IRAN SATELLITE (ISRAEL PLAYS DOWN)

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.

Killer storm Fay powers into hurricane mode for Florida landfall AUG 18,08

HAVANA (AFP) - Florida battened down Monday as Tropical Storm Fay packed on more power on its way to becoming a full-blown hurricane, after claiming more than 40 lives in the Caribbean. The storm, already packing peak gusts of 185 kilometers (115 miles) per hour, was in the Florida Strait moving north at a leisurely 20 kilometers an hour. US landfall was expected sometime late Monday.Its tail of heavy rain was still pounding Cuba, which so far appeared to escape with little more than blown-off roofs and some flooding, but no deaths.The Dominican Republic and Haiti were not so lucky. They suffered multiple casualties.The worst incident was in Haiti, where a truck carrying around 60 passengers plunged into a swollen river, killing around half of the passengers, according to civil protection officials.Four people were killed in the Dominican Republic due to the heavy rains, with thousands evacuated, media said.One woman also reportedly died in Jamaica after her vehicle overturned in flood waters.There were fears the storm could prove even more devastating when it hits the Florida coastline and the Florida Keys, an archipelago of islands at the southern tip of the US state.A state of emergency was imposed on Florida ahead of Fay's arrival.The Miami-based US National Hurricane Center issued a hurricane warning, saying: Preparations to protect life and property should be rushed to completion.It said the storm was powering up to into a possible category one hurricane, with storm tides up to 1.5 meters (five feet) higher than normal.

Florida Governor Charlie Crist said the storm would likely have an impact over a broad area.Tornadoes are likely in some areas tonight (Monday) and tomorrow, and maybe even into the next few days, he told a media conference.Some 500 national guard members were deployed, with another 8,500 available if needed, Crist said.In Miami, anxious residents descended on gas stations and supermarkets to grab petrol and bottled water. Television stations broadcast warnings about the risk of power cuts.In the Florida Keys, authorities ordered the evacuation of tourists and closed schools.World oil prices rose as traders worried about the potential effect of Fay on energy facilities in the Gulf of Mexico. New York's main contract, light sweet crude for September delivery, added 35 cents to 114.12 dollars a barrel after bouncing above 115 in electronic deals.Anglo-Dutch energy giant Royal Dutch Shell said that it had evacuated 425 staff from the Gulf as a precaution. In the Caribbean, countries were counting the cost of Fay's passage. Haitian civil protection officials said that, apart from the truck tragedy that killed around 30 people, rains killed seven people across the country and left three others missing.

In the Dominican Republic, more than 2,000 people were evacuated to shelters as the storm felled trees, damaged hundreds of houses and uprooted power lines disrupting supplies to more than 15,000 homes, according to news reports. Cuban authorities had evacuated 15,000 people from southern coastal areas between Matanzas and Havana. They lifted alerts, but feared mudslides from the continued rain. After roaring through Florida, the storm is expected to continue north, albeit with less punch, into Georgia, although its path was unpredictable. Fay is the sixth named storm of this year's Atlantic hurricane season, which runs from June 1 to November 30.

Tropical storm lashes Cuba with winds, rain By WILL WEISSERT, Associated Press Writer Mon Aug 18, 7:46 AM ET

HAVANA - Tropical Storm Fay pounded Cuba with torrential rain and wind Monday, prompting authorities to evacuate dozens of low-lying communities, cancel carnival celebrations in a central of province and warn of flooding. Forecasters said Fay, which earlier left at least five people dead in Haiti and the Dominican Republic, crossed central Cuba early Monday and was expected to pass near the Florida Keys that night.A hurricane watch remained in effect for the capital, Havana, and eastward to Cuba's central Sancti Spiritus province.A tropical storm watch was issued Monday for the northwestern Bahamas.Cuban state media reported little damage or major flooding so far, but authorities in four provinces evacuated nearly 5,000 residents from low-lying communities and pulled fishing boats from the water. Officials also set up temporary shelters and food distribution centers.In central Cienfuegos province, officials suspended traditional carnival celebrations. State media said authorities were ready to protect the 24,000 foreign tourists in the famous beach resort of Varadero, but provided no more details.Winds damaged the roofs of some homes in little-populated areas and water accumulated on roads and highways.The U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami said Fay is expected to dump up to 8 inches of rain on Cuba, with 12 inches in isolated cases. It warned that much rain could produce flash floods and mudslides.In the city of Niquero, near the southern coast and one of the hardest-hit areas, authorities converted a hotel into a shelter for evacuees.It's raining intensely, but the wind comes and goes, said a receptionist at the Hotel Niquero, who said he was not authorized to have his name appear in the foreign press.Officials also suspended some ferry service on Isla de la Juventud, an island off Cuba's southern coast. In the southeastern province of Granma, a banana plantation sustained minor flooding and storm winds damaged some homes, state media reported.At 5 a.m. EDT Monday, the storm's center was located over central Cuba and about 155 miles south-southeast of Key West and was moving toward the north-northwest near 12 mph. Maximum sustained wind speeds were near 50 mph. Forecasters expected the storm to begin moving to the north soon.Florida has declared a state of emergency and authorities in the Florida Keys closed schools, opened shelters and urged visitors to leave. Residents and tourists, however, seemed in no hurry to evacuate.Traffic leaving Key West and the Lower Keys on Sunday afternoon was light but steady as the sky darkened with storm clouds and the National Weather Service issued watches and warnings.Fay, the sixth storm of the 2008Atlantic season, was expected by forecasters to strengthen slowly to a hurricane.

Tropical storm's center passes Key West AUG 18,08

KEY WEST, Fla. - The National Hurricane Center says the center of Tropical Storm Fay has passed over Key West. Hurricane forecasters say the center made landfall over the island at 3 p.m. EDT. The storm is expected to strengthen into possibly a Category 1 hurricane before hitting Florida's Gulf Coast sometime Tuesday. Category 1 storms have winds of at least 74 mph.There are no immediate reports of damage in the Keys. Authorities say there is some localized flooding and power lines are down in some areas. No serious injuries have been reported.

Scores killed by floods in north India Mon Aug 18, 10:38 AM ET

LUCKNOW, India (AFP) - At least 87 people have died in northern India following heavy monsoon rains and flooding, officials said Monday. The bulk of the casualties were reported from the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, with 73 people killed in the past 48 hours, state revenue secretary Balwainder Kumar told AFP.Most of the deaths happened when houses of the victims collapsed during the downpours, Kumar said.The other 14 deaths occurred in the northern state of Punjab, where a major river overflowed, officials said.According to the weather office, more rains were forecast for the next 24 hours, with all the major rivers flowing over the danger mark.The rainfall this season is 25 percent above normal. There will be a gradual weakening of the rainfall after a few days, weather office official L. C. Ram said in Uttar Pradesh state capital Lucknow.Further north in Punjab, at least 125 villages were underwater, with thousands of people left homeless and several thousand hectares (acres) of rice crop destroyed, state Irrigation Minister Janmeja Singh Shekon said.

Some of the dead were washed away after the Sutlej river broke its banks, while others were electrocuted.Shekon said aid has yet to reach hundreds of people stranded on rooftops, and the army was assisting relief operations and evacuations.

Monsoon rains have disrupted rail and road travel, and some highways were under several feet of water, a transport ministry official said.

Evacuations as rain breaches dam near Grand Canyon By AMANDA LEE MYERS, Associated Press Writer AUG 18,08

PHOENIX - Authorities on Monday evacuated more tourists and residents from a remote offshoot of the Grand Canyon where weekend flooding caused by heavy rains and a breached dam nearly washed away some rafters in the rugged gorge. Rescue crews planned to transport 120 tourists and residents out of Supai Canyon by day's end, but many people elected to stay, said Gerry Blair, a spokesman for the Coconino County Sheriff's Department. Some 400 Havasupai tribe members live in the village of Supai, which is at the bottom of the canyon.By the end of the day, if the weather cooperates, we can probably get all of our tourists out of there, Blair said.

Helicopters had evacuated about 170 visitors and residents from Supai by Sunday night.No damage was reported in the village, which is accessible only by trail and helicopter, but officials said some trees were uprooted and some downstream trails and footbridges were washed out.There were no reports of injuries. Authorities on the ground and in the air were searching for about 11 campers and tourists who remained unaccounted for, though they may have left on their own, Blair said.The situation was certainly nowhere near as dangerous as it was yesterday, he said Monday.Mimi Mills and 15 others were rescued Sunday morning after a flash flood washed away their rafts while they were on a hike the afternoon before. Mills was among about 35 evacuees who spent Sunday night at a shelter in Peach Springs, about 65 miles southwest of Supai.It was definitely frightening, and there was a lot of, Whoa, what are we going to do next and what's the morning going to bring? Mills, 42, of Nevada City, Calif., told The Associated Press in a phone interview Monday.She said the group took shelter overnight under an overhang, but had to scramble up a cliff when another flash flood occurred in the middle of the night.I woke up to people yelling, We've got to get out of here! she said. We booked it up a cliff in 10seconds, and we just saw this massive rush of water rage down the creek side.

Rescuers worked throughout Sunday to locate campers and Supai residents and evacuate them to the top of the canyon if they wished. Blair said tourists were not being allowed back into the canyon.The canyon, on tribal land, is a less-traveled alternative to Grand Canyon National Park to the east. Visitors hike several miles down the canyon to reach a series of spectacular waterfalls.The area of northern Arizona got 3 to 6 inches of rain Friday and Saturday and about 2 inches more on Sunday, said Daryl Onton, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Flagstaff. Early Monday, about 0.80 of an inch more fell on the area, the weather service said.

That's all it took — just a few days of very heavy thunderstorms, Onton said.

About 6 a.m. Sunday, the Redlands Earthen Dam about 45 miles upstream from Supai was breached, park officials said. The small dam forms a pond to provide water for livestock. It isn't a huge, significant structure and its rupture was only one factor in the flooding, said Blair.In 2001, flooding near Supai swept a 2-year-old boy and his parents to their deaths while they were hiking.Associated Press Writer Mark Carlson contributed to this report.

NEWS VIDEO FOR AUG 18,08
http://news.yahoo.com/video

Oil prices climb on storm fears in Gulf of Mexico Mon Aug 18, 8:31 AM ET

LONDON (AFP) - World oil prices rose on Monday as traders fretted about the potential impact of Tropical Storm Fay on energy facilities in the Gulf of Mexico. New York's main contract, light sweet crude for September delivery, added 35 cents to 114.12 dollars a barrel after bouncing above 115 in electronic deals.London's Brent North Sea crude for October advanced by 43 cents to 112.98 dollars.Oil futures had fallen sharply last week on the prospect of reduced demand for energy around the globe owing to slower economic growth.Crude prices were higher (on Monday) due to the possibility of supply disruptions in the Gulf of Mexico amid Tropical Storm Fay, said Sucden analyst Nimit Khamar.The US National Hurricane Centre (NHC) expects Fay to miss offshore production areas in the Gulf and instead hit Florida on Tuesday or Wednesday.However, some computer models are predicting Fay could strike production areas in the eastern Gulf of Mexico.Anglo-Dutch energy group Royal Dutch Shell said over the weekend that it had evacuated 360 hundred staff from the region as a precaution.Given the current forecast, as a precautionary measure, we will continue to reduce offshore staffing levels, Shell said.

It added: There remains no impact to Shell operated production at this time. Additional personnel being evacuated today are not essential to current ongoing drilling and production operations.Tropical storm Fay powered towards hurricane strength Monday as it hit Cuba and headed toward the Florida Keys after claiming at least 11 lives in the Dominican Republic and Haiti.Maximum sustained winds from the sixth storm of the Atlantic hurricane season were clocked at 85 kilometers (50 miles) per hour, the Miami-based NHC said.Elsewhere on Monday, analysts kept one eye on ongoing developments in the conflict between Georgia and Russia.Oil exports of 50,000-70,000 barrels a day from Azerbaijan, headed for the West via Georgia, have been suspended after the destruction of a key rail bridge in Georgia, energy group BP said.There's nothing going on that rail link for the moment, a BP spokeswoman told AFP.Damage to the bridge, caused during the Russia-Georgia conflict, and the shutdown of two other oil pipelines means the Baku-Novorossiisk pipeline, transporting 100,000 barrels a day, is currently the only western export route for Azeri crude.Supply from the region was already hampered by the closure of the key Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) oil link, which BP also operates. The BTC line -- the world's second-longest pipeline -- was shut earlier this month after a blast in a pump at a section in eastern Turkey.Turkey said Monday that it expected to reopen the BTC soon after completing repairs to the fire-damaged link.

Coastal towns doomed by rising sea By Sarah Knapton 12:01am BST 18/08/2008

People living on some stretches of coastline will be forced to abandon their homes and move inland as sea levels rise, the new head of the Environment Agency has warned. Lord Smith of Finsbury said plans need to be drawn up to evacuate people from large stretches which are threatened by erosion. Work is already under way to identify parts of the south and east coast which are most threatened and Lord Smith said there would be hard decisions to be made about which areas to defend and which to allow the sea to reclaim. This is the most difficult issue we are going to face as an agency, he said, We know the sea is eating away at the coast in quite a number of places, primarily on the east and south coasts. We are almost certainly not going to be able to defend absolutely every bit of coast – it would be simply and impossible task both in financial and engineering terms.The coastlines of Norfolk and Suffolk have been identified as facing the most immediate danger. But Lord Smith promised to do his level best to defend communities if engineering solutions could be found to save significant numbers of properties. He said the Government could no longer rely on insurance companies to cover families who have lost their homes and said they should be rehoused at taxpayer's expense. Lord Smith also criticised the building a third runway at Heathrow and plans for more coal-fuelled power stations.

Grand Canyon evacuations halted after dam breach AUG 18,08

(CNN) -- Authorities halted the evacuation Sunday night of a few hundred people who were initially thought to be in danger after rain breached an earthen dam at the Grand Canyon.A rafter is lifted by helicopter across Colorado River floodwaters to safety in the Grand Canyon on Sunday. 1 of 3 Rescue crews in helicopters evacuated about 170 people Sunday after water poured through Redland Dam, sending water down two canyons and threatening several hundred tourists and residents, said Gerry Blair, spokesman for the Coconino County sheriff's department.A few hundred others were not evacuated, but they were on high ground and did not appear to be in immediate danger by Sunday night, he said. Authorities plan to decide Monday whether to evacuate them.They also plan to resume the search Monday for less than 20 people who were in the affected area and whose whereabouts are not yet known to authorities, Blair said.The air evacuations were called off due to darkness at 8:30 p.m. Sunday (11:30 p.m. ET). Most of the 170 people evacuated Sunday were campers, tourists and paddlers, he said.A few hundred others -- perhaps as many as 400 -- remained in the area of concern. Most are permanent residents of Supai village, located within the Havasupai Indian Reservation at the bottom of the Grand Canyon.

They were on relatively high ground and were not in immediate danger Sunday night, he said, but sheriff's deputies, U.S. Marshals and officers with the Bureau of Indian Affairs police force were taken by helicopter to the village. They plan to stay at least until Monday.The problems started when water breached Redland Dam and poured into Cataract Canyon and Supai Canyon, which was heavily flooded, said Blair said.Rescuers used five helicopters -- three of them Black Hawks -- in the rescue mission. Evacuees were taken to a Red Cross shelter at Hualapai Tribal Gymnasium in Peach Springs.Blair said visitors who hike down into the canyon are required to register with authorities. Authorities have accounted for most people in the area.

