1-WORLD QUAKES LAST 2 DAYS. 2-Forecasters Place Islands Under Flash Flood Watch. 3-Malaysia flood toll at 17 as fresh rains hit. 4-Rain, heat and wind: robots go to blazes. 5-Mandelson Presses U.S. for Political Commitment on WTO Accord. 6-New Rabbinical Restrictions Against Hareidi Women´s Careerism. 7-Israel Denies Reports it Has Plans for Strike on Iran Nuclear Facility. 8-Bunker-buster strike planned for Iran's nukes.
REMEMBER LAST WEEK ON TV TO ORDER JACK VAN IMPES PROPHECY BIBLE, A MUST FOR PROPHECY KNOWLEDGE AND STUDY MATERIALS. GOING TO 240 NATIONS FOR SOULS FOR CHRIST.
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 8 7:00:02 UTC 2007
JAN 08,07
MAP 2.7 UNIMAK ISLAND REGION, ALASKA
MAP 2.8 SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
MAP 2.6 ANDREANOF ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN IS., ALASKA
MAP 5.3 SOLOMON ISLANDS
JAN 07,07
MAP 2.7 ALASKA PENINSULA
MAP 3.9 BAJA CALIFORNIA, MEXICO
MAP 4.6 FIJI REGION
MAP 5.0 SOUTH OF ALASKA
MAP 3.1 BAJA CALIFORNIA, MEXICO
MAP 3.4 UNIMAK ISLAND REGION, ALASKA
MAP 3.0 UNIMAK ISLAND REGION, ALASKA
MAP 2.8 SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
MAP 5.0 MAULE, CHILE
MAP 5.0 MYANMAR
MAP 3.1 UNIMAK ISLAND REGION, ALASKA
MAP 2.5 FOX ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN ISLANDS, ALASKA
MAP 3.1 NORTHERN CALIFORNIA
MAP 4.9 KURIL ISLANDS
MAP 3.0 UNIMAK ISLAND REGION, ALASKA
MAP 2.7 SOUTHERN ALASKA
MAP 2.8 CENTRAL ALASKA
MAP 3.3 VIRGIN ISLANDS REGION
MAP 2.7 NORTHERN CALIFORNIA
MAP 4.4 VIRGIN ISLANDS REGION
MAP 2.7 UNIMAK ISLAND REGION, ALASKA
MAP 3.8 PUERTO RICO REGION
MAP 3.2 PUERTO RICO REGION
MAP 3.7 PUERTO RICO REGION
MAP 2.8 FOX ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN ISLANDS, ALASKA
MAP 5.0 NORWEGIAN SEA
MAP 5.0 GUAM REGION
MAP 3.4 NEVADA
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.
Forecasters Place Islands Under Flash Flood Watch
Brent Suyama, Managing Editor TheHawaiiChannel.com
Sun Jan 7, 12:46 PM ET
The National Weather Service issued a flash flood watch for all of the Hawaiian Islands on Sunday until Wednesday. A Kona low northwest of the state is expected to hit by Sunday night, forecasters said. A Kona low usually brings moisture from south of the islands.Thunderstorms could strike the islands over night on Sunday, the NWS said. The forecasters predicted heavy downpours.
They warned residents, particularly those near streams, to be prepared for possible flooding.Sign up for severe weather alerts here at TheHawaiiChannel.com and stay with KITV 4 Island Television News for the latest weather updates.
Malaysia flood toll at 17 as fresh rains hit Sun Jan 7, 8:12 AM ET
KUALA LUMPUR (AFP) - The death toll from floods in Malaysia has risen to 17 as fresh heavy downpours forced hundreds to evacuate in the country's north and the eastern state of Sabah.
The latest victim was a elderly man in Kota Marudu town in northern Sabah, where intermittent rain fell over the weekend, said Malaysia's crisis and disaster management chief.Che Moin Umar said conditions were expected to worsen in the coming days, with heavy rains forecast over the country's northern states.It will deteriorate ... I cannot say much whether it will be like Malacca and Johor, Che Moin told AFP, referring to two southern states worst hit by Malaysia's flood crisis so far.We are preparing for the worst-case scenario, he added.The meteorological department Sunday issued its highest red stage warning for heavy rains in the northern states of Kelantan, Terengganu, Perlis, Kedah, Penang, Perak, and central Pahang state until Wednesday.Moderate rain will also continue in Sabah into the week, it said.Che Moin said authorities had evacuated more than 150 people in Kelantan and Terengganu after rains on Saturday night sparked flooding.
Some 200 people were also evacuated over the weekend from the town of Beaufort in Sabah, he said.Conditions are easing in Johor, which has seen 15 of the 17 fatalities, although 16,455 people evacuated from the floods were still sheltering in relief centres on Sunday, said Malaysia's Bernama news agency.The number of people sheltering in relief centres nationwide peaked at 90,000 in the last week of December.Johor authorities said Sunday that it would cost some 60 million ringgit (17.08 million dollars) to repair flood-damaged infrastructure such as bridges, Bernama reported, as Health Minister Chua Soi Lek warned of dengue outbreaks.
There is a likelihood that we will see a sudden surge in the number of dengue cases in another two weeks if no effort is made to clean up the areas and rid them of stagnant water pools, Chua was quoted as saying from Johor.Victims have blamed the flash floods, the worst in decades, on environmental degradation and poor development planning.
FIRES AND EXPLOSIONS
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.
Rain, heat and wind: robots go to blazes
Daniella Miletic - January 8, 2007 (The Age)
EVERY 10 minutes, severe-weather experts receive emails with bushfire updates from eight of their most important firefighters: robotic weather stations that operate in some of the state's most remote areas.
Those emails from the edges of Victoria's bushfires are sent by satellite to the Bureau of Meteorology, where they are decoded and passed on to firefighters. Department of Sustainability and Environment spokesman Stuart Ord said the new solar-operated machines — known as portable automatic weather stations — are being used this bushfire season to help plan the assault on flames in the state's north-east and Gippsland region.The stations, which cost about $40,000 each, detect wind speeds and directions, rainfall, solar radiation, temperature, atmospheric pressure and humidity.
Mr Ord said the eight machines were moved to the worst-affected fire areas.
They give localised weather conditions from the edge of a fire, so they are far more precise accounts than from permanent weather stations further away, Mr Ord said.Severe-weather meteorologist Monica Long said the stations were compact and easy to set up.
We know that we can put them anywhere, and that they will pick up what's happening, and we will be able to get the reading no matter how remote the terrain is, she said.Ms Long said staff placed the stations as close to the fire front as possible. Sometimes they were dropped in by helicopter if locations were difficult to get to by road.We are forecasting for lots of specific locations, particularly in areas where there is a lot of difference in elevation … like in the alpine region, where there are a lot of ridges and troughs and valleys where we don't have any fixed stations.
Country Fire Authority spokesman Matt Fraser said the stations were a key weapon in the fight against bushfires. Their most important function was their detection of wind change.Ms Long said Victoria was the first to adopt the technology last year, but South Australia, Western Australia and NSW were keen to buy stations.Although mostly used for bushfires, the technology was versatile, Ms Long said. Last year the stations were used to help track and predict wind changes during the locust outbreak.
Mandelson Presses U.S. for Political Commitment on WTO Accord
By Jennifer M. Freedman JAN 7,07
Jan. 7 (Bloomberg) -- European Union Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson called for a strong new political commitment between the U.S. and EU to revive global trade negotiations that collapsed six months ago or risk delaying an accord for years. Mandelson will meet U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab in Washington tomorrow following talks between President George W. Bush and European Commission President Jose Barroso. The two trade officials are seeking ways to invigorate the talks with joint U.S.-EU leadership and use the narrow window between now and Easter to successfully complete the negotiations, the commission said in a statement. World Trade Organization negotiations broke down in July over disagreements on how to curb rich nations' aid to farmers. WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy has pressed larger governments to be more flexible, calling concessions by the EU, the U.S., India and Brazil vital to reviving the talks.
While negotiators resumed technical work in October, Lamy said last month that governments have failed to offer real changes in numbers of what they're prepared to concede. Governments have already agreed, in principle, to the biggest cuts in farm commodity tariffs ever in global trade talks and to eliminate export subsidies for agricultural goods. The commission says it's willing to improve its offer by adding substantially to the 39 percent it submitted a year ago. Europe is ready to add more than 10 percentage points and get within close reach of the average farm tariff cut demanded by developing countries, 51.5 percent, the commission said.
Real Cuts Needed
In return, the EU wants the U.S. to make real cuts to trade-distorting farm subsidies to levels near to those demanded by developing countries. This would mean a budget cut of about $8 billion from current ceilings of $23 billion, according to the commission, the 27-nation group's executive arm. The quiet, constructive bilateral contacts of the last few months have made clear to us all the possible outline of a final deal, Mandelson said. We now need the added momentum of political leadership from the highest level.
Trade talks may stall until 2009 unless negotiators clinch an accord before Bush's negotiating mandate from Congress expires in July, Lamy has said. Last week, U.S. Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez kicked off the administration's drive for a renewal of its trade negotiating authority, which compels Congress to approve or reject trade agreements that the president negotiates without amending them. A deal would inject at least $96 billion into the world economy, the World Bank estimates. It may also lead to the creation of hundreds of billions of dollars worth of new trade annually -- an important boost to the U.S. and European economies, the commission said. Failure to wrap up a trade accord would handicap a global economy already faced with rising inflation, oil-price volatility and a slowing U.S. housing market, the International Monetary Fund said in September. To contact the reporter on this story: Jennifer M. Freedman in Brussels at jfreedman@bloomberg.net.
New Rabbinical Restrictions Against Hareidi Women´s Careerism
By Gil Zohar JAN 07,07 (INN)
Rabbis' new restrictions on hareidi-religious women pursuing academic degrees will impair the ability of teachers to earn a living and support their families. Regulations by Israel’s Ministry of Education requiring a significant portion of the instructors who teach would-be educators to have a master’s degree or doctorate have set off a chain of events likely to lead to growing poverty in the hareidi-religious sector. Since there are a limited number of eligible hareidi professors with second or third degrees, hareidi education students have been exposed to a wide variety of teachers - leading hareidi rabbis to take action against what they perceive as unacceptable foreign influences.Thus the Rabbinical Committee on Education, the official body that sets educational policy for most of the hareidi community’s institutions, has issued new guidelines cancelling all academic programs resulting in a bachelor's degree. As well, a significant number of courses will be downgraded and a large number of lecturers will be fired.
The new rabbinic ruling is likely to dramatically impact on hareidi women in the workplace, many of whom earn a living as teachers. They will no longer be able to pursue academic degrees in education in Beit Yaakov, Israel's largest chain of educational institutions for women. The ruling is likely to limit their future earning capabilities, as teachers with advanced degrees earn more - and can find
more jobs - than those without them.The cancellation resulted from a growing concern among rabbis that hareidi women were being taught inappropriate materials, or were being instructed by professors too far removed from a religious outlook.For some reason, we have found, in recent years, that courses are taught by foreign lecturers, ran an editorial in Bayit Ne’eman, the women’s supplement of Yated Ne'man, Israel's largest circulation hareidi newspaper. Some of these lecturers belong to the Mizrachi stream, and others, to great shame, are secular through and through... there is danger here of contamination.The entry of large numbers of hareidi women into the workforce followed the bankruptcy in 1992 of Olympia & York Developments - the privately-owned Toronto, Canada-based real estate firm whch was building the huge Canary Wharf project in London, Britain. As a result, the Reichmann family, the billionaire patrons who had subsidized much of Israel's hareidi world, were compelled to curtail their once vast philanthropy.
In addition, the sharp budget cuts suffered by the hareidi population under Finance Minister Binyamin Netanyahu have also had their effect on the hareidi families, leading more women to see employment outside the home.Thus was engendered a subtle revolution in the hareidi sector in Jerusalem, Bnei Brak and elsewhere. Pressed to support their Torah-studying husbands and large families, increasing numbers of ultra-Orthodox women joined the workforce, a trend endorsed by several key rabbis and seen by many as essential to the community’s economic health.The recent decree against higher education, described as an earthquake by the Yated Ne’eman newspaper, was issued by a group of rabbis who set the community’s educational policies, and was led by Rabbi Yosef Shalom Elyashiv of Jerusalem (pictured above).Rabbi Elyashiv, 96, is the paramount leader of Israel's Lithuanian non-Hasidic hareidi Ashkenazi Jews (sometimes called by the old label of misnagdim) who regard him as the posek ha-dor (decisor of the generation), the modern leading authority on halakhah, or Jewish law.
The ruling, said Bar Ilan University’s Prof. Menachem Friedman, one of Israel’s leading authorities on the hareidi community, is an extreme move but nonetheless in step with socioeconomic trends sweeping the hareidi community for years.The hareidi leaders, Friedman told The New York Jewish Week, are gradually losing control of their followers, as their society increasingly depends for its survival on women, traditionally cast as mothers and homemakers, earning a living by interacting with Israeli society at large.
In an interview with Yated Ne’eman, unnamed conservative sources in the hareidi community claimed that the move was a response to a growing aspiration for careerism among women, a trend, the sources said, that was against religious principles.It cannot be, Rabbi Eliyashiv told Yated Ne’eman recently, that teachers who are supposed to educate the daughters of Israel and teach in ‘Beit Yaakov will take all sorts of courses, without the great rabbis being involved in every detail of what is being taught and who is teaching. Without supervision and a direct setting of the curriculum, it is inevitable that courses might be littered with words of heresy.
Prior to the cancellations, graduates of Beit Yaakov’s high schools would enroll in teachers’ seminaries, obtaining a certificate allowing them to teach in hareidi educational institutions after two years, and another certificate enabling them to become teachers in any Israeli educational institution after three.
Until now, most women pursued a fourth year of study, which awarded them the equivalent of a bachelor’s degree, a distinction that allows teachers to advance professionally and increase their salary.The new decree effectively cancelled the fourth-year option, and may have an indirect effect on the third-year route as well.Further, the new decree specifies that women who have already completed the equivalent of a bachelor’s degree would be at a disadvantage if they apply for a job at any institution affiliated with Beit Yaakov.Sarah Ziv, director of the department of teacher training in the Ministry of Education, told the Tel Aviv daily Haaretz that while the academic courses were designed in full coordination with the hareidi rabbis, it is obvious that we will not give up the demand that whoever teaches education have a master’s degree in the field.
The decision is bound to have much influence on other fervently Orthodox streams. The Gerrer (Gur) sect, for example, one of Israel’s largest hasidic sects, has traditionally aligned itself with whatever the Rabbinical Committee on Education, which is hareidi but not hasidic, has decreed. It is still unclear how other hasidic rabbis — including the fifth Belzer Rebbe Yissachar Dov Rokeach, who has traditionally been more open to secular education — will react.According to Bar Ilan’s Friedman, the decree is likely to have far-reaching implications, ones that will likely exacerbate the already grim economic situation of the haredi community. When you deny an entire society the ability to fit in with the modern economy, you deny it of its only mean of surviving in modern life, he said. Friedman added that the move is likely to put a greater strain on Israeli society as a whole, as less hareidi earning power will mean less contributions toward pension funds and more strain on the system at large.I’m an Israeli patriot, he said, and a Jewish patriot, and I’m weeping for the state and for these women.
Israel Denies Reports it Has Plans for Strike on Iran Nuclear Facility
By Robert Berger - Jerusalem - 07 January 2007 (VOA News)
Israel is denying a report in a British newspaper that the country has drawn up secret plans to target Iran's nuclear facilities with tactical nuclear weapons. Speculation has been rife about an Israeli pre-emptive strike against Iran since the Iranian president threatened to destroy the Jewish state. Robert Berger reports from the VOA bureau in Jerusalem. Israel's Foreign Ministry denied a report in London's Sunday Times that said the Israeli air force is training for a tactical nuclear strike on uranium enrichment facilities in Iran. Quoting Israeli military sources, the paper said the secret plan involves using low-yield nuclear bunker busters. The report said Israeli pilots have flown to Gibraltar in recent weeks to train for the 3,000-kilometer round-trip flight to Iranian targets.
