1-WORLD QUAKES LAST 2 DAYS.2-Tornado damages buildings in Ohio. 3-Flood fears deepen in Vermont capital. 4-Flood concerns pepper spring forecast. 5-Berlin to stress EU social side in birthday text. 6-EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana in Damascus. 7-World powers agree on new Iran sanctions. 8-Palestinians unify; Israel demurs. 9-Dearly Beloved in Christ Jesus, MAR 15,07 DR JACK VAN IMPE. 10-March 14, 2007 ARLENE KUSHNER. 11-EU FM Calls For a Syrian Golan; Lieberman vs. Europe. 12-Secretary-General welcomes news of Palestinian unity government. 13-Moses, Jesus really prophets of Islam.
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 = Fri Mar 16 12:00 AM EDT
MAR 15,07
MAP 2.9 ALASKA PENINSULA
MAP 2.6 SOUTHERN ALASKA
MAP 2.5 SOUTHERN ALASKA
MAP 5.1 OAXACA, MEXICO
MAP 4.8 BURU, INDONESIA
MAP 3.2 CENTRAL ALASKA
MAP 4.6 KURIL ISLANDS
MAP 2.7 PUERTO RICO REGION
MAP 2.5 PUERTO RICO REGION
MAP 2.6 PUERTO RICO REGION
MAP 3.1 PUERTO RICO REGION
MAP 3.3 RAT ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN ISLANDS, ALASKA
MAP 5.7 KEPULAUAN TALAUD, INDONESIA
MAP 4.6 HOKKAIDO, JAPAN REGION
MAP 2.9 PUERTO RICO REGION
MAP 2.8 UNIMAK ISLAND REGION, ALASKA
MAP 2.7 ANDREANOF ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN IS., ALASKA
MAP 3.5 PUERTO RICO
MAR 14,07
MAP 5.2 NEAR THE COAST OF NICARAGUA
MAP 5.5 NEAR THE COAST OF NICARAGUA
MAP 3.1 NORTHERN CALIFORNIA
MAP 3.1 ALASKA PENINSULA
MAP 3.9 ANDREANOF ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN IS., ALASKA
MAP 2.8 CENTRAL CALIFORNIA
MAP 3.0 ALASKA PENINSULA
MAP 2.6 NEVADA
MAP 4.7 NEAR THE EAST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN
MAP 2.6 ANDREANOF ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN IS., ALASKA
MAP 2.9 SOUTHERN ALASKA
MAP 2.6 OREGON
MAP 5.1 NEAR THE SOUTH COAST OF PAPUA, INDONESIA
MAP 4.9 KURIL ISLANDS
MAP 4.7 EAST OF THE KURIL ISLANDS
MAP 5.1 KEPULAUAN BABAR, INDONESIA
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.
Tornado damages buildings in Ohio MAR 15,07
ELYRIA, Ohio - Flood warnings were issued across the state Thursday following a day of severe storms, which spawned a small tornado that ripped siding from an office supply store, flattened residential garages and forced some schools to cancel classes because of a power outage. No injuries were reported from the tornado, which briefly touched down Wednesday evening in northeast Ohio.
Elyria is about 25 miles west of Cleveland.The tornado was weak and on the ground only a few minutes, said Jim Kosarik, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Cleveland. Investigators will have to assess the damage to determine wind speed, said NWS meteorologist Mike Abair.Strong winds downed power lines and trees, and tossed a shopping cart through the window of an empty building, said Lt. Bob Krugman of the Elyria Fire Department.Classes were canceled at some schools because power was out and officials didn't know when it would be restored, school board member Kathryn Carpus said.On Thursday, authorities closed roads in areas from Auglaize County in western Ohio to Belmont County in eastern Ohio because of high water, sheriff's offices said.The rain changed to freezing rain and sleet in Union County, northwest of Columbus, possibly contributing to numerous accidents, some involving injuries, a sheriff's dispatcher said.
Flood fears deepen in Vermont capital Wed Mar 14, 7:22 PM ET
MONTPELIER, Vt. - The National Weather Service added to the jitters of residents of Vermont's capital city Wednesday, issuing a flood watch for an area including the ice-jammed Winooski River.
The watch is in effect through 11 a.m. Thursday and came after a night when mild weather accelerated snowmelt on the river, which flooded in 1992 and devastated downtown Montpelier.The river rose about 1.5 feet early Wednesday but later dropped, said City Manager William Fraser.
A construction crane lowering a steel I-beam onto the river ice continued breaking up portions Wednesday.It's fair to say that in this week's weather cycle, this is the highest-risk evening, Fraser said Wednesday. If we can get past this rain tonight, we'll be good.Merchants and homeowners continued preparing for the worst. Most downtown businesses have fortified storefronts with sandbags, plywood or both.We're doing all we can do, said Kathy Berry, co-owner of Pinky's on State, a sandwich shop. If it's going to happen, it's going to happen. What are you going to do? We'll serve soggy sandwiches.
Flood concerns pepper spring forecast MAR 15,07
WASHINGTON - The government's spring weather outlook raises concerns for flooding in the Midwest and continued drought in the Southwest. The outlook for April through June includes potential flooding in the Ohio Valley and as far west as Colorado, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said Thursday.The soil moisture is high, due to the melting of an above normal snowpack, which resulted from record snowfall in December and January, said David L. Johnson, director of NOAA's National Weather Service.According to the forecast, warmer than normal temperatures in recent weeks have increased the risk of flooding due to ice jams over portions of eastern South Dakota, eastern Iowa, southeastern Minnesota, southern Wisconsin and northern
Illinois.
In addition, high soil moisture over northeastern Ohio and northwestern Pennsylvania and extreme southwestern New York state could lead to flooding if additional heavy precipitation occurs, the agency said. Snow and rainfall in December through February were above average in much of the center of the nation, while large sections of the East, Southeast and West were drier than average.
Much of southern California just experienced its driest fall and winter in more than a century, the report said.With the dry season fast approaching, there are major concerns that drought conditions will not only fail to improve but actually worsen in coming months, said Doug Lecomte, drought specialist for the NOAA Climate Prediction Center. The outlook for any significant drought improvement from now through spring looks grim for not only southern California but for much of the Southwest as well.Florida also is approaching its dry season and dry winter weather over the southern half of the peninsula has brought fire danger indices to abnormally high conditions.
The National Interagency Fire Center's Seasonal Wildland Fire Potential Outlook for February through June 2007 calls for the potential for significant wildfire activity to be higher than normal this spring over portions of the southern tier of states and northern Minnesota, said Tom Wordell, Wildland National Interagency Fire Center fire analyst.The outlook calls for drought to continue or worsen through June over much of the Southwest, potentially spreading into portions of Utah and western Colorado.Drought also is expected to persist across Florida, while improvement is predicted over the extreme northern Plains as well as portions of Texas and Oklahoma.
Berlin to stress EU social side in birthday text
14.03.2007 - 17:42 CET | By Mark Beunderman
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS Members of the European Parliament on Wednesday (14 March)
received some more specifics on the text of the EU's 50th anniversary declaration when talking to German foreign minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who revealed that Berlin wants to stress the EU's social dimension.
Less than two weeks to go before EU leaders will sign the birthday declaration at a meeting in Berlin on 25 March, MEPs like the rest of Europe have been left in the dark by the German EU presidency on what exactly the text will look like. Wednesday's debate with Mr Steinmeier took place with no draft text on the table, sparking some vocal criticism towards Berlin from the Greens and Liberals in the EU assembly.
To debate the declaration without having seen a draft is bizarre, said liberal leader Graham Watson.I'm sure the spin doctors in the Bundeskanzleramt [the office of chancellor Angela Merkel] are still at work... but don't feel surprised if many of us feel we're being bounced, he added. Daniel Cohn-Bendit, chief of the Greens, stated I am opposed to secret deliberations in smoke-filled rooms.
I don't believe in sherpas and networks, he added, referring to Berlin's covert working method which involves confidential talks with member states' so-called sherpas special appointees for the birthday declaration as well as the EU constitution issue. But Mr Steinmeier was spared criticism from the parliament's largest two groups the conservatives and the socialists which include the German CDU and SPD parties forming the government coalition in Berlin. The German minister said the Berlin declaration will contain four parts, more or less confirming earlier reports on the structure of the text.
The first part will be on the EU's achievements, like peace, stability, prosperity, including a strong reference to the the bloc's 2004 enlargement. Particular characteristics of EU integration such as the equality of all member states will also be mentioned in this part, according to Mr Steinmeier.The second part will cover EU values, such as human dignity, freedom, tolerance and mutual solidarity.
The third part termed the heart of the declaration by Mr Steinmeier will discuss current and future challenges. These are set to include climate change, a common EU foreign policy, common responses to illegal immigration and the fight against crime and terrorism.
The social dimension
The German politician highlighted that Berlin really wants to underscore the social dimension in this third part of the declaration. Europe stands for a social model based on economic competition but reconciling that competition with social and ecological responsibility, he stated. A strong social paragraph is important to France which in 2005 saw a failed referendum on the EU constitution partly due to fears that the EU would become too liberal. But too much social talk in the declaration is disliked by free market-oriented states like the UK and the Czech Republic. The final, fourth part of the text will mark a commitment to take necessary steps in the reform process of the EU before 2009, Mr Steinmeier said. This vague kind of reference to the need for institutional reform was already used
by EU leaders in conclusions last June, when dealing with the question of what to do with the disputed EU constitution. Contrary to what German diplomats had originally envisaged, the text will not mention deadlines for re-negotiating the EU constitution, which was rejected by France and the Netherlands, nor will it refer to words like constitution or constitutional.Meanwhile, Mr Steinmeier avoided the topic of future enlargement, which had emerged as a subject of controversy surrounding the declaration during an EU leaders' dinner last week, with France opposing explicit calls for further expansion of the bloc.
EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana in Damascus MAR 15,07
Damascus, 14 March - On the third leg of his Mideast-tour, that began in Beirut, EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana, coming from Riyadh, arrived in Syria yesterday. In talks with Foreign Minister Walid al-Mouallem and Vice President Farouk al-Sharaa and finally with President Bashar al-Assad, Solana outlined the European Union's demands on Syria: voicing out the persistent Israeli complaints of alleged weapons' smuggling to the Lebanese Hezbollah, Solana requested that Syria put an end to this activity.
He furthermore requested that Syria exert a maximum effort to disarm Hezbollah, insinuating that it was Syria's responsiblity to implement UN Security Council resolution 1701 which ended Israel's military offensive against Lebanon last September. In a press conference with Walid al-Mouallem, Solana declared that I told the President ... that we would like to see Syria making a maximum effort to help implement Security Council Resolution 1701. That is fundamental to reach peace, stability and independence of Lebanon. One of the chief concerns of Javier Solana was to win Syria's commitment to persuading the Lebanese opposition to drop any objections against the UN Security Council-appointed international tribunal to try the suspects in the murder of Rafiq Hariri. Syrian Foreign Minister commented this issue saying that Syria has no objections against this tribunal and pointed out that it was among the Lebanese themselves that differences have risen regarding the statutes of the international tribunal.
The statutes indeed, set up by the UN Security Council, are apt to severely curtail Lebanese sovereignty in the judicial sphere. Regarding the weapons smuggling issue, al-Mouallem denied any responsibility on the part of Syria and renewed Syria's commitment to implement the resolution 1701, saying I would like to stress that Syria will always stay part of the solution that seeks the security and stability of the region. For his part, Javier Solana declared at the news conference that the European Union was determined to do its best to help Syria recover the Golan Heights, still under Israeli occupation, saying that we would like to work as much as possible to see your country, Syria, recuperating the territories that were taken in the year 1967.
World powers agree on new Iran sanctions By EDITH M. LEDERER, Associated Press Writer Thu Mar 15, 6:33 AM ET
UNITED NATIONS - A proposed new package of sanctions against Iran for enriching uranium appeared headed to the U.N. Security Council after ambassadors for six world powers resolved remaining differences.
The six-nation show of unity would be unlikely to meet strong opposition from the other 10 members on the council, which must approve the measures. A vote was expected in the days to come.We have an agreement in principle based on some additional changes that were introduced and presented today by some delegations, acting U.S. Ambassador Alejandro Wolff said Wednesday.He said the new elements still needed to be approved by government officials in the five countries that hold permanent council seats — the U.S., Russia, China, France and Britain.
But he and other envoys expressed confidence the package would be presented to the council on Thursday with support from those governments and the sixth nation involved in the negotiations, Germany.Our hope is now that we've overcome a particular hurdle ... and the council will have the text before it by tomorrow morning, said Britain's U.N. Ambassador Emyr Jones-Parry.Iran insists its enrichment program is peaceful and aimed solely at producing nuclear energy, but the U.S., European nations and the U.N. nuclear watchdog are concerned that Iran's goal is to produce nuclear weapons.
The modest package includes an embargo on Iranian arms exports and an asset freeze on more individuals and companies associated with Tehran's nuclear and missile programs, council diplomats said.The United States and the Europeans would certainly favor tougher sanctions, but knew they had to settle for less to ensure that Russia and China, which have close commercial ties with Iran, will not use their veto power to block a resolution.
Russia's U.N. Ambassador Vitaly Churkin said while there was agreement on the proposals by and large, some of the council members still want to consult with their governments on the details.I assume as they double-check, they will get a positive response from the capitals, and they expect that this is going to be the case, too, he said.Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Wednesday warned the West that it would deepen the rift with his country by imposing more U.N. sanctions.
You are wrong if you think you can sit and draft ... something in order to isolate the Iranian nation, Ahmadinejad said in a speech to several thousand people in the Iranian city of Yazd.Not only are you unable to hurt Iran, but you would further isolate yourselves and make yourselves more hated, he added.In December, the Security Council voted unanimously to impose limited sanctions against Iran for its refusal to freeze uranium enrichment. It ordered all countries to stop supplying Iran with materials and technology that could contribute to its nuclear and missile programs and to freeze assets of 10 key Iranian companies and 12 individuals related to those programs.The council said it would consider further nonmilitary sanctions if Iran refused to suspend enrichment. Iran's response was to accelerate its enrichment program.
The new resolution also would call on all U.N. member states to exercise vigilance and restraint on arms imports and on the entry or transit through their territory of Iranians subject to the asset freeze, a council diplomat said, speaking on condition of anonymity because the text has not been circulated.It would call on governments to make no new commitments of grants, financial assistance, or concessional loans to the government of Iran, the diplomat said.
China's U.N. Ambassador Wang Guangya said he wasn't happy with the list of additional individuals and entities that would be subject to sanctions, but he added: I think one has to reach agreement, so there has to be a package.Earlier Wednesday, Israel's Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and Defense Minister Amir Peretz met with U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to discuss Iran's nuclear program. Afterward, Livni urged the Security Council to strengthen its sanctions on Iran. She said Iran's government, which speaks publicly of wiping Israel off the map and denies the Holocaust, is a threat not only by Israel but to Iran's Arab Muslim neighbors. She said it is clear that their goal is to pursue a nuclear weapon. Time is of the essence because while we are talking, they are working ... to master the technology and to achieve this goal. So we have to stop it.Associated Press writers Sarah DiLorenzo and Lily Hindy contributed to this report.
Palestinians unify; Israel demurs
MAR 15,07 - By Adel Hana, AP
GAZA CITY (AP) — The rival Hamas and Fatah movements formed a long-elusive unity government Thursday, hoping to end bloody infighting and lead the Palestinians out of a year-long international isolation. Israel immediately said, however, that it would not deal with the new government.
Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of the Islamic militant Hamas announced the final coalition agreement and platform after months of stop-and-go negotiations. It is to be approved by the Palestinian parliament on Saturday.The coalition platform posted on Hamas and Fatah websites calls for continued observance of a truce with Israel but falls short of Israeli, U.S. and European requirements that the new government recognize Israel, renounce violence and accept previous peace deals.The new government's platform includes only a vague pledge to respect past peace deals; it does not explicitly recognize Israel.It also affirms the Palestinians' right to resist and defend themselves against any Israeli aggression.
While many in the West consider resistance to be a code word for violent attacks, Palestinians have a wide variety of definitions that can encompass anything from armed attacks to street protests.
Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev said his government will boycott the coalition government and encourage other countries to do the same because its program falls short of the international conditions for acceptance that include recognition of the Jewish state.Unfortunately the new Palestinian government seems to have said no to the three benchmarks of the international community, Regev said. Accordingly, Israel will not deal with this new government and we hope the international community will stand firmly by its own principles and refuse to deal with a government that says no to peace and no to reconciliation.Western countries have said they will wait for the new government to take office before deciding whether to lift economic sanctions against the Palestinian government.Haniyeh said the Palestinians have received encouraging signals from Europe.No doubt, there is a different position by the American administration and the Israelis, he said, adding that the new government would do its best to bring about an end to the boycott and maintain relations with all the international community.Haniyeh said he hoped the new government will launch a new era for the Palestinians.
Nabil Abu Rdeneh, a senior aide to moderate President Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah, said the new coalition opens the way for a resumption of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.
This is the right moment to move toward the peace process, he told reporters. If it (the international community) is serious, if it is looking toward stability in the Middle East, this is the right moment to go ahead by implementing the U.S.-backed road map peace plan.Another Abbas aide, Nimr Hamad, said the new government
represents all Palestinians.When Israel says it doesn't want to deal with it, it means it does not want to deal with the Palestinians, he said.Haniyeh presented the Cabinet lineup Thursday — nine ministers from Hamas and six from Fatah — to Abbas, who accepted it. Haniyeh and Abbas agreed to the power-sharing deal last month in Saudi Arabia, but had spent the past few weeks ironing out the final details.
