EVENTS IN TIME (BIBLE PROPHECY LITERALLY FULFILLED)(BY GOD)

I WRITE NEWS ABOUT AND PUT NEWS ARTICLES ABOUT ISRAEL AND JERUSALEM PERTAINING TO BIBLE PROPHESY HAPPENINGS.JOEL 3:20 But Judah (ISRAEL) shall dwell for ever, and Jerusalem from generation to generation.(THATS ISRAEL-JERUSALEM WILL NEVER BE DESTROYED AGAIN)-WE CHRISTIANS ARE ALL WAITING PATIENTLY FOR THE PRE-TRIBULATION RAPTURE TO OCCUR.SO WE CAN GO TO JESUS AND GET OUR NEVER DYING BODIES.SO WE CAN RULE OVER CITIES OURSELVES.WHILE JESUS RULES FROM DAVIDS THRONE FOREVER IN JERUSALEM.

Wednesday, January 03, 2007

IRAN MAHDI BY SPRINGTIME

1-WORLD QUAKES LAST 2 DAYS. 2-Small earthquake in Seville province. 3-Stormy Northwest. 4-Above-average temps abound. 5-THE TIME OF JACOB'S TROUBLE (ISRAEL). 6-Rice to the Region. 7-Iran: Ignoring U.N. Security Council Resolution. 8-Iran warns West of historic slap over nuclear drive. 9-Israel could abandon own missiles for US system. 10-2007 economic forecast: Dollar decline, recession. 11-Merkel to press Bush on search for Mideast peace. 12-The European Union summit ,Back to the constitution. 13-Israel can attack Iran on its own Israeli think tank. 14-Israeli Minister asks UN to revoke Iran. 15-Iran website heralding Mahdi by springtime.

EARTHQUAKES

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

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

LUKE 21:11
11 And great earthquakes shall be in divers places, and famines, and pestilences; and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven.

WORLD QUAKES LAST 2 DAYS (USGS)

Update time = Wed Jan 3 12:02 AM EDT

JAN 03,07 NO QUAKES YET

JAN 02,07
MAP 2.5 CENTRAL CALIFORNIA
MAP 2.8 SOUTHERN ALASKA
MAP 5.0 EAST OF THE KURIL ISLANDS
MAP 4.9 OFF THE COAST OF JALISCO, MEXICO
MAP 4.9 KURIL ISLANDS
MAP 2.9 SOUTHERN ALASKA
MAP 5.0 OFF THE COAST OF CENTRAL PERU
MAP 5.1 TONGA
MAP 4.4 OFFSHORE EL SALVADOR
MAP 2.7 OFFSHORE NORTHERN CALIFORNIA
MAP 5.0 EAST OF THE KURIL ISLANDS
MAP 2.5 BAJA CALIFORNIA, MEXICO
MAP 2.7 CENTRAL ALASKA
MAP 4.6 ALAMAGAN REG., NORTHERN MARIANA ISLANDS
MAP 3.7 FOX ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN ISLANDS, ALASKA
MAP 2.5 ISLAND OF HAWAII, HAWAII
MAP 5.0 BONIN ISLANDS, JAPAN REGION
MAP 3.1 CENTRAL CALIFORNIA

JAN 01,07
MAP 2.7 SOUTHERN ALASKA
MAP 2.8 SOUTHERN ALASKA
MAP 2.6 CENTRAL ALASKA
MAP 2.5 OREGON
MAP 2.5 CENTRAL ALASKA
MAP 2.6 ANDREANOF ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN IS., ALASKA
MAP 2.6 SOUTHERN ALASKA
MAP 2.6 ISLAND OF HAWAII, HAWAII
MAP 4.8 NORTHERN MID-ATLANTIC RIDGE
MAP 5.4 CARLSBERG RIDGE
MAP 4.9 SOUTH OF THE FIJI ISLANDS

Small earthquake in Seville province
By m.p. - Tue, 02 Jan 2007, 21:35

There has been a small earthquake in Morón de la Frontera, Seville province. Photo - EFE Archives. There was an earthquake registering 3.6 on the Richter scale in Seville province on Tuesday afternoon, at 13.19 pm. It was centred in Morón de la Frontera, but, according to the National Geographical Institute, was only felt in Puerto Serrano, Cádiz province. There were no injuries and no material damage.Emergency services say only two people contacted the 112 emergency number, saying they had felt an earth tremor.typicallyspanish.com

STORMS HURRICANES-TORNADOES

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

Stormy Northwest B. Bernard, Meteorologist, The Weather Channel JAN 02,07

Strong, gusty winds and moderate to heavy rain accompanied by occasional thunder are whacking western Washington today.

Flood watches and warnings are posted for the northwest part of the state. Avalanche warnings are in effect for the Olympics, Washington Cascades and northern Oregon Cascades. Farther east, winter storm warnings continue for northeast Washington and the northern portion of the Idaho Panhandle. Above 4000 feet, wind-driven snowfall of up to a foot is likely by midnight. In Montana, a winter storm warning goes into effect at 5 p.m. MST today for the northern Rockies. On the downslope side of the mountains, a high wind warning remains posted for areas as far east as Havre and as far south as Helena. A similar warning is in effect for locations just east of Bozeman. Gusts to 65 mph are possible.

Above-average temps abound Mark Avery, Meteorologist, The Weather Channel JAN 02,07

West

Moisture continues to stream into the Pacific Northwest with heavy rains possible along the Washington coast during the day today. Flood watches are posted for much of northwestern Washington, including Seattle, Hoquiam, and Bellingham. In the Olympic Mountains, a flood warning has been posted for the Skokomish River near Potlatch. Further east in Washington, snow and a wintry mix is possible from the eastern slopes of the Cascades into northern Idaho, where a winter storm warning has been posted. Wind will also be an issue across the Northwest all the way into western Montana, where high wind watches and warnings have been posted through Wednesday morning.

In the Southwest, there's a chance of some light rain or snow in southern New Mexico and southeast Arizona. Closer to the coast, winds and low humidity will be an issue over Southern California through Wednesday, where high wind warnings are posted as well as red flag warnings for the increased fire danger between San Diego and Santa Barbara (including metro Los Angeles). Rain and snow will become more widespread across the West on Wednesday into Thursday, with rain chances increasing into Central California by Thursday and snow becoming more widespread into the Intermountain West Thursday and Friday. Windy conditions are likely across Southern California Thursday and Friday, with diminishing winds by Saturday. Another system moves into the Pacific Northwest by Friday that will spread snow into Idaho and western Montana by Saturday. Temperatures are expected to trend upward over the next couple of days, being above seasonal average across the region by Wednesday and Thursday. Cooler temperatures come with the next system coming ashore late week, and below average temperatures will be likely across most of the West by Friday and Saturday before returning to near average by Sunday.

Northeast

The Northeast gets a chance to dry out today after areas of heavy rain to start off 2007. The only precipitation to be found in the region will be in Upstate New York and into northern New England in the form of some light drizzle or light snow, but no accumulations are expected.

Elsewhere across the Northeast, plenty of sunshine should be on tap for Washington, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, and Baltimore for today. Wednesday and Thursday should be dry across the region with showers moving into the Northeast late Thursday night into Friday and Saturday. Temperatures are expected to remain well above average once again across the region all the way through the weekend.

South

In the South, plenty of sunshine is expected with the exception of South Florida and South Texas where a few showers are possible throughout the day. Much of the region is expected to have above average temperatures today, except from Florida westward into Texas, where near or below average temperatures will be experienced. Rain spreads across Texas on Wednesday with showers possible again across the Florida Peninsula. By Thursday, scattered thunderstorms will be possible along the Gulf Coast, with areas of rain (occasionally heavy) possible in the lower Mississippi and Tennessee Valleys. The rain hits the Southeast coast by Friday with more showers and thunderstorms possible by Saturday across the region. Temperatures rebound and should be well above average all across the South by the end of the week and through the weekend.

Midwest

The Midwest will experience a great travel day for anyone heading home after the holidays today: plenty of sunshine and unseasonably mild temperatures are expected to continue through Wednesday.

By Thursday, a few showers are possible across the Ohio Valley and Great Lakes. Friday will see a few rain and snow showers possible across South Dakota and Nebraska into Minnesota with rain in Wisconsin. Saturday should be sunny in the Plains with rain in the Ohio Valley and some snow over the Great Lakes. Again, temperatures are expected to remain well above average through the weekend in the Midwest.

ISRAELS TROUBLE

JEREMIAH 30:7
7 Alas! for that day is great, so that none is like it: it is even the time of Jacob’s trouble;(ISRAEL) but he shall be saved out of it.

DANIEL 12:1,4
1 And at that time shall Michael(ISRAELS WAR ANGEL) stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people:(ISRAEL) and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation(May 14,48) even to that same
time: and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book.
4 But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro,(WORLD TRAVEL,IMMIGRATION) and knowledge shall be increased.(COMPUTERS,CHIP IMPLANTS ETC)

THE TIME OF JACOB'S TROUBLE BY DR JACK VAN IMPE (NEWSLETTER JAN 02,07)

For nearly two thousand years we have been living in a parenthesis, a prophetic interval, a time in between. Daniel's prophecy in the vision of the seventy weeks called for a period of 490 years when God would deal especially with Israel. When Christ offered Himself as the Prince of Israel, 483 years, or 69 weeks of years, had been fulfilled.

When He was rejected and crucified the prophetic clock stopped, not to begin again until the Jews were back in their land and the parenthetical period had ended. During this prophetic interval, sometimes known as the Church Age, both Jews and Gentiles who are born again through faith in Christ become part of the body of Christ or the bride of Christ. The signal that the in between time has ended will be the removal of the church (the bride of Christ) from the earth. This great event is described in a number of Bible portions. One of the clearest is 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18:But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words.

The event then that ends the Church Age and ushers in the seventieth week of Daniel's prophecy is the return of Christ for His church. This coming of Christ in the air is known as the Rapture of the church; it involves the resurrection of the Christian dead as well as the exit from earth of all believers living at that time.With the removal of the church, earth plunges into its most awful hour. Of this time Jesus said, For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be (Matthew 24:21). He was speaking of the seven-year period known as the Tribulation, or the Time of Jacob's Trouble, so named because of Jeremiah's prophecy: Alas! for that day is great, so that none is like it: it is even the time of Jacob's trouble...(Jeremiah 30:7).

Some believe the church will remain on earth for the Tribulation. There are a number of reasons for rejecting this conclusion. The return of Christ for His church is a sign less and always imminent event. Even the New Testament writers expected the Lord's return at any moment: For our conversation [citizenship] is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ (Philippians 3:20).All signs of the Lord's return have to do with the coming of Christ to set up His Kingdom. They are only indicators of the approaching Rapture because that event precedes the establishment of Christ's kingdom by seven years. The moment the Tribulation begins, however, a timetable will be evident. Date-setting will be conclusive. During the Tribulation, Christ's return will no longer be imminent. Therefore, the Rapture of the church must precede the Time of Jacob's Trouble.The Tribulation will be a time of wrath: For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand? (Revelation 6:17). And the church is not to be the recipient of wrath. In assuring the Thessalonian Christians that they would not go through the Tribulation, Paul explained: For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Thessalonians. 5:9).

Wicked as it is, the world is not quite ready for the Tribulation and the Antichrist. The church is not all it ought to be, but the world is better because the church is here. Sin is rampant, but it would be far worse without the presence of the church and its hindering influence to evil: For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let [hinder], until he be taken out of the way. And then shall that Wicked be revealed...(2 Thessalonians 2:7,8).The Holy Spirit, working through Christians, holds back the tide of evil sweeping the world. When His influence in this manner is removed at the Rapture, the world will be ready for the Antichrist and the Tribulation.

The church has three heavenly appointments during the earthly Tribulation.

First, Christians cannot be on earth during the Tribulation because they have important business elsewhere. When the Lord returns for His church, it will be time for the judgment seat of Christ: And behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be (Revelation 22:12).Second, Christians who are living at the time of Christ's return must have time in the mansions prepared by Jesus as described in John 14:1 -- 3. The only time available for the fulfillment of this promise before the Millennium is during the Tribulation.Third, the marriage supper of the Lamb will take place in heaven during the end of the Tribulation period, according to Revelation 19:9, and the bride of Christ must attend. Following this joyful occasion, those who belong to Christ will return with Him as He comes to set up His kingdom. Since believers must come from heaven to earth at the end of the Tribulation, it is clear that the Rapture must precede that time of trouble.Finally, it must be remembered that the Tribulation is especially related to Israel.

Once this truth is established, all confusion about the time of the Rapture disappears. The return of Christ for His church marks the end of the Church Age, the parenthetical period, and begins the Time of Jacob's Trouble.What is the Time of Jacob's Trouble? Let Daniel describe it: ...there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time... (Daniel 12:1).This unprecedented period of tribulation is not to be confused with daily tribulations which all of God's people pass through. Jesus said: ...In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world (John 16:33).

Paul had learned to glory in tribulations: ...we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience (Romans 5:3).These heartaches, problems, and tribulations are different from the Tribulation. This seven-year period is one of immense suffering for the entire world. It is an era of unthinkable trouble. Nothing in history can be compared to it, nor will there ever be anything equal to it in the future. Chapters 6, 8, 9, 15, and 16 of Revelation describe the Time of Jacob's Trouble under the headings of seven seals, seven trumpets, and seven vials. Next week we will look at the panorama of human pain that will be experienced by the inhabitants of the earth during the Tribulation.

Rice to the Region
By Hana Levi Julian and Hillel Fendel (INN) JAN 02,07

U. S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is set to return to Israel at the end of this week to advance talks between the Jewish State and the Palestinian Authority. Rice is set to meet with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Foreign Minister Tzippy Livni as well as with Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, reported the Bahrain News Agency. Other reports say Rice is expected this month or in early 2007.She last met with Olmert and Abbas during a visit to the region in November, during which she helped prepare them to meet with each other as part of the U.S. effort to get its Road Map plan back on track.The two men met Saturday night, December 23, as a way of jump-starting stalled negotiations between Israel and the PA in advance of Rice’s planned visit to the region. Concessions made by Israel at the meeting included transferring some $100 million in frozen tax revenues to the PA, easing of travel restrictions and increasing work permits for PA Arabs who wish to enter the pre-1967 areas of Israel.

There were no apparent concessions offered by Abbas, other than to reiterate his full support of the November 26th ceasefire between Israel and the PA, which has thus far been violated more than 70 times by Arab terrorists.The terms of the ceasefire agreement on paper stipulate that PA terrorists would end rocket attacks fired from northern Gaza at western Negev Jewish communities, and Israel would refrain from carrying out a military response to such attacks. Israeli impatience with the constant ceasefire violations grew after two young teenage boys were severely wounded in a Kassam rocket attack on the besieged community of Sderot some 72 hours after his meeting with Abbas. A successful rocket attack on a strategic location in the southern port city of Ashkelon during the same period only served to exacerbate an already tense situation. A directive has been given to the defense establishment to take pinpoint action against rocket-launching squads, said Olmert in a statement by his office.Israel will continue to maintain the ceasefire and work with the PA so that immediate steps are taken to halt the Kassam firings.Since then, ten rockets were fired on Friday, one on Saturday, and, according to some reports, one today.