But, in a brief statement, the Foreign Ministry said Israel prefers diplomacy, including full implementation of U.N. sanctions on Iran.At the same time, Israel believes those sanctions are not strong enough. Israeli analyst Cameron Brown:They are very, very light sanctions, and very limited in scope. Sanctions that have been imposed are totally insufficient to convince the Iranians that the price is far too high to bear, Brown says.Brown says what is needed is a series of sanctions .that are going to have to become much, much more comprehensive, and going to have to be much more penetrating, if they are going to have any chance of success at all, he says.More than a year ago, the Iranian president threatened to wipe Israel off the map, and, since then, Israeli officials have said repeatedly that they cannot allow Iran to acquire nuclear weapons. The Israeli air force destroyed Iraq's nuclear reactor in 1981, but an attack on Iran is much more complicated. Iran's nuclear facilities are spread out and fortified deep underground in concrete. Therefore, some experts believe the only way Israel can destroy Iran's nuclear facilities is with tactical nuclear weapons.
NUCLEAR WAR-FEAR - Bunker-buster strike planned for Iran's nukes
Israelis training for tactical atomic weapons against Tehran's uranium-enrichment facilities January 6, 2007 - 8:00 p.m. Eastern - WorldNetDaily.com
The Sunday London Times is reporting that Israel has drawn up secret plans to use tactical nuclear weapons to destroy uranium-enrichment sites in Iran.
Two Israeli air force squadrons have been training for a mission against an enrichment plant in Natanz using low-yield nuclear bunker busters, Israeli military sources told the Times. The Israeli weapons would each have a force equivalent to one-fifteenth of the bomb dropped on Hiroshima in 1945. WND reported Israel's training against a mock-up of Iran's Natanz uranium enrichment plant in March 2005. Tactics included raids by Israel's elite Shaldag commando unit and airstrikes by F-15 jets from the 69 Squadron, using bunker-busting bombs purchased from the U.S. to penetrate underground facilities. Today's Times story reveals two other sites that would be targeted with conventional weapons: a heavy water plant at Arak capable of producing bomb-grade plutonium and a uranium conversion plant at Isfahan, where 250 tons of gas for the enrichment process have been stored in tunnels.
The plan calls for conventional laser-guided bombs opening tunnels at Natanz, with mini-nukes following close behind, exploding underground and limiting the area affected by radioactive fallout. Thousands of centrifuges are being installed for uranium enrichment at the Natanz site. Scientists agree that contamination from the bunker-busters would be limited, but tons of radioactive uranium compounds would be still be released, they say. Three potential routes – one over Turkey – have been selected for the mission. Israeli pilots have been training in recent weeks by flying mock runs between Israel and Gibralter in anticipation of the 2,000-mile round-trip flight to Iran. As soon as the green light is given, it will be one mission, one strike and the Iranian nuclear project will be demolished, said one of the Times sources.
A growing consensus in Israel's military says conventional strikes may no longer be adequate to destroy enrichment facilities built beneath 70 feet of concrete and rock. While tactical atomic weapons are prominently featured in the current planning, the nuclear-tipped bunker-busters would reportedly be used only if a conventional attack was ruled out and if the U.S. declined to intervene. Pentagon sources were skeptical that the U.S. would give approval to the use of tactical nuclear weapons.
Israel sought U.S. approval after the event for the 1981 airstrike that crippled Iraq's nuclear reactor at Osirak and one source said it would probably do so again. Israel believes Iran would be constrained from retaliation with its Shehab-3 ballistic missiles by fear of a second strike. This is not the first time Israel's planning for a strike on Iran has been reported. As WND reported in December 2005, then-Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon ordered defense forces to plan for a pre-emptive strike on Iran's nuclear weapons facilities by the end of March 2006 – the time intelligence sources were saying Tehran would be able to begin producing nuclear weapons. Israel – and not only Israel – cannot accept a nuclear Iran, Sharon warned. We have the ability to deal with this and we're making all the
necessary preparations to be ready for such a situation.
Monday, January 08, 2007
Sunday, January 07, 2007
RICE - SOLANA VISIT MIDEAST
1-WORLD QUAKES LAST 2 DAYS. 2-Colorado avalanche buries cars. 3-Brazil's rain-related death toll hits 31. 4-Temperatures soar in the Northeast. 5-Pope says religious leaders must stress spiritual aspect of globalization debate. 6-Rome to support death penalty moratorium. 7-Rice, Solana to visit Mideast to push peace process. 8-US imposes sanctions on arms suppliers to Iran, Syria. 9-Hamas pledges to boost forces in Gaza.
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 = SUN Jan 7 12:14 AM EDT
SUN QUAKES NONE AS YET
SAT JAN 6,07
MAP 3.7 CENTRAL ALASKA
MAP 5.1 MINAHASA, SULAWESI, INDONESIA
MAP 2.9 ALASKA PENINSULA
MAP 2.9 BAJA CALIFORNIA, MEXICO
MAP 3.5 UNIMAK ISLAND REGION, ALASKA
MAP 3.0 UNIMAK ISLAND REGION, ALASKA
MAP 3.8 UNIMAK ISLAND REGION, ALASKA
MAP 3.4 GULF OF ALASKA
MAP 5.1 TONGA
MAP 5.2 SAMAR, PHILIPPINES
MAP 2.6 SOUTHERN ALASKA
MAP 3.2 CENTRAL ALASKA
MAP 4.8 ECUADOR
MAP 2.7 FOX ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN ISLANDS, ALASKA
MAP 2.9 CENTRAL CALIFORNIA
JAN 05,07
MAP 2.8 FOX ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN ISLANDS, ALASKA
MAP 3.0 ALASKA PENINSULA
MAP 3.4 ANDREANOF ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN IS., ALASKA
MAP 5.7 SOUTH OF ALASKA
MAP 4.5 FIJI REGION
MAP 4.4 KYUSHU, JAPAN
MAP 4.9 GUAM REGION
MAP 4.8 SOUTH OF THE KERMADEC ISLANDS
MAP 4.3 BANDA SEA
MAP 4.6 PAGAN REGION, NORTHERN MARIANA ISLANDS
MAP 5.3 NIAS REGION, INDONESIA
MAP 2.6 CENTRAL ALASKA
MAP 2.5 CENTRAL CALIFORNIA
MAP 2.5 FOX ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN ISLANDS, ALASKA
MAP 3.0 UNIMAK ISLAND REGION, ALASKA
MAP 2.6 CENTRAL CALIFORNIA
MAP 2.6 NORTHERN ALASKA
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.
Colorado avalanche buries cars JAN 06,07
Colorado has been hit by three snow storms in recent weeks A massive avalanche in the western US state of Colorado has buried cars and swept other vehicles off the road. The avalanche, described by local rescue crews as the largest they had ever seen, struck at the Berthoud Pass, 100km (60 miles) west of Denver. A Colorado transport spokesman told the BBC early reports suggest two cars had been caught up in the avalanche. He said one person was seriously hurt and there were no fatalities reported. At least seven people have been rescued. Even though vehicles were swept off the road, they are not said to be in any danger, however details are still scarce.
The avalanche was described as 100ft (30m) wide and 15ft (4.5m) deep. Three snow storms in recent weeks have dumped more than 4ft of snow on parts of Colorado. The site of the avalanche is on the main route to one of the Colorado's top skiing areas. It happened at late-morning after the bulk of skier traffic had already passed, said Stacey Stegman of the Colorado Department of Transportation. If it would've happened just a couple of hours earlier, this would have been a very different situation, she told CNN.
Brazil's rain-related death toll hits 31 By MICHAEL ASTOR, Associated Press Writer JAN 06,07
RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil - Firefighters recovered the body of a woman whose home was engulfed in a mudslide, and her husband died from injuries Saturday, as the death toll from days of heavy rains in southeast Brazil reached 31. Floods and mudslides have driven thousands of people from their homes over the past week, and more rains were forecast for the weekend.Firefighters retrieved the body of a 62-year-old woman beneath mud that engulfed her hillside home in the city of Novo Friburgo, some 95 miles northeast of Rio de Janeiro. Her husband died of injuries in the hospital, raising the death toll in that city to 12, according to a Civil Defense spokeswoman. Twenty-six people have died in Rio de Janeiro state, about 310 miles northeast of Sao Paulo.Authorities Saturday reported the deaths of two other people in mudslides in Sao Paulo state. On Friday, three people died when a bus skidded out of control, an accident authorities blamed on the heavy rains.
The mudslides and flash floods have forced more than 12,000 people to abandon their homes for shelter in churches, schools, gymnasiums and other public buildings, officials said.Most of the victims were poor people who live in shantytowns built precariously on hillsides.Mudslides are a chronic problem in Rio de Janeiro state during the summer rainy season. Clearing grass and shrubs from the hillsides to make way for shantytowns causes erosion, leaving the communities vulnerable to mudslides.In recent years, the state government has attempted to remove people from the most dangerous hillsides, but people with no access to affordable housing continue to build crude brick houses on the steepest slopes.
Temperatures soar in the Northeast Wayne Verno, Meteorologist, The Weather Channel Sat Jan 6, 10:13 AM ET
Northeast
Low pressure tracking northeast across New England today, will allow the steadier rain to taper to showers and then end across the Mid-Atlantic by afternoon. Rain, heavy at times, will last most of the day across northern New England. In the wake of the rainfall, areas from Boston, New York, and Albany, southward through Washington, DC and Baltimore, will see afternoon high temperatures near or exceeding record levels as readings soar into the upper 60s and lower 70s.
West of the Appalachians, from Buffalo to Pittsburgh, afternoon highs will be in the 50s. A cold front will approach on Sunday, bringing cooler temperatures, while a new storm system movies up from the south, bringing a chance of rain showers to parts of the Mid-Atlantic. Rain will impact parts of the eastern Mid-Atlantic and eastern New England on Monday, as the storm system moves northeast, while further inland, colder air will allow for a chance of snow showers.
West
A storm system will continue to bring rain, heavy at times, along with strong gusty winds to coastal portions of the Pacific Northwest today. Snow levels will also be dropping, with accumulations over a foot likely, widespread arross of the mountains.
Another storm system will move inland tomorrow, bringing more rain, wind, and snow. Snow will likely be measured in feet across the mountains as continuous heavy snow is expected. As these storm systems move inland over the Pacific Northwest, winds and snow will also be on the increase across parts if the northern Rockies. Winds could become strong and damaging over parts of the mountains today. Over southern California, strong Santa Anna winds will bring and increased fire danger to that area. Winds may also result in damage. Meanwhile, high pressure will dominate the rest of the western states.
South
Dense fog will impact much of the South this morning, in the wake of yesterday's rainfall and severe weather. Visibilities will be reduced at times to below one half of a mile, making for slow morning travel. Cloudy skies will linger into the afternoon hours and a new wave of low pressure takes shape over the northern Gulf. Rain showers will move back into parts of the Gulf Coastal states by afternoon. Afternoon temperatures will be warm at most locations, with readings well into the 60s and 70s. A few temperatures near or exceeding record highs will be possible across parts of the Southeastern states. By Sunday, low pressure will track northeast across the area, spreading rain and thunderstorms across parts of the Mississippi Valley, eastward through the Southern States. This will be followed by high pressure and dry conditions across the entire area by Monday.
Midwest
A cold front moving southeast across the Midwest, will result in slightly cooler temperatures today, with afternoon readings in the 40s. The coldest temperatures will be felt across the northern Plains where afternoon highs will be in the 30s. As a disturbance from the Pacific Northwest moves east across the northern Rockies, gusty winds will develop across the northern Plains today. Clouds will also be on the increase along with a chance for snow showers by late day. Over the next few days, a series of weather disturbances will move across the northern tier, resulting in periods of snow showers and flurries. Colder temperatures can also be expected with afternoon highs in the 20s and 30s. Elsewhere across the Midwest, mainly fair weather conditions can be expected.
REVELATION 17:1-2
1 And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither; I will shew unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters:(VATICAN)
2 With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication,(TALKS) and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication.
Pope says religious leaders must stress spiritual aspect of globalization debate JAN 06,07
VATICAN CITY Pope Benedict says religious leaders of all faiths must play a role in ensuring that spiritual and cultural aspects of life are not forgotten as mankind tackles the challenges of globalization.The pope made the comments today during his homily in an Epiphany Day Mass in St. Peter's Basilica. Benedict says while politicians, scientists and researchers play important roles in the modern world, today, more than ever, it is necessary to place at their side the leaders of the great non-Christian religious traditions, as well as Christian leaders.Benedict appears to be building on a theme often stressed by his predecessor, John Paul, who worried that modernization was coming at the cost of mankind's spiritual dimension.2007 The Associated Press.
Rome to support death penalty moratorium Fri Jan 5, 11:23 PM ET
ROME - Rome will light up the Colosseum on Saturday in support of Italy's push at the United Nations for a worldwide moratorium on the death penalty, launched after a wave of denunciations across Europe over Saddam Hussein's execution. Mayor Walter Veltroni said in a statement Friday that the lighting was a signal of hope and an encouragement for Premier Romano Prodi's government, which this week began a diplomatic push to have the issue taken up by the U.N. General Assembly. Rome's Colosseum, once the arena for deadly gladiator combat and executions, has become a symbol of Italy's anti-death penalty stance. Since 1999, the 1st century monument has been bathed in golden light every time a death sentence is commuted somewhere in the world or a country abolishes capital punishment.Italy, which is now one of the rotating members of the U.N. Security Council, has lobbied unsuccessfully in the past for U.N. action against the death penalty.Saddam's execution by hanging on Saturday was denounced virtually across Italy's political spectrum, with former premier and conservative opposition leader Silvio Berlusconi calling the killing a political error and center-left leader Prodi expressing worry that the execution would fuel more violence in Iraq.Italy and all other European Union countries do not permit capital punishment.
Rice, Solana to visit Mideast to push peace process
www.chinaview.cn 2007-01-05 06:30:18
WASHINGTON, Jan. 4 (Xinhua) -- EU's foreign policy chief Javier Solana, after his meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice here on Thursday, said he will travel to the Middle East this month after Rice to push the Middle East peace
process.We will try to see how we can give a push to the peace process, Solana said. When asked if Rice were optimistic about the prospects for the Middle East peace process, Solana said: I don't think that optimism is the word. We have to stick to the word realism.Solana also had lunch in the White House with Stephen Hadley, the national security adviser of U.S. President George W. Bush.The Middle East peace process has been in a standstill since the militant Hamas won the legislative elections in Palestine early last year. As a result, the U.S.-led West has cut off all contacts as well as aids to the Hamas-led Palestinian government for its refusal to recognize Israel, a key U.S. ally in the Middle East.Editor: Luan Shanglin
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.
US imposes sanctions on arms suppliers to Iran, Syria Fri Jan 5, 5:47 PM ET
WASHINGTON (AFP) - The United States announced sanctions against 24 foreign entities, including Russian, Chinese and North Korean firms, for allegedly selling banned weapons to Iran and Syria.
The move drew a sharp protest from Moscow.
Russia's state-run arms exporter Rosoboronexport was among the highest profile firms hit by the measures, imposed under the 2005 Iran and Syria Nonproliferation Act.
Three Chinese state-run companies, two other Russian firms and a Russian individual as well as entities from Iran, Sudan, Syria, Pakistan, Malaysia and Mexico were hit by the sanctions, published Friday in the US Federal Register.The measures took effect as of December 28, a State Department official said. The government did not specify exactly what sales or transfers to Iran or Syria had prompted the punitive steps.The sanctions law, which dates back to 1999 for Iran and 2005 for Syria, bars US government dealings with companies, governments or individuals caughttransferring missile technology, weapons of mass destruction of advanced conventional arms to the two countries.While the US measures are often largely symbolic, notably when they concern firms in countries such as North Korea, Iran and Syria, they can impact the international dealings of some firms and drew a sharp response Friday from the Russians.The introduction of umpteen sanctions against us is a form of unfair competition targeting our company and all Russia, said Valery Kartavtsev, a spokesman of Rosoboronexport.Rosoboronexport was already hit with US sanctions in August for allegedly providing Iran with equipment that could be used in the development of weapons of mass destruction.Russian aircraft firm Sukhoi was also targetted by those measures, but the sanctions were lifted against the jetmaker in November after angry protests from Moscow.
