RUSSIA BLAMES GEORGIA FOR BLAST

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.

Hurricane Marie drifts far off Mexico's coast Sat Oct 4, 5:04 AM ET

MIAMI - Hurricane Marie has strengthened slightly while drifting through the Pacific Ocean off Mexico, but forecasters expect it to stay well away from land. Marie was centered 840 miles (1,355 kilometers) west-southwest of the southern tip of Baja California on Saturday morning, the U.S. National Hurricane Center reported. It had winds clocked near 80 mph (130 kph) and was heading slowly northward.Marie is the sixth hurricane of the eastern Pacific season.On Friday, a new tropical depression formed 230 miles (370 kilometers) south of Acapulco. The storm had maximum sustained winds near 35 mph (55 kph) and could become a tropical storm on Saturday, according to the center.It was projected to follow a northwesterly path parallel to Mexico's Pacific coast.

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

It's wait and see after Bush signs rescue plan By JIM ABRAMS, Associated Press Writer OCT 4,08

WASHINGTON - After two weeks of anguishing debate, Congress has passed and President Bush signed a massive plan to save the financial industry and the economy at large from an unthinkable free fall. Now, the world holds its breath, seeing if it will work. Passage of the $700 billion financial rescue package came after Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson at a meeting last month shocked congressional leaders into action by warning of pending economic collapse without immediate congressional intervention.Paulson said after the climactic House vote Friday that he already had staff working out details and was lining up advisers from outside the government to get the money flowing.The immediate response to the 263-171 vote was not promising. Wall Street, which plunged a record 778 points after the House initially rejected the bill last Monday, fell 157 points on Friday as more economic bad news, such as a jump in job losses, outweighed news that Congress was finally coming to the rescue.

Bush was buoyed by the outcome but nevertheless spoke cautiously about the economy's future. While these efforts will be effective, they will also take time to implement, Bush said in his weekly radio address Saturday. My administration will move as quickly as possible, but the benefits of this package will not all be felt immediately. The federal government will undertake this rescue plan at a careful and deliberate pace to ensure that your tax dollars are spent wisely.Bush acknowledged that Americans are anxious about their personal finances and said the new package would help. I'm confident by getting our markets moving, we will help unleash the key to our continued economic success: the entrepreneurial spirit of the American people, he said.We know that if we do nothing this crisis is likely to worsen and put us in a slump the likes of which most of us have never seen, said House Republican leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, who worked with House and Senate Republican and Democratic leaders in a rare bipartisan response to what both parties saw as a dire threat to the nation's economic well-being.We are addressing the real pain felt by Mr. and Mrs. Jones on Main Street, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said. They are why we must pass this legislation today.The legislation gives the government broad authority to buy up toxic mortgage-related investments and other distressed assets from shaky financial institutions. The hope is that it will restore confidence in markets and thaw a near-freeze in credit availability that has begun to affect the ability of community banks to loan, businesses to obtain money for payrolls and investments and individuals from getting credit to buy a home or a car.

The measure, in another effort to help smaller banks with serious liquidity problems, also raised the ceiling on federally insured deposits from $100,000 to $250,000. It increases federal oversight over Wall Street transactions and assures that CEOs whose companies benefit from the bailout don't leave with huge golden parachute payoffs.Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., the Financial Services Committee chairman and a key negotiator over the past weeks, said the measure was just the beginning of a much larger task Congress will tackle next year: overhauling housing policy and financial regulation in a legislative effort comparable to the New Deal.

The political story preceding the House vote Friday was nearly as dramatic as the financial and economic upheavals going on outside Washington.Last Monday, despite urgent pleas from Bush and his senior financial advisers and the support of congressional leaders, the House voted 228-205 to reject the rescue plan. Stock markets around the world plunged, then recovered to some extent, as economists warned that not since the Great Depression had the United States faced such a crisis.

But the 95 Democrats and 133 Republicans who voted against the bill were responding to a deluge of calls and messages from their constituents demanding that they defeat what many saw as a $700 billion giveaway to Wall Street when average Americans were getting no help.On Wednesday, the Senate, shortly before it recessed for the election, stepped in, voting 74-25 for a package that linked the rescue bill to a giant bill extending popular tax breaks such as the research-and-development tax credit, providing incentives for renewable energy resources and giving tax relief to disaster victims. That bill, costing an additional $110 billion, included a measure to give benefits parity to people with mental health problems. The Senate also added the boost in the ceiling for bank deposits.Those additions were enough to sway some House members who voted no the first time around. Others were swamped by calls from business and political leaders warning of the possible consequences of inaction.

I've never talked to as many bank presidents in my life, said Rep. Joe Knollenberg, R-Mich., who said he had also been lobbied by General Motors CEO Rick Wagoner and other auto executives.California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger sent out a letter warning that, absent a clear resolution to the financial crisis, California and other states may be unable to obtain the necessary level of financing to maintain government operations and may be forced to turn to the federal Treasury for short-term financing.The two presidential candidates also weighed in. Democrat Barack Obama spoke to many in the Congressional Black Caucus and helped persuade 13 to switch their votes. Nine freshmen Democrats also switched to yes votes after a conference call with Obama in which he promised an economic stimulus bill would be a top priority if he is elected. Republican John McCain also lobbied for the measure, according to aides who declined to release a list of lawmakers he called. It's disgusting that we would ever be brought to this floor to cast this vote, said Rep. Zach Wamp of Tennessee, a Republican who changed to a yes vote. But Congress has to act. We are out of options. Hold your hand over your heart and vote yes.Not all were convinced. The Treasury plan throws an ungodly amount at Wall Street, said Rep. Marcy Kaptur, D-Ohio. This is just an end run around, right before an election. Pray for our republic.In the end, 33 Democrats and 25 Republicans switched from opposition to support. In all, 91 Republicans joined 172 Democrats to support the measure while 108 Republicans and 63 Democrats voted no.The bill is H.R. 1424
On the Net: Congress: http://thomas.loc.gov

Wells Fargo agrees to buy Wachovia; Citi objects By SARA LEPRO, AP Business Writer Sat Oct 4, 3:22 AM ET

NEW YORK - A battle broke out Friday for control of Wachovia, as Wells Fargo agreed to pay $14.8 billion for the struggling bank, while Citigroup and federal regulators insisted that Citi's earlier and lower-priced takeover offer go forward. The surprise announcement that Wachovia Corp. agreed to be acquired by San Francisco-based Wells Fargo & Co. in the all-stock deal — without government assistance — upended what had appeared to be a carefully examined arrangement and caught regulators off guard.Wells' original offer totaled about $15.1 billion, but since the value of its shares closed down 60 cents Friday, the deal is now valued at about $14.8 billion.Only four days earlier, Citigroup Inc. agreed to pay $2.1 billion for Wachovia's banking operations in a deal that would have the help of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.The head of the FDIC said the agency is standing behind the Citigroup agreement, but that it is reviewing all proposals and will work with the banks' regulators to pursue a resolution that serves the public interest.Citigroup, which demanded that Wachovia call off its deal with Wells Fargo, said its agreement with Wachovia provides that the bank will not enter into any transaction with any party other than Citi or negotiate with anyone else.Barring legal action, the future of Wachovia will be determined by the bank's shareholders and regulators, which both have to approve a final deal.It was clear which they preferred Friday, as Wachovia shares climbed as high as 80 percent.The FDIC is talking out of both sides of its mouth, said Roger Cominsky, partner in law firm Hiscock & Barclay's financial institutions and lending practice. The agency says it stands behind the deal with Citigroup because it hasn't been nixed yet, he said. But at the same time, they are saying they are reviewing all proposals.By law, he said the FDIC is required to find the least-costly resolution for taxpayers. The Wells Fargo deal would not rely on any assistance from the government.

The Federal Reserve, which has regulatory oversight of the three big banks, said it hasn't had time to review the proposed sale of Wachovia to Wells Fargo but will work to ensure that all creditors and depositors of Wachovia are protected.The Fed said regulators will be working with Wachovia and Wells Fargo to achieve an outcome that protects all Wachovia creditors, including depositors, insured and uninsured, and promotes market stability.Under Wells Fargo's deal, Wachovia shareholders would receive 0.1991 shares of Wells Fargo for every share of Wachovia stock they own, valuing Wachovia at about $7 per share. This is a nearly 80 percent premium over the stock's Thursday closing price of $3.91. Shares closed at $10 on Sept. 26, the last trading session before the deal with Citigroup was announced.This deal enables us to keep Wachovia intact and preserve the value of an integrated company, without government support, Robert Steel, Wachovia's president and chief executive, said in a statement.In its planned takeover of Wachovia, Citigroup said it would assume $53 billion worth of debt and agreed to absorb up to $42 billion of losses from Wachovia's $312 billion loan portfolio. The FDIC agreed to cover any remaining losses in exchange for $12 billion in Citigroup preferred stock and warrants.Wells' deeper and more considered due diligence has probably revealed fewer risky assets and a larger number of higher valued assets than originally thought, said Anant Sundaram, professor of finance at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College in an e-mail to The Associated Press. Although it is still too early to tell, this could presage a significant shift in market sentiment toward the value of companies such as Wachovia, and may suggest that there has been an overreaction in the downdraft that we saw in the past few weeks. It is a huge shot in the arm for market confidence. It is also a signal that market forces are capable of resolving some aspects of the crisis without undue congressional, and hence, taxpayer, intervention.

The fight for Wachovia comes at a turbulent time for banks and financial firms as they grapple with the ongoing credit crisis, which led to the recent bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. and the failure of Washington Mutual Inc.It also comes at a time of unprecedented government intervention in the financial markets. Wells Fargo may have decided to make a move as the passage of the government's financial bailout plan seemed imminent, said Donn Vickrey, co-founder and chief analyst at Gradient Analytics. At the time they made the decision, it looked a lot more likely that it would pass, he said. You have the possibility of offloading these loans at a price that is higher than current values.The failure of the government's proposed $700 billion bailout for financial institutions Monday cast doubt on whether Citigroup would be able to rid itself of some of Wachovia's bad debt. The proposal would have allowed Citigroup to sell Wachovia's distressed mortgage-related assets to the government for a profit. Congress approved a sweetened version of the bailout plan Friday and President Bush quickly signed it. The core of the plan remains little changed from its inception — the Treasury Department would have $700 billion at its disposal to purchase bad mortage-related securities that are weighing down the balance sheets of institutions that hold them. But in analyzing the deal, Wells Fargo assumed it would not sell any of the loans to the government. We couldn't assume that they would necessarily give us prices equal to what we think the values are, said Chairman Dick Kovacevich in an interview with The Associated Press. Wells Fargo said it expects to take a $74 billion hit on Wachovia's $498 billion loan portfolio. That values the portfolio at 85 cents on the dollar. But the most troubled real estate loans, known as pick-a-pay — where borrowers got low introductory rates and were allowed to defer some interest payments until later years — are worth only an estimated 74 cents on the dollar, according to a fact sheet released by Wells Fargo. The bank said it expects to incur the majority of credit costs in the next two years, and for the transaction to add meaningfully to earnings after that. One factor that did play in to the deal was the clarification of a tax rule issued this week by the Internal Revenue Service. On Tuesday, the IRS issued guidance on a rule allowing companies to offset losses from companies they acquire with tax breaks applied to their profits after the takeover. It was an element that gave us clarity on an area of uncertainty, Kovacevich said.

The potentially bigger tax offsets could boost the income of banks that buy other banks with losses from mortgage assets. We suspect that the new IRS guidance allowed Wells Fargo to place a higher bid for Wachovia today than it might have been willing to a few days ago, said Jeff Harte, an analyst at Sandler O'Neill & Partners, in a note issued Friday. Essentially, Wells Fargo could use the $74 billion of tax losses on Wachovia's loan writedowns to offset its own income, which means the bank's taxes could be much lower for several years, said Deutsche Bank analyst Mike Mayo. In connection with the agreement, Wachovia is issuing Wells Fargo preferred stock representing 39.9 percent of Wachovia's voting power. This increases the probability that the transaction gets consummated quickly and that Wells Fargo will receive a positive shareholder vote, Wells Fargo said. Wells Fargo plans to issue up to $20 billion of stock, primarily common stock, to maintain a strong capital position.

