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)
EXODUS 20:13
13 Thou shalt not kill.(Murder)(THAT INCLUDES ABORTION)
MATTHEW 18:6
6 But whoso shall offend (HURT) one of these little ones (CHILDREN) which believe in me,(JESUS) it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea.(THATS THE DEATH PENALTY FOLKS)
EXODUS 21:12
12 He that smiteth (MURDER)a man,(OR BABY) so that he die, shall be surely put to death.(THATS THE DEATH PENALTY PEOPLE)
Suspect in Facebook video murder case kills self in Pennsylvania: police-[Reuters]-YAHOONEWS-April 18, 2017
(Reuters) - The man who police said posted a video of himself on Facebook killing an elderly man shot and killed himself after a "brief pursuit" by Pennsylvania State Police officers on Tuesday, police said.Steve Stephens was accused of shooting Robert Godwin Sr. on a Cleveland sidewalk on Sunday before fleeing in a car and uploading a video of the murder to Facebook, becoming the subject of a nationwide manhunt.(Reporting by Jonathan Allen; Editing by Dan Grebler)
NewsAlert: Man sought in Cleveland Facebook killing shot himself to death after chase-[The Canadian Press]-YAHOONEWS-April 18, 2017
CLEVELAND — Pennsylvania State Police say the suspect in the random killing of a Cleveland retiree posted on Facebook has shot and killed himself after a brief pursuit.State police say Steve Stephens was spotted Tuesday morning by state police in Erie County, in the state's northwest corner. Authorities say police tried to pull Stephens over and, after a brief pursuit, he shot and killed himself.Stephens was wanted on an aggravated murder charge in the shooting death of a 74-year-old retired man in Cleveland on Sunday.He posted video of that shooting on Facebook.Mark Gillispie, The Associated Press.
DANIEL 7:23-24
23 Thus he said, The fourth beast (EU,REVIVED ROME) shall be the fourth kingdom upon earth,(7TH WORLD EMPIRE) which shall be diverse from all kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, and shall tread it down, and break it in pieces.(TRADING BLOCKS-10 WORLD REGIONS/TRADE BLOCS)
24 And the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings(10 NATIONS-10 WORLD DIVISION WORLD GOVERNMENT) that shall arise: and another shall rise after them; and he shall be diverse from the first, and he shall subdue three kings.(EITHER THE EUROPEAN UNION DICTATOR BOOTS 3 COUNTRIES FROM THE EU OR THE DICTATOR TAKES OVER THE WORLD ECONOMY BY CONTROLLING 3 WORLD TRADE BLOCS)
REVELATION 17:9-13
9 And here is the mind which hath wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sitteth.(THE VATICAN IS BUILT ON 7 HILLS OR MOUNTAINS)
10 And there are seven kings: five are fallen,(1-ASSYRIA,2-EGYPT,3-BABYLON,4-MEDO-PERSIA,5-GREECE) and one is,(IN POWER IN JOHNS AND JESUS DAY-6-ROME) and the other is not yet come; and when he cometh, he must continue a short space.(7TH-REVIVED ROMAN EMPIRE OR THE EUROPEAN UNION TODAY AND THE SHORT SPACE IS-7 YEARS.THE EUROPEAN UNION WILL HAVE WORLD CONTROL FOR THE LAST 3 1/2 YEARS.BUT WILL HAVE ITS MIGHTY WORLD POWER FOR THE FULL 7 YEARS OF THE 7 YEAR TRIBULATION PERIOD.AND THE WORLD DICTATOR WILL BE THE BEAST FROM THE EU.AND THE VATICAN POPE WILL BE THE WHORE THAT RIDES THE EUROPEAN UNION TO POWER.AND THE 2 EUROPEAN UNION POWER FREAKS WILL CONTROL AND DECIEVE THE WHOLE EARTH INTO THEIR DESTRUCTION.IF YOU ARE NOT SAVED BY THE BLOOD OF JESUS.YOU WILL BE DECIEVED BY THESE TWO.THE WORLD POLITICIAN-THE EUROPEAN UNION DICTATOR.AND THE FALSE PROPHET THAT DEFECTS CHRISTIANITY-THE FALSE VATICAN POPE.
11 And the beast that was, and is not, even he is the eighth, and is of the seven, and goeth into perdition.
12 And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings one hour with the beast.
13 These have one mind, and shall give their power and strength unto the beast.
DANIEL 9:26-27
26 And after threescore and two weeks(62X7=434 YEARS+7X7=49 YEARS=TOTAL OF 69 WEEKS OR 483 YRS) shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary;(ROMAN LEADERS DESTROYED THE 2ND TEMPLE) and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined.(THERE HAS TO BE 70 WEEKS OR 490 YRS TO FUFILL THE VISION AND PROPHECY OF DAN 9:24).(THE NEXT VERSE IS THAT 7 YR WEEK OR (70TH FINAL WEEK).
27 And he ( THE ROMAN,EU PRESIDENT) shall confirm the covenant (PEACE TREATY) with many for one week:(1X7=7 YEARS) and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease,(3 1/2 yrs in TEMPLE ANIMAL SACRIFICES STOPPED) and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.
Column / Brexit Briefing-May's drive for one-party Brexit state By Benjamin Fox-APR 18,17-EUOBSERVER
London, Today, 17:47-Theresa May’s snap election call on Tuesday (18 April) took Westminster by surprise, but it makes a lot of sense.The official reason May gave for calling the poll is that Britain needs "certainty, stability and strong leadership" in its transition of leaving the EU, but is being opposed by "Remoaners" in Labour, Scotland, and the House of Lords.The real reason is that she is confident, understandably, that she can win big.Most surveys put the Conservatives 15-20 points ahead of a bitterly divided Labour Party, and the Conservatives will expect to secure a majority of over 100.The obvious accusation is that holding a snap election, having spent months insisting that there was no need for one, is cynical party politics.Still, if being self-interested and opportunistic were a crime, every politician would be in prison.The Fixed-term Parliaments Act, means that May cannot call an election directly, but getting the support of two-thirds of MPs for a motion to hold a poll will be a formality.The vote on 8 June will be the first general election in which EU relations will be a dominant issue. In fact, it will be a single-issue election for a single-issue government.A decisive election win would give May a personal mandate to negotiate a tough or hard Brexit. Despite their dominance, the Conservatives only have a majority of 12 - it would only take a handful of rebel MPs for government to lose key EU-related votes.A mandate and a big majority negates this threat and would kill off the prospect of Parliament rejecting the terms that May brings back from Brussels.This would also kill off the idea of a second referendum on the terms of Brexit, and close down the argument that the electorate had not given consent to withdraw from the single market.Whether voters will be happy with the economic effects of a hard Brexit and a return to World Trade Organisation terms with the EU will be a moot point. No one can say they were not warned.-Labour is trapped-Most opposition parties are happy to fight early elections. It is an earlier than expected chance to obtain power. For Labour, it is more likely a golden opportunity to lose another election.The best that its beleaguered supporters can hope for is that a defeat would rid them of Jeremy Corbyn’s widely-derided leadership. Labour is polling at around 25 percent, and heading for its worst result in over 80 years.A reluctant "Remainer", Corbyn will not want to talk about Europe. His reaction statement focused on the government’s economic record of "falling living standards and damaging cuts to our schools and NHS". These are worthy issues but they have not gained much traction with voters in the 20 months since he became party leader.In short, Labour is trapped. Most of its MPs and party activists supported the Remain campaign and are bitterly disappointed by the result. Most of the seats it holds are constituencies where there was a majority Leave vote. Since the referendum, Labour has wrestled with this dilemma without resolving it.By pitching herself so clearly as the prime minister for Brexit, May is also making a move to kill off the UK Independence Party (Ukip).Ukip’s only MP, Douglas Carswell, left the party last month, while one of their Welsh Assembly members, Mark Reckless, defected to the Conservatives. Faced by a Conservative leader who has stolen their clothes, it is hard to see how Ukip can survive.-The 48-percent party-But not everybody will lose. An early poll is a golden opportunity for the Liberal Democrats to recover some of the lost ground from their near wipe-out in 2015, when they slumped from 57 to eight seats.Their leader, Tim Farron, has positioned his team as the party of the "48 percent" - who voted to remain in the EU - and will expect to recover some of their lost supporters.If the election makes good sense for English party politics, it is hard to see that a June election will solve the looming constitutional crises in Scotland and Northern Ireland.The Scottish National Party will expect to hold most, if not all, of the 56 seats out of 59 that they took in 2015.Scotish leader Nicola Sturgeon’s vow to protect Scotland “from a Tory party which now sees the chance of grabbing control of government for many years to come and moving the UK further to the right” underscores the sense of separation between Tory England and Nationalist Scotland.There is "no turning back" from Brexit, May said on Tuesday. For the foreseeable future, she is probably correct. The odds are stacked in favour of 8 June entrenching her one-party Brexit state.
Prince Charles, Camilla to visit in time for Canada 150 celebration-[The Canadian Press]-YAHOONEWS-April 18, 2017
OTTAWA — Prince Charles and his wife Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, will visit Canada this summer to participate in the celebrations marking the country's 150th birthday.Gov. Gen. David Johnston says they have accepted the government's invitation to undertake a tour, their fourth visit as a couple.The royal duo will be in Canada from June 29 to July 1, travelling in Ontario, Nunavut and the Ottawa area, where massive celebrations are planned for Canada Day."We are pleased they are joining in the sesquicentennial festivities, and look forward to Canadians having the opportunity to showcase the very best that our country has to offer," Johnston said in a statement.Details of the visit will be released later.It will be the Prince's 18th visit to Canada. His first official visit was in the summer of 1970.He and the duchess were last in Canada in May 2014, when they visited Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and Manitoba.The Canadian Press.