The final stage of the coalition talks dealt with one of the most difficult issues — who would fill the post of interior minister and assume control over the security forces. Most of the veteran members are loyal to Fatah, but Hamas last year formed its own 5,600-member militia.Officials identified the new minister as Hani Kawasmi, a senior Interior Ministry civil servant who has good relations with Hamas and Fatah, but does not belong to either party. Mustafa Barghouti, the incoming information minister, confirmed the appointment.Barghouti said other key appointments included Salam Fayyad, an internationally respected economist, as finance minister, and Ziad Abu Amr, an independent lawmaker, as foreign minister. Haniyeh will remain as prime minister, and Azzam al-Ahmed, head of Fatah's parliament bloc, will be deputy prime minister.Hamas trounced the more moderate Fatah in parliamentary elections last year, giving it control over most government functions. But the Hamas-led government was crippled by Western sanctions imposed over its refusal to recognize Israel's right to exist.
Abbas, who was elected separately in 2005, has been pushing Hamas since last autumn to join Fatah in a more moderate coalition in hopes of lifting the Western boycott. The negotiations collapsed repeatedly, often sparking rounds of deadly factional fighting in Gaza.As negotiations continued, there was an exchange of fire between Hamas and Fatah forces in the northern Gaza Strip. Security officials said nine people, including five bystanders, were slightly wounded in the shootout. More than 130 people have died in the infighting since last May.On Thursday, a Fatah activist died of wounds he sustained the previous night in a shootout with Hamas gunmen in the northern Gaza Strip, Palestinian security officials said.The Associated Press.
Dearly Beloved in Christ Jesus, MAR 15,07 DR JACK VAN IMPE
Rexella and I are often amazed at the way God leads and guides us. What do I mean? A number of months ago, after much prayer, we decided to produce a new video on the subject of Heaven.
As final preparations were being made, a stunning and stupendous television event occurred a two-hour Barbara Walters special on Heaven. It was just what we needed to study and deliver a no punches pulled reply to the celebrities being interviewed who were mainly wrong about their opinions and guesses about Eternity.Famous personalities including Barbara Walters, Mitch Albom, Cardinal McCarrick, Rabbi Jackie Mason, Rev. Joel Osteen, The Dahli Lama and Ellen Johnson, the President of the American Atheists presented their viewpoints. Oprah Winfrey and Joe Louis appeared in other news releases.
Then, under the anointing and guidance of the Holy Spirit, we set the record straight concerning the 559 Biblical texts about Heaven. In the Barbara Walters special not one scriptural text was used even by the purported religious experts. What a reproach when John 17:17 states: Thy Word is Truth.
Well, by contrast, Rexella and I used hundreds of the 559 Biblical verses to answer the interviewed celebrities’ statements right and wrong, wise and foolish.You need this shocking one-hour and fifty minute study to make a trip around Heaven! Test yourself and see how many of the following questions you can answer in this in-depth enlightening study:
Where is Heaven past, present and future?
Is the new birth a reincarnation?
Do suicide bombers go directly to Paradise?
Why did Christ descend into Hades?
Will the third Heaven, of II Corinthians 12:2, be relocated upon earth?
Will we know our loved ones and friends in Heaven?
What age will every believer be?
Will our beloved pets be with us eternally?
Did Paul have an out of body experience?
Does each child of God have a guardian angel to transport him or her to Heaven both at death and at the Rapture?
What is life like in Heaven?
Will we eat, laugh and sing?
Will we eventually live in the Holy City?
How large will our new and everlasting mansion be?
Will the Holy City contain billions of mansions? How many?
Will the mansions be beautiful masterpieces prepared by Christ? (John 14:3).
In conclusion, let me tell you how we exit earth to reach Heaven. Job 26:7 states: God stretched out the north over the empty place. That empty place is the way out of our universe to reach heaven (II Corinthians 12:2)
The global astronomers describe this glorious opening located in the constellation of Orion as follows:One of the most inspiring and thrilling recent disclosures is that there is a great empty space in the North in the nebula of the constellation of Orion a heavenly cavern so gigantic the mind of man cannot comprehend it, and so brilliantly beautiful that words cannot adequately describe it. All astronomers agree that this huge opening in Orion is perhaps more than 16,740,000,000,000 (sixteen trillion, seven hundred forty billion) miles in diameter, which is incomprehensible to man. WOW!
Order the video or DVD entitled, The Truth About Heaven, with your gift of $25.00 U.S. ($30.00 Canada) immediately. It will bless you from head to toe.
https://ww2.micahtek.com/nexolive/nJVISelector.cfm?rDATA1=SHOPPING&rDATA3=DHVV
Yours in world evangelism,
Jack Van Impe President of Jack Van Impe Ministries
March 14, 2007 ARLENE KUSHNER
The Arabs are playing games, but there is nothing funny about it. They're attempting to put the squeeze on Israel as a step towards destroying her. And a prime facilitator of this squeeze is the moderate Saudi Arabia.The issue is the Saudi peace plan. They're not happy that Israel wants changes, primarily with regard to the return of refugees. Saudi foreign affairs minister Saud Al-Faisal indicated that there was nothing to talk about. This is not a good way to do business, he declared. We have no desire to negotiate over this...Another of the regions vaunted moderates, Jordan's king Abdullah, commented last night that extremism would increase if Israel refused to come to the negotiating table. (Actually, I've observed that terrorism increases when we are too conciliatory in negotiations.)
And a spokesman for that third moderate, Mubarak of Egypt, said 'Israel cannot pick and choose from the initiative and then jump into establishing normal relations with Arabs.
Farouk al-Sharaa, vice president of Syria, which isn't even pretending moderation, made a fairly straightforward statement: We have the Arab peace plan and we are committed to it as a whole. Talk about amending it is baseless. What we want is returning all the occupied land including Jerusalem [eastern Jerusalem and the old city].(emphasis added) Including Jerusalem: No sharing of holy places. They want it in their hands exclusively.On the one hand, I am infuriated by their deviousness and lack of sincerity. They are talking about negotiations, but they have set non-negotiable terms before coming to the table.
What would we negotiate the speed with which we were to pull out? But their lack of genuine desire to negotiate peace is clear for all to see. And ultimately this intransigence is going to save us from ourselves just one more time. Even Olmert who would love to give them Judea and Samaria cannot accede to what they propose.
EU FM Calls For a Syrian Golan; Lieberman vs. Europe
by Ezra HaLevi (INN) MAR 15,07
EU Foreign Minister Javier Solana said Wednesday he believes the Golan rightfully belongs to Syria. Minister of Strategic Affairs Avigdor Lieberman said later in the day that Europe is selling Israel out for money.Solana, who handles foreign policy for the European Union, made the remark after he met with Syrian President Bashar Assad. The EU would like to work as much as possible to see your country Syria recuperate the territory taken in 1967, Solana told him. Solana and his Syrian
counterpart later held a joint press conference.Solana visited Syria for the first time in two years. His visit was preceded by stops in Lebanon and Saudi Arabia.
Earlier Wednesday, speaking before a delegation of visiting Jewish American establishment leaders, Strategic Affairs Minister Avigdor Lieberman had said that Europe is selling out Israel for economic interests. He cited Europes objections to the placement of strong sanctions on Iran to deter the Islamic Republic from going nuclear.Lieberman said Europe was acting out of the same considerations that led it to allow the Holocaust to happen. There is no other explanation, he said.
Lieberman said last week that if the international community failed to stop Iran, Israel could and would take the necessary steps on its own. We can face [Iran] even if we are left to face them one-on-one, he said.
Secretary-General welcomes news of Palestinian unity government MAR 15,07
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon
15 March 2007 – Welcoming reports that negotiations for a Palestinian national unity government have been completed, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said today he hoped the new administration would respect existing agreements and reflect widely held principles on the conflict in the Middle East.
United Nations spokesperson Michele Montas told journalists at the daily briefing, in response to questions on the intra-Palestinian talks, that Mr. Ban is now looking forward to the formation of both the Government and its programme.She said he hoped that the Palestinian Government would respect all existing agreements and reflect principles outlined by the diplomatic Quartet, the international grouping that includes the UN as well as the European Union, Russian Federation and the United States.
Those principles include a commitment to the Road Map, the plan that envisages two States, Israel and Palestine, living side-by-side in peace and security. They also include the recognition of Israel and a rejection of violence.The negotiations follow an accord reached in Mecca last month by Palestinian groups to end the intra-Palestinian violence and to try to work together to form a unity government.
JUDE 14-16
14 And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints,
15 To execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him.(JESUS)
16 These are murmurers, complainers, walking after their own lusts; and their mouth speaketh great swelling words, having men’s persons in admiration because of advantage.
SATAN COMES AGAINST ISRAEL
1 CHRONICLES 21:1
1 And Satan stood up against Israel, and provoked David to number Israel.
SATAN BOOTED OUT OF HEAVEN
ISAIAH 14:12-23
12 How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, (SATAN) son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!
13 For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north:
14 I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.
15 Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit.
16 They that see thee shall narrowly look upon thee, and consider thee, saying, Is this the man that made the earth to tremble, that did shake kingdoms;
17 That made the world as a wilderness, and destroyed the cities thereof; that opened not the house of his prisoners?
18 All the kings of the nations, even all of them, lie in glory, every one in his own house.
19 But thou art cast out of thy grave like an abominable branch, and as the raiment of those that are slain, thrust through with a sword, that go down to the stones of the pit; as a carcase trodden under feet.
20 Thou shalt not be joined with them in burial, because thou hast destroyed thy land, and slain thy people: the seed of evildoers shall never be renowned.
21 Prepare slaughter for his children for the iniquity of their fathers; that they do not rise, nor possess the land, nor fill the face of the world with cities.
22 For I will rise up against them, saith the LORD of hosts, and cut off from Babylon the name, and remnant, and son, and nephew, saith the LORD.
23 I will also make it a possession for the bittern, and pools of water: and I will sweep it with the besom of destruction, saith the LORD of hosts.
24 The LORD of hosts hath sworn, saying, Surely as I have thought, so shall it come to pass; and as I have purposed, so shall it stand.
REVELATION 12:3-4
3 And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon,(SATAN) having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads.
4 And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven,( 1/3 OF ANGELS FELL WITH SATAN AT THE FALL) and did cast them to the earth: and the dragon stood before the woman (MARY JESUS MOTHER) which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born.(JESUS WAS JEWISH,THIS IS PERSECUSSION AGAINST ISRAEL).
REVELATION 20:2
2 And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years,
Well the GODLESS headed by SATAN and the DEMONIC FALLIN ANGELS are really trying to discredit JESUS AS GOD by decieving all these different people, the De Vinci Code, The Lost Tomb of Jesus and now This headline Moses, Jesus really prophets of Islam.
All this is complete nonsense, and true Christians, do not let it disturb you because Jesus warned us his name would be dug through the mud in the last days so the GODLESS DICTATOR could decieve the world into believing the lie, the ones that are perishing because they would not believe the truth.
Moses, Jesus really prophets of Islam
Chief Muslim claims Jewish Temples never existed, Al Aqsa built by angels
March 15, 2007 - By Aaron Klein - WorldNetDaily.com
JERUSALEM – The Jewish Temples never existed, the Western Wall really was a tying post for Muhammad's horse, the Al Aqsa Mosque was built by angels, and Abraham, Moses and Jesus were prophets for Islam. All this according to Sheikh Taysir Tamimi, chief Palestinian Justice and one of the most influential Muslim leaders in Israel. Tamimi is considered the second most important Palestinian cleric after Muhammad Hussein, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem. In a WND exclusive interview, Tamimi, who preaches regularly from the Al Aqsa Mosque, claimed Jews have no historical connection to Jerusalem or Israel and that the Jewish Temples never existed. Israel started since 1967 making archeological digs to show Jewish signs to prove the relationship between Judaism and the city and they found nothing. There is no Jewish connection to Israel before the Jews invaded in the 1880's, said Tamimi.
About these so-called two Temples, they never existed, certainly not at the Haram Al-Sharif (Temple Mount), Tamimi said.The Palestinian cleric denied the validity of dozens of digs verified by experts worldwide revealing Jewish artifacts from the First and Second Temples throughout Jerusalem, including on the Temple Mount itself; excavations revealing Jewish homes and a synagogue in a site in Jerusalem called the City of David; or even the recent discovery of a Second Temple Jewish city in the vicinity of Jerusalem. He said descriptions of the Jewish Temples in the Hebrew Tanach, in the Talmud and in Byzantine and Roman writings from the Temple periods were forged, and that the Torah was falsified to claim Biblical patriarchs and matriarchs were Jewish when indeed they were prophets for Islam. All this is not real. We don't believe in all your versions. Your Torah was falsified.
The text as given to the Muslim prophet Moses never mentions Jerusalem. Maybe Jerusalem was mentioned in the rest of the Torah, which was falsified by the Jews.
He said Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses and Jesus were prophets for the Israelites sent by Allah as to usher in Islam.Asked about the Western Wall, Tamimi said the structure was a tying post for Muhammad's horse and that it is part of the Al Aqsa Mosque, even though the Wall predates the mosque by over 1,000 years.
The Western wall is the western wall of the Al Aqsa Mosque. It's where Prophet Muhammad tied his animal which took him from Mecca to Jerusalem to receive the revelations of Allah.The Al Aqsa Mosque was constructed in about 709 to serve as a shrine near another shrine, the Dome of the Rock, which was built by an Islamic caliph. Al Aqsa was meant to mark what Muslims came to believe was the place at which Muhammad, the founder of Islam, ascended to heaven to receive revelations from Allah. Jerusalem is not mentioned in the Quran.
Islamic tradition states Mohammed took a journey in a single night on a horse from a sacred mosque believed to be in Mecca in southern Saudi Arabia to the farthest mosque and from a rock there ascended to heaven. The farthest mosque later became associated with Jerusalem.
The First Jewish Temple was built by King Solomon in the 10th century B.C. It was destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 B.C. The Second Temple was rebuilt in 515 B.C. after Jerusalem was freed from Babylonian captivity. That temple was destroyed by the Roman Empire in A.D. 70. Each temple stood for a period of about four centuries. Tamimi went on to claim to WND the Al Aqsa Mosque , which has sprung multiple leaks and has had to be repainted several times, was built by angels. Al Aqsa was build by the angels forty years after the building of Al-Haram in Mecca. This we have no doubt is true, he told WND.
Friday, March 16, 2007
Thursday, March 15, 2007
ARABS - ISRAEL DOESNOT WANT PEACE
1-WORLD QUAKES LAST 2 DAYS.2-Damp Thursday Northeast, Deep South. 3-2nd-Temple Jewish Town Uncovered in Jerusalem. 4-Dispute Halts Delivery Of Atomic Fuel to Iran. 5-US mortgage mayhem prompts sell-off. 6-Israel not enthusiastic about strike on Iran: Olmert. 7-GSS: Israeli-Arabs are Existential Danger to Israel. 8-Arab Nations Charge Israel Doesn't Want Peace.
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 = Thur Mar 15 12:00 AM EDT
MAR 14,07
MAP 3.1 ALASKA PENINSULA
MAP 3.9 ANDREANOF ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN IS., ALASKA
MAP 2.8 CENTRAL CALIFORNIA
MAP 3.0 ALASKA PENINSULA
MAP 2.6 NEVADA
MAP 4.7 NEAR THE EAST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN
MAP 2.6 ANDREANOF ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN IS., ALASKA
MAP 2.9 SOUTHERN ALASKA
MAP 2.6 OREGON
MAP 5.1 NEAR THE SOUTH COAST OF PAPUA, INDONESIA
MAP 4.9 KURIL ISLANDS
MAP 4.7 EAST OF THE KURIL ISLANDS
MAP 3.0 NORTHERN CALIFORNIA
MAP 5.1 KEPULAUAN BABAR, INDONESIA
MAR 13,07
MAP 2.5 CENTRAL CALIFORNIA
MAP 2.8 ALASKA PENINSULA
MAP 3.2 PUERTO RICO REGION
MAP 3.1 RAT ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN ISLANDS, ALASKA
MAP 4.7 SOUTH OF THE FIJI ISLANDS
MAP 5.0 NORTHERN PERU
MAP 2.6 BAJA CALIFORNIA, MEXICO
MAP 3.0 ANDREANOF ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN IS., ALASKA
MAP 3.4 RAT ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN ISLANDS, ALASKA
MAP 2.9 SOUTHERN ALASKA
MAP 2.8 GULF OF ALASKA
MAP 5.5 SUMBAWA REGION, INDONESIA
MAP 3.1 RAT ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN ISLANDS, ALASKA
MAP 3.4 RAT ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN ISLANDS, ALASKA
MAP 3.4 RAT ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN ISLANDS, ALASKA
MAP 5.3 KEPULAUAN TALAUD, INDONESIA
MAP 5.4 KEPULAUAN TALAUD, INDONESIA
MAP 3.4 RAT ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN ISLANDS, ALASKA
MAP 2.9 RAT ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN ISLANDS, ALASKA
MAP 2.7 SOUTHERN ALASKA
MAP 6.0 GULF OF CALIFORNIA
MAP 5.2 MOLUCCA SEA
MAP 2.7 CENTRAL CALIFORNIA
MAP 2.5 CENTRAL CALIFORNIA
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.
Damp Thursday Northeast, Deep South Senior Meteorologist, The Weather Channel MAR 14,07
Northeast
A cold front accompanied by rain and isolated thunderstorms will push southward through the Northeast tomorrow reaching central Virginia by evening. In parts of Upstate New York and northern New England the rain may change to wet snow before ending during the afternoon. An inch or two of slush is possible, especially in the higher terrain. The combination of rain, snowmelt and ice jams could lead to some river and stream flooding in northern Pennsylvania, New York and western New England. High temperatures will range from the 30s in western New York, the Adirondacks and far northern New England to the low 80s in southeastern Virginia. Readings in many locations may hold steady or retreat during the day.
