RICE PRESSURES ISRAEL - NOTHIN NEW

EARTH DESTROYED WITH THE EARTH

GENESIS 6:11-13
11 The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.(WORLD TERRORISM,MURDERS)
12 And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth.
13 And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence (TERRORISM) through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth.

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.

Earthquake jolts NW China, no casualties reported
www.chinaview.cn 2008-03-31 03:15:26

LANZHOU, March 30 (Xinhua) -- An earthquake with a magnitude of 5.0 shook parts of northwest China's Gansu Province on Sunday. No casualties have been reported so far. But the quake damaged more than 1,000 houses in the Huangcheng Township in Yugur Autonomous County of Sunan, the epic center. Big cracks were found in the wall of the houses after the earthquake. They will need to be rebuilt or reinforced, said Gao Shengfu, Party chief of the Huangcheng Township. The tremor hit the township at 4:32 pm on Sunday. It also damaged parts of local power grid, but the power supplies were soon restored following emergency repair work. The Huangcheng Township boasts rich coal resources and local authorities have ordered the mines to suspend production. Editor: Mu Xuequan

Asia-Pacific News
Strong earthquake strikes off western coast of Indonesia's Aceh
Mar 30, 2008, 2:50 GMT

Jakarta - A strong undersea earthquake measuring 6.2 on the Richter scale struck early Sunday off the western coast of Indonesia's Aceh province, but there have been no reports of injury or damage, officials said. The quake jolted at 12:30 am (1730 GMT Saturday) with epicentre at 113 kilometres north-west of Sinabang, the main town on the remote Simeulue island off the western coast of Aceh , about 30 kilometres beneath the seabed, said an official of the country's Meteorology and Geophysics Agency. The quake was followed by a 5.1 Richter scale aftershock two hours later, said the official, who identified herself only as Fina, adding that there were no reports of injuries or structural damage from the quakes as of Sunday morning. On February 20, a 7.5-magnitude quake rocked Simeulue island, killing at least three people and seriously injuring 25. On December 2004, a massive 9-magnitude earthquake triggered a tsunami that struck nine Asian nations and killed 177,000 people in Indonesia's Aceh province alone. Indonesia is at a vulnerable zone, the so-called Pacific Ring of Fire, where two continental plates stretching from the western hemisphere through Japan and South-East Asia meet, causing frequent earthquakes.

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.

Strong storms hit Oklahoma, Louisiana MAR 31,08

OKLAHOMA CITY - Strong storms that may have included tornadoes caused scattered damage and power outages in parts of Oklahoma early Monday. No injuries were reported.The National Weather Service posted severe thunderstorm watches and warnings for parts of Oklahoma and Kansas. A tornado watch also was issued for much of Oklahoma, including the Tulsa and Oklahoma City areas, and flash flood watches were issued because of heavy rain.The weather service said it hadn't confirmed yet whether the early morning Oklahoma damage was caused by tornadoes or by high wind.There were scattered reports of roof damage and several roads in northwest Oklahoma County were closed because of high water.Oklahoma Gas & Electric says several thousand customers were blacked out and dozens of utility poles were toppled by high wind.A storm in northwest Louisiana on Sunday afternoon damaged a mobile home park at the town of Provencal. Authorities said two people were injured.

Also on Sunday, one man drowned in southeastern Texas when an overflowing creek swept a car off a highway near San Augustine, officials said. The weather service had 10 to 14 inches of rain fell on the area over a two-day period.

Bodies traced as teams search flooded Tanzania mine
Mon Mar 31, 8:06 AM

MIRERANI, Tanzania (AFP) - Rescuers dug through sludge and rock Monday in their search for dozens of miners trapped for three days in northern Tanzania, police said, as hopes dwindled of finding any survivors.Rescue teams retrieved a seventh body and were struggling to reach others traced underground in flooded mines in a tanzanite concession in Mirerani, near the base of Mount Kilimanjaro.Heavy rains triggered the floods in the gem mines early Saturday.Teams have found an area where at least 10 more bodies are trapped between rocks. They are now scooping sand and mud to release the bodies, said police commissioner Venance Tossi, who was commanding the operation.Mine owners ruled out the chances of finding any survivors.

There are 66 miners missing and still trapped underground in the pits, said state-run Tanzania Broadcasting Corporation (TBC) radio, quoting the owners.There is no hope of finding anybody alive because it is their third day underground, it said.One of the owners, Mike Temi, confirmed 66 people were missing as of Monday morning.Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete, due to travel to the disaster area, said he was shocked to hear of the accident and the growing death toll.Officials gave diverging counts of the number of miners who escaped or were rescued from the pits, where thousands dig to find the precious purple-blue mineral named after the country.State Radio, quoting owners, said 93 people close to the surface escaped the flooding. Other officials said 35 escaped.

Philip Marmo, state minister at the prime minister's office in charge of disaster response, said the government had approached the army for assistance with the rescue effort.Prime Minister Mizengo Pinda said 250 million shillings (250,000 dollars) had been allocated and 80 additional rescuers hired to bolster the operation.

Relatives of those missing gathered at the mine but held out little hope of anyone being brought out alive.My husband is still down there. There are also two brothers-in-law of mine. All I want is to find their bodies, said Rosa Manka, a young woman, sobbing as two aunts supported her.In June 2002, at least 39 tanzanite miners died after inhaling carbon monoxide produced from a dynamite explosion, one of the many fatal accidents linked to mining in Tanzania.

Tanzanite, a purple-blue shimmering stone, has been found only in northern Tanzania and in 2005 a leading gemstone miner said it unearthed the world's largest tanzanite stone weighing about three kilograms (6.6 pounds).The lure of the gem has drawn thousands of miners to Mirerani, which resembles a gold-rush town dotted with brothels, bars and hardware stores supplying the miners.Small-scale miners such as those affected by the latest disaster only get food rations from their employers and are paid only if they hit tanzanite. Some of them work months without pay.Many dig in highly unsafe and unstable mines using primitive tools and garden implements.Tanzanite is believed to be limited to east Africa's Rift Valley region and the pits where the accident happened are located in the heart of Maasai land, a short distance from Mount Kilimanjaro.The gemstone was discovered by Maasai tribesmen in 1967 and gained fame when it was launched by New York's Tiffany & Co. the following year.

HOARDING OF GOLD AND SILVER

DOCTOR DOCTORIAN FROM ANGEL OF GOD
then the angel said, Financial crisis will come to Asia. I will shake the world.

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

REVELATION 18:10,17,19
10 Standing afar off for the fear of her torment, saying, Alas, alas that great city Babylon, that mighty city! for in one hour is thy judgment come.
17 For in one hour so great riches is come to nought. And every shipmaster, and all the company in ships, and sailors, and as many as trade by sea, stood afar off,
19 And they cast dust on their heads, and cried, weeping and wailing, saying, Alas, alas that great city, wherein were made rich all that had ships in the sea by reason of her costliness! for in one hour is she made desolate.

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

REVELATION 13:16-18
16 And he(FALSE POPE) causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:(CHIP IMPLANT)
17 And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.
18 Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.(6-6-6) A NUMBER SYSTEM

THIS OVERHAUL WILL JUST HELP THE EU GET CONTROL OF THE GLOBAL ECONOMY LIKE THE BIBLE SAYS MUST HAPPEN. THE EU WILL BRING IN A MICROCHIP SYSTEM THAT THE WHOLE WORLD WILL ACCEPT WETHER THROUGH PEACEFUL MEANS OR BY FORCE IN THE FUTURE.

Paulson proposes financial overhaul By MARTIN CRUTSINGER, AP Economics Writer MAR 31,08

WASHINGTON - The Bush administration Monday proposed the most far-ranging overhaul of the financial regulatory system since the stock market crash of 1929 and the ensuing Great Depression. The plan would change how the government regulates thousands of businesses from the nation's biggest banks and investment houses down to the local insurance agent and mortgage broker.Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson unveiled the 218-page plan in a speech in Treasury's ornate Cash Room. He declared that a strong financial system was important not just for Wall Street but also for working Americans.The administration's plan was already drawing criticism from Democrats that it does not go far enough to deal with abuses in mortgage lending and securities trading that were exposed by the current credit crisis.Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth William F. Galvin blasted Paulson's approach as a disastrous backward step that would put the investor in jeopardy because it would pre-empt state regulation of securities and insurance.

The administration said that it planned to work with Congress to have constructive conversations, but officials would not predict when any aspects of the proposal could be enacted into law.Asked if Bush's goal was to get the overhaul approved before he leaves office, presidential press secretary Dana Perino told reporters aboard Air Force One, We'll have to see. It is a big attempt.The plan, which would require congressional approval for its biggest changes, seeks to trim a hodge-podge collection of overlapping jurisdictions that date back to the Civil War.It would give the Federal Reserve more power to protect the stability of the entire financial system while merging day-to-day bank supervision into one agency, down from five at present.It also would create one super agency in charge of business conduct and consumer protection, performing many of the functions of the current Securities and Exchange Commission.It would propose eliminating the Office of Thrift Supervision and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, merging their functions into other agencies.It would ask Congress to establish a federal Mortgage Origination Commission to set recommended minimum licensing standards for mortgage brokers, many of whom now operate outside of federal regulation, and it would also take a first step toward federal regulation of the insurance industry by asking Congress to establish an Office of Insurance Oversight inside the Treasury Department.Paulson acknowledged in his remarks that most of the changes will not occur until after a lengthy debate in Congress, leaving it to the next administration to deal with the biggest changes proposed by the report. He also said the Bush administration's focus would remain on getting through the current severe credit crisis, which has roiled financial markets since last August.Paulson rejected Democratic charges that it was lax regulation of mortgage brokers and the financial industry that had led to the current problems.

I do not believe it is fair or accurate to blame our regulatory structure for the current market turmoil, he said. I am not suggesting that more regulation is the answer or even that more effective regulation can prevent the periods of financial market stress that seem to occur every five to 10 years.Banking groups raised strong objections to the plan while other industry groups had mixed reactions.Dismantling the thrift charter and crippling state banking charters will weaken banking in America, said Edward Yingling, president of the American Bankers Association.In Congress, House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank, who is working on his own regulatory revamp, called Paulson's proposal a constructive step forward but said it wouldn't give the Federal Reserve enough authority to carry out its expanded job to police the stability of the entire financial system. Many Democrats said that Congress' first priority should be to deal with the current mortgage crisis that is threatening millions of Americans with the loss of their homes and that an extensive debate on a regulatory overhaul should not occur until a new president is in office next year. Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., said in an appearance on CBS' Early Show that it was not a failure of the regulatory scheme but a failure of leadership that led to the current crisis. The proposed overhaul would be the most extensive since the current regulatory system was created in response to the 1929 stock market crash and the Great Depression.

It comes at a time when the financial system faces its most severe credit crisis in two decades, one that has resulted in billions of dollars of losses for big banks and investment houses and the near-collapse of Bear Stearns, the country's fifth-largest investment bank. The rising tide of bad debt has made it harder for consumers and businesses to get credit, further weighing on an economy struggling with a prolonged housing slump and soaring energy prices. Many economists believe the country is already in a recession.

PERSECUSSION,BEHEADINGS

JESUS PERSECUTED BIGTIME

PSALMS 14:1
1 The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good.

ISAIAH 53:4
4 Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.

MATTHEW 9:34
34 But the Pharisees said, He casteth out devils through the prince of the devils.

JOHN 8:41
41 Ye do the deeds of your father. Then said they to him, We be not born of fornication; we have one Father, even God.

JOHN 10:20
20 And many of them said, He hath a devil, and is mad; why hear ye him?

PHILIPPIANS 2:10-11(JESUS GETS REVENGE)
10 That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth;
11 And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.(JUDGEMENT SEAT OF CHRIST AND FOR SINNERS, THE GREAT WHITE THRONE FINAL JUDGEMENT).

WE ARE CHRISTIANS WE WILL BE TREATED THE SAME.

2 TIMOTHY 3:1-5 (WHY WE ARE PERSECUTED BY THE WORLD)
1 This know also, that in the last days perilous (DANGEROUS) times shall come.
2 For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,
3 Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good,
4 Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God;
5 Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.

MATTHEW 5:10-12
10 Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
11 Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake.
12 Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.

MATTHEW 24:9
9 Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name’s sake.

JOHN 15:18-20
18 If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me (JESUS) before it hated you.
19 If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.
20 Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also.

REVELATION 6:9-11
9 And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain(BEHEADED) for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held:
10 And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?
11 And white robes were given unto every one of them; and it was said unto them, that they should rest yet for a little season, until their fellowservants also and their brethren, that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled.

REVELATION 20:4
4 And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.

Muslims more numerous than Catholics By ALESSANDRA RIZZO, Associated Press Writer Sun Mar 30, 2:48 PM ET

VATICAN CITY - Islam has surpassed Roman Catholicism as the world's largest religion, the Vatican newspaper said Sunday. For the first time in history, we are no longer at the top: Muslims have overtaken us, Monsignor Vittorio Formenti said in an interview with the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano. Formenti compiles the Vatican's yearbook.He said that Catholics accounted for 17.4 percent of the world population — a stable percentage — while Muslims were at 19.2 percent.It is true that while Muslim families, as is well known, continue to make a lot of children, Christian ones on the contrary tend to have fewer and fewer, the monsignor said.Formenti said that the data refer to 2006. The figures on Muslims were put together by Muslim countries and then provided to the United Nations, he said, adding that the Vatican could only vouch for its own data.When considering all Christians and not just Catholics, Christians make up 33 percent of the world population, Formenti said.Spokesmen for the Vatican and the United Nations did not immediately return phone calls seeking comment Sunday.

FALSE TEACHERS,PROPHETS,DECIEVERS

MATTHEW 24:4-5,11,24-25
4 And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you.
5 For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many.
11 And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many.
24 For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.
25 Behold, I have told you before.

1 TIMOTHY 4:1-2
1 Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils;
2 Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron;

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

2 TIMOTHY 3:13
13 But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived.

Doomsday cult calls credit cards satanic By Chris Baldwin
MAR 31,08

NIKOLSKOE, Russia (Reuters) - A Russian doomsday cult sheltering in a bunker say credit cards and food packaging bar codes are satanic, the official negotiating the release of children from the group said on Monday. Around 30 followers, including four children, from across Russia and neighboring Belarus met last October and barricaded themselves into a hillside to escape an apocalypse their preacher says is looming in either April or May.For us right now, what's most important is the children, said Alexander Yelatontsev, an official from Russia's Penza Oblast region, who has been the chief point of contact for the cult since the siege began.They have burned their passports and say that all plastic (credit) cards and strip codes on food packaging are the work of Satan, he told reporters.Yelatontsev said the people underground were in contact with him regularly, and would accept food only if it had not been processed with modern factory equipment.Right now they are asking for a cow so that they can have fresh, boiled milk that is not processed, he said.He said progress was slow but local authorities were negotiating with the group to leave their refuge.In as much as their beliefs have been formed over a long period of time, convincing them to come out is not going to happen quickly, he said.

