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.
WOW NOW WE KNOW WHY JESUS SAID and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity;(MASS CONFUSION) the sea and the waves roaring;(FIERCE WINDS). 4 STORMS DONE OR IN PROGRESS PLUS INDIA IN TROUBLE.
LIKE THE ANGEL TOLD DOCTOR DOCTORIAN THE SEA WOULD BE REVERSING ITS COURSE THE STORMS WOULD BE SO BAD. EXACTLY WHAT HAPPENED YESTERDAY WITH GUSTAV.
New Orleans largely spared by Hurricane Gustav By ROBERT TANNER and VICKI SMITH, Associated Press Writers SEPT 02,08
NEW ORLEANS - New Orleans evacuees scattered across the country were eager to return home after their city was largely spared by Hurricane Gustav, but Mayor Ray Nagin warned they may have to wait in shelters and motels a few days longer. The city's improved levee system helped avert a disaster like Hurricane Katrina, which flooded most of the city, and officials got an assist from a disorganized and weakened Gustav, which came ashore about 72 miles southwest of the city Monday morning. Eight deaths were attributed to the storm in the U.S. after it killed at least 94 people across the Caribbean.But New Orleans was still a city that took a glancing blow from a hurricane: A mandatory evacuation order and curfew remained in effect. And though few people were left in the city, nearly 80,000 homes remained without power after the storm damaged transmission lines that snapped like rubber bands in the wind and knocked 35 substations out of service.The city's sewer system was damaged, and hospitals were working with skeleton crews on backup power. Drinking water continued to flow in the city and the pumps that keep it dry never shut down — two critical service failings that contributed to Katrina's toll.Gustav was downgraded to a tropical depression early Tuesday, the National Hurricane Center in Miami said. At 5 a.m. EDT, the storm's maximum sustained winds had decreased to near 35 mph, but forecasters issued flood warnings for northern Louisiana and East Texas, where up to 8 inches of rain was expected. The storm's center was located about 135 miles northwest of Lafayette and was moving northwest at about 10 mph.Nagin cautioned that Tuesday would be too early for residents to return to New Orleans, but their homecoming was only days away, not weeks.Crews would comb the city Tuesday to fully review the damage, Nagin said, with the goal of having residents return beginning late Wednesday or Thursday.
Retailers and other major companies could start sending workers Wednesday to check on their locations, he said. Buses are in place and ready to bring residents back with instructions to drop them off as close as possible to their homes.The state and city took pride in a massive evacuation effort that succeeded in urging people to leave or catch buses and trains out: Almost 2 million people left coastal Louisiana, and only about 10,000 people rode out the storm in New Orleans.I would not do a thing differently, Nagin said. I'd probably call Gustav, instead of the mother of all storms, maybe the mother-in-law or the ugly sister of all storms.But thousands of people were strained by sleeping in cots in gymnasiums and convention centers, far away from their homes and wondering when they could go back. Fights broke out at an overcrowded shelter in Shreveport. Doctors worried about medications running out and seven people were hospitalized, all in stable condition.People are desperate. They don't know if they are going to have a place to go home to, said Emma McClure, 37, who was at the shelter with her three children, three sisters and some 20 nephews. They had three years to plan this and now I wish I had stayed in the city like I did during Katrina.Though the big city was spared, Gustav devastated parts of Cajun country, destroying homes and flooding parts of the mostly rural, low-lying parishes across the state's southeastern and central coast that are also home to the state's oil and natural gas industries.Four evacuating Louisianans were killed in Georgia when their car struck a tree. A 27-year-old Lafayette man was killed when a tree fell on his house as the storm whipped through, and an Abbeville couple was killed when a tree fell on a home in Baton Rouge. A woman from Jefferson was killed Monday when her vehicle ran off Interstate 10 and struck a tree.A levee in the southeastern part of Louisiana was in danger of collapse, and officials scrambled to fortify it. Roofs were torn from homes, trees toppled and roads flooded. A ferry sunk. More than 1 million homes were without power. And the extent of any damage to the oil and gas industries was unclear.Gov. Bobby Jindal said he heard reports of widespread damage across Terrebonne, Lafourche and St. Mary parishes. He said conditions were still too dangerous Monday night to send teams to assess the damage, but the effort to find injured or killed people would begin before dawn with helicopter crews using night-vision technology.It could be a day or more before oil and natural gas companies can assess the damage to their drilling and refining installations. Jindal said as much as 20 percent of oil and gas production that was stopped because of Gustav could be restored by this weekend, stressing that it was a rough estimate.To the east of the city, Jindal said state officials were planning an aerial tour on Tuesday to gauge damage to Port Fourchon, a vital energy industry hub where huge amounts of oil and gas are piped inland to refineries.The Gulf of Mexico accounts for about 25 percent of domestic oil production and 15 percent of natural gas output. Damage to those installations could cause gasoline prices at the pump to spike, although oil prices declined Monday. Several companies that operate platforms in the area said their platforms remained intact, but they needed to inspect them before they could restart production.
Two houses built up on pilings to avoid flooding were not spared by the wind that tore through Montegut, a small Terrebonne Parish town south of Houma. Across a narrow bayou running past the houses, globs of yellow insulation had collected in a tree and a neighbor's chain-link fence. One of the homes had part of a wall ripped away, exposing a room with two plaques on the wall, one of which read: Ashley Pennison, 2000-2001 honor graduate, 3.5 GPA.The remnants of her childhood lay scattered about the soggy grass, including strung-together letter-shaped pillows spelling out her first name along with an assortment of miniature clowns. Danny Price, the owner of a grocery store across the street, said he stayed home for the storm, but he might not the next time. I got scared, he said. It was bad when the wind started rolling in. This was a picture to see: trees snapping off, fences blowing down and that wind just coming down the driveway over 100 miles per hour. It gets you scared. It's not something to play with. I don't think I'm going to stay for another one.Associated Press writers Becky Bohrer, Cain Burdeau, Allen G. Breed contributed to this report from New Orleans. Janet McConnaughey and Alan Sayre contributed from Hammond. Doug Simpson in Baton Rouge, Michael Kunzelman in Lafayette, La., Vicki Smith in Montegut, La., and Holbrook Mohr in Gulfport, Miss., also contributed.
As Gustav winds down, New Orleans eyes damage By Matthew Bigg and Tim Gaynor
SEPT 02,08
NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) - A still-largely deserted New Orleans on Tuesday prepared to take stock of damage from Hurricane Gustav after rebuilt levees appeared to hold off a repeat of the flooding caused by Katrina three years earlier. Gustav roared through the heart of the U.S. Gulf oil patch but oil and natural gas prices plunged when Gustav weakened before landfall and spared key Gulf oil installations, easing fears of serious supply disruptions.As the hurricane's winds slowed, it also stayed on a westerly track, missing New Orleans in a twist that helped keep it from becoming the monster storm feared just days earlier.By early Tuesday, Gustav had weakened to become a tropical depression as it dumped rain over western Louisiana, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.But the storm surge kicked up by Gustav tested a levee system still being rebuilt after collapsing during Katrina. A tense vigil followed into Monday night for any sign of the kind of deluge of three years ago when 80 percent of New Orleans flooded and thousands were stranded.The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers closed massive new floodgates built after Katrina and intended to keep Lake Pontchartrain waters from surging back toward the south into the city and over the banks of two canals.Although water flowed over flood walls and spurted through cracks, a flood barrier system which officials had warned left New Orleans vulnerable appeared to hold up.New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin said residents could begin to return to the city later this week. With the city still under curfew, officials will assess hurricane damage on Tuesday and begin allowing businesses to return as soon as Wednesday.Reentry is only days away and not weeks away, Nagin said.
DODGED A BULLET
Some residents emerged from boarded up homes relieved to find only broken tree branches and toppled signs.We'll still get some nasty weather but we've dodged a big-time bullet with this one, said stockbroker Peter Labouisse, sitting on the porch of his home, which was shuttered and without power.Louisiana officials reported six storm-related deaths, including an elderly couple in Baton Rouge who were killed when a tree fell on their home.In contrast to the widespread lawlessness that followed Katrina, New Orleans police said they had only arrested two people for looting during the storm.Oil companies had shut down nearly all production in the region, which normally pumps a quarter of U.S. oil output and 15 percent of its natural gas.But when early reports showed little damage to the crucial patch of energy infrastructure, oil prices slid to a five-month low and were seen headed toward $100 per barrel on Tuesday.Exxon said it was shutting down its Baton Rouge refinery, the second largest in the United States. Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal said Exxon would ask for crude oil from the U.S. emergency Strategic Petroleum Reserve and Shell Oil Co was expected to make a similar request, as refiners look to ensure gasoline supplies in the wake of Gustav.Mindful of the ravages of Katrina, which killed some 1,500 people, nearly 2 million people had fled the Gulf Coast as Gustav approached. Underscoring continued concern about the fragile flood barriers, officials in rural Plaquemines Parish told the handful of residents remaining to flee as a levee protecting 200 homes had been weakened by water surging over the top. Plaquemines, a fishing hub that sprawls into the Gulf of Mexico, was hammered by a 20-foot (6-meter) storm surge during Katrina.
BUSH RESPONSE
Gustav stole the limelight from the Republican Convention to nominate presidential candidate John McCain. It opened on Monday with a bare-bones program. President George W. Bush, who was heavily criticized for the slow Katrina relief efforts, canceled his appearance at the convention and went to Texas to oversee relief effort. A dangerous Category 4 hurricane a few days ago, Gustav hit shore near Cocodrie, Louisiana, about 70 miles southwest of New Orleans, as a Category 2 storm, one step below Katrina's strength at landfall. Initial loss estimates from Gustav were far below those for Katrina, which caused total loses of more than $80 billion, making it the costliest hurricane in U.S. history. EQECAT Inc., which helps insurers model catastrophe risk, said it estimated Gustav's insured losses at $6 billion to $10 billion. AIR Worldwide Corp., another firm that provides models for the financial risk from disasters, estimated that Gustav had caused up to $4.5 billion in losses on land and up to another $4.4 billion to offshore oil and gas installations. Before landfall in Louisiana, Gustav killed at least 97 people in the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica and Florida. As fears over Gustav eased, Tropical Storm Hanna grew to hurricane strength near the southeast Bahamas, threatening the U.S. east coast from Florida to the Carolinas, and Tropical Storm Ike formed in the Atlantic Ocean. Meanwhile, a new tropical depression formed in the far eastern Atlantic Ocean south of the Cape Verde Islands and was expected to become a tropical storm later on Tuesday. The depression, which will be dubbed Tropical Storm Josephine once its maximum sustained winds reach 39 miles per hour (64 kph), was located 170 miles southeast of the Cape Verde Islands. It marks the 10th tropical depression of this year's busy Atlantic hurricane season. (Additional reporting by Tom Brown in Miami, Lilla Zuill in New York, David Alexander and Sandra Maler in Washington, and Bruce Nichols, Chris Baltimore and Erwin Seba in Houston; Writing by Jim Loney and Kevin Krolicki; Editing by Mary Milliken and Sandra Maler)
Hanna lashes Bahamas, Ike forms over Atlantic By VIVIAN TYSON, Associated Press Writer SEPT 02,08
PROVIDENCIALES, Turks and Caicos - Hurricane Hanna slumped to tropical storm strength while grinding away at the Bahamas and other Atlantic islands on Tuesday, and forecasters said it still poses a hurricane threat to the U.S. East Coast. The storm snapped trees and kept Providenciales, capital of the Turks and Caicos islands, without power. It hurled rains that caused flooding across Cuba, Haiti and Puerto Rico, where at least one university student died in a rain-swollen river.
Hanna's maximum sustained winds slipped to 70 mph (110 kph), but the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami said it could regain hurricane strength of 74 mph (119 kph) within a day. Forecasters say it could hit the U.S. coast by Friday or Saturday.
Right now, the uncertainty is such that it could hit anywhere from Miami to the outer banks of North Carolina, said Jessica Schauer Clark, a meteorologist at the U.S. National Hurricane Center. So people really need to keep an eye on it.But Hanna's movement has been agonizingly slow for people in the tourist magnets of the Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos, directly under its winds.The storm was close to Great Inagua Island Tuesday morning and was drifting toward the west at about 2 mph (4 kph). The hurricane center said it would move over the southeastern Bahamas Tuesday and then into the central part of the island chain by Wednesday.There were no immediate reports of injuries or major damage in the Turks and Caicos or Bahamas, but officials would assess the situation once the storm has cleared, said Stephen Russell, interim director of the Bahamas National Emergency Management Agency.Newly formed Tropical Storm Ike was cruising westward across the Atlantic and was projected to near the storm-weary Bahamas by Sunday. It had winds of 50 mph (85 kph) and was expected to grow stronger.Floods caused by Hanna caused flooding that killed a man from Colombia and left a Brazilian woman missing on Monday. The two were students at the University of Puerto Rico on a trip to the island's east.People living near the northwestern Haitian city of Gonaives told Radio Caraibes that floods there sent residents fleeing to their roofs. Officials did not immediately confirm the report.
That region still bears the scars of 2004's Tropical Storm Jeanne, which killed some 3,000 people in Gonaives.More than 8,000 people remain homeless in the wake of Hurricane Gustav, which was downgraded to a tropical storm as it moved over central Louisiana late Monday.At least 95 people have been killed by storms in Haiti in the last month alone.Hanna prompted NASA to put off shifting the space shuttle Atlantis from an assembly building at Florida's Kennedy Space Center to the launch pad for at least a day. The move had been scheduled for Tuesday in preparation for an October mission to the Hubble Space Telescope.Tourists Jason and Carolina Volpi were out of luck as they tried to leave the Turks and Caicos on Monday. The Providenciales airport was shut down and all flights were canceled. They couldn't get seats out until Thursday, too late to attend business meetings back in Italy.The situation is very frustrating, Jason Volpi, 36, said as they waited under darkening skies for a taxi back to their hotel.The European Union said Monday it would give euro2 million (US$2.9 million) to help the recovery from Gustav, which killed at least 94 people. The money will pay for clean water, food, medical care, shelter and basic household items in Haiti, Cuba, Jamaica and the Dominican Republic. In Haiti, 8,000 people are in temporary housing after high winds and floods destroyed homes and farms.
Hurricane Hanna threatens US southeast coast By VIVIAN TYSON, Associated Press Writer SEPT 01,08
PROVIDENCIALES, Turks and Caicos - Hurricane Hanna was moving little early Tuesday as its rains drenched the southeastern Bahamas along with the Turks and Caicos Islands. The hurricane also threatened to hit the southeast United States later in the week.Meanwhile, Tropical Storm Ike was headed toward the Caribbean and another tropical depression emerged as a new threat in the Atlantic, according to the National Hurricane Center in Miami.Hanna, with maximum sustained winds near 80 mph (130 kph), lingered for much of Monday near Mayaguana and nearby islands in the southeast Bahamas.There were no immediate reports of injuries or major damage, but emergency teams were standing by and would begin assessing the situation once the storm has cleared, said Stephen Russell, interim director of the Bahamas National Emergency Management Agency.I'm quite certain there is going to be damage, particularly in Mayaguana, he said.Hanna also was bringing strong winds, heavy rain and pounding surf to nearby islands, including Inagua and Crooked Island, and Turks and Caicos Islands to the south.But the hurricane was also on track to hit the United States.Right now, the uncertainty is such that it could hit anywhere from Miami to the outer banks of North Carolina, said Jessica Schauer Clark, a meteorologist at the U.S. National Hurricane Center. So people really need to keep an eye on it.Ike was approaching behind Hanna with maximum sustained winds near 50 mph (85 kph). Ike was centered about 1,235 miles (1,985 kilometers) east of the Leeward Islands and moving west near 15 mph (24 kph) early Tuesday. The tropical storm was expected to gain strength over the next two days.And behind Ike, a new tropical depression formed early Tuesday with maximum sustained winds near 35 mph. The depression was forecast to strengthen and the hurricane center said it would likely become a tropical storm later in the day. The depression was centered about 170 miles south-southeast of the southernmost Cape Verde Islands off the coast of Africa.NASA was not taking any chances — it announced a delay of at least a day in the planned move of the space shuttle Atlantis from an assembly building at Florida's Kennedy Space Center to the launch pad. The move had been scheduled for Tuesday in preparation for an October mission to the Hubble Space Telescope.
Florida state officials also were keeping nervous watch on Hanna and the weather behind it, careful not to overextend the assistance it provides to other Gulf Coast states dealing with Gustav.The storm's on top of us right now and it's blowing really hard," said Miguel Campbell, a mechanic with the Bahamas Electricity Corp. on Mayaguana, where some 300 people were hunkered down.Hanna's winds and rain reached all the way to Haiti, where thousands remain homeless in the wake of Gustav, which was downgraded to a tropical depression as it moved over Louisiana early Tuesday.
In Puerto Rico, authorities said one man from Colombia was killed and a woman from Brazil was missing after they were swept away in a river swollen with rain from Hanna. The two were students at the University of Puerto Rico on a trip to the island's east.The European Union said Monday it would give euro2 million (US$2.9 million) to help the recovery from Gustav, which killed 94 people. The money will pay for clean water, food, medical care, shelter and basic household items in Haiti, Cuba, Jamaica and the Dominican Republic. In Haiti, 8,000 people are in temporary housing after high winds and floods destroyed homes and farms.
Another tropical depression forms over Atlantic SEPT 02,08
MIAMI (Reuters) - A new tropical depression formed in the far eastern Atlantic Ocean south of the Cape Verde Islands and was expected to become a tropical storm later on Tuesday, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said. The depression, which will be called Tropical Storm Josephine once its maximum sustained winds reach 39 miles per hour (64 kph), was located 170 miles southeast of the Cape Verde Islands, the Miami-based center said.It was the 10th tropical depression of this year's busy Atlantic hurricane season.The center said the cyclone, moving in a northwesterly direction, was expected to steadily intensify over the next 24 hours and could become a hurricane within three days.As Hurricane Gustav was downgraded to a tropical depression after slamming the U.S. Gulf coast, Hurricane Hanna is threatening the U.S. east coast from Florida to the Carolinas, and Tropical Storm Ike formed in the Atlantic Ocean.Hanna, a category 1 hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 80 mph (130 kph), was expected to strengthen on Wednesday when it was likely to become a category 2, the center said.Hanna was dumping heavy rain on the southeastern Bahamas, the Turks and Caicos Islands, and Haiti, the NHC said, adding it could cause life-threatening mudslides and flash floods on the north side of the island of Hispaniola, shared by Haiti and the Dominican Republic.(Reporting by Sandra Maler; Editing by Giles Elgood)
Monsoon misery spreads in India By Biswajyoti Das SEPT 02,08
GUWAHATI, India (Reuters) - Heavy rains and rising floodwaters forced hundreds of thousands of people from their homes in northeastern India and sent elephants and rhinos fleeing, as monsoon misery spread in South Asia. In the eastern Indian state of Bihar, desperate flood victims attacked a warehouse and looted food supplies, while in neighboring Bangladesh major rivers rose to danger levels and fresh parts of the country were submerged.In the northeastern state of Assam, heavy rains caused water levels to rise on Tuesday, affecting more than a million people and disrupting road networks for the second consecutive day.Animals fled to higher ground in Kaziranga National Park after the Brahmaputra burst its banks and flooded most of the park, home to more than half of the world's population of one-horned rhinoceros.
At least two rhino calves were drowned and a herd of 100 elephants were swept away by floodwaters, forest officials said.We are now worried the poachers will take advantage and kill rhinos and elephants as they are moving out of the protected areas to safer ground, said chief warden S. N. Buragohain.In Bihar, the floods have already displaced about three million people and killed at least 90.Hundreds of stick-wielding villagers ransacked a food warehouse in Madhepura district and looted food packets while police guarding the warehouse ran for cover. Government vehicles carrying food were also looted.We cannot stop incidents despite our best efforts, Bijendra Prasad Yadav, a state relief official, told Reuters. These are very common during flood time.Many villagers in impoverished Bihar have been marooned on rooftops for days with nothing to eat, while some have taken to eating plants and leaves to survive.The Kosi river burst a dam in Nepal late last month flooding hundreds of villages across the state and destroying 100,000 ha (250,000 acres) of farmlands.Television images showed desperate villagers driving their livestock into the Kosi river because they had no food for them.Since the monsoon began in South Asia in June, more than 1,000 people have died in floods, with most of the casualties recorded in India's northern state of Uttar Pradesh in July.Some experts have blamed the floods on heavier monsoon rains caused by global warming, while others say authorities have failed to take preventive measures and improve infrastructure.
NOT WELCOME HERE
Although floodwaters are rising in Assam and Bangaldesh, water levels in Bihar are receding and the government aims to evacuate all stranded villagers within the next three days.Aid agencies have criticized the government's handling of the crisis saying they should have done more to anticipate the disaster and plan relief operations since the region is hit by monsoon flooding every year.In Bihar, more than 560,000 people have been evacuated so far, and some 200,000 have been moved to government relief camps, officials said. Local media reported that the first train carrying Bihar flood victims reached New Delhi on Monday, complaining of having received little or no government help. The fields are flooded. There's no way I can sustain my family in the next six months, Gopal Punia, a farmer from Madhepura was quoted as saying by the Indian Express newspaper. I will try to find work here in Delhi.Bihar state officials have also said flood refugees would not be welcomed in Patna, the state capital. They should return to their respective places by the same trains, said Raj Kumar Singh, a disaster management official. (Additional reporting by Ruma Paul in Dhaka; Writing by Melanie Lee; Editing by Simon Denyer and Bill Tarrant)
HOARDING OF GOLD AND SILVER
DOCTOR DOCTORIAN FROM ANGEL OF GOD
then the angel said, Financial crisis will come to Asia. I will shake the world.
JAMES 5:1-3
1 Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you.
2 Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are motheaten.
3 Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days.
REVELATION 18:10,17,19
10 Standing afar off for the fear of her torment, saying, Alas, alas that great city Babylon, that mighty city! for in one hour is thy judgment come.
17 For in one hour so great riches is come to nought. And every shipmaster, and all the company in ships, and sailors, and as many as trade by sea, stood afar off,
19 And they cast dust on their heads, and cried, weeping and wailing, saying, Alas, alas that great city, wherein were made rich all that had ships in the sea by reason of her costliness! for in one hour is she made desolate.
EZEKIEL 7:19
19 They shall cast their silver in the streets, and their gold shall be removed: their silver and their gold shall not be able to deliver them in the day of the wrath of the LORD: they shall not satisfy their souls, neither fill their bowels: because it is the stumblingblock of their iniquity.
REVELATION 13:16-18
16 And he(FALSE POPE) causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:(CHIP IMPLANT)
17 And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.
18 Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.(6-6-6) A NUMBER SYSTEM
Oil prices crumble as global economic outlook dims By PABLO GORONDI, Associated Press Writer SEPT 02,08
Oil prices tumbled more than $8 Tuesday to levels last seen five months ago as investors shifted their focus from hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico to slowing global demand. By afternoon in Europe, light, sweet crude for October delivery was down $8.06 a barrel to $107.40 in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The last time prices hovered in that range was in early April before a historic run-up above $147 per barrel. Earlier in the session prices had dropped as low as $105.46.On Friday, the contract settled at $115.46 a barrel as Gustav approached the U.S. Gulf coast, a key region for oil drilling and refining. But traders were relieved that Gustav weakened as it neared the offshore oil rigs and Louisiana refineries, and appeared to have caused less damage than expected in New Orleans and surrounding areas.As Hurricane Gustav petered out, traders quickly turned their attention to slowing global economic growth, speculating that demand for crude will be dampened even in rapidly expanding China and India.The market continues to be weighed down by worries of a global economic downturn and slowing oil demand in developing markets, said Victor Shum, an energy analyst with consultancy Purvin & Gertz in Singapore. Action by OPEC and supply side concerns should put a backstop to any sharp price drop.The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries is scheduled to meet Sept. 9 in Vienna and has indicated it may take action to defend the $100 a barrel level.
Ahead of Gustav, there was some disruption to oil supplies as oil companies shut down production and evacuated facilities. Altogether, about 2.4 million barrels of refining capacity was halted, roughly 15 percent of the U.S. total, according to figures from Platts, the energy information arm of McGraw-Hill Cos. The Gulf Coast is home to nearly half of the nation's refining capacity.It could be a day or more before oil and natural gas companies can assess the damage to their drilling and refining installations. Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal said as much as 20 percent of oil and gas production that was stopped because of Gustav could be restored by this weekend, stressing that it was a rough estimate.Traders are also keeping an eye on other storms brewing in the region.Tropical Storm Hanna was predicted to come ashore in Georgia and South Carolina late in the week and could regain hurricane strength later in the day. Tropical Storm Ike formed late Monday in the Atlantic Ocean and may become a hurricane in the next 36 hours as it approaches the Bahamas.September is the peak of the Atlantic hurricane season. After Gustav, there are two more now on the radar screen. The storms are likely to provide some upside risks to the oil futures market, Shum said.In other Nymex trading, heating oil futures fell 20.8 cents to $3.9839 a gallon, while gasoline prices lost 20.44 cents to $2.6498 a gallon. Natural gas for October delivery fell 68.7 cents to $7.256 per 1,000 cubic feet.In London, October Brent crude fell $2.97 to $106.44 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.Associated Press writers Eileen Ng in Kuala Lumpur and Alex Kennedy in Singapore contributed to this report.
US stock futures jump as oil prices tumble By TIM PARADIS, AP Business Writer SEPT 02,08
NEW YORK - U.S. stocks headed for a sharply higher open Tuesday as oil fell by nearly $9 per barrel after it appeared the Gulf Coast and its oil facilities were spared heavy damage from Hurricane Gustav. Beyond a broad pullback in commodities, investors also examined the financial sector after the head of Korea Development Bank confirmed the bank is interested taking part in a possible acquisition of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. Such a move could allay some of Wall Street's worries about the troubled banking sector.Investors also awaited a report from a trade group of purchasing executives on the manufacturing sector. The Institute for Supply Management is expected to report that the manufacturing sector saw virtually flat activity in August compared with July, according to the median estimate of economists polled by Thomson Financial/IFR. The report is due at 10 a.m. EDT.