Earlier, a private boating party of 16 people was stranded, but uninjured, on a ledge at the confluence of Havasu Creek and the Colorado River on Saturday night after flood waters carried their five rafts away, authorities said.Geoff Gourley, a veteran river guide at the Grand Canyon, told CNN that campers on multi-day paddling trips often park their boats at the narrow mouth of Havasu Creek to hike along scenic ridges of the side canyon. While he couldn't comment on the 16 campers, he said heavy rains from as far as 15 miles away can wash into the Havasu, swelling it enough to flush the boats down the river.I imagine that's what happened here, Gourley said.The waters of the Havasu -- normally a brilliant blue-green -- churned a muddy red Sunday. A flash flood remained in effect Sunday evening and more rain for the area was likely, the National Weather Service warned.

REBUILT 3RD TEMPLE (THE EU DICTATORS TEMPLE)

REVELATION 11:1-2
1 And there was given me a reed like unto a rod: and the angel stood, saying, Rise, and measure the temple of God, and the altar, and them that worship therein.
2 But the court which is without the temple leave out, and measure it not; for it is given unto the Gentiles: and the holy city shall they tread under foot forty and two months.

DANIEL 9:27
27 And he( THE ROMAN,EU PRESIDENT) shall confirm the covenant with many for one week:(1X7=7 YEARS) and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease,(3 1/2 yrs in TEMPLE SACRIFICES STOPPED) and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.

REBUILT 4TH TEMPLE (THE TRUE MESSIAHS TEMPLE)

ZECHARIAH 6:12-13
12 And speak unto him, saying, Thus speaketh the LORD of hosts, saying, Behold the man whose name is The BRANCH; and he shall grow up out of his place, and he shall build the temple of the LORD:
13 Even he shall build the temple of the LORD; and he shall bear the glory, and shall sit and rule upon his throne; and he shall be a priest upon his throne: and the counsel of peace shall be between them both.

ISAIAH 60:9-10
9 Surely the isles shall wait for me, and the ships of Tarshish first, to bring thy sons from far, their silver and their gold with them, unto the name of the LORD thy God, and to the Holy One of Israel, because he hath glorified thee.
10 And the sons of strangers shall build up thy walls, and their kings shall minister unto thee: for in my wrath I smote thee, but in my favour have I had mercy on thee.

ISAIAH 2:1-5
1 The word that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem.
2 And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the LORD's house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it.
3 And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.
4 And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.
5 O house of Jacob, come ye, and let us walk in the light of the LORD.

MARK 11:9-10,15-17
9 And they that went before, and they that followed, cried, saying, Hosanna; Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord:
10 Blessed be the kingdom of our father David, that cometh in the name of the Lord: Hosanna in the highest.
15 And they come to Jerusalem: and Jesus went into the temple, and began to cast out them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the seats of them that sold doves;
16 And would not suffer that any man should carry any vessel through the temple.
17 And he taught, saying unto them, Is it not written, My house shall be called of all nations the house of prayer? but ye have made it a den of thieves.

EZEKIEL 40 TO 48 IS THIS 4TH TEMPLE TO BIG FOR THE MOUNT I BELIEVE TO BE BUILT 25 MILES FROM JERUSALEM.

Has Temple author discovered location of lost Ark of Covenant? New best-selling prophecy book claims resting place is Mt. Nebo August 17, 2008 6:13 pm Eastern 2008 WorldNetDaily

A new best-selling book on the hidden mysteries of the Jerusalem Temple Mount claims to have discovered the resting place of the lost Ark of the Covenant – the biblical refuge of the Ten Commandments handed down to Moses at Sinai.In Temple at the Center of Time: Newton's Bible Codex Deciphered and the Year 2012, by David Flynn, a book that has skyrocketed up the best-seller charts before its official release later this month, says his studies of the Temple Mount strongly suggest the Ark will be found at Mount Nebo in Jordan.The discovery would be the greatest archeological find ever – as has been suggested in popular movies such as Raiders of the Lost Ark.

In Temple at the Center of Time, Flynn makes the case that the Temple Mount, the home of the Jewish temples, was not just a place of religious worship. It is also is a roadmap to future events – a kind of prophetic landmark whose significance is only now revealed through the development of satellite imagery.The book asserts it has deciphered Isaac Newton’s greatest paradox: None other than 'the unified field theory' of Bible prophecy.Sir Isaac Newton was not only a great thinker in physics, the book explains, but had extensive knowledge of the Scriptures with a special interest in prophecy. Newton believed there was a hidden code, a type of time-encrypted language. He believed the key to deciphering this code was the Temple of Solomon. He wrote extensively on the length measurements of the Temple and suggested it intersected time and dimension, serving as a prophetic and supernatural structure.

According to Flynn, although Newton never cracked this code, he was on the right track and was limited only by the lack of sophisticated satellite technology.The description of Jerusalem as a terrestrial center point, situated in the center of the world, is found in Philo's Legatio and Gaium, Flynn notes. The world is like a human eyeball. The white of the eye is the ocean surrounding the world, the iris is this continent, the pupil is Jerusalem, and the image in the pupil is the Holy Temple.Many historians speculate that because Babylon destroyed the Temple of Solomon, it also removed the Ark to Babylon. There it is said the Ark was eventually destroyed along with the other artifacts from the temple, the gold melted down and set into coins for their treasury. But the Book of Daniel makes specific mention of the golden menorah from the temple of Jerusalem in the palace of Belshazzar. The Babylonian king had preserved it, a major artifact from the Jewish temple, in an attempt to demonstrate the superiority of Babylon's gods to the God of the Hebrews. That the menorah was set on display in this manner underscores how unlikely the Babylonians would have been to destroy the Ark, the greatest symbol of the God of the Hebrews.Certain tracts of the Midot in the Jewish Talmud dealing with temple laws, practices and rituals allude to the creation of more than one Ark, the second made as a decoy to protect the original. They claim that certain articles of the temple furnishing including the true Ark remain in a secret vault underneath the temple mount in Jerusalem.

However, others discount the likelihood of the Ark being left to fate under the Temple Mount, open to any treasure hunter with the motivation to merely dig. It is difficult to explain how the location could remain secret, as Jerusalem remained open for excavation and plundering for hundreds of years after its fall to the Romans in AD 70. Motivated treasure seekers over the ensuing centuries have had ample time to excavate the area underneath the temple.The recovery of temple treasure of Solomon was the highest goal of the Knights Templar that established their center on the Temple Mount during the crusades.Various Judaic sects of Ethiopia believe the Ark has been guarded and kept in the city of Axum in their country for thousands of years. The legend claims it was brought to Axum by the son of King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba, Prince Menelik I.Some historians believe the Egyptians took the ark and hid it underground in the city of Tanis, the seat of Shishak’s dynasty. The location was lost over the course of history. That was the theory behind the first Indiana Jones movie.But all of these theories are discounted by Flynn, who points out the Ark was a central focus of worship during the reign of King Josiah – long after the reign of Solomon.Meanwhile, the book of 2 Maccabees 2:4 explains that before the destruction of Solomon’s temple by the Babylonians in 587 BC, the Ark was hidden by the prophet Jeremiah in a cave at the base of Mount Nebo in the Pisgah range of Jordan. Maccabees, as well as other Apocryphal works, are retained in modern Catholic bibles as well as the Septuagint and Vulgate.The account of the Ark from 2 Maccabees is also mentioned in the Jewish Talmud, in Huriot 12A and Tractate Yoma 72a. These texts explain that the Ark's location would not be recovered until the Jews were brought back to Israel following the Diaspora, an event that occurred in 1948. The pseudopigraphic book 2 Baruch, written near the 1st century, repeats the prophetic age in which the Ark would be recovered: Oh earth ... guard them [the temple vessels and the Ark] until the last times, So that, when thou art ordered, thou mayst restore them, So that strangers may not get possession of them. For the time comes when Jerusalem also will be delivered for a time, until it is said, that it is again restored for ever.

The legendary accounts of Jeremiah and the Ark provide a hidden clue to its location at Mount Nebo. This is a symbolic link that exists between the names of the Babylonian king that threatened to destroy the Ark, and the mountain where it was hidden by Jeremiah. Both Nebuchadnezzar and Nebo stem from the Semitic root nebu, meaning the god Mercury. This was also intimated in the prophecies of Ezekiel condemning Jerusalem. The name Nebuchadnezzar means the prince of the god Mercury. The Hebrew word nebo is from the root neba (to prophesy and also a prophet), writes Flynn. In the same role as the prophets of the God of Israel, Nebo was worshiped as the celestial scribe of the Assyrians, the interpreter of the gods, and declarer of their will.According to the Bible, the greatest prophet of all time was Moses, which states, And there arose not a prophet (neba) since in Israel like unto Moses, whom the LORD knew face to face. Ironically, according to the Bible, Mount Nebo was the site of the death of Moses.The Hebrew words nobe, meaning high place, and nahab, meaning to hollow out, gate, or pupil of the eye, also correlate with the location for the resting place of the ark in a hollow cave on Mount Nebo, described in 2 Maccabees, says Flynn.Mount Nebo is 25.20 nautical miles due East of Jerusalem – and Flynn finds significance in that distance related to his study of the Temple Mount and its mystical placement at the center of time and space.Before it is even officially released, Temple at the Center of Time is causing a sensation in some circles where it is being compared to The Bible Code.

Youths contribute to advancement of Third Temple.Jerusalem’s Temple Institute takes biblical statement build me a Temple and I shall dwell amongst you literally, enlisting hundreds of teens for this endeavor Kobi Nahshoni Published: 07.31.08, 14:28 / Israel Jewish Scene

Mourning over the destruction of Jerusalem is normal in the month of Av, but at the Temple Mount and Land of Israel Faith Movement all focus is on the big day - the day in which the Third Temple will be built. As part of the preparations, hundreds of teenagers are expected to sign the Temple Treaty and to proclaim, We commit to doing everything in our power to abide by this commandment and to devote at least half an hour a week toward this effort.

Herod's Temple

Ancient quarry used for Second Temple discovered / Neta Sela .Israel Antiquities Authority uncovers 1.23 acre quarry on hills north of Jerusalem's Old City, believed to have provided massive stones for construction of Second Temple, other Jerusalem structures .In the youth conference conducted by the Temple Institute in the Old City of Jerusalem, scheduled for Thursday, participants will discuss possible plans of action to further the building of the Temple. Under the title, Building the Temple, it’s in Our Hands, lessons will be given by rabbis identified with the Temple and for the first time ever, a treaty pertaining to the necessity of building the Temple will be revealed. God commanded us in his Torah, build me a Temple and I shall dwell amongst you, as written in the document, All of Israel must do everything they can to obey this commandment...In a conversation with Ynet, Temple Institute Director Rabbi Yehuda Glick vowed that this is the first event in a series that will institutionalize and widen youth activities. (Deceased general) Mota Gur said (during the conquest of east Jerusalem in the Six-Day War), The Temple Mount is in our hands, and I say now the Temple is in our hands, said Glick. The treaty we composed contains a bunch of suggestions like Temple studies, embroidering priestly clothes, illustration for books on the subject, enhancing awareness, fundraising, or any other activity we believe can further the building of the Temple. No clause calls for the launching of LAW missiles or the exploding of the mosque at the Temple Mount, Glick stressed. Women are also expected to participate in Thursday’s event, during which they will watch a performance intended to encourage them to be active in the advancement of the Temple. This Temple is not just something historic stored in a memory chest, said Glick, everyone has the opportunity to contribute to this goal.

Temple temptations Aug 14th 2008 | JERUSALEM From The Economist print edition
The issue of Jerusalem’s holiest site may again be dividing Jews

THE lead singer, with yarmulke, beard and guitar, appears with a sheep on the cover of the latest record by Lechatchila, a religious-rock group popular among Orthodox young Israelis. Don’t stare at me, the lyrics go. The Temple is sure to be rebuilt right now. We’ve got to prepare, to believe, to make the redemption happen.For two millennia, ever since the Temple in Jerusalem was destroyed by the Romans, Jews have continued to study, write and indeed sing about the intricate rituals of service and sacrifice, in the belief that one day the Messiah would come and the Temple would be rebuilt. Meanwhile, the faithful were forbidden even to walk on the Holy Mount, let alone worship there. This suited the regime instituted on the Temple Mount by Moshe Dayan, Israel’s then defence minister, after the 1967 war. He ruled that the mount, known to Muslims as the Haram al-Sharif (or Noble Sanctuary), where the golden Dome of the Rock has stood since the seventh century after Christ, would remain an exclusively Muslim place of worship, administered by the Waqf, or Muslim religious trust. Jews and Christians could visit but not worship there. Rabbis of all religious and political stripes agreed.This arrangement broadly endured, between periodic bursts of violence. But it never allayed Arab fears that the Jews had designs on the mount. In 1984, the Israeli authorities arrested a group of fanatical Jewish settlers for plotting to fire rockets into the mosque. Yasser Arafat, the Palestinian leader, infuriated Bill Clinton (then America’s president) and Israeli negotiators by repeatedly denying there ever was a Jewish temple on the site and rejecting proposals to share sovereignty over it. In September 2000, a walk on the mount by Israel’s then opposition leader, Ariel Sharon, prompted bloody clashes which turned into a six-year Palestinian intifada (uprising).Recently the rabbinical consensus has been fraying. Nationalist rabbis close to Jews who have settled on the Palestinian West Bank are permitting—even encouraging—their followers to visit the mount. Separately, the energetic and well-endowed Temple Institute in Jerusalem’s old city has been diligently recreating ancient Temple vessels and priestly garments to be ready when needed. The institute runs guided tours of the mount and publishes prayer books in which former Jewish glories are graphically depicted; its director reassures readers of its website that there is no call for the launching of missiles or the exploding of the mosque. But the Temple is not just something historic, stored in a memory chest. For nationalist-Orthodox children, it is increasingly a reality.The larger, ultra-Orthodox community remains ostensibly unaffected. Its rabbis still forbid even walking on the mount and are content to wait for the Messiah without spurring him on. But between the two groups there is a theological overlap that translates into a tough brand of politics. The ultra-Orthodox Shas party, a pivotal part of the government’s coalition, has given notice that it will walk out if there is any negotiation over Jerusalem. Sure enough, in leaked draft proposals put by Israel’s prime minister, Ehud Olmert, to the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, the question of Jerusalem is postponed indefinitely. Or until the Messiah comes?

