LAND FOR PEACE (THE FUTURE 7 YEARS OF HELL ON EARTH)
JOEL 3:2
2 I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and will plead with them there for my people and for my heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and parted my land.
THE WEEK OF DANIEL 9:27 WE KNOW ITS 7 YRS
Heres the scripture 1 week = 7 yrs Genesis 29:27-29
27 Fulfil her week, and we will give thee this also for the service which thou shalt serve with me yet seven other years.
28 And Jacob did so, and fulfilled her week: and he gave him Rachel his daughter to wife also.
29 And Laban gave to Rachel his daughter Bilhah his handmaid to be her maid.
DANIEL 9:26-27
26 And after threescore and two weeks(62X7=434 YEARS+7X7=49 YEARS=TOTAL OF 69 WEEKS OR 483 YRS) shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary;(ROMAN LEADERS DESTROYED THE 2ND TEMPLE) and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined.(THERE HAS TO BE 70 WEEKS OR 490 YRS TO FUFILL THE VISION AND PROPHECY OF DAN 9:24).(THE NEXT VERSE IS THAT 7 YR WEEK OR (70TH FINAL WEEK).
27 And he( THE ROMAN,EU PRESIDENT) shall confirm the covenant with many for one week:(1X7=7 YEARS) and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease,(3 1/2 yrs in TEMPLE SACRIFICES STOPPED) and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.
ISAIAH 28:14-19 (THIS IS THE 7 YR TREATY COVENANT OF DANIEL 9:27)
14 Wherefore hear the word of the LORD, ye scornful men, that rule this people which is in Jerusalem.
15 Because ye have said, We have made a covenant with death, and with hell are we at agreement; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto us: for we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves:
16 Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation: he that believeth shall not make haste.
17 Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet: and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place.
18 And your covenant with death shall be disannulled, and your agreement with hell shall not stand; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, then ye shall be trodden down by it.
19 From the time that it goeth forth it shall take you: for morning by morning shall it pass over, by day and by night: and it shall be a vexation only to understand the report.
EU SPAIN #11
DANIEL 7:23-24
23 Thus he said, The fourth beast(THE EU,REVIVED ROME) shall be the fourth kingdom upon earth,(7TH WORLD EMPIRE) which shall be diverse from all kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, and shall tread it down, and break it in pieces.(TRADE BLOCKS)
24 And the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise:(10 NATIONS) and another shall rise after them;(#11 SPAIN) and he shall be diverse from the first, and he shall subdue three kings.(BE HEAD OF 3 KINGS OR NATIONS).
OH WOW THIS IS INCREDIBLE SPAIN IS HEADQUARTERING THE MEDITERRANEAN UNION.
Barcelona to host Mediterranean Union headquarters
ELITSA VUCHEVA Today NOV 4,08 @ 17:48 CET
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS – The headquarters of the recently launched Union for the Mediterranean will be located in Barcelona, Spain, foreign ministers of the countries participating in the project decided on Tuesday (4 November).The secretariat will be presided over by a single secretary general – yet to be appointed – and five deputy secretaries from Greece, Italy, Malta, Israel and the Palestinian Authority, said French foreign minister Bernard Kouchner – whose country currently presides over the Union for the Mediterranean together with Egypt. The Royal Palace of Pedralbes in Barcelona, where the headquarters of the Union for the Mediterranean will be located. (Photo: Wikipedia/Pex Cornel)
Mr Kouchner, speaking to reporters following a meeting of EU and Mediterranean foreign ministers in Marseille, added that a sixth deputy secretary may yet be added to the list at the demand of Turkey.The secretariat will be tasked with implementing concrete projects in a number of different areas: maritime safety, economy, energy, transport, agriculture, urban development and environment.The French foreign minister hailed the results of the meeting as a great success and underlined that it was the first time that Israel would be present at such a level in an international institution alongside the Palestinian Authority.In exchange for a position as deputy secretary, Israel has accepted that the Arab League could be present at all Union meetings, at all levels, although without any voting rights.Prior to the decision, the Arab League had only been allowed to take part in Euro-Mediterranean meetings as part of the Egyptian delegation.
Barcelona beats Tunisia and Valetta
Valetta, the capital of EU member Malta, and Tunis, the capital of Tunisia had also been in the running to host the UM's headquarters, but Tunis withdrew its candidacy last Friday, while Valetta did not gather enough support for its candidacy, according to the Times of Malta.Barcelona had given the name to an earlier initiative aiming to boost EU co-operation with its southern neighbours that was set up in 1995 – the Barcelona Process.Spain had also increased diplomatic efforts in the past weeks in order to gather support for its candidacy, with its prime minister Jose Luis Zapatero meeting both EU commission president Jose Manuel Barroso and EU external relations commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner last week. EU foreign policy chief, Javier Solana – himself a Spaniard, said he was very happy that the Union for the Mediterranean's headquarters would be located in Barcelona, in the 19th-century Palace of Pedralbes.It is a great joy for me, he told reporters in Marseille, where the meeting was taking place.After the decision that Barcelona would host the secretariat of the project, Spain demanded that its name also be changed from the Barcelona Process: Union for the Mediterranean to simply Union for the Mediterranean, Mr Kouchner pointed out.
Academics remain sceptical
The Union for the Mediterranean – the brainchild of French President Nicolas Sarkozy – was officially launched at a summit meeting in Paris in July.It is aimed at breathing a new life into the Barcelona Process, which has failed to achieve any significant results.But observers and academics remain sceptical as to what the new initiative's added value can be.Essentially, I don't think that much has changed at all, professor Ahmed Driss from the University of Tunis said at a conference organised on Monday (3 November) during the European Parliament's Arab Week.
Additionally, the balance of powers within the Union of the Mediterranean is not good, he said.If we really want to have a joint presidency, one has to believe it is a joint, common project. There is no such impression today. You have one side proposing something to the other side. There is no common preparation, no real dialogue between the two sides prior to this, he told the conference's audience.
Professor Annette Junemann, from the Helmut Schmidt University of the Armed Forces in Hamburg voiced a similar opinion.The Mediterranean countries were not involved in setting up the project, it was mainly made in France, she said.She added she saw a lot of hot air in the Union for the Mediterranean and very little substance.
Additionally, all participants in the conference deplored the de-politisation of the project, which they said did not contain enough provisions on human rights. NGOs regularly complain of serious breaches in a number of the countries that are members of the new Union. Conference participants also complained of a lack of civil society involvement.
EU asks US for greater role on world stage
PHILIPPA RUNNER Today NOV 4,08 @ 09:27 CET
The EU has in a letter to the next US president appealed for a greater European role on the world stage, more engagement with a resurgent Russia and more emphasis on peacemaking in Afghanistan and the Middle East.The six-page text was agreed at an informal EU foreign ministers meeting in Marseilles on Monday (3 November) and will remain under wraps until after the US election on Tuesday. But its contents were outlined by French EU presidency officials on the margins of the Mediterranean Union gathering in the southern French city, Le Figaro reports.Based around four priorities, the text calls for a better interplay between security and reconstruction efforts in Afghanistan, with a view to making Afghan elections in late 2009 determinant for peace in the country.It says the US and EU should take note of Russia's economic revival and intensify diplomatic contacts to avoid the risk of confrontation. The EU as Russia's permanent neighbour should have a major role in future negotiations.The letter urges the new US administration to put the Middle East peace process at the top of its agenda and foresees a useful role for the EU as co-guarantors of a future Israeli-Palestinian accord.
It also stresses the importance of multilateralism in world governance and calls for reforms to the UN, the International Monetary Fund and the G8 format, to be expanded to a group of 14 leading industrialised nations.The time is past when people asked what Europe was for. What we want is for our initiatives to be understood and shared, French foreign minister Bernard Kouchner said in Marseilles. Europe has a telephone number, he explained, alluding to former US secretary of state Henry Kissinger's quip that he didn't know which number to call when he wanted to speak to Europe. It's the number of the country chairing the EU at any given moment. Today, France, in two months, the Czech Republic.Russia is our neighbour. It's a huge country which has changed a lot. Never forgetting about human rights, we have to undertake a dialogue with Russia, the French foreign minister added.Mr Kouchner's remarks and the letter follow the historic rift in EU-US relations over President Bush's unilateral decision to invade Iraq in 2003, with much of the Republican president's second term devoted to resbuilding trans-Atlantic bonds.The current French leader, Nicolas Sarkozy, is markedly more pro-American than his predecessor, Jacques Chirac, with Mr Sarkozy putting the EU centre stage in recent efforts to broker peace between Russia and Georgia and to find a way out of the global financial crisis.But the joint letter masks ongoing divisions between the US and EU and within the EU itself.
The US remains critical of Germany's reluctance to commit troops to combat zones in southern Afghanistan, while the former-communist EU states are concerned by France's Russia-friendly tone.France's unilateral decision in St Petersburg last week to announce that EU-Russia partnership treaty talks can be restarted at the EU-Russia summit on 14 November caused a furore in Lithuania, with the Polish and Lithuanian presidents framing a joint letter of protest on Monday.We reiterate that under the continued occupation of Georgian territories it would be too early to resume talks on a new partnership agreement with Russia, Lech Kaczynski and Valdas Adamkus said.
EUROPEAN UNION ARMY
DANIEL 7:23-25
23 Thus he said, The fourth beast (EU,REVIVED ROME) shall be the fourth kingdom upon earth,(7TH WORLD EMPIRE) which shall be diverse from all kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, and shall tread it down, and break it in pieces.(TRADING BLOCKS)
24 And the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings(10 NATIONS) that shall arise: and another shall rise after them;(#11 SPAIN) and he shall be diverse from the first, and he shall subdue three kings.( BE HEAD OF 3 NATIONS)
25 And he (EU PRESIDENT) shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time.(3 1/2 YRS)
DANIEL 8:23-25
23 And in the latter time of their kingdom, when the transgressors are come to the full, a king (EU DICTATOR) of fierce countenance, and understanding dark sentences,(FROM THE OCCULT) shall stand up.
24 And his power shall be mighty, but not by his own power:(SATANS POWER) and he shall destroy wonderfully, and shall prosper, and practise, and shall destroy the mighty and the holy people.
25 And through his policy also he shall cause craft to prosper in his hand; and he shall magnify himself in his heart, and by peace shall destroy many: he shall also stand up against the Prince of princes;(JESUS) but he shall be broken without hand.
DANIEL 11:36-39
36 And the king (EU DICTATOR) shall do according to his will; and he shall exalt himself, and magnify himself above every god, and shall speak marvellous things against the God of gods, and shall prosper till the indignation be accomplished: for that that is determined shall be done.
37 Neither shall he regard the God of his fathers,(THIS EU DICTATOR IS JEWISH) nor the desire of women, nor regard any god: for he shall magnify himself above all.(CLAIM TO BE GOD)
38 But in his estate shall he honour the God of forces:(WAR) and a god whom his fathers knew not shall he honour with gold, and silver, and with precious stones, and pleasant things.
39 Thus shall he do in the most strong holds with a strange god,(DESTROY TERROR GROUPS) whom he shall acknowledge and increase with glory: and he shall cause them to rule over many,(HIS ARMY LEADERS) and shall divide the land for gain.
REVELATION 19:19
19 And I saw the beast,(EU LEADER) and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against him that sat on the horse,(JESUS) and against his army.(THE RAPTURED CHRISTIANS)
French EU defence plan is not anti-NATO, minister says
VALENTINA POP Today NOV 4,08 @ 09:29 CET
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - The US is still critical of the EU's common security and defence policy, a pet project of the bloc's French presidency, but French interior minister Michelle Alliot-Marie defended the initiative on Monday as not being aimed against NATO. Challenged by the deputy chairman of the NATO military committee, Lt. Gen. Karl Eikenberrry to explain France's view on the transatlantic link in the enhanced EU security and defence policy, Ms Alliot-Marie said there are countries who don't have confidence in this [transatlantic] dialogue and believe a strong European security and defence policy is aimed at minimizing NATO, but I believe the opposite.She stressed that the EU is better adapted to deal with certain conflicts, while in others NATO power is needed.Both were addressing a 100-odd audience at the Security and Defence Days conference in Brussels on Monday evening. Mr Eikenberry made acidic remarks about the EU's ability to plan, deploy and conduct successful missions, stressing that out of the bloc's 20 missions so far, five were short-term operations in Congo. I'm not questioning the value of those missions, they were successful in the relief of pressing humanitarian problems, but what is the overarching strategic thinking in the EU with regard to the Congo?
He also criticized the EU's overwhelming preference for soft power and lack of deployable troops despite massive spending on defence. European security in this century depends on peace and stability abroad. This is a paradigm shift often stated but still not evident in terms of policies and strategic choices. The current European strategy does not articulate clear regional priorities or comprehensive integrated responses to trans-national threats, he said.The NATO deputy chairman nevertheless underlined that in the US there is openness towards a closer cooperation between his organisation and the European Union. President's Sarkozy's notion of bringing more Europe into NATO is pushing against a door that is already wide open, he argued.French defence minister Herve Morin told the Financial Times on Monday that the mood in Washington had changed, after president Sarkozy announced that France would become a full member of NATO.It took hours of conversation for the Americans to realise that France wasn't trying to set up a rival operation and that European defence could actually bolster the capabilities of the transatlantic alliance as a whole, Mr Morin had told FT.Mr Morin also criticised British opposition to establishing a headquarters in Brussels for the EU's common security and defence policy (ESDP). I appreciate British pragmatism but we have a situation where we have numerous headquarters - in Britain, France, Germany, Italy and now even Greece - and that costs us money, he said.
More ESDP even without Lisbon Treaty
Meanwhile, German conservative MEP Karl von Wogau, the chairman of the European Parliament's sub-committee on security and defence argued at a parliament hearing on Monday, that the failure of the Lisbon treaty, rejected in the Irish referendum, is no impediment for building up the ESDP.The treaty would have allowed more EU power in the field of security and defense, which still remains a core competence of national governments, the MEP said. But he referred to the creation in 2004 of the European Defence Agency (EDA), an EU body aimed at helping the bloc's governments to co-ordinate and prioritise defence spending, as an example of how the ESDP can proceed without Lisbon.Nick Witney, former EDA chief, argued the same line, while praising France's efforts to re-energize the ESDP. He also stressed the need for a common headquarters in Brussels, capable of strategic planning for the EU's different missions.
UK opposes Brussels headquarters
France's push for a common headquarter is being challenged by the UK argument that the EU can draw on NATO's planning capabilities and its 17,000-strong European headquarter in Mons, some 70 km south of Brussels.This is enshrined in the current EU treaty of Nice, which says that when a given crisis gives rise to an EU-led operation making use of NATO assets and capabilities, the EU and NATO will draw on the so-called Berlin Plus arrangements.These arrangements cover three main elements that are directly connected to operations and which can be combined: EU access to NATO planning, NATO European command options and use of NATO assets and capabilities.
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MIDEAST CONFLICT NEWS
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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 NOV 04,2008
09:30 AM +112.00
10:00 AM +161.45
10:30 AM +193.07
11:00 AM +276.46
11:30 AM +271.76
12:00 PM +301.07
12:30 PM +280.20
01:00 PM +252.56
01:30 PM +273.35
02:00 PM +269.61
02:30 PM +213.06
03:00 PM +171.16
03:30 PM +204.46
04:00 PM +305.45 9625.28
S&P 500 1005.75 +39.45
NASDAQ 1780.12 +53.79
GOLD 763.1 +36.3
OIL 70.11 +6.20
TSE 300 +395.32 10,116.58
CDNX +39.68 975.27
S&P/TSX/60 +23.70 610.63
ANOTHER AMAZING ACT SPAIN IS ALLOWED A SEAT AT THE WORLD ECONOMIC SUMMIT.
Barroso backs Spanish seat at G20 summit
LEIGH PHILLIPS Today NOV 4,08 @ 09:28 CET
European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso has called for Spain, the fifth largest economy in the European Union and the eighth largest in the world, to be invited to the upcoming emergency G20 meeting in Washington on 17 November on tackling the global financial crisis.Spain should be at the summit in Washington, he told reporters after meeting with the Spanish prime minister, Jose Luis Rodriquez Zapatero at the Moncloa Palace in Madrid.Spain's Mr Zapatero has furiously worked the phone lines trying to get an invitation to the party (Photo: Inma Mesa-PSOE)
For obvious reasons Spain should participate because it is the eighth largest economy in the world and it has an experience which is of great interest for the reform of the global financial system, he added.Spain has been engaged in a furious bout of lobbying of world leaders in the past week in attempt to be invited to sit at the grown-ups' table for once.Madrid argues that the size of its economy - the only economy in the world's top ten than is not represented in the G20 - and more importantly for the topic at hand, the health of its economy, demand that Spain be considered a peer amongst the world's leading nations at this time of crisis. As a result of stricter regulation and conservative lending practices amongst the country's banks, Spain's financial sector is not as highly leveraged as that of other countries. The Financial Times newspaper recently rated the Bank of Spain the best situated financial regulator to weather the current turbulence.Mr Zapatero's lobbying has met with some success amongst a number of leaders outside Washington. At the last European Summit, UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown said he would back Spain having a seat at any G20 meeting, and French President Nicholas Sarkozy has also said he backs the idea.
The European Parliament supports the Spanish position, and Austria's representative on the EU executive, foreign relations commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner, has written to Mr Zapatero expressing her wish to see Spain at the meeting.At the Latin American Summit in El Salvador last week, Mr Zapatero also chalked up additional backing from Mexico and Brazil, both invitees to the summit, and the latter the 2008 chair of the G20 group of nations.US secretary of state Condoleeza Rice however told Spanish foreign minister Angel Moratinos last week that Spain will not win a seat at the meeting not as a result of Mr Zapatero's withdrawl of troops from Iraq, as has been suggested by Spanish pundits as a reason why Madrid has not been invited. Instead, according to a report in Spain's ABC newspaper, she said, the US chose the G20 so that it could draw a line somewhere, inevitably offending some nations.
However, there has been some suggestion in Brussels that France, which has two seats at the summit - as a member of the G7 and as current chair of the EU six-month rotating presidency - may offer up one of them in Spain's favour.Inevitably, the moderate success Madrid has achieved has encouraged other nations to also try to win an invitation to the dance.El Pais is reporting that the Netherlands, with a GDP half the size of Spain's, has approached President Sarkozy requesting they be invited as well. Meanwhile, Poland, with an economy a third the size of Spain's, has spoken to the Bush Administration directly requesting they also attend.The French delegation to the summit has also now yielded a seat to the Czech finance minister, whose nation will take over the chairmanship of the EU from France in January.The Spanish centre-left daily reports that Mr Zapatero rejects such a formula, preferring instead a national seat, and not as part of someone else's delegation, in order to have the right to participate in debates.What doesn't sit well with me is to be standing up. I have to be in a seat, Mr Zapatero said yesterday, according to the paper.
