CONS MINORITY GOVERNMENT IN CANADA

Harper wins stronger minority government
Updated Wed. Oct. 15 2008 3:04 AM ET Michael Stittle, CTV.ca News

Stephen Harper says Canadians have chartered the way forward for Canada, after strong gains in Ontario gave the Conservatives a larger minority government. No matter what economic challenges we face from abroad, this is a land where people from every corner of the Earth have come together to build a peaceful and prosperous country without comparison, the Conservative leader told cheering supporters in Calgary. Canada will always be the true north, strong and free.He said the Conservatives would continue to ensure Canada is able to weather the global credit crisis, by enforcing firm regulations for banks and promoting business through low taxes. For Canada's $1.5-trillion economy, for the protection of the earnings, savings and future opportunities of our 33 million people, we have a realistic, prudent and responsible plan, he said.Past midnight, the Tories had won or were leading in 143 ridings across the country, out of a possible 308. Harper needed at least 155 seats to form a majority government. As the dust settled in Tuesday's election, the NDP had 37 seats and the Bloc Quebecois 50. The Liberals were headed to a crushing defeat, losing about 18 ridings to fall to 76. In Liberal Leader Stephane Dion's concession speech, he promised to work closely with the Conservatives to tackle any economic troubles. We Liberals will do our part responsibly to make sure this government works, he said in Montreal. It's clear our economy -- indeed, the global economic crisis -- is the most important issue facing our country. As the official opposition, we will work with the government to make sure Canadians are protected from the economic storm.NDP Leader Jack Layton also said he would work closely with Harper, telling supporters in Toronto that the Tories could not govern alone without a majority.

No party has a mandate to implement an agenda without agreement from the other parties, Layton said. I believe the people of Canada have called upon all parties to put aside the acrimony that arises in campaigns, and to come together in the public interest. So we're going to do exactly that.Harper needed to make strong gains in Quebec in order to secure a majority, but made missteps in the final weeks of the campaign by pledging to cut arts funding and crack down on young offenders. The Bloc Quebecois appeared ready to dominate the election results in Quebec once again, while the Tories were leading or had won about 10 seats in the province -- a loss of roughly one riding. Bloc leader Gilles Duceppe boasted of his party's strong performance, noting it was the sixth consecutive majority win in Quebec. I want to salute the work of all the candidates with the Bloc, he told supporters. It was a great campaign.Tory cabinet minister Michael Fortier was defeated in the Montreal-area riding of Vaudreuil-Soulanges, where he was defeated by incumbent Bloc MP Meili Faille. But despite controversy, embattled Conservative candidate Maxime Bernier managed to keep his Quebec riding of Beauce. Bernier was removed from his post as foreign affairs minister earlier this year after he left sensitive government papers at the home of his former girlfriend, Julie Couillard. It's a good feeling, I'm very happy, said Bernier. When asked if he hoped to return to cabinet, Bernier said the prime minister will decide.

Strong gains in Ontario

Ontario was key to a strong Conservative victory, with the province's 106 seats. While Toronto was largely expected to remain a Liberal stronghold, early results suggested the Tories would pick up roughly nine more seats elsewhere in the province. In one major loss for the Liberals, Garth Turner was defeated by Conservative candidate Lisa Raitt in the Ontario riding of Halton. I think the Liberal party, my party, failed to deliver a real, cogent response to the economic crisis, he told CTV News. But despite the Liberal losses, Bob Rae said the opposition parties had deprived Harper of his ultimate goal. I think it's important for people to recognize that Mr. Harper started this campaign looking for a majority. He didn't get it, Rae told CTV News, after winning his riding of Toronto Centre. Regardless of what anyone might want to say, tonight is a defeat for Mr. Harper because he didn't get what he was seeking to get.In one hard-fought Liberal win, former leadership candidate Gerard Kennedy unseated NDP candidate Peggy Nash.

In British Columbia, the Conservatives were set to win 20 seats, including a win by Dona Cadman, the wife of the late Independent MP Chuck Cadman. The Liberals largely held their ground in Atlantic Canada and swept Newfoundland, where Premier Danny Williams waged a fierce campaign against the Conservatives. But the Tories have made gains in New Brunswick. Early results in the region showed the Conservatives completely shut out of Newfoundland and Labrador. One high-profile loss for the party was Fabian Manning. Williams, a Progressive Conservative, has had a long-standing feud with Harper over rights to his province's offshore energy revenues and the latest equalization formula. In the past month he had publicized an Anything But Conservative campaign. But Conservatives had a strong showing in other parts of Atlantic Canada. Peter MacKay staved off a challenge from Green Party Leader Elizabeth May to hang on to his Nova Scotia riding of Central Nova. It's overwhelming, it's exhilarating, he said. All of these emotions come back every time.

May had likened the fight to David and Goliath, after casting her ballot early Tuesday morning. If she had won, it would have made her Canada's first elected Green MP. While no Green Party candidates are headed to Parliament, the party did manage to increase its popular vote to 7 per cent from 5 per cent. In New Brunswick, the Conservatives managed to unseat the Liberals in two ridings: Fredericton and Miramichi. Before Parliament was dissolved on Sept. 7, the Conservatives had 127 seats, the Liberals had 95, the NDP 30 and Bloc 48. The Greens had one seat, but the MP had initially been elected as a Liberal.

Worst voter turnout in history

Only 58 per cent of eligible voters decided to cast their ballots Tuesday, the lowest in the country's history. In 2006, it was 64 per cent. An estimated 1.5 million Canadians cast their ballots in early voting. The election followed a 37-day campaign -- one of the shortest possible under Canadian law. Harper asked Canadians for a stronger mandate to govern the country, after two and a half years of minority rule. He called an election after complaining that Parliament had become increasingly dysfunctional, making it difficult for him to lead the country. It's difficult to see ... how the prime minister comes back to the people of Canada, at the end, of the day and says this election was worth something, former Liberal cabinet minister Brian Tobin told CTV News.

Conservatives headed for minority government Tue. Oct. 14 2008 10:24 PM ET
CTV.ca News Staff

The Conservatives are on track to win another minority government and could make strong gains in Ontario, where the Liberals appear to have lost ground. The Tories had won or were leading in 118 ridings across the country, out of a possible 308, shortly after polls had closed at 10 p.m. ET. The Liberals had 72, the NDP 27 and the Bloc Quebecois 39. Conservative Leader Stephen Harper will need at least 155 seats to form a majority government. But the final weeks of the campaign saw him make missteps in Quebec, where he needed a boost in support. That makes Ontario key to a strong Tory victory, with the province's 106 seats. While Toronto is largely expected to remain a Liberal stronghold, the Conservatives could win new seats in the city's outlaying regions.In one major loss for the Liberals, Garth Turner was defeated by Conservative candidate Lisa Raitt.The Liberals largely held their ground in Atlantic Canada and swept Newfoundland, where Premier Danny Williams waged a fierce campaign against the Conservatives. But the Tories have made gains in New Brunswick. Early results in the region showed the Conservatives completely shut out of Newfoundland and Labrador. One high-profile loss for the party was Fabian Manning. Williams, a Progressive Conservative, has had a long-standing feud with Harper over rights to his province's offshore energy revenues and the latest equalization formula. In the past month he had publicized an Anything But Conservative campaign. But Conservatives had a strong showing in other parts of Atlantic Canada. Peter MacKay staved off a challenge from Green Party Leader Elizabeth May to hang on to his Nova Scotia riding of Central Nova. It's overwhelming, it's exhilarating, he said. All of these emotions come back every time.

May had likened the fight to David and Goliath, after casting her ballot early Tuesday morning. If she had won, it would have made her Canada's first elected Green MP. In New Brunswick, the Conservatives managed to unseat the Liberals in two ridings, Fredericton and Miramichi. Before Parliament was dissolved on Sept. 7, the Conservatives had 127 seats of a possible 308. They held 41 ridings in Ontario, 11 in Quebec and 28 in Alberta -- every single seat in the province. The Liberals had most of their seats in Ontario, where they held 51 of a possible 106 ridings. They were tied with the Tories in Quebec with 11 seats. Layton's New Democrats had 12 seats in Ontario and 10 in British Columbia, where the party is traditionally seen as a strong opposition party to the Conservatives, rather than the Liberals. At dissolution the Bloc had 48 seats in Quebec out of a total 75. It's unclear whether voter turnout has improved on previous years. An estimated 1.5 million Canadians cast their ballots in early voting.

2008 ELECTION RESULTS 40TH ELECTION RESULTS

CON LIB NDP BLO IND GRE OTH TOT PROV
000 006 001 000 000 000 000 007 NFL
001 003 000 000 000 000 000 004 PEI
003 005 002 000 001 000 000 011 NOS
006 003 001 000 000 000 000 010 NEB
010 013 001 050 001 000 000 075 QUE
051 038 017 000 000 000 000 106 ONT
009 001 004 000 000 000 000 014 MAN
013 001 000 000 000 000 000 014 SAS
027 000 001 000 000 000 000 028 ALB
022 005 009 000 000 000 000 036 BRC
001 000 000 000 000 000 000 001 NUF
000 000 001 000 000 000 000 001 NWT
000 001 000 000 000 000 000 001 YUK

143 076 037 050 002 000 000 308 TOT 2008 10:55 AM.
124 103 029 051 000 000 001 308 TOT 2006

2006 ELECTION RESULTS 39TH ELECTION RESULTS

CON LIB NDP BLO IND GRE OTH TOT PROV
003 004 000 000 000 000 000 007 NFL
000 004 000 000 000 000 000 004 PEI
003 006 002 000 000 000 000 011 NOS
003 006 001 000 000 000 000 010 NEB
010 013 000 051 000 000 001 075 QUE
040 054 012 000 000 000 000 106 ONT
008 003 003 000 000 000 000 014 MAN
012 002 000 000 000 000 000 014 SAS
028 000 000 000 000 000 000 028 ALB
017 009 010 000 000 000 000 036 BRC
000 001 000 000 000 000 000 001 NUF
000 000 001 000 000 000 000 001 NWT
000 001 000 000 000 000 000 001 YUK

124 103 029 051 000 000 001 308 TOT

CNN NEWS VIDEO
http://edition.cnn.com/video/

YAHOO NEWS VIDEO
http://news.yahoo.com/video

MIDEAST CONFLICT NEWS
http://news.yahoo.com/video/1874;_ylt=A0wNcxFdg6xIgbkAwD6z174F

ABC NEWS VIDEO
http://news.yahoo.com/video/2461

FOX NEWS VIDEO
http://news.yahoo.com/video/3074

FOX BUSINESS VIDEO
http://news.yahoo.com/video/3045

AP NEWS VIDEO
http://news.yahoo.com/video/2529

BBC NEWS VIDEO
http://news.yahoo.com/video/2918

REUTERS VIDEO NEWS
http://news.yahoo.com/video/2704

AFP NEWS VIDEO
http://news.yahoo.com/video/3091

CNBC NEWS VIDEO
http://news.yahoo.com/video/3245

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

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

HALF HOUR DOW RESULTS WED OCT 15,2008

09:30 AM -87.45
10:00 AM -202.44
10:30 AM -290.79
11:00 AM -365.98
11:30 AM -358.81
12:00 PM -328.07
12:30 PM -383.50
01:00 PM -291.91
01:30 PM -433.13
02:00 PM -511.03
02:30 PM -491.35
03:00 PM -492.86
03:30 PM -498.65
04:00 PM -733.08 8577.91

S&P 500 907.84 -90.17

NAS 1628.33 -150.68

GOLD 851.0 +11.5

OIL 73.95 -4.68

TSE 300 -662.80 9,292.86

CDNX -63.49 991.21

S&P/TSX 60 -43.30 559.35

Dow down 7% today.
S&P down 9% today.
NAS down8 8% today.
Dow has 20TH of last 23 triple digit sessions.