Respiratory problems affect 1 in 5 firefighters after Fort McMurray wildfire-[CBC]-YAHOONEWS-April 18, 2017
Nearly a year after a wildfire devastated Fort McMurray, many firefighters who worked to save the city are facing lingering health problems, according to preliminary findings of new research.The University of Alberta study found one in five of the 355 firefighters surveyed reported persistent respiratory issues including coughing, breathlessness, wheezing and chest tightness.And they're battling more than just physical ailments — mental-health issues affect 1 in 6."When we collected this information, it was early days and people may develop bigger issues as time goes forward," said Nicola Cherry, the epidemiologist leading the study.Cherry says these results are from the first phase of her research. She hopes all the firefighters involved in battling the wildfire last May — around 3,500 of them — will contact her to participate in the next phase of the study.The goal of the research is to determine which factors in fighting the fire lead to long-term health issues, and how this can be addressed for firefighters sent to major incidents in the future."We can't stop the fire happening, but we can make sure that we learn all the lessons that we possibly can so that people in the future won't be put at risk in the same way," Cherry said.Study participants would only have to fill out a survey and give consent for researchers to view their medical records. Results could offer clues as to how fire chiefs can lessen the impact of events like major wildfires on their crews, Cherry said.That could be anything from modifying the lengths of shifts to changing the type of respiratory protection that's used.'None of it surprises me'-Jamie Coutts isn't surprised by the initial findings.The Slave Lake, Alta., firefighter fought the blaze in 2011 that levelled a third of his town, and was also called to battle the Fort McMurray wildfire."Being a firefighter is a tough job. And then when you take that and ramp it up to what happens when a forest fire hits a community, none of it surprises me," he said, adding he is surprised rates of reported health issues among firefighters weren't higher.Coutts said the Slave Lake fire hit his department hard — half the firefighters quit within the subsequent two years, and many reported ongoing respiratory issues.As the Fort McMurray firefighters prepare for a new wildfire season, he said many of them are still coming to terms with what they faced just under a year ago.Coutts said he's glad to see a study focused on how major events like wildfires affect the health of firefighters and other first responders. He said he personally worries about the possibility of getting cancer."The long-term effects of being in and around 2,000 houses that burned down and 400 a few years before that, and all the stresses and things we've seen in between ...," Coutts said."We go to call after call, and you do the best to protect yourself, but at the end of the day, you're basically trading a piece of your life away to help people."
Infowars' host Jones disputes persona in custody dispute-[The Canadian Press]-YAHOONEWS-April 17, 2017
AUSTIN, Texas — The right-wing radio host and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones is a performance artist whose true personality is nothing like his on-air persona, according to a lawyer defending the "Infowars" broadcaster in a child custody battle.Attorney Randall Wilhite said at a pretrial hearing in Austin last week that evaluating Jones based on his on-air comments is like judging Jack Nicholson based on his role as the Joker in "Batman."But Kelly Jones described her ex-husband as "not a stable person," according to the Austin American-Statesman (http://atxne.ws/2pGyXLz ). She said he is threatening toward others, noting homophobic comments he's made about Democratic U.S. Rep. Adam Schiff and a challenge to fight actor Alec Baldwin. He broadcasts from home, she said, and that exposes their children to his incendiary behaviour .Jury selection in the case began Monday and Kelly Jones is seeking sole or joint custody of the children, ages 14, 12 and 9.Alex Jones began on public access television in Austin and his "Infowars" programming on radio, YouTube and other platforms draws millions of listeners-Infowars.com, for instance, had 7.6 million global unique visitors from March 16 to April 14, according to Quantcast, which measures web audiences. Quantcast ranked Infowars.com 387th among all U.S. websites, not far behind Texas.gov, MLB.com and PBS.org.Infowars.com has alleged that the Newtown, Connecticut, school shooting was a hoax and that the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks involved the federal government.The Alex Jones YouTube channel has more than 2 million subscribers and more than 1.2 billion video views.He drew praise from Donald Trump when Trump was a candidate for the White House, telling Jones in December 2015: "Your reputation is amazing. I will not let you down."But the judge overseeing the custody case, state District Judge Orlinda Naranjo, told lawyers last week that the focus of the trial must be on the Jones children."This case is not about 'Infowars' and I don't want it to be about 'Infowars,'" she said.Jones pays $43,000 a month to Kelly Jones, whom he divorced in 2015, the newspaper reported.The Associated Press.
STORMS HURRICANES-TORNADOES
LUKE 21:25-26
25 And there shall be signs in the sun,(HEATING UP-SOLAR ECLIPSES) and in the moon,(MAN ON MOON-LUNAR ECLIPSES) and in the stars;(ASTEROIDS ETC) and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity;(MASS CONFUSION) the sea and the waves roaring;(FIERCE WINDS)
26 Men’s hearts failing them for fear,(TORNADOES,HURRICANES,STORMS) and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth:(DESTRUCTION) for the powers of heaven shall be shaken.(FROM QUAKES,NUKES ETC)
Rising ice, flood waters force Manitobans from homes: Canadian Red Cross-[The Canadian Press]-YAHOONEWS-April 17, 2017
THE PAS, Man. — Rising ice and flood waters have forced hundreds of people from their homes in Manitoba.Jason Small of the Canadian Red Cross says 107 people from the Opaskwayak Cree Nation are being temporarily housed in hotels in The Pas about 500 kilometres northwest of Winnipeg.He says another 325 people were evacuated from their homes earlier this month from five other First Nations.Manitoba forecasters issued a flood warning on the weekend for some areas affected by ice jams on the Carrot and Saskatchewan rivers.The province says water levels were going down in some rivers until storms dumped about 25 millimetres of precipitation on the weekend.Small says the evacuees are being provided with lodging, food and other living expenses."We are doing this on behalf of the federal government and supported by them," Small said Monday.The other First Nations affected include the Peguis near Winnipeg, the Sioux Valley and Canupawapka Dakota near Brandon, the Waywayseecappo near Russell and the Long Plain near Portage la Prairie.Manitoba says it issues warnings when rivers or lakes are expected to exceed flood levels within the next 24 hours.There was no immediate word on when people might be allowed to return to their homes.The Canadian Press.
The loudest thing I've ever heard': Lightning shakes Manitoba home-[CBC]-YAHOONEWS-April 17, 2017
A couple living in rural Manitoba got the shock of their life on Good Friday after lightning struck their home.Brucette Waterston and her husband are still recovering from the shock and cleaning up the mess."It was just the loudest thing I've ever heard," said Waterston, who explained how the lightning struck a satellite tower on her home, which was left partly charred after the strike."I thought maybe an airplane had crashed in the top of the house or something."Waterston said during the strike she and her husband's bedroom lit up and that's when she noticed a funny smell.The smell was smoke and it led her to find her spare bedroom charred with all of the couple's electronics ruined from the strike. They called 911.-'Big hole on the roof'-"They told us to get out and we couldn't get out because we couldn't open the garage door.""I was hyperventilating trying to phone my daughter and she didn't know what was going on, so her husband Mark was over here quite fast."Waterston and her husband eventually got out of the house only to discover more damage."There's a big hole in the roof," she said.Waterston said Christmas lights that normally line her house were spread across her lawn."The electrician that was there now he said they probably all lit up at the same time even though they weren't plugged in he said they probably all lit up at the same time because of the aluminum eavestroughs."Waterston said she feels fortunate the damage wasn't worse and she and her husband were not hurt.She said they're now in the process of getting quotes to repair the damage.
FAMINE
EZEKIEL 5:16
16 When I shall send upon them the evil arrows of famine, which shall be for their destruction, and which I will send to destroy you: and I will increase the famine upon you, and will break your staff of bread:
REVELATION 6:5-6
5 And when he had opened the third seal, I heard the third beast say, Come and see. And I beheld, and lo a black horse; and he that sat on him had a pair of balances in his hand.
6 And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts say, A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny; and see thou hurt not the oil and the wine.(A DAYS WAGES FOR A LOAF OF BREAD)
MATTHEW 24:7-8
7 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.