Local residents said the bunker was a pre-revolutionary convent, with a well, a kitchen and areas for sleeping and praying.On Friday the entrance to the bunker partially collapsed after rain and melting snow soaked the muddy hillside and the ground gave way. Seven women were isolated from the rest of the group by the mudslide, and had to emerge from their shelter and seek refuge in a nearby home. The bunker is near the village of Nikolskoe, 750 km (450 miles) southeast of Moscow.Russian authorities said the splinter sect of the Russian Orthodox church was formed by preacher Pyotr Kuznetsov, who convinced members the world would end in April.

Kuznetsov did not join his followers underground, saying God had given him different tasks. He was arrested but psychiatrists determined he was unfit to stand trial.Kuznetsov was freed temporarily from a psychiatric hospital to return to Nikolskoe to be with the women who left the bunker.

DANIEL 7:23-24
23 Thus he said, The fourth beast(THE EU,REVIVED ROME) shall be the fourth kingdom upon earth,(7TH WORLD EMPIRE) which shall be diverse from all kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, and shall tread it down, and break it in pieces.(TRADE BLOCKS)
24 And the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise:(10 NATIONS) and another shall rise after them;(#11 SPAIN) and he shall be diverse from the first, and he shall subdue three kings.(BE HEAD OF 3 KINGS OR NATIONS).

European foreign policy begins with the neighbours
Author: Loukas Tsoukalis, who heads the leading ELIAMEP think thank in Athens 31 March 2008 - Issue : 775

Loukas Tsoukalis, who heads the leading ELIAMEP think thank in Athens.Loukas Tsoukalis, who heads the leading ELIAMEP think thank in Athens, looks at Europe’s foreign policy track record and draws lessons for the future.European unity means global influence. Defending common interests and values, shaping globalisation and strengthening multilateral institutions constitute the new official narrative in Brussels, even though there is still a considerable gap between words and deeds.Foreign policy begins, of course, with the neighbours, and our own neighbourhood is mostly poor and unstable. Enlargement has so far been the Union's most successful foreign policy, and has done much to extend Pax Europeae to the more unstable parts of the old continent. It has also acted as a convergence machine for the benefit of less developed countries. The two latest enlargement rounds may, however, prove more difficult to digest. We are, after all, talking about 12 new EU member states that in most cases are formerly communist countries that start from low levels of economic development.

Further enlargement is likely to proceed at a slow pace. There is little appetite for it in the EU at present, while candidate countries are far from able to meet the criteria for accession. It is important at this stage to try to narrow the distance between membership and non-membership, by gradually offering better access to the European market and policies, without prejudice to the final outcome of what may prove to be a long process of initiation for the countries of the western Balkans and Turkey. As others may in due course be joining them in the EU's waiting room, an exercise of this sort will demand a high degree of flexibility and generosity from the Union.There are lessons to be drawn from the longer established Barcelona process, which brings together the EU-27 and the countries of the Mediterranean region. Grand designs and ambitious unifying principles are difficult to apply to so diverse a group of countries with such little sense of common purpose. A regional approach may be a noble aim for the EU, but bilateralism is likely to remain the name of the game.

We Europeans need to scale down our rhetoric and try to be as monophonic as possible. Our neighbourhood policy suffers from a lack of internal coherence because EU member countries regularly undermine common principles and policies agreed in Brussels. We also need to adopt a much more differentiated approach to individual countries. And we need a common policy on energy and migration, before we are able to talk effectively with our partners in the Mediterranean.We should apply more generosity and efficiency to foreign aid, while strengthening conditionality and linking it directly to reform in partner countries. Internal reform is, after all, the determining factor for economic development and political stability. Grand schemes and international agreements are no substitute for internal reform and modernisation in the Mediterranean. France's President Nicolas Sarkozy has further stirred the troubled waters of the Barcelona process by calling for a Mediterranean Union. We now have a clearer idea as to who will be invited to join, although there are still many questions concerning its potential added value, its relationship with the EU, not to mention the amount and source of new financial resources needed and the conditions under which they will be dispensed in what would purportedly be a project- oriented Union.

Sarkozy's proposal could provide a catalyst for reshaping Europe's neighbourhood policy, including most notably relations with our Mediterranean neighbours, which is likely to feature high on the agenda when France takes over the revolving six-month presidency of the EU in mid-year. And perhaps there is a good case to be made for more regional differentiation within the EU, so long as it doesn't undermine the Union's common institutions and core policies. Most important of all, Europe should try to make its soft power more effective and also add hard tools to it whenever possible. The rest of the world will not wait forever for Europe to get its act together.Text is based on the article by Loukas Tsoukalis in the Spring 2008 issue of Europe's World www.europesworld.org

Mekong countries in informal sessions to chart region's future course(Xinhua) 2008-03-30 13:41

VIENTIANE - Prime ministers of the six countries sharing the Mekong River are engaged in bilateral meetings and informal sessions here on Sunday, one day ahead of the Third Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) Summit.The Third Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) Summit, to open in Vientiane, capital of Lao People's Democratic Republic on Monday, has as its theme Enhancing Competitiveness Through Greater Connectivity.The prime ministers of the Laos, China, Vietnam, Myanmar, Cambodia and Thailand will discuss coordinated actions to reduce poverty and promote sustainable development in the region through expanded transportation and telecommunication linkages, streamlined trade agreements, and greater environmental management efforts.The leaders are being joined by Asian Development Bank (ADB) President Haruhiko Kuroda. ADB has been the lead supporter of the Greater Mekong Subregion Economic Cooperation Program since 1992.Since its inception in 1992, the GMS has developed into one of the fastest growing regions of the world, with an average gross domestic product of over 6 percent in recent years.

Exports from GMS countries, excluding China, have quadrupled from 37 billion U.S. dollars in 1992 to 179 billion U.S. dollars in 2006, and foreign direct investment in the GMS has more than tripled from 2 billion U.S. dollars in 1992 to 7 billion U.S. dollars in 2005.

Annual tourist arrivals have also risen dramatically, from 10 million in 1995 to over 22 million in 2006.Over the past 15 years, approximately 10 billion U.S. dollars in investments have been made in 34 regional development projects. ADB has contributed over one-third of the overall amount.The GMS program focuses on nine development areas: agriculture, energy, the environment, human resource development, private investment, telecommunications, tourism, trade and transportation.The GMS nations are expected to endorse on Monday a five-year action plan (2008-2012) to foster economic growth and prosperity in the region.

FAMINE

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

A Government Engineered Food CrisisFri Mar 28, 3:00 AM ET

As if a housing crisis, rising energy costs and a soft labor market weren't enough to cause economic anxiety for the average American, now consumers are feeling the pinch of rapidly escalating food costs. The United States has long prided itself in being the breadbasket of the world, and Americans have traditionally paid a smaller share of their income on food than citizens of other developed countries. But the days of cheap milk, bread, beef and poultry may well be over — and Uncle Sam is partly to blame.

In 2007, the cost of a gallon of milk increased 26 percent; eggs went up 40 percent; and a loaf of white bread went from $1.05 to $1.28 from 2006 to 2008. Steep increases in the price of oil have contributed to these higher costs, but the federal government has played a pernicious role as well. By mandating that oil companies increase the amount of ethanol they blend with gasoline, the government has not only artificially increased the cost of corn, which is what most U.S. ethanol is made of, but has driven up the cost of other grains as well. Inflated corn prices encourage farmers to divert more acreage to corn, which means they plant less soy and wheat, which, in turn, drives the prices of those commodities up as well. The aggregate price of wheat, corn, soy oil and soy meal in the U.S. will be $61.7 billion higher in the 2007/2008 crop year than it was in 2005/2006.

Corn prices affect a host of other food prices as well. If you've ever looked at the ingredient labels on everything from bologna to canned tomato soup, you'll see that corn syrup is a common ingredient of many processed foods. Corn is also a common grain used in feed for cattle, poultry and hogs. As a result, prices for meat and poultry are going up, but even with higher prices, some companies in the meat industry still can't make a profit, and many are being forced to cut jobs and close plants. I've seen this firsthand as a member of the board of directors of Pilgrim's Pride, the nation's largest chicken producer, where we have already had to shut down one plant and close six distribution centers to cope with record losses directly attributable to soaring feed costs.

But what is most galling about the impact of government mandated ethanol production is that it does little or nothing to solve our energy problems. Ethanol proponents argue that it is cleaner than petroleum — which improves air quality — and that it and other alternative fuels will reduce U.S. dependence on foreign oil. Both claims are dubious.

Corn-based ethanol is inefficient as a fuel for automobiles, reducing vehicle gas mileage by 20-30 percent in vehicles using E85, the highest ethanol content fuel. Fewer miles-per-gallon of gas essentially eliminates any savings achieved, even by mixing ethanol with gasoline in the lower 9 percent ethanol blends required in all U.S. gasoline today. And of course, it also takes energy to produce ethanol — for farming and distilling the corn and transporting the final product to the pump — and much of that energy will come from carbon-based fuels. None of these arguments has stopped the aggressive ethanol lobby from getting its way with Congress, however, and pressure increases in presidential election years as Iowa farmers encourage candidates to pledge allegiance to ethanol during the Iowa caucuses.

If ethanol really were the miracle fuel its proponents claim, you'd think there would be huge profits in producing it in the free market. But that's not the case. Consumers not only pay for ethanol at the pump, they're paying taxes as well to subsidize ethanol production in the U.S. — and they're paying a hidden tax to keep cheaper, foreign sugar cane ethanol from competing with the domestic corn-based product. Subsidies to gasoline blenders amount to about 51 cents per gallon, and the government imposes a 54-cent tariff on foreign ethanol so that it can't provide a cheaper alternative for U.S. consumers.

And matters will only get worse as government mandates higher bio-fuel content in U.S. gasoline from the current 9 percent to 15 percent by 2015. Ethanol won't solve the energy crisis, but it may well lead to a food crisis in the U.S. and elsewhere. The U.S. Agency for International Development reports that the cost of providing wheat, corn, cereal and other foodstuffs to poor nations has gone up 41 percent since October 2007, which will mean we can provide less assistance to starving people around the world. Federal policy is literally diverting food from the table to the gas tank — and it's time we stopped it.

Linda Chavez is the author of An Unlikely Conservative: The Transformation of an Ex-Liberal. To find out more about Linda Chavez, visit the Creators Syndicate web page at www.creators.com.
2008 CREATORS SYNDICATE, INC.

March 31, 2008 OPEC maintains estimate for world oil demand in 2008

AFP reported that OPEC left unchanged its estimate for growth in world oil demand in 2008, arguing that while high oil prices and mild winter weather would brake demand in major industrialized countries, the market for crude would be strong elsewhere. The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries in its March monthly report said that World oil demand in 2008 is forecast to grow by 1.2 million barrels per day to average 86.97 million barrels per day, unchanged from our previous estimate.The report said that Slow world economy and warm winter in some parts of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development regions dented demand for winter products. Fluctuating weather patterns caused oil demand in the OECD to decline in February.It continued that The halt in economic activities in China over the Chinese New Year holiday season last month did not affect the country's oil consumption. In fact, power shortages caused independent power generators to kick in, which led to excessive diesel demand. Oil demand in other non OECD countries such as the Middle East, India, and Latin America was strong, offsetting the weak OECD oil demand during February.

OPEC said that nevertheless, it would primarily be the weather that would affect oil demand this year. Although the slowdown in the world economy, along with high retail petroleum prices, is considered a major variable in oil demand this year, the weather will play a significant role in oil demand as well. Strong non OECD oil demand is expected to boost total world oil demand by 1.3 million barrels per day in the first quarter.OPEC also left unchanged its estimate for world oil demand growth in 2007, when it was projected to have risen by 1.2 million barrels per day or 1.4% to average 85.77 million barrels per day. It said that Strong economic growth in non OECD countries accounted for all of last year's oil demand growth.

7YR TREATY BY PROOF

GENESIS 2:2-3 GOD RESTED THE 7TH DAY
2 And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made.
3 And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.

LEVITICUS 25:1-9 THE 7 YEAR SABBATICAL
1 And the LORD spake unto Moses in mount Sinai, saying,
2 Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye come into the land which I give you, then shall the land keep a sabbath unto the LORD.
3 Six years thou shalt sow thy field, and six years thou shalt prune thy vineyard, and gather in the fruit thereof;
4 But in the seventh year shall be a sabbath of rest unto the land, a sabbath for the LORD: thou shalt neither sow thy field, nor prune thy vineyard.
5 That which groweth of its own accord of thy harvest thou shalt not reap, neither gather the grapes of thy vine undressed: for it is a year of rest unto the land.
6 And the sabbath of the land shall be meat for you; for thee, and for thy servant, and for thy maid, and for thy hired servant, and for thy stranger that sojourneth with thee,
7 And for thy cattle, and for the beast that are in thy land, shall all the increase thereof be meat.
8 And thou shalt number seven sabbaths of years unto thee, seven times seven years; and the space of the seven sabbaths of years shall be unto thee forty and nine years.

God has always dealt with Israel in 7's, it just makes sense the last dealing with Israel and the World will be a 7 yr treaty. God rested from creation on the 7TH DAY. Every 7TH YEAR Israel is suppose to rest the land. And the 7X7=49 YRS and the jubilee is the 50TH YEAR.

Now the scriptures that a week in Israel history is 7YEARS.

Heres the scripture 1 week = 7 yrs Genesis 29:27-29
27 Fulfil her week, and we will give thee this also for the service which thou shalt serve with me yet seven other years.
28 And Jacob did so, and fulfilled her week: and he gave him Rachel his daughter to wife also.
29 And Laban gave to Rachel his daughter Bilhah his handmaid to be her maid.

Isn"t this interesting it comes from the same Person whos name was changed to Israel,(JACOB) and Israel and Jerusalem is the places dealt with in Daniel 9:24-27.

GENESIS 32:27-28
27 And he said unto him, What is thy name? And he said, Jacob.
28 And he said, Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel: for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed.

1 CHRONICLES 17:6-14
6 Wheresoever I have walked with all Israel, spake I a word to any of the judges of Israel, whom I commanded to feed my people, saying, Why have ye not built me an house of cedars?
7 Now therefore thus shalt thou say unto my servant David, Thus saith the LORD of hosts, I took thee from the sheepcote, even from following the sheep, that thou shouldest be ruler over my people Israel:
8 And I have been with thee whithersoever thou hast walked, and have cut off all thine enemies from before thee, and have made thee a name like the name of the great men that are in the earth.
9 Also I will ordain a place for my people Israel, and will plant them, and they shall dwell in their place, and shall be moved no more; neither shall the children of wickedness waste them any more, as at the beginning,
10 And since the time that I commanded judges to be over my people Israel. Moreover I will subdue all thine enemies. Furthermore I tell thee that the LORD will build thee an house.
11 And it shall come to pass, when thy days be expired that thou must go to be with thy fathers, that I will raise up thy seed after thee, which shall be of thy sons; and I will establish his kingdom.
12 He shall build me an house, and I will stablish his throne for ever.
13 I will be his father, and he shall be my son: and I will not take my mercy away from him, as I took it from him that was before thee:
14 But I will settle him in mine house and in my kingdom for ever: and his throne shall be established for evermore.

MATTHEW 24:32-35
32 Now learn a parable of the fig tree; When his branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh:(MAY 14,1948 ISRAEL BECOMES A NATION IN 1 DAY).
33 So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors.
34 Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled.
35 Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.