South
Rain, showers and thunderstorms will dampen much of the South tomorrow, mainly from Louisiana eastward. The heaviest downpours are expected underneath an upper-air low in parts of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. In Florida, the showers and storms should be primarily of the scattered afternoon pop-up variety. In the western reaches of the region, dry weather is forecast for the vast majority of Texas and Oklahoma. Temperatures, meanwhile, will continue to run well above March averages in most spots with highs in the 70s and 80s. Only the northern half of the Texas Panhandle and portions of northern Oklahoma will be limited to the 60s as gusty northerly winds push cooler air southward.
Midwest
Showers in the lower Midwest tomorrow should push gradually southward to south of the Ohio Valley by evening. Farther west, isolated showers may dot Kansas and Missouri throughout the day. To the north, a weak surface low followed by a reinforcing push of colder air is expected to deposit a few inches of snow on eastern North Dakota and northern Minnesota. High temperatures are expected to range from the 20s in much of northern North Dakota and far northern Minnesota to the 60s from extreme southeastern Kansas eastward through Kentucky. Readings in Illinois, Indiana and Ohio will be noticeably lower than today's topping out in the 40s and 50s in the wake of cold front.
West
Except for an orphaned shower or snow flurry here and there in the Rocky Mountain states tomorrow, the West will be dry. Temperatures will be near to above end-of-winter means with more record highs possible at some locations in the Southwest. Maxima are forecast to range from the 30s at a few spots in the northern Rockies to the 90s in southeast California and southwest Arizona. Most of the Great Basin will reach the 50s and 60s.
2nd-Temple Jewish Town Uncovered in Jerusalem
by Hillel Fendel (INN) MAR 13,07
In the course of preparing tracks for the new light-rail system in Jerusalem, remains of an ancient Jewish community just north of the Holy Temple have been uncovered. Rescue digs, required by law before any major construction work in Jerusalem and environs, have found a major set of remains of a Jewish town from post-Second Temple times. A long strip of land, 400 dunams (100 acres) in size, has been uncovered in which can be seen roads, alleys, houses, public buildings, a mikveh (ritual bath), and more. The community was located east of the old Roman highway leading from Jerusalem to Shechem (Nablus) - roughly along the same route as today's Shechem Way, or Highway 60.
Evidence shows that the community - the largest from that period yet uncovered in the Jerusalem vicinity - was inhabited by a well-to-do and religiously observant populace. In addition to the mikveh, many stone utensils were found - popularly used because they could not become ritually defiled, according to Jewish Law. Many coins were also found, including a rare gold one (pictured above) depicting Trainus Caesar (98-117 CE). Trainus began his reign 30 years after the Second Temple was destroyed. Antiquities Authority dig manager Rachel Bar-Natan said that this was only the second coin of its type found in Israel, and the first one within the Green Line. Nearly 1,000 4th-to-6th graders have visited the site on school trips. The site was first discovered during infrastructure work for the light-rail system being built in Jerusalem by the Moriah Company. In a related item, the National Infrastructures Planning and Construction Committee of the Interior Ministry has made its choice from among five alternatives for the establishment of Jerusalem's fifth water supply line. The project, which will be one of Israel's largest over the coming decade, will involve the placing of an 8-foot wide pipe deep underground, running from south of Rehovot to the western-Jerusalem reservoir in Beit Zayit. The 2-billion shekels project is being planned to meet the water needs of Jerusalem, Ramallah and the Jerusalem Corridor for the years 2015-2065.
Dispute Halts Delivery Of Atomic Fuel to Iran
By Peter Finn - Washington Post Foreign Service
Tuesday, March 13, 2007; Page A13
MOSCOW, March 12 -- Russian officials said Monday that nuclear fuel will not be delivered to Iran this month as planned and that the September completion of a Russian-built nuclear power plant will be postponed because of an escalating dispute between the two countries.Moscow and Tehran have been arguing for weeks over what Russia calls Iran's failure to make $25 million monthly payments on the $1 billion plant in the southern city of Bushehr. Iran insists that it has made all scheduled payments.It will be impossible to launch the reactor in September, and there can be no talk about supplying fuel this month, the state-owned Russian contractor Atomstroiexport said in a statement Monday.Underlying the financial dispute appears to be increasing Russian hostility to Iran's suspected desire to build nuclear weapons and its flouting of international demands that it stop the enrichment of uranium and cooperate with the International Atomic Energy Agency.
The delivery of nuclear fuel would be a major boost for the Iranians. We hope the Russians won't politicize the delivery, Mohammad Ali Hosseini, a Foreign Ministry spokesman, said Sunday, according to news agencies. This should be done within the next two weeks. We expect the Russians to fulfill their commitments.The U.N. Security Council imposed limited sanctions on Iran in December after it refused to stop uranium enrichment. Iran says it has no intention of producing highly enriched uranium necessary for making nuclear weapons. Construction of the Bushehr plant was not affected by the sanctions, but Russia has in the past slowed construction as a lever to pressure Iran.The Security Council is considering further penalties against Tehran.We do not need a nuclear Iran or an Iran with the potential to create them, a Russian official whose name was not disclosed told Russian news agencies Monday. We will not play any anti-U.S. games with it, should [Iran] decide against giving any answers to the IAEA's questions. Let them answer for themselves.
The unidentified source accused Iran of abusing its good relations with Moscow. The Iranians have done nothing to help us convince our colleagues of Tehran's consistency, the official said. This is detrimental to us, especially to our foreign policy and our image.Russia has been building the Bushehr nuclear plant under a contract signed in 1995, and the two countries have close economic ties. Russia has repeatedly defended Iran's right to develop a peaceful nuclear energy program and has resisted efforts by the United States and the European Union to level harsher sanctions against the country.
Iran reportedly wants to make payments in euros, not dollars, which Russia has refused to accept without renegotiating the contract. There are reports here that the contract has become unprofitable and Russia may want to extract additional financial and political concessions.Talks broke down last week when Russian officials became angered by public statements from the head of the Iranian delegation blaming Moscow for the standoff.Iran's central bank issued a new bank note Monday that includes a nuclear symbol, the Associated Press reported. The note shows electrons flying around a nucleus on a map of Iran.
US mortgage mayhem prompts sell-off
By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard and James Quinn
GMT 14/03/2007
A surge in arrears across the US mortgage industry and warnings of mass defaults have sent shivers through the US stock and junk bond markets, as Capitol Hill floated proposals for the biggest homeowner bail-out in US history.Chris Dodd called for direct aid
On Wall Street, the Dow tumbled 242.6 points to 12,076.0 - almost 2pc - in near panic trading as investors fled bank stocks led by Lehman Brothers and Bear Stearns, while shares of sub-prime lender Accredited Home Lenders crashed 64pc as creditors invoked repayment clauses.Ominously, the Mortgage Bankers Association revealed that 4.95pc all loans tracked were in arrears of 30 days or more, the highest since the depths of the 2002 recession. Deliquencies on sub-prime loans have reached 13.3pc, even though the economy has barely begun to slow.US Federal Reserve governor Susan Bies said the turmoil in the $1,200bn (£620bn) sub-prime sector would get worse as people struggled to pay costs on over-sized properties bought on assumptions of capital gain. This is not the end of the wave, this is the beginning, she said, accusing brokers of issuing loans without even asking for proof of income.Median US house prices have fallen 9.3pc since April, leading to endemic cancellations on new homes. The market is now deteriorating so fast that top Democrats on Capitol Hill discussed plans yesterday for emergency measures to prevent the foreclosure on some 2.2m homes at risk from sub-prime defaults. Chris Dodd, the chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, said the federal government would have to step in with direct aid. The impact of losing 2.2m homes, I suspect, will be in a lot of areas of our cities and towns that are already pretty hard hit, so we clearly want to look at that and legislate, he said.
advertisementHe proposed some from of forbearance or a new financial instrument to allow distressed households to work their way through the crisis.Meanwhile, chairman of the House Financial Service Committee Berney Frank said he wanted legislation to restrict risky mortgages.The grim mood in Washington comes after Lehman Brothers warned that defaults could $300bn over the next two years if the distress sales of property lead to contagion into the prime segment. There was a risk the sub-prime meltdown could be a catalyst to drag down the entire housing market.Some 20pc of US mortgages issued in the past two years have been sub-prime, but lax practices have also spread to the prime sector. Some 29pc of homes bought from mid-2005 to mid-2006 were purchased with no equity.Nouriel Roubini, of New York University, estimates that half of the entire mortgage issuance since early 2005 is garbage, warning of a seizure in housing. We have the beginning of a much broader credit crunch that could have severe macro-economic effects, Prof Roubini said. Home equity withdrawals reached 6pc of GDP at the height of the property boom, allowing overstretched consumers to meet their bills.
Federal regulators have now clamped down on lender New Century Financial, which seems headed for bankruptcy after its banks switched off support on Monday.The Securities and Exchange Commission is probing accounting errors that led to New Century's share suspension earlier this week. The Justice Department has launched a criminal inquiry.In London, shares in HSBC, which has a big exposure to the sub-prime market, fell 8½ to 902½p.
Israel not enthusiastic about strike on Iran: Olmert MAR 1407
JERUSALEM (AFP) - Israel is not enthusiastic about using military means to stop Iran's controversial nuclear programme, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said on Wednesday. The central issue bothering Israel nowadays is Iran, Olmert's office quoted him as telling representatives of the American Jewish Council.I have said before, and I still believe, that we prefer a diplomatic solution to the issue, and we are not enthusiastic about a military solution, he said during the meeting in Jerusalem.Believed to be the region's sole if undeclared nuclear power, Israel has accused Iran of trying to make an atomic bomb under the guise of a civilian nuclear programme, a charge Tehran denies.Israel considers Iran's nuclear programme to be an existential threat after its hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad repeatedly called for the Jewish state to be wiped off the map.Olmert has in the past said Israel did not rule out taking military steps against Iran.
Also Wednesday, ultra-nationalist Minister for for Strategic Affairs Avigdor Lieberman accused European leaders of willing to sacrifice the Jewish state to preserve economic ties with Tehran.
There are elements in Europe that are ready to sacrifice Israel on the alter of their security, of their trade contracts with Iran, Lieberman said.We saw the same phenomenon before World War II. That is how they sacrificed Czechoslovakia. That is how they ignored the Jewish problem, he said, referring to when European powers allowed Nazi Germany to annex areas in central Europe on the eve of World War II.I can see no other explanation to the opposition of some elements in Europe to imposing severe sanctions against Iran, he told public radio.Six world powers -- the permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany -- were set on Wednesday to resume efforts to agree new sanctions against Tehran over its nuclear defiance amid signs they are nearing agreement on a new resolution.The Security Council slapped a first round of sanctions on Iran in December.
GSS: Israeli-Arabs are Existential Danger to Israel
by Hillel Fendel MAR 13,07 (INN)
An internal Shabak document says Israel's Arabs are a long-range strategic danger to Israel's character and very existence. Though many believe that Iran is currently Israel's greatest danger, the General Secret Service believes that the worst threat may actually come from within. An internal General Security Service document says that Israel's Arab population is a genuine long-range danger to the Jewish character and very existence of the State of Israel.A recent meeting in the Prime Minister's office presented Prime Minister Ehud Olmert with worrisome data in various spheres, including increasing Israeli-Arab solidarity and identification with terrorist elements, Hizbullah and the Hamas government in the Palestinian Authority. The GSS has found that in the year 2006, 21 Israeli-Arab terror cells were uncovered, involving 24 Arab citizens. In 2005, the numbers were 17 terror cells involving 22 Arabs.
Arabs of Israel are generally recruited into terrorist gangs based on their family or business ties with Arabs of Judea and Samaria (Yesha), usually those of Samaria. The terrorists in Yesha find it easier to transport weapons using the services of Israeli-Arabs who are not bound by restrictions at checkpoints and the like. For instance, in November 2006, a smuggling cell of ten Israeli-Arabs was found to be active in smuggling weapons from pre-1967 Israel to Judea and Samaria. In the Negev, as well, Bedouin Arabs help out in smuggling weapons - to Gaza. Six such smuggling gangs were cracked open in 2006. Involvement of Hizbullah in Israeli-Arab terrorist initiatives has also been long noted. In July 2006, an Israeli-Arab was arrested who admitted to his interrogators that during the recent war with Hizbullah, he transmitted information to a Lebanese Hizbullah drug-dealer regarding IDF forces, military plans, and location of rocket hits. Some 40% of the Israeli-Arabs involved in terrorism originated in Yesha, but were permitted to come to pre-'67 Israel and receive Israeli residency after marrying Israeli-Arabs. They are then permitted to travel freely throughout the country.
Just this morning, six Israeli-Arabs from a Galilee village were indicted on charges of four brutal rapes over the past two years. The rapes were apparently another form of anti-Israel terrorism, as one victim told investigators that the rapists had told her that he was avenging" IDF operations in Gaza. This was echoed by one of the Arabs during police questioning.
Arab Nations Charge Israel Doesn't Want Peace
by Hana Levi Julian and Hillel Fendel (INN) MAR 14,07
Arab nations have expressed outrage over Israeli contentions that their 2002 peace plan, known as the Saui Arabian plan, equires changes in order to work for both sides, and charge that Israel doesnt want peace.The 5-year-old Arab initiative was recently dragged out of mothballs for re-examination in light of the Palestinian Authority failures to make headway on creating peace on its own neither with Israel nor internally between its own terrorist factions. Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said last week that there were elements of the plan that needed to be changed a comment that evoked the ire of Syria, Egypt and Saudi Arabia.
Arabs Say Saudi Plan is Best Offer Take It or Leave It
Saudi Arabia has taken a take it or leave it stance on the 2002 Arab peace plan authored by Saudi King Abdullah. That view has been backed by other Arab leaders who will meet late this month at the Arab League summit in Riyadh. The 5-year-old peace plan is expected to be a main focus of the discussions. Saudi Foreign Affairs Minister Saud Al-Faisal said, in response to comments by Israeli officials that some of the language of the proposal was problematic,that there was nothing to talk about. We have no desire to negotiate over this, he said. They accept the resolution and then they talk about putting preconditions that should be accepted before negotiations or discussions or even the acceptance of the proposal. This is not a good way to do business.Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak joined in the chorus. A spokesman for the Egyptian leader told reporters after a meeting with Syrian Vice President Farouk al-Sharaa that Israel cannot pick and choose from the initiative and then jump into establishing normal relations with Arabs. Mubarak's spokesman rejected Israel's insistence that some of the plans elements were unacceptable. The Arab plan requires full withdrawal for full peace, he said. Foreign Minister Livni, responding to the attacks in New York, said that Israel had never accepted the plan in toto, and that it was always said to be a matter for negotiations. To the best of my understanding, she said, peace initiatives are not yes-or-no affairs or package deals... they must be negotiated.
Professor: Arab Peace Plans Have One Goal - to Destroy Israel
Historian and Middle East expert Prof. Moshe Sharon of Hebrew University told Arutz-7's Hebrew newsmagazine today, We must understand that the goal of all Arab peace initiatives is the same - the liquidation of the State of Israel. There is no Arab initiative that is not Islamic in essence. As far as the Arabs are concerned, Israel is a reversal of Allah's promise that Islam can and must rule over the entire world, and this reversal must be corrected... The State of Israel is not led by wise leaders who understand this.Syria too has expressed support for Saudi Arabias stance that its 2002 Arab peace plan cannot be amended or changed in any way. We have the Arab peace plan and we are committed to it as a whole, said Syrian Vice President Farouk al-Shara. Talk about amending it is baseless. Al-Shara bluntly told reporters Tuesday, after his talks Mubarak, What we want is returning all the occupied land including Jerusalem.Jordans King Abdullah II also warned Tuesday evening that violence and Islamic extremism is likely to return to the region if Israel does not come to the negotiating table.
Israel-PA Talks Less Than Promising
Talks between Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, which were revived in December 2006, have been less than promising, as expected. Both the U.S. and Israel have remained firm that the Hamas-led PA government must meet the criteria of the four- member Quartet of nations, comprised of the U.S., Russia, the United Nations and European Union official recognition of the State of Israel, renunciation of terrorism and fulfillment of agreements signed by previous PA governments. Hamas has repeatedly refused to comply with those demands, which the international community has set as a precondition for serious negotiations. The most recent Olmert-Abbas meeting, held in Jerusalem this past Sunday, was tense according to sources on both sides of the negotiating table, a description applied to the previous talks refereed personally last month by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. That assessment came less than a day after sources in the Prime Ministers office reported that the talks were conducted in a good atmosphere.
Despite weeks of groundwork by Rice, who met for weeks with Arab leaders and Quartet representatives, there was little accomplished other than Israeli concessions to the Hamas-led PA government. These included relaxation of travel restrictions on PA Arabs in Judea and Samaria, removal of a number of security checkpoints, and the transfer of $100 million in tax monies, collected by Israel on behalf of the PA, to Abbass office. Moreover, Reuters reported Tuesday that Hamas terrorists revealed that a portion of those funds, allegedly earmarked for partial salaries for Abbas's forces and for humanitarian purposes, nonetheless reached the hands of Hamas security personnel.
At their meeting this week, Olmert demanded that Abbas provide an accounting of how the tax funds were spent; Abbas was unable to do so. He did promise to have it by the end of the week.
