DOLLAR DECLINES AS NATIONS MULE RESERVE

SEX SINS

1 CORINTHIANS 6:9,14-18
9 Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind,
10 Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.
14 And God hath both raised up the Lord, and will also raise up us by his own power.
15 Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ? shall I then take the members of Christ, and make them the members of an harlot? God forbid.
16 What? know ye not that he which is joined to an harlot is one body? for two, saith he, shall be one flesh.
17 But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit.
18 Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body.

GALATIONS 5:19-21
19 Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness,
20 Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies,
21 Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.

SINS OF PEOPLE

2 TIMOTHY 3:1-5
1 This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come.
2 For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,
3 Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good,
4 Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God;
5 Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.
6 For of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts,
7 Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.

DECIEVERS WAXING WORSE AND WORSE.

2 TIMOTHY 3:13
13 But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived.

MORE SIN SIGNS

EPHESIANS 5:5-8
5 For this ye know, that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.
6 Let no man deceive you with vain words: for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience.
7 Be not ye therefore partakers with them.
8 For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light:

Scientific Study Confirms Darfur Rape Epidemic June 1, 2009

OneWorld US, Africa Action, OneWorld TV, Aegis Trust, Amnesty International, Enough Project, Physicians for Human Rights, Save Darfur, Voice of America.WASHINGTON, Jun 1 (OneWorld.net) - A scientifically conducted study carried out in a refugee camp has defined the extent of rape and sexual violence faced by Darfuri women both in their home villages and the camps where they seek safety. The researchers offer four recommendations to protect women and support survivors. A Darfuri woman in a refugee camp. This photo is from the new PHR report, Nowhere to Turn: Failure to Protect, Support and Assure Justice for Darfuri Women.More information at darfuriwomen.org. © Physicians for Human Rights (flickr)What's the Story? Many Darfuri women refugees live in a nightmare of memories of past trauma compounded by the constant threat of sexual violence around the camps now,said Susannah Sirkin, deputy director of Physicians for Human Rights (PHR), which released the study Sunday. PHR's report, titled Nowhere To Turn: Failure To Protect, Support and Assure Justice for Darfuri Women,tells the stories of 88 women refugees living at the Farchana camp in Chad, a country that borders the Darfur region of Sudan. Some 17 of the 88 women -- who were interviewed by four female researchers, including three physicians -- reported instances of confirmed or highly probable rape occurring in their Darfur villages during attacks. They and many other women fled and sought safety in neighboring Chad, but did not escape the danger. Another 15 of the 88 women reported being raped in the refugee camp, said PHR. Researchers designed the study to be culturally sensitive, yet rigorously scientific. The women were provided a questionnaire that enabled them to tell their stories in secret, and then a subset was given a medical examination; the doctors followed international guidelines to assess the extent to which physical and psychological evidence corroborated the women's stories.Many of the women who were raped are suffering severe mental trauma, including Major Depression and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, according to the medical exams. The women are not receiving the psychological support they need to recover, reported PHR. Women who report being raped are stigmatized, and remain trapped in places of perpetual insecurity,said Sirkin.There's no one to stop the rapes, no one to turn to for justice for past or ongoing crimes, and little psycho-social support to address their prolonged and unimaginable traumas.(See the full statement from Physicians for Human Rights below.)

The Farchana Manifesto

On Jun. 5, 2008, in the Farchana refugee camp, seven women were bound, whipped, and beaten with sticks of firewood. They were being punished for working to earn money for their families outside of the camp. After the violence, their money, possessions, and food ration cards were taken away from them. After this brutal scene, a group of Darfuri women wrote a one-page document in Arabic to alert the world to the plight of women in refugee camps. The Farchana Manifesto was later published by PHR. The manifesto speaks of the challenges and fears faced by women refugees from Darfur, said DarfuriWomen.org, a site created by PHR to raise awareness of this issue. One of the women involved in writing the manifesto spoke on camera about the problems with refugee camps: a lack of rights, the poor treatment of women, and a lack of attention to basic needs.

Perpetrators Begin to Face Justice

Sudanese rebel leader Bahar Idriss Abu Garda voluntarily appeared before the International Criminal Court (ICC) last month to face charges of war crimes perpetrated in Darfur. Abu Garda is one of three rebel commanders accused of directing the 2007 Haskanita attack in South Darfur, which killed 12 African Union (AU) peacekeepers and wounded eight others. He is also the first to appear before the ICC in relation to the court's investigation into war crimes in Darfur. International human rights advocates are hopeful that Abu Garda's voluntary appearance in court will lead to renewed efforts to bring justice for those impacted by years of fighting in Darfur.In a video prepared by the international anti-genocide group Aegis Trust, available on OneWorld TV, defectors from the Sudanese regime explain their role in the Sudanese government's planning and execution of mass atrocities in Darfur, implicating members of the regime at the highest level. The things that affected me the most were burning villages and seeing civilians, the homeless, children, and elderly people dead,said Ali, a former fighter with the Janjaweed militia, a group that the Sudanese government is accused of arming and directing to commit violent acts against civilians in Darfur.

Background: Conflict and Humanitarian Crisis in Darfur

Since 2002, the genocide in Darfur has claimed approximately 400,000 lives and forced up to 2.5 million civilians to flee their homes. Many displaced people are taking refuge in camps in Sudan or neighboring countries like Chad. Humanitarian aid is at risk of collapse due to the violence and a lack of cooperation from the Sudanese government.Earlier this year, hopes were raised for a resolution in Darfur by an agreement to launch peace talks between the Sudanese government and a major rebel group. But the conflict continues. The largest humanitarian operation in the world has so far failed to bring peace and stability to the region, but a new commitment and new approach from the Obama administration can bring peace to Darfur and the rest of the country, said the Washington, DC-based advocacy group Africa Action after Obama was elected. The group outlined a suggested roadmap to peace in Sudan for the new U.S. president to follow.Darfur remains a prime concern for the Obama administration, especially as the country cries out for peace and justice, said U.S. President Barack Obama in March, condemning the Sudanese government's disastrous decision to expel relief workers from the country, according to a Voice of America report.For more background on the conflict, the humanitarian situation in Sudan, and the international community's efforts to bring an end to the crisis, see this briefing paper prepared by the U.S.-based campaigning organization Save Darfur.

Take Action

There is a solution for Sudan and activism is essential for that solution,said John Prendergast, co-founder of the Enough Project to prevent genocide and crimes against humanity, at an April memorial event outside the White House. Activism has elevated an obscure war in a desert far away to the Oval Office, saved thousands of lives by preventing the Sudanese government from using starvation as a weapon of war,spurred an international investigation into crimes against humanity by Sudanese officials, and encouraged nations around the world to lend military support to peacemaking and peacekeeping in Sudan, continued Prendergast, urging supporters to write and call government officials and to contact the media to keep Darfur in the U.S. public eye.

These efforts will remind [U.S.] President Obama that he has the unique opportunity to lead a global push for peace in Sudan,reported the Enough Project.

AMOS 9:10
10 All the sinners of my people shall die by the sword, which say, The evil shall not overtake nor prevent us.

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

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

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

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

WARS AND RUMURS OF WARS.

MATTHEW 24:6
6 And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.

MARK 13:7
7 And when ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars, be ye not troubled: for such things must needs be; but the end shall not be yet.

NKorea prepares missiles; South beefs up defenses By WILLIAM FOREMAN, Associated Press Writer JUNE 2,09

PANMUNJOM, Korea – North Korea is believed to have begun assembling a long-range missile capable of reaching Alaska, a news report said Wednesday, as the communist regime prepared to test-fire a barrage of missiles from both coasts.The moves further heightened soaring tensions in the region following North Korea's underground nuclear test last week, and came as speculation grows that leader Kim Jong Il has selected his third son to succeed him as ruler of the secretive communist country.At the border village of Panmunjom inside the Demilitarized Zone separating the two Koreas, the situation seemed calm on the surface, but a military guide warned tensions are running deep.The possibility of armed provocation is higher than ever in the Joint Security Area,said the South Korean military guide taking journalists on a tour of the border area. He did not provide his full name saying he did not have permission to do so.The guide also cautioned journalists not to point at the North Koreans or make any gestures.On the North Korean side of the area, a lone guard could be seen standing with his arms to his side, just watching the journalist group.The mass-market JoongAng Ilbo newspaper said Wednesday that a long-range missile — transported by train to the Dongchang-ni launch site near the North's northwest coast near China —is believed to have entered an assembly building. The paper cited an unnamed South Korean official.An American military official confirmed that an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of striking the U.S. was being readied at a base on the North's west coast. The official said it could be more than a week before Pyongyang was ready to launch. He spoke on condition of anonymity because it was an intelligence-related issue.

Separately, North Korea may soon launch three or four mid-range missiles, believed to be modified versions of its Rodong series, from its east coast, South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported.The U.N. Security Council is considering measures to punish the North for the nuclear test, and U.S. Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg said Tuesday that Washington is looking for creative ideas. Steinberg arrived in Seoul on Tuesday and is scheduled to hold talks with senior South Korean officials Wednesday.Pyongyang has countered it will not accept any punishment and has warned it won't respect the 1953 truce that ended the Korean War if it is provoked.Fearing skirmishes off its coast, South Korea, whose troops are already on high alert, sent a high-speed ship equipped with guided missiles to its western waters, where the North was reportedly staging amphibious assault training.The ship is ready to frustrate North Korea's naval provocation intentions and destroy the enemy at the scene in case of provocations,the navy said in a statement.South Korea is also sending coast guard ships to escort fishing boats near the western sea island of Yeonpyeong.The long-range missile being prepared by the North — believed to have a range of up to 4,000 miles (6,500 kilometers) — could be timed to coincide with a June 16 summit in Washington between South Korean President Lee Myung-bak and President Barack Obama.

Complicating the situation is Thursday's trial in Pyongyang of two American journalists, Laura Ling and Euna Lee, accused of entering the country illegally and engaging in hostile acts.North Korea also has custody of a South Korean worker detained at a joint industrial complex at the border. He has been transferred to Pyongyang, Yonhap said Tuesday. It said North Korea has refused to allow the delivery of daily necessities to him.Associated Press writers Eric Talmadge in Seoul and Shino Yuasa in Tokyo contributed to this report.

STORMS HURRICANES-TORNADOES

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

Atlantic Hurricane Season begins Chris Dolce – Tue Jun 2, 6:05 am ET

Entering June means the start of the Atlantic Hurricane Season. The Atlantic Basin is quiet at this time. Typically we look for development this time of year in the Gulf of Mexico eastward to near the Bahamas and the western Caribbean. These locations are currently in an environment with unfavorable upper-level winds. Meanwhile, low pressure south of Mexico in the eastern Pacific has lost most of its showers and thunderstorms. Chances of this feature developing are low at this time. There is a non tropical low in the eastern Atlantic producing showers around the Azores. Tropical and Wave Expert Dr. Steve Lyons talks about what it takes to have early season tropical events: How Do I Develop Thee, Let Me Count the Ways Atlantic Basin hurricane season is beginning. So far in 2009 we have almost had a preseason development that had subtropical or tropical characteristics in the northern Gulf of Mexico that deluged Florida, and one this past Thursday off the North Carolina coast that became the 1st Tropical Depression of the season. There have been no names as of yet though. But you might ask, what are some common sources for preseason or very early season tropical cyclone development in the Atlantic Basin? There are a few and it's easiest to simply list the most common ones and give a few comments on each, so here goes! 1) Upper level low pressure that burrows to the surface within showers and thunderstorms 2) Frontal boundary that drops into the Gulf of Mexico or off the southeast U.S. coastline 3) Strong mesoscale convective complex that dives from the tornado haven of the SW and/or plains into the Gulf of Mexico For type (1); often in late spring upper level troughs of low pressure dive south into the Gulf of Mexico or into the Bahamas or southwest tropical or subtropical Atlantic.

These can be very intense at twenty to forty thousand feet and can cause a large mass of showers and thunderstorms to form along their eastern flanks. If they persist over tropical or subtropical waters they can at times begin to develop showers and thunderstorms that are more widespread and the mid and upper level low pressure begins to descend to the sea surface and form low pressure there. If showers persist and they are collocated with an area of surface low they can eventually become a subtropical or tropical cyclone. For type (2); it is not uncommon in late spring for a strong or vigorous cold front to blast into the Gulf of Mexico and/or off the southeast U.S. coastline. Fronts tend to have spin that is the same as a low area along them and on occasion weak low pressure will form on one of these fronts and then strengthen should showers and thunderstorms flare up near that low pressure area. Most of the time upper winds are fast and not favorable for subtropical or tropical cyclone development along this frontal low at lower latitudes, but should one persist and upper winds eventually (2-3 days later) lighten, conditions can become favorable for that low to transition into a subtropical or tropical cyclone. For type (3); we all know that spring and early summer is tornado season. Often large clusters of showers and thunderstorms, called mesoscale convective systems (MCS), develop and move east or northeast. But sometimes they move southeast and dive into the Gulf of Mexico causing a marine hazard. The MCS can and often does generate a spinning mesoscale convective vortex (MCV) at mid-levels, caused by heating from the showers and thunderstorms in the MCS. On rare occasions this MCS and MCV can take on tropical cyclone characteristics if it persists over water and upper winds weaken. These are the 3 primary preseason subtropical and tropical cyclone development agents, and they persist through the start of hurricane season. In fact they can be an initiator during any part of hurricane season, but tend to be the primary initiators before it begins or near its start. So keep an eye out for these three features, and of course we will too here at The Weather Channel. Are you ready for the 2009 Hurricane Season? You should know the difference between a Hurricane Watch and a Hurricane Warning. A Hurricane Watch means that hurricane conditions are possible within the specified watch area within the next 36 hours. A Hurricane Warning means that hurricane conditions are expected to affect the warning area within 24 hours.

EARTH DESTROYED WITH THE EARTH

GENESIS 6:11-13
11 The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.(WORLD TERRORISM,MURDERS)
12 And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth.
13 And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence (TERRORISM) through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth.

EARTHQUAKES

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

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

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

Earthquake shakes Honduras before OAS meeting Tue Jun 2, 12:53 pm ET

SAN PEDRO SULA, Honduras – An earthquake shook Honduras hours before U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and other top officials from Organization of American States members convened Tuesday.The magnitude-5.0 quake hit at 1:43 a.m. about 11 miles (18 kilometers) east of Olanchito, a town near the Caribbean coast, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. There were no reports of injuries or damage.Honduras is still recovering from last week's magnitude-7.3 earthquake that killed seven people and caused $100 million in damage.Clinton mentioned the quake during a breakfast gathering with Caribbean foreign ministers before the general meeting in San Pedro Sula, where the OAS is discussing Cuba's possible re-entry to the 34-nation group.Did you feel the earthquake? she asked, eliciting chuckles around the table. Very slight, very slight indeed.The quake was at least the second that Clinton has felt abroad on an official trip since she became secretary of state. One of Japan's frequent minor earthquakes shook her awake in the pre-dawn hours in her 10th floor Tokyo suite in February on her first overseas trip.

EU DICTATOR (WORLD LEADER)

REVELATION 17:12-13
12 And the ten horns (NATIONS) which thou sawest are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings one hour with the beast.
13 These have one mind, and shall give their power and strength unto the beast.

REVELATION 6:1-2
1 And I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals, and I heard, as it were the noise of thunder, one of the four beasts saying, Come and see.
2 And I saw, and behold a white horse:(PEACE) and he that sat on him had a bow;(EU DICTATOR) and a crown was given unto him:(PRESIDENT OF THE EU) and he went forth conquering, and to conquer.(MILITARY GENIUS)

REVELATION 13:1-10
1 And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy.(THE EU AND ITS DICTATOR IS GODLESS)
2 And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority.(DICTATOR COMES FROM NEW AGE OR OCCULT)
3 And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death;(MURDERERD) and his deadly wound was healed:(COMES BACK TO LIFE) and all the world wondered after the beast.(THE WORLD THINKS ITS GOD IN THE FLESH, MESSIAH TO ISRAEL)
4 And they worshipped the dragon (SATAN) which gave power unto the beast:(JEWISH EU DICTATOR) and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him?(FALSE RESURRECTION,SATAN BRINGS HIM TO LIFE)
5 And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; and power was given unto him to continue forty and two months.(GIVEN WORLD CONTROL FOR 3 1/2YRS)
6 And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God,(HES A GOD HATER) to blaspheme his name, and his tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven.(HES A LIBERAL OR DEMOCRAT,WILL PUT ANYTHING ABOUT GOD DOWN)
7 And it was given unto him to make war with the saints,(BEHEAD THEM) and to overcome them: and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations.(WORLD DOMINATION)
8 And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.(WORLD DICTATOR)
9 If any man have an ear, let him hear.
10 He that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity: he that killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword. Here is the patience and the faith of the saints.(SAVED CHRISTIANS AND JEWS DIE FOR THEIR FAITH AT THIS TIME,NOW WE ARE SAVED BY GRACE BUT DURING THE 7 YEARS OF HELL ON EARTH, PEOPLE WILL BE PUT TO DEATH (BEHEADINGS) FOR THEIR BELIEF IN GOD (JESUS) OR THE BIBLE.

DANIEL 9:26-27
26 And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come (ROMANS IN AD 70) shall destroy the city and the sanctuary;(ROMANS DESTROYED THE 2ND TEMPLE) and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined.
27 And he( EU ROMAN, JEWISH DICTATOR) shall confirm the covenant with many for one week:( 7 YEARS) and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease,( 3 1/2 YRS) and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.

The Emergence of Obama’s Muslim Roots
Kurt Nimmo Infowars June 3, 2009

Jake Tapper and Sunlen Miller, reporting for ABC News, say that during a conference call in preparation for Obama’s trip to Cairo, Egypt, where he will address the Muslim world, deputy National Security Adviser for Strategic Communications Denis McDonough said the President himself experienced Islam on three continents before he was able to — or before he’s been able to visit, really, the heart of the Islamic world — you know, growing up in Indonesia, having a Muslim father — obviously Muslim Americans (are) a key part of Illinois and Chicago.During the election, political opponents within the Democratic Party claimed Obama attended a Wahabbi madrassa in Indonesia.During the election, the Obama spin-machine downplayed – even tried to eradicate entirely – his Muslim roots and made the candidate out to be a devout Christian. He joined the United Church of Christ in an effort to purge any notion that he is a Muslim.Barack Hussein Obama Sr., of Nyangoma-Kogelo, Kenya, was a Muslim. His parents divorced when Obama was two and his mother, Ann Dunham of Wichita, Kansas, married Lolo Soetoro, another Muslim. They moved to Jakarta, Indonesia, with Obama when he was six years old. Obama spent two years in a Muslim school in Indonesia and two more in a Catholic school.

Widely distributed reports have noted in January 1968, Obama was registered as a Muslim at Jakarta’s Roman Catholic Franciscus Assisi Primary School under the name Barry Soetoro. He was listed as an Indonesian citizen whose stepfather, listed on school documents as L Soetoro Ma, worked for the topography department of the Indonesian Army,writes Aaron Klein for World Net Daily. Catholic schools in Indonesia routinely accept non-Catholic students, but exempt them from studying religion.

Obama’s Muslim studies were of the radical Wahabbi variety, although this is widely disputed. During the election, political opponents within the Democratic Party claimed Obama attended a madrassa in Indonesia.Sources said the background check, conducted by researchers connected to Senator Clinton, disclosed details of Mr. Obama’s Muslim past. The sources said the Clinton camp concluded the Illinois Democrat concealed his prior Muslim faith and education,the Washington Times and Times Online reported in January, 2007, citing a report published in Insight magazine.My father was basically agnostic, as far as I can tell, and I didn’t know him,Obama said during a town hall meeting on May 22, 2008, in Boca Raton, Florida. In September 2008, candidate Obama told a Pennsylvania crowd Republicans were just making stuff up about his Muslim past. Obama’s Organizing for America website would have use believe the president had nothing to do with Islam.Obama Has Never Been A Muslim, And Is a Committed Christian,the site proclaims, and even attempts to erase the past with a claim that Barack Never Attended a Muslim School.The site also claims Obama is a devout Christian and reads the Bible, though not as regularly as he’d like, now that he’s on the campaign trail. But he does find time to pray.Now that Obama is reaching out to the Muslim world, his Muslim past is useful. In his April 6 address to the Turkish Parliament, President Obama referenced how many Americans have Muslims in their families or have lived in a Muslim majority country. I know, because I am one of them.Barrack Obama wants it both ways, depending on which way the political winds are blowing. It helps that most Americans have no long term memory and are carried along by the corporate media orchestrated news cycle. Of course, it does not matter if Obama attended a Wahabbist madrassa in Indonesia or a Christian church on Chicago’s Southside. Obama’s Muslin roots are only an issue for neocons and other Islamophobes. Obama is a front man for the international bankers and the ruling elite. His religion — if indeed he follows a religion — is entirely irrelevant and only of use when the elite want to bamboozle and distract the masses. Obama’s religion is the global state. He is a devout follower of the New World Order. He is also an accomplished liar, which is a job prerequisite if one is going to pretend he represents the American people and follows the Constutition.

PEOPLE WANT OBAMA BIRTH CIRTIFICATE ANSWERS NOW
http://opengov.ideascale.com/akira/dtd/3764-4049

05/28/2009 MR. OBAMA: RESIGN NOW With Democrats Like Him, Who Needs Dictators?

MIAMI--We expected broken promises. But the gap between the soaring expectations that accompanied Barack Obama's inauguration and his wretched performance is the broadest such chasm in recent historical memory. This guy makes Bill Clinton look like a paragon of integrity and follow-through.From healthcare to torture to the economy to war, Obama has reneged on pledges real and implied. So timid and so owned is he that he trembles in fear of offending, of all things, the government of Turkey. Obama has officially reneged on his campaign promise to acknowledge the Armenian genocide. When a president doesn't have the nads to annoy the Turks, why does he bother to show up for work in the morning? Obama is useless. Worse than that, he's dangerous. Which is why, if he has any patriotism left after the thousands of meetings he has sat through with corporate contributors, blood-sucking lobbyists and corrupt politicians, he ought to step down now--before he drags us further into the abyss.I refer here to Obama's plan for preventive detentions.If a cop or other government official thinks you might want to commit a crime someday, you could be held in prolonged detention. Reports in U.S. state-controlled media imply that Obama's shocking new policy would only apply to Islamic terrorists (or, in this case, wannabe Islamic terrorists, and also kinda-sorta-maybe-thinking-about-terrorism dudes). As if that made it OK.

In practice, Obama wants to let government goons snatch you, me and anyone else they deem annoying off the street.Preventive detention is the classic defining characteristic of a military dictatorship. Because dictatorial regimes rely on fear rather than consensus, their priority is self-preservation rather than improving their people's lives. They worry obsessively over the one thing they can't control, what Orwell called thoughtcrime--contempt for rulers that might someday translate to direct action.Locking up people who haven't done anything wrong is worse than un-American and a violent attack on the most basic principles of Western jurisprudence. It is contrary to the most essential notion of human decency. That anyone has ever been subjected to preventive detention is an outrage. That the President of the United States, a man who won an election because he promised to elevate our moral and political discourse, would even entertain such a revolting idea offends the idea of civilization itself.Obama is cute. He is charming. But there is something rotten inside him. Unlike the Republicans who backed Bush, I won't follow a terrible leader just because I voted for him. Obama has revealed himself. He is a monster, and he should remove himself from power.Prolonged detention, reported The New York Times, would be inflicted upon terrorism suspects who cannot be tried.