While Olmert was struggling with this news, Abbas found himself in even greater difficulties on his side of the security fence. The embattled PA chairman is struggling with increasing internecine violence, and in addition, he is liable not to be his Fatah faction’s chosen candidate in the early elections he himself has called.In a desperate effort to re-establish an atmosphere of optimistic cooperation, Abbas proposed the idea of quiet, away from the media negotiations with Olmert. The PA chairman told reporters after his meeting in Cairo with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak last week, We have proposed the idea of back channel talks… and with the participation of members of the Quartet (U.S., Russia, United Nations and European Union)… with the aim of discussing the final phase.

Abbas made it clear that he and Olmert had reached a standstill in their talks and that direct participation by the Bush administration was required. I think that when Rice is here it will be the time to talk about this issue seriously, he said. It is also believed that the release of IDF Cpl. Gilad Shalit will be coordinated during the upcoming visit. The Israeli soldier was kidnapped by Hamas terrorists in a raid on an army outpost near Gaza last June.Olmert is scheduled to meet with Mubarak this Thursday in the Red Sea resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh in advance of Rice’s visit to the region. Olmert and Mubarak are expected to discuss the talks each of them held with Abbas in the past two weeks, as well as the latest proposal for a prisoner swap deal to secure Shalit’s freedom. Hamas continues to demand the release of between 1,300 and 1,400 terrorists imprisoned in Israel - though Haaretz reports that Hamas has agreed to a much lower figure.

MUSLIM NATIONS

EZEKIEL 38:1-12
1 And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
2 Son of man, set thy face against Gog,(RULER) the land of Magog,(RUSSIA) the chief prince of Meshech(MOSCOW)and Tubal,(TOBOLSK) and prophesy against him,
3 And say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshech(MOSCOW) and Tubal:
4 And I will turn thee back, and put hooks into thy jaws,(GOD FORCES THE MUSLIMS TO MARCH) and I will bring thee forth, and all thine army, horses and horsemen, all of them clothed with all sorts of armour, even a great company with bucklers and shields, all of them handling swords:
5 Persia,(IRAN,IRAQ) Ethiopia, and Libya with them; all of them with shield and helmet:
6 Gomer,(GERMANY) and all his bands; the house of Togarmah (TURKEY)of the north quarters, and all his bands:(SUDAN,AFRICA) and many people with thee.
7 Be thou prepared, and prepare for thyself, thou, and all thy company that are assembled unto thee, and be thou a guard unto them.
8 After many days thou shalt be visited: in the latter years thou shalt come into the land that is brought back from the sword, and is gathered out of many people, against the mountains of Israel, which have been always waste: but it is brought forth out of the nations, and they shall dwell safely all of them.
9 Thou shalt ascend and come like a storm, thou shalt be like a cloud to cover the land, thou, and all thy bands, and many people with thee.(RUSSIA-EGYPT AND MUSLIMS)
10 Thus saith the Lord GOD; It shall also come to pass, that at the same time shall things come into thy mind, and thou shalt think an evil thought:
11 And thou shalt say, I will go up to the land of unwalled villages; I will go to them that are at rest, that dwell safely, all of them dwelling without walls, and having neither bars nor gates,
12 To take a spoil, and to take a prey; to turn thine hand upon the desolate places that are now inhabited, and upon the people that are gathered out of the nations, which have gotten cattle and goods, that dwell in the midst of the land.

ISAIAH 17:1
1 The burden of Damascus. Behold, Damascus is taken away from being a city, and it shall be a ruinous heap.

PSALMS 83:3-7
3 They (ARABS,MUSLIMS) have taken crafty counsel against thy people,(ISRAEL) and consulted against thy hidden ones.
4 They have said, Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation; that the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance.
5 For they have consulted together with one consent: they are confederate against thee:(TREATIES)
6 The tabernacles of Edom,and the Ishmaelites;(ARABS) of Moab, and the Hagarenes;
7 Gebal, and Ammon,(JORDAN) and Amalek;(SYRIA) the Philistines (PALESTINIANS) with the inhabitants of Tyre;(LEBANON)

EZEKIEL 39:1-8
1 Therefore, thou son of man, prophesy against Gog,(LEADER OF RUSSIA) and say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshech (MOSCOW) and Tubal: (TUBOLSK)
2 And I will turn thee back, and leave but the sixth part of thee, and will cause thee to come up from the north parts,(RUSSIA) and will bring thee upon the mountains of Israel:
3 And I will smite thy bow out of thy left hand, and will cause thine arrows to fall out of thy right hand.
4 Thou shalt fall upon the mountains of Israel, thou, and all thy bands,( ARABS) and the people that is with thee: I will give thee unto the ravenous birds of every sort, and to the beasts of the field to be devoured.
5 Thou shalt fall upon the open field: for I have spoken it, saith the Lord GOD.
6 And I will send a fire on Magog,(NUCLEAR BOMB) and among them that dwell carelessly in the isles: and they shall know that I am the LORD.
7 So will I make my holy name known in the midst of my people Israel; and I will not let them pollute my holy name any more: and the heathen shall know that I am the LORD, the Holy One in Israel.
8 Behold, it is come, and it is done, saith the Lord GOD; this is the day whereof I have spoken.

JOEL 2:3,20,30-31
3 A fire(NUCLEAR BOMB) devoureth before them;(RUSSIA-ARABS) and behind them a flame burneth: the land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness; yea, and nothing shall escape them.
20 But I will remove far off from you the northern army,(RUSSIA,MUSLIMS) and will drive him into a land barren and desolate, with his face toward the east sea, and his hinder part toward the utmost sea, and his stink shall come up, and his ill savour shall come up, because he hath done great things.(SIBERIAN DESERT)
30 And I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke.(NUCLEAR BOMB)
31 The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the LORD come.

Iran: Ignoring U.N. Security Council Resolution
10:15 Jan 02, '07 / 12 Tevet 5767

(IsraelNN.com) Iran will continue to ignore the U.N. Security Council mandate to end its nuclear development program, even in the face of sanctions imposed by the world body, said President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Tuesday.

According to the Reuters news service, the Iranian leader reiterated his claim in a speech on state television that, the Iranian nation is wise and will stick to its nuclear work and ready to defend it completely.Ahmadinejad asserted the resolution by the U.N. Security Council was not relevant to the Islamic Republic, saying it has no validity for Iranians.

Iran warns West of historic slap over nuclear drive by Hiedeh Farmani
Tue Jan 2, 7:16 AM ET

TEHRAN (AFP) - President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has kept up his defiance over Iran's nuclear programme, saying Tehran would deal an historic slap to Western nations if they launched military action. Ahmadinejad also vowed that Iran would press ahead with its atomic drive despite the UN Security Council's decision to impose its first ever sanctions against the Islamic republic.Even if all powers who stood behind Saddam Hussein during the sacred defence war are resurrected again against Iran, the Iranian nation will give them an historic slap in the face, Ahmadinejad said in a speech broadcast live on state television Tuesday.The president was addressing thousands gathered in Ahvaz, the capital of the western Khuzestan province which Saddam Hussein invaded in 1980 and sparked a devastating eight year war with the Islamic republic.The Iranian nation stands by its nuclear rights and will do its best to defend them, said Ahmadinejad.

The president shrugged off a resolution passed last month by the UN Security Council imposing sanctions over the Iranian nuclear programme, saying it was illegal and in any case would not hurt the Islamic republic.The resolution lacks validity and is completely political and unlawful, he told the cheering audience.It is a political resolution adopted under pressure from the United States and Britain, although the content of the resolution is not very significant.It was adopted with two objectives. Firstly, to create psychological war and propaganda against Iran and also to give an opportunity to scare some people inside the country under the pretext of a hollow resolution.Western powers want Iran to suspend uranium enrichment, a process that they fear could be used to make nuclear weapons. Iran insists its atomic programme is entirely peaceful and it has every right to the nuclear fuel cycle.The Iranian nation seeks the complete exploitation of nuclear energy as its undeniable right, Ahmadinejad said.

The nuclear issue is even more important to us than the nationalisation of oil that they (the West) opposed, he said, referring to the nationalisation of Iran's oil resources by the Iranian government in the 1950s.Ahmadinejad did not reveal how he would respond to a bill passed by parliament that obliges the government to revise its cooperation with the UN nuclear watchdog in retaliation to the resolution.But his government spokesman said Tehran was keeping open the option of quitting the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) if Western countries step up pressure on the Islamic republic over its atomic programme.If we are put under pressure and deprived of our rights we can use our capacity to decide whether to stay within the treaty or to quit it, Gholam Hossein Elham told reporters.Elham said the government would decide how to revise its cooperation with the UN nuclear watchdog based on the attitude taken by the international community over the Iranian nuclear programme.We want to move within the framework of the treaties that we have accepted in a transparent way but being part of a treaty is a neutral thing based on duties and rights.

An Israeli newspaper, meanwhile, reported that Israel was on Tuesday to test an underground installation in the Negev desert designed to monitor any attempt by Iran, its arch-foe, to test nuclear devices. The daily Yediot Aharonot reported that the test will consist of three strong explosions Israel will deliberately set off in the northern Negev using 15 tonnes of liquid explosives, to see how they register on equipment at the underground site. The facility is equipped with seismographs and other equipment able to detect earth tremors and transmits the data directly to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna, the paper said.

Israel could abandon own missiles for US system Tue Jan 2, 4:52 AM ET

JERUSALEM (AFP) - Israel is considering halting the development of a new generation of its Arrow defense missiles due to the high costs involved in favour of US-made missiles.Following negotiations in recent months, Israeli leaders will make a final decision on whether to phase out the Arrow, or Hetz, missiles and opt instead for the US-made THAAD missile defense system in the coming year, the Haaretz newspaper reported Tuesday.The THAAD missile, made by Lockheed Martin, could be delivered to Israel in 2009, according to sources in Washington quoted by the newspaper.But the US missile defense system still has to resolve a number of technological bugs, the daily added.For the time being, Israel is still developing Arrow missiles and is due to carry out a new test.

The last test, in December 2005, intercepted a missile similar to Iran's Shihab-3, which is capable of reaching Israel, public radio reported.The Arrow project began in 1988, with 80 percent US backing, as part of former US president Ronald Regan's Star Wars project that was officially abandoned in 1993.Since 1991, Arrow development costs have been split equally between Israel and the United States.

HOARDING OF GOLD AND SILVER

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

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

2007 economic forecast: Dollar decline, recession
Analysts cite increasing foreign aversion to U.S. currency, see continue gold rise
January 2, 2007,1:00 a.m. Eastern,By Jerome R. Corsi - 2007 WorldNetDaily.com

Economists anticipate that the fall of the U.S. dollar in world currency markets that began in 2006 will accelerate in 2007.

The dollar could lose as much as 30 percent of its value in 2007, econometrician John Williams, who publishes the website Shadow Government Statistics, told WND. In 2007, we are likely to see the economic downturn of 2006 develop into a structural recession and yet we have international trade and federal budged deficits careening out of control. Williams explained, U.S. interest rates are still relatively low, compared to Europe. This will make it increasingly attractive for central bankers to consider moving foreign exchange reserves out of the dollar. The dollar, which began January 2006 at 88.86 on the FOREX international currency index ended the year at 83.67, a drop of approximately 6 percent. For the year, the dollar fell approximately 11.5 percent versus the euro, 13.6 percent versus the British pound, and by 7.3 percent versus the Swiss franc.

Bob Chapman, publisher of the economic newsletter The International Forecaster, told WND, Central bankers in 2007 will begin to move away from the dollar in their foreign reserve holdings. Chapman's Dec. 30 newsletter documented that the international move away from the dollar has already begun: China, the second largest holder of U.S. debt, reduced purchases of U.S. bonds 1.7 percent in the first 10 months of the year. Central bankers in Venezuela, Indonesia and the UAE have said they will invest less of their reserves in dollar assets. Iran's switch to euros is the greatest threat yet to dollar supremacy. The usage of the euro is now universal in Iran and it will spread to other Islamic oil-producing countries as well. The share of dollars as a percentage of OPEC foreign reserves has fallen from 67 percent to 65 percent in the first half of 2007.Iran's decision to hold only Euros may prompt a U.S. decision to launch a pre-emptive attack, Chapman speculated, with the public argument being Iran's pursuit of nuclear weapons in defiance of the U.N. Security Council.

Saddam Hussein signed his death warrant, Chapman argued, when he got the U.N. to agree that he could hold his oil-for-food reserves in euros. Ahmadinejad appears determined to go down the same path. Yet, the Federal Reserve finds itself in a dilemma, Chapman added. The Fed will make an attempt sometime in 2007 to tighten rates in an effort to make yields more attractive and stem the tide of central banks fleeing the dollar, he told WND, but that will only expedite the fall of the housing market and quicken the U.S. recession which I believe began nearly 11 months ago, in February 2006.Williams agrees. We are going to see a much lower dollar in 2007, especially against the euro, the British pound and the Swiss franc, he said. [Because of] the underlying fundamentals, such as U.S. economic activity versus European economic activity, the U.S. is struggling. The recession will be increasingly obvious as we proceed through 2007. Even worse, we have an inflationary problem with the higher oil prices over the last two years which are still working themselves into the system. In contrast, gold surged 23 percent in value last year, climbing to a 26-year high of $732 an ounce on May 12. Chapman expects the Chinese to take advantage of a strong commodities market in 2007, investing an increasing percentage of their foreign exchange reserves in gold. Remember, Chapman said, all you hear about is the Dow being up 16 percent this year, but you do not hear that gold is up 23 percent. As the dollar continues to decline in 2007, we expect gold to continue increasing in value. Gold in 2007 could easily exceed $780 an ounce.

Merkel to press Bush on search for Mideast peace
By Judy Dempsey Published: January 1, 2007

BERLIN: Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany will make a quick visit to Washington on Thursday and appeal to President George W. Bush to restart the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, according to German government officials.

Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, who took over the presidencies of the European Union and Group of 8 industrial countries on Monday, will make a quick visit to Washington on Thursday and appeal to President George W. Bush to restart the Israeli- Palestinian peace process, according to German government officials.Merkel's appeal to Bush , with whom she has a close working relationship , to start playing a serious diplomatic and political role in the conflict reflects a consensus inside her coalition government of conservatives and Social Democrats that Germany's attempts to revive the peace process will get nowhere without U.S engagement.Merkel and her foreign minister, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, have said that once they took the helm of the EU presidency, they wanted to reinvigorate the Middle East quartet consisting of the United States, the European Union, the United Nations and Russia. During a visit to Moscow last month, Steinmeier and his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, agreed to push the quartet back into the political limelight.

