ISRAEL KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK OF STOPPING THE HAMAS MURDERERS FROM KILLING INNOCENT ISRAELIS.
Gaza battle stretches into night despite truce calls By Nidal al-Mughrabi – Mon Jan 5, 2:31 pm ET
GAZA (Reuters) – Israeli troops backed by air strikes fought to seize ground from Hamas militants deep inside the Gaza Strip on Monday despite international calls for a ceasefire in a conflict that has killed more than 540 Palestinians in 10 days.
Israel's defense minister said the operation, aimed at stopping Hamas rocket attacks on southern Israel, could get more difficult before the mission was accomplished.
Hamas vowed to fight on in every street, every alley and threatened to fire more rockets across the border into Israel.French President Nicolas Sarkozy, on a peace-brokering trip to the Middle East, and U.S. President George W. Bush, in his final weeks in the White House, both appealed for a ceasefire.But disagreement on who should stop shooting first and on what terms made the chances of a pause soon remote.
Israel made clear its priority was to secure the safety of its citizens, while Hamas called for a lifting of the blockade of the enclave, crammed with 1.5 million people whose lives are growing ever more squalid. Many lack food, water or power.The death toll in Gaza rose to at least 541 people, many of them civilians. Among Monday's victims were 13 members of a Palestinian family killed in an Israeli strike on their home in a refugee camp, Palestinian medical officials said.The Israeli army said dozens of Hamas fighters had been killed since ground troops invaded on Saturday following a week-long air blitz.Israel launched the offensive after Hamas called off a six-month truce last month and stepped up its rocket attacks in response to Israeli raids and blockade of the enclave, which the Jewish state occupied from 1967 to 2005.Israeli soldiers and Islamist militants fought throughout the day and into the night on Monday. Militants fired mortars and grenades and detonated mines and tried to lure Israeli soldiers into built-up areas, witnesses said.The Israeli air force bombed dozens of targets, including homes of Hamas members used as weapons depots.As night fell, Israeli troops were trying to capture a hill overlooking Jabaliya town and refugee camp and Hamas fighters were resisting them strongly, witnesses said. Heavy Israeli air and artillery strikes concentrated on that area.
Israel's advances into Gaza have carved the 40 km (25 mile)-long coastal territory into two zones and forces have surrounded its largest urban area, Gaza City.Defence Minister Ehud Barak told parliament's foreign affairs and defense committee Hamas had been dealt a heavy blow.But we cannot say that its fighting capabilities have been harmed ... Hamas did not seek a direct confrontation with our forces and wants to drag our forces into urban areas, he said.Difficult moments lie ahead in this operation and the main test could still be ahead.
STREET FIGHTING
Hamas leaders rallied their combatants with defiant rhetoric. Thousands of fighters were waiting in every street, every alley and at every house to tackle them, Hamas military spokesman Abu Ubaida said in a broadcast speech. Hamas would increase its rocket strikes on Israel if the Israeli attacks on Gaza continued, Ubaida said. A rocket hit the Israeli port city of Ashdod, damaging a building and wounding two people, police said. Four Israelis have been killed by salvoes fired into Israel since the offensive began. An Israeli soldier was killed in fighting on Sunday and 48 have been wounded since the ground invasion began. In Ramallah in the Palestinian-ruled West Bank, French President Sarkozy called for a ceasefire as soon as possible and said that time is running against peace.The guns must fall silent, there must be a humanitarian truce, Sarkozy said. He said he would tell Israeli leaders the violence must stop but he also condemned Hamas for its attacks on Israel. Czech Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg, heading an EU peace mission, sounded more resigned to prolonged fighting. We do not have a specific plan for a ceasefire because the ceasefire as such must be concluded by the involved parties, he said in Jerusalem.
U.S. President George W. Bush, speaking in Washington, blamed Hamas for provoking the bloodshed and said any ceasefire must include provisions to stop its rocket attacks. Instead of caring about the people of Gaza, Hamas decided to use Gaza to use rockets to kill innocent Israelis, he said. Saudi Arabia said the international community should do more to stop Israeli barbarity and should not ignore the history of its occupation and settlement of Palestinian territories. Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni rebuffed European proposals for international observers in the Gaza Strip after any ceasefire, pushing instead for teams that will help search out and seal off tunnels that could allow Hamas to rearm. At the United Nations, Arab countries were drafting a resolution to demand an immediate end to Israeli aggression.The situation for Gaza residents grew more fraught. People badly needed food, medical supplies and other aid but the hostilities were hampering relief efforts, aid agencies said. In all 29 Palestinian civilians were killed on Monday, medical officials said. Bombs hit a tent where a family was mourning a paramedic killed in an air strike on Sunday. Three people were killed and 17 wounded, medical workers said. We were sitting in the mourning tent when suddenly they bombed us, we ran to rush the casualties to hospitals but they bombed again, Abdel-Dayem said.
(Writing by Angus MacSwan; editing by Andrew Roche)
EU sends mixed message as Gaza death toll mounts
PHILIPPA RUNNER Today JAN 05,09 @ 09:27 CET
The Czech EU presidency this weekend retracted its support for Israel amid the ground attack on Gaza, while France switched its criticism from Israel to Hamas.The Czech Republic on Saturday (3 January) published a statement on behalf of the EU, saying the ground assault was more defensive than offensive. But it pulled the line on Sunday, blaming it on a youthful mistake by its spokesman, Jiri Potuznik. Even the undisputable right of the state to defend itself does not allow actions which largely affect civilians, the second communique said.Meanwhile, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who last week complained about Israel's disproportionate use of force, laid the lion's share of blame on Hamas in an interview on Monday.Hamas, which decided to break the truce and resume rocket fire against Israel, bears a heavy responsibility for the suffering of the Palestinians, he told Lebanese newspapers An Nahar, As Safir and L'Orient le Jour. The Czech EU presidency and Mr Sarkozy are leading EU efforts to broker a ceasefire and inject humanitarian aid to Gaza, each sending a separate diplomatic mission to the region this week.The Czech delegation - comprising French, Swedish and European Commission diplomats as well as top EU envoy Javier Solana - arrived in Egypt on Sunday night and will visit Israel and Palestine later on Monday.Mr Sarkozy lands in Egypt on Monday and is also to visit Israel and the Palestinian territories later the same day, at the risk of stealing the Czech Republic's thunder as the first world leader to personally travel to the Middle East since the war broke out.Mr Sarkozy's special aide, Henri Guaino, told Le Figaro there is no competition between the two delegations. But other French politicians betrayed the feeling that the Czech Republic is not up to the job.I think he [Mr Sarkozy] is the only one capable of taking an initiative like this, French budget minister Eric Woerth said on Europe 1 radio on Sunday.The melee of EU diplomats will also be joined on Monday by Tony Blair, the former British leader and current special envoy of the Middle East quartet (the EU, US, UN and Russia).Israeli officials during the Israel-Lebanon war in 2006 complained that the EU sent too many emissaries to enable a coherent dialogue.
The EU's chances of brokering a ceasefire have been hampered by the US, which on Saturday blocked a UN Security Council ceasefire resolution as the Bush administration counts down its last days in office.The Hamas government on Monday held out an olive branch by agreeing to send a negotiating team to Egypt, at the same time as the Czech and French delegations arrive in the country. But any EU talks with the group will be complicated by its inclusion on the EU terrorist register.
Anger in Europe
Outside the confines of high diplomacy, ordinary Europeans also voiced their opinions on the conflict this weekend as tens of thousands took part in demonstrations stretching from London to Istanbul.Pro-Palestinian marchers took to the streets of the UK, the Netherlands, Germany, Spain, Austria, Sweden, Poland, Greece and Cyprus, with reports of skirmishes outside Israeli embassies. In Paris, 20,000 people marched in support of the Palestinians on Saturday, while a crowd of 12,000 showed its solidarity with Israel on Sunday.Pro-Palestinian protests also took place in Turkey, Iran, Syria, India and Lebanon, with Israel tightening security on its northern border amid fears that Lebanese militants Hezbollah may fire rockets in the coming days.Public opinion in Israel firmly supports the Gaza assault. A poll by Maagar Mochot for Israel radio on Sunday said 81 percent of people back the incursion, even though 39 percent do not believe it will bring peace.
The latest reports on Monday morning indicated that 517 Palestinians - mostly civilians - have died so far, with over 2,500 injured. Four Israeli civilians and one soldier have also been killed.
Terror list complicates EU diplomacy in Middle East
LEIGH PHILLIPS Today JAN 5,09 @ 17:45 CET
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - As two European delegations arrive in the Middle East for talks aiming to achieve a ceasefire between Israel and the Gaza Strip, governed by Hamas, EU negotiating is being hampered by its own list of proscribed organisations, which forbids the bloc's officials from having contact with groups on the register.
The political wing of Hamas, the militant Palestinian group, has been on the EU's so-called terror list since 2003. Hamas' military wing, the Ezzedin al-Qassam Brigades - responsible for the rocket attacks on Israeli territory - was blacklisted in 2002.Once groups or individuals are on the list, the EU can have no official contact with them.An EU peace delegation arrived in Cairo on Monday (5 January) headed by Karel Schwarzenberg, the foreign minister of the Czech Republic, which currently chairs the six-month rotating EU presidency.Accompanying Mr Schwarzenberg, the EU's chief diplomat, Javier Solana, external relations commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner, Swedish foreign minister Carl Bildt and his French counterpart, Bernard Kouchner, were later on Monday to head to Israel, Ramallah - the unofficial capital of the Palestinian National Authority in the occupied West Bank - and subsequently Jordan.Ayman Taha, an official with Hamas, told Reuters on Monday that a delegation from the militant group would also be in Cairo following an Egyptian invitation to hold discussions.However, EU officials in Brussels said that no one from the peace mission would be meeting with Hamas because it is a proscribed organisation.Asked by reporters on Monday why the EU mission was heading to Ramallah in the West Bank and not to a location in the Gaza Strip where one of the two belligerents in the ongoing war is located, commission spokesman Amadeu Tardio said: There is a list that is decided by the Council [EU member states] and ...this is our guideline.Hamas is on this list of terrorist organisations and this is the policy we are applying because it has been decided unanimously by the European Union, he continued.The EU mission when it visits Ramallah later today will have contacts with the Palestinian Authority, which is our interlocutor, he said.
A 2001 EU definition of terrorist acts describes them as seriously damaging a country or international organisation, including attacks on a person's life that can cause death; attacks on the physical integrity of a person and acts causing extensive destruction to government or public facilities, transport systems or infrastructure.To qualify, they must also be carried out with the aim of seriously intimidating a population, or unduly compelling a government or an international organisation to perform or abstain from performing any act, or seriously destabilising or destroying the fundamental political, constitutional, economic or social structures of a country or an international organisation.Similar attacks but perpetrated against actors that are not countries or international organisations are not however classified as terrorist acts.One EU official told the EUobserver: It merits reflection of what a terrorist act is in drawing up the basis for such lists.
At the time of the Hamas terror listing, Germany and France had argued that such a move would be counterproductive to the peace process.An Israeli spokeswoman with the country's mission to the EU, Avivit Bar-Ilan, told this website there are other ways that communication can indirectly occur with the Gazan government.There are other players, particularly the Egyptians. These players can speak on behalf of Hamas.The Cairo discussions are due take place as a second, unofficial delegation from Europe headed by French President Nicolas Sarkozy is set to arrive in the region.
EU aid blocked
Separately, the European Commission announced on Sunday that it had made an extra €3 million in relief assistance available for the Gaza Strip. John Clancy, a development spokesman, on Monday said that this aid was having trouble reaching Gazans as a result of the Israeli blockade of the Palestinian territory.Difficulties still remain with the border crossings principally closed, he said, adding that the EU is still appealing to the Israeli authorities to ensure a humanitarian space is made available.Ms Bar-Ilan said that the delays were due to EU announcement of aid having only been made on Sunday.
PALESTINIAN MEDIA WATCH
http://www.pmw.org.il/
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 JAN 05,2009
09:30 AM -40.45
10:00 AM -111.59
10:30 AM -59.34
11:00 AM -42.53
11:30 AM -68.50
12:00 PM -81.80
12:30 PM -53.12
01:00 PM -69.95
01:30 PM -57.98
02:00 PM -21.11
02:30 PM -82.27
03:00 PM -95.58
03:30 PM -136.20
04:00 PM -81.80 8952.89
S&P 500 927.46 -4.35
NASDAQ 1628.03 -4.18
GOLD 858.30 -21.10
OIL 48.57 +2.23
TSE 300 9285.51 +51.40
CDNX 874.49 +27.80
S&P/TSX/60 560.96 +4.13
MORNING,NEWS,STATS
Dow -62 points at 4 minutes of trading.
Dow -1 point at the high.
Dow -134 points at low today so far.
NYSE STATS 10:30AM
Advances 1587,Declines 1296,Unchanged 102,New Highs 6,New lows 2
NASDAQ STATS
Advances 1037,Declines 1358,Unchanged 201.
The Markets Factored in:Poor near-term economic numbers.
Not factored in:Lower 2009-10 estimates.
STIMULUS BILL
Heavier on tax cuts?
-Individual tax cuts.
-Writeoffs for Companies.
-Tax credit for hiring.
DAY 10 ISRAEL STILL AFTER ARAB MURDERERS.
10,496 ROCKETS FIRED INTO ISRAEL BY HAMAS SINCE 2001.
World calls for International armies in Gaza.
7.5 quake kills 4 in Papa on Sunday(Indonesia).
Small Tsunami waves come up in Japan.
Ontario Canada get freezing rain.
EU,sarkozy to negotiate with israel today.
Arab countries gather to take one voice against Israel.
Lookout if RUSSIA gets involved with Arab countries.
AFTERNOON,NEWS,STATS
Dow -1 point at high.
Dow -117 points at low.
FORD to report DEC sales drop 32.3%.
FORD 4Th Quarter weakest since 1981.
FORD US DEC sales -32.4% Vs -32.3%
HONDA DEC US sales -34.7%
EU seeks ceasefire in ISRAEL-GAZA.
Sarkozy met with Egypt,Israel,Arabs.
EU deligate talked with israel-arabs.
Britain,France calls for ceasefire in Gaza.
Germany,Denmark,Israels right to defend itself.
EU presidency Cze's say Israel is defending itself from Arab rockets.
Sweden blames Israel for esculating WAR.
Arab Murderers meet with Ban kl-moon at the un today.
Pairie Saskateuan cold snap.
WRAPUP,NEWS,STATS
Dow -1 point at low today.
Dow -140 points at low today.
Dow -0.9% today.
S&P 500 -0.4% today.
Nasdaq -0.2% today.
Stocks had rallied 3% higher on first day of 2009 trading friday.
Stocks give back some of Fridays gains.
S&P gains 7% over last 7 sessions,best rally since 1974.
DECEMBER AUTO SALES
GM -31.4%,FORD -32.4%,CHRYSLER -53.0%,TOYOTA -36.7%.
THE SECRETARY AND MADOFF SCANDLE
-SEC'S response to complaints about Madoff.
-Investigate possible conflicts of interest.
-Inspections of BMIS.
-Did Madoffs reputation influence SEC.
NEW YEAR RALLY
Positives:
1-No selling into rally.
2-New lows fade.
3-Volatility keeps dropping.
4-Sector rotation:Less defensive.
SECTOR last 7 DAYS
Energy +13.2%,Cons.Disc. +9.7%,materials +7.8%,Consumer staples +4.4%,Healthcare +3.8%.
Investors collect profits after last week's rally By TIM PARADIS, AP Business Writer JAN 05,09
NEW YORK – Caution returned to Wall Street Monday as investors gave back some gains from last week's rally even as they found encouragement from President-elect Barack Obama's calls for an economic stimulus package.Some retreat was to be expected after investors sent the Dow Jones industrial average to a two-month high on Friday; investors are wary about pouring more money into the battered market with economic data still generally weak.Monday was the first real test of Wall Street in 2009 after many traders took extended vacations during the holidays, leading to light volume that may have exaggerated the market's move upward. Investors are still contending with fears about everything from the state of corporate earnings to consumers' willingness to spend during a recession.There is some optimism out there that there is going to be a massive stimulus package by Obama that is going to get passed and that will help the economy, said Greg Church, chief investment officer of Church Capital Management in Yardley, Pa.Church warned, however, that a recovery will be difficult.The economy is still very weak. Unemployment is still high and is likely to get worse, he said.Some analysts warned against drawing big conclusions from Monday's trading.We're not reading too much into this market right now, especially after Friday's big gain, said Matt King, chief investment officer at Bell Investment Advisors. There's just not a lot of conviction behind it.ink there is an element of profit taking from Friday, when the Dow rose 258 points, he said.
