SOETOROS FREINDS AT GOLDMAN-SACHS ARE FINALLY BEING CHARGED WITH FRAUD.GOLDMAN-SACHS MISSTATED,OMITTED KEY FACTS RELATED TO SUBPRIME SECURITIES.PAULSON AND COMPANY HAD A HAND IN STRUCTURING CDOS IN QUESTION.THE MARKET IS DIVING,GOLD IS DOWN,THE DOLLAR IS DROPPING ALL DUE TO THE SOETORO-OBAMAS FRIENDS BEING CHARGED AT GOLDMAN SACHS.MOST OF SOETORO-OBAMAS ADMINISTRATION WORKED WITH OR FOR GOLDMAN SACHS AT ONE TIME OR ANOTHER.ITS 11 AM APR 16,10
2PM APR 16,10
NOW ITS REVEALED A FOREIGN BANK MAY HAVE BEEN INVOLVED TO INTICE GOLDMAN SACHS TO DO THIS SCAM.MY GUESS IS THIS WILL REVEAL THE FEDERAL RESERVE WAS INVOLVED AND MY GUESS IS THE FOREIGN BANK WILL END UP TO BE THE IMF.WE WILL SEE AS THIS FRAUD CONTINUES.THIS IS A PERFECT TIME TO AUDIT AND ABOLISH THE FED.
HOWS THIS FOR ADVANCES,DECLINES AFTER THE GOLDMAN SACHS CIVIL COMPLAINT CHARGES.
ADVANCES 971-26%
DECLINES 2616-71%
UNCHANGED-116-3%
DOWN VOLUME 2,132,786,307
UP VOLUME 427,706,352 AS OF 11:50AM
DOW IS FALLING BELOW 11,000,S&P IS DROPPING BELOW 1,200.
GOLDMAN-SACHS IS DOWN 13% AT 12:30PM
AT 4:23PM APR 16,10 GOLDMAN IS AT $160.00 A SHARE DOWN 23.67 FROM OPEN TODAY.
HERES AN INTERESTING HEADLINE IN A HANOVER ONTARIO NEWSPAPER:MASSONICh.I.P PROGRAM IN WALKERTON THIS WEEKEND.
THE ONE WORLD GOVERNMENT GROUP MASONIC LODGE IS HOSTING A MICROCHIP IMPLANT IN CHILDREN SCAM TO SAY ITS A SAFETY ISSUE WHEN WE KNOW ITS A CONTROL OF OUR LIVES SYSTEM.....WHAT DECEPTION.
MASONIC SCARE STATISTICS-55 CHILDREN A DAY MISSING AND 164 IN CANADA A DAY MISSING.I QUOTE FROM THE ARTICLE BY LAURA MACDUFF-CHILDREN WHO TAKE PART IN THE PROGRAM WILL LEAVE WITH A COMPLETE SET OF RECORDS THAT WILL HELP EMERGENY WORKERS IN A TIME OF CRISES.ON THAT DAY,EACH CHILD WILL LEAVE WITH A KIT THAT HOLDS VITAL INFORMATION.THE KIT WILL BE COMPLETE WITH 5 COMPONENTS:DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHS,DIGITAL VIDEO,DIGITAL FINGERPRINTS,VITAL CHILD INFORMATION,AND A DENTAL BIT IMPRESSION OR INTRAORAL SWAB FOR DNA.IT TAKES 15 TO 20 MINUTES FOR ONE CHILD TO GO THROUGH THE PROCESS.THE INFORMATION IS THEN BURNED TO A CD THAT IS COMPATIBLE WITH AMBER ALERT.THEY CLAIM CHILDRENS INFORMATION WILL BE KEPT CONFIDENTIAL.MY OWN ANSWER CONFIDENTIALLY IN A DATA BASE TO TRACK THE CHILDREN AND THEN WHEN THE INFORMATION IS IMPLANTED ON A MICROCHIP AND FORCED IN THE CHILDS BODY,THE CHILD THEN CAN BE TRACKED IN EVERY AREA OF THEIR LIVES.THIS IS A SCAM OF CONTROL UNDER THE GUISE OF CHILDRENS SAFETY.
175 CHILDREN WERE PROCESSED IN APRIL 2009.THIS ARTICLE SAYS CHILDREN CAN COME FROM ALL OVER TO GET THIS DONE.THE PROGRAM HAS BEEN TAKING PLACE IN WALKERTON SINCE 2008.