Cannot be tried.Interesting choice of words.

Any terrorism suspect (can you be a suspect if you haven't been charged with a crime?) can be tried. Anyone can be tried for anything. At this writing, a Somali child is sitting in a prison in New York, charged with piracy in the Indian Ocean, where the U.S. has no jurisdiction. Anyone can be tried.Why is it, exactly, that some prisoners cannot be tried? The Old Grey Lady explains why Obama wants this entirely new chapter in American law in a boring little sentence buried a couple past the jump and a couple of hundred words down page A16: Yet another question is what to do with the most problematic group of Guantánamo detainees: those who pose a national security threat but cannot be prosecuted, either for lack of evidence or because evidence is tainted.In democracies with functioning legal systems, it is assumed that people against whom there is a lack of evidence are innocent. They walk free. In countries where the rule of law prevails, in places blessedly free of fearful leaders whose only concern is staying in power,tainted evidence is no evidence at all. If you can't prove that a defendant committed a crime--an actual crime, not a thoughtcrime--in a fair trial, you release him and apologize to the judge and jury for wasting their time.It is amazing and incredible, after eight years of Bush's lawless behavior, to have to still have to explain these things. For that reason alone, Obama should resign.

WORLD GOVERNMENT

EPHESIANS 6:10-13
10 Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might.
11 Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.
12 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities,(DEMONIC ANGELS IN HIGH PLACES) against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.(SPIRTIUAL DEMONIC PERSONS)
13 Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.

LUKE 4:5-7(BECAUSE SATAN OFFERS WORLD POWER, WORLD ORDERERS HAVE ACCEPTED SATANS GIFT)
5 And the devil, taking him (JESUS) up into an high mountain, shewed unto him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time.
6 And the devil said unto him, All this power will I give thee, and the glory of them: for that is delivered unto me; and to whomsoever I will I give it.
7 If thou therefore wilt worship me, all shall be thine.

DANIEL 7:23-25
23 Thus he said, The fourth beast shall be the fourth kingdom upon earth, which shall be diverse from all kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, and shall tread it down, and break it in pieces.
24 And the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise: and another shall rise after them; and he shall be diverse from the first, and he shall subdue three kings.
25 And he shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time.

DANIEL 12:4,1
4 But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.
1 And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people: and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time: and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book.

REVELATION 13:1-3,7,8,12,16-18
1 And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy.
2 And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority.
3 And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast.
7 And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them: and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations.
8 And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
12 And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him, and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed.
16 And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:
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.

REVELATION 17:3,7,9-10,12,18
3 So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns.
7 And the angel said unto me, Wherefore didst thou marvel? I will tell thee the mystery of the woman, and of the beast that carrieth her, which hath the seven heads and ten horns.
9 And here is the mind which hath wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sitteth.
10 And there are seven kings: five are fallen, and one is, and the other is not yet come; and when he cometh, he must continue a short space.
12 And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings one hour with the beast.
18 And the woman which thou sawest is that great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth.

We shall have World Government, whether or not we like it. The only question is whether World Government will be achieved by conquest or consent.James Paul Warburg appearing before the Senate on 7th February 1950

Like a famous WWII Belgian General,Paul Henry Spock said in 1957:We need no commission, we have already too many. What we need is a man who is great enough to be able to keep all the people in subjection to himself and to lift us out of the economic bog into which we threaten to sink. Send us such a man. Be he a god or a devil, we will accept him.And today, sadly, the world is indeed ready for such a man.

JEREMIAH 3:15 JACK VAN IMPE TEACHES US TRUTH
15 And I will give you pastors according to mine heart, which shall feed you with knowledge and understanding.

BILDERBERG AGENDA EXPOSED AFP’s editor crashed the secret meeting of the global elite and uncovered some scary schemes By James P. Tucker Jr. JUNE 1,09

Bilderberg boys are a bunch of grumpy old men but remain fiercely dedicated to usurping sovereignty in the United States and throughout the world. Patriots can celebrate their setbacks but never let up: Bilderberg still threatens the sovereignty of all nations while fighting for world government.Major goals remain exploiting the global recession and an imaginary swine flu pandemic to establish global departments of treasury and health under the United Nations. But at the May 14-17 meeting in Vouliagmeni, Greece, near Athens, Bilderberg took a keen interest in persuading the United States to surrender sovereignty to the International Criminal Court, or ICC.

Bilderberg is also setting up a summit in Israel June 8-11 so the world’s leading regulatory experts can address the current economic situation in one forum, said Zohar Goshen, chairman of a subgroup of the International Association of Securities Commissions (IOSCO). Mary Shapiro, chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, will represent this country. Bilderberg found President Obama a Willing Wilkie at its June, 2008 meeting in Chantilly, Va. near Washington. They were reassured when he chose their boy, Harold Koh, a strong advocate of the U.S. accepting the ICC, as the State Department’s top lawyer.In the Penn State Law Review, Koh wrote sneeringly of nationalists who oppose surrendering sovereignty to international institutions, including the ICC. He praised the transnationalist faction on the Supreme Court and the wisdom of the jurists for their rejection of the nationalist faction.Generally speaking, the transnationalists tend to emphasize the interdependence between the United States and the rest of the world, while the nationalists tend instead to focus more on preserving American autonomy, Koh wrote. The transnationalists believe in and promote the blending of international and domestic law, while nationalists continue to maintain a rigid separation of domestic from foreign law.The transnationalists view domestic courts as having a critical role to play in domesticating international law into U.S. law, while nationalists argue instead that only the political branches can internalize international law,

Koh wrote.Transnationalists believe that U.S. courts could and should use their interpretive powers to promote the development of a global legal system, while the nationalists tend to claim that U.S. courts should limit their attention to the development of a national system.Five Supreme Court justices have said, to Koh’s delight, that U.S. courts should take into consideration the rulings of foreign courts in deciding domestic cases. They are: John Paul Stevens, Anthony Kennedy, David Souter, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer.In a Bilderberg warm up, the Washington-based American Society of International Law called on the U.S to embrace the ICC. These luminaries included former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, former Rep. Mickey Edwards and a roster of educated fools.Carl Bildt, Sweden’s minister for foreign affairs, made a pitch for two other major Bilderberg goals: creating a global Department of Treasury and Department of Health, with all nations surrendering sovereignty over these issues to the UN. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is to become the Treasury Department and the World Health Organization the World Health Department. But Bildt seized on an old Bilderberg issue, global warming, to make the case for WHO. Bilderberg propaganda over a swine flu pandemic has fallen victim to facts: On average, 300,000 Americans develop flu each year and 30,000 die. Only a few have died or even been seriously afflicted by swine flu.The world economic meltdown is a once-in-a-generation crisis while global warming is a once-in-a-millennium challenge,Bildt told Bilderberg. Sources inside Bilderberg said Bildt’s speech mirrored an address he gave to the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington. Carnegie’s president, Jessica Mathews, is a long-time Bilderberg participant.We are at a critical time,Bildt told Bilderberg.The order of magnitude [of world crises] are more challenging than we are used to. The world economic recession has already reversed strong annual growth rates in many developing [poor] nations and in some parts of Europe and has the potential to bring down governments.

When we hit bottom, we can’t be sure where we’ll bounce back up,Bildt said.This is an urgent economic crisis unlike anything we have dealt with in living memory.However, he called for a bounce-back within years, not a decade-long recession as some called for in efforts to exploit human misery.Bildt then turned to selling global warming as the gateway to a World Health Department under the UN. Bilderberg boys, including David Rockefeller and others who inherited great wealth as the sons of smokestack industrialists, grabbed global warming as an issue more than a decade as a means of generating huge profits with investments to save the planet.Now, global warming has a new role.We know we need to take action,Bildt said of global warming.The global crisis is now,he said.The necessity to take action on climate change is now.His calls for global action on these supposed crises were thinly disguised calls for UN control.Bildt called for world (UN) solutions to virtually all problems. He cited the European Union as model of integration, saying, the EU is emerging as a global actor. He advocates expanding NAFTA throughout the Western Hemisphere to create an American Union.The International Monetary Fund sent a report to Bilderberg advocating its rise to the role of World Treasury Department. Further actions by policymakers, particularly in the financial sector, are needed to restore market trust and confidence,said Marek Belka, director of the IMF’s European department and former prime minister of Poland.U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner enthusiastically endorsed the plan for a World Treasury Department, although he received no assurance that he would become its leader. He expressed hope that American and European leaders could work together to achieve such a global solution to the world economic meltdown.

The IMF’s planned new role as a world Treasury Department should be welcome news to the little guy, Geithner told Bilderberg. The damage has been unfair and indiscriminant, he said.Ordinary Americans, small business owners and community banks who did the right thing and played by the rules are suffering from the actions of those who took on too much risk.But, even with a World Treasury Department, problems will not disappear overnight, Geithner warned. These are all welcoming signs, but the process of financial recovery and repair is going to take time,he said, lending his weight to a relative short-term recession as opposed to those who backed a long-term recovery. The people of Europe and America will have suffered enough to embrace a World Treasury Department, he said. Our hope is that we can work with Europe on a global framework, a global infrastructure which has appropriate global oversight, Geithner said. We can’t allow institutions to cherry-pick among competing regulators and ship risk to where it faces the lowest standards and weakest constraints.

Bilderberg is fervently working to persuade the Irish to accept an even stronger Lisbon Treaty, which would create an even stronger European Union, creating a permanent (instead of rotating) chairman and a more powerful Parliament. The EU Parliament can even now impose laws on member states.Irish voters rejected this EU expansion in an earlier referendum, but Bilderberg is pressing for another vote. Citizens of France and Germany overwhelmingly opposed the measure, numerous polls showed, but their heads of state signed off. Ireland requires a referendum before approval.A meeting is planned June 18-19 in Brussels to cross t’s and dot i’s in an effort to induce Irish voters to reverse themselves and endorse the treaty. Under EU rules, all states must back a change for it to take effect. Bilderberg leaders plan a private meeting in advance of the formal session to push ratification.They’re going to make us vote until we vote their way,said an Irishman protesting at the gates of Bilderberg, who feared reprisals if identified. There were a large number of European journalists fighting to expose Bilderberg and much is being published in Europe. Many were seized by police, surrounded by pointed guns and had their film and notes seized.

But The Times of London had a helpful story the opening day of the Bilderberg meeting, Thursday, May 14. What we have been able to establish from a World Bank spokesman, Alexis O’Brien, that the organization’s president, Robert Zoellick, will be in Athens on unspecified business May 14,the paper said.And that U.S. Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner’s public schedule is mysteriously empty for the next two days. Jo Ackermann, head of Deutsche Bank, will be traveling somewhere in Europe.Jean-Claude Trichet, head of the European Central Bank, will not be around until the end of the week.(This was a moment when all journalists were striving to identify Bilderberg participants.)Jim Tucker, veteran stalker of the Bilderberg club meetings, claims that [Margaret] Thatcher was ordered to dismantle British sovereignty, but she said no way,so they had her sacked,the paper said. (Events confirmed this, as did Lady Thatcher in a later conversation with Tucker.)

Europe is right-wing but...Published on June 02 2009 El País

Most governments in EU member states are from the right, but implement Keynesian inspired economic policies. Political forces in the EU must transcend differences and agree on a means to face up to the crisis.Most of the governments of the European Union’s 27 member countries are conservative, as are the bulk of the European Council and the president of the Commission, José Manuel Barroso. The current European Parliament, which is to be reshuffled within a matter of days, is for the most part centre-right.Some of the older generation in Spain, who have always associated Europe with the freedoms we lost under Franco and with the creation of the welfare state and who have always equated Europe with a progressive project, seem to forget this ideological reality. The European elections are an opportunity to curb that ideological drift, since more than half the legislative initiatives that affect the day-to-day lives of Europeans hinge on the outcome.Furthermore, the shared public realm of the EU is afflicted with a severe economic crisis involving a drastic decline in economic activity, soaring unemployment (over 20 million jobless), and zero price growth, which some analysts see as a portent of imminent deflation. Compounding this situation is an adverse structural misfortune factor – the failure of the Lisbon Agenda, which sought to make the EU the most advanced region on the planet – as well as a curious paradox: although most of the governments in the region are conservative, the economic policy they are implementing is Keynesian, designed to increase demand, and in no way resembles the neoliberal model they had been flirting with prior to 2007.Recalling the nature, depth and momentum of the Great Depression, Europeans (according to private-sector opinion polls and the Eurobarometer) apparently assume a fact that politicians in some EU countries (like Spain, for example) have yet to admit: no political force by itself is capable of pulling its populace out of such a global, systemic economic predicament. So at what point will it be unequivocally clear that we need a failsafe pact to replace the one Social and Christian Democrats signed after World War II, which turned Europe into a global role model of integration, progress and success? The postwar pact gave rise to the Golden Age of Capitalism (the period of the fastest, and longest-lasting, economic growth up to the mid-1970s) and to the creation of the welfare state as the best feasible human utopia.

Felipe González, now presiding over a think tank on Europe’s future, suggests overturning five aspects of that new pact: 1) Consolidation of an anticyclical economic policy to reverse the recessionary trend and proposals for a new financial order to keep us from repeating past mistakes and abuses (more and better regulation). 2) A new strategy to replace the Lisbon Agenda, inseparably tying the economic model to the European welfare state (how to be an economic and technological competitor in the age of globalisation, and how – and how much – social cohesion can be financed to uphold the social model that is a hallmark of European identity). 3) An energy policy to safeguard supply whilst accepting the constraints imposed by the fight against climate change. 4) Common immigration policies involving the cooperation of countries of origin and addressing the root causes of uncontrolled immigration. 5) A security policy targeting not only terrorism but also organized crime.Is there time to agree on these policies that cut across ideological divides? That will depend partly on the outcome of the European Parliamentary elections. And that’s why it’s absolutely essential to vote.Joaquín Estefanía.

TALK ABOUT CONTROL WATCH THIS FOLKS - TV OF THE FUTURE - FACE,VOICE RECOGNITION
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_txF7iETX0&feature=player_embedded

Opinion Europe doesn't exist Published on June 01 2009

Only the European Union – as a collection of laws useful to citizens – is real, argues Dutch philosopher Hermand de Regt. To believe that we can move the Union forward by thinking on the question of Europe’s identity could well be a disastrous mistake.With their no vote in the 2005 referendum on the European Constitution, The Netherlands have, through the intervention of Foreign Minister Maxime Verhagen, given up on the idea of a European identity. And so much the better. Instead of trying to figure out what Europe represents, we would be better off re-examining, in the spirit of Monnet and Schuman, what the European Union needs to do in order for people to actually notice its existence, in order to drive home to them what needs to be done to maintain peace and prosperity in their region – whatever the size of that region.

Minister Verhagen has proposed focusing more on Europe in practice than Europe in principle. It’s a good thing to focus on the founding idea of the European Union: the security and prosperity of the Member States’ inhabitants. To say Europe does not exist has no concrete consequences, whereas to say the European Union does not exist is quite simply stupid: there very well does exist a set of agreements and treaties between its Member States.Of course intellectuals try to make us believe in the identity of Europe (as George Steiner does in his equally playful and masterful essay The Idea of Europe (Nexus Institute, 2005)). They allude to the milestones of history: the emergence of democracy in Greece and science in Italy, the Declaration of the Rights of Man in France or the treaties concluded in the aftermath of World War II.They talk about the European school, a European mentality based on a canon or on the discovery of a specific relationship between religion, the State and science. As persuasive as that may appear, however, I don’t buy it at all. Europe does not exist as something tangible. But the European Union does.As the Turkish question has demonstrated, the very search for the quintessence of Europe can have a paralysing effect. Many people stress that Turkey does not share our European way of viewing the world, e.g. on the issue of human rights. Others contend that Turkey has not learnt the European lessons of history. But in reality, it does not matter much. After all, the European Union has nothing to do with any supposed essence of Europe, whether grounded in philosophical or historical reflection.The European Union is a means, discovered in pain by a certain number of nation-states, of coping with certain problems, particularly the risk of war and economic crises. Hence, the object of the European Union is not to embody Europe in the most essential way. The EU is quite simply a pragmatic circle, with a set of conditions for admission.In the aftermath of World War II, the big question was: What to do with Germany? So the French minister of foreign affairs, Robert Schuman, called in Jean Monnet, a French statesman and businessman, to give form to a united Europe. This initiative culminated in 1951 in the creation of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC), whose goal was to raise the standard of living in Europe and give it military and political stability. Everyone who espoused this idea (peace for economic prosperity) could take part.

To think one can advance the cause of the European Union by continuing to meditate on what truly defines Europe could prove a catastrophic mistake. Catastrophic in the sense that the European Union could see a decline in the standard of living across the board or, still more ruinous, the circle could fall apart and its members take up arms again.So national politicians should see about finding new ways to explain the importance of the European Union to its citizens. For no-one can blame us for leaving the club if it has nothing to offer us. Fortunately, the campaign for the 4 June European elections would seem to offer plenty of occasions to explain once again what the European Union can do for its inhabitants. So, Politicians, make the most of this opportunity! Herman de Regt.

PRESS EUROP
http://presseurop.eu/en

Where consensus is king Published on May 28 2009 Le Monde

The European Parliament is distinctive for its very strong culture of compromise. In order to have pull with the Commission and Council, MEPs seek to make agreements before voting, and traditional political divisions are glossed over.At the end of 2006: MEPs brought one of the most heated exchanges ever to take place in the European parliament to a close, when they voted for an amended version of the Bolkestein directive on the liberalization of services. On that day, which will not be forgotten, the French socialists broke rank with their allies to oppose the text proposed by one of their German counterparts. The outcome of that battle illustrates one of the little known aspects of the European Parliament: it is an institution with a very strong culture of compromise,which often has little to do with national traditions, but can be swayed by ulterior motives.There are many reasons for this inherent duality. The parliament rules on a wide variety of technical issues, such as fuel quality, telecommunications regulations, and safety standards, which, at the end of the day, only elicit strong opinions from the battalions of lobbyists in the European quarter of Brussels.Furthermore, even the most politicized votes, are only held after prolonged consultation between institutions that are governed by widely different types of rationale: the Parliament has to operate in conjunction with the Council, which is dominated by intergovernmental reflexes in as much as it convenes the direct representatives of member states, and with the Commission, which is staffed by politicians from the Left and the Right, who are careful to avoid party politics.The functioning of the Parliament has never been governed by a stable majority or coalition,says Florent Saint Martin, a parliamentary assistant and lecturer at the Ecole libre des sciences-politiques in Paris. According to Saint Martin, in 2008, nine out of ten votes were carried by a majority of more than 80 % of those present. This cohesion is precisely what enables MEPs to have a greater impact on the Council and the Commission,claims Olivier Costa, a member of France’s CNRS research centre and co-author with Mr. Saint Martin of a recent book on the European Parliament (Le Parlement européen, La Documentation française, April 2009, 12euros).

The three main parliamentary groups – the European Peoples’ Party, the socialists and the liberals – play an essential role in establishing a consensus. According to the VoteWatch.eu website, which is staffed by researchers from the Free University of Brussels and the London School of Economics, they each have a rate of internal cohesion of more than 85 % when it comes to votes. However, interaction between European institutions has not been sufficient to completely eliminate angry disputes over the most important texts to go before parliament, and many texts have highlighted the traditional differences between parties whose frames of reference are often diametrically opposed, before the emergence of a compromise that is submitted to a vote. These include the Bolkestein directive, REACH regulations on chemical substances, and issues such as agreement on working hours, the climate package, and the procedures for the return of illegal immigrants. Social and economic questions, the environment and immigration are issues where there is still significant conflict between Right and Left,emphasizes Mr Saint Martin.MEPs are not always motivated by political logic to the point where cohesion among the main groups may be weakened. In the course of sessions where a vote is to be held, They often have two separate division lists, one provided by their political group and another provided by the government of their home country,explains one diplomat who is responsible for monitoring proceedings in parliament, and let’s not forget the influence of lobbyists.On the occasion of every important debate, the permanent representatives of certain member states in Brussels provide MEPs from their countries with position papers recommending how they should vote. However, MEPs are free to decide on whether they wish to follow this advice.Philippe Ricard.

Senator Rockefeller patterns a healthcare reform bill on the Federal Reserve
Jerry Mazza Online Journal Tuesday, June 2, 2009

Things are getting stranger and stranger in D.C. and the promise of change now definitely looks like the same old game with Medicare: invite the HMOs in to brainstorm cuts in services to people who need them most.Behind this is a new bill submitted on May 20 by Senator John D. Jay Rockefeller IV (D, W.VA.), chairman of the Senate Finance Subcommittee on Health Care. It authorizes the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC, created in 1997) to go even further and set lists of approved treatment standards and actually have enforcement powers over methods of healthcare delivery and reimbursement. You just think about that for a minute.The bill is called, The MedPAC Reform Act of 2009, so beware when you hear words like Reform in an act as in The Commodities Futures Trading Modernization Act of 2000 (thanks to Larry Summers and signer Bill Clinton), which helped bring us The Enron Loophole,which helped bring down Enron and helped get us in the financial pickle we’re in today with derivatives.This time The MedPAC Reform Act is calling for MedPAC to be made up of independent experts as an executive agency modeled after the Federal Reserve.Is that because the Fed has done such an incredibly super job of throwing our money after banks and other dinosauric corporations like AIG?

Do we need still another shark tank of experts with vested interests and little transparency over their actions, spending your money as they will, and as fast as they print it. Yes, just as the Federal Reserve serves private financial interests, so too the new health care reimbursement agency will serve the HMOs, demanding their (your) blood money. This is the opposite of what Obama promised in his Change campaign.But then, politicians as we all know will and do say anything to get elected. Reality is another thing. And Rockefeller claims that an enhanced, empowered MedPAC would not be, and get this, subject to the whims of Congress. Excuse me? Jay said this and more about his bill in a recent interview with Washington Post healthcare writer, Ceci Connolly. He added,To truly achieve transformative health care reform, we need to separate the special interests from the decision makers. Think about that for a while.He added We must take Congress out of its current role [representing the people?] . . . It is inefficient and ineffective; we are not health-care experts, and being a deliberative body means that we cannot keep pace with the rapidly transforming health-care marketplace. Congress is not made up of all arms experts yet they appropriate billions every year to the Department of Defense. When we leave it to the generals to do on their own buying pell-mell, we end up with them in bed with big defense corporations, creating multi-billion dollar white elephants that don’t fly, i.e, incredible waste.In fact, in the true tradition of the Rockefeller family and their treasonous involvement and leadership in the Bilderberg Group, Jay Rockefeller is trying to circumvent the duly elected legislative body of the people to make side deals with private corporations, utilizing MedPAC’s experts, and hence have more money to pour down the corporations’ ever dollar-hungry gullets, not to mention the bankrupt banks’ maws.The very idea of setting up an independent national commission to declare what doctors and hospitals can and cannot do is odious — a step totally in the wrong direction for both the right and left sides of the Obama/Baucus health-care reform discussion. It is made to order to keep the money flowing right down the drain of the financial cadre behind the HMOs.