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)

Rice says NATO will defeat Russian aims in Georgia By MATTHEW LEE, Associated Press Writer AUG 18,08

BRUSSELS, Belgium - Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Monday that Russia is playing a very dangerous game with the U.S. and its allies and warned that NATO would not allow Moscow to win in Georgia, destabilize Europe or draw a new Iron Curtain through it. On her way to an emergency NATO foreign ministers meeting on the crisis, Rice said the alliance would punish Russia for its invasion of the Georgia and deny its ambitions by rebuilding and fully backing Georgia and other Eastern European democracies.We have to deny Russian strategic objectives, which are clearly to undermine Georgia's democracy, to use its military capability to damage and in some cases destroy Georgian infrastructure and to try and weaken the Georgian state, she said.We are determined to deny them their strategic objective, Rice told reporters aboard her plane, adding that any attempt to recreate the Cold War by drawing a new line through Europe and intimidating former Soviet republics and ex-satellite states into submission would fail.We are not going to allow Russia to draw a new line at those states that are not yet integrated into the trans-Atlantic structures, she said, referring to Georgia and Ukraine, which have not yet joined NATO or the European Union but would like to.Rice could not say what NATO would eventually decide to do to make its position clear but said the alliance would speak with one voice to clearly indicate that we are not accepting a new line.At the same time, she said that by flexing its military muscle in Georgia as well as elsewhere, including the resumption of Cold War-era strategic bomber patrols off the coast of Alaska, Russia was engaged in high-stakes brinksmanship that could backfire.This is a very dangerous game and perhaps one the Russians want to reconsider, Rice said of the flights that began again with frequency about six months ago. This is not something that is just cost-free. Nobody needs Russian strategic aviation along America's coast.At Tuesday's meeting, the NATO ministers will consider a range of upcoming activities planned with Russia — from military exercises to ministerial meetings — and decide case-by-case at the meeting Tuesday whether to go ahead or cancel each.They will also discuss support for a planned international monitoring mission in the region and a package of support to help Georgia rebuild infrastructure damaged in its devastating defeat at the hands of the Russian armed forces.And, she suggested that Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, who signed an E.U.-backed cease-fire brokered by the French, may be unable to exert power behind the scenes against his powerful predecessor, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, or the Russian military.She said she thought the French would be seeking an explanation from the Russians for why the Russian president either won't or can't keep his word.

It didn't take that long for the Russian forces to get in and it really shouldn't take that long for them to get out, Rice said.Amid worsening relations with Moscow, NATO ministers were expected to review a range of military, ministerial and other upcoming activities planned with Russia — and decide on a case by case basis whether to cancel each activity.Russian troops and tanks have controlled a wide swath of Georgia for days. They also began a campaign to disable the Georgian military, destroying or carting away large caches of military equipment.Two senior U.S. officials said on condition of anonymity Monday that intelligence also showed the Russian military had moved several SS-21 missile launchers into South Ossetia, in range of Tbilisi.The move Friday allows Russia to pull out of Georgia proper as promised, but punish Tbilisi at any moment with the push of a button. Experts said it is the same weapon system used in October 1999, when missiles slammed into the Chechen capital of Grozny and killed at least 140 people.All of the missiles that were fired into Georgia during the conflict were fired from Russian territory, one of the administration officials said. Defense Department spokesman Bryan Whitman declined to confirm the report of the missile launchers, but said such positioning would be prohibited by the cease-fire that Russia agreed to. Anything such as that, or any other military equipment that was moved in, would be in violation of the cease-fire and should be removed immediately, Whitman said. Meanwhile, Dmitry Rogozin, Russia's ambassador to NATO, warned that an anti-Russian propaganda campaign could jeopardize existing security cooperation. We hope that tomorrow's decisions by NATO will be balanced and that responsible forces in the West will give up the total cynicism that has been so evident (which) is pushing us back to the Cold War era, he told reporters Monday. Washington has denied Rogozin's claims that it is out to wreck the NATO-Russia Council — a consultative panel set up in 2002 to improve relations between the former Cold War foes. We don't want to destroy the NATO-Russia Council, but Russia's actions have called into question the premise of the NATO-Russia relationship, U.S. Ambassador Kurt Volker said ahead of the NATO talks. Associated Press reporter Paul Ames contributed to this report from Brussels, Deb Riechmann from Crawford, Texas, and Lolita Baldor and Brett J. Blackledge from Washington.

UN Hands Kosovo Assets Over To EU Mission AUG 17,08

PRISTINA (AFP)--The U.N. mission in Kosovo signed an agreement Monday handing over to the European Union its property to help the E.U. deploy in Serbia's breakaway ethnic Albanian majority province.The technical agreement gives Unmik...the green light for transferring assets to us, including office space, vehicles and other equipment, said Karin Limdal, spokeswoman for the incoming Eulex mission.The head of Eulex, Yves de Kermabon, plans to have the E.U. police and justice mission fully in place by the end of the autumn.The changeover is going ahead despite opposition by Serbia and its ally Russia, which reject the move as another breach of international law, just like Kosovo's unilateral declaration of independence on Feb. 17.The U.N.'s interim mission Unmik began scaling down its presence in Kosovo Monday. It had been the main authority in Kosovo since North Atlantic Treaty Organization's 1999 bombing ousted Serbian forces waging a crackdown on Albanian separatists.Ethnic Albanian-dominated Kosovo adopted its first constitution in mid-June, and Eulex will help its government with policing, the judiciary and customs services.So far, the E.U. mission has deployed 285 officials including police, judges, prosecutors and custom officers in Kosovo. It will eventually have 1,900 international and 1,100 local staff.(END) Dow Jones Newswires.

Lisbon treaty would have helped in Georgia crisis, says France
HONOR MAHONY AUG 18,08 Today @ 09:19 CET

French president Nicolas Sarkozy has used the ongoing crisis between Russia and Georgia to put the case for the EU's new treaty, currently facing ratification difficulties. In an opinion piece in Monday's edition of French daily Le Figaro, Mr Sarkozy, who currently holds the EU's six month presidency, wrote that the Lisbon Treaty would have given the bloc the tools it needed to handle the Moscow-Tbilisi war.President Sarkozy's words of support for the Lisbon Treaty come amid doubt that it will ever come into force (Photo: Portuguese EU Presidency)

It is notable that had the Lisbon Treaty, which is in the process of being ratified, already been in force, the European Union would have had the institutions it needs to cope with international crises.He named the most important innovations as being the stable European Council President - instead of the current half-yearly system - a High Representative endowed with a real European diplomatic service and considerable financial means in order to put decisions into force in coordination with member states.The short pitch for the Lisbon Treaty also revealed a little how the French president views the role of the EU's first longterm president of the EU - a post that can be held for up to five years.The treaty itself is ambiguous about the president's exact role with the potential for conflict rife with member states and EU officials divided about whether the position should be ceremonial or have real teeth.Entwined in this question is how much the president should represent the EU in external policy, a policy area that is foreseen for the EU's foreign policy chief.In the Figaro article, Mr Sarkory suggests that the president's position in such crises as the Russia-Georgia one would be one of acting in close consultation with the heads of state and government most affected.This would very much put the President in the foreign policy field. It would also foresee a formal hierarchy among member states as it would give priority to those considered most affected.

This kind of scenario has been predicted by some smaller member states who fear that the president would have an all-powerful role, reducing the say of certain governments, although the working principle of the bloc is that member states are equal.But Mr Sarkozy's words of support for the Lisbon Treaty come amid doubt that it will ever come into force. Although ratified by the vast majority of national parliaments, it was rejected by Irish voters in a referendum in June.All member states need to ratify the document for it to go into place. At the moment, Dublin is considering its options. It could either put the treaty to another referendum or try and figure out a legal contortion allowing it to use parliamentary ratification only. But the January 2009 deadline by which governments had hoped to have the treaty in place is certain to be missed.

MUSLIM NATIONS

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

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

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

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

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

Nukes unlikely to be affected by Musharraf leaving By MATTHEW PENNINGTON, Associated Press Writer AUG 19,08

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Pervez Musharraf's departure from the presidency is unlikely to have a significant impact on how Pakistan's nuclear weapons are controlled.

Experts say a 10-member committee, and not just the president, makes decisions on how to use them and only a complete meltdown in governance — still a distant prospect in Pakistan — could put the atomic bomb in the hands of extremists.

Pakistan's nuclear assets are not one man's property, said Maria Sultan, a defense analyst and director at the London-based South Asian Strategic Stability Institute.

Any (political) transition in Pakistan will have no effect on Pakistan's nuclear assets because it has a very strong custodial control.The committee, known as the National Command Authority, is served by a military-dominated organization with thousands of security forces and intelligence agents whose personnel are closely screened. The nuclear facilities are tightly guarded.The reality is that Pakistan's government exists on different levels. One of the levels it exists and works at is in the control of its nuclear weapons, said Patrick Cronin, director of the Institute for National Strategic Studies at the National Defense University in Washington.Where it does not work is in providing effective services, jobs, education and health that people need.Although one of Asia's poorer nations, Pakistan became the Islamic world's first atomic power through a combination of guile, determination and illegal procurement of technology on the international black market. It tested the bomb in 1998, a year before Musharraf took power, in response to a similar test by its historic rival India.The prospect of a nuclear conflagration on the subcontinent has eased in recent years as Pakistan and India have talked peace. But political volatility in Pakistan, combined with the revelation in 2004 that its chief scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan had shared nuclear know-how and technology with Iran, North Korea and Libya, heightened concern over how safe the weapons and nuclear infrastructure were.Those fears have persisted as al-Qaida and Taliban militants have gained a firm foothold along the lawless northwestern frontier with Afghanistan. Pakistan also has struggled to dispel suspicions that elements in its intelligence services have extremist sympathies.

Early this year, after Pakistan was assailed by a wave of suicide attacks — including one that killed former prime minister Benazir Bhutto — the Musharraf-led administration went out of its way to reassure the international community that its nuclear assets remained safe.Khalid Kidwai, head of the Strategic Plans Division which handles Pakistan's nuclear arsenal, told journalists that Pakistan uses 10,000 soldiers to keep the weapons safe and has received up to $10 million in U.S. assistance to enhance security.He said there was no conceivable scenario in which al-Qaida or Taliban militants would take power, and asserted that Pakistan's nuclear weapons, fissile material and infrastructure were absolutely safe and secure.The military-run Strategic Plans Division was instituted by Musharraf.While little is expected to change in how it functions after his resignation from the presidency on Monday, the chairmanship of the 10-member National Command Authority that would make the final decision on the deployment or use of weapons will now transfer to acting president Mohammedmian Soomro, the chairman of the upper house of parliament.That high-powered committee also includes the chiefs of the army, navy and air force, the prime minister, several Cabinet ministers and Kidwai, himself a retired general.

Kidwai said in January that any decision to use the weapons would be reached hopefully by consensus but at least by majority. The decision would be conveyed to the Strategic Plans Division and then through the military chain of command.

Pakistan's nuclear arsenal is in the hands of the army and the army is not changing hands, so whatever the situation was before is largely what it will continue to be, said Teresita Schaffer, director of the South Asia Program at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies. Talat Masood, a retired Pakistani general, said the civilian government elected in February may push to transfer the chairmanship of the command authority from the president to the prime minister, Yousaf Raza Gilani, to reflect the shift in power away from the presidency. The premier currently serves as its vice chairman. The military, which has distanced itself from politics since Musharraf ceded command of the armed forces in November, would not necessarily oppose that. The powers of the presidency may soon be diluted —if the government follows through on plans to amend the constitution — reverting it to a largely ceremonial position. While experts say Pakistan's nuclear assets will stay in safe hands for now, fears persist about the potential for an Islamist takeover. If Pakistan becomes a more fragile and even failing state, then the nuclear assets will be everybody's problem internationally. The best way to prevent that from happening is in strengthening the new government's ability to govern, Cronin said. Associated Press writers Munir Ahmad in Islamabad and Carley Petesch in New York contributed to this report.

Georgia sees little sign of Russian withdrawal By MIKE ECKEL, Associated Press Writer AUG 18,08

GORI, Georgia - Russian tanks and troops roamed freely around Gori on Monday and made forays toward the Georgian capital, keeping control of the highway that slices through Georgia's midsection despite Russia's announcement that a withdrawal had begun. The movements of Russian forces around the key city of Gori raised questions about whether Russia was fulfilling its side of the cease-fire intended to end the short but intense fighting that reignited Cold War tensions.The deputy chief of the Russian general staff, Col.-Gen. Anatoly Nogovitsyn, told a briefing in that today, according to the peace plan, the withdrawal of Russian peacekeepers and reinforcements has begun and said forces were leaving Gori.But Russian military vehicles roared along roads in and around Gori on Monday and Russian troops were restricting access to the city, where shops were shut and people milled around on the central square with its statue of the Soviet dictator and native son Josef Stalin.The city is a cold place now. People are fearful, said Nona Khizanishvili, 44, who fled Gori a week ago for an outlying village and returned Monday, trying to reach her son in Tbilisi.And around Gori, the only movement seen by Associated Press reporters was in the opposite direction from Russia and South Ossetia — toward the Georgian capital Tbilisi, 55 miles to the east.Four Russian armored personnel carriers, each carrying about 15 men, rolled Monday afternoon from Gori to Igoeti, a crossroads town even closer to Tbilisi. Passing Georgian soldiers who sat by the roadside, the Russians moved into Igoeti then turned off onto a side road. As the Russian APCs drove past a group of Georgian soldiers and policemen, one swerved and scraped a new Georgian police car, while the Georgians looked down at their fingernails.The Russians have not withdrawn, said Georgian Security Council chief Alexander Lomaia.Georgia's Rustavi-2 television showed footage of what appeared to be Russian armored vehicles smashing through a group of Georgian police cars barricading a road, and said the incident took place Monday in Igoeti. One of the cars was dragged along the street by the Russian armor.A U.S. official said Monday that the Russian military had moved missile launchers into the breakaway region of South Ossetia.

Russian troops and tanks have controlled a wide swath of Georgia for days, including the country's main east-west highway where Gori sits. The Russian presence essentially cuts the small Caucasus Mountain nation in half and threatens pro-Western President Mikhail Saakashvili's efforts to keep it from falling apart after the war strengthened the Russian-backed separatist regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.In Moscow, Nogovitsyn told a briefing that today, according to the peace plan, the withdrawal of Russian peacekeepers and reinforcements has begun.But there were also few signs of a withdrawal in western Georgia, where Russian troops continued to occupy a military base in the town of Senaki and convoys of trucks and armored vehicles moved in and out of the base throughout the day.After a series of explosions were heard from the base in the afternoon, Russian forces blew up its runway with separate blasts that shook the leaves on trees more than a mile away. Plumes of smoke rose into the sky.The RIA-Novosti news agency reported that the leader of South Ossetia, Eduard Kokoity, asked Russia on Monday to establish a permanent base there.According to the European Union-brokered peace plan signed by both Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Saakashvili, both sides are to pull forces back to the positions they held before fighting broke out Aug. 7 in South Ossetia.Nogovitsyn said the Russian troops were pulling back to South Ossetia and a security zone defined by a 1999 agreement of the joint control commission that had been nominally in charge of South Ossetia's status since it split from Georgia in the early 1990s.Georgian and Russian officials could not immediately clarify the dimensions of the security zone. Nogovitsyn said troops should not be in the territory of Georgia, but it was unclear if that excluded patrols. I think the Russians will pull out, but will damage Georgia strongly, Tbilisi resident Givi Sikharulidze said. Georgia will survive, but Russia has lost its credibility in the eyes of the world.Top American officials said Washington would have to rethink its relationship with Moscow. U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, headed to Brussels, was expected to push NATO allies Tuesday to curtail high level meetings and military cooperation with Russia unless Moscow sticks to its cease-fire pledge to withdraw troops from Georgia. I think there needs to be a strong, unified response to Russia to send the message that this kind of behavior, characteristic of the Soviet period, has no place in the 21st century, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Sunday. In Vladikavkaz, near the border with Georgia, Medvedev gave medals to 30soldiers and servicemen involved in the conflict. It has been only 10 days since you faced a cowardly aggression, he said, standing on a drill square in front of camouflage-clad soldiers and officers he called heroes.I am sure that such a well-done, effective and peacemaking operation aimed at protecting our citizens and other people will be among the most glorious deeds of the Russian military, Medvedev said.