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 = Thur Mar 15 12:00 AM EDT
MAR 14,07
MAP 3.1 ALASKA PENINSULA
MAP 3.9 ANDREANOF ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN IS., ALASKA
MAP 2.8 CENTRAL CALIFORNIA
MAP 3.0 ALASKA PENINSULA
MAP 2.6 NEVADA
MAP 4.7 NEAR THE EAST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN
MAP 2.6 ANDREANOF ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN IS., ALASKA
MAP 2.9 SOUTHERN ALASKA
MAP 2.6 OREGON
MAP 5.1 NEAR THE SOUTH COAST OF PAPUA, INDONESIA
MAP 4.9 KURIL ISLANDS
MAP 4.7 EAST OF THE KURIL ISLANDS
MAP 3.0 NORTHERN CALIFORNIA
MAP 5.1 KEPULAUAN BABAR, INDONESIA
MAR 13,07
MAP 2.5 CENTRAL CALIFORNIA
MAP 2.8 ALASKA PENINSULA
MAP 3.2 PUERTO RICO REGION
MAP 3.1 RAT ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN ISLANDS, ALASKA
MAP 4.7 SOUTH OF THE FIJI ISLANDS
MAP 5.0 NORTHERN PERU
MAP 2.6 BAJA CALIFORNIA, MEXICO
MAP 3.0 ANDREANOF ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN IS., ALASKA
MAP 3.4 RAT ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN ISLANDS, ALASKA
MAP 2.9 SOUTHERN ALASKA
MAP 2.8 GULF OF ALASKA
MAP 5.5 SUMBAWA REGION, INDONESIA
MAP 3.1 RAT ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN ISLANDS, ALASKA
MAP 3.4 RAT ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN ISLANDS, ALASKA
MAP 3.4 RAT ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN ISLANDS, ALASKA
MAP 5.3 KEPULAUAN TALAUD, INDONESIA
MAP 5.4 KEPULAUAN TALAUD, INDONESIA
MAP 3.4 RAT ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN ISLANDS, ALASKA
MAP 2.9 RAT ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN ISLANDS, ALASKA
MAP 2.7 SOUTHERN ALASKA
MAP 6.0 GULF OF CALIFORNIA
MAP 5.2 MOLUCCA SEA
MAP 2.7 CENTRAL CALIFORNIA
MAP 2.5 CENTRAL CALIFORNIA
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.
Damp Thursday Northeast, Deep South Senior Meteorologist, The Weather Channel MAR 14,07
Northeast
A cold front accompanied by rain and isolated thunderstorms will push southward through the Northeast tomorrow reaching central Virginia by evening. In parts of Upstate New York and northern New England the rain may change to wet snow before ending during the afternoon. An inch or two of slush is possible, especially in the higher terrain. The combination of rain, snowmelt and ice jams could lead to some river and stream flooding in northern Pennsylvania, New York and western New England. High temperatures will range from the 30s in western New York, the Adirondacks and far northern New England to the low 80s in southeastern Virginia. Readings in many locations may hold steady or retreat during the day.
South
Rain, showers and thunderstorms will dampen much of the South tomorrow, mainly from Louisiana eastward. The heaviest downpours are expected underneath an upper-air low in parts of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. In Florida, the showers and storms should be primarily of the scattered afternoon pop-up variety. In the western reaches of the region, dry weather is forecast for the vast majority of Texas and Oklahoma. Temperatures, meanwhile, will continue to run well above March averages in most spots with highs in the 70s and 80s. Only the northern half of the Texas Panhandle and portions of northern Oklahoma will be limited to the 60s as gusty northerly winds push cooler air southward.
Midwest
Showers in the lower Midwest tomorrow should push gradually southward to south of the Ohio Valley by evening. Farther west, isolated showers may dot Kansas and Missouri throughout the day. To the north, a weak surface low followed by a reinforcing push of colder air is expected to deposit a few inches of snow on eastern North Dakota and northern Minnesota. High temperatures are expected to range from the 20s in much of northern North Dakota and far northern Minnesota to the 60s from extreme southeastern Kansas eastward through Kentucky. Readings in Illinois, Indiana and Ohio will be noticeably lower than today's topping out in the 40s and 50s in the wake of cold front.
West
Except for an orphaned shower or snow flurry here and there in the Rocky Mountain states tomorrow, the West will be dry. Temperatures will be near to above end-of-winter means with more record highs possible at some locations in the Southwest. Maxima are forecast to range from the 30s at a few spots in the northern Rockies to the 90s in southeast California and southwest Arizona. Most of the Great Basin will reach the 50s and 60s.
2nd-Temple Jewish Town Uncovered in Jerusalem
by Hillel Fendel (INN) MAR 13,07
In the course of preparing tracks for the new light-rail system in Jerusalem, remains of an ancient Jewish community just north of the Holy Temple have been uncovered. Rescue digs, required by law before any major construction work in Jerusalem and environs, have found a major set of remains of a Jewish town from post-Second Temple times. A long strip of land, 400 dunams (100 acres) in size, has been uncovered in which can be seen roads, alleys, houses, public buildings, a mikveh (ritual bath), and more. The community was located east of the old Roman highway leading from Jerusalem to Shechem (Nablus) - roughly along the same route as today's Shechem Way, or Highway 60.
Evidence shows that the community - the largest from that period yet uncovered in the Jerusalem vicinity - was inhabited by a well-to-do and religiously observant populace. In addition to the mikveh, many stone utensils were found - popularly used because they could not become ritually defiled, according to Jewish Law. Many coins were also found, including a rare gold one (pictured above) depicting Trainus Caesar (98-117 CE). Trainus began his reign 30 years after the Second Temple was destroyed. Antiquities Authority dig manager Rachel Bar-Natan said that this was only the second coin of its type found in Israel, and the first one within the Green Line. Nearly 1,000 4th-to-6th graders have visited the site on school trips. The site was first discovered during infrastructure work for the light-rail system being built in Jerusalem by the Moriah Company. In a related item, the National Infrastructures Planning and Construction Committee of the Interior Ministry has made its choice from among five alternatives for the establishment of Jerusalem's fifth water supply line. The project, which will be one of Israel's largest over the coming decade, will involve the placing of an 8-foot wide pipe deep underground, running from south of Rehovot to the western-Jerusalem reservoir in Beit Zayit. The 2-billion shekels project is being planned to meet the water needs of Jerusalem, Ramallah and the Jerusalem Corridor for the years 2015-2065.
Dispute Halts Delivery Of Atomic Fuel to Iran
By Peter Finn - Washington Post Foreign Service
Tuesday, March 13, 2007; Page A13
MOSCOW, March 12 -- Russian officials said Monday that nuclear fuel will not be delivered to Iran this month as planned and that the September completion of a Russian-built nuclear power plant will be postponed because of an escalating dispute between the two countries.Moscow and Tehran have been arguing for weeks over what Russia calls Iran's failure to make $25 million monthly payments on the $1 billion plant in the southern city of Bushehr. Iran insists that it has made all scheduled payments.It will be impossible to launch the reactor in September, and there can be no talk about supplying fuel this month, the state-owned Russian contractor Atomstroiexport said in a statement Monday.Underlying the financial dispute appears to be increasing Russian hostility to Iran's suspected desire to build nuclear weapons and its flouting of international demands that it stop the enrichment of uranium and cooperate with the International Atomic Energy Agency.
The delivery of nuclear fuel would be a major boost for the Iranians. We hope the Russians won't politicize the delivery, Mohammad Ali Hosseini, a Foreign Ministry spokesman, said Sunday, according to news agencies. This should be done within the next two weeks. We expect the Russians to fulfill their commitments.The U.N. Security Council imposed limited sanctions on Iran in December after it refused to stop uranium enrichment. Iran says it has no intention of producing highly enriched uranium necessary for making nuclear weapons. Construction of the Bushehr plant was not affected by the sanctions, but Russia has in the past slowed construction as a lever to pressure Iran.The Security Council is considering further penalties against Tehran.We do not need a nuclear Iran or an Iran with the potential to create them, a Russian official whose name was not disclosed told Russian news agencies Monday. We will not play any anti-U.S. games with it, should [Iran] decide against giving any answers to the IAEA's questions. Let them answer for themselves.
The unidentified source accused Iran of abusing its good relations with Moscow. The Iranians have done nothing to help us convince our colleagues of Tehran's consistency, the official said. This is detrimental to us, especially to our foreign policy and our image.Russia has been building the Bushehr nuclear plant under a contract signed in 1995, and the two countries have close economic ties. Russia has repeatedly defended Iran's right to develop a peaceful nuclear energy program and has resisted efforts by the United States and the European Union to level harsher sanctions against the country.
Iran reportedly wants to make payments in euros, not dollars, which Russia has refused to accept without renegotiating the contract. There are reports here that the contract has become unprofitable and Russia may want to extract additional financial and political concessions.Talks broke down last week when Russian officials became angered by public statements from the head of the Iranian delegation blaming Moscow for the standoff.Iran's central bank issued a new bank note Monday that includes a nuclear symbol, the Associated Press reported. The note shows electrons flying around a nucleus on a map of Iran.
US mortgage mayhem prompts sell-off
By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard and James Quinn
GMT 14/03/2007
A surge in arrears across the US mortgage industry and warnings of mass defaults have sent shivers through the US stock and junk bond markets, as Capitol Hill floated proposals for the biggest homeowner bail-out in US history.Chris Dodd called for direct aid
On Wall Street, the Dow tumbled 242.6 points to 12,076.0 - almost 2pc - in near panic trading as investors fled bank stocks led by Lehman Brothers and Bear Stearns, while shares of sub-prime lender Accredited Home Lenders crashed 64pc as creditors invoked repayment clauses.Ominously, the Mortgage Bankers Association revealed that 4.95pc all loans tracked were in arrears of 30 days or more, the highest since the depths of the 2002 recession. Deliquencies on sub-prime loans have reached 13.3pc, even though the economy has barely begun to slow.US Federal Reserve governor Susan Bies said the turmoil in the $1,200bn (£620bn) sub-prime sector would get worse as people struggled to pay costs on over-sized properties bought on assumptions of capital gain. This is not the end of the wave, this is the beginning, she said, accusing brokers of issuing loans without even asking for proof of income.Median US house prices have fallen 9.3pc since April, leading to endemic cancellations on new homes. The market is now deteriorating so fast that top Democrats on Capitol Hill discussed plans yesterday for emergency measures to prevent the foreclosure on some 2.2m homes at risk from sub-prime defaults. Chris Dodd, the chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, said the federal government would have to step in with direct aid. The impact of losing 2.2m homes, I suspect, will be in a lot of areas of our cities and towns that are already pretty hard hit, so we clearly want to look at that and legislate, he said.
advertisementHe proposed some from of forbearance or a new financial instrument to allow distressed households to work their way through the crisis.Meanwhile, chairman of the House Financial Service Committee Berney Frank said he wanted legislation to restrict risky mortgages.The grim mood in Washington comes after Lehman Brothers warned that defaults could $300bn over the next two years if the distress sales of property lead to contagion into the prime segment. There was a risk the sub-prime meltdown could be a catalyst to drag down the entire housing market.Some 20pc of US mortgages issued in the past two years have been sub-prime, but lax practices have also spread to the prime sector. Some 29pc of homes bought from mid-2005 to mid-2006 were purchased with no equity.Nouriel Roubini, of New York University, estimates that half of the entire mortgage issuance since early 2005 is garbage, warning of a seizure in housing. We have the beginning of a much broader credit crunch that could have severe macro-economic effects, Prof Roubini said. Home equity withdrawals reached 6pc of GDP at the height of the property boom, allowing overstretched consumers to meet their bills.
Federal regulators have now clamped down on lender New Century Financial, which seems headed for bankruptcy after its banks switched off support on Monday.The Securities and Exchange Commission is probing accounting errors that led to New Century's share suspension earlier this week. The Justice Department has launched a criminal inquiry.In London, shares in HSBC, which has a big exposure to the sub-prime market, fell 8½ to 902½p.
Israel not enthusiastic about strike on Iran: Olmert MAR 1407
JERUSALEM (AFP) - Israel is not enthusiastic about using military means to stop Iran's controversial nuclear programme, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said on Wednesday. The central issue bothering Israel nowadays is Iran, Olmert's office quoted him as telling representatives of the American Jewish Council.I have said before, and I still believe, that we prefer a diplomatic solution to the issue, and we are not enthusiastic about a military solution, he said during the meeting in Jerusalem.Believed to be the region's sole if undeclared nuclear power, Israel has accused Iran of trying to make an atomic bomb under the guise of a civilian nuclear programme, a charge Tehran denies.Israel considers Iran's nuclear programme to be an existential threat after its hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad repeatedly called for the Jewish state to be wiped off the map.Olmert has in the past said Israel did not rule out taking military steps against Iran.
Also Wednesday, ultra-nationalist Minister for for Strategic Affairs Avigdor Lieberman accused European leaders of willing to sacrifice the Jewish state to preserve economic ties with Tehran.
There are elements in Europe that are ready to sacrifice Israel on the alter of their security, of their trade contracts with Iran, Lieberman said.We saw the same phenomenon before World War II. That is how they sacrificed Czechoslovakia. That is how they ignored the Jewish problem, he said, referring to when European powers allowed Nazi Germany to annex areas in central Europe on the eve of World War II.I can see no other explanation to the opposition of some elements in Europe to imposing severe sanctions against Iran, he told public radio.Six world powers -- the permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany -- were set on Wednesday to resume efforts to agree new sanctions against Tehran over its nuclear defiance amid signs they are nearing agreement on a new resolution.The Security Council slapped a first round of sanctions on Iran in December.
GSS: Israeli-Arabs are Existential Danger to Israel
by Hillel Fendel MAR 13,07 (INN)
An internal Shabak document says Israel's Arabs are a long-range strategic danger to Israel's character and very existence. Though many believe that Iran is currently Israel's greatest danger, the General Secret Service believes that the worst threat may actually come from within. An internal General Security Service document says that Israel's Arab population is a genuine long-range danger to the Jewish character and very existence of the State of Israel.A recent meeting in the Prime Minister's office presented Prime Minister Ehud Olmert with worrisome data in various spheres, including increasing Israeli-Arab solidarity and identification with terrorist elements, Hizbullah and the Hamas government in the Palestinian Authority. The GSS has found that in the year 2006, 21 Israeli-Arab terror cells were uncovered, involving 24 Arab citizens. In 2005, the numbers were 17 terror cells involving 22 Arabs.
Arabs of Israel are generally recruited into terrorist gangs based on their family or business ties with Arabs of Judea and Samaria (Yesha), usually those of Samaria. The terrorists in Yesha find it easier to transport weapons using the services of Israeli-Arabs who are not bound by restrictions at checkpoints and the like. For instance, in November 2006, a smuggling cell of ten Israeli-Arabs was found to be active in smuggling weapons from pre-1967 Israel to Judea and Samaria. In the Negev, as well, Bedouin Arabs help out in smuggling weapons - to Gaza. Six such smuggling gangs were cracked open in 2006. Involvement of Hizbullah in Israeli-Arab terrorist initiatives has also been long noted. In July 2006, an Israeli-Arab was arrested who admitted to his interrogators that during the recent war with Hizbullah, he transmitted information to a Lebanese Hizbullah drug-dealer regarding IDF forces, military plans, and location of rocket hits. Some 40% of the Israeli-Arabs involved in terrorism originated in Yesha, but were permitted to come to pre-'67 Israel and receive Israeli residency after marrying Israeli-Arabs. They are then permitted to travel freely throughout the country.
Just this morning, six Israeli-Arabs from a Galilee village were indicted on charges of four brutal rapes over the past two years. The rapes were apparently another form of anti-Israel terrorism, as one victim told investigators that the rapists had told her that he was avenging" IDF operations in Gaza. This was echoed by one of the Arabs during police questioning.
Arab Nations Charge Israel Doesn't Want Peace
by Hana Levi Julian and Hillel Fendel (INN) MAR 14,07
Arab nations have expressed outrage over Israeli contentions that their 2002 peace plan, known as the Saui Arabian plan, equires changes in order to work for both sides, and charge that Israel doesnt want peace.The 5-year-old Arab initiative was recently dragged out of mothballs for re-examination in light of the Palestinian Authority failures to make headway on creating peace on its own neither with Israel nor internally between its own terrorist factions. Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said last week that there were elements of the plan that needed to be changed a comment that evoked the ire of Syria, Egypt and Saudi Arabia.
Arabs Say Saudi Plan is Best Offer Take It or Leave It
Saudi Arabia has taken a take it or leave it stance on the 2002 Arab peace plan authored by Saudi King Abdullah. That view has been backed by other Arab leaders who will meet late this month at the Arab League summit in Riyadh. The 5-year-old peace plan is expected to be a main focus of the discussions. Saudi Foreign Affairs Minister Saud Al-Faisal said, in response to comments by Israeli officials that some of the language of the proposal was problematic,that there was nothing to talk about. We have no desire to negotiate over this, he said. They accept the resolution and then they talk about putting preconditions that should be accepted before negotiations or discussions or even the acceptance of the proposal. This is not a good way to do business.Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak joined in the chorus. A spokesman for the Egyptian leader told reporters after a meeting with Syrian Vice President Farouk al-Sharaa that Israel cannot pick and choose from the initiative and then jump into establishing normal relations with Arabs. Mubarak's spokesman rejected Israel's insistence that some of the plans elements were unacceptable. The Arab plan requires full withdrawal for full peace, he said. Foreign Minister Livni, responding to the attacks in New York, said that Israel had never accepted the plan in toto, and that it was always said to be a matter for negotiations. To the best of my understanding, she said, peace initiatives are not yes-or-no affairs or package deals... they must be negotiated.