VOLITILITY CONTINUES

BAD NEWS
-Continuing concerns,Govt. efforts will not be effective.
-Huge T-bill auctions at lower yields.
-Weaker economic Data.
-Poor retail sales.

GOOD NEWS
-Libor rates lower.
-Tidal wave of liquidity coming.

WHATS UP WITH ENERGY?
1-When oil prices go down,energy stocks underperform.
2-Leverage factor going away.
3-Speculators exit the Market.
4-Demand fears on Global recession.

EU TO CALL FOR GLOBAL SUMMIT TO REFORM BRETTON WOODS FINANCIAL SYSTEM.

THE BAILOUT PLAN

-Invest $250 BILLION in Banks.
-$125 BILLION will go to 9 major Banks.
-Guarentee new Bank debt for 3 years. Debt issued now to June 2009.
-FDIC to insure ovove 250 non-interest bearing accounts.

PLAN DETAILS

-preferred dividend of 5% for first five years.
-Dividend rises to 9% after 5 years.
-Government will take warrants equal to 15% of preferred investment.
-Dividends can still be paid,no share buybacks for 3 years.

Brown calls for new Bretton Woods By eNews 2.0 Staff
16:18, October 15th 2008

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown on Wednesday joined French President Nicolas Sarkozy in calling for a new Bretton Woods to better regulate global financial markets and avoid future credit crunches. We urgently need what you might call the new Bretton Woods, so that we can restore confidence in the system while dealing with the areas that have been exposed in recent weeks, Brown said before the start of a European Union summit in Brussels. Brown's proposals included placing the world's top 30 companies - among them some of the biggest financial institutions - under international supervision, and the creation of an early warning system designed to prevent future financial crises from spreading. The premier also called for a global summit to discuss the new Bretton Woods, as well as improved transparency and coordination. Instead of having national supervisors, we need a global way of supervising our financial system, Brown said. Sarkozy was the first European leader to call for a new Bretton Wood, named after a 1944 conference that established rules for commercial and financial relations among the world's major industrial states. We want to build the beginning of a new financial world as they did in Bretton Woods, Sarkozy said at an October 4 meeting in Paris attended by Brown, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.

Since then, the British premier has lead European efforts to tackle the global financial crisis. And at their two-day summit in Brussels, EU leaders were set to rubber-stamp a 2-trillion-euro (2.7-trillion- dollars) financial rescue plan inspired by Britain. Approved on Sunday by eurozone leaders in Paris, the plan includes measures to guarantee interbank lending and to partly nationalize shaky financial insitutions by providing them with liquidity in exchange for shares. The European Council reaffirms its determination to act in a comprehensive and coordinated manner to restore the good functioning of the financial system, leaders were set to announce, according to a draft statement seen by Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa. But while there is a shared awareness that common action is essential, some member states have expressed concerns that such measures could create unfair advantages to some institutions. I will clearly want the European Commission's assurances that the planned steps are not a case of disallowed public aid, said Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek ahead of his departure for Brussels. Speaking on Tuesday, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso appealed to governments to put their divisions aside and sign up to the eurozone's plan. Even after this crisis, there are some governments that are opposing a more coordinated European approach, Barroso said.

To try and go it alone in this climate would be a fatal mistake for any government anywhere in Europe, he said. In Paris, eurozone leaders also agreed to set up a financial crisis management unit tasked with sharing out sensitive financial information among the eurozone's key players and to come up with a rapid, common response. The unit would comprise governments, the EU presidency, the heads of the European Central Bank and of the European Commission, and the chairman of the eurogroup, Luxembourg's Jean-Claude Juncker. While in Brussels, EU leaders were set to underline the need to strengthen the supervision of the European financial sector, especially with regards to banks and insurance companies operating in several member states. And with the rescue plan likely to dig deeply into member states' public accounts, EU leaders were set to agree on the need to relax the bloc's strict budgetary rules. The application of the revised Stability Pact should reflect the exceptional circumstances that we are facing, as its rules allow, the meeting's draft conclusions state. Officials in Brussels say this means that budget deficits would be allowed to exceed by several decimal points the standard 3-per cent-of-gross domestic product (GDP) limit. Finally, EU leaders were set to call for a curb on managers' salaries and on the need to work with their international partners on a real and comprehensive reform of the international financial system.

Such a system should be based on the principles of transparency, banking soundness, responsibility, integrity and global governance.European calls for a new Bretton Woods would likely be discussed by Sarkozy, Barroso and George W Bush at a meeting scheduled to take place on Saturday in the US president's mountain retreat of Camp David.

Gordon Brown is calling for global talks this year to reform the world's financial system to avoid any re-run of the worst credit crisis since the 1930s Great Depression.2:32PM BST 15 Oct 2008

Gordon Brown - the British Prime Minister arrives for meeting of the European Socialists Party prior to an EU summit in Brussels on Wednesday Photo: AP The British Prime minister said a global summit could be held in the next few months despite lack of agreement among international leaders that they need to hold a summit on the financial crisis EU leaders are in Brussels for two days of talks about the financial crisis, ties with Russia and climate change. The summit comes in a week in which European governments launched a coordinated £1,700bn rescue of banks. Both Mr Brown and French President Nicolas Sarkozy has argued that the current turmoil has shown the world's post-Second World War financial architecture is not fit to task. There is said to be support for this view, although others are advocating new rules on everything from hedge funds to executive pay. Mr Brown said: If we are going to sort out global financial problems that are recognised to be global, we need better ways of doing this.He is also calling for global talks this year to reform the world's financial system. Mr Brown said a global summit could be held in the next few months despite lack of agreement among international leaders that they need to hold a summit on the financial crisis After talks with European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso earlier today, Mr Brown said: The IMF has got to be rebuilt as fit for purpose of modern world. We need an early warning system for the global economy.He has long called for the Washington-based IMF to monitor global markets to prevent crises. European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet, who said in New York yesterday that officials reshaping the world's financial system should try to return to the discipline that governed markets in the decades after Second World War.

Perhaps what we need is to go back to the first Bretton Woods, to go back to discipline, Mr Trichet said after giving a speech at the Economic Club of New York. It's absolutely clear that financial markets need discipline: macroeconomic discipline, monetary discipline, market discipline.Mr Trichet said: If we don't have discipline, then we are putting into question the functioning of the market economies and the functioning of our financial markets.He indicated that recent market turmoil was partly a consequence of the deregulation that occurred after Bretton Woods' demise. That was triggered in 1971, when inflation forced the US to abandon the dollar's peg to gold, an anchor of the system, heralding the era of floating exchange rates. The explosion of the first Bretton Woods in a way could be interpreted as a rejection of discipline, said Mr Trichet. On Monday, Mr Brown said the world needs a new Bretton Woods agreement to make the architecture of the global financial system fit for purpose in the 21st century. In 1944 the Bretton Woods conference helped draw up the post-war world financial order and created the International Monetary Fund and World Bank. Mr Brown said we must devise new rules for a world of global capital flows just as the founders of Bretton Woods devised rules for a world of limited capital flows.

WTO chief backs call for new Bretton Woods meetingReuters, Tuesday October 14 2008 By Jonathan Lynn

GENEVA, Oct 14 (Reuters) - The head of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), Pascal Lamy, has backed a call by British Prime Minister Gordon Brown for a new Bretton Woods meeting to redesign the world financial system.If a new Bretton Woods means re-looking at the governance of the world economy, I'm fine with that, Lamy told reporters.And I know where an effort has to be made and this effort has to be made in finance, he said late on Monday.Lamy was referring to the landmark meeting in the United States towards the end of World War Two that drew up the plans for a global economic system designed to avoid a repeat of the disasters that led to the 1930s Great Depression.Earlier on Monday Brown called for a new Bretton Woods agreement to make the architecture of the global financial system fit for purpose in the 21st century.Lamy, an ascetic Frenchman who says one of his hobbies is thinking about global governance, said the problems of designing a new system should not be under-estimated.

It's formidably complex. Trade is simplistic as compared to prudential regulations, rating agencies and the rest, he said.A major question is who would regulate the system -- the International Monetary Fund, Bank for International Settlements or some other body.How can you build a system of international governance in global finance with central banks who are independent from government? Lamy asked.Who will sign? Will it be a treaty? What sort of commitment? Who will monitor all this? -- plenty of ideas for the agenda! With links to French Socialist politicians such as former Prime Minister Pierre Mauroy and former Finance Minister and EU Commission President Jacques Delors, Lamy has spent his time at the WTO pushing to open up world trade.But he draws a distinction between market opening and deregulation.
For instance a country can open its market to foreign providers of financial services, but set its own regulatory standards as long as they do not discriminate against foreigners, he argues.Similarly a country may import food or toys from abroad while maintaining its own safety standards.Opening your market and regulating it are two different things, the former EU trade commissioner said.Over 700 delegates from 44 allied nations met in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, in the United States in July 1944 to design the postwar economic system.The meeting gave birth to the International Monetary Fund and World Bank, as well as leading to the creation of the WTO's predecessor.(Editing by Mark Trevelyan)

Europe stuns with €1.5 trillion bank rescue, as France plays role of saviour
Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Holland and Austria have joined forces to launch the greatest bank bail-out in history, offering over €1.5 trillion in guarantees and fresh capital in a shock and awe blitz to halt the credit panic. By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard 10:22AM BST 14 Oct 2008

The move – unveiled simultaneously in the six states to maximise the show of unity – throws the full weight of the eurozone behind global efforts to stem the crisis. The move gave a tremendous boost to bourses across Europe, lifting the Euro Stoxx index by 9.53pc in the biggest one-day rally ever. The pan-European plan – totalling over $2 trillion, or £1.17 trillion – completes the third leg of a dramatic restructuring of finance across the Western world. Sovereign states have now absorbed the brunt of the credit risk in half the global economy. The greatest risk is inertia, said French President Nicolas Sarkozy, now basking in glory as the man who refused to give up after the first emergency summit of EU leaders ended in discord. The French state will not let a single bank fail. We have to unblock the interbank market because money has stopped circulating, but it is a reasonable bet that by offering this guarantee, it won't actually be needed, he said, unveiling a French package worth €320bn in guarantees for fresh interbank loans and a €40bn bank rescue fund.

Sarkozy has emerged as the statesman of the hour, shaping events as others dithered. He appears to have understood intuitively that credit paralysis would set off a dangerous downward spiral. Germany's rescue package totals €500bn, far bigger in per capita terms than America's scheme. The bulk is to guarantee interbank lending, while €100bn is for a stabilisation fund to recapitalise banks and cover losses – with strict pay limits for executives. We have placed the first foundation stone of a new financial order, said chancellor Angela Merkel, underlining that nothing would ever be the same again in banking. She also warned that the US government's massive support for the Detroit car industry would create a major headache for Germany's producers, who are already struggling. BMW said yesterday that it would idle plants in Leipzig, Regensburg and Munich as demand fell. Italy's finance minister Giulio Tremonti said Rome would provide as much money as necessary to stabilise credit markets. Italy's plan includes the injection of up to €40bn in fresh capital into the banks on a case by case basis, through preference shares. The Netherlands is offering a €200bn guarantee; Austria is putting up €100bn, as is Spain – as a preventive measure. Debts issued before the end of next year will be guaranteed for five years under all the national plans. Diplomats say the world owes a great deal to France's finance minister, Christine Lagarde. A former chair of the US law firm Baker McKenzie and a friend of US Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson, she has been a bridge between the EU and Washington, helping to end the transatlantic sniping that has damaged market confidence over the past year. The close co-operation is in stark contrast to the catastrophic rift in October 1931, when France set off a wave of US bank defaults by pulling its gold out of New York.