LUKE 21:24
24 And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all nations: and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.(JERUSALEM IN JEWSH HANDS JUNE 6-10, 1967).

DANIEL 9:24-27
24 Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people (ISRAEL) and upon thy holy city,(JERUSALEM) to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy.
25 Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks,(7X7=49 YRS) and threescore and two weeks:(62X7=434 YRS) the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times.
26 And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come (ROMANS IN AD 70) shall destroy the city and the sanctuary;(TEMPLE) and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined. (69x7=483 YRS TO THIS POINT, THE FINAL 7 YR TREATY IS IN THE NEXT VERSE TO FULFILL THE 490 YEARS OF DANIELS PROPHECY.
9:27 And he (THE FUTURE ROMAN PRESIDENT) shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease,(3RD TEMPLE DESECRATED) and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.(WW3)

Rice says Mideast talks on track, despite settlements By Arshad Mohammed MAR 31,08

AMMAN (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Monday Israel must stop expanding Jewish settlements but voiced confidence peace talks were on track despite an Israeli announcement of a new housing project. We continue to state America's position that settlement activity should stop, that its expansion should stop -- that it is indeed not consistent with road map obligations, Rice said after the Jerusalem municipality announced the project.The U.S.-backed road map, at the heart of the first Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations in seven years, requires the Jewish state to halt all settlement activity in the West Bank and obliges Palestinians to rein in militants.

Despite U.S. concern that settlement building could derail peace efforts, Israel's Jerusalem municipality unveiled a plan to build 600 houses in Pisgat Zeev, a settlement in an area of the occupied West Bank that Israel considers part of the city.Israel widened Jerusalem's boundaries after capturing the eastern part of the holy city in the 1967 war. Israel considers all of Jerusalem its capital. Palestinians want East Jerusalem as the capital of a future state in the West Bank and Gaza.Casting a pall over U.S.-sponsored peace talks, Israel has announced in recent months plans to build hundreds of houses for Jews in and around Arab East Jerusalem.Asked about the Pisgat Zeev plan, Nabil Abu Rdainah, a senior aide to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, said: This action is condemned. Israel is deliberately placing obstacles in Rice's path.A new report by Israel's Peace Now group said there has been a surge this year in new projects on occupied land in and around Jerusalem. Overall, it said building work was under way in 101 settlements on the West Bank.

At a news conference in Amman with Abbas as she wrapped up three days of talks in the Jordanian capital and in Jerusalem, Rice said she was very impressed by the work Palestinian and Israeli negotiators have done so far.I think it's all moving in the right direction, she said.An Israeli-Palestinian agreement before U.S. President George W. Bush leaves office in January, she said is a goal that we can reach.Abbas likewise sounded optimistic despite differences with Israel over what the outcome of the negotiations should be.I am confident, God willing, we will reach a comprehensive peace in 2008, Abbas said, adding that he would next meet Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on April 7.

NOT HIDING ANYTHING

Israeli officials say the goal of the talks was to reach understandings setting out the shape and structure of a future Palestinian state rather than a comprehensive peace agreement this year that would be implemented.In Israel's parliament on Monday, Olmert said that Israel had made no secret it intends to continue building in what he called Jewish neighborhoods of East Jerusalem and in West Bank settlements it intends to keep in any peace deal.

These are negotiations that are being conducted sincerely because we are not trying to hide anything, said Olmert, referring to talks with Abbas's Palestinian Authority.There has been no visible progress in the discreet peace talks led by Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and former Palestinian prime minister Ahmed Qurie on how to solve the six-decade conflict. An Israeli military official said Israel had removed one West Bank checkpoint on Monday, keeping a promise to Rice to ease restrictions on Palestinian travel in the occupied territory. It has also pledged to remove 50 dirt roadblocks.U.S. officials said Rice's trip was designed to gauge how much progress could be made in the peace talks and on practical steps to help the Palestinians before Bush's planned May visit to mark the 60th anniversary of Israel's founding. A senior Israeli official said Rice was testing the water to see if a draft declaration or a memorandum of understanding could be presented as an interim achievement when Bush returns. Rice declined comment on this, saying her focus was on achieving a peace agreement by the end of the year. The effort, launched by Bush in November, has been marred by disputes over Israeli settlement building, violence and political divisions on both sides. Olmert's government could unravel if talks focus on the thorny issue of Jerusalem, and Abbas's authority extends only to the occupied West Bank. Islamist Hamas, officially committed to Israel's destruction, seized the Gaza Strip in June. (Additional reporting by Brenda Gazzar, Adam Entous and Jeffrey Heller in Jerusalem and Ali Sawafta in Ramallah, Writing by Jeffrey Heller; editing by Sami Aboudi)

Abbas and Olmert to meet on April 7 by Sylvie Lanteaume
MAR 31,08

AMMAN (AFP) - Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas said on Monday he will meet Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on April 7 for their first face-to-face talks in seven weeks. My meeting with the prime minister will be held soon, I believe it will be on April 7, Abbas told a joint news conference in Amman with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.The last meeting between Abbas and Olmert was in Jerusalem on February 19, after which the Palestinian president suspended all talks in protest at a deadly Israeli blitz on the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.I am confident that we will reach a comprehensive peace agreement in 2008 because we are working hard with Israel, the United States and other parties to reach this deal, Abbas said.We want by the end of 2008 to reach this agreement, which will help establish a Palestinian state.Peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians were revived last November after a seven-year hiatus, with both sides vowing to try to reach agreement by the end of 2008, but negotiations have made little progress since.

The two sides remain deeply divided on the core issues of the conflict, and continuing violence in and around the Gaza Strip and the expansion of settlements have repeatedly threatened to derail the process.Olmert said last week that he does not envisage the possibility of anything more than an outline agreement by 2009 and that settlement expansion will continue.Abbas has accused Israel of splitting the Palestinian territories into isolated cantons to prevent the creation of a state.Rice arrived in Amman from Jerusalem for her second meeting with Abbas in as many days as part of her latest push for Middle East peace.Asked to comment on an invitation from Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal to Abbas to visit the Islamist-run Gaza Strip, the Palestinian president said there is no answer.And Rice replied: The president has already responded.She later left Amman and was expected to join US President George W. Bush in Ukraine.Meshaal earlier told British broadcaster Sky News that he invited Abbas to come to Gaza for direct talks without any conditions... to work together to find a solution to the problems in Gaza and the West Bank.His move came after rival Palestinian factions Hamas and Abbas's Fatah reached a Yemeni-brokered deal on March 23 to begin their first direct talks since the Islamists seized control of the Gaza Strip nine months ago.

In Jerusalem earlier Rice -- on her second visit to the region in less than a month -- met Olmert and secured a pledge to remove 50 army roadblocks in the West Bank in a move aimed at reinvigorating peace talks.They are just a small fraction of the total number in the territory which in February stood at 580, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).It said the number of checkpoints has expanded in recent years from 472 in 2005 to a monthly average of 552 in 2007. Palestinian prime minister Salam Fayyad nevertheless hailed the promised removal of roadblocks and other measures Israel announced on Sunday aimed at easing movement restrictions and expanding Palestinian security forces. We accept these measures as acts to improve the people's lives and to strengthen the ability to work and build our state, he said after meeting Rice and Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak.

But on Monday a senior Palestinian official dismissed the gesture as nonsense and insisted it would have little impact. We welcome the removal of any checkpoint, but what the Israelis have declared is nonsense and not useful, Hussein al-Sheikh, head of the Palestinian Authority's civil affairs department, told AFP. He said the Israeli list includes only physical barriers that close roads altogether and none of the manned checkpoints that frequently slow traffic between West Bank towns and villages. Meanwhile a new report by an Israeli settlement watchdog said some 500 homes are being built in Jewish settlements in the West Bank despite Israel's vow to freeze settlement growth as part of the peace process. An international roadmap to Middle East peace, revived at the US-sponsored Annapolis conference last November, calls on Israel to freeze settlement construction and for the Palestinians to improve security in the territories.

Borderless Europe defies warring past
By Tom Hundley | Tribune correspondent March 30, 2008

ABOARD THE WARSAW-BERLIN EXPRESS — Once upon a time, when rail travelers crossed the Polish-German frontier, their passports and belongings were scrutinized by stern Polish and German border police. Even in the 1990s, it felt like a movie from the 1930s.

These days, the Polish police are gone for good. The Germans are taking a long coffee break.During a recent westbound trip, two German border policemen got on the train at the frontier. They headed straight for the first-class coach and sat down. One read the newspaper; the other plunged into a romantic novel. They didn't look up until two hours later when the train rolled into Berlin.

Asked if they were going to check anyone's passport, the one reading the newspaper replied with a curt nein.This is the new borderless Europe, where it is possible to hop on a train or bus and travel from Portugal to Poland without showing your passport to anyone. Most of the frontier border posts in Western Europe have been gone for nearly a decade. Europe's eastern half is rapidly catching up. Only the gentle beeping of your mobile phone—and the arrival of a text message telling you that you've entered a new service area—lets you know that a national border has been crossed.

In the wake of the 20th Century's two world wars, which saw the rival powers of Europe invade, bomb, occupy and otherwise devastate each other's territory, the grand experiment of doing away with internal borders is, quite simply, astounding.One of the European Union's guiding principles is the free movement of people across the borders of its 27 member states. Principle became reality in 1995 with the implementation of the Schengen agreement to eliminate border controls between seven countries in Western Europe. The list of countries joining the Schengen Zone has increased steadily since. Britain and Ireland are the notable holdouts.Last December, nine members were added—Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Slovenia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Malta. The zone now stretches from the Atlantic to the EU's border with Russia, a territory of 1.65 million square miles and 400 million people.

Traditionally, European borders have been symbols of state sovereignty and order. Mountains and rivers formed logical borders, but where nature was insufficient, statesmen and tyrants drew lines on maps, often with little regard to logic or nature.Language and ethnicity became another basis for defining borders, but sometimes communities were so intermingled that no border made sense. This remains true in Eastern Europe, where some very old people boast that they have lived in half a dozen countries while never leaving the village of their birth.

Iron Curtain's legacy

The end of World War II led to the harshest division of Europe as the Iron Curtain split the continent in half. Germany was divided into East and West; a wall bisected Berlin, the capital.Behind the Iron Curtain, the facade of socialist harmony concealed some of the continent's least hospitable borders. The German-Polish border along the Oder River was always one of the nastiest. (Today's anomaly of German border police boarding the train from Poland has more to do with job security for the officers than border security for Germany.)The Hungarian-Czechoslovak border also had a chilly Cold War history. The Danube River forms part of the boundary between Hungary and what today is Slovakia, but the main crossing point, the Maria Valeria bridge linking Esztergom in Hungary with Sturovo in Slovakia, was destroyed in 1944 by the retreating German army.After the war, communist authorities on both sides of the Danube decided to leave it that way. It was not repaired and reopened until 2001, when Slovakia and Hungary were seeking admission to the EU.Before the bridge's reopening, the only Danube crossing between the two countries was the bridge linking the sister cities of Komarno and Komarom.

A large Hungarian community lives on the Slovak side of the river; in the Slovak city of Komarno, Hungarians are the majority. When the pro-Moscow populist Vladimir Meciar came to power in Slovakia in the early 1990s, he strengthened his power base by stirring up resentment against the Hungarians.Ladislav Boros, 59, a Slovak resident of Komarno, blames politicians on both sides for the tensions. His family originally comes from a Slovak enclave in eastern Hungary, but after World War II, the family was forced to resettle in Slovakia.Boros, a gregarious man who speaks both languages, sent his children to Slovak-language schools in Komarno but is happy to cross the bridge five days a week to work in an electronics factory on the Hungarian side.During the communist era, Boros recalled, very few people were crossing the bridge. After 1989 it became easier, but you still needed a visa in your passport. When Slovakia and Hungary joined the EU in 2004, you just needed your ID card to cross the bridge. Now, with Schengen, you don't need a thing.Still, Boros has mixed feelings about Schengen.Nobody ever said they were getting rid of borders, only the border crossings, he said. Hungary will always be Hungary and Slovakia will always be Slovakia.

Nationalism may still be encoded in Europe's DNA, but Robin Shepherd, an analyst at Chatham House, a London think tank, says a borderless Europe has provided a layer of protection to national minorities in countries where historically there have been tensions—Hungarians in Slovakia and Romania, for example, or Basques in Spain.Being in the European Union and being a citizen of Europe gives you a whole panoply of rights and laws and memberships that you didn't have before, Shepherd said.If some tinhorn nationalist like Meciar comes along and wants to break out of the civilized norms of the EU—or NATO, which is led by the U.S. — he's going to come up against some seriously powerful forces. This is ultimately what the EU has accomplished in this part of the world.

EU as peacekeeper

It is no coincidence that Eastern and Central Europe, with crazy-quilt borders and simmering ethnic rivalries, have triggered Europe's 20th Century wars.The only way to lock down this troublesome part of Europe is to give these countries entry into the EU, Shepherd said. Lock them into the EU, and you've locked down the possibility of the kind of violence we saw in Yugoslavia in the 1990s.Such ethnic rivalries are one reason that most European leaders are eager to entice Serbia into the EU.But the Serb leadership, still stung by the 1999 NATO air strikes and more recently by the loss of Kosovo, has been wallowing in a kind of self-imposed quarantine. Surveys show that most Serbs see their future in the EU, but a significant minority backs the government's argument that Moscow is Serbia's only true friend.Pozar Geler, 47, a firefighter from the Serbian border town of Subotica, has no doubt about which side he's on.

We need the EU, he said while sitting in a long line of cars with Serbian license plates at the border crossing into Hungary. He grew increasingly irritated as cars with Romanian and Bulgarian license plates whizzed through the lane marked EU Members Only — a byproduct of Hungary's EU membership.In Geler's lane, Hungarian border guards searched each vehicle, enforcing the Schengen agreement. Many cars were turned back.We used to cross [the border] like nothing—to go shopping or to go to a restaurant. Locals like us didn't even need a passport, just an ID card, he said.For Geler, easy access to Hungary was key to his own identity as an ethnic Hungarian living in Serbia. The sudden withdrawal of that access is cause for alarm.People feel angry and they feel isolated, he added. Everybody can cross the border except us. It's like we are not real Europeans.

EUROPEAN UNION ARMY

DANIEL 7:23-25
23 Thus he said, The fourth beast (EU,REVIVED ROME) shall be the fourth kingdom upon earth,(7TH WORLD EMPIRE) which shall be diverse from all kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, and shall tread it down, and break it in pieces.(TRADING BLOCKS)
24 And the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings(10 NATIONS) that shall arise: and another shall rise after them;(#11 SPAIN) and he shall be diverse from the first, and he shall subdue three kings.( BE HEAD OF 3 NATIONS)
25 And he (EU PRESIDENT) shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time.(3 1/2 YRS)

DANIEL 8:23-25
23 And in the latter time of their kingdom, when the transgressors are come to the full, a king (EU DICTATOR) of fierce countenance, and understanding dark sentences,(FROM THE OCCULT) shall stand up.
24 And his power shall be mighty, but not by his own power:(SATANS POWER) and he shall destroy wonderfully, and shall prosper, and practise, and shall destroy the mighty and the holy people.
25 And through his policy also he shall cause craft to prosper in his hand; and he shall magnify himself in his heart, and by peace shall destroy many: he shall also stand up against the Prince of princes;(JESUS) but he shall be broken without hand.