According to preliminary calculations, the Dow fell 81.80, or 0.91 percent, to 8,952.89 after falling as much as 142.Broader stock indicators showed more modest declines. The Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 4.35, or 0.47 percent, to 927.45, and the Nasdaq composite index fell 4.18, or 0.26 percent, to 1,628.03.The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies fell 0.81, or 0.16 percent, to 505.03.Despite the pullback in the major indexes, advancing issues outnumbered decliners by about 2 to 1 on the New York Stock Exchange, where volume came to 1.32 billion shares.On Friday, the Dow registered its first close above 9,000 in two months. Last week, all the major indexes gained more than 6 percent, furthering a rally off multiyear lows that began Nov. 20.Bond prices pulled back Monday. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note, which moves opposite its price, rose to 2.46 percent from 2.39 percent late Friday. The yield on the three-month T-bill, considered one of the safest investments, rose to 0.08 percent from 0.07 percent.The dollar mixed against other major currencies, while gold prices fell.Light, sweet crude rose $2.47 to settle at $48.81 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.Analysts expect Wall Street will remain on edge in the coming months as companies release their quarterly results and, more important, their forecasts for the year. Economists are expecting terrible profit reports and cautious forecasts but anything worse than expected could rock the market. Kim Caughey, equity research analyst at Fort Pitt Capital Group, said investors are already bracing for lackluster corporate results, a stance that could help Wall Street more easily absorb bad news. Since late November, a pessimistic market has been able to write off some bad economic readings as unsurprising. I think it may put a limit on the downside because we're already expecting things to be terrible. It's not going to take a whole lot to meet or exceed terrible, she said. Caughey warned, however, that modest expectations likely won't be enough to take the market higher. It's just going to limp along, she said of the economy.
Some stocks and sectors saw selling Monday as analysts issued downbeat forecasts. JPMorgan Chase & Co., which last year scooped up ailing banks Washington Mutual and Bear Stearns, fell after a Deutsche Bank analyst late Sunday reduced his 2009 profit forecast for the company. He predicts JPMorgan will see increases in soured loans. The stock fell $2.10, or 6.7 percent, to $29.25 and was the steepest decliner among the 30 stocks that make up the Dow industrials. Another downgrade weighed on the telecommunications sector. Verizon Communications fell $2.16, or 6.2 percent, to $32.48, while AT&T Inc. fell 99 cents, or 3.4 percent, to $28.43. Both stocks are Dow components. Some energy stocks advanced as oil rose. El Paso Corp. rose 50 cents, or 6 percent, to $8.81, while XTO Energy Inc. rose $2.12, or 5.6 percent, to $39.70. Apple Inc. eased some investors' worries about the health of Chief Executive Steve Jobs. Wall Street closely associates his vision with the company's success. In a letter released Monday, Jobs acknowledged his recent weight loss, and said his doctors believe he has a hormone imbalance. Jobs, a survivor of pancreatic cancer, will continue as CEO during his recovery. Apple rose $3.83, or 4.2 percent, to $94.58. Overseas, Britain's FTSE 100 rose 0.39 percent, Germany's DAX index rose 0.22 percent, and France's CAC-40 added 0.31 percent. Japan's Nikkei stock average rose 2.07 percent, and Hong Kong's Hang Seng index rose 3.46 percent. On the Net:
New York Stock Exchange: http://www.nyse.com Nasdaq Stock Market: http://www.nasdaq.com
Cold War politics haunt EU gas crunch response
PHILIPPA RUNNER Today JAN 5,09 @ 17:44 CET
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Ex-Communist EU states are again accusing Russia of using energy as a political weapon in the Ukraine gas crisis, despite European Commission efforts to paint the dispute as a purely commercial matter.It's big politics from 2004 [when Ukraine broke away from Russia's control in the Orange Revolution], a senior Lithuanian official told EUobserver on Monday (5 January).Russia is saying: You have to become a vassal state, then you get what you want. All the neighbouring states of Russia are still fighting for their independence, he added. Lithuania is paying one of the highest prices for gas in Europe and this is also as a result of Russian attitudes to our policies.Russia cut off Ukraine's gas on 1 January after accusing Kiev of not paying its 2008 bill and asking it to pay $450 (€330) per thousand cubic metres of gas in 2009, compared to $180 in 2008 and compared to average European prices of $450 to $500.The Paris-based International Energy Association (IEA) has questioned the commercial logic of the move.To adjust prices so rapidly will cause problems for Ukrainian consumers, IEA expert Ian Cronshaw told this website. Russia's call for higher prices is interesting because it reflects the abnormally high oil prices at the beginning of 2008. Those prices are dropping and should keep falling in 2009.EU deputy ambassadors met in Brussels on Monday to exchange technical information about gas supply shortfalls. Ukraine transit of Russian gas accounts for one fifth (about 300 million cubic metres) of EU daily consumption.But the first political-level debate will take place at an informal gathering of EU foreign ministers in Prague on Thursday, with some EU officials expecting a renewed push for the Nabucco pipeline project, designed to bring in gas from Central Asia to the EU, bypassing both Russia and Ukraine.Russia-Ukraine rows over gas prices have taken place every winter since the Orange Revolution, with the worst spat in 2006 seeing Ukraine transit shipments to the EU plunge by 200 million cubic metres a day, compared to the current shortfall of around 50 million cubic metres.
The 2006 crisis was widely interpreted as a Russian attempt to destabilise the post-revolutionary government in Ukraine.But the European Commission and the Czech EU presidency are depicting the latest crunch as a purely commercial dispute between Russian supply firm Gazprom and Ukraine's state-owned gas buyer, NaftogaRosUkrEnergo - an intermediary company co-owned by Gazprom and Ukraine oligarch Dmitry Firtash, which buys gas from Gazprom and sells it on to Naftogas - has reportedly filed a law suit against Naftogas at an arbitration court in Stockholm to get its 2008 money.
It is a commercial dispute and it has to be solved by the two parties, European Commission spokesman Ferran Tarradelas said on Monday, adding that the commission's main concern is EU consumers, which have not yet been affected by the spat.A delegation of commission and Czech EU presidency officials is due in Kiev on Monday and Tuesday on a fact-finding mission to see how bad things might get, with another set of EU officials to meet Gazprom delegates in Berlin.Some EU officials believe a Russia-Ukraine deal will be struck by Wednesday, in time for Russian officials to settle down for the Russian Orthodox Christmas holiday.But the IEA in Paris is less optimistic, pointing out that while EU gas stocks (at 70 to 90 percent full) are higher than back in 2006, this week's cold snap in Europe will see gas demand shoot up.The bad news is the weather has turned. There's a nice little snowfall in Paris today, the IEA's Mr Cronshaw said. There doesn't seem to be a lot of momentum to resolve the issue. We're getting a little worried it's dragging on for a week already, whereas in 2006 it lasted just a few days.Correction: the article originally said an informal EU foreign ministers meeting will be held in Prague on Wednesday. In fact it will be on Thursday.
Czechs face tough time at helm of EU
HONOR MAHONY Today JAN 5,09 @ 17:44 CET
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - With a weak government and a eurosceptic president, the Czech Republic will have to make a Herculean effort to ensure that its six-month stint at the EU's helm does not sink into incoherency and recriminations.Its case is not helped by the fact that for the previous half year, the bloc has been run by France's Nicolas Sarkozy, a whirlwind politician who at times steered the EU through sheer force of personality. Mr Sarkozy has relinquished power only reluctantly to the Czechs, intimating that the EU would be better served under a large member state and him in particular.A small member state in charge of the EU is often seen as positive, as they generally tend to concentrate on the job. But the thought of the ex-Communist Czech Republic - only four years a member of the bloc - running the EU has been making Brussels jittery.This is mainly due to Vaclav Klaus, the Czech president and an open critic of the European Union. He regularly ruffles EU feathers, most recently by dining with Declan Ganley during a state visit to Ireland. Mr Ganley headed a successful campaign against the EU treaty that resulted in the country rejecting the charter in a referendum.
The Czech government is headed by conservative Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek, a political enemy of Mr Klaus. Adding to Brussels' poor perception of Prague, Mr Topolanek's party is stalling on the ratification of the EU's new treaty by linking it to agreement on a separate issue. The country is one of just three that have not ratified the treaty, with larger member states tending to see it as a slight that the presidency country has not approved the EU's newest rules.Another concern hanging over the presidency is that the fact that the government could fall some time over the next six months, as Mr Topolanek hangs on to power by a thread.But despite such doubts, the international agenda has meant that Prague has been catapulted into international affairs since day one of its presidency.The on-going Israeli offensive in Gaza, which has killed more than 500 Palestinians, was already in its fourth day when the Czech Republic took on speaking for the EU, while Russia is locked in a gas dispute with Ukraine, putting EU energy supplies at risk.The Middle East conflict has been made more difficult for the Czechs to mediate because of the myriad EU officials and voices in the region, including President Sarkozy. And Prague already tripped up by issuing an EU statement in support of Israeli actions, before rapidly moving to change it.Meanwhile, finding a common approach to Russia on any issue is traditionally difficult for the bloc. A small member state, already somewhat lacking in EU credibility, is unlikely to have the clout to forge a unified line. Muddying the waters still further is the US missile defence system planned for Czech soil, which is strongly opposed by Moscow.In addition, the Czech Republic is heading the EU at a time of a global financial crisis and has the difficult task of implementing the €200 billion economic stimulus package agreed by EU leaders at the end of last year. Recent comments mocking other governments for ramping up state spending in the face of the crisis has not endeared it to some EU capitals.For its part, the Czech EU presidency has said its main priorities are the economy, energy and external relations. It has sought both to downplay expectations about what any presidency can achieve while seeking to reassure other capitals that it is capable of the job.
Monday, January 05, 2009
Sunday, January 04, 2009
TORAH PORTION FROM JAN 4 - 10 2009
SINCE WHAT ISRAEL READS WILL BE FULFILLED IN THAT WEEK I WILL BE PUTTING THE WEEKLY TORAH PORTION ON FOR ALL OF US TO KEEP TRACK OF ISRAEL HAPPENINGS.
TORAH PORTION FROM JAN 04 2009 6PM - JAN 10 6PM 2009
GENESIS 47:28 - 50:26
28 And Jacob lived in the land of Egypt seventeen years: so the whole age of Jacob was an hundred forty and seven years.
29 And the time drew nigh that Israel must die: and he called his son Joseph, and said unto him, If now I have found grace in thy sight, put, I pray thee, thy hand under my thigh, and deal kindly and truly with me; bury me not, I pray thee, in Egypt:
30 But I will lie with my fathers, and thou shalt carry me out of Egypt, and bury me in their buryingplace. And he said, I will do as thou hast said.
31 And he said, Swear unto me. And he sware unto him. And Israel bowed himself upon the bed's head.
GENESIS 48:1-22
1 And it came to pass after these things, that one told Joseph, Behold, thy father is sick: and he took with him his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim.
2 And one told Jacob, and said, Behold, thy son Joseph cometh unto thee: and Israel strengthened himself, and sat upon the bed.
3 And Jacob said unto Joseph, God Almighty appeared unto me at Luz in the land of Canaan, and blessed me,
4 And said unto me, Behold, I will make thee fruitful, and multiply thee, and I will make of thee a multitude of people; and will give this land to thy seed after thee for an everlasting possession.
5 And now thy two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, which were born unto thee in the land of Egypt before I came unto thee into Egypt, are mine; as Reuben and Simeon, they shall be mine.
6 And thy issue, which thou begettest after them, shall be thine, and shall be called after the name of their brethren in their inheritance.
7 And as for me, when I came from Padan, Rachel died by me in the land of Canaan in the way, when yet there was but a little way to come unto Ephrath: and I buried her there in the way of Ephrath; the same is Bethlehem.
8 And Israel beheld Joseph's sons, and said, Who are these?
9 And Joseph said unto his father, They are my sons, whom God hath given me in this place. And he said, Bring them, I pray thee, unto me, and I will bless them.
10 Now the eyes of Israel were dim for age, so that he could not see. And he brought them near unto him; and he kissed them, and embraced them.
11 And Israel said unto Joseph, I had not thought to see thy face: and, lo, God hath shewed me also thy seed.
12 And Joseph brought them out from between his knees, and he bowed himself with his face to the earth.
13 And Joseph took them both, Ephraim in his right hand toward Israel's left hand, and Manasseh in his left hand toward Israel's right hand, and brought them near unto him.
14 And Israel stretched out his right hand, and laid it upon Ephraim's head, who was the younger, and his left hand upon Manasseh's head, guiding his hands wittingly; for Manasseh was the firstborn.
15 And he blessed Joseph, and said, God, before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac did walk, the God which fed me all my life long unto this day,
16 The Angel which redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads; and let my name be named on them, and the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac; and let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth.
17 And when Joseph saw that his father laid his right hand upon the head of Ephraim, it displeased him: and he held up his father's hand, to remove it from Ephraim's head unto Manasseh's head.
18 And Joseph said unto his father, Not so, my father: for this is the firstborn; put thy right hand upon his head.
19 And his father refused, and said, I know it, my son, I know it: he also shall become a people, and he also shall be great: but truly his younger brother shall be greater than he, and his seed shall become a multitude of nations.
20 And he blessed them that day, saying, In thee shall Israel bless, saying, God make thee as Ephraim and as Manasseh: and he set Ephraim before Manasseh.
21 And Israel said unto Joseph, Behold, I die: but God shall be with you, and bring you again unto the land of your fathers.
22 Moreover I have given to thee one portion above thy brethren, which I took out of the hand of the Amorite with my sword and with my bow.
GENESIS 49:1-33
1 And Jacob called unto his sons, and said, Gather yourselves together, that I may tell you that which shall befall you in the last days.
2 Gather yourselves together, and hear, ye sons of Jacob; and hearken unto Israel your father.
3 Reuben, thou art my firstborn, my might, and the beginning of my strength, the excellency of dignity, and the excellency of power:
4 Unstable as water, thou shalt not excel; because thou wentest up to thy father's bed; then defiledst thou it: he went up to my couch.
5 Simeon and Levi are brethren; instruments of cruelty are in their habitations.
6 O my soul, come not thou into their secret; unto their assembly, mine honour, be not thou united: for in their anger they slew a man, and in their selfwill they digged down a wall.
7 Cursed be their anger, for it was fierce; and their wrath, for it was cruel: I will divide them in Jacob, and scatter them in Israel.
8 Judah, thou art he whom thy brethren shall praise: thy hand shall be in the neck of thine enemies; thy father's children shall bow down before thee.
9 Judah is a lion's whelp: from the prey, my son, thou art gone up: he stooped down, he couched as a lion, and as an old lion; who shall rouse him up?
10 The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be.
11 Binding his foal unto the vine, and his ass's colt unto the choice vine; he washed his garments in wine, and his clothes in the blood of grapes:
12 His eyes shall be red with wine, and his teeth white with milk.
13 Zebulun shall dwell at the haven of the sea; and he shall be for an haven of ships; and his border shall be unto Zidon.
14 Issachar is a strong ass couching down between two burdens:
15 And he saw that rest was good, and the land that it was pleasant; and bowed his shoulder to bear, and became a servant unto tribute.
16 Dan shall judge his people, as one of the tribes of Israel.
17 Dan shall be a serpent by the way, an adder in the path, that biteth the horse heels, so that his rider shall fall backward.
18 I have waited for thy salvation, O LORD.
19 Gad, a troop shall overcome him: but he shall overcome at the last.
20 Out of Asher his bread shall be fat, and he shall yield royal dainties.
21 Naphtali is a hind let loose: he giveth goodly words.
22 Joseph is a fruitful bough, even a fruitful bough by a well; whose branches run over the wall:
23 The archers have sorely grieved him, and shot at him, and hated him:
24 But his bow abode in strength, and the arms of his hands were made strong by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob; (from thence is the shepherd, the stone of Israel:)
25 Even by the God of thy father, who shall help thee; and by the Almighty, who shall bless thee with blessings of heaven above, blessings of the deep that lieth under, blessings of the breasts, and of the womb:
26 The blessings of thy father have prevailed above the blessings of my progenitors unto the utmost bound of the everlasting hills: they shall be on the head of Joseph, and on the crown of the head of him that was separate from his brethren.
27 Benjamin shall ravin as a wolf: in the morning he shall devour the prey, and at night he shall divide the spoil.
28 All these are the twelve tribes of Israel: and this is it that their father spake unto them, and blessed them; every one according to his blessing he blessed them.
29 And he charged them, and said unto them, I am to be gathered unto my people: bury me with my fathers in the cave that is in the field of Ephron the Hittite,
30 In the cave that is in the field of Machpelah, which is before Mamre, in the land of Canaan, which Abraham bought with the field of Ephron the Hittite for a possession of a buryingplace.
31 There they buried Abraham and Sarah his wife; there they buried Isaac and Rebekah his wife; and there I buried Leah.
32 The purchase of the field and of the cave that is therein was from the children of Heth.
33 And when Jacob had made an end of commanding his sons, he gathered up his feet into the bed, and yielded up the ghost, and was gathered unto his people.
GENESIS 50:1-26
1 And Joseph fell upon his father's face, and wept upon him, and kissed him.
2 And Joseph commanded his servants the physicians to embalm his father: and the physicians embalmed Israel.
3 And forty days were fulfilled for him; for so are fulfilled the days of those which are embalmed: and the Egyptians mourned for him threescore and ten days.
4 And when the days of his mourning were past, Joseph spake unto the house of Pharaoh, saying, If now I have found grace in your eyes, speak, I pray you, in the ears of Pharaoh, saying,
5 My father made me swear, saying, Lo, I die: in my grave which I have digged for me in the land of Canaan, there shalt thou bury me. Now therefore let me go up, I pray thee, and bury my father, and I will come again.
6 And Pharaoh said, Go up, and bury thy father, according as he made thee swear.
7 And Joseph went up to bury his father: and with him went up all the servants of Pharaoh, the elders of his house, and all the elders of the land of Egypt,
8 And all the house of Joseph, and his brethren, and his father's house: only their little ones, and their flocks, and their herds, they left in the land of Goshen.