8 All these are the beginning of sorrows.
As global famine aid comes up short, Somalis abroad step up-[Christian Science Monitor]-Ryan Lenora Brown-YAHOONEWS-April 18, 2017
Long before major international pleas for anti-drought funding in Somalia began, or images of the gaunt and hungry started to circulate in the world’s newspapers, Amir Sheikh knew exactly what was happening. For months, the news had been coming to him by Facebook and WhatsApp, by email and over scratchy phone lines from Mogadishu: the country was parched, people were dying. And if money didn’t arrive – lots of it, and soon – things were going to get worse very quickly.So Mr. Sheikh, who heads up the Somali Community Board of South Africa, did what he always does when he receives news like this from home. He sounded the alarm.He sent volunteers to talk to business owners in “Little Mogadishu,” a street in Johannesburg’s Mayfair neighborhood crowded with Somali coffee shops and internet cafes, and gathered money collected by small groups of concerned Somali women. He began asking restaurants about hosting fundraisers and reached out to other migrant communities in the city for help.“It is not hard for us to reach people in Somalia because it is where we come from,” he says. “We are locals, we are not afraid.”In February, the United Nations declared a famine in parts of South Sudan, and warned that three more nearby countries in the midst of their own severe droughts – Somalia, Nigeria, and Yemen – were precariously close. To stop them from tipping over into catastrophe, the agency’s humanitarian chief said, it needed to raise $4.4 billion by July. Meanwhile, the US, which supports almost one-fourth of the UN's funding, is reportedly seeking deep program cuts.“There are people [in need] who we are not assisting because of funding in every country we work in,” says Challiss McDonough, the senior regional communications officer for the United Nations World Food Programme in East Africa. In Somalia alone, she estimates, the agency needs $209 million more than it currently has in its coffers in order to reach the 6.2 million people at risk of famine.But in a world worn down by what UN humanitarian chief Stephen O’Brien recently called “the largest humanitarian crisis” since the second World War, there is one group that has never stopped giving – Somalia’s diaspora. A country of 10.8 million people, cut apart by nearly three decades of civil war, Somalia has one of the world’s most scattered populations: at least 2 million people born in the country now living beyond its borders, to say nothing of their children and grandchildren. But beyond its size, the vast constellation of Somali communities spread from Minneapolis to London to Johannesburg stands out for another characteristic: generosity.Every year, Somalis abroad send about $1.4 billion home – or a quarter of the country’s GDP – making them Somalia’s largest provider of aid. Somali-Americans send an average of $3,800 per year, for example, while Somalis in Germany send more than $4,000 and those in Saudi Arabia send about $1,500.And that money travels through highly intimate channels, almost always moving directly from donor to recipient with few or no people in between.“People know exactly what happens to the money they send because they can just call up their relatives in the village and ask what’s happening and where it’s gone,” says Ayan Ashur, the ambassador to Britain for Somaliland, a self-governing breakaway state that is recognized internationally as an autonomous region in Somalia’s north. “It’s a more accountable way to donate because it’s so personal.”That also means that in times of crisis like the current drought, Somalis are among the country’s most efficient and effective sources of relief, able to identify need, move money, and analyze impact faster than almost anyone else.During Somalia's 2011 famine, for instance, personal social networks – including diaspora connections and remittances – became a crucial factor in how well people and communities coped with the disaster, as international aid groups struggled to respond, according to a report from Tufts University's Feinstein International Center. The better connected you were to people who weren’t experiencing the same crisis, in short, the more likely you were to survive it.But that also meant that the diaspora, like other aid groups, was at times unable to reach those who need help the most – the marginalized and poorly connected, as well those living in areas controlled by the Islamist militant group Al Shabaab. More than 250,000 Somalis died during the 2011 famine, the worst of the 21st century; half of them were children. And Somalis' ability to send money home has become increasingly uneven over the past few years, with several banks across the US, Europe, and Australia refusing to make the transfers into the country for fears of being penalized for inadvertently supporting terrorism or money laundering.Still, for many in the region, waiting for other forms of aid is hardly an option. The United Nations has blamed slow international response, in part, for the 2011 tragedy, and is anxious not to see history repeat itself. Today, 20 million people are living in drought-hit areas of Somalia, Yemen, South Sudan, and Nigeria, according to the UN, which warned last month that it had raised just one-tenth of the funds required to prevent famine.“Internationally, it took so long and there is still so little” in the way of aid in Somaliland, Ms. Ashur says. “The diaspora has been reacting since November, where we only saw the international community begin to come in around March. I think it’s fair to say this situation would be so much worse if this diaspora had not been active.”For Brooklyn-based fashion designers Idyl and Ayaan Mohallim and a group of their Somali-American friends, seeing the news from home was like hearing the echoes of history.“This cycle of famines and droughts has been going on for our entire lives,” Idyl Mohallim says. “We already know too well what the consequences are if help doesn’t get to Somalia sooner rather than later.”So in early March, she and her friends cobbled together a short video explaining the need for aid in the country, and threw it onto a hastily-assembled GoFundMe fundraising page. They circulated it among friends and family, and by early April, they had raised more than $25,000.Part of the reason for the fundraiser’s brisk success, Ms. Mohallim speculates, was the fact that the organizers could vouch personally for the charities they had decided to donate their funds to – groups they had worked and traveled with in the past, and whose work they knew well.“I think people want to be involved but just have no idea how, or feel there’s no way they can change a crisis like that,” she says. “We are giving people both a way to take part and that accountability that the money is going where it needs to be.”But like Sheikh in Johannesburg and Ashur in London, the organizers don’t feel the work they’ve done is anything newsworthy.For Somalis, after all, this kind of charity is the norm. In their community, they say, not giving what you can, whenever you can, would be the glaring exception.“Culturally, this is all very ordinary to us,” Mohallim says.
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)
Iraq opens new Tigris bridge escape route for people fleeing Mosul-[Reuters]-By Ulf Laessing-YAHOONEWS-April 18, 2017
MOSUL (Reuters) - Iraqi's army has built a new pontoon bridge over the Tigris river south of Mosul, after flooding had blocked all crossing points, opening an escape route for families fleeing fighting between government forces and Islamic State.On Friday, the army dismantled makeshift bridges linking the two parts of Mosul due to heavy rain, forcing residents leaving Iraq's second-largest city to use small boats.The city's permanent bridges have been largely destroyed during a six-month military campaign to seize back Mosul from the Sunni Muslim Islamists, which overran it in 2014.Long queues formed at the new bridge on Tuesday with families crossing in public buses, trucks and taxis.Aid shipments also resumed to the Hammam al-Alil camp, southwest of Mosul, the main arrival point for people fleeing the fighting.Deliveries from Erbil, located some 80 km (50 miles) east in peaceful Iraqi Kurdistan, where aid agencies are based, had stopped due to the flooding."Everything is back to normal," said a spokeswoman for the U.N. refugee agency UNHCR.Some 20,000 people have escaped from Mosul in the past four days, fewer than before due to the lack of transport, the UNHCR said in a report. Almost 330,000 people have fled Mosul since Iraq started an operation to expel Islamic State in October.They were some of the around 400,000 people still in western Mosul where military forces are trying to dislodge the militants from the Old City.Fighting continued in the Old City where heavy smoke could be seen from the area of the Grand al-Nuri Mosque, from where Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi declared a "caliphate" spanning parts of Iraq and Syria.Aircraft, helicopter and artillery opened fire, while gunfire could also be heard at several positions of Iraq's federal police near the Old City."They (Islamic State militants) carry out attacks on our defensive lines, but each time we repel them and they run away, leaving bodies of their dead fighters behind," Lieutenant Colonel Hussein Lazim Zghayer said of the force's 9th division."Minutes ago, they launched an attack and we responded by shelling them with mortar rounds, killing two of them and their bodies were left in front of our defensive lines," he said.Government forces, including army, police and elite counter terrorism units have taken back most of Mosul, including the half that lies east of the Tigris river.The militants are now surrounded in northwestern Mosul, using booby traps, sniper and mortar fire against the assailants.(Editing by Alison Williams)
Turkey’s potential shift on mosque and state-[Christian Science Monitor]-The Monitor's Editorial Board-YAHOONEWS-April 18, 2017
For nearly a century, Turkey’s political history has been one of largely secular rule over a mostly Muslim people. Its model of balancing divine faith and earthly governance, however, may soon be sharply reshaped. In an April 16 referendum, Turkish voters narrowly approved a plan to grant semi-authoritarian powers to a presidency now controlled by a man who founded the governing Islamist party.The vote itself remains contested because of a crackdown on dissent since last July by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Yet the plebiscite’s near-even split did make clear that Turks have now joined the rest of the Muslim world in the struggle to redefine the proper role of religion in the public sphere.From Tunisia to Indonesia, the rise of radical Islam has forced Muslims to debate the overlap of mosque and state. In Turkey, President Erdogan has promised to “raise pious generations,” a goal he could soon pursue by dictate. The approved changes to the Constitution are expected to keep him in office until 2029 and will give him strong powers over the legislature and judiciary. Yet about half of Turk voters indicated they prefer the secular system set up by the nation’s founder, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, after the fall of the Ottoman Empire during World War I. His reforms undercut the notion of religion as a source of authority for the state in a diverse society.At the same time, the Ataturk model also repressed many outward expressions of faith, such as women wearing head coverings. The fact that Turkey may now be swinging the pendulum toward a new accommodation of religion might be welcomed – except for the fact that its democracy will soon concentrate many powers in the hands of one person. Democracy itself, in other words, may be at stake, perhaps leading Turkey toward the Iran model that blends religious and secular authority.If anything, religious faith calls for humility in ruling over others, not coercion, and a wide respect for the dignity of the individual in choosing faith. At the same time, secular rulers must recognize that that the moral precepts of governance, such as rights and liberties, have their origins in religion.Turkey could easily be the world’s most important Muslim country. Both its economy and its military are the largest in the Middle East. And it has long served as a bridge between East and West, serving as a member of NATO while regarding itself as the leader of the Muslim world.It has also struggled over its national identity, not only in matters of faith but in dealing with ethnic minorities and in its leanings toward being European.A country that straddles the Bosphorus can also learn to straddle the sometimes difficult divide between Islam and modern governance. Ataturk may have gone too far in secular governance, but now Erdogan could also go too far the other way. As long as Turkish voters are in charge and Erdogan does not further erode the democratic process, they can keep searching for the right balance.