DANIEL 11:36-39
36 And the king (EU DICTATOR) shall do according to his will; and he shall exalt himself, and magnify himself above every god, and shall speak marvellous things against the God of gods, and shall prosper till the indignation be accomplished: for that that is determined shall be done.
37 Neither shall he regard the God of his fathers,(THIS EU DICTATOR IS JEWISH) nor the desire of women, nor regard any god: for he shall magnify himself above all.(CLAIM TO BE GOD)
38 But in his estate shall he honour the God of forces:(WAR) and a god whom his fathers knew not shall he honour with gold, and silver, and with precious stones, and pleasant things.
39 Thus shall he do in the most strong holds with a strange god,(DESTROY TERROR GROUPS) whom he shall acknowledge and increase with glory: and he shall cause them to rule over many,(HIS ARMY LEADERS) and shall divide the land for gain.

REVELATION 19:19
19 And I saw the beast,(EU LEADER) and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against him that sat on the horse,(JESUS) and against his army.(THE RAPTURED CHRISTIANS)

Prospect of French NATO return tilts power balance
Sun 30 Mar 2008, 8:55 GMT By Paul Taylor, European Affairs Editor

BRUSSELS, March 30 (Reuters) - The prospect of France returning to NATO's military command after more than four decades of estrangement is tilting the balance of transatlantic relations.The United States is courting France as a new partner in leadership, overshadowing Britain and Germany, diplomats and analysts say, even though President Nicolas Sarkozy is likely to skirt the reintegration issue at this week's Bucharest summit of the 26-nation alliance.Sarkozy announced last year that Paris was willing to return to the military structure from which General Charles de Gaulle withdrew it abruptly in 1966, provided the European Union first made progress on a common defence capability.Sarkozy saw an opening to become America's number one friend, said Nick Witney of the European Council on Foreign Relations in Paris.He achieved the benefits almost as soon as he opened his mouth and said I love America and Why not reintegrate fully in NATO?

NATO diplomats said Sarkozy has privately set a target date of 2009, as long as he gets the necessary political cover, notably from Britain, on enhanced European defence integration so he can argue that NATO is being transformed and rebalanced.European and U.S. diplomats say Washington is leaning discreetly on British Prime Minister Gordon Brown to cooperate with the French integration initiative, which U.S. policymakers no longer regard as a threat to NATO.France's return to the NATO command is a big prize and we are keen to help President Sarkozy make it happen, said a U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity.U.S. NATO Ambassador Victoria Nuland has given speeches in London and Paris making clear Washington no longer has a problem with the European Security and Defence Policy (ESDP).The issue is sensitive in Britain, where Eurosceptics remain fiercely opposed to any idea of a European army.
During a visit to London last week, Sarkozy made no public mention of a long-standing French wish for the EU to boost its military planning apparatus. Britain has been wary of anything that would resemble a full-blown EU defence headquarters.

ADDED VALUE

The French leader is expected to illustrate his value to the alliance by announcing in Bucharest the despatch of some 1,000 extra combat troops to reinforce NATO in Afghanistan.A senior NATO diplomat noted Sarkozy's move comes at a time when Britain's armed forces are overstretched and Brown is keen to reduce overseas commitments, and Germany's grand coalition is shackled by public opposition to any combat role.The French can supply the forces now when we need them,the NATO diplomat said. That counts for a lot.

London boasts of a special relationship with the United States but ex-Prime Minister Tony Blair became deeply unpopular at home for joining the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, and Brown has taken a much lower profile in foreign affairs.Sarkozy has made a series of bold steps to reposition France since taking over last year from Gaullist Jacques Chirac, who toyed with NATO reintegration in 1995 but abandoned the idea after failing to wrest a key command post from Washington.The new president has taken a risk at home, since much of the political establishment is wedded to the notion of an independent French or European foreign policy and hostile to any hint of subservience to the United States.Chirac led international opposition to the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003, causing the deepest rift in transatlantic relations since the end of the Cold War.In contrast, Sarkozy has moved closer to Washington by taking a tougher line on Iran's nuclear programme, advocating stronger sanctions and deterring French energy companies from investments in the Islamic Republic.He has announced plans to open a naval base in the United Arab Emirates, across the Gulf from Iran, offered civilian nuclear power plants to pro-Western Arab states and led an EU military operation to contain the fallout from Sudan's Darfur crisis in neighbouring Chad.

A German official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Sarkozy enjoyed a freedom to act on the world stage which Brown did not seek and German Chancellor Angela Merkel could never attain for historical reasons.That makes him very attractive to the Americans, he said.The French are less keen on the potential price tag for returning to NATO's integrated military command.To achieve parity with Britain or Germany, Paris would have to provide 700 to 1,000 staff officers for allied headquarters and pay a bigger slice of NATO's common budget.We have not been asked for more than 1,000 officers as a condition. We don't even have them available. If the process succeeds it is a very long term process. You don't change 40 years of policy with a click of the fingers, a French diplomat said. (additional reporting by Yves Clarisse, editing by Mark John and Robert Woodward) Reuters

WW3 THE 3 WAVES THAT MARCH TO ISRAEL

DANIEL 11:40-45
40 And at the time of the end shall the king of the south( EGYPT) push at him:(EU DICTATOR IN ISRAEL) and the king of the north (RUSSIA AND MUSLIM HORDES OF EZEK 38+39) shall come against him like a whirlwind, with chariots, and with horsemen, and with many ships; and he shall enter into the countries, and shall overflow and pass over.
41 He shall enter also into the glorious land, and many countries shall be overthrown: but these shall escape out of his hand, even Edom, and Moab, and the chief of the children of Ammon.(JORDAN)
42 He shall stretch forth his hand also upon the countries: and the land of Egypt shall not escape.
43 But he shall have power over the treasures of gold and of silver, and over all the precious things of Egypt: and the Libyans and the Ethiopians shall be at his steps.
44 But tidings out of the east(CHINA 2ND WAVE OF WW3) and out of the north(RUSSIA, MUSLIMS WHATS LEFT FROM WAVE 1) shall trouble him:(EU DICTATOR IN ISRAEL) therefore he shall go forth with great fury to destroy, and utterly to make away many.( 1/3RD OF EARTHS POPULATION)
45 And he shall plant the tabernacles of his palace between the seas in the glorious holy mountain; yet he shall come to his end, and none shall help him.

REVELATION 14:18-20
18 And another angel came out from the altar, which had power over fire; and cried with a loud cry to him that had the sharp sickle, saying, Thrust in thy sharp sickle, and gather the clusters of the vine of the earth; for her grapes are fully ripe.
19 And the angel thrust in his sickle into the earth, and gathered the vine of the earth, and cast it into the great winepress of the wrath of God.
20 And the winepress was trodden without the city,(JERUSALEM) and blood came out of the winepress, even unto the horse bridles, by the space of a thousand and six hundred furlongs.(200 MILES) (THE SIZE OF ISRAEL)

The Third and Final Wave of WW3 is when all Nations march to Jerusalem, but JESUS bodily returns to earth and destroys them,sets up his KINGDOM OF RULE FOR 1000 YEARS THEN FOREVER.

2ND WAVE CHINA AND KINGS OF THE EAST MARCH TO ISRAEL

REVELATION 16:12
12 And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates; and the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared.(THIS IS THE ATATURK DAM IN TURKEY,THEY CROSS OVER).

DANIEL 11:44 (2ND WAVE OF WW3)
44 But tidings out of the east(CHINA) and out of the north(RUSSIA, MUSLIMS WHATS LEFT FROM WAVE 1) shall trouble him:(EU DICTATOR IN ISRAEL) therefore he shall go forth with great fury to destroy, and utterly to make away many.( 1/3RD OF EARTHS POPULATION)

REVELATION 9:12-18
12 One woe is past; and, behold, there come two woes more hereafter.
13 And the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God,
14 Saying to the sixth angel which had the trumpet, Loose the four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates.(IRAQ-SYRIA)
15 And the four angels were loosed, which were prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, for to slay the third part of men.(1/3 Earths Population die in WW 3 2ND WAVE)
16 And the number of the army of the horsemen were two hundred thousand thousand:(200 MILLION MAN ARMY FROM CHINA AND THE KINGS OF THE EAST) and I heard the number of them.
17 And thus I saw the horses in the vision, and them that sat on them, having breastplates of fire, and of jacinth, and brimstone: and the heads of the horses were as the heads of lions; and out of their mouths issued fire and smoke and brimstone.(NUCLEAR BOMBS)
18 By these three was the third part of men killed, by the fire, and by the smoke, and by the brimstone, which issued out of their mouths.(NUCLEAR BOMBS)

China attacks EU position on Tibet crackdown
31.03.2008 - 09:23 CET | By Leigh Phillips
EU OBSERVER

China is strongly dissatisfied with the European Union following a discussion at a EU foreign ministers meeting over the weekend about the ongoing crackdown on Tibetan protesters by Chinese authorities.

The Tibet issue is completely China's internal affairs. No foreign countries or international organizations have the right to interfere in it, the country's state news agency, Xinhua, quoted China's foreign ministry spokesperson Jiang Yu as saying.The bloc's 27 foreign ministers, meeting in Brdo, Slovenia, issued a statement on Saturday (29 March) reiterating their strong concern over the events in the autonomous Chinese region of Tibet.The ministers criticised violence from both the Chinese authorities and protesters: The EU condemns all violence and pays its respects to the victims.It calls for an end to the violence and asks that arrested persons be treated in conformity with international standards.

The EU ministers also called on China to open substantive and constructive dialogue which addresses core issues such as the preservation of the Tibetan language, culture, religion and traditions, and requested that free press access by the press to Tibet be upheld.Although Czech President Vaclav Klaus and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk have in recent days announced they will not be attending the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympic Games in protest at the crackdown, there was no mention of the Olympics in the foreign ministers' statement.Despite the measured tones from the ministers, China sharply attacked Europe's stance.We strongly hope the EU and its member states to make a clear distinction between right and wrong, explicitly condemn the violent crimes of beating, smashing, looting and burning and all those offenders, and avoiding taking double standards, the spokesperson said.The Chinese news agency further quotes Ms Jiang as saying: The EU should not rub salt into the wounds of the innocent victims of the Lhasa riots on 14 March and send a wrong signal to the international community and the Dalai clique and encourage the Tibetan secessionists in their violent crimes.The spokesperson did however say that China is willing to continue contacts with the Dalai Lama so long as he abandons advocating Tibet independence, and his actions aimed at splitting the motherland, especially activities to fan and mastermind violent crimes in Tibet and other regions and to sabotage the upcoming Beijing Olympic Games.Although the common statement from foreign ministers made no mention of the Olympic games, outside the meeting, differences amongst the various member states on the issue were more apparent.

The EU's foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, was insistent that there was no call for a boycott of either the games or their opening ceremony. I don't think we will have a boycott on our agenda, he said, according to Reuters.We are separating the issue of human rights dialogue, inter-cultural dialogue and so on from events like Olympic Games and participation in those, said Slovenian foreign minister Dimitrij Rupel, whose country currently holds the rotating EU presidency.UK foreign minister David Miliband, whose country is to host the next Olympics, said to reporters: We are fully engaged in supporting the Olympics. We want to see it as a success, and I think it's right that the prime minister represents us.Sweden's foreign minister, Carl Bildt, agreed with his British counterpart, saying a full boycott of the games would not be effective.German Chancellor Angela Merkel and the country's foreign minister, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, will not be attending the opening ceremonies, but both have stressed this is in keeping with German protocol. However, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner hinted at a disagreement around the table. The German position and the British position are not the same, he said.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy last week mooted a boycott of the opening ceremonies.No one was for the boycott, and as for a boycott of the opening ceremonies, said Mr Kouchner, according to French daily Liberation, nobody wanted to talk about it.We didn't mention the games because they seem indispensable to us for the moment, he added, but we're staying attentive to how the situation evolves.

INVENTION OF THE ATOMIC BOMB.

2 PETER 3:10-11
10 But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.
11 Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness,

NUCLEAR WEAPONS WILL BE USED.

REVELATION 14:18-20
18 And another angel came out from the altar, which had power over fire; and cried with a loud cry to him that had the sharp sickle, saying, Thrust in thy sharp sickle, and gather the clusters of the vine of the earth; for her grapes are fully ripe.
19 And the angel thrust in his sickle into the earth, and gathered the vine of the earth, and cast it into the great winepress of the wrath of God.
20 And the winepress was trodden without the city,(JERUSALEM) and blood came out of the winepress, even unto the horse bridles, by the space of a thousand and six hundred furlongs.(200 MILES) (THE SIZE OF ISRAEL)

ISAIAH 66:15-18
15 For, behold, the LORD will come with fire, and with his chariots like a whirlwind, to render his anger with fury, and his rebuke with flames of fire.
16 For by fire and by his sword will the LORD plead with all flesh: and the slain of the LORD shall be many.
17 They that sanctify themselves, and purify themselves in the gardens behind one tree in the midst, eating swine's flesh, and the abomination, and the mouse, shall be consumed together, saith the LORD.
18 For I know their works and their thoughts: it shall come, that I will gather all nations and tongues; and they shall come, and see my glory.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Missing missile fuses should light a fire
Monday, March 31, 2008

The Department of Defense must do a better job of keeping track of this country's nuclear weapons and related technology. Last week it was revealed that ballistic missile parts were mistakenly shipped to Taiwan, and the error went undetected for nearly two years. That is unsettling and unacceptable. There is no room for laxness or inattention to detail when dealing with the world's most dangerous weapons. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates rightly has ordered an inventory of all nuclear weapons and related material. We certainly need to know if anything else in our nuclear arsenal is unaccounted for. The 2006 Taiwan shipment contained four nose cone fuse assemblies for intercontinental ballistic missiles, instead of requested helicopter batteries. That it took the Pentagon until last week to figure out it had made such an egregious mistake does nothing to instill confidence that our nuclear arsenal is properly safeguarded.

The fuses are classified as sensitive equipment that must be accounted for on a quarterly basis during inventory control checks. Were those checks done? If so, why didn't anyone discover the fuses were missing? The containers holding them are not tiny -- 33 inches high and almost 19 inches round. Something that size and sensitive in nature should not be missed during inventory. Are there holes in the inventory process that need to be plugged? It's speculated that the fuse containers somewhere along the line were mislabeled as batteries before being shipped to Taiwan from a Defense Logistics Agency warehouse in Utah. Mr. Gates has ordered a full investigation of how and where the mistake occurred. The erroneous fuse shipment was the Pentagon's second embarrassing misplacement of nuclear or nuclear-related equipment announced in recent months. Last August six nuclear-tipped cruise missiles were mistakenly loaded on a B-52 bomber and flown across the country from Minot Air Force Base, N.D., to Barksdale Air Force Base, La. Neither the pilot nor the crew was aware of the nuclear arms aboard.