Investors focused on the drop in oil, however, as fears that Gustav would leave a wide swath of heavy damage across the Gulf began to subside. Light, sweet crude fell $8.77 to $106.69 per barrel in premarket electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.Beyond investors' relief over the early reports on damage from Gustav, commodity investors also appear to be questioning whether a slowing global economy will damp demand for oil and other commodities.Dow Jones industrial average futures rose 143, or 1.24 percent, to 11,684. Standard & Poor's 500 index futures rose 13.10, or 1.02 percent, to 1,295.70 and Nasdaq 100 index futures rose 26.50, or 1.41 percent, to 1,901.50.The jump in stock futures follows a decline of 171 points in the Dow on Friday.Bond prices fell. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note, which moves opposite its price, rose to 3.87 percent from 3.82 percent late Friday. The dollar rose against most other major currencies, while gold prices fell.
Lehman Brothers rose 7 percent in percent in premarket trading after the governor of the state-owned Korea Development Bank said discussions were under way to set up a consortium with private banks to acquire Lehman. The comments follow weeks of speculation that the investment bank could be acquired as it struggles amid tightness in the credit markets.The drop in oil prices sent stocks in sectors like airlines higher. In premarket trading, American Airlines parent AMR Corp. jumped 15 percent, Delta Air Lines Inc. rose 16 percent and JetBlue Airways Corp. advanced 10 percent.In other corporate news, technology shares advanced after Google Inc. said it is releasing its own Internet browser to counter Microsoft Corp.'s Internet Explorer. Google shares rose more than 2 percent in premarket trading.Investors also awaited an auction of at least $3 billion in long-term debt Tuesday morning from mortgage finance company Freddie Mac. The sale should give insights into investors' level of confidence in the government-chartered company. A Freddie Mac auction last month showed that investors were worried the company and Fannie Mae would need a government bailout over souring mortgage debt. Freddie shares rose 13 percent in premarket trading.Overseas, Japan's Nikkei stock fell 1.75 percent. In morning trading, Britain's FTSE 100 rose 0.22 percent, Germany's DAX index rose 1.64 percent, and France's CAC-40 advanced 1.49 percent.On the Net:New York Stock Exchange: http://www.nyse.com Nasdaq Stock Market: http://www.nasdaq.com
ISRAELS TROUBLE
JEREMIAH 30:7
7 Alas! for that day is great, so that none is like it: it is even the time of Jacob’s trouble;(ISRAEL) but he shall be saved out of it.
DANIEL 12:1,4
1 And at that time shall Michael(ISRAELS WAR ANGEL) stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people:(ISRAEL) and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation(May 14,48) even to that same time: and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book.
4 But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro,(WORLD TRAVEL,IMMIGRATION) and knowledge shall be increased.(COMPUTERS,CHIP IMPLANTS ETC)
ISRAELS INHERITED LAND IN THE FUTURE
And here are the bounderies of the land that Israel will inherit either through war or peace or God in the future. God says its Israels land and only Israels land. They will have every inch God promised them of this land in the future.
Egypt east of the Nile River, Saudi Arabia, Israel, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, The southern part of Turkey and the Western Half of Iraq west of the Euphrates. Gen 13:14-15, Psm 105:9,11, Gen 15:18, Exe 23:31, Num 34:1-12, Josh 1:4.
ALL THIS LAND ISRAEL WILL DEFINATELY OWN IN THE FUTURE, ITS ISRAELS NOT ISHMAELS LAND.
TEMPLE MOUNT IS JEWISH - MUSLIMS
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/127428
Israel to get more land, not less September 02, 2008 1:00 am Eastern By Bill Salus 2008 WND
America the beautiful, but rapidly becoming less bountiful, has presently found itself in a precarious position. Economic misery, coupled with bad Middle East company, has the Bush administration feverishly focused on forcing the infamous Roadmap to Peace into immediate implementation.While Condoleezza Rice is scurrying about in an attempt to open escrow on a performance-based two-state solution in the Holy Land, the ancient enemies of Israel are restocking their deadly arsenals.
Undoubtedly, the time has come for the United States to get in with the theopolitical program or get out of the geopolitical theater. Although short sales run rampant in America, foreclosing on Israel in the end times is not biblically endorsed! Modern-day Israel miraculously exists in fulfillment of Bible prophecy, and unless the Judeo-Christian Jehovah fibbed about Abraham's future fortunes in Genesis 15:18, portions of Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and Saudi Arabia belong to, and are about to be possessed by, the modern-day Jewish state.As a student of prophecy and author of the new book Isralestine, I believe I can say without equivocation that Israel's peace in results from their piece of the Promised Land.
Call it ridiculous or illogical, but it is an inheritance dating back 4,000 years. In fact, it is this title deed that the ancient enemies of Israel have contested from time immemorial. The tiny small notch of land the world calls Israel today is nowhere near the size and scope their G-d intended homeland.For 60 years, the international community has unsuccessfully attempted to negotiate a Middle East solution, and a flimsy, inflammatory Roadmap is its best foot forward. Fortunately or unfortunately, depending on your point of view, the days of antiquated declarations, partition plans and politically brokered real estate deals have concluded for the Chosen.In Isralestine: The Ancient Blueprints of the Future Middle East, I present the seldom discussed prophecies that declare the time to step aside has come! Futile attempts to reconcile irreconcilable differences are about to fail, and the world is about to witness ancient tribes duke it out, or even worse, nuke it out.
Throw all the wealth of the world at the enemies of Israel and they will not change their adversarial attitudes. This issue must be dealt with at its root level, and that is exactly what the Hebrew prophets were instructed to tell us.The ancient enemies of Israel have left their G-d no other option but to flex His muscles in the Middle East. The world cries heaven forbid, but heaven foreknows that a climactic Arab-Israeli conflict is on the nearby horizon. While the world desperately seeks a final solution, the terrorists and their state sponsors have become alarmingly armed and dangerous.One need not be a religious person to realize that forcing the Jews to sit alongside those Islamic fundamentalists opposed to their ethnic existence is an extremely unreasonable request. In these troubled times it may not be easier, but it is certainly wiser to be prophetically sound than politically correct.The time has come to roadblock the Roadmap, open the Bible and watch the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob restore the fortunes of the Jewish people. They belong right where they are and then some. Their Arab enemies, in fulfillment of Psalm 83, will mount a final attempt to destroy the nation Israel, and quoting Yul Brynner, in the 1956 Cecil B. Demille movie The Ten Commandments, so let it be written, so let it be done.
These are the days when the Jewish people need not negotiate, but rather remember their heroic stories like David defeating Goliath, Daniel the lion tamer and Joshua fighting off the giants. The sands of time have run out in the Cradle of Civilization for political solutions to religiously rooted jihadist problems.
Isralestine, available through WorldNetDaily, opens up the ancient prophecies before the investigative eyes of the world and challenges them to dust for Divine Fingerprints.
Sep 1, 2008 9:21 Dutch intel: US to strike Iran in coming weeks By JPOST.COM STAFF
The Dutch intelligence service, the AIVD, has called off an operation aimed at infiltrating and sabotaging Iran's weapons industry due to an assessment that a US attack on the Islamic Republic's nuclear program is imminent, according to a report in the country's De Telegraaf newspaper on Friday. Slideshow: Pictures of the week The report claimed that the Dutch operation had been extremely successful, and had been stopped because the US military was planning to hit targets that were connected with the Dutch espionage action.The impending air-strike on Iran was to be carried out by unmanned aircraft within weeks, the report claimed, quoting well placed sources.The Jerusalem Post could not confirm the De Telegraaf report.
General: Attack on Iran would cause WWIII
According to the report, information gleaned from the AIVD's operation in Iran has provided several of the targets that are to be attacked in the strike, including parts for missiles and launching equipment.Information from the AIVD operation has been shared in recent years with the CIA, the report said. On Saturday, Iran's Deputy Chief of Staff General Masoud Jazayeri warned that should the United States or Israel attack Iran, it would be the start of another World War. On Friday, Ma'ariv reported that Israel had made a strategic decision to deny Iran military nuclear capability and would not hesitate to take whatever means necessary to prevent Teheran from achieving its nuclear goals. According to the report, whether the United States and Western countries succeed in thwarting the Islamic Republic's nuclear ambitions diplomatically, through sanctions, or whether a US strike on Iran is eventually decided upon, Jerusalem has begun preparing for a separate, independent military strike.
FROM WND'S JERUSALEM BUREAU Israel's latest solution to Gaza mess: Arab troops Egypt, Saudi Arabia to protect Jewish state's borders? September 01, 2008
9:58 pm Eastern By Aaron Klein 2008 WorldNetDaily
JAFFA, Israel – Israel and Egypt have embarked on serious discussions about the deployment of an Arab force in the Gaza Strip consisting largely of Egyptian and some Saudi troops, senior defense officials told WND.The officials said Defense Minister Ehud Barak last week discussed the Israeli proposal for Arab forces in Gaza during a meeting he held in Alexandria with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.The officials said Barak and Prime Minister Ehud Olmert eventually would like to expand the deployment of Arab and international forces to the West Bank as well, with those troops consisting largely of Jordanian forces, according to an Israeli plan.Ahmed Yousef, Hamas' top political adviser in the Gaza Strip, confirmed to WND he is aware of the recent talks of sending an Arab force into Gaza. He said his terrorist organization strongly opposes the plan.Hamas' position is resisting this idea strongly because there is no need for such things. We can handle security and don't need to bring forces and internationalized solutions, said Yousef, speaking on his cell phone from Gaza.We don't understand the significance of bringing in Arab forces. What are they going to do? Create a buffer zone to protect Israel? Our experience with international forces is that they don't work, Yousef said.In perhaps a more direct response, Abu Abdullah, a senior leader of Hamas' so-called military wing, told WND his group would target any international forces in Gaza.That sentiment was also echoed by Muhammad Abdel-Al, spokesman and senior leader of the Hamas-allied Popular Resistance Committees terror group, who accused Egypt of serving the Zionist conspiracy to take over our land.Our resistance will reach any Arab forces who think they have the right to deploy in Gaza, Abdel-Al told WND.
Israel in June agreed to a cease-fire with Hamas in the Gaza Strip. A largely unreported final stage of the truce called for international troops eventually to deploy in Gaza and also in the West Bank.The cease-fire outlined several stages: First, Hamas would halt attacks against Israel in exchange for an end to Israeli anti-terror military operations in Gaza; then a deal would be reached to free kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit; a third stage called for the spreading of the cease-fire from the Gaza Strip to the West Bank; finally international troops would be deployed.Israeli security officials told WND said the issue of Arab forces in Gaza is being treated very seriously in more talks with Egypt in the coming days. But the officials conceded Hamas' objections could halt the plan unless Israel carried out a massive ground operation targeting Hamas in Gaza and clearing the way for the deployment of international troops.The Israeli officials said there have been no direct discussions with Saudi Arabia about that country deploying troops in Gaza, but that it was understood through Egyptian contacts the Saudis were open to contributing forces.A top defense official knowledgeable of the plan said many defense officials oppose international troops being deployed along Israel's borders, arguing such forces will not protect Israel and will only stand in the way of any needed Israeli military operations.He pointed to the deployment of international troops in Lebanon following Israel's war there against the Hezbollah terror group in 2006. Hezbollah reportedly has rearmed and regrouped in areas in which international forces are deployed, and those international forces are expected to hinder any possible future Israeli operation against Hezbollah.
DISEASES
REVELATION 6:7-8
7 And when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth beast say, Come and see.
8 And I looked, and behold a pale horse:(CHLORES GREEN) and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword,(WEAPONS) and with hunger,(FAMINE) and with death,(INCURABLE DISEASES) and with the beasts of the earth.(ANIMAL TO HUMAN DISEASE).
Officials working to link P.E.I. listeriosis to outbreak SEPT 02,08
Health officials on P.E.I. are trying to determine if a case of listeriosis is linked to a massive recall of products from a Maple Leaf Foods plant in Toronto.The case, reported on the weekend, is the first in the Maritimes since the recall, and the first on P.E.I. in two years. Officials are saying little about the case: the patient is male and in stable condition in a Prince Edward Island hospital.Dr. Mitchell Zelman, acting chief health officer, said there may never be definitive proof that this case is linked to the recall.[With] about half of the positive blood cultures for listeria, there may not be a definite history of eating the recalled products, said Zelman.Eleven Canadians have died from the listeriosis outbreak, and dozens more have gotten sick. Samples from the P.E.I. case will be sent to a lab in Winnipeg to determine if it is the same strain that caused the recall.Zelman reminded Islanders to be careful about any prepared meat products purchased before the recall.The public needs to be very vigilant about the products that are in their fridges and freezers, he said.Make sure to go through these fridges and freezers and get rid of everything that's stamped establishment 97B.That's the identifying number of the Toronto plant that was affected by listeriosis. A complete list of recalled products is available through the link in the right-hand column of this page.All doctors and emergency departments on P.E.I. have been reminded of the symptoms of listeriosis. This is only the sixth case on the Island in the past 14 years.
Plague threatens prairie dogs, endangered ferrets By CHET BROKAW, Associated Press Writer Sat Aug 30, 1:44 PM ET
INTERIOR, S.D. - On the grasslands a few miles from the pinnacles and spires of Badlands National Park, federal wildlife officials have been waging a war since spring to save one of the nation's largest colonies of endangered black-footed ferrets. The deadly disease sylvatic plague was discovered in May in a huge prairie dog town in the Conata Basin. The black-tailed prairie dog is the main prey of ferrets, and the disease quickly killed up to a third of the area's 290 ferrets along with prairie dogs.The disease stopped spreading with the arrival of summer's hot, dry weather, but it poses a serious threat to efforts to establish stable populations of one of the nation's rarest mammals, said Scott Larson of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Pierre.The plague, which is carried by fleas, is the biggest danger to ferrets' survival in the Conata Basin and other sites that still have ferrets, said Larson, who is coordinating ferret conservation efforts among five federal agencies.It has the capacity to take out more ferret habitat than anything we've run up against, and do it in such a short order, Larson said. For ferrets, it's the most challenging issue we face.The ferrets were once considered extinct. But one colony was discovered in Wyoming in 1981, and a captive breeding program succeeded in increasing their numbers. Since then, ferrets have been reintroduced at 17 sites in South Dakota, Wyoming, Montana, Colorado, Utah, Kansas and Mexico, said Nancy Warren, endangered species program leader in the Rocky Mountain Region of the U.S. Forest Service.
Reintroduction efforts failed in some locations, and plague has hit most of the ferret colonies to some degree, Larson said.Establishing many reintroduction sites helps protect the overall ferret population from being wiped out by plague, Larson said. I guess it's the old risk management of having your eggs spread out among many baskets.Representatives of federal agencies and some conservation groups have taken a double-barreled approach to try to stop the spread of plague and save prairie dogs and ferrets in the 20-mile-long Conata Basin, a portion of the Buffalo Gap National Grasslands that lies just south of the Badlands in southwestern South Dakota.This summer, a crew of four has buzzed across the prairie on all-terrain vehicles, pausing frequently to spray white insecticide dust into prairie dog burrows to kill fleas.After dark, another crew moved into the area during part of the summer to shine spotlights across the grasslands, trap ferrets and vaccinate them against the plague.Officials want to dust about 11,000 acres with insecticide by this fall, and have covered about two-thirds of that area so far. More than 60 ferrets have been vaccinated, with 15 of them already getting the desired two doses.Of the 25,000 acres of prairie dog habitat managed for ferrets in the basin, the plague had spread to about 9,700 acres before its growth halted in August. Officials expect the plague might start spreading again this fall or next spring. The disease has not been found inside Badlands National Park itself.Warren said the insecticide appears to be effective, but it's too early to tell if it will save the ferrets.
We're learning as we go. We really don't know the answer to that yet, Warren said. We're hopeful with the dusting, which is something new we're doing now, we'll be able to at least contain the extent of this plague.The basin also has been the focus of controversy as the Forest Service tries to balance the protection of prairie dogs and ferrets with the needs of ranchers who graze cattle on leased sections of the national grasslands.Prairie dogs once were routinely poisoned as pests. However, the rodents expanded rapidly in the region, moving from federal land to private ranches, during an extended drought and a halt to poisoning on federal land while government officials considered whether they should be protected under the Endangered Species Act. The Fish and Wildlife Service decided in 2004 not to protect prairie dogs, but the agency is now reconsidering the issue.Jonathan Proctor, Great Plains representative for Defenders of Wildlife, a conservation group, said the Conata Basin is the last remaining large complex of black-tailed prairie dogs on the Great Plains since the plague destroyed two in Montana and Wyoming. Prairie dogs must be protected because they are important not only to ferrets, but also to hawks, burrowing owls and many other species, he said. Even with the loss of almost 10,000 acres of prairie dogs, Conata Basin still remains the largest and most important prairie dog complex on federal lands in the Great Plains. It's worth all these efforts to save it, Proctor said. But Shirley Kudma, who ranches in the basin with her husband, Donald, said the prevalence of plague confirms the predictions of ranchers overrun by prairie dogs in the past decade. They argued more should have been done to limit the spread of prairie dogs because the hungry rodents strip the ground of grass and leave little for cattle. Nature took care of it, didn't it? Shirley Kudma said. There's the plague and the prairie dogs, and that's nature taking care of the expansion.
Ranchers don't want to wipe out prairie dogs, she said.
I think we want to get along. We want to be able to survive just the same as the prairie dogs want to survive. We don't want to annihilate them. We don't. Just get them under control so they're not sick. Give the ferrets something healthy to eat.
About 5 to 15 people are infected by plague in the United States each year, but it can be cured with antibiotics if treatment is prompt. On the Net:
Fish & Wildlife Service: http://tinyurl.com/5bx97e
SIGNS IN THE SUN, MOON AND STARS
LUKE 21:11
11 And great earthquakes shall be in divers places, and famines, and pestilences; and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven.
NO WORRY ABOUT THIS, THE EARTH GOES ON FOREVER AND EVER AMEN AND AMEN.
Scientists sue to stop black hole from sucking up Earth. Fear experiments could create vacuum and consume planet. September 01, 2008 8:20 pm Eastern 2008 WorldNetDaily
A European court says the idea a new supercollider project could create a celestial vacuum and eventually consume the Earth is worth discussing, but the project can move forward on schedule anyway.
The Large Hadron Collider
At dispute is what could happen should planned experiments at the supercollider built near Geneva by the European Organization for Nuclear Research, or CERN, go awry when the massive atomic particle smasher is fired up about this time next week.
Several scientists led by spokesman Otto Rossler, a German chemist, have filed a case in the European Court of Human Rights seeking a delay in the project's opening while the potential problems are studied further.Rossler said in a report in the Telegraph that the sponsoring organization has admitted its work will create black holes – but it doesn't think that will be a risk. He has another opinion.My own calculations have shown it is quite plausible that these little black holes survive and will grow exponentially and eat the planet from the inside. I have been calling for CERN to hold a safety conference to prove my conclusions wrong but they have not been willing, he said.WND also reported on an earlier lawsuit over whether the Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland, which is built to slam protons together at an unprecedented peak energy of 14 trillion electron volts, could spark, literally, the end of the world.Critics at that time had filed a lawsuit against the U.S. government and the CERN. A hearing is scheduled later this week in the case.
Co-plaintiffs Walter Wagner and Luis Sancho said the collider could create black holes – or strangelets – that would grow and eventually consume Earth. A black hole is a region of space so dense that light cannot escape its gravitational pull. Scientists have not proved the existence of strangelets, a hypothetical cosmological object containing an exotic form of matter.Physicists at CERN and similar research facilities dismiss the doomsday claims as nonsense.And a spokeswoman for the European Court of Human Rights told the Telegraph the latest lawsuit, brought by Rossler and others, had been lodged but a petition for an emergency injunction against the project was rejected.There will therefore be no bar to CERN carrying out these experiments but the applicants can continue with this case here at the ECHR, she said.The goal of the project is to re-create the conditions scientists believe existed in a fraction of a second after the universe was created. They are looking for evidence of the building blocks of life.The nearly $9 billion project has been funded by more than a dozen nations, and CERN spokesman James Gillies said extensive safety assessments have been completed.The Large Hadron Collider will not be producing anything that does not happen routinely in nature due to cosmic rays, he told the Sunday Telegraph. If they were dangerous we would know about it already.
Other colliders already have been operating for years, but the CERN project is raising questions anew because of its size. It is a circular tunnel about 300 feet underground that runs for about 18 miles. The more than 5,000 magnets inside are expected to accelerate tiny particles almost to the speed of light, dispatching them around the tunnel in one-11,000th of a second, according to the Daily Mail.The particles then will smash headon in collisions that will generate enough heat to melt a small car. Scientists hope the collisions will produce new scientific information.Rossler said the scientists sought court help because CERN operators are not taking all the precautions they should be in order to protect human life.
DANIEL 7:23-24
23 Thus he said, The fourth beast(THE EU,REVIVED ROME) shall be the fourth kingdom upon earth,(7TH WORLD EMPIRE) which shall be diverse from all kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, and shall tread it down, and break it in pieces.(TR BLOCKS)
24 And the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise:(10 NATIONS) and another shall rise after them;(#11 SPAIN) and he shall be diverse from the first, and he shall subdue three kings.(BE HEAD OF 3 KINGS OR NATIONS).
FAREWELL TO WORLD PEACE
http://news.yahoo.com/s/csm/20080829/cm_csm/ykurzman;_ylt=AoiUpAh66Z1bxrZq5mUEPDSs0NUE
Irish Parliament could pass parts of the Lisbon Treaty without a referendum
VALENTINA POP SEPT 02,08 Today @ 09:50 CET
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS – Parts of the Lisbon Treaty might be passed by the Irish lower chamber without a referendum, said Prime Minister Brian Cowen on Monday night (1 September) while in Brussels for an EU summit on the Georgia crisis.Mr Cowen sees this as an option for his government after the No vote on the Lisbon Treaty in June. But he rejected as speculation any discussion at this stage on how the government will proceed, according to the Irish Independent newspaper.The advice to government was that a referendum was required. We put the usual, general question to people and it was rejected, Cowen said while speaking to reporters, adding that his government was putting together plans for cross-party discussions on the future of the treaty.
The Irish premier and his foreign affairs minister also informed some of their European counterparts present at the EU summit that the Irish government was set to receive the results of its research on the referendum defeat, results that would be reported back to the European Council in October.Meanwhile, the leader of the Irish No campaign, Declan Ganley, is scheduled to meet with some members of the European Parliament today.On Monday, the president of the European Parliament, Hans-Gert Poettering, called on all member states to ratify the Lisbon Treaty as quickly as possible, saying that the Georgian crisis proved why it is important for the EU to be united.
More undecided Irish voters
The number of the undecided Irish voters has increased by seven percent, according to a fresh poll from the Irish Sunday Independent. The poll has found that if a referendum were to be held again, 44 per cent would vote No - a drop of eight per cent since the last poll four weeks ago; 42 per cent would vote Yes, a one per cent increase; while 14 per cent now say they do not know how they would vote, a seven per cent increase.
Eurosceptic media
An internal briefing document of the European Commission seen by the Irish Times has criticised Ireland's media for becoming more eurosceptic since the second Nice Treaty referendum. In particular, the document attacks the presence in the of Republic of Ireland editions of UK newspapers, such as the Irish Sun, Irish Mirror, Irish News of the World, and the Irish edition of The Sunday Times.Editorial is highly critical of the European Union and even more so of the Lisbon Treaty. What has changed is that these papers were previously printed in the UK, but now they are printed in Ireland. Also more of its editorial content is produced by Irish journalists on Irish issues - but subject to the London editorial line, it said.The Irish Sun, which has 309,000 mostly young male readers, has taken a campaigning Europhobic stance in line with its sister title in the United Kingdom.The launch of the Irish Mail on Sunday and Irish Daily Mail has also affected Irish opinions on the EU, since they have run intense Eurosceptic campaigns and employ a variety of right-wing journalists. These target primarily middle-class, middle-aged females, who tend to be a demographic that is widely more Euro-hesitant.
The document also highlights the importance of the Internet in the Lisbon No campaign.Apart from official websites, the internet has largely been a space left to anti-European feeling. Given the ability to reach an audience at a much lower cost, and given the simplicity of the No campaign messages, it has proven to be easily malleable during the campaign and pre-campaign period, the document reads.
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.
EU-Russia talks suspended until Moscow withdraws troops
ELITSA VUCHEVA 01.09.2008 @ 21:21 CET
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS – EU leaders on Monday (1 September) agreed to postpone talks on a new EU-Russia partnership until Russian troops withdraw from Georgia following the insistence of a bloc of member states.As long as the withdrawal of the [Russian] troops [from Georgia] is not completed, all meetings on the partnership agreement are postponed, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said at a press conference following the emergency summit in Brussels.We are postponing all meetings on the [EU-Russia] partnership agreement, confirmed French President Nicolas Sarkozy whose country currently holds the rotating EU presidency.This crisis means that we have to re-examine our relations with Russia, he said. It takes two to tango.The talks on a new treaty defining the EU relations with Russia were scheduled to take place later this month, but pressed by the demand of several member states, it was decided this would be tied to Russian withdrawal from Georgia.The postponement modifies a previously circulated draft version of the summit's conclusion that took a softer stance on the issue of talks.