SEC accuses Goldman Sachs of civil fraud
APR 16,10
WASHINGTON – The government has accused Goldman Sachs & Co. of defrauding investors by failing to disclose conflicts of interest in mortgage investments it sold as the housing market was faltering.The Securities and Exchange Commission announced Friday civil fraud charges against the Wall Street powerhouse and one of its vice presidents. The agency alleges Goldman failed to disclose that one of its clients helped create — and then bet against — subprime mortgage securities that Goldman sold to investors.Investors in the mortgage securities are alleged to have lost more than $1 billion, the SEC noted.The Goldman client implicated in the fraud is one of the world's largest hedge funds, Paulson & Co., which paid Goldman roughly $15 million for structuring the deals in 2007.
Goldman Sachs shares fell more than 10 percent after the SEC announcement.
The civil lawsuit filed by the SEC in federal court in Manhattan was the government's most significant legal action related to the mortgage meltdown that ignited the financial crisis and helped plunge the country into recession.A Goldman Sachs spokesman didn't immediately return a call seeking comment.The agency also charged a Goldman vice president, Fabrice Tourre, 31, who it said was principally responsible for devising the deal and marketing the securities.The SEC is seeking unspecified fines and restitution from Goldman Sachs and Tourre.The product was new and complex, but the deception and conflicts are old and simple, SEC Enforcement Director Robert Khuzami said in a statement.Goldman wrongly permitted a client that was betting against the mortgage market to heavily influence which mortgage securities to include in an investment portfolio, while telling other investors that the securities were selected by an independent, objective third party.
SEC accuses Goldman Sachs of civil fraud By Marcy Gordon, Ap Business Writer – APR 16,10
WASHINGTON – The government has accused Goldman Sachs & Co. of defrauding investors by failing to disclose conflicts of interest in mortgage investments it sold as the housing market was faltering.The Securities and Exchange Commission said in a civil complaint Friday that Goldman failed to disclose that one of its clients helped create — and then bet against — subprime mortgage securities that Goldman sold to investors.Investors in the mortgage securities lost more than $1 billion, the SEC said. The agency is seeking to recoup profits reaped on the deal.Goldman Sachs denied the allegations. In a statement, it called the SEC's charges completely unfounded in law and fact and said it will contest them.The charges come as lawmakers seek to crack down on Wall Street practices that helped cause the financial crisis. Among proposals Congress is weighing are tougher rules for complex investments like those involved in the alleged Goldman fraud.The Goldman client implicated in the fraud is one of the world's largest hedge funds, Paulson & Co., which paid Goldman roughly $15 million for structuring the deals in 2007.Goldman Sachs shares fell more than 13 percent after the SEC announcement, which also caused shares of other financial companies to sink. The Dow Jones industrial average fell more than 140 points in midday trading.
The civil lawsuit filed by the SEC in federal court in Manhattan was the government's most significant legal action related to the mortgage meltdown that ignited the financial crisis and helped plunge the country into recession. The SEC's enforcement chief said the agency is investigating a broad range of practices related to the crisis.The agency also charged a Goldman vice president, Fabrice Tourre, 31, who it said was principally responsible for devising the deal and marketing the securities.The SEC is seeking unspecified fines and restitution from Goldman Sachs and Tourre.Asked why the SEC did not also pursue a case against Paulson, Enforcement Director Robert Khuzami said: It was Goldman that made the representations to investors. Paulson did not.Goldman told investors that a third party, ACA Management LLC, had selected the underlying mortgages in the investment. But, the SEC alleges, Goldman misled investors by failing to disclose that Paulson & Co. also played a role in selecting the mortgages and stood to profit from their decline in value.Goldman wrongly permitted a client that was betting against the mortgage market to heavily influence which mortgage securities to include in an investment portfolio, while telling other investors that the securities were selected by an independent, objective third party,Khuzami said in a statement.