Opponents seek to annul Turkish vote as Erdogan's new powers become reality-[Reuters]-By Gulsen Solaker and Tuvan Gumrukcu-YAHOONEWS-April 18, 2017
ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkey's main opposition began a battle on Tuesday to annul a referendum handing President Tayyip Erdogan sweeping new powers, while the bar association and an international monitor said an illegal move by electoral authorities may have swung the vote.A defiant Erdogan, whose narrow victory exposed the nation's deep divisions, has said Sunday's vote ended all debate on the more powerful presidency he has long sought, and told European observers who criticised it: "talk to the hand".Prime Minister Binali Yildirim, whose job will cease to exist once the constitutional changes take full effect, said Erdogan would be invited to rejoin the ruling AK Party as soon as official results are announced, a sign the government has no intention of waiting to see the outcome of opposition appeals.Under the outgoing constitution, the president had been required to remain impartial and renounce party political ties.Few in Turkey expect legal challenges to the referendum to lead to a recount, let alone a re-run. But if unresolved, they will leave deep questions over the legitimacy of a vote which split the electorate down the middle, and whose polarising campaign drew criticism and concern from European allies.Turkey's bar association said a last-minute decision by the YSK electoral board to allow unstamped ballots in the referendum was clearly against the law, prevented proper records being kept, and may have impacted the results."With this illegal decision, ballot box councils (officials at polling stations) were misled into believing that the use of unstamped ballots was appropriate," the Union of Turkish Bar Associations (TBB) said in a statement."Our regret is not over the outcome of the referendum, but because of the desire to overlook clear and harsh violations of the law that have the potential to impact the results," it said.The main opposition People's Republican Party (CHP), which has said it will take its challenge to the European Court of Human Rights if necessary, presented a formal appeal to annul the vote to the YSK.CHP deputy chairman Bulent Tezcan said the number of missing votes was "unprecedented", although the exact number of unstamped ballots was unknown.YSK Chairman Sadi Guven said on Monday the last-minute decision to allow unstamped ballots was not unprecedented as the government had previously permitted such a move.An Austrian member of the Council of Europe observer mission said up to 2.5 million votes could have been manipulated, almost double the margin of Erdogan's victory, and that the YSK decision on unstamped ballots appeared illegal."These complaints are to be taken very seriously and they are, in any case, of such an extent that they would turn around the outcome of the vote," Alev Korun told ORF radio.The European Commission, which unlike U.S. President Donald Trump has declined to congratulate Erdogan on Sunday's vote, called on Turkey to launch a transparent investigation into the alleged irregularities."There will be no call to Erdogan from the Commission, certainly not a congratulatory call," a Western official with knowledge of EU policy told Reuters. "Turkey is sliding towards a semi-authoritarian system under one-man rule".-"CONSIDERABLE COMPLAINTS"-Election authorities have said preliminary results showed 51.4 percent of voters had backed the biggest overhaul of Turkish politics since the founding of the modern republic, a far narrower margin than Erdogan had been seeking.Erdogan argues that concentration of power in the presidency is needed to prevent instability. Opponents accuse him of leading a drive toward one-man rule in Turkey, a NATO member that borders Iran, Iraq and Syria and whose stability is of vital importance to the United States and the European Union.Speaking in parliament on Tuesday, Yildirim said "rumours" of irregularities were a vain effort to cast doubt on the result."The people's will has been reflected at the ballot box, and the debate is over," he said. "Everyone should respect the outcome, especially the main opposition".Omer Celik, minister for European affairs, said criticism of the referendum was politically motivated, defending what he said were Turkey's strong legal framework and transparent election process.The YSK said on its website on Sunday, as votes were still being cast, that it had received "considerable complaints" that voters had been given slips and envelopes without official stamps and that - after an appeal from a ruling AK Party official - it would accept unstamped documents as long as they were not proven to be fraudulent.The bar association, whose head Metin Feyzioglu is seen as a potential future leader of the opposition CHP, said it had also received phone calls from many provinces about unstamped ballots on Sunday and that its lawyers had advised that records of this should be closely kept once ballot boxes were opened.But it said that had failed to happen, and that evidence of irregularities had therefore not been properly archived.On its website, the YSK gave four examples of cases in previous decades where unstamped ballots had been accepted at individual ballot boxes. But those cases only affected several hundred votes and the decision was taken days after the vote and only once the possibility of fraud had been ruled out.The YSK has also decided to annul elections in the past because of unstamped ballots. It cancelled the results of local elections in two districts in southeastern Turkey in April 2014 and re-held them two months later.And in Sunday's referendum, the YSK's overseas election branch had already rejected an appeal by a ruling AK Party official to have unstamped envelopes counted as valid.YSK officials could not be reached for comment.(Additional reporting by Ece Toksabay in Ankara, Daren Butler in Istanbul, Shadia Nasralla in Vienna, Robine Emmott and Francesco Guarascio in Brussels; Writing by Nick Tattersall; Editing by Anna Willard)
Russia metro bombing suspect says he was unwitting accomplice-[Reuters]-By Polina Nikolskaya and Hulkar Isamova-YAHOONEWS-April 18, 2017
MOSCOW/JALAL-ABAD, Kyrgyzstan (Reuters) - The man Russian investigators say orchestrated a suicide bombing on the St Petersburg metro told a court on Tuesday he was an unwitting accomplice in the attack, in which 14 people were killed and scores injured.Russian investigators said that before the April 3 attack, the suspected suicide bomber, Akbarzhon Jalilov, had spoken by telephone with Abror Azimov, who the investigators said was helping mastermind the attack from a Moscow suburb.At a preliminary court hearing in Moscow, the suspect, Azimov, said he had participated in the preparation of the attack but only indirectly."I did not realize that I was helping with this act," he said, referring to the April 3 blast. "I was being given instructions." Dressed in a black jacket and checked shirt, he spoke from a metal cage in the courtroom.Earlier in the court hearing, a state investigator told the court that Azimov had confessed to having taking part in preparations for the attack, but the suspect said he had not confessed to that.Since the attack, Russian authorities have detained nine people suspected of involvement. All are originally from Central Asia, a region of five mainly Muslim states that border Afghanistan, Iran and China.Abror Azimov is originally from the city of Jalal-Abad, in the Central Asian state of Kyrgyzstan. His wife said on Tuesday that Azimov and his brother, Akrom, had been working in a sushi restaurant in the Moscow region. He had been due to return home to Kyrgyzstan in April, but did not make the trip.-ISLAMIST TRAINING CAMP?-Her husband was "calm and well-adjusted", the wife, her head covered by a scarf, told Reuters in Jalal-Abad.She said his brother Akrom had returned home from Moscow because he was sick, adding that he had been taken from hospital for questioning by Kyrgyz state security.Russia's Ren TV broadcaster, citing law enforcement agencies, reported that Azimov, along with the St Petersburg suicide bomber, had attended a radical Islamist training camp. It did not say where the camp was located.Azimov's wife and another brother, Bilol, told Reuters he had traveled to Turkey but was only in transit there on his way home after an abortive attempt to find work in South Korea. The family, though Muslims, rarely went to the mosque, Bilol said.No group has claimed responsibility for the attack, which happened on a day that Russian President Vladimir Putin was visiting St Petersburg, his native city.If it is proven that the bombing was carried out by radical Islamists, that could pose a test for Putin's policy of military intervention in Syria. The Islamic State group has threatened to take revenge for Russian air attacks on Syria by shedding blood on Russian soil.(Reporting by Polina Nikolskaya; Writing by Christian Lowe; Editing by Vladimir Soldatkin and Gareth Jones)
Sculpture resembling cross demolished in Saudi Arabia-[Associated Press]-AYA BATRAWY-YAHOONEWS-April 18, 2017
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — One of Saudi Arabia's most conservative provinces has demolished a towering concrete sculpture in response to complaints by residents that it resembled a Christian cross, prompting a local commentator on Tuesday to criticize the move as possible blowback for recent reforms.State-linked local news sites, including NewsQassim.com, reported that the municipal office for the landlocked, central province of Qassim took down the sculpture last Friday.Videos and photos posted on social media and local news sites showed the sculpture in ruins after demolition by bulldozers in Qassim's provincial capital of Buraydah, 220 miles (350 kilometers) northwest of the country's capital, Riyadh.The surprise move comes as the kingdom pivots toward greater embrace of the arts by holding for the first time in decades musical concerts in its major cities, including an orchestra performance from Japan last week.The entertainments drive — led by Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman — has also included monster truck shows, a hip-hop illuminated dance show, comedy nights and even a Saudi Comic-Con event that starred two Game of Thrones actors.Saudi Arabia also curtailed the powers of the religious police last year, angering some among the kingdom's ultraconservative Wahhabi religious establishment.Commentator Akal Al-Akal criticized the demolition in an op-ed in Tuesday's pan-Arab Al-Hayat newspaper, saying the sculpture had been there for 25 years and its destruction was an attempt to embarrass state institutions.He said those behind such acts are "playing on the emotions and feelings of the local public," adding that he believes the destruction of the sculpture may have been aimed at "inciting public opinion about life in Saudi Arabia as it embarks on a real opening for the arts.""We must respect the symbols of other religions, just as we seek similar treatment in other countries," he said, adding that Islam is superior to narrow interpretations by extremists groups like the Taliban in Afghanistan and the Islamic State group in Iraq, which have destroyed religious sites, shrines and temples.Municipal officials in Qassim could not be immediately reached for comment.Many Arab Christians communities and minority Muslim sects across the region are struggling in the face of war, religious violence and discrimination.Mosques are the only legally permissible places of worship in Saudi Arabia, though Christian residents have conducted worship services discreetly without interference.An ancient community of Christians once inhabited the southwestern region of Najran in the Arabian Peninsula, which in present-day Saudi Arabia runs along the Yemen border. The Prophet Muhammad's treaty with the Christians of Najran, and allowing them a space to pray safely in his mosque in Medina, are often cited by scholars of Islam and moderate clerics as an example of religious pluralism and tolerance.___Follow Aya Batrawy on Twitter at www.twitter.com/ayaelb.