Berlin, Paris and London hold the view that Washington has marginalized the Israeli-Palestinian conflict , and the quartet , because Bush has been preoccupied by the war in Iraq. Prime Minister Tony Blair of Britain and Merkel have repeatedly said in recent speeches that unless the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is tackled, chances of lasting peace in the Middle East are low.The conflict is the core of the problem, Merkel said last month when she held talks in Berlin with Ehud Olmert, the Israeli prime minister.Germany has already started exploring ways to revive the peace process by making diplomatic overtures to Syria, a crucial player in the Middle East. It has offered the regime in Damascus trade and economic incentives, but so far without much success.Such overtures were opposed by the United States and Israel. The United States has accused Syria of continuing to meddle in Lebanon, of being involved in the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri of Lebanon and of providing support to terrorist groups in Iraq.

Germany, however, sees Syria as holding one of the keys to the peace process because part of its territory, the Golan Heights, has been occupied by Israel since 1967 and a peace settlement there could become part of a comprehensive peace settlement.

Last month, Olmert publicly criticized Steinmeier's visit to Damascus. Olmert's strong criticism suggested the difficulties that Berlin would face in starting any new Middle East peace initiative without the full backing of the Bush administration.By focusing so much on the Middle East during her EU presidency, Merkel could run the risk of delivering very little unless the Bush administration
supports her.Nevertheless, the chancellor sees the importance of trying to revive some peace process between the Israelis and the Palestinians, said Elmar Brok, a prominent member of Merkel's Christian Democratic Union and chairman of the foreign affairs committee of the European Parliament.Closer to home, Merkel runs risks in her plans to revive the EU constitution, which was rejected in 2005 by France and the Netherlands. She has said she wants to begin a process that would produce agreement in principle on a new constitution by the fall of 2008, just before the start of the election campaign for a new European Parliament.

Berlin is hoping that by that time France will have a president committed to the constitution.

DANIEL 7:23-24
23 Thus he said, The fourth beast(THE 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.(TR BLOCKS)
24 And the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise:(10 NATIONS) and another shall rise after them;(#11 SPAIN) and he shall be diverse from the first, and he shall subdue three kings.(BE HEAD OF 3 KINGS OR NATIONS).

THE EU DICTATOR

REVELATION 6:1-2,13:1-3,7-9,16
1 And I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals, and I heard, as it were the noise of thunder, one of the four beasts saying, Come and see.
2 And I saw, and behold a white horse: and he that sat on him had a bow; and a crown was given unto him: and he went forth conquering, and to conquer.(THIS IS THE EU DICTATOR)
1 And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy.(7 HEADS ARE THE 7TH WORLD EMPIRE IN HISTORY (THE EU) AS WELL AS THE VATICAN WHICH IS BUILT ON 7 HILLS. 10 HORNS ARE 10 KINGS THAT ARISE FROM THE EU, THEN #11 COMES ON THE SCENE BECOMES THE HEAD OF 3 OUNTRIES AND THEN THE EU DICTATOR, COMES FROM 1 OF THE 3 COUNTRIES THAT RULE FOR THIS TERM. I BELIEVE THE 3 COUNTRIES RULING AT THE TIME ARE SPAIN AND 2 OF THE ORIGINAL 6 THAT STARTED THE EU. FROM 1 OF THESE 3 COUNTRIES COME THE FUTURE EU DICTATOR PRESIDENT OF THE EUROPEAN UNION WHO GUARENTEES ISRAELS SECURITY FOR A LAND FOR PEACE 7 YEAR TREATY.
2 And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority.(THE JEWISH EU DICTATOR GETS HIS POWER FROM SATAN,HE COMES FROM THE OCCULT).
3 And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast.(THE DICTATOR HAS A FALSE RESURRECTION. JUST LIKE JESUS HAD A LITERAL RESURRECTION THIS DICTATOR GETS MURDERED AT THE 3 1/2 YR MARK OF THR 7 YEAR TREATY AND COMES BACK TO LIFE. THIS IS HOW HE CAN
CLAIM TO BE GOD AND GET AWAY WITH IT AND CONTROL THE WHOLE EARTH.
7 And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them: and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations.
8 And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
9 If any man have an ear, let him hear.
16 And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:

DANIEL 11:36-40
36 And the king shall do according to his will;(EU PRESIDENT) and he shall exalt himself, and magnify himself above every god, and shall speak marvellous things against the God of gods, and shall prosper till the indignation be accomplished: for that that is determined shall be done.
37 Neither shall he regard the God of his fathers,(THIS EU DICTATOR IS A EUROPEAN JEW) nor the desire of women, nor regard any god: for he shall magnify himself above all.
38 But in his estate shall he honour the God of forces:(HES A MILITARY GINIUS) and a god whom his fathers knew not shall he honour with gold, and silver, and with precious stones, and pleasant things.
39 Thus shall he do in the most strong holds (CONTROL HEZBOLLAH,AL-QUAIDA MURDERERS ETC) with a strange god, whom he shall acknowledge and increase with glory: and he shall cause them to rule over many,(HIS ARMY LEADERS) and shall divide the land for gain.
40 And at the time of the end shall the king of the south(EGYPT) push at him:(EU DICTATOR PROTECTING ISRAELS SECURITY) and the king of the north(RUSSIA) shall come against him like a whirlwind, with chariots, and with horsemen, and with many ships;
and he shall enter into the countries, and shall overflow and pass over.

The European Union summit ,Back to the constitution
European Union leaders want to move on from arguing about enlargement to arguing about a revived constitution Wednesday, January 03, 2007 at 0051 hours IST

The last summit of 25 European Union leaders (the next will have 27) on December 14th-15th may mark a turning-point: the moment the EU changed its main topic of discussion from its own expansion to the attempt to revive its failed constitution. Since the constitutional treaty was rejected by French and Dutch voters in the summer of 2005, the union’s achievements (such as they are) have mostly involved outsiders. It has begun accession talks with Turkey and Croatia, stepped up its diplomacy in the western Balkans and bolstered its common foreign policy in such places as Lebanon. The summit has now brought this engagement with matters external to a subdued close. Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, has declared that she will use her six-month presidency of the EU, which starts on January 1st, to restart the stalled process of getting a European Union constitution approved.

The task of the summit over applicant countries was to balance the demands of European voters, who seem increasingly worried about enlargement, with the longer-term interests of the EU, which are enhanced by it.

They came down on the side of voters. To avoid slamming the door altogether, the summit did not invent new criteria to keep countries out (no nonsense about limits to the club’s absorption capacity). The summit said that Turkey and Serbia were still welcome, although it suspended eight of the 35 chapters of negotiation with the Turks. Ms Merkel, who once backed only a privileged partnership for Turkey that fell short of full membership, changed her tune and suggested that membership may be attainable after all. Yet it is not clear how seriously any promises to Turkey (or other countries) should be taken. German diplomats claim that a couple of negotiating chapters for Turkey might be opened next year, as a test of the EU’s good intentions, but the government of Cyprus would have to agree—and it does not seem ready to.

On the other side of the ledger, the summiteers declared that they would toughen their existing membership criteria and scrutinise applicants more carefully. Candidates will no longer be given target dates for entry, as were Bulgaria and Romania. In brief, the summit’s message was: the latest round of enlargement was painful, and the next will be worse. Its subtext was: a new constitution is now a precondition for any further enlargement. By linking the two issues in this way, European leaders were able to move smartly on from enlargement (which is now distasteful to many) to the apparently pleasanter subject of the constitution, which the German government wants to resurrect from the dead by 2009. That requires a hectic schedule, beginning with Germany’s six-month presidency. Ms Merkel wants to use her time at the helm to work out a political deal over which bits of the constitution to cut, which to change and which to dilute. The plan is that, armed with this agreement, European leaders will gather for another inter-governmental conference in the second half of the year, to do whatever deals are needed to make the treaty acceptable to all.

A full text should then be ready by the end of the year, with ratification achieved flawlessly during the first half of 2009. With one bound, it seems, the EU will be free.

Yeasayers vs refuseniks

Naturally, this timetable will be subject to all sorts of upset and delay, but the intention is precise. The Germans want to stop shilly-shallying. There will not be another bombastic constitutional convention that lasts for months. Countries such as Germany that have accepted the constitution as it stands (18 of them, including Bulgaria and Romania) want to put pressure on those that have either rejected or not ratified it.

Spain and Luxembourg have called a conference of yeasayers in Madrid in mid-January to ask why the nine refuseniks should hold everybody back. If all this precipitates a constitutional crisis, so be it: perhaps it will force the hands of the no and don’t-know camps. This is like a game of chicken in which Germany speeds up the bus in the hope that oncoming traffic swerves off the road. It seems to be based on two heroic assumptions. One is that Nicolas Sarkozy will win the French presidential election next spring. He has already said that he will campaign for a so-called mini-treaty (a stripped-down version of the constitution). Victory may enable him to claim a mandate, and have such a mini-treaty ratified by the National Assembly, avoiding the need for a second referendum. But what happens if the Socialist candidate, Ségolène Royal, wins? Her party is split over the constitution, and she will hardly welcome instant demands to accept a new political deal so soon after her election. It may prove impossible to think seriously about the constitution until after the French election, which will hamper the German timetable from the start.

A similar objection applies to Britain. By the middle of 2007, Tony Blair is likely to have stepped down as prime minister to be replaced by Gordon Brown.

The Germans hope that Mr Brown, like Mr Sarkozy, will be ready to push a new treaty through parliament, without a referendum. They think he may be more willing to do this if he is promised progress on two other areas that he cares about more: reform of the EU budget and a radical overhaul of the common agricultural policy. Yet Mr Brown is just as likely to find it impossible to resist press and public pressure for a referendum—as Mr Blair did. Like Ms Royal, the last thing he will want on taking the top job is a big crisis over Europe. The hurried German schedule also ignores divisions that emerged even at the summit. The Czech prime minister, who once called the constitution incredible shit, insisted that it was a non-issue. Jacques Chirac dismissed the planned meeting of the 18 ratifiers (I don’t know why it has received so much public attention). Jan Peter Balkenende, the Dutch prime minister, ruled out any follow-up meeting of the non-ratifiers. European leaders claim that a new constitution is consistent with, and indeed necessary for, the club’s further expansion. But to judge by the arguments that it is likely to stir up, navel-gazing is more likely to prove a substitute for enlargement. It will certainly not offer any relief from big rows at EU summits. The Economist Newspaper Limited As a first step, Merkel said she wanted to issue a Berlin Declaration on March 25 that would coincide with the 50th anniversary of the Treaty of Rome,(REVIVED ROME) which established the European Economic Community and set guidelines for further political and economic integration.Only a united Europe can tackle the challenges of globalization including international trade but also violence, terror and war, Merkel said in a New Year's speech broadcast on German public television.A divided Europe is doomed to failure.

NUCLEAR WEAPONS WILL BE USED.

ISAIAH 26:21
21 For, behold, the LORD cometh out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity: the earth also shall disclose her blood, and shall no more cover her slain.(WW3,1/2 earths population die).

ISAIAH 13:6-13 KJV
6 Howl ye; for the day of the LORD is at hand; it shall come as a destruction from the Almighty.
7 Therefore shall all hands be faint, and every man's heart shall melt:(FROM FRIGHT)
8 And they shall be afraid: pangs and sorrows shall take hold of them; they shall be in pain as a woman that travaileth: they shall be amazed one at another; their faces shall be as flames.
9 Behold, the day of the LORD cometh, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate: and he shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it.
10 For the stars of heaven and the constellations thereof shall not give their light: the sun shall be darkened in his going forth, and the moon shall not cause her light to shine.
11 And I will punish the world for their evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; and I will cause the arrogancy of the proud to cease, and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible.
12 I will make a man more precious than fine gold; even a man than the golden wedge of Ophir.
13 Therefore I will shake the heavens, and the earth shall remove out of her place, in the wrath of the LORD of hosts, and in the day of his fierce anger.

ISAIAH 24:17-23 KJV
17 Fear, and the pit, and the snare, are upon thee, O inhabitant of the earth.
18 And it shall come to pass, that he who fleeth from the noise of the fear shall fall into the pit; and he that cometh up out of the midst of the pit shall be taken in the snare: for the windows from on high are open, and the foundations of the earth do shake.
19 The earth is utterly broken down, the earth is clean dissolved, the earth is moved exceedingly.
20 The earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard, and shall be removed like a cottage; and the transgression thereof shall be heavy upon it; and it shall fall, and not rise again.
21 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the LORD shall punish the host of the high ones that are on high, and the kings of the earth upon the earth.
22 And they shall be gathered together, as prisoners are gathered in the pit, and shall be shut up in the prison, and after many days shall they be visited.
23 Then the moon shall be confounded, and the sun ashamed, when the LORD of hosts shall reign in mount Zion, and in Jerusalem, and before his ancients gloriously.

2 TIMOTHY 3:1
1 This know also, that in the last days perilous (DANGEROUS) times shall come.

JOEL 2:20,30
20 But I will remove far off from you the northern army,(RUSSIA,MUSLIMS) and will drive him into a land barren and desolate, with his face toward the east sea, and his hinder part toward the utmost sea, and his stink shall come up, and his ill savour shall come up, because he hath done great things.(SIBERIAN DESERT)
30 And I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke.(NUCLEAR BOMB)
31 The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the LORD come.

ZECHARIAH 14:12-13
12 And this shall be the plague wherewith the LORD will smite all the people that have fought against Jerusalem; Their flesh shall consume away while they stand upon their feet, and their eyes shall consume away in their holes, and their tongue shall consume away in their mouth.
13 And it shall come to pass in that day, that a great tumult from the LORD shall be among them; and they shall lay hold every one on the hand of his neighbour, and his hand shall rise up against the hand of his neighbour.

EZEKIEL 20:47
47 And say to the forest of the south, Hear the word of the LORD; Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I will kindle a fire in thee, and it shall devour every green tree in thee, and every dry tree: the flaming flame shall not be quenched, and all faces from the south to the north shall be burned therein.

ZEPHANIAH 1:18
18 Neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them in the day of the LORD'S wrath; but the whole land shall be devoured by the fire of his jealousy: for he shall make even a speedy riddance of all them that dwell in the land.

MALACHI 4:1
1 For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the LORD of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.

REVELATION 8:7
7 The first angel sounded, and there followed hail and fire mingled with blood, and they were cast upon the earth: and the third part of trees was burnt up, and all green grass was burnt up.

REVELATION 9:18
18 By these three was the third part of men killed, by the fire, and by the smoke, and by the brimstone, which issued out of their mouths.

