan across refugee camps and a lengthy appeals process are also to blame.-UNLUCKY-Amir, Walaa and their two young children fled from the Syrian city of Homs to Turkey and reached a beach on the Greek island of Chios in March. They say they came ashore the day before the deal with Turkey, but their arrival was not recorded by police until the next day, exposing them to the new rules."We were unlucky," Walaa said, smiling weakly. Her two brothers had taken just two weeks to reach Germany from Greece before the land border was shut. Her husband Amir added: "We were in the boat and (German Chancellor Angela) Merkel and Turkey were finishing the deal."Their asylum case should be easier to process than many: they have their passports and do not need to prove their identity. But they are still months from an answer.In their first weeks in Greece they were given a number: 10,624. Each day, they rose from their tent in the dusty remains of a castle moat, and walked to a notice board, looking anxiously for it.If posted, it meant they should walk or catch a bus to the island's main camp, a few miles (km) away, and queue there at the processing centre, a few prefabricated containers arranged inside an abandoned aluminium factory.They spent four months in the tent before their number finally was posted the first time, summoning them to a meeting to establish their identity, where authorities finally sat them down to ask for their names and fingerprints.Six months after they arrived, they were finally told the date of their first actual interview: Dec. 6. They were finally given the right to leave the camp and relocate to Athens while they wait for their case to be heard. Now they live at a grimy, abandoned Athens school where smugglers roam, offering passage to northern Europe for $1,000."We wait. Every day we just wait. Why, I don't know," Walaa said, gazing at the floor. She and her husband asked that their surnames not be published to protect relatives back in Syria.Humanitarian groups on the ground say poor coordination slows things down on the islands, a conclusion backed up by the EU Commission report, which urged Greece to develop unified management for the camps.The camps are typically run by local municipalities or the central government, while screening and interviews are carried out primarily by officials from EU border agency Frontex and the European Asylum Support Office (EASO).Asylum-seekers say they receive contradictory information and are confounded by a lack of interpreters. One camp used a loud-hailer to call people to appointments; if they didn't hear it, they missed their turn.Frontex and EASO officials go to unusual lengths to confirm an identity or check an asylum seeker's story. Someone who has no documentation and professes to be from Syria, for example, will be asked to name streets, identify landmarks or pick out Syrian coins from a handful of different currencies.-A CRUEL BUREAUCRACY-The long waits and squalor of some camps have turned frustration into violence. On Chios and the island of Lesbos in recent days, asylum-seekers attacked EASO's offices to protest against delays. Interviews there have yet to resume.EASO has deployed 202 staff in Greece and has called for 100 more, but EU member states have yet to respond, EASO spokesman Jean-Pierre Schembri said. Greece has repeatedly asked for more.The Greek legal system allows for an elaborate appeals process, which the EU says is too slow. Greece responded in June by sending more judges to replace civil servants and staff of either the U.N. refugee agency or Greek human rights commission, who had previously sat on appeals panels.The new boards appear to be moving only slightly faster: they made 35 decisions in their first month, compared with 72 made by the old boards in the first three months of the deal, the EU Commission report said. The report did not specify what decisions had been reached.The most contentious part of the process is determining whether those with valid asylum cases can safely be returned to Turkey, the heart of the March deal. The new appeals boards have dealt with at least three such cases as of Sept. 18, and at least one is challenging the decision at Greece's highest court, according to the EU report.Reuters could not find a board member willing to comment publicly on the process."A wrong decision might send someone back to serious harm," said Giorgos Kosmopoulos, an Amnesty International researcher and former Greece director. "It's about quality not quantity."(Additional reporting by Gabriela Baczynska in Brussels; editing by Peter Graff)
Iranian parliament approves three new Rouhani ministers-[Reuters]-November 1, 2016-YAHOONEWS
BEIRUT (Reuters) - Iranian lawmakers approved three new ministers on Tuesday, signalling support for changes in the cabinet of pragmatist President Hassan Rouhani seven months before a presidential election.State media reported that Reza Salehi Amiri, Saeed Soltanifar and Fakhredin Ahmadi Danesh-Ashtiani won votes of confidence to take over the ministries of Islamic guidance and culture, sport and youth affairs, and education. Their predecessors resigned after Rouhani criticised them for inefficiency and succumbing to pressures from outside the government.Rouhani allies won big gains in parliamentary elections in February, short of an outright majority but comfortable enough to pass his legislative plans.Rouhani is expected to stand for re-election next year but may face a challenge from conservative rivals who believe Iran has conceded too much in a deal with world powers to limit its nuclear programme, while failing to benefit as promised from a lifting of international sanctions.(Reporting by Bozorgmehr Sharafedin; Editing by Mark Trevelyan)
REVELATION 16:12-16
12 And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates;(WERE WW3 STARTS IN IRAQ OR SYRIA OR TURKEY) and the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared.(THE TURKEY ATATURK DAM ON THE EUPHRATES CAN BE SHUT AND DRIED UP ALREADY BY TURKEY)
13 And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon,(SATAN) and out of the mouth of the beast,(WORLD DICTATOR) and out of the mouth of the false prophet.(FALSE POPE)
14 For they are the spirits of devils, working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty.(WERE 2 BILLION DIE FROM NUKE WAR)
15 Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame.