Until now, the very idea of this flagrantly special interest bill has not been permitted in the United States. Unfortunately, the model for it comes express-direct from Britain and is called the National Institute for Clinical Excellence, or NICE, more appropriately Nazi-Inspired Citizen Eradication, as statesman Lyndon LaRouche calls it. NICE was set up 11 years ago and passes on what medications, treatments, and services cannot be allowed to be given in the health-care system. It can easily become the euthanasia express, with its Kevorkians, excuse me, experts deciding who lives and who dies and when.There is a distinctly inhuman, illegal feeling about this bill. But then Rockefeller’s latest bill is one of dozens that have been filed recently in Congress, each with various slants, but all consistent with the un-American, Nazi-medicine edge.They will all be detailed soon in Obama/Baucus/Grassley’s comprehensive health care reform act in June. For instance, a version that was filed last week in the Senate called the Advance Planning and Compassionate Care Act, was to help citizens decide when to reduce expensive treatments in their end-of-life experiences. Can you believe it? It is again sponsored by Jay Rockefeller, Senators Susan Collins (R-Maine), Ron Wyden (D-Oregon), and others. This is not science fiction, folks. These geeks are for real. They just sound like they’re from another planet.In fact, Rockefeller personally desires backing the principle of providing health care for all, especially kids, so they can practice these little tricks on everyone. He would also like to have Medicare open to enrolling people 55 years old and up, to get the experts hands on them earlier. But the caveat, my dears, is that he wants his NICE agency patterned on Britain’s model to service them.NICE will decide when and how to cut care for the enrollees so that the HMO systems get their pound of flesh, yours or mine, and more. My advice, beloved fellow citizens, old, middle-aged and young, is to be careful of this Rockefeller, this elitist playing Democratic senator and his bunch. And be careful of all who offer your healthcare up as a honey-pot for the healthcare and Big Pharma bears — just like the Federal Reserve does with taxpayer money for the banks.As to Obama, he couldn’t care less. He just wants to cut a couple of trillion from his first term expenditures, the monies he’s already given away to the banks, so that he has more to spend next time around. Stay tuned. More to come!

DOCTOR DOCTORIAN FROM ANGEL OF GOD
then the angel said, Financial crisis will come to Asia. I will shake the world.

JAMES 5:1-3
1 Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you.
2 Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are motheaten.
3 Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days.

REVELATION 18:10,17,19
10 Standing afar off for the fear of her torment, saying, Alas, alas that great city Babylon, that mighty city! for in one hour is thy judgment come.
17 For in one hour so great riches is come to nought. And every shipmaster, and all the company in ships, and sailors, and as many as trade by sea, stood afar off,
19 And they cast dust on their heads, and cried, weeping and wailing, saying, Alas, alas that great city, wherein were made rich all that had ships in the sea by reason of her costliness! for in one hour is she made desolate.

EZEKIEL 7:19
19 They shall cast their silver in the streets, and their gold shall be removed: their silver and their gold shall not be able to deliver them in the day of the wrath of the LORD: they shall not satisfy their souls, neither fill their bowels: because it is the stumblingblock of their iniquity.

REVELATION 13:16-18
16 And he(FALSE POPE) causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:(CHIP IMPLANT)
17 And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.
18 Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.(6-6-6) A NUMBER SYSTEM

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

HALF HOUR DOW RESULTS WED JUNE 03,2009

09:30 AM -7.88
10:00 AM -80.68
10:30 AM -100.28
11:00 AM -73.67
11:30 AM -78.76
12:00 PM -90.00
12:30 PM -98.52
01:00 PM -112.38
01:30 PM -122.58
02:00 PM -127.91
02:30 PM -129.03
03:00 PM -115.81
03:30 PM -123.69
04:00 PM -65.63 8675.24

S&P 500 931.76 -12.98

NASDAQ 1825.92 -10.88

GOLD 963.00 -21.40

OIL 66.15 -2.40

TSE 300 10,299.39 -289.40

CDNX 1107.96 -33.78

S&P/TSX/60 627.43 -18.24

MORNING,NEWS,STATS

YEAR TO DATE PERFORMANCE
Dow -0.40%
S&P +4.59%
Nasdaq +16.47%
TSX Advances 803,declines 776,unchanged 273,Volume 2,513,157,851.
TSX Venture Exchange Advances 431,Declines 462,Unchanged 368,Volume 352,758,883.

Dow -45 points at 4 minutes of trading today.
Dow -110 points at low today.
Dow +0.32 points at high today so far.
GOLD opens at $977.50.OIL opens at $68.05 today.

AFTERNOON,NEWS,STATS
Dow -127 points at low today so far.
Dow +0.32 points at high today so far.

DAY TODAY PERFORMANCE - 12:30PM STATS
NYSE Advances 833,declines 2,713,unchanged 109,New Highs 17,New Lows 34.
Volume 2,736,522,110.
NASDAQ Advances 794,declines 1,785,unchanged 120,New highs 22,New Lows 4.
Volume 996,919,067.
TSX Advances 438,declines 948,unchanged 220,Volume 1,220,075,676.
TSX Venture Exchange Advances 236,Declines 366,Unchanged 292,Volume 194,689,635.

WRAPUP,NEWS,STATS
Dow -142 points at low today.
Dow +0.32 points at high today.
Dow -0.75% today Volume 252,143,909.
Nasdaq -0.59% today Volume -.
S&P 500 -1.37% today Volume N/A

CHINA SYNDROME
http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=1139900870&play=1
http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=1139053280&play=1
http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=1139290898&play=1
RUSSIA WANTS RESERVE CURRENCIES
http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=1139025655&play=1
http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=1139571630&play=1
http://media.cnbc.com/i/CNBC/Sections/Video/CNBC_Live/player/cnbc_live.html?v=101
ANAYLIZE THIS BANKS
http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=1139699905&play=1
MEDVEDEV INTERVIEW ON CNBC
http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=1139643486&play=1
QUESTIONS FOR BERNANKE
http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=1139342014&play=1
FED FUELING INFLATION
http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=1139274420&play=1

Dollar Declines as Nations Mull Reserve Currency Alternatives
By Oliver Biggadike and Chris Fournier

June 2 (Bloomberg) -- The dollar weakened beyond $1.43 against the euro for the first time in 2009 on bets record U.S. borrowing will undermine the greenback, prompting nations to consider alternatives to the world’s main reserve currency. The euro gained for a fourth day versus the dollar as the Russian government said emerging-market leaders may discuss the idea of a supranational currency. The pound rose to the highest level since October and the Canadian dollar traded near an eight-month high on speculation signs of a recovery in U.S. and U.K. housing will spur higher-yield demand. There’s been a lot of talk out of Russia about a new global currency, and that’s contributing toward this latest bout of dollar weakness,said Henrik Gullberg, a currency strategist in London at Deutsche Bank AG, the world’s largest currency trader.These latest comments are just adding to the general dollar weakness we’ve seen recently.The dollar slid 1.1 percent to $1.4317 per euro at 4:21 p.m. in New York, from $1.4159 yesterday. It touched $1.4331, the weakest level since Dec. 29. The dollar depreciated 1.1 percent to 95.54 yen, from 96.59. The euro traded at 136.77 yen, compared with 136.78.Sterling rose as much as 0.9 percent to $1.6596, the highest level since Oct. 30, while the Canadian dollar advanced 1.2 percent to C$1.0806, near the strongest level since Oct. 3. Pending sales of existing homes in the U.S. climbed 6.7 percent in April, the National Association of Realtors said today. The median forecast of 32 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News was for a 0.5 percent gain. Banks in the U.K. granted 43,201 home loans that month, the highest level in a year, the Bank of England said.

Russia on Currency

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev may discuss his proposal to create a new world currency when he meets counterparts from Brazil, India and China this month, Natalya Timakova, a spokeswoman for the president, told reporters by phone today. Russia’s proposals for the Group of 20 meeting in London in April included studying a supranational currency.We need some kind of universal means of payment, which could create the basis of a future international financial system,Medvedev said in a June 1 interview with CNBC.Naturally, because of the crisis in the American economy, attitude to the dollar has also changed.Regional reserve currencies are an unavoidable part of regionalizing the global financial system, Deputy Finance Minister Dmitry Pankin said in Moscow today. The Dollar Index, which ICE uses to track the currency’s performance against the euro, yen, pound, Canadian dollar, Swedish krona and Swiss franc, fell as much as 1 percent to 78.33, the lowest level since Dec. 18.

Opportunity to Sell

The market is looking for the opportunity to sell the U.S. dollar,said Jack Spitz, a managing director for foreign exchange at National Bank of Canada in Toronto.It took decades for the euro to be established. I can only imagine how long it would take for the BRIC countries to put together a currency.There’s no replacement currency for the dollar in the short term, Guo Shuqing, former head of China’s foreign-exchange administrator, said in an interview with the Financial Times for an article published yesterday.The Dollar Index reached 89.62 on March 4, the highest level since 2006, as the global recession spurred investors to take refuge in Treasuries notes and bills.

Demand for the record amount of debt the U.S. is selling will remain sufficient, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said in an interview today with state media outlets in China.

Chinese Understanding

The Chinese have a very sophisticated understanding of why the U.S. government is running up deficits, said Geithner in Beijing, pledging to rein in borrowing later. The U.S. will do everything that is necessary to preserve confidence in the nation’s financial markets, he said. The dollar also declined on speculation smaller central banks started today’s selling of the greenback, said Sebastien Galy, a currency strategist at BNP Paribas SA in New York. If people believe that there is official pressure behind it, then obviously it puts pressure on euro-dollar on the upside, Galy said. Small central banks have an incentive in doing something because if they’re the first movers, they will not suffer by far as much as the big ones.Galy predicted the euro may reach $1.4360 today, a peak last reached in December. The euro fell earlier versus the yen as Europe’s jobless rate rose in April to the highest level in almost 10 years. Unemployment in the 16-member euro region increased to 9.2 percent from 8.9 percent in March, the European Union statistics office in Luxembourg said today.

ECB’s Rate

The European Central Bank will keep its benchmark rate unchanged at 1 percent on June 4, according to the median forecast of 54 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News. The ECB said last month it would buy 60 billion euros ($86 billion) of covered bonds. The euro’s rally against the dollar may be entering its last stage,and investors would likely benefit from selling the euro against the greenback, according to UBS AG, the world’s second-biggest foreign-exchange trader. Europe’s currency is poised to weaken toward $1.30, analysts led by Mansoor Mohi-uddin, Zurich-based chief currency strategist at UBS, wrote in a note to clients yesterday. The analysts reiterated forecasts for the euro to trade at $1.40 in one month’s time and then drop. We remain positive on the U.S. dollar and think that the greenback is likely in its final stage of weakness,the analysts wrote. Equity and bond flows have the potential to surprise and could lend support to the dollar.To contact the reporters on this story: Oliver Biggadike in New York at obiggadike@bloomberg.net; Chris Fournier in Montreal at cfournier3@bloomberg.net Last Updated: June 2, 2009 16:24 EDT

Bankers lobbied secretly to keep derivatives under Federal Reserve oversight and away from real scrutiny Aaron Dykes Jones Report June 2, 2009

The banks run the place,Rep. Collin Peterson cried out this week. The New York Times reports that he has a bill that would specifically ban derivatives from trading in a clearinghouse regulated by the New York Federal Reserve, which Peterson blasted as a tool of the big banks.A tool because the nine biggest banks in the derivatives market– including JP Morgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, Citigroup and Bank of America– all met secretly to discuss how to use the lax regulation and institutional secrecy of the NY Fed to shield their credit-default swaps business from prying eyes and attempts at regulation, as the Times reports:As the financial crisis entered one of its darkest phases in October, a handful of the nation’s largest banks began holding daily telephone sessions. Murmurs were already emanating from Washington about the need for a wide-ranging regulatory overhaul, and Wall Street executives girded for a fight.

Atop the agenda during their calls: how to counter an expected attempt to rein in credit-default swaps and other derivatives — the sophisticated and profitable financial instruments that were intended to limit risk but instead had helped take the economy to the brink of disaster.What’s more, the banks formed a lobby– the CDS Dealers Consortium– only weeks after accepting TARP funds in October 2008 to protect its interests. Heading this effort is Edward Rosen, who previously helped fend off derivatives regulation. Rosen wrote and circulated a confidential memo to the Treasury Department and leaders on Capital Hill making their agenda clear, the Times reported.Rosen and his backers propose that derivatives be traded in privately managed clearinghouses, with less disclosure, according to the Times. The clearinghouse of choice for the big banks in Rosen’s CDS Consortium is ICE U.S. Trust, which is in turned regulated only by the Federal Reserve system.Mr. Rosen’s confidential memo, dated Feb. 10 and obtained by The New York Times, recommended that the biggest participants in the derivatives market should continue to be overseen by the Federal Reserve Board. Critics say the Fed has been an overly friendly regulator, which is why big banks favor it.Ironically, the Times notes, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, former president of the New York Federal Reserve, submitted a plan similar to Rosen’s, although Treasury officials stated the proposal was independent. Although Geithner vowed to make derivatives more accountable, critics say the emphasis on clearinghouses in the plan is a major loophole because little disclosure would be required for any customized swap.

It is clear that banks, who wanted their credit swaps to remain private, counted on the lack of transparency over Federal Reserve affairs to keep derivative affairs in the dark, thus enhancing their profit potential. It is further clear that Treasury Secretary Geithner intended to help them in that aim.Senator Tom Harkin said the loophole could be worth trillions and trillions of swaps, blasting it as a loophole big enough to drive a truck through.Derivatives are the bulk of the toxic assets TARP was set up to fight– and total an astounding $1.5 quadrillion in estimate.

REGULATING THE FEDERAL RESERVE

Bloomberg reported Friday that the “Fed’s Role in AIG May Be First Target of GAO Audit. President Obama signed into law on May 20 a Fed clause giving the Government Accounting Office (GAO) the power to examine the Federal Reserve’s emergency aid to specific companies, such as AIG, Bank of America Corp. and Citigroup Inc.The new law is designed to give the GAO access to records and people at the Fed’s Board of Governors in Washington as well as the 12 district banks, such as the New York Fed, which has been the government’s lead day-to-day supervisor of AIG. Under what Bloomberg has called war powers, the Fed has issued an unprecedented expansion of credit to nonbank financial firms… invoking emergency powers and doubling its assets the past year.The authority is notably only a half-measure. Bloomberg notes that it doesn’t remove limits from a 1978 law that prohibits the GAO from peering into Fed activities involving monetary policy or discount-window loans to banks.Fed chairman Ben Bernanke stated he would have no objections to audits, so long as there was no examination of monetary policy. He stated clearly, I certainly would resist any attempt to dictate to the Federal Reserve how to make monetary policy.Bloomberg makes a distinction from the more intrusive legislation introduced in the House by Ron Paul and in the Senate by Bernie Sanders. Those bills now have well over a hundred sponsors. Sanders was rebuffed by Ben Bernanke previously during TARP hearings after he demanded to know who the Fed lent money to and was told frankly, No.Those bills, which haven’t made it past the initial stage of being introduced in Congress, would remove limits on GAO audits of the Fed and direct the agency to issue a report on the central bank by the end of next year. Nevertheless, information about the meeting of the big banks shows that there is a desire to keep the Federal Reserve and its dealings quiet at a time when interest in the Fed’s actions is at an all-time high. Any move to bring accountability to that institution is positive, even if insufficient.

We desperately need a new Bretton Woods 28 May 2009

In an interview to La Repubblica, renowned Indian economist Prof Jayati Ghosh says that the ongoing economic crisis is the creation of deregulated financial market system and therefore requires government regulation. She argues in favour of more equitable and sensible patterns of consumption and production.

Here are the excerpts:

La Repubblica: What is the relationship between food crisis and the present economic depression?

Jayati Ghosh: The global food crisis reflects several imbalances, in both the real and financial economies. It started while the world economy was still booming, and was reflected in dramatic increases in food prices in world trade.

Prof Jayati Ghosh/ Photo credit: La Repubblica While demand-supply imbalances have been touted as reasons, this is largely unjustified given that there has been hardly any change in the world demand for food in the past three years.In particular, the claim the food grain prices have soared because of more demand from China and India as their GDP increases, is completely invalid, since both aggregate and per capita consumption of food grain have actually fallen in both countries.Supply factors were more significant, such as the short-run effects of diversion of both acreage and food crop output for biofuel production, as well as more medium term factors such as rising costs of inputs, falling productivity because of soil depletion, inadequate public investment in agricultural research and extension, and the impact of climate changes that have affected harvests in different ways.But the role of finance was also very important: financial speculation was the major factor behind the sharp price rise of many primary commodities in 2007 and the first half of 2008, and the subsequent sharp declines in prices were also related to changes in financial markets, as investor moved out of commodity markets to get liquidity to cover losses.

The global economic crisis has actually made the food crisis worse in developing countries. Even though global trade prices of wheat, rice, maize and other food items have fallen dramatically since mid/ late 2008, the retail or wholesale prices of these commodities in many developing countries continue to increase.The financial crisis also operates to increase food insecurity by putting constraints on fiscal policies in balance of payments constrained developing countries, causing exchange rate depreciation (which makes imported food more expensive) because of capital flight and reduced remittances from migrant workers, and adversely affecting livelihoods and employment, which reduces the ability of vulnerable groups to purchase food.

LR: Trento University Chairman Innocenzo Cipolletta affirmed that the crisis is like an earthquake: unpredictable.

JG: The current crisis was not just highly predictable, it was also actually predicted, not only by heterodox economists in the West but also by several economists in developing countries.For example, it was obvious that the huge expansion of the sub-prime housing market was unsustainable in the US and was based on irresponsible lending practices that were covered up for some time by securitising the loans.Also it was obvious that the US could not go on running huge external deficits and making the rest of the world provide savings for its consumption beyond a point. Many economists also realised too many other economies were relying on the US as the engine of growth, and therefore any recession in the US would have major global transmission effects.So the current crisis is not like an earthquake or natural disaster at all, it is entirely created by the system, so it is more like a bomb.The current financial implosion reflects the inherent tendency of deregulated financial markets to get into boom-bust cycles, which was analysed long ago by economists like John Maynard Keynes, Hyman Minsky and Charles Kindleberger.

Policymakers and the mainstream economics profession had forgotten these analyses and started believing in the efficient markets hypothesis, but that has now been exposed as a myth. It is essential for governments to regulate markets, and especially financial markets, to avoid this tendency to damaging volatility.

LR: Is it enough to just outlaw the tax havens as it was done by G20, or do we urgently need a new Bretton Woods?

JG: The G20 discussion did not really outlaw tax havens: all that was done was to agree to share some information between countries on demand, and all the really significant tax havens have hardly been affected.But even if this had been done properly, it would not have been enough. We desperately need a new Bretton Woods that will be based on the participation of all countries, not a G20 that just invites a few new members to the high table.This is required to develop a financial architecture that will enable a smooth resolution of the existing global imbalances; to provide resources to developing countries that have been adversely affected by a global crisis that was not of their own making; to ensure currency stabilisation through international monetary cooperation; to encourage the expansion of international trade in a stable way; and to promote development by facilitating productive investment.

LR: Many of your colleagues have said that the poor are becoming poorer by the economic crisis. Do you confirm it?

JG: I did not really understand this question. But I will say this: It is already clear that poor developing countries, and the poorer sections of population in all countries, are the worst affected by this crisis even though they were not responsible for creating this mess and they did not gain from the earlier boom.

Already, in both developed and developing countries there have been the significant increases in unemployment, falling wages of workers, the worsening of the agrarian crisis because of rising input prices and volatile prices of cash crops, and a credit crunch that denies essential resources even for working capital to small producers.In developing countries, these problems have been made even worse because their governments often cannot afford to provide fiscal stimulus or countercyclical policies that would cushion the shock and provide safety nets. Also the return of migrant workers and the reduced possibilities for getting remittance incomes have added to economic difficulties.

LR: The depression is a good or a bad thing? To hear you the elites should reduce their extravagant lifestyles. Would this not lead to a greater depression?

JG: There is no question that recent patterns of growth have been both unequal and unsustainable, involving rapacious use of natural resources, involving processes that lead to global warming and creating artificial and unnecessarily wasteful ways of living among the elite in both rich and poor countries.The current crisis is an excellent – even unique – opportunity to bring a shift in socially created aspirations and material wants, and to reorganise economic life.It is obvious that current Northern standards of life cannot be sustained if they are made accessible to everyone on this planet. This means that future economic growth in the developing world has to involve more equitable and sensible patterns of consumption and production. But that hardly deals with the basic problem.Even if the elite and middle class of the developing world, and particularly China and India, just stopped increasing their consumption, simply bringing the vast majority of the developing world’s population to anything resembling a minimally acceptable standard of living will involve extensive use of global resources. It will necessarily imply more natural resource use and more carbon emissions.So the stark reality is that the developed world must, on the whole, consume less of the world’s resources and reduce its contribution to global warming absolutely. This in turn has effects on income as well.

It is not immediately clear why rich countries with falling populations necessarily need to increase their GDP, and why they should not focus instead on internal redistribution and changing lifestyles, which could in fact improve the quality of life of every citizen. But sadly, this message is not being heard at least among the major policymakers in the core capitalist countries.In the United States, even the relatively environment-friendly Obama administration simply talks about promoting cleaner, greener technologies rather than altering absurd and wasteful consumption patterns. For example, it is still basing its transport strategy on excessive reliance on private automobile use rather than more extensive and efficient public transport.In Europe, too, the focus is on reviving and increasing the old (outdated) patterns of consumption. For example, your President a few months ago pleaded with Italians not to change their lifestyles because of this crisis, because this would reduce economic activity immediately!The implication is that wasteful and excessive consumption is socially desirable because that is the only way to preserve employment.

But this is simply not true. There are many ways to improve both the quality of life and economic justice to all citizens, which do not have to involve mindless consumption that only benefits a few and simultaneously deprives and marginalises the larger section of current humanity as well a future generations.But for this to happen, we as citizens have to force our governments to show more imagination and vision in their policy responses.Source : La Repubblica

YESTERDAY WHEN GEITHNER WAS IN CHINA THEY LAUGHED AT HIM WHEN HE SAID CHINAS ASSETS ARE SECURE IN AMERICAN DOLLARS.

Geithner visit: Chinese economists skeptical of US strength By Peter Ford – Tue Jun 2, 5:00 am ET

Beijing – US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said Tuesday he had found a lot of confidence in the US economy among Chinese leaders he met on his two-day visit here. In other circles, however, skepticism was widespread.When Mr. Geithner told a student audience Monday that Chinese assets invested in Treasury bonds were very safe,his intended reassurance drew loud and dubious laughter. A survey of 23 top Chinese economists, published in the daily Global Times on the eve of his arrival, found that 17 feared that Beijing's huge dollar holdings put China in a very dangerous position.

America's largest creditor
As China has amassed vast foreign-exchange earnings from its worldwide exports over the past decade, it has become America's biggest creditor, holding $768 billion in Treasury bonds and almost as much again in other US dollar assets.That makes China highly vulnerable to a fall in the dollar's value, which some experts say is likely if the Obama administration's loose credit policy and ballooning deficit lead to inflation. Premier Wen Jiabao worried aloud last March about the value of Chinese dollar investments.Geithner worked hard here to convince Chinese leaders and analysts that we are very committed to make sure that when recovery is established, we go back to living within our means, that we bring our fiscal deficits down,as he told Chinese state TV on Tuesday.Geithner also said Tuesday that the US would do everything that is necessary to try to make sure we're sustaining confidence in US financial markets, not just in the United States but around the world.The Treasury secretary's reassurances were not enough for Xu Xiaonian, a professor at the China-Europe International Business School in Shanghai. Talk is cheap,he scoffs.If the US really wants to convince China that Treasury bonds are a safe investment, we need to see some credible measures,such as inflation-linked interest rates.Chinese officials did not comment on Geithner's reassurances, but they echoed his insistence that Washington and Beijing must work more closely together if they are to pull the world out of the current financial and economic crisis.We should strengthen strategic mutual trust and deepen pragmatic cooperation,said Vice Premier Wang Qishan, Geithner's counterpart at high-level talks planned for this summer in Washington. Those talks, he added, will send a message that China and the United States are cooperating substantively.