The Sarkozy accord was not enough to shield Société Générale yesterday, as reports circulated that it might be the first to tap into the French bank rescue fund, perhaps needing as much as €10bn. The share price collapsed 17pc at one point on fears of losses in its structured credit unit. Investors are concerned that it may suffer from exposure to Eastern Europe, where it has played a role in providing foreign currency mortgages. The shares ended down 2pc in Paris. This week's dramatic action by the eurozone states has gone a long way to reassure investors that EMU can weather a severe crisis, even though it lacks an EU treasury or fully fledged lender-of-last resort. The EU Stability Pact rules on budget deficits have been shunted aside by invoking the special circumstances clause of the Maastricht treaty, opening the way for fiscal stimulus. The Dutch-Belgian rescue of Fortis and the French-Belgian rescue of Dexia were not without friction, but at the end of the day the system was able to come up with creative solutions. IMF chair Dominique Strauss-Kahn said the monetary union had faced its ordeal by fire this week. With French leadership, it survived.

Bailout becomes buy-in as feds move into banking By JEANNINE AVERSA, AP Economics Writer OCT 14,08

WASHINGTON - Big banks started falling in line Tuesday behind a rejiggered bailout plan that will have the government forking over as much as $250 billion in exchange for partial ownership — putting the world's bastion of capitalism and free markets squarely in the banking business. Some early signs were hopeful for the latest in a flurry of radical efforts to save the nation's financial system: Credit was a bit easier to come by. And stocks were down but not alarmingly so after Monday's stratospheric leap.The new plan, President Bush declared, is not intended to take over the free market but to preserve it.It's all about cash and confidence and convincing banks to lend money more freely again. Those are all critical ingredients to getting financial markets to function more normally and reviving the economy.

The big question: Will it work?

There was a mix of hope and skepticism on that front. Unprecedented steps recently taken — including hefty interest rate reductions by the Federal Reserve and other major central banks in a coordinated assault just last week — have failed to break through the credit clog and the panicky mind-set gripping investors on Wall Street and around the globe.The Dow Jones industrials declined 77 points on Tuesday after piling up their biggest point gain ever on Monday on news of Europe's rescue plan and in anticipation of the United States' new measures.Initially the U.S. government will pour $125 billion into nine major banks with the hope that they will use the money to rebuild their reserves and to increase lending to consumers and businesses. Another $125 billion will be made available this year to other banks — if they need it — for cash infusions.In return, the government will get ownership stakes in the financial institutions. Banks, meanwhile, will have to accept limitations on executives' compensation.Government owning a stake in any private U.S. company is objectionable to most Americans — me included, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said in announcing the initiative. Yet the alternative of leaving businesses and consumers without access to financing is totally unacceptable.Whether the $250 billion will be sufficient to encourage banks to lend again is hard to tell, said Anil Kashyap, professor of economics and finance at the University of Chicago's Graduate School of Business. The Treasury Department arrived at the $250 billion figure after consulting with banking regulators.This plan will work if we wind up with everybody pretty well capitalized, Kashyap said. But if it doesn't reach that point, we'll be back in soup down the road.The government is counting on banks not to just clutch onto the cash, which aggravated the credit crisis to begin with.The needs of our economy require that our financial institutions not take this new capital to hoard it, but to deploy it, Paulson said.

Treasury switched gears deciding to first use a chunk of the $700 billion from the recently enacted financial bailout package to pay for taking partial ownership stakes in banks, rather than using the money to buy rotten debts from financial institutions. The government said it still intends to buy the bad mortgages and other toxic assets, another move aimed at getting credit flowing again.Besides the $250 billion this year on the stock purchases, Bush said Tuesday that an additional $100 billion would be needed in connection with covering bad assets. That would leave $350 billion of the $700 billion program, presumably to be spent by the next president.Economists as well as both Democratic and Republican lawmakers on Capitol Hill had urged Treasury to first move forward on the capital injection plan, arguing that was a more effective way to battle the financial crisis.The first bank to take advantage of the program was Bank of New York Mellon which announced it would sell $3 billion in preferred shares to the Treasury. Other banks initially participating include Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America Corp., including the soon-to-acquired Merrill Lynch, Citigroup Inc., Wells Fargo & Co., and State Street Corp. The government's cash infusions are attractive to banks because they are having trouble getting money from elsewhere. Skittish investors have cut them off, moving their money into safer Treasury securities. Financial institutions are hoarding whatever cash they have rather than lending it to each other or customers. Two other initiative also were unveiled to stem the credit crisis: The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. launched an insurance fund to temporarily guarantee new issues of bank debt — fully protecting the money even if the institution fails. And, the FDIC will start providing unlimited deposit insurance for non-interest bearing accounts, which are mainly used by businesses to cover payrolls and other expenses. Frequently these accounts exceed the current $250,000 insurance limit, so the expanded insurance should discourage nervous companies from pulling their money out. Both of these efforts would be financed by fees charged to participating financial institutions — not money from the bailout package. Even if the new plan works, economists caution that it could take years before locked up lending returns to normal. The difference between the rate at which banks lend to other banks and the rate at which they buy U.S. government debt has narrowed, but remains near a 25-year high — a glaring sign that there's still fear in the market. But there was a hopeful glimmer elsewhere: A crucial short-term, bank-to-bank lending rate called the London Interbank Offered Rate, or Libor, inched down Tuesday. That rate is important because a lot of commercial loans and many adjustable-rate mortgages are tied to it. Some of the banks had to be pressured to participate by Paulson, who wanted healthy institutions to go first as a way of removing any stigma that might be associated with banks getting bailouts. Paulson met privately with bank executives on Monday. The government's shares will carry a 5 percent annual dividend that will increase to 9 percent after five years. That increase in the rate is aimed at providing an incentive for companies to buy the government out. The advantage to the taxpayer is that if the rescue plan works, then the shares can be sold for more than the government initially paid, providing a profit on the transaction. The move, in effect a partial nationalization of the banking system, does put the United States in the awkward position of owning shares in institutions it also regulates. The shares purchased by the government will be nonvoting. They also give the government a priority in getting paid back if a company fails. So far this year, 15 banks have failed, compared with three for all of 2007. The government's role will be limited and temporary, Bush pledged. These measures are not intended to take over the free market but to preserve it.At a news conference last month, Bush defended his administration's increasingly aggressive market interventions to deal with the worst financial crisis in more than a half-century. I'm sure there are some of my friends out there saying, I thought this guy was a market guy; what happened to him? Well, my first instinct wasn't to lay out a huge government plan. My first instinct was to let the market work until I realized, upon being briefed by the experts, of how significant this problem became, Bush said then. The Federal Reserve, meanwhile, announced that it will begin buying vast amounts of short-term debt on Oct. 27 — its latest effort to break through a credit clog. The Fed is invoking Depression-era emergency powers to buy commercial paper — a crucial short-term funding that many companies rely on to pay their workers and buy supplies. Last week the Fed said it intended to take the action but didn't specify when. The economy's problems also are taking their toll on the government's coffers. The 2008 budget deficit hit an all-time high of $454.8 billion. The red ink probably will be a lot worse next year as the costs of the government's rescue of the financial system and the economic hard times clobber the federal balance sheet, economists predict. Associated Press writer Martin Crutsinger contributed to this report.

Ukraine, other small nations face crisis alone By MARIA DANILOVA, Associated Press Writer OCT 14,08

KIEV, Ukraine - While the world's economic giants may have averted financial collapse through rescue plans and huge infusions of cash, some smaller countries like Ukraine seem to have stumbled with little help on the horizon. Among the most vulnerable states, it seems, are some of the young democracies born after the fall of the Soviet empire, which have seen their economies race ahead under democratic rule and capitalism — only to run smack into a global financial crisis.Facing bank failures, turbulent markets and rapid inflation, Ukraine's politically fractured government imposed a series of emergency measures this week to shore up the economy.

At a news conference Tuesday, Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko dodged the question of whether Ukraine was seeking help from the International Monetary Fund, which would confirm fears about the state of Ukraine's economy. Instead, she offered broad assurances that there was no need for panic.The Ukrainian government is doing everything possible and impossible so that the impact of the global crisis on Ukrainian life, the Ukrainian economy is minimized, Tymoshenko said.While the world's major economies snap up banks and bail out brokers, many modest-sized countries don't have such deep pockets.Hungary's currency has skidded 20 percent. Stocks have fallen in Poland. In Estonia, real estate prices have dropped 40 percent.

Iceland, where stocks fell almost 70 percent Tuesday before rebounding, is trying to negotiate a $5.5 billion loan from Russia.Ukraine, which has been locked in a political struggle with Moscow since it elected a pro-Western government in 2004, certainly can't go begging to the Kremlin.Ukraine's inflation rate hit 31 percent in May compared with the same month the previous year, higher than any other country except Zimbabwe and Venezuela. The government scrambled and brought it down to a somewhat less shocking 16 percent rate as of September.Faced with global economic uncertainty, depositors in Ukraine began frantically converting their local currency into dollars after the hryvna (pronounced HRIV-nyah') dipped by almost 20 percent, before clawing back some lost ground.Analysts said the fall was due to investors pulling money out of Ukraine and many other emerging markets. The rate plunge stripped the banking system of $1.3 billion in the first two weeks of October.Some analysts say that the so-called emerging markets of the world's vibrant young capitalist economies will bounce back quickly, because many are still shaking off the effects of decades of totalitarian rule.Even so, many seem destined to ride an economic roller coaster in the short term, as real estate bubbles burst, banks go bust and consumer spending tanks.Anders Aslund, an economic analyst, wrote in July that Ukraine's economic plight was not as bad as that of Russia in 1998, which plunged the country into a deep, prolonged recession.Ukraine's state budget, he pointed out, had a healthy surplus, its public foreign debt was small and its national bank was flush with foreign currency reserves worth $36 billion.But he still saw Ukraine facing catastrophic consequences if it failed to get inflation under control — and predicted that real estate prices could fall by half, while half of all banks might go bankrupt.The country's two leading magazines came out with nearly identical covers this week — Korrespondent showing a one-hryvna bank note going up in flames, and Focus displaying a one-hryvna coin melting down. Money is melting, warned Focus. Hello crisis, Korrespondent announced. Tymoshenko announced Tuesday that the government was freezing transportation costs, lowering natural gas prices and planning to cap electricity costs for the steel and chemical industries, an effort to boost the core sectors of the national economy. The government's measures follow a central bank freeze of selected retail accounts across the country, limits on loans and other measures to stabilize the currency. It looks like the National Bank is in control of the situation, said Volodymyr Dinul, an analyst with Renaissance Capital. Let us hope that everything will calm down sooner rather than later.

One key to the financial problems in Ukraine, experts say, is a falling demand for steel, the country's key export commodity. Another factor is Ukrainians' mistrust of banks, founded on their painful experience with the hyperinflation following the 1991collapse of the Soviet Union, which wiped out their savings. Tymoshenko's government sought to compensate some of the losses from that long-ago crisis this year, but that proposal was stalled by her political feud with President Viktor Yushchenko.