Charlotte will be the headquarters for the combined company's East Coast retail and commercial and corporate banking business. St. Louis will remain the headquarters of Wachovia Securities. The combined company will have total deposits of $713 billion and more than 6,500 locations — more than any other bank in the U.S. While there is some overlap in states like California and Texas, the deal essentially opens up the entire East Coast to Wells Fargo, giving it a footprint in new markets such as New York and Miami. In terms of total assets, a combined Wells Fargo-Wachovia would have $1.37 trillion in estimated pro forma assets as of the end of this year. As of June 30, Bank of America Corp. had $2.72 trillion in assets including those of Merrill Lynch & Co., which it is acquiring. Citigroup had $2.10 trillion and J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. had about $1.78 trillion, including WaMu's assets. This is the transaction that we thought should have been done and makes sense, Mayo said. The biggest loser, in our view, is Citi, and we suspect that there is no breakup fee since their agreement with Wachovia was not finalized.Citigroup has not turned a profit for three straight quarters, and lost a total of $17.4 billion in that period after writing down its assets by about $46 billion. That's the most write-downs of any U.S. bank. While Wells Fargo has logged three straight quarters of profit declines, the bank has been weathering one of the nation's worst credit crises much better than most of its competitors, in part because it had less exposure to the subprime mortgages whose failure undermined the financial sector. Wachovia shares rose $2.30, or 58.8 percent, to close Friday at $6.21. Wells shares slipped 60 cents to $34.56, and Citigroup shares dropped $4.15, or 18.4 percent, to $18.35. AP Business Writer Jennifer Malloy Zonnas in New York and Economics Writer Martin Crutsinger and Business Writer Marcy Gordon in Washington contributed to this story.

LAND FOR PEACE (THE FUTURE 7 YEARS OF HELL ON EARTH)

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

THE WEEK OF DANIEL 9:27 WE KNOW ITS 7 YRS

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

DANIEL 9:26-27
26 And after threescore and two weeks(62X7=434 YEARS+7X7=49 YEARS=TOTAL OF 69 WEEKS OR 483 YRS) shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary;(ROMAN LEADERS DESTROYED THE 2ND TEMPLE) and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined.(THERE HAS TO BE 70 WEEKS OR 490 YRS TO FUFILL THE VISION AND PROPHECY OF DAN 9:24).(THE NEXT VERSE IS THAT 7 YR WEEK OR (70TH FINAL WEEK).
27 And he( THE ROMAN,EU PRESIDENT) shall confirm the covenant with many for one week:(1X7=7 YEARS) and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease,(3 1/2 yrs in TEMPLE SACRIFICES STOPPED) and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.

ISAIAH 28:14-19 (THIS IS THE 7 YR TREATY COVENANT OF DANIEL 9:27)
14 Wherefore hear the word of the LORD, ye scornful men, that rule this people which is in Jerusalem.
15 Because ye have said, We have made a covenant with death, and with hell are we at agreement; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto us: for we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves:
16 Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation: he that believeth shall not make haste.
17 Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet: and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place.
18 And your covenant with death shall be disannulled, and your agreement with hell shall not stand; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, then ye shall be trodden down by it.
19 From the time that it goeth forth it shall take you: for morning by morning shall it pass over, by day and by night: and it shall be a vexation only to understand the report.

French FM says Mideast peace deal unlikely in 2008 by Christophe de Roquefeuil OCT 4,08

JENIN, West Bank (AFP) - A Middle East peace deal is unlikely by the end of the year, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said on Saturday, while urging Israelis and Palestinians to continue US-backed talks. We were supposed to get the document, not a final result but something, before the end of the year. But now we all know it will take a little bit longer, Kouchner told reporters in the West Bank town of Jenin.I don't know if we will see the Palestinian state before the end of the year, but I know this is absolutely a key and necessary -- we will get the Palestinian state.Kouchner made the remarks after meeting Palestinian prime minister Salam Fayyad at the start of a two-day visit to Israel and the occupied territories.

Fayyad praised France, which holds the rotating European Union presidency, for its support of US-backed peace talks relaunched last November, calling Kouchner a friend of the Palestinian people.Negotiations have made little progress since they were formally relaunched to great fanfare after a seven-year hiatus, with the two sides remaining deeply divided on the thorniest issues of the decades-old conflict.On Sunday Kouchner will meet outgoing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, who is seeking to form a new coalition government following her election last month to head the ruling Kadima party.Kouchner will again call on Israel to reduce restrictions on movement in the Palestinian territories, which is stifling the local economy, a senior French diplomat said.The minister also intends to stress to his Israeli hosts the importance of freezing Jewish settlements in the West Bank, the official added.Paris wants the trip to be a moment of consultation and dialogue allowing pressure to be kept up on both sides, a senior French official said.Kouchner joined Fayyad on a visit to Jenin, once a hotbed of militant violence and now the focus of a widening security crackdown in the West Bank that has been praised by Israel and the United States.He was to meet with Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas and senior Palestinian diplomats later in the West Bank political capital of Ramallah.The visit follows a meeting in New York last week of the Mideast Quartet (Russia, the United States, the United Nations and the European Union) in which the group urged Israel and the Palestinians to seal a peace deal this year.

In a statement released in September 21 aid agencies said the quartet was losing its grip on the peace process by not doing enough to rein in the growth of Jewish settlements and improve freedom of movement in the West Bank.Negotiators have expressed hope that if a deal is not reached the next US president will continue to encourage the talks.The current (US) administration only became involved during the last year of George W Bush's second term. This is regrettable. We hope the new administration will involve itself straight away, a member of Kouchner's entourage said.The minister also hopes to check on the results of the Paris conference on aid to the Palestinians held in December, at which more than 7.7 billion dollars in aid was pledged over the coming seven years.Since then 1.4 billion dollars in direct budgetary support has been paid to the Palestinian Authority, according to French government figures.

ELECTION 2008 DNC steps in to silence lawsuit over Obama birth certificate
Democrat suing his own party says it's like they're in cahoots October 04, 2008
12:00 am Eastern By Drew Zahn 2008 WorldNetDaily

Philip J. Berg

The man suing Sen. Barack Obama and the Democratic National Committee for proof of Obama's American citizenship is outraged that his own party – rather than just providing the birth certificate he seeks – would step in to silence him by filing a motion to dismiss his lawsuit.As WND reported, prominent Pennsylvania Democrat and attorney Philip J. Berg filed suit in U.S. District Court two months ago claiming Obama is not a natural-born U.S. citizen and therefore not eligible to be elected president. Berg has since challenged Obama publicly that if the candidate will simply produce authorized proof of citizenship, he'll drop the suit.Berg told WND the longer the DNC tries to ignore his lawsuit or make it go away – instead of just providing the documents – the more convinced he is that his accusations are correct.

Despite assertions by the Washington Post, FactChecker.org and other organizations that Obama has produced a certified Hawaiian birth certificate, Berg told WND he remains 99.99 percent sure that the certificate is a fake and he wants a court, not a website, to determine its validity.Earlier last week, lawyers for Obama and the DNC filed a joint motion to dismiss Berg's lawsuit. The fact that the DNC joined in the dismissal request has Berg fuming, believing his party's leaders have ignored his pleas for proof in order to favor their chosen candidate over a rank-and-file constituent.I think it's outrageous, Berg said. The Democratic National Committee should be ensuring the Democratic Party and the public that they have a qualified candidate up there. To file a joint motion is like they're in cahoots.Since then, I have asked by way of press release that Howard Dean resign, because (the DNC members) are not fulfilling their duties, Berg said.The DNC has a responsibility to all Democrats in this country to make sure that all of their candidates are properly vetted and properly qualified, Berg added. I think it's really an outrage to the 18-plus million people who voted for Obama and the people who donated more than $425 million to him under false pretenses.Berg is frustrated, not only with his own party's leadership for allegedly not investigating Obama's background, but also with the major news outlets for failing as well.I should also be suing the national media and their disgrace for not properly vetting, inspecting or checking on Barack Obama.

Look what they're doing to Governor Palin: They're opening up her closet doors, they're going through everything personal, but no one has ever gone after Obama. It doesn't make sense, Berg said.Obama's website counters Berg's claims with links to articles that affirm the validity of his citizenship and an image of a Hawaiian birth certificate for Barack Hussein Obama, born in Honolulu, Aug. 4, 1961. The webpage is part of the Obama campaign website's Fight the Smears section, an effort to prevent reports that Obama claims are false from disseminating as damaging rumors.

Berg acknowledges that as long as his lawsuit remains outstanding, the public will talk, and he told WND he wants Obama to quickly prove him wrong or the court to quickly prove him right.I've been on about 50 radio shows around the country, Berg said, and on every one I've put out a challenge: Barack Obama, if I'm wrong, just come forth with certified copies of these documents and I'll close down the case.

Berg told WND, I've had 19 million hits on my website. …Those people talk to other people, now we're up to 20, 30, 40 million people who are aware of this controversy, and it's going to drastically affect the entire election.When asked what he would do if the DNC succeeded in getting his case dismissed, Berg said he would immediately file an appeal to the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, and if we don't get a fair ruling there, immediately to the U.S. Supreme Court.We're dealing with the U.S. Constitution and it must be followed, Berg explained. I want the Constitution enforced; that's my main reason for doing this.The real outrage is that there's nothing in our system that provides that a candidate must provide that his qualifications are true and correct before he or she runs, and that safeguard should be put into our system by law, Berg said.

MURDER

GENESIS 4:8-11 (THE FIRST MURDER)
8 And Cain talked with Abel his brother: and it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother, and slew him.
9 And the LORD said unto Cain, Where is Abel thy brother? And he said, I know not: Am I my brother's keeper?
10 And he said, What hast thou done? the voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto me from the ground.
11 And now art thou cursed from the earth, which hath opened her mouth to receive thy brother's blood from thy hand;

GENESIS 6:11-13 (EARTH DESTROYED BECAUSE OF TERRORISM,MURDERS)
11 The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.
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 through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth.

EXODUS 20:13
13 Thou shalt not kill.(Murder)

REVELATION 9:20-21
20 And the rest of the men which were not killed by these plagues yet repented not of the works of their hands, that they should not worship devils,(OCCULT) and idols of gold, and silver, and brass, and stone, and of wood: which neither can see, nor hear, nor walk:
21 Neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries,(DRUG ADDICTIONS) nor of their fornication,(SEX OUTSIDE OF MARRIAGE) nor of their thefts.(STEALING)

LUKE 21:25
25 And there shall be signs in the sun,(OZONE DEPLETION) and in the moon,(FIRST MAN ON MOON) and in the stars;(JUPITER BOMBARDED ETC) and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity;(MASS CONFUSION) the sea and the waves roaring;
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.

Simpson convicted of robbing memorabilia dealers By LINDA DEUTSCH, AP Special Correspondent OCT 4,08

LAS VEGAS - Thirteen years to the day after being acquitted of killing his wife and her friend in Los Angeles, O.J. Simpson was found guilty of robbing two sports-memorabilia dealers at gunpoint in a Las Vegas hotel room. The 61-year-old former football star was convicted of all 12 counts late Friday after jurors deliberated for more than 13 hours. He released a heavy sigh as the charges were read and was immediately taken into custody.Simpson, who went from American sports idol to celebrity-in-exile after his murder acquittal, could spend the rest of his life in prison.

His attorney said he would appeal.

Many people considered the four-week trial justice delayed. Simpson was cleared in 1995 of murdering his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend, Ronald Goldman, in one of the most sensational trials of the 20th century, but was later found liable for the deaths in a civil case.I don't like to use the word payback, defense attorney Yale Galanter said. I can tell you from the beginning my biggest concern ... was whether or not the jury would be able to separate their very strong feelings about Mr. Simpson and judge him fairly and honestly.The Hall of Fame football star was convicted of kidnapping, armed robbery and 10 other charges for gathering up five men a year ago and storming into a room at a hotel-casino, where the group seized several game balls, plaques and photos. Prosecutors said two of the men with him were armed; one of them said Simpson asked him to bring a gun.Simpson's co-defendant, Clarence C.J. Stewart, 54, also was found guilty on all charges and taken into custody.Simpson showed little emotion as officers handcuffed him and walked him out of the courtroom. His sister, Carmelita Durio, sobbed behind him in the arms of Simpson's friend, Tom Scotto, who said I love you as Simpson passed by. As spectators left the courtroom, Durio collapsed.Jurors made no eye contact with the defendants as they entered the courtroom. They declined to answer questions after the verdict was read.Galanter said his client had expected the outcome, and in a courthouse conversation with an Associated Press reporter on Thursday, Simpson had implied as much.Simpson said he was afraid that I won't get to go to my kids' college graduations after I managed to get them through college.Galanter said it was not a happy day for anybody. His only hope is the appellate process, he said.Clark County spokesman Dan Kulin said prosecutors would not comment until the case was completely resolved.