China likely to keep buying Treasury bonds
Nor do many analysts here believe the Chinese government will stop buying Treasury bonds, even if they now appear a riskier investment than in the past. Stabilizing the US dollar conforms to Chinese interests,says Shen Jiru, a prominent economic commentator here.If China sold its bonds, the value of the dollar would fall,he adds. A 10 percent drop would cost Beijing $120 billion.Ordinary citizens, however, appear to have little sympathy for such arguments, to judge by comments on Internet chat rooms.It's a big joke that China's money will disappear with nothing to be gained, and the beneficiary still says that the money is safe,wrote one Internaut from Hebei Province on Sina.com, a popular Internet portal.Don't trust Uncle Sam,warned another. Why do they enjoy the pleasures and we pay the bill?

Foreign oil firms concerned over Nigerian reforms JUNE 2,09

ABUJA (AFP) – Two international oil companies operating in Nigeria said Tuesday they are apprehensive about the draft petroleum law before parliament that paves the way for reforms in the oil and gas sector.We need to understand the rules of the game. What we are saying is that we have existing contracts which are prevailing now for many years -- production sharing, formal concessions and they have a tax regime which is very complex,Total chief executive Christophe de Margerie said.We need to clarify, to be transparent, it needs to be acceptable..,de Margerie told reporters on the sideline of an event to mark the inauguration of Akpo, the French company's flagship deep offshore oil and gas field in Nigeria.We need to know how we go from something which exists to a new one. What is your assets today? What will be your assets tomorrow and thereafter? de Margerie said, adding we support, in principle, this reform.The managing director of Brazilian oil giant Petrobras, Rudy Felix Ferreira said his group is also in support of the reform but is seeking clarification on some aspects of the reforms.Nigeria's junior petroleum minister, Odein Ajumogobia, said there is a consensus that the current petroleum law, enacted in 1969, is outdated, but added that any issues raised by the oil companies would be amicably resolved.

When you are transiting from one legal regime to another, there is a transition period. I think what you are hearing ... is that small period of uncertainty (as to) what the impact of the changes will be on the existing contracts,Ajumogobia said.I have no doubt that we would resolve those issues. We have discussed them and we will resolve them,Ajumogobia said.

Kurdish oil begins flowing to international market By SINAN SALAHEDDIN, Associated Press Writer – Mon Jun 1, 3:09 pm ET

IRBIL, Iraq – Iraq's self-ruled Kurdish region officially started pumping crude oil to the international market on Monday, a development that will boost Iraq's cash-strapped economy.The move could also bolster the Kurds' political clout and ease tension with the central government that has threatened to erupt into new violence.

Kurdish leaders hailed the exports as a chance to make up for lost time in Iraq's oil industry. The country sits on the world's third-largest known oil reserves, but the industry has been devastated by sanctions, sabotage and insurgent attacks as well as the inability of Iraqi politicians to agree on an oil and revenue sharing law.It is an important and historic day for Iraq when its people make use of their natural resources properly,Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, said during a ceremony in the regional capital, Irbil.Nearly 100,000 barrels of oil were sent from the Taq Taq and Tawke oil fields to the national pipeline that carries it to the Turkish port of Ceyhan. Previously, oil pumped in the region was used for domestic consumption.About 40,000 barrels per day will initially be sent from Taq Taq, which is in a remote area of Irbil, with another 60,000 barrels a day from the Tawke field in nearby Dahuk province.The two fields are expected to reach a total capacity of 250,000 barrels per day within a year and 1 million barrels per day in the coming two to three years, said Khalid Saleh, a spokesman for the region's Natural Resources Ministry.Samuel Ciszuk, a Middle East energy analyst with the consulting firm IHS Global Insight, said the million barrel projection seemed a bit over-optimistic,but the exports should stimulate exploration investment among international oil companies.Iraq currently produces about 2.4 million barrels of oil per day and exports about 1.9 million — most from ports in the Shiite south.The Kurdish exports represent a breakthrough after months of bitter disputes between the Kurds and the Arab-dominated central government over the country's oil riches.The two sides have been at loggerheads over nearly two dozen deals signed by the Kurds after the U.S.-led invasion in 2003 and foreign companies.The Baghdad government maintained those deals were illegal since it had not approved them. The Oil Ministry threatened to blacklist the international companies involved.But facing a budget crisis due to falling oil prices, the central government earlier this month approved the Kurdish plans to export crude. Oil prices pushed to nearly $68 a barrel on Monday but remained well below last summer's high of $150.

Iraq, which depends on oil revenues for more than 90 percent of its budget, had to cut its spending plan for this year from $79 billion to $58.6 billion.According to the agreement, revenues will be deposited in a federal account. The Kurds will receive 17 percent, the share allotted to them in the federal budget.Tawke is being developed jointly by independent Norwegian oil company DNO and Turkey's Genel Enerji, while Swiss-Canadian Addax Petroleum Corp. is jointly operating the Taq Taq field with Genel Enerji.The Western companies were the first to develop fields and export oil from Iraq since 1972 when Iraq nationalized its oil industry.Still pending, however, was the issue of how the international companies will be reimbursed for their investment. Kurdish officials said only that negotiations with the central government on the issue will start soon.

Company executives called for quick resolution.

If this issue is not going to be solved soon, then it would have an impact on our future investment (in the region),DNO's chief executive Helge Eide said on the sidelines of the ceremony. The Kurds, who comprise about 20 percent of Iraq's population, hope the exports will thaw chilly relations with the central government.
The Kurds, who faced persecution under Saddam Hussein's regime, have been key U.S. allies and major players in the national governing coalition. But tensions have been rising because of allegations the Kurds are attempting to expand their self-ruled area. Many Iraqi Arabs feel the Kurds have a disproportionate share of power. Oslo-based DNO became the first independent Western oil company to secure an oil deal in post-Saddam Iraq, signing a production sharing contract with the Kurds in June 2004 to develop the Tawke field. Three years later, the field came on stream but DNO was forced to sell the produced oil on the local market where prices are lower because it could not obtain an export permit due to the standoff between the Kurds and Baghdad. The field has 14 wells and more will be drilled.Earlier this year, Genel Enerji teamed up with DNO in the Tawke development project.In July 2005, the Swiss-Canadian independent Addax Petroleum joined Genel Enerji in a production sharing contract to develop Taq Taq.The field, which has 11 wells, came on stream in November 2006 and faced the same export problem.The northern Kurdish region has reserves of at least 40-45 billion barrels of oil, nearly half of Iraq's proven 115 billion barrels.

NGOs oppose US billion-dollar pledge to IMF 01 June 2009

The US Senate approval to the 108-billion-dollar fund for the IMF has been severely criticised by civil society groups. Expressing concern over the conditions imposed by the international donor body on low-income countries, opponents say the move may force poor nations to employ contractionary policies.Washington: A broad coalition of civil society groups, as well as some U.S. lawmakers, is fighting what they call a blank cheque from the U.S. to expand funding for the International Monetary Fund (IMF).On May 22, the Senate passed a 91.3 billion-dollar-wartime spending bill that included 108 billion dollars for the Washington-based Fund. The bill will now have to be reconciled in a conference committee between the Senate and the House of Representatives whose own version omitted any IMF funding.The funding was the U.S. part of a larger package agreed by the G20 leaders at their April meeting in London, where they pledged to provide 1.1 trillion dollars in additional funding to the IMF.

The goal is to boost lending to cash-strapped developing countries during the current economic crisis, which has drastically reduced the flow of private investment to emerging markets and the earnings of many poor countries that depend on their commodity exports.Opponents of the funding are concerned about the conditions the IMF usually imposes upon low-income countries when they accept these funds, conditions which, according to many NGOs, actually do more harm than good, particularly for the most vulnerable sectors of the recipients’ populations.Typically, the IMF requires recipient countries to reduce their budget deficits and increase interest rates, both of which can produce the opposite effect of the economic stimulus the funds are meant to provide. As a result, countries have been forced to cut essential social programmes, like unemployment insurance and other safety-net mechanisms.The point of giving these crisis loans is to help countries avert those kind of contractionary policies.It makes no sense to provide money intended to support global stimulus spending to the IMF when the IMF is demanding developing countries employ recessionary policies,says Robert Weissman, director of Essential Action, a non-profit organisation that advocates, among other things, change in what it considers to be harmful IMF and World Bank practices.The point of giving these crisis loans is to help countries avert those kind of contractionary policies, not to demand them as a condition on the loans,according to Weissman.So the conditionality undermines the logical purposes of giving the loans.Mark Weisbrot, co-director of the Centre for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR), also notes that U.S. lawmakers may not understand the broader implications of IMF policy. A lot of them are looking at it in straight power terms. They’re not looking at it as Does the IMF do good or harm? but rather, This is a potentially powerful organisation.

Still, there is a push in Congress to amend the bill so that the requested funds can be used to ensure that more vulnerable groups in low-income countries will benefit. Rep. Maxine Waters of California has circulated a letter opposing the funding and currently has over 33 signatures from fellow House members.To ensure that the [IMF] becomes more transparent and accountable to all member countries, including the poorest.The letter calls for Congress to attach its own conditions to Washington’s commitment to provide the funding committed to the IMF: ensuring that the IMF’s new loans are stimulatory and not contractionary; using some of the planned IMF gold sales to finance the rescue packages for at least five billion dollars in debt relief and/or grants to the poorest countries; requiring parliamentary approval in the recipient countries before loans are extended; and boosting the transparency of the borrowing countries’ dialogue with the IMF so as to better inform local publics about the conditions under which the loans are to be extended.Above all, the letter requests that U.S. leadership work to ensure that the [IMF] becomes more transparent and accountable to all member countries, including the poorest.In recent months, the IMF has been touting policy changes to more efficiently supply assistance to needy countries with only a minimum of conditions. What conditions it would apply, IMF officials promised in March, would be to help any loan-seeking country to overcome the problems that led it to seek financial aid in the first place.The IMF has introduced the Flexible Credit Line (FCL), a new facility that has fewer restrictions on it. However, only select countries that meet certain conditions – for example, eligible countries must have low inflation, the absence of bank solvency problems, and minimal public debt - can qualify for FCL, according to the activists.They complained that the IMF’s executive board, which is dominated by the western powers, may also be guided by political or strategic considerations. Paradoxically, this means that the countries most in need of freer funding may be the least likely to qualify for them.

The IMF has so far approved Mexico, Colombia, and Poland for FCL loans.

JoAnn Carter, executive director of RESULTS, an advocacy group concerned with ending hunger, called the FCL and other IMF lending policy changes more rhetoric than reality.She said that since the IMF implemented reform of its lending restrictions, There still have been very austere conditions imposed upon some of these countries.
Asia Russell, international policy director of Health GAP, a group that works for broader provision of AIDS and HIV medicines worldwide, concurred: The proof is really in the pudding. Despite declarations from [IMF] headquarters in Washington, the same sort of policies are being used – contractionary policies, slashing deficits.For now, groups mainly await the results of the conference committee’s deliberation and hope that lawmakers see the issue from their point of view.We’re astonished, really, that the Senate could pass this measure,said Russell.Now, it’s important for Congress to take its oversight role seriously, instead of putting blind faith in the IMF.
Source : IPS

Jobs crisis tops EU agenda as polls open
ANDREW WILLIS Today JUNE 3,09 @ 17:44 CET

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS – The European Commission published new proposals to tackle rising unemployment on Wednesday (3 June) and urged members states to redouble their efforts to deal with the growing jobs crisis. In this week of elections, it would be a big mistake for Europe to turn its back on this problem,said commission President Jose Manuel Barroso in Brussels, adding that few things concerned EU citizens more at present.The new measures that will be debated by EU leaders at a European summit later this month include a proposal to allow 100 percent EU funding for member state projects in 2009-10 that promote greater employment.Projects currently funded by the European social fund require match-funding from member states of between 15-50 percent, but the new rules would provide a temporary derogation from this requirement, prompted by fears that national governments could struggle to come up with the money.The document also proposes the setting up of a micro-finance fund worth €500 million to support small businesses currently having difficulties in accessing credit and also to help unemployed citizens wishing to set up their own enterprises.The commission will contribute an initial €100 million to the fund which the European Investment Bank will use as leverage to increase the pot to €500 million.We are asking all member states to say yes to more action,said Mr Barroso.

Employers' organization UEAPME, representing crafts and small businesses within the EU, welcomed the commission's proposals saying they set the right priorities.

Socialists critical

As European political parties battle to increase voter interest in this week's European elections, the Party of European Socialists branded the new commission measures as incredibly weak. If your house is on fire it is no good trying to put out the flames with a glass of water,said the party's president Poul Nyrup Rasmussen.
Shifting around the European Social Fund while unemployment rockets to 27 million unemployed next year is not the answer. Micro-credit is unlikely to have macro results in a hurry,he added.Despite sustained criticism of this kind and the general perception that the economic crisis has its origins firmly rooted in free-market policies, polls suggest the Socialists are not headed for the big gains in the European elections that many would expect.Part of the reason for this is that the German and French centre-right ruling parties were quick to seize the moral high-ground last year with calls for greater regulation and an end to the Anglo-Saxon economic model.Another is that Britain's ruling Labour party, a member of the PES, has been one of the chief supporters of the now unpopular light-touch approach to banking.

Employment summit

These and other factors make it harder for voters to align one particular party with job creation, an issue that is predicted to be uppermost in their minds when they head to the polls this week. Apart from the disappearance of a family member or someone that is close to us, a death of someone [for example], I think unemployment is the most important personal tragedy that someone can go through,said Mr Barroso on Wednesday.New data released by the EU's statistics office, Eurostat, on Tuesday showed unemployment rose to 8.6 percent in the region in April, with recent commission forecasts saying it is set to average close to 11 percent next year in the EU27.In recognition of the growing problem, the Czech presidency of the EU called a special employment summit in Prague on 7 May but it was successively downgraded by EU leaders who feared the meeting would produce few results.However Mr Barroso said the summit's outcome had been positive,with many of the ideas generated at the meeting making it into Wednesday's communication.As well as the greater flexibility of the ESF and the setting up of a micro-credit fund for SMEs, commission proposals also concentrate on the need to provide young people with the training and work opportunities they need so as not to miss entry into the labour market this year.

This includes a commitment to provide at least 5 million apprenticeships across the EU for young people facing unemployment. Added to this, the commission documents calls for greater support for short-time working schemes and lower non-wage labour costs to help get the most disadvantaged back into jobs.

Europeans see corruption in private sector as economic crisis hits
VALENTINA POP Today JUNE 3,09 @ 10:44 CET

EUOBSERVER/BRUSSELS – Europeans distrust the private sector and perceive the anti-corruption drive by government to be inefficient, while in the new member states bribery is particularly hitting the poor, a corruption survey released by Transparency International shows.These results show a public sobered by a financial crisis precipitated by weak regulations and a lack of corporate accountability,said Huguette Labelle, head of the anti-corruption watchdog Transparency International, when releasing the Global Corruption Barometer on Wednesday (3 June). Half of the 73,000 respondents said they saw the private sector as corrupt, an increase of 8 percentage points over five years ago. The survey was carried out in 69 countries and territories around the world between October 2008 and February 2009. People in Iceland, Luxembourg, Moldova, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain and Switzerland perceive the private sector as the most corrupt. The survey also found that 53 percent of Europeans believe bribery is commonly used by the private sector to shape policies and regulations, a phenomenon referred to as state capture.

Companies must engage meaningfully with the reporting frameworks and anti-corruption codes now available and begin applying these in earnest, reporting clearly and honestly about their efforts, and benchmarking their policies and practices,said Robin Hodess, a researcher with Transparency International.Meanwhile, government efforts to tackle corruption are largely seen as ineffective by the general public. Fewer than 1 in 10 respondents in Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Lithuania and Ukraine considered government anti-corruption efforts to be successful.With the economic crisis hitting European countries to various degrees, the barometer found that the poorest families continue to be punished by petty bribe demands. Across the board, low-income respondents were more likely to be met with bribe demands than high-income respondents. In Lithuania, whose economy has shrunk over 12 percent this year, 30 percent of respondents said they had to pay a bribe in the past 12 months. Greece, Romania and the Czech Republic were the EU countries next in line.Europe's neighbours in the Eastern Partnership ranked even worse – 46 percent of Azeris had to pay bribes in the last year. The bribery figure was 43 percent in Armenia, followed by 28 percent of respondents in Moldova, 21 percent in Ukraine and 13 percent in Belarus. In Russia, 31 percent of respondents admitted having to have paid a bribe.Across all the countries surveyed, policemen were most likely to be bribed, with almost a quarter of people who had contact with the police in the previous year reporting that they had to pay a bribe. People in contact with the judiciary or registry and permit offices were also likely to have paid bribes: 16 and 13 percent respectively.

Fifteen percent of those interacting with land services said they had to pay a bribe while nine percent of those in contact with the health and education services claimed to have had to pay sweetner.Political parties are perceived as being the most corrupt sector in Europe. On a scale of 1 to 5, where 1 is the least and 5 the most corrupt, parties scored 3.7 in Europe. Parties scored high on corruption in Greece (4.4), Romania (4.3), Lithuania and Portugal (4.0). Romanians also ranked the Parliament very high on the corruption barometer (4.3).In Bulgaria, the most corrupt sector was perceived to be the judiciary, with a score of 4.5, while Poles thought public servants were the most corrupt, with a score of 3.8.

Merkel criticises central banks ahead of ECB meeting
ANDREW WILLIS Today JUNE 3,09 @ 09:11 CET

In a striking move contrary to normal protocol, German Chancellor Angela Merkel lashed out at central banks on Tuesday (2 June) for overreacting to the financial crisis, saying their response measures could lay the basis for more economic turmoil in years to come. I view with great scepticism the powers of the Fed for example, and also how, within Europe, the Bank of England has carved out its own small line,Ms Merkel said in Berlin of the US and UK central banks. We must return together to an independent central-bank policy and to a policy of reason, otherwise we will be in exactly the same situation in 10 years' time.She was also critical of the Frankfurt-based European Central Bank (ECB) which starts a two-day meeting on Wednesday to discuss, amongst other topics, the details of a plan announced last month to buy up to €60 billion of covered bonds from struggling banks. The European Central Bank has also bowed somewhat to international pressure with the purchase of covered bonds,Ms Merkel said.The comments made in a prepared speech on the eve of the ECB's board meeting and just days away from European elections are a reminder of the concern many Germans have of the threat of rising inflation, a partial throwback to the hyperinflation of the Weimar Republic in the 1920s. While other governments around the globe have been nudging their central banks to step up non-standard measures such as asset purchases, Ms Merkel's criticism of the supposedly independent ECB appears aimed at dampening their action in this area. Her comments chime with previous statements made by Axel Weber, head of the German central bank and a member of the ECB's 22-person governing council, who has consistently warned of the inflationary risks associated with loose monetary policy.Other board members and private economists feel however that the ECB should have been bolder in its actions to fight the financial crisis.Ms Merkel has faced some criticism in recent days over her government's plan to provide €1.5 billion in financial support to carmaker Opel as its parent company General Motors files for bankruptcy. With national election scheduled in Europe's largest economy this autumn, Ms Merkel's comments may well be designed to shore up her conservative support base.

Summit on water governance-India’s premier trade body ASSOCHAM, under its Cool the Earth Initiative, is organising an international summit on Water Governance –Critical Issues for All on June 24, 2009. Interested members need to register for the event.

Water is going to be of increasing critical importance to countries like India in the coming years. The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India.(ASSOCHAM) has been carrying out special studies and surveys on water conservation and related issues.The international summit on Water Governance will be focusing on resolving the critical issues on water, which are going to be faced by all stakeholders more acutely in immediate future, specifically by the industry counterparts.It focuses particularly on the grey areas, where the need for better governance, infrastructure, and effective capacity building is highest and certain issues like self-governance, consensus regarding cess issues and subsidies for acquiring new technologies for higher water use efficiency.

Some of the key issues for discussion:

Self governance and water sector policing
Corporate water foot printing for water intensive industries
Water conservation and Water usage efficiency
Capital subsidies and technological innovations
Climate change and water resources management
Incentivising waste water recycling and reuse
Who should attend?

Policymakers and regulators, state government departments/ boards associated with urban development, municipal corporations, urban planners, consultants, industry representatives, legislators, natural resource and watershed managers, NGOs and community based organisations, researchers, students, waste water experts, environmentalists and other stakeholders.

Registration fee

Rs 2,000/- per delegate (10% discount for three and more delegates from the same company).Time and venue June 24, 2009 at 9.00 a.m. at the ASSOCHAM House, 47 Prithviraj Road, New Delhi.For more details please contact:Dr. Ombeer Tyagi (D: 011-46550512 M :+91-9873417177)Dr. Neeraj (D: 011-46550539, M::+91- 9312344101)Mr. Aditya Rai (D: 011-46550518, M :+91-9873269949)The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India ASSOCHAM Corporate Office, 1, Community Centre Zamrudpur Kailash Colony, New Delhi – 110 048 Phone: 46550555 (Hunting Line)Fax: 46536481/46536482 46536497/46536498
Email: ombeer.tyagi@assocham.com, neeraj@assocham.com, aditya.rai@assocham.com, assocham@nic.in To submit form online, please click here.Source: ASSOCHAM

FROM JEROME CORSI'S RED ALERT Civil unrest to hit this summer? Black unemployment rate reaches depression level of 15 percent June 01, 2009 11:21 am Eastern 2009 WorldNetDaily

Unemployment in March and April remained 20 percent higher in states won by Democratic candidate Barack Obama in last fall's presidential election than in states won by Republican presidential candidate John McCain, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. An interactive map maintained at Slate.com shows that the highest levels of unemployment are in Democratic state urban areas, including Los Angeles, Detroit, Chicago, Cleveland, New York City, Newark and Washington, D.C. – all cities that experienced major race riots at the end of the 1960s. A closer look at BLS statistics shows that unemployment in April 2009 among the white labor force was 8 percent, while unemployment among the black labor force was 15 percent. These data maintain a pattern that has been documented since the 1960s, in which African-American unemployment runs at approximately double the rate for white Americans, Corsi wrote. That 15 percent of African-Americans are currently unemployed should be alarming for all Americans in that unemployment rates this high are typically associated with prolonged economic depressions, not cyclical, typically short recessions.In evaluating whether this exceptionally high level of African-American unemployment increases the risks for urban riots in the coming summer, Corsi said one more factor must be taken into consideration. In 1968, the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders, otherwise known as the Kerner Commission in respect to its chair Gov. Otto Kerner Jr. of Illinois, argued that rising expectations that had gone unfulfilled were a major cause of the 1960s-era urban race riots. The theory was that President Lyndon Johnson had raised economic expectations in the mid-1960s by passing a series of civil rights bills as cornerstone legislation in his War on Poverty.When the economic and political expectations went unfulfilled as Lyndon Johnson's presidency became involved in the Vietnam War, racism continued to produce a double-standard of living for white Americans and African-Americans that built black rage to a tinder point in which civil violence became increasingly more likely.