Kartavtsev told Russian television his company had doubled its arms exports over the past five years, notably with sales to lucrative markets in Latin America.He said Rosoboronexport adhered strictly to international and Russian law and had not yet received any official notification of the sanctions.The deputy chief of another group listed Friday, the Tula Bureau of Studies and Mechanical Construction, said: Our high technology arms deliveries abroad are in strict conformity with Russian and international rules.Vassily Gryazev was quoted by ITAR-TASS news agency as saying the sanctions would only have symbolic value bcause his company had no business links with the US.Vladimir Pekhtin, Deputy Speaker of the Duma, or lower House in Moscow, said the real reason for the sanctions was that the American administration is simply afraid of competition from Russian companies.The other Russian firm cited in the sanctions was the Kolomna Design Bureau of Machine-Building, while one individual, Alexey Safonov, was named without further information given.The targetted Chinese firms were China National Electronic Import-Export Company, China National Aero-Technology Import and Export Company and Zibo Chemet Equipment Company.
Hamas pledges to boost forces in Gaza By IBRAHIM BARZAK, Associated Press Writer JAN 06,07
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - Hamas defied President Mahmoud Abbas' decree Saturday that its paramilitary unit is illegal, saying it will fight any attempt to disband the force in an increasingly bloody faceoff between the Islamic militant group and Abbas' Fatah party.
Three more Hamas supporters were killed in the factional fighting that is threatening to plunge the Palestinian territories into civil war.Fatah and Hamas have been wrangling over power since the Islamic group defeated Fatah in parliamentary elections a year ago and gained control over most Palestinian government functions.Abbas, who was elected in a separate election, retained his post as president and Fatah continued to dominate security forces. Challenging that position, Hamas formed its own security unit, the Executive Force, last spring, recruiting many former members of the Hamas military wing.Tensions between the rival security forces kept building in the streets until large-scale fighting erupted last month. Since then, more than two dozen people have been killed.
On Saturday, Abbas outlawed the Executive Force. He issued the decree two days after Hamas gunmen stormed the home of a top pro-Fatah security commander in northern Gaza, killing the man and seven bodyguards. It was the deadliest battle yet during the recent wave of infighting.Abbas' office said the decision was made in light of continued security chaos and assassinations of a number of our fighters ... and in light of the failure of existing agencies and security apparatuses in imposing law and order and protecting the security of the citizens.The statement said the Hamas force was outside the law and will be dealt with accordingly as long as it is not immediately folded into legal security forces.Abbas also confirmed that the U.S. is sending aid to boost the Palestinian security forces loyal to him. U.S. officials said Friday that President Bush is asking Congress to provide $83 million for those forces.Abbas claims authority over most Palestinian security forces, but Hamas controls the Interior Ministry, which also has security responsibilities. The various forces were formed more than a decade ago by the late Yasser Arafat as part of his autocratic style of rule in which he created rivalries to keep potential challengers weak.
After years of corruption and fighting with Israel, the forces have become largely ineffective, fueling widespread lawlessness, particularly in the Gaza Strip.In Gaza, Hamas' stronghold, leaders of the group defiantly rejected Abbas' decree.Interior Ministry spokesman Khaled Abu Hilal said that Abbas was giving the green light for attacks on Hamas security men and that the unit would deal firmly with anyone who attacks it.
He also announced plans to double the size of the Executive Force, which now has 6,000 men, compared with some 18,000 security men aligned with Fatah.Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas accused Abbas of trying to deepen the rift between the two camps.I'm completely convinced that there are those who don't want the Palestinian scene to enjoy calm and stability or to create the appropriate atmosphere for starting serious and deep dialogue aimed at reaching a national unity government, he said.Abbas, a political moderate, has been urging Hamas to join Fatah in a coalition in hopes of ending international sanctions against the Hamas-led government that have further crippled the Palestinian economy. But months of negotiations broke down in late November, sparking the latest wave of violence.
Abbas wants to restart peace talks with Israel, while Hamas, which is committed to Israel's destruction, refuses to recognize the Jewish state's right to exist.
Previous attempts by Abbas to disband the Hamas militia or integrate it into existing security units failed. Hamas officials said they were open to the integration idea, but only if Abbas announces an extensive overhaul of the current command structure. Abbas' decree said the president plans a reshuffle of commanders, but gave no details. Several days ago, he appointed Brig. Gen. Jamal Kayed, a Fatah loyalist, to head the National Security force in Gaza.
Kayed, a former presidential bodyguard, is believed to have generally good relations with Hamas. Late Saturday, three members of a pro-Hamas family were slain by gunmen from a rival clan considered to be Fatah supporters, witnesses and family members said. The same Fatah family has kidnapped about 10 Hamas supporters in recent days, Hamas officials said. Hamas' radio station in Gaza said one of the dead was a member of the Executive Force. The Palestinian infighting initially was largely confined to Gaza, but in recent days it spread to the West Bank with a series of kidnappings and shootings. On Saturday, gunmen in the West Bank stopped the car of Nablus' deputy mayor, Mahdi al-Khamdali of Hamas, pulled him out and took him away in another car, security officials said. There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but the officials said they believed the kidnappers were Fatah supporters. In Ramallah, gunmen stormed the offices of the Hamas-controlled Interior Ministry, shot the office manager in the legs and took him away, security officials said. The man, also a Hamas supporter, was released in a nearby town and hospitalized, the officials said. Shopkeepers in the West Bank city of Hebron closed their stores in a protest action launched at the request of the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, a violent group affiliated with Fatah.
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 = SUN Jan 7 12:14 AM EDT
SUN QUAKES NONE AS YET
SAT JAN 6,07
MAP 3.7 CENTRAL ALASKA
MAP 5.1 MINAHASA, SULAWESI, INDONESIA
MAP 2.9 ALASKA PENINSULA
MAP 2.9 BAJA CALIFORNIA, MEXICO
MAP 3.5 UNIMAK ISLAND REGION, ALASKA
MAP 3.0 UNIMAK ISLAND REGION, ALASKA
MAP 3.8 UNIMAK ISLAND REGION, ALASKA
MAP 3.4 GULF OF ALASKA
MAP 5.1 TONGA
MAP 5.2 SAMAR, PHILIPPINES
MAP 2.6 SOUTHERN ALASKA
MAP 3.2 CENTRAL ALASKA
MAP 4.8 ECUADOR
MAP 2.7 FOX ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN ISLANDS, ALASKA
MAP 2.9 CENTRAL CALIFORNIA
JAN 05,07
MAP 2.8 FOX ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN ISLANDS, ALASKA
MAP 3.0 ALASKA PENINSULA
MAP 3.4 ANDREANOF ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN IS., ALASKA
MAP 5.7 SOUTH OF ALASKA
MAP 4.5 FIJI REGION
MAP 4.4 KYUSHU, JAPAN
MAP 4.9 GUAM REGION
MAP 4.8 SOUTH OF THE KERMADEC ISLANDS
MAP 4.3 BANDA SEA
MAP 4.6 PAGAN REGION, NORTHERN MARIANA ISLANDS
MAP 5.3 NIAS REGION, INDONESIA
MAP 2.6 CENTRAL ALASKA
MAP 2.5 CENTRAL CALIFORNIA
MAP 2.5 FOX ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN ISLANDS, ALASKA
MAP 3.0 UNIMAK ISLAND REGION, ALASKA
MAP 2.6 CENTRAL CALIFORNIA
MAP 2.6 NORTHERN ALASKA
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.
Colorado avalanche buries cars JAN 06,07
Colorado has been hit by three snow storms in recent weeks A massive avalanche in the western US state of Colorado has buried cars and swept other vehicles off the road. The avalanche, described by local rescue crews as the largest they had ever seen, struck at the Berthoud Pass, 100km (60 miles) west of Denver. A Colorado transport spokesman told the BBC early reports suggest two cars had been caught up in the avalanche. He said one person was seriously hurt and there were no fatalities reported. At least seven people have been rescued. Even though vehicles were swept off the road, they are not said to be in any danger, however details are still scarce.
The avalanche was described as 100ft (30m) wide and 15ft (4.5m) deep. Three snow storms in recent weeks have dumped more than 4ft of snow on parts of Colorado. The site of the avalanche is on the main route to one of the Colorado's top skiing areas. It happened at late-morning after the bulk of skier traffic had already passed, said Stacey Stegman of the Colorado Department of Transportation. If it would've happened just a couple of hours earlier, this would have been a very different situation, she told CNN.
Brazil's rain-related death toll hits 31 By MICHAEL ASTOR, Associated Press Writer JAN 06,07
RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil - Firefighters recovered the body of a woman whose home was engulfed in a mudslide, and her husband died from injuries Saturday, as the death toll from days of heavy rains in southeast Brazil reached 31. Floods and mudslides have driven thousands of people from their homes over the past week, and more rains were forecast for the weekend.Firefighters retrieved the body of a 62-year-old woman beneath mud that engulfed her hillside home in the city of Novo Friburgo, some 95 miles northeast of Rio de Janeiro. Her husband died of injuries in the hospital, raising the death toll in that city to 12, according to a Civil Defense spokeswoman. Twenty-six people have died in Rio de Janeiro state, about 310 miles northeast of Sao Paulo.Authorities Saturday reported the deaths of two other people in mudslides in Sao Paulo state. On Friday, three people died when a bus skidded out of control, an accident authorities blamed on the heavy rains.
The mudslides and flash floods have forced more than 12,000 people to abandon their homes for shelter in churches, schools, gymnasiums and other public buildings, officials said.Most of the victims were poor people who live in shantytowns built precariously on hillsides.Mudslides are a chronic problem in Rio de Janeiro state during the summer rainy season. Clearing grass and shrubs from the hillsides to make way for shantytowns causes erosion, leaving the communities vulnerable to mudslides.In recent years, the state government has attempted to remove people from the most dangerous hillsides, but people with no access to affordable housing continue to build crude brick houses on the steepest slopes.
Temperatures soar in the Northeast Wayne Verno, Meteorologist, The Weather Channel Sat Jan 6, 10:13 AM ET
Northeast
Low pressure tracking northeast across New England today, will allow the steadier rain to taper to showers and then end across the Mid-Atlantic by afternoon. Rain, heavy at times, will last most of the day across northern New England. In the wake of the rainfall, areas from Boston, New York, and Albany, southward through Washington, DC and Baltimore, will see afternoon high temperatures near or exceeding record levels as readings soar into the upper 60s and lower 70s.
West of the Appalachians, from Buffalo to Pittsburgh, afternoon highs will be in the 50s. A cold front will approach on Sunday, bringing cooler temperatures, while a new storm system movies up from the south, bringing a chance of rain showers to parts of the Mid-Atlantic. Rain will impact parts of the eastern Mid-Atlantic and eastern New England on Monday, as the storm system moves northeast, while further inland, colder air will allow for a chance of snow showers.
West
A storm system will continue to bring rain, heavy at times, along with strong gusty winds to coastal portions of the Pacific Northwest today. Snow levels will also be dropping, with accumulations over a foot likely, widespread arross of the mountains.
Another storm system will move inland tomorrow, bringing more rain, wind, and snow. Snow will likely be measured in feet across the mountains as continuous heavy snow is expected. As these storm systems move inland over the Pacific Northwest, winds and snow will also be on the increase across parts if the northern Rockies. Winds could become strong and damaging over parts of the mountains today. Over southern California, strong Santa Anna winds will bring and increased fire danger to that area. Winds may also result in damage. Meanwhile, high pressure will dominate the rest of the western states.
South
Dense fog will impact much of the South this morning, in the wake of yesterday's rainfall and severe weather. Visibilities will be reduced at times to below one half of a mile, making for slow morning travel. Cloudy skies will linger into the afternoon hours and a new wave of low pressure takes shape over the northern Gulf. Rain showers will move back into parts of the Gulf Coastal states by afternoon. Afternoon temperatures will be warm at most locations, with readings well into the 60s and 70s. A few temperatures near or exceeding record highs will be possible across parts of the Southeastern states. By Sunday, low pressure will track northeast across the area, spreading rain and thunderstorms across parts of the Mississippi Valley, eastward through the Southern States. This will be followed by high pressure and dry conditions across the entire area by Monday.
Midwest
A cold front moving southeast across the Midwest, will result in slightly cooler temperatures today, with afternoon readings in the 40s. The coldest temperatures will be felt across the northern Plains where afternoon highs will be in the 30s. As a disturbance from the Pacific Northwest moves east across the northern Rockies, gusty winds will develop across the northern Plains today. Clouds will also be on the increase along with a chance for snow showers by late day. Over the next few days, a series of weather disturbances will move across the northern tier, resulting in periods of snow showers and flurries. Colder temperatures can also be expected with afternoon highs in the 20s and 30s. Elsewhere across the Midwest, mainly fair weather conditions can be expected.
REVELATION 17:1-2
1 And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither; I will shew unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters:(VATICAN)
2 With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication,(TALKS) and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication.
Pope says religious leaders must stress spiritual aspect of globalization debate JAN 06,07
VATICAN CITY Pope Benedict says religious leaders of all faiths must play a role in ensuring that spiritual and cultural aspects of life are not forgotten as mankind tackles the challenges of globalization.The pope made the comments today during his homily in an Epiphany Day Mass in St. Peter's Basilica. Benedict says while politicians, scientists and researchers play important roles in the modern world, today, more than ever, it is necessary to place at their side the leaders of the great non-Christian religious traditions, as well as Christian leaders.Benedict appears to be building on a theme often stressed by his predecessor, John Paul, who worried that modernization was coming at the cost of mankind's spiritual dimension.2007 The Associated Press.
Rome to support death penalty moratorium Fri Jan 5, 11:23 PM ET
ROME - Rome will light up the Colosseum on Saturday in support of Italy's push at the United Nations for a worldwide moratorium on the death penalty, launched after a wave of denunciations across Europe over Saddam Hussein's execution. Mayor Walter Veltroni said in a statement Friday that the lighting was a signal of hope and an encouragement for Premier Romano Prodi's government, which this week began a diplomatic push to have the issue taken up by the U.N. General Assembly. Rome's Colosseum, once the arena for deadly gladiator combat and executions, has become a symbol of Italy's anti-death penalty stance. Since 1999, the 1st century monument has been bathed in golden light every time a death sentence is commuted somewhere in the world or a country abolishes capital punishment.Italy, which is now one of the rotating members of the U.N. Security Council, has lobbied unsuccessfully in the past for U.N. action against the death penalty.Saddam's execution by hanging on Saturday was denounced virtually across Italy's political spectrum, with former premier and conservative opposition leader Silvio Berlusconi calling the killing a political error and center-left leader Prodi expressing worry that the execution would fuel more violence in Iraq.Italy and all other European Union countries do not permit capital punishment.
Rice, Solana to visit Mideast to push peace process
www.chinaview.cn 2007-01-05 06:30:18
WASHINGTON, Jan. 4 (Xinhua) -- EU's foreign policy chief Javier Solana, after his meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice here on Thursday, said he will travel to the Middle East this month after Rice to push the Middle East peace
process.We will try to see how we can give a push to the peace process, Solana said. When asked if Rice were optimistic about the prospects for the Middle East peace process, Solana said: I don't think that optimism is the word. We have to stick to the word realism.Solana also had lunch in the White House with Stephen Hadley, the national security adviser of U.S. President George W. Bush.The Middle East peace process has been in a standstill since the militant Hamas won the legislative elections in Palestine early last year. As a result, the U.S.-led West has cut off all contacts as well as aids to the Hamas-led Palestinian government for its refusal to recognize Israel, a key U.S. ally in the Middle East.Editor: Luan Shanglin
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.