Poland not alone
Poland – one of the countries pushing for the suspension – hailed the final declaration as a victory and insisted its position was not isolated.We were not alone, we were acting within a group, including also the Czech Republic, the Baltic States - Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia, the UK and Sweden, Polish President Lech Kaczynski told journalists.He added that the EU's further approach would very much depend on another visit by Mr Sarkozy to Moscow on 8 September, but in any case did not exclude considering further measures if Russia does not pull out of Georgia.If troops are not pulled out of Georgia by 15 October [the next meeting of EU leaders], we will have to launch different actions, he said.Additionally, EU states agreed to strongly condemn Russia's unilateral decision to recognise the independence of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. This decision is unacceptable and the European Union calls on other states not to recognise this proclaimed independence.Moscow recognised Georgia's breakaway provinces of Abkhazia and South Ossetia as independent states last week, but to date remains alone in doing so and the move has prompted strong criticism worldwide.
No need for cold war
However, as expected, EU leaders also stopped short of imposing formal sanctions on Russia with Mr Sarkozy ruling out such a possibility at this stage, and the summit's conclusion stressing that there is no desirable alternative to a strong relationship, based on co-operation, trust and dialogue.Let's not start a cold war like this, let's not show the biceps, the demonstrations of force, blustering behaviour, the sanctions, the counter-sanctions, all that will be useful to no one, Mr Sarkozy said.[The EU has to] give a chance to the diplomacy on 8 September. If it works, the EU will have proven its efficiency, if it does not, we will gather and take other decisions, he added.For her part, German Chancellor Angela Merkel underlined that Russian President Dmitry Medvedev told Mr Sarkozy Russian forces would withdraw from Georgia in what she called a very constructive phone call.
Special representative
The EU has also decided to appoint an EU special representative for the crisis in Georgia and to send immediately a fact-finding mission to gather information on the ground.If preparatory works are done promptly, the Council could take the decision to send this mission on 15 September. The bloc also expressed its willingness to aid Georgian reconstruction in the aftermath of the conflict, and decide[d] to step up its relations with Georgia, including visa facilitation measures and the possible establishment of a full and comprehensive free trade zone as soon as the conditions are met.The European Commission has already put aside €6 million in humanitarian aid for Georgia, with member states promising some €8.4 million more.Additionally, the EU will take the initiative of convening an international conference shortly to assist reconstruction in Georgia, the document reads.
Russia has already withdrawn all troops
Lado Gurgenidze, the prime minister of Georgia told reporters after the summit his government was pleased with the results: We are encouraged by the firm and principled stance taken by the European Council. We neither demanded nor expected sanctions, he added, highlighting the disposition of the Council to an EU observer mission as undoubtedly important to a durable solution.Russia, for its part, suggested the suspension of talks was no big deal. We had waited for 18 months for talks to start, so we're accustomed to being patient, Vladimir Chizhov, Russia's ambassador to the EU, told the EUobserver.We are disappointed, yes, but we do not need the talks any more than the EU does.However, the ambassador denied that Russia continued to maintain troops within Georgian territory. The EU is mistaken in its assuptions of the situation on the ground. Russia has already withdrawn all additional troops. There is only a detachment of peacekeepers that remains in buffer zone totalling 500 men - in full accordance with the six-point agreement.Mr Chizhov did however issue a warning to Europe. Speaking of closer relations between the EU and Georgia, the ambassador said: We will certainly monitor whatever the EU does with Georgia to ensure it does not lead to an aggravation of the situation.With additional reporting from Renata Goldirova, Lucia Kubosova, Leigh Phillips and Valentina Pop.
Russian threats loom over historic EU summit
RENATA GOLDIROVA 01.09.2008 @ 09:27 CET
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - EU leaders are holding an emergency summit on EU-Russia relations on Monday (1 September) - the first such meeting since the 9/11 attacks in the US. But the union is split on how to handle Moscow, with the Kremlin threatening to retaliate against Europe if it adopts punitive sanctions.The French EU presidency called the summit after Russia launched a military incursion into Georgia in response to its attack on the rebel-held town of Tskhinvali in South Ossetia. Russia subsequently recognised Georgia's two breakaway regions - South Ossetia and Abkhazia - as independent states. Europe has already condemned Moscow's actions, but the majority of EU states is not in the mood to go beyond words, with France, Italy, Spain, Finland, Austria, Bulgaria, Slovenia, Greece and Cyprus all speaking out against punitive measures before the summit began.The French EU presidency will on Monday table a balanced and firm text that falls short of sanctions, AFP reports. It will not propose sanctions, but very precise undertakings, French foreign minister Bernard Kouchner said over the weekend. UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown, in a statement in The Observer on Sunday, called on EU colleagues to review - root and branch - our relationship with Russia, however. He suggested excluding Russia from the Group of Eight leading industrialised nations.British diplomats also told the Sunday Telegraph newspaper that London will push for mini-sanctions, such as an EU visa ban on South Ossetia and Abkhazia officials as well as Russian citizens active in politics in the two Georgian regions.Poland, Sweden, the Czech republic, the Baltic States - Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia - are also keen to take a tough line, diplomats say.But Poland's position is ambiguous, with Prime Minister Donald Tusk telling Newsweek magazine there should be no more EU-Russia summits until Russia pulls soldiers from Georgia, then adding he does not want Warsaw to become isolated in a radical stance. Meanwhile, Germany is locked in an internal dispute. The Conservative party in Germany's coalition government backs the British G8 suggestion as long as Russia is not prepared to find a solution under the framework of the United Nations, the IHT reports.
But the Social Democrats have warned against cornering Russia. Moscow deserves criticism for its behaviour, but that doesn't change the fact that security and stability in Europe can only be achieved with and not against Russia, German foreign minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said, according to Reuters. Europe would only be hurting itself if we were to get full of emotion and slam all the doors shut.The last time the EU imposed sanctions on Russia was following its invasion of Chechnya in 1994, with Europe freezing the ratification of a Partnership and Co-operation Agreement, which entered into force in 1997.
Russian warning
In the run up to the EU summit, the Kremlin - which controls some 25 percent of EU oil and gas imports - issued a number of hostile messages to the West.President Dmitry Medvedev said on Russian TV on Sunday: We do not favour sanctions on the whole and only resort to them in extreme circumstances. [But] if required, we could pass the relevant legislation.Mr Medvedev added that his country was set to restore its influence in what he labelled regions of privileged interest and to defend the life and dignity" of Russian citizens no matter where they are located, raising fears of further Russian interventions in Moldova or Ukraine. The EU is not in a position to throw Russia out of anywhere, Russia's ambassador to the EU, Vladimir Chizhov, told Reuters, describing any attempt to isolate Russia as short-sighted and unrealistic.Moscow stands alone on recognising the breakaway Georgia territories so far. Venezuela, Belarus and Central Asian states have given rhetorical support but stopped short of recognition. Two other separatist enclaves - Transniestria in Moldova and Nagorno-Karabakh in Azerbaijan - are the only other entities tohave recognised South Ossetia and Abkhazia.Russia has also taken a financial hit from the crisis, with French bank BNP Paribas estimating investors recently pulled €17 billion out of the country. The Russian stock market has plunged since fighting began.
High hopes
Expectations for the EU summit are high in Georgia, where up to 30,000 people are expected to take part in an anti-Russia demonstration in Tbilisi on Monday. Demonstrations in Brussels and across Europe are also planned for the afternoon.The Georgian prime minister, foreign minister and integration minister are to meet with EU officials in Brussels on Monday but will not take part in the summit itself.
Georgia estimates the conflict caused around €1.4 billion in damage to its infrastructure, with Georgia's entire annual state budget running to just €2 billion. The UN says the five-day war affected 160,000 people. The European Commission has already put aside €6 million in humanitarian aid, with member states promising some €8.4 million more. The EU's summit package for Georgia is expected to feature proposals for a major donors conference and an EU monitoring team to take part in an international peacekeeping force in the conflict zones.The EU is also set to strengthen political and economic relations with Georgia, a French diplomat said, including moves toward a free-trade deal and easier visa regulations for Georgian people traveling to Europe.
Russia calls for arms embargo on Georgia
LEIGH PHILLIPS 01.09.2008 @ 15:52 CET
Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov has called for an international arms embargo to be placed on Georgia.It would be right to impose an embargo on weapons to this regime, until different authorities turn Georgia a normal state, Mr Lavrov said on Monday (1 September) in a speech to foreign policy students in Russia.He also warned the European Union and the United States against backing Georgian leader Mikheil Sakaashvili.If instead of choosing their national interests and the interests of the Georgian people, the United States and its allies choose the Saakashvili regime, this will be a mistake of truly historic proportions, he said, according to a report from the Associated Press.Additionally, Moscow has also accused the US of supplying Georgia with weapons hidden aboard ships delivering humanitarian aid to the embattled Caucasian republic.Speaking to reporters, Andrei Nesterenko, a Russian foreign ministry spokesperson, said his government suspected the ships of also containing military components.
Meanwhile in Brussels on Monday, deputy assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs Matthew Bryza, speaking at a debate with the Russian ambassador to the EU and the Temur Yakobashvili, the Georgian minister for reintegration, and the Polish foreign minister, Radoslaw Sikorski, rubbished the idea that the US was arming Georgia either since the conflict or in the lead-up to hostilities.The Georgia Train-and-Equip Programme delivered uniforms, boots, kalashnikovs and side-arms, said Mr Bryza, referring to GTEP, a series of activities launched by the Bush Administration in 2002. There were no heavy weapons.We did not arm Georgia militarily, he added.
COUNTRIES WITH ISRAEL
EZEKIEL 38:10-19
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.
13 Sheba, and Dedan,(SAUDIA ARABIA) and the merchants of Tarshish,(ENGLAND) with all the young lions thereof,(USA,CANADA,AUSTRALIA,NEW ZEALAND,EU,ENGLISH SPEAKING shall say unto thee, Art thou come to take a spoil? hast thou gathered thy company to take a prey? to carry away silver and gold, to take away cattle and goods, to take a great spoil?
14 Therefore, son of man, prophesy and say unto Gog, Thus saith the Lord GOD; In that day when my people of Israel dwelleth safely, shalt thou not know it?
15 And thou shalt come from thy place out of the north parts, thou, and many people with thee, all of them riding upon horses, a great company, and a mighty army:
16 And thou shalt come up against my people of Israel, as a cloud to cover the land; it shall be in the latter days, and I will bring thee against my land, that the heathen may know me, when I shall be sanctified in thee, O Gog, before their eyes.
17 Thus saith the Lord GOD; Art thou he of whom I have spoken in old time by my servants the prophets of Israel, which prophesied in those days many years that I would bring thee against them?
18 And it shall come to pass at the same time when Gog shall come against the land of Israel, saith the Lord GOD, that my fury shall come up in my face.
19 For in my jealousy and in the fire of my wrath have I spoken, Surely in that day there shall be a great shaking in the land of Israel;
EU Talks Tough on Russia By LEO CENDROWICZ / BRUSSELS SEPT 02,08
Like so many gatherings of European Union leaders, the Georgia crisissummit held in Brussels Monday was flush with grandiose rhetoric but in theend short on substance.
The leaders found the words to describe Russia's disproportionate reaction to the violence in its Caucasian neighbor, and to firmly condemn Moscow'srecognition of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. But apart from suspending talkson a trade pact, they shied away from sanctions, conceding that the E.U. andRussia's interdependence meant there is no desirable alternative to astrong relationship.French President Nicolas Sarkozy, holding the E.U.'s six-month rotatingpresidency, promised that ties with Russia would have to re-examined. Youneed two for a partnership, he said. Sarkozy will lead an E.U. delegationto Moscow on September 8 to ensure Russia complies with the peace plan hehelped broker last month. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said there could be no more business asusual with Moscow, and said all 27 member states were united in theircondemnation of Russia's aggression against its smaller neighbor. The E.U. is prepared to send monitors, but not a peacekeepingforce, to South Ossetia. And it will send humanitarian aidto help rebuild the war-torn regions. But officials did not even pretendthat this would be enough to send a strong message to Russia about theE.U.'s vigilance. The limited E.U. response was partly due to splits amongst the leaders.Britain and most of the new E.U. members from the east wanted toughsanctions to punish Moscow. However, even the most bullish amongst themrecognized the limited impact of possible measures like blocking Russia'splans to join the World Trade Organization, or throwing it out of the G8.
Germany, France and Italy were more conciliatory, warning that the E.U.needed Russia too much to risk any rash retribution - especially givenhow reliant much of the E.U. is on Russian gas and oil. We are economicallyinterdependent with the Russians: Russians need our market, we need theRussian market, Finnish Foreign Minister Alexander Stubb said. The result was familiar fudge: a common statement that tried to sound toughwithout actually threatening real damage. The fiercest it got was to say,In the meantime, the Union will not take any action to reinforce therelationship with Russia. Instead of projecting common resolve in the faceof Russian it seemed to reinforce the sense of impotence felt by the E.U. - like the U.N. and NATO and other international organizations - in theface of Russia's actions. One veteran E.U. official said the Brussels summit underlined how weak theE.U. is. It is like the chorus in a Greek tragedy, says Pierre Defraigne,the European Commission's former deputy director-general for trade. Thelesson to be drawn from this is that the E.U. needs its own defensecapabilities, and it needs a common purpose on energy.But there was at least a new recognition that the E.U. had reached acrossroads in its relationship with Russia. Russia's actions have seriouslychallenged the E.U.'s long-held belief in soft power, its ability toinfluence other nations by non-military means. The E.U.'s own defense capabilities are almost non-existent, even when itsmember countries sing together on foreign policy issues. But since the fallof the Berlin Wall, this has had only limited consequences: there have beenfew external threats to lay bare the E.U.'s lack of foreign policycredibility. Now E.U. leaders recognize that the bright, peaceful future promised by theend of the Cold War was perhaps illusory. The holidays from history have ended, Polish Foreign Minister RadowlawSikorski said, adding that Russia's imperialism had been a wake-up call.He also warned that the E.U. - and NATO - had to be serious about itssecurity pledges: they could no longer think of membership as cost-free, butbeing backed by force.
Even if their Brussels summit produced familiar posturing, the E.U. leadershave learned a bit more to appreciate that unless they show unity andpurpose in the face of threats, they will be seen as a pushover by the likesof Russia. View this article on Time.com
Polish and US officials rebuke mistaken Georgia and illegal Russia
VALENTINA POP 01.09.2008 @ 16:49 CET
EUOSERVER / BRUSSELS – Russia breached international law when attacking Georgia, therefore it must face consequences, not sanctions, said Eckart von Klaeden, foreign policy spokesperson for the German conservatives at a debate ahead of the EU summit on Georgia. A common European position could only be based on the founding principle of the EU – the rule of law, argued Mr von Klaeden.In Germany in the last few years, we used double standards about Russia, because we judged it too mildly. We have to adjust our policies, he said during a debate in Brussels between the Russian ambassador to the EU and Georgia's minister for reintegration organised by the German Marshall Fund.One of the possible consequences could concern the visa liberalisation regime for Russia, but the Polish foreign minister, Radoslaw Sikorski, rejected that idea. Another consequence, in Mr Von Klaeden's view, could be directed at foreign investments in Russia, as the credibility of Russian authorities obeying the law and following the treaties is questionable now and we cannot protect our businesses.
Georgia's attack, deeply unwise
Contrary to Russia's claims, the US did not give Georgia the green light to use military force, said a US diplomat present at the debate.The decision to attack Tskhinvali was deeply unwise. We urged Georgian not to do it, but it is a sovereign country with a democratically elected government, whose officials have to make their own decisions in a way that they believe is protecting their national interest, said Matthew Bryza, the American deputy assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs.The Polish foreign minister also criticised Georgia's decision.I agree with Matt that the Georgian authorities allowed themselves to be provoked. I personally told Georgian officials: You are being provoked. Be careful, because if you do allow yourselves to be provoked, you'll not find much real support.Mr von Klaeden reinforced his position, saying: Every participant has its responsibility for the outbreak and the escalation of this conflict.On the Georgian side, however, the decision is still seen as a conscious choice, not a trap set out by Moscow. We made a choice, to resist the Russian aggression. Not as in 1921 when we didn't, said Temur Yakobashvili, the Georgian minister for reintegration, referring to Bolshevik-Menshevik battles in Georgia during the Russian Civil War.
Second Cold War
The Russian ambassador to the EU, Vladimir Chizhov rejected any comparisons with the Cold War.The debate over a Second Cold War is misplaced, he said. With the original Cold War, there was a clash of ideologies more than anything else.The ideologies are no longer there.Mr Sikorski however felt the Second Cold War analogy was more apt than the Russian ambassador: The holidays from history have ended, he declared.I wondering if we don't actually have a clash of ideologies, he said. The EU is in the business of opening borders ... whereas Russia has a more traditional idea of borders. He added that Europe's respect for the rule of law and the way it protects its citizens also suggested philosophical differences.We all protect our citizens abroad, but we do it by consular means, not force, he said.Mr Bryza accused Moscow of exaggerating the number of deaths resulting from the initial Georgian attack. There were not 2000 victims in South Ossetia, but between 80-140, he said, roughly quoting figures that have been suggested by Human Rights Watch. The US official also called for international investigations into human rights violations of all belligerents.
THE LUKEWARM LEFT GODLESS DEMOCRATES ARE JUST TRYIN TO DESTROY PALIN WITH THIS CHILD SCANDLE, EVERY OTHER STORY ON CNN IS ABOUT IT. JELOUSY I PRESUME BECAUSE THE REPUBLICANS GET A WOMAN VP TO TAKE WOMANS VOTES FROM THE DEMOCRATES.
Alaska's Jewish Community on Palin Selection SEPT 02,08
Sarah Palin has established a great relationship with the Jewish community over recent years, and has attended several of our Jewish cultural gala events, said Rabbi Yossel Greenberg, Chabad emissary in Alaska. Shturem.net The Chabad-Lubavitch emissary in Alaska, Rabbi Yossi Greenberg, said that Alaka's Governor Sarah Palin has established a great relationship with the Jewish community over recent years, and has attended several of our Jewish cultural gala events, he told Lubavitch.com
Palin has shown solidarity with Israel by signing a State of Alaska Resolution recognizing Israel's 60th Anniversary and its relationship with Alaska. In the resolution, Governor Palin pointed to Alaska’s special connection to Israel dating back to Alaska Airlines’ participation in the rescue of 40,000 Yemenite Jews when it airlifted them from Yemen to Tel Aviv during 1948 and 1949. Drafted by members of the Alaska Legislation and heavily supported by Speaker of the House, Representative John Harris, Governor Palin signed the resolution in the presence of Alaska’s Jewish community leaders this June. According to Greenberg, Governor Palin had plans to visit Israel with members of the Jewish community, which did not happen yet because of scheduling conflicts.On a personal level, Greenberg was impressed by Governor Palin’s remarks of hope and faith when she gave birth to a child with special needs. Her words, he observed, were completely aligned with Judaism’s traditional views on embracing the birth of child with special needs as a gift of G-d, no less than is the birth of any baby.Though Greenberg was unequivocal in stating that Chabad representatives do not endorse political candidates, and as spiritual leaders reach out to anyone regardless of political affiliation, he did say, We all feel that the Governor is a remarkable, energetic, and good person.
In a special interview with Shturem.net Greenberg was asked about the rumors that she had supported Pat Buchanan in the past, Greenberg said, I heard about it now for the first time. It happened many years ago when she was mayor, she was very young and a newcomer to politics, people change, and knowing her, if it is true, she did it not because she was attracted to his anti-Semitc or anti-Israel views but to the positive elements in Buchanan's outlook. I can tell you this, from the time she became governor she has always supported the Jewish community and Israel and even sponsored a bill on behalf of Israel. She always comes to our events and she is really a very amazing woman.She may lack a lot of knowledge on matters pertaining to foreign policy but she is a quick learner, and besides, every president has advisers around him. She is a very good person, she is very honest, a very dedicated and wonderful mother.Asked if being elected will force her to neglect her children, Greenberg said absolutely not, she is a remarkable woman. She takes her baby that was born with Downs Syndrome to all of her meetings. She is a mother first.(After the interview with Rabbi Greenberg, Shturem.net was informed that Governor Palin had actually supported Buchanan's competitor Steve Forbes at the time).
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)
NOW THE REAL RUSSIA SHOWS ITS FRUIT, THE WEST HAS BEEN DECIEVED SINCE 1989 INTO BELIEVING RUSSIA IS A DEMOCRACY. WHEN ALL YOU HAD TO DO IS READ THE BIBLE AND IT WOULD TELL YOU RUSSIA HAS ALWAYS BEEN A DICTATORSHIP TILL GOD IN THE FUTURE DOES AWAY WITH MOST OF ITS ARMY.
Putin vows an answer to NATO ships near Georgia By MIKE ECKEL, Associated Press Writer SEPT 02,08
MOSCOW - Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said Tuesday that Russia will respond calmly to an increase in NATO ships in the Black Sea in the aftermath of the short war with Georgia, but promised that there will be an answer.Russia has repeatedly complained that NATO has too many ships in the Black Sea. Foreign Ministry official Andrei Nesterenko said Tuesday that currently there are two U.S., one Polish, one Spanish and one German ship there.Russian officials say the United States could have delivered weapons to Georgia under the guise of humanitarian aid.We don't understand what American ships are doing on the Georgian shores, but this is a question of taste, it's a decision by our American colleagues, he reportedly said. The second question is why the humanitarian aid is being delivered on naval vessels armed with the newest rocket systems.He said Russia's reaction to NATO ships will be calm, without any sort of hysteria. But of course, there will be an answer, Interfax quoted Putin as saying during a visit to Uzbekistan.Asked by exactly what measures Russia would take, Putin was quoted as answering You'll see.
Separately, Russian officials criticized European threats to postpone talks on a partnership deal over the war in Georgia, but the Russian envoy to the EU said he was not surprised that the bloc declined to impose sanctions on Russia.We are too interdependent, Vladimir Chizhov told reporters in Moscow. Russia and the European Union are bound by destiny to be close partners.EU officials said Monday that unless Russian troops pull back from positions in Georgia, talks on the wide-ranging political and economic agreement would be put off.Britain and Eastern European nations held out for a tougher line, but Europe's dependence on Russian oil and natural gas deterred stronger sanctions.The partnership with the European Union should not be a hostage to the conflict over Georgia, Foreign Ministry spokesman Andrei Nesterenko told reporters Tuesday.Nesterenko also claimed efforts were under way to rebuild Georgia's armed forces, and said Georgian military forces were behind protests against Russian troops stationed in the country.There are active attempts to restore the activity of Georgian troops, he said. Yesterday, there were rallies and provocations near the town of Kapoleti targeting Russian troops. We believe they were organized by Georgian special services.Georgian officials could not be immediately reached for comment on the claim.Naturally, we cannot agree with a number of biased statements regarding Russia in the final declaration of the summit, including the assertion that our reaction to the Georgian aggression was disproportionate, the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.The main thing, however, is that they are in the minority and the majority of EU countries have manifested a responsible approach and confirmed their intention to continue the partnership with Russia, the ministry said.On Aug. 7, Georgian forces attacked South Ossetia, hoping to retake the province, which broke away from Georgia in the early 1990s. Russian forces repelled the offensive and pushed into Georgia. Both sides signed a cease-fire deal in mid-August, but Russia has ignored its requirement for all forces to return to prewar positions.Moscow insists the cease-fire accord lets it run checkpoints in security zones of up to 4 miles into Georgian territory.
Finland and Sweden revive debates on NATO membership
VALENTINA POP 01.09.2008 @ 09:27 CET
Until recently, discussion of possible NATO membership has not been a lively political topic in neutral Finland and Sweden, but Russia's actions in Georgia have encouraged those who back membership to become more vocal. We need to reconsider our security policy, said the Finnish Foreign Minister Alexander Stubb in an interview with Austria's Die Presse on Saturday (30 August). Mr Stubb - Russia's actions have changed the context of the NATO debate (Photo: European Parliament)Traditional conflicts are making a comeback in the post-9/11 era - he argued - saying Finland needs to begin to consider NATO membership, that the Georgian conflict has highlighted the UN's problems and the need for a more active security policy. The talk about how nothing has changed is inconceivable to me, said the conservative Mr Stubb, who represents the smaller coalition party in the government.It makes sense now to take into consideration a NATO bid. The time for a decision in this regard has not come yet, but we need to be flexible and quickly adapt our security policy. This must not take place in slow motion.In Sweden, the liberal People's Party – a government coalition partner - is also trying to launch a NATO membership debate.
Allan Widman, the party's foreign policy spokesman, championed his country's membership to NATO in an interview with the Dagens Nyheter newspaper. The People's Party has always been in favour of membership, but respected the coalition agreement not to place the topic on the public agenda. This has changed since the Russian invasion of Georgia.The leader of the Social-Democrat opposition strongly rejects Sweden's NATO bid, however. The Scandinavian country has had a long tradition of being a neutral country, even though neighbours Denmark and Norway are part of the Western security alliance.
Finnish NATO split
In Finland, Mr Stubb was appointed earlier this year as foreign minister, after being a member of the European Parliament for four years. He is a vocal supporter of his country's membership in NATO but promised to be reserved on the issue in his new job, due to internal division within the governing coalition. The Centre Party lead by Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen is split on the issue, as are the Social Democrats. The current president, Social Democrat Tarja Halonen, is a strong opponent of the NATO bid. Her mandate ends in 2012.Finland has a 1,200 km long border with Russia, something that caused much consternation for Finnish foreign policy during the Cold War. The country inched closer to NATO in March when it announced its intention to join future operations of the alliance's rapid reaction force. It has developed technical capacities alongside NATO for several years and would be ready to join quickly if the decision was made.
I WRITE NEWS ABOUT AND PUT NEWS ARTICLES ABOUT ISRAEL AND JERUSALEM PERTAINING TO BIBLE PROPHESY HAPPENINGS.JOEL 3:20 But Judah (ISRAEL) shall dwell for ever, and Jerusalem from generation to generation.(THATS ISRAEL-JERUSALEM WILL NEVER BE DESTROYED AGAIN)-WE CHRISTIANS ARE ALL WAITING PATIENTLY FOR THE PRE-TRIBULATION RAPTURE TO OCCUR.SO WE CAN GO TO JESUS AND GET OUR NEVER DYING BODIES.SO WE CAN RULE OVER CITIES OURSELVES.WHILE JESUS RULES FROM DAVIDS THRONE FOREVER IN JERUSALEM.