9 And there went up with him both chariots and horsemen: and it was a very great company.
10 And they came to the threshingfloor of Atad, which is beyond Jordan, and there they mourned with a great and very sore lamentation: and he made a mourning for his father seven days.
11 And when the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, saw the mourning in the floor of Atad, they said, This is a grievous mourning to the Egyptians: wherefore the name of it was called Abelmizraim, which is beyond Jordan.
12 And his sons did unto him according as he commanded them:
13 For his sons carried him into the land of Canaan, and buried him in the cave of the field of Machpelah, which Abraham bought with the field for a possession of a buryingplace of Ephron the Hittite, before Mamre.
14 And Joseph returned into Egypt, he, and his brethren, and all that went up with him to bury his father, after he had buried his father.
15 And when Joseph's brethren saw that their father was dead, they said, Joseph will peradventure hate us, and will certainly requite us all the evil which we did unto him.
16 And they sent a messenger unto Joseph, saying, Thy father did command before he died, saying,
17 So shall ye say unto Joseph, Forgive, I pray thee now, the trespass of thy brethren, and their sin; for they did unto thee evil: and now, we pray thee, forgive the trespass of the servants of the God of thy father. And Joseph wept when they spake unto him.
18 And his brethren also went and fell down before his face; and they said, Behold, we be thy servants.
19 And Joseph said unto them, Fear not: for am I in the place of God?
20 But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive.
21 Now therefore fear ye not: I will nourish you, and your little ones. And he comforted them, and spake kindly unto them.
22 And Joseph dwelt in Egypt, he, and his father's house: and Joseph lived an hundred and ten years.
23 And Joseph saw Ephraim's children of the third generation: the children also of Machir the son of Manasseh were brought up upon Joseph's knees.
24 And Joseph said unto his brethren, I die: and God will surely visit you, and bring you out of this land unto the land which he sware to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.
25 And Joseph took an oath of the children of Israel, saying, God will surely visit you, and ye shall carry up my bones from hence.
26 So Joseph died, being an hundred and ten years old: and they embalmed him, and he was put in a coffin in Egypt.
PROPHETS PORTION
1 KINGS 2:1-12
1 Now the days of David drew nigh that he should die; and he charged Solomon his son, saying,
2 I go the way of all the earth: be thou strong therefore, and shew thyself a man;
3 And keep the charge of the LORD thy God, to walk in his ways, to keep his statutes, and his commandments, and his judgments, and his testimonies, as it is written in the law of Moses, that thou mayest prosper in all that thou doest, and whithersoever thou turnest thyself:
4 That the LORD may continue his word which he spake concerning me, saying, If thy children take heed to their way, to walk before me in truth with all their heart and with all their soul, there shall not fail thee (said he) a man on the throne of Israel.
5 Moreover thou knowest also what Joab the son of Zeruiah did to me, and what he did to the two captains of the hosts of Israel, unto Abner the son of Ner, and unto Amasa the son of Jether, whom he slew, and shed the blood of war in peace, and put the blood of war upon his girdle that was about his loins, and in his shoes that were on his feet.
6 Do therefore according to thy wisdom, and let not his hoar head go down to the grave in peace.
7 But shew kindness unto the sons of Barzillai the Gileadite, and let them be of those that eat at thy table: for so they came to me when I fled because of Absalom thy brother.
8 And, behold, thou hast with thee Shimei the son of Gera, a Benjamite of Bahurim, which cursed me with a grievous curse in the day when I went to Mahanaim: but he came down to meet me at Jordan, and I sware to him by the LORD, saying, I will not put thee to death with the sword.
9 Now therefore hold him not guiltless: for thou art a wise man, and knowest what thou oughtest to do unto him; but his hoar head bring thou down to the grave with blood.
10 So David slept with his fathers, and was buried in the city of David.
11 And the days that David reigned over Israel were forty years: seven years reigned he in Hebron, and thirty and three years reigned he in Jerusalem.
12 Then sat Solomon upon the throne of David his father; and his kingdom was established greatly.
NEW TESTAMENT PORTION
ACTS 7:9-16
9 And the patriarchs, moved with envy, sold Joseph into Egypt: but God was with him,
10 And delivered him out of all his afflictions, and gave him favour and wisdom in the sight of Pharaoh king of Egypt; and he made him governor over Egypt and all his house.
11 Now there came a dearth over all the land of Egypt and Chanaan, and great affliction: and our fathers found no sustenance.
12 But when Jacob heard that there was corn in Egypt, he sent out our fathers first.
13 And at the second time Joseph was made known to his brethren; and Joseph’s kindred was made known unto Pharaoh.
14 Then sent Joseph, and called his father Jacob to him, and all his kindred, threescore and fifteen souls.
15 So Jacob went down into Egypt, and died, he, and our fathers,
16 And were carried over into Sychem, and laid in the sepulchre that Abraham bought for a sum of money of the sons of Emmor the father of Sychem.
HEBREWS 11:21-22
21 By faith Jacob, when he was a dying, blessed both the sons of Joseph; and worshipped, leaning upon the top of his staff.
22 By faith Joseph, when he died, made mention of the departing of the children of Israel; and gave commandment concerning his bones.
1 PETER 1:3-9
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
4 To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you,
5 Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
6 Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations:
7 That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ:
8 Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory:
9 Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls.
1 PETER 2:11-17
11 Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul;
12 Having your conversation honest among the Gentiles: that, whereas they speak against you as evildoers, they may by your good works, which they shall behold, glorify God in the day of visitation.
13 Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord’s sake: whether it be to the king, as supreme;
14 Or unto governors, as unto them that are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers, and for the praise of them that do well.
15 For so is the will of God, that with well doing ye may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men:
16 As free, and not using your liberty for a cloke of maliciousness, but as the servants of God.
17 Honour all men. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honour the king.
TORAH PORTION FROM JAN 04 2009 6PM - JAN 10 6PM 2009
GENESIS 47:28 - 50:26
28 And Jacob lived in the land of Egypt seventeen years: so the whole age of Jacob was an hundred forty and seven years.
29 And the time drew nigh that Israel must die: and he called his son Joseph, and said unto him, If now I have found grace in thy sight, put, I pray thee, thy hand under my thigh, and deal kindly and truly with me; bury me not, I pray thee, in Egypt:
30 But I will lie with my fathers, and thou shalt carry me out of Egypt, and bury me in their buryingplace. And he said, I will do as thou hast said.
31 And he said, Swear unto me. And he sware unto him. And Israel bowed himself upon the bed's head.
GENESIS 48:1-22
1 And it came to pass after these things, that one told Joseph, Behold, thy father is sick: and he took with him his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim.
2 And one told Jacob, and said, Behold, thy son Joseph cometh unto thee: and Israel strengthened himself, and sat upon the bed.
3 And Jacob said unto Joseph, God Almighty appeared unto me at Luz in the land of Canaan, and blessed me,
4 And said unto me, Behold, I will make thee fruitful, and multiply thee, and I will make of thee a multitude of people; and will give this land to thy seed after thee for an everlasting possession.
5 And now thy two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, which were born unto thee in the land of Egypt before I came unto thee into Egypt, are mine; as Reuben and Simeon, they shall be mine.
6 And thy issue, which thou begettest after them, shall be thine, and shall be called after the name of their brethren in their inheritance.
7 And as for me, when I came from Padan, Rachel died by me in the land of Canaan in the way, when yet there was but a little way to come unto Ephrath: and I buried her there in the way of Ephrath; the same is Bethlehem.
8 And Israel beheld Joseph's sons, and said, Who are these?
9 And Joseph said unto his father, They are my sons, whom God hath given me in this place. And he said, Bring them, I pray thee, unto me, and I will bless them.
10 Now the eyes of Israel were dim for age, so that he could not see. And he brought them near unto him; and he kissed them, and embraced them.
11 And Israel said unto Joseph, I had not thought to see thy face: and, lo, God hath shewed me also thy seed.
12 And Joseph brought them out from between his knees, and he bowed himself with his face to the earth.
13 And Joseph took them both, Ephraim in his right hand toward Israel's left hand, and Manasseh in his left hand toward Israel's right hand, and brought them near unto him.
14 And Israel stretched out his right hand, and laid it upon Ephraim's head, who was the younger, and his left hand upon Manasseh's head, guiding his hands wittingly; for Manasseh was the firstborn.
15 And he blessed Joseph, and said, God, before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac did walk, the God which fed me all my life long unto this day,
16 The Angel which redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads; and let my name be named on them, and the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac; and let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth.
17 And when Joseph saw that his father laid his right hand upon the head of Ephraim, it displeased him: and he held up his father's hand, to remove it from Ephraim's head unto Manasseh's head.
18 And Joseph said unto his father, Not so, my father: for this is the firstborn; put thy right hand upon his head.
19 And his father refused, and said, I know it, my son, I know it: he also shall become a people, and he also shall be great: but truly his younger brother shall be greater than he, and his seed shall become a multitude of nations.
20 And he blessed them that day, saying, In thee shall Israel bless, saying, God make thee as Ephraim and as Manasseh: and he set Ephraim before Manasseh.
21 And Israel said unto Joseph, Behold, I die: but God shall be with you, and bring you again unto the land of your fathers.
22 Moreover I have given to thee one portion above thy brethren, which I took out of the hand of the Amorite with my sword and with my bow.
GENESIS 49:1-33
1 And Jacob called unto his sons, and said, Gather yourselves together, that I may tell you that which shall befall you in the last days.
2 Gather yourselves together, and hear, ye sons of Jacob; and hearken unto Israel your father.
3 Reuben, thou art my firstborn, my might, and the beginning of my strength, the excellency of dignity, and the excellency of power:
4 Unstable as water, thou shalt not excel; because thou wentest up to thy father's bed; then defiledst thou it: he went up to my couch.
5 Simeon and Levi are brethren; instruments of cruelty are in their habitations.
6 O my soul, come not thou into their secret; unto their assembly, mine honour, be not thou united: for in their anger they slew a man, and in their selfwill they digged down a wall.
7 Cursed be their anger, for it was fierce; and their wrath, for it was cruel: I will divide them in Jacob, and scatter them in Israel.
8 Judah, thou art he whom thy brethren shall praise: thy hand shall be in the neck of thine enemies; thy father's children shall bow down before thee.
9 Judah is a lion's whelp: from the prey, my son, thou art gone up: he stooped down, he couched as a lion, and as an old lion; who shall rouse him up?
10 The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be.
11 Binding his foal unto the vine, and his ass's colt unto the choice vine; he washed his garments in wine, and his clothes in the blood of grapes:
12 His eyes shall be red with wine, and his teeth white with milk.
13 Zebulun shall dwell at the haven of the sea; and he shall be for an haven of ships; and his border shall be unto Zidon.
14 Issachar is a strong ass couching down between two burdens:
15 And he saw that rest was good, and the land that it was pleasant; and bowed his shoulder to bear, and became a servant unto tribute.
16 Dan shall judge his people, as one of the tribes of Israel.
17 Dan shall be a serpent by the way, an adder in the path, that biteth the horse heels, so that his rider shall fall backward.
18 I have waited for thy salvation, O LORD.
19 Gad, a troop shall overcome him: but he shall overcome at the last.
20 Out of Asher his bread shall be fat, and he shall yield royal dainties.
21 Naphtali is a hind let loose: he giveth goodly words.
22 Joseph is a fruitful bough, even a fruitful bough by a well; whose branches run over the wall:
23 The archers have sorely grieved him, and shot at him, and hated him:
24 But his bow abode in strength, and the arms of his hands were made strong by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob; (from thence is the shepherd, the stone of Israel:)
25 Even by the God of thy father, who shall help thee; and by the Almighty, who shall bless thee with blessings of heaven above, blessings of the deep that lieth under, blessings of the breasts, and of the womb:
26 The blessings of thy father have prevailed above the blessings of my progenitors unto the utmost bound of the everlasting hills: they shall be on the head of Joseph, and on the crown of the head of him that was separate from his brethren.
27 Benjamin shall ravin as a wolf: in the morning he shall devour the prey, and at night he shall divide the spoil.
28 All these are the twelve tribes of Israel: and this is it that their father spake unto them, and blessed them; every one according to his blessing he blessed them.
29 And he charged them, and said unto them, I am to be gathered unto my people: bury me with my fathers in the cave that is in the field of Ephron the Hittite,
30 In the cave that is in the field of Machpelah, which is before Mamre, in the land of Canaan, which Abraham bought with the field of Ephron the Hittite for a possession of a buryingplace.
31 There they buried Abraham and Sarah his wife; there they buried Isaac and Rebekah his wife; and there I buried Leah.
32 The purchase of the field and of the cave that is therein was from the children of Heth.
33 And when Jacob had made an end of commanding his sons, he gathered up his feet into the bed, and yielded up the ghost, and was gathered unto his people.
GENESIS 50:1-26
1 And Joseph fell upon his father's face, and wept upon him, and kissed him.
2 And Joseph commanded his servants the physicians to embalm his father: and the physicians embalmed Israel.
3 And forty days were fulfilled for him; for so are fulfilled the days of those which are embalmed: and the Egyptians mourned for him threescore and ten days.
4 And when the days of his mourning were past, Joseph spake unto the house of Pharaoh, saying, If now I have found grace in your eyes, speak, I pray you, in the ears of Pharaoh, saying,
5 My father made me swear, saying, Lo, I die: in my grave which I have digged for me in the land of Canaan, there shalt thou bury me. Now therefore let me go up, I pray thee, and bury my father, and I will come again.
6 And Pharaoh said, Go up, and bury thy father, according as he made thee swear.
7 And Joseph went up to bury his father: and with him went up all the servants of Pharaoh, the elders of his house, and all the elders of the land of Egypt,
8 And all the house of Joseph, and his brethren, and his father's house: only their little ones, and their flocks, and their herds, they left in the land of Goshen.
9 And there went up with him both chariots and horsemen: and it was a very great company.
10 And they came to the threshingfloor of Atad, which is beyond Jordan, and there they mourned with a great and very sore lamentation: and he made a mourning for his father seven days.
11 And when the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, saw the mourning in the floor of Atad, they said, This is a grievous mourning to the Egyptians: wherefore the name of it was called Abelmizraim, which is beyond Jordan.
12 And his sons did unto him according as he commanded them:
13 For his sons carried him into the land of Canaan, and buried him in the cave of the field of Machpelah, which Abraham bought with the field for a possession of a buryingplace of Ephron the Hittite, before Mamre.
14 And Joseph returned into Egypt, he, and his brethren, and all that went up with him to bury his father, after he had buried his father.
15 And when Joseph's brethren saw that their father was dead, they said, Joseph will peradventure hate us, and will certainly requite us all the evil which we did unto him.
16 And they sent a messenger unto Joseph, saying, Thy father did command before he died, saying,
17 So shall ye say unto Joseph, Forgive, I pray thee now, the trespass of thy brethren, and their sin; for they did unto thee evil: and now, we pray thee, forgive the trespass of the servants of the God of thy father. And Joseph wept when they spake unto him.
18 And his brethren also went and fell down before his face; and they said, Behold, we be thy servants.
19 And Joseph said unto them, Fear not: for am I in the place of God?
20 But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive.
21 Now therefore fear ye not: I will nourish you, and your little ones. And he comforted them, and spake kindly unto them.
22 And Joseph dwelt in Egypt, he, and his father's house: and Joseph lived an hundred and ten years.
23 And Joseph saw Ephraim's children of the third generation: the children also of Machir the son of Manasseh were brought up upon Joseph's knees.
24 And Joseph said unto his brethren, I die: and God will surely visit you, and bring you out of this land unto the land which he sware to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.
25 And Joseph took an oath of the children of Israel, saying, God will surely visit you, and ye shall carry up my bones from hence.
26 So Joseph died, being an hundred and ten years old: and they embalmed him, and he was put in a coffin in Egypt.
PROPHETS PORTION
1 KINGS 2:1-12
1 Now the days of David drew nigh that he should die; and he charged Solomon his son, saying,
2 I go the way of all the earth: be thou strong therefore, and shew thyself a man;
3 And keep the charge of the LORD thy God, to walk in his ways, to keep his statutes, and his commandments, and his judgments, and his testimonies, as it is written in the law of Moses, that thou mayest prosper in all that thou doest, and whithersoever thou turnest thyself:
4 That the LORD may continue his word which he spake concerning me, saying, If thy children take heed to their way, to walk before me in truth with all their heart and with all their soul, there shall not fail thee (said he) a man on the throne of Israel.
5 Moreover thou knowest also what Joab the son of Zeruiah did to me, and what he did to the two captains of the hosts of Israel, unto Abner the son of Ner, and unto Amasa the son of Jether, whom he slew, and shed the blood of war in peace, and put the blood of war upon his girdle that was about his loins, and in his shoes that were on his feet.
6 Do therefore according to thy wisdom, and let not his hoar head go down to the grave in peace.
7 But shew kindness unto the sons of Barzillai the Gileadite, and let them be of those that eat at thy table: for so they came to me when I fled because of Absalom thy brother.
8 And, behold, thou hast with thee Shimei the son of Gera, a Benjamite of Bahurim, which cursed me with a grievous curse in the day when I went to Mahanaim: but he came down to meet me at Jordan, and I sware to him by the LORD, saying, I will not put thee to death with the sword.
9 Now therefore hold him not guiltless: for thou art a wise man, and knowest what thou oughtest to do unto him; but his hoar head bring thou down to the grave with blood.