16 And he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon.(ITS AT THIS TIME I BELIEVE WHEN AMERICA GETS NUKED BY RUSSIA ON THE WAY TO THE MIDEAST)
DANIEL 11:44 (2ND WAVE OF WW3)
44 But tidings out of the east(CHINA) and out of the north(RUSSIA, MUSLIMS WHATS LEFT FROM WAVE 1) shall trouble him:(EU DICTATOR IN ISRAEL) therefore he shall go forth with great fury to destroy, and utterly to make away many.( 1/3RD OF EARTHS POPULATION)
REVELATION 9:12-18
12 One woe is past; and, behold, there come two woes more hereafter.
13 And the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God,
14 Saying to the sixth angel which had the trumpet, Loose the four(DEMONIC WAR) angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates.(WORLDWIDE WAR)(TURKEY-IRAQ-SYRIA)(EUPHRATES RIVER CONSISTS OF 760 MILES IN TURKEY,440 MILES IN SYRIA AND 660 MILES IN IRAQ)
15 And the four(DEMONIC WAR) angels were loosed,(WORLDWIDE WAR) which were prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, for to slay the third part of men.(1/3 Earths Population die in WW 3 2ND WAVE-2 billion)
16 And the number of the army of the horsemen were two hundred thousand thousand:(200 MILLION MAN ARMY FROM CHINA AND THE KINGS OF THE EAST) and I heard the number of them.
17 And thus I saw the horses in the vision, and them that sat on them, having breastplates of fire, and of jacinth, and brimstone: and the heads of the horses were as the heads of lions; and out of their mouths issued fire and smoke and brimstone.(NUCLEAR BOMBS)
18 By these three was the third part of men killed, by the fire, and by the smoke, and by the brimstone, which issued out of their mouths.(NUCLEAR BOMBS)
Commission makes no judgement in China race row By Eric Maurice-EUOBSERVER
BRUSSELS, 31. Oct, 15:07-The European Commission declined on Monday (31 October) to comment on declarations by commissioner Guether Oettinger that were considered as offensive to China and Wallonia.The EU executive spokesman Margaritis Schinas told journalists that Oettinger gave "detailed information" about the incident in an interview to German daily Die Welt and that the institutions had "nothing to add".Oettinger, the German member of the commission, was filmed at a meeting with business people in Hamburg last week using a German equivalent of "slant eyes" to refer to Chinese people.He also joked about members of a Chinese delegation in Brussels who had their hair "combed from left to right with black shoe polish”.The commissioner told Die Welt that the video has been edited and his words taken out of context. He admitted “a somewhat sloppy statement" but said it was "in no way meant disrespectfully towards China”.Schinas said he would "refrain from any characterisation or value judgement that one can make on the explanations" given by Oettinger."We have to listen to what Guenther Oettinger has to say," he said.-He added that the commission's president, Jean-Claude Juncker, did not ask his commissioner for explanations because he was "100 percent busy with Ceta", the EU-Canada trade deal that was signed on Sunday.He also said that no further question would be asked because "we don't have an FBI at the commission to investigate commissioners".Oettinger was also reported as saying that Wallonia, the Belgian region that delayed the signing of the EU-Canada trade agreement, was “a micro-region run by communists that blocks all Europe”.But that comment is not on the video and Schinas explained that there should be a distinction between what is really said and what is reportedly said."Wallonia is governed by its democratically elected leaders," he said when asked who were the communists mentioned by Oettinger. Wallonia minister-president Paul Magnette is a Social-Democrat.He insisted that the commission had "the highest respect for all Europe's regions that are primordial for Europe's competitiveness and cohesion".On Sunday, Juncker had himself taken a jab at Walloon leaders. He said "the commission's interlocutor is not the Walloon region, but the federal Belgian government", adding: “Belgians should think pretty carefully about how it works in the context of international trade negotiations.”The controversy over Oettinger's remarks comes as he is about to be promoted vice-president of the commission, in charge of budget, to replace Kristalina Georgieva who is taking a job at the World Bank.Oettinger was due to go to Greece on Monday, but the visit was cancelled, due to "unexpected commitments", Schinas said while refusing to say what kind of commitment.