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- WW3 THE WAVES.
- THE PRE TRIB RAPTURE JVI
- BEWARE OF FALSE PROPHETS - JVI
- NEW AGE SPIRITS - JVI
- YOGA IS DEMONIC.
- DANGERS OF THE OCCULT - J NIZZO
- ALEX JONES SAVE BIG % ON ITEMS.
Tuesday, September 02, 2008
Monday, September 01, 2008
WIND - RAIN HIT LOUISIANA HARD
VIDEO - STATIONS
CNN NEWS VIDEO
http://edition.cnn.com/video/
YAHOO NEWS VIDEO
http://news.yahoo.com/video
MIDEAST CONFLICT NEWS
http://news.yahoo.com/video/1874;_ylt=A0wNcxFdg6xIgbkAwD6z174F
ABC NEWS VIDEO
http://news.yahoo.com/video/2461
FOX NEWS VIDEO
http://news.yahoo.com/video/3074
FOX BUSINESS VIDEO
http://news.yahoo.com/video/3045
AP NEWS VIDEO
http://news.yahoo.com/video/2529
BBC NEWS VIDEO
http://news.yahoo.com/video/2918
REUTERS VIDEO NEWS
http://news.yahoo.com/video/2704
AFP NEWS VIDEO
http://news.yahoo.com/video/3091
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.
AT 8:30 AM THE WIND AND RAIN ARE PULVERISING ALREADY NEW ORLEANS AND THE WORST IS YET TO COME. GUSTAV IS CLOSE TO COMING ON LAND NOW, 10 MILES AWAY.
Gustav's eye closes in on Louisiana coastline By MICHAEL KUNZELMAN and MARY FOSTER, Associated Press Writer 8:57 AM SEPT 01,08
NEW ORLEANS - Hurricane Gustav steamed toward the Louisiana coast early Monday on track to hit west of New Orleans as the few remaining in the city watched nervously and hoped levees only partly reinforced in the three years since Katrina would hold.
Those who heeded days of warnings to get out watched from shelters and hotel rooms hundreds of miles away, praying the powerful Category 3 storm and its 115-mph winds would pass without the same deadly toll.We're nervous, but we just have to keep trusting in God that we don't get the water again, said Lyndon Guidry, who hit the road for Florida just a few months after he was able to return to his home in New Orleans. We just have to put our faith in God.Water gushed off buildings and flags hung in tatters, ripped to shreds in the high winds. But there were no reports of serious flooding, and only scattered clusters of power outages.The painful memories of Katrina, which flooded 80 percent of New Orleans and killed more than 1,600 along the Gulf Coast, led officials to aggressively insist that everyone in Gustav's path flee from shore. As the storm grew near, the streets of the city were empty — save for National Guardsmen and just about every officer on the city's police force standing watch for looters.In all, nearly 2 million people left south Louisiana, as did tens of thousands from coastal Mississippi, Alabama and southeastern Texas.
Even presidential politics bowed to the storm, as the Republican Party scaled back its convention plans in deference to Gustav's threat. Mindful of the government's inept response to Katrina, President Bush scrapped his Monday appearance at the convention and instead headed to Texas, where emergency response personnel were getting ready.It's amazing. It makes me feel really good that so many people are saying, We as Americans, we as the world, have to get this right this time, New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin said. We cannot afford to screw up again.Asked what lessons he learned during Katrina that were being applied now, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff told CBS: Planning, preparation and moving early.Gustav killed at least 94 people as it tore through the Caribbean and it will test three years of planning and rebuilding on the Gulf Coast following Katrina's wrath. Billions of dollars were at stake, as Gustav threatened industries ranging from sugar to shipping. If production is significantly interrupted from the region's refineries and offshore oil and gas platforms, price spikes could hit all Americans at the pump.
Officials promised they were ready to respond this time. Chertoff said search and rescue would be the top priority once the storm passed: high-water vehicles, helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft, Coast Guard cutters and a Navy vessel that is essentially a floating emergency room were posted around the strike zone.I feel a little nervous about the storm and exactly where it's going to end up, but I also feel real good about the resources, Nagin said. Man, if we have resources, we can move mountains.Forecasters had expected Gustav to strengthen further before making landfall around midday, but early Monday they said the storm would hold steady as a Category 3. Katrina also made landfall as a strong Category 3, which carries sustained winds of between 111 mph and 130 mph.At 8 a.m. EDT, the storm's center was located about 85 miles south of New Orleans and was moving northwest at 16 mph.The city of Franklin, about 100 miles west of New Orleans, was bracing for a direct hit if Gustav stays on its current track. Dozens of sheriff's deputies, along with state troopers and guardsmen, waited at an emergency operations center inside the courthouse.We don't rely on backup. If it comes, great, but we don't trust the federal government. They can never get it quite right, said state Rep. Sam Jones.He estimated that at least three-quarters of the city's roughly 9,000 residents evacuated for Gustav. For good reason: Three years ago, Hurricane Rita flooded up to 200 homes in the city.Tropical storm-force winds reached the southeastern tip of the state early Monday morning, but local officials said they had not received any distress calls or reports of unexpected flooding. In Plaquemines Parish, south of New Orleans, officials built an emergency levee to prevent flooding along a highway that runs along the Mississippi River, sheriff's spokesman Maj. John Marie said. But it was extremely quiet. It's really remarkable, we got almost everybody out, he said. In New Orleans, officials were anxiously watching to see what kind of storm surge the city would face: If forecasts hold, the city could experience a storm surge of only 4 to 6 feet, compared to a surge of 10 to 14 feet at the site of landfall, said Corey Walton, a hurricane support meteorologist with the National Hurricane Center. Katrina, by comparison, brought a storm surge of 25 feet, causing levees to break. While the Army Corps of Engineers has shored up some of the city's levee system since then, fears this time center on the city's West Bank, where levee repairs have not been completed. City officials were pleased so many residents heeded warnings to leave. They estimated only about 100,000 along the coast decided to tough it out. When the 911 calls start coming in, we'll know how many people are left in town, said police superintendent Warren Riley. The city's emergency medical service had received only 26 calls as of midnight Monday, a fraction of what they received on the night before Katrina, spokesman Jeb Tate said. Adam Woods didn't need to be told to leave. A Coast Guard helicopter plucked him off his roof after Katrina, and this time, he and his lab mix Mandela headed to the city's Union Station for a ride out of town.
I've got oxygen in my lungs, the 53-year-old landscaper said. Remember, you've got to be alive to have problems.Jeffrey Carreras was among those staying behind. Looters wreaked havoc in his neighborhood restaurant in the days after Katrina struck and despite promises of police protection, he wasn't willing to leave his business a second time. I have shotguns, rifles. I collect guns actually, Carreras said. So I have plenty of guns in there, plenty of ammo.Gustav was the seventh named storm in the Atlantic hurricane season. The eighth, Tropical Storm Hanna, was strengthening about 100 miles from the Bahamas. Though a storm's track and intensity are difficult to predict days in advance, long-term projections showed the storm could come ashore along the border of Georgia and South Carolina late in the week.
Associated Press writers Becky Bohrer, Janet McConnaughey, Robert Tanner, Cain Burdeau, Alan Sayre, and Allen G. Breed contributed to this report from New Orleans. Vicki Smith in Houma and Doug Simpson in Baton Rouge also contributed. Michael Kunzelman reported from Lafayette, La.
Hurricane Gustav hits US coast by Glenn Chapman SEPT 01,08
NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (AFP) - Hurricane Gustav lashed the US state of Louisiana with torrential rain and gale force winds Monday after forcing nearly two million people to flee. Fearing a repeat of the Hurricane Katrina disaster, hundreds of troops were sent into New Orleans after what is being called the biggest evacuation in US history.Three critically ill people were reported to have died as they were being moved from the danger zone. Oil production platforms were shut down, the Republican party suspended the start of its presidential election convention and President George W. Bush headed for Texas to monitor emergency preparations for Gustav which has killed more than 80 people in Dominican Republic, Haiti and Jamaica.
Reports of power outages in New Orleans started after wind and rain began hitting the city -- still struggling from Katrina, which struck almost exactly three years ago.Louisiana officials said there were about 750 National Guard troops in New Orleans if a new rescue operation was needed. Mayor Ray Nagin on Sunday ordered a curfew and vowed to throw looters into prison.The edge of the storm has crossed the Mississippi Delta, lashing New Orleans, said National Hurricane Center meteorologists.At 0900 GMT, the eye of the hurricane was 185 kilometers (115 miles) southeast of New Orleans moving towards the coast at 26km (16 miles) an hour.Storm force winds from Gustav extended as far as 370km (230 miles) from the eye, the center said.A category three hurricane, Gustav packed sustained winds of 185km (115 miles) per hour.No significant change in strength is likely before landfall, the US National Hurricane Center said in its latest advisory.This is a serious storm, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal said in a final appeal to the people who remained in New Orleans despite government warnings.People in the state capital of Baton Rouge and other inland areas have been warned to watch for storm-spawned tornados.Gustav forced US President George W. Bush to cancel plans to appear at the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minnesota. The US leader said Sunday that he would instead travel to Texas to monitor the storm.Republican presidential hopeful John McCain drastically scaled back the program for the first day of the convention Monday, saying all activities would be suspended except for those absolutely necessary.
I hope and pray we will be able to resume some of our normal operations as quickly as possible, he told reporters from St. Louis, after returning from a tour of relief preparations in Mississippi.Military and civilian disaster relief operations were prepared, with memories still fresh of the destruction wrought by Katrina, and the government's botched response.Katrina made landfall near New Orleans on August 29, 2005, smashing poorly-built levees surrounding the city and causing massive floods that destroyed tens of thousands of homes and killed nearly 1,800.New Orleans mayor Nagin told local television that the city had become a ghost town after a massive evacuation campaign, and that only about 10,000 residents remained. Some of those who left said they felt reassured. The mayor assured us our property will be safe, Wilson Patterson, 48, said as he prepared to board a bus with wheelchair-bound 84-year-old Earline Martin. We don't want to get caught up in the Katrina craziness, he said, recalling the lawlessness that swept New Orleans in 2005. Jindal said rescue teams were in place. We will begin search-and-rescue operations as soon as we safely can. That would be when winds are below 140 miles per hour, he said, which probably will occur late Monday.We've got ... boots on the ground, eyes on the ground. So before that, even before we can get into the air, before we can get boats on the water, we do have people on the ground to make sure that we're doing everything that we can to save every single life.Jindal told reporters there were unconfirmed reports that three critically ill patients died while being transported to safer ground. They had to weigh the risk between sheltering in place and evacuating and made the decision they thought was best for their patients, he said.
Gulf oil fields idled ahead of Gustav By Erwin Seba SEPT 01,08
HOUSTON (Reuters) - U.S. energy companies shut nearly all offshore Gulf oil and gas production and raced to bring down flood-prone Louisiana refineries on Sunday ahead of Hurricane Gustav, which threatens to rival the wrath of 2005's Katrina. Gustav is set to hit the Louisiana coast west of New Orleans on Monday morning as a Category 3 hurricane with wind speeds up to 125 mph (200 kmh) in the first major test of the energy industry's preparedness since the devastating 2005 hurricane season.In the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, which normally pumps a quarter of all U.S. oil production and 15 percent of its natural gas output, energy companies had shut in more than 96 percent of the area's oil output and 82 percent of gas as of Sunday afternoon, the U.S. Minerals Management Service said.At least nine refineries with a combined capacity of 2.2 million bpd, or 12.5 percent of U.S. refining capacity, were shut down along the south Louisiana coast ahead of Gustav.More than half a dozen other plants, including Exxon Mobil's Baytown, Texas, and Baton Rouge, Louisiana, facilities, the two biggest in the United States, were reducing processing rates, sources and industry officials said.This is Katrina's legacy, said Phil Flynn of Alaron Trading in Chicago. The industry is much more prepared and taking things much more seriously. That's why so much has been shut down so quickly.Despite Gustav's course through the heart of the U.S. oil patch, oil prices rose a modest 91 cents or 0.8 percent to $116.37 a barrel by 1:12 a.m. EDT in electronic trading, with traders waiting to see if it would leave lasting damage in its wake.U.S. RBOB gasoline futures climbed 2.2 percent.This is definitely a dangerous storm, but I think most of the market is in a wait-and-see mode, waiting to see (if there are) disruptions to oil facilities and pipeline infrastructure before they make a big move, said Gerard Burg, a commodities analyst at the National Bank of Australia in Melbourne.
Hurricanes Katrina and Rita wrecked more than 100 oil platforms in 2005, shutting down a quarter of U.S. oil production and closing several large refineries for months. Katrina was a Category 3 when its 28-foot (8.5 meter) storm surge hit the coast.The Gulf normally pumps 1.3 million barrels per day (bpd) of oil -- approximately 1.5 percent of world supply -- and 7.4 billion cubic feet of natural gas.This could be potentially the most dangerous storm for the energy sector we've ever seen, said Chris Jarvis, senior analyst at Caprock Risk Management in Hampton Falls, New Hampshire. It is going right across the most important areas.
INFRASTRUCTURE CLOSURES
Besides closing oil and gas fields and refineries, energy companies were also shutting down important fuel transportation systems.The Louisiana Offshore Oil Port, the only U.S. port capable of offloading the biggest oil tankers and a major conduit for U.S. crude imports, halted all operations on Sunday.It's coming right at us, said LOOP spokeswoman Barb Hestermann of Gustav's forecast path. It looks like we're Ground Zero.Gustav was forecast to slam into the coast just west of the LOOP's onshore operations center at Galliano, Louisiana.The Sabine Pipeline, which includes the delivery point for U.S. natural gas futures, shut at noon CST (1:00 p.m. EDT). The move led the NYMEX to declare force majeure on its August and September natural gas futures contracts, meaning sellers were not contractually bound to make physical delivery. Mississippi River traffic south of New Orleans closed Saturday night. Ship channels into Lake Charles in west Louisiana as well as Houston, Beaumont and Port Arthur in Texas planned to shut by Sunday night, cutting off crude oil shipments to refineries. The region's largest offshore producer, Shell Oil Co, said all of its Gulf production would be shut by Sunday night. All 1,300 of the company's workers were onshore. Rival energy giants BP, Chevron had shut almost all production. ConocoPhillips, and Exxon were also shutting off production as they evacuate workers. (Reporting by Erwin Seba, Bruce Nichols, Robert Campbell and Haitham Haddadin, and Fayen Wong in Perth; Editing by Chris Baltimore, Gunna Dickson and Ben Tan)
EARTH DESTROYED WITH THE EARTH
GENESIS 6:11-13
11 The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.(WORLD TERRORISM,MURDERS)
12 And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth.
13 And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence (TERRORISM) through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth.
EARTHQUAKES
MATTHEW 24:7-8
7 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.
8 All these are the beginning of sorrows.
MARK 13:8
8 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom:(ETHNIC GROUP AGAINST ETHNIC GROUP) and there shall be earthquakes in divers places, and there shall be famines and troubles: these are the beginnings of sorrows.
LUKE 21:11
11 And great earthquakes shall be in divers places, and famines, and pestilences; and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven.
Rescuers appeal for tents after deadly China quake By ANITA CHANG, Associated Press Writer SEPT 01,08
BEIJING - Rescuers appealed for temporary housing and tents Monday after a weekend earthquake in southwest China killed at least 36 people, injured hundreds and left tens of thousands of homes in ruins. The temblor Saturday in Sichuan province, which the U.S. Geological Survey measured at magnitude 5.7, struck along the same fault line as a May 12 earthquake that killed nearly 70,000.We need temporary houses ... we need more than 10,000 tents, said Zhang Hai, head of the foreign liaison office of the Communist Party propaganda department in Panzhihua city. This is a mountainous place and so we can't build temporary houses everywhere.The beginning of the school year, which was supposed to be Monday, was postponed for a week because authorities were inspecting damage in classrooms, he said.We still can't bring all kids back to their previous classrooms, Zhang said.China is still basking in the glory of hosting an extravagant and widely viewed Olympic Games that International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge called truly exceptional. But the earthquake underscores the country's need to turn its attention back to pressing domestic issues such as high inflation, pollution, and now disaster relief.The quake killed five people in Panzhihua and surrounding rural areas, and the death toll also included 25 victims in Sichuan province's Huili county, local officials said. Authorities in the Chuxiong Yi Autonomous Prefecture in neighboring Yunnan province reported six deaths.
We are trying to maintain order and make sure that there's enough supply. The disaster relief office has sent 17 medical teams made up of over 200 people, said Song Ming, an official in the propaganda department of Liangshan prefecture, which includes Huili county.Saturday's quake killed 33 people, state broadcaster China Central Television said on its noon newscast. The temblor destroyed 258,000 homes, damaged major bridges and cracked three reservoirs, the official Xinhua News Agency reported.Local officials told The Associated Press they did not have any information on the reservoirs or whether the damage might place people in danger.Xinhua said 467 people were injured by the earthquake, which struck 20 miles southeast of Panzhihua city in the southwestern corner of Sichuan. A 5.6-magnitude aftershock struck just one minute later, the USGS said.About 152,000 people were evacuated in Sichuan province and relief efforts were under way, despite being hampered by heavy rains and the region's rugged terrain, Xinhua said. It said 6,200 tents, 3,500 quilts and 55,000 pounds of rice had been sent to the quake zone.Since the 7.9-magnitude May 12 temblor, the region has been hit by scores of aftershocks.
DISEASES
REVELATION 6:7-8
7 And when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth beast say, Come and see.
8 And I looked, and behold a pale horse:(CHLORES GREEN) and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword,(WEAPONS) and with hunger,(FAMINE) and with death,(INCURABLE DISEASES) and with the beasts of the earth.(ANIMAL TO HUMAN DISEASE).
11 deaths confirmed in listeriosis outbreak
Sun Aug 31, 8:10 PM
VANCOUVER (CBC) - Listeriosis, which has triggered a series of recalls of processed meat products, was the underlying or contributing cause in 11 deaths, up from 10, according to the Public Health Agency of Canada.The death most recently linked to the food-bourne illness was in Ontario and likely occurred in the past several weeks, Dr. Mark Raizenne of the Public Health Agency of Canada said Sunday.Since news of an outbreak emerged two weeks ago, Listeria monocytogenes has been the underlying or contributing cause in 11 deaths, including nine in Ontario, one in B.C. and one in Alberta, according to the agency.Another six deaths are suspected and still under investigation, including four in Ontario, one in Quebec and one in Saskatchewan, the agency said.A total of 33 cases across the country have been conclusively linked to the outbreak, up from the 31 cases reported in the agency's update Saturday. An additional 25 suspected cases are still under investigation, down from Saturday's update of 32.Public health officials have warned the public to expect more confirmed or suspected cases to emerge because of the bacterium's long incubation period of up to 70 days.The infection is of most concern to individuals who have weakened immune systems, the elderly, pregnant women and young children, the Public Health Agency of Canada said in newspaper advertisements published Saturday.Last Saturday, as a precaution, Maple Leaf Foods expanded a recall of meat products to include everything that's processed at its Toronto plant after government lab tests conclusively linked the bacterium in the outbreak to some of the company's products. Several more products were added to the list of items Friday night.Dr. Brian Evans, executive vice president of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, said while it may seem that the list of recalled products is growing, the additional recalls reflect the fact that several different products were made from the recalled meat.Many of our recalls relate to products such as sandwiches and pre-packaged meats carrying best-before dates that have now already expired, Evans said at a news conference Saturday afternoon.Nevertheless, in the public interest and in the interest of openness, we feel it is important that such info is visible.On Saturday, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency warned people against eating certain roast beef sub and kaiser bun sandwiches by King Bean Wholesalers sold in B.C. stores in Surrey, New Westminster and Langley because they may be contaminated with the bacterium.With files from the Canadian Press.
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.
Georgia crisis defines new Russian defense policy By Oleg Shchedrov SEPT 01,008
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia's decision to send troops to Georgia has set a new standard for defending its national interests and the United States must learn to live with it, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Monday.Russia crushed its southern neighbor in a brief war last month after Georgia tried to recapture by force its pro-Moscow, separatist region of South Ossetia. It drew Western condemnation by pushing far beyond the disputed area, bombing and deploying troops deep inside Georgia proper.Through its response to the Georgian aggression, Russia has set a kind of standard for reaction, which fully complies with international law, Lavrov told students of Moscow's diplomatic college in a speech to mark the start of the new academic year.Russia has returned to the world stage as a responsible state which can defend its citizens.Any doubts about this should have been dispelled by its action in Georgia and recognition of two pro-Russian provinces as independent states, said Lavrov, whose harshest words were addressed to Washington and NATO.America needs to acknowledge the reality of the post-American world and start adapting to it, Lavrov said. An attempt to live in its own unipolar world has gone on too long, and this is dangerous in every respect.He added: There is a feeling that NATO again needs frontline states to justify its existence.owever, he reiterated Moscow's commitment to continue dialogue with the United States.We will deal with any America, Lavrov said, urging Washington to exercise reciprocity and absolute honesty in ties. We will continue talking to Washington as long as there is a tiny hope of understanding each other and making a deal.
MOMENT OF TRUTH
The speech, focused on new relations between Russia and the West, was made hours before EU leaders were due to gather in Brussels to discuss a common stance in the Georgian crisis. Lavrov made clear Russia would not bow to any pressure.He was expounding new foreign policy guidelines set by President Dmitry Medvedev, who despite Western expectations of a softer line has formalized the assertive stance of his predecessor Vladimir Putin.Medvedev said in a television interview on Sunday that Russia would adhere to international law but not accept a U.S.-led unipolar world, and laid claim to specific spheres of national interest that Russia would defend.Over the past few years, the West has been watching with alarm the increasingly assertive policy of a resurgent Russia, fearing a revival of Soviet-era imperialism.Russia, in turn, has accused the West of building new lines of division in the world by failing to treat it as an equal.Lavrov said the conflict in Georgia had come as a long-cherished moment of truth, adding that today's clarity is better than any ambiguity.Europe's inability to produce a new collective security system, open for everyone and taking into account everyone's interests, was to blame for the Georgia crisis, he said.Something should be done because otherwise Euro-Atlantic affairs will keep returning to square one.Russia has proposed calling a security conference in Europe, to create new arrangements for neutralizing threats in the continent.It views NATO's eastward expansion and the deployment of parts of a U.S. missile defense system in Eastern Europe as a direct threat to its security. Plans to grant NATO membership to ex-Soviet Georgia and Ukraine are anathema for Moscow.
In the absence of a reasonable multilateral dialogue we will be forced to react unilaterally, Lavrov said. But we would indeed prefer joint work on European security issues.(Editing by Jon Boyle and Mark Trevelyan)
Russia says US may have sent weapons to Georgia SEPT 01,08
MOSCOW - Russia is suggesting U.S. ships that brought humanitarian aid to Georgia may have also carried weapons. Foreign Ministry spokesman Andrei Nesterenko said such suspicions are among the motives for Russia's call for an arms embargo against Georgia.Nesterenko told a news conference there are suppositions that the cargo of U.S. military ships that have brought aid for war-battered Georgia may also have included military components.Nesterenko also said that Russia would welcome an international police presence and more Western military observers in what is now a Russian-controlled zone around South Ossetia, the focus of the war earlier this month. But he indicated it will be a long time before Russia is ready to reduce its military presence.THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.
MOSCOW (AP) — Russia warned the West on Monday against supporting Georgia's leadership and called for an arms embargo against the ex-Soviet republic nation until a different government is in place.Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov's remarks are likely to anger the United States and Europe and enrage Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili. He made it clear Moscow wants Saakashvili out of power in Georgia.If instead of choosing their national interests and the interests of the Georgian people, the United States and its allies choose the Saakashvili regime, this will be a mistake of truly historic proportions, he said.For a start it would be right to impose an embargo on weapons to this regime, until different authorities turn Georgia a normal state, he said in an address at Russia's top foreign policy graduate school.Lavrov spoke as the European Union prepared for a summit Monday to discuss the Georgia crisis and further relations with Russia.Today's EU summit should clear up a great deal. We hope the choice they make will be based on Europe's fundamental interests, he said. He said Russia's relations with NATO are facing a moment of truth.Russia's ties to the West have been driven to their lowest point since the Soviet collapse of 1991 by the war last month in Georgia, where Saakashvili angered Moscow by courting the West and seeking NATO membership.
Russia repelled a Georgian offensive against the breakaway Georgian province of South Ossetia and sent troops, tanks and bombers deep into undisputed Georgian territory, where some still maintain positions. Moscow last week recognized South Ossetia and another breakaway region, Abkhazia, as independent countries.The U.S. and Europe have accused Russia of using disproportionate force and of violating the terms of a cease-fire that called for the sides to withdraw their forces to pre-conflict positions. They have also denounced Russia's recognition of the separatist regions, saying Georgia's borders must remain intact.Russia says it was provoked. Russian peacekeeping forces were stationed in South Ossetia before the war and Moscow had given most of South Ossetia's residents Russian passports in recent years, enabling the Kremlin to argue that it was defending its citizens when it responded to Georgia's Aug. 7 offensive in the separatist province.With its reaction to the Georgian aggression, Russia has set a certain standard of responding that fully complies with international law, Lavrov said. Russian soldiers, he said, followed our deeply Christian tradition of dying for our friends.The reactions of some Western countries to the crisis illustrates a deficit of morality, he said. It's high time for Europe to get back to simple, non-politicized and non-geopolitical values, Lavrov said.Lavrov reserved particular criticism for the United States, which has trained Georgian troops, saying such aid had failed to give the U.S. sufficient leverage to restrain the Georgian government. Instead, he said, It encouraged the irresponsible and unpredictable regime in its gambles.While Western governments have expressed regret at the Georgian offensive targeting South Ossetia, the Russian call for an arms embargo on a nation still bristling with Russian forces is likely to irritate the U.S. and Europe.