US imposes sanctions on arms suppliers to Iran, Syria Fri Jan 5, 5:47 PM ET
WASHINGTON (AFP) - The United States announced sanctions against 24 foreign entities, including Russian, Chinese and North Korean firms, for allegedly selling banned weapons to Iran and Syria.
The move drew a sharp protest from Moscow.
Russia's state-run arms exporter Rosoboronexport was among the highest profile firms hit by the measures, imposed under the 2005 Iran and Syria Nonproliferation Act.
Three Chinese state-run companies, two other Russian firms and a Russian individual as well as entities from Iran, Sudan, Syria, Pakistan, Malaysia and Mexico were hit by the sanctions, published Friday in the US Federal Register.The measures took effect as of December 28, a State Department official said. The government did not specify exactly what sales or transfers to Iran or Syria had prompted the punitive steps.The sanctions law, which dates back to 1999 for Iran and 2005 for Syria, bars US government dealings with companies, governments or individuals caughttransferring missile technology, weapons of mass destruction of advanced conventional arms to the two countries.While the US measures are often largely symbolic, notably when they concern firms in countries such as North Korea, Iran and Syria, they can impact the international dealings of some firms and drew a sharp response Friday from the Russians.The introduction of umpteen sanctions against us is a form of unfair competition targeting our company and all Russia, said Valery Kartavtsev, a spokesman of Rosoboronexport.Rosoboronexport was already hit with US sanctions in August for allegedly providing Iran with equipment that could be used in the development of weapons of mass destruction.Russian aircraft firm Sukhoi was also targetted by those measures, but the sanctions were lifted against the jetmaker in November after angry protests from Moscow.
Kartavtsev told Russian television his company had doubled its arms exports over the past five years, notably with sales to lucrative markets in Latin America.He said Rosoboronexport adhered strictly to international and Russian law and had not yet received any official notification of the sanctions.The deputy chief of another group listed Friday, the Tula Bureau of Studies and Mechanical Construction, said: Our high technology arms deliveries abroad are in strict conformity with Russian and international rules.Vassily Gryazev was quoted by ITAR-TASS news agency as saying the sanctions would only have symbolic value bcause his company had no business links with the US.Vladimir Pekhtin, Deputy Speaker of the Duma, or lower House in Moscow, said the real reason for the sanctions was that the American administration is simply afraid of competition from Russian companies.The other Russian firm cited in the sanctions was the Kolomna Design Bureau of Machine-Building, while one individual, Alexey Safonov, was named without further information given.The targetted Chinese firms were China National Electronic Import-Export Company, China National Aero-Technology Import and Export Company and Zibo Chemet Equipment Company.
Hamas pledges to boost forces in Gaza By IBRAHIM BARZAK, Associated Press Writer JAN 06,07
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - Hamas defied President Mahmoud Abbas' decree Saturday that its paramilitary unit is illegal, saying it will fight any attempt to disband the force in an increasingly bloody faceoff between the Islamic militant group and Abbas' Fatah party.
Three more Hamas supporters were killed in the factional fighting that is threatening to plunge the Palestinian territories into civil war.Fatah and Hamas have been wrangling over power since the Islamic group defeated Fatah in parliamentary elections a year ago and gained control over most Palestinian government functions.Abbas, who was elected in a separate election, retained his post as president and Fatah continued to dominate security forces. Challenging that position, Hamas formed its own security unit, the Executive Force, last spring, recruiting many former members of the Hamas military wing.Tensions between the rival security forces kept building in the streets until large-scale fighting erupted last month. Since then, more than two dozen people have been killed.
On Saturday, Abbas outlawed the Executive Force. He issued the decree two days after Hamas gunmen stormed the home of a top pro-Fatah security commander in northern Gaza, killing the man and seven bodyguards. It was the deadliest battle yet during the recent wave of infighting.Abbas' office said the decision was made in light of continued security chaos and assassinations of a number of our fighters ... and in light of the failure of existing agencies and security apparatuses in imposing law and order and protecting the security of the citizens.The statement said the Hamas force was outside the law and will be dealt with accordingly as long as it is not immediately folded into legal security forces.Abbas also confirmed that the U.S. is sending aid to boost the Palestinian security forces loyal to him. U.S. officials said Friday that President Bush is asking Congress to provide $83 million for those forces.Abbas claims authority over most Palestinian security forces, but Hamas controls the Interior Ministry, which also has security responsibilities. The various forces were formed more than a decade ago by the late Yasser Arafat as part of his autocratic style of rule in which he created rivalries to keep potential challengers weak.
After years of corruption and fighting with Israel, the forces have become largely ineffective, fueling widespread lawlessness, particularly in the Gaza Strip.In Gaza, Hamas' stronghold, leaders of the group defiantly rejected Abbas' decree.Interior Ministry spokesman Khaled Abu Hilal said that Abbas was giving the green light for attacks on Hamas security men and that the unit would deal firmly with anyone who attacks it.
He also announced plans to double the size of the Executive Force, which now has 6,000 men, compared with some 18,000 security men aligned with Fatah.Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas accused Abbas of trying to deepen the rift between the two camps.I'm completely convinced that there are those who don't want the Palestinian scene to enjoy calm and stability or to create the appropriate atmosphere for starting serious and deep dialogue aimed at reaching a national unity government, he said.Abbas, a political moderate, has been urging Hamas to join Fatah in a coalition in hopes of ending international sanctions against the Hamas-led government that have further crippled the Palestinian economy. But months of negotiations broke down in late November, sparking the latest wave of violence.
Abbas wants to restart peace talks with Israel, while Hamas, which is committed to Israel's destruction, refuses to recognize the Jewish state's right to exist.
Previous attempts by Abbas to disband the Hamas militia or integrate it into existing security units failed. Hamas officials said they were open to the integration idea, but only if Abbas announces an extensive overhaul of the current command structure. Abbas' decree said the president plans a reshuffle of commanders, but gave no details. Several days ago, he appointed Brig. Gen. Jamal Kayed, a Fatah loyalist, to head the National Security force in Gaza.
Kayed, a former presidential bodyguard, is believed to have generally good relations with Hamas. Late Saturday, three members of a pro-Hamas family were slain by gunmen from a rival clan considered to be Fatah supporters, witnesses and family members said. The same Fatah family has kidnapped about 10 Hamas supporters in recent days, Hamas officials said. Hamas' radio station in Gaza said one of the dead was a member of the Executive Force. The Palestinian infighting initially was largely confined to Gaza, but in recent days it spread to the West Bank with a series of kidnappings and shootings. On Saturday, gunmen in the West Bank stopped the car of Nablus' deputy mayor, Mahdi al-Khamdali of Hamas, pulled him out and took him away in another car, security officials said. There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but the officials said they believed the kidnappers were Fatah supporters. In Ramallah, gunmen stormed the offices of the Hamas-controlled Interior Ministry, shot the office manager in the legs and took him away, security officials said. The man, also a Hamas supporter, was released in a nearby town and hospitalized, the officials said. Shopkeepers in the West Bank city of Hebron closed their stores in a protest action launched at the request of the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, a violent group affiliated with Fatah.
Saturday, January 06, 2007
US TEACHER PROMOTES NAUNION
1-WORLD QUAKES LAST 2 DAYS. 2-2 killed by reported tornado in La. 3-Rains, mudslides kill 24 in southeast Brazil. 4-Dear Friend of The Fellowship, Jimmy Carter. 5-Why do people insert prayers into the Western Wall? 6-Hybrid embryo work under threat. 7-Bush, Merkel push Mid-East talks. 8-Nuclear test would deepen N.Korea's isolation - Rice 9-Radionuclides spreading around the world. 10-Ollmert-Mubarak Meeting Overshadowed by Ramallah Raid. 11-El Al Won't Fly on Sabbath Without Rabbinical Dispensation. 12-Brussels divided on future shape of EU commission. 13-Residents of planned union to be North Americanists.
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 = Sat Jan 6 12:14 AM EDT
SAT JAN 06,07
MAP 2.9 CENTRAL CALIFORNIA
FRI JAN 05,07
MAP 2.8 FOX ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN ISLANDS, ALASKA
MAP 3.0 ALASKA PENINSULA
MAP 3.4 ANDREANOF ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN IS., ALASKA
MAP 5.7 SOUTH OF ALASKA
MAP 5.0 GUAM REGION
MAP 4.6 PAGAN REGION, NORTHERN MARIANA ISLANDS
MAP 5.6 NIAS REGION, INDONESIA
MAP 2.6 CENTRAL ALASKA
MAP 2.5 CENTRAL CALIFORNIA
MAP 2.5 FOX ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN ISLANDS, ALASKA
MAP 3.0 UNIMAK ISLAND REGION, ALASKA
MAP 2.6 CENTRAL CALIFORNIA
MAP 2.6 NORTHERN ALASKA
JAN 04,07
MAP 3.2 NORTHERN CALIFORNIA
MAP 2.6 CENTRAL ALASKA
MAP 3.0 BAJA CALIFORNIA, MEXICO
MAP 3.0 KENAI PENINSULA, ALASKA
MAP 3.4 MONA PASSAGE, PUERTO RICO
MAP 2.9 CENTRAL ALASKA
MAP 3.5 FOX ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN ISLANDS, ALASKA
MAP 3.0 VIRGIN ISLANDS REGION
MAP 4.9 SOUTHERN PERU
MAP 3.0 OREGON
MAP 2.7 ANDREANOF ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN IS., ALASKA
MAP 3.1 UNIMAK ISLAND REGION, ALASKA
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.
Rains, mudslides kill 24 in southeast Brazil
Fri Jan 5, 2007 11:11 PM GMT
RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - At least 24 people died in mudslides and more than 12,000 were left homeless this week following heavy rain in southeast Brazil, with the death toll likely to rise as the hunt for bodies goes on, the Civil Defence said on Friday. Most of the deaths occurred in Rio de Janeiro state when shacks built illegally on steep slopes surrounding mountainous towns were swept away.The number of victims could rise further. The Civil Defence is still on alert and we're still searching for missing people, said Cpl. Leonardo Franco at Civil Defence.Marcos Sanches from the National Space Research Climate Studies Centre said that in the first five days of January the Mantiqueira mountains near Rio de Janeiro received half the usual average monthly rainfall, and further rains were likely this weekend.Wet weather, if prolonged, could discourage visitors to the annual Carnival in Rio de Janeiro in February but tourist bookings there have not been affected yet by the rains.Mudslides killed 16 Brazilians in Petropolis, an historic mountain resort near Rio, in January 2003. In December 2001, 52 people died in mudslides in Rio de Janeiro state.
Since October, the heavy rains have killed at least 17 people in neighbouring Minas Gerais, one of Brazil's biggest mining and agricultural states.At least two people have died in Sao Paulo, Brazil's main industrial state which lies just southwest of Rio de Janeiro.Reuters 2007.
2 killed by reported tornado in La. JAN 05,07
NEW IBERIA, La. - Powerful storms killed at least two people, flooded streets and ripped apart homes as they swept from Louisiana through South Carolina on Friday. Much of the worst damage was in Louisiana's Iberia Parish, where what appeared to be a tornado hit the New Iberia area just before 4 p.m. Thursday.We were just sitting and watching a movie, and then all of a sudden the wind started blowing and it got really bad, said Joyce Firmin of Iberia Parish. It just sounded like a bunch of trucks or an airplane or something was coming toward the house.Firmin's daughter, 14-year-old Jaci, said she could hear branches snapping and power lines popping during the storm. My ears were popping a lot, she said. When we came out, everything was down.
The storm killed a woman and 6-year-old girl in their home, the Iberia Parish Coroner's Office said, and at least 15 other people were injured.Nine more people were hurt when the storm reached east-central Mississippi's Kemper County late Thursday and early Friday, according to the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency.
There's more damage out here than what we initially thought, Ben Dudley, Kemper County's emergency management director, said after trips to communities ofBlackwater and Damascus on Friday. We're looking at eight to 10 homes destroyed and several with major damage.Carnell Newton said most of those injured in Blackwater were his relatives — including a woman who suffered a head injury and was upgraded from critical to serious condition Friday.They were in a doublewide (mobile home) and it just exploded, Newton said.Laquita Clark, 21, said the storm knocked her two-bedroom home off its foundation and turned it into a disaster area. She had been next door at the time.
Five more homes and businesses were damaged in southern Mississippi's Stone County.In northwest South Carolina, 15 people were injured when a suspected tornado piled cars on top of each other Friday afternoon outside an elementary school, officials said. No students were injured.In Alabama, several vacant mobile homes parked outside a mobile home plant in Hamilton were damaged and power lines were down, officials said.
Trees were down across stretches of Georgia.From a Louisiana hospital, Steven Bruno described how he was flipped over twice while furniture and glass flew around his mobile home on Thursday. His girlfriend, who is six months pregnant, washospitalized for fetal monitoring, and the hospital gown he was wearing is now the only thing he owns, he said.Whether his home and others in southern Louisiana were hit by a tornado won't be determined until storm surveys are conducted.In New Orleans, city workers had been dispatched early to clean drains and prepare for possible flooding ahead of the heavy rain.
Southern Louisiana has been pounded by major storms that bumped its December rainfall total to more than 10 inches, nearly twice the normal average, and forecasters on Friday warned that more rain was coming.More showers and thunderstorms are on the way Saturday afternoon and evening as we get another cold front coming through. We're in a progressive pattern — almost like clockwork, every three days we'll get a front through, said weather service forecaster Kent Kuyper.
This Week with Rabbi Eckstein - January 5, 2007
Dear Friend of The Fellowship, Jimmy Carter
Since its release a few weeks back, a number of people have approached me asking my opinion about a book written by former president Jimmy Carter entitled, Palestine: Peace, Not Apartheid.It is difficult to add much to what has already been said about this book. Its factual errors and anti-Israel bias have been exposed by many who truly know and have a deep understanding of the Middle East including some of Carter’s closest associates.
One of these is Middle East historian and Emory University professor of Israeli studies Kenneth Stein, who in the ‘80s acted as the first director of the Carter Center, the former president’s non-profit organization. Mr. Stein recently ended a 23-year relationship with the Carter Center because of what he called the book’s one-sided nature, and factual errors, copied materials not cited, superficialities, glaring omissions, and simply invented segments.As you will see from the comments below, Mr. Stein is just one of the many, notable voices that are a part of the chorus of criticism for Palestine: Peace, Not Apartheid:
Mr. Carter repeatedly mentions Security Council Resolution 242, which called for return of captured territories in exchange for peace, recognition, and secure boundaries, but he ignores that Israel accepted and all the Arab nations and the Palestinians rejected this resolution… But you wouldn't know that from reading the history according to Mr. Carter. Alan Dershowitz, New York Sun[Carter] says that the only division of territory that is recognized by the United States and the international community is the pre-1967 Green Line.
It is hard to believe that Carter does not know that this claim is simply false… The Green Line is just the 1949 armistice line from the end of Israel’s War of Independence. Neither the United States nor the international community recognized this as the final border between Israel and Jordan. Ira Forman, Washington Jewish WeekThe demonization of Israel begins with the book's title … Carter's use of (the word apartheid) seems aimed at delegitimizing Israel as a South Africa-type state… Had he taken the time to explain, he would have had to mention that Israel has airlifted many tens of thousands of black Ethiopian Jews from misery into new homes. He would also have had to mention that Arabs (in Israel) have Israeli citizenship, vote, and hold office. David Makovsky, U.S. News and World Report.In 1990, Carter met Arafat, who told him the PLO never advocated the annihilation of Israel and that it was the Zionists who invented the idea that the Palestinians wanted to drive the Jews into the sea. Carter cites this as if it were undeniable when he could have referred to the PLO charter’s call for Israel’s destruction. Mitchell Bard, author, Myths and Facts.The list of inaccuracies in this book could go on and on. Carter’s claim that Israel never agreed to accept peace terms at the 2000 Camp David accords is disputed by public record and all eyewitnesses, including chief negotiator Dennis Ross, who said, on this issue, he’s wrong…everyone is entitled to their own opinion. They’re not entitled to their own facts. Carter absurdly blames Israel for the Christian exodus from the Middle East, ignoring the fact that Christians living under Muslim rule are subject to all kinds of state-sanctioned oppression and the fact that in Israel they enjoy many more freedoms than anywhere in the Arab world.