13 Thou shalt not kill.(Murder)(THAT INCLUDES ABORTION)
MATTHEW 18:6
6 But whoso shall offend (HURT) one of these little ones (CHILDREN) which believe in me,(JESUS) it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea.(THATS THE DEATH PENALTY FOLKS)
EXODUS 21:12
12 He that smiteth (MURDER)a man,(OR BABY) so that he die, shall be surely put to death.(THATS THE DEATH PENALTY PEOPLE)
Suspect in Facebook video murder case kills self in Pennsylvania: police-[Reuters]-YAHOONEWS-April 18, 2017
(Reuters) - The man who police said posted a video of himself on Facebook killing an elderly man shot and killed himself after a "brief pursuit" by Pennsylvania State Police officers on Tuesday, police said.Steve Stephens was accused of shooting Robert Godwin Sr. on a Cleveland sidewalk on Sunday before fleeing in a car and uploading a video of the murder to Facebook, becoming the subject of a nationwide manhunt.(Reporting by Jonathan Allen; Editing by Dan Grebler)
NewsAlert: Man sought in Cleveland Facebook killing shot himself to death after chase-[The Canadian Press]-YAHOONEWS-April 18, 2017
CLEVELAND — Pennsylvania State Police say the suspect in the random killing of a Cleveland retiree posted on Facebook has shot and killed himself after a brief pursuit.State police say Steve Stephens was spotted Tuesday morning by state police in Erie County, in the state's northwest corner. Authorities say police tried to pull Stephens over and, after a brief pursuit, he shot and killed himself.Stephens was wanted on an aggravated murder charge in the shooting death of a 74-year-old retired man in Cleveland on Sunday.He posted video of that shooting on Facebook.Mark Gillispie, The Associated Press.
DANIEL 7:23-24
23 Thus he said, The fourth beast (EU,REVIVED ROME) shall be the fourth kingdom upon earth,(7TH WORLD EMPIRE) which shall be diverse from all kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, and shall tread it down, and break it in pieces.(TRADING BLOCKS-10 WORLD REGIONS/TRADE BLOCS)
24 And the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings(10 NATIONS-10 WORLD DIVISION WORLD GOVERNMENT) that shall arise: and another shall rise after them; and he shall be diverse from the first, and he shall subdue three kings.(EITHER THE EUROPEAN UNION DICTATOR BOOTS 3 COUNTRIES FROM THE EU OR THE DICTATOR TAKES OVER THE WORLD ECONOMY BY CONTROLLING 3 WORLD TRADE BLOCS)
REVELATION 17:9-13
9 And here is the mind which hath wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sitteth.(THE VATICAN IS BUILT ON 7 HILLS OR MOUNTAINS)
10 And there are seven kings: five are fallen,(1-ASSYRIA,2-EGYPT,3-BABYLON,4-MEDO-PERSIA,5-GREECE) and one is,(IN POWER IN JOHNS AND JESUS DAY-6-ROME) and the other is not yet come; and when he cometh, he must continue a short space.(7TH-REVIVED ROMAN EMPIRE OR THE EUROPEAN UNION TODAY AND THE SHORT SPACE IS-7 YEARS.THE EUROPEAN UNION WILL HAVE WORLD CONTROL FOR THE LAST 3 1/2 YEARS.BUT WILL HAVE ITS MIGHTY WORLD POWER FOR THE FULL 7 YEARS OF THE 7 YEAR TRIBULATION PERIOD.AND THE WORLD DICTATOR WILL BE THE BEAST FROM THE EU.AND THE VATICAN POPE WILL BE THE WHORE THAT RIDES THE EUROPEAN UNION TO POWER.AND THE 2 EUROPEAN UNION POWER FREAKS WILL CONTROL AND DECIEVE THE WHOLE EARTH INTO THEIR DESTRUCTION.IF YOU ARE NOT SAVED BY THE BLOOD OF JESUS.YOU WILL BE DECIEVED BY THESE TWO.THE WORLD POLITICIAN-THE EUROPEAN UNION DICTATOR.AND THE FALSE PROPHET THAT DEFECTS CHRISTIANITY-THE FALSE VATICAN POPE.
11 And the beast that was, and is not, even he is the eighth, and is of the seven, and goeth into perdition.
12 And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings one hour with the beast.
13 These have one mind, and shall give their power and strength unto the beast.
DANIEL 9:26-27
26 And after threescore and two weeks(62X7=434 YEARS+7X7=49 YEARS=TOTAL OF 69 WEEKS OR 483 YRS) shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary;(ROMAN LEADERS DESTROYED THE 2ND TEMPLE) and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined.(THERE HAS TO BE 70 WEEKS OR 490 YRS TO FUFILL THE VISION AND PROPHECY OF DAN 9:24).(THE NEXT VERSE IS THAT 7 YR WEEK OR (70TH FINAL WEEK).
27 And he ( THE ROMAN,EU PRESIDENT) shall confirm the covenant (PEACE TREATY) with many for one week:(1X7=7 YEARS) and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease,(3 1/2 yrs in TEMPLE ANIMAL SACRIFICES STOPPED) and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.
Column / Brexit Briefing-May's drive for one-party Brexit state By Benjamin Fox-APR 18,17-EUOBSERVER
London, Today, 17:47-Theresa May’s snap election call on Tuesday (18 April) took Westminster by surprise, but it makes a lot of sense.The official reason May gave for calling the poll is that Britain needs "certainty, stability and strong leadership" in its transition of leaving the EU, but is being opposed by "Remoaners" in Labour, Scotland, and the House of Lords.The real reason is that she is confident, understandably, that she can win big.Most surveys put the Conservatives 15-20 points ahead of a bitterly divided Labour Party, and the Conservatives will expect to secure a majority of over 100.The obvious accusation is that holding a snap election, having spent months insisting that there was no need for one, is cynical party politics.Still, if being self-interested and opportunistic were a crime, every politician would be in prison.The Fixed-term Parliaments Act, means that May cannot call an election directly, but getting the support of two-thirds of MPs for a motion to hold a poll will be a formality.The vote on 8 June will be the first general election in which EU relations will be a dominant issue. In fact, it will be a single-issue election for a single-issue government.A decisive election win would give May a personal mandate to negotiate a tough or hard Brexit. Despite their dominance, the Conservatives only have a majority of 12 - it would only take a handful of rebel MPs for government to lose key EU-related votes.A mandate and a big majority negates this threat and would kill off the prospect of Parliament rejecting the terms that May brings back from Brussels.This would also kill off the idea of a second referendum on the terms of Brexit, and close down the argument that the electorate had not given consent to withdraw from the single market.Whether voters will be happy with the economic effects of a hard Brexit and a return to World Trade Organisation terms with the EU will be a moot point. No one can say they were not warned.-Labour is trapped-Most opposition parties are happy to fight early elections. It is an earlier than expected chance to obtain power. For Labour, it is more likely a golden opportunity to lose another election.The best that its beleaguered supporters can hope for is that a defeat would rid them of Jeremy Corbyn’s widely-derided leadership. Labour is polling at around 25 percent, and heading for its worst result in over 80 years.A reluctant "Remainer", Corbyn will not want to talk about Europe. His reaction statement focused on the government’s economic record of "falling living standards and damaging cuts to our schools and NHS". These are worthy issues but they have not gained much traction with voters in the 20 months since he became party leader.In short, Labour is trapped. Most of its MPs and party activists supported the Remain campaign and are bitterly disappointed by the result. Most of the seats it holds are constituencies where there was a majority Leave vote. Since the referendum, Labour has wrestled with this dilemma without resolving it.By pitching herself so clearly as the prime minister for Brexit, May is also making a move to kill off the UK Independence Party (Ukip).Ukip’s only MP, Douglas Carswell, left the party last month, while one of their Welsh Assembly members, Mark Reckless, defected to the Conservatives. Faced by a Conservative leader who has stolen their clothes, it is hard to see how Ukip can survive.-The 48-percent party-But not everybody will lose. An early poll is a golden opportunity for the Liberal Democrats to recover some of the lost ground from their near wipe-out in 2015, when they slumped from 57 to eight seats.Their leader, Tim Farron, has positioned his team as the party of the "48 percent" - who voted to remain in the EU - and will expect to recover some of their lost supporters.If the election makes good sense for English party politics, it is hard to see that a June election will solve the looming constitutional crises in Scotland and Northern Ireland.The Scottish National Party will expect to hold most, if not all, of the 56 seats out of 59 that they took in 2015.Scotish leader Nicola Sturgeon’s vow to protect Scotland “from a Tory party which now sees the chance of grabbing control of government for many years to come and moving the UK further to the right” underscores the sense of separation between Tory England and Nationalist Scotland.There is "no turning back" from Brexit, May said on Tuesday. For the foreseeable future, she is probably correct. The odds are stacked in favour of 8 June entrenching her one-party Brexit state.
Prince Charles, Camilla to visit in time for Canada 150 celebration-[The Canadian Press]-YAHOONEWS-April 18, 2017
OTTAWA — Prince Charles and his wife Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, will visit Canada this summer to participate in the celebrations marking the country's 150th birthday.Gov. Gen. David Johnston says they have accepted the government's invitation to undertake a tour, their fourth visit as a couple.The royal duo will be in Canada from June 29 to July 1, travelling in Ontario, Nunavut and the Ottawa area, where massive celebrations are planned for Canada Day."We are pleased they are joining in the sesquicentennial festivities, and look forward to Canadians having the opportunity to showcase the very best that our country has to offer," Johnston said in a statement.Details of the visit will be released later.It will be the Prince's 18th visit to Canada. His first official visit was in the summer of 1970.He and the duchess were last in Canada in May 2014, when they visited Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and Manitoba.The Canadian Press.