Hong Kong leader raises prospect of controversial legal request to Beijing-[Reuters]-November 1, 2016-YAHOONEWS
HONG KONG (Reuters) - Hong Kong's leader has signalled he might ask Beijing to use a rarely invoked power to interpret the city's Basic Law mini-constitution to end a political crisis over a fledgling independence movement.Any such move will spark fears for Hong Kong's autonomy and vaunted legal system, officials, judges and lawyers say privately.Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying's remarks on Tuesday come ahead of a Hong Kong government-requested legal hearing that could effectively bar two recently elected pro-independence lawmakers from the legislature of the global financial hub.Some local officials and judges have grown privately fearful that the emergence of independence issues could see Beijing force tough new laws on the city, or interpret the Basic Law to explicitly curb pro-independence legislators.The city's rule of law and freedom of speech is jealously guarded by many in the former British colony after it returned to Chinese rule in 1997 under the principle of "one country, two systems", allowing it wide-ranging freedoms.Speaking ahead of a weekly executive meeting on Tuesday, Leung went further than other officials in raising the prospect that his government could request Beijing to interpret the Basic Law."We hope to do our utmost to resolve it within Hong Kong, but we cannot rule out this possibility," Leung told local media.Justice Secretary Rimsky Yuen has said previously said that there was no need for an interpretation at this point, and said later on Tuesday he still "hopes" the issue can be handled locally.The government has asked the courts to review a decision by the legislature's president allowing pro-independence lawmakers Yau Wai-ching, 25, and Baggio Leung, 30, to re-take their oaths of office. The hearing starts on Thursday.The pair, who represent a new breed of more radical activists moving into the political mainstream, had their swearing-in oaths invalidated last month over language and a banner that was deemed derogatory to China."Apart from the case in court ... there is a high possibility that other things might be triggered by their oaths and their words and actions afterwards," the chief executive said, explaining why he had postponed a trip to Beijing.In response, the two lawmakers said in a joint statement that if an interpretation was to take place, it would mean the Chinese Communist Party ruled over Hong Kong directly.Pressure has built in recent weeks from local Beijing loyalists and the president Legislative Council last week delayed their swearing-in until the High Court rules.Beijing's chief representative in Hong Kong did not mention the possibility of an interpretation in a speech later on Tuesday but said the lawmakers "seriously violated" China's constitution, the Basic Law and the relevant Hong Kong laws."Any speech and action promoting Hong Kong independence should be punished according to the law. There is no reason to be lenient," said the head of the Liaison Office, Zhang Xiaoming.Once taboo, calls for self-determination and independence have risen since the 79 day struggle in late 2014 when tens of thousands took to the streets for 79 days of protests against reforms that failed to deliver full democracy for leadership.(Reporting By Greg Torode. Additional reporting by Venus Wu.; Editing by Michael Perry and Alison Williams)
Taiwan's KMT party tells China it is pushing for peace-[Reuters]-By Faith Hung and Paul Carsten-November 1, 2016-YAHOONEWS