While Western leaders have called Russia's response disproportionate, Medvedev repeated Russian accusations of genocide. The world realized that even now there are political freaks who were ready to kill innocent people for the sake of political fashions and who compensated for their own stupidity by eliminating a whole nation, he said. Rice, who was flying to Europe for talks Tuesday with NATO allies, said Russia can't use disproportionate force against its neighbor and still be welcome at international institutions. It's not going to happen that way, she said. Russia will pay a price.A U.S. official told The Associated Press that the Russian military moved SS-21 missile launchers into South Ossetia on Friday. From there, the missiles would have the capability of reaching Tbilisi. Nogovitsyn, the Russian military official, disputed the claim, saying Russia sees no necessity to place SS-21s in the region. The war broke out after Georgia tried to retake control of South Ossetia. Russia, which had peacekeeping forces in South Ossetia, sent in thousands of reinforcements and immediately drove out the Georgian forces. Georgian troops also were forced out of another Russian-backed separatist region, the Black Sea province of Abkhazia. Russian troops then pressed deep into Georgia and began a campaign to disable the Georgian military, destroying or carting away equipment. An AP photographer saw Russian troops guarding rows of captured Georgian military vehicles Sunday in Tskhinvali. An Associated Press television cameraman was slightly injured outside Gori after four camouflage-clad men who appeared to be from an Ossetian militia pulled up in a car and told him to stop filming, and the driver pulled the camera away. When the cameraman resisted, the driver produced a pistol and started shooting at the ground. The cameraman, who received light ricochet wounds to his legs, handed over the cassette. Bolstered by Western support, Georgia's leader vowed never to abandon its claim to territory now firmly in the hands of Russia and its separatist allies. His pledge, echoed by Western insistence that Georgia must not be broken apart, portends further tensions over South Ossetia and Abkhazia. Georgia's government minister for refugees, Koba Subeliani, said there were 140,000 displaced people in Tbilisi and the surrounding area. U.S. Brig. Gen. Jon Miller arrived in Georgia to assess the need for further humanitarian aid. So far, at least six U.S. military flights carrying aid have arrived in Tbilisi. Associated Press writers David Nowak, Jim Heintz, Steve Gutterman in Moscow and Matti Friedman in Tbilisi, Georgia; and Pauline Jelinek in Washington contributed to this report.

OK THIS RUSSIA OUTBURST IS WHAT WILL PRODUCE THE STRONG EU ARMY, GET READY FOLKS THE EU WILL HAVE A STRONG DESTRUCTIVE ARMY AND CONTROL THINGS.

Sarkozy demands that Russia comply with cease fire Sun Aug 17, 4:03 PM ET

PARIS - French President Nicolas Sarkozy warned Russia's president Sunday of serious consequences in Moscow's relations with the European Union, if Russia does not comply with its cease-fire accord with Georgia. In a telephone call, Sarkozy told Russian President Dmitry Medvedev that there must be a withdrawal, without delay, of all the Russian military forces that entered Georgia since Aug. 7, Sarkozy's office said in a statement.Medvedev promised the troop pullout would start Monday around midday, the statement said.Sarkozy, whose country holds the presidency of the 27-nation EU, helped broker the cease-fire agreement.He warned Medvedev that failure to rapidly and completely implement the accord would have serious consequences on relations between Russia and the European Union, the statement said.Officials at the Elysee Palace declined to elaborate on possible EU measures against Russia.Later, Sarkozy said in an opinion article published on Le Figaro newspaper's Web site that if Russia did not rapidly and totally follow the pullout specified in the cease-fire, he would have to call an extraordinary meeting of the Council of the European Union to decide what consequences to draw.This pullout must be carried out without delay, he wrote. In my mind, this point is not negotiable.Sarkozy also said the international community would have to help find a longer-term solution.We will also have to determine if Russia's intervention against its Georgian neighbor was a brutal and excessive response, he said.Western pressure has been increasing on Moscow to withdraw its forces under the cease-fire deal over South Ossetia, one of Georgia's two separatist provinces.The U.S. and France have accused Russia of defying the truce, as Russian tanks and troops continued to roam freely across a wide swath of Georgian territory.

Russian troops to pull out, amid EU tough talk
PHILIPPA RUNNER AUG 18,08 Today @ 09:28 CET

Russian president, Dmitry Medvedev, has ordered troops to pull out of Georgia starting from noon local time on Monday (18 August), following calls by French and German EU leaders over the weekend.French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, secured the promised withdrawal in a telephone call to Moscow on Sunday, in which he threatened serious consequences unless Russia retreats to positions held before fighting broke out on 7 August.If this ceasefire clause [on pre-7 August positions] is not applied quickly and in its entirety, I will convoke an extraordinary council of the European Union to decide what consequences to draw, he explained later in a statement in French daily Le Figaro.I expect a very fast, very prompt withdrawal of Russian troops out of Georgia, German chancellor, Angela Merkel, said at a press conference in Tbilisi on Sunday. Georgia will become a member of NATO if it wants to - and it does want to, she added, AP reports.On Monday morning, Russian troops remained dug-in just 35 kilometres from the Georgian capital, as well as holding the Georgian Black Sea ports of Poti and Senaki while roaming freely up and down the country's main roads.Troops also deployed SS-21 earth-to-earth missiles in the breakaway Georgian province of South Ossetia, the New York Times says, with the rockets capable of striking Tbilisi.Russian soldiers and Russian-backed South Ossetian paramilitaries have spent the past few days destroying Georgian military bases and infrastructure, as well as looting homes and roughing up ethnic Georgian civilians.

Russia's foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, has said that Georgia can forget about its territorial integrity, indicating that troops might stay in South Ossetia and a second pro-Russian, rebel province - Abkhazia - for the long term.The UN refugee centre estimates the conflict has displaced 98,000 people in Georgia proper and a further 60,000 people in South Ossetia. Hundreds of civilians are also thought to have died.We will have to determine if the Russian intervention against its Georgian neighbour was a brutal and excessive response, Mr Sarkozy wrote in Le Figaro. In which case...there will be inevitable consequences for its relations with the European Union.

EU's eastern front

EU foreign ministers meeting last week put off until 5 September a debate on whether to impose diplomatic sanctions, such as suspending talks on a new EU-Russia strategic treaty or a future visa-free travel deal.Former communist EU states, backed by the UK and Sweden, want a strong line on Russia, worrying that the Georgia incursion could be the start of a wider campaign to undermine pro-western countries in Russia's old sphere of influence.A flash poll by the Pentor institute in Poland said that 49.8 percent of Polish people are scared of a potential Russian military attack in the next few years.Ukraine president, Viktor Yushchenko, has also offered the west the use of Ukrainian radar facilities in the hope of obtaining security guarantees in return, with an EU-Ukraine summit tabled for 9 September.The country's Crimea peninsula has a large ethnic Russian population and well-organised separatist movements. Meanwhile, Russian generals dismissed as nonsense a recent Ukrainian law limiting the movements of Russia's Black Sea fleet, which is stationed in the region until 2017.

Sanctions unlikely

But Germany and Luxembourg have already spoken out against isolating Russia - one of the EU's biggest energy suppliers - as a result of the Georgia war.I do not advise...any knee-jerk reaction such as suspending talks on a partnership and cooperation agreement [with the EU], German foreign minister, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, said in an interview with weekly Welt am Sonntag. "Our interest in this is as great as Russia itself. Talks in the NATO-Russian Council are essential too. Because we need open lines of communication.Speaking in Moscow on Friday, Ms Merkel also took a softer line than in Tbilisi, saying "Some of Russia's actions were not proportionate...[but] it is rare that all the blame is on one side. In fact, both sides are probably to blame. We must stick to the partnership with Russia, even after these recent events which of course do not please us, Luxembourg foreign minister, Jean Asselborn, said in an interview with Deutsche Welle.There will be no consequences of this conflict, a diplomat from a former communist state told EUobserver. It's almost as if Germany and Russia had a meeting and said 'this is our territory and this is yours, you can do what you like there.

Germany Proposes EU-Georgia Reconstruction Conference AUG 18,08

BERLIN (AFP)--Germany is working on a proposal for a reconstruction conference for Georgia involving the European Union and Georgia's neighbors, a government spokesman said Monday.German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili discussed the idea in talks in Tbilisi Sunday, which foresees a conference under the working title Reconstruction and Stability in Georgia and the Region, spokesman Thomas Steg told a news conference.The conference would take place in the framework of the E.U.'s neighborhood policy, aimed at strengthening ties with the bloc's neighbors and which already includes Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia, Steg said.Large amounts of Georgian civilian infrastructure have been destroyed in recent days by the Russian military as it rolled into Georgia after ejecting the Georgian army from the breakaway republic of South Ossetia. (END) Dow Jones Newswires.

Israel plays down concerns over Iran's satellite Mon Aug 18, 3:19 AM ET

JERUSALEM, (AFP) - The head of Israel's space agency on Monday played down concerns over Iran's announcement it sent a rocket into space, saying the real threat came from Tehran's nuclear programme. Iran still has a long way to go as far as satellites are concerned and it deliberately exaggerates its air and space successes in order to dissuade Israel or the United States from attacking its nuclear sites, Yitzhak Ben Israel told public radio.It is clear that for years Iran has had Shihab-3 ballistic missiles which put Israel within its reach. But the threat posed by Iran comes from its nuclear programme and not from its satellites or ballistic missiles, said Ben Israel, who is also a member of parliament with the governing Kadima party.

Tehran said on Sunday it had sent a home-built rocket carrying a dummy satellite into space.The White House expressed concern over the announcement because such technology could also be used for ballistic missiles.Sunday's development came amid an international standoff over Tehran's long-standing refusal to suspend uranium enrichment, a process which makes nuclear fuel but also the core of an atomic bomb.

Israel, the region's sole if undeclared nuclear armed power, considers Iran its greatest threat.

Iran ready to put Muslim countries' satellite in orbit By Parisa Hafezi
Mon Aug 18, 5:54 AM ET

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran said on Monday it was ready to help fellow Muslim states launch satellites into orbit after it successfully put a dummy satellite into orbit -- a move that may increase Western suspicions over its atomic ambitions. Iran said on Sunday it had put the home-grown dummy satellite into orbit on a domestically made rocket for the first time. The long-range ballistic technology used to put satellites into space can also be used for launching weapons.Iran says has no intention to do so.Head of Iran's Aerospace Organization, Reza Taghipour, said Iran wanted to help Muslim countries to launch satellites.I am announcing now that Iran is ready to launch satellites of friendly Islamic countries into space, Taghipour told state television.Embroiled in a standoff with the West over its nuclear ambitions, Iran in February tested another domestically made rocket as part of its satellite program.Washington, accusing Iran of aiming to equip missiles with nuclear warheads, called the February test 'unfortunate'. It cites Iran's missile potential, among others, as the reason why it needs to install an anti-missile defense system in eastern Europe.France and Russia both said the February test raised the suspicion that Iran was seeking to develop nuclear weapons.The United states and its European allies fear Iran is trying to obtain nuclear arms under cover of a civilian program. Iran, the world's fourth largest oil producer, insists it needs nuclear technology to generate electricity.The U.N. nuclear watchdog body in a report in May expressed serious concern over alleged Iranian research into nuclear warheads and said Iran should provide more explanation of questionable missile-related activities.Iran has so far said it was not the agency's business to delve into those allegations.Iran says it has home-grown missiles with a range of 2,000 km (1,250 miles), meaning it could hit Israel or U.S. military bases in the Gulf.Western experts say Iran rarely provides enough details for them to determine the extent of its technological advances, but that much Iranian technology consists of modifications of equipment supplied by China, North Korea and other countries.Iran has been hit by three rounds of U.N. sanctions for defying demands that it suspend its uranium enrichment program. Six major powers are working on another one.Taghipour said Iran was planning to build and launch more satellites by 2010.We are working on these satellites and gradually they will be put into orbit, he told the semi-official Mehr news agency.(Writing by Parisa Hafezi; Editing by Sami Aboudi)

[Comment] Russia invaded Georgia to teach the West a lesson
ALEXANDROS PETERSEN AUG 18,08 Today @ 09:04 CET

EUOBSERVER / COMMENT - Russia invaded Georgia to teach the West three lessons. Lesson one is that no matter how democratic, enthusiastically pro-American and EU-aspiring a country, if Moscow considers it to be in its sphere of influence, it will not be allowed to shape its own destiny. This extends to Ukraine and its ideas of joining NATO, energy-rich and Western-leaning Azerbaijan, as well as the strategically important countries of the Caspian and Central Asia, north of Afghanistan. Lesson two is that no matter how much the US and its European allies attempt to increase their energy security by seeking new routes to Caspian oil and gas resources not controlled by Russia or Iran, Moscow will do its utmost, even kill thousands in a war, to block Western access. Russia's increasing dominance of Europe's energy imports, overwhelming stake in world natural gas supplies and designs for a gas OPEC should not be challenged. Lesson three is more broad. In the context of post Group of Eight summit calls from Moscow to fundamentally overhaul global security and economic institutions that are too dependent on one country and one currency, Russia's invasion of a small neighbouring country is a demonstration of contempt for a world order that does not respect Russia as it should.

Mounting bravado

In September, President Dmitri Medvedev intends to unveil a new security paradigm for Eurasia, with an aim to replace NATO. Moscow has chosen to play schoolteacher because it can. Skyrocketing energy prices, stepped-up arms sales and increased central control of resources have catapulted Russia back to international power, after the chaotic Yeltsin era. This, combined with a leadership dominated by former KGB and current security service agents has led to mounting bravado that has caught the West off guard. Russia's three-front war against Georgia must be put into the context of Moscow's recent threat to deploy nuclear-capable bombers to Cuba, its unilateral claiming of the North Pole and the vast natural resources beneath it, its reinstated nuclear patrols to Guam and Scotland, and its sale of anti-aircraft units to Iran, just as an Israeli strike seems increasingly imminent. The West should resist Russia's lesson plan with a multi-pronged strategy of its own. George Bush, Gordon Brown Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy should show solidarity with democratic Georgia by travelling to its capital, Tbilisi, on a very public visit.

Working closely with Washington, the EU should craft a comprehensive stability plan for the Black Sea and Caspian regions. South Ossetia is overshadowed in its explosive potential by Georgia's Abkhazia, Nagorno-Karabakh in Azerbaijan, and Moldova's Transnistria. All are so-called frozen conflict zones that could thaw at the slightest provocation into the major conflagration witnessed in Georgia. Russia has a hand in maintaining the current simmering status quo in all four hotspots, and their instability serves as a tool to stave off Western influence in the region.

European peacekeepers, backed by US and EU diplomats to push for region-wide conflict resolution, could not only saves lives, but would provide for significant leverage against provocative Russian actions around the globe.

Looking for respect

Only if the West has a greater stake in the region will Moscow reconsider its actions there and elsewhere. Overall, Russia's provocations are a sign of its hunger for international respect.Polls consistently show that Russia's leadership and population prize their country's status above most other concerns. By questioning the country's G-8 membership, prospective WTO accession central role in supplying the International Space Station, and hosting of the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi – all important prestige issues for Moscow – the broader West can provide some global lessons for a resurgent Russia. No matter how confident, Moscow must learn that with its rise comes responsibility. Alexandros Petersen is an Adjunct Fellow with the Russia and Eurasia Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.