Professor: Arab Peace Plans Have One Goal - to Destroy Israel
Historian and Middle East expert Prof. Moshe Sharon of Hebrew University told Arutz-7's Hebrew newsmagazine today, We must understand that the goal of all Arab peace initiatives is the same - the liquidation of the State of Israel. There is no Arab initiative that is not Islamic in essence. As far as the Arabs are concerned, Israel is a reversal of Allah's promise that Islam can and must rule over the entire world, and this reversal must be corrected... The State of Israel is not led by wise leaders who understand this.Syria too has expressed support for Saudi Arabias stance that its 2002 Arab peace plan cannot be amended or changed in any way. We have the Arab peace plan and we are committed to it as a whole, said Syrian Vice President Farouk al-Shara. Talk about amending it is baseless. Al-Shara bluntly told reporters Tuesday, after his talks Mubarak, What we want is returning all the occupied land including Jerusalem.Jordans King Abdullah II also warned Tuesday evening that violence and Islamic extremism is likely to return to the region if Israel does not come to the negotiating table.
Israel-PA Talks Less Than Promising
Talks between Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, which were revived in December 2006, have been less than promising, as expected. Both the U.S. and Israel have remained firm that the Hamas-led PA government must meet the criteria of the four- member Quartet of nations, comprised of the U.S., Russia, the United Nations and European Union official recognition of the State of Israel, renunciation of terrorism and fulfillment of agreements signed by previous PA governments. Hamas has repeatedly refused to comply with those demands, which the international community has set as a precondition for serious negotiations. The most recent Olmert-Abbas meeting, held in Jerusalem this past Sunday, was tense according to sources on both sides of the negotiating table, a description applied to the previous talks refereed personally last month by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. That assessment came less than a day after sources in the Prime Ministers office reported that the talks were conducted in a good atmosphere.
Despite weeks of groundwork by Rice, who met for weeks with Arab leaders and Quartet representatives, there was little accomplished other than Israeli concessions to the Hamas-led PA government. These included relaxation of travel restrictions on PA Arabs in Judea and Samaria, removal of a number of security checkpoints, and the transfer of $100 million in tax monies, collected by Israel on behalf of the PA, to Abbass office. Moreover, Reuters reported Tuesday that Hamas terrorists revealed that a portion of those funds, allegedly earmarked for partial salaries for Abbas's forces and for humanitarian purposes, nonetheless reached the hands of Hamas security personnel.
At their meeting this week, Olmert demanded that Abbas provide an accounting of how the tax funds were spent; Abbas was unable to do so. He did promise to have it by the end of the week.
Wednesday, March 14, 2007
FINAL STATUS TALKS ON FASTRACK
1-WORLD QUAKES LAST 2 DAYS.2-Earthquake felt in Ohio. 3-Fifty die as snow blankets Kashmir, rains pound northern India. 4-Rains pound southwestern B.C. 5-The Nation's Weather. 6-Orange County fire 80% contained, fire officials say. 7-King City breaks 84-year heat record. 8-Record Breaking Temperatures 9-Israel cautiously open to Arab peace plan. 10-Hamas Re-Assures Al Qaeda It Wants to Destroy Israel. 11-Explanation of Iraq War. 12-Bowing to Washington, Olmert agrees to go directly and unconditionally to final-status talks with Palestinians
EARTHQUAKES
MATTHEW 24:7-8
7 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.
8 All these are the beginning of sorrows.
MARK 13:8
8 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom:(ETHNIC GROUP AGAINST ETHNIC GROUP) and there shall be earthquakes in divers places, and there shall be famines and troubles: these are the beginnings of sorrows.
LUKE 21:11
11 And great earthquakes shall be in divers places, and famines, and pestilences; and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven.
WORLD QUAKES LAST 2 DAYS (USGS)
Update time = Wed Mar 14 12:00 AM EDT
MAR 13,07
MAP 5.0 NORTHERN PERU
MAP 2.6 BAJA CALIFORNIA, MEXICO
MAP 3.0 ANDREANOF ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN IS., ALASKA
MAP 3.4 RAT ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN ISLANDS, ALASKA
MAP 2.9 SOUTHERN ALASKA
MAP 2.8 GULF OF ALASKA
MAP 5.5 SUMBAWA REGION, INDONESIA
MAP 3.0 RAT ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN ISLANDS, ALASKA
MAP 3.4 RAT ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN ISLANDS, ALASKA
MAP 3.4 RAT ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN ISLANDS, ALASKA
MAP 5.3 KEPULAUAN TALAUD, INDONESIA
MAP 5.4 KEPULAUAN TALAUD, INDONESIA
MAP 3.4 RAT ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN ISLANDS, ALASKA
MAP 2.9 RAT ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN ISLANDS, ALASKA
MAP 2.7 SOUTHERN ALASKA
MAP 6.0 GULF OF CALIFORNIA
MAP 5.2 MOLUCCA SEA
MAP 2.7 CENTRAL CALIFORNIA
MAP 2.5 CENTRAL CALIFORNIA
MAR 12,07
MAP 4.1 ALASKA PENINSULA
MAP 3.6 OHIO
MAP 5.6 KURIL ISLANDS
MAP 4.5 OFFSHORE GUATEMALA
MAP 5.1 BABUYAN ISLANDS REGION, PHILIPPINES
MAP 2.6 HAWAII REGION, HAWAII
MAP 2.9 SOUTHERN ALASKA
MAP 4.8 RAT ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN ISLANDS, ALASKA
MAP 4.7 TAJIKISTAN
MAP 4.8 HOKKAIDO, JAPAN REGION
MAP 2.6 PUERTO RICO REGION
MAP 5.8 SOUTHEAST OF THE LOYALTY ISLANDS
MAP 4.6 COLOMBIA
MAP 5.5 SOUTHEAST INDIAN RIDGE
MAP 4.9 MOLUCCA SEA
MAP 3.0 FOX ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN ISLANDS, ALASKA
MAP 2.9 CHANNEL ISLANDS REGION, CALIFORNIA
MAP 3.0 UNIMAK ISLAND REGION, ALASKA
MAP 4.5 TONGA
MAP 2.6 NEVADA
MAP 4.7 KERMADEC ISLANDS REGION
MAP 5.6 KERMADEC ISLANDS REGION
MAR 11,07
MAP 2.5 SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
MAP 2.7 FOX ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN ISLANDS, ALASKA
MAP 4.5 SOUTH OF THE FIJI ISLANDS
MAP 4.9 TONGA
MAP 5.0 LIBERTADOR O'HIGGINS, CHILE
MAP 2.7 PUERTO RICO
MAP 2.6 SOUTHERN ALASKA
MAP 4.9 ANDREANOF ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN IS., ALASKA
MAP 2.9 MOUNT ST. HELENS AREA, WASHINGTON
MAP 3.0 PUERTO RICO
MAP 2.7 PUERTO RICO REGION
MAP 5.8 KURIL ISLANDS
MAP 2.6 SOUTHERN ALASKA
MAP 3.1 ALASKA PENINSULA
MAP 3.7 ANDREANOF ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN IS., ALASKA
MAP 2.5 NEW YORK
MAP 3.6 PUERTO RICO REGION
MAP 4.9 IZU ISLANDS, JAPAN REGION
MAP 3.4 BERING SEA
Earthquake felt in Ohio Mon Mar 12, 10:40 PM ET
TWINSBURG, Ohio - A rare northeast Ohio earthquake, with a preliminary magnitude of 3.6, was felt near the epicenter but caused no major damage. The quake was recorded at 7:18 p.m. outside Twinsburg, which is about 16 miles southeast of Cleveland. Most reports from people who felt the quake came from Twinsburg and nearby Stow and Aurora, said Michael Hansen, coordinator of the Ohio Seismic Network.
This isn't an area where we commonly have earthquakes, he said.Other than a television knocked off its stand, there were no reports of damage.Ohio's largest recorded earthquake registered 5.4 in 1937 in Shelby County, a rural area between Toledo and Dayton.
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.
Fifty die as snow blankets Kashmir, rains pound northern India MAR 13,07
SRINAGAR, India (AFP) - At least 50 people were killed as snow engulfed Kashmir and torrential rains pounded the rest of northern India, officials said Tuesday. Some 28 people were killed and 25 others received burn injuries in separate lightning strikes in Uttar Pradesh as rains crippled life in the populous northern Indian state, they said.Seventeen people, including two children and a soldier died in landslides, cold and floods in Indian Kashmir and its summer capital Srinagar reported its heaviest March snowfall in 15 years, weather officials said.Five other weather-related casualties were reported from other parts of northern India, lashed by rains since Friday.In Kashmir, five Hindu pilgrims trekking to a snowbound shrine high in the Himalayas froze to death.
A police patrol discovered the five bodies huddled together Monday in a shelter built to protect travellers to the Vaishno Devi shrine.All five pilgrims died of hypothermia as they weren't wearing enough clothes and heavy snow had brought down temperatures, said Puneet Kumar, a senior official at the shrine.Another 13 people suffered hypothermia injuries. Nine were in critical condition but were recovering fast in hospital, the official said.The dead were all from Uttar Pradesh, and officials said they had underestimated the cold at that time of year in Kashmir where the mercury regularly falls below zero Celsius (32 Fahrenheit).Ten more people died due to hypothermia, landslides and caving in of structures across the state, a police officer said while rescue officials reported another two deaths in the snowbound region.
Snowstorms have paralysed life in revolt-hit Kashmir, shutting schools, knocking out power and telephone lines and closing the region's main highway, police said.The main highway has been shut due to heavy snow and nearly 800 vehicles are stranded, police officer Abdul Hameed told AFP.
Labourers were using bulldozers, snow removal machines and shovels to open up the 300-kilometre (186-mile) highway, the main route for supplies to the Kashmir valley from state winter capital Jammu and the rest of the subcontinent.It may take us a few days to restore power supply in the valley, senior engineer Nissar Ahmed said.Offices in the region were still open but many people were late as they had to walk through the thick blanket of snow.Earlier this month, India's air force airlifted to safety more than 5,000 people stranded for days in sub-zerotemperatures on the main highway by avalanches and landslides.The Indian army has a strong presence in Kashmir where it is fighting to suppress a deadly Islamic separatist insurgency that has raged since 1989.
Rains pound southwestern B.C.
Last Updated: Monday, March 12, 2007 CBC News
Roads were flooded and rivers were threatening to overflow their banks in parts of southwestern British Columbia Monday following a weekend downpour.
The rain caused a temporary storm sewer pipe on Cambie Street to back up between Broadway and 10th avenues in Vancouver Sunday, flooding the Canada Line rapid-transit project excavation trench, washing out a steel beam and utility supports. Heavy rain caused flooding in downtown Vancouver.(CBC) The water also flooded the nearby Best Thai restaurant.Crews closed Cambie Street, northbound and southbound, with traffic being rerouted around the washout. The street was expected to reopen Monday.A spokeswoman for the rapid-transit project said construction was not expected to be delayed significantly.The rain also caused a couple of mudslides across the rail tracks in the Crescent Beach area of White Rock.
Flood warning
Environment Canada issued a flood warning for the Coquitlam and Nicomeckl rivers. More than 170 millimetres of rain was recorded at the Coquitlam Dam Forebay over the weekend.While the rain ended overnight, Surrey RCMP said driving was hazardous in low-lying areas, warning that water-filled ditches could flood roads.A number of roads were closed, including Highway 10 in the Cloverdale area of Surrey and the Maryhill bypass in Port Coquitlam.The downpour was also blamed for a mudslide that closed the Trans-Canada Highway from Rosedale to Hope and east of Hope to Jackass Mountain because of falling rock.On Vancouver Island, a flood watch was in effect as water levels in the Cowichan, Chemainus and Englishman rivers rose.As the rain let up, a wind warning was issued for much of B.C.'s South Coast. That order was lifted Monday morning.
The Nation's Weather By WEATHER UNDERGROUND, For The Associated Press
Tue Mar 13, 6:00 AM ET
Unseasonably warm and dry air settled across most of the nation early Tuesday, although rain and thunderstorms whipped across the southern Plains and Mississippi Delta. In the Northeast, temperatures were expected to rise well above normal, with highs in the 60s expected in New York and New Jersey, and the upper 70s for the mid-Atlantic and Southeast.The heat also will continue out West, with temperatures in Southern California remaining in the upper 80s and low 90s, which combined with continued dry weather and gusty winds will set the stage for another day of dangerous fire weather.The largest threat for strong storms exists from central Texas south and east to the Gulf Coast as warm afternoon temperatures and humid air provide the conditions ripe for storm development.In the Northwest, showers and high elevation snow showers were to continue, and, late in the day, light rain or snow could start up in the northern Plains.Temperatures in the Lower 48 states on Monday ranged from a low of 8 degrees at Whitefield, N.H., to a high of 98 degrees at Riverside, Calif.
Orange County fire 80% contained, fire officials say
By Janet Wilson, David Haldane and Greg Krikorian, LA Times Staff Writers
8:15 AM PDT, March 12, 2007
Unfriendly fireAided by higher humidity and cooler temperatures, firefighters overnight made dramatic strides in containing an arson fire in Orange and Anaheim Hills, authorities said today.The fire, which had charred 2,000 acres of brush and prompted evacuations of more than 1,200 people on Sunday, was reported as 80% contained, Capt. Stephen Miller of the Orange County Fire Authority said at a news conference broadcast this morning. He estimated the fire would be fully contained by 6 a.m. Tuesday.Everything is looking good in our favor now, he said.Authorities said that evacuations in some areas would remain in effect until later today.
Firefighters were hopeful no setbacks would be suffered from today's weather, which is predicted to again produce record breaking heat and strong winds.The winds in what is shaping up as one of the driest years ever in Southern California fed flames on Sunday that destroyed one structure and damaged three more, including two homes.The blaze was triggered before 8 a.m. by a fire that began in an abandoned car that was stolen and wound up in a roadside ditch, Miller said.
The vehicle was intentionally set on fire, Miller said this morning. This is an arson fire.More than 800 firefighters battled the flames, which at midafternoon darkened the skies over much of north Orange County with towering black columns of smoke.One of the firefighters' key adversaries was Sunday's scorching heat. Temperatures hit record highs for a March 11 at many spots in the Southland, including a midafternoon 97-degree reading in nearby Fullerton, making it the nation's hot spot for the day. Fullerton's previous record high of 84 was set in 1959.A red flag warning, based on the forecast of more brisk winds and single-digit humidity, was issued.This is classic Santa Ana fire season, and it's exacerbated because everything is so crispy because it's been such a dry winter, said William
Patzert, a climatologist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La Caada Flintridge. It's definitely scary. The blaze named the Windy Ridge fire quickly scaled the ridge and destroyed dozens of acres near the toll road. By noon, as winds gusted and temperatures steadily rose, the fire was threatening enough for authorities to begin evacuating the residents of more than 500 homes.
By 10 p.m., most of the evacuees were allowed to return to their homes.One of those who fled was Theresa Sears, 51, a longtime resident of Orange Park Acres, an equestrian community at the edge of Orange.I smelled smoke about 8 o'clock in the morning, and we started taking the horses out about 10 in the morning, she said. All my friends came and helped me so I could stay in my house. We loaded up the horses. We loaded up the goats. We loaded up the chickens, the dogs and the cats. Sears stayed put until about 1 p.m. But, with firefighters nearby, she said, They didn't have to tell me to leave. The flames were so severe I knew it was time to go. Her home, however, was coated with foam by firefighters and saved.Most of the people living along Santiago Creek were ordered to evacuate Sunday afternoon, but some stayed home to keep an eye on the fire themselves.Even after authorities had blocked off roads near his Mabury Ranch neighborhood in Orange, defense contractor Vern Green, 58, sneaked behind law enforcement lines to pack up his things.When they tap into the fire hydrant by my house, that's our signal to leave, Green said. Authorities said the two damaged houses appeared to be the only ones in the area with wood-shake roofs. Neither, officials said, was seriously damaged.
But one structure, possibly a corral, was destroyed, and another outbuilding was damaged.Miller said two firefighters, the only people hurt, suffered minor injuries. He offered no prediction as to when the fire would be fully contained.Weather records were being set all over Orange County. Yorba Linda reached 95 degrees, 11 degrees above the record for the day; the Santa Ana fire station near John Wayne Airport reached 92 degrees, versus the normal high of 66 degrees.
Single-digit humidity levels compared to a norm of around 40% to 50% this time of year, officials said.Firefighters were also frustrated by winds blowing steadily at 29 mph and gusting up to 49 mph. Authorities at the fire scene said humidity fell to 9%, while weather officials reported that humidity in Fullerton dipped to as low as 4%.In Los Angeles County, temperatures were 20 to 25 degrees above normal. The county's hottest weather was in Long Beach, which reached 94 degrees, surging past the former high of 87 degrees set in 1959. Downtown posted a high of 92, only one degree below its record high.
Elsewhere, Southern California residents who started the morning by fast-forwarding to daylight saving time relished a day that felt more like June than mid-March.In Riverside County near Corona, a Sunday afternoon brush fire flared to 500 acres in the hilly terrain around the wildlife habitat of Lake Mathews Reserve.
It was 25% contained by 9 p.m.One hundred firefighters labored to contain the blaze, dubbed the Sierra fire. No homes were threatened or roads closed, said Capt. Julie Hutchinson of the Riverside County Fire Department.Until we get that line all the way around it, there's still that potential to spread, Hutchinson said.Weather forecasters have said that this unusually long fire season probably will continue, in large part because of the dry conditions.Only about 2.40 inches of rain had fallen on downtown Los Angeles since July 1, and forecasters say no sign of rain is in sight.The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's weather models suggest that a La Nina climate pattern an abnormal cooling of water temperatures in the equatorial Pacific is emerging, continuing the drought-like conditions. janet.wilson@latimes.com.david.haldane@latimes.com.greg.krikorian@latimes.com.Times staff writers Stuart Silverstein, William Heisel, Howard Blume, Deborah Schoch, Susannah Rosenblatt and Adrian G. Uribarri contributed to this report
King City breaks 84-year heat record
By SUNITA VIJAYAN The Salinas Californian
Several Monterey County cities today broke decade-old record temperatures, the National Weather Service in Monterey said, and one crested a record set more than 80 years ago.Forecaster Diane Henderson said temperatures in King City hit 93 degrees, breaking the 1923 record of 92 degrees.