Judge Jackie Glass made no comment other than to thank the jury for its service and to deny motions for the defendants to be released on bail.She refused to give the lawyers extended time to file a motion for new trial, which under Nevada law must be filed within seven days. The attorneys said they needed time to submit a voluminous record.I've sat through the trial, Glass said. If you want a motion for new trial, send me something.Stewart's attorney, Brent Bryson, also promised to appeal. If there was ever a case that should have been severed in the history of jurisprudence, it's this case, he said of unsuccessful attempts to separate Stewart's case from Simpson's because of the spillover effect. From the beginning, Simpson and his lawyers argued the incident was not a robbery, but an attempt to reclaim mementos that had been stolen from him. He said he did not ask anyone to bring a weapon and did not see any guns. The defense portrayed Simpson as a victim of shady characters who wanted to make a buck off his famous name, and police officers who saw his arrest as an opportunity to get him and avenge his acquittal. Prosecutors said Simpson's ownership of the memorabilia was irrelevant; it was still a crime to try to take things by force. When they went into that room and forced the victims to the far side of the room, pulling out guns and yelling, Don't let anybody out of here! — six very large people detaining these two victims in the room with the intent to take property through force or violence from them — that's kidnapping, prosecutor David Roger said. Kidnapping is punishable by five years to life in prison. Armed robbery carries a mandatory sentence of at least two years behind bars, and could bring as much as 30. Sentencing was set for Dec. 5. Simpson, who now lives in Miami, did not testify but was heard on a recording of the confrontation screaming that the dealers had stolen his property. Don't let nobody out of this room, he declared and told the other men to scoop up his items, which included a photo of Simpson with former FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover. Four other men charged in the case struck plea bargains that saved them from potential prison sentences in return for their testimony. Some of them had criminal records or were otherwise compromised in some way. One, for example, was an alleged pimp who testified he had a revelation from God telling him to take a plea bargain.

Memorabilia dealer Thomas Riccio, who arranged and secretly recorded the hotel-room confrontation, said he netted $210,000 from the media for the tapes. Similarly, minutes after the Sept. 13, 2007, incident, one of the alleged victims, sports-memorabilia dealer Alfred Beardsley, was calling news outlets, and the other, Bruce Fromong, spoke of getting big money from the case. Simpson's past haunted the case. Las Vegas police officers were heard in the recordings chuckling over Simpson's misfortune and crowing that if Los Angeles couldn't get him, they would. During jury selection, Simpson's lawyers expressed fears that people who believed he got away with murder might see this case as a chance to right a wrong. As a result, an usually large pool of 500 potential jurors was called, and they were given a 26-page questionnaire. Half were almost instantly eliminated after expressing strong feelings that Simpson should have been convicted of murder. The judge instructed the jurors to put aside Simpson's earlier case. In closing arguments, Galanter acknowledged that what Simpson did to recover his memorabilia was not right. But being stupid, and being frustrated is not being a criminal, he said. He added: This case has taken on a life of its own because of Mr. Simpson's involvement. You know that. I know that. Every cooperator, every person who had a gun, every person who had an ulterior motive, every person who signed a book deal, every person who got paid money, the police, the district attorney's office, is only interested in one thing: Mr. Simpson.Associated Press writers Ken Ritter and Kathleen Hennessey contributed to this report.

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 RUSSIA-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.

Russia blames Georgia for S.Ossetia blast OCT 4,08

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia blamed Georgia on Saturday for an explosion that killed Russian soldiers in Georgia's breakaway region of South Ossetia. A senior Russian peacekeeping officer was among seven soldiers killed on Friday when a car blew up at the Russian peacekeepers' base in Tskhinvali, the South Ossetian capital, the Russian military said.Russia's Interfax news agency quoted South Ossetia's Interior Ministry as saying a total of 11 people had been killed, including civilians. The RIA agency quoted a military spokesman as saying Colonel Ivan Petrik, the Russian peacekeepers' chief of staff, had been killed in his office.Georgia sent troops and tanks in August to assert control of the pro-Russian separatist region, but was routed by Russian forces, which went on to occupy parts of the Georgian heartland.

Vladimir Markin, a spokesman for Russia's Prosecutor General's Office, told Itar-Tass news agency that the office had all grounds to believe that the explosion in Tskhinvali was arranged by the secret services of Georgia and is aimed at Russian peacekeepers to destabilize the situation.Russia's RIA news agency quoted the commander of Russia's forces in Georgia, Major-General Marat Kulakhmetov, as saying they had stopped two cars on Friday in the village of Ditsa, in a Russian-controlled buffer zone around South Ossetia, and escorted them to Tskhinvali.

As they were being searched, a bomb went off.

Georgia denied the charges, saying it would have had to find Ossetians to take the car into the area under Russian control.I don't understand the logic. How could the Georgian secret service plan that the Ossetians would steal the car and that the Russians would take it to their base. Are we geniuses or what? Interior Ministry spokesman Shota Utiashvili said.The Georgians did not take any car to Ossetian territory or drive it to the Russian base.Utiashvili suggested the Russians were trying to delay their withdrawal from the buffer zone, due to be complete by October 10 under a French-mediated ceasefire agreement.Unarmed EU monitors have entered the buffer zone to monitor the agreement. A spokesman for the mission said they were patrolling as normal on Saturday.(Reporting by Maria Kiselyova and Matt Robinson; Editing by Kevin Liffey)

Ukrainians deny giving wartime help to Georgia Fri Oct 3, 5:50 PM ET

KIEV, Ukraine - Ukrainian officials on Friday denied Russian accusations that Ukraine provided weapons to Georgia during the August war with Russia and that its military personnel operated some of the weapons during the conflict. Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin made the charge Thursday, calling it a crime that this former Soviet republic helped Georgia during the fighting. The Russian military had said previously that anti-aircraft missiles supplied by Ukraine shot down four Russian warplanes.The governments of both Ukraine and Georgia, which also is a former Soviet state, have angered the Kremlin by moving closer to the West and seeking membership in NATO.Ukraine is a top supplier of weapons to Georgia. But the head of its state arms export company, Ukrspetsexport, said no arms were sold during the war, the Interfax news agency reported.Not a single bullet was supplied to Georgia during the conflict, the report quoted the official, Sergei Bondarchuk, as saying.Ukrspetsexport declined to comment on Interfax's report.Ukrainian Defense Minister Yuriy Yekhanurov, meanwhile, denied that Ukraine's military personnel fought on the side of Georgia.In a statement on his Internet site, Yekhanurov said 21Ukrainian soldiers were in Georgia for military drills when the war started but they immediately headed to the capital, Tbilisi, arriving there the next day. They were then quickly flown out of Georgia, he said.Yekhanurov said Ukraine has sold weapons to both Georgia and Russia in the past. About a quarter of Ukrainian arms exports go to Russia, he said.

US and Indian diplomats laud nuclear deal By ROBERT BURNS, AP Military Writer Sat Oct 4, 8:57 AM ET

NEW DELHI, India - The top American and Indian diplomats on Saturday lauded a new agreement that opens up U.S. nuclear trade with India, but they stopped short of signing the deal, which some private U.S. arms control experts say is likely to speed up nuclear arms competition in Asia. Some U.S. officials had said as recently as Friday that they expected Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and her Indian counterpart, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee, to sign the agreement Saturday. The Senate on Wednesday approved legislation authorizing President Bush to make the deal.At a joint news conference with Mukherjee, Rice said no substantive issues stand in the way of signing the deal; she said it was only a matter of waiting for a series of administrative steps by the Congress to transmit enabling legislation to the White House for Bush to sign.We don't have open issues with the Indians, Rice said.Mukherjee said his government was satisfied with the progress and was awaiting final action in Washington.Once this process is complete we'll be in a position to sign, Mukherjee said.

Rice was meeting later with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

Speaking to reporters aboard her plane en route from Washington, Rice said she expects the civil nuclear cooperation agreement will trigger an across-the-board expansion of American-Indian relations.Rice said only administrative — not substantive — matters were delaying the signing of the agreement.Once Bush signs the authorizing legislation, he is required to certify that the agreement with India is consistent with U.S. obligations under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, designed to limit the spread of nuclear weapons. He must also certify that it is U.S. policy to cooperate with international efforts to further restrict transfers of technology related to uranium enrichment and the reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel.

The U.S. agreement on civil nuclear cooperation allows American businesses to begin selling nuclear fuel, technology and reactors to India in exchange for safeguards and U.N. inspections at India's civilian — but not military — nuclear plants.

Critics in India argue the constraints compromise their country's right to conduct nuclear bomb tests.Even without a signing ceremony during her visit, Rice said, I'm going to draw a line under this deal one way or another because it's time to put the historic agreement — to say that that's done and move on to what else we can do" to strengthen and broaden the relationship.The Bush administration considers the deal a crowning achievement of the president's second term in office.It could, however, turn out to be the last major diplomatic achievement of a presidency that is struggling in its final months on a number of other fronts, including a setback in relations with Russia after its invasion of Georgia and the prospect of a breakdown in a nuclear agreement with North Korea.Rice said she spoke Friday morning with the administration's chief nuclear envoy to North Korea, Christopher Hill, who was in Pyongyang to try to persuade the North Koreans to resume dismantling their nuclear problem in exchange for energy aid. She said she and Hill did not discuss what progress he may have made; they intend to meet Monday in Washington.In the onboard interview, Rice stressed that she saw the importance of her visit to New Delhi as focusing on the future, rather than celebrating the completion of the civil nuclear agreement.

This is a relationship that has now a firm foundation to reach its full potential, she said. It removes for India a barrier to full integration on a whole range of technologies, and it opens the way for closer U.S.-India cooperation in other areas such as defense, agriculture and education. India built its nuclear bombs outside the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, which it refuses to sign. It has faced a nuclear trade ban since its first atomic test in 1974; its most recent nuclear test blast was in 1998. Throughout the Cold War, relations between India and the United States were chilly. In the past decade, however, ties have grown closer in a range of areas, including trade, energy and security. The United States is now India's largest trading partner. U.S. opponents of the nuclear agreement say lawmakers rushed consideration of a complicated deal that could spark a nuclear arms race in Asia. The extra fuel the measure allows India to purchase, those critics say, could boost India's nuclear bomb stockpile by freeing up its domestic fuel for weapons.

UP DAY TODAY SO FAR

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

HALF HOUR DOW RESULTS FRI OCT 03,2008

09:30 AM +49.25
10:00 AM +129.27
10:30 AM +156.03
11:00 AM +216.24
11:30 AM +193.46
12:00 PM +196.41
12:30 PM +156.43
01:00 PM +273.43
01:30 PM +181.75
02:00 PM +90.56
02:30 PM -20.47
03:00 PM +55.11
03:30 PM -19.44
04:00 PM -157.47 10325.38

S&P 500 1099.23 -15.05

NAS 1947.39 -29.33

GOLD 839.4 -4.9

OIL 93.04 -0.93

TSE 300 10806.67 -93.87

CDNX 1300.23 -11.73

S&P/TSX 60 646.88 -4.46

WORLD MARKET RESULTS
http://money.cnn.com/data/world_markets/

ITS 1PM AND THE VOTE WILL BE DONE SHORTLY AT THE HOUSE TO SEE IF ON TRY NUMBER TWO IT WILL PASS.

ITS 1:12 THE VOTE

ON MOTION TO CONCUR IN SENATE AMENDMENTS HR 1424 AND THE BILL ITSELF.

DEOMOC YES 172 NO 061 NV 03
REPUBL YES 091 NO 110 NV 01

TOTAL YES 263 NO 171 NV 04

THE BAILOUT PASSES EVEN AS IN RUSSIA THE RTS EXCHANGE WAS HALTED 3 TIMES AND SHUT DOWN TODAY. THE WORLD IS IN TROUBLE DUE TO THIS CHAOS IN THE MARKETS. THE MAIN TROUBLE IN THE WORLD IS DUE TO THE EURO DROPPING SO THE U.S IS EXPECTING THE EUROPEAN UNION TO DROP THE INTEREST RATES OVER THE WEEKEND. THE MARKETS DROPPED FROM 273.43 AT 1PM DOWN TO 90.56 AT 2PM.

IN CANADA OUR STOCK MARKET WAS DOWN 813.97 POINTS YESTERDAY AND ANOTHER 800 POINTS A COUPLE OF DAYS BEFORE THAT, WE ARE TAKIN A BEATIN TO. I JUST NEVER HEARD OF ANY BANKS IN TROUBLE OVER HERE YET.

House passes bailout,After a week of wrangling, lawmakers give final approval to historic $700 billion bailout.CNNMoney.com RSS FEEDS (close) By Jeanne Sahadi, CNNMoney.com senior writer October 3, 2008: 2:08 PM ET

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The House on Friday passed a far-reaching and historic plan to bail out the nation's financial system.The vote for passage of the Senate-amended bill - 263 to 171 - was the result of strong lobbying on the part of the White House and other supporters of the bill all week, following the House defeat of a similar measure on Monday - a defeat that shocked the markets and congressional leaders on both sides of the aisle.By coming together on this legislation, we have acted boldly to prevent the crisis on Wall Street from becoming a crisis that hurts the broader economy, said President Bush.Bush said he would sign the bill as soon as gets it.Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said he welcomed the House vote. The legislation is a critical step toward stabilizing our financial markets and ensuring an uninterrupted flow of credit to households and businesses, he said.According to preliminary numbers, 172 Democrats voted in favor of the bill while 62 opposed it; and 91 Republicans voted for it and 108 voted against it.We came together to deliver this decisive victory for the American people, Rep. Jim Clyburn, D-S.C.Added Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., one of the lead negotiators on the bill: We did today what we had to do because past mistakes made it necessary.