One of the triggers for the current crisis was the trouble at two major banks, the sixth-largest Prominvest, which has been taken over by the central bank, and the seventh-largest Nadra, which has survived thanks to a $300 million central bank loan. Fitch Ratings, a global credit rating agency, on Monday downgraded Nadra and noted that Ukrainian banks faced challenging times as near-term risks increased considerably. Ukraine's main stock index, PFTS, closed with a minuscule 0.8 percent gain Tuesday, following the positive global trend and reacting to the government efforts. The stock market has lost nearly 70 percent since the beginning of this year, after a record 130 percent rise in 2007. Independent financial analyst Geoff Smith said an aid package adopted by the G-7 leaders bodes well for Ukrainian banks, since European banks had stakes in nearly half of local banks. After the G-7 rescue plan, I am cautiously optimistic the Ukrainian banking system will in general withstand the crisis, said Smith. Others remained concerned, saying the central bank's drastic measures showed the banking sector was in deep trouble. The crisis has been aggravated by Ukraine's political deadlock, and the current crisis over control of parliament. That crisis deepened Tuesday, after Tymoshenko refused to heed Yushchenko's order and release government money to pay for early parliamentary elections he called for Dec. 7. Tymoshenko, seen as Yushchenko's rival in the 2010 presidential vote, is battling to retain her office and avoid a third parliamentary ballot in three years. Yushchenko is determined to push through with the election and has abolished a court that froze election preparations. Associated Press writers William J. Kole in Vienna, Olga Bondaruk in Kiev and Catrina Stewart in Moscow contributed to this story.

FIRES AND EXPLOSIONS

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

Firefighters attack stubborn blaze near LA homes By THOMAS WATKINS, Associated Press Writer OCT 14,08

LOS ANGELES - Flames whirled dangerously close to homes Tuesday as gusty Santa Ana winds sent the biggest of southern California's wildfires flaring in hilly brushlands on Los Angeles' northern edge. Firefighters with hoses guarded houses as helicopters unleashed loads of water on hot spots of the 9,872-acre blaze charring slopes above the San Fernando Valley communities of Porter Ranch and Granada Hills.

The fire is one of three major blazes that have burned more than 27 square miles of Southern California, destroyed dozens of homes and forced thousands of people to evacuate their homes this week. One man died in the flames, and a motorist was killed in a crash as a fire neared a freeway.Despite the fire's activity, there were no reports of new structural losses in the Porter Ranch area. Nineteen buildings including some homes were destroyed there on Monday.Ten miles away, there was major progress against Los Angeles' other big wildfire. The 4,800-acre Marek fire in the northeastern San Fernando Valley was 70 percent contained and some evacuees were allowed to go home.But people who lived in an area where 38 mobile homes were destroyed were not permitted to return.Teresa Escamilla, 47, lay on a cot in a Red Cross shelter, thinking the worst. She believed she lost everything including a shoebox containing five years of savings.It feels like it's not real, the nursing assistant said in Spanish. It's a nightmare.Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa acknowledged the uncertainty facing residents of the fire areas.Many still don't know when they are going to return home, he told a news conference. Our hearts and prayers are out with all of them.On the north coast of San Diego County, a 3,000-acre fire at the Marine Corps' Camp Pendleton was 25 percent contained. Evacuation orders were largely lifted for about 2,000 Marine Corps personnel and family members in military housing and residents of about 1,500 homes in neighboring Oceanside. A separate small fire closed Interstate 5 through the base for two hours Tuesday before it was controlled.The outbreak of fires followed the weekend arrival of the first significant Santa Ana winds of the fall.The National Weather Service said the intensity of the winds was diminishing but warned there would still be strong gusts. Warnings for critical fire weather conditions were to remain in effect until Wednesday night.The Santa Anas usually sweep in between October and February as cold, dry air descending over the Great Basin flows toward Southern California and squeezes through mountain passes and canyons. The extremely low humidity levels, which make vegetation easier to burn, and high windspeeds combine to whip fires into infernos.Associated Press writers Shaya Tayefe Mohajer, Solvej Schou, Robert Jablon in Los Angeles and Chelsea J. Carter in San Diego contributed to this report.

WORLD TERRORISM

GENESIS 6:11-13
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.

2 PETER 2:5
5 And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly;

2 PETER 3:7
7 But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men

LEVITICUS 26:16
16 I also will do this unto you; I will even appoint over you( sudden) terror, consumption, and the burning ague, that shall consume the eyes, and cause sorrow of heart: and ye shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it.

GENESIS 16:11-12
11 And the angel of the LORD said unto her, Behold, thou art with child, and shalt bear a son, and shalt call his name Ishmael; because the LORD hath heard thy affliction.
12 And he will be a wild man; his hand will be against every man, and every man's hand against him; and he shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren.

ISAIAH 33:1,18-19 Woe to thee that spoilest,(destroys) and thou wast not spoiled;(destroyed) and dealest treacherously, and they dealt not treacherously with thee! when thou shalt cease to spoil,(destroy) thou shalt be spoiled;(destroyed) and when thou shalt make an end to deal treacherously, they shall deal treacherously with thee.
18 Thine heart shall meditate terror. Where is the scribe? where is the receiver? where is he that counted the towers?
19 Thou shalt not see a fierce people, a people of a deeper speech than thou canst perceive; of a stammering tongue, that thou canst not understand.

JOHN 16:2
2 They shall put you out of the synagogues: yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service.

British government minister warns of terror threat By MEERA SELVA, Associated Press Writer OCT 14,08

LONDON - The threat of another major terrorist attack is building in Britain, a government security minister said Tuesday, a day after the House of Lords rejected a measure that would have extended the amount of time police can hold terror suspects without charge. Alan West, a counterterrorism minister and member of the House of Lords, said the threat is rising after having dipped slightly.Another great plot is building up again that we are monitoring, he said during a debate on the government's anti-terror legislation, without providing further details.The Home Office, which oversees policing and security in Britain, refused to elaborate on West's comments.There are many plots, individuals and groups under investigation. We don't elaborate on specific plots or individuals, the Home Office said in a statement.On Monday, the House of Lords rejected a controversial government plan to extend the amount of time police can hold terror suspects without charge from 28 to 42 days.The government's effort to strengthen counterterrorism provisions gathered pace after suicide bombers killed 52 rush-hour commuters in London in July 2005.

Opposition lawmakers branded West's comments reckless.

Chris Huhne, home affairs spokesman for the Liberal Democrats, said West's comments risked blowing the cover of a police counter-terrorist investigation.Jonathan Evans, head of the security services, said in a speech last year that 2,000 individuals in Britain were considered a direct threat to national security because of their support for terrorism and warned that there could be thousands more the authorities did not know about.The current threat level in Britain is assessed as severe — the second highest of five possible ratings.

US, Russia send high-level teams to Georgia talks By ALEXANDER G. HIGGINS, Associated Press Writer OCT 14,08

GENEVA - The United States and Russia have assigned high-level delegations to European Union-sponsored talks aimed at promoting security in Georgia under the cease-fire that ended this summer's brief war in the former Soviet republic, officials said Tuesday. Assistant Secretary of State Daniel Fried will head a three-member delegation at the one-day talks in Geneva on Wednesday, said Dick Wilbur, spokesman for the American mission to U.N. organizations in Geneva.Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin arrived Tuesday, said an official of the Russian mission, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't an authorized press spokesman.The talks are aimed at following up on the cease-fire mediated by French President Nicolas Sarkozy that ended the Russian-Georgian war in August.Originally the talks were expected to bring ministers to Geneva for substantive discussions, but diplomats said it was downgraded to expert level because of differences over the participation of representatives from breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.The U.S. and Russian delegations, however, are considerably higher than expert level.The talks will cover security and stability arrangements in Abkhazia and South Ossetia in keeping with the cease-fire, Wilbur said. The talks will address compliance with the cease-fire, security issues, the return of internally displaced persons and human rights.European diplomats said the talks will start a process of dialogue rather than aim at a specific conclusion or statement.The five-day war erupted Aug. 7 when Georgian forces launched an attack seeking to regain control of South Ossetia. Russian troops repelled the offensive and then drove deep into other parts of Georgia. Soon after the fighting ended, Russia recognized South Ossetia and Abkhazia as independent states.Associated Press writers Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations and Eliane Engeler and Frank Jordans in Geneva contributed to this report.

ELECTION DAY IN CANADA - CONSERVATIVES GO

I MADE MY VOTE COUNT FOR THE CHRISTIAN CONSERVATIVE PARTY IN MY AREA. TRUE CHRISTIANS IF YOU HAVE A CHRISTIAN PARTY IN YOUR AREA VOTE FOR IT, IF NOT VOTE THE CONSERVATIVES. CANADA WE NEED MORAL PEOPLE IN OFFICE. A GODLY MAN PROMOTES GOODNESS IN OFFICE AND A GODLESS MAN PROMOTES IMMORALITY IN OFFICE....CANADA YOU CHOOSE! BE LIKE ME VOTE FOR GODLY MORALS NOT GODLESS MORALS.

After 5-week campaign, voters have final say Tuesday, October 14, 2008 | 11:16 AM ET CBC News

Canadians went to the polls Tuesday to elect the next government after a five-week campaign that culminated Thanksgiving weekend with party leaders bounding across the country in an effort to sway undecided voters.Residents in Newfoundland and Labrador were the first to cast their ballots, beginning at 8:30 a.m. local time. Voting in the Maritime provinces began half an hour later, while voters in the key battlegrounds of Ontario and Quebec began casting their ballots at 9:30 a.m. local time.Voting also got underway in Manitoba at 8:30 a.m. local time, and in Saskatchewan at 7:30 a.m. local time.Albertan voters began casting their ballots an hour after their counterparts in Saskatchewan, with British Columbia being the last province to open its polling stations at 7 a.m. local time. Polling stations in each riding are open for 12 hours, with opening and closing times varying by region.

Voting results for the country's 40th general election will not be made public until after the polls close in British Columbia at 7 p.m. PT.Nearly 1.5 million Canadians made their selection during three days of advance polling. A substantial number were members of Jewish communities who celebrate the holiday of Sukkot, which begins on election day.Elections Canada said the number of voters casting their ballots in advance polls was slightly down from the Jan. 23, 2006, vote, but suggested it's unlikely a sign of voter apathy.The advance polls are not a great indicator of anything except for weather — and whether or not people believe it's going to be a good day on election day, said Election Canada spokesman Dana Doiron.There are a total of 1,601 candidates from 19 parties vying for the 308 House of Commons seats. None of the five major parties — Conservatives, Liberals, New Democrats, Bloc Québécois and Greens — are running a full slate of candidates.

Elections Canada reminds voters to bring ID
Tuesday marks the first general election in which voters must present identification at the polling stations. In terms of physical ID, voters have two choices:Government-issued photo ID with an address (but not a passport). Two pieces of ID without a photo, as long as one has your address. These can be bills, a health card or a library card. Voters can also register by taking an oath and having another registered voter in the same polling division vouch for them under oath.Elections Canada officials worry delays could turn some people off voting.It's not only an inconvenience but if it does happen on election day, it could actually — if they've left it till the last minute — mean the difference between voting and not voting," said Doiron.

5-week campaign
Prime Minister Stephen Harper asked Gov. Gen. Michaëlle Jean to dissolve Parliament on Sept. 7, arguing that his Conservatives were unable to govern because they had reached an impasse with opposition parties.Harper's Conservatives had the longest uninterrupted minority government in Canada's history, with two years and nearly seven months in office.When the election was called, the Conservatives held 127 seats, the Liberals had 95, the Bloc Québécois held 48 and the NDP 30. Independents held three seats, while another four were vacant.Days before the election call, B.C. Liberal-turned-Independent MP Blair Wilson joined the Greens, giving them their first representative in the Commons.