HALF OF EARTHS POPULATION DIE DURING THE 7 YR TRIBULATION.(THESE VERSES ARE JUDGEMENT SCRIPTURES NOT RAPTURE SCRIPTURES)

LUKE 17:34-37
34 I tell you, in that night there shall be two men in one bed; the one shall be taken, and the other shall be left.
35 Two women shall be grinding together; the one shall be taken, and the other left.
36 Two men shall be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left.
37 And they answered and said unto him, Where, Lord? And he said unto them, Wheresoever the body is, thither will the eagles be gathered together.(Christians have new bodies,this is the people against Jerusalem during the 7 yr treaty)(Christians bodies are not being eaten by the birds).

MATTHEW 24:37-51
37 But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
38 For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark,
39 And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
40 Then shall two be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left.
41 Two women shall be grinding at the mill; the one shall be taken, and the other left.
42 Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come.
43 But know this, that if the goodman of the house had known in what watch the thief would come, he would have watched, and would not have suffered his house to be broken up.
44 Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh.
45 Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his lord hath made ruler over his household, to give them meat in due season?
46 Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing.
47 Verily I say unto you, That he shall make him ruler over all his goods.
48 But and if that evil servant shall say in his heart, My lord delayeth his coming;
49 And shall begin to smite his fellowservants, and to eat and drink with the drunken;
50 The lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for him, and in an hour that he is not aware of,
51 And shall cut him asunder, and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Israel can attack Iran on its own Israeli think tank
www.chinaview.cn 2007-01-03 01:49:52

JERUSALEM, Jan. 2 (Xinhua) -- An Iranian nuclear bomb is only a matter of time if no military action is to be taken, Israeli Institute for National Strategic Studies (INSS) at Tel Aviv University warned in its annual report released to press Tuesday. The report, Middle East Strategic Balance, also made the conclusion that Israel can attack Iran on its own. INSS head Zvi Shtauber said Israel was technically capable of striking alone and would have to do it alone if it is to take any action, as no other country would agree to work openly with Israel. Brigadier General Giora Eiland, a member of the institute's board, suggested that Israel must pursue full strategic and military understanding with the United States if it decided to attack Iran. Israel considers Iran its most serious threat. It dismisses Tehran's claims that its nuclear program is designed solely to produce energy and is worried by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's repeated calls to wipe the Jewish state off the map. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has not ruled out a military strike against Iran's nuclear program, but has said he hoped other ways could be found to keep Tehran from becoming a nuclear power.

Israeli Minister asks UN to revoke Iran JAN 02,07

JERUSALEM, Jan. 2 (Xinhua) -- Israeli Minister of Strategic Threats Avigdor Lieberman Tuesday called on the new United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to revoke Iran's UN membership, local media reported. In his letter to Ban Ki-moon, Lieberman also ask UN to impose tough sanctions against Iran over its refusal to halt nuclear enrichment, according to Israeli Army Radio. (Iranian President Mahmoud) Ahmadinejad's intentions are clear, and while the free world takes its time, the Iranian president is pressing with his plan to build nuclear weapons. Israel can and will stand alone against Iran, but we shouldn't have to do so. If Iran is allowed to acquire nuclear weapons, the free world will pay a heavy price and Israel will be the first and will pay the heaviest price. But Iran's aggression will not end there, the minister said. Lieberman also pointed out that the Israeli-Palestinian issue was at the core of solving all the problems in the Middle East.

Any connection between the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the Iranian issue is a pretext used by some of the most anti-Semitic elements the world has known since the Nazi ideology and the Holocaust, Lieberman said in the letter. Ahmadinejad on Tuesday scorned the UN Security Council's sanctions on Iran, and warned that the Western countries would face a historic slap in the face if they confront the Islamic Republic over its disputed nuclear issue.Editor: Luan Shanglin

WELL SORRY ALL WHO BELIEVE THIS LIE, BELOW, WE MEET JESUS IN THE CLOUDS AT THE RAPTURE, NOT ON EARTH, THEN 7 YEARS LATER WE RETURN TO EARTH BODILY WITH CHRIST TO RULE AND REIGN WITH HIM. EVEN IF JESUS DID COME THIS SPRING IT WOULD BE 7 YEARS TILL HE COMES TO EARTH BODILY, SORRY TO TELL YOU WHO ARE DECIEVED.

FALSE CHRISTS AND FALSE PROPHETS.

MATTHEW 24:5,24
5 For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many.
24 For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.

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

WARS AND RUMURS OF WARS.

MATTHEW 24:6
6 And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.

MARK 13:7
7 And when ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars, be ye not troubled: for such things must needs be; but the end shall not be yet.

Iran website heralding Mahdi' by springtime - State media: Shiite messiah to kill archenemy in Jerusalem, may arrive during next equinox Posted: December 31, 2006,6:04 p.m. Eastern - WorldNetDaily.com

An official state media website in Iran has posted a message heralding the coming of the Shiite messianic figure, Imam Mahdi, noting he could arrive with Jesus by the spring equinox. Imam Mahdi (may God hasten his reappearance) will appear all of a sudden on the world scene with a voice from the skies announcing his reappearance at the holy Ka'ba in Mecca, the message says. The Islamic Republic of Iran broadcasting website said in a program called The World toward Illumination, that the Mahdi will form an army to defeat the enemies of Islam in a series of apocalyptic battles, in which the Mahdi will overcome his archvillain in Jerusalem.

The Mahdi's far sightedness and firmness in the face of mischievous elements will strike awe. After his uprising from Mecca all of Arabia will be submit to him and then other parts of the world as he marches upon Iraq and established his seat of global government in the city of Kufa. Then the Imam will send 10 thousand of his forces to the east and west to uproot the oppressors. At this time God will facilitate things for him and lands will come under his control one after the other. ... After his appearance the Imam would remain in Mecca for some time, and then go to Medina. ... a descendant of the Prophet's archenemy Abu Sofyan will seize Syria and attack Iraq and the Hejaz with the ferocity of a beast ... finally Imam Mahdi sends troops who kill the Sofyani in Beit ol-Moqaddas (Jerusalem), the Islamic holy city in Palestine that is currently under occupation of the Zionists.Iranian series also claims the Mahdi will reappear on Earth with Jesus: We read in the book Tazkarat ol-Olia, the Mahdi will come with Jesus son of Mary accompanying him. Imam Mahdi will be the leader while Prophet Jesus will act as his lieutenant in the struggle against oppression and establishment of justice in the world. Jesus had himself given the tidings of the coming of God's last messenger and will see Mohammad's ideals materialize in the time of the Mahdi. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad appearing at The World Without Zionism conference Oct. 26, 2005

As WND reported this month, in a greeting to the world's Christians for the coming new year, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said he expects both Jesus and the Mahdi, to return and wipe away oppression.

I wish all the Christians a very happy new year and I wish to ask them a question as well, said Ahmadinejad, according to an Iranian Student News Agency report cited by YnetNews.com My one question from the Christians is: What would Jesus do if he were present in the world today? What would he do before some of the oppressive powers of the world who are in fact residing in Christian countries? Which powers would he revive and which of them would he destroy? asked the Iranian leader. If Jesus were present today, who would be facing him and who would be following him?

Ahmadinejad's mystical pre-occupation with the coming of the Mahdi is raising concerns that a nuclear-armed Islamic Republic could trigger the kind of global conflagration he envisions will set the stage for the end of the world. In a videotaped meeting with Ayatollah Javadi-Amoli in Tehran, Ahmadinejad discussed candidly a strange, paranormal experience he had while addressing the United Nations in New York last September. He recounts how he found himself bathed in light throughout the speech.

But this wasn't the light directed at the podium by the U.N. and television cameras. It was, he said, a light from heaven. According to a transcript of his comments, obtained and translated by Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin, Ahmadinejad wasn't the only one who noticed the unearthly light. One of his aides brought it to his attention. The Iranian president recalled being told about it by one of his delegation: When you began with the words 'in the name of Allah, I saw a light coming, surrounding you and protecting you to the end.

Ahmadinejad agreed that he sensed the same thing.

On the last day when I was speaking, one of our group told me that when I started to say 'Bismillah Muhammad, he saw a green light come from around me, and I was placed inside this aura, he says. I felt it myself. I felt that the atmosphere suddenly changed, and for those 27 or 28 minutes, all the leaders of the world did not blink. When I say they didn't move an eyelid, I'm not exaggerating. They were looking as if a hand was holding them there, and had just opened their eyes – Alhamdulillah!

Ahmadinejad's vision at the U.N. is strangely reminiscent and alarmingly similar to statements he has made about his personal role in ushering in the return of the Shiite Muslim messiah. He sees his main mission, as he recounted in a Nov. 16 speech in Tehran, as to pave the path for the glorious reappearance of Imam Mahdi, may Allah hasten his reappearance.

According to Shiites, the 12th imam disappeared as a child in the year 941. When he returns, they believe, he will reign on earth for seven years, before bringing about a final judgment and the end of the world. Ahmadinejad is urging Iranians to prepare for the coming of the Mahdi by turning the country into a mighty and advanced Islamic society and by avoiding the corruption and excesses of the West. All Iran is buzzing about the Mahdi, the 12th imam and the role Iran and Ahmadinejad are playing in his anticipated return. There's a new messiah hotline. There are news agencies especially devoted to the latest developments. People are anxious to know when and how will He rise; what they must do to receive this worldwide salvation, says Ali Lari, a cleric at the Bright Future Institute in Iran's religious center of Qom. The timing is not clear, but the conditions are more specific, he adds. There is a saying: When the students are ready, the teacher will come.

Tuesday, January 02, 2007

PROPHECIES 2007

1-WORLD QUAKES LAST 2 DAYS. 2-Storms wash out New Year parties across Britain. 3-Two dozen towns suffer driest year on record. 4-Lieberman: Israel Should Join NATO and the EU. 5-Host of Issues in Police Minister/Religious-Zionist MKs Meeting. 6-Romania joins European Union. 7-Bulgaria joins European Union. 8-Use of euro spreading to many places outside European Union. 9-German Global Clout Grows as Berlin Heads EU, G8. 10-ECUSA's Future Depends on Leaders' Return to God's Word. 11- News Analysis: In 2007, Expect PA Factions to Wage Civil War. 12-Pope makes New Year's wish for courageous efforts for peace in Holy Land. 13-The Alliance of Civilizations JAN 01,07 FORMING OF A ONE WORLD RELIGION. 14-Christian Culture Analyst Recaps 2006 Church Trends, Future. 15-South Korea's Ban Ki-moon takes the reins of the United Nations. 16-Five new non-permanent members join United Nations Security Council. 17-Prophecies for 2007.

EARTHQUAKES

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

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

LUKE 21:11
11 And great earthquakes shall be in divers places, and famines, and pestilences; and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven.

WORLD QUAKES LAST 2 DAYS (USGS)

Update time = Tue Jan 2 4:14:36 UTC 2007

TUE JAN 02,07
MAP 5.0 BONIN ISLANDS, JAPAN REGION
MAP 3.1 CENTRAL CALIFORNIA

MON JAN 01,07
MAP 2.7 SOUTHERN ALASKA
MAP 2.8 SOUTHERN ALASKA
MAP 2.6 CENTRAL ALASKA
MAP 2.5 OREGON
MAP 2.5 CENTRAL ALASKA
MAP 2.6 ANDREANOF ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN IS., ALASKA
MAP 2.6 SOUTHERN ALASKA
MAP 2.6 ISLAND OF HAWAII, HAWAII
MAP 4.8 NORTHERN MID-ATLANTIC RIDGE
MAP 5.4 CARLSBERG RIDGE
MAP 4.9 SOUTH OF THE FIJI ISLANDS

STORMS HURRICANES-TORNADOES

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

Storms wash out New Year parties across Britain Mon Jan 1, 6:41 AM ET

LONDON (Reuters) - Severe gales and torrential rain battered Britain on New Year's Eve, forcing the cancellation of a huge street party in the Scottish capital and wrecking celebrations across the country. Organizers said it was not safe to go ahead with the annual Hogmanay event in Edinburgh, billed as one of the world's biggest street parties, leaving up to 100,000 revelers disappointed.

One woman was killed by a falling tree as gales caused havoc over the weekend.This decision was not taken lightly, said Edinburgh Council's Andrew Holmes. Public safety concerns were the most important factor.Outdoor music concerts and firework displays in Glasgow, Liverpool, Newcastle and Belfast also fell victim to the storms. Winds gusting at up to 80 mph (130 km/h) were considered too dangerous for performers and partygoers.Festivities went ahead as planned in London, where the weather was less severe.An estimated 350,000 people watched the fireworks at the London Eye observation wheel next to the River Thames.There has been atrocious weather around the country, London Mayor Ken Livingstone said. We send our best wishes and goodwill to those who saw their New Year's Eve disrupted.Up to 400,000 people are expected to attend a New Year's Day parade in London.

FAMINE

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

Two dozen towns suffer driest year on record,January 2, 2007 (The Age)

AT LEAST two dozen Victorian towns have suffered their driest year on record, with figures confirming that every Australian capital apart from Darwin had less rain than normal in 2006.Yet according to an annual weather report to be released by the Bureau of Meteorology tomorrow, the past 12 months nationwide will be remembered as slightly wetter than average.The bureau's 2006 Climate Statement is expected to show that the national average rainfall for the year was about 490 millimetres, slightly up on the long-term average of 472 millimetres.That was due to heavy rain drenching vast areas of remote western and northern Australia. But those downpours did nothing to quench the thirst of major cities and towns, with south-eastern Australia and the area around Perth receiving only a fraction of their normal rain.Responding to decades of water shortages in Perth, Western Australia's water supplier yesterday announced plans to recycle sewage for drinking water. Under a four-year, $38 million trial, 1.5 billion litres of waste water a year would be treated to drinking quality and injected into a groundwater mound to undergo further treatment as it percolated
through the aquifer over several years.

The Water Corporation hopes to start the trial by 2009. It could be expanded to recycle at least 30 billion litres annually as early as 2013. The proposal has the backing of local conservationists and the State Opposition.

While the bureau's annual weather report will not be finalised until this afternoon, new maps and annual rainfall totals for Victoria released yesterday show how badly the drought affected many parts of the state.Towns across Victoria's north-east suffered the most widespread rain losses, with most rainfall-monitoring stations from Benalla south to Sale in Gippsland marking record lows. Several areas hit hard by fires this summer have had their worst year for rain, with Mount Buffalo Chalet receiving only 599 millimetres, down from an average of 1890 millimetres. Its previous record low was 737 millimetres, in 1967.Areas as far apart as Nhill, in the state's far west, Nathalia near Shepparton and the west Melbourne suburb of Altona also reported new lows.While many Melburnians awoke to the welcome sound of rain yesterday, it came too late to boost the city's low annual total of 438 millimetres. That was not a record low, but it was barely two-thirds of the average rainfall of 638 millimetres.

Meteorologists are hopeful the drought in south-east Australia might break by the
middle of this year, but the head of the bureau's National Climate Centre said it would take massive amounts of rain to replenish parched dams and rivers.We'd either need a few years of above average seasons or a huge tropical cyclone coming in and filling the headwaters of the Darling (River) and everything else north of it, Michael Coughlan said.