The SEC charges come after Goldman Sachs denied last week it bet against clients by selling them mortgage-backed securities while reducing its own exposure to them.In an annual letter to shareholders, Goldman said it began reducing its exposure to the U.S. mortgage market in late 2006. It said it did so by selling mortgage investments or buying credit default swaps. The swaps are a form of insurance that pays out if the value of the underlying asset declines.Those hedges, also known as short positions, served Goldman well. As the housing market began cratering and losses piled up for other big banks, Goldman suffered less damage. That led to criticism that the bank benefited at the expense of clients who bought mortgage-backed securities that became toxic. Goldman denied that.Our short positions were not a bet against our clients,Goldman said in the letter. Rather, they served to offset our long positions. Our goal was, and is, to be in a position to make markets for our clients while managing our risk within prescribed limits.In the letter, Goldman also rejected claims that it profited from the mortgage market meltdown.
Oil under $83 as stocks slump on Goldman news By DEBORAH JIAN LEE, AP Energy Writer -APR 16,10
Oil prices fell to below $83 a barrel on Friday after the government accused Goldman Sachs of fraud, Google reported disappointing earnings and data on single-family home construction declined.Benchmark crude for May delivery fell $2.52 to $82.99 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Earlier it dipped as low as $82.52.The Securities and Exchange Commission said Goldman Sachs & Co. defrauded investors by failing to disclose key information about mortgage investments it sold as the housing market was collapsing in 2008.Earlier, the Commerce Department said housing construction rose to a 16-month high in March. But construction of single-family homes, the most important segment of the market, declined.The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down about 130 points in midday trading as investors sold off shares in the Goldman news and disappointing Google earnings.Crude traders often look to stock markets as a barometer of overall investor sentiment. They also consider broader economic conditions in their trades, said PFGBest analyst Phil Flynn, who believes recurring worries about Greece's debt problems are strengthening the dollar and pushing down crude prices today. A stronger dollar makes crude more expensive for investors holding other currencies.The more you look at the supply-demand part of equation, the more you realize that the price of oil is based on macro-economic issues like currency-exchange rates and interest rates more than how many barrels we have put away,said PFGBest analyst Phil Flynn.Oil prices have stayed in the mid-$80 range since jumping 25 percent in two months, to above $87 last week.Meanwhile, the national average gasoline pump price edged up less than a penny to $2.862 a gallon, according to AAA, Wright Express and Oil Price Information Service. A gallon of regular unleaded is 7.3 cents more expensive than a month ago and 81 cents higher than a year ago.In other Nymex trading in May contracts, heating oil fell 5.13 cents to $2.2010 a gallon, and gasoline dropped 6.56 cents to $2.2606 a gallon. Natural gas rose 6.7 cents to $4.052 per 1,000 cubic feet.In London, Brent crude was down $1.82 cents to $85.77 on the ICE futures exchange.Associated Press writers Pablo Gorondi in Budapest, Hungary and Alex Kennedy in Singapore contributed to this report.
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,(WORLD SOCIALISM) 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/
CNBC VIDEOS
http://www.cnbc.com/id/15839263/site/14081545/?tabid=15839796&tabheader=false
HALF HOUR DOW RESULTS FRI APR 16,2010
09:30 AM -1.34
10:00 AM -27.51
10:30 AM -40.73
11:00 AM -60.00
11:30 AM -110.64
12:00 PM -127.27
12:30 PM -148.88
01:00 PM -137.70
01:30 PM -143.29
02:00 PM -137.17
02:30 PM -94.01
03:00 PM -115.70
03:30 PM -119.71
04:00 PM -125.91 11,018.66
S&P 500 1192.13 -19.54
NASDAQ 2481.26 -34.43
GOLD 1,136.70 -23.60
OIL 83.25 -2.26
TSE 300 12,070.70 -140.90
CDNX 1666.84 -12.66
S&P/TSX/60 708.00 -9.00
MORNING,NEWS,STATS
YEAR TO DATE PERFORMANCE
Dow -15 points at 4 minutes of trading today.
Dow -170 points at low today.
Dow -1 points at high today so far.
GOLD opens at $1,149.20.OIL opens at $83.92 today.
AFTERNOON,NEWS,STATS
Dow -170 points at low today so far.
Dow -1 points at high today so far.
WRAPUP,NEWS,STATS
Dow -170 points at low today.
Dow -1 points at high today.
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.