Respiratory problems affect 1 in 5 firefighters after Fort McMurray wildfire-[CBC]-YAHOONEWS-April 18, 2017
Nearly a year after a wildfire devastated Fort McMurray, many firefighters who worked to save the city are facing lingering health problems, according to preliminary findings of new research.The University of Alberta study found one in five of the 355 firefighters surveyed reported persistent respiratory issues including coughing, breathlessness, wheezing and chest tightness.And they're battling more than just physical ailments — mental-health issues affect 1 in 6."When we collected this information, it was early days and people may develop bigger issues as time goes forward," said Nicola Cherry, the epidemiologist leading the study.Cherry says these results are from the first phase of her research. She hopes all the firefighters involved in battling the wildfire last May — around 3,500 of them — will contact her to participate in the next phase of the study.The goal of the research is to determine which factors in fighting the fire lead to long-term health issues, and how this can be addressed for firefighters sent to major incidents in the future."We can't stop the fire happening, but we can make sure that we learn all the lessons that we possibly can so that people in the future won't be put at risk in the same way," Cherry said.Study participants would only have to fill out a survey and give consent for researchers to view their medical records. Results could offer clues as to how fire chiefs can lessen the impact of events like major wildfires on their crews, Cherry said.That could be anything from modifying the lengths of shifts to changing the type of respiratory protection that's used.'None of it surprises me'-Jamie Coutts isn't surprised by the initial findings.The Slave Lake, Alta., firefighter fought the blaze in 2011 that levelled a third of his town, and was also called to battle the Fort McMurray wildfire."Being a firefighter is a tough job. And then when you take that and ramp it up to what happens when a forest fire hits a community, none of it surprises me," he said, adding he is surprised rates of reported health issues among firefighters weren't higher.Coutts said the Slave Lake fire hit his department hard — half the firefighters quit within the subsequent two years, and many reported ongoing respiratory issues.As the Fort McMurray firefighters prepare for a new wildfire season, he said many of them are still coming to terms with what they faced just under a year ago.Coutts said he's glad to see a study focused on how major events like wildfires affect the health of firefighters and other first responders. He said he personally worries about the possibility of getting cancer."The long-term effects of being in and around 2,000 houses that burned down and 400 a few years before that, and all the stresses and things we've seen in between ...," Coutts said."We go to call after call, and you do the best to protect yourself, but at the end of the day, you're basically trading a piece of your life away to help people."
Infowars' host Jones disputes persona in custody dispute-[The Canadian Press]-YAHOONEWS-April 17, 2017
AUSTIN, Texas — The right-wing radio host and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones is a performance artist whose true personality is nothing like his on-air persona, according to a lawyer defending the "Infowars" broadcaster in a child custody battle.Attorney Randall Wilhite said at a pretrial hearing in Austin last week that evaluating Jones based on his on-air comments is like judging Jack Nicholson based on his role as the Joker in "Batman."But Kelly Jones described her ex-husband as "not a stable person," according to the Austin American-Statesman (http://atxne.ws/2pGyXLz ). She said he is threatening toward others, noting homophobic comments he's made about Democratic U.S. Rep. Adam Schiff and a challenge to fight actor Alec Baldwin. He broadcasts from home, she said, and that exposes their children to his incendiary behaviour .Jury selection in the case began Monday and Kelly Jones is seeking sole or joint custody of the children, ages 14, 12 and 9.Alex Jones began on public access television in Austin and his "Infowars" programming on radio, YouTube and other platforms draws millions of listeners-Infowars.com, for instance, had 7.6 million global unique visitors from March 16 to April 14, according to Quantcast, which measures web audiences. Quantcast ranked Infowars.com 387th among all U.S. websites, not far behind Texas.gov, MLB.com and PBS.org.Infowars.com has alleged that the Newtown, Connecticut, school shooting was a hoax and that the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks involved the federal government.The Alex Jones YouTube channel has more than 2 million subscribers and more than 1.2 billion video views.He drew praise from Donald Trump when Trump was a candidate for the White House, telling Jones in December 2015: "Your reputation is amazing. I will not let you down."But the judge overseeing the custody case, state District Judge Orlinda Naranjo, told lawyers last week that the focus of the trial must be on the Jones children."This case is not about 'Infowars' and I don't want it to be about 'Infowars,'" she said.Jones pays $43,000 a month to Kelly Jones, whom he divorced in 2015, the newspaper reported.The Associated Press.
STORMS HURRICANES-TORNADOES
LUKE 21:25-26
25 And there shall be signs in the sun,(HEATING UP-SOLAR ECLIPSES) and in the moon,(MAN ON MOON-LUNAR ECLIPSES) and in the stars;(ASTEROIDS ETC) and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity;(MASS CONFUSION) the sea and the waves roaring;(FIERCE WINDS)
26 Men’s hearts failing them for fear,(TORNADOES,HURRICANES,STORMS) and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth:(DESTRUCTION) for the powers of heaven shall be shaken.(FROM QUAKES,NUKES ETC)
Rising ice, flood waters force Manitobans from homes: Canadian Red Cross-[The Canadian Press]-YAHOONEWS-April 17, 2017
THE PAS, Man. — Rising ice and flood waters have forced hundreds of people from their homes in Manitoba.Jason Small of the Canadian Red Cross says 107 people from the Opaskwayak Cree Nation are being temporarily housed in hotels in The Pas about 500 kilometres northwest of Winnipeg.He says another 325 people were evacuated from their homes earlier this month from five other First Nations.Manitoba forecasters issued a flood warning on the weekend for some areas affected by ice jams on the Carrot and Saskatchewan rivers.The province says water levels were going down in some rivers until storms dumped about 25 millimetres of precipitation on the weekend.Small says the evacuees are being provided with lodging, food and other living expenses."We are doing this on behalf of the federal government and supported by them," Small said Monday.The other First Nations affected include the Peguis near Winnipeg, the Sioux Valley and Canupawapka Dakota near Brandon, the Waywayseecappo near Russell and the Long Plain near Portage la Prairie.Manitoba says it issues warnings when rivers or lakes are expected to exceed flood levels within the next 24 hours.There was no immediate word on when people might be allowed to return to their homes.The Canadian Press.
The loudest thing I've ever heard': Lightning shakes Manitoba home-[CBC]-YAHOONEWS-April 17, 2017
A couple living in rural Manitoba got the shock of their life on Good Friday after lightning struck their home.Brucette Waterston and her husband are still recovering from the shock and cleaning up the mess."It was just the loudest thing I've ever heard," said Waterston, who explained how the lightning struck a satellite tower on her home, which was left partly charred after the strike."I thought maybe an airplane had crashed in the top of the house or something."Waterston said during the strike she and her husband's bedroom lit up and that's when she noticed a funny smell.The smell was smoke and it led her to find her spare bedroom charred with all of the couple's electronics ruined from the strike. They called 911.-'Big hole on the roof'-"They told us to get out and we couldn't get out because we couldn't open the garage door.""I was hyperventilating trying to phone my daughter and she didn't know what was going on, so her husband Mark was over here quite fast."Waterston and her husband eventually got out of the house only to discover more damage."There's a big hole in the roof," she said.Waterston said Christmas lights that normally line her house were spread across her lawn."The electrician that was there now he said they probably all lit up at the same time even though they weren't plugged in he said they probably all lit up at the same time because of the aluminum eavestroughs."Waterston said she feels fortunate the damage wasn't worse and she and her husband were not hurt.She said they're now in the process of getting quotes to repair the damage.
FAMINE
EZEKIEL 5:16
16 When I shall send upon them the evil arrows of famine, which shall be for their destruction, and which I will send to destroy you: and I will increase the famine upon you, and will break your staff of bread:
REVELATION 6:5-6
5 And when he had opened the third seal, I heard the third beast say, Come and see. And I beheld, and lo a black horse; and he that sat on him had a pair of balances in his hand.
6 And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts say, A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny; and see thou hurt not the oil and the wine.(A DAYS WAGES FOR A LOAF OF BREAD)
MATTHEW 24:7-8
7 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.