But if we just get a break like the one we had after the 2002-03 drought, it's not going to be enough to ease water restrictions.Federal parliamentary secretary for the environment Greg Hunt agreed that the findings appeared to match long-term forecasts that climate change would exacerbate droughts in the most populated parts of the country. Whilst no individual year necessarily proves a trend, the key point is that it's consistent with the bureau's advice that over the coming 50 years we are likely to see an increase in rain in northern Australia and a mild decrease in rainfall in south and south-eastern Australia, Mr Hunt said.With SUELLEN JERRARD - http://www.bom.gov.au

DANIEL 7:23-24
23 Thus he said, The fourth beast(THE 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.(TR BLOCKS)
24 And the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise:(10 NATIONS) and another shall rise after them;(#11 SPAIN) and he shall be diverse from the first, and he shall subdue three kings.(BE HEAD OF 3 KINGS OR NATIONS).

THE EU DICTATOR

REVELATION 6:1-2,13:1-3,7-9,16
1 And I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals, and I heard, as it were the noise of thunder, one of the four beasts saying, Come and see.
2 And I saw, and behold a white horse: and he that sat on him had a bow; and a crown was given unto him: and he went forth conquering, and to conquer.(THIS IS THE EU DICTATOR)
1 And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy.(7 HEADS ARE THE 7TH WORLD EMPIRE IN HISTORY (THE EU) AS WELL AS THE VATICAN WHICH IS BUILT ON 7 HILLS. 10 HORNS ARE 10 KINGS THAT ARISE FROM THE EU, THEN #11 COMES ON THE SCENE BECOMES THE HEAD OF 3 OUNTRIES AND THEN THE EU DICTATOR, COMES FROM 1 OF THE 3 COUNTRIES THAT RULE FOR THIS TERM. I BELIEVE THE 3 COUNTRIES RULING AT THE TIME ARE SPAIN AND 2 OF THE ORIGINAL 6 THAT STARTED THE EU. FROM 1 OF THESE 3 COUNTRIES COME THE FUTURE EU DICTATOR PRESIDENT OF THE EUROPEAN UNION WHO GUARENTEES ISRAELS SECURITY FOR A LAND FOR PEACE 7 YEAR TREATY.
2 And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority.(THE JEWISH EU DICTATOR GETS HIS POWER FROM SATAN,HE COMES FROM THE OCCULT).
3 And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast.(THE DICTATOR HAS A FALSE RESURRECTION. JUST LIKE JESUS HAD A LITERAL RESURRECTION THIS DICTATOR GETS MURDERED AT THE 3 1/2 YR MARK OF THR 7 YEAR TREATY AND COMES BACK TO LIFE. THIS IS HOW HE CAN
CLAIM TO BE GOD AND GET AWAY WITH IT AND CONTROL THE WHOLE EARTH.
7 And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them: and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations.
8 And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
9 If any man have an ear, let him hear.
16 And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:

DANIEL 11:36-40
36 And the king shall do according to his will;(EU PRESIDENT) and he shall exalt himself, and magnify himself above every god, and shall speak marvellous things against the God of gods, and shall prosper till the indignation be accomplished: for that that is determined shall be done.
37 Neither shall he regard the God of his fathers,(THIS EU DICTATOR IS A EUROPEAN JEW) nor the desire of women, nor regard any god: for he shall magnify himself above all.
38 But in his estate shall he honour the God of forces:(HES A MILITARY GINIUS) and a god whom his fathers knew not shall he honour with gold, and silver, and with precious stones, and pleasant things.
39 Thus shall he do in the most strong holds (CONTROL HEZBOLLAH,AL-QUAIDA MURDERERS ETC) with a strange god, whom he shall acknowledge and increase with glory: and he shall cause them to rule over many,(HIS ARMY LEADERS) and shall divide the land for gain.
40 And at the time of the end shall the king of the south(EGYPT) push at him:(EU DICTATOR PROTECTING ISRAELS SECURITY) and the king of the north(RUSSIA) shall come against him like a whirlwind, with chariots, and with horsemen, and with many ships;
and he shall enter into the countries, and shall overflow and pass over.

Lieberman: Israel Should Join NATO and the EU
17:08 Jan 01, '07 / 11 Tevet 5767

(IsraelNN.com) Israel's Minister of Strategic Affairs Avigdor Lieberman declared Monday that the Jewish State should aim to join NATO and the EU. The political and security goal of the State of Israel for the next month needs to be clear: joining NATO and entering the European Union, Lieberman told Israel Radio in an interview. The war we're fighting in the Middle East is not Israel's war, but the entire free world's [war], and we are standing on the frontlines, he said.On January 1 Bulgaria and Romania joined the EU, further expanding the European Union to 27 countries, 13 of which have currently adoped the Euro as their common currency.

Host of Issues in Police Minister/Religious-Zionist MKs Meeting
By Hillel Fendel (INN) JAN 01,07

NU-NRP Knesset Members will meet with Public Security Minister Dichter Monday afternoon to discuss a series of issues - including Rachel's Tomb, violent policemen, mixed Jewish-Arab areas, and more. Dichter, who served as head of the General Security Service (Shabak) until joining the Kadima party earlier this year, responded affirmatively to the faction's invitation. The National Union-National Religious Party numbers nine MKs, after its two member parties merged before the national elections earlier this year.pictured, left to right: MKs Zevulun Orlev, Effie Eitam, Yitzchak Levy

On the agenda will be five issues:

1-Rachel's Tomb. Now that the entire compound is protected and fortified - many now describe it as a stone fortress, rather than the familiar roadside-and-tree site as it has appeared in countless paintings over the generations the MKs will ask that worshipers be allowed to reach the site freely.

At present, they are forced to take reinforced buses, which arrive infrequently and according to a pre-determined schedule.2-The administrative orders distancing some 20 Yesha men from their homes and families for 3-12 months. The evidence against them is too secret to be publicized, government sources say, and they have therefore been sentenced without trial. The MKs will ask that the orders be withdrawn, or that the men be put on trial.3-The mixed Jewish-Arab cities of Jaffa and Akko. The MKs want Dichter to order the deployment of Border Guard contingents in neighborhoods there that have been plagued of late by Arab violence against Jews.4-Violent policemen. The Knesset Members will ask Dichter to uproot the phenomenon of policemen who are excessively violent and/or do not wear name tags when dealing with nationalist protestors. Dichter will be enjoined to suspend the policemen who, at the Amona incident last year, beat MKs Eldad and Eitam, trampled Yehuda Etzion, and hit children.5-Jewish prayer at the Temple Mount. The police often prevent Jews from praying at this, the most sacred site of the Jewish People, in order to mollify the Arabs who threaten violence. Jewish prayer at the area known as the Small Wall, further north along the Western Wall, is also often restricted.

Romania joins European Union JAN 01,07

BUCHAREST, Romania, Jan. 1 (UPI) Romania's leaders welcomed entry into the European Union Monday as a return to a democratic and peaceful family of Europe. Prime Minister Calin Popescu Tariceanu said the hoisting of EU flags in the capital
Bucharest and across the nation of 22 million was a historic moment and a reason of joy for the entire Romanian people, the Rompres news agency reported.

This moment has been awaited for 17 years, Tariceanu said in a reference to the December 1989 national uprising that toppled the regime of communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu. Romanian President Traian Basescu told the nation its accession to the EU is an expression of Romanians' wish to return to a democratic Europe where peace is the first EU rule. Since the downfall of communism, public opinion polls have shown between 60 percent and 80 percent of Romanians support the country's entry to the union, local media said. Romania joined the union along with another Balkan-post-communist country, Bulgaria. In coming months, both countries will be under EU supervision to make sure they continue with judiciary reforms to curb organized crime and corruption.

Bulgaria joins European Union JAN 01,07

SOFIA, Bulgaria, Jan. 1 (UPI) -- Bulgaria's president hailed his post-communist Balkan country's entry into the European Union Monday as a heavenly moment. President Georgi Parvanov in a nationwide television address said Jan. 1, 2007 will be among the most significant dates in our national history, the Sofia News Agency reported. Parvanov underlined Bulgaria's future success does not depend on EU funds and resources, but on our work. Bulgaria, with a population of 7.7 million, and Romania, with 22 million, Monday became the 26th and 27th members of the European Union. The two Balkan neighbors have entered the union under tough conditions and must report to Brussels every six months about progress in fighting corruption and organized crime. If they fail, Bulgaria and Romania risk losing substantial economic aid. Bulgaria was also told to comply with EU aviation safety standards or its 55 aircraft could be grounded.

Use of euro spreading to many places outside European Union
Slobodan Lekic - December 31, 2006 - 4:43 p.m.

BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) - Slovenia converts to the euro Monday, officially becoming the 13th member of the eurozone - and the first among the European Union's newest members to qualify to use the currency.But at least a half-dozen other European
ministates and territories are using the currency as legal tender - without approval from the European Central Bank.

The euro was introduced five years ago to provide economic cohesion among EU countries. But euros also are in circulation in dozens of countries and overseas territories ranging from the North Atlantic to the Pacific.In Europe, Montenegro, Vatican City and San Marino and the principalities of Andorra and Monaco have used the euro since its inception. And in the UN-occupied Serbian province Kosovo, the euro circulates alongside the Serbian dinar.The European Central Bank has not opposed unilateral euroization by microstates that historically have been linked to the French franc, Spanish peseta or German mark as legal tender.

The ECB does not either encourage nor deter third countries from using the euro, President Jean-Claude Trichet recently declared.Joaquin Almunia, the EU's economic and monetary affairs commissioner, has encouraged countries to adopt the euro as a means of achieving economic stability.The adoption of the euro creates the right conditions for economic prosperity by providing low inflation and low interest rates, he said recently.

It is not uncommon for small countries in Africa, Latin America and Asia to use the currency of a major country - typically, the U.S. dollar.When newly independent East Timor adopted the dollar after seceding from Indonesia in 1999, the U.S. Treasury dispatched planeloads of paper money and tonnes of small-denomination coins to the impoverished Pacific country.However, the rise of the euro has made inroads into the dollar's international dominance.Montenegro, for example, switched to the euro after having adopted the German mark in the 1990s.

German Global Clout Grows as Berlin Heads EU, G8 JAN 01,07

Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift:Germany's global stature will be bolstered when it takes on both the EU and G8 presidencies.Germany's growing economic, political and military role will be spotlighted in 2007 when Berlin holds the rotating presidencies of both the European Union and the G8 club of industrial nations.Chancellor Angela Merkel takes the reins of the European Union for the first half of 2007, with the main goal of saving the EU's failed constitution and hammering out a new energy security policy for the 27-nation bloc.In addition, as host of the G8 summit at the Baltic Sea resort of Heiligendamm in June, Merkel plans to put financial market transparency, trademark protection and Africa at the top of the agenda for the club of rich nations.This dual role comes at a very historic time in world affairs, said Gary Smith, executive director of the American Academy think tank in Berlin. Germany and especially Chancellor Merkel have a great opportunity to exert leadership and reach concrete goals.

Mighty Germany

Europe's biggest economy has increasingly been flexing its business, diplomatic and even, for peaceful purposes, military muscle since winning back full sovereignty following German reunification in 1990.Bildunterschrift: Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift:The European Central Bank in Frankfurt.Germany is at the core of the euro single-currency zone and the European Central Bank is building a huge new headquarters in Frankfurt.Major German corporations have adeptly ridden the wave of globalization and exports have continued to soar during 2006, with the euro hitting near-record highs against the dollar.Even the sometimes euro-skeptical Wall Street Journal was full of praise in a recent commentary.The competition brought on by globalization and the EU's expansion to include 10 new states in 2004 forced a serious restructuring of the corporate sector, the paper said.… Germany Inc. was at the forefront of this mini-revolution.

Diplomacy matters

Diplomatically, Germany began talking about national interests and a German path under former chancellor Gerhard Schröder, who provoked the worst post-war crisis in German-American relations by using his Iraq war opposition to help win his re-election in 2002.Bildunterschrift: Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: Germany Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier presents the German EU presidency program at a press conference This sort of talk -- unthinkable during the Cold War -- has been toned down by current Chancellor Merkel, who nevertheless is sticking to Schröder's calls for Germany to get a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council.As the EU's biggest power, Germany already has an upgraded UN status under what is known as P5+Germany: the five permanent UN Security Council members plus Germany, who are dealing with issues such as the Iranian nuclear crisis.

Military transitions

Germany's military transition is one of the biggest ongoing shifts in the country's global positioning since unification.The Bundeswehr, or federal armed forces, will in coming years be forged into a 35,000-member rapid-reaction force for global operations, backed by a 70,000-member stabilization force for peacekeeping.During the transition, Berlin is acquiring heavy airlift planes capable of taking troops anywhere in the world, while at the same time scrapping hundreds of the formidable Leopard II main battle tanks which once faced off against Warsaw Pactforces.

Reforms, however, are slow moving and, at present, Germany still cannot deploy more than 10,000 soldiers for combat or peacekeeping operations -- despite a total troop strength of over 250,000.

Bildunterschrift: Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: Germany is scrapping tanks for planes.The German armed forces are still structured for the Cold War, said Karl-Heinz Kamp, security policy coordinator for the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, which has close links to Merkel's Christian Democratic Union party.Germany's military was dissolved in 1945 after the Nazi defeat and only recreated in 1955. Throughout the Cold War, German troops were strictly limited to defensive missions within the NATO area.

Modern missions

It was only in 1994 that German troops were given a green light by the country's highest court to take part in combat missions outside the NATO alliance.Since then, there has been a steady growth in the number of German military deployments abroad with bigger and bigger missions.Luftwaffe jets took part in the first German combat operations since 1945 during the 1999 NATO-led war with Serbia to halt ethnic cleansing in Kosovo.

Never again Auschwitz! was how Greens Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer convinced members of his own pacifist party to back the historic deployment.Today about 9,000 German troops are serving on international missions, including with NATO forces in Afghanistan and in the Balkans.The latest German military mission, deploying forces as part of a beefed-up United Nations UNIFIL force in Lebanon, also breaks new ground as Berlin's first Mideast deployment since World War II.Bildunterschrift: Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: Germany took the global stage when it hosted the World Cup this summer.But Germany still seeks to keep its troops out of combat zones.Soldiers in Afghanistan are based in the mainly peaceful north and are barred from taking part in fighting in southern Afghanistan with US, British and Canadian forces.In Lebanon, the Germans refused to send ground troops and instead deployed naval forces based off the coast.