Ukraine offers West radar warning AUG 16,08

Mr Yushchenko said only a collective security pact could protect Ukraine
Ukraine has said it is ready to make its missile early warning systems available to European nations following Russia's conflict with Georgia. The foreign ministry said Moscow's abrogation earlier this year of an accord involving two tracking stations allowed it to co-operate with others. President Viktor Yushchenko said his country could ensure its sovereignty only through collective security. Last week, Kiev limited the freedom of movement of Russia's Black Sea Fleet. The move came after several of the fleet's warships, based at Sevastopol in Ukraine's Crimea's peninsula, were deployed along the Georgian coastline. Moscow denounced the restrictions as anti-Russian and said its military commanders would answer only to the Russian president.

Unprecedented situation

In a statement, Ukraine's foreign ministry said that because the country was no longer party to the 1992 agreement with Russia on the use of its radar stations, it could now launch active co-operation with European nations. Only a collective security system will provide the highest international guarantees... that could prevent any actions like those which occurred in... South Ossetia

President Viktor Yushchenko

This might include the integration of Ukrainian elements of missile early warning and space control systems with those of foreign countries that are interested in gathering space data, it said. Earlier this week, President Yushchenko issued a decree putting an end to Ukraine's participation in the accord in view of Russia's abrogation of it. He said the situation was unprecedented and showed that his country could only ensure its national sovereignty through collective security.

Only that, he said, could prevent any actions like those which occurred on 7-8 August at first in South Ossetia, and then in other regions of Georgia. BBC diplomatic correspondent James Robbins says the decision is evidence Ukraine is now more desperate to embrace the West as its fear of Russia intensifies and Moscow seemingly becomes more determined to prevent any neighbouring states from joining Nato. Russia clearly sees Nato as America's sphere of influence, despite US President George W Bush's insistence that it is a purely defensive alliance of sovereign democracies, our correspondent says. Increasingly, the events of the past 10 days demonstrate Russia has gone back to arm-wrestling with its neighbours and the West after the immediate post-Soviet years, when it felt too weak, he adds.

North Korea announces ambassador to Syria Mon Aug 18, 6:16 AM ET

SEOUL, South Korea - North Korea has named an ambassador to Syria, the communist country's official media said Monday, following U.S. allegations the two countries engaged in nuclear cooperation. Choe Su Hon was appointed as DPRK ambassador to Syria, according to a decree of the Presidium of the DPRK Supreme People's Assembly, the official Korean Central News Agency said in a one sentence dispatch from Pyongyang.DPRK stands for Democratic People's Republic of Korea, the North's official name.South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported that Choe has been a deputy foreign minister since 1986, mainly responsible for diplomacy with the United Nations.Israeli jets in September last year destroyed in Syria's remote eastern desert what U.S. intelligence officials allege was a nearly completed plutonium-producing reactor that they say was built with North Korean assistance.Syria has denied the site was a nuclear facility.North Korea, which carried out an underground nuclear test blast in October 2006, has denied nuclear links with Syria.

COMMENTARY
Russia’s strike shows power of pipeline By STEVEN PEARLSTEIN
The Washington Post AUG 18,08

It was surely not lost on Russia’s bully in chief, Vladimir Putin, that the oil giant BP decided to shut down the pipeline that runs through parts of Georgia controlled by Russian troops. Indeed, that was one of the aims of the cross-border incursion.Putin understands better than anyone that oil and gas are the source of Russia’s resurgence as a military and economic power and his control over the Russian government and key sectors of its economy.A little pipeline history: It was just as Putin was coming to power in 1999 that an agreement was reached to create the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline. The project would allow Azerbaijan and its production partner, BP, to bypass Russia and transport their newly drilled oil through Georgia and Turkey to a port in the eastern Mediterranean.Because of its control of the only pipeline system linking former Soviet republics with the West, Russia had been able to extract most of the profit from any oil and gas that these newly independent countries could produce. But with BTC, which had the active support of the U.S. and European governments, Russia would lose its monopoly chokehold, opening the way for Western oil companies to make multibillion-dollar investments in the energy-rich Caucasus states.No sooner was BTC completed, however, than Western officials began exploring the possibility of other pipelines that could reach beyond Georgia and Azerbaijan to Turkmenistan, which was thought to have some of the world’s largest gas reserves. In time, much of their efforts focused on a $12 billion project known as Nabucco, named after the Verdi opera, that would take gas across the Caspian Sea, through Azerbaijan, Georgia, Turkey, Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary, finally reaching a terminal near Vienna. With Europe dependent on Russia for a quarter of its natural gas, and that number set to rise with construction of a new northern pipeline running under the Baltic Sea to Germany, European leaders were keen to find alternative sources of natural gas.

Nabucco also became a top priority of the Bush State Department.

To industry observers like Ed Chow, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Nabucco has always looked more like a diplomats’ pipe dream than a viable economic project. Its promoters had not only failed to secure supply and transit agreements but also had yet to identify an oil company eager to champion the project and finance the pipeline. Now, with its successful military incursion, Russia has raised serious doubts in the minds of Western lenders and investors that a new pipeline through Georgia would be safe from attack or beyond control of the Kremlin.What we’ve been reminded once again is that Putin is perfectly willing to sacrifice the rule of law and the good opinion of others to protect the Russian empire and the energy monopoly that sustains it.For the U.S. and Europe, this ought to be sufficient warning about the folly of extending membership in NATO or the European Union to every one of Russia’s neighbors, particularly when they are unwilling to back it up with military action.

Russia considers nuclear missiles for Syria, Mediterranean, Baltic
DEBKAfile Special Report August 17, 2008, 9:25 AM (GMT+02:00)

Russia's nuclear-capable Iskandar missile
DEBKAfile's military sources report Moscow's planned retaliation for America's missile interceptors in Poland and US-Israeli military aid to Georgia may come in the form of installing Iskandar surface missiles in Syria and its Baltic enclave of Kaliningrad.Russian Baltic and Middle East warships, submarines and long-range bombers may be armed with nuclear warheads, according to Sunday newspapers in Europe. In Georgia, Russian troops and tanks advanced to within 30 km of Tbilisi Saturday, Aug. 15. A Russian general said Sunday they had started pulling out after president Dimitry Medvedev signed the ceasefire agreement with Georgia and president George W. Bush called again for an immediate withdrawal.After routing Georgia over the breakaway enclaves of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, Moscow appears to be eying Poland, the Middle East, and possibly Ukraine, as the main arenas for its reprisals.

One plan on the table in Moscow, DEBKAfile's sources report, is the establishment of big Russian military, naval and air bases in Syria and the release of advanced weapons systems withheld until now to Iran (the S-300 air-missile defense system) and Syria (the nuclear-capable 200 km-range Iskandar surface missile). Shortly before the Georgian conflict flared, Moscow promised Washington not to let Iran and Syria have these sophisticated pieces of hardware. The Iskander's cruise attributes make its launch and trajectory extremely hard to detect and intercept. If this missile reaches Syria, Israel will have to revamp its anti-missile defense array and Air Force assault plans for the third time in two years, as it constitutes a threat which transcends all its defensive red lines. Moscow's war planners know this and are therefore considering new sea and air bases in Syria as sites for the Iskander missiles. Russia would thus keep the missiles under its hand and make sure they were not transferred to Iran. At the same time, Syrian crews would be trained in their operation. DEBKAfile's military sources report Syrian president Bashar Assad will be invited to Moscow soon to finalize these plans in detail.Military spokesmen in Moscow said Saturday and Sunday that Russian military planners to started redesigning the nation’s strategic plans for a fitting response to America's decision to install 10 missile interceptors in Poland and the war developments in Georgia.The chairman of the Israeli Knesset foreign affairs and defense committee, Tzahi Hanegbi, spoke out strongly Sunday, Aug. 17, against treasury plans to slash the defense budget. He warned that the military faced grave confrontations in the coming year - possibly on several fronts.

TRANSCRIPT RICE ON FOX NEWS SUNDAY
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,405131,00.html

ISRAELS AIRSTRIKE ON SYRIAS NUKE SITE
http://www.armscontrol.org/act/2008_07-08/SpectorCohen

Rice set for another Mideast visit Mon Aug 18, 4:32 AM ET

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will visit the Middle East next week in another attempt to achieve progress towards an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal, officials said on Monday. The United States has said it hopes to conclude a framework peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians before President George W. Bush leaves office in January. But the talks have stumbled over disputes over Israeli settlement building and the future of Jerusalem.She is coming on the 25th and 26th of August for a series of trilateral and bilateral meetings, Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said.An Israeli Foreign Ministry official confirmed the dates for the talks in Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank.In a declared bid to bolster Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, an Israeli cabinet committee approved on Monday a list of 200 Palestinian prisoners to be released on August 25.The committee said two of the longest-serving prisoners, Said al-Atabeh and Mohammad Abu Ali, would be among those freed.Atabeh, 57, of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP), was arrested in 1977, accused of organising attacks on Israeli troops.Abu Ali, 52, was jailed in 1980 for killing a leader of Jewish settlers near Hebron, in the West Bank. Though in prison, he was elected to the Palestinian parliament in 2006.Erekat said Rice had originally planned to visit the region on August 20. She is also expected to go to Brussels next week to meet NATO foreign ministers and European Union officials on the Georgia crisis.Rice last held meetings with Israeli and Palestinian officials in Washington on July 30, the same day Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, hit by a corruption scandal, said he would step down after his party chooses a new leader in September.(Reporting by Mohammed Assadi, Ori Lewis and Adam Entous, Writing by Jeffrey Heller, Editing by Giles Elgood)

Israel approves release of 200 jailed Palestinians By JOSEF FEDERMAN, Associated Press Writer Sun Aug 17, 5:21 PM ET

JERUSALEM - Israel's Cabinet on Sunday approved the release of some 200 Palestinian prisoners as a goodwill gesture to the government of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Earlier this month, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told Abbas he would free some of the 9,000 Palestinians held by Israel to help energize peace talks between the two sides.The prisoner issue is an emotional one for Palestinians, many of whom know somebody behind bars or have been imprisoned themselves. Palestinians see Israel's justice system as unfair and have elevated prisoners to hero status.Abbas, known as Abu Mazen, has repeatedly called for a large release to boost his public standing.

This is a gesture to Abu Mazen and the Palestinian people for the upcoming month of Ramadan, the Muslim holy month, Olmert told the Cabinet, according to a meeting participant who spoke on condition of anonymity because the proceedings were closed. Ramadan begins Sept. 1.A statement issued after the meeting said the release was intended to demonstrate that the release of prisoners can be achieved through talks and not through violence and the kidnapping of soldiers.That was a reference to the capture of an Israeli soldier by Hamas-linked militants in a cross-border raid two years ago. Hamas, a rival of Abbas, is demanding release of hundreds of prisoners in exchange for the soldier.In the West Bank, Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad welcomed the gesture, but said Israel should release even larger numbers of prisoners.We welcome the release of any Palestinian prisoner. It is considered a victory for Palestinians, he told The Associated Press during a tour of the northern village of Tubas. We ask Israeli to change its conditions for releasing prisoners and we ask for the release of all prisoners without exception.Israeli security officials must still approve the list of prisoners to be freed under Sunday's decision. But the Cabinet official said the release would likely include two Palestinians involved in deadly attacks on Israelis. The official said officials believe the two men, convicted in attacks that occurred in the late 1970s, were unlikely to return to violence.Israel's official position is that Palestinians involved in fatal attacks cannot be freed. However, it has made exceptions, most recently last month when it released a Lebanese prisoner convicted of killing three Israelis as part of a swap with the Hezbollah guerrilla group.The Israel Prisons Authority said Sunday that Israel is holding about 9,000 Palestinian prisoners.

Also Sunday, Palestinian militants fired a rocket at Israel, the military said. An Israel-Hamas truce that took effect June 19 is supposed to stop rocket attacks and Israeli reprisals. Hamas charged that the report of the rocket attack was falsified by Israel.The Cabinet decision followed Olmert's announcement last month that he will leave office as he battles a corruption investigation. Palestinians have been seeking assurances that the peace talks, which began with great fanfare at a U.S.-sponsored conference last November, will continue despite Israel's political turmoil.

Olmert has said he is determined to press ahead with peace efforts as long as he is in office. His Kadima Party is scheduled to choose a new leader next month, but because of Israel's complicated political system, his term could extend into next year.Olmert and Abbas had hoped to reach a peace agreement by the end of the year, though both sides have scaled back those expectations.Israeli officials also said Sunday's vote was meant to send a message that Abbas can make progress through peaceful means, in contrast to his opponents' efforts to use force and abductions against the Jewish state.As Israel tries to negotiate a peace deal with Abbas, it has boycotted Hamas, which it considers a terrorist group. Hamas violently seized control of the Gaza Strip from Abbas' forces in June 2006. In Gaza, Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said the Israeli prisoner release aimed to widen internal Palestinian divisions between Hamas and Abbas' Fatah movement. Associated Press correspondents Ali Daraghmeh in Tubas, West Bank, and Ibrahim Barzak in Gaza City, Gaza Strip, contributed to this report.

OECD entry may not boost capital flows to Israel-c.bank
Reuters - Tuesday, August 19

JERUSALEM, Aug 18 - Israel's likely entry to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development will boost the country's international standing but may not boost foreign investment flows, the Bank of Israel said on Monday.However, moving up to Morgan Stanley's development market index from the emerging markets index would likely benefit Israel over the long term, the central bank said in a research report.Shelly Reiss and Nimrod Mevorach from the central bank wrote that OECD membership would improve Israel's international standing, lower its cost of borrowing and ensure it met international standards on economic policy.The commitment itself is likely to lead to a further improvement in Israel's economic fundamentals and to make it more attractive to foreign investors, Reiss and Mevorach wrote.However ... these processes did not result in a significant change in capital flows to the countries that joined the OECD relative to those that did not.They noted that countries are accepted as OECD members on the basis of continued improvement in economic fundamentals in the years before their accession.Joining the OECD also improved sovereign credit ratings, the report said.Earlier this month, Israel completed the first phase in the process of becoming an OECD member, expected at the end of 2009.In June, equity index provider MSCI Barra said it was considering whether to upgrade Israel to developed market status next year. However, some analysts say this may not help investment because Israel's weighting in the developed index will be less than 1 percent, compared with about 2.4 percent in the emerging index <.MSCIEF>.

The central bank's report found that countries that had been upgraded to developed market status in the last 20 years benefitted from continued financial investment in shares, and in the main from a balance of holdings higher than that derived proportionally from the MSCI index.No evidence was found to support the claim that the decline to a share of less than one percent of the market portfolio in the index of the developed markets resulted in a significant drop in the volume of investments, and certainly no negative impact on investments was discerned over time, it said.But there could be a short-term decline in inflows as a result of an automatic portfolio adjustment by passive investment funds to the new classification.

2008/08/17 Tracking system for products exported to European Union countried
BERNAMA

SERDANG: A tracking system will be set up to enable the country to export agricultural and meat products to member countries of the European Union (EU) to meet its stringent conditions for such products. Agriculture and Agro-based Industry Ministry secretary-general Datuk Dr Zulkifli Idris said the stringent conditions set by the EU had forced Malaysia to cease exporting its produce to EU member countries about a year ago.We voluntarily stopped the exports until we determine the needs and conditions set by the EU, he said.The system would enable the tracking of products being exported, from the moment they are produced until they reach the end-users. It would also provide other details like date of expiry. Zulkifli said the system was vital for security reasons, including detecting any virus attack. -- Bernama.