Lavrov's remarks will likely deepen Georgian suspicions that Russia's aim throughout the crisis has been to remove the pro-Western Saakashvili from power. European Union leaders seeking to punish Russia for its war with Georgia and its recognition of independence for two breakaway Georgian provinces have few options and are likely to choose diplomatic pressure to isolate Moscow at their summit Monday. Lavrov's implication that continued support for Saakashvili would further undermine relations with Russia were the latest in a bitter back-and-forth between Moscow and the West, with each saying it is up to the other to avoid plunging the world into a new Cold War. It's up to Russia today to make a fundamental choice and to engage neighbors and partners in settling disputes peacefully, French President Nicolas Sarkozy wrote in a pre-summit letter to EU leaders. Russia's commitment to a relationship of understanding and cooperation with the rest of Europe is in doubt.Also on Monday, European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana said that member nations are preparing to send hundreds of civilian monitors to Georgia to verify whether Russian forces are complying with a cease-fire agreement. He said the observers would be deployed initially across areas controlled by Georgian forces. We would like to have the ... mission deployed soon, Solana said, adding he hoped EU nations approve the plan in the coming weeks. Associated Press reporter Constant Brand in Brussels contributed to this report.
CNN NEWS VIDEO
http://edition.cnn.com/video/
YAHOO NEWS VIDEO
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MIDEAST CONFLICT NEWS
http://news.yahoo.com/video/1874;_ylt=A0wNcxFdg6xIgbkAwD6z174F
ABC NEWS VIDEO
http://news.yahoo.com/video/2461
FOX NEWS VIDEO
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AFP NEWS VIDEO
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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.
AT 8:30 AM THE WIND AND RAIN ARE PULVERISING ALREADY NEW ORLEANS AND THE WORST IS YET TO COME. GUSTAV IS CLOSE TO COMING ON LAND NOW, 10 MILES AWAY.
Gustav's eye closes in on Louisiana coastline By MICHAEL KUNZELMAN and MARY FOSTER, Associated Press Writer 8:57 AM SEPT 01,08
NEW ORLEANS - Hurricane Gustav steamed toward the Louisiana coast early Monday on track to hit west of New Orleans as the few remaining in the city watched nervously and hoped levees only partly reinforced in the three years since Katrina would hold.
Those who heeded days of warnings to get out watched from shelters and hotel rooms hundreds of miles away, praying the powerful Category 3 storm and its 115-mph winds would pass without the same deadly toll.We're nervous, but we just have to keep trusting in God that we don't get the water again, said Lyndon Guidry, who hit the road for Florida just a few months after he was able to return to his home in New Orleans. We just have to put our faith in God.Water gushed off buildings and flags hung in tatters, ripped to shreds in the high winds. But there were no reports of serious flooding, and only scattered clusters of power outages.The painful memories of Katrina, which flooded 80 percent of New Orleans and killed more than 1,600 along the Gulf Coast, led officials to aggressively insist that everyone in Gustav's path flee from shore. As the storm grew near, the streets of the city were empty — save for National Guardsmen and just about every officer on the city's police force standing watch for looters.In all, nearly 2 million people left south Louisiana, as did tens of thousands from coastal Mississippi, Alabama and southeastern Texas.
Even presidential politics bowed to the storm, as the Republican Party scaled back its convention plans in deference to Gustav's threat. Mindful of the government's inept response to Katrina, President Bush scrapped his Monday appearance at the convention and instead headed to Texas, where emergency response personnel were getting ready.It's amazing. It makes me feel really good that so many people are saying, We as Americans, we as the world, have to get this right this time, New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin said. We cannot afford to screw up again.Asked what lessons he learned during Katrina that were being applied now, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff told CBS: Planning, preparation and moving early.Gustav killed at least 94 people as it tore through the Caribbean and it will test three years of planning and rebuilding on the Gulf Coast following Katrina's wrath. Billions of dollars were at stake, as Gustav threatened industries ranging from sugar to shipping. If production is significantly interrupted from the region's refineries and offshore oil and gas platforms, price spikes could hit all Americans at the pump.
Officials promised they were ready to respond this time. Chertoff said search and rescue would be the top priority once the storm passed: high-water vehicles, helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft, Coast Guard cutters and a Navy vessel that is essentially a floating emergency room were posted around the strike zone.I feel a little nervous about the storm and exactly where it's going to end up, but I also feel real good about the resources, Nagin said. Man, if we have resources, we can move mountains.Forecasters had expected Gustav to strengthen further before making landfall around midday, but early Monday they said the storm would hold steady as a Category 3. Katrina also made landfall as a strong Category 3, which carries sustained winds of between 111 mph and 130 mph.At 8 a.m. EDT, the storm's center was located about 85 miles south of New Orleans and was moving northwest at 16 mph.The city of Franklin, about 100 miles west of New Orleans, was bracing for a direct hit if Gustav stays on its current track. Dozens of sheriff's deputies, along with state troopers and guardsmen, waited at an emergency operations center inside the courthouse.We don't rely on backup. If it comes, great, but we don't trust the federal government. They can never get it quite right, said state Rep. Sam Jones.He estimated that at least three-quarters of the city's roughly 9,000 residents evacuated for Gustav. For good reason: Three years ago, Hurricane Rita flooded up to 200 homes in the city.Tropical storm-force winds reached the southeastern tip of the state early Monday morning, but local officials said they had not received any distress calls or reports of unexpected flooding. In Plaquemines Parish, south of New Orleans, officials built an emergency levee to prevent flooding along a highway that runs along the Mississippi River, sheriff's spokesman Maj. John Marie said. But it was extremely quiet. It's really remarkable, we got almost everybody out, he said. In New Orleans, officials were anxiously watching to see what kind of storm surge the city would face: If forecasts hold, the city could experience a storm surge of only 4 to 6 feet, compared to a surge of 10 to 14 feet at the site of landfall, said Corey Walton, a hurricane support meteorologist with the National Hurricane Center. Katrina, by comparison, brought a storm surge of 25 feet, causing levees to break. While the Army Corps of Engineers has shored up some of the city's levee system since then, fears this time center on the city's West Bank, where levee repairs have not been completed. City officials were pleased so many residents heeded warnings to leave. They estimated only about 100,000 along the coast decided to tough it out. When the 911 calls start coming in, we'll know how many people are left in town, said police superintendent Warren Riley. The city's emergency medical service had received only 26 calls as of midnight Monday, a fraction of what they received on the night before Katrina, spokesman Jeb Tate said. Adam Woods didn't need to be told to leave. A Coast Guard helicopter plucked him off his roof after Katrina, and this time, he and his lab mix Mandela headed to the city's Union Station for a ride out of town.
I've got oxygen in my lungs, the 53-year-old landscaper said. Remember, you've got to be alive to have problems.Jeffrey Carreras was among those staying behind. Looters wreaked havoc in his neighborhood restaurant in the days after Katrina struck and despite promises of police protection, he wasn't willing to leave his business a second time. I have shotguns, rifles. I collect guns actually, Carreras said. So I have plenty of guns in there, plenty of ammo.Gustav was the seventh named storm in the Atlantic hurricane season. The eighth, Tropical Storm Hanna, was strengthening about 100 miles from the Bahamas. Though a storm's track and intensity are difficult to predict days in advance, long-term projections showed the storm could come ashore along the border of Georgia and South Carolina late in the week.
Associated Press writers Becky Bohrer, Janet McConnaughey, Robert Tanner, Cain Burdeau, Alan Sayre, and Allen G. Breed contributed to this report from New Orleans. Vicki Smith in Houma and Doug Simpson in Baton Rouge also contributed. Michael Kunzelman reported from Lafayette, La.
Hurricane Gustav hits US coast by Glenn Chapman SEPT 01,08
NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (AFP) - Hurricane Gustav lashed the US state of Louisiana with torrential rain and gale force winds Monday after forcing nearly two million people to flee. Fearing a repeat of the Hurricane Katrina disaster, hundreds of troops were sent into New Orleans after what is being called the biggest evacuation in US history.Three critically ill people were reported to have died as they were being moved from the danger zone. Oil production platforms were shut down, the Republican party suspended the start of its presidential election convention and President George W. Bush headed for Texas to monitor emergency preparations for Gustav which has killed more than 80 people in Dominican Republic, Haiti and Jamaica.
Reports of power outages in New Orleans started after wind and rain began hitting the city -- still struggling from Katrina, which struck almost exactly three years ago.Louisiana officials said there were about 750 National Guard troops in New Orleans if a new rescue operation was needed. Mayor Ray Nagin on Sunday ordered a curfew and vowed to throw looters into prison.The edge of the storm has crossed the Mississippi Delta, lashing New Orleans, said National Hurricane Center meteorologists.At 0900 GMT, the eye of the hurricane was 185 kilometers (115 miles) southeast of New Orleans moving towards the coast at 26km (16 miles) an hour.Storm force winds from Gustav extended as far as 370km (230 miles) from the eye, the center said.A category three hurricane, Gustav packed sustained winds of 185km (115 miles) per hour.No significant change in strength is likely before landfall, the US National Hurricane Center said in its latest advisory.This is a serious storm, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal said in a final appeal to the people who remained in New Orleans despite government warnings.People in the state capital of Baton Rouge and other inland areas have been warned to watch for storm-spawned tornados.Gustav forced US President George W. Bush to cancel plans to appear at the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minnesota. The US leader said Sunday that he would instead travel to Texas to monitor the storm.Republican presidential hopeful John McCain drastically scaled back the program for the first day of the convention Monday, saying all activities would be suspended except for those absolutely necessary.
I hope and pray we will be able to resume some of our normal operations as quickly as possible, he told reporters from St. Louis, after returning from a tour of relief preparations in Mississippi.Military and civilian disaster relief operations were prepared, with memories still fresh of the destruction wrought by Katrina, and the government's botched response.Katrina made landfall near New Orleans on August 29, 2005, smashing poorly-built levees surrounding the city and causing massive floods that destroyed tens of thousands of homes and killed nearly 1,800.New Orleans mayor Nagin told local television that the city had become a ghost town after a massive evacuation campaign, and that only about 10,000 residents remained. Some of those who left said they felt reassured. The mayor assured us our property will be safe, Wilson Patterson, 48, said as he prepared to board a bus with wheelchair-bound 84-year-old Earline Martin. We don't want to get caught up in the Katrina craziness, he said, recalling the lawlessness that swept New Orleans in 2005. Jindal said rescue teams were in place. We will begin search-and-rescue operations as soon as we safely can. That would be when winds are below 140 miles per hour, he said, which probably will occur late Monday.We've got ... boots on the ground, eyes on the ground. So before that, even before we can get into the air, before we can get boats on the water, we do have people on the ground to make sure that we're doing everything that we can to save every single life.Jindal told reporters there were unconfirmed reports that three critically ill patients died while being transported to safer ground. They had to weigh the risk between sheltering in place and evacuating and made the decision they thought was best for their patients, he said.
Gulf oil fields idled ahead of Gustav By Erwin Seba SEPT 01,08
HOUSTON (Reuters) - U.S. energy companies shut nearly all offshore Gulf oil and gas production and raced to bring down flood-prone Louisiana refineries on Sunday ahead of Hurricane Gustav, which threatens to rival the wrath of 2005's Katrina. Gustav is set to hit the Louisiana coast west of New Orleans on Monday morning as a Category 3 hurricane with wind speeds up to 125 mph (200 kmh) in the first major test of the energy industry's preparedness since the devastating 2005 hurricane season.In the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, which normally pumps a quarter of all U.S. oil production and 15 percent of its natural gas output, energy companies had shut in more than 96 percent of the area's oil output and 82 percent of gas as of Sunday afternoon, the U.S. Minerals Management Service said.At least nine refineries with a combined capacity of 2.2 million bpd, or 12.5 percent of U.S. refining capacity, were shut down along the south Louisiana coast ahead of Gustav.More than half a dozen other plants, including Exxon Mobil's Baytown, Texas, and Baton Rouge, Louisiana, facilities, the two biggest in the United States, were reducing processing rates, sources and industry officials said.This is Katrina's legacy, said Phil Flynn of Alaron Trading in Chicago. The industry is much more prepared and taking things much more seriously. That's why so much has been shut down so quickly.Despite Gustav's course through the heart of the U.S. oil patch, oil prices rose a modest 91 cents or 0.8 percent to $116.37 a barrel by 1:12 a.m. EDT in electronic trading, with traders waiting to see if it would leave lasting damage in its wake.U.S. RBOB gasoline futures climbed 2.2 percent.This is definitely a dangerous storm, but I think most of the market is in a wait-and-see mode, waiting to see (if there are) disruptions to oil facilities and pipeline infrastructure before they make a big move, said Gerard Burg, a commodities analyst at the National Bank of Australia in Melbourne.
Hurricanes Katrina and Rita wrecked more than 100 oil platforms in 2005, shutting down a quarter of U.S. oil production and closing several large refineries for months. Katrina was a Category 3 when its 28-foot (8.5 meter) storm surge hit the coast.The Gulf normally pumps 1.3 million barrels per day (bpd) of oil -- approximately 1.5 percent of world supply -- and 7.4 billion cubic feet of natural gas.This could be potentially the most dangerous storm for the energy sector we've ever seen, said Chris Jarvis, senior analyst at Caprock Risk Management in Hampton Falls, New Hampshire. It is going right across the most important areas.
INFRASTRUCTURE CLOSURES
Besides closing oil and gas fields and refineries, energy companies were also shutting down important fuel transportation systems.The Louisiana Offshore Oil Port, the only U.S. port capable of offloading the biggest oil tankers and a major conduit for U.S. crude imports, halted all operations on Sunday.It's coming right at us, said LOOP spokeswoman Barb Hestermann of Gustav's forecast path. It looks like we're Ground Zero.Gustav was forecast to slam into the coast just west of the LOOP's onshore operations center at Galliano, Louisiana.The Sabine Pipeline, which includes the delivery point for U.S. natural gas futures, shut at noon CST (1:00 p.m. EDT). The move led the NYMEX to declare force majeure on its August and September natural gas futures contracts, meaning sellers were not contractually bound to make physical delivery. Mississippi River traffic south of New Orleans closed Saturday night. Ship channels into Lake Charles in west Louisiana as well as Houston, Beaumont and Port Arthur in Texas planned to shut by Sunday night, cutting off crude oil shipments to refineries. The region's largest offshore producer, Shell Oil Co, said all of its Gulf production would be shut by Sunday night. All 1,300 of the company's workers were onshore. Rival energy giants BP, Chevron had shut almost all production. ConocoPhillips, and Exxon were also shutting off production as they evacuate workers. (Reporting by Erwin Seba, Bruce Nichols, Robert Campbell and Haitham Haddadin, and Fayen Wong in Perth; Editing by Chris Baltimore, Gunna Dickson and Ben Tan)
EARTH DESTROYED WITH THE EARTH
GENESIS 6:11-13
11 The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.(WORLD TERRORISM,MURDERS)
12 And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth.
13 And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence (TERRORISM) through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth.
EARTHQUAKES
MATTHEW 24:7-8
7 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.
8 All these are the beginning of sorrows.
MARK 13:8
8 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom:(ETHNIC GROUP AGAINST ETHNIC GROUP) and there shall be earthquakes in divers places, and there shall be famines and troubles: these are the beginnings of sorrows.
LUKE 21:11
11 And great earthquakes shall be in divers places, and famines, and pestilences; and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven.
Rescuers appeal for tents after deadly China quake By ANITA CHANG, Associated Press Writer SEPT 01,08
BEIJING - Rescuers appealed for temporary housing and tents Monday after a weekend earthquake in southwest China killed at least 36 people, injured hundreds and left tens of thousands of homes in ruins. The temblor Saturday in Sichuan province, which the U.S. Geological Survey measured at magnitude 5.7, struck along the same fault line as a May 12 earthquake that killed nearly 70,000.We need temporary houses ... we need more than 10,000 tents, said Zhang Hai, head of the foreign liaison office of the Communist Party propaganda department in Panzhihua city. This is a mountainous place and so we can't build temporary houses everywhere.The beginning of the school year, which was supposed to be Monday, was postponed for a week because authorities were inspecting damage in classrooms, he said.We still can't bring all kids back to their previous classrooms, Zhang said.China is still basking in the glory of hosting an extravagant and widely viewed Olympic Games that International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge called truly exceptional. But the earthquake underscores the country's need to turn its attention back to pressing domestic issues such as high inflation, pollution, and now disaster relief.The quake killed five people in Panzhihua and surrounding rural areas, and the death toll also included 25 victims in Sichuan province's Huili county, local officials said. Authorities in the Chuxiong Yi Autonomous Prefecture in neighboring Yunnan province reported six deaths.
We are trying to maintain order and make sure that there's enough supply. The disaster relief office has sent 17 medical teams made up of over 200 people, said Song Ming, an official in the propaganda department of Liangshan prefecture, which includes Huili county.Saturday's quake killed 33 people, state broadcaster China Central Television said on its noon newscast. The temblor destroyed 258,000 homes, damaged major bridges and cracked three reservoirs, the official Xinhua News Agency reported.Local officials told The Associated Press they did not have any information on the reservoirs or whether the damage might place people in danger.Xinhua said 467 people were injured by the earthquake, which struck 20 miles southeast of Panzhihua city in the southwestern corner of Sichuan. A 5.6-magnitude aftershock struck just one minute later, the USGS said.About 152,000 people were evacuated in Sichuan province and relief efforts were under way, despite being hampered by heavy rains and the region's rugged terrain, Xinhua said. It said 6,200 tents, 3,500 quilts and 55,000 pounds of rice had been sent to the quake zone.Since the 7.9-magnitude May 12 temblor, the region has been hit by scores of aftershocks.
DISEASES
REVELATION 6:7-8
7 And when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth beast say, Come and see.
8 And I looked, and behold a pale horse:(CHLORES GREEN) and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword,(WEAPONS) and with hunger,(FAMINE) and with death,(INCURABLE DISEASES) and with the beasts of the earth.(ANIMAL TO HUMAN DISEASE).
11 deaths confirmed in listeriosis outbreak
Sun Aug 31, 8:10 PM
VANCOUVER (CBC) - Listeriosis, which has triggered a series of recalls of processed meat products, was the underlying or contributing cause in 11 deaths, up from 10, according to the Public Health Agency of Canada.The death most recently linked to the food-bourne illness was in Ontario and likely occurred in the past several weeks, Dr. Mark Raizenne of the Public Health Agency of Canada said Sunday.Since news of an outbreak emerged two weeks ago, Listeria monocytogenes has been the underlying or contributing cause in 11 deaths, including nine in Ontario, one in B.C. and one in Alberta, according to the agency.Another six deaths are suspected and still under investigation, including four in Ontario, one in Quebec and one in Saskatchewan, the agency said.A total of 33 cases across the country have been conclusively linked to the outbreak, up from the 31 cases reported in the agency's update Saturday. An additional 25 suspected cases are still under investigation, down from Saturday's update of 32.Public health officials have warned the public to expect more confirmed or suspected cases to emerge because of the bacterium's long incubation period of up to 70 days.The infection is of most concern to individuals who have weakened immune systems, the elderly, pregnant women and young children, the Public Health Agency of Canada said in newspaper advertisements published Saturday.Last Saturday, as a precaution, Maple Leaf Foods expanded a recall of meat products to include everything that's processed at its Toronto plant after government lab tests conclusively linked the bacterium in the outbreak to some of the company's products. Several more products were added to the list of items Friday night.Dr. Brian Evans, executive vice president of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, said while it may seem that the list of recalled products is growing, the additional recalls reflect the fact that several different products were made from the recalled meat.Many of our recalls relate to products such as sandwiches and pre-packaged meats carrying best-before dates that have now already expired, Evans said at a news conference Saturday afternoon.Nevertheless, in the public interest and in the interest of openness, we feel it is important that such info is visible.On Saturday, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency warned people against eating certain roast beef sub and kaiser bun sandwiches by King Bean Wholesalers sold in B.C. stores in Surrey, New Westminster and Langley because they may be contaminated with the bacterium.With files from the Canadian Press.
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.
Georgia crisis defines new Russian defense policy By Oleg Shchedrov SEPT 01,008
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia's decision to send troops to Georgia has set a new standard for defending its national interests and the United States must learn to live with it, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Monday.Russia crushed its southern neighbor in a brief war last month after Georgia tried to recapture by force its pro-Moscow, separatist region of South Ossetia. It drew Western condemnation by pushing far beyond the disputed area, bombing and deploying troops deep inside Georgia proper.Through its response to the Georgian aggression, Russia has set a kind of standard for reaction, which fully complies with international law, Lavrov told students of Moscow's diplomatic college in a speech to mark the start of the new academic year.Russia has returned to the world stage as a responsible state which can defend its citizens.Any doubts about this should have been dispelled by its action in Georgia and recognition of two pro-Russian provinces as independent states, said Lavrov, whose harshest words were addressed to Washington and NATO.America needs to acknowledge the reality of the post-American world and start adapting to it, Lavrov said. An attempt to live in its own unipolar world has gone on too long, and this is dangerous in every respect.He added: There is a feeling that NATO again needs frontline states to justify its existence.owever, he reiterated Moscow's commitment to continue dialogue with the United States.We will deal with any America, Lavrov said, urging Washington to exercise reciprocity and absolute honesty in ties. We will continue talking to Washington as long as there is a tiny hope of understanding each other and making a deal.
MOMENT OF TRUTH
The speech, focused on new relations between Russia and the West, was made hours before EU leaders were due to gather in Brussels to discuss a common stance in the Georgian crisis. Lavrov made clear Russia would not bow to any pressure.He was expounding new foreign policy guidelines set by President Dmitry Medvedev, who despite Western expectations of a softer line has formalized the assertive stance of his predecessor Vladimir Putin.Medvedev said in a television interview on Sunday that Russia would adhere to international law but not accept a U.S.-led unipolar world, and laid claim to specific spheres of national interest that Russia would defend.Over the past few years, the West has been watching with alarm the increasingly assertive policy of a resurgent Russia, fearing a revival of Soviet-era imperialism.Russia, in turn, has accused the West of building new lines of division in the world by failing to treat it as an equal.Lavrov said the conflict in Georgia had come as a long-cherished moment of truth, adding that today's clarity is better than any ambiguity.Europe's inability to produce a new collective security system, open for everyone and taking into account everyone's interests, was to blame for the Georgia crisis, he said.Something should be done because otherwise Euro-Atlantic affairs will keep returning to square one.Russia has proposed calling a security conference in Europe, to create new arrangements for neutralizing threats in the continent.It views NATO's eastward expansion and the deployment of parts of a U.S. missile defense system in Eastern Europe as a direct threat to its security. Plans to grant NATO membership to ex-Soviet Georgia and Ukraine are anathema for Moscow.
In the absence of a reasonable multilateral dialogue we will be forced to react unilaterally, Lavrov said. But we would indeed prefer joint work on European security issues.(Editing by Jon Boyle and Mark Trevelyan)
Russia says US may have sent weapons to Georgia SEPT 01,08
MOSCOW - Russia is suggesting U.S. ships that brought humanitarian aid to Georgia may have also carried weapons. Foreign Ministry spokesman Andrei Nesterenko said such suspicions are among the motives for Russia's call for an arms embargo against Georgia.Nesterenko told a news conference there are suppositions that the cargo of U.S. military ships that have brought aid for war-battered Georgia may also have included military components.Nesterenko also said that Russia would welcome an international police presence and more Western military observers in what is now a Russian-controlled zone around South Ossetia, the focus of the war earlier this month. But he indicated it will be a long time before Russia is ready to reduce its military presence.THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.
MOSCOW (AP) — Russia warned the West on Monday against supporting Georgia's leadership and called for an arms embargo against the ex-Soviet republic nation until a different government is in place.Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov's remarks are likely to anger the United States and Europe and enrage Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili. He made it clear Moscow wants Saakashvili out of power in Georgia.If instead of choosing their national interests and the interests of the Georgian people, the United States and its allies choose the Saakashvili regime, this will be a mistake of truly historic proportions, he said.For a start it would be right to impose an embargo on weapons to this regime, until different authorities turn Georgia a normal state, he said in an address at Russia's top foreign policy graduate school.Lavrov spoke as the European Union prepared for a summit Monday to discuss the Georgia crisis and further relations with Russia.Today's EU summit should clear up a great deal. We hope the choice they make will be based on Europe's fundamental interests, he said. He said Russia's relations with NATO are facing a moment of truth.Russia's ties to the West have been driven to their lowest point since the Soviet collapse of 1991 by the war last month in Georgia, where Saakashvili angered Moscow by courting the West and seeking NATO membership.
Russia repelled a Georgian offensive against the breakaway Georgian province of South Ossetia and sent troops, tanks and bombers deep into undisputed Georgian territory, where some still maintain positions. Moscow last week recognized South Ossetia and another breakaway region, Abkhazia, as independent countries.The U.S. and Europe have accused Russia of using disproportionate force and of violating the terms of a cease-fire that called for the sides to withdraw their forces to pre-conflict positions. They have also denounced Russia's recognition of the separatist regions, saying Georgia's borders must remain intact.Russia says it was provoked. Russian peacekeeping forces were stationed in South Ossetia before the war and Moscow had given most of South Ossetia's residents Russian passports in recent years, enabling the Kremlin to argue that it was defending its citizens when it responded to Georgia's Aug. 7 offensive in the separatist province.With its reaction to the Georgian aggression, Russia has set a certain standard of responding that fully complies with international law, Lavrov said. Russian soldiers, he said, followed our deeply Christian tradition of dying for our friends.The reactions of some Western countries to the crisis illustrates a deficit of morality, he said. It's high time for Europe to get back to simple, non-politicized and non-geopolitical values, Lavrov said.Lavrov reserved particular criticism for the United States, which has trained Georgian troops, saying such aid had failed to give the U.S. sufficient leverage to restrain the Georgian government. Instead, he said, It encouraged the irresponsible and unpredictable regime in its gambles.While Western governments have expressed regret at the Georgian offensive targeting South Ossetia, the Russian call for an arms embargo on a nation still bristling with Russian forces is likely to irritate the U.S. and Europe.