Military spending

Another area where German aspirations for a bigger global role clash with reality is financing. Berlin spends less than 1.5 percent of its GDP on the military -- far less than the US, which devotes 3.7 percent of its budget to the armed forces.A far higher proportion of the German military budget goes for personnel costs -- and not for equipment. The Bundeswehr spends 60 percent of its money on personnel -- something's wrong with that, Kamp said.Kamp also worries that the three German ministries responsible for global relations -- defense, foreign and development aid -- have felt the brunt of federal budget cuts.This means that at a time when Germany's foreign responsibility has grown, we cut foreign spending by 50 percent,he said. DW staff / DPA (als)

ECUSA's Future Depends on Leaders' Return to God's Word
Allie Martin JAN 01,07 crosswalk.com

An official with the Institute on Religion and Democracy expects to see the current conflicts within the Episcopal Church in the USA (ECUSA) continue throughout the coming year, including schism over the current liberal leadership and direction of the denomination.This past year, the ECUSA's new presiding bishop, Katherine Jefferts Schori, said Christ was not the only way to get to Heaven.

She also remarked that homosexuals do not choose their behavior (see earlier story). These and other indications of Bishop Schori's biblically unorthodox beliefs have sparked criticism and unease among conservative members of the denomination and within the broader Anglican community.Recently, a group of conservative Episcopal churches in Virginia broke away from the ECUSA. Most of the congregations that left the denomination will now join with the newly established Convocation of Anglicans in North America (CANA), an affiliate of the Anglican Church of Nigeria.

Faith McDonnell, director of the Religious Liberty Program with the Institute on Religion and Democracy, says the Episcopal Church in the United States is in serious trouble. It's very painful to have this separation, she admits, but we do believe that God will work everything out for good. We don't know what that will be, but we still do hope and pray that there would be revival in the Episcopal Church.McDonnell believes more churches throughout the United States will leave the ECUSA in the coming year.

She sees only one way of slowing or reversing the current trend: the leaders of the Episcopal Church must return to God's Word.There are many wonderful, faithful people within the Episcopal Church who are continuing to stay and trying to bring the faith back into the Episcopal Church, the Institute official observes. But thedenomination itself is making it harder and harder for people, she says.If the denominational leaders do not change their current tack, and there is no change in the denomination's leadership, McDonnell expects the ECUSA will continue to experience schism and continue to hemorrhage members. She is predicting another tumultuous year for the church.Allie Martin is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.AgapePress

News Analysis: In 2007, Expect PA Factions to Wage Civil War
By Gil Zohar (INN) Jan,01,07

Judging by events in the Middle East last year, 2007 promises to be even more dramatic. The following is a year-end series of educated guesses and predictions, with no responsibility taken for their accuracy.

In the Palestinian Authority-controlled Gaza Strip and the Area A parts of Judea and Samaria under its rule, a full-scale civil war is likely to erupt among the local Arabs, with unpredictable consequences.This time around, the talk of brotherhood will likely be finally exposed for the myth it is. Fatah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad and other assorted terrorist gangs will participate, while outside sponsors such as Iran, Syria, and Jordan will supply the bullets, rockets, money and ill-will.International and American sanctions against Iran and Syria will likely increase, as will defiance by the two nations. Will George Bush unleash an attack on Iran to foil its ambitions to obtain nuclear weapons? Judging by America’s dismal performances in Afghanistan and Iraq, Israel will be left holding the bag forced alone to face an existential threat in which the options are all bad.Damascus and Tehran will team up to destabilize Lebanon by activating their proxy, Hizbullah and their allies - the 400,000 Arabs who left Israel in the 1948 and 1967 wars. The bigger powers will push Israel’s northern neighbor into a second civil war, one likely to be far more vicious than the 15-year conflict that ended in 1990.

Like the PA Arab battle, Lebanon's civil war will attract support and weapons, drawing in Western and Middle Eastern sponsors to supply the country's Christians, Shi’ites, Sunnis, Druze and Armenians. Jihadists, always on the lookout for training spots, also will flock into Lebanon to establish new bases of operations.

In Iraq and Iran — but also in Afghanistan, Lebanon, Somalia, Pakistan, and at least one major country in the Persian Gulf — jihadist Muslim fundamentalists will become the main agenda-setters, emerging from the shadows to dictate the tempo of events, war, and peace.The flow of refugees from Iraq, which now stands at two million, will double. Meanwhile the trickle of educated Arabs leaving the Gaza Strip and Judea and Samaria will continue to grow, resulting in a brain drain of the region’s best and brightest.In America, a Democratic-controlled Congress will turn the Iraqi mess into
a full-blown tragedy by opposing any proposals advanced by the Bush administration short of a total and immediate withdrawal of American troops. The Americanpopulation will progress toward a total rejection of further overseas involvements.Somalia, which has disintegrated into a vast morass sheltering international jihadist Muslim fundamentalists, will continue its descent into bloody chaos, drawing the Horn of Africa down with it.

The presence of American military personnel already involved in Somalia, as well as the CIA and other semi-military American outfits, will increase with more western advisors to the local army. The flow of weapons to Christian Ethiopia will explode, as will Western satellite and surveillance outposts there. With the Indian Ocean thus wide open, the U.S. Navy and NATO will have to double their presence to block incoming mayhem from the sea.In Israel - which in the summer of 2006 painfully discovered the limits of its military prowess against Hizullah's guerrilla-style warfare in Lebanon - politicians and the military will find that their enemies have been further emboldened.Hamas and Hizbullah rockets aimed inland from Gaza and from Lebanon will test Israel again. Prime Minister Olmert's unwieldy coalition government once more will be pushed to the edge. The government is widely expected to remain in place, but its ability to develop effective responses will be as incomplete and as incompetent in 2007 as it has showed itself to be this year.

More important, PM Olmert and his feckless Defense Minister Amir Peretz ,as well as Israel's entire opposition, will continue to exhibit a shocking lack of vision, failing to put forward a strategy to deal with the tide of Islamic fundamentalists and the consequences of Egypt's failed government. The total collapse of the Palestinian Authority will increase the internal challenge for Israel.On the macro-economic front, the price of oil will continue to slip, as more alternative sources, from coal to oil sands to ethanol, grab a larger share of the world’s markets.The role of Russia as the world's major new supplier of conventional energy now bigger than that of Saudi Arabia - will grow remarkably. Russia is already Europe's main supplier of natural gas, and it is moving to become a major supplier of oil and gas to Asia, as well. Canada, with its endless reserves of oil sands in remote northern Alberta, will join Russia as a major new energy power. The strategic consequences of these two countries' advances for American influence have yet to be calculated by think tanks, NATO, and the OECD.

Where does all this leave the Israeli man in the street? The slight cut on December 31 of the government-set price for gasoline, together with the Bank of Israel’s decision earlier last month to slash interest rates by half a percent to 4.5 % - three quarters of a point below the Federal Reserve Bank’s rate – suggest continued strong growth in the Israeli economy and an ongoing reduction in the unemployment levels.Want some unsolicited investment advice? Park your dollars in Israeli shekels, and watch as the greenback continues to shrink.

Pope makes New Year's wish for courageous efforts for peace in Holy Land
Mon Jan 1, 4:57 AM - By Frances D'Emilio

VATICAN CITY (AP) - Pope Benedict made a New Year's Day wish Monday that people will work courageously for world peace, and especially for a lasting end to the Holy Land's conflict, which he said has dragged on for too long. Benedict in his homily in St. Peter's Basilica during Mass described peace as a gift to invoke with prayer, a task to carry out with courage, without ever tiring.

How can one not turn one's glance yet again to the dramatic situation which characterizes the very land where Jesus was born? the pontiff said, referring to the Holy Land. The Vatican on Jan. 1 celebrates World Peace Day. How can one not implore with insistent prayer, that also in that region the day of peace arrives as soon as possible, the day in which the conflict which has been going on for too much time is definitely resolved? Benedict asked in his homily. A peace accord, to be lasting, must be based on respect for the dignity and rights of every person, the pontiff added. Noting that many ambassadors to the Holy See were attending the Mass, Benedict said: The wish that I formulate before the representatives of nations present is that the international community unite their efforts so that in God's name, a world can be built in which the essential rights of man are respected by all, the pontiff added. The pontiff said injustice and violence threatened peace and that "the danger of terrorism disturbs the serenity of peoples.

The Alliance of Civilizations JAN 01,07 FORMING OF A ONE WORLD RELIGION.

The Secretary-General of the United Nations has launched an initiative, co-sponsored by the Prime Ministers of Spain and Turkey, for an Alliance of Civilizations. The initiative responds to a broad consensus across nations, cultures and religions that all societies are interdependent, bound together in their development and security, and in their environmental, economic and financial well-being.

The Alliance seeks to forge collective political will and to mobilize concerted action at the institutional and civil society levels to overcome the prejudice, misperceptions and polarization that militate against such a consensus.

And it hopes to contribute to a coalescing global movement which, reflecting the will of the vast majority of people, rejects extremism in any society.Events of recent years have exacerbated mutual suspicion, fear and misunderstanding between Islamic and Western societies. This environment has been exploited by extremists throughout the world.Only a comprehensive coalition will be able to avert any further deterioration of relations between societies and nations, which could threaten international stability. The Alliance seeks to counter this trend by establishing a paradigm of mutual respect between civilizations and cultures.To guide this initiative, the Secretary-General, in consultation with the co-sponsors, has established a High-level Group (HLG) of eminent persons.

Terms of Reference for High-level Group
http://www.unaoc.org/repository/Terms%20of%20Reference%20for%20HLG.pdf

Official statements - Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs - English
http://www.unaoc.org/repository/statement_foreign_ministry_english.pdf

Joint Declaration of Prime Ministers of Spain and Turkey on Middle East Crisis
http://www.unaoc.org/repository/6071Joint%20Declaration%20of%20Prime%20Ministers%20of%20Spain%20and%20Turkey%20on%20Middle%20East.pdf

Christian Culture Analyst Recaps 2006 Church Trends, Future
Fred Jackson JAN 01,2007

Christian researcher George Barna has outlined what he considers his most significant findings for 2006. Among these is his assessment that, although large majorities of the public claim to be deeply spiritual and say that their religious faith is very important in their life, only 15 percent of those who regularly attend a Christian church ranked their relationship with God as their top priority.Barna, who has been conducting national public opinion surveys and cultural analysis for 25 years, notes that even clergy have to compete for people's attention and acceptance in contemporary American society. One of the reasons that the Christian faith is struggling to retain a toehold in people's lives, he contends, is because even the highest-profile leaders of the faith community have limited resonance with the population.According to the researcher, the latest survey statistics suggest Christians may be more attuned to matters of culture and entertainment than to matters of faith. People pay attention to what they deem important, he says. These figures may be another indicator that millions of Christians invest more of their mental energy in cultural literacy than in biblical literacy.

Barna's recent studies also found that the notion of personal holiness has slipped out of the consciousness of the vast majority of Christians. According to his research group's findings, while just 21 percent of adults consider themselves to be holy, by these respondents' own admission, large numbers have no idea what holiness means and only one out of every three believe that God expects people to become holy.In contrast, however, to this apparent spiritual decline, the researcher also found that there is a group he calls Christian Revolutionaries who are growing in number. He says they are the type who show a great interest in things such as personal Bible study and spiritual mentoring. Also, he notes, individual Christians' involvement in house churches is rapidly growing.

In his year-end review, Barna describes what he sees as three general spiritual patterns that are likely to gain prominence in the coming years. The first of these, he says, is diversity: along with new forms of spiritual leadership and expressions of faith, he predicts that ecumenism will expand as the emerging generations pay less attention to doctrine and more attention to relationships and experiences.The second prediction from the head of Barna Research has to do with what he calls bifurcation. He expects to see a widening gap between the intensely committed and those who are casually involved in faith matters. The difference, Barna says, will become strikingly evident between those who make faith the core of their life and those who simply attach a religious component onto an already mature lifestyle.Barna's third prediction deals with the use of media. He says new technologies will significantly reshape how people experience and express their faith, as well as the ways in which they form communities of faith.

Read Barna's complete report on his Significant Religious Findings of 2006 - AgapePress
http://www.barna.org/FlexPage.aspx?Page=BarnaUpdateNarrow&BarnaUpdateID=252

South Korea's Ban Ki-moon takes the reins of the United Nations JAN 01,07

UNITED NATIONS Today is the first day on the job for the new U-N secretary-general, Ban Ki-moon (bahn kee moon) of South Korea.The 62-year-old career diplomat has promised to make peace with North Korea a top priority.In a speech after taking his oath of office in December, Ban said he will work to build "a more peaceful, more prosperous and more just world for succeeding generations.He said his first priority would be to restore trust in the United Nations. Its reputation has been battered by the oil-for-food scandal in Iraq, corruption in the world body's purchasing operations and sexual abuse by U-N peacekeepers.Associated Press.

Five new non-permanent members join United Nations Security Council JAN 01,07

United Nations, Jan 1: South Africa, Indonesia, Italy, Belgium and Panama today joined the UN Security Council as non-permanent members for a two year term.The new members replaced Tanzania, Japan, Denmark, Greece and Argentina, which completed their two-year term yesterday.

The composition of the Council for 2007 is the United States, Britain, Russia, France, China (permanent members), Peru, Congo, Qatar, Ghana and Slovakia, South Korea, Indonesia, Italy, Belgium and Panama (non-permanent members).Peru, Congo, Qatar, Ghana and Slovakia will complete their term this year end. South Korea, Indonesia, Italy, Belgium and Panama will remain on the council until the end of 2008.The Council comprises 15 members including five permanent and ten non-permanent members. Five of the non-permanent members retire each year.The non-permanent members are elected on regional basis by the 192-member General Assembly.Panama was the compromise candidate from Latin American and Caribbean group following failure of the group to decide between Guatemala and Venezuela. --- PTI

I Don't know any of these Pastors,prophets but we will see if they come to Pass.

Prophecies for 2007
Monday | January 1, 2007 Jamaica

1. (Numbers chapter 10) God is calling both the leaders and the assembly to gather and move - time is short.

2. God is calling the church to gather, equip and send.

3. God is going to shake the nation of Jamaica; He is calling the nation into repentance.

4. God is calling His people to seek Him as never before.

5. The cry of the nation, Jamaica, has come up before God. He shall judge the leaders (political and church) of Jamaica, as the cry of the poor has come up before God.

6. Six mighty men around the world - God will be taking them down.

7. Three nations will suffer great distress.

8. Pray for India, China, Russia, Spain, U.S.A., England, Canada, Netherlands, Greece and Africa (danger ahead).

9. Time of lamentation is coming upon the earth.

10. God is asking: Where are the tithes and offering that we have robbed Him (accountability)?

11. God will judge those who waste the resources of the land.

12. Many businesses will be shut down and mergers will take place (banking, communication and insurance industry). Because of low profit margins, many businesses will be closing.

13. Those that refuse to tithe, many of them will lose their houses through foreclosure.

14. There will be a serious confusion in the real estate business.

15. Serious management changes in order to find solutions and many jobs will be lost.

16. There will be a stir in the telecommuni- cations, pharmaceutical and financial sectors; Many of the small companies will rise.