* * * * FLASH TRAFFIC: WASHINGTON UPDATE * * * * MY INTERVIEW WITH A FORMER DELTA FORCE COMMANDER ON THE THREAT OF IRAN AND RADICAL ISLAM Plus: Crisis in Pakistan as Musharraf resigns By Joel C. Rosenberg

(Washington, D.C., August 18, 2008) -- Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf resigned this morning, telling his country of 167 million people in a televised address, I hope the nation and the people will forgive my mistakes. Pakistan now enters a dangerous moment of instability. It is not yet clear who will replace Musharraf, and as I've written before, Pakistan has long been one car bomb away from a bin Laden-ally seizing power. Should an al Qaeda-type Radical gain control of the country and its nuclear weapons, we could be facing an apocalyptic moment. Let us pray without ceasing that a Reformer will emerge who is respectful of Islam but is committed to true freedom, democracy, and the rule of law and who can root out corruption and protect minorities throughout the country. Note, however, that the last Reformer who began emerging there was Benazir Bhutto who was then assassinated after returning from exile. For all his many flaws, Musharraf was steadily becoming a Reformer. After 9/11, he became a key ally of the U.S., helping us in our war against al Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan rather than interferring. He and his security forces worked closely with us to capture numerous top jihadists, including Khalled Sheikh Mohammed, the mastermind of 9/11. He was also supportive of protecting Pakistan's rapidly growing Christian minority, which has been very important because Muslims are turning to Christ there in record numbers (I just met with a top Pakistani Christian leader for lunch last week and learned that there are now more than 2.5 million MBBS or Muslim Background Believers there.) Musharraf, to his great credit, also dramatically reached out to Israel, in defiance of the jihadists in his country. He once shook hands with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, something the Saudis won't even do, and gave a remarkable speech to the American Jewish Congress in New York City in 2005.

Let us pray for this important nation as it enters a time of great change and risk.

----------------------------

MY INTERVIEW WITH A FORMER DELTA FORCE COMMANDER

I first met him at the Pentagon in February 2007. At the time, William G. Jerry Boykin was a three-star Lieutenant-General in the United States Army, serving as Deputy Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence. As such, he was responsible for overseeing the gathering and analysis of all military intelligence related to the Global War on Terror. He had read my first non-fiction book, Epicenter, and had invited my wife, Lynn, and me for lunch to discuss my research and conclusions.

After taking us and some mutual friends on a tour of the E-Ring -- the building's innermost corridor of offices, reserved for the Secretary of Defense, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and their top assistants -- General Boykin took us to a private executive dining room where we began to chat. We talked about his family and his years in the military. We talked about his thoughts on the on-going battles in Iraq and Afghanistan, and about the rising Iranian nuclear threat. He asked me about my assessment of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and why I believed the president's Shia eschatology, or End Times theology, was driving Iranian foreign policy. It was not a subject that was being discussed inside the Pentagon's higher echelons at the time, and he was curious. It was the beginning of a friendship that would soon deepen between two our families.

As I was already doing research for my forthcoming non-fiction book, Inside The Revolution (due out March 2009), I found myself intrigued by Boykin's first-hand knowledge, and perspective, both as a high-ranking general, and as a devout evangelical Christian. Few men I had ever met in Washington better understood the mindset and mission of the Radicals better than he did. Boykin had, after all, been hunting them for nearly thirty years. When the Iranian Revolution erupted in 1979, for example, Boykin was a 31-year old commando training with the U.S. Army's newly formed and highly classified counter-terrorism unit known as Delta Force. No sooner had Radicals seized the American Embassy in Tehran and took dozens of America diplomats and Marines hostage in November of that year, Boykin and his boss, Col. Charlie Beckwith, the legendary Delta commander, were ordered to the Pentagon. There they were briefed on the latest intelligence and were ordered to begin planning a rescue.

This was America's first direct confrontation with Radical Islamic Jihadists. No one in Washington had ever encountered a crisis quite like this. In the months that followed, Boykin and his colleagues studied everything they could on the Ayatollah Khomeini, the nature and loyalty of his followers, the students that had stormed the Embassy compound, and the religious and political beliefs that drove them to wage Jihad against the West. When President Carter finally ordered the ill-fated rescue of our hostages, Boykin was one of the Delta team leaders penetrating Iranian airspace in the dark of night. The mission, sadly, was a disaster, not simply for the failures of equipment and training, but because it emboldened the Radicals, giving them a sense of divine choosing and invincibility.

Now, Boykin has just released his memoirs -- Never Surrender -- and they are absolutely fascinating. In an almost thriller-novel-like-read, he describes what led up to the ill-fated rescue mission, and just what went wrong. He also takes you inside his world as he and his special forces compatriots liberate Grenada from pro-Soviet Communist forces, and later hunt down Manuel Noriega, the drug-running, Satan-worshipping Panamanian dictator. By the early 1990s, Boykin was commander of Delta Force, including during the whole Black Hawk Down episode in Somalia. In his book, he takes you inside the operation and provides details and analysis of how events really played out in a way the movie never did. As I wrote in my endorsement: Never Surrender is a phenomenal book by a man of great courage and an inspiring faith. Boykin takes us with him inside some of the most intriguing special operations in modern American history. He explains the magnitude of the threat posed by rogue states and radical leaders who don't simply want to frighten us but to annihilate us. I loved every page. You will, too.

I asked the General if I could interview him both for the release of his book, and in doing research for my own. He graciously agreed, having also been our keynote speaker at the Epicenter conference in Jerusalem. Here are a few excerpts from our conversation:

With all your years experience in the Pentagon, commanding Delta Force, hunting jihadists around the globe, I asked, in your judgment, how serious to US national security is the threat of radical Islam in the 21stcentury?

When I came into the army in 1971 we were focused on the Soviet Union, Boykin replied. Even though we were fighting in Vietnam, our real threat was the Soviet Union. But I would say to you, Joel, that the threat that Radical Islam presents to not only America but to the world today is an even more serious threat than when we were in a nuclear standoff during the Cold War. And it's more concerning to me because this is an enemy that is hard to understand, it is an enemy that is easy to ignore, and it is an enemy that is absolutely relentless.

What's the mindset of the Jihadist movement? What do they want? What's driving them?

Well, first of all I think that it is very clearly based on their own manifesto that they are adhering to a very radical, an extreme interpretation of the Qu'ran. They clearly believe that infidels - infidels defined as those that do not serve Allah - must either be converted or killed.

What, then, is the worst case scenario?

I think the worst case scenario is that they continue in their pursuit of weapons of mass destruction, he said without hesitation. Weapons of mass destruction are available to them now, particularly chemical and biological, [and] those are not hard to make. But the worst case scenario is, I think, that they have nuclear capabilities that within these terrorist organizations, within the Jihadist movement; that they intimidate Europe to the point that Europe is no longer capable of standing against them as they have done historically; and that they take their extremism to the entire world and people start to buckle under the intimidation and pressure of really what I would see as a huge Islamic movement.

How close is Iran to having nuclear weapons?

Boykin told me that based on everything that he had seen and heard during in his tenure at the Pentagon, he believes that within two years, maybe three the Iranians will develop a nuclear weapon, a deliverable nuclear weapon. Translation: 2010 or 2011. We know that he [Ahmadinejad] has centrifuges spinning. We know that he has the technology. He has the scientists, and he certainly has the determination…. Ahmadinejad is a very, very dangerous man, in my view. I believe that the world should pay close attention to what he has said. Some would say, Well, that's just rhetoric. But let's go back and look at Hitler's rhetoric in 1933 and what ultimately occurred.Given all that you know about the Ayatollah Khomeini and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, I asked, which one is more dangerous? For Boykin, it was not a close call. I think Ahmadinejad is far more dangerous than the Ayatollah Khomeini because given that he now has more resources, he told me. Certainly has more money as a result of the oil in Iran. He has greater weapons capabilities. He has a more sophisticated army and military in general. And regardless of what the [2007] National Intelligence Estimate says, he is developing nuclear capabilities.

In your view, I asked, do you believe the West can successfully deter or negotiate with Ahmadinejad and his regime in a classic balance of power approach that worked with the Soviets?

My view is that negotiating with Ahmadinejad is a waste of time, Boykin replied. I don't think there's anything that you can appeal to in Ahmadinejad's [view of] geopolitics, of life in general, that would result in any kind of meaningful agreement with the West….I think Ahmadinejad sees himself as a man who is [supposed] to hasten the arrival of the Mahdi. He has even indicated that in his speeches….Ahmadinejad believes that the Madhi will come as a result of his efforts, part of which includes destroying or at least subjugating Israel. And so I think that the threat goes beyond just nuclear weapons. I think the threat really is a threat of growing Radicalism within Iran which is influencing much of the thinking in the rest of the Islamic world….And ultimately, when a man is that driven -- when a man is that convinced that Allah is holding him accountable to do that [destroy Judeo-Christian civilization] -- I think to believe that we could negotiate with him in any meaningful way is just inane.Never Surrender -- a must read from a true American hero.

* * * * FLASH TRAFFIC: WASHINGTON UPDATE * * * * SOBERING LESSONS FROM GEORGIA DISASTER By Joel C. Rosenberg

(Washington, D.C., August 15, 2008) -- Russia and Georgia agreed to a cease fire on August 12th. Yet at this hour, Russian forces continue to seize more Georgian territory.

The Bush administration, frankly, has done a lousy job defending our democratic ally against Putin's aggression. The Europeans have done even worse. We are finally airlifting in humanitarian relief supplies. This is good. But shouldn't we have been airlifting in weapons and ammunition around the clock, like we did to help Israel during the 1973 war? The Georgians feel alone. Because they are. The White House keeps warning Putin to back off or face repercussions. What kind? The administration refuses to be clear, so why should Putin take such bluster seriously?

Some sobering lessons have been learned this week from the Georgia disaster. Among them:

1. Putin is a new Russian Czar who wants to rebuild the Russian empire and will use force to get his way.

2. Neither the U.S. nor NATO are willing to be firm in Europe in defending a key ally against violent aggression. No one wants a war with Russia. But we have to do better than this. Such impotence in the face of Russian imperialism bodes ill for Ukraine, Poland, Armenia, Azerbaijan and other Western allies increasingly being intimidated by the Kremlin.

3. Based on events this week, Israel should be wary about accepting American or European security guarantees in any future peace deal with her neighbors.

4. A Russian attack on a democratic ally can happen fast, and almost without warning. This has prophetic implications, when you think about the prophecies of Ezekiel 38-39 and a last days war by Russia, Iran and a Mideast alliance against Israel.

5. Russia and Iran want to control the production and flow oil and natural gas in the Caucases. Both want to dominate energy supplies in Turkey.

--------------

NOTE: For reasons that are not yet clear, my previous weblog site was blocked by the host service on Friday, August 8th, preventing me from posting any new articles all week. It remains blocked, as of this writing. Thus, I have launched a new site for all new articles. Previous posts remain archived and searchable. Thanks so much for your patience and your prayers. -- JCR

MESSIANIC PROPHECY PROJECT AUG 18,08

As a pre-teen, I was enamored by theperson of Yeshua.From what I knew of Yeshua, heseemed to be the perfect rabbi,hardly something a young Jewishboy whose parents were Holocaust survivors should even consider!But, Joseph became a Believer at the age of 12 at a Bible study he had been attending with his baseball-playing Christian buddies.That began four years of opposition from my family and Jewish friends. During that time, my parents took me to numerous rabbis who tried to change my mind. But, I stood firm, although many of the anti-Yeshua arguments I heard were very strong, Joseph said.The more people tried to change Joseph’s mind about the decision he had made to follow Yeshua as his Messiah, the more he searched the Messianic prophecies for proof that Yeshua was the Messiah. Joseph’s quest wasn’t easy. In fact, over a fouryear period, his search was painstaking as he spent many hours at Hebrew Union College’s library in Cincinnati, pouring over the Messianic scriptures.

The clincher for Joseph was the Messianic Prophecy of Daniel 9:24-27...

Seventy sevens are decreed for your people and your holy city to finish transgression, to put an end to sin, to atone for wickedness, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy and to anoint the most holy.Know and understand this: From the issuing of the decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until the Anointed One, the ruler,comes, there will be seven sevens, and sixty-two sevens.

It will be rebuilt with streets and a trench, but in times of trouble.

After the sixty-two sevens, the Anointed One will be cut off and will have nothing. The people of the ruler who will come willdestroy the city and the sanctuary. The end will come like a flood:War will continue until the end, and desolations have been decreed. He will confirm a covenant with many for one seven. In the middle of the seven he will put an end to sacrifice and offering. And on a wing of the temple he will set up an abomination that causes desolation, until the end that is decreed is poured out on him.After reading it over and over, and thinking and praying about this passage, Joseph discussed it with one of the college’s reformed rabbis. This non-believing rabbi admitted that Joseph was interpreting Daniel 9:24-27 correctly as referring to none other than the Messiah!

Yes, Daniel 9:24-27 clinched it for me, affirms Joseph. It was clear that the Messiah had to appear before the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem in 70AD – and Yeshua did! It was clear that Yeshua fulfilled all ofthe Messianic prophecies.

So, at the age of 16, four years after first professing Yeshua to be his Messiah, Joseph knew for sure – thanks to the Messianic prophecies – that his earlierdecision to believe in Yeshua was backed up by irrefutable Biblical evidence – the Messianic Prophecies.Joseph’s faith was so solid, that in time, the rest of his immediate family came to accept Yeshua also – Mom, Dad, brother and sister!

Wall Street pulls back as financials fall By TIM PARADIS, AP Business Writer
AUG 18,08

NEW YORK - Wall Street has ended the day with a big loss after Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac fell to their lowest levels in nearly 20 years on concerns that the government might need to bail out the mortgage financiers. Investors are again uneasy about the health of financial companies after media reports of further problems in the sector. Barron's has reported the U.S. Treasury might have to bail out government-chartered Fannie and Freddie. This would likely wipe out shareholders' equity in the companies.The Dow Jones industrial average is ending down about 180 at the 11,479 level.

OIL AT 3 MONTH LOW

NEWS VIDEOS AUG 17,08
http://news.yahoo.com/video

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.

Tropical storm winds, rain buffet Cuba By Jeff Franks AUG 17,08

HAVANA (Reuters) - Gusty winds and blowing rain buffeted eastern Cuba on Saturday as Tropical Storm Fay neared the island after killing at least five people in Haiti and the Dominican Republic. Cuban officials ordered evacuations from flood-prone areas of coastal provinces where Fay was expected to come ashore on Sunday before crossing the Caribbean nation and heading toward Florida as a likely hurricane.As of 11 p.m. EDT (0300 GMT Sunday), Fay had top winds of near 45 miles per hour (72 km per hour) and was located about 175 miles southeast of Camaguey, Cuba, the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Florida said.Weather reports showed the U.S. Naval Station at Guantanamo Bay was getting rain and winds gusting up to 52 mph (83 kph).Fay was cruising west at 14 mph (22 kph) across very warm waters -- 90 degrees Fahrenheit (32 C), said an official at Cuba's Meteorological Institute -- and therefore was likely to strengthen before crossing the island.It was possible Fay would clip the communist island twice, once in the southeast near Guantanamo Bay, and again in the center as it begins a turn to the northwest and eventually the north.The U.S. hurricane center did not expect Fay to become a hurricane, which has top sustained winds of at least 74 mph (118 kph), until it passed through Cuba, but hurricane watches were posted for a large stretch of the island's central provinces.Cuban forecasters predicted rains of up to 8 inches from the storm.