TAIPEI/BEIJING (Reuters) - Taiwan's opposition Kuomintang (KMT) party is pushing for peace with mainland China and holds out the possibility of a peace pact, the party's chairwoman told Chinese leader Xi Jinping on Tuesday, the party said.Xi, general secretary of the Communist Party and China's president, met a delegation led by KMT chairwoman Hung Hsiu-Chu at Beijing's Great Hall of the People, the Xinhua news agency reported.Taiwan, which relies on the United States for arms sales, has ruled itself as a rival to China since the end of a Chinese civil war in 1949. Beijing sees the island as a renegade province that must be reunited with the mainland, by force if necessary.Hung, once a presidential candidate, said the KMT would play an active role in pushing for the "institutionalisation" of peaceful relations between the two sides and for the possibility of a peace pact, the KMT said in a statement released in Taiwan.Relations between the mainland and Taiwan have deteriorated since the island's pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) took power in May after winning an election.In his meeting with Hung, the Chinese president said Taiwan's changing politics would not affect the meaning of the 'One China' principle, China's state radio said.China's position on this issue will not waver or be blurred in the slightest, the broadcaster cited Xi as saying.Beijing cut an official communication mechanism with Taiwan in June, after Taiwan's President Tsai Ing-wen of the DPP refused to commit to the "One China" principle that Taiwan is part of China.In response to comments made in the meeting, Taiwan's China policy-making body reiterated its desire for China to resume talks."A peaceful development of cross-strait ties is the responsibility of both sides... We should both make mutual gestures of goodwill, to resolve our differences via constructive dialogue," said the Mainland Affairs Council in a statement.The previous KMT administration had agreed to recognize the "1992 consensus", which states that there is only one China, with each side having its own interpretation of what that means.The KMT, a bitter rival of Beijing for decades, has in recent years been seen as more pragmatic about ties based on economic cooperation.Communist forces defeated the KMT in the civil war, and the KMT forces fled to the island.(Additional reporting by Monitoring Desk in Beijing; Editing by Clarence Fernandez and Hugh Lawson)
Niger Delta leaders ask Buhari to withdraw army from oil producing communities-[Reuters]-November 1, 2016-YAHOONEWS
ABUJA (Reuters) - The Nigerian army needs to withdraw from oil producing communities in the restive Niger Delta to help curb militancy in the oil hub, a local leader said on Tuesday."We presented a 16 point request to the president (Muhammadu Buhari) which includes the withdrawal of the military in oil producing communities in the region," King Alfred Diete-Spiff, a Niger Delta leader, said after meeting Buhari in Abuja."We don't want the communities militarised."(Reporting by Felix Onuah; Writing by Ulf Laessing; Editing by Mark Potter)
WORLD POWERS IN THE LAST DAYS (END OF AGE OF GRACE NOT THE WORLD)
EUROPEAN UNION-KING OF WEST-DAN 9:26-27,DAN 7:23-24,DAN 11:40,REV 13:1-10
EGYPT-KING OF THE SOUTH-DAN 11:40
RUSSIA-KING OF THE NORTH-EZEK 38:1-2,EZEK 39:1-3
CHINA-KING OF THE EAST-DAN 11:44,REV 9:16,18
VATICAN-RELIGIOUS LEADER-REV 13:11-18,REV 17:4-5,9,18
WORLD TERRORISM
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.
GENESIS 16:11-12
11 And the angel of the LORD said unto her,(HAGAR) Behold, thou art with child, and shalt bear a son, and shalt call his name Ishmael;(FATHER OF THE ARAB/MUSLIMS) because the LORD hath heard thy affliction.
12 And he (ISHMAEL-FATHER OF THE ARAB-MUSLIMS) will be a wild (DONKEY-JACKASS) man;(ISLAM IS A FAKE AND DANGEROUS SEX FOR MURDER CULT) his hand will be against every man,(ISLAM HATES EVERYONE) and every man's hand against him;(PROTECTING THEMSELVES FROM BEING BEHEADED) and he (ISHMAEL ARAB/MUSLIM) shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren.(LITERAL-THE ARABS LIVE WITH THEIR BRETHERN JEWS)
ISAIAH 14:12-14
12 How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer,(SATAN) son of the morning!(HEBREW-CRECENT MOON-ISLAM) how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!