FIRES AND EXPLOSIONS

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

California battered by wind-whipped wildfires By SHAYA TAYEFE MOHAJER, Associated Press Writer OCT 14,08

LOS ANGELES - Powerful winds stoked three major wildfires on Tuesday morning after destroying dozens of homes, forcing thousands to flee and killing two people. The fires have charred nearly 15 square miles in suburban Los Angeles and northern San Diego County in three days, with the fiercest blazes burning in the San Fernando Valley.More than 2,000 firefighters and a fleet of water- and retardant-dropping aircraft battled a 5,000 acre fire in canyons on the west end of the valley and another 5,300-acre fire at the northeast end. Both were burning brightly Tuesday morning, sending flames skyward.Santa Ana winds were gusting at 50 mph in parts of the valley Tuesday morning, county fire officials said.Another 3,000 acres were scorched by Tuesday morning in Camp Pendleton, forcing the evacuation of more than 1,400 homes at the huge San Diego County Marine base and in nearby Oceanside, according to the base's Web site. The fast-growing blaze had yet to burn any structures on the base.Firefighters had little to no containment of any of the fires early Tuesday.The fire wants to make its way to the coast, and we're going to do our level best to stop it, said Los Angeles Fire Department spokesman Brian Humphrey. Two-thirds of our department is on the line.The California Highway Patrol expected snarled traffic Tuesday morning. In San Bernardino, Interstate 215 was closed in both directions as firefighters dealt with separate fires in the area.The 118 Ronald Reagan Freeway was closed again Tuesday as smoke and flames approached the roadway.

The freeway was the scene of a fatal wreck Monday when a tow truck rear-ended a car and killed the driver. California Highway Patrol Officer Leland Tang said traffic stalled because firefighters were going by as fire neared the route.A second fatality was discovered Monday in the rugged canyonlands below the mountainous Angeles National Forest. The victim was a man who appeared to be a transient living with a dog in a makeshift shelter, officials said. Mayor Anthony Villaraigosa said it would take some time to identify the victim.Authorities confirmed more than three dozen mobile homes burned in the west end of the valley and 19 structures — some of them homes — were destroyed at the northeast end. Commercial sites burned in both fires.Fire officials alerted other communities to the west in the Ventura County city of Simi Valley and south to Malibu, 20 miles away, as an ominous plume streamed over neighborhoods and far out to sea.A fire broke out near the U.S.-Mexico border in San Diego County Tuesday morning and forced the evacuation of about 300 homes in the town of Campo, said Sheriff's Lt. Anthony Ray. It had burned about 150 acres on both side of Highway 94 but no structures have been burned and no one has been injured, Ray said.Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a state of emergency in Los Angeles and Ventura counties and urged residents to be prepared for anything.Winds are causing fire conditions to change by the hour, which is why it is so important that residents in the areas surrounding these wildfires heed warnings from public safety officials to evacuate, Schwarzenegger said.Residents were not allowed to drive into one of Porter Ranch's gated communities, so they parked their cars, ran to their homes and carried out whatever they could carry in pillow cases, in their arms, sacks and suitcases. Some ran out clutching paintings.In nearby Twin Lakes, a neighborhood of narrow streets perched above the 118 Freeway, the fire raced through the community of about 95 homes, destroying at least four. Matthew Vitiello, 46, stuck it out with his two dogs as embers rained down around him and a nearby home burned. Asked why he decided not to evacuate, Vitiello pointed to a pine tree across the street. If that sucker goes, then it's time for me to go, he said. An estimated 1,200 people were evacuated. Los Angeles County fire Capt. Mark Savage said 37 or 38 mobile homes were destroyed and various industrial sites also burned. We could have had an army there and it would not have stopped it, Battalion Chief Mario Rueda said. Wind is king here, it's dictating everything we are doing.The dry and warm Santa Ana winds typically blow into Southern California between October and February, priming vegetation for fires by slashing moisture levels. Last October, fires fanned by Santa Anas destroyed 2,196 homes and burned a combined 800 square miles in Southern California. Associated Press writers Greg Risling, Thomas Watkins, Alicia Chang, Terence Chea, Christina Hoag, John Rogers and Chelsea Carter contributed to this report.

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.

New tropical depression, Omar form in Caribbean OCT 14,08

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A new tropical storm and a tropical depression formed early Tuesday in the Caribbean Sea, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said in its 11 a.m. EDT (1500 GMT) report. Newly formed Tropical Storm Omar was located in the eastern Caribbean, moving east-southeast before an expected turn to the northeast later Tuesday.Omar's maximum sustained winds were near 40 mph, with gradual strengthening forecast over the next 48 hours.Computer models showed Omar eventually tracking northeast across the Caribbean and into the Atlantic.Meanwhile, Tropical Depression 16, located in the western Caribbean near the Nicaragua/Honduras border, was moving northwest at 7 mph with maximum sustained winds near 30 mph, but the system could become Tropical Storm Paloma on Wednesday, NHC said.Most computer forecast tracks showed Tropical Depression 16 moving in a westerly direction across Honduras on Thursday.Neither system was expected to threaten key oil and natural gas producing areas of the Gulf of Mexico.(Reporting by Joe Silha; editing by John Picinich)

Tropical Storm Omar forms in eastern Caribbean OCT 14,08

MIAMI - The National Hurricane Center says Tropical Storm Omar has formed as the 15th named storm of the Atlantic season. Omar formed Tuesday in the eastern Caribbean to the south of Puerto Rico and is expected to gradually strengthen over the next 48 hours.A tropical storm watch was in effect for Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, the British Virgin Islands and the far eastern portion of the Dominican Republic.At 11 a.m. EDT, the storm had maximum sustained winds near 40 mph. Its center was about 355 miles southwest of San Juan, Puerto Rico, and moving east-southeast near 2 mph. It is expected to turn gradually to the east and then northeast later Tuesday.

Tropical Storm Nana fades but new systems develop Mon Oct 13, 2:16 PM ET

MIAMI (Reuters) - The 14th tropical storm of the Atlantic hurricane season faded rapidly on Monday but two new tropical systems developed in the Caribbean, threatening Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands and also Central America. Tropical Storm Nana, which developed on Sunday roughly midway between the Cape Verde Islands off Africa and the Caribbean, succumbed to adverse atmospheric conditions and weakened into a tropical depression on Monday morning.It was expected to dissipate within a day or so, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.The 15th tropical depression of the season, meanwhile, formed around 340 miles southwest of San Juan, Puerto Rico, the Miami-based hurricane center said.It was expected to drift northwestward for a while before strengthening into a tropical storm and getting the name Omar, and would then shoot off to the northeast near Puerto Rico and potentially grow into a hurricane over the open Atlantic.Neither the remains of Nana nor the new tropical depression were considered a threat to the United States or the oil fields of the Gulf of Mexico.However, a third tropical weather system was developing in the western Caribbean off the coast of Nicaragua and could affect Central America, Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula, the Cayman Islands or western Cuba, U.S. forecasters said.If that system strengthened into a tropical storm with winds of at least 39 miles per hour (63 km per hour), it would be called Paloma.The 2008 hurricane season has lived up to forecasts that it would be a busy one. An average season spawns 10 storms, of which six strengthen into hurricanes.The United States, in particular, and the oil fields off the coasts of Louisiana and Texas, have been in the firing line this year. Hurricane Gustav slammed ashore near New Orleans, the city devastated by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, and Hurricane Ike hit Houston.It has also been a deadly season for Haiti, where more than 800 people were killed as the impoverished Caribbean nation was swamped by Fay, Gustav, Hanna and Ike, and a damaging season for Cuba, which was raked by Gustav and Ike.(Reporting by Michael Christie, Editing by Jim Loney and David Wiessler)

EARTHQUAKES

MATTHEW 24:7-8
7 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.
8 All these are the beginning of sorrows.

MARK 13:8
8 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom:(ETHNIC GROUP AGAINST ETHNIC GROUP) and there shall be earthquakes in divers places, and there shall be famines and troubles: these are the beginnings of sorrows.

LUKE 21:11
11 And great earthquakes shall be in divers places, and famines, and pestilences; and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven.

Strong earthquake jolts eastern Greece
www.chinaview.cn 2008-10-14 15:02:53

ATHENS, Oct. 14 (Xinhua) -- A strong earthquake measuring 5.1 on the Richter scale jolted northeastern Greece early Tuesday morning, with no immediate report of damage and injuries. The quake, recorded at 5:06 a.m. local time, struck in the sea region of the coastal town of Mantoudi, Evia Island. Two smaller earthquakes took place a few minutes later. People in the capital city of Athens felt the strong shocks. Seismologists predicted many more aftershocks would follow.Editor: Sun yunlong

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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

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

HALF HOUR DOW RESULTS TUE OCT 14,2008

09:30 AM +74.63
10:00 AM +195.06
10:30 AM +118.12
11:00 AM +47.31
11:30 AM +54.00
12:00 PM +70.57
12:30 PM +58.22
01:00 PM +39.82
01:30 PM -10.36
02:00 PM -55.47
02:30 PM -134.32
03:00 PM -250.73
03:30 PM -134.25
04:00 PM -76.62 9310.99

S&P 500 998.01 -5.34

NAS 1779.01 -65.24

GOLD 839.2 -3.3

OIL 79.11 -2.08

TSE 300 +873.03 9,938.19

CDNX +78.89 1,054.70

S&P/TSX 60 +55.25 601.50

MARKETS AT THE CLOSE

-To far,to fast.
-Dow swings in 700 point range Up 407 at high, down 302 at low.
-Credit/macro backdrop obscured earnings:Now they matter.
-Is Intel fairly priced? Who Knows.
-Panic at the bottom.
-Investors pull $8.8BILLION from stock mutual funds on Friday.
-October outflows so far $55.8BILLION (RECORD).

TSE was up 1100 points in early trading in Canada today.

EU SUMMIT READ AND SAROZY IN FRENCH SPEECH
http://www.ue2008.fr/PFUE/lang/en/accueil/PFUE-10_2008/PFUE-12.10.2008/sommet_pays_zone_euro_declaration_plan_action_concertee

WELL PEOPLE THE WORLD IS GOING BY THE EU PLAN, GOD DOES NOT LIE. REPENT AND GIVE JESUS THE GOD OF ISRAEL AND THE WORLD THE PRAISE AND GLORY FOR TELLING US HISTORY IN ADVANCE SO WE KNOW WHAT WILL BE HAPPENING IN THE LAST DAYS.(OUR DAY)

Trichet: This is time for immediate action| 14 Oct 2008 | 01:36 PM ET

NEW YORK - The world's central banks are doing everything they can to pump cash into the global financial system and thaw frozen lending, Jean-Claude Trichet, the president of the European Central Bank, said Tuesday.This is time for immediate action to rescue financial markets, Trichet said in a speech to the Economic Club in New York .His remarks came after the U.S. announced a $250 billion plan to directly buy shares in the U.S.'s leading banks and stave off a financial crisis that threatened to push the global economy into recession.Trichet called for improved risk management and more transparency at private companies, saying repeatedly that the crisis could not be left to policymakers alone to solve.This is no time for complacency, he said, adding that while public authorities must be alert, decisive and effective, private institutions must behave wisely and prudently.He called the explosion in subprime mortgages the trigger for a crisis that came about because risk had been underpriced.We knew there would be a correction, he said. The way the correction operated was something that was very challenging for central bankers.

EU approves Britain's banking bailout Tue Oct 14, 6:52 AM ET

BRUSSELS (AFP) - The European Commission has approved a British half-trillion-pound bank rescue plan intended to stabilise financial markets. The EU's executive arm said in a statement overnight on Monday that it found the measures to be compatible with EU state aid rules, because they were an appropriate means to remedy a serious disturbance in the UK economy, while avoiding unnecessary distortions of competition.
The three-part package also makes available 200 billion pounds (349 billion dollars) in short-term loans and another 250 billion pounds to guarantee loans between banks.