Also last year, undercover congressional investigators set up a bogus company with only a postal box and obtained a license from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission that allowed them to buy enough radioactive material for a small dirty bomb. That operation by the Government Accountability Office sparked changes in NRC licensing procedures. The Cold War may be over, but the United States can't afford to become sloppy with its handling of its nuclear weapons or related material. The government and military must set and follow stringent security procedures. In today's dangerous world, nuclear weapons and technology must be handled with the utmost security and attention to detail to avert the nightmare scenario of such weapons falling into the hands of terrorists.

INTERESTING PROPHECY NEWS

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.

Earthquake shakes Iran region
Mar 26, 2008 9:40 PM

An earthquake with a magnitude of 5.3 shook a region in south-west Iran but there were no immediate reports of any casualties, the official IRNA news agency reported. The quake struck in an area round the city of Dogonbadan, about 600km south of the Iranian capital Tehran, IRNA quoted Iran's Geophysics Institute as saying.

Dogonbadan is situated near some big Iranian oil fields.

We are not aware of any damage to the oil or gas facilities in the Sardasht region, an official from the National Iranian South Oil Company in Sardasht, a city about 90km west of Dogonbadan, said.

Iran, the world's fourth largest oil producer, is frequently struck by earthquakes because the country is criss-crossed by faultlines.

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.

Tanzania says 75 feared dead in mine flood
Sat Mar 29, 2:09 PM

NAIROBI (Reuters) - At least 75 miners were feared dead in northern Tanzania on Saturday after floods swept through a mine near the town of Arusha, state media reported.The Daily News quoted Manyara Regional Commissioner Henry Shekifu as saying five bodies had been recovered so far after a torrential downpour on Friday.Witnesses said flood waters entered eight pits and then spread to other pits, drowning working miners, the state-run newspaper said on its Web site.Volunteers rushed to the scene on Saturday and the government said it was bringing equipment to drain the water as fast as possible. But electricity poles in the area had been brought down by the floods, it said, and engineers were battling to restore power for rescuers.The newspaper said 100 miners died in similar floods in the area 1998. The region is the only place where the valuable blue gemstone tanzanite is found -- prized by jewellery-lovers in wealthy nations.Mining disasters are not uncommon in Tanzania's wild north, where small-scale independent miners dig remote gemfields in the shadow of Mount Kilimanjaro. Miners sometimes die in explosions or due to suffocation.In 2002, at least 48 miners were suffocated when a compressor used to pump clean air into the gemstone mine failed.(Writing by Daniel Wallis; Editing by Jon Boyle)

Storm brewing over southern Manitoba
Fri Mar 28, 9:53 AM

WINNIPEG (CBC) - People in southern Manitoba could start their spring break shovelling as a winter storm blows into the area over the weekend.A low-pressure system now over the northern United States is expected to bring a mix of rain and snow into southern Manitoba, starting Saturday.Environment Canada issued a winter storm watch for all of southern Manitoba except areas north of Dauphin and areas east of Steinbach. That eastern area could be added to the watch later Friday as meteorologists track the path of the storm.The Red River Valley is expected to receive about 15 centimetres of snow, while parts of southwest Manitoba could see 20 or 25 cm.We oft times get heavier snowfalls at this time of year, Ken Stewart, with Environment Canada, said Friday morning.We still have the cold air to the north, and we're getting warming, moister air coming up from the south as the air mass starts to warm over the States. As a result, the two clash and they end up creating more snow.Depending on how warm the weather is over the weekend, Stewart said, the province could see more rain, which would lessen the accumulation.The way we're planning on going with it right now is it may start off with rain or a rain-and-snow mix, and then quickly switch over into snow.A strong southeast wind could blow snow around, reducing visibility, which could cause problems for many people who are travelling in the area, where Friday is the last day before spring break for most schoolchildren.

Stormy weather kicks up Sunday into Tuesday James Wilson
Sat Mar 29, 6:12 PM ET

Midwest

A few showers and thunderstorms will extend into the Ohio Valley on Sunday. While precipitation amounts are expected to be light, flood-weary residents across the Ohio and Mississippi Valleys do not need any additional rainfall. As a system quickly races into southern Canada, a few showers are also possible across the northern Plains and Upper Midwest. Some of this precipitation could fall as light snow across northern Minnesota and northern Wisconsin. Thunderstorms will develop in the late afternoon and evening across portions of Kansas and Oklahoma. Some of these storms could become severe into the overnight hours, with tornadoes possible. Highs on Sunday will be in the 40s from the central Plains into the western Great Lakes. Thirties will tinge the border with Canada. Milder 50s and 60s will be felt from the central Plains into the Ohio Valley. An active day is in store for the region on Monday. Severe thunderstorms with the likelihood of tornadoes are expected from central Texas into northern Illinois. Cities that need to stay alert for the potential of severe weather include Dallas, Oklahoma City, Tulsa, Kansas City, and St. Louis. Additionally, heavy rain could cause more flooding across portions of Arkansas and Missouri.

South

Scattered showers and thunderstorms will once again speckle the southern U.S. on Sunday. A few light showers are likely across the Southeast as a wedge front remains parked over the region. There will be quite a temperature disparity on either side of this boundary. To the south and west, from Mississippi through Florida, temperatures will climb into the 70s and 80s. While in the colder air across north Georgia and the Carolinas, highs will only be in the 40s and 50s. Farther west, across the southern Plains, look for high temperatures to climb into the 70s and 80s. Showers and thunderstorms will once again become activated on the tail end of a front. Some of the thunderstorms in Oklahoma, and in Texas overnight, could become severe.

West

A cold storm system is spinning its way though the Northwest into the northern Rockies. Snow levels have been as far down as 200 feet in parts of western Washington. The wintry conditions will persist into Sunday, with the chance of a few snow showers mixing in with the rain even into the Seattle and Portland. No accumulations are expected in these cities. Although still unsettled, temperatures should moderate enough by Sunday afternoon to bring straight rain showers. Parts of the northern Rockies will see heavy snow, and several inches up to a foot of snow is possible across the mountains of Idaho, Montana, Utah, Colorado, and Wyoming by late Sunday. Hardest hit will be the Wasatch to Rockies with some ski areas reporting 6-12, locally 12+ above 9,000 feet. Farther south, sunshine will stretch from New Mexico through most of California. However, windy conditions will return to much of California and Nevada. Temperatures on Sunday will remain stuck in the 30s and 40s across the Pacific Northwest, northern Rockies, and much of the Great Basin. Sixties will be felt across much of the California Valleys. Seventies are expected in the Southwest, with 80s in the deserts.

Northeast

A cold dry day in the Northeast on Saturday will continue on Sunday for most areas as high pressure remains firmly in place. Look for a sunny day across New England into Pennsylvania and Maryland. Rain showers may begin to creep into the Virginias later in the day. Temperatures will remain below seasonal averages across most of the region. Highs will be in the 40s across almost the entire Northeast, with 30s from the Adirondacks through Northern New England.

Bush seeks financial regulation overhaul By MARTIN CRUTSINGER, AP Economics Writer Sat Mar 29, 11:00 AM ET

WASHINGTON - The Bush administration is proposing a sweeping overhaul of the way the government regulates the nation's financial services industry from banks and securities firms to mortgage brokers and insurance companies. The plan would give major new powers to the Federal Reserve, according to a 22-page executive summary obtained by The Associated Press.The Fed would be given broad authority to oversee financial market stability. That would include new powers to examine the books of any institution deemed to represent a potential threat to the proper functioning of the overall financial system.The proposal, which will be outlined Monday in a speech by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, is certain to set off heated debates within different sectors of the financial services industry and in Congress, where some Democrats are likely to complain that the proposal does not go far enough to crack down on abuses.

The administration divided its recommendations into short-term goals that could be adopted quickly, intermediate recommendations and an optimal regulatory framework, which contains a radical restructuring of how the government supervises banks and other financial institutions.The recommendations are the product of a yearlong review that was begun in an effort to modernize the government's regulatory structure so that the country's financial services industries could better compete in a fast-changing global economy.The plan also seeks to address problems that have been brought to light in recent months since a severe credit crisis began roiling financial markets last August.That crisis has already claimed as its biggest victim Bear Stearns, the nation's fifth-largest investment bank, which came to the brink of collapse before a government-arranged purchase by JP Morgan Chase & Co.I am not suggesting that more regulation is the answer, or even that more effective regulation can prevent the periods of financial market stress that seem to occur every five to 10 years, Paulson will say in the remarks he will deliver on Monday.But the plan does seek to address problems highlighted by the current crisis in which the Fed in an unprecedented move has begun making direct loans to securities firms in an effort to shore up a system badly shaken by billions of dollars of losses stemming from sour mortgage loans.

The proposal would allow the Fed, in its new role as market stability regulator, to dispatch examiners to check the books not just of commercial banks but of all segments of the financial services industry.The administration proposal would also consolidate the current scheme of bank regulation by shutting down the Office of Thrift Supervision and transferring its functions to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, which regulates nationally chartered banks.The plan recommends that the Securities and Exchange Commission, which regulates stock trading, be merged with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, which regulates futures trades for oil, grains and various other commodities.The plan would create a national regulator for the insurance industry, which is now largely governed by the states, and would create a Mortgage Origination Commission to try to address the abuses exposed in the current tidal wave of mortgage defaults.The role Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and his colleagues have been playing to shore up the financial system would be formalized in the administration plan by giving Fed officials greater power to detect where threats might be lurking in the system.The proposal is certain to generate intense scrutiny in Congress and within the financial services industry, where past efforts to change how regulation is handled have met with fierce resistance.Many Democrats in Congress are already pushing tougher proposals that would impose much stricter regulation in an effort to crack down on abuses exposed by the current credit crisis.Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., said he believed Paulson's plan offered some valid suggestions. In broad outlines, we agree with large parts of Secretary Paulson's plan, Schumer, chairman of the Joint Economic Committee, said in a statement. He is on the money when he calls for a more unified regulatory structure, although we would prefer a single regulator to the three he proposes. Under Paulson's approach, the long-term goal would be to designate the Fed as market stability regulator and to have a financial regulator who would focus on financial institutions that operate with government guarantees such as providing deposit insurance.

The administration plan, which was first reported by The New York Times on its Web site Friday night, also proposes a business conduct regulator who would be in charge of overseeing consumer protection issues. The initial reaction from the securities industry was also positive. Treasury has delivered a thoughtful and sweeping plan which should provoke intense discussion, debate and potential legislative changes, said Tim Ryan, president of the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association. Our present regulatory framework was born of Depression-era events and is not well suited for today's environment where billions of dollars race across the globe with the click of a mouse, Ryan said in a statement.

DANIEL 7:23-24
23 Thus he said, The fourth beast(THE EU,REVIVED ROME) shall be the fourth kingdom upon earth,(7TH WORLD EMPIRE) which shall be diverse from all kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, and shall tread it down, and break it in pieces.(TR BLOCKS)
24 And the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise:(10 NATIONS) and another shall rise after them;(#11 SPAIN) and he shall be diverse from the first, and he shall subdue three kings.(BE HEAD OF 3 KINGS OR NATIONS).

Royal Watch News King Juan Carlos' fatherly advice
King Juan Carlos I of Spain (R) greets bishop Jesus Murgui before the traditional mass celebrated on the occassion of the Easter Sunday, in Palma de Mallorca, the Balearic Islands, eastern Spain, 23 March 2008. EPA/MONTSERRAT T DIEZ Mar 27, 2008, 12:45 GMT

Spain's King Juan Carlos advised his teenage son to be a kind, attentive and helpful king. The 70-year-old king - who has ruled the country since 1975 - passed on his secrets to Crown Prince Felipe in a series of confidential letters written between 1984-85, which have been published for the first time.In one letter to his son, who was then 16-years-old and at finishing school in Canada, Juan Carlos wrote: You need to appear animated even when you are tired; kind even when you don't feel like it; attentive even when you are not interested; helpful even when it takes an effort.The letters have been published by journalist and royal expert Jose Garcia Abad in his book El Principe y el Rey (The Prince and the King).

Garcia Abad said the letters are a document of extraordinary political value and a treasure for historians.Another note told Felipe: We all are a bit slaves of the media, which can elevate or pull down a person or an institution. The press needs to be respected, but it is also necessary to make it respect you. All that you do and say will be analysed in a special manner will be in you... more scandalous than in another boy of the same age.He also said a king needs to relate to his public and speak with a sense of proportion. Juan Carlos added: Knowing how to be quiet is as difficult as knowing how to talk. In the public sphere, the golden rule is to talk a lot, but prudently and without making important affirmations.Garcia Abad said the letters reflect Juan Carlos' subtle understanding of his role, as well as the affectionate relationship between father and son.(C) BANG Media International.

Thursday, March 27, 2008 at 19:29
EuroMed talks important for global stability

ATHENS (EUX.TV) -- Elected representatives of 37 parliaments from Europe and the Mediterranean started a two-day meeting here on Thursday. The agenda is to address energy cooperation, the environment and relations between Israel and Palestine, among other issues.The meeting includes a total of 240 parliamentarians. Half of them are from the 27 members states of the European Union and the European Parliament. The other 120 are from the countries surrounding the Mediterranean.The EuroMed is important for global stability, said Greek President Karolus Papoulias while meeting a delegation at his residence Thursday morning. Take two minutes to watch this report produced in Athens today:

http://www.eux.tv/article.aspx?articleId=19999

Cooperation between the Mediterranean and Europe has a long history, he said. Today, it's political, economic, financial and cultural cooperation that really matters.The Athens meeting is the 4th of the EuroMed parliamentary assembly. The meeting will also discuss plans adopted by the European Union's heads of government earlier this months for closer cooperation with Mediterranean countries. This will be discussed further at a conference organized under the French EU presidency in July.French President Nicolas Sarkozy last year launched a plan to create a Mediterranean union that would resemble the European Union. But - largely due to German pressure - that plan has been amended to ensure that all 27 member states of the EU will be involved, not just those on the Mediterranean.Thursday has been reserved for Committee meetings, while a plenary session takes place on Friday in the presence of Hans-Gert Poettering, President of the European Parliament. The EuroMed meeting, formally known as the Euro Mediterranean Parliamentary Assembly, is a product of the Barcelona Process, which aims to improve EU cooperation with the Mediterranean countries. The EuroMed assembly is the only international political body that includes both representatives from Israel and the Palestinian territories.-- From the EUX.TV newsroom news@eux.tv

Union of the Mediterranean Claudette Baldacchino Sat, 29 March 2008

In the last European Council, EU leaders gave the green light to a compromise, struck by French President Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel to create a Union of the Mediterranean, an initiative aimed at upgrading the EU’s relations with its neighbours from North Africa and the Middle East.So before analyzing this proposed Union it is worth looking at what the EU is trying to upgrade. Relations between the EU and its southern neighbours are based on the so called Euro-Mediterrean Partnership or as it is better know as the Barcelona Process. The latter represented a wide framework of political, economic and social relations between the Member States of the European Union and Partners of the Southern Mediterranean.

Since Malta and Cyprus became members of the EU, the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership is made up of 35 members, 25 EU Member States and 10 Mediterranean Partners (Algeria, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Palestinian Authority, Syria, Tunisia and Turkey). Libya has observer status since 1999.