8 All these are the beginning of sorrows.
As global famine aid comes up short, Somalis abroad step up-[Christian Science Monitor]-Ryan Lenora Brown-YAHOONEWS-April 18, 2017
Long before major international pleas for anti-drought funding in Somalia began, or images of the gaunt and hungry started to circulate in the world’s newspapers, Amir Sheikh knew exactly what was happening. For months, the news had been coming to him by Facebook and WhatsApp, by email and over scratchy phone lines from Mogadishu: the country was parched, people were dying. And if money didn’t arrive – lots of it, and soon – things were going to get worse very quickly.So Mr. Sheikh, who heads up the Somali Community Board of South Africa, did what he always does when he receives news like this from home. He sounded the alarm.He sent volunteers to talk to business owners in “Little Mogadishu,” a street in Johannesburg’s Mayfair neighborhood crowded with Somali coffee shops and internet cafes, and gathered money collected by small groups of concerned Somali women. He began asking restaurants about hosting fundraisers and reached out to other migrant communities in the city for help.“It is not hard for us to reach people in Somalia because it is where we come from,” he says. “We are locals, we are not afraid.”In February, the United Nations declared a famine in parts of South Sudan, and warned that three more nearby countries in the midst of their own severe droughts – Somalia, Nigeria, and Yemen – were precariously close. To stop them from tipping over into catastrophe, the agency’s humanitarian chief said, it needed to raise $4.4 billion by July. Meanwhile, the US, which supports almost one-fourth of the UN's funding, is reportedly seeking deep program cuts.“There are people [in need] who we are not assisting because of funding in every country we work in,” says Challiss McDonough, the senior regional communications officer for the United Nations World Food Programme in East Africa. In Somalia alone, she estimates, the agency needs $209 million more than it currently has in its coffers in order to reach the 6.2 million people at risk of famine.But in a world worn down by what UN humanitarian chief Stephen O’Brien recently called “the largest humanitarian crisis” since the second World War, there is one group that has never stopped giving – Somalia’s diaspora. A country of 10.8 million people, cut apart by nearly three decades of civil war, Somalia has one of the world’s most scattered populations: at least 2 million people born in the country now living beyond its borders, to say nothing of their children and grandchildren. But beyond its size, the vast constellation of Somali communities spread from Minneapolis to London to Johannesburg stands out for another characteristic: generosity.Every year, Somalis abroad send about $1.4 billion home – or a quarter of the country’s GDP – making them Somalia’s largest provider of aid. Somali-Americans send an average of $3,800 per year, for example, while Somalis in Germany send more than $4,000 and those in Saudi Arabia send about $1,500.And that money travels through highly intimate channels, almost always moving directly from donor to recipient with few or no people in between.“People know exactly what happens to the money they send because they can just call up their relatives in the village and ask what’s happening and where it’s gone,” says Ayan Ashur, the ambassador to Britain for Somaliland, a self-governing breakaway state that is recognized internationally as an autonomous region in Somalia’s north. “It’s a more accountable way to donate because it’s so personal.”That also means that in times of crisis like the current drought, Somalis are among the country’s most efficient and effective sources of relief, able to identify need, move money, and analyze impact faster than almost anyone else.During Somalia's 2011 famine, for instance, personal social networks – including diaspora connections and remittances – became a crucial factor in how well people and communities coped with the disaster, as international aid groups struggled to respond, according to a report from Tufts University's Feinstein International Center. The better connected you were to people who weren’t experiencing the same crisis, in short, the more likely you were to survive it.But that also meant that the diaspora, like other aid groups, was at times unable to reach those who need help the most – the marginalized and poorly connected, as well those living in areas controlled by the Islamist militant group Al Shabaab. More than 250,000 Somalis died during the 2011 famine, the worst of the 21st century; half of them were children. And Somalis' ability to send money home has become increasingly uneven over the past few years, with several banks across the US, Europe, and Australia refusing to make the transfers into the country for fears of being penalized for inadvertently supporting terrorism or money laundering.Still, for many in the region, waiting for other forms of aid is hardly an option. The United Nations has blamed slow international response, in part, for the 2011 tragedy, and is anxious not to see history repeat itself. Today, 20 million people are living in drought-hit areas of Somalia, Yemen, South Sudan, and Nigeria, according to the UN, which warned last month that it had raised just one-tenth of the funds required to prevent famine.“Internationally, it took so long and there is still so little” in the way of aid in Somaliland, Ms. Ashur says. “The diaspora has been reacting since November, where we only saw the international community begin to come in around March. I think it’s fair to say this situation would be so much worse if this diaspora had not been active.”For Brooklyn-based fashion designers Idyl and Ayaan Mohallim and a group of their Somali-American friends, seeing the news from home was like hearing the echoes of history.“This cycle of famines and droughts has been going on for our entire lives,” Idyl Mohallim says. “We already know too well what the consequences are if help doesn’t get to Somalia sooner rather than later.”So in early March, she and her friends cobbled together a short video explaining the need for aid in the country, and threw it onto a hastily-assembled GoFundMe fundraising page. They circulated it among friends and family, and by early April, they had raised more than $25,000.Part of the reason for the fundraiser’s brisk success, Ms. Mohallim speculates, was the fact that the organizers could vouch personally for the charities they had decided to donate their funds to – groups they had worked and traveled with in the past, and whose work they knew well.“I think people want to be involved but just have no idea how, or feel there’s no way they can change a crisis like that,” she says. “We are giving people both a way to take part and that accountability that the money is going where it needs to be.”But like Sheikh in Johannesburg and Ashur in London, the organizers don’t feel the work they’ve done is anything newsworthy.For Somalis, after all, this kind of charity is the norm. In their community, they say, not giving what you can, whenever you can, would be the glaring exception.“Culturally, this is all very ordinary to us,” Mohallim says.
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)
Iraq opens new Tigris bridge escape route for people fleeing Mosul-[Reuters]-By Ulf Laessing-YAHOONEWS-April 18, 2017
MOSUL (Reuters) - Iraqi's army has built a new pontoon bridge over the Tigris river south of Mosul, after flooding had blocked all crossing points, opening an escape route for families fleeing fighting between government forces and Islamic State.On Friday, the army dismantled makeshift bridges linking the two parts of Mosul due to heavy rain, forcing residents leaving Iraq's second-largest city to use small boats.The city's permanent bridges have been largely destroyed during a six-month military campaign to seize back Mosul from the Sunni Muslim Islamists, which overran it in 2014.Long queues formed at the new bridge on Tuesday with families crossing in public buses, trucks and taxis.Aid shipments also resumed to the Hammam al-Alil camp, southwest of Mosul, the main arrival point for people fleeing the fighting.Deliveries from Erbil, located some 80 km (50 miles) east in peaceful Iraqi Kurdistan, where aid agencies are based, had stopped due to the flooding."Everything is back to normal," said a spokeswoman for the U.N. refugee agency UNHCR.Some 20,000 people have escaped from Mosul in the past four days, fewer than before due to the lack of transport, the UNHCR said in a report. Almost 330,000 people have fled Mosul since Iraq started an operation to expel Islamic State in October.They were some of the around 400,000 people still in western Mosul where military forces are trying to dislodge the militants from the Old City.Fighting continued in the Old City where heavy smoke could be seen from the area of the Grand al-Nuri Mosque, from where Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi declared a "caliphate" spanning parts of Iraq and Syria.Aircraft, helicopter and artillery opened fire, while gunfire could also be heard at several positions of Iraq's federal police near the Old City."They (Islamic State militants) carry out attacks on our defensive lines, but each time we repel them and they run away, leaving bodies of their dead fighters behind," Lieutenant Colonel Hussein Lazim Zghayer said of the force's 9th division."Minutes ago, they launched an attack and we responded by shelling them with mortar rounds, killing two of them and their bodies were left in front of our defensive lines," he said.Government forces, including army, police and elite counter terrorism units have taken back most of Mosul, including the half that lies east of the Tigris river.The militants are now surrounded in northwestern Mosul, using booby traps, sniper and mortar fire against the assailants.(Editing by Alison Williams)
Turkey’s potential shift on mosque and state-[Christian Science Monitor]-The Monitor's Editorial Board-YAHOONEWS-April 18, 2017
For nearly a century, Turkey’s political history has been one of largely secular rule over a mostly Muslim people. Its model of balancing divine faith and earthly governance, however, may soon be sharply reshaped. In an April 16 referendum, Turkish voters narrowly approved a plan to grant semi-authoritarian powers to a presidency now controlled by a man who founded the governing Islamist party.The vote itself remains contested because of a crackdown on dissent since last July by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Yet the plebiscite’s near-even split did make clear that Turks have now joined the rest of the Muslim world in the struggle to redefine the proper role of religion in the public sphere.From Tunisia to Indonesia, the rise of radical Islam has forced Muslims to debate the overlap of mosque and state. In Turkey, President Erdogan has promised to “raise pious generations,” a goal he could soon pursue by dictate. The approved changes to the Constitution are expected to keep him in office until 2029 and will give him strong powers over the legislature and judiciary. Yet about half of Turk voters indicated they prefer the secular system set up by the nation’s founder, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, after the fall of the Ottoman Empire during World War I. His reforms undercut the notion of religion as a source of authority for the state in a diverse society.At the same time, the Ataturk model also repressed many outward expressions of faith, such as women wearing head coverings. The fact that Turkey may now be swinging the pendulum toward a new accommodation of religion might be welcomed – except for the fact that its democracy will soon concentrate many powers in the hands of one person. Democracy itself, in other words, may be at stake, perhaps leading Turkey toward the Iran model that blends religious and secular authority.If anything, religious faith calls for humility in ruling over others, not coercion, and a wide respect for the dignity of the individual in choosing faith. At the same time, secular rulers must recognize that that the moral precepts of governance, such as rights and liberties, have their origins in religion.Turkey could easily be the world’s most important Muslim country. Both its economy and its military are the largest in the Middle East. And it has long served as a bridge between East and West, serving as a member of NATO while regarding itself as the leader of the Muslim world.It has also struggled over its national identity, not only in matters of faith but in dealing with ethnic minorities and in its leanings toward being European.A country that straddles the Bosphorus can also learn to straddle the sometimes difficult divide between Islam and modern governance. Ataturk may have gone too far in secular governance, but now Erdogan could also go too far the other way. As long as Turkish voters are in charge and Erdogan does not further erode the democratic process, they can keep searching for the right balance.