Lavrov's remarks will likely deepen Georgian suspicions that Russia's aim throughout the crisis has been to remove the pro-Western Saakashvili from power. European Union leaders seeking to punish Russia for its war with Georgia and its recognition of independence for two breakaway Georgian provinces have few options and are likely to choose diplomatic pressure to isolate Moscow at their summit Monday. Lavrov's implication that continued support for Saakashvili would further undermine relations with Russia were the latest in a bitter back-and-forth between Moscow and the West, with each saying it is up to the other to avoid plunging the world into a new Cold War. It's up to Russia today to make a fundamental choice and to engage neighbors and partners in settling disputes peacefully, French President Nicolas Sarkozy wrote in a pre-summit letter to EU leaders. Russia's commitment to a relationship of understanding and cooperation with the rest of Europe is in doubt.Also on Monday, European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana said that member nations are preparing to send hundreds of civilian monitors to Georgia to verify whether Russian forces are complying with a cease-fire agreement. He said the observers would be deployed initially across areas controlled by Georgian forces. We would like to have the ... mission deployed soon, Solana said, adding he hoped EU nations approve the plan in the coming weeks. Associated Press reporter Constant Brand in Brussels contributed to this report.
Sunday, August 31, 2008
HANNA CHURNING UP AS WELL AS GUSTAV
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.
HERES HURRICANE NUMBER 2 CHURNING UP HANNA.
Storm Hanna, off Florida, keeps experts guessing By Michael Christie AUG 31,08
MIAMI (Reuters) - While powerful Hurricane Gustav bore down on the U.S. Gulf Coast on Sunday, Tropical Storm Hanna swirled east of Florida, embedded in a complicated climatic environment that made it impossible to forecast its destination and likely strength. The eighth tropical storm of the 2008 Atlantic hurricane season could just as easily end up over Cuba, bring heavy rainfall to citrus country in central Florida or drift northward toward South Carolina. It was not possible to say if the storm might eventually end up in the U.S. oil patch in the Gulf of Mexico, hurricane experts said.Unfortunately there is still considerable uncertainty with the forecast, said Jamie Rhome, a hurricane specialist at the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami. It's impossible to say that this system is going to do this or that.
The cyclone was tangled up in a middle to upper level low that was making it difficult for Hanna to develop, and was likely to slow down in two days when it came across conditions of weak steering current that could make it meander.Another trough would then swoop over the tropical storm, bringing with it considerable uncertainty as to the likely wind shear as Hanna drifted near the Bahamas. Wind shear -- the difference in wind speed at different levels of the atmosphere -- can tear storms apart.At the end of the forecast track the wind shear could let up a bit, Rhome said.
None of the computer models used to predict storm tracks actually took Hanna into the southeastern United States at this point, Rhome said.Some oil analysts reported on Friday that one of the myriad computer models available to forecasters had indicated that Hanna could eventually make landfall on the U.S. Gulf Coast near New Orleans where Hurricane Gustav was expected to come ashore on Monday as a dangerous storm.Those reports triggered concerns in energy markets of a potential one-two punch by Gustav and Hanna on some of the 4,000 Gulf of Mexico offshore platforms that provide a quarter of U.S. crude oil and 15 percent of its natural gas.
Hurricanes Katrina and Rita destroyed more than 100 oil rigs in 2005 when they roared through, causing oil prices to soar to then record highs. Katrina went on to swamp New Orleans, kill 1,500 people on the U.S. Gulf Coast and cause $80 billion in damages.Rhome said it was folly to highlight a single computer model, especially so far out. It's a mistake, and often a grave one, to focus on a single model, he said.
The accuracy of hurricane forecasting has come a long way since the days when entire fleets of Spanish galleons sank in unexpected storms as they carried South American gold and treasure back to Europe.But even with the start of hurricane hunter flights in 1944 and the advent of satellite imagery in the 1960s, long-range forecasts are prone to enormous margins of error.The National Hurricane Center estimates the average error in its track forecasts is near 260 miles by day four and 345 miles by day five. The hurricane center does not project a storm's track beyond day five.
Intensity forecasts are even more difficult. The hurricane center calculates that the error in its forecasts for a storm's top sustained winds averages 23 miles per hour (37 km per hour) per day.The last official forecast for Hanna takes it in five days to minimal Category 1 hurricane strength with 80-mile-per-hour (130 km per hour) winds by next Friday.It might then be somewhere off central Florida. But its potential position at that point also encompasses the southern Bahamas, eastern Cuba, south Florida and South Carolina.(Editing by Tom Brown)
WELL WE EVEN HERE THE WORDS THE BIBLES SAYS WOULD BE SAID ABOUT THESE LAST DAYS STORMS.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.
Gulf Coast braces, flees as deadly Gustav takes aim at US by Glenn Chapman AUG 31,08
NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (AFP) - More than a million people fled Louisiana as killer Hurricane Gustav on Sunday churned toward New Orleans, a fragile US coastal city still healing from the devastating 2005 Katrina storm. Highways out of New Orleans have been crammed since before dawn as people scurried to escape a monster storm that could slam the Louisiana coast as early as midday Monday.The state's governor, Bobby Jindal, said that more than a million people are on the move because of Gustav.
Officials are carefully watching whether Gustav strengthens as it crosses the warm water of the Gulf of Mexico.A slightly weakened Gustav -- still a dangerous Category 3 storm with winds near 125 miles (205 kilometers) per hour -- battered Cuba Sunday after claiming at least 81 lives in its tear across the Dominican Republic, Haiti and Jamaica.New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin, desperate to avoid a replay of the 2005 Katrina catastrophe, ordered the city emptied in the face of what he called the storm of the century and roads quickly filled with fleeing residents.Get out of town, Jefferson parish president Aaron Broussard said in a public announcement Sunday morning. Have the courage to disconnect yourself from your material things. You cannot protect yourself against what Mother Nature is going to throw at us.
Jefferson Parish includes the West Bank, where a storm surge of water pushed ashore by hurricane winds is expected to easily wash over levees guarding that area.Weather models indicate a surge could be more than 20 feet (almost three meters) high, double the height of levees on the West Bank.We are going to see storm surge on the West Bank like we have never seen before, said Jefferson parish councilman Chris Roberts. Now is the time to sound the alarm.In Cuba, Gustav tore off roofs, flattened buildings and plunged communities into darkness as it smashed through the Isle of Youth, then tore across mainland Cuba southwest of Havana, which has a population of more than two million. There were no immediate reported deaths in Cuba.
The storm lost some of its punch in the process, with US officials downgrading it from four to three.At 1200 GMT, the US National Hurricane Center said Gustav's eye was about 375 miles (605 km) southeast of the mouth of the Mississippi River, as the storm moved northwest about 16 mph (26 km/h) and was expected to strengthen.On this track Gustav will be moving across the central Gulf of Mexico today (Sunday) and make landfall on the northern Gulf coast on Monday, the NHC added, warning an extremely dangerous storm surge of 18 to 25 feet (more than six meters) above normal tidal levels is expected near and to the east of where the center of Gustav crosses the northern Gulf Coast.President George W. Bush is unlikely to travel to the Republican Convention Monday as Hurricane Gustav closes in on the US Gulf Coast, the White House said in Washington. The Katrina catastrophe was a major political disaster for his administration.Republican White House hopeful John McCain and his running-mate Sarah Palin also said they would suspend their normal election campaign and visit to Mississippi to inspect preparations for Gustav's arrival.Major oil producers BP, ConocoPhillips and Shell on Thursday evacuated workers from their facilities in the Gulf where nearly a quarter of US crude oil installations are located.If one major deep-water production platform is destroyed, you're talking about a billion dollar or more loss, said Rice University engineering professor Satish Nagarajaiah. If it's multiple rigs and platforms in a variety of water depths, then we're talking billions of dollars.Cuban national television reported that the scene on the Isle of Youth was one of devastation after the monster storm ground its way across the low-lying island of fishing villages, factories and citrus farms. Homes were under water, warehouses toppled, and roads washed away on the Isle, state television said, adding there were some injuries though no immediate reports of deaths. More than 250,000 were evacuated from western parts of mainland Cuba before the storm hit, the Cuban weather service said. Used to fairly frequent smaller tropical storms, Havana residents ran around town Saturday gathering candles and food, boiling water and taping up windows. Really, I just did not expect this -- it has been a long time since we have been hit by such a powerful hurricane, and this Gustav looks like it will be quite strong, retired actress Gliseria Farinas said in Havana. A key concern was for the crowded and charming colonial-era Old Havana, which UNESCO declared a World Heritage Site in 1982. Most of Cuba's housing stock is old and fragile. Cuban authorities have said that in Havana alone there are 1,000 buildings in critical condition. These include about 8,000 structures housing some 26,000 people, many of them in Old Havana. Earlier Gustav's path of destruction left 66 dead and 10 missing in Haiti. In neighboring Dominican Republic, the death toll stood at eight, while in Jamaica the toll stood at seven, with many thousands displaced. Gustav loomed just after the third anniversary of Katrina, the deadliest US natural disaster in almost eight decades. More than 1,800 people were killed by the hurricane and related flooding, authorities say.
Powerful Gustav rips across Cuba, 250,000 evacuate By WILL WEISSERT, Associated Press Writer AUG 31,08
HAVANA - Cubans returned from shelters to find flooded homes and washed-out roads Sunday, but no deaths were reported after a monstrous Hurricane Gustav roared across the island and into the oil-rich Gulf of Mexico. About 250,000 Cubans were evacuated before Gustav made landfall on Cuba's Isla de la Juventud, then again on the Cuban mainland in the region that produces much of the tobacco used to make the nation's famed cigars.It was just short of top-scale Category 5 hurricane with screaming 140 mph (220 kph) winds as it moved across the island, toppling telephone poles and fruit trees, shattering windows and tearing off the tin roofs of homes.A Cuban television reporter on the Isla de la Juventud said the storm had felt like the blast wave from a bomb.Buildings without windows, without doors, he said. Few trees remain standing.Cuban Civil defense chief Ana Isa Delgado said there were many people injured on the island of 87,000 people. Nearly all the island's roads were washed out and some regions were heavily flooded.It's been very difficult here, she said on state television.But there were no reports of deaths, there or on the mainland.Gustav earlier killed 81 people by triggering floods and landslides in Haiti, the Dominican Republic and Jamaica.The hurricane weakened slightly after crossing Cuba, slowing to Category 3 status before sunrise Sunday. But it still packed top winds near 120 mph (195 kph) and forecasters predicted it would increase to a Category 4 before making landfall Monday along the U.S. Gulf coast.
More than 1 million Americans made wary by Hurricane Katrina took buses, trains, planes and cars as they streamed out of New Orleans and other coastal cities, where Katrina killed about 1,600 people in 2005.Mayor Ray Nagin of New Orleans, which was devastated by Katrina, issued a mandatory evacuation order and warned that anyone found off their own property after it takes effect can be arrested. Police and National Guard troops were on the streets, preparing to patrol evacuated neighborhoods.Nagin called Gustav the mother of all storms and told residents to get out of town. This is not the one to play with.Cuba's top meteorologist, Jose Rubiera, said the storm brought hurricane-force winds to much of the western part of Havana, where power was knocked out as winds blasted sheets of rain sideways though the streets and whipped angry waves against the famed seaside Malecon boulevard.
But Sunday morning no flooding could be seen in central Havana, and state radio said the damage was minimal in the capital of 2 million people, although southeastern Havana remained without power and natural gas.Public transportation began running again Sunday morning, as did buses and trains from Havana to the provinces. State radio said schools would open Monday everywhere except Pinar del Rio.In the fishing town of Batabano, 31 miles (50 kilometers) south of Havana, evacuees returned to their pastel-colored homes to find many surrounded by knee-deep water.My house is full of water, said Aldo Tomas, 43, pulling palm branches from his living room. But we expected more. We expected worse.Tourist Lidia Morral of Barcelona, Spain, said Gustav forced officials to close beaches the couple wanted to visit earlier this week in Santiago, on the island's eastern tip. The storm also prevented them from catching a ferry from Havana to the Isla de la Juventud on Saturday. It's been following us all over Cuba, ruining our vacation, said Morral, who was in line at a travel agency, trying to make other plans. They have closed everything — hotels, restaurants, bars, museums. There's not much to do but wait.At 8 a.m. EDT Sunday, the U.S. hurricane center said Gustav was centered about 375 miles (605 kilometers) southeast of the mouth of the Mississippi River and moving northwest near 16 mph (26 kph). Meanwhile, Tropical Storm Hanna was projected to move north of the Turks and Caicos Islands by late Sunday, then curl through the Bahamas by early next week before possibly threatening Cuba. As it spun over open waters, Hanna strengthened slightly and had sustained winds near 60 mph (95 kph) early Sunday. The hurricane center warned that it could kick up dangerous rip currents along parts of the southeastern U.S. coast.
Russia warns it will respond to aggression
By Christian Lowe AUG 31,08
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia does not want confrontation with the West but will hit back if attacked, Kremlin leader Dmitry Medvedev said on Sunday, a day before EU leaders meet to draft a response to Moscow's actions in Georgia.British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said he would press fellow European Union leaders to review ties with Russia in retaliation for Moscow's decision to send troops to Georgia and recognize two Georgian breakaway regions.But underlining the differences in approach inside the 27-member EU, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier took a softer line, saying isolating Russia would harm the interests of the bloc.A senior U.S. diplomat said Washington hoped the EU would express concrete support for Georgia's territorial integrity, and urged Europe to reduce its dependence on Russian energy.Medvedev faces growing condemnation from the West, which accuses Russia of occupying parts of Georgia, while the Kremlin said it acted to prevent what it called genocide against the separatist regions.Russia does not want confrontation with any country. Russia does not plan to isolate itself, Medvedev said in an interview with Russia's three main television stations.But he added: Everyone should understand that if someone launches an aggressive sortie, he will receive a response. He said Russian law allowed the Kremlin to impose sanctions on other states, though it preferred not to go down that path.
GEORGIAN CALL
Georgia urged the European Union to impose sanctions against those doing business with the two separatist regions, authorize a civilian mission to monitor buffer zones around them and give Tbilisi about $2 billion to help to help repair damage.
Europe can do a lot, starting with sending a mission of civilian monitors, which would lead to an international peacekeeping mechanism that would replace the presence of Russian troops, Prime Minister Lado Gurgenidze told Reuters in Brussels.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said Russia's intervention in Georgia was dangerous and unacceptable.In the light of Russian actions, the EU should review -- root and branch -- our relationship with Russia, Brown wrote in a comment published in Britain's Observer newspaper.The German foreign minister said Moscow deserved criticism but Europe needed cooperation with Russia.Europe would only be hurting itself if we were to get full of emotion and slam all the doors shut to the rooms that we will want to enter afterwards, Steinmeier said.Russia supplies more than a quarter of Europe's gas needs. Some observers say this makes tough EU sanctions unlikely.Thousands of Georgians are expected to join a human chain in Tbilisi on Monday, with people joining hands through the capital in a show of unity.Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, in an address to the nation, said he hoped the EU leaders would not give up faced with this dirty attempt at aggression.
TEST OF UNITY
The emergency summit is a test of unity for the EU, which struggles to reconcile differences between states which want punitive action and others, including European heavyweights France and Germany, which favor a more calibrated approach.It is likely to produce a stern words-soft action response from the EU, said Chris Weafer, Chief Strategist with Russia's Uralsib investment bank.The bloc is likely to stop well short of any action that might escalate into a damaging tit-for-tat sequence of economic and political sanctions, Weafer wrote in a research note.Russia sent in its troops after Georgia's military tried to retake South Ossetia, like Abkhazia a Moscow-backed region which rejects Tbilisi's rule.Moscow has pulled out most of its forces in line with a ceasefire deal but has kept soldiers and equipment in security zones, which include undisputed Georgian territory around South Ossetia and Abkhazia.
Western governments have demanded that Moscow pull its troops back to pre-conflict positions. The Kremlin says the troops are peacekeepers needed to protect the separatist regions from new Georgian aggression.In a last-minute round of diplomacy before Monday's emergency EU summit, both Medvedev and U.S. President George W. Bush spoke to Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who is seen as sympathetic to the Kremlin.U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Matthew Bryza said it was up to the EU to decide what measures it adopts against Russia, but the bloc should throw its weight behind Georgia and make itself less dependent on Russian energy.What happened in Georgia shows even more why it is crucial that Europe begins to move more quickly to diversify its supply of gas, Bryza told Reuters on the sidelines of an international energy conference in Bled, Slovenia.(Reporting by Giles Elgood in London, Thomas Grove in Istanbul, Erik Kirschbaum in Berlin, Guy Faulconbridge and Conor Sweeney in Moscow, Marja Novak and Zoran Radosvljevic in Bled, Slovenia, Jeremy Pelofsky in Washington and Mark John and Marcin Grajewski in Brussels; editing by Philippa Fletcher).
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.
HERES HURRICANE NUMBER 2 CHURNING UP HANNA.
Storm Hanna, off Florida, keeps experts guessing By Michael Christie AUG 31,08
MIAMI (Reuters) - While powerful Hurricane Gustav bore down on the U.S. Gulf Coast on Sunday, Tropical Storm Hanna swirled east of Florida, embedded in a complicated climatic environment that made it impossible to forecast its destination and likely strength. The eighth tropical storm of the 2008 Atlantic hurricane season could just as easily end up over Cuba, bring heavy rainfall to citrus country in central Florida or drift northward toward South Carolina. It was not possible to say if the storm might eventually end up in the U.S. oil patch in the Gulf of Mexico, hurricane experts said.Unfortunately there is still considerable uncertainty with the forecast, said Jamie Rhome, a hurricane specialist at the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami. It's impossible to say that this system is going to do this or that.
The cyclone was tangled up in a middle to upper level low that was making it difficult for Hanna to develop, and was likely to slow down in two days when it came across conditions of weak steering current that could make it meander.Another trough would then swoop over the tropical storm, bringing with it considerable uncertainty as to the likely wind shear as Hanna drifted near the Bahamas. Wind shear -- the difference in wind speed at different levels of the atmosphere -- can tear storms apart.At the end of the forecast track the wind shear could let up a bit, Rhome said.
None of the computer models used to predict storm tracks actually took Hanna into the southeastern United States at this point, Rhome said.Some oil analysts reported on Friday that one of the myriad computer models available to forecasters had indicated that Hanna could eventually make landfall on the U.S. Gulf Coast near New Orleans where Hurricane Gustav was expected to come ashore on Monday as a dangerous storm.Those reports triggered concerns in energy markets of a potential one-two punch by Gustav and Hanna on some of the 4,000 Gulf of Mexico offshore platforms that provide a quarter of U.S. crude oil and 15 percent of its natural gas.
Hurricanes Katrina and Rita destroyed more than 100 oil rigs in 2005 when they roared through, causing oil prices to soar to then record highs. Katrina went on to swamp New Orleans, kill 1,500 people on the U.S. Gulf Coast and cause $80 billion in damages.Rhome said it was folly to highlight a single computer model, especially so far out. It's a mistake, and often a grave one, to focus on a single model, he said.
The accuracy of hurricane forecasting has come a long way since the days when entire fleets of Spanish galleons sank in unexpected storms as they carried South American gold and treasure back to Europe.But even with the start of hurricane hunter flights in 1944 and the advent of satellite imagery in the 1960s, long-range forecasts are prone to enormous margins of error.The National Hurricane Center estimates the average error in its track forecasts is near 260 miles by day four and 345 miles by day five. The hurricane center does not project a storm's track beyond day five.
Intensity forecasts are even more difficult. The hurricane center calculates that the error in its forecasts for a storm's top sustained winds averages 23 miles per hour (37 km per hour) per day.The last official forecast for Hanna takes it in five days to minimal Category 1 hurricane strength with 80-mile-per-hour (130 km per hour) winds by next Friday.It might then be somewhere off central Florida. But its potential position at that point also encompasses the southern Bahamas, eastern Cuba, south Florida and South Carolina.(Editing by Tom Brown)
WELL WE EVEN HERE THE WORDS THE BIBLES SAYS WOULD BE SAID ABOUT THESE LAST DAYS STORMS.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.
Gulf Coast braces, flees as deadly Gustav takes aim at US by Glenn Chapman AUG 31,08
NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (AFP) - More than a million people fled Louisiana as killer Hurricane Gustav on Sunday churned toward New Orleans, a fragile US coastal city still healing from the devastating 2005 Katrina storm. Highways out of New Orleans have been crammed since before dawn as people scurried to escape a monster storm that could slam the Louisiana coast as early as midday Monday.The state's governor, Bobby Jindal, said that more than a million people are on the move because of Gustav.
Officials are carefully watching whether Gustav strengthens as it crosses the warm water of the Gulf of Mexico.A slightly weakened Gustav -- still a dangerous Category 3 storm with winds near 125 miles (205 kilometers) per hour -- battered Cuba Sunday after claiming at least 81 lives in its tear across the Dominican Republic, Haiti and Jamaica.New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin, desperate to avoid a replay of the 2005 Katrina catastrophe, ordered the city emptied in the face of what he called the storm of the century and roads quickly filled with fleeing residents.Get out of town, Jefferson parish president Aaron Broussard said in a public announcement Sunday morning. Have the courage to disconnect yourself from your material things. You cannot protect yourself against what Mother Nature is going to throw at us.
Jefferson Parish includes the West Bank, where a storm surge of water pushed ashore by hurricane winds is expected to easily wash over levees guarding that area.Weather models indicate a surge could be more than 20 feet (almost three meters) high, double the height of levees on the West Bank.We are going to see storm surge on the West Bank like we have never seen before, said Jefferson parish councilman Chris Roberts. Now is the time to sound the alarm.In Cuba, Gustav tore off roofs, flattened buildings and plunged communities into darkness as it smashed through the Isle of Youth, then tore across mainland Cuba southwest of Havana, which has a population of more than two million. There were no immediate reported deaths in Cuba.
The storm lost some of its punch in the process, with US officials downgrading it from four to three.At 1200 GMT, the US National Hurricane Center said Gustav's eye was about 375 miles (605 km) southeast of the mouth of the Mississippi River, as the storm moved northwest about 16 mph (26 km/h) and was expected to strengthen.On this track Gustav will be moving across the central Gulf of Mexico today (Sunday) and make landfall on the northern Gulf coast on Monday, the NHC added, warning an extremely dangerous storm surge of 18 to 25 feet (more than six meters) above normal tidal levels is expected near and to the east of where the center of Gustav crosses the northern Gulf Coast.President George W. Bush is unlikely to travel to the Republican Convention Monday as Hurricane Gustav closes in on the US Gulf Coast, the White House said in Washington. The Katrina catastrophe was a major political disaster for his administration.Republican White House hopeful John McCain and his running-mate Sarah Palin also said they would suspend their normal election campaign and visit to Mississippi to inspect preparations for Gustav's arrival.Major oil producers BP, ConocoPhillips and Shell on Thursday evacuated workers from their facilities in the Gulf where nearly a quarter of US crude oil installations are located.If one major deep-water production platform is destroyed, you're talking about a billion dollar or more loss, said Rice University engineering professor Satish Nagarajaiah. If it's multiple rigs and platforms in a variety of water depths, then we're talking billions of dollars.Cuban national television reported that the scene on the Isle of Youth was one of devastation after the monster storm ground its way across the low-lying island of fishing villages, factories and citrus farms. Homes were under water, warehouses toppled, and roads washed away on the Isle, state television said, adding there were some injuries though no immediate reports of deaths. More than 250,000 were evacuated from western parts of mainland Cuba before the storm hit, the Cuban weather service said. Used to fairly frequent smaller tropical storms, Havana residents ran around town Saturday gathering candles and food, boiling water and taping up windows. Really, I just did not expect this -- it has been a long time since we have been hit by such a powerful hurricane, and this Gustav looks like it will be quite strong, retired actress Gliseria Farinas said in Havana. A key concern was for the crowded and charming colonial-era Old Havana, which UNESCO declared a World Heritage Site in 1982. Most of Cuba's housing stock is old and fragile. Cuban authorities have said that in Havana alone there are 1,000 buildings in critical condition. These include about 8,000 structures housing some 26,000 people, many of them in Old Havana. Earlier Gustav's path of destruction left 66 dead and 10 missing in Haiti. In neighboring Dominican Republic, the death toll stood at eight, while in Jamaica the toll stood at seven, with many thousands displaced. Gustav loomed just after the third anniversary of Katrina, the deadliest US natural disaster in almost eight decades. More than 1,800 people were killed by the hurricane and related flooding, authorities say.
Powerful Gustav rips across Cuba, 250,000 evacuate By WILL WEISSERT, Associated Press Writer AUG 31,08
HAVANA - Cubans returned from shelters to find flooded homes and washed-out roads Sunday, but no deaths were reported after a monstrous Hurricane Gustav roared across the island and into the oil-rich Gulf of Mexico. About 250,000 Cubans were evacuated before Gustav made landfall on Cuba's Isla de la Juventud, then again on the Cuban mainland in the region that produces much of the tobacco used to make the nation's famed cigars.It was just short of top-scale Category 5 hurricane with screaming 140 mph (220 kph) winds as it moved across the island, toppling telephone poles and fruit trees, shattering windows and tearing off the tin roofs of homes.A Cuban television reporter on the Isla de la Juventud said the storm had felt like the blast wave from a bomb.Buildings without windows, without doors, he said. Few trees remain standing.Cuban Civil defense chief Ana Isa Delgado said there were many people injured on the island of 87,000 people. Nearly all the island's roads were washed out and some regions were heavily flooded.It's been very difficult here, she said on state television.But there were no reports of deaths, there or on the mainland.Gustav earlier killed 81 people by triggering floods and landslides in Haiti, the Dominican Republic and Jamaica.The hurricane weakened slightly after crossing Cuba, slowing to Category 3 status before sunrise Sunday. But it still packed top winds near 120 mph (195 kph) and forecasters predicted it would increase to a Category 4 before making landfall Monday along the U.S. Gulf coast.