FIVE DEAD

Heavy rains from the storm killed at least five people on the island of Hispaniola, shared by the Dominican Republic, a major tourist magnet, and impoverished Haiti.

A 34-year-old Dominican woman died and two nephews, aged 13 and 5, were missing after their truck was engulfed by flood waters raging through a gully 86 miles east of Santo Domingo, the Caribbean country's emergency operations center said.Four people died in Haiti, at least three of them drowning in rain-swollen rivers, said Alta Jean-Baptiste, head of the country's civil protection office.The hurricane center said Fay, after emerging from Cuba on Monday, was likely to brush the Florida Keys and hit the west coast of Florida as a hurricane on Tuesday.The state government of Florida declared an emergency to free up federal funds to deal with the approaching storm and the authorities in the low-lying Florida Keys said they expected to order tourists to evacuate on Sunday morning.The state's most densely populated areas around Miami and Fort Lauderdale, in the southeast, were not out of the line of fire should the storm steer more to the east than expected.Areas of the Gulf of Mexico where around a quarter of U.S. oil and 15 percent of U.S. natural gas are produced did not appear to be at immediate risk.But long-range storm forecasts are prone to error, especially when it comes to intensities, and Shell Oil Co said it was pulling 200 workers from offshore operations in the eastern Gulf of Mexico ahead of the storm.In addition to the hurricane alert in Cuba, tropical storm warnings and watches were in effect for the central Bahamas, the Cayman Islands and Jamaica. (Additional reporting by Michael Christie in Miami, Erwin Seba in Houston, Manuel Jimenez in Santo Domingo and Joseph Guyler Delva in Port-au-Prince; Editing by Eric Beech)

Tropical storm leaves 4 dead in Haiti, DR By EVENS SANON, Associated Press Writer Sat Aug 16, 8:20 PM ET

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti - Flooding from Tropical Storm Fay killed four people in Haiti and the Dominican Republic, and authorities warned Saturday that the storm could reach hurricane strength as it barrels toward Cuba. Florida's Gov. Charlie Crist declared a state of emergency and said Fay threatened the state with a major disaster. Forecasters said Fay could bring hurricane-force winds to the Florida Keys as soon as Monday.The U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami said that on Saturday night the storm was located about 60 miles (100 kilometers) southwest of Guantanamo, Cuba. It was heading west at about 14 mph (22 kph), with maximum sustained winds of 45 mph (70 kph).A man died Saturday in Haiti while trying to cross a river in Leogane, south of Port-au-Prince, said Marie Alta Jean-Baptiste, head of Haiti's civil protection department. No further information was immediately available.Rice fields in the Artibonite Valley, Haiti's most fertile region, were flooded, according to reports from Radio Ginen. And Fay's heavy winds destroyed banana crops in Arcahaie, north of the capital, although it is unclear how many acres were affected, Jean-Baptiste said.Haiti has struggled to cope with a food crisis that sparked deadly riots in April.The capital's airport reopened Saturday afternoon, but heavy rains were still expected in the south.

In neighboring Dominican Republic, a 34-year-old woman drowned when a family tried to cross a swollen river in a car, civil defense agency director Luis Luna Paulino said. The bodies of her missing 13-year-old niece and 5-year-old nephew were found Saturday afternoon, but her husband swam to safety.A tropical storm warning has been issued for the Cayman Islands, and a tropical storm watch remains in effect for the Bahamas and Jamaica.Cuba's government said hurricane watches were in effect for the provinces of Villa Clara, Cinefuegos, Matanzas, Camaguey, Ciego de Avila and Sancti Spiritus. Fay's path was expected to take it over the southern coast of the eastern Cuba late Saturday or Sunday and over the island's west near Havana on Sunday night or Monday.Officials in Cuba's eastern province of Santiago met to discuss ordering tourists to evacuate low-lying coastal hotels and camp sites, the Communist Party newspaper Granma reported on its Web site. They also advised farmers to move cattle and other animals to higher ground.There were no official details on how many tourists had been evacuated, but a receptionist at the Melia Santiago hotel, located in Cuba's second-largest city, said it was preparing to receive a small number of tourists evacuated from coastal areas. She said she was not authorized to be identified by name in the foreign media.Forecasters said Fay could hit the U.S. as a Category 1 or 2 hurricane, with winds perhaps reaching more than 100 mph (160 kph).
Associated Press writer Ramon Almanzar contributed from Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.

Southeast Asia flooding hits cyclone-weary Myanmar Sat Aug 16, 5:48 AM ET

BANGKOK, Thailand - Severe flooding triggered by torrential rains has struck areas of Myanmar still recovering from a cyclone that killed more than 84,000 people, a state-run newspaper said Saturday. Flooding has also hit parts of Cambodia, Vietnam and Thailand. In Laos, at least four people died from their injuries in landslides triggered by flooding after levels in the Mekong River reached record highs.In Myanmar, the floods hit areas of Yangon and the Irrawaddy delta, where Cyclone Nargis left a swath of devastation early May, as well as other regions of the country, the Myanma Ahlin newspaper said. No casualties were reported.Residents fled from their homes, schools were closed and rice fields submerged in regions ranging from Karen and Mon states in the southeast to Mandalay in central Myanmar.The water quickly receded and damage to rice fields was not reported, the newspaper said.In Laos, Foreign Ministry spokesman Yong Chanthalansy said Friday that four people died outside the capital, Vientiane, after being injured in landslides triggered by the flooding. The state news agency KPL said one of the dead was a child.Speaking by telephone from Vientiane, Yong said that there were reports that the flooding was receding Friday after water levels in the Mekong had reached 44.8 feet, beating the previous record high of 40.61 feet in 1966.The flooding also cut electricity in some parts of the old royal capital of Luang Prabang, a popular tourist destination, the Web site reported. It added that the main road between Vientiane and Luang Prabang had been cut off by a landslide.Thailand's national news agency said areas of three northeastern provinces bordering the Mekong River and Laos were badly affected, with flooding causing damage to dikes and thousands of acres of farmland.In Nong Khai province, more than 1,000 houses were flooded, with some villagers evacuating. Two hospitals were hit and patients and medical supplies were moved to higher ground, the Thai News Agency said.Some 128,000 people in Nakhon Phanom province were also affected, the agency said.

Iselle falls to tropical depression off Mexico Fri Aug 15, 11:23 PM ET

MEXICO CITY - Forecasters say Tropical Storm Iselle has been downgraded to a depression off Mexico's Pacific coast. The U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami says Iselle's winds have fallen to under 35 mph (55 kph), and the system is expected to weaken further over the weekend and dissipate.Iselle was located late Friday about 340 miles (550 kilometers) southwest of the tip of the Baja California peninsula.The system was moving northwest and heading farther out to sea.

Forecasters: Floridians should prepare for hurricane By BRIAN SKOLOFF, Associated Press Writer AUG 17,08

KEY WEST, Fla. - Residents and tourists in the Florida Keys prepared Saturday for Tropical Storm Fay, which forecasters said could strengthen to a hurricane and begin battering the island chain as soon as Monday. Florida Gov. Charlie Crist declared a state of emergency because Fay threatens the state of Florida with a major disaster, he wrote in an executive order.Forecasters predicted Saturday evening that the sixth named storm of the 2008 season would make landfall somewhere along western coast of Florida on Tuesday as a hurricane, said Corey Walton, a hurricane support meteorologist at the National Hurricane Center in Miami.Officials in the Keys' Monroe County said they would likely order an evacuation of all visitors on Sunday morning. A decision on whether to require all residents to evacuate was to come, county spokeswoman Becky Herrin said.Keys emergency officials often take the precaution of ordering early evacuations when a storm threatens, because traffic can back up for miles on the single highway to Florida's mainland.Besides the threat of damage from high winds, most of the islands sit at sea level and could be flooded by Fay's storm surge. Flooding from the storm on Saturday killed four people in the Dominican Republic and Haiti.At 11 p.m. EDT, Fay's center was located about 100 miles north-northeast of Kingston, Jamaica, and moving west at 14 miles per hour. The storm had maximum sustained winds of 45 mph.State officials in Tallahassee opened their emergency operations center, said Blair Heusdens, a spokeswoman for the state's Division of Emergency Management.We like to have the executive order in place before the storm, Heusdens said. That way we can have our resources ready.

Tourists and locals still packed downtown Key West on Saturday, seemingly unfazed by the approaching storm.Todd Hitchins, 36, of Big Pine Key, about 30 miles east of Key West, said he planned to stock up on water and propane for his grill but wasn't too worried.This will be good practice, mused Hitchins, who said he's lived here during much more powerful storms. But you've got to be prepared, be ready.Jeff Emmett, operations manager at Fairfield Inn and Suites in Key West, said Saturday afternoon the hotel had no cancellations or early check-outs.Business as usual, Emmett said. Right now, we're just keeping the guests informed.Chris Celestina, 24, was sitting at the hotel's poolside bar while on vacation with four friends from Pennsylvania.

We're not really worried, Celestina said as he ordered a drink. Whatever happens, happens. If we get evacuated, that will definitely put a damper on our plans, but until we have to, we're not moving.Some Keys residents were preparing for the aftermath.Andrew Cardwell, 26, filled up nine 5-gallon gas cans for his employer, Pirate Scooter Rentals, early Saturday afternoon. As soon as the storm passes through, people are going to want to rent mopeds, Cardwell said. We're just getting it while we can.

Eurozone swings closer to economic recession
LUCIA KUBOSOVA 15.08.2008 @ 09:31 CET

The eurozone's economy has slipped further towards recession, with fresh output figures pointing to an economic downturn in the 15-strong zone as well as in the whole of the European Union, while inflation remains at a record high.According to early predictions by Eurostat, the EU's statistical office, gross domestic product (GDP) in the euro area dropped by 0.2 percent during the second quarter of 2008. This makes it the very first time that the monetary bloc's economy declined since the launch of euro. Similarly, the GDP for the whole of the EU shrank by 0.1 percent during the same period, with the worst performance recorded in the Baltic states of Estonia and Latvia.The gloomy forecasts – published on Thursday (14 August) - have reinforced concerns about the European economy moving closer to recession, with both Germany and France as the two biggest countries showing signals of an economic slow-down.The German economy dropped by 0.5 percent - which was less than analysts had predicted – while France's shrunk by 0.3 percent.Amelia Torres, European Commission spokeswoman for economic and monetary affairs, refused to speculate on recession fears and suggested that the latest figures were of no surprise to the EU executive, referring to unexpectedly high growth rates in the first quarter of 2008. I think it's a bit exaggerated to use that word, she told reporters in Brussels. But she admitted that the signs are not really very good for the future.According to eurozone figures, no eurozone country is yet officially in recession – seen as two consecutive quarters of economic decline – but within the whole of the EU, Estonia has officially slipped in recession. Along with the declining growth, inflation in the eurozone remained at a record high of 4 percent in July, unchanged from June. A year earlier the rate was 1.8 percent.

Georgia: Russian forces control half of country USATODAY By Vasily Fedosenko, Reuters AUG 17,08

A column of Russian troops stops for a short rest while traveling in the direction of Tskhinvali, near the town of Alagir, Georgia.

By Jeffrey Stinson, USA TODAY
TBILISI, Georgia — The Georgian government said Saturday night that Russian forces control half the country and that the nation's railroad system has been shut down after a bridge was blown.It also accused Russian forces of deliberately setting fires that threaten electricity and some cellphone communications as far as Tbilisi, the Georgian capital.The actions, the government said, are occurring despite Russian President Dmitry Medvedev having signed a cease-fire agreement earlier in the day.

The cease-fire agreement, which Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili signed on Friday, calls for the withdrawal Russian combat troops from the country. It was unclear Saturday night how soon that would be and what sort of actions will occur in Russian-occupied territory before they do..Eka Kguladze, deputy interior minister, said that rail service was shut down after a bridge was blown in central Georgia along a key east-west line. Moscow denied it had done so.She said that power lines and cellphone towers are threatened by several fires raging in various parts of the country in areas that the Russians control. Russia has refused to let Georgian firefights or fire-fighting aircraft in from neighboring countries to put them out, she said.The death toll, meanwhile, continues to rise in the Russia-Georgia war that broke out Aug. 8 and has raised tensions between Washington and Moscow. Georgia is a U.S. ally.Georgian Health Minister Sandro Kvitashvili put the death toll from the conflict at 182. Of those, 115 are military deaths and 167 civilian. Those injured and in hospitals number 479, of which 157 are civilians.He said the number of deaths and injuries are increasing especially among civilians, although major military action largely ended Aug. 9. Moscow has said 2,000 people were killed when Georgian forces sought to retake the breakaway province of South Ossetia, which sparked the war. Those numbers, however, cannot be confirmed.The death toll could go higher, he said, because Russia is denying safe access to the areas they occupy to pull out the dead and wounded. He said he didn't know when he would be allowed in.The United States insists that Russia pull its combat troops out of Georgia immediately and to borders that existed before Aug. 8. Under the deal, Russia can keep peacekeeping forces in a breakaway regions.A fast Russian pullout won't happen, Moscow said earlier Saturday. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Russia needed to strengthen its peacekeeping forces before it could pull back. He gave no timetable, telling reporters that the withdrawal would take as long as it takes.

Bush Says Breakaway Regions Must Remain Part of Georgia Saturday, August 16, 2008 AP

President Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice speak with reporters about Georgia at the president's ranch in Crawford, Texas, Saturday.CRAWFORD, Texas — President Bush said Saturday that the two disputed regions at the center of the conflict between Georgia and Russia must remain part of Georgia, but called the signing of a cease-fire between the two nations a hopeful step.Russia's president signed the cease-fire plan Saturday, a day after Georgia's president reluctantly agreed to the pact after lengthy talks with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

Russian forces started to pull back, but later in the day reports were widespread that the military was still digging in, maintaining outposts in Georgian territory.

Bush, speaking at his Crawford, Texas, ranch, issued a stern warning to Russia, whose president said Friday that it's unlikely the two breakaway regions — South Ossetia and Abkhazia — will be able to stay in one state with Georgia.A major issue is Russia's contention that the region of South Ossetia and Abkhazia may not be a part of Georgia's future, Bush said. These regions are a part of Georgia — and the international community has repeatedly made clear that they will remain so.No Room for Debate Bush said the United States fully recognizes Georgia's borders and that the country continues to stand behind Georgia's democracy and sovereignty. Bush said Russia must abide by the cease-fire that Georgia and Russia have signed.Georgia's borders should command the same respect as every other nation’s. There’s no room for debate on this matter, he said.Russia's foreign minister has said that Georgia could forget about getting back those provinces.Russian President Dmitry Medvedev met in the Kremlin this past week with the leaders of those regions. That was seen as a sign that Moscow could absorb the areas.Rice did not specify what, if any, repercussions Russia might face for its actions.We'll take our time and look at further consequences for what Russia has done, she said. The U.S. and the European Union already have raised concerns about the way Russia has done this. I think you will start to see reports come out about what Russian forces engaged in.She said that unlike in the past, Russia cares deeply about its global reputation. I think actually Russia will care about this talk, because it's not just talk, it's about Russia's standing in the international community, Rice said.