The government also said it would make taxpayers' money available to buy shares in troubled banks, providing them with fresh capital in a bid to prevent a collapse of the banking system.On Monday, the British government pumped 37 billion pounds into three struggling banks, sending world stocks soaring.The government hopes the measures will overcome the reluctance of banks to lend to each other, which is at the root of the current crisis.The European Commission, having scrutinised the package under a new accelerated procedure over the weekend, said it would provide new capital to eligible banks and building societies, guarantee short and medium term debt to encourage inter-bank lending and offer liquidity to banks under strict conditions.

TSX soars more than 1,600 points at trading opening,Tuesday, October 14, 2008 | 10:43AM ET CBC News

Canada's main stock exchange jumped a breathtaking 1,600 points at the opening of trading Tuesday, mimicking the optimism showing one day earlier as the New York exchange posted its largest-ever one-day gain.The TSX hit 10,665.34 at the opening bell, a spike of more than 17 per cent. The Canadian market played catch-up to the stellar day posted by the Dow Jones Industrial Index on Monday.The Dow Jones popped more than 936 points on the week's first trading session, partially reflecting improved feelings about the economy as word leaked out that Washington wanted to invest directly in the country's distressed financial sector.The U.S. bellwether index continued its strong performance on Tuesday as it rose 233 points at the opening of the trading day.Canada's markets were closed on Monday because of Thanksgiving.U.S. President George W. Bush announced Tuesday that Washington will spend $250 billion US purchasing shares in American financial institutions as a way to restoring confidence in the beleaguered U.S. lending sector.The Bank of Canada said it strongly welcomes the decisive actions announced today by the U.S. authorities, and Canada's economy and financial system will benefit directly.

Equities enjoy gains
So far, Canadian investors have benefited from the news as equities enjoyed gains across the board. Shares in Bombardier reached $4.63, a rise of 32 per cent. The Royal Bank of Canada shares were up 12 per cent, reaching $45.93, and Talisman Energy shares gained a third, spiking to $13.19.Talisman and other energy issues also benefited from higher oil prices, which rose $3.37 a barrel for November delivery. Crude currently costs $84.56 a barrel.The Canadian loonie gained in response to the suddenly improved prospects for the American economy and higher oil prices.The dollar was up 1.28 cents compared to Monday's close, reaching 88.43 US. At its morning high point, the loonie was 3.74 cents above where the currency closed Friday.The Canadian currency fell back slightly as the morning progressed, and stood at 87.76, up 0.62 of a cent.

Europe spends trillions in historic bank rescue
LEIGH PHILLIPS Today OCT 14,08 @ 09:52 CET

In a violent swerve away from the laissez-faire capitalism that has underpinned Western society for the past three decades, EU states on Monday (13 October) outlined the details of a historic state bail-out of Europe's financial sector. The total size of the rescue promise remains fuzzy, with newspapers across the continent totting up the the mind-boggling sums announced in slightly different ways. But Europe has so far announced the release of around €2 trillion to save banks from collapse in the biggest government intervention in markets since the creation of the post-war welfare state. On Monday afternoon, the governments of Austria, France, Germany, the Netherlands and Spain unveiled bail-out packages that hovered near the annual public spending budgets of the countries involved.Germany promised its financial sector up to €500 billion. France, €360 billion. The Netherlands will spend €200 billion and Spain and Austria will each dole out €100 billion a piece. The sums come atop the €640 billion (£500bn) already announced in the UK.Meanwhile the 10 other members of the eurozone - along with Sweden and Poland - were preparing bail-out announcements to be made ahead of the start of the European summit on Wednesday. The bail-outs are to be modeled on the €640 billion UK scheme, which comprised three elements: a guarantee of bank debts, a flush of liquidity via short term loans and a partial-nationalisation of the banks through the purchase of equity in the institutions.The amounts apportioned to each element vary from country to country, tailored to the specifics of the crisis as it appears in each member state, although the bulk of the funds are earmarked for bank debt guarantees.In what could be described as a defibrillation of an economy in cardiac arrest, the plans hope to shock banks into lending to each other and other businesses again. Earlier, failed efforts focussed on deposit guarantees and central bank injections of liquidity.

United Europe has pledged more than the US, French President Sarkozy said, as he announced the €360 billion his country plans to put forward for approval by the French parliament later this week. Some €40 billion of the money will be spent on purchasing parts of weak banks.Nothing will be spared to prevent the crisis getting any worse, he told reporters.

Devil and detail

Germany is to spend most of its announced funds on guaranteeing medium-term lending between banks, with €70 billion set aside for bank recapitalisation, a figure that could be increased by a further €10 billion if needed.Some €85 billion in Austria will be used to guarantee interbank lending and the rest for bank recapitalisation, while Spain is to focus on guaranteeing bank debt. The banking sector in the Iberian country, as in France, is believed to be in a stronger state than the rest of Europe - despite the implosion of the Spanish housing market - with Madrid saying yesterday that no funds have to be spent on bank share purchases.Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende announced €200 billion in inter-bank loans. Italy has yet to announce the details of its package, although Italian finance minister Giulio Tremonti said his country was ready to spend as much as necessary, while the Italian central bank will purchase up to €40 billion of banks' debt.Portugal has already announced a €20 billion loan-guarantee scheme. The Scandinavian countries are preparing their own bail-out packages, although they have said that bank recapitalisation will not be necessary there.Norway, which is not an EU member state, announced a €41 billion package on Sunday, while Sweden plans to announce bank deposit guarantee legislation shortly. Denmark has guaranteed all bank deposits and loans between banks.By the end of the day, the emergency manoeuvres seemed to be working, as European stock markets, which saw enormous declines last week, soared on Monday, while interbank lending rates eased significantly.

Government moves again to unclog credit lines By MARTIN CRUTSINGER, AP Economics Writer OCT 14,08

WASHINGTON - President Bush on Tuesday announced a $250 billion plan by the government to directly buy shares in the nation's leading banks, saying the drastic steps were not intended to take over the free market but to preserve it.Nine major banks will participate initially including all of the country's largest institutions, he announced, in a move that sent stocks soaring on Wall Street.Some of the nation's largest banks had to be pressured to participate by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, who wanted healthy institutions that did not necessarily need capital from the government to go first as a way of removing any stigma that might be associated with banks getting bailouts.We regret having to take these actions, Paulson said. Today's actions are not what we ever wanted to do — but today's actions are what we must do to restore confidence to our financial system.It was the latest in a long series of moves taken by the administration and the Federal Reserve over the past several weeks to prop up a weakening financial industry. The economic picture in the United States had been darkening for months, but the slump took on new urgency — and had greater global repercussions — amid record-setting selloffs on Wall Street and enactment of a $700 billion bailout bill.Under the new multifaceted stabilization program described Tuesday, the government will initially buy stocks in nine major U.S. banks. When financial markets stabilize and recover, the banks are expected to buy the stock back from the government, Bush said in brief remarks from the White House Rose Garden.These efforts are designed to directly benefit the American people by stabilizing the financial system and helping the economy recover, he said.Paulson told a Treasury Department news conference that the aggressive government intervention was what we must do to restore confidence in our financial system.The Federal Reserve, meanwhile, announced that it will begin buying vast amounts of short-term debt on Oct. 27 — its latest effort to break through a credit clog. The Fed is invoking Depression-era emergency powers to buy commercial paper — a crucial short-term funding that many companies rely on to pay their workers and buy supplies. Last week the Fed said it intended to take the action but didn't specify when.

Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke welcomed all the new steps and said he believes they will help ease problems plaguing financial markets and threatening the economy. However, he also made clear that policymakers would continue to take actions as needed to battle the crisis.Our strategy will continue to evolve and be refined as we adapt to new developments and the inevitable set backs, he said. But we will not stand down until we have achieved our goals of repairing and reforming our financial system and thereby restoring prosperity to our economy.The needs of our economy require that our financial institutions not take this new capital to hoard it, but to deploy it, Paulson said, meaning that they will use the money to bolster lending to each other and to their customers.Government owning a stake in any private U.S. company is objectionable to most Americans — me included, he added. Yet the alternative of leaving businesses and consumers without access to financing is totally unacceptable.
Said Bernanke: We will not stand down until we have achieved our goals of repairing and reforming our financial system and thereby restoring prosperity to our economy.

The move, in effect a partial nationalization of the banking system, does put the United States in the awkward position of owning shares in institutions it also regulates. The shares purchased by the government are expected to be nonvoting ones.

The government's role will be limited and temporary, Bush pledged. These measures are not intended to take over the free market but to preserve it. He said these steps and other related actions echoed similar bold moves made overseas in an effort to prevent a global recession. Bush said that by restoring confidence in the system, the hope is to return our economy back to the road of growth and prosperity.He said that the efforts to rescue the nation's battered financial sector was a short-term move to help banks to be able to begin lending again.Executives of the country's biggest banks were summoned to a remarkable meeting at the Treasury Department on Monday to be briefed on the plan. Paulson basically told the bank CEOs that they had to accept the government stock purchases for the good of the U.S. economy. The administration plans to spend $250 billion this year on the stock purchases and the president certified Tuesday that another $100 billion would be needed in connection with covering bad assets. That would leave $350 billion of the $700 billion program, presumably to be spent by the next president. The action represents a remarkable turnaround for a rescue program that was already the largest bailout in U.S. history. As the plan sped through Congress, the administration said the money was needed to purchase bad mortgage-related assets that are weighing on the books of financial institutions, never mentioning direct stock purchases. However, as the financial crisis gained new intensity last week, sending U.S. stocks down by a record amount, the administration decided to shift focus and adopt a bolder program modeled more along the lines of bank rescue efforts being put together in Britain and other European countries. Tuesday morning's Wall Street advance took the Dow Jones industrials up more than 300 points and followed the Dow's historic 936-point jump Monday, when investors were buying in anticipation of the government's plan.

After the purchase of preferred stock in nine large banks, the new program is expected to be expanded to many others. Among the initial banks participating will be all of the country's largest institutions, including Citigroup Inc., Wells Fargo & Co., JPMorgan Chase & Co., Bank of America Corp. and Morgan Stanley, said one official, with each institution expected to receive billions of dollars in return for the sale to the government of preferred shares. The advantage to the taxpayer is that if the rescue plan works, then the shares can be sold for more than the government initially paid, providing a profit on the transaction. At a briefing, Treasury officials said that the first purchases of stock from the nine major banks will begin within days and will total $125 billion. The government expects to spend the entire $250 billion slated for the bank stock purchase program by the end of the year. In addition to the stock purchases, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. will temporarily provide insurance for loans between banks, charging the banks a premium for doing so. This FDIC program would take the form of providing insurance for new "senior preferred" debt that one bank would lend to another. This debt would be insured by the FDIC for three years, helping to unlock bank-to-bank lending, which has fallen dramatically because of fears about repayment in the face of billions of dollars of bank losses because of bad loans, primarily in mortgages. The FDIC will also remove temporarily the current $250,000 limit on FDIC insurance on bank deposits for non-interest-bearing accounts. This primarily would benefit businesses who use non-interest-bearing accounts to run their companies. That money now would be insured, removing the need for companies to juggle funds among multiple bank accounts to stay under the $250,000 limit. Congress, as part of the bailout bill, temporarily boosted the deposit insurance cap from $100,000 to $250,000, an action that will not be affected by the new program. The $700 billion rescue program will continue to feature the purchase by the government of banks' bad assets, but the administration decided to place greater emphasis on the stock purchase program after doubts were raised about how long it might take to get the asset purchase program up and running. Treasury officials said Tuesday that they still plan to buy troubled assets and that this program would start as soon as possible. Democrats in Congress, while supportive of Paulson's desire to expand the program, complained Monday that not enough strings were being attached, such as restricting excessive compensation for Wall Street executives who raked in millions of dollars in bonuses by pursuing risky investment strategies that now have helped push the U.S. financial system to the brink. Paulson said companies which sell stock to the government will be required to accept restrictions on executive compensation including a ban on golden parachutes for the period in which Treasury holds the banks' stock. Worried about the slumping U.S. economy only three weeks from the elections, House Republicans and Democrats on Monday pushed for fresh action to prevent a serious downturn. Democrats scheduled hearings to consider a postelection stimulus package that could cost as much as $150 billion. Republicans called for more tax cuts and energy exploration.