17. Confusion in the weather patterns.

18. God is warning His prophets to repent.

19. God's wrath is upon Jamaica, He is calling the nation to repentance. God has sent many to warn the present and the former Prime Ministers to call the nation into repentance but they have not yielded. Solutions have been given to government and church leaders and they have refused to accept them and have turned their backs. God is about to judge.

20. The central bank of Jamaica will make their staff redundant and there will also be a scandal.

21. Many will starve worldwide because of the adverse economic conditions.

22. There is too much competition in the body of Christ.

23. Disaster will hit California, Turkey, Mexico, Mozambique, Malaysia, and Chile. There is a plan to assassinate an Asian Prime Minister.

24. The Lord is calling His people to wake up from their deep sleep.

25. The Lord says any day the U.S.A. turns against Israel, God will turn away from them.

26. A time of mourning is coming upon the nations if they don't repent.

27. An incurable disease will sweep across the land if they do not repent.

28. Disaster will hit The Bahamas if they do not repent. God is angry with them.

29. A climate change will hit France; they have never seen anything like that before.

30. Japan and Mexico - God's hand will be heavy upon them.

31. A time of outpouring coming for the faithful.

32. Jamaica will discover oil and other hidden treasures.

33. A change in the economy and the security forces will take place in Jamaica.

34. Bloodshed will be hitting the North, pray for the North.

35. The latter will be greater; The Lord will work with the second birth, not Ishmael, but Isaac.

36. God is calling His people to stop worshipp-ing the building and worship Him.

37. Disaster in the sea.

38. A massive explosion shall come from the East.

39. There will be a massive fire.

40. A number of churches will be shut down. God says His house will be a house of prayer and not a den of thieves.

41. There shall be a woman president in the U.S.A.

42. Great hardship is coming; every nation will need to stand on its own. None will be able to help each other. America will need to stockpile seven years of food and water.

43. America needs to seek the apostles and prophets in order to help the nation; serious hardship is coming.

44. Watch March 19.

45. A time is coming when people will be afraid to eat meat; a lot of lives will be lost if Jamaica's Ministry of Health doesn't tighten up and be vigilant.

46. Pray against terrorism involving three of our aircraft.

47. Water will rise in St. Elizabeth, St. Ann, Clarendon, St. Mary, St. Thomas and Portland.

48. Pray against heavy bloodshed in the next election.

49. There will be major political and religious deception. Christians and prophets will hold their heads in shame.

50. God is going to visit Jamaica House.

Apostle Steve Lyston, Prophetess Michelle Lyston, Prophetess Bishop Doris Hutchinson, Prophet Edwards, Prophetess Marsha, Prophetess Sophia and Prophet Roberto.

Monday, January 01, 2007

2006 WHAT WAS

1-WORLD QUAKES LAST 2 DAYS. 2-Snow continues in parts of Plains. 3-Jewish Calendar in Action. 4-Hundreds flock to see Saddam's gravesite. 5-Aussies usher '07 with Sydney fireworks. 6-Another enlargement for the European Union. 7-CHRONOLOGY-Messages attributed to al Qaeda. 8-2006: A year of fear, storms and elections.

MAY THE PROMISE OF A NEW YEAR FILL YOUR HEART WITH HOPE, AND PEACE AND JOY PRAISE THE GOD OF ISRAEL (KING JESUS) FOR EVERY SECOND OF IT. STAN L BOWMAN JR HAPPY NEW YEAR 2007.

DON'T FORGET TO GIVE TO INTERNATIONAL FELLOWSHIP OF CHRISTIANS AND JEWS, JACK VAN IMPE, TO WIN SOULS FOR CHRIST AND TO HELP HUNGRY ISRAELIS, AND TO HELP ISRAELIS COME TO ISRAEL.

EARTHQUAKES

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

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

LUKE 21:11
11 And great earthquakes shall be in divers places, and famines, and pestilences; and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven.

WORLD QUAKES LAST 2 DAYS (USGS)

Update time = Mon Jan 01 2007 12:01 AM EDT HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL IN THE WHOLE WORLD

DEC 31,06
MAP 5.5 NEUQUEN, ARGENTINA
MAP 3.2 CENTRAL ALASKA
MAP 2.9 CENTRAL ALASKA
MAP 2.6 CENTRAL ALASKA
MAP 2.9 CENTRAL CALIFORNIA
MAP 3.6 UNIMAK ISLAND REGION, ALASKA
MAP 2.6 CENTRAL ALASKA
MAP 3.0 ANDREANOF ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN IS., ALASKA
MAP 3.2 ANDREANOF ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN IS., ALASKA
MAP 3.2 FOX ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN ISLANDS, ALASKA
MAP 3.1 SOUTHERN ALASKA
MAP 2.7 FOX ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN ISLANDS, ALASKA
MAP 2.6 CENTRAL CALIFORNIA
MAP 2.8 UNIMAK ISLAND REGION, ALASKA
MAP 2.6 CENTRAL ALASKA
MAP 3.2 CENTRAL CALIFORNIA

DEC 30,06
MAP 4.9 NORTHERN ALGERIA
MAP 5.0 KURIL ISLANDS
MAP 4.6 KURIL ISLANDS
MAP 3.3 UNIMAK ISLAND REGION, ALASKA
MAP 4.7 KURIL ISLANDS
MAP 5.0 OFFSHORE GUATEMALA
MAP 3.4 NORTHERN CALIFORNIA
MAP 2.7 NORTHERN CALIFORNIA
MAP 3.2 ALASKA PENINSULA
MAP 2.5 SOUTHERN ALASKA
MAP 2.7 KODIAK ISLAND REGION, ALASKA
MAP 2.5 SOUTHERN ALASKA
MAP 5.1 SOUTH OF PANAMA
MAP 3.4 FOX ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN ISLANDS, ALASKA
MAP 3.4 SOUTH OF ALASKA
MAP 2.6 OREGON
MAP 4.9 EAST OF THE KURIL ISLANDS
MAP 5.2 EAST OF THE KURIL ISLANDS
MAP 3.2 UNIMAK ISLAND REGION, ALASKA
MAP 2.6 CENTRAL ALASKA
MAP 6.3 GULF OF ADEN
MAP 5.0 GUAM REGION
MAP 2.7 SOUTHERN ALASKA
MAP 2.7 SOUTHERN ALASKA
MAP 4.5 OFF THE EAST COAST OF KAMCHATKA, RUSSIA

STORMS HURRICANES-TORNADOES

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

Snow continues in parts of Plains B. Bernard, Meteorologist, The Weather Channel Sun Dec 31, 12:13 PM ET

Wind-driven snow continues to coat portions of the Great Plains today. A heavy snow warning has been posted for parts of northwest Iowa and a small portion of southwest Minnesota.

Winter storm warnings extend in a patchwork fashion from north-central Kansas to northeast Minnesota. Four to eight inches of snow are expected to pile up by this evening in the area under the heavy snow warning. Lesser amounts are likely elsewhere. Expect difficult travel over I-70 in northeast Kansas, I-80 in southeast Nebraska and southwest Iowa, and I-29 in northwest Iowa. Another area of concern, but not until late tonight, is in the Northeast. A freezing rain advisory is in effect beginning at midnight for portions of northern New York state and southern Vermont. No major icing is expected, however.

SIGNS OF THE END OF THE AGE (NOT THE WORLD) THE WORLD GOES ON FOREVER.

GENESIS 1:14
14 And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years:(ISRAELS HOLY DAYS AND SABBATH STARTS AT 6PM) And for SIGNS (PROPHECY SIGNS TO HAPPEN IN THE FUTURE, OUR DAY)

Jewish Calendar in Action
By Hillel Fendel (INN) DEC 31,06

Today, the 10th of Tevet, is a day of fasting, commemorating the siege of Jerusalem led by Nebuchadnezzar - the ancient Babylonian despot of whom Saddam Hussein claimed to be a reincarnation. Just a day after the hanging of Saddam Hussein, Jews around the world remember another cruel tyrant - Saddam's self-proclaimed role model - and his murderous plans for the Jewish People. Nebuchadnezzar was more successful than Saddam in this regard, in that he destroyed Jerusalem and the Holy Temple, and put hundreds of thousands of Jews, including the nation's king and leaders, to death with unspeakable cruelty.On this day, the 10th of Tevet, Nebuchadnezzar instated a tight siege on Jerusalem, setting off the chain of events that led to the destruction of the First Holy Temple and a 70-year exile of the Jewish People from their Holy Land. Today, nearly 2,500 years later, Jews around the world - and especially in the modern renewed edition of the Jewish State that Nebuchadnezzar tried to rub out - refrain from eating and drinking until sunset to remember the calamities that occurred at that time.Saddam Hussein, who was hanged yesterday in
Baghdad, just 90 kilometers from Nebuchadnezzar's palace in the ancient city of Babyon, modeled himself in many ways after Nebuchadnezzar.

Much of the brickwork in the throne room of King Nebuchadnezzar's palace, for instance, was built by Saddam Hussein's workers. Just as the original bricks are inscribed with words praising Nebuchadnezzar, the newer ones - 60 million of them! - state that they were fashioned in the era of Saddam Hussein, protector of Iraq, who rebuilt civilization and rebuilt Babylon.

In addition, in his book Saddam Hussein, the Stairway to Heaven and the Return of Planet X, William Henry writes, Saddam is saying he is the reincarnated Nebuchadnezzar... He is attempting to recreate and outdo the feats of the biblical king... It is well known that [he] has connected himself with Nebuchadnezzar, spending over $500 million during the 1980s on the reconstruction and the re-establishment of ancient Babylon, the capitol of Nebuchadnezzar.Nebuchadnezzar was Divinely changed into an animal for a period of time - an event that many recalled when the once-opulent Saddam Hussein was captured two and a half years ago living in nearly animal-like conditions.The Tenth of Tevet has also taken on another facet, in connection with the Holocaust. Many bereaved Jews who do not know the date or place of death of their loved ones recite Kaddish, the Jewish prayer for those who have died, on this day. For this reason, some consider this day as a Holocaust remembrance day.Yishai Fleisher contributed to this article.

Hundreds flock to see Saddam's gravesite By STEVEN R. HURST, Associated Press Writer DEC 31,06

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Hundreds of Iraqis flocked to the village where Saddam Hussein was born on Sunday to see the deposed leader buried in a religious compound 24 hours after his execution. There was no sign of a feared Sunni uprising in retaliation for Saddam's hanging, and the bloodshed on Saturday was not far off the daily average — 92 from bombings and death squads. Also Saturday, a roadside bomb killed one American soldier and wounded two in Baghdad, the U.S. military said Sunday. At least 2,999 U.S. service members have been killed since the war began in 2003, according to an Associated Press count.At Saddam's funeral, dozens of relatives and others, some of them crying and moaning, attended the interment shortly before dawn in Ouja. A few knelt before his flag-draped grave. A large framed photograph of Saddam was propped up on a chair nearby.I condemn the way he was executed and I consider it a crime, said 45-year-old Salam Hassan al-Nasseri, one of Saddam's clansmen who attended the interment in the village just outside Tikrit, 80 miles north of Baghdad. Some 2,000 Iraqis traveled to the village as well.Mohammed Natiq, a 24-year-old college student, said the path of Arab nationalism must inevitably be paved with blood.God has decided that Saddam Hussein should have such an end, but his march and the course which he followed will not end, Natiq said.Police on Saturday blocked the entrances to Tikrit and said nobody was allowed to leave or enter the city for four days. Despite the security precaution, gunmen took to the streets, carrying pictures of Saddam, shooting into the air and calling for vengeance.

Saddam was captured in an underground hide-out near Ouja on Dec. 13, 2003, eight months after he fled Baghdad ahead of advancing American troops.His burial place is about two miles from the graves of his sons, Odai and Qusai, in the main town cemetery. The sons and a grandson were killed in a gunbattle with the American forces in Mosul in July 2003.

The head of Saddam's Albu-Nassir's clan said the body showed no signs of mistreatment.We received the body of Saddam Hussein without any complications. There was cooperation by the prime minister and his office's director, the clan chief, Sheik al-Nidaa, told state-run Al-Iraqiya television. We opened the coffin of Saddam. He was cleaned and wrapped according to Islamic teachings. We didn't see any unnatural signs on his body.On Saturday, Iraqis watched television images of a noose being slipped over Saddam's neck and his white-shrouded body, the pre-dawn work of black-hooded hangmen.

They went to bed as new video emerged showing Saddam exchanging taunts with onlookers before the gallows floor dropped away and the former dictator swung from the rope.In Baghdad's Shiite neighborhood of Sadr City on Saturday, victims of his three decades of autocratic rule took to the streets to celebrate, dancing, beating drums and hanging Saddam in effigy. Celebratory gunfire erupted across other Shiite neighborhoods in Baghdad and other predominantly Shiite regions of the country.

Outside the Sunni insurgent stronghold of Ramadi, west of the capital, loyalists marched with Saddam pictures and waved Iraqi flags. Defying curfews, hundreds took to the streets vowing revenge in Samarra, north of Baghdad.Still, authorities imposed curfews sparingly in contrast to the several-day lockdown put in place after Saddam was sentenced to death Nov. 5.

By several accounts, Saddam was calm but scornful of his captors, engaging in a give-and-take with the crowd gathered to watch him die and insisting he was Iraq's savior, not its tyrant and scourge.He said we are going to heaven and our enemies will rot in hell and he also called for forgiveness and love among Iraqis but also stressed that the Iraqis should fight the Americans and the Persians, Munir Haddad, an appeals court judge who witnessed the hanging, told the British Broadcasting Corp.Another witness, national security adviser Mowaffak al-Rubaie, told The New York Times that one of the guards shouted at Saddam: You have destroyed us. You have killed us. You have made us live in destitution.

I have saved you from destitution and misery and destroyed your enemies, the Persian and Americans, Saddam responded, al-Rubaie told the Times. God damn you, the guard said. God damn you, responded Saddam. New video, first broadcast by Al-Jazeera satellite television early Sunday, had sound of someone in the group praising the founder of the Shiite Dawa Party, who was executed in 1980 along with his sister by Saddam. Saddam appeared to smile at those taunting him from below the gallows.

He said they were not showing manhood. Then Saddam began reciting the Shahada, a Muslim prayer that says there is no god but God and Muhammad is his messenger, according to an unabridged copy of the same tape, apparently shot with a camera phone and posted on a Web site. Saddam made it to midway through his second recitation of the verse. His last word was Muhammad.

The floor dropped out of the gallows.

The tyrant has fallen, someone in the group of onlookers shouted. The video showed a close-up of Saddam's face as he swung from the rope. Then came another voice: Let him swing for three minutes. The responses within Iraq to Saddam's death echoed the larger reaction across the Middle East, with his enemies rejoicing and his defenders proclaiming him a martyr. While Iranians and Kuwaitis welcomed the death of the leader who led wars against each of their countries, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said the execution prevented exposure of the secrets and crimes the former dictator committed during his brutal rule. Some Arab governments denounced the timing the 69-year-old former president's hanging just before the start of the most important holiday of the Islamic calendar, Eid al-Adha. Libya announced a three-day official mourning period and canceled all celebrations for Eid.