Salinas recorded a high of 85 degrees, breaking its 1994 record of 80 degrees.In Monterey, she said, temperatures reached 78 degrees, enough to break its 1993 record of 77 degrees.The highest temperature within the area was in Bradley, with 98 degrees.
Record Breaking Temperatures MAR 12,07
The gusty wind disguised the fact that the mercury was rising, and believe it or not we managed to break some records around Southern Saskatchewan. Environment Canada was calling for a high of 16 degrees Monday, and we surpassed that high and set a new record high beating the old record set March 12th, 1910.
Bob Cormier with Environment Canada. Moose Jaw with a temperature of 17.8 eclipsed the old mark of 14.3. Some of the nearby spots like Swift Current reached 18.4 beating the previous record of 16.1 set back in 1914. Assiniboia made some history, too. They saw the temperature get up to 18.8 which beat the record high of 15.5 set in 1992.
Israel cautiously open to Arab peace plan by Yana Dlugy
Mon Mar 12, 9:36 AM ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) - Israel said on Monday it was cautiously open to an Arab peace initiative, amid reports that secret talks are being held with the aim of jump-starting the stalled Middle East peace process. Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said the so-called Saudi initiative on a comprehensive Arab-Israeli peace deal had some good points, but needed work.There are positive elements in the Saudi initiative, but some of its clauses are contrary to the principle of two states, Livni told Israeli public radio from Washington where she is visiting.Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said on Sunday that Israel was ready to take seriously the peace plan and hoped an Arab summit on March 28 in Saudi Arabia would bolster its positive elements.We sincerely hope that at the summit of the Arab leaders in Riyadh the positive element in the Saudi initiative will be emphasized and would maybe allow an
opportunity to strengthen the chances for negotiations with the Palestinians on its basis, Olmert said.
The Saudi plan calls for the Arab world to fully normalise its relations with Israel in return for the Jewish state withdrawing from all occupied Arab territory and the establishment of an independent Palestinian state.Livni said the initiative contained two additional clauses very problematic for Israel concerning the right of return of Palestinian refugees.One calls for the return of Palestinians who fled or were forced out in 1948, the other rules out their permanent settlement in the Arab states where they or their descendants currently live.Israeli Public Security Minister Avi Dichter told reporters on Monday that a peace agreement with the Palestinians was now much likelier than another cycle of violence.If we did it in 1993, I'm sure there is a strong possibility to repeat it again, he said.
The Israeli statements come amid reports that Livni has been holding secret talks with the Palestinians aimed at breathing life into a peace process that has been largely dormant since 2003.
Palestinian sources told AFP on Sunday that Livni has in recent weeks met twice with Yasser Abed Rabbo, a senior member of the Palestine Liberation Organisation, and Salam Fayyad, a former Palestinian finance minister.The secret talks have touched on the thorniest issues between the two sides, including the final borders of the Palestinians' promised state and the fate of refugees and Jewish settlements in the occupied territories, the sources said.A Livni aide told AFP that secret contacts were under way with the Palestinians, but denied they were being used as a separate channel for negotiations.
There are occasional exchanges, but they are not continuous, so there are no negotiations, he said. Abbas has on several occasions said that he favoured a parallel channel of talks with Israel, like the secret talks that resulted in the 1993 Oslo accords that paved the way for limited Palestinian autonomy.The liberal Haaretz newspaper reported that Israel's top ally the United States which has
increased its diplomatic efforts in the region in recent months was holding separate talks with the Jewish state and Saudi Arabia ahead of the Riyadh summit.
It said, without providing a source, that Saudi National Security Advisor Prince Bandar bin Sultan met Olmert in Jordan last year and was currently in Washington at the same time as Livni. In December, Israeli media reported that Olmert had met a senior Saudi official in Jordan, a report both Riyadh and Amman branded as false. Olmert told reporters at the time: We have decided that on this subject, I am going to deliver a denial but you don't have to believe it... On other matters, believe all my denials.Progress on the Palestinian front would provide a vital lifeline to Olmert, whose ratings have sunk to unprecedented lows following last summer's inconclusive war in Lebanon and corruption allegations just two percent of Israelis now say they trust him.
Hamas Re-Assures Al Qaeda It Wants to Destroy Israel
22 Adar 5767, March 12, '07
(IsraelNN.com) Hamas officials have reassured Al Qaeda that it wants to destroy Israel. Hamas spokesmen reacted to a statement, made on Sunday by Ayman al-Zawahri, second-in-command in the Al Qaeda terrorist network, accusing Hamas of surrendering to American interests by agreeing to sit with the Fatah in a Palestinian Authority (PA) unity government.
We will not betray promises we made to G-d to continue the path of Jihad and resistance until the liberation of Palestine, all of Palestine, Hamas said in a statement. Al Zawahri charged that the agreement hammered out in Mecca for a unity government was an American scheme to hit the Islamic jihadist resistance against the Crusader-Zionist campaign. He added that Hamas has ditched the movement of martyrdom operations ... for a government that plays with words in palace halls.Hamas terrorists have killed approximately 300 Israelis in 58 suicide bombings since the Oslo War broke out in 2000. Hamas replied to Al Qaeda that it continues to be a movement of resistance, seekers of martyrdom. The statement added, So be assured doctor Ayman, and all those who love Palestine like yourself, that Hamas is still the group you knew when it was founded and it will never abandon its path.
Explanation of Iraq War.
MAR 13,07 Raymond S Kraft
SOME OF YOU ARE NOT OLD ENOUGH TO REMEMBER THAT NEARLY EVERY FAMILY IN AMERICA WAS GROSSLY AFFECTED BY WW II . MOST OF YOU DON'T REMEMBER THE RATIONING OF MEAT, SHOES, GASOLINE, AND SUGAR. NO TIRES FOR OUR AUTOMOBILES, AND A SPEED LIMIT OF 35 MILES AN HOUR ON THE ROAD, NOT TO MENTION, NO NEW AUTOMOBILES. READ THIS AND THINK ABOUT HOW WE WOULD REACT TO BEING TAKEN OVER BY FOREIGNERS IN 2007.
This is an EXCELLENT essay. Well thought out and presented.
Historical Significance
Sixty-three years ago, Nazi Germany had overrun almost all of Europe and hammered England to the verge of bankruptcy and defeat. The Nazis had sunk more than 400 British ships in their convoys between England and America taking food and war materials.
At that time the US was in an isolationist, pacifist mood, and most Americans wanted nothing to do with the European or the Asian war.Then along came Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, and in outrage Congress unanimously declared war on Japan, and the following day on Germany, who had not yet attacked us . It was a dicey thing We had few allies . France was not an ally, as the Vichy government of France quickly aligned itself with its German occupiers . Germany was certainly not an ally, as Hitler was intent on setting up a Thousand Year Reich in Europe. Japan was not an ally, as it was well on its way to owning and controlling all of Asia.
Together, Japan and Germany had long-range plans of invading Canada and Mexico, as launching pads to get into the United States over our northern and southern borders, after they finished gaining control of Asia and Europe.America's only allies then were England, Ireland, Scotland, Canada, Australia, and Russia. That was about it All of Europe, from Norway to Italy (except Russia in the East) was already under the Nazi heel.The US was certainly not prepared for war. The US had drastically downgraded most of its military forces after WW I because of the depression, so that at the outbreak of WW II, Army units were training with broomsticks because they didn't have guns, and cars with tank painted on the doors because they didn't have real tanks A huge chunk of our Navy had just been sunk or damaged at Pearl Harbor.Britain had already gone bankrupt, saved only by the donation of $600 million in gold bullion in the Bank of England (that was actually the property of Belgium) given by Belgium to England to carry on the war when Belgium was overrun by Hitler (a little known fact).
Actually, Belgium surrendered on one day, because it was unable to oppose the German invasion, and the Germans bombed Brussels into rubble the next day just to prove they could.Britain had already been holding out for two years in the face of staggering losses and the near decimation of its Royal Air Force in the Battle of Britain, and was saved from being overrun by Germany only because Hitler made the mistake of thinking the Brits were a relatively minor threat that could be dealt with later.
Hitler, first turned his attention to Russia, in the late summer of 1940 at a time when England was on the verge of collapse.
Ironically, Russia saved America's butt by putting up a desperate fight for two years, until the US got geared up to begin hammering away at Germany.Russia lost something like 24,000,000 people in the sieges of Stalingrad and Moscow alone . . . 90% of them from cold and starvation, mostly civilians, but also more than a 1,000,000 soldiersHad Russia surrendered, Hitler would have been able to focus his entire war effort against the Brits, then America. If that had happened, the Nazis could possibly have won the war.All of this has been brought out to illustrate that turning points in history are often dicey things. Now, we find ourselves at another one of those key moments in history.There is a very dangerous minority in Islam that either has, or wants, and may soon have, the ability to deliver small nuclear, biological, or chemical weapons, almost anywhere in the world .
The Jihadis, the militant Muslims, are basically Nazis in Kaffiyahs they believe that Islam, a radically conservative form of Wahhabi Islam, should own and control the Middle East first, then Europe, then the world. To them, all who do not bow to their will of thinking should be killed, enslaved, or subjugated. They want to finish the Holocaust, destroy Israel , and purge the world of Jews. This is their mantra. (goal).
There is also a civil war raging in the Middle East for the most part not a hot war, but a war of ideas. Islam is having its Inquisition and its Reformation, but it is not yet known which side will win the Inquisitors, or the Reformationists. If the Inquisition wins, then the Wahhabis, the Jihadis, will control the Middle East, the OPEC oil, and the US , European, and Asian economies. The techno-industrialeconomies will be at the mercy of OPEC not an OPEC dominated by the educated, rational Saudis of today, but an OPEC dominated by the Jihadis. Do you want gas in your car? Do you want heating oil next winter? Do you want the dollar to be worth anything? You had better hope the Jihad, the Muslim Inquisition, loses, and the Islamic Reformation wins. If the Reformation movement wins, that is, the moderate Muslims who believe that Islam can respect and tolerate other religions, live in peace with the rest of the world, and move out of the 10th century into the 21st, then the troubles in the Middle East will eventually fade away A moderate and prosperous Middle East will emerge.
We have to help the Reformation win, and to do that we have to fight the Inquisition, i.e., the Wahhabi movement, the Jihad, Al Qaeda and the Islamic terrorist movements. We have to do it somewhere. We can't do it everywhere at once. We have created a focal point for the battle at a time and place of our choosing . . . . . . . . in Iraq. Not in New York, not in London, or Paris or Berlin, but in Iraq, where we are doing two important things.
(1) We deposed Saddam Hussein. Whether Saddam Hussein was directly involved in the 9/11 terrorist attack or not, it is undisputed that Saddam has been actively supporting the terrorist movement for decades Saddam is a terrorist! Saddam is, or was, a weapon of mass destruction, responsible for the deaths of probably more than a 1,000,000 Iraqis and 2,000,000 Iranians.
(2) We created a battle, a confrontation, a flash point, with Islamic terrorism in Iraq. We have focused the battle. We are killing bad people, and the ones we get there we won't have to get here. We also have a good shot at creating a democratic, peaceful Iraq, which will be a catalyst for democratic change in the rest of the Middle East, and an outpost for a stabilizing American military presence in the Middle East for as long as it is needed .
WW II, the war with the Japanese and German Nazis, really began with a whimper in 1928 It did not begin with Pearl Harbor. It began with the Japanese invasion of China. It was a war for fourteen years before the US joined it.
It officially ended in 1945 a 17 year war and was followed by another decade of US occupation in Germany and Japan to get those countries reconstructed and running on their own a gain a 27 year war.WW II cost the United States an amount equal to approximately a full year's GDP adjusted for inflation, equal to about $12 trillion dollars. WW II cost America more than 400,000 soldiers killed in action, and nearly 100,000 still missing in action.The Iraq war has, so far, cost the United States about $160,000,000,000, which is roughly what the 9/11 terrorist attack cost New York. It has also cost about 3,000 American lives, which is roughly equivalent to lives that the Jihad killed (within the United States) in the 9/11 terrorist attack.The cost of not fighting and winning WW II would have been unimaginably greater -- a world dominated by Japanese Imperialism and German Nazism.This is not a 60-Minutes TV show, or a 2-hour movie in which everything comes out okay. The real world is not like that. It is messy, uncertain, and sometimes bloody and ugly. It always has been, and probably always will be.
The bottom line is that we will have to deal with Islamic terrorism until we defeat it, whenever that is. It will not go away if we ignore it.If the US can create a reasonably democratic and stable Iraq, then we have an ally, like England, in the Middle East, a platform, from which we can work to help modernize and moderate the Middle East. The history of the world is the clash between the forces of relative civility and civilization, and the barbarians clamoring at the gates to conquer the world. The Iraq War is merely another battle in this ancient and never ending war. Now, for the first time ever, the barbarians are about to get nuclear weapons. Unless some body prevents them from getting them.
We have four options:
1. We can defeat the Jihad now, before it gets nuclear weapons.
2. We can fight the Jihad later, after it gets nuclear weapons (which may be as early as next year, if Iran's progress on nuclear weapons is what Iran claims it is).
3. We can surrender to the Jihad and accept its dominance in the Middle East now; in Europe in the next few years or decades, and ultimately in America.
OR
4. We can stand down now, and pick up the fight later when the Jihad is more widespread and better armed, perhaps after the Jihad has dominated France and Germany and possibly most of the rest of Europe. It will, of course, be more dangerous, more expensive, and much bloodier.
If you oppose this war, I hope you like the idea that your children, or grandchildren, may live in an Islamic America under the Mullahs and the Sharia, an America that resembles Iran today. The history of the world is the history of civilization clashes, cultural clashes. All wars are about ideas, ideas about what society and civilization should be like, and the most determined always win.Those who are willing to be the most ruthless always win. The pacifists always lose, because the anti-pacifists kill them.Remember, perspective is every thing, and America's schools teach too little history for perspective to be clear, especially in the young American mind.The Cold War lasted from about 1947 at least until the Berlin Wall came down in 1989; forty-two years! Europe spent the first half of the
19th century fighting Napoleon, and from 1870 to 1945 fighting Germany!
World War II began in 1928, lasted 17 years, plus a ten year occupation, and the US still has troops in Germany and Japan World War II resulted in the death of more than 50,000,000 people, maybe more than 100,000,000 people, depending on which estimates you accept.
The US has taken more than 3,000 killed in action in Iraq. The US took more than 4,000 killed in action on the morning of June 6, 1944, the first day of the Normandy Invasion to rid Europe of Nazi Imperialism.In WW II the US averaged 2,000 KIA a week for four years. Most of the individual battles of WW II lost more Americans than the entire Iraq war has done so far.The stakes are at least as high . . A world dominated by representative governments with civil rights, human rights, and personal freedoms . . or a world dominated by a radical Islamic Wahhabi movement, by the Jihad, under the Mullahs and the Sharia (Islamic law).It's difficult to understand why the average American does not grasp this. They favor human rights, civil rights, liberty and freedom, but evidently not for Iraqis.
Peace Activists always seem to demonstrate here in America, where it's safe.Why don't we see Peace Activist demonstrating in Iran , Syria, Iraq, Sudan, North Korea, in the places that really need peace activism the most? I'll tell you why! They would be killed! The liberal mentality is supposed to favor human rights, civil rights, democracy, multiculturalism, diversity, etc . , but if the Jihad wins, wherever the Jihad wins, it is the end of civil rights, human rights, democracy, multiculturalism, diversity, etc.
Americans who oppose the liberation of Iraq are coming down on the side of their own worst enemy!
Raymond S. Kraft is a writer living in Northern California that has studied the Middle Eastern culture and religion.
DEBKAfile Exclusive: Bowing to Washington, Olmert agrees to go directly and unconditionally to final-status talks with Palestinians March 11, 2007, 11:45 PM (GMT+02:00)
Prime minister Ehud Olmert conceded key Israeli policy points in his talks with Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas in Jerusalem Sunday, March 11, according to DEBKAfile’s Middle East and Washington sources – contrary to advance statements from his office that the meeting was only a formality. Last week, Bush administration officials notified Olmert’s senor aides Yoram Turbovitch and Shalom Turjman in Washington that the wait for the Palestinians to comply with roadmap conditions to recognize Israel and renounce violence was at an end. Whether a Palestinian government was led by Hamas or shared with Fatah, they were told, Israel must now initiate final settlement talks with Abbas. Saudi and Jordanian leaders had won President George W. Bush over on this point as leverage for cooperation on the Iraq and Iranian issues..
At the Sunday cabinet meeting in Jerusalem, the prime minister therefore announced he was seriously considering accepting the 2002 Saudi peace plan. He already knew the Saudis had informed the White House that the plan would not be revised at the coming Arab summit in Riyadh on March 28. This means that Olmert has agreed to rescind the road map’s conditions for peace talks in favor of the tough Saudi peace plan. It was left to Abbas to run down for Olmert’s benefit the steps expected from Israel, now that the road map’s provisions were out of the way:
1. The Israeli government must pledge unconditionally that the IDF will refrain from attacking the Gaza Strip. Abbas called this a mutual ceasefire although he offered no guarantee for the Palestinian termination of missile fire or other terrorist attacks emanating form the Gaza Strip.After the Olmert-Abbas talks, Israeli officials spread reports of an Israel military alert in the area around the Gaza Strip in an effort to lay a smokescreen to conceal the prime minister’s concession.