In a campaign speech in Ohio, Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama proposed a 90-day moratorium on home foreclosures at some banks and a two-year tax break for businesses that create new jobs. His Republican opponent, John McCain, promised a change in direction from the Bush administration's economic policies.

Brussels tables bank crisis rules to avoid chaos
RENATA GOLDIROVA Today @ 09:28 CET

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - As EU governments put aside hundreds of billions of euros in rescue plans to shore up their financial sector, the European Commission has tabled fresh guidelines so that the union's economy does not descend into chaos.According to the rulebook published on Monday (13 October), the commission recognises that member states may consider it necessary to adopt appropriate measures to safeguard the stability of the financial system. But such measures, it says, may not result in unnecessary distortions of competition between financial institutions operating in the market or negative spillover effects on other member states.A jungle is what we would get if we suspended or abandoned competition policy, EU competition commissioner Neelie Kroes said on Monday, according to Reuters. To prevent chaos, the EU's competition watchdog will thoroughly examine whether a given rescue plan is in line with principles such as non-discrimination - meaning that a support scheme cannot be based on nationality, but must cover all eligible institutions. In addition, measures must be limited in time and scope, while the private sector should also bear some responsibility and contribute to the cost of a guarantee scheme and the cost of assistance granted. Finally, member states must ensure that those enjoying state support do not abuse it by for example engaging in aggressive market strategies and that later, they will undertake necessary restructuring.

Irish and UK schemes win Brussels' approval

Ireland was the first country to prompt the European Commission to remind EU governments that state aid rules need to be respected even in time of crisis. The Irish government suggested blanket guarantees of deposits in all six Irish banks - a move that ruffled feathers in Brussels, Germany and the UK due to its discriminatory potential within the Irish market as well as its effect on other EU countries' banks. After intensive contacts, the commission gave the green light to the country's revised rescue plan, with Ms Kroes saying this case illustrates how we can work together with member states to design measures that help to solve the financial crisis while avoiding negative effects on other member states' banks.The EU executive body also gave its backing to an innovative and well-designed support scheme tabled by London. The scheme will contribute to the recovery of European financial markets, without creating undue distortions of competition, the commissioner said in a statement.

Group of 12 to reflect on future of Europe
ELITSA VUCHEVA Today OCT 14,08 @ 17:43 CET

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS – EU leaders are on Thursday (16 October) set to approve a 12-member group headed by former Spanish Prime Minister Felipe Gonzalez and tasked with reflecting on how best to deal with Europe's future challenges.Besides Mr Gonzalez himself and his two vice-chairs - Latvia's former president, Vaira Vike-Freiberga, and Nokia chief Jorma Ollila from Finland - the wise group will include members from Italy, Poland, France, the UK, Germany, the Netherlands, Austria, Denmark and Greece, diplomatic sources told the EUobserver.In a letter to French President Nicolas Sarkozy, whose country currently chairs the six-month rotating EU presidency, Mr Gonzalez has proposed former Polish president Lech Walesa, who led the Solidarity anti-Communist trade union movement in the 1980s; Nicole Notat, the former leader of one of France's biggest trade unions, the CFDT; former EU competition commissioner Mario Monti from Italy; and German conservative Wolfgang Schuster, who is the mayor of Stuttgart, to be among the group's members.

Additionally, Lykke Friis, a Danish academic from the University of Copenhagen will join the team of consigieri, along with Rainer Munz, an Austrian economist and head of research at the Erste Bank in Vienna; Rem Koolhaas, a Dutch architect and urbanist; and Kalypso Nicolaidis, a Greek professor of international relations who has taught at Harvard and Oxford Universities.The list will be completed by the UK's Richard Lambert – director general of the Confederation of British Industry and a former editor of the Financial Times.The reflection group – the brainchild of Mr Sarkozy – should start its work from January 2009, according to draft conclusions the 27-member bloc's leaders are to adopt on Thursday.The idea was first approved at the meeting of EU heads of state and government in Brussels last December, who then appointed Mr Gonzalez to chair the group, which shall present its report to the [EU leaders] meeting of June 2010.The former Spanish premier was then tasked to form a team to to identify the key issues and developments which the Union is likely to face and to analyse how these might be addressed … in order to help the Union anticipate and meet challenges more effectively in the longer term (horizon 2020 – 2030).Key challenges include strengthening and modernising the European model of economic success and social responsibility, enhancing the competitiveness of the EU, the rule of law, sustainable development as a fundamental objective of the European Union, global stability, migration, energy and climate protection, and the fight against global insecurity, international crime and terrorism.

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

Two-headed Poland in EU summit farce
PHILIPPA RUNNER Today OCT 14,08 @ 09:27 CET

An ugly row over who should represent Poland at Wednesday's (14 October) EU summit has ended with both Prime Minister Donald Tusk and President Lech Kaczynski coming to Brussels, without a decision on who will lead the delegation or take part in top-level meetings.Mr Tusk, foreign minister Radoslaw Sikorski and finance minister Jacek Rostwoski will fly to the EU capital on Tuesday evening on Poland's Air Force One - a Tupolev TU-154M - carrying official summit accreditation and Poland's negotiation mandate for the EU talks.With just three golden ID badges available for entry into the EU summit chamber and two chairs at the top table itself, the prime minister has said he wants his men beside him for the main discussions - on the financial crisis and CO2 emission cut plans.On this I will not compromise, because it's about bigger issues than a dispute between politicians, the prime minister said on TV, after last-ditch talks in Warsaw on Monday night in which the pair reportedly called each by the Polish polite form Mr - a sarcastic way of indicating dislike.

The Tupolev will then turn around and pick up Mr Kaczynski's team on Wednesday morning, with presidential aides saying their boss - from the opposition Law and Justice party - will advise the prime minister in the EU corridors and take over the chair in any talks on Georgia or the Lisbon treaty.The prime minister wants to decide when the president can fulfil his obligations and to become his superior, the president's top advisor, Piotr Kownacki, told the Dziennik newspaper. [We've] asked to be given the negotiating mandate, that is, which position the president should take in the talks.Another presidential aide, Andrzej Duda, on Monday published a legal note explaining that President Kaczynski is the head of the Polish delegation under the country's constitution and that Mr Tusk is breaking the law by trying to shut him out.Polish EU summit confusion began under the former government led by Lech Kaczynski's twin brother, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, when the pair used to send Lech to Brussels while Jaroslaw negotiated with EU leaders by phone from Warsaw.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Tusk's side is in despair over the president's apparent poor grasp of the summit agenda and the harm done to Poland's image.On the subject of the Lisbon treaty, we can expect a brief presentation from the Irish side, on why the referendum had a negative result. No debate is foreseen. I expect this can be wrapped up in seven-and-a-half to 15 minutes, Polish Europe minister Mikolaj Dowgielewicz told PAP.We are very far advanced in terms of conclusions on [Georgia] ... so I don't expect a leaders' discussion on this, he added, with the subject to be handled at an EU foreign ministers' dinner instead.Mr President, I kneel before you. Please let this go, please don't come [to Brussels] and don't weaken the negotiating position of our country, Polish foreign minister Mr Sikorski told national radio on Monday.I don't even want to imagine, the comments we'll get about this, he later told Polish TV.

Spain: PM accepts invitation to visit Cuba By JORGE SAINZ, Associated Press Writer OCT 14,08

MADRID, Spain - The prime minister of Spain, which played a key role in persuading the European Union to lift diplomatic sanctions against Cuba, has accepted an invitation from President Raul Castro to visit next year, a Spanish official said Tuesday. Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos said details of the trip by Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero still need to be worked out, but Moratinos believes it will go ahead. The minister made the announcement after meeting with his Cuban counterpart, Felipe Perez Roque.The sanctions were imposed in 2003 after Cuba jailed 75 dissidents. The measures were lifted in June. More than 200 dissidents are still serving jail terms in Cuba, although 20 have been released.In the talks here Tuesday, Spain also agreed to fund a two-year, euro24.5 million (US$34 million) program to help Cuba rebuild homes, schools and other structures destroyed by hurricanes Gustav and Ike this summer, Moratinos said.Spain has also agreed to restructure part of Cuba's euro1.5 billion (US$2.1 billion) debt with the Spanish government, and open up a new line of credit worth euro50 million (US$69 million) to euro100 million (US$138 million), Moratinos said.

Israel's Kadima, Labour reach coalition agreement: media by Catherine Dupeyron Mon Oct 13, 3:44 PM ET

JERUSALEM, Oct 13, 2008 (AFP) - Israel's Kadima and Labour parties on Monday reached an agreement in principle that would pave the way for the formation of a new government headed by Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, media reported. The agreement was signed by MPs from both sides following a marathon 19-hour negotiating session, and would bring Labour's 19-member parliamentary delegation into an alliance with Kadima's 29-member bloc.The alliance constitutes a major step towards forming a new governing coalition in the 120-member assembly but is not in itself sufficient to allow Livni to become the country's second female premier after Golda Meir.Israeli public radio reported that the two sides must still agree on which government posts will go to the centre-left Labour party.Kadima's chief negotiator, Tsahi Hanegbi, told Channel 2 television that hammering out the accord had been hard going.It was not easy reaching this agreement, Hanegbi said, adding that it was concluded with the idea that it would operate for the next two years.Following Tuesday's Sukkot holiday, Kadima negotiators will meet with leaders from the ultra-Orthodox Shas party, which has 12 MPs, the leftist Meretz party, which has five, and the Pensioners party, which has three.Hanegbi said that Kadima would have to thrash out a similar accord with Shas, otherwise there will be no government.Livni, 50, was formally asked by President Shimon Peres on September 22 to form a new government, after she took over as Kadima chairman from Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who stepped down as police recommended he be indicted over graft allegations.She has since held negotiations with Labour and several smaller parties in a bid to gain the support she needs to form a new coalition government and avert snap elections that could bring the right-wing Likud party to power.

Bringing Defence Minister Ehud Barak's Labour party and its 19 MPs into the coalition would put Livni well on her way to forming a new government but she would need to recruit at least two smaller parties to do so.The ultra-Orthodox Shas, a crucial member of Olmert's coalition, has demanded increased child subsidies and a promise not to negotiate over Jerusalem with the Palestinians.Livni, who as Israel's top diplomat has led US-backed negotiations with the Palestinians relaunched last November, has vowed to continue the process, which is aimed at securing a full peace agreement by the end of 2008.The Palestinians have demanded mostly Arab east Jerusalem -- occupied and annexed by Israel in the 1967 war -- as the capital of their future state, while Israel considers the entire city its own eternal, undivided capital.Under the draft agreement Barak would gain greater influence over cabinet decisions and negotiations with the Palestinians and Syria, the Ynet News service reported.The summary draft, according to which cabinet decisions will not be made without the support and ratification of Barak, is dramatic, the news site quoted a Barak associate as saying.Channel 2 said the agreement, which runs to 38 paragraphs, envisages in particular a budgetary expansion for pensioners amounting to 850 million shekels (229 million dollars) over the three next years.Ehud Barak will be appointed deputy prime minister and be charged in particular with ongoing negotiations with Syria, it said. Barak, who served as prime minister from 1999 to 2001, was voted out of office in a landslide in the wake of the failed Camp David peace talks and the outbreak of the latest Palestinian intifada in September 2000.