The Barcelona Declaration established three main objectives of the Partnership:

1. The definition of a common area of peace and stability through the reinforcement of political and security dialogue (Political and Security Chapter).
2. The construction of a zone of shared prosperity through an economic and financial partnership and the gradual establishment of a free-trade area (Economic and Financial Chapter).
3. The rapprochement between peoples through a social, cultural and human partnership aimed at encouraging understanding between cultures and exchanges between civil societies (Social, Cultural and Human Chapter).

It is evident that these three main ambitious objectives have not been fulfilled. There may be several reasons for this one of which is that due to the historical developments that have occurred in Central and Eastern Europe in the nineties the EU has concentrated more on its neighbours from this area. What is a fact is the the Mediterranean is not an area of peace and stability with the unsolved problems in the Middle East. The free-trade area foreseen by the Barcelona Declaration has also not been achieved.So the revisit of the relationship between the EU member states and its partners of the Southern Medeterrean is in itself something positive. At least it has put Euro Mediterrean relationship once again on the agenda of the EU.

So what is the focus of the new Union of the Mediterranean? Its focuses on the five areas namely:
Improving energy supply;

Fighting pollutions in the Mediterranean;

Strengthening the surveillance of maritime traffic and civil security cooperation

Setting up a Mediterranean exchange programme for students, and

Creating a scientific community between Europe and its southern neighbours.

It should also be stated that Sarkozy had originally envisioned the proposed Union as involving only the EU’s Mediterranean countries and its neighbours but not the EU as a whole. However, this proposal attracted strong criticism, especially from Germany, which feared the plan could split the EU into two, with the proposed union becoming a rival to the EU itself. Consequently, the French President was forced to agree to allow all the EU member states to participate in this initiative. He also agreed to change the original title of Mediterranean Union to Union of the Mediterranean to counter fears that this new union would rival the whole EU project. Of more substance is the fact that Germany prevailed in holding its position that no additional funds will be allocated to this new project. This is contrary to the Franco-Italian proposal that financing to this new body be multiplied from what is being allocated to the Barcelona Process.

As regards the Union’s management structure, there will be two directors coordinating cooperation between the EU and the partner countries. One director is to come from the EU member stares and the other from a non-European Mediterranean country. Each will be appointed for two years, supported by a 20-strong secretariat. As regards the location Barcelona and Marseille are being mentioned as favorites. It is very unfortunate that Malta is not being mentioned in spite of its geographical location as a bridge between mainland Europe and non-European Mediterranean countries or to be more practical the Arab world.

Michael Emerson of the prestigious Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS) criticized the way the Union was presented politically. However he considers the new project as an opportunity to rationalize and revitalize the EU’s present set of policies towards the Mediterranean, which is stuck in a condition of laborious lethargy.The proposed Union has less ambitious objectives the original Barcelona declaration but they are also more achievable. While they are less glamorous they are more down to earth and can have a more direct effect on the citizens of the Mediterranean countries. A clear example is the surveillance of maritime traffic.What is worrying is the absence of the Maltese Government from the discussion about this Union of the Mediterranean. If there is an area that one expects Malta to take a leading role in EU discussion is definitely the Mediterranean. I wish that the Maltese Government and particularly the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will put my mind and those of the vast majority of Maltese people that the Mediterranean is still a priority not only by saying so but by their actions.

EU borderless zone to be extended to airports
28.03.2008 - 14:55 CET | By Elitsa Vucheva

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS – At midnight on Sunday (30 March) the enlargement of the EU's borderless zone to eight Eastern European countries and Malta will be completed through the lifting of air border controls between them and the 15 countries already part of the area.The enlargement of the so-called Schengen area started on 21 December when land and sea border checks between Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovenia, Slovakia and the Czech Republic, and the other Schengen countries were abolished.

The enlargement of the Schengen zone to 24 member states is now complete, EU transport commissioner Jacques Barrot stated on Friday (28 March) referring to the inclusion of airports. I would like to underline the symbolic and concrete importance of this change, he said.The free movement of persons represents one of the fundamental [EU] principles. [It is] concrete, as the life of the citizens moving within the Schengen zone will be very simplified, he added.

While air companies will continue to perform identity checks at check-in and boarding, people will from Sunday onwards be allowed to fly from one airport to another within the Schengen area without being subjected to other formalities.In addition, it will be the end of a certain number of long queues and procedures for EU citizens, as well as for third country nationals travelling within Schengen by air, said Mr Barrot.In order to celebrate the lifting of air borders, several member states have planned media events at their main airports.At the airport of Ljubljana, the capital of current EU president country Slovenia, EU commissioner Janez Potocnik, himself from Slovenia, will represent the European Commission at a ceremony celebrating the border opening.The Schengen area was established in 1985 and named after the small Luxembourg village where it was signed by Germany, the Benelux countries and France.

It now comprises 22 EU member states, as well as Norway and Iceland.

Non-EU member Switzerland is also to become a member of the Schengen area later this year, while EU members Ireland and the UK do not participate in the zone.Cyprus, Bulgaria and Romania still have to meet the necessary requirements. It is not yet known when they will join Schengen, but Cyprus is expected to do so around 2009, while Bulgaria and Romania are hoping to follow suit by 2011.

Sarkozy and Brown agree on partnership of pioneers
28.03.2008 - 09:28 CET | By Elitsa Vucheva

Following a high-profile summit, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown agreed to intensify cooperation between their countries in a number of fields as a partnership of pioneers leading the global response to new international challenges.The range of fields where the two leaders vowed to work jointly include [reforms of] international institutions, foreign and defence policy, development, migration, climate change and energy, and global prosperity, including the promotion of practical responses to such challenges, says a 14-page joint declaration published Thursday (27 March). More concretely, France and the UK will work together to reform institutions such as the G8, the International Monetary Fund and the UN Security Council – where they reaffirmed support for Germany, Brazil, India and Japan's candidacies for a permanent seat, as well as for a permanent African representation.They will also tackle development and climate change together and coordinate their action in order to harness greater resources, the document reads.

One of the Anglo-French goals suggests getting 16 million children into school in Africa by 2010 and every child by 2015.The two leaders also called for greater transparency in financial markets and for the improvement of risk management in a bid to promote financial stability following the recent global credit crisis.They also pledged to join efforts to combat terrorism and to boost the EU's military capabilities, and will work on proposals for a meeting of EU leaders in June on how EU counter-radicalisation efforts might be deepened, for example by devoting more EU spending to counter radicalisation work.But they did not agree on how to approach the 2008 Olympic Games' opening ceremony in Beijing in August, in light of China's recent crackdown on Tibet.Mr Sarkozy has not ruled out boycotting the opening ceremony of the games. The French president, who will head the EU at the time of Olympics, said he will consult other member states before taking a final decision on the matter.Mr Brown, whose country will host the next Games in 2012, excluded a boycott and said he would attend the ceremony.

Towards an entente formidable

The Sarkozy-Brown meeting took place the second day of the French leader's state visit to the UK. In a speech full of praise for his host country on Wednesday (26 March), the French president called for closer Franco-British ties, as well as for Britain to play a greater role in Europe.For his part, Mr Brown returned the compliments although somewhat less effusively.We will turn the entente cordiale [cordial relationship] into the entente amicale [friendly relationship], he said at a press conference after their meeting yesterday.In the last years, relations between the two countries had cooled, notably over Britain's participation in the 2003 Iraq war which France opposed. Tony Blair and Jacques Chirac, respectively Mr Brown and Mr Sarkozy's predecessors, also had different views on the EU's future, on the common agricultural policy and free trade.But now, although these policy differences are not completely bridged over, Mr Brown said the Franco-British cooperation could turn into an entente formidable – or a wonderful relationship.

Friday, March 28, 2008 Presented by NATIONAL POST [AD]
A crude tool for teaching students to hate Israel
Frank Dimant, National Post Published: Friday, March 28, 2008

Canadians may not know it, but they are being duped. The Canadian Islamic Congress (CIC), Palestine House and the Canadian Arab Federation have joined together to distort truth and justice in an effort to promote a vehemently anti-Israel agenda of hate to young Canadians. All three have sponsored an inflammatory essay contest for students aged 17-27 that will reward (with cash) writing that perpetuates the myth of what contest organizers call 'the ethnic cleansing of Palestine' -- a notion that pretends Jews were not indigenous to Israel and the Middle East. According to its sponsors, the contest is being held in response to the 60th anniversary of the establishment of the state of Israel within Palestine.

The contest announcement features points of interest for potential essay topics, including May, 1948 through October, 1957 (the Israeli war against Egypt). Conspicuously omitted is any reference to Israeli statehood, or for that matter the fact that the Arab armies of Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Lebanon invaded the nascent Jewish state, triggering the first of many wars to follow. According to organizers, the Suez war of 1956 also falls into this category -- but in their inverted version of events, it is Israel that was the initiator rather than Egypt, which triggered the war by blocking entry into the Suez Canal to British, French and Israeli shipping.

On it goes. The years 1957-1967 are listed as the Israeli war against Egypt, Syria and Jordan, when in reality Egypt, Syria and Jordan, bolstered by Iraq, Algeria and Kuwait, joined together in an attempt to destroy the Jewish state.The clear implication is that throughout its 60 years, every move by Israel has been accompanied by a policy of ethnic cleansing. The wars of self-defence that Israel fought, its ardent pursuit of peace, accompanied by painful sacrifices reflected in Oslo and the many subsequent peace treaties that it signed, and even its obligatory defence of its civilian population against terrorist attacks by Hamas and Hezbollah, are somehow proof of Israel's malevolence.
The truth is that at the time of Israel's establishment by the United Nations in 1948, many Palestinians left their homes within the new country's borders for a variety of reasons -- including evacuation calls from Arab leaders, who warned them to get out of the way of their advancing armies. Palestinians were actively urged to leave on the understanding that they would soon return after what would be a resounding Arab victory.

This essay contest should be seen as a troubling development. It represents a plain attempt on the part of the Canadian Arab Federation, the CIC and Palestine House to propagandize Canadian youth and demonize the Jewish state -- and by extension Jews who support Israel -- by applying the fabricated 'ethnic cleansing' tag to Israel.Canadians should care about this essay contest. It is grounded on lies and distortions, and comes at the expense of true and open dialogue, spurring students to indulge in hatred of Israel while precluding moderation of any kind. Parents, especially, ought to be concerned. This contest, by its very nature, encourages students to adopt the type of radical, pre-packaged positions that fuel terrorist groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah. - Frank Dimant is executive vice-president of B'nai Brith Canada, which has been active in Canada since 1875 as the foremost Jewish human rights organization.CanWest Interactive, a division of CanWest MediaWorks Publications, Inc.

SECOND ANGEL: TO DR DOCTORIAN

Then I saw that the second angel had a sickle in his hand, such as is used in harvesting. The second angel said, Harvest time
has come in Israel and the countries all the way to Iran. I saw those countries in a few split seconds. All of Turkey and those
[inaudible;] countries that have refused me and refused my message of love shall hate each other and kill one another. I saw
the angel raise the sickle and come down on all the Middle East countries.

I saw Iran, Persia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, all of Georgia - Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Israel, all of Asia Minor - full of blood.
I saw blood all over these countries. And I saw fire; Nuclear weapons used in many of those countries. Smoke rising from
everywhere. Sudden destruction - men destroying one another.

I heard these words, Israel, Oh Israel, the great judgment has come. The angel said, The chosen, the church, the remnant,
shall be purified. The Spirit of God shall prepare the children of God. I saw fires rising to heaven. The angel said, This is the
final judgment. My church shall be purified, protected and ready for the final day. Men will die from thirst. Water shall be
scarce all over the Middle East. Rivers shall dry up, and men will fight for water in those countries. The angel showed me
that the United Nations shall be broken in pieces because of the crisis in the Middle East. There shall be no more United
Nations. The angel with the sickle shall reap the harvest.

THE ONLY THING THE U.N WILL DO IS FOLD, IT USELESS.

Reshaping the New World Order - UN looks to expand security council by September

An interim proposal to tackle the divisive issue of Security Council reform would expand the UN's most powerful body from 15 to 22 members but leave it up to the 192 UN member states to decide what countries should fill them.The proposal, obtained Friday by The Associated Press, also leaves it up to UN members to decide how long the new seats should be held - with suggestions of two years, five years and permanent seats as possible options. It leaves the contentious issue of veto power to future negotiations.There is strong support for enlarging the Security Council to reflect the world today rather than the global power structure after World War II when the United Nations was created. But all previous attempts, starting in 1979, have failed because national and regional rivalries blocked agreement on the size and composition of an expanded council. The deep divisions forced the General Assembly to shelve three rival resolutions to expand the council in 2005.The so-called Group of Four - Germany, Japan, Brazil and India - aspire to permanent seats without veto rights on a 25-member council.

A group of middle-ranking countries, including Italy and Pakistan, who call themselves Uniting for Consensus, want a 25-member council with 10 new non-permanent seats.The African Union, whose 53 members argue that their continent is the only one without a permanent seat on the council, wants to add 11 new seats - six permanent seats including two for Africa with veto power, and five non-permanent seats.The new proposal says these groups maintain their positions, but the impossibility of achieving them now has pointed to an apparent willingness to negotiate on the basis of achieving intermediate reform, through the identification of the highest common denominator at this stage.More than 50 ambassadors representing all the major groups with a stake in reforming the council attended a meeting Tuesday hosted by Germany's UN Ambassador Thomas Matussek to discuss the new proposal. He told reporters afterwards that all the groups were represented, many had ideas on how to improve the proposal, and for the first time the Africans engaged in meaningful discussion.The proposal was submitted to General Assembly President Srgjan Kerim on Thursday, Germany's UN mission said. He is expected to study it and have members of his task force on council reform consult groups with differing views. Kerim also received separate letters from Italy and the African Group.My ambition would be - and I don't know how realistic that is - that we, by the end of this General Assembly session, will have a text that can be voted on, Matussek said. The current session ends in September.

Of the seven new council seats in the proposal, two would be allocated to African countries, two to Asian countries, one to Latin America and the Caribbean, one to Western Europe and one to Eastern Europe.The proposals also calls for a mandatory review of the reforms after a fixed period and sets out new working methods for the council, many to promote better communications and openness on its operations.One proposal appeals to the five veto-wielding council members - the US, Russia, China, Britain and France - to ensure that a veto would not be used to continue the commission of war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity.The proposal was drafted by the ambassadors from the Netherlands, Romania, Malaysia, Britain, Cyprus and Germany, with support from the Bahamas and strong input from Italy, Matussek said.In 2005, he said, the different groups were competing to try to win support from two-thirds of the UN member states and that didn't work. What is different about the new proposal is that it came out of the membership and it started from scratch to bring everybody on board, Matussek said.The idea, he said, is to bring as many countries together at the base, and then in the negotiations the real tough talking and the dealing will go on. ... We expect the negotiations will be pretty tough. The various groups will try to get as much as they can, but it's already clear now, nobody will get 100 percent.

Matussek stressed that the proposal did not reflect the views of any group or government. I hope that it will reflect the future position of my government, and that was the position for everybody concerned, Matussek said.After examining the new proposal, he said, it was evident that the pain was spread because everybody was equally unhappy with the paper, or to turn it the other way around, everybody found a little bit.