Republicans who said they would switch their votes from no to yes included Rep. Howard Cobble, R-N.C., and Rep. Sue Myrick, R-N.C. In a statement, Myrick said, We're on the cusp of a complete catastrophic credit meltdown. There is no liquidity in the market. We are out of time. Either you believe that fact, or you don't. I do.

Democrats who said they would switch their votes include Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., and Rep. Donna Edwards, D-Md.Cummings noted this was the most difficult vote for him in his 12 years in Congress. But today we must step up and lead, he said.Earlier this week, Cummings and Edwards were part of a group that had been working on an alternate proposal. The lawmakers had lobbied strongly but unsuccessfully to include, among other things, a change to the bankruptcy law that would let judges modify mortgages on primary residences, a move the lending industry has strongly opposed.Cummings and Edwards said they had received calls from Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama, encouraging them to change their minds. They said they received assurances that he was committed to the bankruptcy provision.House Minority Whip Roy Blunt, R-Mo., told reporters before the vote on Friday morning that three things have happened to change some Republican members' opposition to the bill since the House defeated the measure on Monday: more calls to their district offices in support of the bill; a clarification of SEC accounting rules; and the Senate additions, passed on Wednesday, including a number of tax break extenders and an increase in FDIC deposit insurance coverage. (What's in the bill.)

Economy in need of a fix
The House debate began on the heels of two market-moving events: a worse-than-expected monthly jobs number; and a surprise merger announcement between Wachovia and Wells Fargo.The legislation, which would allow the Treasury Secretary to purchase as much as $700 billion in troubled assets in a bid to kick-start lending, would usher in one of the most far-reaching interventions in the economy since the Great Depression.For the past two weeks, lending between banks and between banks and businesses has gotten considerably more expensive. Small businesses are having trouble getting loans. As of midday Friday, one key measure showed that banks were hoarding cash rather than loaning it. Meanwhile, an indicator showing how willing banks are to lend each other was at an all-time high.Advocates say the plan is crucial to government efforts to attack a credit crisis that threatens the economy and would free up banks to lend more. Opponents say it rewards bad decisions by Wall Street, puts taxpayers at risk and fails to address the real economic problems facing Americans.Lawmakers who said on Friday they planned to vote against the bill warned that being stampeded into voting the bill through would be a serious mistake.

Wall Street is so hungry for the $700 billion they can taste it. To get it they need to ... create panic, block alternatives and herd the cattle. We ask Congress not to rush. Defeating this bill today isn't the last step. It's the first step in passing a good bill, said Rep. Brad Sherman, D-Calif.Rep. Marcy Kaptur, D-Ohio, who has called for the FDIC and SEC to use their powers to ease the credit crisis, said soon before the vote, Pray for our Republic. She's being placed in ... very greedy hands.

Lawmakers who stood in support of the bill noted that it will help Main Street, not Wall Street. We [would] rescue the jobs, the savings and the ability to get a loan for each hard-working American, said Rep. Louise Slaughter, D-N.Y.Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., noted that the bill also supports homeowners at risk of foreclosure by giving the government more say in how loans for troubled borrowers are modified so people can stay in their homes.When we buy up this toxic paper, we're in charge. We can do the kind of loan modifications we've been urging [the industry coalition] Hope Now to get done. ... We'll be able to set some standards, Waters said during the floor debate. For anybody who says there's nothing in this bill for homeowners, they're incorrect.- CNN congressional producers Deirdre Walsh and Lesa Jansen contributed to this report.

Russian shares plunge, regulators halt trading three times
Catrina Stewart, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS October 03, 2008

MOSCOW - Russian regulators shut down one of the country's leading stock exchanges three times Friday to stem rapid declines in shares after investors took fright at growing concerns over the global economy. After shares plunged in early morning trading, the federal regulator ordered the suspension of trading on the RTS, the country's benchmark index. The regulators have used similar moves to stem rapid share declines in recent weeks - usually to positive effect. Stocks had opened lower on Friday morning in Russia, after a torrid trading session Thursday in the United States amid fears over the success of a federal bailout plan to stave off a recession. U.S. stocks plunged on the back of disappointing economic data, including signs of rising unemployment. Oil prices dropped overnight to below US$94 a barrel.
By the close of trading, the RTS had shed seven per cent to 1070.9 points. It was closed down twice in the afternoon and then shut early for the weekend. The MICEX exchange - where most of Russia's trading takes place - plunged by 5.3 per cent to 924.6 points, paring back steeper losses mid-afternoon.

Last month, Wall Street turmoil and sliding oil prices contributed to Russia's worst stock market collapse since 1998, triggering a domestic crisis of confidence and a shortage of liquidity, or ready cash for operations. Since its May peak, the RTS has lost 57 per cent of its value. State-controlled oil major Rosneft lost 6.6 per cent on MICEX and gas export monopoly Gazprom shed 5.8 per cent, but mining company Norilsk Nickel was the biggest bluechip loser, shedding 18.2 per cent. Earlier in the day, Oleg Deripaska's Basic Element holding - which owns a 25 per cent stake in Norilsk through aluminum giant Rusal - said it had been forced to divest a 20 per cent stake in Canada's Magna (TSX:MG.A), an auto components maker, to creditors that helped finance the $1.5 billion deal last year. The divestment raises questions about the financial stability of the holding. This does provide a bit of solid evidence that there is a problem. And people are worried that their worst case fears might be realized, said Chris Weafer, chief strategist at UralSib, referring to the potential for Russian companies to default on their debts. And that's done a lot of damage to confidence.

Russian corporates are estimated to have $45 billion in debt due to be repaid by the end of this year at a time when refinancing debt has become much more expensive. The government earlier this week pledged a further $50 billion of refinancing money to be made available via state-owned Vnesheconombank, but analysts say it may not extend to companies deemed less critical or strategic by the state.
Analysts said trading volumes were low as investors - many of them sitting on cash - wait for the markets to turn. People don't want to do anything, because they don't know what's going to happen next, said Weafer. If that happens long enough, then the oil price won't matter, because the economy will stop anyway.

TSX dives 800 points after Merrill pulls buy rating on PotashCorp,U.S. Senate support for Wall Street bailout fails to cheer markets Thursday, October 2, 2008 | 4:14 PM ET CBC News

An illuminated sign outside the Reuters building in downtown Toronto shows Thursday's drop in the S&P/TSX composite index. (Robin Rowland/CBC)Toronto's benchmark stock index closed down more than 800 points Thursday as big fertilizer stocks tanked and investors appeared to take little comfort from the U.S. Senate's vote in favour of a Wall Street bailout.Saskatoon-based Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan Inc., or PotashCorp, which calls itself the world's largest fertilizer company, led the list of losers. It fell $35.50, or 26 per cent, to $101.Calgary-based Agrium Inc. was down $13.47, or 23 per cent, at $45.01.Although both companies reported record second-quarter profits this summer, traders dumped the stocks after a Merrill Lynch analyst cut his rating on the sector from buy to underperform, citing weakening product prices and concern about future earnings.This amounted to a sell recommendation. Under a rating system adopted in the spring, Merrill rates stocks buy, neutral or underperform.

PotashCorp said the ensuing sell-off was undeserved.

In the tough financial market conditions that we're seeing right now, good companies, good businesses can certainly get caught up in overreaction, the company's public relations manager, Rhonda Speiss, told CBC News.S&P/TSX composite index We believe that's what's happening here.Toronto's S&P/TSX composite index dropped through the 11,000 level to close at 10,900.54, its lowest level in more than two years.The loss was 813.97 points, or nearly seven per cent — not far from Monday's record one-day point drop of 840.93 but well short of the record percentage drop, 11.32 per cent, set on Black Monday, Oct. 19, 1987.New York's Dow Jones industrial average finished at 10,482.85, down 348.22 points or 3.2 per cent.General Electric Co., which lined up a cash transfusion from billionaire investor Warren Buffet on Thursday, was still losing ground on the market.GE's stock was down $2.35 US, or 9.6 per cent, at $22.15 US, flirting with a 52-week low.PotashCorp three-month chart The price of a barrel of oil was headed lower, too. Light sweet crude for November delivery was down $4.64 US to $93.89 US a barrel in New York trading.

Agrium official expresses shock at rating cut
In Toronto, all major stock groups were down, with the materials group — including PotashCorp and Agrium — leading the way.The fertilizer stocks took their lumps after Don Carson, Merrill's chemicals and commodities analyst, sent a note to clients Thursday morning.He said fertilizer prices are no longer going through the roof, partly because farmers are getting lower prices for corn crops they grow with it. This is unsettling news for the industry, he said.With phosphate prices falling, nitrogen prices peaking and potash prices rising less than expected, there is considerable uncertainty surrounding the near-term earnings outlook, he said.

I mean, a Merrill downgrade from a buy to a sell is pretty dramatic. I've actually never seen them jump two levels on really very little news.— Richard Downey, senior director of investor relations, AgriumRichard Downey, Agrium's senior director of investor relations, said corn prices are down from a spring peak of $8 US a bushel but still more than double the average of the past five year, and fertilizer prices remain far higher than a year ago.Our business fundamentals are pretty much as strong as they've ever been, he told CBC News, and there is overreaction going on for the whole fertilizer space.He expressed shock at the rating cut.Agrium three-month chart I mean, a Merrill downgrade from a 'buy' to a sell is pretty dramatic, he said. I've actually never seen them jump two levels on really very little news.

PotashCorp was unhappy with share price 60% higher
The Saskatoon company has potash mines at six places in Saskatchewan — some now shut down by a strike — and at Sussex, N.B., where it is expanding an operation that already employs 339 people.When the strike began in August, it was feared that potash fertilizer prices would skyrocket, but there is no sign of that yet.The company's stock has traded between $246 and $94 in the past 52 weeks.A man walks past an electric board on King Street in Toronto that shows the fall in the TSX earlier Thursday afternoon. (Robin Rowland/CBC)As recently as Sept. 11, when it was worth $162, CEO Bill Doyle announced an expanded share buy-back program in hope of pushing the price higher.We believe our shares are significantly undervalued versus our long-term potential, he said in a statement at the time. By buying back low-priced shares, we will strengthen our company for the future and reward our long term shareholders.Speiss, the public relations manager, said Thursday the firm has a long-term view of our business, and we believe that, despite today's market reaction, the fertilizer industry is very well positioned to go forward.Agrium, which has operations from Alberta to Argentina, announced its own buyback program only this week.We believe the current price of our shares does not reflect Agrium’s achievements nor our strong future prospects, CEO Mike Wilson said in a statement issued Wednesday, when the stock was trading for as much as $60.

House plans second vote on bailout By JULIE HIRSCHFELD DAVIS, Associated Press Writer OCT 3,08

WASHINGTON - After a week of tumult on Wall Street and Washington, the House moved toward a final vote Friday on a $700 billion bailout of the financial industry, an unprecedented government intervention designed to steady an economy on the brink.

Congressional leaders expressed quiet confidence they would have the votes to send the measure to President Bush for his signature by day's end, four days after an earlier version was rejected.Our economy is not stable. Working families are suffering. Unemployment is over 10 percent in my district, said Rep Hilda Solis. The California Democrat voted against the measure that failed on Monday, but this time, she said she was considering a switch.The bill's critics said it was a step in the wrong direction.Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, who voted no earlier in the week, said that since the first vote, Senate leaders had tacked on billions of dollars in tax breaks and spending. Derisively, he called them sweeteners to try and bribe enough lawmakers to swing behind the bill.If anything, the economic news added impetus to the sense of urgency.The Labor Department said initial claims for jobless benefits had increased last week to the highest level since the gloomy days after the 2001 terror attacks. That came on top of Thursday's Commerce Department report that factory orders in August plunged by four percent. And the government reported Friday that employers slashed 159,000 jobs from payrolls in September, the most in five years.The stock market opened higher on anticipation that the bill would pass, and the financial industry shakeout rolled on unpredictably.

Wachovia announced it had agreed to be acquired by San Francisco-based Wells Fargo & Co rather than by Citigroup. Executives said the new arrangement would keep the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., on the sidelines, thus preventing any depletion of the government's fund that backs bank deposits.The debate on the House floor came at the end of an unprecedented time of turmoil.It was little more than two weeks ago that Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke concluded that the economy was in such danger that a massive government intervention in the private markets was essential.The core of the plan remains little changed from its conception — the Treasury Department would have $700 billion at its disposal to purchase bad mortage-related securities that are weighing down the balance sheets of institutions that hold them. The flow of credit has slowed, in some cases drying up, threatening the ability of businesses to conduct routine operations or expand.At the same time, lawmakers have dramatically changed the measure, insisting on greater congressional supervision over the $700 billion, taking measures to protect taxpayers, and insisting on steps to crack down on so-called "golden parachutes" that go to corporate executives whose companies fail.