10 So David slept with his fathers, and was buried in the city of David.
11 And the days that David reigned over Israel were forty years: seven years reigned he in Hebron, and thirty and three years reigned he in Jerusalem.
12 Then sat Solomon upon the throne of David his father; and his kingdom was established greatly.
NEW TESTAMENT PORTION
ACTS 7:9-16
9 And the patriarchs, moved with envy, sold Joseph into Egypt: but God was with him,
10 And delivered him out of all his afflictions, and gave him favour and wisdom in the sight of Pharaoh king of Egypt; and he made him governor over Egypt and all his house.
11 Now there came a dearth over all the land of Egypt and Chanaan, and great affliction: and our fathers found no sustenance.
12 But when Jacob heard that there was corn in Egypt, he sent out our fathers first.
13 And at the second time Joseph was made known to his brethren; and Joseph’s kindred was made known unto Pharaoh.
14 Then sent Joseph, and called his father Jacob to him, and all his kindred, threescore and fifteen souls.
15 So Jacob went down into Egypt, and died, he, and our fathers,
16 And were carried over into Sychem, and laid in the sepulchre that Abraham bought for a sum of money of the sons of Emmor the father of Sychem.
HEBREWS 11:21-22
21 By faith Jacob, when he was a dying, blessed both the sons of Joseph; and worshipped, leaning upon the top of his staff.
22 By faith Joseph, when he died, made mention of the departing of the children of Israel; and gave commandment concerning his bones.
1 PETER 1:3-9
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
4 To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you,
5 Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
6 Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations:
7 That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ:
8 Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory:
9 Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls.
1 PETER 2:11-17
11 Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul;
12 Having your conversation honest among the Gentiles: that, whereas they speak against you as evildoers, they may by your good works, which they shall behold, glorify God in the day of visitation.
13 Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord’s sake: whether it be to the king, as supreme;
14 Or unto governors, as unto them that are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers, and for the praise of them that do well.
15 For so is the will of God, that with well doing ye may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men:
16 As free, and not using your liberty for a cloke of maliciousness, but as the servants of God.
17 Honour all men. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honour the king.
Saturday, January 03, 2009
STORMS - ISRAEL STILL WINNING
I WONDER COULD THIS BE WHEN THE UN FOLDS DUE TO THE PEACE PROCESS AND USELESSNESS ON ITS PART.
EU sending two Middle East peace missions
PHILIPPA RUNNER 02.01.2009 @ 09:30 CET
The new Czech EU presidency and France will next week send two overlapping peace missions to the Middle East, amid sensitivities on Prague's capability to lead Europe.Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek told national TV on Thursday (1 January) that an EU delegation will visit Egypt, Israel, Palestine's West Bank and Jordan early next week to try to broker a ceasefire in the Israel-Gaza war. Czech foreign minister Karel Schwarzenberg will lead the team, comprising French foreign minister Bernard Kouchner, Swedish foreign minister Carl Bildt, EU top diplomat Javier Solana and external relations commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner. The trip comes at the same time as French President and outgoing EU chairman Nicolas Sarkozy's mission to Syria, Egypt, Lebanon, Israel and Palestine, with the Schwarzenberg and Sarkozy delegations to hold a joint meeting with Palestine President Mahmud Abbas in the West Bank on Monday.Mr Sarkozy on Thursday - the first official day of the Czech EU presidency - also met Israeli foreign minister Tzipi Livni in Paris to push for an end to hostilities.It is up to the European Union to take over the initiative [on the Middle East], Mr Topolanek said on the Czech TV show. I spoke with [Mr Sarkozy] for a long time and we dealt with the problem [of the overlapping trips] in detail.
The Elysee Palace said the two leaders had agreed perfect co-ordination regarding their efforts on visits to the region during a phone call in which Mr Sarkozy also pledged French support for the Czech EU presidency.The niceties come after the French EU presidency in October annoyed Prague by suggesting Mr Sarkozy should stay on as a quasi-EU president in charge of co-ordinating eurozone member state policy.
EU and French officials in anonymous statements to press have questioned the Czech Republic's capability to lead the EU on big foreign policy issues, citing eurosceptic Czech President Vaclav Klaus as an example of the country's unruly political scene. Mr Klaus in a New Year statement on Thursday took a conciliatory tone on Europe. He urged people to vote in the European Parliament elections and said the Czech EU chairmanship is a chance to influence the EU and build a truly democratic space.
Gaza violence continues
Meanwhile, the Sarkozy-Livni meeting in Paris failed to see Israel move closer to EU calls for a ceasefire.Here [in Europe] there is an impression that Israel does not want a ceasefire. That is not the issue, Ms Livni said on French TV. Our ability to enter into a ceasefire is linked to a halt by Hamas of rocket attacks on our Israeli citizens.Fighting continued early on Friday morning. Four Hamas rockets hit the Israeli town of Ashkelon, wounding two people, while Israeli jets bombed 15 Hamas-linked houses, killing two and wounding 12.Palestine says 425 people have been killed over the past seven days, with over 2,000 wounded. Four people have died on the Israeli side.
Bush: Hamas attacks on Israel an act of terror By BEN FELLER, Associated Press Writer JAN 03,09
WASHINGTON – President George W. Bush on Friday branded the Hamas rocket attacks on Israel an act of terror and outlined his own condition for a cease-fire in Gaza, saying no peace deal would be acceptable without monitoring to halt the flow of smuggled weapons to terrorist groups.Bush chose his weekly taped radio address to speak for the first time about one of the bloodiest Mideast clashes in decades. It began a week ago. Israeli warplanes have rained bombs on Gaza, targeting the Palestinian militant group Hamas, which has traumatized southern Israel with intensifying rocket attacks.The United States is leading diplomatic efforts to achieve a meaningful cease-fire that is fully respected, Bush said. Another one-way cease-fire that leads to rocket attacks on Israel is not acceptable. And promises from Hamas will not suffice — there must be monitoring mechanisms in place to help ensure that smuggling of weapons to terrorist groups in Gaza comes to an end.The White House released Bush's radio address a day early. It airs on Saturday morning.
Despite Bush's account of a U.S. leadership role, with time running out on his presidency, the administration seemed increasingly ready Friday to let the crisis in Gaza shift to President-elect Barack Obama. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice briefed Bush on developments in Gaza, and she continued furious telephone diplomacy to arrange a truce. Yet, she said she had no plans to make an emergency visit to the region.More than 400 Palestinians and four Israelis have been killed in the latest offensive. The U.N. estimated Friday that a quarter of the Palestinians killed were civilians. In their waning days in power, Bush and Rice have been working the phones with world allies.Bush offered no criticism of Israel, depicting the country's air assaults as a response to the attacks on its people. The White House will not comment on whether it views the Israeli response as proportionate or not to the scope of rockets attacks on Israel.This recent outburst of violence was instigated by Hamas — a Palestinian terrorist group supported by Iran and Syria that calls for Israel's destruction, Bush said.The president said Hamas ultimately ended the latest cease-fire on Dec. 19 and soon unleashed a barrage of rockets and mortars that deliberately targeted innocent Israelis — an act of terror that is opposed by the legitimate leader of the Palestinian people, President (Mahmoud) Abbas.Hamas-run Gaza has been largely isolated from the rest of the world since the Islamic militants won parliamentary elections in 2006. Then Hamas violently seized control of the Gaza Strip in June 2007, expelling forces loyal to the moderate Abbas.Bush expressed deep concern about the humanitarian suffering of the Palestinian people in Gaza. U.N. officials say Gaza's 1.5 million residents face an alarming situation under constant Israeli bombardment, with hospitals overcrowded and both fuel and food supplies growing scarce.By spending its resources on rocket launchers instead of roads and schools, Hamas has demonstrated that it has no intention of serving the Palestinian people, Bush said. America has helped by providing tens of millions of dollars in humanitarian aid, and this week we contributed an additional $85 million through the United Nations. We have consistently called on all in the region to ensure that assistance reaches those in need.The White House has cautiously said Israel must be mindful of the toll its military strikes will have on civilians. Here, too, Bush blamed Hamas for hiding within the civilian population. Regrettably, Palestinian civilians have been killed in recent days, he said.International calls for a cease-fire have been growing. Bush promised to stay engaged with U.S. partners in the Middle East and Europe and keep Obama updated. Obama is receiving the same intelligence reports on Gaza that Bush is.Rice has spoken to both Obama and his choice for secretary of state, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, about the situation at least once in the last week. Obama and Clinton have remained mum out of deference to Bush, who still has 18 days in office.There have been growing calls for Rice to intervene with Israel in person amid rising international concern about the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Gaza. Her decision to stay away will likely disappoint those calling for a more robust U.S. role, particularly as French President Nicolas Sarkozy intends visit the region next week.In recent days, U.S. officials had said that a Rice trip to the Middle East, as a first stop on a long-planned visit to China next week, was under consideration. But those officials said Friday that Rice would stay in Washington. They spoke on condition of anonymity because an announcement is not expected before the weekend.Associated Press writer Matthew Lee contributed to this report.
Israeli assault on Gaza enters 2nd week with no end in sight by Adel Zaanoun
JAN 3,09
GAZA CITY (AFP) – Israeli warplanes continued to pound Gaza on Saturday as the assault on Hamas entered its second week, with the Islamist group's leader warning of a black destiny if ground troops are sent in.Hamas's Syrian-based chief Khaled Meshaal told Israel that if you commit the stupidity of launching a ground offensive then a black destiny awaits you.You will soon find out that Gaza is the wrath of God, Meshaal said in pre-taped remarks as the death toll rose from bombing and concerns grew about the humanitarian situation in the Hamas-ruled Palestinian territory.The United States gave Israel free rein on whether to invade the overcrowded enclave, insisting that the key to a ceasefire is Israel's demand for Hamas to permanently halt rocket fire.So I think any steps they are taking, whether it's from the air or on the ground or anything of that nature, are part and parcel of the same operation, said White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe.Those will be decisions made by the Israelis.President George W. Bush, meanwhile, urged all able parties to press Hamas to stop firing on Israel to facilitate a lasting ceasefire.
The United States is leading diplomatic efforts to achieve a meaningful ceasefire that is fully respected, Bush said in his weekly Saturday radio address, the text of which was released late on Friday.I urge all parties to pressure Hamas to turn away from terror, and to support legitimate Palestinian leaders working for peace.Bush said Hamas was responsible for the latest violence and rejected a unilateral ceasefire that would allow Hamas to continue to fire on Israel.This recent outburst of violence was instigated by Hamas -- a Palestinian terrorist group supported by Iran and Syria that calls for Israel's destruction, Bush said.Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert met with senior ministers as tanks and troops stood at the ready on the Gaza border.A missile fired by an Israeli jet slammed into a house in southern Gaza, killing three boys, aged from seven to 10. It was one of more than 58 fresh raids carried out on Friday.A 12-year-old girl died of her wounds after the bombing of a house near Gaza City belonging to a member of Islamic Jihad, and two gunmen from the armed wing of Hamas were killed in Jabaliya after firing rockets, medics said.On Saturday, an army spokesman said air attacks on Hamas infrastructure were continuing into the predawn hours.At the same time, the armed wing of Hamas said it had repelled a patrol of Israeli special forces attempting to cross the border into Gaza.
A spokesman said the army was not familiar with the incident, adding that no soldiers had crossed into Gaza since the beginning of the air campaign on December 27.Since then, at least 435 people have been killed, including 66 children, and 2,150 wounded, according to Gaza medics. The bombardment has demolished dozens of houses and heightened concern over the humanitarian situation in Gaza, where most of the 1.5million residents depend on foreign aid. The protection of civilians, the fabric of life, the future of the peace talks and of the regional peace process has been trapped between the irresponsibility of the Hamas attacks and the excessiveness of the Israeli response, Robert Serry, the UN envoy for the Middle East, told reporters in Jerusalem. M ax Gaylard, the UN humanitarian coordinator for the Palestinian territories, said there is a critical emergency in the Gaza Strip right now ... By any definition this is a humanitarian crisis and more.Thousands of Hamas faithful attended the funeral of Nizar Rayan -- a firebrand hardliner who was killed with his four wives and 11 children on Thursday. Hamas vowed to avenge the death of the most senior Hamas leader killed by Israel since Abdel Aziz al-Rantissi in 2004 and warned that it could resume suicide attacks against Israel for the first time since January 2005. Thousands of protesters took to the streets of Gaza and the occupied West Bank after Hamas called for a day of wrath. Police fired tear gas at rock-throwing youths in annexed east Jerusalem. With a ground offensive widely expected and no ceasefire in sight, the Israeli army opened a border crossing to allow an estimated 400 people with foreign passports to leave Gaza. Hamas fired more than 30 rockets into Israel, but no casualties were reported. Militants have fired more than 360 rockets into Israel over seven days, killing four people and wounding dozens more. The offensive has sparked angry protests in the Muslim world and elsewhere across the globe and defied diplomatic efforts to broker a truce.
Israel lets Palestinians flee; UN warns of crisis By ARON HELLER and IBRAHIM BARZAK, Associated Press Writers JAN 2,09
EREZ CROSSING, Israel – Israel allowed several hundred Palestinians with foreign passports to flee Gaza on Friday, even as its warplanes bombed a mosque it said was used to store weapons and destroyed homes of more than a dozen Hamas operatives.The evacuees told of crippling shortages of water, electricity and medicine, echoing a U.N. warning of a deepening humanitarian crisis in the besieged Gaza Strip in the seven-day-old Israeli campaign. The U.N. estimates at least a quarter of the 400 Palestinians killed by Israeli airstrikes on Hamas militants were civilians.Jawaher Hajji, a 14-year-old U.S. citizen who was allowed to cross into Israel, said her uncle was one of them — killed while trying to pick up some medicine for her cancer-stricken father. She said her father later died of his illness.They are supposed to destroy just the Hamas, but people in their homes are dying too, Hajji, who has relatives in Virginia, said at the Erez border crossing between Gaza and Israel.
President George W. Bush on Friday branded the Hamas rocket attacks an act of terror, while Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice accused Hamas' leaders of holding the people of Gaza hostage.The Hamas has used Gaza as a launching pad for rockets against Israeli cities, and has contributed deeply to a very bad daily life for the Palestinian people in Gaza and to a humanitarian situation that we have all been trying to address, she said.International calls for a cease-fire have been growing, and French President Nicolas Sarkozy is expected in the region next week.Bush said no peace deal would be acceptable without monitoring to halt the flow of smuggled weapons to terrorist groups.The United States is leading diplomatic efforts to achieve a meaningful cease-fire that is fully respected, Bush said Friday in his weekly radio address, released a day early. Another one-way cease-fire that leads to rocket attacks on Israel is not acceptable. And promises from Hamas will not suffice — there must be monitoring mechanisms in place to help ensure that smuggling of weapons to terrorist groups in Gaza comes to an end.Israel has targeted Hamas leaders in the past but halted the practice during a six-month truce that expired last month. Most of Hamas' leaders went into hiding at the start of the Israeli offensive on Dec. 27.Israeli troops in bases in southern Israel are awaiting orders to invade Gaza.Exiled Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal, speaking in Syria, warned that any ground assault would lead Israel to a black destiny of dead and wounded.However, he said Hamas was ready to cooperate with any effort leading to an end to the Israeli offensive against Gaza, lifting the seige and opening all crossings.Israel appears to be open to the intense diplomatic efforts by Arab and European leaders, saying it would consider stopping its punishing aerial assaults if international monitors were brought in to track compliance with any truce with Hamas.
Israel began its campaign to try to halt weeks of intensifying Palestinian rocket fire from Gaza. The offensive has dealt a heavy blow to Hamas but has not stopped the rockets, which continue to strike deeper and deeper into Israel. Three Israeli civilians and one soldier have been killed in the rocket attacks.More than 30 rockets were fired into southern Israel on Friday, slightly injuring four. Sirens warning Israelis to take cover when military radar picks up an incoming rocket have helped reduce casualties in recent days.Israeli TV showed video of a table set for the traditional Sabbath meal covered with shrapnel and broken glass.After destroying Hamas' security compounds early in the operation, Israel has turned its attention to the group's leadership. Israeli warplanes on Friday hit about 20 houses believed to belong to Hamas militants and members of other armed groups, Palestinians said.