Whether the same phenomenon will be observed with a black president remains to be seen,Corsi wrote.The concern is that candidate Barack Obama's presidential campaign themes of hope and change permitted African-Americans to expect important differences in their economic wellbeing and political power would be experienced with President Obama in the White House.In 1968, the U.S. economy was operating then at what was considered a full-employment level, with white unemployment averaging around 4 percent and black unemployment averaging around 8 percent. If unemployment numbers continue to escalate throughout 2009, conceivably African-American unemployment rates could hit 20 percent before the end of the year, Corsi noted. Red Alert's author, whose books The Obama Nation and Unfit for Command have topped the New York Times best-sellers list, also noted that the difference between the 1965 riots and today's circumstances is that the Kennedy-Johnson administrations enjoyed an economic recovery from the Eisenhower years that was generated by a Kennedy supported tax cut.

Today, the Obama administration is already constrained by trillion dollar deficits, he wrote.Moreover, President Obama is already contemplating the likelihood of tax increases, certain to further depress economic activity, with Obama remaining determined to expand in the current Congress social welfare benefits with a government-paid universal health insurance plan.

Al-Qaida criticizes Obama's upcoming Cairo speech By MAAMOUN YOUSSEF, Associated Press Writer JUNE 2,09

CAIRO – Al-Qaida's deputy leader on Tuesday criticized President Barack Obama's upcoming speech to the Islamic world in Cairo, saying it will not change the bloody messages the U.S. military is sending Muslims in Iraq and Afghanistan. Al-Qaida has repeatedly lashed out at Obama since he was elected, a move some analysts believe indicates the terrorist organization is worried he will be effective in improving the U.S. image in the Muslim world.Obama has pitched his speech at Cairo University on Thursday as a key part of that process.His bloody messages were received and are still being received by Muslims, and they will not be concealed by public relations campaigns or by farcical visits or elegant words,said Ayman al-Zawahri, al-Qaida's No. 2, in a new audio message posted on militant Web sites.Al-Zawahri said the Egyptian officials who will welcome Obama are U.S. slaves and have turned the country into an international station of torture in America's war on Islam.He was likely referring to suspected Islamic militants who have been captured by the U.S. and sent to Egypt for interrogation, a process known as rendition.Al-Zawahri urged Egyptians to reject Obama when he makes his speech, calling him that criminal who came seeking, with deception, to obtain what he failed to achieve in the field after the mujahideen ruined the project of the crusader America in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Somalia.He said Obama's decision to come to Cairo showed the U.S. had not given up its alliances with dictatorial and corrupt Mideast governments.It is a clear message that America does not stand with reform and change and other lying American propaganda, but it stands with the continuation of the existing tyrannical, rotten regimes,said al-Zawahri.

The authenticity of the almost 12-minute audio message titled The Torturers of Egypt and the Agents of America Welcome Obama" could not be confirmed. But it was posted on militant Web sites that have been used by al-Qaida in the past and carried the logo of As-Sahab, the terrorist organization's media wing.Al-Zawahri criticized Obama's trip to Israel before he was elected president and his visit to the Western Wall — Judaism's holiest site, also known as the Wailing Wall — where he wore a yarmulke.

The White House said that Obama will send a message from Egypt to the Islamic world, but they forgot that his messages have already been received by the Islamic world when he visited the Wailing Wall, put on his head the Jew's cap and prayed their prayers, though he claims to be Christian,said al-Zawahri.The audio message was accompanied by a picture of al-Zawahri wearing a white robe and white turban. It also included videos of Obama visiting the Western Wall in Jerusalem and speaking at AIPAC, a pro-Israel lobbying organization in the United States.Shortly after Obama was elected last November, al-Zawahri issued a Web message in which he slurred Obama with a demeaning racial term for a black American who does the bidding of whites, calling him and former secretaries of state Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice house Negroes.

Iran, Mideast peace likely Obama focus in Saudi By DONNA ABU-NASR, Associated Press Writer – Tue Jun 2, 2:34 pm ET

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia – President Barack Obama begins a crucial Mideast trip Wednesday with a visit to Saudi Arabia, where concerns about U.S. outreach to Iran, the Israel-Palestinian peace process, and the kingdom's willingness to accept Yemeni prisoners from Guantanamo will all likely be on the agenda.The range of issues highlights the important relationship between the U.S. and Saudi Arabia, one of Washington's strongest allies in the Middle East. The Sunni Arab powerhouse is also the world's largest oil exporter and its king is considered the guardian of Islam's holiest places, Mecca and Medina.Denis McDonough, the U.S. deputy national security adviser for strategic communications, said Friday that Obama's visit to Saudi Arabia is part of our outreach to the Muslim world, but also an opportunity ... to discuss a range of important concerns from energy to Middle East peace to the fight against extremism.
Obama will likely be looking for Saudi Arabia's support in pushing forward Mideast peace but will have to address the kingdom's concerns about Washington's recent diplomatic outreach to its Shiite rival Iran, said Saudi analyst Khaled al-Dakhil on Tuesday.He will be sounding out Saudi leaders about what should be done in the region,said al-Dakhil.Obama took office promising to step up diplomatic efforts to address concerns over Iran's nuclear program, which the U.S. and many of its allies suspect is focused on building weapons capability — a charge denied by Tehran.

Saudi Arabia and other Sunni countries in the Mideast are concerned the U.S. could cut a deal with Iran that would come at their expense, a fear U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates tried to dispel when he visited the region last month. He pledged the U.S. will keep its allies in the loop as it reaches out to Iran.Despite these tensions, many Saudis expect a smoother ride with Obama than his predecessor, who strained relations with Muslim world with his invasion of Iraq and his aggressive war on terrorism.If we succeeded in preserving the Saudi-U.S. relationship with George Bush as president, we can do much better with Obama,said Jamal Khashoggi, editor of Al-Watan newspaper.He said he expected the discussion with Saudi Arabia on Mideast peace to be productive since the kingdom agrees with Obama's demands that Israel support the creation of a Palestinian state and stop building settlements in the West Bank. Israel's new prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has refused to concede to either of these demands.Saudi King Abdullah has been an active player in promoting Mideast peace. He proposed an initiative in 2002 that offers Israel collective Arab recognition in exchange for withdrawal from territory it occupied in the 1967 war, the establishment of a Palestinian state with east Jerusalem as its capital and a just solution to the Palestinian refugee problem.Saudi Arabia also helped broker a unity government between rival Palestinian factions Fatah and Hamas in 2007, although the agreement fell apart several months later. The split has sparked violence and complicated the Obama administration's efforts to push forward Israeli-Palestinian peace.Khashoggi said he expected Saudi Arabia to work hard, if asked, to reconcile the Palestinians because there's an opportunity.Mark Lippert, the U.S. deputy national security adviser, said Friday that Pakistan will also be on the agenda when Obama meets with Abdullah. The kingdom has a close relationship with Pakistan, and the U.S. has asked for help in staving off the spread of militants in the country.

Obama will also likely be looking for help from Saudi Arabia on an issue that strikes much closer to home: the dilemma of what to do with some 100 Yemeni detainees locked up in Guantanamo Bay prison.Discussions over where to send the Yemeni detainees have delayed plans to close the prison. The U.S. has been hesitant to send them home because of Yemen's history of either releasing extremists or allowing them to escape from prison.Instead, the Obama administration has been negotiating with Saudi Arabia and Yemen for months to send them to Saudi terrorist rehabilitation centers. Saudi Arabia has one of the most successful jihadist rehabilitation programs in the world, although several extremists who have passed through it have returned to violence.

EU ELECTION REPORT

EU watches as angry UK kicks off EU elections,Anger over the parliamentary expenses scandal in Westminister is set to be reflected in the EU vote (Photo: wikipedia)HONOR MAHONY Today JUNE 3,09 @ 17:35 CET

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - The rest of Europe has been watching agog at the buildup of an almost insurrectionary feeling in the UK following revelations of MPs' abuses of the expenses system. The outpouring of anger could have significant implications for EU politics, as Britons unleash their fury via the ballot box and opposition parties call for an early general election.The UK, along with the Netherlands, will kick off voting in the European elections and local elections on Thursday (4 June), with the governing Labour party facing the prospect of its worst electoral defeat in history.

The beleaguered Labour prime minister, Gordon Brown, charged with reacting too slowly and then inadequately to the unfolding scandal, has been buffeted further in recent days by announcements that four members of his government, including two ministers, are leaving.The weakened government has emboldened the opposition Conservatives, who feel 10 Downing Street is within their grasp sooner rather than later.Conservative leader David Cameron on Wednesday in a rowdy parliamentary question time renewed his call for an early general election, saying the government was collapsing before our eyes.Get down to the palace. Ask for a dissolution, call an election,he told Mr Brown.

Dissolution debate next Wednesday

The momentum for the early vote is gathering pace, with leaders of the small nationalist parties, Plaid Cymru and the Scottish National Party, saying they will table a motion for a dissolution of parliament next Wednesday. The Liberals, the UK's third largest party, have backed the proposed move.The motion will be the first time MPs will formally express an opinion on whether there should be an early vote.Support for the move is likely to be further strengthened if Labour receives the drumming in the polls on Thursday that has been widely predicted.Meanwhile, a quick early general election, which would most likely return the Conservatives to power after twelve years in opposition, could radically alter the prospects of the EU treaty coming into place.If he wins the keys to Downing Street, Mr Cameron has pledged to hold a referendum on the Lisbon treaty if it has not yet been ratified by the rest of the EU. As a testing ground ahead of Thursday elections, he has already tabled a bill to say the referendum would be held on the same day as Ireland holds its second referendum on the document, expected in October.As one of the most eurosceptic nations in the EU and seen as being against the further integration that the Lisbon Treaty would entail, it is likely that the UK would reject it. Such a move would sound the death knell for the treaty and would plunge the EU into renewed talk of a two-speed Europe.

The other winners

As Britons head to the polls, all eyes will be on the expected smaller winners of the frenzy of discontent that has gripped the county for the past weeks.The UK Independence Party, advocating withdrawal from the EU, says it aims to double its MEPs from the current nine. Opinion polls give the party between 10 and 20 percent of the vote, while the far-right British National Party may get its first seat in Brussels.A good showing by Mr Cameron's Conservatives - who want to set up their own eurosceptic group in the European Parliament along with Czech, Polish, Latvian and Bulgarian parties - as well as by Ukip would give more clout to eurosceptics than they currently have in the EU assembly.The UK Greens are also expected to profit from voters disgust with mainstream parties and to achieve their best ever EU result on Thursday.Politicians in Europe have been urging voters across the EU not to register their discontent with governing parties by voting for extreme right or extreme left parties, with EU votes often perceived as a useful no-consequences stick with which to beat incumbent governments.It is up to individuals how to vote, but I am asking citizens ... to counter extremism and at least vote for a stronger Europe. Those that believe in common values and are pro-European need to mobilise themselves,outgoing European Parliament President Hans-Gert Poettering told Reuters news agency.

Meanwhile, the latest opinion survey commissioned by the EU assembly shows the downward voter turnout trend of every previous EU election may be bucked this week. It reached a low of 45.3 percent in 2004 but the parliament poll suggests it may rise to 49 percent this time round.

Bulgarian trucker replaces Polish plumber in EU elections
EUOBSERVER STAFF Today JUNE 3,09 @ 15:51 CET

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - The French politician who created the stereotype of the Polish plumber has coined a new Bulgarian truck driver cliché for his EU election campaign. But voters are finding the event a turn-off despite scandals involving topless girls, hunger strikes and the Taliban.Far-right French politician Pilippe de Villiers, who launched the catchy plumber idea during his fight against the EU constitution in a referendum in 2005, is now promoting the notion that cheap Bulgarian truckers are coming to steal French jobs.A Bulgarian driver costs €700 a month instead of €3,700, survives on just four hours of sleep a night and eats just twice a week, the myth-making politician is saying. Poland joined the EU in 2004 and Bulgaria in 2007, with their workers still legally barred from some EU states.As many as 63 percent of French people do not plan to vote on Sunday (7 June). But the ruling centre-right UMP is in any case set to scoop 27 percent of ballots cast, ahead of the Socialists on 21 points and with Mr de Villiers' Mouvement Pour La France way behind on less than six percent.In Denmark, just four people came to a 300 seater auditorium on Tuesday to hear a debate between two leading candidates, Bendt Bendtsen and Morten Messerschmidt. Germany's Bild reports that the centre-right CSU party's choice of front-runner - an unknown, bookish engineer called Markus Ferber - could hurt its chances.German intellectual Ulrich Beck in the Sueddeutsche newspaper says difficulties in characterising the EU are also part of the problem, despite Europe's political elite consolidating ever more power in Brussels.He calls the EU an old lady without a name,as it is easy to say what she is not: she is not a nation or just a big international organisation. But all attempts to say what she is have fallen short.

Finnish daily Helsingin Sanomat says there are no good jokes about the EU because of its vague identity. Stand-up comic Lotta Backlund told the paper she avoids EU humour because it would hurt her career.All that it brings to mind is the curvature of cucumbers,University of Helsinki communications professor Pekka Aula said. The EU, unlike the US, lacks political drama because it steers clear of personality cults, dramatist Juha-Pekka Hotinen explained.

Scandals abound

The criticism comes despite a rich-vein of political scandals during the EU vote.

Italian prosecutors have launched a probe into whether prime minister and media baron Silvio Berlusconi used state aircraft to fly VIP friends to parties with topless girls at his villa in Sardinia.Italian Radical Party (allied with the EU's Liberal group) candidate Emma Bonino has started a hunger strike at the studios of Italian state TV station, RAI, to complain about lack of media coverage for smaller factions in the country. TV coverage is also causing controversy in Poland and Sweden. Poland's TVP is under fire for giving undue amounts of time to the small anti-EU treaty Libertas party. The Swedish public broadcaster has shut the minor-league anti-copyright Pirate party out of a major TV debate. French authorities are investigating the legality of a phone call allegedly made by jailed terrorist Carlos the Jackal to anti-Zionist comedian-turned-politician Dieudonne during a rally.Dutch far-right politician Geert Wilders (polling in joint second place with 12 percent) has attracted strong criticism for comments he made in parliament about Joanie de Rijcke, a reporter who was kidnapped and raped by the Taliban.Mr Wilders said the woman is suffering from Stockholm syndrome - a psychological disorder in which kidnap victims fall in love with kidnappers - in a situation symbolic of the Dutch left-wing elite.

His words were very, very painful,Ms de Rijcke said.

Motivating support

Left-wing and green parties in Germany are trying to mobilise last-minute support from trade unions, according to Spiegel Online. In Spain, Socialist leader Jorge Luis Zapatero is using figures on falling unemployment to attract voters. Romanian centre-right and centre-left parties are meanwhile bussing people to mountain resorts and monasteries for free meals in an attempt to secure loyalty. The Evenimentul Zilei paper says the Social democrats have spent €500,000 on electoral excursions. Bulgaria's State Agency for National Security has meanwhile busted a vote-buying scheme, seizing over 210 ID documents, 140 bank cards, international passports and driving licenses in an operation on Tuesday. Money-lenders had taken their clients' IDs to sell their votes, in exchange for promising to reduce the amount of money they owed, investigators said.

Green shoots

In the UK, the Greens could be quietly on the way to their best result yet in EU elections, despite masses of media articles on how the crash in popularity of the ruling Labour party is to benefit eurosceptic and far-right groups.An internal Green party poll by ComRes gives it 15 percent, ahead even of the British Liberals on 14 percent. Other surveys show the greens on eight or nine percent, however.The leader of the main Irish opposition party, Enda Kenny, has said that Ireland's ruling Fianna Fail faction should call early general elections if it gets a drubbing in the EU poll, mirroring political debate in the UK. The former president of the European Parliament, Pat Cox, has come out in support of Fianna Fail MEP Eoin Ryan, who is battling to save his Dublin seat. Mr Cox is among those tipped to take over as Ireland's commissioner in the next EU term.

Pirates to join Green or Liberal groups in EU parliament
LEIGH PHILLIPS Today JUNE 3,09 @ 17:42 CET

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - The civil libertarian swashbucklers of the Swedish Pirate Party are to join either the Green or the Liberal groupings in the European Parliament, the leading candidate for the party has said.We will probably joint either the Greens or the Liberals,Christian Engstroem, a computer programmer and the candidate heading the party's list, told EUobserver.There have been no formal discussions, but we have been invited by a few groups for informal talks,he added.As the party is a single-issue formation dedicated solely to online civil liberties, Mr Engstroem said the Pirates would join the grouping in the parliament that is closest to its positions on internet freedoms. At which point, the party would then vote in line with the grouping on all other issues. The latest domestic polls in Sweden have put the party on between six and eight percent. In Sweden, parties must exceed a threshold of four percent to win a seat.It's very, very promising. We're very confident of winning one seat. The question is whether we'll manage two.Support for the party has exploded amongst young people in particular since the sentencing of four individuals to a year in prison for aiding websurfers to access streamed television and films without permission of the copyright owners.Some 13 percent of voters under the age 30 plan to vote for the party and the the median age of members is 26 years old.However, just seven percent of those aged 30 to 49 back the pirates and only three percent of those 49 and over do.

Beyond left and right

Mr Engstroem stressed that net politics and the policies of his party go beyond the traditional left-right division.We are explicitly neutral on the left-right debate, he said.While in Swedish national politics the [far-left] Left Party and the Greens are reasonably sensible on our issues, the best individual politicians, such as Carl Siegfried, come from the Conservative party,he said,even if the party as a whole is on the wrong side of the issues.The candidate himself was a member of Sweden's centrist Liberal People's Party for twenty years and the founder of the party, Richard Falkvinge was a member of the conservative Moderate Party's youth wing.And our members and activists come from all over the place politically,he said.However, in the European Parliament, when a telecoms package amendment that required member states to seek a court order before cutting off internet access passed, in general, the left side of the house was more in favour of the measure, while the right tended to oppose it, supporting the arguments of the major media conglomerates.Equally, in the French National Assembly when the so-called Hadopi law, which would see the internet access of websurfers found to be repeatedly downloading copyright materieal without permission, was considered, the left-right split was even sharper, with the house cleaving almost precisely in two over the issue.

On the issue of net neutrality, another issue dear to the hearts of internet activists, from Europe to the United States - the two territories where the topic has made headlines - the left has backed legislation that would ensure equality for all packets of information zipping across the web, while the right, alongside the major telecoms firms prefers to let service providers set their own pricing strategies that could prioritise some information over others.Mr Engstroem rejects this polarisation though. This is simply a case of who's in government at the time. In France, the left has been more sympathetic, but that's just because the right is in power and they will oppose what the government proposes. If the left had been in power, they would have proposed something similar. It would have just been the other way round.Net Politics are decided in Brussels.A division that is very clear however is the male-female, or, perhaps more precisely, the geek/non-geek split.The party has the support of around 10.5 percent among men, but just 1.5 percent of women.Computer nerds were the first to discover this issue and nerds are mainly men,said Mr Engstroem, but this is slightly better now. Some women are starting to notice too.But the underlying issue is something that affects everyone. The net is one of the biggest changes to society since the printing press. It makes sense that this societal shift is reflected in politics.The candidate said that he first personally got involved in the issue when campaigning against the EU's Software Patent Directive in 2005, which was ultimately rejected by the parliament.Simply put, net politics is decided in Brussels, so that's where we've got involved,he said.This is why of all political issues, it's net politics that is bringing people, young people to engage at the EU level.He added that his experience in 2005 brought a whole new perspective on how the EU works, which we didn't really know before. It taught us that working together across Europe, we can make a change, we can have a success.Mr Engstroem may say he does not take sides in the left-right debate, but he does sound a slightly eurosceptic note: However, we also learnt about the undemocratic machine that is the European Union.Danny the Red, Danny the Green, Danny the Geek? The Greens, for their part, confirm that there has been discussions. I have heard there has been some contact. They might join us or the Liberals,said Green spokesperson Chris Coakley.We are very open to the idea, and the Pirates' position on internet freedom is very aligned with ours,he added.If you look at how we have voted, we're pretty consistent on this.

It was [Green co-leader] Danny Cohn-Bendit that requested the vote on [the telecoms] amendment that ultimately passed, after all.The Liberals however said there have been no formal discussions.If there is an application, then it is up to the elected members to decide whether the can join. At this point I can't speculate,said Jeroen Reijnen, spokesman for the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe.

CHINA YOUR DOLLAR ASSETS ARE SAFE

WW3 THE 3 WAVES THAT MARCH TO ISRAEL

AMOS 9:10
10 All the sinners of my people shall die by the sword, which say, The evil shall not overtake nor prevent us.

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

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

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

MUSLIM NATIONS

EZEKIEL 38:1-12
1 And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
2 Son of man, set thy face against Gog,(RULER) the land of Magog,(RUSSIA) the chief prince of Meshech(MOSCOW)and Tubal,(TOBOLSK) and prophesy against him,
3 And say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshech(MOSCOW) and Tubal:
4 And I will turn thee back, and put hooks into thy jaws,(GOD FORCES THE RUSSIA-MUSLIMS TO MARCH) and I will bring thee forth, and all thine army, horses and horsemen, all of them clothed with all sorts of armour, even a great company with bucklers and shields, all of them handling swords:
5 Persia,(IRAN,IRAQ) Ethiopia, and Libya with them; all of them with shield and helmet:
6 Gomer,(GERMANY) and all his bands; the house of Togarmah (TURKEY)of the north quarters, and all his bands:(SUDAN,AFRICA) and many people with thee.
7 Be thou prepared, and prepare for thyself, thou, and all thy company that are assembled unto thee, and be thou a guard unto them.
8 After many days thou shalt be visited: in the latter years thou shalt come into the land that is brought back from the sword, and is gathered out of many people, against the mountains of Israel, which have been always waste: but it is brought forth out of the nations, and they shall dwell safely all of them.
9 Thou shalt ascend and come like a storm, thou shalt be like a cloud to cover the land, thou, and all thy bands, and many people with thee.(RUSSIA-EGYPT AND MUSLIMS)
10 Thus saith the Lord GOD; It shall also come to pass, that at the same time shall things come into thy mind, and thou shalt think an evil thought:
11 And thou shalt say, I will go up to the land of unwalled villages; I will go to them that are at rest, that dwell safely, all of them dwelling without walls, and having neither bars nor gates,
12 To take a spoil, and to take a prey; to turn thine hand upon the desolate places that are now inhabited, and upon the people that are gathered out of the nations, which have gotten cattle and goods, that dwell in the midst of the land.

ISAIAH 17:1
1 The burden of Damascus. Behold, Damascus is taken away from being a city, and it shall be a ruinous heap.

PSALMS 83:3-7
3 They (ARABS,MUSLIMS) have taken crafty counsel against thy people,(ISRAEL) and consulted against thy hidden ones.
4 They have said, Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation; that the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance.
5 For they (MUSLIMS) have consulted together with one consent: they are confederate against thee:(TREATIES)
6 The tabernacles of Edom,and the Ishmaelites;(ARABS) of Moab, and the Hagarenes;
7 Gebal, and Ammon,(JORDAN) and Amalek;(SYRIA) the Philistines (PALESTINIANS) with the inhabitants of Tyre;(LEBANON)

DANIEL 11:40-43
40 And at the time of the end shall the king of the south( EGYPT) push at him:(EU DICTATOR IN ISRAEL) and the king of the north (RUSSIA AND MUSLIM HORDES OF EZEK 38+39) shall come against him like a whirlwind, with chariots, and with horsemen, and with many ships; and he shall enter into the countries, and shall overflow and pass over.
41 He shall enter also into the glorious land, and many countries shall be overthrown: but these shall escape out of his hand, even Edom, and Moab, and the chief of the children of Ammon.(JORDAN)
42 He shall stretch forth his hand also upon the countries: and the land of Egypt shall not escape.
43 But he shall have power over the treasures of gold and of silver, and over all the precious things of Egypt: and the Libyans and the Ethiopians shall be at his steps.