13 For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north:
14 I (SATAN HAS EYE TROUBLES) will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.(AND 1/3RD OF THE ANGELS OF HEAVEN FELL WITH SATAN AND BECAME DEMONS)
JOHN 16:2
2 They shall put you out of the synagogues: yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service.(ISLAM MURDERS IN THE NAME OF MOON GOD ALLAH OF ISLAM)
Documents show Islamic State obsessions: beards and concubines-[Reuters]-By Babak Dehghanpisheh and Michael Georgy-November 1, 2016-YAHOONEWS
ZARQA/SHURA, Iraq (Reuters) - After Islamic State conquered villages in northern Iraq, it spelled out in minute detail the rules of its self-proclaimed caliphate, from beard length to alms to guidelines for taking women as sex slaves.Islamic State documents and posters, obtained in villages captured by Iraqi forces, highlight a tight and comprehensive system of rule by the militants, who went to great lengths to explain their extremist philosophy.The documents and other materials, printed with Islamic State logos, were found by Reuters in offices used by the group until a few days ago. Members of the Iraqi forces told Reuters the documents originated from Islamic State, although this could not be independently verified.Iraqi security forces and Kurdish peshmerga fighters have seized several villages and towns during an offensive against the northern city of Mosul, Islamic State's last stronghold in the country.When Islamic State swept through the north in 2014, it announced a self-proclaimed caliphate, which appealed to some fellow Sunnis who felt marginalized by the Shi'ite-led central government.But that appeal faded as Islamic State enforced its medieval thinking with brute force, beheading anyone deemed an opponent.Slick, colorful posters, pamphlets and documents highlight Islamic State's intense focus on dictating what it called proper Islamic behavior for the citizens of its caliphate.Violations of its rules meant punishment such as public whipping or being hauled off to Mosul for execution, according to several villagers who recently escaped from Islamic State areas.A green wallet-size insert lays out guidelines for how to pray properly. It shows a young boy undertaking ablutions. "Wash your feet from the direction of your toes down to your heels," it said.-GOLD BRACELETS-A five-page pamphlet with pictures of gold bracelets, diamond rings and wheat on the front spelled out instructions on how to give alms, an obligation under Islam. Failure to do so would mean a penalty.In the village of Shura, where seven Islamic State suicide bombers were recently shot dead as they rushed toward Iraqi forces, militants kept meticulous records of who had given alms. Entries showed whether an individual owned gold, property or a car. Monthly salaries were also noted.Unlike al Qaeda, its predecessor in Iraq, Islamic State made its name in the jihadi world by becoming the first militant group to capture significant amounts of land in the Middle East, hold it and then set up an administration.But air strikes by a U.S.-led coalition targeting Islamic State's leaders and its sources of income have dealt a major blow to the caliphate.Islamic State's inclination to codify its system of rule extended to what it called the spoils of war.A pink and red pamphlet includes 32 questions and answers on how to deal with female captives.A senior Islamic State cleric has the authority to distribute female captives among its fighters, it said."Non-Muslim women can be taken as concubines," according to the leaflet.Militants can own two sisters as concubines but only have sex with one."Pre-pubescent girls can be taken as concubines. You cannot have penetrative sex but you can still enjoy them," the leaflet added.One question in the pamphlet asks whether a group of militants can share a concubine. The answer: only a single owner can sleep with a concubine.After blazing through northern Iraq, Islamic State took hundreds of women from the Yazidi minority as sex slaves.Under Islamic State's rules, women were required to largely stay at home or wear head-to-toe black coverings if they ventured out. Men wore short pants which were deemed Islamic along with beards of appropriate length.One of the pamphlets begins by defining a beard as "hair that grows on your face and your cheeks".There were few forms of entertainment under Islamic State, which banned the internet and music along with cell phones.A ban on satellite dishes deprived Iraqis of news of the outside world. In a huge slick poster, entitled "Why I Should Destroy My Dish", the jihadists provided 20 reasons, revolving mostly around the immorality of satellite television programs.Reason 8: "Because satellite channels show stories of love and naked women and inappropriate language."Reason 10: "Because satellite channels normalize men being effeminate and sissies."(Writing by Michael Georgy; editing by Giles Elgood)
US expert warns EU on returning jihadists By Andrew Rettman-EUOBSERVER