In fact, the only good thing I can say about this disturbingly biased book is that it acts as a powerful reminder of how critically important it is, when dealing with the media on any topic, for each and every one of us to know and rely on the facts. The words of a former president carry authority. Someone hearing Carter’s misinformation might accept it as truth unless they know the facts and are able to challenge and correct what is being distorted.I invite you to join with me this New Year and commit to becoming a well-informed advocate for Israel. The more each of us know about the history of Israel and the Jewish people, and their ongoing struggle for peace, freedom, and security, the better we will be able to counter false information like that found in Mr. Carter’s book.
We should always remember that, in the battle for fair treatment for Israel in the court of public opinion, the truth is the best weapon we have because the facts are on Israel’s side.We at The Fellowship will help inform you through articles and information in our Weekly Newsletter and posted on our website so you will be able to challenge the myths, misconceptions, and outright lies about Israel that are repeated every day in the media. On the right hand side of this page you will find links to websites of organizations that also provide trusted information about Israel and the Middle East. Please take some time today to visit these and get informed.
Thank you for standing for the truth and Israel.
With prayers for shalom, peace,
Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein
President International Fellowship of Christians and Jews.
Why do people insert prayers into the Western Wall? BY Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein JAN 05,07
According to Jewish sources, the now-famous custom of putting written prayers into the crevices of the kotel, or Western Wall, in Jerusalem began in the 18th century CE in the north African country of Morocco.
There, a young man named Azulai was told by his spiritual teacher that he needed to move to Israel. And when you do arrive, his teacher said, here is a note that I want you to put into the Western Wall.Azulai diligently sewed the note into the lining of his jacket so he would be sure not to lose it. But when he arrived in Israel, he was so overcome by the sights and experiences that he forgot about the note. However, Azulai soon began to struggle as he tried to find his place in Israel. As he walked home dejectedly one day, he remembered his spiritual teacher's note. He ran home, took it from the lining of his jacket, and placed it into one of the cracks in the Western Wall.
As the story goes, his fortunes began to change. A local rabbi, seeing Azulai's life had turned better, asked him, What happened to prompt this change? At first, Azulai could think of no reason for his blessings. But then he remembered the note he had placed in the Wall. The rabbi urged Azulai to retrieve and read it - and when he did he read this prayer: Dear God, please let my student Azulai become successful in Israel.Today, thousands of people put notes into the Western Wall.Of course, we are not praying to the Wall, but praying in the presence of God. God's presence is everywhere, but Jews believe that His presence dwells in a special way in Jerusalem, where the ancient Temple once stood.
Since the Western Wall is the only surviving portion of the Second Temple, it represents the Holy of Holies and the special presence of God. The Talmud teaches that all prayers ascend to God through Jerusalem, so writing a prayer and putting it in the Wall is a special way of placing our prayers before God. Periodically, all the notes are removed and buried, along with other holy objects that are not being used anymore.
EVIL INVENTIONS ARE PREDICTED IN THE BIBLE.
ROMANS 1:29-32
29 Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers,
30 Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents,
31 Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful:
32 Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.
Friday, 5 January 2007, 00:17 GMT
Hybrid embryo work under threat
Early embryos yield stem cells.UK scientists planning to mix human and animal cells in order to research cures for degenerative diseases fear their work will be halted.They accuse the body that grants licences for embryo research, the HFEA, of bowing to government pressure if it fails to consider their applications. Ministers proposed outlawing such work after unfavourable public opinion.The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority is to discuss if two research requests come under its remit.To shut this down at the moment is a real affront to patients Stem cell scientist Professor Chris Shaw
Why create chimeras?
The creation of hybrid human-animal embryos was first suggested as a way of addressing the shortage of human eggs available for research. But the HFEA says it is unresolved whether this type of controversial work is permissible under existing laws - or even whether it falls under the HFEA's jurisdiction to grant a licence. The resulting embryos made are more than 99% human, with a small animal component. Opponents say this is tampering with nature and is unethical. The researchers have called for greater understanding of what they are trying to achieve.
Public opposition
The public was consulted on hybrid embryo work among other issues for an overhaul of outdated laws on fertility treatments and embryo research.
Ministers felt the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 1990 needed to be updated as science has moved on significantly.The new white paper says scientists will be able to push forward research in some areas, such as altering the genetic structure of cells that make embryos. But government proposes prohibiting them from making human-animal hybrids or so-called chimeras - where genetic material is taken from humans and put it into a host animal egg. That is then allowed to grow to a very early embryo stage in the lab as a source of stem cells for research.
Hybrids
Scientists are hopeful that studies on stem cells - immature cells that can become many types of tissue - could lead to greater understanding and even a cure for many diseases, including Alzheimer's.
They say using human-animal mixes rather than human eggs to get the stem cells makes sense because human eggs are in short supply, plus the process is less cumbersome and yields better results. Professor Chris Shaw from Kings College London, along with his colleague Dr Stephen Minger, has applied for a licence for stem cell work on Motor Neurone Disease. We hope that the HFEA has found this is one hurdle too many and they are not prepared to jump over it Josephine Quintavalle of CORE ethics He said:To shut this down at the moment is a real affront to patients. We do not have a single drug that makes a difference to the disease course. Dr Minger, who hopes to look at the genetic causes of conditions like Parkinson's disease, said he had been told that the HFEA was unlikely to grant his application. A second team of scientists, led by Professor Lyle Armstrong at Newcastle University, has applied to research how different tissues grow in the body. Dr Evan Harris MP, Liberal Democrat member of the Science and Technology Select Committee, warned there would be fierce opposition from scientists and parliamentarians to any draft bill which included such a ban.
Scientific progress
An HFEA spokesman said: We need to decide whether the law prohibits this research, whether it falls under our remit at all, and then we can look at whether we have a fundamental view on this type of research. We have a duty to consider any application put before us. If the HFEA decides it is outside its remit, the scientists will not legally need a licence to continue with their work. A spokesman for the Department of Health stressed that the new law, which still needs to be debated in Parliament, would contain a clause allowing for the possibility that this type of work should be permitted in the future. Josephine Quintavalle, of CORE ethics, said: This is creating an animal-human hybrid and that has to beacknowledged as something that does not meet with approval. We hope that the HFEA has found this is one hurdle too many and they are not prepared to jump over it.
Last Updated: Friday, 5 January 2007, 01:27 GMT
Bush, Merkel push Mid-East talks - No more back rubs, Mr Bush promised Mrs Merkel
US President George W Bush has backed a proposal by German Chancellor Angela Merkel for a new meeting of the Middle East Quartet on the Palestinian issue.
Russia, the EU, the US and the UN should play a larger role in the Middle East peace process, the two leaders agreed in talks in Washington. US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will travel to the region shortly. Mrs Merkel also said that a window of opportunity for a world trade agreement was closing fast. Mr Bush, who caused Mrs Merkel to flinch when he gave her an impromptu neck massage at a summit in Russia last year, also joked he would give her no back rubs.
Climate change
Mr Bush said after the meeting: Madame Chancellor had a good idea to convene the quartet. We're strongly committed to a two-state solution. Two democracies supporting each other's rights to exist. However, Mr Bush said the quartet should not become involved in other Middle East issues, such as Lebanon and Syria. The leaders discussed a number of other issues, including trade, Sudan's Darfur region and climate change. On climate change, Mr Bush said: I believe there is a chance now to put behind us the old stale debates of the past. Mrs Merkel said: On the one hand, we obviously need economic growth, but on the other hand, a reduction, also of greenhouse gases. Mrs Merkel also said time was running out for a world trade deal. Mr Bush said he thought a deal was still possible but added: We've got hard work to overcome our obstacles. Five-year talks on global trade barriers and subsidies - the so-called Doha round - collapsed in July. Germany currently holds the six-month rotating presidency of the EU and year-long presidency of the G8 nations.
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.
Saturday January 6, 3:50 AM
Nuclear test would deepen N.Korea's isolation - Rice - Reuters
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A fresh nuclear test by North Korea would deepen the communist state's isolation, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Friday, following a report the North was preparing its second atomic explosion. The North Koreans would have to know that any such test would obviously further deepen their isolation, Rice told reporters after talks in Washington with South Korean Foreign Minister Song Min-soon. I'm not going to speak about intelligence information, but we don't see any change in the circumstances that we currently face, she said when asked about a possible test.
Song said there were no signs of an imminent nuclear test, which would be North Korea's second since Oct. 9, when it conducted a small underground test that drew swift world condemnation and punitive U.N. sanctions. ABC News quoted unidentified U.S. defense officials in a report on Thursday that said Pyongyang appeared to have made preparations for a new nuclear test. The South Korean minister said he and Rice agreed that it is North Korea's turn to come back to us with a positive and realistic response to the proposals tabled in Beijing. The two Koreas, the United States, Japan, Russia and China failed in their latest round of talks in Beijing last month to make any progress in suspending the North's nuclear programs in exchange for aid and better ties with Washington and Tokyo.
Radionuclides spreading around the world JAN 05,07
IN the estimate of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), there are millions of dangerous sources of radiation. It seems, that are competing against natural sources - rivers, creeks, and springs, and not without success - the word source is getting an increasingly negative connotation.We have split the atom and tamed it for our own purposes, and now it is our moral duty to be responsible for it. But so far we have not shown much responsibility, and so we can expect more shocks like the British polonium incident. Litvinenko has died, but his name is still much in the news, and we hear more revelations.The IAEA, the United Nations nuclear watchdog, reports that it does not control turnover of radionuclides because they are outside its sphere of monitoring. How could such an omission happen? One of the IAEA’s tasks is to prevent proliferation of radioactive materials. The public was shocked to find out that the IAEA only controls nuclear materials, that is, those, which are used in the production of a classic nuclear bomb.
A dirty bomb, the terrorists dream, is outside their control.
The IAEA registers illegal radionuclide trafficking only when it gets voluntary reports from the states concerned.
Who wants to have additional problems?Meanwhile, radionuclides and other radioactive materials have spread so much that it will not be easy to establish rigid control over them. Moreover, it is civilian radioactive sources used in medicine,metallurgy, agriculture, mining, and machine building that are becoming more dangerous than strictly controlled nuclear facilities.The IAEA reports that every year the world produces over 10,000 medical devices for radiotherapy and up to 12,000 industrial radiographic sources of radiation. It is indeed surprising that they are not under tough control of some international infrastructure.Professor Alexander Borovoi from the Kurchatov Institute Russian Research Center and former IAEA consultant on radiation, recalled a tragic incident which took place in the Brazilian city of Goiania in 1987. Garbage removers found a medical device based on cesium-137 at a dump in one of the poorest areas. Having broken it, they saw a blue luminous dust. They decided that it was something very precious or even supernatural, and invited neighbors and relatives to have a look. As a result, 244 people received dangerous doses of radiation, and hundreds of others damaged their health to different extent.
Sources of radiation, which are stolen, lost or left behind by careless owners, are creating huge problems. In its report on the safety of sources of radiation at its international conference in Vienna in March 2003, the IAEA acknowledged that a hundred countries had no effective control over sources of radiation for lack of relevant infrastructures. The IAEA has officially registered up to 300 cases of
illegal trafficking in radionuclides since 1993. This situation is fraught with danger for the world community.About 30 per cent of radioactive sources are used inappropriately even in the most advanced countries.In the former Soviet Union, all radioactive materials were subject to extremely rigid control. At the Kurchatov Institute, where I’ve worked my whole life, we had to go through numerous procedures in order to get radionuclides for research. We had to get a special permit and process a heap of papers through different channels, Professor Borovoy said. They meticulously checked up on us all along, and we had to account for every microgram.
The modernized control system still rests on strict Soviet tradition. Head of Rostekhnadzor (Federal Environmental, Engineering, and Nuclear Supervision Agency) Konstantin Pulikovsky said: We have found no deviations from the requirements on the storage and movement of nuclear materials, including polonium, at any of the structures under our supervision.
Nuclear materials are under control, but there are still problems withradionuclides, or isotopes, as revealed by Radon, a service in charge of monitoring radiation in Moscow round the clock. Its deputy director general Oleg Polsky opines, from 20 to 60 cases of radioactive pollution are tracked every year. Radon is very meticulous and tough, which has won Moscow the reputation of one of the world’s radiation safest capitals.The situation in former Soviet republics is far more complicated. Local revolutions and change of government have resulted in the loss of control over sources of radiation left from the Soviet times.
Tom Parfitt wrote in the London Times in 2003: Georgia with its piles of abandoned Soviet hardware, weak law enforcement and shaky separatist regimes, has become a potential goldmine of radioactive sources. At least three times in the past five years a trafficker has been caught here with 1 kg of low-enrichment uranium. A smuggler trying to cross the border with it had a tablet of the heavy metal stuffed in a teabag.Speaking at a Vienna conference, IAEA officer Abel Gonzalez said that in 1995 a whole family was exposed to radiation in the Estonian village of Tammiku when one of its members found a tiny piece of radioactive material of unknown origin and put it into a drawer in the kitchen table. As a result, he and his family received lethal radiation doses.Another case took place on the other side of the globe - in Thailand. Local scrap shop owners cut the metal parts of a stolen cylinder used for the treatment of cancer, and took out a radiation source of cobalt 60. Three of them died, and 11 were heavily exposed.
Investigators found two more such cylinders stored in a parking lot.
On January 12, 2005, a system of radiation control set off an alarm on the territory of the Murmansk merchant marine port, when a seaman from the Chinese Yong Tai vessel (Hong Kong) was going through customs.
His clothes and other belongings were contaminated with an isotope of cesium-137.Those who are dreaming of a dirty bomb would be happy to get the container with radioactive cesium-137, and americium-241, which was lost by the Puerto Rican Geoexport Company as a result of negligence during transportation. Terrorists would have been glad to learn that the American Buoy Inspection Service in Louisiana kept containers with radionuclides at unlocked premises.The IAEA Data Base registered 103 cases of illegal trafficking in nuclear and radioactive materials in 2005. How many more similar emergencies should happen for the world community to take action? Or are we lunatics marching towards disaster? The polonium incident in London is another marker of radionuclides, which are tacitly spreading all over the world. RIA Novosti - Saturday, January 6, 2007
Ollmert-Mubarak Meeting Overshadowed by Ramallah Raid
By Hana Levi Julian (INN) JAN 05,07
The IDF raid in Ramallah that left four dead cast a pall over the Thursday meeting between Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. The meeting between the two leaders was described as tense, as Mubarak himself told reporters at a joint news conference following the talks.
I expressed to the Prime Minister our indignation at what happened today inRamallah, Mubarak noted, and said that Israel and all the people in the region will achieve peace only by refraining from all practices which obstruct its course. Olmert apologized for the civilian deaths, but pointed out that the operation was necessary to stop terrorists from carrying out deliberate operations to kill Israeli civilians. Things developed in a way that could not have been predicted in advance, he said. If innocent people were hurt, this was not our intention, highlighting the difference between attacks by PA terrorists specifically aimed at maiming and killing Israeli civilians, and IDF operations targeting the murderous terrorists.
Mubarak Cold on Most of Agenda, Warm on Shalit
Discussions between the two men on the issue of continuing violations by Palestinian terrorist of the six-week-old ceasefire between Gaza terrorists and Israel were also tense.Israel’s demand that the PA put a complete stop to the Kassam rocket attacks - of which there have been some 80 since the ceasefire went into effect - was met with a complete lack of sympathy. These Kassam rockets, they will fire them every other day, Mubarak said. Shall we stop the peace process because one or two individuals fire rockets?