UAE to host US-backed forum on Arab reform by Taieb Mahjoub OCT 14,08

DUBAI (AFP) - The United Arab Emirates will host a forum on political reform in the Arab world this weekend amid questions about whether the annual gathering launched by US President George W. Bush has made any difference. Since its launch in 2004, the Forum for the Future has not produced the anticipated results. The promised big democratic changes did not take place in the Middle East, said Ali Fakhro, a Bahraini activist and former minister.The Fifth Forum for the Future will be held in Abu Dhabi on Saturday and Sunday under the co-chairmanship of the UAE and Japan, which holds the rotating presidency of Group of Eight leading industrial countries.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will be among around 40 G8 and Arab League ministers, including some 25 foreign ministers, attending the gathering, organisers say.More than 50 countries will be represented at the forum, which will be preceded by a three-day gathering of dozens of Arab civil society organisations in Dubai.

The forum will focus on the progress accomplished in the realm of political reforms, including the expansion of popular participation and the empowerment of women in the political, economic and social domains, according to the programme.It will also discuss cooperation between governments, civil society and the private sector.The forum was launched at a time when Washington was professing high aspirations for democratic reform in the Arab world following the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq, which toppled the regime of Saddam Hussein.It aimed to promote political, social and economic reforms in the Middle East and North Africa and had the backing of the G8 nations -- Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States.Morocco hosted the first edition, followed by Bahrain the year after and Jordan in 2006. The 2007 events took place in both Germany and Yemen.Civil society representatives, who will meet starting on Wednesday, will put forward recommendations to the ministerial conference.But persistent doubts that the forum can achieve concrete results have only intensified this year as the Bush administration prepares to exit with little progress made in introducing reform in the Arab world.The presence of non-governmental organisations is useless in the absence of a genuine debate with governments, Fakhro told AFP.Democratic change can only come from within Arab states. It is difficult to introduce change from the outside, irrespective of the good intentions of countries from outside the region seeking to encourage democratisation, said Fakhro, who was invited to the Dubai meeting but said he will not attend for personal reasons.The Forum, launched at the height of the US war on terror, is seen as having broken little ground as violence goes on in the Arab world, sectarian tensions rise and the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict seems no closer to a solution despite Bush's promise that the beginning of a settlement would be in place before year's end.The continuing intractability of the conflict was highlighted by the negative reactions to a recent proposal by Bahrain to set up a regional bloc grouping Arab states with Israel, Iran and Turkey.This suggestion cannot be executed, retorted Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki, whose country has imposed itself as a regional power.

Olmert, Abbas to meet on Friday Mon Oct 13, 10:16 AM ET

RAMALLAH, West Bank (AFP) - Outgoing Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is to meet Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas for a new round of peace talks this week, the Palestinian foreign minister said on Monday. (Abbas) will meet prime minister Olmert on October 17 within the framework of their regular meetings, Riyad Al-Malki said at a news conference in Ramallah, the political capital of the Israeli-occupied West Bank.Olmert and Abbas have been meeting about twice a month since the peace process was relaunched at a US conference in November.Hounded by a series of corruption scandals, Olmert formally resigned on September 21 after the governing Kadima party elected Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni as its new leader.Livni is trying to form a new coalition government so she can also take over as prime minister and avert early elections.Last month, Olmert said Israel must give up almost the entire occupied West Bank including east Jerusalem as the price for peace with the Palestinians.But he later said the comments, made in a newspaper interview, reflected his private view and were not binding for Livni.

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.

Israel's Peres warns Iran against surprise attack Sun Oct 12, 11:12 AM ET

JERUSALEM (AFP) - Israeli President Shimon Peres on Sunday warned Iran against considering a surprise attack, at a ceremony commemorating the 35th anniversary of the 1973 Arab-Israeli war. The war began with Syria and Egypt launching a surprise invasion of Israel on the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur in which early battlefield successes destroyed the myth of Israel's military invincibility.But Peres said that although the initial invasion came as a complete surprise, Israel soon emerged victorious. What began as a terrible catastrophe was in 18 days transformed into an extraordinary victory.The IDF (Israeli army) stopped 101 kilometres (63 miles) from Cairo and 30 kilometres (19 miles) from Damascus, he said at a ceremony honouring Israeli soldiers killed in the war.Peres went on to warn that our new enemy, the arrogant Iranian leadership... should not rely too much on the element of surprise.

Israel considers Iran its main strategic threat because of Tehran's accelerating nuclear enrichment programme, which Israel and the West believe is aimed at developing nuclear weapons.Iran insists its nuclear programme is entirely peaceful and has vowed to press ahead with it despite three rounds of UN Security Council sanctions.Israel is widely considered the sole nuclear-armed state in the Middle East, though it has never officially confirmed nor denied having such weapons.The 1973 war, known as the Yom Kippur War in Israel, claimed the lives of 2,689 Israelis.

Russia fires long range missiles by Christopher Boian
Mon Oct 13, 2:31 AM ET

MOSCOW, (AFP) - Russia fired three long-range missiles and pronounced its nuclear deterrent strong in an extraordinary show of force experts said had not been seen anywhere since the days of the Cold War. Two of the missiles were fired Sunday from nuclear submarines in the Asian and European extremes of the sprawling country while a third was watched by President Dmitry Medvedev on land in northwest Russia, news agencies reported.It was the second Russian intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) test in as many days and the latest in a series of high-profile military exercises of conventional land, sea and air forces as well as strategic nuclear units.This shows that our deterrent is in order, Medvedev was quoted by RIA Novosti news agency as saying after Sunday's missile launches.We will of course be introducing new types of forces and means into the military, he added, without elaborating.Independent military analyst Pavel Felgenhauer said the exercises reflected Russia's determination to prepare for major military conflict.This was a dry run for a war with the United States, Felgenhauer said of the missile launches, part of major military manoeuvres billed Stability 2008 involving all military branches.These are the biggest strategic war games in more than 20 years. They are on a parellel with those held in the first half of the 1980s. Nothing of the sort has been seen either in Russia or the United States since then, he said.

Russian navy spokesman Igor Dygalo confirmed the near-simultaneous ICBM test-launches from submarines in the Sea of Okhotsk north of Japan and the Barents Sea northeast of Norway, saying they had been planned well in advance.Speaking to AFP from northwest Russia, Dygalo admitted it was unusual for the navy to conduct three ICBM test launches in two days -- a submarine in the Barents Sea also fired a missile Saturday -- and called the tests successful.The missiles hit right on target, he said. News agencies said the missiles launched from the Barents Sea and the secret base at Plesetsk hit targets on the Kamchatka peninsula thousands of kilometres (miles) to the east.The missile fired from the Sea of Okhotsk hit on target near Kanin Nos, a finger of land jutting into the White Sea in extreme northwest Russia, the reports said.The Sineva missile launched Saturday -- an exercise also watched by Medvedev from aboard an aircraft carrier -- travelled more than 11,500 kilometres (7,145 miles) in what the Russian president claimed was an all-time distance record.The missile tests came a day after Russia announced that a small naval flotilla led by the nuclear battlecruiser Pyotr Veliky (Peter the Great) had paid a call at the Libyan port of Tripoli.The ships, including a submarine destroyer and support vessels, were to conduct exercises at unspecified locations in the Mediterrannean Sea before heading toward Venezuela for joint exercises there in November, officials said.Two Russian Tupolev-160 strategic bombers -- each capable of carrying 12 cruise missiles armed with single 200-kiloton nuclear warheads -- carried out exercises in Venezuela last month.Last week, Japan scrambled a pair of US-made F-15 fighters to intercept and escort Russian bombers on patrol near, but not inside, Japanese territorial waters.The Kremlin, alarmed and angered over new US missile defence plans in eastern Europe and the expansion of the US-led NATO alliance into countries once allied with Moscow, has stressed for a year that it will respond in kind. Washington has shrugged off Russian moves over the past 18 months to resume strategic bomber patrols around the world and reactivate use of its navy to project power on the seas, questioning if the hardware was up to the task.

EU nations divided over resuming talks with Russia By CONSTANT BRAND, Associated Press Writer Mon Oct 13, 12:29 PM ET

LUXEMBOURG - EU nations were divided Monday over whether to resume talks on a political and economic pact with Russia that were frozen in protest over its war with Georgia. Germany and Italy led the campaign to resume discussions on trade, energy and political ties after Moscow withdrew its forces from parts of Georgia according to the terms of an EU-brokered cease-fire.But some EU foreign ministers, headed by Britain's David Miliband, said they wanted to see progress in talks on the future of the disputed Georgian regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia before pressing ahead with closer ties.The debate will continue at a two-day EU summit starting Wednesday in Brussels, Belgium, officials said.EU leaders agreed last month to suspend the talks to show their opposition to Moscow's invasion, a move that irked Russian officials. The leaders of the 27-nation bloc also ordered a review of overall ties and alternative energy sources. Russia supplies a third of the EU's oil and 40 percent of its natural gas.French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner told an EU foreign ministers meeting Monday that Russian troops had left Georgian territory outside the separatist regions but had not withdrawn to positions held before the five-day war broke out Aug. 7.Beyond Ossetia and Abkhazia there are no more Russians, said Kouchner, whose country holds the EU presidency. Kouchner, who was in Georgia last week, said there were problems that remain.He said the presence of Russian troops in portions of the breakaway regions that had been under Georgian control before the war, including Abkhazia's Kodori Gorge, a broad swath of South Ossetia, and the town of Akhalgori were still of concern to EU nations.Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said the EU should announce the restart of talks during an EU-Russia meeting next month, saying Russia's attitude was a constructive one.But Britain said the EU should wait on the outcome of a first round of talks between Georgia and Russia in Geneva this week before deciding on ending the freeze.

The Geneva talks, mediated by the EU, the United Nations and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe are meant to try to solve the stand off between Russia and Georgia over the separatist regions. Russia claims they should be independent states and has troops stationed there.

WW3 THE 3 WAVES THAT MARCH TO ISRAEL

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

FROM JOSEPH FARAH'S G2 BULLETIN Alarms sounded over North Korean missiles,10 rockets put in position as U.S. drops axis of evil designation October 13, 2008
8:10 pm Eastern 2008 WorldNetDaily

Television image of North Korean missile launch

LONDON – Hours after North Korea was removed from the Bush administration's list of the axis of evil, agents for the British intelligence agency MI6 warned prime minister Gordon Brown that the Pyongyang regime had positioned 10 missile sites overlooking the Yellow Sea which can be fired at any time, either singly or as a salvo, according to a report from Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin.The missiles were transported from the Yongbyon nuclear complex, the site from which the International Atomic Energy Agency has been banned. The agency wanted access to monitor North Korea to determine what stage its agreed decommissioning had reached.The decision to remove North Korea from its pariah-state rating as part of the axis of evil was conveyed to Gordon Brown by President Bush shortly before the announcement was made in Washington this past weekend.Meantime, there is renewed speculation within MI6 and European intelligence agencies about North Korea's real intentions of disarming –and also about Kim Jong II, the country's leader.Last weekend, Kim failed to show at the most politically important event in the nation's yearly calendar: the 63rd anniversary of the founding of the Worker's Party.While foreign diplomats reported that the weekend celebrations were more muted than in previous years – a sign of the global economic crisis that has left North Korea even closer to mass starvation – Kim's absence from the saluting podium for the anniversary parade fueled rumors among the watching crowd about their Beloved Leader.Were previous reports that he actually was dead after all true? Or is Kim close to death? Not one of North Korea's newspapers mentioned Kim's absence.