Juncker rejects Sarkozy's economic government for eurozone
LUCIA KUBOSOVA Today NOV 4,08 @ 09:19 CET
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Finance ministers from the 15-strong euro area have agreed to drop the goal of balancing the budgetary deficits by 2010, while concluding that the bloc does not need an extra package similar to the bank rescue plan but aimed instead at kick-starting the faltering economy. Meeting in Brussels on Monday (3 November) on the eve of a full EU ministerial session on finance, the ministers decided that their previous medium-term objective of zero deficits by the end of this decade - agreed in April 2007 - should be revised.Instead, the goal will be replaced by individual plans for member states on a case-by-case basis at dates that will pushed back, Eurozone chair, Luxembourg's premier and finance minister, Jean-Claude Juncker, told journalists.The debate took place just after the European Commission presented a grim economic forecast for 2008 and next two years, warning that in 2009, the EU's economy will reach a stand still.EU economy commissioner Joaquin Almunia pressed governments to approach the problem, which threatens to severely affect jobs across the continent, in a similar, co-ordinated way as they did when they moved to save the bloc's banking sector.Looking at the need to accelerate as much as possible the decisions that can promote a recovery based on a sound basis, this co-ordination, this European action, and in particular this euro area action is essential and I am very happy to see the positive reaction of the members of the Eurogroup to these ideas, he said after the meeting.However, Mr Juncker pointed out that this co-ordination should not come in form of a new package of measures similar to the bank rescue plans that involved emergency steps such as boosting deposit guarantees or pumping state capital into weakened financial institutions. We do not believe that in the euro area we need a general revival package, a sort of classical or traditional programme to stimulate the short-term economy, he said, adding that the existing rules are sufficient.It is simply a question of adopting targeted temporary and consistent measures designed to help us in the short-term, noted Luxembourg's leader.
Economic government
On Monday, eurozone chiefs of finance gathered for the first time after several remarks by the French President Nicolas Sarkozy - whose country currently holds the six-month rotating presidency of the 27-strong club - about the future governance of the monetary union.The French leader had suggested that there should be regular meetings of heads of state and government of members of the eurozone - similar to those that had been hosted by him under the extraordinary circumstances of the financial crisis that had pushed Europe's banking sector on the verge of total collapse.This new forum could serve as a form of eurozone economic government, Mr Sarkozy had said in his speech to the European Parliament last month.But his Luxembourg counterpart, Mr Juncker, told journalists on Monday that while the idea is not new and the French president had argued in favour of it on a number of occasions before, most member states did not agree with that idea.In my view, I do not think it is a good idea to institutionalise a meeting at such a high level, but it seems to me that whenever it is necessary, it is not a bad idea to be able to convene the heads of the Eurogroup, he said.As to who might chair, this is of secondary significance. Unlike the French president, I am both minister of finance and prime minister. So I have a particular advantage in the sense that I have all the skills to be able to fulfill both positions, he added.
Oil prices surges above $70 in volatile week By JOHN PORRETTO, AP Energy Writer NOV 4,08
HOUSTON – Oil prices surged above $70 a barrel Tuesday in the final hours of a two-year U.S. presidential campaign, mirroring global stock markets that strengthened from Asia to Europe. A weaker dollar helped too.At home, the Dow Jones industrial average jumped 300 points despite a new Commerce Department report that said factory orders fell 2.5 percent in September from August, much worse than analysts had predicted.As the pace of industry has slowed and businesses consume less crude, the price of oil has fallen $30 from just over a month ago. The price of retail gasoline dipped below $2.40 Tuesday for the first time since early in 2007.Crumbling home prices, a shaky job market and gasoline that spiked above $4 per gallon have dramatically changed how Americans use fuel. While plummeting gas prices have certainly been welcomed by consumers, much of that exuberance has been lost amid broader economic fears.The volatility and huge price swings we've seen this year are unmatched, said Ben Brockwell, director of data, pricing and information services for the Oil Price Information Service. These erratic changes are a 2008 phenomenon.
On Monday, U.S. manufacturers reported lethargic numbers for October, showing the worst reading in more than a quarter century, according to the Institute for Supply Management.The presidential election could be influencing the market, said analyst and trader Stephen Schork.There may be a lot of money moving from the sidelines that's waiting to see how this election is going to shake out, Schork said.Oil has not traded above $70 in nearly two weeks. Some industry experts, including Schork, also attributed Tuesday's spike to the weaker dollar.Commodities such as oil are used as a hedge against inflation and a weak dollar. Investors flood the crude futures market when the greenback falls. A weak dollar also makes oil less expensive to buyers dealing in other currencies.The euro rose nearly 4 cents Tuesday to $1.296. The dollar lost ground to the yen, the pound and other currencies as well.Light, sweet crude for December delivery rose $6.62 to settle at $70.53 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange after rising as high as $71.77.Anytime oil rises more than $4 a barrel, it's usually myriad items at play, said Jim Ritterbusch, president of energy consultancy Ritterbusch and Associates. When the Dow is up, the world is good and nobody wants the dollar as a safe haven.The week has thus far been characterized by volatile trading.Crude prices fell $4.46 on Monday, but those losses were erased early Tuesday.
Oil industry analysts earlier this year believed that the booming economies of India and China would pick up any slackening of demand if Western nations went into recession. Few still hold onto that view, as the economic crisis in the United States has spread across the globe.Oil prices have fallen roughly $80 from their July peak around $147. In October alone, crude prices tumbled 32 percent, the largest decline in Nymex history.Gasoline futures rose 17 cents to settle at $1.53 a gallon, after a steep fall overnight on the Nymex. But gasoline has trended sharply lower in the last month. At a national retail average of $2.39 a gallon for regular gasoline, the price is $1.13 a gallon lower than a year ago, according to auto club AAA, the Oil Price Information Service and Wright Express. AAA fuel price analyst Geoff Sundstrom said a weak holiday travel season could push the national average to $2 a gallon by year's end, with a rally unlikely until spring at the earliest. A new report Tuesday shows Americans are buying more gasoline. In a weekly report, MasterCard's SpendingPulse survey found U.S. demand for gasoline rose 1.3 percent in the past week, though demand was still off 3.9 percent from a year ago. Compared with the 10 percent yearly decline in demand just a month ago, the new figure shows a marked recovery. We've been seeing a relatively steady recovery in demand, said Michael McNamara, a vice president at MasterCard SpendingPulse. If you go back about four or five weeks ago ... demand was really getting hit on two fronts. One, prices were still elevated. You were also seeing the beginning of the severe economic turbulence we've been dealing with.Now, McNamara said, it's largely the economy alone, not prices, that's affecting gasoline purchases. MasterCard's report is based on aggregate sales activity in the MasterCard payments network, coupled with estimates for all other payment forms, including cash and check. In other Nymex trading, heating oil gained nearly 18 cents to settle at $2.16 a gallon while natural gas for December delivery rose 38 cents to settle at $7.22 per 1,000 cubic feet. In London, December Brent crude rose $5.96 to settle at $66.44 on the ICE Futures exchange. Associated Press Writer George Jahn in Vienna, Austria, and AP Business Writer Stephen Wright in Bangkok, Thailand, contributed to this report.
South Africa not immune from global financial crisis: central bank NOV 4,08
JOHANNESBURG (AFP) – The economy of South Africa, Africa's economic powerhouse, cannot be immune from the effects of the global financial financial market crisis, the central bank's monetary policy review committee said Tuesday.The volatile and uncertain financial market environment will continue to complicate monetary policy decision-making for some time, the committee said in its bi-annual report.The bank will, however, continue to focus on medium-term inflation targetting despite the global financial market crisis, it said.The main risks to the inflation outlook emanate from the possibility of further electricity price increases, which will be announced next week, said the report.Petrol, food price increases and the volatile exchange rate are some of the factors contributing to the inflation uncertainty.
Since last year, South Africa's inflation of 12 percent has been hovering above the target range of between 3.0 to 6.0 percent.The inflation rate for the overall food price component of the CPIX increased from 15.4 percent in March to 19.2 percent in August, before slowing to 17.9 percent in September.Although South African markets have been fairly resilient to the current crisis, the heightened levels of uncertainty about the global economy are contributing to a challenging monetary policy-making environment, the bank said.The most recent International Monetary Fund (IMF) data show that world growth in real gross domestic product (GDP) was five percent in 2007 and will slow to an estimated 3.9 percent this year against the backdrop of increasing turmoil in global financial markets and stagnating growth in the advanced economies.The South African economy grew at an annualised rate of 4.9 percent in the second quarter of this year, compared to a much slower rate of 2.1 percent in the first quarter.
Indian PM sets up panel to assess impact of global financial crisis NOV 4,08
NEW DELHI (AFP) – Indian Premier Manmohan Singh Tuesday set up a high-level panel to monitor the impact of the global financial crisis on domestic industry, a government statement said.The panel, headed by Singh, includes India's central Reserve Bank chief and finance and trade ministers who will advise the premier on steps needed to reassure Indian industry, the statement said.It was constituted after a meeting between Singh and key industry representatives in New Delhi on Monday.The group will meet regularly to coordinate and decide the government's response to the points raised by industry from time to time with regard to the current global financial crisis and its impact on India, the statement said.Singh told top business leaders on Monday the downturn was expected to be more severe and prolonged than previously thought, but stressed that India's banks are well regulated and also well capitalised.Our first priority was to protect the Indian financial system from possible loss of confidence or contagion effects, he said and added a warning against knee jerk reactions such as large scale lay-offs that could lead to a negative spiral.India's central bank has taken a series of measures in the past few weeks to pour billions of dollars into the financial system.At the weekend, it cut its short-term lending rate, the repo, by 50 basis points to 7.50 percent to ease a credit crunch. It had already reduced the rate by one percentage point to 8.0 percent late last month.It also cut the cash reserve ratio to 5.5 percent from 6.5 percent and decreased the statutory reserve ratio, or the amount banks must hold in government securities, from 25 percent to 24 percent.
Taiwan, China make economic history with new pact By WILLIAM FOREMAN, Associated Press Writer NOV 4,08
TAIPEI, Taiwan – China and Taiwan made economic history Tuesday with a bold agreement that allows planes and ships to travel directly across the Taiwan Strait — the place where many have feared they would fight their next battle.Still the Asian rivals appear far from resolving the root causes of nearly six decades of hostilities and distrust. The pact was possible because negotiators set aside thorny political disputes and only focused on trade and economics.The new deal allows passenger flights directly across the 100-mile-wide Taiwan Strait that separates Taiwan from mainland China. In the past, planes had to fly into Hong Kong airspace while traveling between the two sides. Cargo ships, which used to have to stop at the Japanese island of Okinawa northeast of Taiwan, will be allowed to sail directly to the other side and cut hundreds of miles out of each trip.The deal is significant for businesses and drew applause from three chambers of commerce representing Japan, the U.S. and Europe. The groups said in a joint statement the restrictions on flights and shipping have kept Taiwan from fully participating in the global and Asian economies.Taiwan can only benefit from having greater interaction with one of the world's fastest growing markets,it said.In the eyes of China's leaders, Taiwan is a Chinese province that must eventually unite with the mainland or be invaded by the mainland's massive military.A conflict could quickly draw in the U.S., which has long warned China's government it may defend Taiwan — a major buyer of American weapons. Even as they talk to China, the Taiwanese have been loading up on more U.S. arms, including Apache helicopters and Patriot missiles.
China-Taiwan relations are so awkward and strained that Chinese envoy Chen Yunlin, who signed the deal Tuesday, has yet to call Taiwanese leader Ma Ying-jeou by his proper title: president. When they meet Thursday, Chen will likely just address him as Mr. Ma.Chen — the highest-ranking Chinese official to visit Taiwan — is sticking to Beijing's policy of not formally recognizing the island's government.Taiwan's top official for China policy, Lai Shin-yuan, urged critics to embrace the deal and stop obsessing about sensitive political issues.This is something people should support, instead of making an issue of how I am addressed by the Chinese side, Lai told reporters. Our sovereignty has not been harmed during the meeting this time.Most Taiwanese are not ready to unify with China and do not want Beijing meddling in their political affairs. Many favor independence, and China's refusal to recognize their government infuriates them. About 200 protesters scuffled with police Tuesday night outside a hotel where the Chinese envoy attended a banquet.The Taiwanese president, who took office in May, has promised not to begin unification negotiations during his four-year term.Some fear that closer ties with China — even if they only involve trade and economics — will sacrifice Taiwan's sovereignty by making it overly dependent on the mainland.That's the view of Taiwan's previous president, Chen Shui-bian, who was vilified by Beijing because he favored independence. Chen on Tuesday accused the new government of being too friendly with China.We have strived to be the masters of Taiwan, he said. But now we are becoming slaves to China.But Alexander Huang, a political science professor at Taipei's Tamkang University, doubted the economic agreements will lead to Taiwan being absorbed by its massive neighbor.Taiwanese have enjoyed their democracy and don't want to have officials appointed by the mainland, said Huang, who also thought the pact would help decrease the threat of a war. Huang added the agreement shows China is eager to win the hearts and minds of Taiwanese. Beijing, which refused to talk to Chen's government for eight years, also doesn't want Taiwan to drift further toward permanent independence.
Canadian manufacturers seek help amid crisis Tue Nov 4, 9:49 am ET
TORONTO (Reuters) – Canadian manufacturers are asking the federal government for loan guarantees and lines of credit to help them combat the effects of the global financial crisis, the Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters association said Tuesday.
The move comes one week after Ottawa balked at a similar request from the auto-parts manufacturing industry, hard hit by slumping U.S. auto sales and a liquidity crunch that is drying up regular funding.An official at the Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters association said the group had sent a letter to Prime Minister Stephen Harper seeking federal assistance for Canadian manufacturers in the form of loan guarantees and credit lines, but would not immediately comment further.Kory Teneycke, spokesman for Prime Minister Stephen Harper, said the government receives literally hundreds of pre-budget requests. We acknowledge receipt and we'll respond in due course, he said.Teneycke pointed out that the government had already increased the borrowing capacity of the federal agency Export Development Canada and that the government's Business Development Bank was also taking steps to improve liquidity.The request is the latest sign of pain in Canada's once booming industrial sector and comes one day after Canada's Finance Department announced Ontario -- where much of the country's manufacturing industry is located -- would be given its first-ever payment under the equalization program designed for the nation's poorer provinces.(Reporting by Richard Valdmanis and Randall Palmer; Editing by Peter Galloway)
US voters decide historic Obama-McCain clash NOV 4,08
WASHINGTON (AFP) - Millions of US voters flooded polling stations Tuesday, looking to elect front-running Democrat Barack Obama the first black US president or hand Republican John McCain an upset win in their historic clash.Obama enjoyed a solid lead in recent national polls and held the edge in a string of battleground states that could still swing the election either way, as both candidates hunted the 270 electoral college votes needed to win.Well before sun-up, long queues snaked outside polling places as voters braved hours-long waits, rain, or shivering cold amid unanimous predictions of vast turnout at the climax of the longest and costliest White House race.Results were due to start pouring in after the first polls closed at 6:00 pm (2300 GMT), though it was not clear when it would be known who will succeed US President George W. Bush when his second term ends at midday on January 20.In the eye of the worst financial storm since the 1930s and with US troops embroiled in wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, both Obama and McCain have vowed to restore the frayed self-confidence of the world's lone superpower.After an epic campaign , a political realignment in Washington was also possible, with Democrats targeting big gains in the Senate and House of Representatives in a rout fueled by Bush's record unpopularity.
I feel great, Obama, a Hawaiian-born US senator from Illinois, told reporters as he voted in Chicago alongside his wife Michelle and their young daughters Sasha and Malia.McCain kept silent after voting in his home state of Arizona, while his running mate, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, cast her ballot in her hometown of Wasilla and said she was hopeful of becoming the first woman US vice president.We have an optimistic and confident view of what is going to happen today, she said with husband Todd at her side. I recognize that this is an historical event, no matter which ticket prevails.Delaware Senator Joe Biden, Obama's running mate, voted in his home state with his 91-year-old mother and wife Jill.More than 100 million people were expected to trek to the polls, while 30 million advance ballots have been cast in the state-by-state electoral battle, as Democrats hoped new and younger voters would sweep them to victory.The last eight years has been a horror story, said Michael Smith, a 54-year-old salesman, standing among hundreds stretching around the block at a polling station in Manhattan. He said he would vote for Obama.
The country itself is slipping in the (popularity) polls, he said. In the end that's what people are going to vote for today -- a new direction.In Christianburg, Virginia , Norma Jean Lundis said she voted for McCain because he stands for what I believe in -- less government, lets me control my money, the right to bear arms, life begins at conception, marriage between man and woman.Obama and McCain, one of whom will become the first sitting senator elected president since John F. Kennedy in 1960, hit the finish line on Monday with competing cross-country campaign blitzes.
McCain, leveraging his heroism as a Vietnam war prisoner and decades of experience in Washington, would be the oldest president -- at 72 -- inaugurated for a first term if elected.In a cruel twist of fate Monday, Obama , 47, learned that Madelyn Dunham, his maternal grandmother who helped bring him up, had died in his native Hawaii from cancer, aged 86.Obama was to await the voters' verdict in Chicago. McCain huddled with top aides at a posh hotel in Phoenix, Arizona. Bush stayed out of sight at the White House.The two candidates waged a bitter and often hotly personal feud for months, culminating in rival 11th-hour get-out-the-vote blitzes on Monday in many states that Bush won easily in 2004.Obama promised supporters they were close to changing the United States of America, but McCain was defiant, vowing to confound pollsters and pundits and overcome a treacherous political map that has him barely holding Republican bastions and worried just one big loss could spell defeat.The Mac is back! he roared, promising a stunning act of political escapology that would confound almost every major opinion poll .Obama, the son of a black Kenyan father and white mother from Kansas, would become the first African American president after a stunning rise to the pinnacle of US politics.He promises to alleviate the economic pinch for the middle class and repair ties with US allies, weigh opening talks with foes such as Iran and Cuba, bring troops home from Iraq and refocus on the Afghan war.McCain, who has fought to distance himself from Bush, has lambasted Obama for socialist tax policies , and argues his rival is unprepared for an age of global turmoil while accusing him of wanting to retreat in defeat from Iraq.
World hopes for a less arrogant America By MATT MOORE, Associated Press Writer NOV 4,08
AP BERLIN – Around the world, throngs packed outdoor plazas and pubs to await U.S. elections results Tuesday, many inspired by Barack Obama's promise of change amid a sense of relief that — no matter who wins — the White House is changing hands.As millions of voters decided between Obama or John McCain, the world was abuzz with the sense of bearing witness to a moment of history that would reverberate well beyond American borders.America is electing a new president, but for the Germans, for Europeans, it is electing the next world leader, said Alexander Rahr, director of the German Council on Foreign Relations.In Kenya, Obama's ancestral homeland, the atmosphere was electric with pride and excitement as people flocked to all-night parties to watch election results roll in.Tonight we are not going to sleep, said Valentine Wambi, 23, a student at the University of Nairobi who planned to join hundreds of other students in the Kenyan capital for an election party. It will be celebrations throughout.The Irish village of Moneygall was also trying to claim Obama as a favorite son — based on research that concluded the candidate's great-great-great grandfather, Joseph Kearney, lived there before emigrating to the United States.The entertainment at Moneygall's Hayes Bar, where an American flag fluttered outside window Tuesday, included a local band called Hardy Drew and the Nancy Boys that has been winning air time with its rousing folk song There's No One as Irish as Barack Obama.We're not going to go mad with the drink, said Ollie Hayes, who runs the pub. We just want to show Barack that we appreciate he's from here, to have some finger food and watch the early results come in with the media.