BRUSSELS, 29. Oct, 19:32-Jihadists who left Europe to fight In Iraq and Syria will come back in greater numbers as the Islamic State (IS) group loses territory there, a former US security chief has warned.“Some of them are now coming back as we make progress against Daesh [another name for IS] in places like Mosul [in Iraq] or in other places in the field. More of those foreign fighters will leave there and … some of them will return home”, Michael Chertoff, the former head of the US department of homeland security, said on Saturday (29 October).“Tracking those people and making sure they don’t take advantage of the Schengen framework will be an issue of special urgency over the next year”, he said, referring to the EU’s open-border zone.Chertoff, who spoke at the Tatra summit, a conference in Bratislava, is part of a pressure group calling for more intelligence sharing between the US and EU states.He noted that the US has a visa-waiver programme with most EU countries which could also be abused.He said if the EU states wanted to protect the waiver it meant “we have to work closely together to identify people here who may come back from Syria and who might want to come to the US to carry out attacks”.Chertoff’s warning echoed that of Julian King, the EU security commissioner, who recently told Die Welt, a German newspaper, that a surge in returning foreign fighters was “a threat we must be prepared to face” if IS lost territory in Iraq.He said there were 2,500 European fighters in the Mosul area in Iraq alone.Chertoff, as well as David Omand, a former director of the British intelligence unit, the GCHQ, said on Saturday that, foreign fighters aside, the threat of a cyberattack on EU or US targets was higher than in the past.“You don’t have to bring people into a country to blow up something or to disrupt it, you can do it online,” Chertoff said.He said IS did not need to have high-level IT experts to mount an attack because they could buy the cyber capabilities that they would need from organised crimes groups on the internet.“If you have the money, you can buy the malware on the dark web and use it”, he said, referring to a hidden part of the internet.Omand said it was also “inevitable” that there would one day be a terrorist attack using drones.“We’ve already spotted Daesh doing that in Syria, so the idea is in people’s heads and it’s not so difficult to acquire drones”, he said.He said the best way to stop such an incident was to rely on local police looking out for people “practicing or rehearsing that kind of attack”.He added that he had not seen any sign that IS had acquired chemical or biological weapons from Syria’s arsenals.“I’m retired, so I don’t have access to classified information any more … but I haven’t heard of such a development. I haven’t seen it. If they had those kinds of agents, they would have used them, or, at least, boasted about them”, he said.
U.N. peacekeepers failed to respond to South Sudan hotel attack - inquiry-[Reuters]-November 1, 2016-YAHOONEWS
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - United Nations peacekeepers known as UNMISS failed to respond to an attack on civilians by South Sudanese government troops at the Hotel Terrain in the capital Juba in July, less than a mile from a U.N. compound, a U.N. inquiry found on Tuesday.It found a "lack of preparedness, ineffective command and control and a risk-averse or 'inward-looking' posture resulted in a loss of trust and confidence - particularly by the local population and humanitarian agencies - in the will and skill of UNMISS military, (and) police to be proactive and show a determined posture to protect civilians under threat."(Reporting by Michelle Nichols; Editing by James Dalgleish)
Islamic State kills 40 near Mosul, tries to move 25,000 to use as shields, U.N. says-[Reuters]-By Tom Miles-November 1, 2016-YAHOONEWS
GENEVA (Reuters) - Islamic State militants killed 40 former members of the Iraqi Security Forces near Mosul on Saturday and threw their bodies in the Tigris river, U.N. human rights spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani said on Tuesday, citing reports from the field.IS also tried to transport about 25,000 civilians from Hammam al-Alil, a town south of Mosul, on dozens of trucks and minibuses during the hours of darkness early on Monday, probably for use as human shields in defense of IS positions, she said.Most of the trucks, which were heading toward the Tal Afar district, turned back under pressure from patrolling aircraft, but some buses did reach Abu Saif, 15 km (10 miles) north of Hammam al-Alil, she said."We have grave concerns for these and tens of thousands of other civilians who have reportedly been forcibly relocated by ISIL (Islamic State) in the past two weeks," she said.IS fighters were taking people closer and closer to Mosul city and putting them close to their offices and to installations that could constitute military targets, Shamdasani said."That seems to support the assertion that they are planning to use these people as human shields, as well as ensuring that the area is heavily populated with civilians to frustrate a military operation against them," she said."They are also killing some people that they are abducting, especially people who formerly belonged to the Iraqi Security Forces."The 40 former Iraqi soldiers killed on Saturday were among civilians who had been abducted earlier from the al-Shura sub-district of Mosul and from villages around Hammam al-Alil.There may be many more, Shamdasani said, adding that the U.N.'s reports were "raw information" from reliable sources and were by no means comprehensive.Although there would be a "temptation for revenge" against captured IS fighters, the U.N. had not documented any such abuses, and it welcomed the Iraqi government's pledge to put protection of civilians at the heart of their strategy, Shamdasani said.She also said there were no reports of coalition air strikes killing civilians, including those people being held as human shields.