Olmert replied that Israel has been more than generous in restraining the IDF from responding to the rocket fire.
Mubarak Hints: We'll Go Nuclear
If nuclear weapons are developed in this region and endanger Egypt, we certainly can't sit back and do nothing, Mubarak said. Though until now Egypt's nuclear program has been said to be designated only for peaceful purposes, Mubarak implied that his country would be forced to develop nuclear weapons. It was not clear if he was referring to a nuclear threat from Iran or from Israel.
Talks between Olmert and Mubarak on the issue of negotiations between Israel and the PA were also cold. Olmert’s insistence that Hamas could not be part of talks with Israel was also met with a retort by Mubarak, Then try with the Palestinian Authority. Some of the tension was also over the issue of Egypt’s responsibility for preventing terrorists from smuggling weapons from Egypt into Gaza.
Olmert asked Mubarak to tighten up the security at the border to prevent further arming of PA terrorists who then aim their weapons at Israel. The number of guns and other war materiel entering Gaza from Egypt continues to increase ever since control of the border area was transferred from Israel to the PA.
Mubarak was less than cordial over the issue, however, telling Olmert bluntly that Egyptian security personnel were doing their best, but could not be expected to close the border completely. The one issue that did not cause conflict between the two leaders was the need to secure the release of IDF Cpl. Gilad Shalit, held hostage by Hamas terrorists since they kidnapped him last June.The Egyptian president pledged to continue his efforts to convince the kidnappers to release their IDF hostage. We are working on releasing the Palestinian prisoners held by Israel and on releasing the Israeli prisoner held by the Palestinians. I hope that we will soon arrive at a solution in this matter, he said.For his part, Olmert praised Mubarak for the efforts of his intelligence officers on Israel’s behalf. I thanked him for the efforts to bring about the release of the soldier... who is still held by Hamas, which is not prepared to release him, he added.
MATTHEW 24:15-22
15 When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:) (this is at the 3 1/2 yr mark of 7 yr treaty)
16 Then let them which be in Judaea flee into the mountains:
17 Let him which is on the housetop not come down to take any thing out of his house:
18 Neither let him which is in the field return back to take his clothes.
19 And woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days!
20 But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the sabbath day:
21 For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.
22 And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened.(daylight hours shortened, not days)
El Al Won't Fly on Sabbath Without Rabbinical Dispensation
By Hillel Fendel (INN) JAN 05,07
An agreement has been signed between El Al and representatives of the hareidi-religious public regarding Sabbath flights. The agreement paves the way for the removal of the hareidi boycott on the Israeli airline. The Rabbis Committee for the Sabbath and El Al resolved that an agreed-upon rabbi would be appointed to decide each case in which a Sabbath flight appears to be required. The company will thus not operate Sabbath flights without the rabbi's approval - which presumably will not be forthcoming unless a life-saving need applies.Other details of the agreement were not released, except that it was signed with the approval of the generation's leading rabbis, the committee stated.The boycott began after the nationwide Histadrut Labor Union strike several weeks ago. El Al, seeking to clear the strike-caused backlog and bring stranded passengers home a day earlier, flew several planes on the Sabbath. Many hareidi-religious passengers have said that they see no reason to prefer an Israeli company if it openly desecrates the Sabbath.
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).
Brussels divided on future shape of EU commission
05.01.2007 - 09:29 CET | By Andrew Rettman (Eu Observer)
The European Commission is showing signs of division on EU institutional reform, with Polish commissioner Danuta Hubner attacking German commissioner Guenter Verheugen's idea that small EU states do not need fully-fledged commissioners.Creating two categories of member states and accepting size as a criterion, on the basis of which a country would have the right to designate a commissioner, is groundless and, speaking frankly, unacceptable, Ms Hubner told Polish press agency PAP on Thursday (4 January.).One day earlier Mr Verheugen - industry commissioner and commission vice-president - had suggested that small states should get deputy commissioners in key policy areas rather than full commissioners with light portfolios to create an efficient, small and highly competent commission.The debate comes ahead of the EU's attempt to revive its moribund treaty-reform process this year, with the accession of Romania and Bulgaria in January straining the credibility of the one-stateone-commissioner system after Bucharest got a new multilingualism portfolio, widely seen as negligible. The EU's 27 member states contrast starkly in terms of size with Germany on 82.5 million while Malta has just 400,000 people in a situation that is reflected in the EU's qualified majority decision-making mechanism which gives more votes to big countries.
But the idea that small states are less equal than big ones remains a political taboo, with all capitals keen to have their man at the commission's top table to guard prestige and make sure that information about Brussels' internal thinking flows back home. The draft EU constitution - rejected in French and Dutch referendums in 2005 - sketched out an equal rotation system for commissioner posts while the current Nice treaty says the number of commissioners should be reduced once the EU has 27 members, with Croatia, Macedonia and Turkey also waiting to join.
MEPs should get more say
Meanwhile, Poland's commissioner for regional policy backed Mr Verheugen's suggestion the European Parliament should select the commission president who would then select his own team, instead of the current situation where member states sort out all the appointments behind closed doors. You could consider the merits of a smaller commission, Ms Hubner said. But a small commission would have to have a totally different method of selection, where commissioners are not selected by member states...The method of selection should be grounded in the European Parliament.She added the 27-strong team of commissioners is functioning well but the bigger the commission gets the more power ends up in the hands of its president, amid claims by some observers that the current commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso already has a presidential style. I don't see any weakening of the commission...Work is going well. But there is a natural tendency, the bigger a body is, the more the presidential system dominates, because it is necessary to look for ways to take decisions efficiently, even if these ways are less democratic, to speak brutally, Ms Hubner explained.
Residents of planned union to be North Americanists
Arizona State University teaches how continent to be integrated
January 5, 2007 - 1:00 a.m. Eastern - By Bob Unruh - 2007 WorldNetDaily.com
Arizona State University is teaching that the U.S., Mexico and Canada need to be integrated into a unified superstate, where U.S. citizens of the future will be known as North Americanists, according to the taxpayer-funded Building North America program. The program openly advocates for the integration of economic issues across the continent, and in many places goes further – such as the call for a common North American currency. One teaching module made available online for professors to integrate into their teachings was written by George Haynal, senior fellow at the Norman Patterson School of International Affairs at Carleton University, and implied a joint military is required. Since the security of the continent "is a joint need; it should be supplied as a common enterprise.
Given the nature of the threats against our security in the current environment, the first task is to reinvent borders. We must exercise the responsibility for protecting our society against external threats where we can do so most effectively, not where infrastructures happens to be in place, he added. Multilateral cooperation is going to be essential among governments. It is clear, to me at least, that we must … move beyond NAFTA and do so with a purposeful determination, he wrote. Another teaching paper advocates the adoption of a unified North American currency, the amero, modeled after the euro currency of the European Union. The programming the university is providing for help in teaching the new North American focus is just the latest evidence of the mounting campaign for a de facto North American Union. Although most in the establishment press are not covering the controversy, it has earned the opposition of a number of high-level voices including congressmen like Tom Tancredo, Virgil Goode and Ron Paul, and newsmen like CNN's Lou Dobbs who has described the U.S. government's actions in this effort as Orwellian.
Paul, a maverick Republican from Texas, has denounced such integration plans and warns that most members of Congress aren't aware of the situation, and that he is opposing any transnational superhighway projects such as the Trans-Texas Corridor project in his home state. Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas .Why? The ultimate goal, he said, is not simply a superhighway, but an integrated North American Union – complete with a currency, a cross-national bureaucracy and virtually borderless travel within the union. Like the European Union, a North American Union would represent another step toward the abolition of national sovereignty altogether.
Rep. Goode, R-Va., already has introduced a resolution expressing the sense of Congress that the U.S. should not engage in further NAFTA advances.
But progress already is significant down the road to a joint government, evidenced by confirmation that the U.S. government is planning to provide full Social Security benefits to Mexicans as well as a report by the powerful Council on Foreign Relations, considered by many to be something of a shadow government, that calls for the transfer of massive amounts of wealth from the U.S. to Mexico and the setup of a security perimeter around North America. A Canadian website set up by those who fear the loss of their Canadian national sovereignty already has established a timeline for the program. The Arizona State contribution to the move towards a one-government continent was launched because of the notion that economic integration in the NAFTA Triad (Canada-U.S.-Mexico) was advancing despite the lack of press and public attention it received …and a new website would allow those of us in the Triad to link up with the growing body of research about how businesses, governments, and organizations were shaping, and adapting to, the evolution of a shared economic space. We are now bringing together the fruits of this research endeavor in a new, updated and redesigned Building North America website…the group said. We are betting on the continued existence of scholars and policy practitioners who would benefit from a site which would consolidate the research and data we are all generating, and thereby build community among us. A telephone number for the managers of the site was unavailable, and a WND e-mail to the site did not generate a response. But the goal is clear: The links, documents, and other materials on this site have been selected, organized, and in some cases designed to advance teaching and research on North American regional integration. … At the same time the site also aims to benefit the broader community of North Americanists, within the academy and beyond, by putting at our collective fingertips – or mouse-reach – the kinds of current and historical material that will benefit research into, and understanding of, North American integration – past, present and future. The site cross-references and links to organizations and university centers such as the Center for North American Studies at American University in Washington, D.C., institutional home for Robert Pastor.
American University Professor Robert Pastor
Pastor has been described as a leading intellectual force in the move to create an EU-style North American Community, and recently told WND he believes a new 9/11 crisis could be the catalyst to merge the U.S., Mexico and Canada. Pastor said that in such a case the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America, or SPP – launched in 2005 by the heads of the three countries at a summit in Waco, Texas – could be developed into a continental union, complete with a new currency, the amero, that would replace the U.S. dollar. In May 2005, Pastor was co-chairman the Council on Foreign Relations task force that produced a report entitled Toward a North American Community, which he has claimed is the blueprint behind the SSP declared by President Bush, Mexico's then-President Vicente Fox, and Canada's then-Prime Minister Paul Martin. At American University, Pastor directs the Center for North American Studies where he teaches a course entitled North America: A Union, A Community, or Just Three Nations? As WND previously has reported, Pastor is on the board of the North American Forum on Integration, the NAFI, a non-profit organization that annually holds a mock trilateral parliament for 100 selected students drawn from 10 universities in the U.S., Canada and Mexico. Arizona State also lists government agencies in support of the merging of various functions that historically have been handled by each government, such as the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the U.S. Department of Commerce, and others. The website's archive contains influential papers and articles which have shaped the debate on North America, including the 2005 document from the Council on Foreign Relations called Building a North American Community: Report of the Independent Task Force on the Future of North America.
Also available is a series of Teaching Modules, where Haynal's instructions are available. The section leads off with an introductory guide to Building North America Into Your Course, as well as a more structured Matrix offering sample units by theme and subfield … Each of these TMs either has, or will have in the near future, an accompanying Teaching Note with more detailed suggestions for incorporation into a variety of courses.
Among the organizations being promoted are the Council of The Americas, the free market thinktank Fraser Institute, North America Works, North American Integration and Development Center, North America's Super Corridor Coalition, North American Integration and Development Center at UCLA, the Mexican Embassy, NORAD, North American Development Bank, NAFTA Secretariat, North American Agreement on Environmental Cooperation and North American Agreement on Labor Cooperation, One of the teaching notes lists Earl Fry's work titled: The Role of Subnational Governments in the governance of North America.
Subtitled Mapping the New North American Reality, that paper argues that provinces in Canada and states in the United States and Mexico are quite efficiently setting up their own integrated North America with or without their federal governments' participation.
It even warns against renegade states like South Dakota, which has undermined treaties and agreements signed by national governments with its requirements for inspections of Canadian cattle, hogs and wheat. The North American Union plans were cited by WorldNetDaily editors as the Number One story on the news site's list of 10 most underreported stories for 2006. The January 2007 edition of WND's monthly Whistleblower magazine, which explores this topic in-depth, is titled PREMEDITATED MERGER: How our leaders are stealthily transforming the U.S.A. into the North American Union.
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 = Sat Jan 6 12:14 AM EDT
SAT JAN 06,07
MAP 2.9 CENTRAL CALIFORNIA
FRI JAN 05,07
MAP 2.8 FOX ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN ISLANDS, ALASKA
MAP 3.0 ALASKA PENINSULA
MAP 3.4 ANDREANOF ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN IS., ALASKA
MAP 5.7 SOUTH OF ALASKA
MAP 5.0 GUAM REGION
MAP 4.6 PAGAN REGION, NORTHERN MARIANA ISLANDS
MAP 5.6 NIAS REGION, INDONESIA
MAP 2.6 CENTRAL ALASKA
MAP 2.5 CENTRAL CALIFORNIA
MAP 2.5 FOX ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN ISLANDS, ALASKA
MAP 3.0 UNIMAK ISLAND REGION, ALASKA
MAP 2.6 CENTRAL CALIFORNIA
MAP 2.6 NORTHERN ALASKA
JAN 04,07
MAP 3.2 NORTHERN CALIFORNIA
MAP 2.6 CENTRAL ALASKA
MAP 3.0 BAJA CALIFORNIA, MEXICO
MAP 3.0 KENAI PENINSULA, ALASKA
MAP 3.4 MONA PASSAGE, PUERTO RICO
MAP 2.9 CENTRAL ALASKA
MAP 3.5 FOX ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN ISLANDS, ALASKA
MAP 3.0 VIRGIN ISLANDS REGION
MAP 4.9 SOUTHERN PERU
MAP 3.0 OREGON
MAP 2.7 ANDREANOF ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN IS., ALASKA
MAP 3.1 UNIMAK ISLAND REGION, ALASKA
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.
Rains, mudslides kill 24 in southeast Brazil
Fri Jan 5, 2007 11:11 PM GMT
RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - At least 24 people died in mudslides and more than 12,000 were left homeless this week following heavy rain in southeast Brazil, with the death toll likely to rise as the hunt for bodies goes on, the Civil Defence said on Friday. Most of the deaths occurred in Rio de Janeiro state when shacks built illegally on steep slopes surrounding mountainous towns were swept away.The number of victims could rise further. The Civil Defence is still on alert and we're still searching for missing people, said Cpl. Leonardo Franco at Civil Defence.Marcos Sanches from the National Space Research Climate Studies Centre said that in the first five days of January the Mantiqueira mountains near Rio de Janeiro received half the usual average monthly rainfall, and further rains were likely this weekend.Wet weather, if prolonged, could discourage visitors to the annual Carnival in Rio de Janeiro in February but tourist bookings there have not been affected yet by the rains.Mudslides killed 16 Brazilians in Petropolis, an historic mountain resort near Rio, in January 2003. In December 2001, 52 people died in mudslides in Rio de Janeiro state.
Since October, the heavy rains have killed at least 17 people in neighbouring Minas Gerais, one of Brazil's biggest mining and agricultural states.At least two people have died in Sao Paulo, Brazil's main industrial state which lies just southwest of Rio de Janeiro.Reuters 2007.
2 killed by reported tornado in La. JAN 05,07
NEW IBERIA, La. - Powerful storms killed at least two people, flooded streets and ripped apart homes as they swept from Louisiana through South Carolina on Friday. Much of the worst damage was in Louisiana's Iberia Parish, where what appeared to be a tornado hit the New Iberia area just before 4 p.m. Thursday.We were just sitting and watching a movie, and then all of a sudden the wind started blowing and it got really bad, said Joyce Firmin of Iberia Parish. It just sounded like a bunch of trucks or an airplane or something was coming toward the house.Firmin's daughter, 14-year-old Jaci, said she could hear branches snapping and power lines popping during the storm. My ears were popping a lot, she said. When we came out, everything was down.
The storm killed a woman and 6-year-old girl in their home, the Iberia Parish Coroner's Office said, and at least 15 other people were injured.Nine more people were hurt when the storm reached east-central Mississippi's Kemper County late Thursday and early Friday, according to the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency.