2. Abbas said he would do his best to obtain the release of Hamas hostage Gilead Shalit, but offered no promises.
3. The mutual ceasefire is the first step to fast-track Israel-Palestinian negotiations on its extension to the West Bank. DEBKAfile reports that Israeli military and intelligence chiefs are trying to impress on the prime minister that the cessation of Israel’s intense counter-terror operations on the West Bank will result in an eruption of a fresh wave of Palestinian suicide bombings inside Israel and the transfer of Palestinian missiles and rockets to launching positions opposite central Israel, including its main cities.
4. Security restrictions on Palestinian movements in the West Bank must be further relaxed.
5. In May or June of 2007, Israel will enter into direct negotiations with the Palestinians on a final-status framework. Since the road map was formulated, Abbas has lobbied hard to skip the document’s prior condition for an end to Palestinian violence as the sine qua non for talks on a final settlement. Now the Palestinian leader has got is way.
6. Abbas voiced the hope that Israel’s flexibility in negotiating with the Palestinians would be rewarded by the willingness of moderate Arab and Muslim nations, like Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Malaysia and Indonesia, to establish diplomatic and open economic relations with the Jewish state.
DEBKAfile’s sources note that the Olmert-Abbas conversation did not discuss the role to be played by Hamas in the diplomatic process dictated the Israeli government, when it heads the Palestinian government. Also left up in the air was the framework in which the moderate Arab and Muslim governments would normalize their relations with Israel. This would call for amendments of the Saudi peace plan. However, Riyadh has informed Washington that no such amendments would be tabled at the coming Arab summit.
EARTHQUAKES
MATTHEW 24:7-8
7 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.
8 All these are the beginning of sorrows.
MARK 13:8
8 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom:(ETHNIC GROUP AGAINST ETHNIC GROUP) and there shall be earthquakes in divers places, and there shall be famines and troubles: these are the beginnings of sorrows.
LUKE 21:11
11 And great earthquakes shall be in divers places, and famines, and pestilences; and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven.
WORLD QUAKES LAST 2 DAYS (USGS)
Update time = Wed Mar 14 12:00 AM EDT
MAR 13,07
MAP 5.0 NORTHERN PERU
MAP 2.6 BAJA CALIFORNIA, MEXICO
MAP 3.0 ANDREANOF ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN IS., ALASKA
MAP 3.4 RAT ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN ISLANDS, ALASKA
MAP 2.9 SOUTHERN ALASKA
MAP 2.8 GULF OF ALASKA
MAP 5.5 SUMBAWA REGION, INDONESIA
MAP 3.0 RAT ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN ISLANDS, ALASKA
MAP 3.4 RAT ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN ISLANDS, ALASKA
MAP 3.4 RAT ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN ISLANDS, ALASKA
MAP 5.3 KEPULAUAN TALAUD, INDONESIA
MAP 5.4 KEPULAUAN TALAUD, INDONESIA
MAP 3.4 RAT ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN ISLANDS, ALASKA
MAP 2.9 RAT ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN ISLANDS, ALASKA
MAP 2.7 SOUTHERN ALASKA
MAP 6.0 GULF OF CALIFORNIA
MAP 5.2 MOLUCCA SEA
MAP 2.7 CENTRAL CALIFORNIA
MAP 2.5 CENTRAL CALIFORNIA
MAR 12,07
MAP 4.1 ALASKA PENINSULA
MAP 3.6 OHIO
MAP 5.6 KURIL ISLANDS
MAP 4.5 OFFSHORE GUATEMALA
MAP 5.1 BABUYAN ISLANDS REGION, PHILIPPINES
MAP 2.6 HAWAII REGION, HAWAII
MAP 2.9 SOUTHERN ALASKA
MAP 4.8 RAT ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN ISLANDS, ALASKA
MAP 4.7 TAJIKISTAN
MAP 4.8 HOKKAIDO, JAPAN REGION
MAP 2.6 PUERTO RICO REGION
MAP 5.8 SOUTHEAST OF THE LOYALTY ISLANDS
MAP 4.6 COLOMBIA
MAP 5.5 SOUTHEAST INDIAN RIDGE
MAP 4.9 MOLUCCA SEA
MAP 3.0 FOX ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN ISLANDS, ALASKA
MAP 2.9 CHANNEL ISLANDS REGION, CALIFORNIA
MAP 3.0 UNIMAK ISLAND REGION, ALASKA
MAP 4.5 TONGA
MAP 2.6 NEVADA
MAP 4.7 KERMADEC ISLANDS REGION
MAP 5.6 KERMADEC ISLANDS REGION
MAR 11,07
MAP 2.5 SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
MAP 2.7 FOX ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN ISLANDS, ALASKA
MAP 4.5 SOUTH OF THE FIJI ISLANDS
MAP 4.9 TONGA
MAP 5.0 LIBERTADOR O'HIGGINS, CHILE
MAP 2.7 PUERTO RICO
MAP 2.6 SOUTHERN ALASKA
MAP 4.9 ANDREANOF ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN IS., ALASKA
MAP 2.9 MOUNT ST. HELENS AREA, WASHINGTON
MAP 3.0 PUERTO RICO
MAP 2.7 PUERTO RICO REGION
MAP 5.8 KURIL ISLANDS
MAP 2.6 SOUTHERN ALASKA
MAP 3.1 ALASKA PENINSULA
MAP 3.7 ANDREANOF ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN IS., ALASKA
MAP 2.5 NEW YORK
MAP 3.6 PUERTO RICO REGION
MAP 4.9 IZU ISLANDS, JAPAN REGION
MAP 3.4 BERING SEA
Earthquake felt in Ohio Mon Mar 12, 10:40 PM ET
TWINSBURG, Ohio - A rare northeast Ohio earthquake, with a preliminary magnitude of 3.6, was felt near the epicenter but caused no major damage. The quake was recorded at 7:18 p.m. outside Twinsburg, which is about 16 miles southeast of Cleveland. Most reports from people who felt the quake came from Twinsburg and nearby Stow and Aurora, said Michael Hansen, coordinator of the Ohio Seismic Network.
This isn't an area where we commonly have earthquakes, he said.Other than a television knocked off its stand, there were no reports of damage.Ohio's largest recorded earthquake registered 5.4 in 1937 in Shelby County, a rural area between Toledo and Dayton.
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.
Fifty die as snow blankets Kashmir, rains pound northern India MAR 13,07
SRINAGAR, India (AFP) - At least 50 people were killed as snow engulfed Kashmir and torrential rains pounded the rest of northern India, officials said Tuesday. Some 28 people were killed and 25 others received burn injuries in separate lightning strikes in Uttar Pradesh as rains crippled life in the populous northern Indian state, they said.Seventeen people, including two children and a soldier died in landslides, cold and floods in Indian Kashmir and its summer capital Srinagar reported its heaviest March snowfall in 15 years, weather officials said.Five other weather-related casualties were reported from other parts of northern India, lashed by rains since Friday.In Kashmir, five Hindu pilgrims trekking to a snowbound shrine high in the Himalayas froze to death.
A police patrol discovered the five bodies huddled together Monday in a shelter built to protect travellers to the Vaishno Devi shrine.All five pilgrims died of hypothermia as they weren't wearing enough clothes and heavy snow had brought down temperatures, said Puneet Kumar, a senior official at the shrine.Another 13 people suffered hypothermia injuries. Nine were in critical condition but were recovering fast in hospital, the official said.The dead were all from Uttar Pradesh, and officials said they had underestimated the cold at that time of year in Kashmir where the mercury regularly falls below zero Celsius (32 Fahrenheit).Ten more people died due to hypothermia, landslides and caving in of structures across the state, a police officer said while rescue officials reported another two deaths in the snowbound region.
Snowstorms have paralysed life in revolt-hit Kashmir, shutting schools, knocking out power and telephone lines and closing the region's main highway, police said.The main highway has been shut due to heavy snow and nearly 800 vehicles are stranded, police officer Abdul Hameed told AFP.
Labourers were using bulldozers, snow removal machines and shovels to open up the 300-kilometre (186-mile) highway, the main route for supplies to the Kashmir valley from state winter capital Jammu and the rest of the subcontinent.It may take us a few days to restore power supply in the valley, senior engineer Nissar Ahmed said.Offices in the region were still open but many people were late as they had to walk through the thick blanket of snow.Earlier this month, India's air force airlifted to safety more than 5,000 people stranded for days in sub-zerotemperatures on the main highway by avalanches and landslides.The Indian army has a strong presence in Kashmir where it is fighting to suppress a deadly Islamic separatist insurgency that has raged since 1989.
Rains pound southwestern B.C.
Last Updated: Monday, March 12, 2007 CBC News
Roads were flooded and rivers were threatening to overflow their banks in parts of southwestern British Columbia Monday following a weekend downpour.
The rain caused a temporary storm sewer pipe on Cambie Street to back up between Broadway and 10th avenues in Vancouver Sunday, flooding the Canada Line rapid-transit project excavation trench, washing out a steel beam and utility supports. Heavy rain caused flooding in downtown Vancouver.(CBC) The water also flooded the nearby Best Thai restaurant.Crews closed Cambie Street, northbound and southbound, with traffic being rerouted around the washout. The street was expected to reopen Monday.A spokeswoman for the rapid-transit project said construction was not expected to be delayed significantly.The rain also caused a couple of mudslides across the rail tracks in the Crescent Beach area of White Rock.
Flood warning
Environment Canada issued a flood warning for the Coquitlam and Nicomeckl rivers. More than 170 millimetres of rain was recorded at the Coquitlam Dam Forebay over the weekend.While the rain ended overnight, Surrey RCMP said driving was hazardous in low-lying areas, warning that water-filled ditches could flood roads.A number of roads were closed, including Highway 10 in the Cloverdale area of Surrey and the Maryhill bypass in Port Coquitlam.The downpour was also blamed for a mudslide that closed the Trans-Canada Highway from Rosedale to Hope and east of Hope to Jackass Mountain because of falling rock.On Vancouver Island, a flood watch was in effect as water levels in the Cowichan, Chemainus and Englishman rivers rose.As the rain let up, a wind warning was issued for much of B.C.'s South Coast. That order was lifted Monday morning.
The Nation's Weather By WEATHER UNDERGROUND, For The Associated Press
Tue Mar 13, 6:00 AM ET
Unseasonably warm and dry air settled across most of the nation early Tuesday, although rain and thunderstorms whipped across the southern Plains and Mississippi Delta. In the Northeast, temperatures were expected to rise well above normal, with highs in the 60s expected in New York and New Jersey, and the upper 70s for the mid-Atlantic and Southeast.The heat also will continue out West, with temperatures in Southern California remaining in the upper 80s and low 90s, which combined with continued dry weather and gusty winds will set the stage for another day of dangerous fire weather.The largest threat for strong storms exists from central Texas south and east to the Gulf Coast as warm afternoon temperatures and humid air provide the conditions ripe for storm development.In the Northwest, showers and high elevation snow showers were to continue, and, late in the day, light rain or snow could start up in the northern Plains.Temperatures in the Lower 48 states on Monday ranged from a low of 8 degrees at Whitefield, N.H., to a high of 98 degrees at Riverside, Calif.
Orange County fire 80% contained, fire officials say
By Janet Wilson, David Haldane and Greg Krikorian, LA Times Staff Writers
8:15 AM PDT, March 12, 2007
Unfriendly fireAided by higher humidity and cooler temperatures, firefighters overnight made dramatic strides in containing an arson fire in Orange and Anaheim Hills, authorities said today.The fire, which had charred 2,000 acres of brush and prompted evacuations of more than 1,200 people on Sunday, was reported as 80% contained, Capt. Stephen Miller of the Orange County Fire Authority said at a news conference broadcast this morning. He estimated the fire would be fully contained by 6 a.m. Tuesday.Everything is looking good in our favor now, he said.Authorities said that evacuations in some areas would remain in effect until later today.
Firefighters were hopeful no setbacks would be suffered from today's weather, which is predicted to again produce record breaking heat and strong winds.The winds in what is shaping up as one of the driest years ever in Southern California fed flames on Sunday that destroyed one structure and damaged three more, including two homes.The blaze was triggered before 8 a.m. by a fire that began in an abandoned car that was stolen and wound up in a roadside ditch, Miller said.
The vehicle was intentionally set on fire, Miller said this morning. This is an arson fire.More than 800 firefighters battled the flames, which at midafternoon darkened the skies over much of north Orange County with towering black columns of smoke.One of the firefighters' key adversaries was Sunday's scorching heat. Temperatures hit record highs for a March 11 at many spots in the Southland, including a midafternoon 97-degree reading in nearby Fullerton, making it the nation's hot spot for the day. Fullerton's previous record high of 84 was set in 1959.A red flag warning, based on the forecast of more brisk winds and single-digit humidity, was issued.This is classic Santa Ana fire season, and it's exacerbated because everything is so crispy because it's been such a dry winter, said William
Patzert, a climatologist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La Caada Flintridge. It's definitely scary. The blaze named the Windy Ridge fire quickly scaled the ridge and destroyed dozens of acres near the toll road. By noon, as winds gusted and temperatures steadily rose, the fire was threatening enough for authorities to begin evacuating the residents of more than 500 homes.
By 10 p.m., most of the evacuees were allowed to return to their homes.One of those who fled was Theresa Sears, 51, a longtime resident of Orange Park Acres, an equestrian community at the edge of Orange.I smelled smoke about 8 o'clock in the morning, and we started taking the horses out about 10 in the morning, she said. All my friends came and helped me so I could stay in my house. We loaded up the horses. We loaded up the goats. We loaded up the chickens, the dogs and the cats. Sears stayed put until about 1 p.m. But, with firefighters nearby, she said, They didn't have to tell me to leave. The flames were so severe I knew it was time to go. Her home, however, was coated with foam by firefighters and saved.Most of the people living along Santiago Creek were ordered to evacuate Sunday afternoon, but some stayed home to keep an eye on the fire themselves.Even after authorities had blocked off roads near his Mabury Ranch neighborhood in Orange, defense contractor Vern Green, 58, sneaked behind law enforcement lines to pack up his things.When they tap into the fire hydrant by my house, that's our signal to leave, Green said. Authorities said the two damaged houses appeared to be the only ones in the area with wood-shake roofs. Neither, officials said, was seriously damaged.
But one structure, possibly a corral, was destroyed, and another outbuilding was damaged.Miller said two firefighters, the only people hurt, suffered minor injuries. He offered no prediction as to when the fire would be fully contained.Weather records were being set all over Orange County. Yorba Linda reached 95 degrees, 11 degrees above the record for the day; the Santa Ana fire station near John Wayne Airport reached 92 degrees, versus the normal high of 66 degrees.
Single-digit humidity levels compared to a norm of around 40% to 50% this time of year, officials said.Firefighters were also frustrated by winds blowing steadily at 29 mph and gusting up to 49 mph. Authorities at the fire scene said humidity fell to 9%, while weather officials reported that humidity in Fullerton dipped to as low as 4%.In Los Angeles County, temperatures were 20 to 25 degrees above normal. The county's hottest weather was in Long Beach, which reached 94 degrees, surging past the former high of 87 degrees set in 1959. Downtown posted a high of 92, only one degree below its record high.
Elsewhere, Southern California residents who started the morning by fast-forwarding to daylight saving time relished a day that felt more like June than mid-March.In Riverside County near Corona, a Sunday afternoon brush fire flared to 500 acres in the hilly terrain around the wildlife habitat of Lake Mathews Reserve.
It was 25% contained by 9 p.m.One hundred firefighters labored to contain the blaze, dubbed the Sierra fire. No homes were threatened or roads closed, said Capt. Julie Hutchinson of the Riverside County Fire Department.Until we get that line all the way around it, there's still that potential to spread, Hutchinson said.Weather forecasters have said that this unusually long fire season probably will continue, in large part because of the dry conditions.Only about 2.40 inches of rain had fallen on downtown Los Angeles since July 1, and forecasters say no sign of rain is in sight.The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's weather models suggest that a La Nina climate pattern an abnormal cooling of water temperatures in the equatorial Pacific is emerging, continuing the drought-like conditions. janet.wilson@latimes.com.david.haldane@latimes.com.greg.krikorian@latimes.com.Times staff writers Stuart Silverstein, William Heisel, Howard Blume, Deborah Schoch, Susannah Rosenblatt and Adrian G. Uribarri contributed to this report
King City breaks 84-year heat record
By SUNITA VIJAYAN The Salinas Californian
Several Monterey County cities today broke decade-old record temperatures, the National Weather Service in Monterey said, and one crested a record set more than 80 years ago.Forecaster Diane Henderson said temperatures in King City hit 93 degrees, breaking the 1923 record of 92 degrees.
Salinas recorded a high of 85 degrees, breaking its 1994 record of 80 degrees.In Monterey, she said, temperatures reached 78 degrees, enough to break its 1993 record of 77 degrees.The highest temperature within the area was in Bradley, with 98 degrees.
Record Breaking Temperatures MAR 12,07
The gusty wind disguised the fact that the mercury was rising, and believe it or not we managed to break some records around Southern Saskatchewan. Environment Canada was calling for a high of 16 degrees Monday, and we surpassed that high and set a new record high beating the old record set March 12th, 1910.
Bob Cormier with Environment Canada. Moose Jaw with a temperature of 17.8 eclipsed the old mark of 14.3. Some of the nearby spots like Swift Current reached 18.4 beating the previous record of 16.1 set back in 1914. Assiniboia made some history, too. They saw the temperature get up to 18.8 which beat the record high of 15.5 set in 1992.