EZEKIEL 39:1-8
1 Therefore, thou son of man, prophesy against Gog,(LEADER OF RUSSIA) and say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshech (MOSCOW) and Tubal: (TUBOLSK)
2 And I will turn thee back, and leave but the sixth part of thee, and will cause thee to come up from the north parts,(RUSSIA) and will bring thee upon the mountains of Israel:
3 And I will smite thy bow out of thy left hand, and will cause thine arrows to fall out of thy right hand.
4 Thou shalt fall upon the mountains of Israel, thou, and all thy bands,( ARABS) and the people that is with thee: I will give thee unto the ravenous birds of every sort, and to the beasts of the field to be devoured.
5 Thou shalt fall upon the open field: for I have spoken it, saith the Lord GOD.
6 And I will send a fire on Magog,(NUCLEAR BOMB) and among them that dwell carelessly in the isles: and they shall know that I am the LORD.
7 So will I make my holy name known in the midst of my people Israel; and I will not let them pollute my holy name any more: and the heathen shall know that I am the LORD, the Holy One in Israel.
8 Behold, it is come, and it is done, saith the Lord GOD; this is the day whereof I have spoken.

JOEL 2:3,20,30-31
3 A fire(NUCLEAR BOMB) devoureth before them;(RUSSIA-ARABS) and behind them a flame burneth: the land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness; yea, and nothing shall escape them.
20 But I will remove far off from you the northern army,(RUSSIA,MUSLIMS) and will drive him into a land barren and desolate, with his face toward the east sea, and his hinder part toward the utmost sea, and his stink shall come up, and his ill savour shall come up, because he hath done great things.(SIBERIAN DESERT)
30 And I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke.(NUCLEAR BOMB)
31 The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the LORD come.

Israel Prepares for War: 5-Day Turning Point 3 Exercise Begins
by Yehudah Lev Kay JUNE 1,09

(IsraelNN.com) The largest emergency drill ever to take place in Israel, dubbed Turning Point 3, began Sunday morning after months of planning. Representatives from 70 nations are participating as observers in the drill, which simulates a war with Hamas, Hizbullah, and Syria that also leads Arabs within Israel to riot and commit terrorist attacks.Turning Point 3 involves the IDF, police, emergency medical services, government offices, and all of the nation’s civilians. Some Arab countries, nervously watching Israel prepare for the exercise, have claimed that the exercise is just a front for an Israeli attack.The drill is intended to prepare the Jewish State for the worst possible scenario, beginning with a war that ignites in Gaza after a three-month escalation, bringing Israeli civilians in the Negev under rocket bombardment. The fighting then spreads to Israel’s northern border, where Hizbullah opens a second front and initiates rocket fire reaching all parts of the country.

The war next engulfs Syria, and at the same time authorities must deal with uprisings among the local Arab population, including terrorist attacks against Israeli targets. At the same time, emergency services will train for other disasters such as an earthquake, an epidemic outbreak, or a hazardous materials spill.As far as the general population is concerned, Turning Point 3 reaches its peak on Tuesday, when a nationwide siren sounds at 11:00 a.m., sending civilians to the nearest bomb shelter. The Home Front Command recently released a map showing that every Israeli citizen has come under rocket threat from either Hamas or Hizbullah, and explaining how much time a person has to reach a shelter based on his location.

Five Days of Intensive Simulations
The different components of Turning Point 3 are spread out over five days this week.

On Sunday, the drill began during the weekly cabinet meeting as government ministers were walked through the steps the state would take in a time of war. The simulation is expected to continue throughout the cabinet meeting. Monday sees the exercise expand to defense and emergency services, as the IDF, police, National Emergency Authority, and Home Front Command begin simulations. All government offices open emergency centers, while the Emergency Economic Command meets to handle the economic home front during war time. On Tuesday, local governing councils are presented with emergency scenarios and respond accordingly. At 11:00 a.m., the nationwide siren is activated, sending civilians to bomb shelters in offices, schools and shopping centers. Citizens in apartment buildings and private homes are strongly urged to practice seeking the safety of bomb shelters and safe rooms at this time as well.

Wednesday sees drills at the National Security Cabinet and tests of the national information and data management system. Emergency forces in Kiryat Gat practice evacuating wounded from a collapsed building prepared specially for the drill. On Thursday, IDF units drill field exercises while the Home Front Command continues the simulation at its headquarters. The police practice the evacuation of a skyscraper as Turning Point 3 comes to a close.

Seventy Nations Look On, Arabs Wary
Representatives of 70 different countries, including the U.S., Turkey, Japan, France, Germany, Uruguay, and Hungary are set to observe the drill. They will also share their impressions on the success of Turning Point 3 with Israeli authorities. Several Arab states, however, have expressed concern with the Israeli exercise; Hizbullah terrorists have claimed that it is a front designed to conceal a planned Israeli attack .Defense Minister Ehud Barak countered the claims last week, saying that Turning Point 3 is a standard Home Front Command drill which was planned will in advance. Deputy Defense Minister Matan Vilnai added, however, that the drill represents a very real scenario that could occur in wartime. The IDF Spokesperson’s Office said, Turning Point 3 is a standard exercise which has taken place each year for the past three years. The purpose of the drill is to improve Israel’s readiness and cooperation among forces for an emergency situation. The exercise will reveal areas that need improvement and point towards proper solutions.

DANIEL 7:23-24
23 Thus he said, The fourth beast(THE EU,REVIVED ROME) shall be the fourth kingdom upon earth,(7TH WORLD EMPIRE) which shall be diverse from all kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, and shall tread it down, and break it in pieces.(TRADE BLOCKS)
24 And the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise:(10 NATIONS) and another shall rise after them;(#11 SPAIN) and he shall be diverse from the first, and he shall subdue three kings.(BE HEAD OF 3 KINGS OR NATIONS).

iXQUICK A SEARCH ENGINE THAT DOES NOT STORE IP ADDRESSES (SWITCH FROM GOOGLE FOLKS)
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LATESTEST STATEMENT BY THE EU AT THE UN.
http://www.europa-eu-un.org/articles/articleslist_s91_en.htm

Burmese human rights block to EU-Southeast Asia trade pact
LEIGH PHILLIPS Today JUNE 2,09 @ 09:31 CET

The European Union and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations have suspended free trade negotiations between the two sides over the question of human rights abuses in Burma.After two years, discussions have ground to a halt, the Indonesian trade minister Mari Pangestu said on Monday (1 June), as reported by Agence France Press.We are temporarily postponing the negotiations,she said to the French news agency on the margins of an ASEAN-South Korea summit.Take a pause, not cancel,she added.She ascribed the suspension to differences over green issues and workers' rights.

Obviously, Europe wants to have a much more comprehensive coverage of issues like environment (and) labour, which are sensitive for ASEAN countries,she said.However, the news agency also quotes unnamed diplomatic sources from both ASEAN and the EU, as saying human rights abuses and foot-dragging over democratic reforms in Burma were behind the development. The revelation contradicts statements made by the two organisations last Thursday following the 17th ASEAN-EU ministerial meeting in Phnom Penh.At the time, a joint statement highlighted co-operation between ASEAN and the EU, notably over the global economic crisis, disease prevention, food and energy security and the environment.The meeting was held in the traditional spirit of openness, trust and solidarity that is the corollary of more than 30 years of dialogue and cooperation,read the communiqué that was issued at the end of the meeting.The two transnational blocs at the time also said that they had agreed to look for ways to give fresh impetus to the ASEAN-EU free trade agreement talks.

Anti-terrorism, human and drug trafficking, money laundering and cyber-crime were also on the agenda, as well as co-operation over disaster preparedness and humanitarian aid.The Cambodian foreign minister, Hor Namhong, had said that there had been an exchange of views over the situation in Burma, with European ministers calling for the release of political prisoners and co-operation between the Burmese government and the UN.However, according to the Asia Times, discussion of Burma all but blocked talks on other issues.The online paper reports that just minutes into the ministerial meeting, Burmese deputy foreign minister Maung Myint told delegates not to discuss the internal of his country.It is not political, it is not a human-rights issue. So we don't accept pressure and interference from abroad,he said, according to the Asian Times, referring to the ongoing trial of democracy campaigner Aung San Suu Ky.The 63-year-old human rights symbol and Nobel Peace Prize winner is currently on trial and faces up to five years for allegedly breaching the terms of her house arrest after an American soldier swam to her house.EU delegates reportedly rejected the minister's statement and launched into a discussion of the matter that lasted hours and hampered discussion of other subjects.Czech foreign minister Jan Kohout, whose country currently holds the EU's six-month rotating presidency, said Burma had taken a big step backwards.The ASEAN-EU meeting was attended by delegates from all EU member stated and the ten members of ASEAN, along with representatives of the European Commission and the ASEAN Secretariat.ASEAN, which brings together Brunei, Burma, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam, will hold its next ministerial meeting with the EU in Spain in 2010.

Poll finds Irish support for EU's Lisbon treaty rises
JUNE 1,09

Irish support for the European Union's Lisbon reform treaty has risen further, continuing this year's trend of gains for the Yes camp and a steady decline in opposition, an opinion poll showed on Monday. Skip related content

The Irish Times/TNS mrbi poll found 54 percent would back the treaty in a fresh referendum this year, up two percentage points from two weeks ago, with the proportion of those planning to vote No dropping one point to 28 percent.When undecided voters were excluded, 66 percent were in favour and 34 percent against, compared with a referendum result last June of 53.4 percent No and 46.6 percent Yes. The Irish government has consented to holding a second Lisbon vote this autumn, subject to concessions in areas of concern for Irish voters, such as military neutrality, taxation and the retention of a European commissioner.

European leaders are expected to agree on the details of those guarantees later this month.

Many voters now look to the European Union as a haven amid the global financial crisis, in which Ireland has become one of the most vulnerable euro zone members, but the recession has also distracted the government from focussing on Lisbon.Prime Minister Brian Cowen's cabinet has acknowledged the need for a better publicity effort than before last June's vote, but the Irish Times said there was little evidence of this so far.If they have not made substantial progress in organising a campaign before the summer break, including informing voters about the treaty's content and implications, they will be at a real disadvantage in September,the paper said in an editorial accompanying the poll.Elections on Friday for the European Parliament, local councils and two seats in the Irish parliament could provide a further indication of sentiment, with anti-treaty parties Libertas and Sinn Fein in the race for European mandates.(Reporting by Andras Gergely; editing by Andrew Roche)

German court judgement on Lisbon end of June
HONOR MAHONY Today JUNE 2,09 @ 09:17 CET

Germany's constitutional court is to publish its judgement on whether the EU's Lisbon Treaty is compatible with the country's constitution on 30 June.The court is examining a complaint by centre-right politician Peter Gauweiler and some left wing deputies that the proposed new rules for the EU would undermine the powers of the national parliament (Bundestag) and therefore the principle of democracy in Germany.
The Gauweiler party suggests that the German parliament is losing its constitution-given powers as decisions it takes can subsequently be overturned at the EU level if the European Commission proposes a law on a similar issue.The questions raised by the complaint prompted the court to hold an usually long hearing on the matter in February.The hearing, to which Berlin sent two ministers to defend the Lisbon Treaty, saw some of the judges express some scepticism about further EU integration.It examined the fact that Germany is able to transfer sovereignty to the European Union although it is not considered to have same democratic and state principles as Germany itself.There was also much discussion on the fact that the EU now has powers in criminal law - sanctions may be given for polluters of the environment.Judge Udo Di Fabio, who prepared the procedure and will deliver the judgement on the treaty, asked whether the transferral of powers to the EU really means more freedom for EU citizens.

German daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung suggests that the court will give the green light to the treaty, which reforms the workings of the EU institutions, including giving much more power to the parliament and removing member state vetoes in all but a few areas.However, it is expected to attach strong conditions in its judgement, saying that further development of the European Union cannot happen without the German parliament's assent and that extending the competences of the bloc will not be allowed without parliament's agreement.The newspaper also says the court will try and ensure the greatest degree of consensus among the eight judges in order to make the judgement even stronger.

The verdict is keenly awaited throughout the EU.

A judgement that approves the treaty will increase the pressure on Ireland which is facing a second referendum on the document in autumn, after having rejected it last June.The treaty also has yet to be fully ratified in Poland and the Czech Republic where presidents of these countries are holding off signing until Ireland's position is clear.

Merkel and Sarkozy in joint call for strong Europe
ELITSA VUCHEVA Today JUNE 2,09 @ 09:26 CET

With only a few days left to the 4-7 June European elections, Germany and France's centre-right leaders, chancellor Angela Merkel and president Nicolas Sarkozy, have made a joint call on Europeans to head to the polls in the name of a strong Europe.In a shared opinion piece published on Sunday (31 May) by the Journal du Dimanche newspaper in France and Die Welt am Sonntag in Germany, the two politicians said they wanted a strong Europe that protects [its citizens].A strong Europe does not necessarily mean more powers for the European Union, even more European legislation or even more financial means,Ms Merkel and Mr Sarkozy wrote.We refuse a bureaucratic Europe that mechanically applies the rules ... We want a European Union that listens to the citizens, innovates, revitalises.Such a Union would favour the emergence of strong European enterprises and would protect the European industry.It would also have the necessary means to avoid economic crises like the current one.The [free-market] liberalism without rules failed. This failure led to the severe crisis that we find ourselves in now.The model that we want is that of a responsible market economy,the two conservative leaders wrote, pleading for a real European regulation in the financial sector.On speculative funds, tax havens, payment for executives and financial traders, we want to see an exemplary Europe.

Ms Merkel and Mr Sarkozy reaffirmed their opposition to an unlimited enlargement of the EU, as well as their strong backing for the bloc's Lisbon Treaty.Europe must play a leading role in the world. For that, it must have efficient institutions,they said.

In order to succeed,we need everybody's mobilisation, starting from the citizens,the two leaders concluded.We call on all Europeans to vote in the European elections. There is no better way to support the goal of a stronger Europe in a safer world, they wrote.Their call comes as polls have been indicating voters' turnout will again be low in these elections, after a record low of 45 percent in the last elections in 2004.In France, one poll published on Sunday said that a majority of 55 percent of French people would not vote, but some analysts have been suggesting abstention could reach as high as 65 percent.A Europe-wide survey by TNS Opinion last week said that the number of citizens who are certain to vote in some member states – such as the UK, Latvia, Bulgaria and Poland – is only around 15 percent.

British Conservatives call for EU to return powers
EUOBSERVER STAFF Today JUNE 2,09 @ 14:29 CET

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - British Conservative leader David Cameron has said he would use upcoming EU budget talks to try to negotiate for return of powers to the UK, as his new EU parliament group heads for at least 50 seats in the elections.If we had a Conservative government, we would be going into those negotiations with a list of powers we wanted to have returned to the UK,he said on BBC radio's Today programme on Tuesday (2 June) morning.There's an important negotiation coming up on the future funding of the EU and I don't want to see us increasing the funding at all, but it gives us enormous leverage in terms of making sure we get a good deal for Britain.The EU will in 2010 begin talks on how much EU countries will put into the common pot for the 2013 to 2020 budgetary period, with the UK among the leading donors alongside Germany and France.Mr Cameron, tipped to take over from Labour leader Gordon Brown before June next year, has repeatedly promised to rework the Lisbon treaty, which has already been ratified by the UK but not Ireland, Germany, Poland or the Czech Republic. The treaty envisages deeper consolidation of power in EU structures.The Conservative leader on Saturday attended a congress in Warsaw together with Poland's right-wing Law and Justice party and the Czech centre-right ODS faction.The three parties plan in June to unveil a new EU political group together with at least four smaller parties from other EU states. With the Conservatives and ODS riding high in the polls and with Law and Justice creeping up, the three parties alone can count on fielding 50 MEPs.Speaking in Warsaw, Mr Cameron said the new group will be a strong centre-right group, which will give an alternative to federalist points of view.ODS leader Mirek Topolanek called for a flexible, open Europe based on strong nation states.The Lisbon treaty is dead,he said. Some senior Conservative politicians have attacked Mr Cameron for abandoning French and German centre-right parties in the EU parliament EPP-ED group in favour of the new Polish and Czech allies.I do not understand a rigid commitment to impotence,Lord Kerr of Kinlochard, a UK ambassador to the EU in the 1990s, said in The Guardian.

The Polish and Czech parties could prove tricky bedfellows for the mainstream Tory party. On Sunday, Mr Kaczynski said a strong Europe must be a Christian Europe and continued bashing Germany, this time for securing more EU aid for its farmers than Poland gets.Mr Topolanek has meanwhile been implicated in an Italian sex scandal. Italian PM Silvio Berlusconi has banned the publication of pictures allegedly showing topless girls and VIP guests at his mansion in Sardinia. Mr Berlusconi's lawyer told Corriere della Sera that one picture shows Mr Topolanek naked in the garden during a family visit in May 2008.

Commission under fire

Romanian Socialist front-runner Adrian Severin over the weekend accused the EU commission of corruption on the grounds that reports on Romania and Bulgaria's reform process are drafted by its general secretariat and not the justice commissioner.

Either [justice commissioner] Mr Jacques Barrot is corrupt and then we must solve this problem, or there is some other form of corruption,he said. The attack is being seen as an attempt to weaken the chances of conservative EU commission president Jose Manuel Barroso being appointed for a second term. German interior minister Wolfgang Schauble has said a directly-elected EU president would help create a European public political sphere and promote deeper integration. Europe needs a president who is directly elected by the citizens in a Europe-wide election, like the president of the United States,he told the Welt am Sonntag newspaper.Low turnout fears persist for the EU elections, with 55 percent of French people saying in latest polls they will not vote. Early voting in Finland shows that 12.6 percent of people having already cast their ballot compared to 11.4 percent at the same time last election, however.

The Turkey question

Meanwhile, the debate over Turkey's future entry into the EU is catching fire in Germany and France.The head of the German Socialists in the European Parliament, Martin Schulz, has attacked the centre-right CDU party for saying in its EU election campaign that Turkey should stay out, while agreeing in Brussels to the opening of each new chapter in Ankara's membership application. Mr Schulz has been touted as Germany's potential next EU commissioner. But the German centre-right would favour putting Friedrich Merz, a former CDU party boss, in the job. French Socialist MEP and former EU minister, Pierre Moscovici, has backed Turkish accession in a joint column in Le Monde.To leave Turkey on the margins of Europe, humiliate it by making it dawdle under diverse pretexts, this would be a mistake,he said.

Also rans

In news of smaller parties, the anti-copyright Swedish Pirate party might get two MEPs according to a Demoskop poll. Almost 22 percent of young people support the movement.The Green party in Greece is on course to get up to 10 percent of votes, making it the third largest in the country after the conservative New Democracy and socialist Pasok factions.German CDU Chancellor Angela Merkel has in Bavaria asked people to vote for the CDU's sister party, the CSU party, amid fears it might not make the 5 percent threshold to return an MEP.And Polish anti-Communist hero Lech Walesa has definitively turned his back on the anti-Lisbon treaty Libertas party, pledging instead to campaign for the ruling centre-right Civic Platform. Wherever they put me, there I will do my duty for my fatherland, under the leadership of a decent prime minister,he said.

This WEEK in the European Union
HONOR MAHONY 29.05.2009 @ 20:55 CET

EUOBSERVER / WEEKLY AGENDA (1-7 June) - This week EU citizens go to the polls across all 27 member states between Thursday and Sunday to elect a new European Parliament.

Despite concerted efforts by European parties and some MEPs, themes remain resolutely national with headlines in the Italian papers preoccupied with what may or may not have gone in prime minister Berlusconi's love life and papers in Britain full of the expense scandals concerning MPs.The big issue of the election days will be voter turnout, which has dropped every election year since 1979, reaching a new low in 2004. This year, with the added burden of the economic crisis, analysts have suggested that a combination of voter apathy and disillusionment will see movements on the far left and the far right gain a stronger foothold in the EU assembly.All and sundry have been urging the around 375 million voters to get out to the urns. The latest calls have come from some famous sports personalities, including footballers and cyclists.The centre-right has been predicted to maintain its stronghold on the parliament despite the defection of the British Conservatives to form their own eurosceptic group and despite the Socialists trying to position themselves as the party with the answers to the economic crisis. Socialists are expected to remain the second largest faction and the liberals the third.The election will be keenly watched by Jose Manuel Barroso, head of the European Commission, who is hoping for another term in office. A centre-right majority would make a second innings more likely, with current rules saying the post has to be agreed by a simple majority of MEPs.

The overall outcome is set to be announced on Sunday evening.

The commission, condemned by critics for its inaction in the face of the economic crisis, will on Wednesday produce a communication on employment. It follows a jobs summit last month organised by the Czech EU presidency which was notable for its lack of ideas.It is also due to propose that member states during this year and next get full reimbursement for regional projects. At the moment, co-financing runs from 15 to 50 percent for member states depending on the project and the region. But cash-strapped governments are unlikely to be able to find the money to take part in the projects. The commission hopes the idea will stimulate growth, with the money to be claimed back later.Wednesday is also the publication day of the commission's bathing water report. The annual study, produced just before the summer, lets potential swimmers know where it is best to take a dip as well as where waters are less salubrious.

Asylum package

EU justice ministers will meet on Thursday and Friday in Luxembourg.It will be the first time member states discuss the asylum package agreed by MEPs in April. The package sets common standards across the EU on how asylum seekers should be treated and where their applications should be heard, a particularly thorny issue for southern EU member states who see the most immigrants coming to their coasts because of their proximity to Africa.MEPs introduced a solidarity clause to the package that would see member states taking in asylum seekers from those states that say they are overburdened. In addition, teams of national experts would be formed to assist those countries receiving a larger number of asylum applications, notably Malta, Italy and Greece.

Guide to the 2009 European Elections
LEIGH PHILLIPS Today JUNE 2,09 @ 09:23 CET

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - The seventh elections to the European Parliament since the chamber became a democratic elected institution in 1979 are just days away. From 4-7 June, around 375 million eligible voters out of a population of just under 500 million will be able to cast their ballot, making these the largest transnational elections in the world. However, while it's a pan-European vote, due to national traditions, polling takes place on different days in different countries - and in one case, voting even occurs on different days depending on which part of the country you live in.Here is a simple guide to the elections - who votes when; who is running; and, most importantly, when the results will be clear.

When do I get to vote?

The bulk of European voters - just over three quarters of the electorate - will head to the ballot box on Sunday, 7 June, while a quarter will vote from the fourth to the sixth.The Netherlands and the United Kingdom are the sole countries to vote on 4 June, and the Czech Republic and Ireland are the only countries to vote on 5 June, with voters in the former also able to cast their ballot on 6 June. Voting takes place in Cyprus, Malta, Slovakia and Lithuania on 6 June, as it does in Italy, although voters in the boot of Europe can also visit the urns on 7 June. The rest of Europe votes together, on the seventh, although in some French overseas territories, voting begins on the sixth.

Can I vote in advance of these dates?

In some countries such as Sweden, Finland, Denmark and Estonia, early voting has taken place, and despite warnings that voter turn-out will once again reach an all-time low this year, early voter turn-out is up quite a bit on the 2004 vote.As of Friday (29 May), after nine days of early voting in Sweden, some 3.2 percent of the electorate had cast their ballot, up from 1.68 percent that had done so over the same period in 2004, according to the parliament's press service.Similarly, over the course of two days of advanced voting in Finland, some 5.6 percent had voted, up from 4.7 percent during the last European elections.In Estonia, where voters for the first time are able to cast their ballot electronically, some 6,800 voters have performed their democratic duty since 28 May. As of 1 June, early voting will have also been available at some polling stations, the parliament says.