Earlier in the week, the legislation was altered to expand the federal insurance program for individual bank deposits, and the Securities and Exchange Commission took steps to ease the impact of the questionable mortgage-backed securities on financial institutions.The legislation had the support of the leadership in both parties — as was the case in the Senate, where it passed on Wednesday on a bipartisan vote of 74-25.President Bush has been lobbying aggressively for its passage, and the White House issued the latest in a series of grim warnings of the risks of defeat. If the financial markets fail to function, American families will face great difficulty in getting loans to purchase a home, buy a family car or finance a child's education, it said in a written statement.The two major party presidential candidates, Barack Obama, the Democrat, and John McCain, the Republican also supported the bill and worked to assure its passage.Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., a senior member of the Congressional Black Caucus, told a closed-door meeting of House Democrats on Thursday he intended to support the measure after a conversation with Obama. Across the aisle, Republican Rep. John Shadegg signaled he might also abandon his opposition to the measure. Republicans said McCain had been involved in lobbying his fellow Arizonan. Slowly but surely, converts were coming forward. The vote on Monday staggered the congressional leadership and contributed to the largest one-day stock market drop in history, 778 points as measured by the Dow Jones Industrial Average. Across the Capitol, party leaders decided to add legislation extending a series of popular tax breaks, as well as spending on rural schools and disaster aid. They also grafted on a bill to expand mental health coverage under private insurance plans. At the same time, the change in federal deposit insurance and the action by the SEC on an obscure accounting rule helped produce a trickle of converts. GOP Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of Florida, said she was switching her no vote to a yes after the Senate added some $110 million in tax breaks and other sweeteners before approving the measure Wednesday night. Monday what we had was a bailout for Wall Street firms and not much relief for taxpayers and hard-hit families, Ros-Lehtinen told The Associated Press. Now we have an economic rescue package.Republican Rep. Jim Ramstad of Minnesota also switched to yes, partly because the Senate attached the mental health measure. Democratic Rep. Emanuel Cleaver of Missouri was switching, too, said spokesman Danny Rotert, declaring, America feels differently today than it did on Monday about this bill.And Democratic Rep. Shelley Berkley of Nevada said she would back the bill after business leaders in her Las Vegas-area district made it clear how much it was needed. She said, There isn't a segment of the population that hasn't been slammed and is not asking for some relief.

EU big four gather for financial crisis talks
LUCIA KUBOSOVA Today OCT 3,08 @ 09:27 CET

The leaders of the EU's four biggest states - Germany, France, Britain and Italy - are gathering for emergency talks on the financial crisis in Paris on Saturday (4 October), one day after US lawmakers are expected to vote for the second time on an amended bail-out plan for the country's financial sector. European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso on Thursday welcomed the approval of the package by the American Senate, which had enabled another attempt to hammer out the bill in the House of Representatives and described it as a good step forward in the right direction.But after receiving negative signals from both Berlin and London on the idea of a similar emergency fund worth €300 billion for Europe's banking sector, French president Nicolas Sarkozy distanced himself from the proposal.I deny the sum and the principle, he said, according to media reports. An official in French finance minister Christine Lagarde's office added that there was an exchange of ideas but no French proposals. There was no French plan, AFP says.Asked by journalists about a possible EU version of the US banking rescue scheme on Thursday, the European Central Bank (ECB) president Jean-Claude Trichet - also to attend the Paris mini-summit together with commission chief Barroso - openly said it would not work for Europe.We do not have a federal budget, so the idea that we could do the same as what is done on the other side of the Atlantic doesn't fit with the political structure of Europe.After Paris seemingly took the bail-out plan off the table, the question remains what kind of a co-ordinated strategy - if any - the four large EU countries could come up with at their emergency session over the weekend.

Britain has suggested that solutions to the financial crisis need to be primarily sought by national authorities. It is right that individual countries would want to take their own decisions, particularly when national taxpayers' money is potentially at risk, said spokesman of Gordon Brown, UK's prime minister. The purpose of the [Paris] meeting will be to discuss how each of the four major economies in Europe are responding to the global financial crisis, he added, according to the BBC.

Irish rescue plan sparks controversy

But French finance minister Christine Lagarde insisted that there is a need for a joint strategy among the EU's member states, referring to the latest developments in the banking sector and how they affect neighbouring countries, such as Britain and Ireland.The Irish parliament on Thursday passed a bill fully guaranteeing all bank deposits, which has sparked a controversy in other European capitals about unfair advantage for Irish banks over foreign competitors.British media reported a rising interest among Brits to switch from the UK's to Ireland's banks in a bid to secure their savings in a rising atmosphere of insecurity.Minister Lagarde said in a BBC live interview that better European co-ordination could prevent such cases, arguing that a measure decided in one [EU] member state has to be shared in advance with other member states.When something happens in one member state it affects everybody else around, so there needs to be that level of cross-sharing of information, she added.

ECB mulls rate cuts

Meanwhile, the ECB on Thursday agreed to keep the interest rates in the 15-strong monetary union at a seven-year high of 4.25 percent, while hinting at possible cuts in the future.We had examined two options, one letting interest rates unchanged and one decreasing interest rates, said Mr Trichet. However, ultimately the bank left rates alone, in a unanimous decision that had been expected. The ECB has far from abandoned inflation fears, as the eurozone inflation rate of 3.6 percent is still sharply higher than the bank's target range of a rate below but close to two percent.

The economic outlook is subject to increasing downside risks, as a result of the ongoing financial-market tensions, Mr Trichet told reporters.The ECB chief said that this meant that while upside risks to price stability have diminished somewhat, they have not disappeared.Analysts interpret the statement as meaning the Frankfurt-based bank is now clearly considering when would be the best time to cut the cost of borrowing money.

Stocks climb ahead financial rescue vote in House By TIM PARADIS, AP Business Writer OCT 3,08

NEW YORK - Stocks advanced while credit markets remained strained Friday ahead of an expected House vote on the government's $700 billion financial rescue plan and after Wells Fargo Co. agreed to buy Wachovia Corp. in a $15.1 billion deal. Investors also appear relieved that the government's September employment report wasn't worse, although the Labor Department said payrolls shrank by 159,000, more than the 100,000 economists predicted. The nation's unemployment rate remained flat at 6.1 percent, as expected.Investors are eager for unemployment to remain in check because widespread job losses could damp consumer spending, which accounts for more than two-thirds of the nation's economic activity.On a busy Friday, investors were awaiting resolution on the government's plan to buy up bad assets from banks and other institutions to shore up the financial industry and help resuscitate credit markets. Trading across markets has been volatile throughout the week based on investors' reading of whether the plan would win approval; on Monday, the House's rejection took Wall Street and Capitol Hill by surprise.The Senate subsequently passed a sweetened version of the plan that added tax breaks and raised the limit on federal deposit insurance from $100,000 to $250,000. The revote is expected to occur again during market hours, which could make for somewhat restrained trading until it is complete.

While much of the nervousness on Wall Street has been blamed on uncertainty about the rescue plan's chances, investors are now contending with worries about the broader economy, not just the credit markets. On Thursday, the Dow Jones industrials, which have seen triple-digit moves each day this week, fell 348 points on a growing belief that the plan won't stop the U.S. from falling into a prolonged recession.Investors did find some room for optimism, however. The Wells Fargo-Wachovia deal cheered investors because, unlike several recent banking tie-ups, it wasn't put together at the behest of regulators or using government money. The agreement upends a plan announced Monday by Citigroup Inc. to acquire Wachovia's banking operations for $2.16 billion, a move orchestrated by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.Ahead of the house vote, the credit markets indicated increased demand for safety. The yield on the 3-month Treasury bill, the safest type of investment, fell to 0.59 percent from 0.70 percent late Thursday. Yields have remained low in recent weeks because investors are eager to safeguard their money.

The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note, which moves opposite its price, fell to 3.61 percent from 3.64 percent late Thursday.In the first half-hour of trading, the Dow rose 133.73, or 1.28 percent, to 10,616.58.Broader stock indicators also rose. The Standard & Poor's 500 index advanced 23.33, or 2.09 percent, to 1,137.61, and the Nasdaq composite index rose 45.74, or 2.31 percent, to 2,022.46.

The dollar was mostly higher against other major currencies, while gold prices fell.
On the Net:New York Stock Exchange: http://www.nyse.com Nasdaq Stock Market: http://www.nasdaq.com

Wells Fargo acquiring Wachovia for $15.1 billion BY SARA LEPRO, AP Business Writer OCT 3,08

NEW YORK - In an abrupt change, Wachovia said Friday it agreed to be acquired by San Francisco-based Wells Fargo & Co. in a $15.1 billion all-stock deal that trumps Citigroup's plan to acquire Wachovia's banking operations and avoids government assistance. The Citigroup deal would have been done with the help of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., but the Wells Fargo deal for Wachovia will be done without it. Shares of Wachovia and Wells rose in morning trading, while Citigroup shares fell.This deal enables us to keep Wachovia intact and preserve the value of an integrated company, without government support, Robert Steel, Wachovia's president and chief executive, said in a statement.The Wachovia-Wells deal, announced Friday, comes in a turbulent time for banks and financial firms as they grapple with the ongoing credit crisis, which led to the recent bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. and the failure of Washington Mutual Inc.Wachovia Corp. shareholders will receive 0.1991 shares of Wells Fargo for every share of Charlotte, N.C.-based Wachovia stock they own, valuing Wachovia at about $7 per share. This is a nearly 80 percent premium over the stock's Thursday closing price of $3.91. Shares closed at $10 last Friday, the last trading session before the deal with Citigroup Inc. was announced.The board approved Wells Fargo's offer late Thursday. The deal is still subject to Wachovia shareholder and other regulatory approvals. Wells Fargo said it expects the deal to close by year-end.It provides superior value compared to the previous offer to acquire only the banking operations of the company and because Wachovia shareholders will have a meaningful opportunity to participate in the growth and success of a combined Wachovia-Wells Fargo that will be one of the world's great financial services companies, said Wells Fargo Chairman Dick Kovacevich.Wells Fargo will record merger and integration charges of about $10 billion, but says it expects earnings to be boosted within the first year after the acquisition closes. No government assistance is part of the deal terms.Wells Fargo said it will record Wachovia's credit-impaired assets at fair value, but provided no estimate of what that would be. In its planned takeover of Wachovia, Citigroup said it would write down those assets by $30 billion at the close of the transaction and be responsible for the next $12 billion in losses over a period of three years. If the total exceeded that, the FDIC would cover the difference.

Additionally, Wells Fargo plans to issue up to $20 billion of stock, primarily common stock, to maintain a strong capital position.Charlotte will be the headquarters for the combined company's East Coast retail and commercial and corporate banking business. St. Louis will remain the headquarters of Wachovia Securities.Additionally, three members of the Wachovia board will join the Wells Fargo board when the transaction is completed.The combined company will have total deposits of $787 billion and assets of $1.42 trillion, more than doubling Wells Fargo's totals on both counts. The bank will operate more than 10,000 locations. The two banks currently employ a combined 280,000 people.On Monday, Citigroup agreed to buy Wachovia's banking operations for $2.16 billion in a deal orchestrated by the federal government. That deal, which had been approved by the boards of both companies, was still subject to approval by Wachovia's shareholders and regulators. It is not clear whether Citigroup will be entitled to a break-up fee.In addition to assuming $53 billion worth of debt, Citigroup had agreed to absorb up to $42 billion of losses from Wachovia's $312 billion loan portfolio. The FDIC agreed to cover any remaining losses in exchange for $12 billion in Citigroup preferred stock and warrants.But the failure of the government's proposed $700 billion bailout for financial institutions Monday afternoon cast doubt on whether Citigroup would be able to rid itself of some of Wachovia's bad debt.

While the proposal would have prevented most banks from profiting on the sale of troubled assets to the government, an exception would have been made for assets acquired in a merger or buyout.That would have allowed Citigroup to sell Wachovia's distressed mortgage-related assets to the government for a profit. A revised version of the bailout plan was passed on Wednesday by the Senate and goes up for a House vote on Friday. The plan still centers on enabling the government to spend billions of dollars to buy bad mortgage-related securities and other devalued assets from troubled financial institutions. Citigroup has not turned a profit for three straight quarters, and lost a total of $17.4 billion during that period after writing down its assets by about $46 billion. That's the most write-downs of any U.S. bank. While Wells Fargo has logged three straight quarters of profit declines, the bank has been weathering one of the nation's worst credit crises much better than most of its competitors, in part because it had less exposure to the subprime mortgages whose failure undermined the financial sector. That means it hasn't been forced to take the huge number of write-downs that other banks have needed. Under Stumpf the bank also has continued raising its dividend at a time when many other financial institutions are slashing theirs to preserve capital. John G. Stumpf, Wells Fargo president and CEO, took over in June 2007 — near the start of the credit crisis — from Kovacevich, who remains chairman. Both men worked since the 1980s at Norwest Corp., Wells Fargo's predecessor. Wachovia, like Washington Mutual, which was seized by the federal government last week, was a big originator of option adjustable-rate mortgages, which offered very low introductory payments and let borrowers defer some interest payments until later years. Delinquencies and defaults on these types of mortgages have skyrocketed in recent months, causing big losses for the banks. This summer, Wachovia reported a $9.11 billion loss for the second quarter, announced plans to cut 11,350 jobs — mostly in its mortgage business — and slashed its dividend. Wachovia also boosted its provision for loan losses to $5.57 billion during the second quarter, up from $179 million in the year-ago period.