Israel also bombed a mosque it said was used to store weapons. The mosque was known as a Hamas stronghold and was identified with Nizar Rayan, the Hamas militant leader killed Thursday when Israel dropped a one-ton bomb on his home. Rayan, 49, ranked among Hamas' top five decision-makers. The explosion killed 20 people, including all four of Rayan's wives and 11 of his children. Israel's military said the bombing of Rayan's house triggered secondary explosions from the weapons stockpile there. Fear of Israeli attacks led to sparse turnout at Friday's communal prayers at mosques throughout Gaza. Still, thousands attended a memorial service for Rayan, with throngs praying over the rubble of his home and the nearby destroyed mosque. An imam delivered his sermon over a car loudspeaker as the bodies of Rayan and other family members were covered in green Hamas flags. Explosions from Israeli airstrikes and the sound of warplanes could be heard. Following the prayers, mourners marched with the bodies, with many people reaching out to touch and kiss them. The Palestinian resistance will not forget and will not forgive, said Hamas lawmaker Mushir Masri. The resistance's response will be very painful.Israel also destroyed homes of more than a dozen Hamas operatives. Most appeared to be empty, but one man was killed in a strike in the Jebaliya refugee camp in northern Gaza. Fourteen other Palestinians died Friday — killed in airstrikes or dying of wounds from earlier violence, officials said. Among them were two teenagers as well as three children — two brothers and their cousin — who were playing in southern Gaza, according to Health Ministry official Dr. Moaiya Hassanain. Maxwell Gaylard, U.N. humanitarian coordinator for the Palestinians Territories, said 2,000 people have been wounded in the past week and a significant number of the dead were women and children. There is a critical emergency right now in the Gaza Strip, he said. The U.N. World Food Program began distributing bread in Gaza to Palestinian families. It said there had been a drastic deterioration in living conditions, with shortages of food, cooking gas and fuel, as well as frequent power cuts. Israel denies there is a humanitarian crisis in Gaza and has increased its shipments of goods into Gaza. It says it has confined its attacks to militants while trying to prevent civilian casualties. The military has called some houses ahead of time to warn inhabitants of an impending attack. In some cases, aircraft also fired sound bombs to warn away civilians before flattening the homes with their missiles, Palestinians and Israeli defense officials said.
Israeli planes also dropped leaflets east of Gaza giving a confidential phone number and e-mail address for people to report locations of rocket squads. Residents appeared to ignore the leaflets. In all, Israel allowed 270 Palestinians to cross the border from Gaza to flee the fighting. The evacuees all held foreign passports, and were expected to join their families in the U.S., Russia, Turkey, Norway, Belarus, Kazakhstan and elsewhere. Nashwa Hajji, Jawaher's 13-year-old younger sister, said her family left their home following Israeli warnings, but others refused. People said, We don't want to go. We will die where we are, she said. The Hajji family was notified Thursday by the U.S. consulate that it was being evacuated. After crossing Erez, they and others boarded buses taking them to Amman, Jordan. Hajji said she, her mother and five siblings would fly to Virginia from there. The State Department said it had assisted 27 U.S. citizens and members of their immediate families to leave Gaza on Friday and make their way to Jordan and stood ready to help others. Department officials said earlier this week they were aware of roughly 30 Americans in Gaza but that there could be others. Many of the evacuees were foreign-born women married to Palestinians and their children. Spouses who did not hold foreign citizenship were not allowed out. I feel happy and sad, said Caroline Katba, 15, A Russian citizen. Happy, because I am going to Russia, and sad, because my father is left behind.Heller reported from the Erez Crossing, Barzak from Gaza City.
Hamas warns it is ready to confront Gaza invasion Fri Jan 2, 8:27 PM
By Nidal al-Mughrabi
GAZA (Reuters) - Hamas's top leader warned Israel its army would be defeated if it invaded the Gaza Strip, while the United States said it envisioned a ceasefire with international monitoring that would ensure the Islamist group could not rearm.
Israeli armored forces remained poised on the Gaza border for a possible ground operation, a week after Israel launched devastating air strikes with the declared aim of ending rocket attacks on its southern towns.Gaza medical officials put the Palestinian casualty toll at least 429 dead and 2,000 wounded.A United Nations agency said more than a quarter of those killed in the Gaza Strip were civilians. A leading Palestinian human rights group put the figure at 40 percent.Four Israelis have been killed by Palestinian rockets since Israel's offensive began, including longer-range weapons that have hit the port of Ashdod and the desert town of Beersheba, forcing schools to shut and residents to scurry for shelter.In Damascus, Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal sounded a defiant note in a televised speech.We are ready for the challenge, this battle was imposed on us and we are confident we will achieve victory because we have made our preparations, Meshaal said.A Palestinian official has told Reuters that Egypt had begun exploratory talks with Hamas to stop the fighting.U.S. President George W. Bush, in his first public comments on the hostilities that erupted less than a month before he leaves office, said: Another one-way ceasefire that leads to rocket attacks on Israel is not acceptable.And promises from Hamas will not suffice -- there must be monitoring mechanisms in place to help ensure that smuggling of weapons to terrorist groups in Gaza comes to an end, he said in remarks prepared for his weekly Saturday radio address, which was released Friday.The United States has demanded Hamas, which Israel says has been smuggling weapons through tunnels under Gaza's border with Egypt, take the first step by halting rocket attacks on Israel.In the Israeli-blockaded Gaza Strip, 1.5 million Palestinians are unable to escape the conflict. Residents face bombs, missiles and flickering electricity, and queue for bread along streets littered with broken glass and other debris.Ten Palestinians were killed Friday in more than 30 Israeli air strikes. Seven of them were civilians, including five children, local medics said.One missile killed three Palestinian children aged between eight and 12 as they played on a street near the town of Khan Yunis in the south of the strip. One was decapitated.Islamist fighters fired rockets at Israel's ancient port of Ashkelon, blowing out windows in an apartment building. Another house took a direct hit from a long-range missile later in the day, and cars were set ablaze.
DIPLOMACY
Bush and U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice have been engaged in telephone diplomacy during the past week, talking with leaders in the Middle East and Europe, including Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
Earlier Friday the White House said Israel must decide for itself whether to go into the Gaza Strip with ground forces but it cautioned any actions should avoid civilian casualties and ensure the flow of humanitarian goods.Hamas is believed to have 25,000 fighters. Its men have been maintaining a vigil along the Israeli frontier, observing army movements on the other side and broadcasting messages in Hebrew over field radios telling their enemy they are not afraid.In his remarks, Bush expressed concern about the humanitarian situation in Gaza and said the United States had offered $85 million to relief efforts this week.Meshaal urged Arabs to step up aid and to send medical teams. He said European and Arab countries had contacted Hamas to discuss ending the fighting but he did not name them.Israel has been allowing about 90 truckloads of food and medicine to enter the Gaza Strip daily, saying its enemy was Hamas, not the Palestinian people. Israel tightened its blockade of the territory after Hamas seized the enclave in fighting against Abbas's Fatah group in 2007.We will not rest until we destroy the Zionist entity, said Hamas leader Fathi Hammad at the funeral of Nizar Rayyan, a senior Hamas leader who was killed along with four wives and 11 children in an air strike Thursday.Bracing for protests and retaliatory violence, Israel sealed off the occupied West Bank to deny entry to most Palestinians and beefed up security at checkpoints.(Additional reporting by Adam Entous, Allyn Fisher-Ilan and Ori Lewis in Jerusalem and Jeremy Pelofsky in Washington, Writing by Jeffrey Heller and Douglas Hamilton, Editing by Giles Elgood)
TSX gains 2 percent as oil leads the way Fri Jan 2, 3:06 PM
TORONTO (Reuters) - Toronto's main stock index soared more than 2 percent on Friday afternoon as strength in the energy sector, supported by the rising price of crude, led the way higher.The S&P/TSX composite index was up 201.30 points, or 2.24 percent, at 9,189.00. Nine of the index's 10 main groups were higher, with consumer staples the lone group lower.(Reporting by Ka Yan Ng; editing by Rob Wilson)
EU calls crisis talks as Russian gas flow dwindles By Dmitry Zhdannikov and Sabina Zawadzki – Fri Jan 2, 5:03 pm ET
MOSCOW/KIEV (Reuters) – European countries began to suffer from reduced gas supplies on Friday after Russia cut deliveries to Ukraine in a contract dispute.The Czech Presidency of the European Union said it would call a crisis meeting of envoys in Brussels on Monday and demanded that existing gas supply deals be honored.We feel that the situation has now escalated to a point that substantiates an extraordinary meeting, Czech presidency spokesman Radek Honzak said. Talks would also probably be called soon with Moscow, another spokesman said.Energy relations between the EU and its neighbors should be based on reliability and predictability, the presidency said in a statement.Existing commitments to supply and transit have to be honored under all circumstances.Russia's gas export monopoly Gazprom accused Ukraine of stealing gas in transit. Gas importers in Romania, Hungary and Poland said pressure on their pipelines had dropped.Gas inflows from import fell by 30 to 40 percent ... This is because of Ukraine's dispute with Russia, Romania's state-controlled pipeline operator Transgaz director Ioan Rusu told Reuters by telephone.There were similar reports of less steep supply falls from Budapest and Warsaw.Pressure started to decline at 1500 GMT. Pressure is declining continuously. However, the drop has not yet reached a critical level, Edina Lakatos, a spokeswoman for the Hungarian energy company MOL's natural gas transmission subsidiary, said.Ukraine's state energy firm Naftogaz denied it was illegally siphoning off Russian gas.
Gazprom's accusation suggested Moscow was in no mood for compromise in a re-run of a 2006 argument that led to supply shortages across the EU.The Ukrainian side openly admits it is stealing gas and is not ashamed of this, Gazprom spokesman Sergei Kupriyanov said, adding that Gazprom had increased exports to Europe via an alternative route -- Belarus.Poland said deliveries from Ukraine had dropped six percent but were being made up by deliveries through Belarus.The change in deliveries is not being felt by Polish natural gas consumers, said gas operator Gaz System and gas monopoly PGNiG in a joint statement.
NEW DOUBTS ABOUT RUSSIA
The European Union -- which receives a fifth of its gas via pipelines through Ukraine -- had initially said it considered the dispute between Moscow and Kiev to be a bilateral issue.The row could raise new doubts about Moscow's reliability as an energy supplier and fuel suspicions in the West -- already running high since Russia's war with Georgia last August -- that the Kremlin policy us to bully pro-Western neighbors.Russia denies politics are behind the dispute and says it is about prices and debts, but the two ex-Soviet neighbors have clashed over a drive by Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko to take his country into the NATO alliance.
Earlier on Friday, energy firms in Germany, Bulgaria and Turkey said their supplies were unaffected. Europe, where temperatures fell below freezing overnight, has enough gas stockpiled to manage without Russian supplies for several days but could face difficulties if any disruption stretched into weeks, analysts said. Talks between Naftogaz and Gazprom have not resumed since they collapsed two days ago. If they do restart, the negotiators will have to bridge huge differences. Alexei Miller, CEO of Gazprom, said on Thursday he wanted Ukraine to pay $418 per 1,000 cubic meters (tcm) of gas, compared with the $179.50 Kiev paid in 2008. Ukraine says the most it can afford to pay is $235. Gazprom charges about $500/tcm to customers in the European Union, though that is likely to fall by up to half this year. Gas prices track oil and crude has plummeted in value. Gas markets in northwest Europe seemed unconcerned about the supply outlook over the next few days, with prices falling in Britain and Belgium on expectations of warmer weather. I guess everyone expects it (the Russia-Ukraine row) to be resolved fairly soon and if it's resolved over the next day or so then it shouldn't cause any problems, there is plenty of storage to cover things as well, one UK gas trader said.
Manufacturing index drops to 28-year low By ELLEN SIMON, AP Business Writer – Fri Jan 2, 4:53 pm ET
NEW YORK – Signs grew that the economy could turn even weaker in 2009, as an index of December manufacturing activity sank to its lowest point in 28 years. Every corner of the sector was down, from bakeries to cigarette-makers to aluminum smelters.The Institute for Supply Management, a trade group of purchasing executives, said Friday its manufacturing index fell to 32.4 in December, a greater-than-expected decline from November's reading of 36.2. Wall Street economists surveyed by Thomson Reuters had expected the reading to fall to 35.5.Components of the index hit historic lows. New orders fell to their lowest level on records going back to 1948. Prices fell as the number of respondents saying they had paid more in December than in November sank to its lowest monthly reading since 1949.A reading below 50 for the overall index indicates contraction. The index, based on a survey of the institute's members, has fallen steadily for the last five months as the economy deteriorated.December's reading is the lowest since June 1980, when the economy was near the end of a six-month recession.If December's rate of manufacturing activity were to persist for 2009, the nation's gross domestic product would show a 2.7 percent contraction, said Norbert Ore, chairman of the group's business survey committee. GDP, the broadest measure of economic activity, decreased at an annual rate of 0.5 percent in the third quarter of 2008, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis.An increasingly constrained consumer, deepening woes for the housing sector, and a desire to pare inventories will all continue to weigh heavily on domestic demand, said Joshua Shapiro, chief U.S. economist at MFR Inc., an economics consulting firm in New York. Overall U.S. manufacturing output, which has been shrinking since late 2007 and losing momentum at a more rapid rate recently, is likely to be even weaker in coming quarters.Only three recessions in the history of the index have showed weaker manufacturing readings, said John Ryding, of RDQ Economics. Those recessions were in 1948 to 1949, 1973 to 1975 and 1980.
The U.S. weakness is part of a worldwide slowdown. China's manufacturing sector, which accounts for 43 percent of the economy, contracted for a fifth straight month in December. Singapore said its economy shrank in the fourth quarter, and South Korea said its exports fell 17.4 percent in December. With European manufacturing indexes also dropping, the case for a massive global fiscal stimulus continues to grow, Ryding said.Investors shrugged off the grim report on the new year's first day of trading, eager to start fresh after the losses of 2008. Stocks closed higher, with the Dow Jones industrial average up 258.30 to 9,034.69. Broader indexes were also higher.As the economy sputters through a recession that began in December 2007, no industry is proving resistant. No sector reported overall growth in December. Also, none reported growth in new orders, production, employment or prices, as businesses from tobacco to coal products to foodmakers saw declines.Declining prices, coming after the summer's soaring market for commodities, have sent manufacturers — especially in chemicals and metals — reeling.Century Aluminum last month cut production at a West Virginia plant and said that it might have to cease production at the plant entirely unless it cuts costs and prices stabilize. LyondellBasell Industries, the third-largest independent chemical company in the world, said Wednesday that while several lenders had allowed it to postpone $160 million in loan payments, a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing might still be an option.
The summer's commodity bubble was devastating for many food processors. Pilgrim's Pride Corp., the nation's largest chicken producer, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Dec. 1.With the overall unemployment rate at 6.7 percent in November, the highest in 15 years, manufacturing continues to be one of the hardest hit sectors. The sector lost 85,000 jobs between October and November, according to the most recent data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. More losses are expected in coming months as demand continues to be weak.The purchasing managers' employment index showed its lowest reading since 1982 as manufacturers across industries continue to cut jobs.Western Digital Corp., which makes computer hard drives, said in December it plans to cut 2,500 jobs. The drugmaker Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. said in December it would cut 800 jobs by the end of 2008.Automotive supplier Visteon Corp. said Friday it will shift more than 2,000 workers to a four-day week and cut their pay by 20 percent as auto sales continue to founder. General Motors Corp. on Wednesday received the first tranche of $9.4 billion in low-cost loans from the U.S. Treasury, part of a package designed to keep ailing automakers in business.
DANIEL 7:23-24
23 Thus he said, The fourth beast(THE EU,REVIVED ROME) shall be the fourth kingdom upon earth,(7TH WORLD EMPIRE) which shall be diverse from all kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, and shall tread it down, and break it in pieces.(TR BLOCKS)
24 And the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise:(10 NATIONS) and another shall rise after them;(#11 SPAIN) and he shall be diverse from the first, and he shall subdue three kings.(BE HEAD OF 3 KINGS OR NATIONS).
Sarkozy's Diplomatic Mission to the Middle East By BRUCE CRUMLEY / PARIS – Fri Jan 2, 8:30 pm ET
AP Although France relinquished the rotating presidency of the European Union with the New Year, French President Nicolas Sarkozy is showing no signs of surrendering diplomatic center stage. As Israel's offensive on Gaza continues, Sarkozy announced on Thursday that he will visit both Israel and the Palestinian capital of Ramallah on Jan. 5 in an effort to broker a halt to the violence. So far, there are few indications that Sarkozy's signature take-charge moves will produce a quick result. But Sarkozy will be hoping that his controversial resumption of relations with Syria last year will translate into diplomatic leverage that can deliver Hamas cooperation in a new cease-fire. (Read about TIME Person of the Year runner-up Nicolas Sarkozy.)
There is no humanitarian crisis, and therefore there is no need for a humanitarian truce, Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said Thursday after an ElysÉe meeting with Sarkozy, who had reiterated his appeal that fighting stop immediately. We affected most of the infrastructure of terrorism in Gaza Strip, and the question of whether it's enough or not will be according to our assessment on a daily basis. (See pictures of Israel's deadly assault on Gaza.) Israel's deaf ear to Sarkozy's plea has raised the diplomatic stakes involved. Although the French President's trip to Egypt, Syria and Lebanon had been set long ago, stops in Ramallah and Jerusalem have been added to discuss possible paths to peace with various leaders. ElysÉe officials say Sarkozy won't be advancing any plans for resolving longer-term conflicts but rather seeking to use his influence and rare good relations with major players in the area to get the fighting to stop. For now, all other questions are secondary to the issue of restoring peace, said Sarkozy spokesman Franck Louvrier. It's an objective everyone says they want, so the focus will be finding a way to make it attainable.Given the absence of the U.S.'s traditional lead role in the region until President-elect Barack Obama takes office, Sarkozy finds himself with a rare opportunity to wade into a Middle East crisis as the main diplomatic player. The ElysÉe hopes Sarkozy's visit to Ramallah to meet with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas can help reverse Abbas' increasing marginalization and make him an active partner in hammering out a truce. But the main event of Sarkozy's peacemaking foray will more likely be in Damascus, where he will meet with Syrian President Bashar Assad on Tuesday. Sarkozy's recent rapprochement with Syria, the regional player with the most influence over Hamas, means that the French President may have more diplomatic leverage than many of his Western counterparts.