In Germany, where more than 200,000 people flocked to see Obama this summer as he moved to burnish his foreign policy credentials during a trip to the Middle East and Europe, the election dominated television ticker crawls, newspaper headlines and Web sites.In Paris, among the more irreverent festivities planned was a Goodbye George party to bid farewell to Bush.Like many French people, I would like Obama to win because it would really be a sign of change, said Vanessa Doubine, shopping Tuesday on the Champs-Elysees. I deeply hope for America's image that it will be Obama.The election has also yielded the occasional prank. When 37-year-old Patrick Lindqvist woke up Tuesday in the southern city of Malmo, Sweden, he found six mock campaign posters for McCain planted just outside his house.It's obviously a prank, but I have no idea who did it, said Lindqvist, who is not involved in U.S. politics in any way. If I had been able to vote in the American election I would doubtless have chosen a young black man instead of an old white man.Obama-mania was evident not only across Europe but also in much of the Islamic world, where Muslims expressed hope that the Democrat would seek compromise rather than confrontation.The Bush administration alienated Muslims by mistreating prisoners at its detention center for terrorism suspects at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and inmates at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison — human rights violations also condemned worldwide.I hope Obama wins (because) of the need of the world to see the U.S. represent a more cosmopolitan or universal political attitude, said Rais Yatim, the foreign minister of mostly Muslim Malaysia.Yet McCain enjoyed a strong current of support in countries such as Israel, where he is perceived as tougher on Iran and most Israelis are believed to favor McCain on the grounds he would do more to protect the country's security.Israeli leaders, who consider the U.S. their closest and most important ally, have not openly declared a preference. But privately, they have expressed concern about Obama, who has alarmed some by saying he would be ready to hold a dialogue with Tehran.
Taking a cigarette break on a Jerusalem street corner, bank employee Leah Nizri, 53, said Obama represented potentially frightening change. I think he'll be pleasant to Israel, but he will make changes, she said. He's too young. I think that especially in a situation of a world recession, where things are so unclear in the world, McCain would be better than Obama.Even in Europe, McCain got some grudging respect: Germany's mass-circulation daily Bild lionized the Republican as the War Hero and running mate Sarah Palin as the Beautiful Unknown.In Berlin, Republicans Abroad organized a November Surprise Election Party to watch live how the Republican ticket McCain/Palin comes from behind and leaves the liberal elite media in Europe and the United States puzzled.British Prime Minister Gordon Brown clung to convention by refusing to say which candidate he wants to see win. Regardless of the outcome, he told Al-Arabiya television while on a tour of the Gulf, history has been made in this campaign.London Mayor Boris Johnson — a Conservative — felt less constrained about rooting for the liberal Obama. For those who have become disenchanted with America — including many Americans — (Obama) offers the hope of re-igniting the love affair, he said. And other Europeans made much of Obama's ethnicity. It's a sort of pardon of America for its slave past, said Alain Barret, a bank teller in Paris. It lets America turn an important page in its history.It would be fantastic to have a non-white president, added Letisha Brown, a Londoner. Kenyans believe an Obama victory wouldn't change their lives much, but that hasn't stopped them from splashing his picture on minibuses and selling T-shirts with his name and likeness. Kenyans were planning to gather around radios and TV sets starting Tuesday night as the results come in. In the sleepy Japanese coastal town of Obama — which translates as little beach — images of him adorned banners along a main shopping street, and preparations for an election day victory party were in full swing. Election fever also ran high in Vietnam, where McCain was held as a prisoner of war for more than five years after being shot down in Hanoi during a 1967 bombing run. He's patriotic, said Le Lan Anh, a Vietnamese novelist and real estate tycoon. As a soldier, he came here to destroy my country, but I admire his dignity.AP correspondents worldwide contributed.
Castro praises Obama but doesn't endorse him Tue Nov 4, 10:53 am
ETHAVANA – Fidel Castro praised Barack Obama Tuesday as smarter and less warlike than John McCain, but stopped short of endorsing either U.S. presidential candidate.
Cuba's former president said he delayed weighing in until the U.S. election day so that no one would have time to say I wrote something that could be utilized by the candidates in their campaigns.Without a doubt, Obama is more intelligent, cultured and levelheaded than his Republican adversary, Castro wrote in state-controlled newspapers. McCain is old, bellicose, uncultured, of little intelligence and not healthy.Castro, 82, has struggled with his own health problems. He has not been seen in public since July 2006. His younger brother Raul formally succeeded him as president in February.The elder Castro also expressed skepticism about both candidates.Worries about the overwhelming problems of the world will not really occupy an important place in the mind of Obama and much less in that of a candidate who, as a fighter pilot, dropped dozens of tons of bombs on the city of Hanoi, he wrote, alluding to McCain's military service.Castro also wrote that if the Republicans win due to U.S. racism, the danger of war will increase and the opportunities for peoples to move forward will be reduced.
EU plans shake up of public broadcasting rules
LEIGH PHILLIPS Today NOV 4,08 @ 17:42 CET
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Public broadcasters across Europe, such as the BBC, Magyar Televizio in Hungary or PBS in Malta, worry that a European Commission review of the laws governing them pays too much attention to free market concerns and not enough to the delivery of quality content in the interest of citizens.The commission on Tuesday (4 November) issued a draft communication on a revision of public service broadcasting (PSB) rules.On the one hand, the new rules proposed within the communication would allow public broadcasters more leeway in holding onto some revenues for a rainy day and in rare cases to charge for services, but they also would require member states to more strictly control the money given to them by governments and prevent them from funding so-called commercial activities. In recent years, the presence of more free-market-oriented governments across the bloc has emboldened private broadcasters and commercial providers of online content to increase their attacks on their public service counterparts. The European Broadcasting Union (EBU), an alliance of public broadcasters - and also coincidentally the producer of the Eurovision Song Contest - says that depending on the free market instead of quality broadcasting that is not beholden to the profit motive is a mistake now more than ever in the wake of the ongoing financial crisis.
The commission gives too much power to the market, which makes little sense when you see the failures of the markets in the last few weeks, EBU spokesman Jacques Bricmont told EUobserver.Their particular worry is that the path the commission wishes to go down will lead to all member states adopting the increasingly deregulatory environment that exists in the UK, in which British public service broadcasters must perform a public value test every time they wish to deliver new services.This takes six to ten months for the BBC, he said, a very expensive and time-consuming process, especially for public broadcasters in the smaller member states.This delays the ability of public broadcasters to develop services that involve some of the new technologies. As technology develops so rapidly these days, this puts a real break on flexibility to deliver the services citizens want.The broadcasters are also worried that having to undergo a market test for new services means that commercial broadcasters will begin to have a say over the remit of their public counterparts.EBU director-general Jean Reveillon said in a statement that if this extremely detailed version of the Broadcasting Communication were adopted, it could seriously reduce the scope for member states to grant public service broadcasters a significant role in the information society.Member states are also not happy with the direction of the review. In September, the Dutch culture minister, Ronald Plasterk, wrote to competition commissioner Neelie Kroes on behalf of 19 EU countries, saying that the existing communication, which dates back to 2001, was largely sufficient and did not need to be substantially altered.Meanwhile, the Association of Commercial Television in Europe, has rubbished the public broadcasters' concerns as fear mongering.Ross Biggam, the director-general of ACT, told this website: Nobody is saying that public broadcasters need to refrain from certain activities - online or elsewhere, it's just that there has been an enormous amount of changes in the media landscape since 2001 and the issues that confront us. This is a reform, not a revolution.
Media companies are no longer just calling themselves broadcasters. They're in the business of delivering content and across all sorts of platforms - online video, mobile, etc. We all grew up in an era where there was a public broadcaster and next to that there were private broadcasters, but the landscape has changed and now public broadcasters are venturing into areas well beyond where they were historically engaged.Some are even taking on newspapers and there is no tradition of a public service remit there - in fact quite the opposite, he said.The European Treaty is quite clear that state aid and competition rules need to be respected in all sectors and that includes broadcasting, he added.Member states and sector stakeholders, including both public and private broadcasters are invited to comment on the draft communication until 15 January.
Catholics, Muslims open landmark talks at Vatican By Tom Heneghan, Religion Editor – Tue Nov 4, 12:27 pm ET
VATICAN CITY (Reuters) – Senior Vatican and Islamic scholars launched their first Catholic-Muslim Forum on Tuesday to improve relations between the world's two largest faiths by discussing what unites and divides them.The three-day meeting comes two years after Pope Benedict angered the Muslim world with a speech implying Islam was violent and irrational. In response, 138 Muslim scholars invited Christian churches to a new dialogue to foster mutual respect through a better understanding of each other's beliefs.In their manifesto, A Common Word, the Muslims argued that both faiths shared the core principles of love of God and neighbor. The talks focus on what this means for the religions and how it can foster harmony between them.
The meeting, including an audience with Pope Benedict, is the group's third conference with Christians after talks with United States Protestants in July and Anglicans last month.Delegation leaders Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran and Bosnian Grand Mufti Mustafa Ceric opened the session with a moment of silence so delegations, each comprising 28 members and advisers, could say their own prayers for its success.It was a very cordial atmosphere, one delegate said.Tauran, head of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, told the French Catholic daily La Croix on Monday that the Forum represents a new chapter in a long history of often strained relations.He said discussing theology was difficult because of different understandings of God. The closed meeting started with a Catholic official spelling out the Christian teaching that humans can only approach God through Jesus Christ.
Muslim theologian Seyyed Hossein Nasr responded that such a view excluded non-Christians from salvation and suggested ways to see Islamic parallels to Christian views of God's love.Delegates said the discussion that followed was friendly and respectful, not a clash of opinions. We need to speak openly so we get to know each other, said one Muslim delegate.
NEW URGENCY
Christianity is the world's largest religion with 2 billion followers, just over half of them Catholic. Islam is next with 1.3 billion believers.Saudi King Abdullah visits the United Nations next week to promote a parallel interfaith dialogue he launched last summer.These and other meetings reflect a new urgency among Muslims since the September 11 attacks, the clash of civilizations theory and Pope Benedict's Regensburg speech showed a widening gap between the two faiths.The Vatican was at first cool to the Common Word initiative, arguing that talks among theologians had little meaning if they did not lead to greater respect for religious liberty in Muslim countries, where some Christian minorities face oppression.We can only have a real dialogue if all believers have equal rights everywhere, which is not the case in some Muslim countries, said one Catholic delegate who requested anonymity.The agenda reflects the different views. Tuesday's talks centered on theological issues proposed by the Muslims, Wednesday's meeting will focus on religious freedom issues the Vatican wants to raise.The Vatican delegation includes bishops from minority Christian communities in Iraq, Syria and Pakistan. Among the Muslims are Sunnis and Shi'ites from around the world and converts from the United States, Canada and Britain. There are three Catholic and two Muslim women participating. The delegations will have an audience with Pope Benedict on Thursday and hold a public discussion that afternoon, the only session open to the media.
The Forum is due to meet every two years, alternately in Rome and in a Muslim country.(Editing by Tim Pearce)
Tuesday, November 04, 2008
Monday, November 03, 2008
OBAMA NEWS BEFORE ELECTIONS
DISDAIN FOR THE PEOPLE - LISTEN
http://www.digitalpodcast.com/detail-Tamar_Yonah_Show-15344.html
Cheshvan 5, 5769, 11/3/2008 U.S. President Hussein Obama. Congratulations America! by Tamar Yonah
Folks, I was going to let this drop. I am tired of the Obama topic. The guy is probably going to win the elections in the USA, but I just wanted you all to be aware of who you are choosing as your next leader and what kind of change you may be getting.
I had on my show Dr. Jerome Corsi who talked about Mr. Hussein Obama, and his ties with Kenyan Prime Minister, Raila Odinga. Now, before you fall asleep from more political talk, please read a bit further. You really should know that your next president, is at least oblivious, or at worst, in bed with, Muslim radical extremists who want Sharia law, a safety net for Muslim terrorists, and a ban on public Christian worship. Lest you forget, the Moslem extremist regimes are at war with the United States.
I just can’t fathom people who would not only tolerate, but actually vote for a man who won't present his birth certificate to the American people when being asked, and then sued (what contempt he must have for the people, and this is before he even becomes president!) and associates with people like Reverend Wright who says G-d d-mn America, William Ayers who bombed America, and Rashid Khalidi who probably supports the bombing of Israel. With a background like that, as one talk-backer stated, Obama wouldn't pass security to obtain the job of being his own bodyguard, yet he will hold the most powerful and sensitive office in the world.
In the videos below, you will see with your own eyes, Hussein Obama's support of Muslim Kenyan Raila Odinga, a man who once went to prison for his involvement in trying to overthrow the Kenyan government back in the 1980's. Hmmm, come to think of it, kind of like another William Ayers? Interesting company Obama keeps. But this is not company this is family. Odinga just happens to be Obama's (first?) cousin. In an interview, Odinga told BBC's The World Today that Senator Obama's father was his maternal uncle. Hear it here.
Obama is reported to have raised money – up to a million dollars, for Odinga's campaign, to oust the religiously tolerant Kibaki government of Kenya. Odinga lost the presidential election in the end, but the anger of that loss resulted in a backlash of deadly violence in Kenya from his supporters, which left an estimated 1,000 members of the nation's Kikuyu tribe dead and up to 500,000 displaced from their homes.
According to reports on World Net Daily.com, Odinga's supporters damaged or destroyed up to 800 churches in Kenya, including perpetrating a horrific scene of herding several Kenyan Christians into a church and setting it on fire with the Christians inside, copying what the Nazis often did to the Jews during the Holocaust.
But Hussein Obama, the probable next U.S. president, backed his Muslim side of the family, his cousin, who will work to bring in sharia law in Kenya, make a safe haven for terrorists, and forbid Kenyan Christians from displaying their Christian worshipping and practices in public. See the 'Islamification' Pact that Odinga signed Aug. 29th, 2007, with some of Kenya's radical Muslims. It seems to me, that that goes against American values of tolerance and religious freedom. Truly unbelievable the issues here, and one wonders why the mainstream media does not let you know this.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=44GW6MpObcs
OBAMA - MUSLIMS ADMIT COUSINS ISLAMIFICATION PACT
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8pZ5EP0l63E&eurl=http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Blogs/Blog.aspx/3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wrGJWjLG9DY
OBAMA MOCKS THE BIBLE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wrGJWjLG9DY
http://www.digitalpodcast.com/detail-Tamar_Yonah_Show-15344.html
Cheshvan 5, 5769, 11/3/2008 U.S. President Hussein Obama. Congratulations America! by Tamar Yonah
Folks, I was going to let this drop. I am tired of the Obama topic. The guy is probably going to win the elections in the USA, but I just wanted you all to be aware of who you are choosing as your next leader and what kind of change you may be getting.
I had on my show Dr. Jerome Corsi who talked about Mr. Hussein Obama, and his ties with Kenyan Prime Minister, Raila Odinga. Now, before you fall asleep from more political talk, please read a bit further. You really should know that your next president, is at least oblivious, or at worst, in bed with, Muslim radical extremists who want Sharia law, a safety net for Muslim terrorists, and a ban on public Christian worship. Lest you forget, the Moslem extremist regimes are at war with the United States.
I just can’t fathom people who would not only tolerate, but actually vote for a man who won't present his birth certificate to the American people when being asked, and then sued (what contempt he must have for the people, and this is before he even becomes president!) and associates with people like Reverend Wright who says G-d d-mn America, William Ayers who bombed America, and Rashid Khalidi who probably supports the bombing of Israel. With a background like that, as one talk-backer stated, Obama wouldn't pass security to obtain the job of being his own bodyguard, yet he will hold the most powerful and sensitive office in the world.
In the videos below, you will see with your own eyes, Hussein Obama's support of Muslim Kenyan Raila Odinga, a man who once went to prison for his involvement in trying to overthrow the Kenyan government back in the 1980's. Hmmm, come to think of it, kind of like another William Ayers? Interesting company Obama keeps. But this is not company this is family. Odinga just happens to be Obama's (first?) cousin. In an interview, Odinga told BBC's The World Today that Senator Obama's father was his maternal uncle. Hear it here.
Obama is reported to have raised money – up to a million dollars, for Odinga's campaign, to oust the religiously tolerant Kibaki government of Kenya. Odinga lost the presidential election in the end, but the anger of that loss resulted in a backlash of deadly violence in Kenya from his supporters, which left an estimated 1,000 members of the nation's Kikuyu tribe dead and up to 500,000 displaced from their homes.
According to reports on World Net Daily.com, Odinga's supporters damaged or destroyed up to 800 churches in Kenya, including perpetrating a horrific scene of herding several Kenyan Christians into a church and setting it on fire with the Christians inside, copying what the Nazis often did to the Jews during the Holocaust.
But Hussein Obama, the probable next U.S. president, backed his Muslim side of the family, his cousin, who will work to bring in sharia law in Kenya, make a safe haven for terrorists, and forbid Kenyan Christians from displaying their Christian worshipping and practices in public. See the 'Islamification' Pact that Odinga signed Aug. 29th, 2007, with some of Kenya's radical Muslims. It seems to me, that that goes against American values of tolerance and religious freedom. Truly unbelievable the issues here, and one wonders why the mainstream media does not let you know this.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=44GW6MpObcs
OBAMA - MUSLIMS ADMIT COUSINS ISLAMIFICATION PACT
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8pZ5EP0l63E&eurl=http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Blogs/Blog.aspx/3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wrGJWjLG9DY
OBAMA MOCKS THE BIBLE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wrGJWjLG9DY
IMF TRANSFORMED TO GLOBAL FIN SUPER - NETH
EARTH DESTROYED WITH THE EARTH
GENESIS 6:11-13
11 The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.(WORLD TERRORISM,MURDERS)
12 And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth.
13 And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence (TERRORISM) through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth.
EARTHQUAKES
MATTHEW 24:7-8
7 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.
8 All these are the beginning of sorrows.
MARK 13:8
8 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom:(ETHNIC GROUP AGAINST ETHNIC GROUP) and there shall be earthquakes in divers places, and there shall be famines and troubles: these are the beginnings of sorrows.
LUKE 21:11
11 And great earthquakes shall be in divers places, and famines, and pestilences; and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven.
Magnitude 5.1 earthquake shakes Guam Sun Nov 2, 2:20 am ET
HAGATNA, Guam – A moderate earthquake has shaken the island of Guam, but there are no reports of any damage or injury.The U.S. Geological Survey says in a preliminary report that the magnitude 5.1 quake struck at 3:34 p.m. Sunday at a depth of about 24miles. It was centered 16 miles northeast of Hagatna and 126 miles southwest of Saipan.A dispatcher from the Guam Police Department says she felt a light tremor at her office in the city of Tiyan, but there have been no reports of injuries or damages on the island.
Major quake strikes off Alaska's Aleutian Islands Sun Nov 2, 10:34 am ET
WASHINGTON (AFP) – A substantial 6.1 magnitude earthquake struck on Sunday just off the remote Aleutian Islands of the US state of Alaska, the US Geological Survey reported.The quake occured at 3:48 am local time (1348 GMT) about 53 kilometers (33 miles) underground, some 56 kilometers (35 miles) south-southwest of Atka Alaska and 1828 kilometers (1136 miles) from the state's largest city Anchorage, the USGS reported in a preliminary earthquake report.There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries from the Aleutians, a sparsely populated archipelago of hundreds of small, mainly volcanic islands that arc into the northern Pacific Ocean.The town of Atka nearest the temblor's epicenter had a population of 92 in the 2000 US census.
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.
Floodwaters start to recede in Vietnam capital Mon Nov 3, 5:26 am ET
HANOI, Vietnam – The death toll from nearly a week of flooding across northern and central Vietnam stood Monday at 54 and parts of the capital remained under water, but rains were easing and floodwaters receding in many areas.Hanoi alone recorded 18 deaths since heavy rains started lashing the city Friday, authorities said. Elsewhere, 34 deaths have been reported, authorities said.More rains were expected in the capital and some northern provinces Monday and Tuesday, but weather forecasters said they would be lighter than the downpours that soaked the capital over the weekend.That would provide welcome relief to residents of Hanoi, where many streets were under three feet (a meter) of water and scores of businesses remained shuttered.I have been stuck in my house for the past three days, said Nguyen Manh Hung, a businessman who lives on a street in southern Hanoi where water reached his waist. It's unbelievable to see people navigating the street in boats and by horse-drawn carriages.Vietnamese television on Sunday night quoted Hanoi Mayor Nguyen The Thao as saying it would take the city four or five days to pump excess water into the Red River — longer if heavy rains resume.More than 20 inches (500 millimeters) of rain have fallen on the city in the past three days, the heaviest rains in more than two decades.Authorities reported four more deaths Monday morning, with two bodies recovered in northern Vinh Phuc province and two more in Bac Giang province.