Wachovia shares rose $3.03, or 78 percent, to $6.04 in morning trading, while Wells Fargo rose $3.49, or 10 percent, to $38.65. Citigroup shares were down $3.05, or 13.4percent, to $19.45. AP Business Writer Jennifer Malloy Zonnas contributed to this story from New York.

$1 trillion game of chicken October 03, 2008 1:00 am Eastern 2008 WND By Hal Lindsey

For over a week, American's have watched a perilous game being played by the economic powers behind Wall Street and the revolted taxpayers behind the U.S. Congress.Frankly, I believe the average American has needed a drama coach more than a financial expert to understand what is really going on.A little history gives us the best guide to understand what all of this drama is about. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke admitted at a banquet on Nov. 8, 2002, that the Federal Reserve caused the Great Depression that began Oct. 24, 1929, and continued all through the decade of the 1930s.The Fed did this by deliberately tightening up and withholding the money supply for lending, which immediately caused a domino effect. Highly leveraged investors, who were in the stock market on borrowed money, were instantly wiped out when their loans were called in. Banks that had loans out at over 10 times the amount of reserves had to close the doors. The depositors panicked and made a run on the banks to withdraw their assets, only to find there was none left. Businesses, farms, homes and savings were lost on a grand scale.

The Federal Reserve could have printed more money. This was suppose to be their job. They could have immediately alleviated the situation by loosening the available money to back the loans and banks. After all, they sold themselves to the U.S. Congress, when they were unconstitutionally created in 1913, with the argument that as a privately owned, for profit, central bank, they would keep such things as the 1929 Depression from happening.But that would have defeated their strategy. So industries and businesses collapsed. Many banks went bankrupt. Most Wall Street investors were ruined. Stocks became almost worthless. The average American found himself with no money, no job and no home. Families were split up and displaced. Large families had to put up children for adoption or place them in orphan homes.

And guess who made billions of dollars while Americans went into a horrible depression? The powerful international banking families who own the central bank we know as the Federal Reserve System. They bought up, usually through surrogates, failed banks for pennies on the dollar, centralizing and consolidating their control over more of the U.S. banking system. They did the same thing with many of the best industries and assets of the country.Now I believe we are seeing the 21st century model of the same thing, only with a little different strategy.The drama began to publicly unfold when the chiefs of the U.S. Treasury and the Federal Reserve, Henry Paulson and Ben Bernanke, went to the president and the U.S. Congress and laid out an apocalyptic scenario of utter economic disaster for the country. They presented what they said was the only way to avert a national and international economic meltdown.Paulson asked for a $700 billion bailout package immediately, with no strings attached. Such strings as no oversight, no accountability and no authorization required as to whom and how the money would be spent. And he gave a deadline of less than a week for this ransom to be paid, or it would be too late to avert utter disaster. Now I call that blackmail on a heretofore-unprecedented scale.

This caused me to look up the connections of this duo that were asking such a colossal thing with a straight face.Just before Paulson became the secretary of treasury, he was the chairman and CEO of Goldman Sachs. These are believed be two of the banking families who are part of the original owners of the Federal Reserve. Though just who the private owners of the Federal Reserve are is a closely guarded secret, it has been widely accepted that Goldman, Sachs, along with such names as Rothschild, Warburg Lehman, Kuhn, Loeb and Seif are private owners. For a normal American, there would be an immediate assumption of conflict of interest, wouldn't you say? The moment a man accepts the chairmanship of the Federal Reserve, he becomes responsible to carry out the will and interests of the non-elected, mostly foreign owners of the Fed, not the U.S. government. So Benjamin Bernanke is in that role at this moment, and as such, has a conflict of interest in this bailout, too.

So with these two men asking for what in effect is illegal for the U.S. government to do, i.e., to bailout private banking and loan institutions from debts they incurred as a result of reckless and irresponsible loans, should be suspicious in the very extreme.Wall Street is playing a supporting role in this drama by causing the market to rise or fall based on just how close or not so close the U.S. Congress is to passing the ransom bailout.So, they are playing a skillful game of chicken. I used to play that game with cars as a teenager. You would put up your pink slip with an opponent. Then the two of you would race head-on toward each other. The first one to swerve aside lost. We are in a similar game of chicken – only the stakes are much higher. I wonder if the American taxpayer will ever say, Enough is enough! Throw the bums out.

Trade commissioner Mandelson resigns
LEIGH PHILLIPS Today OCT 3,08 @ 17:53 CET

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - In a shock move, European Union trade commissioner Peter Mandelson is to leave his position with the EU's executive and take up the position of secretary of state for business in UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown's reshuffled cabinet.Mr Mandelson, a longtime antagonist of Mr Brown's faction within the UK Labour Party, has been asked to return to London to help the prime minister grapple with the current financial crisis.Having twice resigned from the UK government under the cloud of corruption allegations, Mr Mandelson is reportedly to be offered a peerage so he may sit at the cabinet table.

From commissioner to peer

The leader of the House of Lords, Cathy Ashton, Baroness Ashton of Upholland, is to replace Mr Mandelson as the UK's commissioner.Commission president Barroso has decided to attribute the trade portfolio to Ms Ashton, allowing the UK to maintain its dossier, a move the commission president did not make following the resignation of former justice and home affairs commissioner Franco Frattini, after he resigned in May, to take up the position of foreign minister in Silvio Berlusconi's new government.Then, Mr Barroso offered the justice portfolio to French commissioner Jacques Barrot, and gave transport to the incoming Italian commissioner, Antonio Tajani.Mr Brown picked a peer to avoid a by-election at time when the prime minister's party is fairing poorly in the polls.

Cheers and tears

The commissioner's departure left European business representatives in Brussels saddened to see such a champion of their interests move on.Development NGOs and fair trade campaigners, meanwhile, who have repeatedly criticised Mr Mandelson's positions, cheered the development.Considering his 'interesting' sojourn in the UK government in the past, I was surprised to see the announcement that he would be returning, said Stuart Newman, an advisor with the Brussels-based Foreign Trade Association, an alliance of national trade associations promoting liberalisation of markets. However, I also feel that his departure from the EU Trade Commissioner's post will be a loss for the supporters of free trade such as the many importers and retailers throughout Europe, he added.I only hope that he can continue his non-protectionist views in his new position as secretary of state for business.Julian Oram, head of policy at the World Development Movement, a UK development charity, welcomed Mr Mandelson's departure.Peter Mandelson's reign in Brussels as Trade Commissioner has been characterised by a truly aggressive approach to trade with developing countries, and a determination to prioritise the interests of European big business at all costs, she said.Whether at the World Trade Organisation, or in trade negotiations with countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America, he has lectured and arguably bullied developing countries to accept unfair trade deals, no matter the cost to subsistence farmers and manufacturing jobs locally.The charity said they hoped the new commissioner will bring a breath of fresh air to EU policy.It is imperative that DG Trade overhauls its thinking and places sustainable development, rather than the interests of European multinationals, at its heart, Ms Oram added.

Oxfam, the international development NGO, was more oblique in its criticism of the outgoing commissioner, saying they call on Ashton to take a new approach to EU trade policies, including rethinking the partnership agreements between the European Union and the African, Caribbean and Pacific countries, by placing development at the heart of the negotiations.

STORMS HURRICANES-TORNADOES

LUKE 21:25-26
25 And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity;(MASS CONFUSION) the sea and the waves roaring;(FIERCE WINDS)
26 Men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken.

Tropical Storm Marie in the Eastern Pacific Tom Moore OCT 3,08

In the eastern Pacific, Tropical Storm Marie (70 mph) is located about 875 miles WSW of Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. The storm is moving toward the W at 2 mph and is expected to continue moving WNW to W over the next few days. Marie is no threat to land. Minimal shear and marginally warm waters will allow Marie to strengthen into a category 1 hurricane before cooler waters finally cause gradual weakening. Eastern Pacific.Elsewhere in the eastern Pacific, an area of disturbed weather, several hundred miles south of Acapulco, Mexico, has a good chance for further development as it drifts westward and could become a tropical depression in the next few days. Northwest Caribbean Low Associated with the remnants of an old front, a broad area of low pressure over the northwest Caribbean is generating more and more showers and thunderstorms. Some shear lingers over this nearly stationary and disorganized system and any development will be slow to occur over the next few days. Western Pacific Tropical Depression Higos (35 mph) is moving over Hainan Island and will then head northward into southern China just to the east of northern Vietnam. Heavy rainfall is its only threat.

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).

EU states agree to invite Belarus minister
PHILIPPA RUNNER Today OCT 3,08 @ 17:43 CET

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - EU states have agreed to invite Belarus foreign minister Sergei Martynov to a prestigious meeting in Brussels, as the French EU presidency struggles to counter Russian diplomacy on the union's eastern fringe.The Belarusian minister is to take part in a troika gathering with EU foreign relations chief Javier Solana, external relations commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner and French foreign minister Bernard Kouchner on 13 October, on the margins of a wider EU foreign ministers' meeting on the same day.Senior EU diplomats made the decision in Brussels on Friday (4 October), with Mr Kouchner's office set to rubber-stamp the move before a formal invitation goes out. A previous suggestion to bring Mr Martynov to Paris in September was judged premature at the time. The invitation is likely to be made before 6 October, when Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin plans to visit Minsk, in order to show Belarus that the EU is taking seriously its latest offer of a rapprochement with the West.We wouldn't like to leave Belarus in the arms of Russia, a French diplomat told the EUobserver. We want to see what we could do in order not to give up the sanctions totally, the sticks, but to give some carrots at the same time.France is considering the risk that Mr Putin will use the threat of gas price hikes against Belarus in 2009 to pressure the country into recognising Georgia rebel enclaves South Ossetia and Abkhazia as independent states, she added.

The Martynov-troika meeting would signal a breakthrough in EU-Belarus relations. In 1997, the EU froze meetings with Belarus officials above the deputy-minister level, and between 2004 and 2006 imposed a visa ban on 41 officials, including President Alexander Lukashenko.Belarussian parliamentary elections last Sunday were judged undemocratic by the EU and the OSCE. However, Belarus has released some political prisoners and allowed small anti-Lukashenko protests, as it seeks Western support in a bid to resist becoming a Russian client state.

Unturning the screw

The EU is also considering relaxing its legal sanctions package on top of the one-off Martynov gesture. The latest options discussed internally include a temporary suspension of the visa ban for part of the names on the list. The suspension could include President Lukashenko himself, but not people such as Viktor Sheyman, a former security chief implicated in the disappearance of three anti-government activists in 1999.The EU is also debating ending the 1997 ban on high-level contacts and chopping the costs of EU visas from €60 (one third the average monthly wage in Belarus) to €35 per visit. The visa move could help build pro-EU sentiment among ordinary Belarusians and advertise the benefits of political reform. We want people to come to Vilnius and see how things look in a democracy, how much we have prospered, a Lithuanian official said. Any sanctions decision will wait until the 13 October EU foreign ministers' meeting however, in case the unpredictable President Lukashenko makes a u-turn after the Putin visit next week.

The Dutch obstacle

The large majority of EU states in favour of softening sanctions will also have to convince Dutch foreign minister Maxim Verhagen of the merit of such a move.We are not convinced there has been any major improvement [in the political climate in Belarus]. He [Mr Verhagen] doesn't see any grounds for a substantial change, a Dutch diplomat said. We're talking about human rights here and we have to take things seriously, he added. This has all the makings of being a substantial discussion point in the GAERC [the EU foreign ministers gathering].

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).

Vietnam finds tainted products from China By VU TIEN HONG, Associated Press Writer OCT 3,08

HANOI, Vietnam - Vietnam's health ministry has discovered the industrial chemical melamine in 18 food products imported from China and three other countries and has ordered them recalled and destroyed, officials said Friday. Russian news agencies reported that food inspectors found nearly two tons of Chinese dry milk believed to be contaminated with melamine. And Philippines health officials found melamine in two of 30 milk products from China tested for the chemical.Australian food regulators recalled China-made Kirin Milk Tea after tests in found the drink contained melamine. It is the fourth product withdrawn from the country's stores in the wake of China's tainted milk scandal.Milk containing melamine has been blamed for killing four babies and sickening more than 54,000 with kidney stones and other illnesses in China. The contamination has sparked global concerns about food products made with Chinese milk or milk powder and recalls in several countries of Chinese-made products.Chinese authorities believe suppliers trying to boost output diluted their milk, adding melamine because its nitrogen content can fool tests aimed at verifying protein content.The tainted food has also spread to the U.S. where melamine has been found in Chinese-made White Rabbit Creamy Candy sold in California and Connecticut.