The cease-fire agreement calls for both forces to pull back to positions they held before fighting erupted Aug. 8. That was when Georgia launched a massive barrage to try to take control of the Russian-backed separatist region of South Ossetia. The Russian army quickly overwhelmed the forces of its small U.S.-backed neighbor, and Moscow's troops drove deep into Georgia.The agreement, Rice said, is specific about future Russian troop presence in Georgia.The world has watched with alarm as Russia invaded a sovereign neighboring state and threatened a democratic government elected by its people, Bush said in his weekly radio address. This act is completely unacceptable to the free nations of the world.Keeping up the diplomatic pressure, Rice planned to go to Brussels next week for meetings with the foreign ministers of NATO allies and European Union officials.Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Joe Biden, D-Del., also announced he will visit Georgia over the weekend to meet with the president and Georgians forced to flee their homes.White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe said Bush spoke with Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili Saturday afternoon, and reiterated United States support for the government and people of Georgia.The crisis has chilled relations between the United States and Russia. The fighting comes as the U.S. is sealing the deal on a missile shield in Europe — an issue already unraveling ties between the two former Cold War foes.Poland and the U.S. signed a deal Thursday for Poland to accept a missile interceptor base as part of a system the U.S. says is aimed at blocking attacks by adversaries such as Iran.

Moscow feels it is aimed at Russia's missile force. A Russian general was quoted by Interfax News Agency on Friday as saying that by accepting a U.S. missile defense battery, Poland was exposing itself to a strike.The missile deal awaits approval by Poland's parliament and signing by Rice during a future visit to Warsaw, possibly in the week ahead.That is sure to further antagonize Russia. But the U.S. wants to be careful to alienate Moscow and drive Russian leaders away from further integration with the West.Russia's actions in Georgia raise serious questions about its role and its intentions in the Europe of the 21st century, Bush said. In recent years, Russia has sought to integrate into the diplomatic, political, economic, and security structures of the West. The United States has supported those efforts. Now Russia has put its aspirations at risk by taking actions in Georgia that are inconsistent with the principles of those institutions.To begin to repair the damage to its relations with the United States, Europe, and other nations, and to begin restoring its place in the world, Russia must act to end this crisis.The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Ukraine vows to implement orders on Russia fleet 14 Aug 2008 17:22:38 GMT
Source: Reuters By Yuri Kulikov

KIEV, Aug 14 (Reuters) - Pro-Western Ukraine vowed on Thursday to make Russia seek official permission for movements of its warships based in the ex-Soviet state despite Moscow's objections, placing the neighbours on a collision course.Russia's Black Sea Fleet is based on Ukraine's Crimea pensinsula under an agreement signed by the two ex-Soviet states. Kiev's jurisdiction over the area remains a highly sensitive issue among Russian nationalists and in the peninsula dominated by ethnic Russians.Ukraine's plans for tougher rules on Russian naval moves, announced by President Viktor Yushchenko on Wednesday, are the latest affront to Moscow after Kiev's sharp criticism of its military incursion into Georgia in support of breakaway regions South Ossetia and Abkhazia.Tension between the two states had already been simmering due to Moscow's opposition to Kiev's efforts to join NATO, and past disputes over gas prices and property.On Thursday, Georgian Chief of Staff Serhiy Kirichenko said Yushchenko's decree would be carried out, no matter what.

There is a presidential decree and it will, naturally, be implemented, Interfax Ukraine quoted him as saying. I guarantee that we will do everything to ensure the president's decree is carried out.Investors priced Ukrainian assets sharply riskier amid concerns over the row with Russia, with the cost of insuring Ukrainian government debt widening sharply.Yushchenko's decree on Wednesday required the fleet to secure permission for any movements 72 hours in advance.In Moscow, the deputy head of Russia's general staff dismissed it as irrelevant.We have one general commander for the Black Sea fleet. It is the President of Russia, Colonel-General Anatoly Nogovitsyn said. And all commands from outside are illegitimate to us.

TENSION

Ukraine's leaders, like the United States, have backed Georgia throughout the conflict and urged Moscow to withdraw troops from its smaller neighbour's territory.

On Thursday, Yushchenko's Website said the president had spoken to U.S. President George W. Bush and praised Washington's clear and consistent position.Under the terms of Wednesday's presidential decree, Ukrainian authorities must inform fleet commanders of their consent for the movement of warships and aircraft 24 hours before their scheduled departure.Should commanders fail to comply with the rules, Ukraine's foreign ministry would be empowered to ask the vessel or aircraft to leave Ukrainian territory.The conflict in South Ossetia has given rise to suggestions that disagreements between Ukraine and Russia could rekindle tension between the two neighbours over the fleet and Crimea that existed throughout the early post-Soviet years.Under a 1997 agreement, Ukraine agreed to lease harbour space in the Crimea peninsula base of Sevastopol until 2017.Yushchenko and other officials say Ukraine has no intention of extending the lease and have called for negotiations to ensure for an orderly departure of the fleet by 2017 -- a position strongly criticised by the Kremlin.Nationalist Russian politicians regularly suggest that Moscow should reclaim Sevastopol -- or even all of Crimea -- as its own territory.Crimea, part of Russia from the late 18th century, was handed to Soviet Ukraine by Kremlin leader Nikita Khrushchev in 1954 when the collapse of communism was unthinkable. It reverted to independent Ukraine when Soviet rule collapsed in 1991. (Writing by Ron Popeski; Editing by Caroline Drees)

Israel's Barak meets with Palestinian prime minister Sat Aug 16, 4:32 PM ET

JERUSALEM (AFP) - Palestinian prime minister Salam Fayyad and Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak held talks Saturday evening on security and political matters, officials from both sides said. The two men meet at Barak's residence in Tel Aviv for discussions on security and political questions according to a defence ministry statement.The talks touched on the expected release of more than 150 Palestinian prisoners Sunday, along with the deployment of new Palestinian police forces in the West Bank, military radio reported.Barak and Fayyad met in Jerusalem in June with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

Iran training Iraqi hit squads: US military by Jim Mannion
Fri Aug 15, 12:05 PM ET

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Iraqi assassination squads are being trained in Iran by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Quds Force and Lebanese Hezbollah for attacks in Iraq, a US military official said Friday. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the Shiite special groups were being trained in Qom, Tehran, Mashad and Ahvaz in assassination and bombing techniques to target specific Iraqis as well as US troops and Iraqi security forces.We have intelligence reports confirming Iranian-sponsored groups are planning to return back to Iraq and are targeting specific coalition forces, ISF (Iraqi Security Forces) and Iraqi citizens, the official said.The intelligence, if it proves out, raises the prospect of a deadly new security challenge at a time when the US military is hoping to make further cuts in its forces.The official, who spoke from Iraq, said the information has been turned over to the Iraqi government and they are taking the lead in handling the situation.The groups were being trained in reconnaissance, small arms, small unit tactics, cellular operations, EFPs and other IEDs, RPGs and assassination techniques, the official said.

EFPs, which stands for explosively formed projectiles, are armor-piercing bombs that have proven highly effective against US armored vehicles. The US military charges that components for the bombs are made in Iran.The official said the special groups were being deployed to carry out terrorist acts against specific individuals as well as US and Iraqi forces.The special groups have been associated in the past with radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi army, but the official would not link those being trained to Sadr.Among the Iraqi groups identified as involved in the training were Kitaib Hezbollah, which he described as a criminal group supported by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard that has claimed a number of sophisticated attacks since 2005.The official identified a second Iraqi group as As Said Al-Haq.They are being trained by Quds Force under the leadership of Qassim Suleimani and Lebanese Hezbollah, the official said.The US military many times in the past have accused Iran of fomenting violence in neighboring Iraq, supplying Shiite groups with arms and training for attacks on US forces.But the violence has fallen off sharply in the wake of a US surge strategy that helped turn Sunni tribes against Al-Qaeda and Iraq's Shiite led government against Shiite militias and the so-called special groups.US military officials have said many special group leaders fled to Iran, but were believed to be biding their time for a return.Also contributing to the drop in violence has been a unilateral cease-fire declared a year ago by al-Sadr, who the US military believes is in Iran.Sadr announced in June that he would replace the 60,000-strong Mahdi Army with a smaller fighting force to target the US-led occupation.

Israel puts off evacuating illegal wildcat settlement by Marius Schattner
Fri Aug 15, 5:15 AM ET

JERUSALEM (AFP) - The Israeli government has decided to put off for the time being its promised evacuation of the largest Jewish wildcat settlement in the occupied West Bank, the defence ministry said on Friday. The ministry told the Israeli High Court the Migron settlers -- about 200 people living on private Palestinian land -- can remain until new homes are built for them on public land.We have told the court we will announce within 45 days the new location of Migron, a ministry spokeswoman said. The ministry did not say when the settlers would be moved.In January the government told the court it would evacuate Migron by August.The government's new plan to move the settlers later has the backing of the main West Bank settlers' organisation, but the Migron residents, some right-wingers and anti-settler activists reject it.The government caved in to settlers who threatened to use violence if they are evacuated while they illegally occupy private Palestinian land, said Yariv Oppenheimer of the Peace Now group, which had filed a petition before the High Court seeking the evacuation.The Yediot Aharonot daily quoted the Committee of Settler Rabbis as saying: The thought of evacuating Migron is against the Torah and basic human morals.Some ultra-orthodox Jews believe they have a divine mission to settle the whole of the Biblical land of Israel, including the Palestinian territories.But other right-wingers believe that the Migron settlers would benefit from the legal recognition they would get by moving.Migron is the largest of some 100wildcat settlement outposts dotted around the West Bank that were erected without Israeli government authorisation.Most consist of just a few trailers but Migron has several houses, dozens of mobile homes, a synagogue, a ritual bath, a kindergarten and greenhouses.The international community regards all West Bank settlements as illegal, regardless of whether they were built with Israeli authorisation.Washington has exerted particular pressure on Israel to dismantle the wildcat outposts.A lawyer who in 2004 assessed the legal situation of the settlements on behalf of the government called the Migron decision strange, to say the least.Migron was erected in a fraudulent manner on private land taken from Palestinians. The same settlers who violated the law are now seeing their actions sanctioned by the law, Talia Sasson told Israeli public radio.In another development, an internal police report cited by Haaretz says the number of settler attacks against Palestinians and clashes with police have increased significantly.The daily cites the report as saying there were 429 such incidents in the first six months of the year, compared with 551 in all of 2007.More than 260,000 Israelis are estimated to live in government-authorised settlements across the West Bank, with another 200,000 in settlements in annexed east Jerusalem.

Oil touches 3-month low on stronger US dollar By STEVENSON JACOBS, AP Business Writer Fri Aug 15, 5:11 PM ET

NEW YORK - Oil fell to its lowest price in three months Friday, briefly touching the $111 level after the dollar muscled higher and OPEC predicted the world's thirst for fuel next year will fall to its lowest point since 2002. Light, sweet crude for September delivery fell $1.24 to settle at $113.77 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange after falling to $111.34, its lowest price since May 2 and more than $35 — or 24 percent — below its July 11 trading record above $147.As high energy costs force countries around the globe to cut back on consumption, crude prices have plummeted and are now within striking distance of $100 a barrel, a level first reached Feb. 19.

At the pump, retail gas prices also continued falling, with a gallon of regular shedding about half a penny overnight to a new national average of $3.771, according to auto club AAA, the Oil Price Information Service and Wright Express. Gas peaked at $4.114 on July 17.Crude fell after the dollar gained strength against the euro on U.S. data showing that industrial output rose more than expected in July. The 15-nation euro has lost some of its luster compared to its American rival amid growing evidence that European economies are slowing. The euro bought $1.4675 in trading Friday, down from $1.4811 late Thursday.A rising dollar typically pushes oil prices lower as investors who buy crude and other commodities as hedges against inflation start dumping their positions to cut their losses. A stronger greenback also makes dollar-denominated commodities more expensive to overseas buyers, further eroding demand.The dollar is on fire again so that's causing people to re-evaluate everything, said Phil Flynn, oil analyst at Alaron Trading Corp. in Chicago. It means oil prices could fall dramatically. We could see prices get to double digits if this continues.An OPEC forecast of lower demand also put downward pressure on prices.In its monthly oil report, the organization forecast world appetite for oil this year overall will fall by 30,000 barrels a day. While forecasting demand growing by a daily 1 million barrels a day this year, and another 900,000 barrels in 2009, the report noted that world demand growth next year will also be the lowest since 2002, with demand growth from the major industrialized countries actually declining.They're basically saying we could have an oil glut because demand is slowing, Flynn said. It's obvious that high prices do slow down demand and the market works.The OPEC report came two days after the U.S. Department of Energy highlighted the ongoing drop in U.S. demand for energy as Americans struggle with high costs for gasoline, food and other goods.Oil's steady decline has continued despite the simmering weeklong conflict between Russia and Georgia over two breakaway provinces. Western leaders worked Friday to persuade Russia to pull troops out of Georgia, but regional tensions soared after a top Russian general warned that Poland could face attack over its missile defense deal with the United States.

British oil company BP PLC said Thursday it has resumed pumping gas into the Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum pipeline that runs through Georgia, but two oil pipelines remained closed. BP's Baku-Supsa oil pipeline was shut as a precaution, and the larger Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan line, a key supplier to Western countries, remains shut after a fire earlier this month on the Turkish section of the line.Analysts noted that the conflict in Georgia, while likely not driven primarily by energy concerns, highlights Moscow's influence over oil and natural gas reserves in the region. Russia exports more oil than any country except Saudi Arabia, and is the world's leading producer of natural gas.Only weeks ago, such a clash would likely have sent oil prices soaring. But the market has largely ignored the fighting in Georgia because traders have already priced in the geopolitical risk, analysts say. Crude's monthlong nosedive has also made it harder for bullish traders to spark a rally, despite a possible threat to oil installations.Also weighing on prices Friday was the expiration of September oil contract options at the end of the day, a trading cycle that often increases volatility.In other Nymex trading, heating oil futures rose 2 cents to settle at $3.1191 a gallon, while gasoline prices slipped 5.18 cents to settle at $2.8602 a gallon. Natural gas futures fell 4.4 cents to settle at $8.092per 1,000 cubic feet.In London, September Brent crude fell $1.13 to settle at $112.55a barrel. Associated Press writers George Jahn in Vienna, Austria, Adam Schreck in Dubai and Alex Kennedy in Singapore contributed to this report.

Salmonella outbreak winds down; questions remain Fri Aug 15, 3:14 PM ET

WASHINGTON - The nationwide salmonella outbreak is finally winding down but federal health officials can't yet say how the few tainted Mexican peppers they've found could explain such widespread illness. The outbreak isn't considered over yet, Food and Drug Administration food safety chief Dr. David Acheson cautioned Friday. The outbreak strain has been confirmed in 1,423 patients, with the latest known illness beginning July 24.The FDA is focusing its probe on some farms in Mexico where a handful of jalapeno and serrano peppers, and some irrigation water, tainted with the outbreak strain of salmonella were traced. At least one of the farms also grew tomatoes — the initial suspect — as well as peppers. And two of them sent produce to a common packing facility, raising the prospect that contamination there could have spread to a much higher volume of food.The FDA said Friday it is still working with Mexican authorities to determine exactly what happened in that packing facility.And the agency has expanded testing of certain Mexican produce, uncovering more cases of salmonella contamination — just not the same strain that caused this particular outbreak — in jalapenos, basil and cilantro. While Acheson wouldn't say how much salmonella is being found, the agency has put a dozen Mexican growers or distributors on its import alert list for tougher border screening this month alone.