JERUSALEM DIVIDED

ZECHARIAH 12:1-5 King James Bible
1 The burden of the word of the LORD for Israel, saith the LORD, which stretcheth forth the heavens, and layeth the foundation of the earth, and formeth the spirit of man within him.
2 Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all the people round about, when they shall be in the siege both against Judah and against Jerusalem.
3 And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people: all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it.
4 In that day, saith the LORD, I will smite every horse with astonishment, and his rider with madness: and I will open mine eyes upon the house of Judah, and will smite every horse of the people with blindness.
5 And the governors of Judah shall say in their heart, The inhabitants of Jerusalem shall be my strength in the LORD of hosts their God.

JOEL 3:2
2 I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and will plead with them there for my people and for my heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and parted my land.

ZECHARIAH 14:1-9 King James Bible
1 Behold, the day of the LORD cometh, and thy spoil shall be divided in the midst of thee.
2 For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle; and the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women ravished; and half of the city shall go forth into captivity, and the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city.
3 Then shall the LORD go forth, and fight against those nations, as when he fought in the day of battle.
4 And his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, and there shall be a very great valley; and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of it toward the south. 5 And ye shall flee to the valley of the mountains; for the valley of the mountains shall reach unto Azal: yea, ye shall flee, like as ye fled from before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah: and the LORD my God shall come, and all the saints with thee.
6 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the light shall not be clear, nor dark:
7 But it shall be one day which shall be known to the LORD, not day, nor night: but it shall come to pass, that at evening time it shall be light.
8 And it shall be in that day, that living waters shall go out from Jerusalem; half of them toward the former sea, and half of them toward the hinder sea: in summer and in winter shall it be.
9 And the LORD shall be king over all the earth: in that day shall there be one LORD, and his name one.

Friday March 28, 2008 Dividing Jerusalem — when, not whether
by douglas bloomfield

Jerusalem will be divided. The question isn’t whether, but when and how. The city’s borders have been shifting for 3,000 years. Today’s borders will not be tomorrow’s. Already the security barrier cuts off some parts of the city, and the Palestinian Authority, with American funding, is building a road linking East Jerusalem to Ramallah. The Jewish majority is shrinking as many secular Jews move away, complaining, at times, that the city is too poor, too Orthodox and too Arab. If the present borders remain unchanged, David’s City could be come Daud’s City and have a Palestinian mayor. Ariel Sharon understood the inevitability of dividing the city; his initial plans for the security barrier included putting some Arab neighborhoods of Jerusalem on the far side. American Jews who are increasingly demanding a voice in deciding the fate of Jerusalem understand the same reality; many oppose any change in the city’s borders, including jettisoning Arab neighborhoods that were added after 1967, because they oppose any and all land for peace deals with the Palestinians. Without Jerusalem, no deal is possible. There will be no end to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, nor will there be international recognition of the city as Israel’s capital, even by the United States. Most of the Arab neighborhoods in East Jerusalem have no Jews living there, noted former top U.S. peace negotiator Dennis Ross, questioning why Israel would want to absorb nearly a quarter of a million Arabs who live in parts of the city where Jews don’t visit.

A bigger question may actually be whether Jerusalem’s Arabs want to have their homes and property transferred to the Palestinian state and to lose their Israeli permanent residency status and its accompanying social, educational and economic benefits. Polls indicate they would welcome the establishment of a Palestinian state but have little desire to move there; not unlike many American Jews’ attitude toward Israel. Jerusalem has been on the negotiating table at least since 1979, and may or may not still be there, depending on whom you believe. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert mollifies his critics by assuring them he is not discussing Jerusalem with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who says just the opposite for the same reason — their own political survival.

Each leader has a domestic constituency and diaspora to worry about, and each faces death threats if it appears he’s giving away too much. Abbas also has a plethora of Muslim and Arab states whose approval he needs for any agreement. Olmert’s lack of public support for changing Jerusalem’s boundaries makes little difference because the discussions with the bifurcated Palestinian Authority aren’t going anywhere near where that would be necessary. When Israel annexed East Jerusalem in 1967 following the Six-Day War, lines were drawn to reflect security considerations and to include as few Arabs as possible. Nonetheless, the Shuafat Palestinian refugee camp and 28 Palestinian villages not previously considered part of the city wound up within Jerusalem’s municipal boundaries.

All too often, talk of an undivided Jerusalem is less about preserving Jewish patrimony than blocking a peace settlement with the Palestinians. There is a two-state consensus among Israelis today, but there is also a vocal rejectionist camp. One of its leaders, Likud chairman Benjamin Netanyahu, has said that if he becomes prime minister again he will shut down the U.S.-initiated peace talks begun at Annapolis, Md., in November 2007. Meanwhile, the future of Jerusalem is becoming a source of growing tension between the Olmert government and diaspora leaders, many of who are demanding at least a voice, if not a vote, in any decision. Israeli leaders privately resent what they consider the paternalism of American Jewish machers who, they note, don’t live in Israel, don’t vote, don’t pay taxes and don’t serve in the army. Jerusalem is an emotionally charged issue and while Olmert is correct in saying it is a political decision for Israelis ultimately to make, ignoring the voices of the diaspora would seriously fray the ties that bind them together. It will be up to Israeli leaders to educate Jewish and Christian supporters that redrawing municipal boundaries is not splitting the city asunder but making it a stronger capital of a stronger Jewish state. Douglas Bloomfield is a Washington, D.C.-based political consultant who was formerly chief legislative lobbyist for AIPAC.

Rice renews focus on Mideast peace By MATTHEW LEE, Associated Press Writer Sat Mar 29, 5:11 PM ET

JERUSALEM - Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Saturday she would push for an easing of Israeli restrictions on Palestinians in the West Bank as she began her latest Mideast mission aimed at reviving faltering peace talks. Rice said she was looking for real concrete progress on several issues, including improving the movement and access of people and goods from the West Bank. Israeli checkpoints and strict travel rules have curtailed such commerce and largely crippled the Palestinian its economy.I will spend a good deal of time on issues concerning the West Bank and issues concerning the ability to provide a better life for the people of the West Bank, including ways to improve movement and access, she told reporters on her plane en route to Israel.The improvement of life on the ground is the piece that I think really has to be pushed forward pretty hard, Rice said before arriving and heading to dinner with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.Easing the restrictions would clear the way for economic revival projects proposed by former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, now a Mideast peace envoy, with the strong backing of Palestinian leaders who control the West Bank.Rice planned three-way talks on Sunday with Palestinian Prime Minister Salaam Fayyad and Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak to explore ways of easing the regulations, including turning over more security control to the Palestinian Authority in certain areas.

Obviously, there are security issues, but we do have to find ways to improve movement, she said. There are obstacles that are not checkpoints and there are checkpoints that are obstacles. I think you have to look at both.Palestinians contend Israel, in not removing the restrictions on movement, is undermining Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and his moderate Fatah Party in their power struggle with the militant Hamas movement. Hamas seized control of Gaza last year.Israel is in a battle with Hamas, whose members have fired rockets at Israeli communities in southern Israel. Israel has retaliated with attacks that have killed scores of civilians in Gaza.Israel agreed this past week to issue more permits for Palestinian laborers and merchants, but has yet to take down any of the hundreds of West Bank checkpoints it says are necessary to stop suicide bombers.Broader peace negotiations have bogged down despite pledges from all sides to reach at least the outline of a peace deal by the time President Bush leaves office in January. On this issue, Rice said she was not coming to the region to insert American ideas into this process.I am not bringing the American paper' because I don't think that that is useful, she said at the start of her second trip to the Mideast this month. What is useful right now is for the parties to continue what I think is a pretty fruitful discussion between them.In addition to seeing Barak and Fayyad on Sunday, Rice planned to meet with Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni before a quick trip to Amman for talks with Jordanian King Abdullah II as well as Abbas, who is currently in Jordan.Rice then returns to Jerusalem for a three-way meeting on Monday with Livni, who is leading the Israeli negotiating team, and the Palestinian's chief negotiator Ahmed Qureia. Rice later will head back to Amman for further talks with Abbas.

IDF: Islamic Jihad producing Grad-like rockets MAR 27,08

New type rockets can reach 12.5-mile range, carry double amount of explosives compared to Qassams. The fact terror groups can manufacture their own long-range rockets is disturbing and worrying, army official warns Hanan Greenberg Published: 03.27.08, 09:43 / Israel News

The Islamic Jihad terror group has recently began manufacturing rockets capable of reaching a 12.5-mile range, similar to the Grad rockets already in use by terror organizations in Gaza.

Latest Attack

Sderot: 2 wounded in Qassam barrage / Shmulik Hadad

Eight Qassams land in western Negev in late evening, bringing Wednesday's total to 17 in end to brief lull in rocket fire
The new rockets are armed with a much deadlier warhead that carries double the amount of explosives compared to the regular Qassams, the IDF has recently learned. According to army data, the terror groups have made use of the new rocket at least three times since the IDF's Warm Summer Operation in Gaza concluded. Regular Qassam rockets carry about 11 lbs of explosives and have a 4.5 inch caliber, while the new ones can carry up to 22 lbs of explosives and have a 6.5 caliber. The new rockets are also more accurate and sophisticated and are made out of lighter materials. The IDF also learned that the armed groups in Gaza have recently obtained two new types of Iranian-made 4.7 inch caliber mortar shells: The first is equipped with an auxiliary engine and can travel up to 6.2 miles, while the other can reach a distance of 3.7 miles.

Terror groups will become more sophisticated

According to security officials, the new rocket indicates that the terror groups in Gaza have increased their efforts to develop new weapons and that they have been receiving help from agents outside the Strip.The fact that they are able to produce their own long-range rockets…is disturbing and worrying, an army official said.

There is no doubt that the smuggling of arms through the Philadelphi route and the breached border in the area are a significant weak spot and a major channel for terrorists. As time passes, the terror organizations will continue to become more established and sophisticated, he warned.

A MESSAGE OF HOPE FROM DR. JACK VAN IMPE

Beloved we will continue our study of Alcohol: The Beloved Enemy in our next newsletter. However, since we have just celebrated the Resurrection of our Lord this past Sunday, I want to present the following study.

THE RESURRECTION AND THE
RAPTURE OF THE CHURCH

And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain. Yea, and we are found false witnesses of God, because we have testified of God that he raised up Christ: whom he raised not up, if so be that the dead rise not. For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised: And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain, ye are yet in your sins. Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished. If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.

I Corinthians 15:14-19

The Apostle Paul said it as well as it can be said. One cannot overstate the profound importance of the reality of the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus to our faith as Christians. If Jesus had not risen from the dead as the Bible states, then all who had and have fallen asleep (died in Christ) are perished and our hope for eternal life is gone. If Jesus had remained in the grave so would we - but praise God He is risen.

Think about what happened when Christ rose from the grave? What was left behind? All they found in that sepulcher was our Lord's grave clothes. What's the significance of that?

In I Corinthians 15:23, it says, Christ is the firstfruits of the Resurrection. The first fruits. Isn't that plain? Then in the text it explains that afterwards, or later, they that are Christ's at his coming will follow. It's there in God's Word. What it means is that since His clothes were left behind, ours will be also. Those that belong to Christ at the time of His coming will be bodily translated into heaven just as Jesus was - leaving behind the rags of sin for new robes of righteousness.

When Jesus Christ comes to call us home at the Rapture, He will come exactly as He left. How did He leave? He left bodily into the clouds. Acts 1:9 says, And when he (Jesus) had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight. And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel; Which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing into heaven? This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go.

In other words, if I can prove that He went bodily, then I don't have to go any further to prove that He's coming back bodily. Why? Because the Bible says He's coming back exactly as He left. How did He leave? After spending three days in the grave, He rose and stood on the earth in His new body. In Luke 24:39, He says to some of His followers, Behold, my hands and my feet. It is I myself: handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have. In verse 41, He says, Have ye here any meat? And they gave him a piece of broiled fish, and of an honeycomb. And he took it, and did eat before them.

This is Christ in His new resurrected body - a body that could be seen, a body that could be touched, a body that could partake of food. It's a picture of what we will have at the time of the Rapture. How quickly will it happen? Behold, I show you a mystery, the Bible tells us in I Corinthians 15:51-54. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible (the dead) must put on incorruption, and this mortal (the living) must put on immortality.

This is going to be a glorious event. We shall be changed to be like Jesus. The Psalmist said in chapter 17, verse 15: I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness. In Philippians 3:21, Paul says that God will change our vile bodies - not leave them behind, change them - that they may be fashioned like unto his glorious body. In I John 3:2, it says that when we see Jesus, we shall be like Him, for we shall see him as he is.

Did you know that Jesus wasn't the first person to be raptured out of this earth? In fact, when the Rapture occurs, it will be the fourth one documented in the Bible. The first was Enoch in Genesis 5:24: And Enoch walked with God; and he was not; for God took him. In Hebrews 11:5, Paul adds, that Enoch was translated by faith so that he should not see death. He was raptured - caught up in the twinkling of an eye, without dying. The second documented rapture is Elijah in II Kings 2:11. Elijah was caught up by a whirlwind into heaven. He, too, never saw death, foreshadowing what we believers will experience on the day the Lord catches us up in the clouds. Then, of course, Jesus was raptured away in Acts 1:9: And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight.

When Elijah was caught up, angels and chariots of fire came to get him. I personally believe that, in a similar way, angelic hosts may come after those of us who ascend in the Rapture. Why? Because every believer - not just Elijah - has his own ministering angel. They could come to whisk us home in the twinkling of an eye. Luke 16:22 provides a precedent for us: And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom.

Is all this something that should frighten us? Excited, yes. Frightened, no. So many people today are facing the future with dread - with fear and foreboding. There is an anticipation - even in the secular media - that we may be nearing the end of the world. There is anxiety and hopelessness everywhere. The world seems to get just a bit uglier every day as crime increases and wars break out and immorality reigns.

This is not the way believers should feel - especially in this season when we are remembering what Jesus did for us on the cross of Calvary and how He victoriously defeated the last enemy, death, I Corinthians 15:26. What could be more exciting and encouraging than the idea that some of us will never die? In Titus 2:13, Paul calls the Rapture our blessed hope. In I Thessalonians 4:18, he says, Comfort one another with these words.Comfort one another, he says, not frighten one another.

I've got news for you. The world is not - I repeat, not - coming to an end. The world is not going away in the year 2012, nor even a thousand years after that. It is clear from scripture that the world will not even end after Christ's 1,000-year reign on earth. The world will never end. Isaiah 45:17 is unequivocal: It's a world without end. Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen, Paul writes in Ephesians 3:21.

Skeptics will no doubt point to Matthew 24:3 which states: As he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world? Let's recall that the New Testament was written in Greek. The Greek translation of that last world is age, not world. Once again, the world is not coming to an end. But this epoch, this age, is closing.

Long before Christ was born, the Jewish rabbis taught a six-day theory about the future of the world. They believed that the world would face several eras lasting a total of 6,000 years, from Adam's creation until the Messiah would come. This theory was based, in part, on Psalm 90:4: For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday. Since God created the world in six days and rested on the seventh day, they reasoned, the world would go on for 6,000 years followed by a 1,000-year millennial rest period presided over by the Lord himself.

Think about this. From the creation of Adam until the birth of Christ a period of 4,000 years - or four days passed. From Christ's time on earth until now represents approximately another 2,000 years - or two days. This total of six days is just one more reason to believe that Jesus could return very, very soon.