The Food and Drug Administration said Friday that trace amounts of melamine are safe in most foods, except for baby formula. A safety assessment by the agency concluded that 2.5 parts per million — a tiny amount — does not raise concerns. A week ago, the FDA warned consumers not to consume White Rabbit Candy and Mr. Brown coffee products because of possible melamine contamination.Recent tests in Vietnam found melamine in dairy products and crackers imported from China, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia, according to the Ministry of Health's Web site. It did not list all the brand names that tested positive for melamine, but among them were five different varieties of Yili milk, one of the brands found to be contaminated in China.We will intensify our inspections for melamine contamination to ensure the safety of consumers, said Nguyen Thi Khanh Tram, vice director of Vietnam's food safety administration.Most of the contaminated items were milk and dairy products from China, the ministry said.However, they also included crackers imported from Malaysia and Indonesia as well as a powdered dairy creamer imported from Thailand. It was not clear whether those products had been produced in those countries or simply shipped to Vietnam from warehouses there.Even before the test results were announced, retailers across Vietnam had begun removing tons of Chinese dairy products from their shelves and importers have been destroying them, Vietnamese media reported.

Vietnamese authorities have also said they will require all milk products to be tested before they can be imported.Philippine Health Secretary Francisco Duque III identified the two tainted brands Friday as Mengniu and Yili, which have already been found to be contaminated in tests in China.Duque said 28 other products, including M&M chocolate candies, powdered milk and yogurt have been cleared for sale and 200 more were being tested. Additional results may be released early next week.

The Philippine government halted imports and sales of Chinese milk products pending inspections last week.Russia's ITAR-Tass quoted Russia's chief epidemiologist Gennady Onishchenko as saying that 2 tons of dry milk was seized in the Far Eastern city of Khabarovsk, on the Chinese border.Consumer watchdog Rospotrebnadzor on Tuesday banned all imports of Chinese dairy produce.

Navy confirms lost WWII sub has been found Fri Oct 3, 3:45 AM ET

PEARL HARBOR, Hawaii - The Navy has confirmed the wreckage of a sunken vessel found last year off the Aleutians Islands is that of the USS Grunion, which disappeared during World War II. Underwater video footage and pictures captured by an expedition hired by sons of the commanding officer, Lt. Cmdr. Mannert L. Abele, allowed the Navy to confirm the discovery, Rear Adm. Douglas McAneny said Thursday in a news release.McAneny said the Navy was very grateful to the Abele family.We hope this announcement will help to give closure to the families of the 70 crewmen of Grunion, he said.The Grunion was last heard from July 30, 1942. The submarine reported heavy anti-submarine activity at the entrance to Kiska, and that it had 10 torpedoes remaining forward. On the same day, the Grunion was directed to return to Dutch Harbor Naval Operating Base. The submarine was reported lost Aug. 16, 1942.Japanese anti-submarine attack data recorded no attack in the Aleutian area at the time of the Grunion's disappearance, so the submarine's fate remained an unsolved mystery for more than 60 years, the Navy said.Abele's son's, Bruce, Brad, and John, began working on a plan to find the sub after finding information on the Internet in 2002 that helped pinpoint USS Grunion's possible location.In August 2006, a team of side scan sonar experts hired by the brothers located a target near Kiska almost a mile below the ocean's surface. A second expedition in August 2007 using a high definition camera on a remotely operated vehicle yielded video footage and high resolution photos of the wreckage.

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 RUSSIA-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.

Putin slams Ukraine on Georgia arms sales, agrees gas deal by Olga Nedbayeva
Thu Oct 2, 8:42 PM ET

MOSCOW (AFP) - Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin lashed out at Ukraine for delivering weapons to Georgia, overshadowing talks with his Ukrainian counterpart that ended in a draft agreement on gas pricing. Putin sharply criticised the ex-Soviet republic Thursday over what he said were weapons used by Georgia to fight Russia during a brief conflict in August.A more serious crime than arms deliveries in a conflict zone cannot be imagined, Putin said.Several years ago, we could not have imagined Russians and Ukrainians making war against each other, but that has happened and it's a crime.The comments came amid tense relations between Moscow and Kiev over the conflict in Georgia, but the two prime ministers were able to reach a draft agreement that seeks to resolve the delicate issue of gas prices.Gas prices have been a sore point between the countries, and much of Europe also has a stake in whether the issue is put to rest.Russia has in the past cut supplies to both Ukraine, which is heavily dependent on Russian energy, and Western Europe over gas prices.The parties have confirmed their good will in moving gradually, in three years, to market prices, Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko said after the meeting outside Moscow.We don't need shock therapy in terms of prices, she added at a joint press conference with Putin.

Ukraine eventually paying market prices for gas would mean a major increase on what it pays now.Tymoshenko said last week she expected Ukraine to sign a deal with Russia by the end of October on the delivery of gas from 2009 for a period of up to four years.Soaring prices were seen as potentially complicating talks, however, after Russian gas monopoly Gazprom announced prices for European clients had hit an all-time high of 500 dollars per 1,000 cubic metres.Ukraine currently pays 179.5 dollars per 1,000 cubic metres and Russia has long been pushing Kiev to pay more, resulting in a series of price disputes intertwined with the two countries' rocky ties.In 2006 one such dispute led Moscow to cut off gas deliveries to Ukraine and, by extension, to Western Europe, which gets much of its gas from Russia and Central Asia via pipelines running through Ukraine.Tymoshenko later met with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, his press service reported according to Interfax news agency.Domestically, Ukraine is in the grips of its own political turmoil.Tymoshenko and her arch-rival Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko have been feuding bitterly in a political uproar that began when the president pulled his party out of their ruling pro-West coalition after a dispute over how to respond to the war in Georgia.

Yushchenko's office accused the prime minister of treason for not being tough enough on Russia. Media reports had said Moscow was pressuring Tymoshenko to ally with pro-Russian forces in Kiev, but she denied any such links between the price of gas and the composition of the future coalition in Ukraine. Putin on Thursday alluded to the situation and the effect it could have on any deal between Moscow and Kiev. In concluding accords today we might wonder what will become of them tomorrow, he said.

The pro-Kremlin daily Izvestia on Thursday accused Yushchenko of selling Georgia air-defence systems and rocket launchers used in the attack on South Ossetia. On Wednesday, Tymoshenko denounced arms trafficking in Ukraine and blamed Yushchenko and his allies for not stopping it, Interfax news agency reported. The squabbling threatened Thursday's meeting with Putin when Yushchenko's plane made an emergency landing near Kiev, and Tymoshenko's team accused him of seizing her plane as she was about to leave for Moscow. The government delegation was deprived of its plane in a bid to thwart the negotiations with Putin, a Tymoshenko spokesman was quoted as saying by Interfax. The prime minister arrived in Moscow aboard a chartered plane.

Ukraine's president and prime minister have had a love-hate relationship since 2004, when they joined forces in the so-called Orange Revolution to overturn the rigged election of a pro-Russian candidate as president.

Russia could breach Georgia truce, top US official warns by Jonathan Fowler
Thu Oct 2, 6:27 PM ET

VILNIUS, Lithuania (AFP) - Russia could be poised to breach the ceasefire which brought its war with ex-Soviet Georgia to a halt in August, a senior US official warned on Thursday. US Assistant Secretary of State Daniel Fried said he feared Moscow would fail to fully respect the EU-brokered deal which stipulates that it must pull its troops out of parts of Georgia neighbouring two breakaway regions and back to positions they held before the fighting.I think the Russians will respect that part of the agreements which requires them to pull their troops out of this so-called security zone and out of uncontested Georgia, Fried said in an interview with AFP.What I fear is that they will not respect that part of the ceasefire that requires them to pull all of their combat forces back to their positions of August 7. And this is part of the six-point ceasefire. It's quite explicit, he said during a visit to Lithuania, a former Soviet republic which joined the EU in 2004 and is a staunch ally of Georgia.On Wednesday, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev reiterated that Moscow was committed to withdrawing its forces by October 10 from the buffer zones it seized in Georgia alongside the regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

The date was fixed in the truce brokered by French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who is currently at the helm of the 27-nation European Union.Moscow had long backed Abkhazia and South Ossetia's rebel leaderships, who following brief conflicts broke with Tbilisi after Georgia won independence from the crumbling Soviet Union in 1991.

Russian peacekeepers were posted in both regions -- much to the annoyance of Georgia, which accused them of bias -- and were bolstered ahead of the conflict, which Russia blamed on a Georgian attack on South Ossetia.Western nations strongly condemned Russia's actions in Georgia as a violation of international law and of Georgia's integrity.Russia has tried to use war as a means of changing international boundaries. This is quite shocking, Fried said.Moscow recognised the independence of the two separatist Georgian territories on August 26, but has won meagre support for its stance.I think the Russians are acutely embarrassed by the international resistance to their invasion of Georgia and their recognition of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, said Fried.After all, they've been joined by which countries? Nicaragua. Now Somalia. And Hamas (the Palestinian Islamist movement). What is this? This is hardly a diplomatic triumph. This is in fact a disaster, he said.This is acutely embarrassing, and they should be embarrassed, he added.

Why Syria Will Keep Provoking Israel By ROBERT BAER OCT 3,08

Oddly enough, Saturday's car bombing in Damascus will serve Iran's interests. Tehran thrives on chaos, which presents it an opportunity to come to the aid of friendly regimes and causes in the Middle East that need backing. More than likely, Iranian leaders were on the phone with counterparts in Damascus all Saturday, telling the Syrians not to lose heart. The Iranian message to Damascus is simple: If Israel and the United States see any weakness in the Assad regime, they will drive a truck through it and bring it down. And, if history is anything to go by, that's a message Damascus will listen to. What we tend to ignore is why Syria has had an uninterrupted record of attaching itself to radical causes and countries like Iran. For starters, Syria is ruled by a besieged and insecure minority, the Alawites, a heterodox-Shi'ite ethnic minority. About 12% of Syria's population, the Alawites are looked at by extremist Sunni Muslims as heretics, fallen-away Muslims, usurpers who should be put to the sword. In the late 70s and early 80s, the Sunni extremists came close to getting their way. During a February 1982 Muslim Brotherhood insurrection in Hama, Syria's third largest city, Hafez al-Assad felt compelled to flatten it in order to stay in power. But it wasn't until the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon that Syria finally beat the Muslim Brothers. By joining Iran in the so-called Islamic resistance against Israel, Assad associated the Alawites with a cause larger than themselves. It was not unlike the 60s and 70s when Syria backed radical Palestinian groups - and fought Israel head-on in 1967 and 1973. The 18-year war in Lebanon (1982-2000) decisively undercut the Muslim Brothers' charge that the Alawites were apostate traitors and dupes of Israel and the United States. Had the Muslim Brothers continued to kill Alawites, they would have been considered the traitors. There's nothing like a good war to stabilize an unstable regime.

Given a choice, the Alawites would be happy to skirt the 21st century, satisfied with ruling a Third World backwater. But geography won't allow it. Syria is at the center of the Arab-Israeli conflict, in which Syria has no choice but take sides. Since the Alawites cannot settle with Tel Aviv and survive the wrath of the Muslim Brothers, it remains reliant on its alliance with Tehran. And this is not to mention that with the division between Shi'ites and Sunnis widening, the Alawites will feel they need Iran and its message of belligerence to Israel more than ever. So if, for instance, Iran suggests that Syria respond to Saturday's bombing by shipping more weapons to Hizballah, Syria will be inclined to agree. Having been embraced as honorary Shi'ites by Tehran, a regime whose survival depends on its maintaining some sort of Islamic credentials, in the face of accusations of heresy and apostasy, needs its relationship with Tehran, and to be seen to be shoring up fellow Shi'ites.

To Americans, it may appear reckless for the Syrians to provoke Israel by beefing up Hizballah - especially with Israel now constrained in how it can respond to Iran's nuclear program. (The U.S. has made clear to the Israelis that getting into a war with Iran is the proverbial bridge too far, and that Washington therefore won't support or enable an Israeli military strike on the Islamic Republic.) But, again, Americans don't understand the Alawites' dark insecurity - and the fact that they will risk war with Israel if they believe their survival requires it. Time.com

Israel to install radar antennae near nuclear site Fri Oct 3, 6:20 AM ET

JERUSALEM (AFP) - Israel will install two massive radar antennae near the Dimona nuclear plant to bolster its defence measures against Iran, the Maariv newspaper reported on Friday. The 400 metre-high (1,300 feet) antennae will be erected in the Negev desert near a top-secret military site where Israel is widely believed to have developed the only nuclear arsenal in the Middle East, the paper said.An Israeli army spokesman said a new installation was being constructed but would not give further details, saying only that it was a military facility serving current military activities.Maariv said work on the twin masts, which would be the largest in the region, would begin in two weeks and would be completed in three months, but did not provide details on what the system would be used for.The newspaper said the antennae were part of a massive new radar system that the United States will deploy in Israel, a project announced by the Pentagon earlier this week.The deployment comes amid heightened fears regarding Iran's nuclear enrichment programme, which the United States and Israel say is aimed at developing weapons that could threaten the Jewish state's existence.Iran insists its programme is entirely peaceful.