More than 1 million Americans made wary by Hurricane Katrina took buses, trains, planes and cars as they streamed out of New Orleans and other coastal cities, where Katrina killed about 1,600 people in 2005.Mayor Ray Nagin of New Orleans, which was devastated by Katrina, issued a mandatory evacuation order and warned that anyone found off their own property after it takes effect can be arrested. Police and National Guard troops were on the streets, preparing to patrol evacuated neighborhoods.Nagin called Gustav the mother of all storms and told residents to get out of town. This is not the one to play with.Cuba's top meteorologist, Jose Rubiera, said the storm brought hurricane-force winds to much of the western part of Havana, where power was knocked out as winds blasted sheets of rain sideways though the streets and whipped angry waves against the famed seaside Malecon boulevard.
But Sunday morning no flooding could be seen in central Havana, and state radio said the damage was minimal in the capital of 2 million people, although southeastern Havana remained without power and natural gas.Public transportation began running again Sunday morning, as did buses and trains from Havana to the provinces. State radio said schools would open Monday everywhere except Pinar del Rio.In the fishing town of Batabano, 31 miles (50 kilometers) south of Havana, evacuees returned to their pastel-colored homes to find many surrounded by knee-deep water.My house is full of water, said Aldo Tomas, 43, pulling palm branches from his living room. But we expected more. We expected worse.Tourist Lidia Morral of Barcelona, Spain, said Gustav forced officials to close beaches the couple wanted to visit earlier this week in Santiago, on the island's eastern tip. The storm also prevented them from catching a ferry from Havana to the Isla de la Juventud on Saturday. It's been following us all over Cuba, ruining our vacation, said Morral, who was in line at a travel agency, trying to make other plans. They have closed everything — hotels, restaurants, bars, museums. There's not much to do but wait.At 8 a.m. EDT Sunday, the U.S. hurricane center said Gustav was centered about 375 miles (605 kilometers) southeast of the mouth of the Mississippi River and moving northwest near 16 mph (26 kph). Meanwhile, Tropical Storm Hanna was projected to move north of the Turks and Caicos Islands by late Sunday, then curl through the Bahamas by early next week before possibly threatening Cuba. As it spun over open waters, Hanna strengthened slightly and had sustained winds near 60 mph (95 kph) early Sunday. The hurricane center warned that it could kick up dangerous rip currents along parts of the southeastern U.S. coast.
Russia warns it will respond to aggression
By Christian Lowe AUG 31,08
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia does not want confrontation with the West but will hit back if attacked, Kremlin leader Dmitry Medvedev said on Sunday, a day before EU leaders meet to draft a response to Moscow's actions in Georgia.British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said he would press fellow European Union leaders to review ties with Russia in retaliation for Moscow's decision to send troops to Georgia and recognize two Georgian breakaway regions.But underlining the differences in approach inside the 27-member EU, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier took a softer line, saying isolating Russia would harm the interests of the bloc.A senior U.S. diplomat said Washington hoped the EU would express concrete support for Georgia's territorial integrity, and urged Europe to reduce its dependence on Russian energy.Medvedev faces growing condemnation from the West, which accuses Russia of occupying parts of Georgia, while the Kremlin said it acted to prevent what it called genocide against the separatist regions.Russia does not want confrontation with any country. Russia does not plan to isolate itself, Medvedev said in an interview with Russia's three main television stations.But he added: Everyone should understand that if someone launches an aggressive sortie, he will receive a response. He said Russian law allowed the Kremlin to impose sanctions on other states, though it preferred not to go down that path.
GEORGIAN CALL
Georgia urged the European Union to impose sanctions against those doing business with the two separatist regions, authorize a civilian mission to monitor buffer zones around them and give Tbilisi about $2 billion to help to help repair damage.
Europe can do a lot, starting with sending a mission of civilian monitors, which would lead to an international peacekeeping mechanism that would replace the presence of Russian troops, Prime Minister Lado Gurgenidze told Reuters in Brussels.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said Russia's intervention in Georgia was dangerous and unacceptable.In the light of Russian actions, the EU should review -- root and branch -- our relationship with Russia, Brown wrote in a comment published in Britain's Observer newspaper.The German foreign minister said Moscow deserved criticism but Europe needed cooperation with Russia.Europe would only be hurting itself if we were to get full of emotion and slam all the doors shut to the rooms that we will want to enter afterwards, Steinmeier said.Russia supplies more than a quarter of Europe's gas needs. Some observers say this makes tough EU sanctions unlikely.Thousands of Georgians are expected to join a human chain in Tbilisi on Monday, with people joining hands through the capital in a show of unity.Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, in an address to the nation, said he hoped the EU leaders would not give up faced with this dirty attempt at aggression.
TEST OF UNITY
The emergency summit is a test of unity for the EU, which struggles to reconcile differences between states which want punitive action and others, including European heavyweights France and Germany, which favor a more calibrated approach.It is likely to produce a stern words-soft action response from the EU, said Chris Weafer, Chief Strategist with Russia's Uralsib investment bank.The bloc is likely to stop well short of any action that might escalate into a damaging tit-for-tat sequence of economic and political sanctions, Weafer wrote in a research note.Russia sent in its troops after Georgia's military tried to retake South Ossetia, like Abkhazia a Moscow-backed region which rejects Tbilisi's rule.Moscow has pulled out most of its forces in line with a ceasefire deal but has kept soldiers and equipment in security zones, which include undisputed Georgian territory around South Ossetia and Abkhazia.
Western governments have demanded that Moscow pull its troops back to pre-conflict positions. The Kremlin says the troops are peacekeepers needed to protect the separatist regions from new Georgian aggression.In a last-minute round of diplomacy before Monday's emergency EU summit, both Medvedev and U.S. President George W. Bush spoke to Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who is seen as sympathetic to the Kremlin.U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Matthew Bryza said it was up to the EU to decide what measures it adopts against Russia, but the bloc should throw its weight behind Georgia and make itself less dependent on Russian energy.What happened in Georgia shows even more why it is crucial that Europe begins to move more quickly to diversify its supply of gas, Bryza told Reuters on the sidelines of an international energy conference in Bled, Slovenia.(Reporting by Giles Elgood in London, Thomas Grove in Istanbul, Erik Kirschbaum in Berlin, Guy Faulconbridge and Conor Sweeney in Moscow, Marja Novak and Zoran Radosvljevic in Bled, Slovenia, Jeremy Pelofsky in Washington and Mark John and Marcin Grajewski in Brussels; editing by Philippa Fletcher).
TORAH PORTION FROM AUG 31 - SEPT 6, 2008
SINCE WHAT ISRAEL READS WILL BE FULFILLED IN THAT WEEK I WILL BE PUTTING THE WEEKLY TORAH PORTION ON FOR ALL OF US TO KEEP TRACK OF ISRAEL HAPPENINGS.
TORAH PORTION FROM AUG 31, 2008 6PM TO SEPT 06,2008
Devarim
Book 5: Deuteronomy SHOFTIM
DEUTORONOMY 16:18 - 21:09
Chapter 16
Verse 18: Judges and police officers you shall appoint for yourself in all of your cities that Ad-noy, your G-d, is giving you for your tribes; who will judge the people righteous justice.
Verse 19: Do not pervert justice; do not display favoritism; and do not accept bribery, for bribery blinds the eyes of the wise and distorts words that are just.
Verse 20: Pursue absolute justice so that you may live and inherit the land that Ad-noy, your G-d, is giving you.
Verse 21: Do not plant an Asherah for yourself [or] any tree near the altar of Ad-noy, your G-d, that you will make for yourself.
Verse 22: And do not erect for yourself a monument that Ad-noy, your G-d, detests.
Chapter 17
Verse 1: Do not sacrifice to Ad-noy, your G-d, an ox or a lamb that has a blemish, any bad thing; for it is abominated by Ad-noy, your G-d.
Verse 2: If there is found among you, in one of your cities that Ad-noy, your G-d, is giving you, a man or a woman who does what is evil in the eyes of Ad-noy, your G-d, by violating His covenant.
Verse 3: He goes and serves other gods and bows to them--- whether to the sun or to the moon or to any of the host of heaven that I did not command.
Verse 4: When you are told and you understand, you are to inquire thoroughly. If in fact the report is authenticated and accurate--- this abomination was committed within Yisroel.
Verse 5: You are to take out that man or that woman who did this evil thing to your city--- the man or the woman--- and you are to stone them with stones so that they die.
Verse 6: By the speech of two witnesses or three witnesses is the guilty one to be executed; he is not to be executed by the oral testimonoy of one witness.
Verse 7: Let the hand of the witnesses be against him first to execute him, and the hand of the entire people afterward; and you will eliminate the evil from within you.
Verse 8: If a matter of law is too abstruse for you--- between blood and blood, between decision and decision, or between leprosy and leprosy matters under dispute in your city; you shall rise and ascend to the place that Ad-noy, your G-d, will have chosen.
Verse 9: You are to come before the kohanim-the Levites and the judge officiating during those days; you will inquire and they will tell you the legal decision.
Verse 10: You are to act according to the word that they tell you from that place that Ad-noy will have chosen; and you are to be careful to fulfill exactly as they instruct you.
Verse 11: In accord with the Torah that they instruct you and upon the law that they state to you, are you to act; do not deviate from the word they tell you, neither right or left.
Verse 12: But the man who acts deliberately to not heed the kohein who stands to serve there Ad-noy, your G-d, or the judge; that man is to be executed and you will eliminate the evil from Yisroel.
Verse 13: Let all the people hear and fear, and not sin deliberately again.
Sheini (Second Aliyah)
Verse 14: When you arrive in the land that Ad-noy, your G-d, is giving you and inherit it and live in it, and you say, Let me appoint over me a king like all the nations around me;
Verse 15: Appoint are you to appoint over yourself a king whom Ad-noy, your G-d, will choose. From among your brothers are you to appoint over yourself a king; you may not place over yourself a foreigner who is not your brother.
Verse 16: However, he must not aquire an abundance of horses for himself so that he will not return the people to Egypt in order to aquire an abundance of horses, because Ad-noy told you, You are not to proceed to return along this route again.
Verse 17: And he is not to aquire an abundance of wives for himself so that his heart will not veer; and silver and gold he may not accumulate for himself in great abundance.
Verse 18: It shall be, that when he occupies the throne of his kingdom, he must write for himself a duplicate of this Torah in a scroll form [the scroll] before the kohanim--- the Levites.
Verse 19: It is to accompany him and he is to read in it all the days of his life, in order that he learn to fear Ad-noy, his G-d, to guard every word of this Torah and these statutes to fulfill them;
Verse 20: That his pride not increase over his brothers and he does not stray from the commandment right or left; so that the days of his reign are lengthy over his kingdom, he and his sons within Yisroel.
Sh'lishi (Third Aliyah)
Chapter 18
Verse 1: They will not have--- the kohanim, the Levites, the entire tribe of Levi--- a portion or an inheritance with Yisroel; Ad-noy's fire-offerings and His inheritance will they eat.
Verse 2: But he will have no territory among his brothers; Ad-noy is his territory, as He said to him.
Verse 3: And this will be the stipend of the kohanim from the people from the slaughterers of [permitted] meat, whether an ox or a sheep; he will give the kohein the foreleg and the jaw and the [fourth] stomach.
Verse 4: The first portion of your grain, your wine, and your olive oil, and the first of the shearing of your sheep are you to give him.
Verse 5: For him did Ad-noy, your G-d, choose from all your tribes to stand and perform the service in the name of Ad-noy, he and his sons for all time.
Revi'i (Fourth Aliyah)
Verse 6: If a Levite should come from one of your cities throughout Yisroel where he sojourns, coming will all his soul's desire to the place that Ad-noy chooses.
Verse 7: He shall perform the service in the name of Ad-noy, his G-d, like all his brother Levites who stand there in Ad-noy's presence.
Verse 8: They shall eat equal portions, except for what the families sold [to one another.]
Verse 9: Because you are entering the land that Ad-noy, your G-d, is giving you; do not learn to perpetrate the abominations of those nations.
Verse 10: Let there not exist among you anyone who passes his son or daughter through fire, who practices the kosem-occult; who practices time-frame-occult or who divines portentuous events or a sorcerer.
Verse 11: Or a snake charmer, or one who invokes the spirit of Ov or yidoni, or communicates with the dead.
Verse 12: For Ad-noy's abomination is anyone perpetrating this and because of these abominations, Ad-noy, your G-d, is expelling them from before you.
Verse 13: Walk in perfect trust with Ad-noy, your G-d.
Chamishi (Fifth Aliyah)
Verse 14: Although these nations whom you are inheriting heed augurers and sorcerers, but as to you--- Ad-noy, your G-d, has not given you their status.
Verse 15: A prophet from your midst, of your brethren, like me, will Ad-noy, your G-d, establish for you; heed him.
Verse 16: Exactly as you requested from Ad-noy, your G-d, at Choreiv, on the day of assembly, saying, Let me not continue to hear the voice of Ad-noy, my G-d, and this great fire let me not see any more as that I will not die.
Verse 17: Ad-noy said to me, What they said is excellent.
Verse 18: A prophet will I establish for them from among their brethren like you, and I will place My words in his mouth and he will tell them everything that I command him.
Verse 19: Now, the man who does not heed My words that he speaks in My Name; I will demand from him.
Verse 20: But the prophet who will malevolently make a statement in My Name, something that I did not instruct him to say, or which he says in the name of foreign gods, that prophet must die.
Verse 21: If you should say to yourself, How can we know [which is] the statement that Ad-noy did not speak?
Verse 22: Should the prophet speak in Ad-noy's Name, and the matter does not happen and is not fulfilled, that is the statement that Ad-noy did not speak. The prophet spoke it malevolently; do not fear him.
Chapter 19
Verse 1: When Ad-noy, your G-d, annihilates the nations whose land Ad-noy, your G-d is giving you; and you inherit them and live in their cities and in their houses;
Verse 2: Separate three cities for yourself, within your land that Ad-noy, your G-d, is giving you to inherit.
Verse 3: Ready the route for yourself and divide the borders of your land into three sections that Ad-noy, your G-d, will allot you; this will serve for any murderer to flee there.
Verse 4: And this is the matter of the murderer who may flee there to survive: whoever smites his peer without intent, and he had not been his enemy yesterday [or] the day before;
Verse 5: And whoever comes with his peer into the woods to chop trees, and as his hand swung the axe downward to cut the wood the iron flew off the wooden handle and encounters his peer and he dies; he is to flee to one of these cities to survive.
Verse 6: Lest the blood-redeemer pursue the murderer when his heart grows heated, and he catches up with him over the length of the road and he smite him dead when he has no death sentence because he had not been his enemy yesterday [or] the day before.
Verse 7: Therefore am I commanding you the following: three cities shall you separate for yourself.
Verse 8: And when Ad-noy, your G-d, expands your boundary, in accordance with His oath to your forefathers, and He give you the entire land that He promised to give to your forefathers,
Verse 9: When you will be guarding this entire mitzvah to fulfill it, that I am commanding you today, to love Ad-noy, your G-d, and to go in His ways for all time; then you shall add three more cities to these three.
Verse 10: And let innocent blood not be shed within your land that Ad-noy, your G-d, is giving you as territory, [otherwise] you will bear liability for the blood.
Verse 11: If there is a man who hates his neighbor, and will ambush him, arising against him and smiting him dead, and he will flee to one of these cities;
Verse 12: The elders of his city will send for and take him from there, and will hand him over to the blood-redeemer, and he will be executed.
Verse 13: Do not view him with compassion. You are to eliminate the [shedding of] innocent blood from Yisroel, and you will have it good.
Shishi (Sixth Aliyah)
Verse 14: Do not move back the boundary of your neighbor that the first [settlers] determine in your territory that you will inherit in the land that Ad-noy, your G-d, is giving you to inherit.
Verse 15: One witness may not arise against a man about any sin or for any transgression or transgression that he transgresses; by the word of two witnesses or by the word of three witnesses let a matter be established.
Verse 16: If false witnesses arise against a man and bear fallacious testimony against him;
Verse 17: The two men shall stand, who are involved in the dispute, before Ad-noy, before the kohanim and the judges who are in those days.
Verse 18: When the judges shall investigate thoroughly and behold, the witness testified falsely, they testified falsely against their brother;
Verse 19: You are to do to [each of] them as he conspired to do to his brother, and eliminate the evil from among you;
Verse 20: And the remainder will hear and be fearful, and they will not repeat this evil thing among you.
Verse 21: You are not to have compassion: life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.
Chapter 20
Verse 1: When you go to war against your enemy, and you see horse and chariot, people who outnumber you; do not be afraid of them, for Ad-noy, your G-d, is with you, He Who brought you up from the land of Egypt.
Verse 2: Now, as you near the battle the kohein shall approach and speak to the people.
Verse 3: He will say to them, Hear, Yisroel! You are setting out today to battle against your enemies. Do not be faint hearted; or intimidated and do not panic, and do not be crushed before them;
Verse 4: Because Ad-noy, your G-d, marches with you to do battle for you with your enemies to save you.
Verse 5: The officers will address the people as follows, Whichever man has built a new house and did not inaugurate it as a dwelling, let him go and return home lest he die in battle and another man will inaugurate it.
Verse 6: And whichever man has planted a vineyard and did not redeem it[s fruit,] let him go and return home, lest he die in battle and another man redeem it.
Verse 7: And whichever man has betrothed a woman and not married her, let him go and return home, lest he die in battle and another man marry her.
Verse 8: The officers will further address the people and say. Whoever is afraid or faint hearted, let him go and return home, and let him not destroy the resolve of his brothers like his own resolve.
Verse 9: When the officers finish addressing the people; they will appoint army commanders at the head of the people.
Shevi'i (Seventh Aliyah)
Verse 10: When you near a city to do battle against it, you are to offer it peace.
Verse 11: Should it respond, Peace! and open for you, then all the people found in it will become your payers of tribute, and your servants.
Verse 12: And if it does not settle for peace with you but engages in war against you, you shall lay siege to it.
Verse 13: Ad-noy, your G-d, will deliver it into your hand, and you will smite all its males by the sword.
Verse 14: However, the women and the children, and the animals, and everything that will be in the city--- all its booty---are you to plunder for yourself; you will eat the booty of your enemies that Ad-noy, your G-d, gave you.
Verse 15: So will you do to all the cities, that are very distant from you, that are not among the cities of these nations.
Verse 16: However, from the cities of these peoples that Ad-noy, your G-d, is giving you as inheritance, you are not to leave any person alive.
Verse 17: Rather annihilate are you to annihilate them: the Chittites and the Emorites, the Canaanites and the Perizites, the Chivites and the Yevusites; as Ad-noy, your G-d, commanded you.
Verse 18: In order that they do not teach you to do any of their abominations that they did for their gods, and you will sin to Ad-noy, your G-d.
Verse 19: If you besiege a city many days to wage war against it, to capture it, do not harm [any of] its trees by chopping it with an ax, because you eat from it you are not to cut it down; For, is the tree in the field a man to join the besieged to escape you?
Verse 20: Only a tree that you know that it is not a fruit tree may you harm or cut down; and you will build battlements against the city that is waging war against you until it is conquered.
Chapter 21
Verse 1: If a corpse is found in the land that Ad-noy, your G-d, is giving you to inherit, fallen in the field, it is not known who smote him.
Verse 2: Your elders shall go out--- and your judges--- and measure in the direction of the cities around the corpse.
Verse 3: Now, the city nearest the corpse--- the elders of that city are to take a calf-heifer that has not been worked, that has not drawn a yoke.
Verse 4: The elders of that city will take down the calf to a stony valley that is not to be tilled and not to be seeded, and they shall decapitate the calf in that valley.
Verse 5: The kohanim, descendants of Levi, will approach; because them did Ad-noy, your G-d, choose to serve Him and to bless in Ad-noy's Name; and they will decide every dispute and every nega.
Verse 6: And all the elders of that city, those near the corpse, will wash their hands over the calf beheaded in that valley.
Maftir
Verse 7: They will loudly declare, Our hands have not spilled this blood and our eyes did not see.
Verse 8: [The kohanim will say,] Forgive Your people Yisroel, whom You, Ad-noy, have redeemed; and do not allow innocent blood [liability] within Your people Yisroel. The blood shall thus be atoned for in their behalf.
Verse 9: Still, you must eradicate the [liability for] innocent blood from within you, when you do what is upright in Ad-noy's eyes.
PROPHET PORTION
ISAIAH 51:12 - 53:12
12 I, even I, am he that comforteth you: who art thou, that thou shouldest be afraid of a man that shall die, and of the son of man which shall be made as grass;
13 And forgettest the LORD thy maker, that hath stretched forth the heavens, and laid the foundations of the earth; and hast feared continually every day because of the fury of the oppressor, as if he were ready to destroy? and where is the fury of the oppressor?
14 The captive exile hasteneth that he may be loosed, and that he should not die in the pit, nor that his bread should fail.
15 But I am the LORD thy God, that divided the sea, whose waves roared: The LORD of hosts is his name.
16 And I have put my words in thy mouth, and I have covered thee in the shadow of mine hand, that I may plant the heavens, and lay the foundations of the earth, and say unto Zion, Thou art my people.
17 Awake, awake, stand up, O Jerusalem, which hast drunk at the hand of the LORD the cup of his fury; thou hast drunken the dregs of the cup of trembling, and wrung them out.
18 There is none to guide her among all the sons whom she hath brought forth; neither is there any that taketh her by the hand of all the sons that she hath brought up.
19 These two things are come unto thee; who shall be sorry for thee? desolation, and destruction, and the famine, and the sword: by whom shall I comfort thee?
20 Thy sons have fainted, they lie at the head of all the streets, as a wild bull in a net: they are full of the fury of the LORD, the rebuke of thy God.
21 Therefore hear now this, thou afflicted, and drunken, but not with wine:
22 Thus saith thy Lord the LORD, and thy God that pleadeth the cause of his people, Behold, I have taken out of thine hand the cup of trembling, even the dregs of the cup of my fury; thou shalt no more drink it again:
23 But I will put it into the hand of them that afflict thee; which have said to thy soul, Bow down, that we may go over: and thou hast laid thy body as the ground, and as the street, to them that went over.
ISAIAH 52:1-15
1 Awake, awake; put on thy strength, O Zion; put on thy beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city: for henceforth there shall no more come into thee the uncircumcised and the unclean.
2 Shake thyself from the dust; arise, and sit down, O Jerusalem: loose thyself from the bands of thy neck, O captive daughter of Zion.
3 For thus saith the LORD, Ye have sold yourselves for nought; and ye shall be redeemed without money.
4 For thus saith the Lord GOD, My people went down aforetime into Egypt to sojourn there; and the Assyrian oppressed them without cause.
5 Now therefore, what have I here, saith the LORD, that my people is taken away for nought? they that rule over them make them to howl, saith the LORD; and my name continually every day is blasphemed.
6 Therefore my people shall know my name: therefore they shall know in that day that I am he that doth speak: behold, it is I.
7 How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace; that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation; that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth!
8 Thy watchmen shall lift up the voice; with the voice together shall they sing: for they shall see eye to eye, when the LORD shall bring again Zion.
9 Break forth into joy, sing together, ye waste places of Jerusalem: for the LORD hath comforted his people, he hath redeemed Jerusalem.
10 The LORD hath made bare his holy arm in the eyes of all the nations; and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God.
11 Depart ye, depart ye, go ye out from thence, touch no unclean thing; go ye out of the midst of her; be ye clean, that bear the vessels of the LORD.
12 For ye shall not go out with haste, nor go by flight: for the LORD will go before you; and the God of Israel will be your rereward.
13 Behold, my servant shall deal prudently, he shall be exalted and extolled, and be very high.
14 As many were astonied at thee; his visage was so marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men:
15 So shall he sprinkle many nations; the kings shall shut their mouths at him: for that which had not been told them shall they see; and that which they had not heard shall they consider.
ISAIAH 53:1-12
1 Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the LORD revealed?
2 For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.
3 He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
4 Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.
5 But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.
6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.
7 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth.
8 He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken.
9 And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth.
10 Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand.
11 He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities.
12 Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.
NEW TESTAMENT PORTION
MATTHEW 5:38-42
38 Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth:
39 But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also.
40 And if any man will sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloke also.
41 And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain.
42 Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of thee turn not thou away.
MATTHEW 18:15-20
15 Moreover if thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone: if he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother.
16 But if he will not hear thee, then take with thee one or two more, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established.
17 And if he shall neglect to hear them, tell it unto the church: but if he neglect to hear the church, let him be unto thee as an heathen man and a publican.
18 Verily I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.
19 Again I say unto you, That if two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven.
20 For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.
ACTS 3:13-26
13 The God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob, the God of our fathers, hath glorified his Son Jesus; whom ye delivered up, and denied him in the presence of Pilate, when he was determined to let him go.
14 But ye denied the Holy One and the Just, and desired a murderer to be granted unto you;
15 And killed the Prince of life, whom God hath raised from the dead; whereof we are witnesses.
16 And his name through faith in his name hath made this man strong, whom ye see and know: yea, the faith which is by him hath given him this perfect soundness in the presence of you all.
17 And now, brethren, I wot that through ignorance ye did it, as did also your rulers.
18 But those things, which God before had shewed by the mouth of all his prophets, that Christ should suffer, he hath so fulfilled.
19 Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord;
20 And he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you:
21 Whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began.
22 For Moses truly said unto the fathers, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me; him shall ye hear in all things whatsoever he shall say unto you.