Opponents seek to annul Turkish vote as Erdogan's new powers become reality-[Reuters]-By Gulsen Solaker and Tuvan Gumrukcu-YAHOONEWS-April 18, 2017
ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkey's main opposition began a battle on Tuesday to annul a referendum handing President Tayyip Erdogan sweeping new powers, while the bar association and an international monitor said an illegal move by electoral authorities may have swung the vote.A defiant Erdogan, whose narrow victory exposed the nation's deep divisions, has said Sunday's vote ended all debate on the more powerful presidency he has long sought, and told European observers who criticised it: "talk to the hand".Prime Minister Binali Yildirim, whose job will cease to exist once the constitutional changes take full effect, said Erdogan would be invited to rejoin the ruling AK Party as soon as official results are announced, a sign the government has no intention of waiting to see the outcome of opposition appeals.Under the outgoing constitution, the president had been required to remain impartial and renounce party political ties.Few in Turkey expect legal challenges to the referendum to lead to a recount, let alone a re-run. But if unresolved, they will leave deep questions over the legitimacy of a vote which split the electorate down the middle, and whose polarising campaign drew criticism and concern from European allies.Turkey's bar association said a last-minute decision by the YSK electoral board to allow unstamped ballots in the referendum was clearly against the law, prevented proper records being kept, and may have impacted the results."With this illegal decision, ballot box councils (officials at polling stations) were misled into believing that the use of unstamped ballots was appropriate," the Union of Turkish Bar Associations (TBB) said in a statement."Our regret is not over the outcome of the referendum, but because of the desire to overlook clear and harsh violations of the law that have the potential to impact the results," it said.The main opposition People's Republican Party (CHP), which has said it will take its challenge to the European Court of Human Rights if necessary, presented a formal appeal to annul the vote to the YSK.CHP deputy chairman Bulent Tezcan said the number of missing votes was "unprecedented", although the exact number of unstamped ballots was unknown.YSK Chairman Sadi Guven said on Monday the last-minute decision to allow unstamped ballots was not unprecedented as the government had previously permitted such a move.An Austrian member of the Council of Europe observer mission said up to 2.5 million votes could have been manipulated, almost double the margin of Erdogan's victory, and that the YSK decision on unstamped ballots appeared illegal."These complaints are to be taken very seriously and they are, in any case, of such an extent that they would turn around the outcome of the vote," Alev Korun told ORF radio.The European Commission, which unlike U.S. President Donald Trump has declined to congratulate Erdogan on Sunday's vote, called on Turkey to launch a transparent investigation into the alleged irregularities."There will be no call to Erdogan from the Commission, certainly not a congratulatory call," a Western official with knowledge of EU policy told Reuters. "Turkey is sliding towards a semi-authoritarian system under one-man rule".-"CONSIDERABLE COMPLAINTS"-Election authorities have said preliminary results showed 51.4 percent of voters had backed the biggest overhaul of Turkish politics since the founding of the modern republic, a far narrower margin than Erdogan had been seeking.Erdogan argues that concentration of power in the presidency is needed to prevent instability. Opponents accuse him of leading a drive toward one-man rule in Turkey, a NATO member that borders Iran, Iraq and Syria and whose stability is of vital importance to the United States and the European Union.Speaking in parliament on Tuesday, Yildirim said "rumours" of irregularities were a vain effort to cast doubt on the result."The people's will has been reflected at the ballot box, and the debate is over," he said. "Everyone should respect the outcome, especially the main opposition".Omer Celik, minister for European affairs, said criticism of the referendum was politically motivated, defending what he said were Turkey's strong legal framework and transparent election process.The YSK said on its website on Sunday, as votes were still being cast, that it had received "considerable complaints" that voters had been given slips and envelopes without official stamps and that - after an appeal from a ruling AK Party official - it would accept unstamped documents as long as they were not proven to be fraudulent.The bar association, whose head Metin Feyzioglu is seen as a potential future leader of the opposition CHP, said it had also received phone calls from many provinces about unstamped ballots on Sunday and that its lawyers had advised that records of this should be closely kept once ballot boxes were opened.But it said that had failed to happen, and that evidence of irregularities had therefore not been properly archived.On its website, the YSK gave four examples of cases in previous decades where unstamped ballots had been accepted at individual ballot boxes. But those cases only affected several hundred votes and the decision was taken days after the vote and only once the possibility of fraud had been ruled out.The YSK has also decided to annul elections in the past because of unstamped ballots. It cancelled the results of local elections in two districts in southeastern Turkey in April 2014 and re-held them two months later.And in Sunday's referendum, the YSK's overseas election branch had already rejected an appeal by a ruling AK Party official to have unstamped envelopes counted as valid.YSK officials could not be reached for comment.(Additional reporting by Ece Toksabay in Ankara, Daren Butler in Istanbul, Shadia Nasralla in Vienna, Robine Emmott and Francesco Guarascio in Brussels; Writing by Nick Tattersall; Editing by Anna Willard)
Russia metro bombing suspect says he was unwitting accomplice-[Reuters]-By Polina Nikolskaya and Hulkar Isamova-YAHOONEWS-April 18, 2017
MOSCOW/JALAL-ABAD, Kyrgyzstan (Reuters) - The man Russian investigators say orchestrated a suicide bombing on the St Petersburg metro told a court on Tuesday he was an unwitting accomplice in the attack, in which 14 people were killed and scores injured.Russian investigators said that before the April 3 attack, the suspected suicide bomber, Akbarzhon Jalilov, had spoken by telephone with Abror Azimov, who the investigators said was helping mastermind the attack from a Moscow suburb.At a preliminary court hearing in Moscow, the suspect, Azimov, said he had participated in the preparation of the attack but only indirectly."I did not realize that I was helping with this act," he said, referring to the April 3 blast. "I was being given instructions." Dressed in a black jacket and checked shirt, he spoke from a metal cage in the courtroom.Earlier in the court hearing, a state investigator told the court that Azimov had confessed to having taking part in preparations for the attack, but the suspect said he had not confessed to that.Since the attack, Russian authorities have detained nine people suspected of involvement. All are originally from Central Asia, a region of five mainly Muslim states that border Afghanistan, Iran and China.Abror Azimov is originally from the city of Jalal-Abad, in the Central Asian state of Kyrgyzstan. His wife said on Tuesday that Azimov and his brother, Akrom, had been working in a sushi restaurant in the Moscow region. He had been due to return home to Kyrgyzstan in April, but did not make the trip.-ISLAMIST TRAINING CAMP?-Her husband was "calm and well-adjusted", the wife, her head covered by a scarf, told Reuters in Jalal-Abad.She said his brother Akrom had returned home from Moscow because he was sick, adding that he had been taken from hospital for questioning by Kyrgyz state security.Russia's Ren TV broadcaster, citing law enforcement agencies, reported that Azimov, along with the St Petersburg suicide bomber, had attended a radical Islamist training camp. It did not say where the camp was located.Azimov's wife and another brother, Bilol, told Reuters he had traveled to Turkey but was only in transit there on his way home after an abortive attempt to find work in South Korea. The family, though Muslims, rarely went to the mosque, Bilol said.No group has claimed responsibility for the attack, which happened on a day that Russian President Vladimir Putin was visiting St Petersburg, his native city.If it is proven that the bombing was carried out by radical Islamists, that could pose a test for Putin's policy of military intervention in Syria. The Islamic State group has threatened to take revenge for Russian air attacks on Syria by shedding blood on Russian soil.(Reporting by Polina Nikolskaya; Writing by Christian Lowe; Editing by Vladimir Soldatkin and Gareth Jones)
Sculpture resembling cross demolished in Saudi Arabia-[Associated Press]-AYA BATRAWY-YAHOONEWS-April 18, 2017
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — One of Saudi Arabia's most conservative provinces has demolished a towering concrete sculpture in response to complaints by residents that it resembled a Christian cross, prompting a local commentator on Tuesday to criticize the move as possible blowback for recent reforms.State-linked local news sites, including NewsQassim.com, reported that the municipal office for the landlocked, central province of Qassim took down the sculpture last Friday.Videos and photos posted on social media and local news sites showed the sculpture in ruins after demolition by bulldozers in Qassim's provincial capital of Buraydah, 220 miles (350 kilometers) northwest of the country's capital, Riyadh.The surprise move comes as the kingdom pivots toward greater embrace of the arts by holding for the first time in decades musical concerts in its major cities, including an orchestra performance from Japan last week.The entertainments drive — led by Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman — has also included monster truck shows, a hip-hop illuminated dance show, comedy nights and even a Saudi Comic-Con event that starred two Game of Thrones actors.Saudi Arabia also curtailed the powers of the religious police last year, angering some among the kingdom's ultraconservative Wahhabi religious establishment.Commentator Akal Al-Akal criticized the demolition in an op-ed in Tuesday's pan-Arab Al-Hayat newspaper, saying the sculpture had been there for 25 years and its destruction was an attempt to embarrass state institutions.He said those behind such acts are "playing on the emotions and feelings of the local public," adding that he believes the destruction of the sculpture may have been aimed at "inciting public opinion about life in Saudi Arabia as it embarks on a real opening for the arts.""We must respect the symbols of other religions, just as we seek similar treatment in other countries," he said, adding that Islam is superior to narrow interpretations by extremists groups like the Taliban in Afghanistan and the Islamic State group in Iraq, which have destroyed religious sites, shrines and temples.Municipal officials in Qassim could not be immediately reached for comment.Many Arab Christians communities and minority Muslim sects across the region are struggling in the face of war, religious violence and discrimination.Mosques are the only legally permissible places of worship in Saudi Arabia, though Christian residents have conducted worship services discreetly without interference.An ancient community of Christians once inhabited the southwestern region of Najran in the Arabian Peninsula, which in present-day Saudi Arabia runs along the Yemen border. The Prophet Muhammad's treaty with the Christians of Najran, and allowing them a space to pray safely in his mosque in Medina, are often cited by scholars of Islam and moderate clerics as an example of religious pluralism and tolerance.___Follow Aya Batrawy on Twitter at www.twitter.com/ayaelb.