Floods have inundated more than 100,000 homes across northern and central Vietnam, the national committee for flood and storm control said on its Web site.More than 590,000 acres (240,000 hectares) of rice and vegetables have been destroyed and about 100 miles (170 kilometers) of rural roads have been damaged, it said.(This version CORRECTS Corrects typo in lede to remained)
China mudslides kill at least 22 Sun Nov 2, 10:09 pm
ETBEIJING (Reuters) – The death toll from mudslides caused by heavy rain in southwest China has risen from 15 to at least 22, with 45 missing, state media reported.Torrents of mud and rock hit near Chuxiong city in Yunnan province over the weekend, toppling or damaging nearly 1,000 houses, Xinhua news agency said.Yunnan is dominated by steep terrain, and many of its farmers live in villages on steep slopes. But there is also mining in some areas.Mountain torrents triggered by heavy rain hit Pingguo county in Guangxi, to the east of Yunnan, killing eight.Floods triggered by torrential rain in northern and central Vietnam, neighboring Yunnan and Guangxi, have killed dozens.(Reporting by Beijing newsroom; Editing by Nick Macfie)
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 MON NOV 03,2008
09:30 AM +13.94
10:00 AM +25.80
10:30 AM -18.72
11:00 AM +20.47
11:30 AM +7.64
12:00 PM +52.17
12:30 PM +47.95
01:00 PM +23.69
01:30 PM +6.93
02:00 PM -19.48
02:30 PM -36.40
03:00 PM -45.16
03:30 PM -23.18
04:00 PM -5.18 9319.83
S&P 500 966.31 -2.44
NASDAQ 1726.33 +5.38
GOLD 722.5 +4.30
OIL 64.26 -3.55
TSE 300 -41.50 9,721.26
CDNX +20.29 935.59
S&P/TSX/60 -4.35 586.93
Dow advances 5 days in a row if 6th never happened since DEC 2007.
NBC-WALL STREET JOURNAL POLL NOV 1-2 PRESIDENCIAL
TODAY O-51% M-43%
MID OCT 0-52% M-42%
AMOUNG DEMOC O-89% M-6%
AMOUNG REPUB O-5% M-92%
AMOUNG INDEP O-48% M-36%
CONFIDENT ON THE ECONOMY O-42% M-27%
ANNOUNCED BUYOUTS : Y&D 2008 US
-Convatec/Nordic Capital $4.1 BILLION.
-Booz Allen/The Carlyle Group $2.4 BILLION.
-Getty Images/Hellman & Friedman $2.4 BILLION.
-Apria Healthcare/Blackstone $1.6 BILLION.
PIPELINE CHECK : Announces US LBOS
-JUNE $3.6 BILLION
-JULY $4.0 BILLION.
-AUGUST $1.7 BILLION.
-SEPTEMBER $0.8 BILLION.
-OCTOBER $0.4 BILLION.
Crude Oil 55% below July record high.
HORRIFIC OCT - VEHICLES
-GM -47%
-FORD -32.7%
-HONDA -28%
-TOYOTA -25.9%
Chrysler says US OCT light vehicle sales down 35%.
Netherlands want IMF transformed into global financial supervisor
LEIGH PHILLIPS Today NOV 3,08 @ 17:44 CET
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Setting out their stall ahead of the upcoming emergency meeting of the G20 group of nations that is to focus on a global solution to the ongoing financial crisis, the Netherlands has called for the reconstruction of the International Monetary Fund into a new Global Financial Stability Organisation.
Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenede and his finance minister, Wouter Bos, want the IMF to be given considerable new powers of oversight over national financial supervisors.The Netherlands will not have its own seat at the table at the 15 November emergency meeting of the G20 but will be represented by the European Union presidency.The G20 group of industrial nations brings together the G7, the EU and 12 other major economies: Argentina, Australia, Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, and Turkey.Writing in the German edition of the Financial Times today, the two Dutch leaders said recent co-ordinated action in Europe to deal with the crisis was more the ad hoc result of powerful personalities coming together than the existence of any European crisis management system.Working on a global agenda is fine, but in Europe we also have an unfinished agenda in these matters, they wrote. Supervision in Europe is still fragmented and the recent rapid co-ordinated response by the European governments owes too great a deal to strong individual leadership.Europe must now accelerate progress towards an integrated European system of prudential supervision and crisis management.They added that even co-ordination at the EU level is still not enough, saying: We also need to build global power on world financial stability.The Dutch politicians want the IMF to be given a wider mandate and more robust competences, and more leverage over national governments.
As part of the international financial institution's annual assessments of countries' economic policies, the IMF, recast as a Global Financial Stability Organisation, should in the future include an obligatory check of the country's prudential supervisory arrangements, they say, the results of which should be made public.The Financial Stability Forum - the informal grouping of national finance ministries, central bankers, and international financial bodies - would also be brought under the aegis of the GFSO.The GFSO, in the Dutch view, would additionally have the authority to issue recommendations to international financial standard setters such as the Bank for International Settlements - the 'bank of central banks', the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision, the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) - the forum that brings together national stock market regulators, and the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB).Asked about the prime minister's thinking on the democratic accountability of a body invested with such substantial powers over national financial and economic decision-making, a source close to the Hague told the EUobserver: What sort of parliamentary controls the Netherlands would also like to see over such an institution have not been hammered, but it's certainly one of the questions that would need attention.
Additionally, with the elephantine salaries and bonuses of banking executives and traders freshly in the spotlight, the Netherlands would also like to see salary structures subject to scrutiny by domestic financial stability supervisors. And, if this proves to be insufficient, we could consider introducing claw-back clauses on bonuses, the Dutch prime minister and finance minister wrote.A number of banks that have recently been bailed out by public authorities have come in for severe criticism from citizens and politicians for using some of the monies intended to recapitalise the institutions instead to maintain the colossal salary structures of their employees.
Oil drops 5 percent on slumping demand By Edward McAllister Edward Mcallister – NOV 3,08
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Oil fell over 5 percent on Monday as further indicators of falling global demand linked to a potential recession offset OPEC plans to reign in output.U.S. crude fell $3.65 to $64.16 a barrel by 12.57 p.m. EST. London Brent crude dropped $4.18 to $61.14.U.S. factory activity -- a barometer for future oil demand -- contracted sharply in October, falling to its lowest in 26 years as the financial crisis racked the world's largest economy.The Institute for Supply Management said its index of national factory activity fell to 38.9 in October from 43.5 in September. A reading below 40 is exceptionally weak.The most devastating blow for crude oil today is data showing that U.S. manufacturing activity in October fell to the lowest level in 26 years, which means more worries for oil demand, said Phil Flynn, an analyst at Alaron Trading, in Chicago.Manufacturing used to be a great forward indicator for oil demand, but if the manufacturing sector is down, it will be a struggle to keep oil demand up, he added.Profits evaporated at leading banks on Monday and authorities worldwide pressed on with efforts to temper a recession that policymakers said had become reality for much of the globe.French Bank Societe Generale reported an 83.7 percent drop in third-quarter net profit and Germany's second largest bank Commerzbank said it would take an 8.2 billion euro capital injection from the state and another 15 billion to secure refinancing.
Ford Motor Co's (F.N) U.S. sales for October were down 30.2 percent on last year, with Chrysler, Nissan and Volvo all reporting slumps year on year.Analysts said traders would now be looking for signs that Saudi Arabia was cutting back its crude production in line with OPEC's agreement in October to reduce output by 1.5 million barrels per day (bpd).October saw the steepest monthly price decline ever for oil as global demand slowed.In three months, oil has wiped out gains that took more than a year to build. It is down more than half since prices struck a record $147.27 a barrel on July 11, as poor economic data added to pressure from weak demand reports in the United States and other key consumer nations.Societe Generale said on Monday it had lowered its oil price forecasts as global oil demand was likely to weaken further. The bank expects U.S. crude to average $72.50 a barrel next year. Its previous forecast was $114.17.OPEC members have no choice but to implement agreed output cuts and inform customers of the reductions if they want a stable oil price between $70 and $90 a barrel, OPEC President Chakib Khelil said on Sunday.Khelil said Saudi Arabia was the key to the success of the reductions, and if the world's biggest oil exporter took its time over the operation, the oil price could be affected.(Additional reporting by Robert Gibbons and Gene Ramos in New York, Alex Lawler and Ikuko Kao in London and Fayen Wong in Perth; Editing by Christian Wiessner)
France pushes for EU common front ahead of global financial summit
RENATA GOLDIROVA Today NOV 3,08 @ 17:32 CET
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Finance ministers from the 15-strong eurozone are to meet in Brussels tonight (3 November) to discuss French-tailored ideas on how the international financial system should be re-regulated in the face of global market turmoil. The current crisis is both a macroeconomic crisis and a crisis of the regulatory and oversight architecture, reads a paper that France, currently chairing the European Union's six-month rotating presidency, hopes to turn into a common position for the union that would subsequently be presented to other world industrial powers at the mid-November G20 meeting on the ongoing financial crisis.
The G20 summit, hosted by the United States, will be just the first of a series of discussions aimed at closing what the French paper describes as loopholes in the current system. This Friday (7 November), EU heads of state and government are also to meet in Brussels to try to hammer out a position that can then be taken to the G20 summit.The French document says that regulation and surveillance schemes in some countries do not monitor a number of key financial actors. Additionally, the paper argues that incentives in financial markets lead to excessive risk taking in the short run and that domestic supervisors are failing to properly identify risk and prevent a crisis situation. It is important that the inaugural summit deliver a first set of decisions so as to initiate the right momentum around the process and build confidence in it, the French proposal says. Specifically, the document argues that governments commit to a range of measures assuring stricter supervision of financial markets. They include, for example, firmer oversight of rating agencies, which have been widely criticised for conflicts of interest that have exacerbated the current crisis; reinforcement of cross-border supervision of financial groups; and the introduction of codes of conduct that would tackle excessive risk taking in the financial industry. One EU diplomat has expressed discontent, however, that the document also mentions measures that have not been fully discussed within the 27-nation bloc. We should have a thorough debate at home before we announce something to the world, she said, underlining that the French EU presidency did not include any member states' objections in its paper. According to another EU diplomat, the Washington summit has become a matter of prestige for some countries.
The Netherlands has complained about the fact that Argentina with its crumbling economy will sit at the table, while Spain has objected to Nicolas Sarkozy speaking on behalf of the 27-nation EU unless he gains its mandate. This has been seen by some diplomats, however, as a way of pressuring France into giving up its extra seat to Spain. Paris has two seats at the November G20 meeting - both as a member of the G7 and as the current holder of the EU presidency.
Tough U.S. problems to hit Canada: Flaherty NOV 3,08
TORONTO (Reuters) – The economic turmoil in the United States will harm Canada, federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said on Monday ahead of a meeting with the finance ministers of Canada's provinces on the global crisis.Flaherty, who says the crisis is harming federal finances, says Ottawa wants to limit the growth of a national program that transfers money to less prosperous provinces to ensure service levels are similar to those in rich provinces.We're in a time of significant economic turmoil ... The American situation remains very challenging, which will affect our Canadian economy as well, Flaherty told reporters at Toronto airport, where the meeting will be held.Flaherty says the equalization transfer program is growing at 15 percent a year, a pace he calls unsustainable.The program is likely to come under more pressure now that the province of Ontario, whose manufacturing base has been particularly hard hit by the slowing U.S. economy, is eligible for payments for the first time.Ontario Finance Minister John Duncan complained before the meeting that Flaherty should have put more effort into working out how to help the provinces live through the crisis.If you want to have a meaningful dialogue about an issue you'd think you might have a proposal in our hands in advance (that) we could actually look at and analyze -- and not a quick meeting at a hotel prior to catching a plane, he said.Flaherty told reporters separately that this is a time for pulling together as Canadians, not a time for bickering and discord.Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney will address the meeting. He declined to comment when approached by Reuters.(Reporting by Frank Pingue, writing by David Ljunggren; Editing by Peter Galloway)
Europe awaits new US president in time of crisis
RENATA GOLDIROVA Today NOV 3,08 @ 09:24 CET
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Some 130 million American voters will elect on Tuesday (4 November) the new man to take over the White House. Be it Republican John McCain or Democrat Barack Obama, the winner will significantly shape EU-US relations at a time of worsening financial crisis. The last 18 months have seen one of the most acrimonious and certainly the most expensive presidential campaign in US history, with Barack Obama currently ahead in all opinion polls. According to the latest CNN national 'Poll of Polls' (2 November), the 47-year old lawyer and the first African American nominated by a major political party for president has a seven-point lead over Mr McCain (53% to 46%).But up to eight percent of people remain undecided - enough to swing the result - while turnout is expected to reach its highest figure since 1960, with some 20 million Americans haveing already cast their votes. In the final hours on the campaign trail, both candidates are battling for must win states - Ohio with 20 electoral votes for senator McCain and Pennsylvania with 21 votes under the system for senator Obama. At the same time, they both were faced with undesirable surprises. Sarah Palin - the US vice-president hopeful in the McCain camp - found herself caught up in a phone conversation with a Canadian comedian posing as French President Nicolas Sarkozy. During the six-minute chat, they discussed hunting, Carla Bruni's looks and Ms Palin's presidential prospects. Mr Obama, for his part, had to respond to a finding that his aunt from Kenya, stayed illegally in the US, despite immigration authorities turning down her asylum request four years ago.
Europeans for Obama
US elections are followed closely on the other side of the Atlantic for their enormous global impact - especially at a time when Europe needs America to help tailor a global reform of the financial sector and to boost the fight against climate change. If Europeans had a vote, Barack Obama would beat John McCain by large margin. He enjoys greater popularity due to the fact that he represents a more evident contrast to the politics of the outgoing president, Republican George W. Bush. Mr Bush's eight-year-long term has been marked by a unilateral decision to invade Iraq - something that his reputation has never recovered from, even though he later reached out to consult Europe on issues such as Iran. According to Tomas Valasek from the London-based Centre for European Reform, none of the presidential candidates will ignore the EU's opinion on major foreign policy issues, but each of them will bring different arguments to the table. Barack Obama has shown more willingness to judge countries on an individual basis, not strictly within a war on terror framework, Mr Valasek told the EUobserver, citing views on Iran and Russia as significantly different to those of Mr McCain.The Republican presidential candidate refuses to engage in talks with Tehran over its nuclear programme and he also adopted a more critical stance on Russia's military action against Georgia in August. McCain's views on Russia are more in line with a Polish and Czech foreign policy approach, while Obama would gain sympathy in Germany, France and Italy, Mr Valasek said.
Financial crisis
But the transatlantic agenda will be dominated by the financial crisis and poor economic prospects for both continents. On 15 November, the United States will host a Group of 20 summit, which should kick of talks on how financial markets should be regulated. Apart from the US, the group involves Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkey, the UK and the EU representative.
According to Mr Valasek, Mr Obama seems to agree with Europe when it comes to a possibility of state interventions into economy, but the risk lies in his protectionist rethoric. This could worsen the current situation, he said. Daniel Gros from the Centre for European policy studies in Brussels described Mr McCain's approach on the financial crisis as more impulsive, while noting that Democrat Obama had a very good team of advisors. I am certain that Obama will very carefully listen to the very good technical advice he gets, the analyst said.
Murdoch: China, India will reshape the world By ROHAN SULLIVAN, Associated Press Writer – Sun Nov 2, 6:36 am ET
SYDNEY, Australia – Media tycoon Rupert Murdoch says the ongoing metamorphosis of China and India from historic backwaters into economic powers will help reshape the world in the next few decades.The News Corp. chief gave an upbeat assessment of the future and made a vigorous case for free markets despite troubled economic times and what he called naked, heartless aggression in the world.In the first of a series of speeches in his birth country of Australia, Murdoch spoke Sunday of the great transformation we've seen in the past few decades, the unleashing of human talent and ability across our world, and the golden age for humankind that I see just around the corner.He said China and India are great countries whose people are only recently emerging from long histories of being incarcerated by communism or caste. The rise of their economies is creating a new middle class that would be three billion strong within 30 years and that is setting a new benchmark for global competitiveness.The world has never seen this kind of advance before, Murdoch said. These are people who have known deprivation. These are people who are intent on developing their skills, improving their lives and showing the world what they can do.Murdoch, whose New York-based conglomerate includes Twentieth Century Fox, Fox News Channel, Dow Jones & Co. as well as newspaper stables in Australia and Britain and the online networking site MySpace, described the global financial crisis as one of many challenges facing Australia.He urged Australia to embrace internationalism and touched on a range of global issues, from international security to the commercial opportunities offered by the world's need for cleaner energy.Murdoch's remarks came in the first of six lectures to be sent out on radio nationally by the Australian Broadcasting Corp. — this year's edition of an annual series of talks by prominent Australians.Murdoch said that in another speech he would give his opinions on the future of newspapers, which are suffering a severe downturn, especially in the United States, as advertising revenue is lost to the Internet.He made a strong pitch for freer trade between countries, taking agriculture as an example and saying that reducing artificial barriers is a moral and strategic issue.So we must continue to leverage our connections and continue to push when others have left the conference table, he said. The global trade dialogue should echo with Australian accents.
Touching on security, he chided Europe for appearing to have lost the will to confront aggression and said NATO should be reformed into a group based on common values, not geography, and include countries like Australia as members.In this promising new century, we are still seeing naked, heartless aggression — whether it comes from a terrorist bombing in Islamabad or a Russian invasion of Georgia, Murdoch said.We can lament these developments, but we cannot hide from them, he said, noting Australia's contribution of troops to Afghanistan and Iraq.In an interview published in The Weekend Australian on Saturday, Murdoch said governments have only limited power to fix the financial crisis, though they could make it worse.
Murdoch warned that a rise in protectionism in the United States could add to all sorts of tensions in the world financial system and the world trading system and eventually all the way down to employment.
UPDATE: Russia's Medvedev, UK's Brown Discuss Upcoming G20 NOV 3,08
(Adds call to Germany's Merkel and background on G20 conference)
MOSCOW (AFP)--Russian President Dmitri Medvedev held phone separate discussions Monday with U.K. Prime Minister Gordon Brown and German Chancellor Angela Merkel about the forthcoming G20 meeting in Washington, the Kremlin said.The two sides emphasized the need to clarify positions before this major event, a statement said.