Sarkozy ended Assad's long stint of international isolation by making Syria a founding member of the newly formed Mediterranean Union. Although Sarkozy faced heated criticism in July for embracing Assad - who is denounced by human rights activists and widely accused of orchestrating the 2005 assassination of Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri - the French President has defended the move as realpolitik designed to turn an enemy into an ally. That argument will now be put to the test. Sarkozy is expected to press Assad to help find an end to the Gaza bloodshed - notably by pressuring Hamas to fulfill Israeli demands that it stop firing rockets. Damascus-based Hamas leader Khaled Meshal seems willing to accept that condition in exchange for Israel's reopening border crossings that have economically asphyxiated Gaza - an issue that could eventually force a change in Egypt's closure of its frontier. Sarkozy may have a short window for making progress. Nicolas Sarkozy uses his energy and good faith to change the world - and that has had its chance as an alternative to the universally rejected Bush doctrine, wrote editorialist Yves ThrÉard in the French daily Le Figaro on Friday. But Obama taking command will alter that equation, and risks crowding [Sarkozy] out.
Three EU states open up to Bulgarian, Romanian workers
ELITSA VUCHEVA 02.01.2009 @ 09:28 CET
The New Year has brought with it the lifting of restrictions for Bulgarian and Romanian workers in Greece, Spain and Denmark, but a number of EU states will be keeping barriers to their labour markets for three more years.Greece on Wednesday (31December) became the latest old EU member to lift restrictions for Bulgarian and Romanian workers, following Spain and Denmark which set the example earlier in December.The Greek government has reached this decision after assessing all parameters. With this move, illegal work will diminish. The reasons [to work illegally] will be very much reduced, as workers from Bulgaria and Romania now become just as competitive as the Greek ones, if not more, the secretary general of the Greek labour ministry was quoted as saying by Bulgarian news agency Bgnes.For its part, Spain has issued a declaration saying that the moratorium [on Bulgarian and Romanian workers] has been unfair and fruitless, according to a statement published on the Bulgarian foreign ministry's website.Madrid also believes that the two countries' growing economies would encourage their workers to stay home rather than look for a job abroad.By contrast, the UK, Ireland, Germany, Austria, Luxembourg, Netherlands and Belgium have announced in the last weeks that they would keep their labour markets closed to Bulgarians and Romanians for a second period of three years, citing the economic downturn as the main reason.Since Bulgaria and Romania joined the EU on 1 January 2007, other EU member states have been able to restrict access to their labour markets for the new workers for a set period of a maximum of seven years, after which all of them must fully open up.
For the first two years of their membership, Bulgarians and Romanians have faced such restrictions in most states, except for Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia and Sweden.In countries where barriers have remained, workers from the two newcomers need a work permit accompanied by lengthy and heavy administrative procedures - simplified for certain professions in some of member states - to be legally employed.In November, the European Commission encouraged all EU countries to lift remaining barriers, arguing that the new workers had not caused serious disturbances on labour markets, nor had they flooded them, as some had feared.Additionally, it stressed that those workers had contributed to the economic growth by bringing more manpower where it was most needed, and had had little or no negative impact on wages and unemployment levels.
French warship thwarts Somali pirate attack Fri Jan 2, 5:36 am ET
BBC PARIS – A French warship has thwarted an attack by Somali pirates on a cargo ship in the dangerous Gulf of Aden on a day when several cargo ships were attacked, the French president's office said.The warship was patrolling the area Thursday as part of a multinational operation to protect commercial vessels passing through one of the world's most important sea routes.The crew of the French PM L Her dispatch boat intercepted two speedboats carrying eight Somali pirates as they were preparing to board a Panamanian cargo ship, said a statement that President Nicolas Sarkozy's office released late Thursday. The French navy will hand over the men to Somali authorities.The French crew seized weapons and munitions from the speedboats, the statement said.Also on Thursday, Somali pirates seized an Egyptian cargo ship and its 28 crew members, but a Malaysian military helicopter saved an Indian tanker from being hijacked.More than a dozen warships are now patrolling the vast waterway between the shores of Yemen and Somalia. Countries as diverse as Britain, India, Iran, the United States, China, France and Germany have naval forces in the waters.
According to the International Maritime Bureau, pirates attacked 111 times in the Gulf of Aden in 2008, successfully hijacking 42 ships.
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.
Maritime blizzard cuts power to thousands Charlottetown Airport records 49 cm of snow Saturday, January 3, 2009 | 12:26 AM AT CBC News
Snow piles up against a home in New Glasgow, N.S. (Kevin Harvey/CBC) A blizzard that cancelled New Year's Day travel plans and cut power to parts of the Maritimes is expected to move out of the region Friday.About 4,000 customers in Nova Scotia were without electricity Friday afternoon, despite the fact that Nova Scotia Power had said it hoped to restore service to most people by noon. At one point late Thursday, more than 11,000 people were without power.The weather has to be quite adverse before it can stop us, said Glennie Langille, a spokeswoman for the utility.High winds are probably the biggest problem for us in trying to respond. We either have whiteouts or, if we have gusts about 90 km/h, it's unsafe to put the bucket trucks up in the air.The Canso Causeway, which connects Cape Breton to mainland N.S., has reopened to traffic, officials said Friday. Blowing snow and rocks had forced its closure a day earlier.Blizzard warnings remain in effect for the Cape Breton Highlands. Parts of Cape Breton were forecast to receive up to 60 centimetres of snow.It's a great start to 2009. Makes people feel alive, said Halifax resident Gary Merrick. They don't have to worry about their stocks. They're all out shovelling snow today.
Storm moving to Labrador
Ferry service between N.S. and Newfoundland and Labrador was interrupted Thursday with one vessel delayed by high winds.Many flights in and out of Halifax's Stanfield International Airport are operating Friday, but some connections in and out of Prince Edward Island are delayed.A snowy scene at Halifax's Hemock Ravine park. (Submitted by John Sparling) The blizzard essentially shut down the Island Thursday, as officials pulled snowplows off the roads and warned people to stay at home. Wind gusts of more than 100 km/h and near-zero visibility made driving treacherous.Most of the Island's popular meet-and-greet New Year's Day levees were also cancelled.
Scattered power outages were reported throughout P.E.I., which recorded 49 centimetres of snow at the Charlottetown Airport.Parts of southeastern New Brunswick were also hit by the blizzard, with about 14 centimetres of snow dumped on the Moncton area.As you went further inland around Fredericton, they just got a light dusting of snow, said Kathleen Young, an Environment Canada meteorologist. It wasn't too bad.The storm system is headed northeastward to Labrador, bringing strong winds and up to 25 centimetres of snow.With files from the Canadian Press
Floods kill five in central Vietnam JAN 2,09
HANOI (Reuters) – Unseasonable floods brought by rains this week have killed at least five people in central Vietnam while 10 others remained missing, the government and state-run media said Saturday.Waters were now receding in main rivers in the region but three including a woman drowned in Quang Nam province and another 44-year-old man died in floods in the neighboring province of Quang Ngai, the government said in a disaster report.A 22-year-old man died in Binh Dinh province while nine fishermen were among the missing after their boats sank, Saturday's Thanh Nien newspaper quoted provincial disaster reports as saying.Floods and storms often strike central Vietnam between August and November but heavy rains since Monday caused by a cold spell hit the region widely exposed to the sea and raised river waters.The government said more than 5,000 homes were submerged and floods also inundated a combined 74,400 hectares of rice in five provinces. The affected area is not the key growing region for rice and coffee, Vietnam's main agro-products for exports.(Reporting by Ho Binh Minh; Editing by Sanjeev Miglani)
Floods, mounting snow ruin buildings in Northwest Fri Jan 2, 9:12 pm ET
PORTLAND, Ore. – A mud slide destroyed a home Friday, briefly trapping its occupants, and flooding, mud and deep snow blocked roads as the latest winter storm pummeled the Northwest.Residents of a home in suburban Lake Oswego called 911 early Friday saying they were trapped after mud flowed into their home, filling the first floor. They escaped out a window and were taken to a hospital, said deputy Fire Marshall Gert Zoutendijk. He said their lives were not in danger.Authorities said 21 nearby homes were evacuated.Outside Portland in Clackamas County, about 30 families were evacuated from a mobile home park because of flooding and about 60 roads were closed. County officials declared a state of emergency.Also in Clackamas County, floods crept into the Estacada library, ruining thousands of books before the water receded. A layer of silt remained.The storm dropped just over 3 inches of rain east of Portland before the sky cleared during the morning, and 3.9 inches fell in Aurora, south of the city.In eastern Washington and northern Idaho, at least two roofs collapsed under the weight of mounting snow Friday.Jeff Roma had been up clearing snow off the roof of his Spokane business, Buck's Tire and Automotive, on Friday morning when the roof started to collapse.I heard it start to go and I had to get off, Roma told The Spokesman-Review.
He was not injured.
In nearby Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, a business owner and his dog narrowly escaped from a jewelry store before the roof caved in.The risk of roof collapse caused a Spokane-area Costco to close Friday and hire a contractor to shovel its roof. In addition, three Wal-Mart stores were closed in the region while snow was cleared from their roofs, The Spokesman-Review reported.About 4 to 5 inches of snow fell in Spokane on Friday, bringing the season's total to 69 inches. More snow was expected over the weekend.
More small quakes rattle Yellowstone National Park Fri Jan 2, 5:34 pm ET
YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK, Wyo. – More earthquakes are rattling Yellowstone National Park.The small quakes include three more Friday that measured stronger than magnitude 3.0. The University of Utah Seismic Stations say the strongest was 3.5.
Several hundred quakes centered under the northern end of Yellowstone Lake have now occurred since Dec. 26. No damage has been reported.Earthquake swarms happen fairly often in Yellowstone. But scientists say it's unusual for so many earthquakes to happen over several days.Yellowstone lies mostly in northwestern Wyoming and is the caldera of a volcano that last erupted 70,000 years ago. Scientists have not concluded what is causing the earthquakes.
EU sending two Middle East peace missions
PHILIPPA RUNNER 02.01.2009 @ 09:30 CET
The new Czech EU presidency and France will next week send two overlapping peace missions to the Middle East, amid sensitivities on Prague's capability to lead Europe.Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek told national TV on Thursday (1 January) that an EU delegation will visit Egypt, Israel, Palestine's West Bank and Jordan early next week to try to broker a ceasefire in the Israel-Gaza war. Czech foreign minister Karel Schwarzenberg will lead the team, comprising French foreign minister Bernard Kouchner, Swedish foreign minister Carl Bildt, EU top diplomat Javier Solana and external relations commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner. The trip comes at the same time as French President and outgoing EU chairman Nicolas Sarkozy's mission to Syria, Egypt, Lebanon, Israel and Palestine, with the Schwarzenberg and Sarkozy delegations to hold a joint meeting with Palestine President Mahmud Abbas in the West Bank on Monday.Mr Sarkozy on Thursday - the first official day of the Czech EU presidency - also met Israeli foreign minister Tzipi Livni in Paris to push for an end to hostilities.It is up to the European Union to take over the initiative [on the Middle East], Mr Topolanek said on the Czech TV show. I spoke with [Mr Sarkozy] for a long time and we dealt with the problem [of the overlapping trips] in detail.
The Elysee Palace said the two leaders had agreed perfect co-ordination regarding their efforts on visits to the region during a phone call in which Mr Sarkozy also pledged French support for the Czech EU presidency.The niceties come after the French EU presidency in October annoyed Prague by suggesting Mr Sarkozy should stay on as a quasi-EU president in charge of co-ordinating eurozone member state policy.
EU and French officials in anonymous statements to press have questioned the Czech Republic's capability to lead the EU on big foreign policy issues, citing eurosceptic Czech President Vaclav Klaus as an example of the country's unruly political scene. Mr Klaus in a New Year statement on Thursday took a conciliatory tone on Europe. He urged people to vote in the European Parliament elections and said the Czech EU chairmanship is a chance to influence the EU and build a truly democratic space.
Gaza violence continues
Meanwhile, the Sarkozy-Livni meeting in Paris failed to see Israel move closer to EU calls for a ceasefire.Here [in Europe] there is an impression that Israel does not want a ceasefire. That is not the issue, Ms Livni said on French TV. Our ability to enter into a ceasefire is linked to a halt by Hamas of rocket attacks on our Israeli citizens.Fighting continued early on Friday morning. Four Hamas rockets hit the Israeli town of Ashkelon, wounding two people, while Israeli jets bombed 15 Hamas-linked houses, killing two and wounding 12.Palestine says 425 people have been killed over the past seven days, with over 2,000 wounded. Four people have died on the Israeli side.
Bush: Hamas attacks on Israel an act of terror By BEN FELLER, Associated Press Writer JAN 03,09
WASHINGTON – President George W. Bush on Friday branded the Hamas rocket attacks on Israel an act of terror and outlined his own condition for a cease-fire in Gaza, saying no peace deal would be acceptable without monitoring to halt the flow of smuggled weapons to terrorist groups.Bush chose his weekly taped radio address to speak for the first time about one of the bloodiest Mideast clashes in decades. It began a week ago. Israeli warplanes have rained bombs on Gaza, targeting the Palestinian militant group Hamas, which has traumatized southern Israel with intensifying rocket attacks.The United States is leading diplomatic efforts to achieve a meaningful cease-fire that is fully respected, Bush said. Another one-way cease-fire that leads to rocket attacks on Israel is not acceptable. And promises from Hamas will not suffice — there must be monitoring mechanisms in place to help ensure that smuggling of weapons to terrorist groups in Gaza comes to an end.The White House released Bush's radio address a day early. It airs on Saturday morning.
Despite Bush's account of a U.S. leadership role, with time running out on his presidency, the administration seemed increasingly ready Friday to let the crisis in Gaza shift to President-elect Barack Obama. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice briefed Bush on developments in Gaza, and she continued furious telephone diplomacy to arrange a truce. Yet, she said she had no plans to make an emergency visit to the region.More than 400 Palestinians and four Israelis have been killed in the latest offensive. The U.N. estimated Friday that a quarter of the Palestinians killed were civilians. In their waning days in power, Bush and Rice have been working the phones with world allies.Bush offered no criticism of Israel, depicting the country's air assaults as a response to the attacks on its people. The White House will not comment on whether it views the Israeli response as proportionate or not to the scope of rockets attacks on Israel.This recent outburst of violence was instigated by Hamas — a Palestinian terrorist group supported by Iran and Syria that calls for Israel's destruction, Bush said.The president said Hamas ultimately ended the latest cease-fire on Dec. 19 and soon unleashed a barrage of rockets and mortars that deliberately targeted innocent Israelis — an act of terror that is opposed by the legitimate leader of the Palestinian people, President (Mahmoud) Abbas.Hamas-run Gaza has been largely isolated from the rest of the world since the Islamic militants won parliamentary elections in 2006. Then Hamas violently seized control of the Gaza Strip in June 2007, expelling forces loyal to the moderate Abbas.Bush expressed deep concern about the humanitarian suffering of the Palestinian people in Gaza. U.N. officials say Gaza's 1.5 million residents face an alarming situation under constant Israeli bombardment, with hospitals overcrowded and both fuel and food supplies growing scarce.By spending its resources on rocket launchers instead of roads and schools, Hamas has demonstrated that it has no intention of serving the Palestinian people, Bush said. America has helped by providing tens of millions of dollars in humanitarian aid, and this week we contributed an additional $85 million through the United Nations. We have consistently called on all in the region to ensure that assistance reaches those in need.The White House has cautiously said Israel must be mindful of the toll its military strikes will have on civilians. Here, too, Bush blamed Hamas for hiding within the civilian population. Regrettably, Palestinian civilians have been killed in recent days, he said.International calls for a cease-fire have been growing. Bush promised to stay engaged with U.S. partners in the Middle East and Europe and keep Obama updated. Obama is receiving the same intelligence reports on Gaza that Bush is.Rice has spoken to both Obama and his choice for secretary of state, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, about the situation at least once in the last week. Obama and Clinton have remained mum out of deference to Bush, who still has 18 days in office.There have been growing calls for Rice to intervene with Israel in person amid rising international concern about the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Gaza. Her decision to stay away will likely disappoint those calling for a more robust U.S. role, particularly as French President Nicolas Sarkozy intends visit the region next week.In recent days, U.S. officials had said that a Rice trip to the Middle East, as a first stop on a long-planned visit to China next week, was under consideration. But those officials said Friday that Rice would stay in Washington. They spoke on condition of anonymity because an announcement is not expected before the weekend.Associated Press writer Matthew Lee contributed to this report.
Israeli assault on Gaza enters 2nd week with no end in sight by Adel Zaanoun
JAN 3,09
GAZA CITY (AFP) – Israeli warplanes continued to pound Gaza on Saturday as the assault on Hamas entered its second week, with the Islamist group's leader warning of a black destiny if ground troops are sent in.Hamas's Syrian-based chief Khaled Meshaal told Israel that if you commit the stupidity of launching a ground offensive then a black destiny awaits you.You will soon find out that Gaza is the wrath of God, Meshaal said in pre-taped remarks as the death toll rose from bombing and concerns grew about the humanitarian situation in the Hamas-ruled Palestinian territory.The United States gave Israel free rein on whether to invade the overcrowded enclave, insisting that the key to a ceasefire is Israel's demand for Hamas to permanently halt rocket fire.So I think any steps they are taking, whether it's from the air or on the ground or anything of that nature, are part and parcel of the same operation, said White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe.Those will be decisions made by the Israelis.President George W. Bush, meanwhile, urged all able parties to press Hamas to stop firing on Israel to facilitate a lasting ceasefire.