There's more damage out here than what we initially thought, Ben Dudley, Kemper County's emergency management director, said after trips to communities ofBlackwater and Damascus on Friday. We're looking at eight to 10 homes destroyed and several with major damage.Carnell Newton said most of those injured in Blackwater were his relatives — including a woman who suffered a head injury and was upgraded from critical to serious condition Friday.They were in a doublewide (mobile home) and it just exploded, Newton said.Laquita Clark, 21, said the storm knocked her two-bedroom home off its foundation and turned it into a disaster area. She had been next door at the time.
Five more homes and businesses were damaged in southern Mississippi's Stone County.In northwest South Carolina, 15 people were injured when a suspected tornado piled cars on top of each other Friday afternoon outside an elementary school, officials said. No students were injured.In Alabama, several vacant mobile homes parked outside a mobile home plant in Hamilton were damaged and power lines were down, officials said.
Trees were down across stretches of Georgia.From a Louisiana hospital, Steven Bruno described how he was flipped over twice while furniture and glass flew around his mobile home on Thursday. His girlfriend, who is six months pregnant, washospitalized for fetal monitoring, and the hospital gown he was wearing is now the only thing he owns, he said.Whether his home and others in southern Louisiana were hit by a tornado won't be determined until storm surveys are conducted.In New Orleans, city workers had been dispatched early to clean drains and prepare for possible flooding ahead of the heavy rain.
Southern Louisiana has been pounded by major storms that bumped its December rainfall total to more than 10 inches, nearly twice the normal average, and forecasters on Friday warned that more rain was coming.More showers and thunderstorms are on the way Saturday afternoon and evening as we get another cold front coming through. We're in a progressive pattern — almost like clockwork, every three days we'll get a front through, said weather service forecaster Kent Kuyper.
This Week with Rabbi Eckstein - January 5, 2007
Dear Friend of The Fellowship, Jimmy Carter
Since its release a few weeks back, a number of people have approached me asking my opinion about a book written by former president Jimmy Carter entitled, Palestine: Peace, Not Apartheid.It is difficult to add much to what has already been said about this book. Its factual errors and anti-Israel bias have been exposed by many who truly know and have a deep understanding of the Middle East including some of Carter’s closest associates.
One of these is Middle East historian and Emory University professor of Israeli studies Kenneth Stein, who in the ‘80s acted as the first director of the Carter Center, the former president’s non-profit organization. Mr. Stein recently ended a 23-year relationship with the Carter Center because of what he called the book’s one-sided nature, and factual errors, copied materials not cited, superficialities, glaring omissions, and simply invented segments.As you will see from the comments below, Mr. Stein is just one of the many, notable voices that are a part of the chorus of criticism for Palestine: Peace, Not Apartheid:
Mr. Carter repeatedly mentions Security Council Resolution 242, which called for return of captured territories in exchange for peace, recognition, and secure boundaries, but he ignores that Israel accepted and all the Arab nations and the Palestinians rejected this resolution… But you wouldn't know that from reading the history according to Mr. Carter. Alan Dershowitz, New York Sun[Carter] says that the only division of territory that is recognized by the United States and the international community is the pre-1967 Green Line.
It is hard to believe that Carter does not know that this claim is simply false… The Green Line is just the 1949 armistice line from the end of Israel’s War of Independence. Neither the United States nor the international community recognized this as the final border between Israel and Jordan. Ira Forman, Washington Jewish WeekThe demonization of Israel begins with the book's title … Carter's use of (the word apartheid) seems aimed at delegitimizing Israel as a South Africa-type state… Had he taken the time to explain, he would have had to mention that Israel has airlifted many tens of thousands of black Ethiopian Jews from misery into new homes. He would also have had to mention that Arabs (in Israel) have Israeli citizenship, vote, and hold office. David Makovsky, U.S. News and World Report.In 1990, Carter met Arafat, who told him the PLO never advocated the annihilation of Israel and that it was the Zionists who invented the idea that the Palestinians wanted to drive the Jews into the sea. Carter cites this as if it were undeniable when he could have referred to the PLO charter’s call for Israel’s destruction. Mitchell Bard, author, Myths and Facts.The list of inaccuracies in this book could go on and on. Carter’s claim that Israel never agreed to accept peace terms at the 2000 Camp David accords is disputed by public record and all eyewitnesses, including chief negotiator Dennis Ross, who said, on this issue, he’s wrong…everyone is entitled to their own opinion. They’re not entitled to their own facts. Carter absurdly blames Israel for the Christian exodus from the Middle East, ignoring the fact that Christians living under Muslim rule are subject to all kinds of state-sanctioned oppression and the fact that in Israel they enjoy many more freedoms than anywhere in the Arab world.
In fact, the only good thing I can say about this disturbingly biased book is that it acts as a powerful reminder of how critically important it is, when dealing with the media on any topic, for each and every one of us to know and rely on the facts. The words of a former president carry authority. Someone hearing Carter’s misinformation might accept it as truth unless they know the facts and are able to challenge and correct what is being distorted.I invite you to join with me this New Year and commit to becoming a well-informed advocate for Israel. The more each of us know about the history of Israel and the Jewish people, and their ongoing struggle for peace, freedom, and security, the better we will be able to counter false information like that found in Mr. Carter’s book.
We should always remember that, in the battle for fair treatment for Israel in the court of public opinion, the truth is the best weapon we have because the facts are on Israel’s side.We at The Fellowship will help inform you through articles and information in our Weekly Newsletter and posted on our website so you will be able to challenge the myths, misconceptions, and outright lies about Israel that are repeated every day in the media. On the right hand side of this page you will find links to websites of organizations that also provide trusted information about Israel and the Middle East. Please take some time today to visit these and get informed.
Thank you for standing for the truth and Israel.
With prayers for shalom, peace,
Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein
President International Fellowship of Christians and Jews.
Why do people insert prayers into the Western Wall? BY Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein JAN 05,07
According to Jewish sources, the now-famous custom of putting written prayers into the crevices of the kotel, or Western Wall, in Jerusalem began in the 18th century CE in the north African country of Morocco.
There, a young man named Azulai was told by his spiritual teacher that he needed to move to Israel. And when you do arrive, his teacher said, here is a note that I want you to put into the Western Wall.Azulai diligently sewed the note into the lining of his jacket so he would be sure not to lose it. But when he arrived in Israel, he was so overcome by the sights and experiences that he forgot about the note. However, Azulai soon began to struggle as he tried to find his place in Israel. As he walked home dejectedly one day, he remembered his spiritual teacher's note. He ran home, took it from the lining of his jacket, and placed it into one of the cracks in the Western Wall.
As the story goes, his fortunes began to change. A local rabbi, seeing Azulai's life had turned better, asked him, What happened to prompt this change? At first, Azulai could think of no reason for his blessings. But then he remembered the note he had placed in the Wall. The rabbi urged Azulai to retrieve and read it - and when he did he read this prayer: Dear God, please let my student Azulai become successful in Israel.Today, thousands of people put notes into the Western Wall.Of course, we are not praying to the Wall, but praying in the presence of God. God's presence is everywhere, but Jews believe that His presence dwells in a special way in Jerusalem, where the ancient Temple once stood.
Since the Western Wall is the only surviving portion of the Second Temple, it represents the Holy of Holies and the special presence of God. The Talmud teaches that all prayers ascend to God through Jerusalem, so writing a prayer and putting it in the Wall is a special way of placing our prayers before God. Periodically, all the notes are removed and buried, along with other holy objects that are not being used anymore.
EVIL INVENTIONS ARE PREDICTED IN THE BIBLE.
ROMANS 1:29-32
29 Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers,
30 Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents,
31 Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful:
32 Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.
Friday, 5 January 2007, 00:17 GMT
Hybrid embryo work under threat
Early embryos yield stem cells.UK scientists planning to mix human and animal cells in order to research cures for degenerative diseases fear their work will be halted.They accuse the body that grants licences for embryo research, the HFEA, of bowing to government pressure if it fails to consider their applications. Ministers proposed outlawing such work after unfavourable public opinion.The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority is to discuss if two research requests come under its remit.To shut this down at the moment is a real affront to patients Stem cell scientist Professor Chris Shaw
Why create chimeras?
The creation of hybrid human-animal embryos was first suggested as a way of addressing the shortage of human eggs available for research. But the HFEA says it is unresolved whether this type of controversial work is permissible under existing laws - or even whether it falls under the HFEA's jurisdiction to grant a licence. The resulting embryos made are more than 99% human, with a small animal component. Opponents say this is tampering with nature and is unethical. The researchers have called for greater understanding of what they are trying to achieve.
Public opposition
The public was consulted on hybrid embryo work among other issues for an overhaul of outdated laws on fertility treatments and embryo research.
Ministers felt the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 1990 needed to be updated as science has moved on significantly.The new white paper says scientists will be able to push forward research in some areas, such as altering the genetic structure of cells that make embryos. But government proposes prohibiting them from making human-animal hybrids or so-called chimeras - where genetic material is taken from humans and put it into a host animal egg. That is then allowed to grow to a very early embryo stage in the lab as a source of stem cells for research.
Hybrids
Scientists are hopeful that studies on stem cells - immature cells that can become many types of tissue - could lead to greater understanding and even a cure for many diseases, including Alzheimer's.
They say using human-animal mixes rather than human eggs to get the stem cells makes sense because human eggs are in short supply, plus the process is less cumbersome and yields better results. Professor Chris Shaw from Kings College London, along with his colleague Dr Stephen Minger, has applied for a licence for stem cell work on Motor Neurone Disease. We hope that the HFEA has found this is one hurdle too many and they are not prepared to jump over it Josephine Quintavalle of CORE ethics He said:To shut this down at the moment is a real affront to patients. We do not have a single drug that makes a difference to the disease course. Dr Minger, who hopes to look at the genetic causes of conditions like Parkinson's disease, said he had been told that the HFEA was unlikely to grant his application. A second team of scientists, led by Professor Lyle Armstrong at Newcastle University, has applied to research how different tissues grow in the body. Dr Evan Harris MP, Liberal Democrat member of the Science and Technology Select Committee, warned there would be fierce opposition from scientists and parliamentarians to any draft bill which included such a ban.
Scientific progress
An HFEA spokesman said: We need to decide whether the law prohibits this research, whether it falls under our remit at all, and then we can look at whether we have a fundamental view on this type of research. We have a duty to consider any application put before us. If the HFEA decides it is outside its remit, the scientists will not legally need a licence to continue with their work. A spokesman for the Department of Health stressed that the new law, which still needs to be debated in Parliament, would contain a clause allowing for the possibility that this type of work should be permitted in the future. Josephine Quintavalle, of CORE ethics, said: This is creating an animal-human hybrid and that has to beacknowledged as something that does not meet with approval. We hope that the HFEA has found this is one hurdle too many and they are not prepared to jump over it.
Last Updated: Friday, 5 January 2007, 01:27 GMT
Bush, Merkel push Mid-East talks - No more back rubs, Mr Bush promised Mrs Merkel
US President George W Bush has backed a proposal by German Chancellor Angela Merkel for a new meeting of the Middle East Quartet on the Palestinian issue.
Russia, the EU, the US and the UN should play a larger role in the Middle East peace process, the two leaders agreed in talks in Washington. US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will travel to the region shortly. Mrs Merkel also said that a window of opportunity for a world trade agreement was closing fast. Mr Bush, who caused Mrs Merkel to flinch when he gave her an impromptu neck massage at a summit in Russia last year, also joked he would give her no back rubs.
Climate change
Mr Bush said after the meeting: Madame Chancellor had a good idea to convene the quartet. We're strongly committed to a two-state solution. Two democracies supporting each other's rights to exist. However, Mr Bush said the quartet should not become involved in other Middle East issues, such as Lebanon and Syria. The leaders discussed a number of other issues, including trade, Sudan's Darfur region and climate change. On climate change, Mr Bush said: I believe there is a chance now to put behind us the old stale debates of the past. Mrs Merkel said: On the one hand, we obviously need economic growth, but on the other hand, a reduction, also of greenhouse gases. Mrs Merkel also said time was running out for a world trade deal. Mr Bush said he thought a deal was still possible but added: We've got hard work to overcome our obstacles. Five-year talks on global trade barriers and subsidies - the so-called Doha round - collapsed in July. Germany currently holds the six-month rotating presidency of the EU and year-long presidency of the G8 nations.
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.
Saturday January 6, 3:50 AM
Nuclear test would deepen N.Korea's isolation - Rice - Reuters
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A fresh nuclear test by North Korea would deepen the communist state's isolation, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Friday, following a report the North was preparing its second atomic explosion. The North Koreans would have to know that any such test would obviously further deepen their isolation, Rice told reporters after talks in Washington with South Korean Foreign Minister Song Min-soon. I'm not going to speak about intelligence information, but we don't see any change in the circumstances that we currently face, she said when asked about a possible test.
Song said there were no signs of an imminent nuclear test, which would be North Korea's second since Oct. 9, when it conducted a small underground test that drew swift world condemnation and punitive U.N. sanctions. ABC News quoted unidentified U.S. defense officials in a report on Thursday that said Pyongyang appeared to have made preparations for a new nuclear test. The South Korean minister said he and Rice agreed that it is North Korea's turn to come back to us with a positive and realistic response to the proposals tabled in Beijing. The two Koreas, the United States, Japan, Russia and China failed in their latest round of talks in Beijing last month to make any progress in suspending the North's nuclear programs in exchange for aid and better ties with Washington and Tokyo.
Radionuclides spreading around the world JAN 05,07
IN the estimate of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), there are millions of dangerous sources of radiation. It seems, that are competing against natural sources - rivers, creeks, and springs, and not without success - the word source is getting an increasingly negative connotation.We have split the atom and tamed it for our own purposes, and now it is our moral duty to be responsible for it. But so far we have not shown much responsibility, and so we can expect more shocks like the British polonium incident. Litvinenko has died, but his name is still much in the news, and we hear more revelations.The IAEA, the United Nations nuclear watchdog, reports that it does not control turnover of radionuclides because they are outside its sphere of monitoring. How could such an omission happen? One of the IAEA’s tasks is to prevent proliferation of radioactive materials. The public was shocked to find out that the IAEA only controls nuclear materials, that is, those, which are used in the production of a classic nuclear bomb.
A dirty bomb, the terrorists dream, is outside their control.
The IAEA registers illegal radionuclide trafficking only when it gets voluntary reports from the states concerned.
Who wants to have additional problems?Meanwhile, radionuclides and other radioactive materials have spread so much that it will not be easy to establish rigid control over them. Moreover, it is civilian radioactive sources used in medicine,metallurgy, agriculture, mining, and machine building that are becoming more dangerous than strictly controlled nuclear facilities.The IAEA reports that every year the world produces over 10,000 medical devices for radiotherapy and up to 12,000 industrial radiographic sources of radiation. It is indeed surprising that they are not under tough control of some international infrastructure.Professor Alexander Borovoi from the Kurchatov Institute Russian Research Center and former IAEA consultant on radiation, recalled a tragic incident which took place in the Brazilian city of Goiania in 1987. Garbage removers found a medical device based on cesium-137 at a dump in one of the poorest areas. Having broken it, they saw a blue luminous dust. They decided that it was something very precious or even supernatural, and invited neighbors and relatives to have a look. As a result, 244 people received dangerous doses of radiation, and hundreds of others damaged their health to different extent.
Sources of radiation, which are stolen, lost or left behind by careless owners, are creating huge problems. In its report on the safety of sources of radiation at its international conference in Vienna in March 2003, the IAEA acknowledged that a hundred countries had no effective control over sources of radiation for lack of relevant infrastructures. The IAEA has officially registered up to 300 cases of
illegal trafficking in radionuclides since 1993. This situation is fraught with danger for the world community.About 30 per cent of radioactive sources are used inappropriately even in the most advanced countries.In the former Soviet Union, all radioactive materials were subject to extremely rigid control. At the Kurchatov Institute, where I’ve worked my whole life, we had to go through numerous procedures in order to get radionuclides for research. We had to get a special permit and process a heap of papers through different channels, Professor Borovoy said. They meticulously checked up on us all along, and we had to account for every microgram.