Haider Hamed, a 34-year-old candy store owner in east Baghdad, wondered what would really change after Saddam's execution. He's gone, but our problems continue, said the Shiite Muslim, whose uncle was killed in one of Saddam's many brutal purges.

We brought problems on ourselves after Saddam because we began fighting Shiite on Sunni and Sunni on Shiite. Among minority Sunnis there was deep anger, born not only of Saddam's execution but of the loss of their decades-long political and economic
dominance that began with Saddam's ouster in the U.S. invasion nearly four years ago. There were cheers at the cafeteria of a U.S. outpost in Baghdad as soldiers having breakfast learned Saddam had been hanged. But members of the Army's 2nd Battalion, 17th Field Artillery Regiment, on patrol in an overwhelmingly Shiite neighborhood in eastern Baghdad, said the execution wouldn't get them home any faster — and therefore didn't make much difference. Nothing really changes, said Capt. Dave Eastburn, 30. The militias run everything now, not Saddam.

Aussies usher '07 with Sydney fireworks By ROD McGUIRK, Associated Press Writer DEC 31,06

SYDNEY, Australia - Wind-swept revelers gathered around London's Big Ben to watch the fireworks, and thousands of Japanese climbed Mount Fuji and other peaks to watch the first sunrise of the New Year.

But the Thai capital sent celebrants home after a series of evening bombs. Police estimated a million people crammed the shore in Sydney, one of the world's first major cities to greet the New Year, for the fireworks and daylong festivities, some staking their claims to the best view before dawn Sunday and pitching tents in case of rain.A series of evening bombings in Bangkok, Thailand, left two people dead and 34 injured, and the city canceled its major New Year's celebration at the Central World Plaza shopping mall complex, where a crowd of about 5,000 dispersed calmly.No, I'm not scared. I'm from England. There are bomb scares all the time, said Keith Waters, who was with his Thai bride to celebrate the New Year.

Farther west, Philippine police tried to curb New Year casualties by threatening to arrest anyone who set off oversize firecrackers. Television networks were encouraged to show gory footage of fireworks accident victims.Despite the warning, 284 people were injured by firecrackers and celebratory gunfire in the two weeks ahead of New Year's Day, a 75 percent rise from last year, said Health Secretary Francisco Duque III.I have campaigned every day against firecrackers, Duque said. But this has become a deeply rooted part of our culture.Many Filipinos believe noisy New Year celebrations drive away evil and misfortune.In Japan, thousands climbed mountains, some scaling the famed Mount Fuji, to greet the first dawn of the year. Police expected crowds at the summits to reach 15,000.Japanese — ranging from families with children to elderly couples — usually start climbing during the night so they can reach the top in time for sunrise.

Japanese police anticipated the country's major Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines to receive nearly 95 million visitors over the first three days of the new year, as people offer prayers for peace, health and prosperity in one of the few religious rites in which most Japanese regularly take part.In Romania and Bulgaria, midnight was to mark a historic milestone, with the two countries becoming the newest members of the European Union. Outdoor parties were taking place in Bucharest and Sofia.Pope Benedict XVI prayed at a New Year's Eve service in Vatican City that 2007 would bring the world peace, comfort, justice.In Belfast, Northern Ireland, however, the threat of gale-force winds canceled an outdoor concert. Glasgow officials said high winds and rain had forced them to cancel traditional Hogmanay New Year's celebrations in the Scottish city, but Edinburgh said it would go ahead with its
Hogmanay party nonetheless.

DANIEL 7:23-24
23 Thus he said, The fourth beast(THE 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.(TR BLOCKS)
24 And the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise:(10 NATIONS) and another shall rise after them;(#11 SPAIN) and he shall be diverse from the first, and he shall subdue three kings.(BE HEAD OF 3 KINGS OR NATIONS).

Things to look for in 2007 from the EU

THE CONSTITUTION TO GET APPROVED.
FOR 10 OR 13 CORE EU COUNTRIES TO LEAD THE EU.
FOR THE 3 COUNTRY 18 MONTH TERM TO BE ADOPTED FROM THE CONSTITUTION.
FOR THE FOREIGN MINISTERS OFFICE TO TALK FOR ALL THE EU IN INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS.
FOR EU TROOPS TO COME INTO GAZA TO PROTECT ISRAEL.
FOR THE EU TO BECOME THE LEADER IN THE ISRAEL-ARAB PEACE PROCESS.

Another enlargement for the European Union
by Valerie Fenech, di-ve news (valfen@di-ve.com)

BRUSSELS / Malta (di-ve news) December 31, 2006 1505CET The European Union is set for another enlargement at midnight on Sunday as Romania and Bulgaria will be joining the Community on January 01.

This enlargement brings the EU to its fifth enlargement, following the last enlargement in May 2004, where Malta joined together with another nine countries, in what was the largest ever EU enlargement. The Union will now consist of 27 member states. Upon entry, Bulgaria and Romania will become part of a common territory of freedom, democracy and respect for fundamental human rights and the rule of law, as it is defined by the treaty on European Union. Different festivities are planned in both Romania and Bulgaria serving as celebrations for joining the EU.

WORLD TERRORISM

GENESIS 6:11-13
11 The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with 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 through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth.

2 PETER 2:5
5 And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly;

2 PETER 3:7
7 But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men

LEVITICUS 26:16
16 I also will do this unto you; I will even appoint over you( sudden) terror, consumption, and the burning ague, that shall consume the eyes, and cause sorrow of heart: and ye shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it.

GENESIS 16:11-12
11 And the angel of the LORD said unto her, Behold, thou art with child, and shalt bear a son, and shalt call his name Ishmael; because the LORD hath heard thy affliction.
12 And he will be a wild man; his hand will be against every man, and every man's hand against him; and he shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren.

ISAIAH 33:1,18-19 Woe to thee that spoilest,(destroys) and thou wast not spoiled;(destroyed) and dealest treacherously, and they dealt not treacherously with thee! when thou shalt cease to spoil,(destroy) thou shalt be spoiled;(destroyed) and when thou shalt make an end to deal treacherously, they shall deal treacherously with thee.
18 Thine heart shall meditate terror. Where is the scribe? where is the receiver? where is he that counted the towers?
19 Thou shalt not see a fierce people, a people of a deeper speech than thou canst perceive; of a stammering tongue, that thou canst not understand.

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.

CHRONOLOGY-Messages attributed to al Qaeda
31 Dec 2006 12:05:10 GMT,Source: Reuters

Dec 31 (Reuters) - Al Qaeda's deputy leader Ayman al-Zawahri called on insurgents in Iraq to unite, and urged Palestinian Islamists not to cooperate with the Palestinian Authority, according to a Web audio tape posted on Sunday.Following is a chronology of major statements attributed to Osama bin Laden, Zawahri or their allies in the last six months. At least 38 messages have been broadcast since Al Jazeera aired a statement by bin Laden following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

June 1 - Al Qaeda in Iraq leader Musab al-Zarqawi calls on fellow Sunnis to reject any reconciliation with infidel Shi'ites, in an audiotape.

June 9 - Zawahri urges Palestinians, in a video, to reject a referendum on a statehood proposal that implicitly recognises Israel.

June 22 - Zawahri vows vengeance against the United States for the death of Zarqawi in a U.S. air strike.

June 30 - Bin Laden praises Zarqawi as a lion of jihad, and vows al Qaeda will continue to fight U.S. forces and their allies everywhere, according to an Internet audiotape.

July 1 - Bin Laden warns Iraq's Shi'ite majority of retaliation for attacks on Sunni Arabs and says his group will fight the United States anywhere in the world.

July 7 - A year on from bombings in London, al Qaeda issues a video with comments from Zawahri, bin Laden and one bomber. Zawahri says bombers Shehzad Tanweer and Mohammad Sidique Khan had been trained in al Qaeda camps.

July 27 - Zawahri, in video statement titled The Zionist-Crusader war on Lebanon and the Palestinians, calls on Muslims to fight attacks on their countries.

Sept. 29 - Zawahri calls U.S. President George W. Bush a lying failure for saying progress had been made in the war on terrorism. He also calls the Pope a charlatan because of his remarks on Islam.

Dec. 20 - Zawahri says that al Qaeda will continue to target Western countries so long as Muslims were under attack. Zawahri says Washington is scrambling for an exit from Iraq and Afghanistan, but is approaching the wrong parties.
-- He also says that elections would not free Palestinian land from Israeli occupation and that any path other than holy war would lead to loss and defeat.

Dec. 31 - Zawahri calls on insurgents in Iraq to unite, and urges Palestinian Islamists not to cooperate with the Palestinian Authority.
-- He also hails any Muslim woman insisting on wearing the Islamic veil despite pressures in some Western countries as a soldier in the battle of Islam against the Zionist-Crusader attack.

2006: A year of fear, storms and elections
By Harry Levins-ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH,12/31/2006

Iraqis protested violence by day, and at night hunted down members of other sects.
(Razak Jaber/AP) A bomb that exploded on Feb. 22 sent shock waves rippling through the rest of the year.The bomb destroyed the dome of a Sunni Muslim shrine in Samarra, Iraq. The damage from that single blast has kept piling up:The explosion detonated a wave of Shiite-Sunni killings. Each tide of bloodshed by one sect generated a retaliatory backlash from the other. The sectarian savagery forced the United States to back away from its earlier musing about a large-scale cut this year in its forces in Iraq. The inability either to win in Iraq or to pull out of Iraq fed growing public unrest. Iraq boiled up as the No. 1 issue in the mid-term congressional elections. Last month, Iraq helped to strip the Republicans of their hold on the Senate and House.On the day after the election, President George W. Bush cashiered the aide with his fingerprints all over the Iraq war, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. Soon, White House press briefers stopped saying, Stay the course. On the heels of Rumsfeld’s ouster, the bipartisan Iraq Study Group issued a report that opened with a sobering sentence: The situation in Iraq is grave and deteriorating. Its theme: Train the Iraqis, and bring the Americans home.Now, Bush is rethinking what to do next, with a decision due after the holidays. Some advisers want a surge in strength in Baghdad, to impose stability. Critics say any such surge would merely hand friendly Iraqis an excuse to procrastinate — and would also hand hostile Iraqis more American targets.

The Republicans also suffered from some self-inflicted wounds.

A campaign finance scandal removed from Congress a big Republican name — Rep. Tom DeLay of Texas, former House majority leader. An influence-peddling scandal centering on disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramhoff removed a lesser-known Republican, Ohio’s Bob Ney.But the Republican scandal that grabbed the most eyeballs centered on Rep. Mark Foley of Florida. He quit after publication of his lurid electronic messages to congressional pages.So the Democrats ran up a big edge in the House and a slim one in the Senate. (A footnote to U.S. political history: The Democratic victory will, for the first time, place the House speaker’s gavel in the hands of a woman, Nancy Pelosi of California.)

Also injuring the GOP was grousing by conservatives on two fronts.

First, Bush’s call for a change in immigration laws to accommodate the millions of illegals already here angered many rightist Republicans. They accused Bush of winking at law-breaking. For now, anyway, the issue sits on a back burner.Second, the president’s backing of a plan to let Dubai buy up control over American ports infuriated many on the right — so much so that Bush backed away.Like the immigration melee, the flap over the ports stoked the outrage on talk radio, normally a source of support for Bush. But the president had a bad 12 months — if not an annus horribilis, at least what he recently called a difficult year.

Bad news abroad

Iraq hardly stood alone as source of troubling headlines:In Afghanistan, the once-shattered Taliban pieced themselves together and spun that country into a violently ugly turn.As U.S. prestige ebbed in the Mideast, Iran won new clout — and pressed forward with a nuclear program that could give the Iranians a bomb.North Korea actually tested a nuclear bomb. In terms of physics, the bomb fizzled, mostly. But in terms of international standing, the bomb boosted the Hermit Kingdom into the exclusive club of nuclear powers.Islamists threatened Somalia’s already impotent government. Ethiopia stood up to counter the Islamists — even though their clash could lead to a wider war in the touchy Horn of Africa.When Hezbollah militants snatched a couple of Israeli soldiers, the Israelis reacted with a heavy hand. Weeks of bombing and artillery fire trashed much of Lebanon but failed to bring Hezbollah to heel.Killings, rape and plunder persisted in the Darfur region of Sudan. Despite much talk and more hand-wringing, no outsiders seemed able to stop it.With Israel’s Ariel Sharon stricken from the scene by a stroke, Palestine’s political factions turned on each other. One of them, Hamas, won parliamentary elections. Before long, Hamas was violently battling the other faction, Fatah. At year’s end, nothing to staunch the bloodletting stood at hand. Closer to home, Mexicans remain split in a close election that handed the presidency to a conservative. So far, his populist opponent has refused to recognize the returns.

Home-grown headlines

Domestically, the economy produced a mixed bag of headlines. On the bright side, the Dow Jones average rose to record heights. On the down side, housing values sagged, the auto industry stalled — and the price of gasoline flirted for a time with $3 a gallon.Tighter security rules at airports flustered passengers trying to board with shampoo and sodas. Casualty counts dominated some days’ news ... 12 coal miners killed in West Virginia, for example ... and 49 people killed in Kentucky when an airliner rolled down the wrong runway ... and five Amish girls slain at a schoolhouse in Pennsylvania ...A grander number was 300 million — a milestone mark that the U.S. population surpassed on Oct. 17.

A couple of Americans won first woman status — Washington’s Pelosi, of course, and Katharine Jefferts Schori as presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church, plus perky Katie Couric as a solo network news anchor.Sexual misdeeds did in evangelical leader Ted Haggard. Despite his squeaky-clean sermonizing, a male prostitute singled out Haggard as a regular customer. And in outer space, the year had a big loser, if we can use the term big to describe a dwarf. Astronomers downgraded Pluto from planet to dwarf planet.

Footnotes of folly

No year runs out without a ration of foolishness — of stories that grabbed a lot more attention than they deserved, thanks in large part to the ravenous appetite of cable news.On a hunting trip in Texas, Vice President Dick Cheney wounded a fellow hunter by firing The Shot Heard ’Round The Clock.We saw, heard and read far too much about the tawdry antics of Britney Spears and about the oddest couple of them all, Donald Trump and Rosie O’Donnell.Then there was that oddest of oddballs, John Mark Karr, who confessed to killing JonBenet Ramsey. After a few days of fame, Karr was found to be fibbing.But when we look back at the footnotes of 2006, we’ll most remember O.J. Simpson and If I Did It — his conditional confession to killing his ex-wife and her friend. A nation gagged in disgust, and the book (plus a related TV interview) faded away remarkably quickly.As has this year ...