(Reporting by Tom Miles, editing by Larry King)
Refugees languish in Greek limbo as alarm grows in Brussels-[Reuters]-By Karolina Tagaris-November 1, 2016-YAHOONEWS
ATHENS (Reuters) - Seven months after the European Union and Turkey struck an agreement to turn back the tide of Syrians fleeing west, not a single refugee has been sent back from Greece, and Brussels is losing its patience as overcrowded camps grow violent.The agreement reached in March was designed to reduce the number of migrants crossing into Europe from Turkey, after more than a million people arrived in Europe last year, most reaching Greek islands by boat and continuing by land to Germany.Under the deal, the European Union declared Turkey "a safe third country", meaning those who make the crossing can be returned there, even if found to have fled Syria or other countries as refugees deserving protection. Turkey agreed to take them back, in return for a range of EU concessions.At around the same time, Balkan countries along the land route north closed their borders, so that migrants who once poured across Greece to reach other parts of Europe are now trapped there and prevented from pressing on.For the most part, the goal of stemming the tide has been achieved so far. Only 17,000 people, around half of them Syrians, have made the hazardous sea crossing from Turkey since the deal was signed, a tiny fraction of hundreds of thousands that arrived the previous year to pass through Greece.But for the deal to continue to work for the longer term, European officials and experts say refugees will have to be sent back to Turkey. As long as those crossing are still able to stay in Greece, there is a risk that more will decide to come."There's the deterrence effect. If it's proven that people are being turned back, it can force people to think twice about even trying," said James Ker-Lindsay, an expert on southern Europe at the London School of Economics.Only about 700 people who arrived since the deal was signed - just four percent of the total - have gone back to Turkey, and none was ordered back after being recognised as a refugee.Of those who returned, most were economic migrants from countries like Pakistan and Bangladesh who left without seeking asylum in Greece. Around 70 people who did claim asylum in Greece gave up on the process and asked to leave before it was over. The rest are still in Greece, prey for smugglers who offer to take them to northern Europe.Some 61,000 migrants are still scattered across Greece, including 15,900 in overcrowded island camps that have grown violent as the delays mount, with around 2,500 more arriving each month. The camps are now holding three times as many people as they held when the deal was signed, and twice as many as they were built for.The EU blames the delays on Greek inefficiency."The goal of ensuring returns ... has mostly been hampered by the slow pace of processing of asylum applications at first instance by the Greek Asylum Service and of processing of appeals by the newly-established Greek Appeals Authority," the EU Commission said in a progress report."Further efforts are urgently needed by the Greek administration to build a substantially increased and sustained capacity to return arriving migrants, which is considered to be the key deterrent factor for irregular migrants and smugglers."Athens says it is simply overwhelmed and cannot speed up the painstaking process of evaluating claims. It has asked the EU to send more staff, but European officials say that would not help without more effort from Greece to improve its system.Interviews with asylum-seekers and officials involved in the process suggest Greek staff are indeed stretched, but red tape, inefficiency, the lack of a unified plan across refugee camps and a lengthy appeals process are also to blame.