The United States is leading diplomatic efforts to achieve a meaningful ceasefire that is fully respected, Bush said in his weekly Saturday radio address, the text of which was released late on Friday.I urge all parties to pressure Hamas to turn away from terror, and to support legitimate Palestinian leaders working for peace.Bush said Hamas was responsible for the latest violence and rejected a unilateral ceasefire that would allow Hamas to continue to fire on Israel.This recent outburst of violence was instigated by Hamas -- a Palestinian terrorist group supported by Iran and Syria that calls for Israel's destruction, Bush said.Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert met with senior ministers as tanks and troops stood at the ready on the Gaza border.A missile fired by an Israeli jet slammed into a house in southern Gaza, killing three boys, aged from seven to 10. It was one of more than 58 fresh raids carried out on Friday.A 12-year-old girl died of her wounds after the bombing of a house near Gaza City belonging to a member of Islamic Jihad, and two gunmen from the armed wing of Hamas were killed in Jabaliya after firing rockets, medics said.On Saturday, an army spokesman said air attacks on Hamas infrastructure were continuing into the predawn hours.At the same time, the armed wing of Hamas said it had repelled a patrol of Israeli special forces attempting to cross the border into Gaza.
A spokesman said the army was not familiar with the incident, adding that no soldiers had crossed into Gaza since the beginning of the air campaign on December 27.Since then, at least 435 people have been killed, including 66 children, and 2,150 wounded, according to Gaza medics. The bombardment has demolished dozens of houses and heightened concern over the humanitarian situation in Gaza, where most of the 1.5million residents depend on foreign aid. The protection of civilians, the fabric of life, the future of the peace talks and of the regional peace process has been trapped between the irresponsibility of the Hamas attacks and the excessiveness of the Israeli response, Robert Serry, the UN envoy for the Middle East, told reporters in Jerusalem. M ax Gaylard, the UN humanitarian coordinator for the Palestinian territories, said there is a critical emergency in the Gaza Strip right now ... By any definition this is a humanitarian crisis and more.Thousands of Hamas faithful attended the funeral of Nizar Rayan -- a firebrand hardliner who was killed with his four wives and 11 children on Thursday. Hamas vowed to avenge the death of the most senior Hamas leader killed by Israel since Abdel Aziz al-Rantissi in 2004 and warned that it could resume suicide attacks against Israel for the first time since January 2005. Thousands of protesters took to the streets of Gaza and the occupied West Bank after Hamas called for a day of wrath. Police fired tear gas at rock-throwing youths in annexed east Jerusalem. With a ground offensive widely expected and no ceasefire in sight, the Israeli army opened a border crossing to allow an estimated 400 people with foreign passports to leave Gaza. Hamas fired more than 30 rockets into Israel, but no casualties were reported. Militants have fired more than 360 rockets into Israel over seven days, killing four people and wounding dozens more. The offensive has sparked angry protests in the Muslim world and elsewhere across the globe and defied diplomatic efforts to broker a truce.
Israel lets Palestinians flee; UN warns of crisis By ARON HELLER and IBRAHIM BARZAK, Associated Press Writers JAN 2,09
EREZ CROSSING, Israel – Israel allowed several hundred Palestinians with foreign passports to flee Gaza on Friday, even as its warplanes bombed a mosque it said was used to store weapons and destroyed homes of more than a dozen Hamas operatives.The evacuees told of crippling shortages of water, electricity and medicine, echoing a U.N. warning of a deepening humanitarian crisis in the besieged Gaza Strip in the seven-day-old Israeli campaign. The U.N. estimates at least a quarter of the 400 Palestinians killed by Israeli airstrikes on Hamas militants were civilians.Jawaher Hajji, a 14-year-old U.S. citizen who was allowed to cross into Israel, said her uncle was one of them — killed while trying to pick up some medicine for her cancer-stricken father. She said her father later died of his illness.They are supposed to destroy just the Hamas, but people in their homes are dying too, Hajji, who has relatives in Virginia, said at the Erez border crossing between Gaza and Israel.
President George W. Bush on Friday branded the Hamas rocket attacks an act of terror, while Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice accused Hamas' leaders of holding the people of Gaza hostage.The Hamas has used Gaza as a launching pad for rockets against Israeli cities, and has contributed deeply to a very bad daily life for the Palestinian people in Gaza and to a humanitarian situation that we have all been trying to address, she said.International calls for a cease-fire have been growing, and French President Nicolas Sarkozy is expected in the region next week.Bush said no peace deal would be acceptable without monitoring to halt the flow of smuggled weapons to terrorist groups.The United States is leading diplomatic efforts to achieve a meaningful cease-fire that is fully respected, Bush said Friday in his weekly radio address, released a day early. Another one-way cease-fire that leads to rocket attacks on Israel is not acceptable. And promises from Hamas will not suffice — there must be monitoring mechanisms in place to help ensure that smuggling of weapons to terrorist groups in Gaza comes to an end.Israel has targeted Hamas leaders in the past but halted the practice during a six-month truce that expired last month. Most of Hamas' leaders went into hiding at the start of the Israeli offensive on Dec. 27.Israeli troops in bases in southern Israel are awaiting orders to invade Gaza.Exiled Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal, speaking in Syria, warned that any ground assault would lead Israel to a black destiny of dead and wounded.However, he said Hamas was ready to cooperate with any effort leading to an end to the Israeli offensive against Gaza, lifting the seige and opening all crossings.Israel appears to be open to the intense diplomatic efforts by Arab and European leaders, saying it would consider stopping its punishing aerial assaults if international monitors were brought in to track compliance with any truce with Hamas.
Israel began its campaign to try to halt weeks of intensifying Palestinian rocket fire from Gaza. The offensive has dealt a heavy blow to Hamas but has not stopped the rockets, which continue to strike deeper and deeper into Israel. Three Israeli civilians and one soldier have been killed in the rocket attacks.More than 30 rockets were fired into southern Israel on Friday, slightly injuring four. Sirens warning Israelis to take cover when military radar picks up an incoming rocket have helped reduce casualties in recent days.Israeli TV showed video of a table set for the traditional Sabbath meal covered with shrapnel and broken glass.After destroying Hamas' security compounds early in the operation, Israel has turned its attention to the group's leadership. Israeli warplanes on Friday hit about 20 houses believed to belong to Hamas militants and members of other armed groups, Palestinians said.
Israel also bombed a mosque it said was used to store weapons. The mosque was known as a Hamas stronghold and was identified with Nizar Rayan, the Hamas militant leader killed Thursday when Israel dropped a one-ton bomb on his home. Rayan, 49, ranked among Hamas' top five decision-makers. The explosion killed 20 people, including all four of Rayan's wives and 11 of his children. Israel's military said the bombing of Rayan's house triggered secondary explosions from the weapons stockpile there. Fear of Israeli attacks led to sparse turnout at Friday's communal prayers at mosques throughout Gaza. Still, thousands attended a memorial service for Rayan, with throngs praying over the rubble of his home and the nearby destroyed mosque. An imam delivered his sermon over a car loudspeaker as the bodies of Rayan and other family members were covered in green Hamas flags. Explosions from Israeli airstrikes and the sound of warplanes could be heard. Following the prayers, mourners marched with the bodies, with many people reaching out to touch and kiss them. The Palestinian resistance will not forget and will not forgive, said Hamas lawmaker Mushir Masri. The resistance's response will be very painful.Israel also destroyed homes of more than a dozen Hamas operatives. Most appeared to be empty, but one man was killed in a strike in the Jebaliya refugee camp in northern Gaza. Fourteen other Palestinians died Friday — killed in airstrikes or dying of wounds from earlier violence, officials said. Among them were two teenagers as well as three children — two brothers and their cousin — who were playing in southern Gaza, according to Health Ministry official Dr. Moaiya Hassanain. Maxwell Gaylard, U.N. humanitarian coordinator for the Palestinians Territories, said 2,000 people have been wounded in the past week and a significant number of the dead were women and children. There is a critical emergency right now in the Gaza Strip, he said. The U.N. World Food Program began distributing bread in Gaza to Palestinian families. It said there had been a drastic deterioration in living conditions, with shortages of food, cooking gas and fuel, as well as frequent power cuts. Israel denies there is a humanitarian crisis in Gaza and has increased its shipments of goods into Gaza. It says it has confined its attacks to militants while trying to prevent civilian casualties. The military has called some houses ahead of time to warn inhabitants of an impending attack. In some cases, aircraft also fired sound bombs to warn away civilians before flattening the homes with their missiles, Palestinians and Israeli defense officials said.
Israeli planes also dropped leaflets east of Gaza giving a confidential phone number and e-mail address for people to report locations of rocket squads. Residents appeared to ignore the leaflets. In all, Israel allowed 270 Palestinians to cross the border from Gaza to flee the fighting. The evacuees all held foreign passports, and were expected to join their families in the U.S., Russia, Turkey, Norway, Belarus, Kazakhstan and elsewhere. Nashwa Hajji, Jawaher's 13-year-old younger sister, said her family left their home following Israeli warnings, but others refused. People said, We don't want to go. We will die where we are, she said. The Hajji family was notified Thursday by the U.S. consulate that it was being evacuated. After crossing Erez, they and others boarded buses taking them to Amman, Jordan. Hajji said she, her mother and five siblings would fly to Virginia from there. The State Department said it had assisted 27 U.S. citizens and members of their immediate families to leave Gaza on Friday and make their way to Jordan and stood ready to help others. Department officials said earlier this week they were aware of roughly 30 Americans in Gaza but that there could be others. Many of the evacuees were foreign-born women married to Palestinians and their children. Spouses who did not hold foreign citizenship were not allowed out. I feel happy and sad, said Caroline Katba, 15, A Russian citizen. Happy, because I am going to Russia, and sad, because my father is left behind.Heller reported from the Erez Crossing, Barzak from Gaza City.
Hamas warns it is ready to confront Gaza invasion Fri Jan 2, 8:27 PM
By Nidal al-Mughrabi
GAZA (Reuters) - Hamas's top leader warned Israel its army would be defeated if it invaded the Gaza Strip, while the United States said it envisioned a ceasefire with international monitoring that would ensure the Islamist group could not rearm.
Israeli armored forces remained poised on the Gaza border for a possible ground operation, a week after Israel launched devastating air strikes with the declared aim of ending rocket attacks on its southern towns.Gaza medical officials put the Palestinian casualty toll at least 429 dead and 2,000 wounded.A United Nations agency said more than a quarter of those killed in the Gaza Strip were civilians. A leading Palestinian human rights group put the figure at 40 percent.Four Israelis have been killed by Palestinian rockets since Israel's offensive began, including longer-range weapons that have hit the port of Ashdod and the desert town of Beersheba, forcing schools to shut and residents to scurry for shelter.In Damascus, Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal sounded a defiant note in a televised speech.We are ready for the challenge, this battle was imposed on us and we are confident we will achieve victory because we have made our preparations, Meshaal said.A Palestinian official has told Reuters that Egypt had begun exploratory talks with Hamas to stop the fighting.U.S. President George W. Bush, in his first public comments on the hostilities that erupted less than a month before he leaves office, said: Another one-way ceasefire that leads to rocket attacks on Israel is not acceptable.And promises from Hamas will not suffice -- there must be monitoring mechanisms in place to help ensure that smuggling of weapons to terrorist groups in Gaza comes to an end, he said in remarks prepared for his weekly Saturday radio address, which was released Friday.The United States has demanded Hamas, which Israel says has been smuggling weapons through tunnels under Gaza's border with Egypt, take the first step by halting rocket attacks on Israel.In the Israeli-blockaded Gaza Strip, 1.5 million Palestinians are unable to escape the conflict. Residents face bombs, missiles and flickering electricity, and queue for bread along streets littered with broken glass and other debris.Ten Palestinians were killed Friday in more than 30 Israeli air strikes. Seven of them were civilians, including five children, local medics said.One missile killed three Palestinian children aged between eight and 12 as they played on a street near the town of Khan Yunis in the south of the strip. One was decapitated.Islamist fighters fired rockets at Israel's ancient port of Ashkelon, blowing out windows in an apartment building. Another house took a direct hit from a long-range missile later in the day, and cars were set ablaze.
DIPLOMACY
Bush and U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice have been engaged in telephone diplomacy during the past week, talking with leaders in the Middle East and Europe, including Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
Earlier Friday the White House said Israel must decide for itself whether to go into the Gaza Strip with ground forces but it cautioned any actions should avoid civilian casualties and ensure the flow of humanitarian goods.Hamas is believed to have 25,000 fighters. Its men have been maintaining a vigil along the Israeli frontier, observing army movements on the other side and broadcasting messages in Hebrew over field radios telling their enemy they are not afraid.In his remarks, Bush expressed concern about the humanitarian situation in Gaza and said the United States had offered $85 million to relief efforts this week.Meshaal urged Arabs to step up aid and to send medical teams. He said European and Arab countries had contacted Hamas to discuss ending the fighting but he did not name them.Israel has been allowing about 90 truckloads of food and medicine to enter the Gaza Strip daily, saying its enemy was Hamas, not the Palestinian people. Israel tightened its blockade of the territory after Hamas seized the enclave in fighting against Abbas's Fatah group in 2007.We will not rest until we destroy the Zionist entity, said Hamas leader Fathi Hammad at the funeral of Nizar Rayyan, a senior Hamas leader who was killed along with four wives and 11 children in an air strike Thursday.Bracing for protests and retaliatory violence, Israel sealed off the occupied West Bank to deny entry to most Palestinians and beefed up security at checkpoints.(Additional reporting by Adam Entous, Allyn Fisher-Ilan and Ori Lewis in Jerusalem and Jeremy Pelofsky in Washington, Writing by Jeffrey Heller and Douglas Hamilton, Editing by Giles Elgood)
TSX gains 2 percent as oil leads the way Fri Jan 2, 3:06 PM
TORONTO (Reuters) - Toronto's main stock index soared more than 2 percent on Friday afternoon as strength in the energy sector, supported by the rising price of crude, led the way higher.The S&P/TSX composite index was up 201.30 points, or 2.24 percent, at 9,189.00. Nine of the index's 10 main groups were higher, with consumer staples the lone group lower.(Reporting by Ka Yan Ng; editing by Rob Wilson)
EU calls crisis talks as Russian gas flow dwindles By Dmitry Zhdannikov and Sabina Zawadzki – Fri Jan 2, 5:03 pm ET
MOSCOW/KIEV (Reuters) – European countries began to suffer from reduced gas supplies on Friday after Russia cut deliveries to Ukraine in a contract dispute.The Czech Presidency of the European Union said it would call a crisis meeting of envoys in Brussels on Monday and demanded that existing gas supply deals be honored.We feel that the situation has now escalated to a point that substantiates an extraordinary meeting, Czech presidency spokesman Radek Honzak said. Talks would also probably be called soon with Moscow, another spokesman said.Energy relations between the EU and its neighbors should be based on reliability and predictability, the presidency said in a statement.Existing commitments to supply and transit have to be honored under all circumstances.Russia's gas export monopoly Gazprom accused Ukraine of stealing gas in transit. Gas importers in Romania, Hungary and Poland said pressure on their pipelines had dropped.Gas inflows from import fell by 30 to 40 percent ... This is because of Ukraine's dispute with Russia, Romania's state-controlled pipeline operator Transgaz director Ioan Rusu told Reuters by telephone.There were similar reports of less steep supply falls from Budapest and Warsaw.Pressure started to decline at 1500 GMT. Pressure is declining continuously. However, the drop has not yet reached a critical level, Edina Lakatos, a spokeswoman for the Hungarian energy company MOL's natural gas transmission subsidiary, said.Ukraine's state energy firm Naftogaz denied it was illegally siphoning off Russian gas.
Gazprom's accusation suggested Moscow was in no mood for compromise in a re-run of a 2006 argument that led to supply shortages across the EU.The Ukrainian side openly admits it is stealing gas and is not ashamed of this, Gazprom spokesman Sergei Kupriyanov said, adding that Gazprom had increased exports to Europe via an alternative route -- Belarus.Poland said deliveries from Ukraine had dropped six percent but were being made up by deliveries through Belarus.The change in deliveries is not being felt by Polish natural gas consumers, said gas operator Gaz System and gas monopoly PGNiG in a joint statement.
NEW DOUBTS ABOUT RUSSIA
The European Union -- which receives a fifth of its gas via pipelines through Ukraine -- had initially said it considered the dispute between Moscow and Kiev to be a bilateral issue.The row could raise new doubts about Moscow's reliability as an energy supplier and fuel suspicions in the West -- already running high since Russia's war with Georgia last August -- that the Kremlin policy us to bully pro-Western neighbors.Russia denies politics are behind the dispute and says it is about prices and debts, but the two ex-Soviet neighbors have clashed over a drive by Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko to take his country into the NATO alliance.