How old do you have to be?

Across Europe, voting age is 18 in most countries, although Austria recently lowered the voting age to 16, hoping for greater voter participation.Candidates in all but two countries must be at least 18 years old, except in Cyprus and Italy, where the minimum age to be a parliamentarian is 25.

Are there other elections happening at the same time?

Adding to the confusion - but lowering the cost to domestic electoral authorities - in six EU member states, other elections will be taking place concurrently with elections to Strasbourg: regional elections in Belgium, local government elections in Ireland (along with national by-elections in two Dublin constituencies) and the UK, bits of Germany, Italy and Malta, and a general election in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. Denmark hopes a referendum on royal issues may boost turnout.Election turnout has fallen in every single European elections since the start in 1979, when turnout was 61.99%. In the last European Elections in 2004 turnout was down to 45.47%.

How long are MEPs in office?

Members of the European Parliament are elected for five-year terms, meaning the next elections will take place in 2014. However, MEPs from Bulgarian and Romania will have only served two years in the chamber, as the two countries first elected their euro-deputies in 2007, when they joined the union.

Some European commissioners are running as MEPs, aren't they?

Five of the current college of European commissioners are running as candidates in the election: information society commissioner Viviane Reding of he Christian Social People's Party in Luxembourg, a centre-right party that sits with the main centre-right group in Strasbourg; development commissioner Louis Michel, running for the Reformist Movement in Belgium, a left-leaning liberal party that sits with the liberals; regional policy commissioner Danuta Hübner of Poland, running for the Civic Platform, which also sits with the centre-right; and consumer protection commissioner Meglena Kuneva of Bulgaria, running for the National Movement for Stability and Progress, a liberal party. Most of the commissioners are hoping to be re-appointed to the EU executive, but a seat in the house is viewed as an insurance policy.

What are the parties at the European level?

There are seven main groupings within the European Parliament, each of which is linked to a pan-European political party that extends beyond the borders of the European Union, although all candidates still run under national political colours. The EP groupings are formed only after the results of the election are clear, and even then, may still take a few weeks to gel.Nevertheless, as of the last parliament, the largest party in the house, the European People's Party, brings together the more socially and economically conservative parties from across Europe. The EPP is expected to win the elections once again, albeit with a diminished number of seats.

The Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe is a coalition of centrist parties that stretch from the essentially centre-left but pro-free-market deputies of the UK's Liberal Democrats and the Netherlands' D66 to the immigration-sceptic and economically conservative People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD), also of the Netherlands.The Party of European Socialists, the second-biggest bloc in the house and an equally uncomfortably large tent, unites the UK's essentially centre-right Labour Party with the slightly less pro-free-market social democrats of the Parti Socialiste in France, the SPD in Germany, the PSOE in Spain and other Socialist and Labour parties from across the bloc.The European Greens are a more coherent bunch, although they hew more to the centre in Germany and the Czech Republic while their colleagues from the UK and Scandinavia consider themselves to be more a part of the self-styled alterglobalisation movement. There is also a second conservative grouping in the parliament, the Union for a Europe of the Nations, although this is expected to disintegrate after the elections, with the two parties that lead the group - Ireland's governing party, the centrist Fianna Fail and Italy's post-fascist Allianza Nazionale - leaving the UEN for the Liberals and the European People's Party respectively.To the left of the PES, the United European Left/Nordic Green Left is the far-left group in the parliament.Lastly, eurosceptics of left and right, including the UK Independence Party, Denmark's June Movement and French Mouvement pour la France lead by Philippe de Villiers in the last sitting of the house came together under the Independence/Democracy umbrella.

When do we find out the results?

Despite the four-day voting period, the full results will be released only after the final polling station has been closed - 10 p.m. Brussels' time on the Sunday evening.

Ahead of the results beginning at 7:15 p.m., three TV debates with prominent public figures on major issues facing Europe have been organised by France 24, Radio France International, Euronews, Canal 24H and Spain's TVE. The debates, taking place on the third floor of the parliament in Brussels, will also be broadcast on EuroparlTV, the parliament's online television station, and Europe by Satellite (EbS) in the 22 official languages of the EU, as well as Arabic and Russian. The announcement of the results from 10pm will be projected on a giant screen in the parliament's plenary chamber in Brussels and will be available via EbS and EuroparlTV.This will be followed by live streaming on EuroparlTV of press conferences from the out-going president of the parliament, Hans-Gert Poettering, and the various political groupings from 11 p.m. The leaders of the political groups, speaking from Brussels and national capitals, will comment on the first wave of election results.Results from all 27 member states will be made available as they arrive after this time. British, Cypriot, Czech, Dutch, Irish, Lithuanian, Slovak, should thus appear first.

At some point later in the evening, when sufficient returns can begin to suggest the likely make up of the house, the parliament's services will provide a preliminary prognosis of how the results will shape the composition of the new chamber.

Europe in black and white: launch of PRESSEUROP.EU - the first multilingual website for press articles on European affairs Summary: 27 May 2009

Brussels - Under Courrier International's leadership, the PRESSEUROP.EU portal will offer a 10-language selection of articles on European affairs.Mrs Margot WALLSTRÖM - Vice-President of the European Commission and Commissioner responsible for communication - has welcomed the fact that the Commission is to support this innovative project without in any way encroaching on the consortium's editorial freedom: Alongside EuRaNet (launched in April 2008) and EU TV Net (scheduled for 2010), PRESSEUROP is an expression of our desire to facilitate, encourage and support the establishment of a European public forum for communication, discussion and debate.
The Commission and a consortium coordinated by Courrier International (and including Internazionale in Italy, Forum in Poland and Courrier Internacional in Portugal, with the support of Cafebabel) are launching PRESSEUROP.EU - the first multilingual website for press articles on European affairs.PRESSEUROP will offer translations into as many languages as possible of a selection of the current or the previous day's articles on European affairs, supplemented by comment, analysis and illustration.

It will make publicly available:

- international and European press articles (both written and on-line), selected for their relevance and reliability and concerned with a variety of Community topics: politics, economic affairs, society, the world, the environment, science, culture, intellectual debate, etc.,
- press reviews, news in brief and news round-ups,
- illustrations (computer graphics, photographs, videos, cartoons, etc.),
- a daily newsletter on the day's current events and the latest content,
- archived articles.
The portal will have an interactive dimension in the form of theme-based discussion groups, on-line surveys and opportunities for commenting on the articles published.

This service will be provided initially in 10 languages (Czech, Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian and Spanish) and will be gradually extended to cover the 23 EU official languages ­ hence the PRESSEUROP consortium will be seeking new members. Various partnerships are already in the pipeline, involving in particular EuRaNet and the forthcoming EU TV Net.Ref: EC09-107EN EU source: European Commission UN forum: Date: 27/5/2009.

EU Presidency Statement - United Nations Plenary: Draft outcome document of the Conference on the World Financial and Economic Crisis
Summary: 20 May 2009

New York - Statement on behalf of the European Union by Mr. Petr Kaiser, Deputy Permanent Representative, Chargé d´Affaires a.i., of the Czech Republic to the United Nations, at the Informal consultation of the Plenary on the draft outcome document of the Conference on the World Financial and Economic Crisis and Its Impact on Development

Distinguished Co-Chairs,
Distinguished Delegates,

I have the honour to speak on behalf of the European Union. We welcome the new draft text, dated May 18, put together by the co-facilitators and the President of the General Assembly and we thank them for their hard work, which certainly has brought results that can serve as a basis for further consultations. We note the importance of a broad and inclusive preparatory process. We also welcome the return of the entire process to its intergovernmental nature. We would like to express our willingness to adhere to a facilitators-led, transparent and legitimate process. In our view, the legitimacy of the process is a key element necessary to achieve a successful Conference and, equally important, its outcome.We do support the process of consultations as carried out by the facilitators. In our view, we should support their proposal to collect the views of Member States, which would serve as a basis on which they could prepare the revised draft.I would like to point out that the European Union would like to see in the outcome document a strong focus on mitigating the impact of the current economic and financial crisis on developing countries, in particular the LDCs and the most vulnerable, as this is the emergency we are now facing. This is where the United Nations has a clear mandate and this is precisely where the United Nations can make a difference.Let me now say a few words on the actual text, which touches upon many issues. At this stage, I would like to state that the EU sees some difficult elements within the text and we foresee that changes and adaptations will need to be made to reach a consensual document, which is a priority for the European Union.

On the structure of the draft outcome document: the introductory part of the draft outcome document should be shorter and should be based more extensively on facts, rather than debatable opinions. The style of the first six paragraphs is rather harsh, which, we believe, is not the kind of language to be used in a political document on UN soil, and therefore we recommend toning it down. As a matter of fact, paragraphs 1 through 6 do not focus on the impact of the crisis and, therefore, they do not seem to be the most appropriate at this somewhat prominent section of the text. It might be most fitting if the document could start with what is currently paragraph 7, rephrased to sound less dramatic. Overall, a better balance should be sought throughout the text: we should not limit ourselves to identifying the problems, but should also seek concrete solutions to the crisis, focusing our attention on the needs of developing countries, especially the most vulnerable.At the political level, the EU strongly reaffirmed, on May 18, its commitments to achieve its ODA targets, in spite of the ongoing economic crisis. In our view, the text should confirm the existing ODA commitments, highlight the impact of the financial crisis on the poorest countries and people, and on the MDGs, ahead of the 2010 MDG Review and the 2011 UN Conference on the Least Developed Countries. It should also, to a certain extent, build on the outcome of the G-20 Summit in April, and it should endorse the need for reforms of the existing international financial institutions, but should not call for the creation of new bodies or mechanisms, or cut across processes in the IFIs.The document should also set out a clear role for the UN in responding to the crisis, perhaps on the basis of closer UN monitoring of the impacts on the poor and vulnerable. In this respect, we welcome the work of the CEB in elaborating its priorities as set out in its 5 April Communiqué. This includes a vulnerability monitoring and response mechanism, which we think should be included in the text. We would also welcome a reference to a more coherent One UN approach focused on vulnerable countries and people, and more coherent donor funding.In the main part of the text, we are rather concerned about the lack of balance between mitigation and financial architecture. It goes without saying that the financial architecture is a relevant issue, but it clearly does not have the urgency of mitigation of the crisis. Moreover, while the UN, no doubt, can support reform of the IFIs, decisions in that regard are to be reached in other fora. The EU has shown its support for an on-going process in these fora, notably within the BWIs and the G20. The text on conditionalities, new credit facilities, global reserve system, global economic council, tax, debt issues, policy space, trade, SDR and IFIs, among other issues, will also require further scrutiny.

As far as our most serious concerns, we are very uneasy about the creation of new bodies. In particular, the ideas of a continuing process and of the creation of seven ministerial working groups are not acceptable to the EU. In this respect, we would strongly prefer to use the existing follow-up, which should take into account the mandates and work of all existing institutions, in particular the UNGA and the ECOSOC. Even though some ideas are interesting, the whole draft under The way forward deserves further careful consideration. The EU wishes to express its surprise at the follow-up modalities envisages in paragraph 53 of the negotiating document, which have, to our knowledge, never been proposed by any delegation during the consultative process.The EU will be pleased to provide more detailed information and propose alternative language on specific issues to the co-facilitators shortly. Once again, let us reiterate our commitment and strong support for a successful Conference and its outcome, which would reflect a broad, inclusive and consensual process based on productive consultations. Let me assure the co-facilitators and all delegates that the EU intends to engage in a positive and constructive spirit, with the aim of reaching a consensus.In this context, we would like to raise an issue related to the participation at the Conference. We think that it is necessary to formally invite the United Nations funds and programmes, specialized agencies of the United Nations system, including the Bretton Woods institutions, ILO and UNCTAD, the World Trade Organization, the regional development banks, the regional commissions of the United Nations, and non-governmental organizations, and civil society and business sector entities to participate in the Conference and in the preparatory process as the Conference will deal with issues where these institutions simply can not be left out.

Distinguished Co-Chairs, the European Union would like to reiterate our willingness to work hard during the remaining several days.Thank you for your attention.
Ref: PRES09-046EN EU source: EU Presidency UN forum: General Assembly (including Special Sessions) Date: 20/5/2009.

EU Presidency Statement - United Nations Security Council: Counter-Terrorism Committee, 1267 Committee, and 1540 Committee Summary: 26 May 2009

New York - Statement on behalf of the European Union by H.E. Mr. Martin Palouš, Permanent Representative of the Czech Republic to the United Nations, Open Debate in the Security Council, Briefings by Chairmen of Subsidiary Bodies of the Security Council (Counter-Terrorism Committee, 1267 Committee, and 1540 Committee)

Mr. President,

I have the honour to speak on behalf of the European Union.The Candidate Countries Turkey, Croatia and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, the Countries of the Stabilisation and Association Process and potential candidates Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Serbia, as well as Ukraine, the Republic of Moldova and Armenia align themselves with this statement.

Mr. President,Terrorism knows no boundary and requires global action. The work of the three Committees before us is a valuable part of such global response. The EU welcomes today's briefing and the present debate as an opportunity for exchange of information and views between the Committees and Member States. We would like to use this occasion to reiterate that upholding human rights and the rule of law are essential elements in our struggle to combat terrorism. Any measures that we undertake to prevent and combat terrorism must comply with our obligations under international law, in particular human rights law, refugee law and international humanitarian law. We fully support the UN Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy and believe that its four pillars need to be implemented in a balanced and holistic manner.

Mr. President,Let me first address some common aspects of work of the three counter-terrorism Committees, and subsequently cover each of the respective subsidiary bodies of this Council individually. The 1373, the 1267 and the 1540 Committees have recently worked more closely together. The EU welcomes this trend towards a more coherent and integrated implementation of the UN counter-terrorism policies. In this context, we would like to highlight especially the importance of cooperation between the Committees' Expert Groups. The common strategy to engage with international, regional and sub-regional organizations is another important step in this direction. The EU commends the practice of joint visits to countries, reiterates its call for effective follow-up and encourages further deepening of the human rights element in these visits. We also welcome the participation of the three Committees in the work of the Counter-Terrorism Implementation Task Force, of whose efforts the EU has been a staunch supporter.

Mr. President,As for the monitoring and promotion of the implementation of the resolution 1373 by the Counter-Terrorism Committee, we value highly the ongoing Preliminary Implementation Assessment practice and stocktaking exercise of implementation progress made by Member States. The EU encourages deeper integration of human rights elements in the work of the CTC and Counter-Terrorism Executive Directorate with Member States, especially with regard to PIAs. We call on all States to reply to the CTC in a timely manner, enter into dialogue with it, and follow-up on its recommendations. We note that the interim review of the CTED is to be conducted by the Security Council by 30 June 2009, and look forward to it. The EU welcomes the CTC's revised technical assistance strategy aimed at improving the match-making between potential donors or providers of assistance and its recipients. Both the EU and its Member States have been among the main assistance providers. We have contributed through the CTC and CTED channels as well as through other UN bodies such as UNODC's Terrorism Prevention Branch. The EU recently decided to extend the cooperation with CTED in the framework of the global counter-terrorism outreach component under its Instrument for Stability for the period of 2009-2011. In January 2009, during the visit of the CTED delegation at the EU Council's Counter-Terrorism Working Party meeting, we have committed to further support the CTC. We likewise appreciate the intensified cooperation with relevant regional and sub-regional organizations and, in this context, the preparation of regional workshops.

Mr. President,Let me now turn to the 1267 Committee. The EU fully supports the al-Qaida/Taliban sanctions regime. We welcome the fact that through the 1267 Committee, this Council has strengthened human rights and due process considerations in UN sanctions regimes, and hope that this trend will continue. The adoption of resolution 1822 last June was an important step in improving fair and clear procedures for the imposition of sanctions, listings and de-listings of individuals and entities. Last year, the Belgian Chair successfully paved the way for implementation of the resolution 1822 by developing concrete modalities and reflecting them in updated Committee's guidelines, and launched the review process. Under the present Austrian chairmanship the Committee has started reviewing the names on the Consolidated List and published the first narrative summaries of reasons for listing on the Committee's website. The EU is pleased to see that the implementation of resolution 1822 is being actively and efficiently carried out, with already some concrete results. On their part, EU Members States are committed to contribute to this process and encourage all other Member States to do the same.

Mr. President,As you know, recent EU court cases on the EU implementation measures of the al-Qaida/Taliban sanctions regime have brought new challenges. The EU is presently adapting its procedures for implementing the 1267 sanctions, in order to accommodate the requirements of both the 1267 sanctions regime, in particular resolution 1822, and the European Court of Justice. The EU considers that the transparency and procedures of the al-Qaida/Taliban sanctions regime need to be further enhanced and welcomes all efforts in this regard. We are of the view that the resolution to be adopted by the end of December 2009 is the right opportunity in this respect. EU Member States are ready to constructively contribute to this process.

Lastly, Mr. President, I would like to address the work of the 1540 Committee. The EU considers it an essential tool, complementary to existing multilateral non-proliferation instruments, in countering the threat that weapons of mass destruction and their means of delivery could fall into the hands of non-State actors, including terrorists. We reiterate the importance of full implementation of resolution 1540 and in this context, welcome the Committee's Report on Modalities for considering a Comprehensive Review of its implementation by Member States. We further welcome the convening of an open-ended meeting of the Committee this autumn, enabling Member States to exchange views and share best national practices ahead of the Review. We express our hope that the review will produce concrete and action-oriented recommendations. The EU commends the Committee's efforts to facilitate the provision of assistance to States, as well as the cooperation with regional and sub-regional organizations. The regional workshops are an important part of the Committee's outreach effort and of such cooperation. The EU has pledged to support the organization of these workshops financially. I am proud to announce that as of today, the first part of the EU-pledged amount has been transferred to UNODA's Trust Fund for Global and Regional Disarmament Activities.

Mr. President,The EU would like to join others in thanking the members, experts and Chairmen of the three Committees for the work already done and underway. I would like to assure you of EU's full commitment to support the Committees' future work.

Thank you, Mr. President.Croatia and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia continue to be part of the Stabilisation and Association Process.Ref: PRES09-047EN
EU source: EU Presidency UN forum: Security Council Date: 26/5/2009.

DOCTOR DOCTORIAN FROM ANGEL OF GOD
then the angel said, Financial crisis will come to Asia. I will shake the world.

JAMES 5:1-3
1 Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you.
2 Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are motheaten.
3 Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days.

REVELATION 18:10,17,19
10 Standing afar off for the fear of her torment, saying, Alas, alas that great city Babylon, that mighty city! for in one hour is thy judgment come.
17 For in one hour so great riches is come to nought. And every shipmaster, and all the company in ships, and sailors, and as many as trade by sea, stood afar off,
19 And they cast dust on their heads, and cried, weeping and wailing, saying, Alas, alas that great city, wherein were made rich all that had ships in the sea by reason of her costliness! for in one hour is she made desolate.

EZEKIEL 7:19
19 They shall cast their silver in the streets, and their gold shall be removed: their silver and their gold shall not be able to deliver them in the day of the wrath of the LORD: they shall not satisfy their souls, neither fill their bowels: because it is the stumblingblock of their iniquity.

REVELATION 13:16-18
16 And he(FALSE POPE) causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:(CHIP IMPLANT)
17 And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.
18 Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.(6-6-6) A NUMBER SYSTEM

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

HALF HOUR DOW RESULTS TUE JUNE 02,2009

09:30 AM -12.27
10:00 AM +19.73
10:30 AM +33.91
11:00 AM +19.10
11:30 AM +37.57
12:00 PM +6.19
12:30 PM -6.07
01:00 PM +8.98
01:30 PM +12.88
02:00 PM +11.37
02:30 PM +40.04
03:00 PM +49.20
03:30 PM +41.48
04:00 PM +19.43 8740.87

S&P 500 944.74 +1.87

NASDAQ 1836.80 +8.12

GOLD 982.80 +2.70

OIL 68.72 +0.14

TSE 300 10,588.79 -15.27

CDNX 1141.74 +1.19

S&P/TSX/60 645.67 -1.00

MORNING,NEWS,STATS

YEAR TO DATE PERFORMANCE
Dow -0.63%
S&P +4.39%
Nasdaq +15.96%
TSX Advances 1,090,declines 520,unchanged 242,Volume 2,813,795,165.
TSX Venture Exchange Advances 458,Declines 461,Unchanged 334,Volume 376,847,069.

Dow -17 points at 4 minutes of trading today.
Dow -28 points at low today.
Dow +66 points at high today so far.
GOLD opens at $980.90.OIL opens at $67.79 today.

AFTERNOON,NEWS,STATS
Dow -28 points at low today so far.
Dow +66 points at high today so far.

DAY TODAY PERFORMANCE - 12:30PM STATS
NYSE Advances 1,932,declines 1,637,unchanged 112,New Highs 41,New Lows 56.
Volume 3,340,855,316.
NASDAQ Advances 1,318,declines 1,297,unchanged 115,New highs 36,New Lows 6.
Volume 1,145,571,157.
TSX Advances 726,declines 660,unchanged 284,Volume 1,326,634,433.
TSX Venture Exchange Advances 343,Declines 326,Unchanged 303,Volume 147,550,703.

WRAPUP,NEWS,STATS
Dow -28 points at low today.
Dow +66 points at high today.
Dow +0.22% today Volume 257,555,545.
Nasdaq +0.44% today Volume -.
S&P 500 +0.20% today Volume N/A

UPDATE 3-Geithner tells China its dollar assets are safe
Mon Jun 1, 2009 8:03am EDT By Glenn Somerville

BEIJING, June 1 (Reuters) - U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner on Monday reassured the Chinese government that its huge holdings of dollar assets are safe and reaffirmed his faith in a strong U.S. currency.A major goal of Geithner's maiden visit to China as Treasury chief is to allay concerns that Washington's bulging budget deficit and ultra-loose monetary policy will fan inflation, undermining both the dollar and U.S. bonds.China is the biggest foreign owner of U.S. Treasury bonds. U.S. data shows that it held $768 billion in Treasuries as of March, but some analysts believe China's total U.S. dollar-denominated investments could be twice as high.Chinese assets are very safe,Geithner said in response to a question after a speech at Peking University, where he studied Chinese as a student in the 1980s.His answer drew loud laughter from his student audience, reflecting scepticism in China about the wisdom of a developing country accumulating a vast stockpile of foreign reserves instead of spending the money to raise living standards at home.But later in the day, Chinese Vice Premier Wang Qishan said it was important for the two nations to show the world they are working together through their joint economic dialogue.We must through our dialogue send a clear signal that China and the U.S. are engaged in practical cooperation to address the crisis,Wang told Geithner, according to the Chinese Foreign Ministry's website (www.mfa.gov.cn).

This is important for boosting confidence and encouraging global financial stability and economic revival,said Wang.In his speech, Geithner renewed pledges that the Obama administration would cut its huge fiscal deficits and promised very disciplined future spending, possibly including reintroduction of pay-as-you-go budget rules instead of nonstop borrowing.We have the deepest and most liquid markets for risk-free assets in the world. We're committed to bring our fiscal deficits down over time to a sustainable level.We believe in a strong dollar ... and we're going to make sure that we repair and reform the financial system so that we sustain confidence,he said.

Geithner also offered strong backing for a bigger Chinese role in international policymaking.China is already too important to the global economy not to have a full seat at the international table,he said.