-UNLUCKY-Amir, Walaa and their two young children fled from the Syrian city of Homs to Turkey and reached a beach on the Greek island of Chios in March. They say they came ashore the day before the deal with Turkey, but their arrival was not recorded by police until the next day, exposing them to the new rules."We were unlucky," Walaa said, smiling weakly. Her two brothers had taken just two weeks to reach Germany from Greece before the land border was shut. Her husband Amir added: "We were in the boat and (German Chancellor Angela) Merkel and Turkey were finishing the deal."Their asylum case should be easier to process than many: they have their passports and do not need to prove their identity. But they are still months from an answer.In their first weeks in Greece they were given a number: 10,624. Each day, they rose from their tent in the dusty remains of a castle moat, and walked to a notice board, looking anxiously for it.If posted, it meant they should walk or catch a bus to the island's main camp, a few miles (km) away, and queue there at the processing centre, a few prefabricated containers arranged inside an abandoned aluminium factory.They spent four months in the tent before their number finally was posted the first time, summoning them to a meeting to establish their identity, where authorities finally sat them down to ask for their names and fingerprints.Six months after they arrived, they were finally told the date of their first actual interview: Dec. 6. They were finally given the right to leave the camp and relocate to Athens while they wait for their case to be heard. Now they live at a grimy, abandoned Athens school where smugglers roam, offering passage to northern Europe for $1,000."We wait. Every day we just wait. Why, I don't know," Walaa said, gazing at the floor. She and her husband asked that their surnames not be published to protect relatives back in Syria.Humanitarian groups on the ground say poor coordination slows things down on the islands, a conclusion backed up by the EU Commission report, which urged Greece to develop unified management for the camps.The camps are typically run by local municipalities or the central government, while screening and interviews are carried out primarily by officials from EU border agency Frontex and the European Asylum Support Office (EASO).Asylum-seekers say they receive contradictory information and are confounded by a lack of interpreters. One camp used a loud-hailer to call people to appointments; if they didn't hear it, they missed their turn.Frontex and EASO officials go to unusual lengths to confirm an identity or check an asylum seeker's story. Someone who has no documentation and professes to be from Syria, for example, will be asked to name streets, identify landmarks or pick out Syrian coins from a handful of different currencies.-A CRUEL BUREAUCRACY-The long waits and squalor of some camps have turned frustration into violence. On Chios and the island of Lesbos in recent days, asylum-seekers attacked EASO's offices to protest against delays. Interviews there have yet to resume.EASO has deployed 202 staff in Greece and has called for 100 more, but EU member states have yet to respond, EASO spokesman Jean-Pierre Schembri said. Greece has repeatedly asked for more.The Greek legal system allows for an elaborate appeals process, which the EU says is too slow. Greece responded in June by sending more judges to replace civil servants and staff of either the U.N. refugee agency or Greek human rights commission, who had previously sat on appeals panels.The new boards appear to be moving only slightly faster: they made 35 decisions in their first month, compared with 72 made by the old boards in the first three months of the deal, the EU Commission report said. The report did not specify what decisions had been reached.The most contentious part of the process is determining whether those with valid asylum cases can safely be returned to Turkey, the heart of the March deal. The new appeals boards have dealt with at least three such cases as of Sept. 18, and at least one is challenging the decision at Greece's highest court, according to the EU report.Reuters could not find a board member willing to comment publicly on the process."A wrong decision might send someone back to serious harm," said Giorgos Kosmopoulos, an Amnesty International researcher and former Greece director. "It's about quality not quantity."(Additional reporting by Gabriela Baczynska in Brussels; editing by Peter Graff)
Iranian parliament approves three new Rouhani ministers-[Reuters]-November 1, 2016-YAHOONEWS
BEIRUT (Reuters) - Iranian lawmakers approved three new ministers on Tuesday, signalling support for changes in the cabinet of pragmatist President Hassan Rouhani seven months before a presidential election.State media reported that Reza Salehi Amiri, Saeed Soltanifar and Fakhredin Ahmadi Danesh-Ashtiani won votes of confidence to take over the ministries of Islamic guidance and culture, sport and youth affairs, and education. Their predecessors resigned after Rouhani criticised them for inefficiency and succumbing to pressures from outside the government.Rouhani allies won big gains in parliamentary elections in February, short of an outright majority but comfortable enough to pass his legislative plans.Rouhani is expected to stand for re-election next year but may face a challenge from conservative rivals who believe Iran has conceded too much in a deal with world powers to limit its nuclear programme, while failing to benefit as promised from a lifting of international sanctions.(Reporting by Bozorgmehr Sharafedin; Editing by Mark Trevelyan)