The modernized control system still rests on strict Soviet tradition. Head of Rostekhnadzor (Federal Environmental, Engineering, and Nuclear Supervision Agency) Konstantin Pulikovsky said: We have found no deviations from the requirements on the storage and movement of nuclear materials, including polonium, at any of the structures under our supervision.
Nuclear materials are under control, but there are still problems withradionuclides, or isotopes, as revealed by Radon, a service in charge of monitoring radiation in Moscow round the clock. Its deputy director general Oleg Polsky opines, from 20 to 60 cases of radioactive pollution are tracked every year. Radon is very meticulous and tough, which has won Moscow the reputation of one of the world’s radiation safest capitals.The situation in former Soviet republics is far more complicated. Local revolutions and change of government have resulted in the loss of control over sources of radiation left from the Soviet times.
Tom Parfitt wrote in the London Times in 2003: Georgia with its piles of abandoned Soviet hardware, weak law enforcement and shaky separatist regimes, has become a potential goldmine of radioactive sources. At least three times in the past five years a trafficker has been caught here with 1 kg of low-enrichment uranium. A smuggler trying to cross the border with it had a tablet of the heavy metal stuffed in a teabag.Speaking at a Vienna conference, IAEA officer Abel Gonzalez said that in 1995 a whole family was exposed to radiation in the Estonian village of Tammiku when one of its members found a tiny piece of radioactive material of unknown origin and put it into a drawer in the kitchen table. As a result, he and his family received lethal radiation doses.Another case took place on the other side of the globe - in Thailand. Local scrap shop owners cut the metal parts of a stolen cylinder used for the treatment of cancer, and took out a radiation source of cobalt 60. Three of them died, and 11 were heavily exposed.
Investigators found two more such cylinders stored in a parking lot.
On January 12, 2005, a system of radiation control set off an alarm on the territory of the Murmansk merchant marine port, when a seaman from the Chinese Yong Tai vessel (Hong Kong) was going through customs.
His clothes and other belongings were contaminated with an isotope of cesium-137.Those who are dreaming of a dirty bomb would be happy to get the container with radioactive cesium-137, and americium-241, which was lost by the Puerto Rican Geoexport Company as a result of negligence during transportation. Terrorists would have been glad to learn that the American Buoy Inspection Service in Louisiana kept containers with radionuclides at unlocked premises.The IAEA Data Base registered 103 cases of illegal trafficking in nuclear and radioactive materials in 2005. How many more similar emergencies should happen for the world community to take action? Or are we lunatics marching towards disaster? The polonium incident in London is another marker of radionuclides, which are tacitly spreading all over the world. RIA Novosti - Saturday, January 6, 2007
Ollmert-Mubarak Meeting Overshadowed by Ramallah Raid
By Hana Levi Julian (INN) JAN 05,07
The IDF raid in Ramallah that left four dead cast a pall over the Thursday meeting between Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. The meeting between the two leaders was described as tense, as Mubarak himself told reporters at a joint news conference following the talks.
I expressed to the Prime Minister our indignation at what happened today inRamallah, Mubarak noted, and said that Israel and all the people in the region will achieve peace only by refraining from all practices which obstruct its course. Olmert apologized for the civilian deaths, but pointed out that the operation was necessary to stop terrorists from carrying out deliberate operations to kill Israeli civilians. Things developed in a way that could not have been predicted in advance, he said. If innocent people were hurt, this was not our intention, highlighting the difference between attacks by PA terrorists specifically aimed at maiming and killing Israeli civilians, and IDF operations targeting the murderous terrorists.
Mubarak Cold on Most of Agenda, Warm on Shalit
Discussions between the two men on the issue of continuing violations by Palestinian terrorist of the six-week-old ceasefire between Gaza terrorists and Israel were also tense.Israel’s demand that the PA put a complete stop to the Kassam rocket attacks - of which there have been some 80 since the ceasefire went into effect - was met with a complete lack of sympathy. These Kassam rockets, they will fire them every other day, Mubarak said. Shall we stop the peace process because one or two individuals fire rockets?
Olmert replied that Israel has been more than generous in restraining the IDF from responding to the rocket fire.
Mubarak Hints: We'll Go Nuclear
If nuclear weapons are developed in this region and endanger Egypt, we certainly can't sit back and do nothing, Mubarak said. Though until now Egypt's nuclear program has been said to be designated only for peaceful purposes, Mubarak implied that his country would be forced to develop nuclear weapons. It was not clear if he was referring to a nuclear threat from Iran or from Israel.
Talks between Olmert and Mubarak on the issue of negotiations between Israel and the PA were also cold. Olmert’s insistence that Hamas could not be part of talks with Israel was also met with a retort by Mubarak, Then try with the Palestinian Authority. Some of the tension was also over the issue of Egypt’s responsibility for preventing terrorists from smuggling weapons from Egypt into Gaza.
Olmert asked Mubarak to tighten up the security at the border to prevent further arming of PA terrorists who then aim their weapons at Israel. The number of guns and other war materiel entering Gaza from Egypt continues to increase ever since control of the border area was transferred from Israel to the PA.
Mubarak was less than cordial over the issue, however, telling Olmert bluntly that Egyptian security personnel were doing their best, but could not be expected to close the border completely. The one issue that did not cause conflict between the two leaders was the need to secure the release of IDF Cpl. Gilad Shalit, held hostage by Hamas terrorists since they kidnapped him last June.The Egyptian president pledged to continue his efforts to convince the kidnappers to release their IDF hostage. We are working on releasing the Palestinian prisoners held by Israel and on releasing the Israeli prisoner held by the Palestinians. I hope that we will soon arrive at a solution in this matter, he said.For his part, Olmert praised Mubarak for the efforts of his intelligence officers on Israel’s behalf. I thanked him for the efforts to bring about the release of the soldier... who is still held by Hamas, which is not prepared to release him, he added.
MATTHEW 24:15-22
15 When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:) (this is at the 3 1/2 yr mark of 7 yr treaty)
16 Then let them which be in Judaea flee into the mountains:
17 Let him which is on the housetop not come down to take any thing out of his house:
18 Neither let him which is in the field return back to take his clothes.
19 And woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days!
20 But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the sabbath day:
21 For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.
22 And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened.(daylight hours shortened, not days)
El Al Won't Fly on Sabbath Without Rabbinical Dispensation
By Hillel Fendel (INN) JAN 05,07
An agreement has been signed between El Al and representatives of the hareidi-religious public regarding Sabbath flights. The agreement paves the way for the removal of the hareidi boycott on the Israeli airline. The Rabbis Committee for the Sabbath and El Al resolved that an agreed-upon rabbi would be appointed to decide each case in which a Sabbath flight appears to be required. The company will thus not operate Sabbath flights without the rabbi's approval - which presumably will not be forthcoming unless a life-saving need applies.Other details of the agreement were not released, except that it was signed with the approval of the generation's leading rabbis, the committee stated.The boycott began after the nationwide Histadrut Labor Union strike several weeks ago. El Al, seeking to clear the strike-caused backlog and bring stranded passengers home a day earlier, flew several planes on the Sabbath. Many hareidi-religious passengers have said that they see no reason to prefer an Israeli company if it openly desecrates the Sabbath.
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).
Brussels divided on future shape of EU commission
05.01.2007 - 09:29 CET | By Andrew Rettman (Eu Observer)
The European Commission is showing signs of division on EU institutional reform, with Polish commissioner Danuta Hubner attacking German commissioner Guenter Verheugen's idea that small EU states do not need fully-fledged commissioners.Creating two categories of member states and accepting size as a criterion, on the basis of which a country would have the right to designate a commissioner, is groundless and, speaking frankly, unacceptable, Ms Hubner told Polish press agency PAP on Thursday (4 January.).One day earlier Mr Verheugen - industry commissioner and commission vice-president - had suggested that small states should get deputy commissioners in key policy areas rather than full commissioners with light portfolios to create an efficient, small and highly competent commission.The debate comes ahead of the EU's attempt to revive its moribund treaty-reform process this year, with the accession of Romania and Bulgaria in January straining the credibility of the one-stateone-commissioner system after Bucharest got a new multilingualism portfolio, widely seen as negligible. The EU's 27 member states contrast starkly in terms of size with Germany on 82.5 million while Malta has just 400,000 people in a situation that is reflected in the EU's qualified majority decision-making mechanism which gives more votes to big countries.
But the idea that small states are less equal than big ones remains a political taboo, with all capitals keen to have their man at the commission's top table to guard prestige and make sure that information about Brussels' internal thinking flows back home. The draft EU constitution - rejected in French and Dutch referendums in 2005 - sketched out an equal rotation system for commissioner posts while the current Nice treaty says the number of commissioners should be reduced once the EU has 27 members, with Croatia, Macedonia and Turkey also waiting to join.
MEPs should get more say
Meanwhile, Poland's commissioner for regional policy backed Mr Verheugen's suggestion the European Parliament should select the commission president who would then select his own team, instead of the current situation where member states sort out all the appointments behind closed doors. You could consider the merits of a smaller commission, Ms Hubner said. But a small commission would have to have a totally different method of selection, where commissioners are not selected by member states...The method of selection should be grounded in the European Parliament.She added the 27-strong team of commissioners is functioning well but the bigger the commission gets the more power ends up in the hands of its president, amid claims by some observers that the current commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso already has a presidential style. I don't see any weakening of the commission...Work is going well. But there is a natural tendency, the bigger a body is, the more the presidential system dominates, because it is necessary to look for ways to take decisions efficiently, even if these ways are less democratic, to speak brutally, Ms Hubner explained.
Residents of planned union to be North Americanists
Arizona State University teaches how continent to be integrated
January 5, 2007 - 1:00 a.m. Eastern - By Bob Unruh - 2007 WorldNetDaily.com
Arizona State University is teaching that the U.S., Mexico and Canada need to be integrated into a unified superstate, where U.S. citizens of the future will be known as North Americanists, according to the taxpayer-funded Building North America program. The program openly advocates for the integration of economic issues across the continent, and in many places goes further – such as the call for a common North American currency. One teaching module made available online for professors to integrate into their teachings was written by George Haynal, senior fellow at the Norman Patterson School of International Affairs at Carleton University, and implied a joint military is required. Since the security of the continent "is a joint need; it should be supplied as a common enterprise.
Given the nature of the threats against our security in the current environment, the first task is to reinvent borders. We must exercise the responsibility for protecting our society against external threats where we can do so most effectively, not where infrastructures happens to be in place, he added. Multilateral cooperation is going to be essential among governments. It is clear, to me at least, that we must … move beyond NAFTA and do so with a purposeful determination, he wrote. Another teaching paper advocates the adoption of a unified North American currency, the amero, modeled after the euro currency of the European Union. The programming the university is providing for help in teaching the new North American focus is just the latest evidence of the mounting campaign for a de facto North American Union. Although most in the establishment press are not covering the controversy, it has earned the opposition of a number of high-level voices including congressmen like Tom Tancredo, Virgil Goode and Ron Paul, and newsmen like CNN's Lou Dobbs who has described the U.S. government's actions in this effort as Orwellian.
Paul, a maverick Republican from Texas, has denounced such integration plans and warns that most members of Congress aren't aware of the situation, and that he is opposing any transnational superhighway projects such as the Trans-Texas Corridor project in his home state. Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas .Why? The ultimate goal, he said, is not simply a superhighway, but an integrated North American Union – complete with a currency, a cross-national bureaucracy and virtually borderless travel within the union. Like the European Union, a North American Union would represent another step toward the abolition of national sovereignty altogether.
Rep. Goode, R-Va., already has introduced a resolution expressing the sense of Congress that the U.S. should not engage in further NAFTA advances.
But progress already is significant down the road to a joint government, evidenced by confirmation that the U.S. government is planning to provide full Social Security benefits to Mexicans as well as a report by the powerful Council on Foreign Relations, considered by many to be something of a shadow government, that calls for the transfer of massive amounts of wealth from the U.S. to Mexico and the setup of a security perimeter around North America. A Canadian website set up by those who fear the loss of their Canadian national sovereignty already has established a timeline for the program. The Arizona State contribution to the move towards a one-government continent was launched because of the notion that economic integration in the NAFTA Triad (Canada-U.S.-Mexico) was advancing despite the lack of press and public attention it received …and a new website would allow those of us in the Triad to link up with the growing body of research about how businesses, governments, and organizations were shaping, and adapting to, the evolution of a shared economic space. We are now bringing together the fruits of this research endeavor in a new, updated and redesigned Building North America website…the group said. We are betting on the continued existence of scholars and policy practitioners who would benefit from a site which would consolidate the research and data we are all generating, and thereby build community among us. A telephone number for the managers of the site was unavailable, and a WND e-mail to the site did not generate a response. But the goal is clear: The links, documents, and other materials on this site have been selected, organized, and in some cases designed to advance teaching and research on North American regional integration. … At the same time the site also aims to benefit the broader community of North Americanists, within the academy and beyond, by putting at our collective fingertips – or mouse-reach – the kinds of current and historical material that will benefit research into, and understanding of, North American integration – past, present and future. The site cross-references and links to organizations and university centers such as the Center for North American Studies at American University in Washington, D.C., institutional home for Robert Pastor.
American University Professor Robert Pastor
Pastor has been described as a leading intellectual force in the move to create an EU-style North American Community, and recently told WND he believes a new 9/11 crisis could be the catalyst to merge the U.S., Mexico and Canada. Pastor said that in such a case the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America, or SPP – launched in 2005 by the heads of the three countries at a summit in Waco, Texas – could be developed into a continental union, complete with a new currency, the amero, that would replace the U.S. dollar. In May 2005, Pastor was co-chairman the Council on Foreign Relations task force that produced a report entitled Toward a North American Community, which he has claimed is the blueprint behind the SSP declared by President Bush, Mexico's then-President Vicente Fox, and Canada's then-Prime Minister Paul Martin. At American University, Pastor directs the Center for North American Studies where he teaches a course entitled North America: A Union, A Community, or Just Three Nations? As WND previously has reported, Pastor is on the board of the North American Forum on Integration, the NAFI, a non-profit organization that annually holds a mock trilateral parliament for 100 selected students drawn from 10 universities in the U.S., Canada and Mexico. Arizona State also lists government agencies in support of the merging of various functions that historically have been handled by each government, such as the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the U.S. Department of Commerce, and others. The website's archive contains influential papers and articles which have shaped the debate on North America, including the 2005 document from the Council on Foreign Relations called Building a North American Community: Report of the Independent Task Force on the Future of North America.
Also available is a series of Teaching Modules, where Haynal's instructions are available. The section leads off with an introductory guide to Building North America Into Your Course, as well as a more structured Matrix offering sample units by theme and subfield … Each of these TMs either has, or will have in the near future, an accompanying Teaching Note with more detailed suggestions for incorporation into a variety of courses.
Among the organizations being promoted are the Council of The Americas, the free market thinktank Fraser Institute, North America Works, North American Integration and Development Center, North America's Super Corridor Coalition, North American Integration and Development Center at UCLA, the Mexican Embassy, NORAD, North American Development Bank, NAFTA Secretariat, North American Agreement on Environmental Cooperation and North American Agreement on Labor Cooperation, One of the teaching notes lists Earl Fry's work titled: The Role of Subnational Governments in the governance of North America.
Subtitled Mapping the New North American Reality, that paper argues that provinces in Canada and states in the United States and Mexico are quite efficiently setting up their own integrated North America with or without their federal governments' participation.
It even warns against renegade states like South Dakota, which has undermined treaties and agreements signed by national governments with its requirements for inspections of Canadian cattle, hogs and wheat. The North American Union plans were cited by WorldNetDaily editors as the Number One story on the news site's list of 10 most underreported stories for 2006. The January 2007 edition of WND's monthly Whistleblower magazine, which explores this topic in-depth, is titled PREMEDITATED MERGER: How our leaders are stealthily transforming the U.S.A. into the North American Union.
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