Six-day periods, followed by remarkable transitions, have been important throughout scripture. Look at Matthew 17:1, for example. And after six days Jesus taketh Peter, James, and John his brother, and bringeth them up into an high mountain apart, And he was transfigured before them: and his face did shine as the sun, and his raiment was white as the light. Jesus was giving them a preview of what it would be like when He comes back as King of Kings and Lord of Lords as described in Revelation 19:16. When they came down from that mountain, He told them not to tell anyone of these things until after His Resurrection.

Not only did the ancient Jewish rabbis teach this six-day theory, but so did the church during the first 300 years of Christendom. The church leaders based their belief on II Peter 3:8: But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. St. Victorinus, the bishop of Petah, wrote a commentary on the book of Revelation in 270 AD. He said he saw another great and wonderful sign - Seven angels having the last seven plagues, for in them is completed the indignation of God. And these shall be in the last time when the church shall have gone out of the midst. In other words, St. Victorinus was talking about the Rapture! This teaching is not a present day innovation but a doctrinal statement dating back 17 centuries to St. Victorinus and 20 centuries to Jesus and Paul.

In the 16th century there were those expressing assurance of the Rapture. Hugh Latimer, burned at the stake for his faith in 1555, said: It may come in my days, old as I am, or in my children's days, the saints shall be taken up to meet Christ in the air and so shall come down with him again. Joseph Medde, the great 16th century literalist understood I Thessalonians 4:13-18 to teach the catching up of the saints and even used the word rapture. So this is not some new idea.

However, understand this: The Rapture is not taught in Matthew, Mark and Luke. You can find it twice in the Gospel of John. Any other time you are reading about Christ's return in the gospels, it is not referring to the Rapture. Instead, these are references to the second phase of Christ's return - when He physically comes back to earth to rule over it after a seven-year Tribulation period and it's called, in theological circles, the Revelation or the revealing of Christ upon earth.

Where are the two Rapture texts in the Gospel of John? John 14:1-3: Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. This is not His coming to the earth. This is the point at which He receives us unto Himself at the great Rapture - the snatching away - to be with Him in heaven as the seven years of torment occur on earth. The second reference is in John 11:25,26. I quoted this passage for years but didn't really understand it. Christ said: I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this?

Jesus is contrasting those who experience death and live again (for the dead in Christ rise first, I Thessalonians 4:16) with those who never experience death (because we which are alive and remain are caught up without dying, I Thessalonians 4:17).

It's a fact that God always spares His own from judgment. When the horrendous worldwide flood came in Noah's day, Noah told those who were prepared to COME INTO the ark, Genesis 7:7. When the judgment fell on Sodom and Gomorrah in Genesis 19:14, the angels told Lot and his family to COME OUT of the city. Notice this trilogy: In Noah's day, it was COME IN. In Lot's day it was COME OUT. In our day, it will be COME UP, Revelation 4:1.

But, of course, as always, only a select group will be saved - rescued from the worst period in human history. During the Tribulation period that follows the Rapture, all hell is going to break loose on planet earth. It will be a furious time because the hindering power of the Holy Spirit will be temporarily removed.

How bad will things get? In Revelation 9:18, it indicates that a third of mankind will be killed by fire, smoke and brimstone. That, my friends, is nothing less than a first century way of explaining all-out thermonuclear warfare. Imagine. But that's just the beginning. In Revelation 6:8, the rider on the fourth horse brings with him a worldwide plague of disease that causes another fourth of humanity to perish. So half the human race will be annihilated in this relatively brief period. This pictures the judgment predicted by Jesus in Matthew 24:41 and 42.

As terrible as that fate sounds, there is still hope for those left behind. I used to believe and teach that if one hadn't accepted the Lord before the Rapture, all was lost. I was wrong. As long as one is alive there's hope. Joel chapter 2 and Acts chapter 2 describe the calamitous tribulation period. In the midst of all the carnage and destruction Joel 2:32 and Acts 2:21 states: whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

There's always hope in Jesus. That's what we need to reflect upon, not only during this victorious resurrection season, but all year long.

FROM THE HEART OF DR. REXELLA VAN IMPE
Give Me Your Hand

In my daily Bible reading, I've been noticing how much is mentioned about the hands of our Lord. Again and again the Gospels relate how He reached out to people in their need and hurt and sorrow. And when He touched them, they were never the same again.

His hands healed the sick

After He began His earthly ministry, great multitudes thronged about Him wherever He went. Those who were sick, blind, and lame -- even those marked for death with the curse of leprosy -- came to Him seeking to be healed and made whole.

When the hands of Jesus touched them, pain and suffering ceased, diseases and infirmities were cured, and lives shattered and ruined by sickness were restored.

His hands fed the multitude

It was the hands of Jesus that fed the multitudes who followed Him out into the desert place to hear His words. When evening came, Christ's disciples urged Him to send the people away. But Jesus saw their hunger and weariness and, in compassion, desired to minister to them.

Taking a few small loaves and fishes -- barely enough for one small boy's lunch -- the Lord blessed the food. Then His hands began to break and divide the bread and fish into portions which He gave to His disciples to serve.

We're told that 5,000 men were fed that day, not counting the women and children. And when everybody had eaten all they wanted, there were twelve baskets full of leftovers! The hands of Jesus not only provided enough...but plenty to spare.

His hands blessed the children

Loving children as I do, my heart is touched to read the biblical account of how the hands of Jesus blessed and comforted the little children. He specifically told His disciples not to prevent them from coming to Him. And in my mind's eye, I can see the Lord sitting down and opening His arms to them. As they eagerly jostled about, perhaps He lifted a toddler into His lap, shook hands with an older lad, touched the cheek of a shy little girl. And as His gentle hands patted little shoulders and smoothed tousled hair, the Lord blessed these little ones. Somehow I think they probably never forgot that day when the hands of Jesus touched them.

The hands of the Master

No doubt the hands of Jesus were strong and powerful. Growing up around Joseph's carpenter shop, He probably learned to hold and use various tools to shape and assemble wood into useful items. His hands knew how to work.

It was those strong hands that later would grasp a whip as an indignant Jesus drove the callous money changers out of the holy halls of the Temple. Those hands were instruments of righteousness and justice.

It was those hands that reached out to lift and save impetuous Peter who, after walking on the water toward Jesus, took his eyes off the Lord and began to sink.

There are so many other references to the hands of Jesus that we could talk about. But the single most important mention of Christ's hands is when they were nailed to the cross.

A very dear, life-long friend gave me a beautiful wall plaque, which I have hanging in my kitchen. It says:

I asked Jesus, How much do You love me?

This much, He answered, and He stretched out His arms and died.

Greater love hath no man than this, said Jesus, that a man lay down his life for his friends (John 15:13).

And who is Jesus' friend? The deeply spiritual and very religious? The learned and respectable? The proud traditionalists?

No, our Lord said that He was called a friend of...sinners! (Luke 7:34).

The Apostle Paul reminds us that Christ died for the ungodly... in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us (Romans 5:6,8).

It is strangely and beautifully significant that the first person to benefit from Christ's sacrifice at Calvary was a thief on the cross next to His! Think of it -- the first person to whom the Lord stretched out His nail-pierced hands was someone totally unworthy of His love.

Love-scarred hands

Some time ago my husband, Jack, and I were guests at a Christian fellowship dinner in another city. During the meal I got acquainted and talked with a dear little mother who sat next to me. After a while, with tears streaming down her cheeks, she leaned over and whispered the sad story of a wayward daughter who had run away from home, mounted up many debts, and fallen to the very depths of sin, even into a life of prostitution.

I pray for her every day, she said, and every time I hear from her I beg her to come home. My husband doesn't make a lot of money, so I got a job to help pay off the debts our daughter made. I'm doing everything I know how to do to help her. Please pray with me.

When I reached out to take hold of this precious mother's hands to comfort her, they were rough and calloused, scarred by long hours of hard work, week after month after year. Those hands were scarred by love...by a mother's selfless sacrifice and desperate desire to reach and save her wayward daughter.

As I held those hands and prayed, I was reminded of Christ's nail-scarred hands that also were pierced for that lost daughter...and for every lost sinner in the whole world. They were scarred for me...and for you!

Just as the hands of our Lord ministered to men and women, boys and girls, wherever He went during His time on earth, so we today can feel the touch of His hands in our daily lives. His power is still available to us today.

In our times of pain and suffering, He is still the Great Physician who lays His hands upon us and restores our bodies. Whether our healing comes through medication, the skill of a surgeon, or by the power of faith alone, we know that He is the source of all healing.

When we are hungry and experiencing a lack of supply -- when we're empty physically, emotionally, and spiritually -- Christ's hands will bless and multiply the smallest things we have to offer Him and make it sufficient to meet our need...with plenty to spare.

When we've tried and failed -- when like Peter, we're sinking into the depths of trials and tribulations, with no hope in sight -- He will come to us, walking on the waters of our stormy sea. His hand will save us, lift us up, and lead us safely to the solid rock!

The challenge of Easter

I love Spring! There's something special about seeing the sun light up winter's gray skies, and nature stir the grass and trees into new life. Surely it is no coincidence that we celebrate Easter in the springtime.

Each Easter we are reminded that Christ died for us -- but He rose again! Without Easter, we might be tempted to forget that it is through the outstretched arms and nail-pierced hands of Jesus that we have life eternal. Had it not been for His sacrifice on Calvary and His bodily resurrection, there would be no everlasting life.

As we look around us and see all of nature coming back to life anew, let us be reminded of Christ's great love for us.

But let us also be challenged to reach out in His love into every man's world with a helping hand. Let us emulate our Lord's great example and use the resurrection power that flows through us to minister to the needs of those around us.

Never forget that for many people in the world, their first glimpse of Christ may be in you...the only hands that will touch them in love, that will comfort, lift, and bless them, may be your hands.

Reach out whenever you can, wherever you can, to whomever you can. However unlovely or unworthy the person you find may be, remember that Christ's sacrifice is sufficient...and that He loves that individual just as much as He loves you.

Do not be afraid to stretch forth your hand to anybody. For you minister, not in your own strength and ability, but in His love. So when you reach out, it will not be just your hand that touches them, but the hand of God through you!

I love the beautiful gospel chorus that cries out

Oh, to be His hand extended,
Reaching out to the oppressed,
Let me touch Him, let me touch Jesus,
So that others may know and be blessed.

Look around you today and find someone who is hurting or needy, someone who is in trouble. Ask God to guide you to someone who needs Jesus.

When you find them, don't hesitate or delay. Go to them with a smile filled with the light of His love and simply say...

Give me your hand.

DEAD HEAT: McCAIN RUNNING NECK AND NECK WITH DEMS
But exclusive new poll finds the Arizona Senator is losing among Christian voters, despite the Rev. Wright controversy. By Joel C. Rosenberg, for National Review Online

(Washington, D.C., March 26, 2008) -- After months of speeches and debates, and nearly $1 billion in total campaign spending to date, the presidential race is a dead heat.

A head-to-head showdown between Sens. John McCain and Barack Obama is now too close to call - 45.9 percent to 44.6 percent - based on an averaging of national polls by realclearpolitics.com. A head-to-head showdown between McCain and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton is also razor-thin, 46 percent to 45.7 percent.

Now, a poll of likely Christian voters offers evidence of why the McCain campaign is struggling to gain real traction and a lead that can last. The poll was conducted among 1,000 likely Christian voters early last week, on behalf of November Communications, Inc., the company I founded in 2000. McLaughlin & Associates, a leading polling firm for many Republican candidates, but unaffiliated in the current presidential campaign, conducted the survey.

The Arizona senator is losing the Christian vote decisively to both Obama and Clinton, even though the poll was conducted as the recent firestorm over the Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr. erupted.

If the general election were held today, McCain would lose the Christian vote to the Democratic nominee - 36 percent to 45 percent - with 19 percent of Christian voters currently undecided.

Among Protestants, McCain pulls even with the Democrats at 40 percent. But the Democrats have a whopping 32-point lead over McCain among Catholics.

Among white evangelical Protestants, McCain is doing better (51 percent to 28 percent), but clearly they have not rallied behind him at this point.

By contrast, the 2004 exit polls found that George W. Bush beat John Kerry among Protestants (59 percent to 40 percent), Catholics (52 percent to 47 percent), and white evangelical Protestants (78 percent to 21 percent).

How is it possible that McCain is doing so poorly among Christian voters, and the Democrats are doing so well among them? Especially as Reverend Wright Week kicked off?

To be sure, the brouhaha over Obama's pastor may take more time to sink into the public consciousness, particularly among self-described Christians. In the weeks ahead, polls may pick up subtle or significant changes. But this poll highlights just what a serious problem McCain has.

James Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family, has said publicly and repeatedly that he couldn't back McCain for president. Speaking as a private individual, I would not vote for John McCain under any circumstances, said Dobson.

The Republican party, Dobson recently warned, seems poised to select a nominee who did not support a constitutional amendment to protect the institution of marriage, who voted for embryonic stem-cell research to kill nascent human beings, who opposed tax cuts that ended the marriage penalty, who has little regard for freedom of speech, who organized the Gang of 14 to preserve filibusters, and who has a legendary temper and who often uses foul and obscene language. Should John McCain capture the nomination as many assume, I believe this general election will offer the worst choices for president in my lifetime.

With a radio audience of seven to nine million listeners per week, Dobson is a voice McCain can ill afford to have against him.

No evangelical or Catholic leader today has the power to single-handedly throw tens of millions of votes one way or another, and McCain would lose credibility with all voters if he suddenly pandered to anyone. But McCain and the GOP need a clear and convincing strategy to win Christian voters back - and fast.

One issue where McCain could gain traction among Christians: focusing consistently and effectively on how Islamic extremism affects the safety of American families, the price of oil, and the strength of our economy.

A number of evangelical leaders have told me they believe the threat of radical Islam is the biggest family issue in this campaign.

I couldn't agree more. There are many critical family issues in this campaign, to be sure - human life, marriage, and judicial nominees, to name just a few.

But what else matters if jihadist organization and/or rogue states build, buy, or steal nuclear weapons and detonate them inside the U.S.?

Also, McCain should make Israel an issue. We asked American Christian voters: Would you be more likely or less likely to vote for a candidate for President of the United States if you knew that candidate would strongly advocate policies to protect America from radical Islamic terrorism; protect Israel from a nuclear attack by Iran; protect the capital of Israel - Jerusalem - from being divided with Palestinian Muslims; and refuse to pressure Israel to make diplomatic concessions that could endanger Israel's security?

Overall, nearly half (45 percent) say they are more likely to vote for such a candidate, including 45 percent of Protestants and 52 percent of evangelical Protestants. Among Catholics - only 26 percent of them support McCain now - 44 percent would be more likely to vote for such a candidate.

McCain's trip to Israel last week was a good first step in reaching a demographic group he is currently losing. But he must do much more - and be consistent - if he is to win Catholics and evangelicals back from the Democrats in numbers large enough to win this campaign in November.

[NOTE: We will release more exclusive numbers from the poll on American Christian attitudes towards Israel, Iran and other Middle East issues at the Epicenter Conference in Jerusalem on April 10th.]