Brown and Medvedev also discussed bilateral issues. Relations between the two countries have been frosty since the poisoning in London in November 2006 of the former Russian agent Alexander Litvinenko.The U.K. was also strongly critical of Russian actions in the conflict with Georgia.The Kremlin said the two leaders gave a positive evaluation of the latest Russo-U.K. contacts, emphasized the importance of maintaining a dialogue and agreed to pursue contacts in the future.In their discussions Medvedev and Merkel agreed to maintain contacts at the level of experts, a second Kremlin statement said.The G20, which meets Nov. 15, includes the seven major industrialized nations - the U.K., Canada, France, Italy, Japan, Germany and the U.S. - plus Argentina, Australia, Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea and Turkey.It also takes in the 27-nation European Union, represented by France, which holds the rotating E.U. presidency. The International Monetary Fund and World Bank also participate in its meetings. Click here to go to Dow Jones NewsPlus, a web front page of today's most important business and market news, analysis and commentary: http:// www.djnewsplus.com/al?rnd=2LpU7c%2BJJg4jXi7sz%2Fp3ug%3D%3D. You can use this link on the day this article is published and the following day. (END) Dow Jones Newswires
Israel Braces for a Showdown With West Bank Settlers By TIM MCGIRK NOV 3,08
ABC News The hill named Oush Grab lies a stone's throw away from the Shepherd's Field, near Bethlehem. Christian pilgrims flock to the place where the Bible says an angel tipped off a shepherd that Jesus Christ had been born, but most visitors are mostly unaware of the battle raging over this obscure hilltop. Oush Grab is an undistinguished rocky outcrop of limestone, dotted with thorny shrubs. And it has no political, strategic or Old Testament significance. That's why the Israeli authorities allowed the Arab Christians of Beit Zahour, with help from educational agency Paidia International Development, to build a little park on its slopes, featuring a rock-climbing wall and a picnic ground. There were also plans to construct a $9 million children's surgical hospital on the upper reaches of Oush Grab, which would be the only one of its kind in the Palestinian territories. Then, one day last May, over a hundred Jewish settlers showed up on this hill of no consequence. They brought guns and paint brushes so they could scrawl Death to Arabs on a concrete pillbox left by the Israeli army when it pulled out several years ago. (The phantom guerrilla artist Banksy also found his way to this same fortification, stenciling onto it a wistful image of a truck towing away an Israeli tank.) And with the settlers came a phalanx of Israeli soldiers to provide protection. Plans to build the desperately needed children's hospital - supported by Cure International, a worldwide charity helping disabled children - are now shelved. During one recent occupation of Oush Grab, a young Jewish extremist warned foreign aid worker Jason Pollack, We can't let you build the children's hospital here. Otherwise, we'll have to blow it up.
The settlers first arrived in May and have appeared a dozen times since, usually staying a few hours, blocking roads to the park, and raising an Israeli flag, which is inevitably torn down by the Palestinian villagers as soon as the settlers and their military escort depart. The settlers make a religious-Zionist claim to Oush Grab, saying that because it is inside the Biblical land of Judea and Samaria, it therefore belongs to Jews. It's one more piece of Jewish homeland that the Arabs are trying to take away from us, says Nadia Matar, co-chairwoman of a rightwing Israeli group, Women in Green. But legally, says Beit Zahour's Mayor Hani el-Hayek, Israelis never had ownership of the hill, which is surrounded on three sides by Arab villages and terraced groves of olive trees that are nearly a thousand years old. It used to be a Jordanian army outpost. After Israel conquered the West Bank in the 1967 war, it became a small IDF fort. And when the Israeli army vacated Oush Grab, it reverted to the Jordanian army. Jordan renounced all claim to the West Bank after the 1993 Oslo peace accord, but Beit Zahour's mayor is hoping that if he gets the Jordanian army to sign over the land deed to the municipality, it will give him a stronger claim in Israeli court to fight the settlers. And, of course, Israel's leaders recognize that the same West Bank to which the settlers claim a Biblical right is land on which a Palestinian state will have to be built if a two-state peace solution is to be achieved.Over the years, successive Israel governments have tacitly encouraged, and then failed to halt, the spread of Jewish settlements in the West Bank - a practice widely viewed as contravening international law. Often, the settlers' behavior toward Palestinian neighbors is marked by violence; video footage shows Jewish youths using baseball bats to club Palestinian families trying to harvest their olive trees or tending sheep. Nor do the settlers fear reprisals from the Israeli authorities: Human rights group Yesh Din says only 8% of Palestinian complaints of settler violence have led to indictments by Israeli police. But lately, the Israeli mood has shifted against extremist settlers. In Hebron last week, they clashed not only with Palestinians, but with the Israeli security forces as well, calling them Nazis and pelting them with stones. The settlers may rely on Israeli soldiers to shield them from attacks by Palestinians, but such is their rage against the Israeli state over the possibility that Israel could relinquish control over the West Bank in order to forge a two-state peace agreement with the Palestinians, that they have turned on their protectors.
The Hebron attacks on the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) at last stirred the Israeli cabinet into action against the settlers. In a Sunday cabinet meeting, Yuval Diskin, the chief of Shin Bet, the domestic intelligence agency, warned that settlers would probably shoot back if the Israeli security forces tried to dislodge them en masse from West Bank outposts deemed illegal even under Israeli law. Says Diskin, Their approach began with the slogan Through love, we will win... but has now reached Through war, we will win.After hearing the security chief's grim appraisal, the Israeli cabinet, reversing years of tacit support for the settlers, voted to cut off all funds and support for the one hundred or so renegade outposts in the West Bank. But it is probably too little, too late. No Israeli leader, least of all a lame duck like outgoing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, will risk a bloody showdown between Jewish settlers and Israeli soldiers. Officers warn that such a clash could lead to rebellion in the army ranks, since many of the IDF's gung-ho soldiers were raised in the West Bank settlements and share their messianic ideology. As the settlers like to say, it's facts on the ground that count. And as long as the Jewish extremists can hold on to the hilltop and the Israeli army dithers over evicting them, it remains doubtful that the planned Palestinian children's hospital on Oush Ghrab will ever be built.
Next US president may have shot at Israel-Syria deal by Lachlan Carmichael – Mon Nov 3, 10:47 am ET
WASHINGTON (AFP) – The next US president will probably find a settlement to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as elusive as ever but might see an Israeli-Syrian peace accord come within reach, analysts say.Barack Obama or John McCain, they suggest, could use a Syrian-Israeli deal to start restoring US credibility in the region and put a bright spot on a dark horizon from the Palestinian territories to Iraq, Iran and Afghanistan.And it emerged from interviews with several analysts that Obama would be more likely than McCain to help deliver a Syrian-Israeli deal and invest more energy in the even more difficult Palestinian-Israeli talks.Aaron David Miller, a former adviser to both Republican and Democratic secretaries of state, said the deal he and other former US officials let slip from their grasp between 1993and 2000 is back within reach.There is a very real possibility of an Israeli-Syrian agreement, Miller, now a public policy scholar at the Woodrow Wilson Institute, told AFP in a telephone interview.An Obama or McCain administration will have to be smart enough, tough enough and fair enough to seize such an opportunity, he said without actually predicting who best would fit the bill.In the last few months, Syria and Israel began indirect talks brokered by Turkey, drawing a cool response from President George W. Bush's administration which invested so much in the last year reviving Israeli-Palestinian talks.Egypt and other key Arab states look constantly for a US-brokered solution to the Palestinian problem, which they see at the core of the region's troubles and central to restoring US credibility.The problem, Miller and other analysts say, is that such a solution seems as distant as ever and it might make more sense to open doors with Syria.Patrick Clawson, an analyst with the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, suspected that Obama would like to try to draw Syria away from its ties to Iran in order to work with the West in securing a peace deal with Israel.A McCain team would share an Obama administration's real excitement and enthusiasm about such a prospect but may be much more skeptical and spend less effort on it, Clawson said by telephone.
Peter Beinart, an analyst with the Council on Foreign Relations, also suspected Obama would support the prospect of a deal with Syria while a McCain administration would balk with skeptics in its midst.Miller, who said he is associated with neither campaign, insisted it is a fantasy to think such an agreement would drive a wedge between Damascus and Tehran.But it would undercut the radical Palestinian group Hamas, confront Hezbollah with a choice in Lebanon and begin to restore American credibility and give us some options against the backdrop of 16 years of failure, he said.Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat has urged the next president to waste no time in engaging with all Middle East peace tracks even though the US must also tackle the global financial crisis, military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, and a nuclear standoff with Iran.
Easier said than done, analysts say.
For either (McCain or Obama), there's strong logic in favor of pursuing an Israeli-Palestinian process, but there are also ... competing priorities, said Tamara Wittes, a Middle East analyst at the Brookings Institution.And the situation on the ground doesn't bode well for talks right now, said Wittes, who is also a volunteer adviser to the Obama campaign on overseas democracy issues. Initially, she said, the new US president must be careful to send out the right signal soon after he takes office on January 20, all the more so as Israel itself faces elections in February.
If he demonstrates a commitment to the peace process, that might give Israelis more reason to support a candidate on their side who favors negotiations rather than one who says we have no partner, said Wittes. Yet, Wittes wondered aloud how either candidate would embark on the massive undertaking needed to drive the peace process to uncertain success over the long haul. Not authorized to speak for the Obama campaign, she also refrained from predicting the positions of a McCain administration. But Clawson believed that in the face of competing priorities, Obama was more likely than his Republican rival to make a major push soon after taking office toward working with what will then be a new Israeli government.Analysts say keeping the talks from collapsing is a feat in itself and leaves the door open to future success.
Abbas sees no peace deal with Israel this year Mon Nov 3, 10:47 am ET
BBC BUCHAREST (Reuters) – Israel and the Palestinians will not be able to reach a peace agreement before Washington's target date of the end of this year, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said Monday.I don't think it's possible to clear an accord by the end of this year as both the U.S. and the Israeli administrations are now busy with other matters and the very short time does not allow for striking such a deal, Abbas said at the start of a two-day visit to Romania.I would like to say after the election processes are over, we will resume negotiations and contacts to clear all the outstanding files in discussion. We will try to close these files because up until now none have been closed, he said, speaking through an interpreter.
The United States chooses a new president Tuesday and Israel is to hold a parliamentary election on February 10.Washington launched the latest peace drive at a conference in Annapolis, Maryland, last year with the hope of shepherding Israel and the Palestinians toward a peace deal before President George W. Bush leaves office in January.But Israel's failure to halt Jewish settlement in the occupied West Bank, divisions among Palestinians and political instability in Israel have made the prospects of meeting Washington's target date for a deal ever more elusive.
Sunday, the Quartet of Middle East peace mediators -- the United States, the European Union, the United Nations and Russia -- plan to convene in Egypt's Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, where negotiators will brief them on the peace talks.
Abbas, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni plan to attend.Last week, a senior Bush administration official said the Israeli election meant a peace agreement was all but impossible this year. Israeli President Shimon Peres said several weeks ago that both sides were unlikely to conclude a deal in 2008.(Reporting by Radu Marinas; Writing by Justyna Pawlak; Editing by Louise Ireland)
Israel far-right parties unite ahead of election Mon Nov 3, 8:21 am ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Two of Israel's main far-right parties on Monday announced they had decided to forces under a new list promoting settlements in the occupied West Bank ahead of a February general election.The still unnamed party unites The National Union and National Religious Party, which together have nine MPs in the current parliament.The new party seeks to lead a new national agenda, led by education for the Jewish character of Israel, social welfare... Jewish values, settlement and security and political issues, it said in a statement.The fate of the West Bank, which Israel occupied in 1967 and where the Palestinians wish to make their future state, remains one of the most contentious issues in Israeli politics.
Right-wing parties oppose the creation of an independent Palestinian state in the West Bank and seek to bolster Jewish settlement there.There are some 460,000 Jewish settlers in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, which was annexed by Israel in 1967 in a move not recognised by the international community.The party founders said they hope the new party will play a central role in any government formed after the February elections.After 27 years of division, we are going for unity, MP Zevulun Orlev of the National Religious Party told reporters.
SEX SINS
1 CORINTHIANS 6:9,14-18
9 Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind,
10 Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.
14 And God hath both raised up the Lord, and will also raise up us by his own power.
15 Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ? shall I then take the members of Christ, and make them the members of an harlot? God forbid.
16 What? know ye not that he which is joined to an harlot is one body? for two, saith he, shall be one flesh.
17 But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit.
18 Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body.
GALATIONS 5:19-21
19 Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness,
20 Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies,
21 Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.
Study links teen pregnancy to sexy TV shows By Andrew Stern Andrew Stern – NOV 3,08
CHICAGO (Reuters) – Exposure to some forms of entertainment is a corrupting influence on children, leading teens who watch sexy programs into early pregnancies and children who play violent video games to adopt aggressive behavior, researchers said on Monday.Researchers at the RAND research organization said their three-year study was the first to link viewing of racy television programing with risky sexual behavior by teens.Our findings suggest that television may play a significant role in the high rates of teenage pregnancy in the United States, said Anita Chandra, a behavioral scientist who led the research at RAND, a nonprofit research organization.
We're not saying we're establishing causation, but we are saying this is one factor that we were able to prospectively link to the teen pregnancy outcome, Chandra said in a phone interview.The researchers recruited adolescents aged 12 to 17 and surveyed them three times between 2001 and 2004, asking about television viewing habits, sexual behavior and pregnancy.In findings that covered 718 teenagers, there were 91 pregnancies. The top 10th of adolescents who watched the most sexy programing were at double the risk of becoming pregnant or causing a pregnancy compared to the 10th who watched the fewest such programs, according to the study published in the journal Pediatrics.The study focused on 23 free and cable television programs popular among teenagers including situation comedies, dramas, reality programs and animated shows. Comedies had the most sexual content and reality programs the least.The television content we see very rarely highlights the negative aspects of sex or the risks and responsibilities, Chandra said. So if teens are getting any information about sex they're rarely getting information about pregnancy or sexually transmitted diseases.
TEEN PREGNANCY ON DECLINE
Teen pregnancy rates in the United States have declined sharply since 1991 but remain high compared to other industrialized nations. Nearly 1 million girls aged 15 to 19 years old become pregnant yearly, or about 20 percent of sexually active females in that age group. Most of the pregnancies were unplanned, the report said.
Young mothers are more likely to quit school, require public assistance and live in poverty, it said.Television is just one part of a teenager's media diet that helps to influence their behavior. We should also look at the roles that magazines, the Internet and music play in teens' reproductive health, Chandra said, acknowledging still other factors can influence teen sex habits.Living in a two-parent family reduced the chances of a teen getting pregnant or causing a pregnancy. Black teenagers, and those with discipline problems, had higher risks.The report suggested broadcasters provide more realistic portrayals of the consequences of sex and that parents limit their children's access to sexually explicit programing.A second study in the journal added to existing evidence that youths who play violent video games -- a worldwide trend with American children averaging 13 hours of video gaming a week -- led to increased physically aggressive behavior.Researchers from the United States and Japan evaluated more than 1,200 Japanese youths and 364 Americans between 9 and 18 years old and found a significant risk factor for later physically aggressive behavior ... across very different cultures.Aggressiveness in children is also associated with violence later on, according to the study by researchers from Iowa State University in Ames, the National Institute on Media and the Family in Minneapolis and Ochanomizu University and Keio University in Tokyo.(Editing by Todd Eastham)
METEORS HIT THE EARTH
REVELATION 6:12-17
12 And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood;
13 And the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind.
14 And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places.
15 And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains;
16 And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb:
17 For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?
REVELATION 8:12-13
12 And the fourth angel sounded, and the third part of the sun was smitten, and the third part of the moon, and the third part of the stars; so as the third part of them was darkened, and the day shone not for a third part of it, and the night likewise.
13 And I beheld, and heard an angel flying through the midst of heaven, saying with a loud voice, Woe, woe, woe, to the inhabiters of the earth by reason of the other voices of the trumpet of the three angels,which are yet to sound!
Space junk falls harmlessly in South Pacific NOV 3,08
CANAVERAL, Fla. – A refrigerator-sized piece of space junk fell harmlessly into the South Pacific Sunday night, according to NASA.The junk was a tank full of ammonia coolant on the international space station that was no longer needed. Astronaut Clayton Anderson threw it overboard during a spacewalk in July 2007.Space station program manager Mike Suffredini said Monday that the debris splashed down somewhere between Australia and New Zealand Sunday night. The tank had served as a reserve supply of spare coolant at the space station since 2001.
SIGNS OF THE END OF THE AGE (NOT THE WORLD) THE WORLD GOES ON FOREVER.
GENESIS 1:5,14
5 And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.
14 And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years:(ISRAELS HOLY DAYS AND SABBATH STARTS AT 6PM) And for SIGNS (PROPHECY SIGNS TO HAPPEN IN THE FUTURE, OUR DAY)
SIGNS IN THE SUN, MOON AND STARS
LUKE 21:11
11 And great earthquakes shall be in divers places, and famines, and pestilences; and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven.
Strange Portal Connects Earth to Sun Senior Writer SPACE.com jeanna Bryner – Mon Nov 3, 8:31 am ET
AFP/NASA/File – File picture shows shows an ultraviolet image of the sun in something approaching true color. … Like giant, cosmic chutes between the Earth and sun, magnetic portals open up every eight minutes or so to connect our planet with its host star. Once the portals open, loads of high-energy particles can travel the 93 million miles (150 million km) through the conduit during its brief opening, space scientists say.Called a flux transfer event, or FTE, such cosmic connections not only exist but are possibly twice as common as anyone ever imagined, according to space scientists who attended the 2008 Plasma Workshop in Huntsville, Ala., last week. Ten years ago I was pretty sure they didn't exist, but now the evidence is incontrovertible, said David Sibeck, an astrophysicist at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland.
Dynamic bursts
Researchers have long known that the Earth and sun must be connected. For instance, particles from the sun are constantly whisked away via the solar wind and often follow magnetic field lines that connect the sun's atmosphere with terra firma. The field lines allow particles to penetrate Earth's magnetosphere, the magnetic bubble that surrounds our planet.We used to think the connection was permanent and that solar wind could trickle into the near-Earth environment anytime the wind was active, Sibeck said. We were wrong. The connections are not steady at all. They are often brief, bursty and very dynamic.Several speakers at the workshop outlined the formation of a flux transfer event. One idea is that on the side of Earth facing the sun, our magnetic field presses against the sun's magnetic field. And about every eight minutes, the two fields briefly reconnect, forming a portal through which particles can flow. The portal takes the form of a magnetic cylinder about as wide as Earth.Sibeck said to think of the FTE as a giant rolling pin that lies flat along the boundary between the Earth's and sun's magnetic fields. (He noted the rolling pin would have to be malleable so it could pierce through both magnetic fields while lying flat.)These FTEs kind of look like roller pins, and they form as little blob roller pins at the tip of the magnetosphere facing the sun, Sibeck told SPACE.com. They can't decide which way they're going to slide around the Earth, so they grow there into big roller pins and then they take off and sort of spirally roll along [Earth's magnetosphere] like you're pounding out dough.More than one FTE can form at once, he said, and they stay open for about 15 to 20 minutes.
More to learn
In order to measure such FTEs, spacecraft must not only catch them forming but also be on either end of the magnetic structures (either lengthwise or widthwise). In fact, the European Space Agency's fleet of four Cluster spacecraft and NASA's five THEMIS probes have flown through and surrounded these cylinders, measuring their dimensions and sensing the particles that shoot through, Sibeck said. While these measurements have nailed down the width of an FTE, the length is still uncertain though one measurement put it at up to five Earth radii. One Earth radius is about 4,000 miles (6,400 kilometers).Astrophysicist Jimmy Raeder of the University of New Hampshire used those measurements to develop computer simulations of the portals. He found the cylindrical portals tend to form above Earth's equator and then in December, the FTEs would roll over the North Pole. In July, they roll over the South Pole.Sibeck thinks the events occur twice as often as previously thought, proposing two types of flux transfer events — active and passive. When the magnetic cylinders are active, they allow particles to flow through rather easily, forming important conduits of energy for Earth's magnetosphere, Sibeck said. When passive, the cylinders have more resistance to transiting particles. The internal structure of a passive cylinder makes it tougher for particles and magnetic fields to flow through. Sibeck has calculated the properties of passive FTEs and hopes he and his colleagues will hunt for signs of them in data collected with THEMIS and Cluster.The space scientists at the workshop still want to figure out why the portals form every eight minutes and how magnetic fields inside the cylinders twist and coil.
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.