ECONOMY LOOKING UP

Geithner, who is due to meet President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao during two days of talks, described the recession as still powerful and dangerous in much of the world.Recent signs of improvement were not enough to change an International Monetary Fund prediction that world output would shrink this year for the first time in 60 years. And credit was likely to be tight for some time, Geithner said.But he added: The global recession seems to be losing force.Moreover, the U.S. financial system was healing and it now seemed assured that the world would avoid financial collapse and deflation.But Geithner said there could be no return to business as usual either for the United States or China: both must change their growth strategies as U.S. consumers pay down debt after years of living beyond their means.For China, which he said was in an enviably strong position, that meant reducing its dependence on exports.Purchases of U.S. consumers cannot be as dominant a driver of growth as they have been in the past,he said.In China ... growth that is sustainable will require a very substantial shift from external to domestic demand.To that end, Geithner said a more flexible exchange-rate regime for the yuan, which would almost certainly see the value of the Chinese currency rise against the dollar, was particularly important because it would spur more Chinese demand.A stronger yuan would make imports cheaper for China and Chinese exports more costly for foreign buyers.

CHINA ROLE

Geithner offered U.S. backing for a higher-profile role for China in running global institutions including the IMF -- a controversial proposition since it raises the sensitive issue of reducing Europe's voting share in the global lender.The United States will fully support having China play a role in the principal cooperative arrangements that help shape the international system, a role that is commensurate with China's importance in the global economy,he said.In words clearly intended to soothe Chinese concerns that its vibrant export economy might be targeted by U.S. lawmakers who are feeling pressure from soaring American joblessness, Geithner said the Obama administration would resist any such moves.As we go through the severe stresses of this crisis, we must not turn our backs on open trade and investment,he said.In return, we expect increased opportunities to export to and invest in the Chinese economy.Geithner said he was hopeful that General Motors Corp and Chrysler would be able to stand on their own feet once they emerge from bankruptcy.GM will file for bankruptcy on Monday, U.S. officials said, forcing the 100-year-old automaker once seen as a symbol of American economic might into a new and uncertain era of government ownership.We want a quick, clean exit as soon as conditions permit, Geithner said. We're very optimistic these firms will emerge (from restructuring) without further government assistance.(Reporting by Glenn Somerville; Editing by Alan Wheatley/Toby Chopra) Thomson Reuters 2009.

Changes to EU fund hope to tackle rising unemployment
ANDREW WILLIS Today JUNE 2,09 @ 18:05 CET

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS – Unemployment is continuing its rise in the European Union, with new data released by the region's statistics office, Eurostat, showing the figure reached 8.6 percent in April, up from 8.4 percent in March. The data released on Tuesday (2 June) show an even greater jump for the 16-country euro area, with unemployment reaching 9.2 percent in April compared to 8.9 percent in March. But European commission economy spokeswoman Amelia Torres says this does not necessarily mean EU27 unemployment will exceed a recent commission forecast of an average rate of 9.4 percent for 2009.The economy seems to be bottoming out and in the coming months, although we are expecting unemployment to increase, it is possible that it will not increase as strongly as it has done in the past few months,she told EUobserver.

Eurostat now estimates that close to 21 million people in the EU27 were unemployed in April, highlighting the severity of the problem despite recent talk by economists about the green shoots of recovery.

Greater flexibility for the European social fund

The news comes on the eve of a European Commission publication that will outline a list of possible new measures to tackle the growing jobs crisis and will be discussed by EU leaders when they meet for a European summit on 18-19 June. The document's main proposal is to increase member state access to money in the European social fund by providing 100 percent funding for projects in 2009-10, up to a total of €19 billion.

At present, member-state governments must contribute to projects receiving funds from the ESF within their borders, a process known as match-funding, designed to ensure governments do not simply replace national funds with EU funds. The measure to frontload ESF monies has been prompted by concerns that some member states would not be able to produce the match funding due to the current credit shortage.So even those [member states] with tight budgets will be able to use ESF money for retraining during short-time work initiatives for example [under the new proposals], the commission social policy spokeswoman Katharina von Schnurbein told EUobserver. As no new money is available, member states that take up the offer of 100 percent financing for some projects in 2009/10, would then receive less money throughout the rest of the financial period that is due to end in 2013. Wednesday's announcement on 100 percent financing under the ESF could shortly be followed by similar measures under other EU structural funds.The second main proposal is the creation of a €500 million micro-credit fund by the European investment bank and the commission, providing funding for small businesses that currently can not get access to credit.It would also provide funding for unemployed people looking to set up a new business.

France wants to loosen eurozone rules
VALENTINA POP Today JUNE 2,09 @ 09:44 CET

France wants the European Union to soften its stance on budget deficits in response to the economic crisis – a move which would alter the EU's stability pact on which the bloc's common currency is based.We should think about a special treatment for the debts currently acquired as a consequence of the crisis,French economy minister Christine Lagarde told Financial Times Deutschland. She said several member states now have budget deficits as a result of economic stimulus packages and the EU should adopt a milder stance towards the deficits.I have no precise answer how we should proceed, but we need a debate,she said.Currently, member states have to abide by the strict rules of the stability pact and not exceed a budget deficit of three percent of the gross domestic product.

But many countries are now breaching these rules.

For 2009, the EU commission predicted that 13 out of the 16 eurozone countries will go beyond the allowed threshold, and has urged member states to return to the financial discipline as soon as possible.The EU executive has already started excessive deficit procedures against several eurozone countries, including France. The total debt in the eurozone will reach 83.8 percent of its GDP, the commission predicts.Ms Lagarde explained that several member states have structural deficits - a term describing deficits formed by the different subsidies and fiscal measures aimed at kickstarting the economy.Finance ministers are to discuss the issue when they meet at the beginning of next week.EU monetary affairs commissioner Joaquin Almunia fears that loosening the eurozone criteria could damage the common currency, with greater deficits having the potential to reduce market confidence in the eurozone's economy, and hence also its currency.Britain's pound has lost significant value this year as currency investors question the health of its economy, one of the worst hit by financial crisis due to its overextended banking sector.But even supporters of tough fiscal discipline, such as centre-left Dutch finance minister Wouter Bos, have questioned the viability of the stability pact, since it would take member states up to ten years to go get below three percent deficit threshold.

Ms Lagarde said she was in favour of collective discipline, but rejected calls from the European Central Bank and the EU commission for an exit strategy from the expansionary government spending.She said the stimulus measures would only bear fruit from September on and it was premature to think about cutting deficits. Instead, the priority should be to safeguard existing jobs and creating new ones, she stressed.

German Social Democrats pave way for Barroso II Published: Thursday 28 May 2009

European Commission President José Manuel Barroso seems well-placed to win a second term after the leader of Germany's Social Democrats, Franz Müntefering, said yesterday (27 May) that there was little point in the European Socialists naming their own alternative candidate in an attempt to halt the incumbent's re-appointment.
Müntefering's comments came as a boost to the former Portuguese prime minister's hopes of retaining his post when his five-year mandate expires later this year.

Müntefering told reporters that Barroso, backed by his party, the European People's Party, had done a competent job as head of the EU executive and had the support of some centre-left governments in Europe, including his native Portugal, neighbouring Spain and the UK. Asked if Europe's centre-left would put up a challenge, he replied: What would the point of that be?It would be naive to do that. There are 27 EU countries and 21 of those are led by conservative governments. And at least two others, Portugal and Spain, are for Barroso. Do you think the other four should put up a challenge? he said. But Müntefering, chairman of the SPD which shares power with Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats, said his party would like a place in the next Commission for German Martin Schulz, head of the Socialist group in the European Parliament.Merkel's conservatives and the SPD have wrangled over which party will nominate a candidate to be Germany's member of the Commission - which initiates EU legislation and ensures rules are enforced - when the SPD's Günter Verheugen leaves.There's been a close cooperation so far [with Barroso] and I don't know who would be able to stop him if he is nominated again by the conservatives,Müntefering told the Foreign Press Association in Berlin.He's a confident man, a politician with a lot of experience. We understand our Portuguese friends support him and Spain is also close. We assume that, along with the fact there are so many conservative governments in Europe, this means there is no possibility for another majority,he added.Barroso was appointed in 2004 after a tough compromise as Britain and its allies blocked the Franco-German candidate, then-Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt.(EurActiv with Reuters.)

TREATY OF LISBON
http://www.euractiv.com/en/future-eu/treaty-lisbon/article-163412

EU Parliament facing legitimacy crisis, experts warn[fr]
Published: Tuesday 26 May 2009

The increase in power of the European Parliament, which will grow further if the Lisbon Treaty is ratified by all 27 member states, has failed to increase the House's political legitimacy and runs the risk of compromising its unique position as the EU's democratic pillar,according to a new report.The report, published by CEPS (Centre for European Policy Studies) research fellows Julia De Clerck-Sachsse and Piotr Maciej Kaczyński, argues that the Parliament's crucial importance as a forum for public debate is on the wane. Since the EU enlargement of five years ago, which saw ten Central and Eastern European countries introduce new MEPs and increase the number of official languages from 11 to 23, the work of the institution has, understandably, become more complex. On the positive side, the authors note, enlargement has not destabilised the Parliament's output, nor has it affected the strength of left-right political alignments, which remain cohesive. In fact, the Parliament's sixth legislature (2004-2009) has boosted the institution's assertiveness, particularly under the co-decision procedure, where Parliament and the European Council share decision-making powers.

The high cost of efficiency

However, this new assertiveness has come at a price. In its efforts to streamline decision-making and maintain efficiency, the enlarged EU assembly has moved more decisions to committees and cut down the amount of time for debate between MEPs in the plenary chamber.In particular, the massive increase in first-reading agreements (when a legislative act is passed after only one reading in the chamber) gives the impression that the bulk of political debate takes place behind closed doors, rather than publicly.In other words, if Parliament adopts a compromise that is pre-negotiated by the responsible committee, there is little chance of a politicised and controversial debate,which is crucial to capturing public attention,say the experts. Worse still, it runs the risk of Parliament being perceived as merely rubber-stamping the Council's decisions.Furthermore, if participation rates at this year's European elections continue to fall, as seems highly likely (EurActiv 20/05/09), the justification for giving expanded powers to the Parliament rings increasingly hollow.

At present, the authors argue, extending the EU assembly's powers and presenting it as a more efficient legislative body has not paid off in terms of how it is perceived as a political actor outside Brussels, most importantly by the public. If it fails to win political and public legitimacy while increasing its powers, the Parliament's institutional raison d'être will be in jeopardy, they conclude.

BLUE PRINT FOR A PRISON PLANET - NICK SANDBERG
http://www.nick2211.yage.net/chips.htm

ZEITGEIST HOGWASH
http://www.nick2211.yage.net/Zeitgeist.htm

The Future - Chips with Everything?

In the passages above, I've looked at a few aspects of our recent history with the intention of demonstrating that there may be a pattern of organization in the background that could give many people grounds for concern. At this point, I would now like to address the question: If there really was a coherent body organizing all of this, what would their motivation be, and where might all this be leading? The primary motivation behind all elite activities is the desire to acquire control. It is the base desire to control everything, to take a vast and dynamic planet full of people and drive them into a single cultural structure under their central control. It is the fulfillment of this desire that truly motivates the elite. In their attempt to bring about this highly negative state of affairs, the elite need to be active on two fronts simultaneously - the world outside and the world inside, the planet and the mind.In the world outside,the objective the banking families are working towards is globalization - the creation of three vast interlocked markets centred on America, Europe and Asia, followed by their full integration into a single trading block. A global marketplace peopled with consumer-workers and serviced at the lower end via Third World debt. In the world inside,the plan is to get all humanity microchipped. For, despite a multiplicity of control tactics currently being imposed upon us - mortgages, credit cards, street surveillance systems and antidepressants among them - people still have a basic level of personal freedom. Although it's getting harder to do so, we can still walk out of consumerism and embark on a new life. But if we are chipped this won't happen. This is because scientists knowledge of neuroscience is now such that, by having a tiny microchip implanted inside our body, we can be regulated at an emotional level. By gaining control over our body's receptor-ligand network, our emotional state can be manipulated by electrical signals, either as a part of a chip's program or via remote signalling, thus offering the possibility of the creation of a perfect consumer workforce - a people whose only thoughts are those of working, eating, procreating and sleeping.

However, despite the progress our planet has made along the road of becoming a world consumerist superstate, most people are still highly resistant to the idea of having a 'chip put under their skin. There is therefore a progressive strategy that will be gradually implemented to lead us, step by step, into permitting this nightmare future to come about.It will unfold in three concurrent stages. Firstly, cash will be gradually eliminated. Secondly, all personal and financial data will be placed on individual smartcards.And, thirdly smartcards will be themselves gradually eliminated to be replaced by microchip implants. By first removing cash, then introducing problems into electronic money systems while simultaneously promoting microchip implants as a safe and acceptable alternative, the elite will lead us slowly into accepting personal implant technology. I will look more closely at how these three stages will likely unfold.For the past twenty years we have been slowly led towards giving up cash in favour of electronic money, and in the last ten, the heat has been turned up. The increased promotion of credit cards, phone banking, mail order and Internet shopping have all helped to bring about a society where the need for cash transactions is greatly reduced. Yet many people still like carrying cash, meaning more will have to be done if it is to be eliminated completely. One strategy that will be employed will be the gradual implementation of smart citizenship schemes across ever-widening sectors of our society. Smart citizenship is one of a variety of euphemisms now emerging for cashless society and, once one city has been signed up, the benefits can be extensively promoted by the media to encourage others to follow suit. In April 2000 it was announced that the UK city of Southampton and the Swedish city of Gothenberg will host smart citizenship schemes commencing 2002, to be technically facilitated by the French consortium, Schlumberger. Another strategy that might be utilised is the introduction of new, multinational currencies not available as cash. The euro, the currency for the European Union, may well be such a thing.

Another possibility is that cash will be removed on the pretext of eliminating the illicit drug trade. Many cities now have around 1% of their population using heroin daily. This, along with crack cocaine addiction, is proving a near intolerable social burden for many people who live in the areas affected. If cash were eliminated, anonymous illicit transactions for small sums would not be possible. With electronic money, the identities of the buyer and seller of any article are recorded on computer and, should a transaction be for an illicit substance, it could be traced. Although illicit drugs come into our countries in vast shipments, each load is ultimately sold in small amounts at or near street level. Remove cash and the illicit drug trade would be finished.If the drug war is going to be used to assist in the outlawing of cash, one of the first signs will likely be moves to legalize soft drugs like marijuana. The smoking of cannabis is the primary cash-based illicit activity that people indulge in, and the prospect of having this pleasure withdrawn from them would inevitably create considerable opposition to any plan to outlaw cash. In addition, marijuana legalization would create the appearance of policy-softening on behalf of government, when the opposite is in fact taking place. Whatever tactics are eventually employed, while cash is being eliminated and the creation of a global society pursued, an assortment of softening-up strategies are likely to be deployed by the media. There will be a steady trickle of stories in the papers and on TV relating the benefits of microchipping. Scientists will make statements extolling the wonders of implant technology for treating and monitoring illnesses and futuristic articles will relate how, in a few years time, we won't have to carry wallets around. Such stories will invariably make it seem that microchipping and globalization are not only desirable but also inevitable - that they have already been decided.Once cash has finally been eliminated from a region, what will next happen is that problems will begin to mysteriously occur within the electronic money system. People will occasionally find their money disappearing into thin air. Computer errors, viruses and fraud, previously virtually unheard of, will increasingly begin to manifest. Having your personal records placed on a microchip implant will become renowned as the only safe way to keep personal data safe from interference, likely because encryption technology available on the personal chip won't be available on the smartcard.Whole groups of people within society will likely have already been chipped by this time. Criminals, the mentally ill, and military personnel are three likely targets. The media will constantly portray chipping as the socially positive thing to do. Small children will go missing in high profile cases on the daily news, then be found, because they were chipped.Young people's TV will be especially targeted. Getting chipped will be seen as a cool thing to do, with a vast array of different chip features available to order. Getting chipped will be seen as synonymous with getting ahead and attracting members of the opposite sex. The media will spare no effort ensuring that the negative aspects of getting chipped, such as feeling like a robot, are driven from people's minds.

To still further intensify the drive to get the public chipped, large corporations will begin to make it a requirement for employment, likely under the guise of it being their contribution to creating a positive society. By this time the multinational corporations of today, big as they already are, will have been transformed into transnational giants, astride the world like statues of Colossus, controlling vast sectors of the earth's resources and meeting them out according to their masters' schedule, and with a vast and continuous PR job making it all appear completely consensual. Virtually everything purchased will be from a multinational corporation, and nearly all employment opportunities will involve working for one. With cash gone and no way of bringing it back, and the credit card, ID card, and even smartcard systems increasingly falling into disrepair, life will begin to seem pretty bleak for those persons not chipped. Pretty soon, not being chipped will effectively mean you are not capable of working for a regular wage in any but the most menial job. There will initially still be a large black market operating at varying degrees outside the law and trading in a wide variety of licit and illicit substances. But, as 'chipping proceeds all across Western society, and becomes seen as being as natural as paying tax, so the State will increasingly make moves to attack illicit activity. With the moral backing of the microchipped population, engineered by the media, those persons not 'chipped will increasingly be marginalized in the same way the homeless are now - forced to the edges of society and left to fend for themselves in an environment of poverty, drug addiction, sexual exploitation and crime. Once chipping is finally accepted as being an integral part of life in the twenty-first century, the next stage will be implemented - the promotion of chips that can regulate aspects of our body's function. Self-regulation of our body and mind will be seen as a new and convenient means of treating any number of complaints ranging from depression to minor flesh wounds. No need to take tablets or call up the doctor, just program your chip to do it for you. Scientists are now sufficiently knowledgeable of our body's electrical system and ligand-receptor networks that they can superficially alter many of our natural emotional functions. By changing the way our body metabolizes serotonin, for example, the symptoms of depression can be relieved.

With chips available capable of altering a whole range of neurochemical functions, we will increasingly have the ability to emotionally regulate ourselves. Given that it is now well recognized that negative emotions are mere symptoms of deeper needs not being met, all sorts of health problems could easily go undiagnosed. But, apart from health concerns, giving people the means to easily emotionally self-regulate could lead to the Prozac generation becoming global. People will become obsessed with feeling good about themselves all the time, ignoring anything which threatens to interfere with that feeling. Wars, starvation, political upheavals and global tyranny will all become just other people's problems.With implant technology accepted as being part of life in the twenty-first century, who is going to notice if one day the 'chips seem to start regulating themselves. Who is going to notice if they no longer require us to actually program them, but seem to do it without our help, no longer allowing us access to our true feelings even if we wanted them? This nightmare scenario seems like something out of science fiction but, in fact, much of the technology has already been developed. The implantable microchip with global tracking system and biomonitoring system, Digital Angel, is scheduled to go into production in late 2000, (see later). It is powered by human muscle movement and will be offered to people concerned that they or their loved ones may go missing and to doctors wanting to monitor their patients. Patents for implantable 'chips that release pharmaceuticals into the bloodstream have already been issued and companies, such as ChipRx, have been set up to develop them for the market. The technology is here, the only question is: how much persuading will be necessary to make us accept it? One thing is certain - everything will be done bit by bit. Step by step, we will be led into a place where no one, if they thought about it, would ever willingly go - and without means of escape.

N. Korea's Kim taps 26-year-old son as successor By JAE-SOON CHANG, Associated Press Writer – Tue Jun 2, 9:19 am ET

SEOUL, South Korea – North Korea's Kim Jong Il has anointed his 26-year-old son — said to be competitive, proficient in English and a heavy drinker — as the next leader of the communist state, news reports said Tuesday.Two major South Korean newspapers said Tuesday that North Korea's military, party and government officials were informed that Kim Jong Un, the youngest of three, is in line to take the world's first communist dynasty into a third generation.The announcement was made in the days after North Korea's provocative May 25 nuclear test, the Hankook Ilbo newspaper reported, citing unnamed South Korean lawmakers briefed by the spy agency.The son already is being hailed as Commander Kim,and North Koreans are learning the lyrics to a new song praising him as the next leader, the Dong-a Ilbo newspaper said. South Korean lawmaker Park Jie-won told a radio show Tuesday that the regime already is pledging its allegiance to Kim Jong Un.He said he was briefed by South Korea's spy agency.

The National Intelligence Service would not confirm the reports.

The apparent anointment comes at a time of mounting tensions over North Korea's April 5 rocket launch and last week's nuclear test. The North also appears to be preparing to test-fire an array of medium- and long-range missiles, reports said. Global powers are discussing how to rein in Pyongyang for its nuclear defiance.Analysts say the saber-rattling is part of a campaign to build unity and support for a successor to Kim Jong Il, who reportedly suffered a stroke last August. Kim has three sons but had not publicly named an heir to lead the nation of 24 million.Kim, once pudgy and renowned for his love of cognac and gourmet meals, made his first state appearance since the reported stroke at the opening session of the new parliament April 12. He was grayer, considerably thinner and limping slightly.He is believed to want to name a successor by 2012 — the centenary of the birth of his father, North Korea's founder Kim Il Sung — and the regime undertook a massive campaign last year to gear the country up for the 100th anniversary celebrations.The regime called the April 5 launch of a satellite into space part of the campaign to show off the country's scientific advancements. The U.S., Japan and others called it a cover for a test of long-range missile technology.Last month, the regime stepped up the pace and launched a 150-day battle urging North Koreans to work harder to build the country's economy.

Before 2012, North Korea must convince the army and the public that Jong Un is the best successor,said Atsuhito Isozaki, assistant professor of North Korean politics at Tokyo's private Keio University.To pave the way for Jong Un's leadership, it is highly likely that North Korea will turn recent nuclear and missile tests into his achievements.Analyst Cheong Seong-chang of the Sejong Institute, a South Korean security think tank, noted that the politically driven 150-day campaign is set to culminate in early October, about the time of the anniversary of the founding of the ruling Workers' Party. He said North Korea could hold a national convention then — its first in nearly 30 years — to formally announce Kim's successor.Cheong said that in the 1970s, Kim Il Sung, known as the Great Leader, arranged for his son to take credit for a 70-day battle before he was tapped as his father's successor. Kim Jong Il — the Dear Leader — formally assumed leadership upon his father's death in 1994.

Since Kim had a stroke last year, North Korea appears to be in a hurry in naming his successor,Isozaki said.Many believe Jong Un might lead with the backing and guidance of his uncle, Jang Song Thaek, a member of the all-powerful National Defense Commission who has strong military and political connections.Little is known about Jong Un, the second son of former dancer Ko Yong Hi, who died of cancer in 2004.He studied at the International School in Bern, Switzerland, in the 1990s. The Swiss weekly news magazine L'Hebdo reported that he used the pseudonym Pak Chol and learned to speak English, German and French. A classmate recalled him as timid and introverted but an avid skier and basketball player who was a big fan of the NBA star Michael Jordan and action film star Jean-Claude Van Damme. He was humble and friendly with the children of American diplomats and often helped break up fights between classmates, a former school director said. A car arrived every day after school to pick him up, the report said; classmates and school officials thought he was the driver's son.The eldest son, Jong Nam, 38, was considered the favorite to succeed his father until he was caught trying to enter Japan on a fake passport in 2001. He reportedly told Japanese officials he wanted to visit Tokyo's Disney resort. Kim considers the middle son, Jong Chol, too effeminate for the job, according to his former sushi chef.Associated Press writers Shino Yuasa in Tokyo and William Foreman in Seoul contributed to this report.