23 And it shall come to pass, that every soul, which will not hear that prophet, shall be destroyed from among the people.
24 Yea, and all the prophets from Samuel and those that follow after, as many as have spoken, have likewise foretold of these days.
25 Ye are the children of the prophets, and of the covenant which God made with our fathers, saying unto Abraham, And in thy seed shall all the kindreds of the earth be blessed.
26 Unto you first God, having raised up his Son Jesus, sent him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from his iniquities.
ACTS 7:35-53
35 This Moses whom they refused, saying, Who made thee a ruler and a judge? the same did God send to be a ruler and a deliverer by the hand of the angel which appeared to him in the bush.
36 He brought them out, after that he had shewed wonders and signs in the land of Egypt, and in the Red sea, and in the wilderness forty years.
37 This is that Moses, which said unto the children of Israel, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me; him shall ye hear.
38 This is he, that was in the church in the wilderness with the angel which spake to him in the mount Sina, and with our fathers: who received the lively oracles to give unto us:
39 To whom our fathers would not obey, but thrust him from them, and in their hearts turned back again into Egypt,
40 Saying unto Aaron, Make us gods to go before us: for as for this Moses, which brought us out of the land of Egypt, we wot not what is become of him.
41 And they made a calf in those days, and offered sacrifice unto the idol, and rejoiced in the works of their own hands.
42 Then God turned, and gave them up to worship the host of heaven; as it is written in the book of the prophets, O ye house of Israel, have ye offered to me slain beasts and sacrifices by the space of forty years in the wilderness?
43 Yea, ye took up the tabernacle of Moloch, and the star of your god Remphan, figures which ye made to worship them: and I will carry you away beyond Babylon.
44 Our fathers had the tabernacle of witness in the wilderness, as he had appointed, speaking unto Moses, that he should make it according to the fashion that he had seen.
45 Which also our fathers that came after brought in with Jesus into the possession of the Gentiles, whom God drave out before the face of our fathers, unto the days of David;
46 Who found favour before God, and desired to find a tabernacle for the God of Jacob.
47 But Solomon built him an house.
48 Howbeit the most High dwelleth not in temples made with hands; as saith the prophet,
49 Heaven is my throne, and earth is my footstool: what house will ye build me? saith the Lord: or what is the place of my rest?
50 Hath not my hand made all these things?
51 Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye.
52 Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? and they have slain them which shewed before of the coming of the Just One; of whom ye have been now the betrayers and murderers:
53 Who have received the law by the disposition of angels, and have not kept it.
1 CORINTHIANS 5:9-13
9 I wrote unto you in an epistle not to company with fornicators:
10 Yet not altogether with the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or with idolaters; for then must ye needs go out of the world.
11 But now I have written unto you not to keep company, if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; with such an one no not to eat.
12 For what have I to do to judge them also that are without? do not ye judge them that are within?
13 But them that are without God judgeth. Therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked person.
1 TIMOTHY 5:17-22
17 Let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honour, especially they who labour in the word and doctrine.
18 For the scripture saith, Thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn. And, The labourer is worthy of his reward.
19 Against an elder receive not an accusation, but before two or three witnesses.
20 Them that sin rebuke before all, that others also may fear.
21 I charge thee before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, and the elect angels, that thou observe these things without preferring one before another, doing nothing by partiality.
22 Lay hands suddenly on no man, neither be partaker of other men’s sins: keep thyself pure.
HEBREWS 10:28-31
28 He that despised Moses’ law died without mercy under two or three witnesses:
29 Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace?
30 For we know him that hath said, Vengeance belongeth unto me, I will recompense, saith the Lord. And again, The Lord shall judge his people.
31 It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
TORAH PORTION FROM AUG 31, 2008 6PM TO SEPT 06,2008
Devarim
Book 5: Deuteronomy SHOFTIM
DEUTORONOMY 16:18 - 21:09
Chapter 16
Verse 18: Judges and police officers you shall appoint for yourself in all of your cities that Ad-noy, your G-d, is giving you for your tribes; who will judge the people righteous justice.
Verse 19: Do not pervert justice; do not display favoritism; and do not accept bribery, for bribery blinds the eyes of the wise and distorts words that are just.
Verse 20: Pursue absolute justice so that you may live and inherit the land that Ad-noy, your G-d, is giving you.
Verse 21: Do not plant an Asherah for yourself [or] any tree near the altar of Ad-noy, your G-d, that you will make for yourself.
Verse 22: And do not erect for yourself a monument that Ad-noy, your G-d, detests.
Chapter 17
Verse 1: Do not sacrifice to Ad-noy, your G-d, an ox or a lamb that has a blemish, any bad thing; for it is abominated by Ad-noy, your G-d.
Verse 2: If there is found among you, in one of your cities that Ad-noy, your G-d, is giving you, a man or a woman who does what is evil in the eyes of Ad-noy, your G-d, by violating His covenant.
Verse 3: He goes and serves other gods and bows to them--- whether to the sun or to the moon or to any of the host of heaven that I did not command.
Verse 4: When you are told and you understand, you are to inquire thoroughly. If in fact the report is authenticated and accurate--- this abomination was committed within Yisroel.
Verse 5: You are to take out that man or that woman who did this evil thing to your city--- the man or the woman--- and you are to stone them with stones so that they die.
Verse 6: By the speech of two witnesses or three witnesses is the guilty one to be executed; he is not to be executed by the oral testimonoy of one witness.
Verse 7: Let the hand of the witnesses be against him first to execute him, and the hand of the entire people afterward; and you will eliminate the evil from within you.
Verse 8: If a matter of law is too abstruse for you--- between blood and blood, between decision and decision, or between leprosy and leprosy matters under dispute in your city; you shall rise and ascend to the place that Ad-noy, your G-d, will have chosen.
Verse 9: You are to come before the kohanim-the Levites and the judge officiating during those days; you will inquire and they will tell you the legal decision.
Verse 10: You are to act according to the word that they tell you from that place that Ad-noy will have chosen; and you are to be careful to fulfill exactly as they instruct you.
Verse 11: In accord with the Torah that they instruct you and upon the law that they state to you, are you to act; do not deviate from the word they tell you, neither right or left.
Verse 12: But the man who acts deliberately to not heed the kohein who stands to serve there Ad-noy, your G-d, or the judge; that man is to be executed and you will eliminate the evil from Yisroel.
Verse 13: Let all the people hear and fear, and not sin deliberately again.
Sheini (Second Aliyah)
Verse 14: When you arrive in the land that Ad-noy, your G-d, is giving you and inherit it and live in it, and you say, Let me appoint over me a king like all the nations around me;
Verse 15: Appoint are you to appoint over yourself a king whom Ad-noy, your G-d, will choose. From among your brothers are you to appoint over yourself a king; you may not place over yourself a foreigner who is not your brother.
Verse 16: However, he must not aquire an abundance of horses for himself so that he will not return the people to Egypt in order to aquire an abundance of horses, because Ad-noy told you, You are not to proceed to return along this route again.
Verse 17: And he is not to aquire an abundance of wives for himself so that his heart will not veer; and silver and gold he may not accumulate for himself in great abundance.
Verse 18: It shall be, that when he occupies the throne of his kingdom, he must write for himself a duplicate of this Torah in a scroll form [the scroll] before the kohanim--- the Levites.
Verse 19: It is to accompany him and he is to read in it all the days of his life, in order that he learn to fear Ad-noy, his G-d, to guard every word of this Torah and these statutes to fulfill them;
Verse 20: That his pride not increase over his brothers and he does not stray from the commandment right or left; so that the days of his reign are lengthy over his kingdom, he and his sons within Yisroel.
Sh'lishi (Third Aliyah)
Chapter 18
Verse 1: They will not have--- the kohanim, the Levites, the entire tribe of Levi--- a portion or an inheritance with Yisroel; Ad-noy's fire-offerings and His inheritance will they eat.
Verse 2: But he will have no territory among his brothers; Ad-noy is his territory, as He said to him.
Verse 3: And this will be the stipend of the kohanim from the people from the slaughterers of [permitted] meat, whether an ox or a sheep; he will give the kohein the foreleg and the jaw and the [fourth] stomach.
Verse 4: The first portion of your grain, your wine, and your olive oil, and the first of the shearing of your sheep are you to give him.
Verse 5: For him did Ad-noy, your G-d, choose from all your tribes to stand and perform the service in the name of Ad-noy, he and his sons for all time.
Revi'i (Fourth Aliyah)
Verse 6: If a Levite should come from one of your cities throughout Yisroel where he sojourns, coming will all his soul's desire to the place that Ad-noy chooses.
Verse 7: He shall perform the service in the name of Ad-noy, his G-d, like all his brother Levites who stand there in Ad-noy's presence.
Verse 8: They shall eat equal portions, except for what the families sold [to one another.]
Verse 9: Because you are entering the land that Ad-noy, your G-d, is giving you; do not learn to perpetrate the abominations of those nations.
Verse 10: Let there not exist among you anyone who passes his son or daughter through fire, who practices the kosem-occult; who practices time-frame-occult or who divines portentuous events or a sorcerer.
Verse 11: Or a snake charmer, or one who invokes the spirit of Ov or yidoni, or communicates with the dead.
Verse 12: For Ad-noy's abomination is anyone perpetrating this and because of these abominations, Ad-noy, your G-d, is expelling them from before you.
Verse 13: Walk in perfect trust with Ad-noy, your G-d.
Chamishi (Fifth Aliyah)
Verse 14: Although these nations whom you are inheriting heed augurers and sorcerers, but as to you--- Ad-noy, your G-d, has not given you their status.
Verse 15: A prophet from your midst, of your brethren, like me, will Ad-noy, your G-d, establish for you; heed him.
Verse 16: Exactly as you requested from Ad-noy, your G-d, at Choreiv, on the day of assembly, saying, Let me not continue to hear the voice of Ad-noy, my G-d, and this great fire let me not see any more as that I will not die.
Verse 17: Ad-noy said to me, What they said is excellent.
Verse 18: A prophet will I establish for them from among their brethren like you, and I will place My words in his mouth and he will tell them everything that I command him.
Verse 19: Now, the man who does not heed My words that he speaks in My Name; I will demand from him.
Verse 20: But the prophet who will malevolently make a statement in My Name, something that I did not instruct him to say, or which he says in the name of foreign gods, that prophet must die.
Verse 21: If you should say to yourself, How can we know [which is] the statement that Ad-noy did not speak?
Verse 22: Should the prophet speak in Ad-noy's Name, and the matter does not happen and is not fulfilled, that is the statement that Ad-noy did not speak. The prophet spoke it malevolently; do not fear him.
Chapter 19
Verse 1: When Ad-noy, your G-d, annihilates the nations whose land Ad-noy, your G-d is giving you; and you inherit them and live in their cities and in their houses;
Verse 2: Separate three cities for yourself, within your land that Ad-noy, your G-d, is giving you to inherit.
Verse 3: Ready the route for yourself and divide the borders of your land into three sections that Ad-noy, your G-d, will allot you; this will serve for any murderer to flee there.
Verse 4: And this is the matter of the murderer who may flee there to survive: whoever smites his peer without intent, and he had not been his enemy yesterday [or] the day before;
Verse 5: And whoever comes with his peer into the woods to chop trees, and as his hand swung the axe downward to cut the wood the iron flew off the wooden handle and encounters his peer and he dies; he is to flee to one of these cities to survive.
Verse 6: Lest the blood-redeemer pursue the murderer when his heart grows heated, and he catches up with him over the length of the road and he smite him dead when he has no death sentence because he had not been his enemy yesterday [or] the day before.
Verse 7: Therefore am I commanding you the following: three cities shall you separate for yourself.
Verse 8: And when Ad-noy, your G-d, expands your boundary, in accordance with His oath to your forefathers, and He give you the entire land that He promised to give to your forefathers,
Verse 9: When you will be guarding this entire mitzvah to fulfill it, that I am commanding you today, to love Ad-noy, your G-d, and to go in His ways for all time; then you shall add three more cities to these three.
Verse 10: And let innocent blood not be shed within your land that Ad-noy, your G-d, is giving you as territory, [otherwise] you will bear liability for the blood.
Verse 11: If there is a man who hates his neighbor, and will ambush him, arising against him and smiting him dead, and he will flee to one of these cities;
Verse 12: The elders of his city will send for and take him from there, and will hand him over to the blood-redeemer, and he will be executed.
Verse 13: Do not view him with compassion. You are to eliminate the [shedding of] innocent blood from Yisroel, and you will have it good.
Shishi (Sixth Aliyah)
Verse 14: Do not move back the boundary of your neighbor that the first [settlers] determine in your territory that you will inherit in the land that Ad-noy, your G-d, is giving you to inherit.
Verse 15: One witness may not arise against a man about any sin or for any transgression or transgression that he transgresses; by the word of two witnesses or by the word of three witnesses let a matter be established.
Verse 16: If false witnesses arise against a man and bear fallacious testimony against him;
Verse 17: The two men shall stand, who are involved in the dispute, before Ad-noy, before the kohanim and the judges who are in those days.
Verse 18: When the judges shall investigate thoroughly and behold, the witness testified falsely, they testified falsely against their brother;
Verse 19: You are to do to [each of] them as he conspired to do to his brother, and eliminate the evil from among you;
Verse 20: And the remainder will hear and be fearful, and they will not repeat this evil thing among you.
Verse 21: You are not to have compassion: life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.
Chapter 20
Verse 1: When you go to war against your enemy, and you see horse and chariot, people who outnumber you; do not be afraid of them, for Ad-noy, your G-d, is with you, He Who brought you up from the land of Egypt.
Verse 2: Now, as you near the battle the kohein shall approach and speak to the people.
Verse 3: He will say to them, Hear, Yisroel! You are setting out today to battle against your enemies. Do not be faint hearted; or intimidated and do not panic, and do not be crushed before them;
Verse 4: Because Ad-noy, your G-d, marches with you to do battle for you with your enemies to save you.
Verse 5: The officers will address the people as follows, Whichever man has built a new house and did not inaugurate it as a dwelling, let him go and return home lest he die in battle and another man will inaugurate it.
Verse 6: And whichever man has planted a vineyard and did not redeem it[s fruit,] let him go and return home, lest he die in battle and another man redeem it.
Verse 7: And whichever man has betrothed a woman and not married her, let him go and return home, lest he die in battle and another man marry her.
Verse 8: The officers will further address the people and say. Whoever is afraid or faint hearted, let him go and return home, and let him not destroy the resolve of his brothers like his own resolve.
Verse 9: When the officers finish addressing the people; they will appoint army commanders at the head of the people.
Shevi'i (Seventh Aliyah)
Verse 10: When you near a city to do battle against it, you are to offer it peace.
Verse 11: Should it respond, Peace! and open for you, then all the people found in it will become your payers of tribute, and your servants.
Verse 12: And if it does not settle for peace with you but engages in war against you, you shall lay siege to it.
Verse 13: Ad-noy, your G-d, will deliver it into your hand, and you will smite all its males by the sword.
Verse 14: However, the women and the children, and the animals, and everything that will be in the city--- all its booty---are you to plunder for yourself; you will eat the booty of your enemies that Ad-noy, your G-d, gave you.
Verse 15: So will you do to all the cities, that are very distant from you, that are not among the cities of these nations.
Verse 16: However, from the cities of these peoples that Ad-noy, your G-d, is giving you as inheritance, you are not to leave any person alive.
Verse 17: Rather annihilate are you to annihilate them: the Chittites and the Emorites, the Canaanites and the Perizites, the Chivites and the Yevusites; as Ad-noy, your G-d, commanded you.
Verse 18: In order that they do not teach you to do any of their abominations that they did for their gods, and you will sin to Ad-noy, your G-d.
Verse 19: If you besiege a city many days to wage war against it, to capture it, do not harm [any of] its trees by chopping it with an ax, because you eat from it you are not to cut it down; For, is the tree in the field a man to join the besieged to escape you?
Verse 20: Only a tree that you know that it is not a fruit tree may you harm or cut down; and you will build battlements against the city that is waging war against you until it is conquered.
Chapter 21
Verse 1: If a corpse is found in the land that Ad-noy, your G-d, is giving you to inherit, fallen in the field, it is not known who smote him.
Verse 2: Your elders shall go out--- and your judges--- and measure in the direction of the cities around the corpse.
Verse 3: Now, the city nearest the corpse--- the elders of that city are to take a calf-heifer that has not been worked, that has not drawn a yoke.
Verse 4: The elders of that city will take down the calf to a stony valley that is not to be tilled and not to be seeded, and they shall decapitate the calf in that valley.
Verse 5: The kohanim, descendants of Levi, will approach; because them did Ad-noy, your G-d, choose to serve Him and to bless in Ad-noy's Name; and they will decide every dispute and every nega.
Verse 6: And all the elders of that city, those near the corpse, will wash their hands over the calf beheaded in that valley.
Maftir
Verse 7: They will loudly declare, Our hands have not spilled this blood and our eyes did not see.
Verse 8: [The kohanim will say,] Forgive Your people Yisroel, whom You, Ad-noy, have redeemed; and do not allow innocent blood [liability] within Your people Yisroel. The blood shall thus be atoned for in their behalf.
Verse 9: Still, you must eradicate the [liability for] innocent blood from within you, when you do what is upright in Ad-noy's eyes.
PROPHET PORTION
ISAIAH 51:12 - 53:12
12 I, even I, am he that comforteth you: who art thou, that thou shouldest be afraid of a man that shall die, and of the son of man which shall be made as grass;
13 And forgettest the LORD thy maker, that hath stretched forth the heavens, and laid the foundations of the earth; and hast feared continually every day because of the fury of the oppressor, as if he were ready to destroy? and where is the fury of the oppressor?
14 The captive exile hasteneth that he may be loosed, and that he should not die in the pit, nor that his bread should fail.
15 But I am the LORD thy God, that divided the sea, whose waves roared: The LORD of hosts is his name.
16 And I have put my words in thy mouth, and I have covered thee in the shadow of mine hand, that I may plant the heavens, and lay the foundations of the earth, and say unto Zion, Thou art my people.
17 Awake, awake, stand up, O Jerusalem, which hast drunk at the hand of the LORD the cup of his fury; thou hast drunken the dregs of the cup of trembling, and wrung them out.
18 There is none to guide her among all the sons whom she hath brought forth; neither is there any that taketh her by the hand of all the sons that she hath brought up.
19 These two things are come unto thee; who shall be sorry for thee? desolation, and destruction, and the famine, and the sword: by whom shall I comfort thee?
20 Thy sons have fainted, they lie at the head of all the streets, as a wild bull in a net: they are full of the fury of the LORD, the rebuke of thy God.
21 Therefore hear now this, thou afflicted, and drunken, but not with wine:
22 Thus saith thy Lord the LORD, and thy God that pleadeth the cause of his people, Behold, I have taken out of thine hand the cup of trembling, even the dregs of the cup of my fury; thou shalt no more drink it again:
23 But I will put it into the hand of them that afflict thee; which have said to thy soul, Bow down, that we may go over: and thou hast laid thy body as the ground, and as the street, to them that went over.
ISAIAH 52:1-15
1 Awake, awake; put on thy strength, O Zion; put on thy beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city: for henceforth there shall no more come into thee the uncircumcised and the unclean.
2 Shake thyself from the dust; arise, and sit down, O Jerusalem: loose thyself from the bands of thy neck, O captive daughter of Zion.
3 For thus saith the LORD, Ye have sold yourselves for nought; and ye shall be redeemed without money.
4 For thus saith the Lord GOD, My people went down aforetime into Egypt to sojourn there; and the Assyrian oppressed them without cause.
5 Now therefore, what have I here, saith the LORD, that my people is taken away for nought? they that rule over them make them to howl, saith the LORD; and my name continually every day is blasphemed.
6 Therefore my people shall know my name: therefore they shall know in that day that I am he that doth speak: behold, it is I.
7 How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace; that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation; that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth!
8 Thy watchmen shall lift up the voice; with the voice together shall they sing: for they shall see eye to eye, when the LORD shall bring again Zion.
9 Break forth into joy, sing together, ye waste places of Jerusalem: for the LORD hath comforted his people, he hath redeemed Jerusalem.
10 The LORD hath made bare his holy arm in the eyes of all the nations; and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God.
11 Depart ye, depart ye, go ye out from thence, touch no unclean thing; go ye out of the midst of her; be ye clean, that bear the vessels of the LORD.
12 For ye shall not go out with haste, nor go by flight: for the LORD will go before you; and the God of Israel will be your rereward.
13 Behold, my servant shall deal prudently, he shall be exalted and extolled, and be very high.
14 As many were astonied at thee; his visage was so marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men:
15 So shall he sprinkle many nations; the kings shall shut their mouths at him: for that which had not been told them shall they see; and that which they had not heard shall they consider.
ISAIAH 53:1-12
1 Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the LORD revealed?
2 For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.
3 He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
4 Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.
5 But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.
6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.
7 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth.
8 He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken.
9 And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth.
10 Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand.
11 He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities.
12 Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.
NEW TESTAMENT PORTION
MATTHEW 5:38-42
38 Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth:
39 But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also.
40 And if any man will sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloke also.
41 And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain.
42 Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of thee turn not thou away.
MATTHEW 18:15-20
15 Moreover if thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone: if he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother.
16 But if he will not hear thee, then take with thee one or two more, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established.
17 And if he shall neglect to hear them, tell it unto the church: but if he neglect to hear the church, let him be unto thee as an heathen man and a publican.
18 Verily I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.
19 Again I say unto you, That if two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven.
20 For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.
ACTS 3:13-26
13 The God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob, the God of our fathers, hath glorified his Son Jesus; whom ye delivered up, and denied him in the presence of Pilate, when he was determined to let him go.
14 But ye denied the Holy One and the Just, and desired a murderer to be granted unto you;
15 And killed the Prince of life, whom God hath raised from the dead; whereof we are witnesses.
16 And his name through faith in his name hath made this man strong, whom ye see and know: yea, the faith which is by him hath given him this perfect soundness in the presence of you all.
17 And now, brethren, I wot that through ignorance ye did it, as did also your rulers.
18 But those things, which God before had shewed by the mouth of all his prophets, that Christ should suffer, he hath so fulfilled.
19 Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord;
20 And he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you:
21 Whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began.
22 For Moses truly said unto the fathers, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me; him shall ye hear in all things whatsoever he shall say unto you.
23 And it shall come to pass, that every soul, which will not hear that prophet, shall be destroyed from among the people.
24 Yea, and all the prophets from Samuel and those that follow after, as many as have spoken, have likewise foretold of these days.
25 Ye are the children of the prophets, and of the covenant which God made with our fathers, saying unto Abraham, And in thy seed shall all the kindreds of the earth be blessed.
26 Unto you first God, having raised up his Son Jesus, sent him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from his iniquities.
ACTS 7:35-53
35 This Moses whom they refused, saying, Who made thee a ruler and a judge? the same did God send to be a ruler and a deliverer by the hand of the angel which appeared to him in the bush.
36 He brought them out, after that he had shewed wonders and signs in the land of Egypt, and in the Red sea, and in the wilderness forty years.
37 This is that Moses, which said unto the children of Israel, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me; him shall ye hear.
38 This is he, that was in the church in the wilderness with the angel which spake to him in the mount Sina, and with our fathers: who received the lively oracles to give unto us:
39 To whom our fathers would not obey, but thrust him from them, and in their hearts turned back again into Egypt,
40 Saying unto Aaron, Make us gods to go before us: for as for this Moses, which brought us out of the land of Egypt, we wot not what is become of him.
41 And they made a calf in those days, and offered sacrifice unto the idol, and rejoiced in the works of their own hands.
42 Then God turned, and gave them up to worship the host of heaven; as it is written in the book of the prophets, O ye house of Israel, have ye offered to me slain beasts and sacrifices by the space of forty years in the wilderness?
43 Yea, ye took up the tabernacle of Moloch, and the star of your god Remphan, figures which ye made to worship them: and I will carry you away beyond Babylon.
44 Our fathers had the tabernacle of witness in the wilderness, as he had appointed, speaking unto Moses, that he should make it according to the fashion that he had seen.
45 Which also our fathers that came after brought in with Jesus into the possession of the Gentiles, whom God drave out before the face of our fathers, unto the days of David;
46 Who found favour before God, and desired to find a tabernacle for the God of Jacob.
47 But Solomon built him an house.
48 Howbeit the most High dwelleth not in temples made with hands; as saith the prophet,
49 Heaven is my throne, and earth is my footstool: what house will ye build me? saith the Lord: or what is the place of my rest?
50 Hath not my hand made all these things?
51 Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye.
52 Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? and they have slain them which shewed before of the coming of the Just One; of whom ye have been now the betrayers and murderers:
53 Who have received the law by the disposition of angels, and have not kept it.
1 CORINTHIANS 5:9-13
9 I wrote unto you in an epistle not to company with fornicators:
10 Yet not altogether with the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or with idolaters; for then must ye needs go out of the world.
11 But now I have written unto you not to keep company, if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; with such an one no not to eat.
12 For what have I to do to judge them also that are without? do not ye judge them that are within?
13 But them that are without God judgeth. Therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked person.
1 TIMOTHY 5:17-22
17 Let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honour, especially they who labour in the word and doctrine.
18 For the scripture saith, Thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn. And, The labourer is worthy of his reward.
19 Against an elder receive not an accusation, but before two or three witnesses.
20 Them that sin rebuke before all, that others also may fear.
21 I charge thee before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, and the elect angels, that thou observe these things without preferring one before another, doing nothing by partiality.
22 Lay hands suddenly on no man, neither be partaker of other men’s sins: keep thyself pure.
HEBREWS 10:28-31
28 He that despised Moses’ law died without mercy under two or three witnesses:
29 Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace?
30 For we know him that hath said, Vengeance belongeth unto me, I will recompense, saith the Lord. And again, The Lord shall judge his people.
31 It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
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