Report: Gadhafi offers Russia navy base Published: Nov. 3, 2008 at 9:43
MOSCOW, Nov. 3 (UPI) -- Libya has offered to host a Russian naval base and plans to purchase billions of dollars in military hardware, Russian sources told the Kommersant newspaper.An unnamed Russian military official was quoted in the Moscow-based Kommersant business daily as saying Libya is ready to let the Russian Navy use a Libyan port as a guarantee of non-aggression against Libya from the United States, Med Basin Newsline reported Monday. The official told Kommersant that Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi is willing to host the Russians because the United States is not in a hurry to embrace Gadhafi despite gestures of reconciliation.Libya is also interested in buying air defense systems, combat aircraft and warships from Russia, Mikhail Dmitriyev, director of Russia's Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation, told Med Basin Newsline. Gadhafi, who is on a three-day trip, was set Monday to meet with Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko in Minsk. Lukashenko greeted Gadhafi on his arrival in the country Sunday, RIA Novosti reported. 2008 United Press International, Inc.
Gadhafi seeks to build Russia biz ties
Published: Nov. 3, 2008 at 9:17
MOSCOW, Nov. 3 (UPI) -- Libyan leader Col. Moammar Gadhafi says he wants to strengthen commercial ties with Russia, especially in the oil and gas sectors. After meeting with Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin in Moscow over the weekend, Gadhafi told the Interfax news agency that he and Putin think alike about gas and oil policies and may be angling to play Russia off the United States for commercial and political advantages, The New York Times (NYSE:NYT) quoted analysts as saying.
(Libyans) want to say, Look, we have options, Alex Turkeltaub, a managing director at Frontier Strategy Group, a risk consultancy firm, told the newspaper. This is a shot across the bow to the new administration in Washington.Putin said Russia and Libya were becoming closer and closer as Gadhafi made his first visit to Moscow since the fall of the Soviet Union. Gadhafi has been noncommittal on an offer by the Russian natural gas monopoly Gazprom to buy all of Libya's natural gas production in a deal that could help Gazprom corner the European natural gas market, the Times said. Russia is reportedly trying to sweeten the deal by offering to provide Libya with a civilian nuclear research reactor.2008 United Press International, Inc
Iran marks U.S. embassy seizure, some ponder ties By Hossein Jaseb Mon Nov 3, 4:55 am ET
TEHRAN (Reuters) – Iranians marked the 1979 seizure of the U.S. embassy on Monday, a day before Americans elect a new president, with some demonstrators indifferent to the U.S. vote and a few wondering if it could help rebuild ties.Iran has been a focus of the foreign policy debate in the U.S. campaign before Tuesday's vote. Both candidates, Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain, say they will toughen sanctions. Obama says he is prepared to engage in direct talks.Kayhan International, a hardline English-language daily, said in a column that it did not matter who won the U.S. race.Hopefully either of the two would be presiding over the end of the U.S. domineering system, whose den of espionage was taken over this day in 1979 by Tehran University students, in a move that nipped in the bud the plots of the White House against the newfound Islamic Republic, it wrote on its front page.The United States cut ties with Tehran in 1980. Washington now says it is considering opening a U.S. interests section in Tehran, which would mean sending diplomats. It says this would show the United States was against Iran's government not people.But amid Death to America chants outside the former U.S. mission, some wondered if Tuesday's vote could bring change.There is a good possibility there would be a change in their outlook toward Iran with the coming of the new president. I am very optimistic, especially if Obama is elected, Ahmad Abdullahi, a 34-year-old school teacher, told Reuters.
He was among thousands gathered around the old embassy walls that radical students scaled on November 4, 1979, and then held 52 Americans hostage for 444 days. The Iranian date of the takeover was the 13th day of Aban, which this year falls on November 3.In my opinion, McCain will be president. Whoever becomes the president -- other than George Bush -- will be more logical, said Ramin Kermani, a 22-year-old chemistry student.Bush labeled Iran part of an axis of evil in 2002, a move that angered the Islamic Republic particularly after it helped in the 2001 U.S.-led war to topple Afghanistan's Taliban.Iranian analysts say officials in Tehran may privately prefer Obama but they are not counting on a major U.S. policy shift. Some demonstrators on Monday echoed that view.I don't think their imperialist instinct would allow any change in their behavior and demeanor toward Iran or any other country, said 71-year-old pensioner Aboutaleb Mirzaie.Debate in Iran about ties has grown as politicians start maneuvering before the Islamic Republic's own presidential race in June. Critics say President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has isolated Iran with his fiery speeches against Washington and the West.But Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's supreme leader, put a damper on such discussion last week by saying Iran's hatred of America ran deep and differences were more than a few policies.
Yet Iranians insist their differences are with the White House not Americans -- a view shared by the Kayhan editorial.When a photographer tried to take a picture of one Iranian demonstrator, his subject shouted with a big smile: Don't take my picture, they won't give me a visa.(Additional reporting by Hashem Kalantari, Writing by Edmund Blair; Editing by Samia Nakhoul)
Libyan leader seeks arms and energy in Belarus By YURAS KARMANAU, Associated Press Writer NOV 3,08
MINSK, Belarus – Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi joined Belarus' authoritarian president in lamenting U.S. dominance of world affairs Monday during a tour aimed at securing new weapons and energy deals in the former Soviet Union.Gadhafi is on a trip to Belarus, Russia and Ukraine that appears aimed at spurring competition between the countries for the best terms on arms and trade deals while seeking to rekindle the Cold War ties his energy-rich nation had with the Soviet Union.Gadhafi may also to be trying to increase the competitive pressure on Western companies, which have been seeking trading opportunities in Libya since it emerged from international isolation five years ago.Both Libya and Belarus have faced criticism from the U.S. and other Western countries for alleged violations of human rights.
The world has become unipolar because violations of the balance of power, Gadhafi said in the Belarusian capital. Nobody observes the principles of the United Nations, all international norms are being violated.Unipolar is a term frequently used in Russia, China and elsewhere to criticize U.S. foreign policies.We, like you, think that the world should be multipolar, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko told Gadhafi.Russia's relations with Libya withered after the 1991 Soviet collapse, but Moscow has moved to rebuild ties.A leading Russian newspaper reported that Libya might offer to allow Russia ships to use the Mediterranean port of Benghazi — a deal that could soothe Moscow's irritation over slow progress in the weapons talks.
Access to the Libyan port would help Russia as its tries to revive a naval presence in the Mediterranean. A Russian naval squadron on its way to the Caribbean recently stopped in Tripoli and Russia naval engineers recently began restoring facilities at the Syria's port of Tartus.Western nations have also courted Libya, both for weapons deals and for access to its gas reserves.Attention from the West jumped after 2003 when Gadhafi ended years of international isolation by renouncing terrorism and efforts to develop nuclear weapons. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice last month became the highest-level U.S. official to visit in 55 years.Russia faces competition from Belarus and Ukraine in selling arms to Libya. Belarus, meanwhile, seeking oil and gas from places other than Russia, has turned to Libya, Venezuela and others.
Lukashenko, who has been dubbed Europe's last dictator in the West, warmly welcomed Gadhafi, calling him Brother Moammar, and declaring that all ideas for cooperation are on the table between Belarus and Libya.The two leaders oversaw the signing of several agreements on taxes, communications and other areas. There was no mention of any weapons purchases or other military agreements.Still, former Defense Minister Pavel Kozlovsky said Lukashenko was likely to hide any potential military cooperation with Libya from public view.Warm relations with Lukashenko, and their status as world outcasts, can only help ... Belarus and Libya reach a deal, Kozlovsky told The Associated Press.
Chavez says Obama win could spur talks with US Sun Nov 2, 11:24 pm
ETCARACAS, Venezuela – Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said Sunday that he is willing to talk with Barack Obama if the Democratic candidate wins Tuesday's election.Chavez says that relations between Venezuela and the U.S., now at their lowest point in years, could improve in an Obama presidency.During a televised speech, Chavez said he would meet with Obama only on equal and respectful terms.
Alejandro Miyar, a spokesman for the Obama campaign, told The Associated Press on Sunday night that Hugo Chavez does not govern democratically and relations between our countries will not improve unless Venezuela respects democracy and the rule of law. That is the clear message that Barack Obama will deliver to Venezuela as president.Chavez ordered the U.S. ambassador out of Venezuela on Sept. 12, accusing the envoy of involvement in a purported assassination plot. U.S. officials deny it.He also recalled his ambassador from Washington and suggested that relations would not be fully restored until U.S. President George W. Bush leaves the White House.Hopefully with Obama, we will enter a new phase, Chavez said.
GENESIS 6:11-13
11 The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.(WORLD TERRORISM,MURDERS)
12 And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth.
13 And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence (TERRORISM) through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth.
EARTHQUAKES
MATTHEW 24:7-8
7 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.
8 All these are the beginning of sorrows.
MARK 13:8
8 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom:(ETHNIC GROUP AGAINST ETHNIC GROUP) and there shall be earthquakes in divers places, and there shall be famines and troubles: these are the beginnings of sorrows.
LUKE 21:11
11 And great earthquakes shall be in divers places, and famines, and pestilences; and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven.
Magnitude 5.1 earthquake shakes Guam Sun Nov 2, 2:20 am ET
HAGATNA, Guam – A moderate earthquake has shaken the island of Guam, but there are no reports of any damage or injury.The U.S. Geological Survey says in a preliminary report that the magnitude 5.1 quake struck at 3:34 p.m. Sunday at a depth of about 24miles. It was centered 16 miles northeast of Hagatna and 126 miles southwest of Saipan.A dispatcher from the Guam Police Department says she felt a light tremor at her office in the city of Tiyan, but there have been no reports of injuries or damages on the island.
Major quake strikes off Alaska's Aleutian Islands Sun Nov 2, 10:34 am ET
WASHINGTON (AFP) – A substantial 6.1 magnitude earthquake struck on Sunday just off the remote Aleutian Islands of the US state of Alaska, the US Geological Survey reported.The quake occured at 3:48 am local time (1348 GMT) about 53 kilometers (33 miles) underground, some 56 kilometers (35 miles) south-southwest of Atka Alaska and 1828 kilometers (1136 miles) from the state's largest city Anchorage, the USGS reported in a preliminary earthquake report.There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries from the Aleutians, a sparsely populated archipelago of hundreds of small, mainly volcanic islands that arc into the northern Pacific Ocean.The town of Atka nearest the temblor's epicenter had a population of 92 in the 2000 US census.
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.
Floodwaters start to recede in Vietnam capital Mon Nov 3, 5:26 am ET
HANOI, Vietnam – The death toll from nearly a week of flooding across northern and central Vietnam stood Monday at 54 and parts of the capital remained under water, but rains were easing and floodwaters receding in many areas.Hanoi alone recorded 18 deaths since heavy rains started lashing the city Friday, authorities said. Elsewhere, 34 deaths have been reported, authorities said.More rains were expected in the capital and some northern provinces Monday and Tuesday, but weather forecasters said they would be lighter than the downpours that soaked the capital over the weekend.That would provide welcome relief to residents of Hanoi, where many streets were under three feet (a meter) of water and scores of businesses remained shuttered.I have been stuck in my house for the past three days, said Nguyen Manh Hung, a businessman who lives on a street in southern Hanoi where water reached his waist. It's unbelievable to see people navigating the street in boats and by horse-drawn carriages.Vietnamese television on Sunday night quoted Hanoi Mayor Nguyen The Thao as saying it would take the city four or five days to pump excess water into the Red River — longer if heavy rains resume.More than 20 inches (500 millimeters) of rain have fallen on the city in the past three days, the heaviest rains in more than two decades.Authorities reported four more deaths Monday morning, with two bodies recovered in northern Vinh Phuc province and two more in Bac Giang province.
Floods have inundated more than 100,000 homes across northern and central Vietnam, the national committee for flood and storm control said on its Web site.More than 590,000 acres (240,000 hectares) of rice and vegetables have been destroyed and about 100 miles (170 kilometers) of rural roads have been damaged, it said.(This version CORRECTS Corrects typo in lede to remained)
China mudslides kill at least 22 Sun Nov 2, 10:09 pm
ETBEIJING (Reuters) – The death toll from mudslides caused by heavy rain in southwest China has risen from 15 to at least 22, with 45 missing, state media reported.Torrents of mud and rock hit near Chuxiong city in Yunnan province over the weekend, toppling or damaging nearly 1,000 houses, Xinhua news agency said.Yunnan is dominated by steep terrain, and many of its farmers live in villages on steep slopes. But there is also mining in some areas.Mountain torrents triggered by heavy rain hit Pingguo county in Guangxi, to the east of Yunnan, killing eight.Floods triggered by torrential rain in northern and central Vietnam, neighboring Yunnan and Guangxi, have killed dozens.(Reporting by Beijing newsroom; Editing by Nick Macfie)
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 MON NOV 03,2008
09:30 AM +13.94
10:00 AM +25.80
10:30 AM -18.72
11:00 AM +20.47
11:30 AM +7.64
12:00 PM +52.17
12:30 PM +47.95
01:00 PM +23.69
01:30 PM +6.93
02:00 PM -19.48
02:30 PM -36.40
03:00 PM -45.16
03:30 PM -23.18
04:00 PM -5.18 9319.83
S&P 500 966.31 -2.44
NASDAQ 1726.33 +5.38
GOLD 722.5 +4.30
OIL 64.26 -3.55
TSE 300 -41.50 9,721.26
CDNX +20.29 935.59
S&P/TSX/60 -4.35 586.93
Dow advances 5 days in a row if 6th never happened since DEC 2007.
NBC-WALL STREET JOURNAL POLL NOV 1-2 PRESIDENCIAL
TODAY O-51% M-43%
MID OCT 0-52% M-42%
AMOUNG DEMOC O-89% M-6%
AMOUNG REPUB O-5% M-92%
AMOUNG INDEP O-48% M-36%
CONFIDENT ON THE ECONOMY O-42% M-27%
ANNOUNCED BUYOUTS : Y&D 2008 US
-Convatec/Nordic Capital $4.1 BILLION.
-Booz Allen/The Carlyle Group $2.4 BILLION.
-Getty Images/Hellman & Friedman $2.4 BILLION.
-Apria Healthcare/Blackstone $1.6 BILLION.
PIPELINE CHECK : Announces US LBOS
-JUNE $3.6 BILLION
-JULY $4.0 BILLION.
-AUGUST $1.7 BILLION.
-SEPTEMBER $0.8 BILLION.
-OCTOBER $0.4 BILLION.
Crude Oil 55% below July record high.
HORRIFIC OCT - VEHICLES
-GM -47%
-FORD -32.7%
-HONDA -28%
-TOYOTA -25.9%
Chrysler says US OCT light vehicle sales down 35%.
Netherlands want IMF transformed into global financial supervisor
LEIGH PHILLIPS Today NOV 3,08 @ 17:44 CET
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Setting out their stall ahead of the upcoming emergency meeting of the G20 group of nations that is to focus on a global solution to the ongoing financial crisis, the Netherlands has called for the reconstruction of the International Monetary Fund into a new Global Financial Stability Organisation.
Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenede and his finance minister, Wouter Bos, want the IMF to be given considerable new powers of oversight over national financial supervisors.The Netherlands will not have its own seat at the table at the 15 November emergency meeting of the G20 but will be represented by the European Union presidency.The G20 group of industrial nations brings together the G7, the EU and 12 other major economies: Argentina, Australia, Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, and Turkey.Writing in the German edition of the Financial Times today, the two Dutch leaders said recent co-ordinated action in Europe to deal with the crisis was more the ad hoc result of powerful personalities coming together than the existence of any European crisis management system.Working on a global agenda is fine, but in Europe we also have an unfinished agenda in these matters, they wrote. Supervision in Europe is still fragmented and the recent rapid co-ordinated response by the European governments owes too great a deal to strong individual leadership.Europe must now accelerate progress towards an integrated European system of prudential supervision and crisis management.They added that even co-ordination at the EU level is still not enough, saying: We also need to build global power on world financial stability.The Dutch politicians want the IMF to be given a wider mandate and more robust competences, and more leverage over national governments.
As part of the international financial institution's annual assessments of countries' economic policies, the IMF, recast as a Global Financial Stability Organisation, should in the future include an obligatory check of the country's prudential supervisory arrangements, they say, the results of which should be made public.The Financial Stability Forum - the informal grouping of national finance ministries, central bankers, and international financial bodies - would also be brought under the aegis of the GFSO.The GFSO, in the Dutch view, would additionally have the authority to issue recommendations to international financial standard setters such as the Bank for International Settlements - the 'bank of central banks', the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision, the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) - the forum that brings together national stock market regulators, and the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB).Asked about the prime minister's thinking on the democratic accountability of a body invested with such substantial powers over national financial and economic decision-making, a source close to the Hague told the EUobserver: What sort of parliamentary controls the Netherlands would also like to see over such an institution have not been hammered, but it's certainly one of the questions that would need attention.
Additionally, with the elephantine salaries and bonuses of banking executives and traders freshly in the spotlight, the Netherlands would also like to see salary structures subject to scrutiny by domestic financial stability supervisors. And, if this proves to be insufficient, we could consider introducing claw-back clauses on bonuses, the Dutch prime minister and finance minister wrote.A number of banks that have recently been bailed out by public authorities have come in for severe criticism from citizens and politicians for using some of the monies intended to recapitalise the institutions instead to maintain the colossal salary structures of their employees.
Oil drops 5 percent on slumping demand By Edward McAllister Edward Mcallister – NOV 3,08
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Oil fell over 5 percent on Monday as further indicators of falling global demand linked to a potential recession offset OPEC plans to reign in output.U.S. crude fell $3.65 to $64.16 a barrel by 12.57 p.m. EST. London Brent crude dropped $4.18 to $61.14.U.S. factory activity -- a barometer for future oil demand -- contracted sharply in October, falling to its lowest in 26 years as the financial crisis racked the world's largest economy.The Institute for Supply Management said its index of national factory activity fell to 38.9 in October from 43.5 in September. A reading below 40 is exceptionally weak.The most devastating blow for crude oil today is data showing that U.S. manufacturing activity in October fell to the lowest level in 26 years, which means more worries for oil demand, said Phil Flynn, an analyst at Alaron Trading, in Chicago.Manufacturing used to be a great forward indicator for oil demand, but if the manufacturing sector is down, it will be a struggle to keep oil demand up, he added.Profits evaporated at leading banks on Monday and authorities worldwide pressed on with efforts to temper a recession that policymakers said had become reality for much of the globe.French Bank Societe Generale reported an 83.7 percent drop in third-quarter net profit and Germany's second largest bank Commerzbank said it would take an 8.2 billion euro capital injection from the state and another 15 billion to secure refinancing.
Ford Motor Co's (F.N) U.S. sales for October were down 30.2 percent on last year, with Chrysler, Nissan and Volvo all reporting slumps year on year.Analysts said traders would now be looking for signs that Saudi Arabia was cutting back its crude production in line with OPEC's agreement in October to reduce output by 1.5 million barrels per day (bpd).October saw the steepest monthly price decline ever for oil as global demand slowed.In three months, oil has wiped out gains that took more than a year to build. It is down more than half since prices struck a record $147.27 a barrel on July 11, as poor economic data added to pressure from weak demand reports in the United States and other key consumer nations.Societe Generale said on Monday it had lowered its oil price forecasts as global oil demand was likely to weaken further. The bank expects U.S. crude to average $72.50 a barrel next year. Its previous forecast was $114.17.OPEC members have no choice but to implement agreed output cuts and inform customers of the reductions if they want a stable oil price between $70 and $90 a barrel, OPEC President Chakib Khelil said on Sunday.Khelil said Saudi Arabia was the key to the success of the reductions, and if the world's biggest oil exporter took its time over the operation, the oil price could be affected.(Additional reporting by Robert Gibbons and Gene Ramos in New York, Alex Lawler and Ikuko Kao in London and Fayen Wong in Perth; Editing by Christian Wiessner)
France pushes for EU common front ahead of global financial summit
RENATA GOLDIROVA Today NOV 3,08 @ 17:32 CET
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Finance ministers from the 15-strong eurozone are to meet in Brussels tonight (3 November) to discuss French-tailored ideas on how the international financial system should be re-regulated in the face of global market turmoil. The current crisis is both a macroeconomic crisis and a crisis of the regulatory and oversight architecture, reads a paper that France, currently chairing the European Union's six-month rotating presidency, hopes to turn into a common position for the union that would subsequently be presented to other world industrial powers at the mid-November G20 meeting on the ongoing financial crisis.