Earlier on Friday, energy firms in Germany, Bulgaria and Turkey said their supplies were unaffected. Europe, where temperatures fell below freezing overnight, has enough gas stockpiled to manage without Russian supplies for several days but could face difficulties if any disruption stretched into weeks, analysts said. Talks between Naftogaz and Gazprom have not resumed since they collapsed two days ago. If they do restart, the negotiators will have to bridge huge differences. Alexei Miller, CEO of Gazprom, said on Thursday he wanted Ukraine to pay $418 per 1,000 cubic meters (tcm) of gas, compared with the $179.50 Kiev paid in 2008. Ukraine says the most it can afford to pay is $235. Gazprom charges about $500/tcm to customers in the European Union, though that is likely to fall by up to half this year. Gas prices track oil and crude has plummeted in value. Gas markets in northwest Europe seemed unconcerned about the supply outlook over the next few days, with prices falling in Britain and Belgium on expectations of warmer weather. I guess everyone expects it (the Russia-Ukraine row) to be resolved fairly soon and if it's resolved over the next day or so then it shouldn't cause any problems, there is plenty of storage to cover things as well, one UK gas trader said.
Manufacturing index drops to 28-year low By ELLEN SIMON, AP Business Writer – Fri Jan 2, 4:53 pm ET
NEW YORK – Signs grew that the economy could turn even weaker in 2009, as an index of December manufacturing activity sank to its lowest point in 28 years. Every corner of the sector was down, from bakeries to cigarette-makers to aluminum smelters.The Institute for Supply Management, a trade group of purchasing executives, said Friday its manufacturing index fell to 32.4 in December, a greater-than-expected decline from November's reading of 36.2. Wall Street economists surveyed by Thomson Reuters had expected the reading to fall to 35.5.Components of the index hit historic lows. New orders fell to their lowest level on records going back to 1948. Prices fell as the number of respondents saying they had paid more in December than in November sank to its lowest monthly reading since 1949.A reading below 50 for the overall index indicates contraction. The index, based on a survey of the institute's members, has fallen steadily for the last five months as the economy deteriorated.December's reading is the lowest since June 1980, when the economy was near the end of a six-month recession.If December's rate of manufacturing activity were to persist for 2009, the nation's gross domestic product would show a 2.7 percent contraction, said Norbert Ore, chairman of the group's business survey committee. GDP, the broadest measure of economic activity, decreased at an annual rate of 0.5 percent in the third quarter of 2008, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis.An increasingly constrained consumer, deepening woes for the housing sector, and a desire to pare inventories will all continue to weigh heavily on domestic demand, said Joshua Shapiro, chief U.S. economist at MFR Inc., an economics consulting firm in New York. Overall U.S. manufacturing output, which has been shrinking since late 2007 and losing momentum at a more rapid rate recently, is likely to be even weaker in coming quarters.Only three recessions in the history of the index have showed weaker manufacturing readings, said John Ryding, of RDQ Economics. Those recessions were in 1948 to 1949, 1973 to 1975 and 1980.
The U.S. weakness is part of a worldwide slowdown. China's manufacturing sector, which accounts for 43 percent of the economy, contracted for a fifth straight month in December. Singapore said its economy shrank in the fourth quarter, and South Korea said its exports fell 17.4 percent in December. With European manufacturing indexes also dropping, the case for a massive global fiscal stimulus continues to grow, Ryding said.Investors shrugged off the grim report on the new year's first day of trading, eager to start fresh after the losses of 2008. Stocks closed higher, with the Dow Jones industrial average up 258.30 to 9,034.69. Broader indexes were also higher.As the economy sputters through a recession that began in December 2007, no industry is proving resistant. No sector reported overall growth in December. Also, none reported growth in new orders, production, employment or prices, as businesses from tobacco to coal products to foodmakers saw declines.Declining prices, coming after the summer's soaring market for commodities, have sent manufacturers — especially in chemicals and metals — reeling.Century Aluminum last month cut production at a West Virginia plant and said that it might have to cease production at the plant entirely unless it cuts costs and prices stabilize. LyondellBasell Industries, the third-largest independent chemical company in the world, said Wednesday that while several lenders had allowed it to postpone $160 million in loan payments, a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing might still be an option.
The summer's commodity bubble was devastating for many food processors. Pilgrim's Pride Corp., the nation's largest chicken producer, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Dec. 1.With the overall unemployment rate at 6.7 percent in November, the highest in 15 years, manufacturing continues to be one of the hardest hit sectors. The sector lost 85,000 jobs between October and November, according to the most recent data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. More losses are expected in coming months as demand continues to be weak.The purchasing managers' employment index showed its lowest reading since 1982 as manufacturers across industries continue to cut jobs.Western Digital Corp., which makes computer hard drives, said in December it plans to cut 2,500 jobs. The drugmaker Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. said in December it would cut 800 jobs by the end of 2008.Automotive supplier Visteon Corp. said Friday it will shift more than 2,000 workers to a four-day week and cut their pay by 20 percent as auto sales continue to founder. General Motors Corp. on Wednesday received the first tranche of $9.4 billion in low-cost loans from the U.S. Treasury, part of a package designed to keep ailing automakers in business.
DANIEL 7:23-24
23 Thus he said, The fourth beast(THE EU,REVIVED ROME) shall be the fourth kingdom upon earth,(7TH WORLD EMPIRE) which shall be diverse from all kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, and shall tread it down, and break it in pieces.(TR BLOCKS)
24 And the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise:(10 NATIONS) and another shall rise after them;(#11 SPAIN) and he shall be diverse from the first, and he shall subdue three kings.(BE HEAD OF 3 KINGS OR NATIONS).
Sarkozy's Diplomatic Mission to the Middle East By BRUCE CRUMLEY / PARIS – Fri Jan 2, 8:30 pm ET
AP Although France relinquished the rotating presidency of the European Union with the New Year, French President Nicolas Sarkozy is showing no signs of surrendering diplomatic center stage. As Israel's offensive on Gaza continues, Sarkozy announced on Thursday that he will visit both Israel and the Palestinian capital of Ramallah on Jan. 5 in an effort to broker a halt to the violence. So far, there are few indications that Sarkozy's signature take-charge moves will produce a quick result. But Sarkozy will be hoping that his controversial resumption of relations with Syria last year will translate into diplomatic leverage that can deliver Hamas cooperation in a new cease-fire. (Read about TIME Person of the Year runner-up Nicolas Sarkozy.)
There is no humanitarian crisis, and therefore there is no need for a humanitarian truce, Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said Thursday after an ElysÉe meeting with Sarkozy, who had reiterated his appeal that fighting stop immediately. We affected most of the infrastructure of terrorism in Gaza Strip, and the question of whether it's enough or not will be according to our assessment on a daily basis. (See pictures of Israel's deadly assault on Gaza.) Israel's deaf ear to Sarkozy's plea has raised the diplomatic stakes involved. Although the French President's trip to Egypt, Syria and Lebanon had been set long ago, stops in Ramallah and Jerusalem have been added to discuss possible paths to peace with various leaders. ElysÉe officials say Sarkozy won't be advancing any plans for resolving longer-term conflicts but rather seeking to use his influence and rare good relations with major players in the area to get the fighting to stop. For now, all other questions are secondary to the issue of restoring peace, said Sarkozy spokesman Franck Louvrier. It's an objective everyone says they want, so the focus will be finding a way to make it attainable.Given the absence of the U.S.'s traditional lead role in the region until President-elect Barack Obama takes office, Sarkozy finds himself with a rare opportunity to wade into a Middle East crisis as the main diplomatic player. The ElysÉe hopes Sarkozy's visit to Ramallah to meet with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas can help reverse Abbas' increasing marginalization and make him an active partner in hammering out a truce. But the main event of Sarkozy's peacemaking foray will more likely be in Damascus, where he will meet with Syrian President Bashar Assad on Tuesday. Sarkozy's recent rapprochement with Syria, the regional player with the most influence over Hamas, means that the French President may have more diplomatic leverage than many of his Western counterparts.
Sarkozy ended Assad's long stint of international isolation by making Syria a founding member of the newly formed Mediterranean Union. Although Sarkozy faced heated criticism in July for embracing Assad - who is denounced by human rights activists and widely accused of orchestrating the 2005 assassination of Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri - the French President has defended the move as realpolitik designed to turn an enemy into an ally. That argument will now be put to the test. Sarkozy is expected to press Assad to help find an end to the Gaza bloodshed - notably by pressuring Hamas to fulfill Israeli demands that it stop firing rockets. Damascus-based Hamas leader Khaled Meshal seems willing to accept that condition in exchange for Israel's reopening border crossings that have economically asphyxiated Gaza - an issue that could eventually force a change in Egypt's closure of its frontier. Sarkozy may have a short window for making progress. Nicolas Sarkozy uses his energy and good faith to change the world - and that has had its chance as an alternative to the universally rejected Bush doctrine, wrote editorialist Yves ThrÉard in the French daily Le Figaro on Friday. But Obama taking command will alter that equation, and risks crowding [Sarkozy] out.
Three EU states open up to Bulgarian, Romanian workers
ELITSA VUCHEVA 02.01.2009 @ 09:28 CET
The New Year has brought with it the lifting of restrictions for Bulgarian and Romanian workers in Greece, Spain and Denmark, but a number of EU states will be keeping barriers to their labour markets for three more years.Greece on Wednesday (31December) became the latest old EU member to lift restrictions for Bulgarian and Romanian workers, following Spain and Denmark which set the example earlier in December.The Greek government has reached this decision after assessing all parameters. With this move, illegal work will diminish. The reasons [to work illegally] will be very much reduced, as workers from Bulgaria and Romania now become just as competitive as the Greek ones, if not more, the secretary general of the Greek labour ministry was quoted as saying by Bulgarian news agency Bgnes.For its part, Spain has issued a declaration saying that the moratorium [on Bulgarian and Romanian workers] has been unfair and fruitless, according to a statement published on the Bulgarian foreign ministry's website.Madrid also believes that the two countries' growing economies would encourage their workers to stay home rather than look for a job abroad.By contrast, the UK, Ireland, Germany, Austria, Luxembourg, Netherlands and Belgium have announced in the last weeks that they would keep their labour markets closed to Bulgarians and Romanians for a second period of three years, citing the economic downturn as the main reason.Since Bulgaria and Romania joined the EU on 1 January 2007, other EU member states have been able to restrict access to their labour markets for the new workers for a set period of a maximum of seven years, after which all of them must fully open up.
For the first two years of their membership, Bulgarians and Romanians have faced such restrictions in most states, except for Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia and Sweden.In countries where barriers have remained, workers from the two newcomers need a work permit accompanied by lengthy and heavy administrative procedures - simplified for certain professions in some of member states - to be legally employed.In November, the European Commission encouraged all EU countries to lift remaining barriers, arguing that the new workers had not caused serious disturbances on labour markets, nor had they flooded them, as some had feared.Additionally, it stressed that those workers had contributed to the economic growth by bringing more manpower where it was most needed, and had had little or no negative impact on wages and unemployment levels.
French warship thwarts Somali pirate attack Fri Jan 2, 5:36 am ET
BBC PARIS – A French warship has thwarted an attack by Somali pirates on a cargo ship in the dangerous Gulf of Aden on a day when several cargo ships were attacked, the French president's office said.The warship was patrolling the area Thursday as part of a multinational operation to protect commercial vessels passing through one of the world's most important sea routes.The crew of the French PM L Her dispatch boat intercepted two speedboats carrying eight Somali pirates as they were preparing to board a Panamanian cargo ship, said a statement that President Nicolas Sarkozy's office released late Thursday. The French navy will hand over the men to Somali authorities.The French crew seized weapons and munitions from the speedboats, the statement said.Also on Thursday, Somali pirates seized an Egyptian cargo ship and its 28 crew members, but a Malaysian military helicopter saved an Indian tanker from being hijacked.More than a dozen warships are now patrolling the vast waterway between the shores of Yemen and Somalia. Countries as diverse as Britain, India, Iran, the United States, China, France and Germany have naval forces in the waters.
According to the International Maritime Bureau, pirates attacked 111 times in the Gulf of Aden in 2008, successfully hijacking 42 ships.
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.
Maritime blizzard cuts power to thousands Charlottetown Airport records 49 cm of snow Saturday, January 3, 2009 | 12:26 AM AT CBC News
Snow piles up against a home in New Glasgow, N.S. (Kevin Harvey/CBC) A blizzard that cancelled New Year's Day travel plans and cut power to parts of the Maritimes is expected to move out of the region Friday.About 4,000 customers in Nova Scotia were without electricity Friday afternoon, despite the fact that Nova Scotia Power had said it hoped to restore service to most people by noon. At one point late Thursday, more than 11,000 people were without power.The weather has to be quite adverse before it can stop us, said Glennie Langille, a spokeswoman for the utility.High winds are probably the biggest problem for us in trying to respond. We either have whiteouts or, if we have gusts about 90 km/h, it's unsafe to put the bucket trucks up in the air.The Canso Causeway, which connects Cape Breton to mainland N.S., has reopened to traffic, officials said Friday. Blowing snow and rocks had forced its closure a day earlier.Blizzard warnings remain in effect for the Cape Breton Highlands. Parts of Cape Breton were forecast to receive up to 60 centimetres of snow.It's a great start to 2009. Makes people feel alive, said Halifax resident Gary Merrick. They don't have to worry about their stocks. They're all out shovelling snow today.
Storm moving to Labrador
Ferry service between N.S. and Newfoundland and Labrador was interrupted Thursday with one vessel delayed by high winds.Many flights in and out of Halifax's Stanfield International Airport are operating Friday, but some connections in and out of Prince Edward Island are delayed.A snowy scene at Halifax's Hemock Ravine park. (Submitted by John Sparling) The blizzard essentially shut down the Island Thursday, as officials pulled snowplows off the roads and warned people to stay at home. Wind gusts of more than 100 km/h and near-zero visibility made driving treacherous.Most of the Island's popular meet-and-greet New Year's Day levees were also cancelled.
Scattered power outages were reported throughout P.E.I., which recorded 49 centimetres of snow at the Charlottetown Airport.Parts of southeastern New Brunswick were also hit by the blizzard, with about 14 centimetres of snow dumped on the Moncton area.As you went further inland around Fredericton, they just got a light dusting of snow, said Kathleen Young, an Environment Canada meteorologist. It wasn't too bad.The storm system is headed northeastward to Labrador, bringing strong winds and up to 25 centimetres of snow.With files from the Canadian Press
Floods kill five in central Vietnam JAN 2,09
HANOI (Reuters) – Unseasonable floods brought by rains this week have killed at least five people in central Vietnam while 10 others remained missing, the government and state-run media said Saturday.Waters were now receding in main rivers in the region but three including a woman drowned in Quang Nam province and another 44-year-old man died in floods in the neighboring province of Quang Ngai, the government said in a disaster report.A 22-year-old man died in Binh Dinh province while nine fishermen were among the missing after their boats sank, Saturday's Thanh Nien newspaper quoted provincial disaster reports as saying.Floods and storms often strike central Vietnam between August and November but heavy rains since Monday caused by a cold spell hit the region widely exposed to the sea and raised river waters.The government said more than 5,000 homes were submerged and floods also inundated a combined 74,400 hectares of rice in five provinces. The affected area is not the key growing region for rice and coffee, Vietnam's main agro-products for exports.(Reporting by Ho Binh Minh; Editing by Sanjeev Miglani)
Floods, mounting snow ruin buildings in Northwest Fri Jan 2, 9:12 pm ET
PORTLAND, Ore. – A mud slide destroyed a home Friday, briefly trapping its occupants, and flooding, mud and deep snow blocked roads as the latest winter storm pummeled the Northwest.Residents of a home in suburban Lake Oswego called 911 early Friday saying they were trapped after mud flowed into their home, filling the first floor. They escaped out a window and were taken to a hospital, said deputy Fire Marshall Gert Zoutendijk. He said their lives were not in danger.Authorities said 21 nearby homes were evacuated.Outside Portland in Clackamas County, about 30 families were evacuated from a mobile home park because of flooding and about 60 roads were closed. County officials declared a state of emergency.Also in Clackamas County, floods crept into the Estacada library, ruining thousands of books before the water receded. A layer of silt remained.The storm dropped just over 3 inches of rain east of Portland before the sky cleared during the morning, and 3.9 inches fell in Aurora, south of the city.In eastern Washington and northern Idaho, at least two roofs collapsed under the weight of mounting snow Friday.Jeff Roma had been up clearing snow off the roof of his Spokane business, Buck's Tire and Automotive, on Friday morning when the roof started to collapse.I heard it start to go and I had to get off, Roma told The Spokesman-Review.
He was not injured.
In nearby Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, a business owner and his dog narrowly escaped from a jewelry store before the roof caved in.The risk of roof collapse caused a Spokane-area Costco to close Friday and hire a contractor to shovel its roof. In addition, three Wal-Mart stores were closed in the region while snow was cleared from their roofs, The Spokesman-Review reported.About 4 to 5 inches of snow fell in Spokane on Friday, bringing the season's total to 69 inches. More snow was expected over the weekend.
More small quakes rattle Yellowstone National Park Fri Jan 2, 5:34 pm ET
YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK, Wyo. – More earthquakes are rattling Yellowstone National Park.The small quakes include three more Friday that measured stronger than magnitude 3.0. The University of Utah Seismic Stations say the strongest was 3.5.
Several hundred quakes centered under the northern end of Yellowstone Lake have now occurred since Dec. 26. No damage has been reported.Earthquake swarms happen fairly often in Yellowstone. But scientists say it's unusual for so many earthquakes to happen over several days.Yellowstone lies mostly in northwestern Wyoming and is the caldera of a volcano that last erupted 70,000 years ago. Scientists have not concluded what is causing the earthquakes.
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