Israel cautiously open to Arab peace plan by Yana Dlugy
Mon Mar 12, 9:36 AM ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) - Israel said on Monday it was cautiously open to an Arab peace initiative, amid reports that secret talks are being held with the aim of jump-starting the stalled Middle East peace process. Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said the so-called Saudi initiative on a comprehensive Arab-Israeli peace deal had some good points, but needed work.There are positive elements in the Saudi initiative, but some of its clauses are contrary to the principle of two states, Livni told Israeli public radio from Washington where she is visiting.Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said on Sunday that Israel was ready to take seriously the peace plan and hoped an Arab summit on March 28 in Saudi Arabia would bolster its positive elements.We sincerely hope that at the summit of the Arab leaders in Riyadh the positive element in the Saudi initiative will be emphasized and would maybe allow an
opportunity to strengthen the chances for negotiations with the Palestinians on its basis, Olmert said.
The Saudi plan calls for the Arab world to fully normalise its relations with Israel in return for the Jewish state withdrawing from all occupied Arab territory and the establishment of an independent Palestinian state.Livni said the initiative contained two additional clauses very problematic for Israel concerning the right of return of Palestinian refugees.One calls for the return of Palestinians who fled or were forced out in 1948, the other rules out their permanent settlement in the Arab states where they or their descendants currently live.Israeli Public Security Minister Avi Dichter told reporters on Monday that a peace agreement with the Palestinians was now much likelier than another cycle of violence.If we did it in 1993, I'm sure there is a strong possibility to repeat it again, he said.
The Israeli statements come amid reports that Livni has been holding secret talks with the Palestinians aimed at breathing life into a peace process that has been largely dormant since 2003.
Palestinian sources told AFP on Sunday that Livni has in recent weeks met twice with Yasser Abed Rabbo, a senior member of the Palestine Liberation Organisation, and Salam Fayyad, a former Palestinian finance minister.The secret talks have touched on the thorniest issues between the two sides, including the final borders of the Palestinians' promised state and the fate of refugees and Jewish settlements in the occupied territories, the sources said.A Livni aide told AFP that secret contacts were under way with the Palestinians, but denied they were being used as a separate channel for negotiations.
There are occasional exchanges, but they are not continuous, so there are no negotiations, he said. Abbas has on several occasions said that he favoured a parallel channel of talks with Israel, like the secret talks that resulted in the 1993 Oslo accords that paved the way for limited Palestinian autonomy.The liberal Haaretz newspaper reported that Israel's top ally the United States which has
increased its diplomatic efforts in the region in recent months was holding separate talks with the Jewish state and Saudi Arabia ahead of the Riyadh summit.
It said, without providing a source, that Saudi National Security Advisor Prince Bandar bin Sultan met Olmert in Jordan last year and was currently in Washington at the same time as Livni. In December, Israeli media reported that Olmert had met a senior Saudi official in Jordan, a report both Riyadh and Amman branded as false. Olmert told reporters at the time: We have decided that on this subject, I am going to deliver a denial but you don't have to believe it... On other matters, believe all my denials.Progress on the Palestinian front would provide a vital lifeline to Olmert, whose ratings have sunk to unprecedented lows following last summer's inconclusive war in Lebanon and corruption allegations just two percent of Israelis now say they trust him.
Hamas Re-Assures Al Qaeda It Wants to Destroy Israel
22 Adar 5767, March 12, '07
(IsraelNN.com) Hamas officials have reassured Al Qaeda that it wants to destroy Israel. Hamas spokesmen reacted to a statement, made on Sunday by Ayman al-Zawahri, second-in-command in the Al Qaeda terrorist network, accusing Hamas of surrendering to American interests by agreeing to sit with the Fatah in a Palestinian Authority (PA) unity government.
We will not betray promises we made to G-d to continue the path of Jihad and resistance until the liberation of Palestine, all of Palestine, Hamas said in a statement. Al Zawahri charged that the agreement hammered out in Mecca for a unity government was an American scheme to hit the Islamic jihadist resistance against the Crusader-Zionist campaign. He added that Hamas has ditched the movement of martyrdom operations ... for a government that plays with words in palace halls.Hamas terrorists have killed approximately 300 Israelis in 58 suicide bombings since the Oslo War broke out in 2000. Hamas replied to Al Qaeda that it continues to be a movement of resistance, seekers of martyrdom. The statement added, So be assured doctor Ayman, and all those who love Palestine like yourself, that Hamas is still the group you knew when it was founded and it will never abandon its path.
Explanation of Iraq War.
MAR 13,07 Raymond S Kraft
SOME OF YOU ARE NOT OLD ENOUGH TO REMEMBER THAT NEARLY EVERY FAMILY IN AMERICA WAS GROSSLY AFFECTED BY WW II . MOST OF YOU DON'T REMEMBER THE RATIONING OF MEAT, SHOES, GASOLINE, AND SUGAR. NO TIRES FOR OUR AUTOMOBILES, AND A SPEED LIMIT OF 35 MILES AN HOUR ON THE ROAD, NOT TO MENTION, NO NEW AUTOMOBILES. READ THIS AND THINK ABOUT HOW WE WOULD REACT TO BEING TAKEN OVER BY FOREIGNERS IN 2007.
This is an EXCELLENT essay. Well thought out and presented.
Historical Significance
Sixty-three years ago, Nazi Germany had overrun almost all of Europe and hammered England to the verge of bankruptcy and defeat. The Nazis had sunk more than 400 British ships in their convoys between England and America taking food and war materials.
At that time the US was in an isolationist, pacifist mood, and most Americans wanted nothing to do with the European or the Asian war.Then along came Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, and in outrage Congress unanimously declared war on Japan, and the following day on Germany, who had not yet attacked us . It was a dicey thing We had few allies . France was not an ally, as the Vichy government of France quickly aligned itself with its German occupiers . Germany was certainly not an ally, as Hitler was intent on setting up a Thousand Year Reich in Europe. Japan was not an ally, as it was well on its way to owning and controlling all of Asia.
Together, Japan and Germany had long-range plans of invading Canada and Mexico, as launching pads to get into the United States over our northern and southern borders, after they finished gaining control of Asia and Europe.America's only allies then were England, Ireland, Scotland, Canada, Australia, and Russia. That was about it All of Europe, from Norway to Italy (except Russia in the East) was already under the Nazi heel.The US was certainly not prepared for war. The US had drastically downgraded most of its military forces after WW I because of the depression, so that at the outbreak of WW II, Army units were training with broomsticks because they didn't have guns, and cars with tank painted on the doors because they didn't have real tanks A huge chunk of our Navy had just been sunk or damaged at Pearl Harbor.Britain had already gone bankrupt, saved only by the donation of $600 million in gold bullion in the Bank of England (that was actually the property of Belgium) given by Belgium to England to carry on the war when Belgium was overrun by Hitler (a little known fact).
Actually, Belgium surrendered on one day, because it was unable to oppose the German invasion, and the Germans bombed Brussels into rubble the next day just to prove they could.Britain had already been holding out for two years in the face of staggering losses and the near decimation of its Royal Air Force in the Battle of Britain, and was saved from being overrun by Germany only because Hitler made the mistake of thinking the Brits were a relatively minor threat that could be dealt with later.
Hitler, first turned his attention to Russia, in the late summer of 1940 at a time when England was on the verge of collapse.
Ironically, Russia saved America's butt by putting up a desperate fight for two years, until the US got geared up to begin hammering away at Germany.Russia lost something like 24,000,000 people in the sieges of Stalingrad and Moscow alone . . . 90% of them from cold and starvation, mostly civilians, but also more than a 1,000,000 soldiersHad Russia surrendered, Hitler would have been able to focus his entire war effort against the Brits, then America. If that had happened, the Nazis could possibly have won the war.All of this has been brought out to illustrate that turning points in history are often dicey things. Now, we find ourselves at another one of those key moments in history.There is a very dangerous minority in Islam that either has, or wants, and may soon have, the ability to deliver small nuclear, biological, or chemical weapons, almost anywhere in the world .
The Jihadis, the militant Muslims, are basically Nazis in Kaffiyahs they believe that Islam, a radically conservative form of Wahhabi Islam, should own and control the Middle East first, then Europe, then the world. To them, all who do not bow to their will of thinking should be killed, enslaved, or subjugated. They want to finish the Holocaust, destroy Israel , and purge the world of Jews. This is their mantra. (goal).
There is also a civil war raging in the Middle East for the most part not a hot war, but a war of ideas. Islam is having its Inquisition and its Reformation, but it is not yet known which side will win the Inquisitors, or the Reformationists. If the Inquisition wins, then the Wahhabis, the Jihadis, will control the Middle East, the OPEC oil, and the US , European, and Asian economies. The techno-industrialeconomies will be at the mercy of OPEC not an OPEC dominated by the educated, rational Saudis of today, but an OPEC dominated by the Jihadis. Do you want gas in your car? Do you want heating oil next winter? Do you want the dollar to be worth anything? You had better hope the Jihad, the Muslim Inquisition, loses, and the Islamic Reformation wins. If the Reformation movement wins, that is, the moderate Muslims who believe that Islam can respect and tolerate other religions, live in peace with the rest of the world, and move out of the 10th century into the 21st, then the troubles in the Middle East will eventually fade away A moderate and prosperous Middle East will emerge.
We have to help the Reformation win, and to do that we have to fight the Inquisition, i.e., the Wahhabi movement, the Jihad, Al Qaeda and the Islamic terrorist movements. We have to do it somewhere. We can't do it everywhere at once. We have created a focal point for the battle at a time and place of our choosing . . . . . . . . in Iraq. Not in New York, not in London, or Paris or Berlin, but in Iraq, where we are doing two important things.
(1) We deposed Saddam Hussein. Whether Saddam Hussein was directly involved in the 9/11 terrorist attack or not, it is undisputed that Saddam has been actively supporting the terrorist movement for decades Saddam is a terrorist! Saddam is, or was, a weapon of mass destruction, responsible for the deaths of probably more than a 1,000,000 Iraqis and 2,000,000 Iranians.
(2) We created a battle, a confrontation, a flash point, with Islamic terrorism in Iraq. We have focused the battle. We are killing bad people, and the ones we get there we won't have to get here. We also have a good shot at creating a democratic, peaceful Iraq, which will be a catalyst for democratic change in the rest of the Middle East, and an outpost for a stabilizing American military presence in the Middle East for as long as it is needed .
WW II, the war with the Japanese and German Nazis, really began with a whimper in 1928 It did not begin with Pearl Harbor. It began with the Japanese invasion of China. It was a war for fourteen years before the US joined it.
It officially ended in 1945 a 17 year war and was followed by another decade of US occupation in Germany and Japan to get those countries reconstructed and running on their own a gain a 27 year war.WW II cost the United States an amount equal to approximately a full year's GDP adjusted for inflation, equal to about $12 trillion dollars. WW II cost America more than 400,000 soldiers killed in action, and nearly 100,000 still missing in action.The Iraq war has, so far, cost the United States about $160,000,000,000, which is roughly what the 9/11 terrorist attack cost New York. It has also cost about 3,000 American lives, which is roughly equivalent to lives that the Jihad killed (within the United States) in the 9/11 terrorist attack.The cost of not fighting and winning WW II would have been unimaginably greater -- a world dominated by Japanese Imperialism and German Nazism.This is not a 60-Minutes TV show, or a 2-hour movie in which everything comes out okay. The real world is not like that. It is messy, uncertain, and sometimes bloody and ugly. It always has been, and probably always will be.
The bottom line is that we will have to deal with Islamic terrorism until we defeat it, whenever that is. It will not go away if we ignore it.If the US can create a reasonably democratic and stable Iraq, then we have an ally, like England, in the Middle East, a platform, from which we can work to help modernize and moderate the Middle East. The history of the world is the clash between the forces of relative civility and civilization, and the barbarians clamoring at the gates to conquer the world. The Iraq War is merely another battle in this ancient and never ending war. Now, for the first time ever, the barbarians are about to get nuclear weapons. Unless some body prevents them from getting them.
We have four options:
1. We can defeat the Jihad now, before it gets nuclear weapons.
2. We can fight the Jihad later, after it gets nuclear weapons (which may be as early as next year, if Iran's progress on nuclear weapons is what Iran claims it is).
3. We can surrender to the Jihad and accept its dominance in the Middle East now; in Europe in the next few years or decades, and ultimately in America.
OR
4. We can stand down now, and pick up the fight later when the Jihad is more widespread and better armed, perhaps after the Jihad has dominated France and Germany and possibly most of the rest of Europe. It will, of course, be more dangerous, more expensive, and much bloodier.
If you oppose this war, I hope you like the idea that your children, or grandchildren, may live in an Islamic America under the Mullahs and the Sharia, an America that resembles Iran today. The history of the world is the history of civilization clashes, cultural clashes. All wars are about ideas, ideas about what society and civilization should be like, and the most determined always win.Those who are willing to be the most ruthless always win. The pacifists always lose, because the anti-pacifists kill them.Remember, perspective is every thing, and America's schools teach too little history for perspective to be clear, especially in the young American mind.The Cold War lasted from about 1947 at least until the Berlin Wall came down in 1989; forty-two years! Europe spent the first half of the
19th century fighting Napoleon, and from 1870 to 1945 fighting Germany!
World War II began in 1928, lasted 17 years, plus a ten year occupation, and the US still has troops in Germany and Japan World War II resulted in the death of more than 50,000,000 people, maybe more than 100,000,000 people, depending on which estimates you accept.
The US has taken more than 3,000 killed in action in Iraq. The US took more than 4,000 killed in action on the morning of June 6, 1944, the first day of the Normandy Invasion to rid Europe of Nazi Imperialism.In WW II the US averaged 2,000 KIA a week for four years. Most of the individual battles of WW II lost more Americans than the entire Iraq war has done so far.The stakes are at least as high . . A world dominated by representative governments with civil rights, human rights, and personal freedoms . . or a world dominated by a radical Islamic Wahhabi movement, by the Jihad, under the Mullahs and the Sharia (Islamic law).It's difficult to understand why the average American does not grasp this. They favor human rights, civil rights, liberty and freedom, but evidently not for Iraqis.
Peace Activists always seem to demonstrate here in America, where it's safe.Why don't we see Peace Activist demonstrating in Iran , Syria, Iraq, Sudan, North Korea, in the places that really need peace activism the most? I'll tell you why! They would be killed! The liberal mentality is supposed to favor human rights, civil rights, democracy, multiculturalism, diversity, etc . , but if the Jihad wins, wherever the Jihad wins, it is the end of civil rights, human rights, democracy, multiculturalism, diversity, etc.
Americans who oppose the liberation of Iraq are coming down on the side of their own worst enemy!
Raymond S. Kraft is a writer living in Northern California that has studied the Middle Eastern culture and religion.
DEBKAfile Exclusive: Bowing to Washington, Olmert agrees to go directly and unconditionally to final-status talks with Palestinians March 11, 2007, 11:45 PM (GMT+02:00)
Prime minister Ehud Olmert conceded key Israeli policy points in his talks with Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas in Jerusalem Sunday, March 11, according to DEBKAfile’s Middle East and Washington sources – contrary to advance statements from his office that the meeting was only a formality. Last week, Bush administration officials notified Olmert’s senor aides Yoram Turbovitch and Shalom Turjman in Washington that the wait for the Palestinians to comply with roadmap conditions to recognize Israel and renounce violence was at an end. Whether a Palestinian government was led by Hamas or shared with Fatah, they were told, Israel must now initiate final settlement talks with Abbas. Saudi and Jordanian leaders had won President George W. Bush over on this point as leverage for cooperation on the Iraq and Iranian issues..
At the Sunday cabinet meeting in Jerusalem, the prime minister therefore announced he was seriously considering accepting the 2002 Saudi peace plan. He already knew the Saudis had informed the White House that the plan would not be revised at the coming Arab summit in Riyadh on March 28. This means that Olmert has agreed to rescind the road map’s conditions for peace talks in favor of the tough Saudi peace plan. It was left to Abbas to run down for Olmert’s benefit the steps expected from Israel, now that the road map’s provisions were out of the way:
1. The Israeli government must pledge unconditionally that the IDF will refrain from attacking the Gaza Strip. Abbas called this a mutual ceasefire although he offered no guarantee for the Palestinian termination of missile fire or other terrorist attacks emanating form the Gaza Strip.After the Olmert-Abbas talks, Israeli officials spread reports of an Israel military alert in the area around the Gaza Strip in an effort to lay a smokescreen to conceal the prime minister’s concession.
2. Abbas said he would do his best to obtain the release of Hamas hostage Gilead Shalit, but offered no promises.
3. The mutual ceasefire is the first step to fast-track Israel-Palestinian negotiations on its extension to the West Bank. DEBKAfile reports that Israeli military and intelligence chiefs are trying to impress on the prime minister that the cessation of Israel’s intense counter-terror operations on the West Bank will result in an eruption of a fresh wave of Palestinian suicide bombings inside Israel and the transfer of Palestinian missiles and rockets to launching positions opposite central Israel, including its main cities.
4. Security restrictions on Palestinian movements in the West Bank must be further relaxed.
5. In May or June of 2007, Israel will enter into direct negotiations with the Palestinians on a final-status framework. Since the road map was formulated, Abbas has lobbied hard to skip the document’s prior condition for an end to Palestinian violence as the sine qua non for talks on a final settlement. Now the Palestinian leader has got is way.
6. Abbas voiced the hope that Israel’s flexibility in negotiating with the Palestinians would be rewarded by the willingness of moderate Arab and Muslim nations, like Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Malaysia and Indonesia, to establish diplomatic and open economic relations with the Jewish state.
DEBKAfile’s sources note that the Olmert-Abbas conversation did not discuss the role to be played by Hamas in the diplomatic process dictated the Israeli government, when it heads the Palestinian government. Also left up in the air was the framework in which the moderate Arab and Muslim governments would normalize their relations with Israel. This would call for amendments of the Saudi peace plan. However, Riyadh has informed Washington that no such amendments would be tabled at the coming Arab summit.
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