The G20 summit, hosted by the United States, will be just the first of a series of discussions aimed at closing what the French paper describes as loopholes in the current system. This Friday (7 November), EU heads of state and government are also to meet in Brussels to try to hammer out a position that can then be taken to the G20 summit.The French document says that regulation and surveillance schemes in some countries do not monitor a number of key financial actors. Additionally, the paper argues that incentives in financial markets lead to excessive risk taking in the short run and that domestic supervisors are failing to properly identify risk and prevent a crisis situation. It is important that the inaugural summit deliver a first set of decisions so as to initiate the right momentum around the process and build confidence in it, the French proposal says. Specifically, the document argues that governments commit to a range of measures assuring stricter supervision of financial markets. They include, for example, firmer oversight of rating agencies, which have been widely criticised for conflicts of interest that have exacerbated the current crisis; reinforcement of cross-border supervision of financial groups; and the introduction of codes of conduct that would tackle excessive risk taking in the financial industry. One EU diplomat has expressed discontent, however, that the document also mentions measures that have not been fully discussed within the 27-nation bloc. We should have a thorough debate at home before we announce something to the world, she said, underlining that the French EU presidency did not include any member states' objections in its paper. According to another EU diplomat, the Washington summit has become a matter of prestige for some countries.
The Netherlands has complained about the fact that Argentina with its crumbling economy will sit at the table, while Spain has objected to Nicolas Sarkozy speaking on behalf of the 27-nation EU unless he gains its mandate. This has been seen by some diplomats, however, as a way of pressuring France into giving up its extra seat to Spain. Paris has two seats at the November G20 meeting - both as a member of the G7 and as the current holder of the EU presidency.
Tough U.S. problems to hit Canada: Flaherty NOV 3,08
TORONTO (Reuters) – The economic turmoil in the United States will harm Canada, federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said on Monday ahead of a meeting with the finance ministers of Canada's provinces on the global crisis.Flaherty, who says the crisis is harming federal finances, says Ottawa wants to limit the growth of a national program that transfers money to less prosperous provinces to ensure service levels are similar to those in rich provinces.We're in a time of significant economic turmoil ... The American situation remains very challenging, which will affect our Canadian economy as well, Flaherty told reporters at Toronto airport, where the meeting will be held.Flaherty says the equalization transfer program is growing at 15 percent a year, a pace he calls unsustainable.The program is likely to come under more pressure now that the province of Ontario, whose manufacturing base has been particularly hard hit by the slowing U.S. economy, is eligible for payments for the first time.Ontario Finance Minister John Duncan complained before the meeting that Flaherty should have put more effort into working out how to help the provinces live through the crisis.If you want to have a meaningful dialogue about an issue you'd think you might have a proposal in our hands in advance (that) we could actually look at and analyze -- and not a quick meeting at a hotel prior to catching a plane, he said.Flaherty told reporters separately that this is a time for pulling together as Canadians, not a time for bickering and discord.Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney will address the meeting. He declined to comment when approached by Reuters.(Reporting by Frank Pingue, writing by David Ljunggren; Editing by Peter Galloway)
Europe awaits new US president in time of crisis
RENATA GOLDIROVA Today NOV 3,08 @ 09:24 CET
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Some 130 million American voters will elect on Tuesday (4 November) the new man to take over the White House. Be it Republican John McCain or Democrat Barack Obama, the winner will significantly shape EU-US relations at a time of worsening financial crisis. The last 18 months have seen one of the most acrimonious and certainly the most expensive presidential campaign in US history, with Barack Obama currently ahead in all opinion polls. According to the latest CNN national 'Poll of Polls' (2 November), the 47-year old lawyer and the first African American nominated by a major political party for president has a seven-point lead over Mr McCain (53% to 46%).But up to eight percent of people remain undecided - enough to swing the result - while turnout is expected to reach its highest figure since 1960, with some 20 million Americans haveing already cast their votes. In the final hours on the campaign trail, both candidates are battling for must win states - Ohio with 20 electoral votes for senator McCain and Pennsylvania with 21 votes under the system for senator Obama. At the same time, they both were faced with undesirable surprises. Sarah Palin - the US vice-president hopeful in the McCain camp - found herself caught up in a phone conversation with a Canadian comedian posing as French President Nicolas Sarkozy. During the six-minute chat, they discussed hunting, Carla Bruni's looks and Ms Palin's presidential prospects. Mr Obama, for his part, had to respond to a finding that his aunt from Kenya, stayed illegally in the US, despite immigration authorities turning down her asylum request four years ago.
Europeans for Obama
US elections are followed closely on the other side of the Atlantic for their enormous global impact - especially at a time when Europe needs America to help tailor a global reform of the financial sector and to boost the fight against climate change. If Europeans had a vote, Barack Obama would beat John McCain by large margin. He enjoys greater popularity due to the fact that he represents a more evident contrast to the politics of the outgoing president, Republican George W. Bush. Mr Bush's eight-year-long term has been marked by a unilateral decision to invade Iraq - something that his reputation has never recovered from, even though he later reached out to consult Europe on issues such as Iran. According to Tomas Valasek from the London-based Centre for European Reform, none of the presidential candidates will ignore the EU's opinion on major foreign policy issues, but each of them will bring different arguments to the table. Barack Obama has shown more willingness to judge countries on an individual basis, not strictly within a war on terror framework, Mr Valasek told the EUobserver, citing views on Iran and Russia as significantly different to those of Mr McCain.The Republican presidential candidate refuses to engage in talks with Tehran over its nuclear programme and he also adopted a more critical stance on Russia's military action against Georgia in August. McCain's views on Russia are more in line with a Polish and Czech foreign policy approach, while Obama would gain sympathy in Germany, France and Italy, Mr Valasek said.
Financial crisis
But the transatlantic agenda will be dominated by the financial crisis and poor economic prospects for both continents. On 15 November, the United States will host a Group of 20 summit, which should kick of talks on how financial markets should be regulated. Apart from the US, the group involves Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkey, the UK and the EU representative.
According to Mr Valasek, Mr Obama seems to agree with Europe when it comes to a possibility of state interventions into economy, but the risk lies in his protectionist rethoric. This could worsen the current situation, he said. Daniel Gros from the Centre for European policy studies in Brussels described Mr McCain's approach on the financial crisis as more impulsive, while noting that Democrat Obama had a very good team of advisors. I am certain that Obama will very carefully listen to the very good technical advice he gets, the analyst said.
Murdoch: China, India will reshape the world By ROHAN SULLIVAN, Associated Press Writer – Sun Nov 2, 6:36 am ET
SYDNEY, Australia – Media tycoon Rupert Murdoch says the ongoing metamorphosis of China and India from historic backwaters into economic powers will help reshape the world in the next few decades.The News Corp. chief gave an upbeat assessment of the future and made a vigorous case for free markets despite troubled economic times and what he called naked, heartless aggression in the world.In the first of a series of speeches in his birth country of Australia, Murdoch spoke Sunday of the great transformation we've seen in the past few decades, the unleashing of human talent and ability across our world, and the golden age for humankind that I see just around the corner.He said China and India are great countries whose people are only recently emerging from long histories of being incarcerated by communism or caste. The rise of their economies is creating a new middle class that would be three billion strong within 30 years and that is setting a new benchmark for global competitiveness.The world has never seen this kind of advance before, Murdoch said. These are people who have known deprivation. These are people who are intent on developing their skills, improving their lives and showing the world what they can do.Murdoch, whose New York-based conglomerate includes Twentieth Century Fox, Fox News Channel, Dow Jones & Co. as well as newspaper stables in Australia and Britain and the online networking site MySpace, described the global financial crisis as one of many challenges facing Australia.He urged Australia to embrace internationalism and touched on a range of global issues, from international security to the commercial opportunities offered by the world's need for cleaner energy.Murdoch's remarks came in the first of six lectures to be sent out on radio nationally by the Australian Broadcasting Corp. — this year's edition of an annual series of talks by prominent Australians.Murdoch said that in another speech he would give his opinions on the future of newspapers, which are suffering a severe downturn, especially in the United States, as advertising revenue is lost to the Internet.He made a strong pitch for freer trade between countries, taking agriculture as an example and saying that reducing artificial barriers is a moral and strategic issue.So we must continue to leverage our connections and continue to push when others have left the conference table, he said. The global trade dialogue should echo with Australian accents.
Touching on security, he chided Europe for appearing to have lost the will to confront aggression and said NATO should be reformed into a group based on common values, not geography, and include countries like Australia as members.In this promising new century, we are still seeing naked, heartless aggression — whether it comes from a terrorist bombing in Islamabad or a Russian invasion of Georgia, Murdoch said.We can lament these developments, but we cannot hide from them, he said, noting Australia's contribution of troops to Afghanistan and Iraq.In an interview published in The Weekend Australian on Saturday, Murdoch said governments have only limited power to fix the financial crisis, though they could make it worse.
Murdoch warned that a rise in protectionism in the United States could add to all sorts of tensions in the world financial system and the world trading system and eventually all the way down to employment.
UPDATE: Russia's Medvedev, UK's Brown Discuss Upcoming G20 NOV 3,08
(Adds call to Germany's Merkel and background on G20 conference)
MOSCOW (AFP)--Russian President Dmitri Medvedev held phone separate discussions Monday with U.K. Prime Minister Gordon Brown and German Chancellor Angela Merkel about the forthcoming G20 meeting in Washington, the Kremlin said.The two sides emphasized the need to clarify positions before this major event, a statement said.
Brown and Medvedev also discussed bilateral issues. Relations between the two countries have been frosty since the poisoning in London in November 2006 of the former Russian agent Alexander Litvinenko.The U.K. was also strongly critical of Russian actions in the conflict with Georgia.The Kremlin said the two leaders gave a positive evaluation of the latest Russo-U.K. contacts, emphasized the importance of maintaining a dialogue and agreed to pursue contacts in the future.In their discussions Medvedev and Merkel agreed to maintain contacts at the level of experts, a second Kremlin statement said.The G20, which meets Nov. 15, includes the seven major industrialized nations - the U.K., Canada, France, Italy, Japan, Germany and the U.S. - plus Argentina, Australia, Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea and Turkey.It also takes in the 27-nation European Union, represented by France, which holds the rotating E.U. presidency. The International Monetary Fund and World Bank also participate in its meetings. Click here to go to Dow Jones NewsPlus, a web front page of today's most important business and market news, analysis and commentary: http:// www.djnewsplus.com/al?rnd=2LpU7c%2BJJg4jXi7sz%2Fp3ug%3D%3D. You can use this link on the day this article is published and the following day. (END) Dow Jones Newswires
Israel Braces for a Showdown With West Bank Settlers By TIM MCGIRK NOV 3,08
ABC News The hill named Oush Grab lies a stone's throw away from the Shepherd's Field, near Bethlehem. Christian pilgrims flock to the place where the Bible says an angel tipped off a shepherd that Jesus Christ had been born, but most visitors are mostly unaware of the battle raging over this obscure hilltop. Oush Grab is an undistinguished rocky outcrop of limestone, dotted with thorny shrubs. And it has no political, strategic or Old Testament significance. That's why the Israeli authorities allowed the Arab Christians of Beit Zahour, with help from educational agency Paidia International Development, to build a little park on its slopes, featuring a rock-climbing wall and a picnic ground. There were also plans to construct a $9 million children's surgical hospital on the upper reaches of Oush Grab, which would be the only one of its kind in the Palestinian territories. Then, one day last May, over a hundred Jewish settlers showed up on this hill of no consequence. They brought guns and paint brushes so they could scrawl Death to Arabs on a concrete pillbox left by the Israeli army when it pulled out several years ago. (The phantom guerrilla artist Banksy also found his way to this same fortification, stenciling onto it a wistful image of a truck towing away an Israeli tank.) And with the settlers came a phalanx of Israeli soldiers to provide protection. Plans to build the desperately needed children's hospital - supported by Cure International, a worldwide charity helping disabled children - are now shelved. During one recent occupation of Oush Grab, a young Jewish extremist warned foreign aid worker Jason Pollack, We can't let you build the children's hospital here. Otherwise, we'll have to blow it up.
The settlers first arrived in May and have appeared a dozen times since, usually staying a few hours, blocking roads to the park, and raising an Israeli flag, which is inevitably torn down by the Palestinian villagers as soon as the settlers and their military escort depart. The settlers make a religious-Zionist claim to Oush Grab, saying that because it is inside the Biblical land of Judea and Samaria, it therefore belongs to Jews. It's one more piece of Jewish homeland that the Arabs are trying to take away from us, says Nadia Matar, co-chairwoman of a rightwing Israeli group, Women in Green. But legally, says Beit Zahour's Mayor Hani el-Hayek, Israelis never had ownership of the hill, which is surrounded on three sides by Arab villages and terraced groves of olive trees that are nearly a thousand years old. It used to be a Jordanian army outpost. After Israel conquered the West Bank in the 1967 war, it became a small IDF fort. And when the Israeli army vacated Oush Grab, it reverted to the Jordanian army. Jordan renounced all claim to the West Bank after the 1993 Oslo peace accord, but Beit Zahour's mayor is hoping that if he gets the Jordanian army to sign over the land deed to the municipality, it will give him a stronger claim in Israeli court to fight the settlers. And, of course, Israel's leaders recognize that the same West Bank to which the settlers claim a Biblical right is land on which a Palestinian state will have to be built if a two-state peace solution is to be achieved.Over the years, successive Israel governments have tacitly encouraged, and then failed to halt, the spread of Jewish settlements in the West Bank - a practice widely viewed as contravening international law. Often, the settlers' behavior toward Palestinian neighbors is marked by violence; video footage shows Jewish youths using baseball bats to club Palestinian families trying to harvest their olive trees or tending sheep. Nor do the settlers fear reprisals from the Israeli authorities: Human rights group Yesh Din says only 8% of Palestinian complaints of settler violence have led to indictments by Israeli police. But lately, the Israeli mood has shifted against extremist settlers. In Hebron last week, they clashed not only with Palestinians, but with the Israeli security forces as well, calling them Nazis and pelting them with stones. The settlers may rely on Israeli soldiers to shield them from attacks by Palestinians, but such is their rage against the Israeli state over the possibility that Israel could relinquish control over the West Bank in order to forge a two-state peace agreement with the Palestinians, that they have turned on their protectors.
The Hebron attacks on the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) at last stirred the Israeli cabinet into action against the settlers. In a Sunday cabinet meeting, Yuval Diskin, the chief of Shin Bet, the domestic intelligence agency, warned that settlers would probably shoot back if the Israeli security forces tried to dislodge them en masse from West Bank outposts deemed illegal even under Israeli law. Says Diskin, Their approach began with the slogan Through love, we will win... but has now reached Through war, we will win.After hearing the security chief's grim appraisal, the Israeli cabinet, reversing years of tacit support for the settlers, voted to cut off all funds and support for the one hundred or so renegade outposts in the West Bank. But it is probably too little, too late. No Israeli leader, least of all a lame duck like outgoing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, will risk a bloody showdown between Jewish settlers and Israeli soldiers. Officers warn that such a clash could lead to rebellion in the army ranks, since many of the IDF's gung-ho soldiers were raised in the West Bank settlements and share their messianic ideology. As the settlers like to say, it's facts on the ground that count. And as long as the Jewish extremists can hold on to the hilltop and the Israeli army dithers over evicting them, it remains doubtful that the planned Palestinian children's hospital on Oush Ghrab will ever be built.
Next US president may have shot at Israel-Syria deal by Lachlan Carmichael – Mon Nov 3, 10:47 am ET
WASHINGTON (AFP) – The next US president will probably find a settlement to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as elusive as ever but might see an Israeli-Syrian peace accord come within reach, analysts say.Barack Obama or John McCain, they suggest, could use a Syrian-Israeli deal to start restoring US credibility in the region and put a bright spot on a dark horizon from the Palestinian territories to Iraq, Iran and Afghanistan.And it emerged from interviews with several analysts that Obama would be more likely than McCain to help deliver a Syrian-Israeli deal and invest more energy in the even more difficult Palestinian-Israeli talks.Aaron David Miller, a former adviser to both Republican and Democratic secretaries of state, said the deal he and other former US officials let slip from their grasp between 1993and 2000 is back within reach.There is a very real possibility of an Israeli-Syrian agreement, Miller, now a public policy scholar at the Woodrow Wilson Institute, told AFP in a telephone interview.An Obama or McCain administration will have to be smart enough, tough enough and fair enough to seize such an opportunity, he said without actually predicting who best would fit the bill.In the last few months, Syria and Israel began indirect talks brokered by Turkey, drawing a cool response from President George W. Bush's administration which invested so much in the last year reviving Israeli-Palestinian talks.Egypt and other key Arab states look constantly for a US-brokered solution to the Palestinian problem, which they see at the core of the region's troubles and central to restoring US credibility.The problem, Miller and other analysts say, is that such a solution seems as distant as ever and it might make more sense to open doors with Syria.Patrick Clawson, an analyst with the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, suspected that Obama would like to try to draw Syria away from its ties to Iran in order to work with the West in securing a peace deal with Israel.A McCain team would share an Obama administration's real excitement and enthusiasm about such a prospect but may be much more skeptical and spend less effort on it, Clawson said by telephone.
Peter Beinart, an analyst with the Council on Foreign Relations, also suspected Obama would support the prospect of a deal with Syria while a McCain administration would balk with skeptics in its midst.Miller, who said he is associated with neither campaign, insisted it is a fantasy to think such an agreement would drive a wedge between Damascus and Tehran.But it would undercut the radical Palestinian group Hamas, confront Hezbollah with a choice in Lebanon and begin to restore American credibility and give us some options against the backdrop of 16 years of failure, he said.Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat has urged the next president to waste no time in engaging with all Middle East peace tracks even though the US must also tackle the global financial crisis, military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, and a nuclear standoff with Iran.
Easier said than done, analysts say.
For either (McCain or Obama), there's strong logic in favor of pursuing an Israeli-Palestinian process, but there are also ... competing priorities, said Tamara Wittes, a Middle East analyst at the Brookings Institution.And the situation on the ground doesn't bode well for talks right now, said Wittes, who is also a volunteer adviser to the Obama campaign on overseas democracy issues. Initially, she said, the new US president must be careful to send out the right signal soon after he takes office on January 20, all the more so as Israel itself faces elections in February.
If he demonstrates a commitment to the peace process, that might give Israelis more reason to support a candidate on their side who favors negotiations rather than one who says we have no partner, said Wittes. Yet, Wittes wondered aloud how either candidate would embark on the massive undertaking needed to drive the peace process to uncertain success over the long haul. Not authorized to speak for the Obama campaign, she also refrained from predicting the positions of a McCain administration. But Clawson believed that in the face of competing priorities, Obama was more likely than his Republican rival to make a major push soon after taking office toward working with what will then be a new Israeli government.Analysts say keeping the talks from collapsing is a feat in itself and leaves the door open to future success.