Israel has long considered Iran its main strategic threat, both because of its nuclear programme and because of repeated statements by Iranian leaders predicting the demise of the Jewish state.The Pentagon was scheduled to deploy the radar to Israel in the autumn of 2009 for a joint exercise but moved it up a year following high-level talks in Washington.The United States deployed a similar radar to Japan in 2006 in response to a North Korean missile test.Also known as X-Band, the AN/TPY2 radar is designed to track ballistic missiles through space and provide ground-based missiles with the targeting data needed to intercept them.Data from the system will be provided to Israel's missile defence system, but the radar will remain owned and operated by the US military.

Stunning Words from Israel's Lame-Duck Leader By Larry Derfner
Thu Oct 2, 5:36 PM ET

JERUSALEM--Lame-duck Prime Minister Ehud Olmert raised a lot of eyebrows by saying that in return for peace, Israel will have to give up virtually all the land it conquered in the 1967 Six Day War.Apparently, there is a certain liberation that comes from having a political career in tatters over allegations of having pocketed envelopes of cash and other corrupt actions.What I'm telling you now has never been said by an Israeli leader before me, Olmert told journalists from Yediot Aharonot, the country's largest newspaper, in a lengthy pre-Rosh Hashana interview.

Technically, he's right; no previous Israeli premier ever publicly stated his willingness to sign peace treaties that gave the Palestinians almost all...if not all of the West Bank, including Arab East Jerusalem, as well as the entire Golan Heights to Syria.Yet, dramatic as his remarks sounded, there's probably less to them than meets the eye.For one thing, Olmert can't make good on his bold words because he has resigned (because of the corruption investigations against him), and will soon be replaced in a government reshuffle or elections.For another thing, it's not exactly a revelation to say that the price of peace for Israel is all or virtually all of the conquered territories. Israel first offered the Golan Heights to Syria in return for peace in a 1994 message to the United States, and offered nearly all of the West Bank and Arab East Jerusalem to the Palestinians in closed-door negotiations in 2001. Furthermore, the peace talks that the Olmert government is now conducting with the Palestinian Authority and Syria are tacitly understood to require a full-scale Israeli withdrawal if they are to succeed.What's more, Olmert made it clear that peace doesn't require only Israel to step up; the Palestinians and Syrians have to step up as well, and they are even farther away from the plate than Israel.Unfortunately, the Palestinians do not have the courage, strength, determination, will, and urgency required, he said, adding that Syria had yet to accept Israel's demand to distance itself from Iran and Hezbollah.

Olmert's Arab interlocutors sounded unimpressed.

Palestinian negotiators said they still hadn't been given anything in writing, while the Syrians again turned down Israel's offer to negotiate directly instead of through Turkish mediators.At home, Olmert's powerful right-wing opposition attacked him for endangering the existence of the state of Israel, in the words of one Knesset member.Meanwhile, no reaction has come from Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, Olmert's recently elected successor as Kadima party leader who is trying to form a coalition government that would put her in his seat. However, Livni, who heads the peace talks with the Palestinians and supports the negotiations with Syria, is widely assumed to have roughly the same map in mind that Olmert described.On Iran, Olmert didn't explicitly rule out an attack on its nuclear facilities, but implicitly, he did. The assumption that if America and Russia and China and Britain and Germany don't know how to deal with the Iranians, [but] we Israelis do know, we will deal with it, we will act--this is an example of our loss of a sense of proportion, he said.Maybe the most eye-opening part of the interview was Olmert's disparagement of Israel's supremely influential military establishment. With them, it is all about tanks and land and controlling territories and controlled territories and this hilltop and that hilltop, he said. All these things are worthless.He told of being briefed once by the country's top security officials and afterward telling them, When I listen to you, I understand why we haven't made peace in 40 years with the Palestinians and Syrians, and why we won't make peace in another 40 years with the Palestinians and Syrians.Actually, coming from an Israeli prime minister, that probably does count as a revelation.

YAY SARAH PALIN I THOUGHT WAS GREAT IN THE DEBATE.

PALIN - BIDEN DEBATE
http://edition.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/10/02/debate.transcript/?iref=mpstoryview

Candidates spar on energy, taxes, war By BETH FOUHY, Associated Press Writer
OCT 3,08

Republican Sarah Palin and Democrat Joe Biden sparred over taxes, energy policy and the Iraq war in a high-profile debate in which Palin sought to reclaim her identity as a feisty reformer and Biden tried to undercut the maverick image of GOP presidential hopeful John McCain. I think things went very well last night, Palin said Friday as she flew to Texas for a fundraiser. It was energizing and I was happy to have had the opportunity.Palin, in the 90-minute forum broadcast Thursday night from Washington University in St. Louis, was under intense pressure to show basic competence on issues facing the next president after a series of embarrassing television interviews called into question her readiness for high office.For the most part she appeared confident and folksy while casting Biden and Democratic standard bearer Barack Obama as tax-raisers who would risk defeat in Iraq and the broader war on terror.Two quick polls indicated that Biden fared better in the debate. A CBS News/Knowledge Networks Poll found that 46 percent of uncommitted voters who watched the debate thought Biden won, with 21 percent siding with Palin. A CNN poll found respondents judging Biden the winner by a margin of 51 percent to 36 percent but calling Palin more likable by 54 percent to Biden's 36 percent.

Palin tried to portray the Democrats as obsessed with the failures of President Bush even as she acknowledged his Republican administration was responsible for huge blunders in the war and elsewhere.For a ticket that wants to talk about change and looking into the future, there's just too much finger-pointing backwards to ever make us believe that that's where you're going, Palin said, saying she and McCain were the real change agents in the race.But Palin also sidestepped certain questions, pivoting at times to talking points and generalities.Asked by moderator Gwen Ifill if she would support legislation allowing debt-strapped mortgage holders to file for bankruptcy to get out from under that debt, Palin said yes but avoided details, quickly steering the focus back to a more general discussion of the toxic mess in the financial industry.And asked how she as vice president would help reduce partisanship in Washington, she said, Let's commit ourselves just every day American people, Joe Six Pack, hockey moms across the nation, I think we need to band together and say never again.Biden, for his part, largely avoided direct challenges to Palin and instead worked to undermine McCain, who has sought throughout the campaign to distance himself from the unpopular Bush.The Delaware senator repeatedly noted that McCain had sided with Bush on crucial issues, from launching the war in Iraq to tax policies that widened the income disparity between rich and poor.He's been a maverick on some issues, but he has been no maverick on the things that matter to people's lives, Biden said of McCain, noting that the Arizona senator had voted for Bush's budget proposals and against legislation providing heating oil assistance to low income families and enrolling more children in government-sponsored health insurance.The candidates traded jabs on energy. Palin criticized the Democratic ticket for opposing offshore oil drilling while Biden chided McCain for voting against proposals in the Senate to expand the development of alternative energy sources.Palin repeatedly mentioned Obama's vote in 2005 for an energy bill that allowed oil companies to receive large corporate tax breaks, saying she had worked to stop such corporate greed among oil interests in Alaska.

Bless their hearts ... they're not my biggest fans, Palin said of executives at ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips.Palin also restated her controversial view that climate change is largely due to cyclical changes in the earth's atmosphere and not primarily caused by human behavior. Biden disagreed, saying climate change was caused by man.On taxes, Biden reaffirmed his position that it was patriotic for people who earn more than $250,000 to pay additional taxes. Obama's tax plan would cut taxes for about 90 percent of Americans, Biden said. When Palin called his position a redistribution of wealth principle, Biden shot back, observing that McCain wanted to reduce taxes on businesses and the very rich. We don't call a redistribution in my neighborhood Scranton, Claymont, Wilmington, the places I grew up ... to say that not giving ExxonMobil another $4 billion tax cut this year as John calls for and giving it to middle class people to be able to pay to get their kids to college. We call that fairness, Biden said. On social issues, the candidates both said they supported partnership rights for gay and lesbian partners but opposed same sex marriage. The exchange over Iraq was personal for the two candidates, both of whom have sons set to deploy there with military units. Your plan is a white flag of surrender in Iraq and that is not what our troops need to hear today, that's for sure, Palin told Biden, who like Obama supports a timetable to remove U.S. troops from the region. You guys opposed the surge, Palin said, referring to Bush's decision in 2007 to send an additional 30,000 combat troops to Iraq. The surge worked. Barack Obama still can't admit the surge works.Biden defended Obama's vote in May 2007 not to fund military operations in Iraq unless a timeline was set for withdrawal, even though Biden sharply criticized the Illinois senator's vote at the time. And Biden tried to turn the table on McCain, questioning his judgment on the Iraq conflict from the beginning. On the Net: McCain campaign: http://www.johnmccain.com/ Obama campaign: http://www.barackobama.com/index.php

VP Moderator Ifill Has Anti-Palin Bias Thursday, October 2, 2008 11:34 AM
By: Jim Meyers

Gwen Ifill, the moderator of Thursday night’s vice presidential debate between Sarah Palin and Joe Biden, is coming under increasing fire for her apparent anti-Palin bias. When Ifill was chosen to moderate the debate, the John McCain-Palin campaign was unaware that she has a new book coming out that expresses admiration for Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama, Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama.McCain himself complained on Fox & Friends Thursday morning: Frankly, I wish they had picked a moderator that isn’t writing a book favorable to Barack Obama…

Life isn’t fair.

Ifill tipped her hand when she hosted a discussion on PBS’ Washington Week on Sept. 5, after the close of the Republican convention that nominated Palin. Ifill showed a video showing Palin saying, Here’s a little news flash for those reporters and commentators: I’m not going to Washington to seek their good opinion, I’m going to Washington to serve the people of this great country.Ifill sniped: Wow, was she talking about us, or just changing the subject? Later Ifill said about Palin: Lots of talk about, what, gutting caribou or whatever — I shouldn’t say it this way — gutting caribou in Alaska, which I’m sure is a fine, fine thing to do. That drew laughter from the audience. “What I’m just saying, we heard a lot more about what Sarah Palin did for sport or what she did as a mother or what she did — than what she did as a governor actually, the actual policy decisions. Ifill also raised this point: This is a weird question, but what don’t we know about Sarah Palin?

Conservative commentator Michelle Malkin said on Tuesday that Ifill is so far in the tank” for Obama that “her oxygen delivery line is running out.Ifill was cited in complaints PBS Ombudsman Michael Getler said he received after Palin delivered her nomination acceptance speech at the convention, World Net Daily reported. Some viewers complained of a dismissive look by Ifill when discussing Palin’s speech, and some said she wore a look of disgust while reporting on the GOP candidate. One complaint read in part: It is quite obvious that Ms. Ifill supports Obama as she struggled to say anything redemptive about Gov. Palin’s performance. I am disappointed in Ms. Ifill’s complete disregard for journalistic objectivity.Newsmax

PRAY FOR JOHN HAGEE

I NEVER EVEN HEARD JOHN HAGEE WAS IN THE HOSPITAL WITH HEART SURGERY, PRAY HE WILL BE HEALED PEOPLE, THANKS.

Pastor John Hagee recovering after heart surgery OCT 2,08

SAN ANTONIO - Pastor John Hagee, the internationally known radio/TV evangelist, was recovering after undergoing open heart surgery. A spokesman for Hagee's Cornerstone Church, Juda Engelmayer, said the successful procedure was done Thursday at a San Antonio hospital. Engelmayer also told the San Antonio Express-News that the 68-year-old minister is expected to be away from the pulpit for about a month.His 30-year-old son, associate pastor Matt Hagee, will take over church operations until the elder minister returns.Engelmayer said a routine checkup revealed a need for the heart surgery and Hagee came through great. The name of the hospital was not disclosed.Hagee founded the nondenominational, evangelical Cornerstone Church. According to its Web site, has more than 19,000 active members. Hagee also founded Christians United for Israel.On the Net:http://www.jhm.org

PALIN - BIDEN DEBATE
http://edition.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/10/02/debate.transcript/?iref=mpstoryview

I THINK SARAH PALIN IS FANTASTIC TONIGHT IN THE DEBATE. BIDEN IS TALKING FROM BOTH SIDES OF HIS MOUTH AS BAD AS JOHN KERRY DID.