Abbas sees no peace deal with Israel this year Mon Nov 3, 10:47 am ET
BBC BUCHAREST (Reuters) – Israel and the Palestinians will not be able to reach a peace agreement before Washington's target date of the end of this year, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said Monday.I don't think it's possible to clear an accord by the end of this year as both the U.S. and the Israeli administrations are now busy with other matters and the very short time does not allow for striking such a deal, Abbas said at the start of a two-day visit to Romania.I would like to say after the election processes are over, we will resume negotiations and contacts to clear all the outstanding files in discussion. We will try to close these files because up until now none have been closed, he said, speaking through an interpreter.
The United States chooses a new president Tuesday and Israel is to hold a parliamentary election on February 10.Washington launched the latest peace drive at a conference in Annapolis, Maryland, last year with the hope of shepherding Israel and the Palestinians toward a peace deal before President George W. Bush leaves office in January.But Israel's failure to halt Jewish settlement in the occupied West Bank, divisions among Palestinians and political instability in Israel have made the prospects of meeting Washington's target date for a deal ever more elusive.
Sunday, the Quartet of Middle East peace mediators -- the United States, the European Union, the United Nations and Russia -- plan to convene in Egypt's Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, where negotiators will brief them on the peace talks.
Abbas, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni plan to attend.Last week, a senior Bush administration official said the Israeli election meant a peace agreement was all but impossible this year. Israeli President Shimon Peres said several weeks ago that both sides were unlikely to conclude a deal in 2008.(Reporting by Radu Marinas; Writing by Justyna Pawlak; Editing by Louise Ireland)
Israel far-right parties unite ahead of election Mon Nov 3, 8:21 am ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Two of Israel's main far-right parties on Monday announced they had decided to forces under a new list promoting settlements in the occupied West Bank ahead of a February general election.The still unnamed party unites The National Union and National Religious Party, which together have nine MPs in the current parliament.The new party seeks to lead a new national agenda, led by education for the Jewish character of Israel, social welfare... Jewish values, settlement and security and political issues, it said in a statement.The fate of the West Bank, which Israel occupied in 1967 and where the Palestinians wish to make their future state, remains one of the most contentious issues in Israeli politics.
Right-wing parties oppose the creation of an independent Palestinian state in the West Bank and seek to bolster Jewish settlement there.There are some 460,000 Jewish settlers in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, which was annexed by Israel in 1967 in a move not recognised by the international community.The party founders said they hope the new party will play a central role in any government formed after the February elections.After 27 years of division, we are going for unity, MP Zevulun Orlev of the National Religious Party told reporters.
SEX SINS
1 CORINTHIANS 6:9,14-18
9 Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind,
10 Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.
14 And God hath both raised up the Lord, and will also raise up us by his own power.
15 Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ? shall I then take the members of Christ, and make them the members of an harlot? God forbid.
16 What? know ye not that he which is joined to an harlot is one body? for two, saith he, shall be one flesh.
17 But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit.
18 Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body.
GALATIONS 5:19-21
19 Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness,
20 Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies,
21 Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.
Study links teen pregnancy to sexy TV shows By Andrew Stern Andrew Stern – NOV 3,08
CHICAGO (Reuters) – Exposure to some forms of entertainment is a corrupting influence on children, leading teens who watch sexy programs into early pregnancies and children who play violent video games to adopt aggressive behavior, researchers said on Monday.Researchers at the RAND research organization said their three-year study was the first to link viewing of racy television programing with risky sexual behavior by teens.Our findings suggest that television may play a significant role in the high rates of teenage pregnancy in the United States, said Anita Chandra, a behavioral scientist who led the research at RAND, a nonprofit research organization.
We're not saying we're establishing causation, but we are saying this is one factor that we were able to prospectively link to the teen pregnancy outcome, Chandra said in a phone interview.The researchers recruited adolescents aged 12 to 17 and surveyed them three times between 2001 and 2004, asking about television viewing habits, sexual behavior and pregnancy.In findings that covered 718 teenagers, there were 91 pregnancies. The top 10th of adolescents who watched the most sexy programing were at double the risk of becoming pregnant or causing a pregnancy compared to the 10th who watched the fewest such programs, according to the study published in the journal Pediatrics.The study focused on 23 free and cable television programs popular among teenagers including situation comedies, dramas, reality programs and animated shows. Comedies had the most sexual content and reality programs the least.The television content we see very rarely highlights the negative aspects of sex or the risks and responsibilities, Chandra said. So if teens are getting any information about sex they're rarely getting information about pregnancy or sexually transmitted diseases.
TEEN PREGNANCY ON DECLINE
Teen pregnancy rates in the United States have declined sharply since 1991 but remain high compared to other industrialized nations. Nearly 1 million girls aged 15 to 19 years old become pregnant yearly, or about 20 percent of sexually active females in that age group. Most of the pregnancies were unplanned, the report said.
Young mothers are more likely to quit school, require public assistance and live in poverty, it said.Television is just one part of a teenager's media diet that helps to influence their behavior. We should also look at the roles that magazines, the Internet and music play in teens' reproductive health, Chandra said, acknowledging still other factors can influence teen sex habits.Living in a two-parent family reduced the chances of a teen getting pregnant or causing a pregnancy. Black teenagers, and those with discipline problems, had higher risks.The report suggested broadcasters provide more realistic portrayals of the consequences of sex and that parents limit their children's access to sexually explicit programing.A second study in the journal added to existing evidence that youths who play violent video games -- a worldwide trend with American children averaging 13 hours of video gaming a week -- led to increased physically aggressive behavior.Researchers from the United States and Japan evaluated more than 1,200 Japanese youths and 364 Americans between 9 and 18 years old and found a significant risk factor for later physically aggressive behavior ... across very different cultures.Aggressiveness in children is also associated with violence later on, according to the study by researchers from Iowa State University in Ames, the National Institute on Media and the Family in Minneapolis and Ochanomizu University and Keio University in Tokyo.(Editing by Todd Eastham)
METEORS HIT THE EARTH
REVELATION 6:12-17
12 And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood;
13 And the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind.
14 And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places.
15 And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains;
16 And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb:
17 For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?
REVELATION 8:12-13
12 And the fourth angel sounded, and the third part of the sun was smitten, and the third part of the moon, and the third part of the stars; so as the third part of them was darkened, and the day shone not for a third part of it, and the night likewise.
13 And I beheld, and heard an angel flying through the midst of heaven, saying with a loud voice, Woe, woe, woe, to the inhabiters of the earth by reason of the other voices of the trumpet of the three angels,which are yet to sound!
Space junk falls harmlessly in South Pacific NOV 3,08
CANAVERAL, Fla. – A refrigerator-sized piece of space junk fell harmlessly into the South Pacific Sunday night, according to NASA.The junk was a tank full of ammonia coolant on the international space station that was no longer needed. Astronaut Clayton Anderson threw it overboard during a spacewalk in July 2007.Space station program manager Mike Suffredini said Monday that the debris splashed down somewhere between Australia and New Zealand Sunday night. The tank had served as a reserve supply of spare coolant at the space station since 2001.
SIGNS OF THE END OF THE AGE (NOT THE WORLD) THE WORLD GOES ON FOREVER.
GENESIS 1:5,14
5 And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.
14 And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years:(ISRAELS HOLY DAYS AND SABBATH STARTS AT 6PM) And for SIGNS (PROPHECY SIGNS TO HAPPEN IN THE FUTURE, OUR DAY)
SIGNS IN THE SUN, MOON AND STARS
LUKE 21:11
11 And great earthquakes shall be in divers places, and famines, and pestilences; and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven.
Strange Portal Connects Earth to Sun Senior Writer SPACE.com jeanna Bryner – Mon Nov 3, 8:31 am ET
AFP/NASA/File – File picture shows shows an ultraviolet image of the sun in something approaching true color. … Like giant, cosmic chutes between the Earth and sun, magnetic portals open up every eight minutes or so to connect our planet with its host star. Once the portals open, loads of high-energy particles can travel the 93 million miles (150 million km) through the conduit during its brief opening, space scientists say.Called a flux transfer event, or FTE, such cosmic connections not only exist but are possibly twice as common as anyone ever imagined, according to space scientists who attended the 2008 Plasma Workshop in Huntsville, Ala., last week. Ten years ago I was pretty sure they didn't exist, but now the evidence is incontrovertible, said David Sibeck, an astrophysicist at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland.
Dynamic bursts
Researchers have long known that the Earth and sun must be connected. For instance, particles from the sun are constantly whisked away via the solar wind and often follow magnetic field lines that connect the sun's atmosphere with terra firma. The field lines allow particles to penetrate Earth's magnetosphere, the magnetic bubble that surrounds our planet.We used to think the connection was permanent and that solar wind could trickle into the near-Earth environment anytime the wind was active, Sibeck said. We were wrong. The connections are not steady at all. They are often brief, bursty and very dynamic.Several speakers at the workshop outlined the formation of a flux transfer event. One idea is that on the side of Earth facing the sun, our magnetic field presses against the sun's magnetic field. And about every eight minutes, the two fields briefly reconnect, forming a portal through which particles can flow. The portal takes the form of a magnetic cylinder about as wide as Earth.Sibeck said to think of the FTE as a giant rolling pin that lies flat along the boundary between the Earth's and sun's magnetic fields. (He noted the rolling pin would have to be malleable so it could pierce through both magnetic fields while lying flat.)These FTEs kind of look like roller pins, and they form as little blob roller pins at the tip of the magnetosphere facing the sun, Sibeck told SPACE.com. They can't decide which way they're going to slide around the Earth, so they grow there into big roller pins and then they take off and sort of spirally roll along [Earth's magnetosphere] like you're pounding out dough.More than one FTE can form at once, he said, and they stay open for about 15 to 20 minutes.
More to learn
In order to measure such FTEs, spacecraft must not only catch them forming but also be on either end of the magnetic structures (either lengthwise or widthwise). In fact, the European Space Agency's fleet of four Cluster spacecraft and NASA's five THEMIS probes have flown through and surrounded these cylinders, measuring their dimensions and sensing the particles that shoot through, Sibeck said. While these measurements have nailed down the width of an FTE, the length is still uncertain though one measurement put it at up to five Earth radii. One Earth radius is about 4,000 miles (6,400 kilometers).Astrophysicist Jimmy Raeder of the University of New Hampshire used those measurements to develop computer simulations of the portals. He found the cylindrical portals tend to form above Earth's equator and then in December, the FTEs would roll over the North Pole. In July, they roll over the South Pole.Sibeck thinks the events occur twice as often as previously thought, proposing two types of flux transfer events — active and passive. When the magnetic cylinders are active, they allow particles to flow through rather easily, forming important conduits of energy for Earth's magnetosphere, Sibeck said. When passive, the cylinders have more resistance to transiting particles. The internal structure of a passive cylinder makes it tougher for particles and magnetic fields to flow through. Sibeck has calculated the properties of passive FTEs and hopes he and his colleagues will hunt for signs of them in data collected with THEMIS and Cluster.The space scientists at the workshop still want to figure out why the portals form every eight minutes and how magnetic fields inside the cylinders twist and coil.
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.
Report: Gadhafi offers Russia navy base Published: Nov. 3, 2008 at 9:43
MOSCOW, Nov. 3 (UPI) -- Libya has offered to host a Russian naval base and plans to purchase billions of dollars in military hardware, Russian sources told the Kommersant newspaper.An unnamed Russian military official was quoted in the Moscow-based Kommersant business daily as saying Libya is ready to let the Russian Navy use a Libyan port as a guarantee of non-aggression against Libya from the United States, Med Basin Newsline reported Monday. The official told Kommersant that Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi is willing to host the Russians because the United States is not in a hurry to embrace Gadhafi despite gestures of reconciliation.Libya is also interested in buying air defense systems, combat aircraft and warships from Russia, Mikhail Dmitriyev, director of Russia's Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation, told Med Basin Newsline. Gadhafi, who is on a three-day trip, was set Monday to meet with Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko in Minsk. Lukashenko greeted Gadhafi on his arrival in the country Sunday, RIA Novosti reported. 2008 United Press International, Inc.
Gadhafi seeks to build Russia biz ties
Published: Nov. 3, 2008 at 9:17
MOSCOW, Nov. 3 (UPI) -- Libyan leader Col. Moammar Gadhafi says he wants to strengthen commercial ties with Russia, especially in the oil and gas sectors. After meeting with Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin in Moscow over the weekend, Gadhafi told the Interfax news agency that he and Putin think alike about gas and oil policies and may be angling to play Russia off the United States for commercial and political advantages, The New York Times (NYSE:NYT) quoted analysts as saying.
(Libyans) want to say, Look, we have options, Alex Turkeltaub, a managing director at Frontier Strategy Group, a risk consultancy firm, told the newspaper. This is a shot across the bow to the new administration in Washington.Putin said Russia and Libya were becoming closer and closer as Gadhafi made his first visit to Moscow since the fall of the Soviet Union. Gadhafi has been noncommittal on an offer by the Russian natural gas monopoly Gazprom to buy all of Libya's natural gas production in a deal that could help Gazprom corner the European natural gas market, the Times said. Russia is reportedly trying to sweeten the deal by offering to provide Libya with a civilian nuclear research reactor.2008 United Press International, Inc
Iran marks U.S. embassy seizure, some ponder ties By Hossein Jaseb Mon Nov 3, 4:55 am ET
TEHRAN (Reuters) – Iranians marked the 1979 seizure of the U.S. embassy on Monday, a day before Americans elect a new president, with some demonstrators indifferent to the U.S. vote and a few wondering if it could help rebuild ties.Iran has been a focus of the foreign policy debate in the U.S. campaign before Tuesday's vote. Both candidates, Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain, say they will toughen sanctions. Obama says he is prepared to engage in direct talks.Kayhan International, a hardline English-language daily, said in a column that it did not matter who won the U.S. race.Hopefully either of the two would be presiding over the end of the U.S. domineering system, whose den of espionage was taken over this day in 1979 by Tehran University students, in a move that nipped in the bud the plots of the White House against the newfound Islamic Republic, it wrote on its front page.The United States cut ties with Tehran in 1980. Washington now says it is considering opening a U.S. interests section in Tehran, which would mean sending diplomats. It says this would show the United States was against Iran's government not people.But amid Death to America chants outside the former U.S. mission, some wondered if Tuesday's vote could bring change.There is a good possibility there would be a change in their outlook toward Iran with the coming of the new president. I am very optimistic, especially if Obama is elected, Ahmad Abdullahi, a 34-year-old school teacher, told Reuters.
He was among thousands gathered around the old embassy walls that radical students scaled on November 4, 1979, and then held 52 Americans hostage for 444 days. The Iranian date of the takeover was the 13th day of Aban, which this year falls on November 3.In my opinion, McCain will be president. Whoever becomes the president -- other than George Bush -- will be more logical, said Ramin Kermani, a 22-year-old chemistry student.Bush labeled Iran part of an axis of evil in 2002, a move that angered the Islamic Republic particularly after it helped in the 2001 U.S.-led war to topple Afghanistan's Taliban.Iranian analysts say officials in Tehran may privately prefer Obama but they are not counting on a major U.S. policy shift. Some demonstrators on Monday echoed that view.I don't think their imperialist instinct would allow any change in their behavior and demeanor toward Iran or any other country, said 71-year-old pensioner Aboutaleb Mirzaie.Debate in Iran about ties has grown as politicians start maneuvering before the Islamic Republic's own presidential race in June. Critics say President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has isolated Iran with his fiery speeches against Washington and the West.But Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's supreme leader, put a damper on such discussion last week by saying Iran's hatred of America ran deep and differences were more than a few policies.
Yet Iranians insist their differences are with the White House not Americans -- a view shared by the Kayhan editorial.When a photographer tried to take a picture of one Iranian demonstrator, his subject shouted with a big smile: Don't take my picture, they won't give me a visa.(Additional reporting by Hashem Kalantari, Writing by Edmund Blair; Editing by Samia Nakhoul)
Libyan leader seeks arms and energy in Belarus By YURAS KARMANAU, Associated Press Writer NOV 3,08
MINSK, Belarus – Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi joined Belarus' authoritarian president in lamenting U.S. dominance of world affairs Monday during a tour aimed at securing new weapons and energy deals in the former Soviet Union.Gadhafi is on a trip to Belarus, Russia and Ukraine that appears aimed at spurring competition between the countries for the best terms on arms and trade deals while seeking to rekindle the Cold War ties his energy-rich nation had with the Soviet Union.Gadhafi may also to be trying to increase the competitive pressure on Western companies, which have been seeking trading opportunities in Libya since it emerged from international isolation five years ago.Both Libya and Belarus have faced criticism from the U.S. and other Western countries for alleged violations of human rights.
The world has become unipolar because violations of the balance of power, Gadhafi said in the Belarusian capital. Nobody observes the principles of the United Nations, all international norms are being violated.Unipolar is a term frequently used in Russia, China and elsewhere to criticize U.S. foreign policies.We, like you, think that the world should be multipolar, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko told Gadhafi.Russia's relations with Libya withered after the 1991 Soviet collapse, but Moscow has moved to rebuild ties.A leading Russian newspaper reported that Libya might offer to allow Russia ships to use the Mediterranean port of Benghazi — a deal that could soothe Moscow's irritation over slow progress in the weapons talks.
Access to the Libyan port would help Russia as its tries to revive a naval presence in the Mediterranean. A Russian naval squadron on its way to the Caribbean recently stopped in Tripoli and Russia naval engineers recently began restoring facilities at the Syria's port of Tartus.Western nations have also courted Libya, both for weapons deals and for access to its gas reserves.Attention from the West jumped after 2003 when Gadhafi ended years of international isolation by renouncing terrorism and efforts to develop nuclear weapons. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice last month became the highest-level U.S. official to visit in 55 years.Russia faces competition from Belarus and Ukraine in selling arms to Libya. Belarus, meanwhile, seeking oil and gas from places other than Russia, has turned to Libya, Venezuela and others.
Lukashenko, who has been dubbed Europe's last dictator in the West, warmly welcomed Gadhafi, calling him Brother Moammar, and declaring that all ideas for cooperation are on the table between Belarus and Libya.The two leaders oversaw the signing of several agreements on taxes, communications and other areas. There was no mention of any weapons purchases or other military agreements.Still, former Defense Minister Pavel Kozlovsky said Lukashenko was likely to hide any potential military cooperation with Libya from public view.Warm relations with Lukashenko, and their status as world outcasts, can only help ... Belarus and Libya reach a deal, Kozlovsky told The Associated Press.
Chavez says Obama win could spur talks with US Sun Nov 2, 11:24 pm
ETCARACAS, Venezuela – Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said Sunday that he is willing to talk with Barack Obama if the Democratic candidate wins Tuesday's election.Chavez says that relations between Venezuela and the U.S., now at their lowest point in years, could improve in an Obama presidency.During a televised speech, Chavez said he would meet with Obama only on equal and respectful terms.
Alejandro Miyar, a spokesman for the Obama campaign, told The Associated Press on Sunday night that Hugo Chavez does not govern democratically and relations between our countries will not improve unless Venezuela respects democracy and the rule of law. That is the clear message that Barack Obama will deliver to Venezuela as president.Chavez ordered the U.S. ambassador out of Venezuela on Sept. 12, accusing the envoy of involvement in a purported assassination plot. U.S. officials deny it.He also recalled his ambassador from Washington and suggested that relations would not be fully restored until U.S. President George W. Bush leaves the White House.Hopefully with Obama, we will enter a new phase, Chavez said.
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