Travel chaos as cloud of ash drifts over Europe By JENNIFER QUINN and ROBERT BARR, Associated Press Writers - APR 16,2010
LONDON – Volcanic ash sifted down on parts of northern Europe on Friday and thousands of planes stayed on the tarmac to avoid the hazardous cloud. Travel chaos engulfed major European cities and the U.N. warned of possible health risks from falling ash.Eurocontrol, the European air traffic agency, said the travel disruptions that reverberated throughout the world Thursday were even worse on Friday, with about 11,000 flights expected to operate in Europe instead of the usual 28,000. It said delays will continue well into Saturday as the massive yet invisible ash cloud moves slowly south and east.There will be significant disruption of air traffic tomorrow, spokesman Brian Flynn said, adding the agency would hold a meeting Monday of aviation officials from all 40 Eurocontrol countries.Polish officials fretted that the ash cloud could threaten the arrival of world leaders for Sunday's state funeral of President Lech Kaczynski and his wife, Maria, in the southern city of Krakow. Kaczynski's family insisted Friday they wanted the funeral to go forward as planned.So far, President Barack Obama, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and German Chancellor Angela Merkel are among those coming and no one has canceled.
Merkel, however, could not even get back to Berlin after a visit to Washington. She was diverted to Madrid and looking for a hotel room.Train stations, hotels and car rental agencies were jammed in key European cities by people scrambling to make alternative plans. Extra long-distance trains were put on in Amsterdam and lines to buy train tickets were so long the train company was handing out free coffee.The high-speed Thalys trains, a joint venture of the French, Belgian and German rail companies, allowed passengers to buy tickets even if there were not enough seats.
We think we can help a lot of passengers get closer to their final destinations, said Thalys spokeswoman Patricia Baars.Aviation experts said it was among the worst disruptions Europe has ever seen.We don't have many volcanoes in Europe, said David Learmount of Flight International, an editor at the aviation publication.But the wind was blowing in the wrong direction.Ice chunks the size of houses tumbled down from a volcano beneath Iceland's Eyjafjallajokull (ay-yah-FYAH'-plah-yer-kuh-duhl) glacier on Thursday as hot gases melted the ice. The volcano began erupting Wednesday for the second time in less than a month.As torrents of water roared down the steep slopes of the volcano, flash floods washed away chunks of Iceland's main ring road. More floods are expected as long as the volcano keeps erupting, which scientists said it was continuing to do in daily pulses.The cloud of basalt, drifting between 20,000 to 30,000 feet (6,000 to 9,000 meters) high and invisible from the ground, at first blocked the main air flight path between the U.S. east coast and Europe. On Friday, the British Meteorological Office said the cloud's trajectory was taking it over northern France and Austria and into eastern and central Russia at about 25 mph (40 kpm).Fearing that microscopic particles of highly abrasive ash could endanger passengers by causing aircraft engines to fail, authorities shut down air space over Britain, Ireland, France, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland and Belgium. That halted flights at Europe's two busiest airports — Heathrow in London and Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris — as well as dozens of other airports, 25 in France alone.
A Finish F-18 Hornet jet had a scare, overheating even on a short flight as the ash blocked its cooling ducts. Air Force spokesman Joni Malkamaki says the Hornet flew for about an hour on a regular training flight in clear weather and the pilot saw no signs of any volcanic cloud.As the cloud moved east, flights were halted Friday at Frankfurt airport, Europe's third-busiest terminal, and at 10 other German airports including Duesseldorf, Berlin, Hamburg and Cologne. No flights were allowed either at the Ramstein Air Base, a key U.S. military hub in southwestern Germany.
Only about 120 trans-Atlantic flights reached European airports Friday morning, compared to 300 on a normal day, said Eurocontrol. About 60 flights between Asia and Europe were canceled. Air space restrictions were lifted or imposed or extended as the cloud moved east and south. Aviation authorities in Ireland reopened airports in Dublin and Cork and France allowed some planes to land at Paris' three airports Friday afternoon. Sweden and Norway declared skies in the far north to be safe again even as flights in both capitals — Stockholm and Oslo — were still on a lockdown. Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg managed to get a flight to Madrid from New York but was still not sure when or how he would get home. Switzerland, Croatia and Slovakia closed their airspaces and Poland expanded its no-fly zone Friday to most of the country, excluding the southern cities of Krakow and Rzeszow. Britain and Belgium extended flight restrictions until Saturday morning, but Britain allowed some flights out of Northern Ireland and western Scotland. Britain's Met Office said the wind was expected to blow from the north, which would bring further ash across parts of Britain. Small amounts of ash settled in Iceland, northern Scotland and Norway. Professor Jon Davidson of the Department of Earth Sciences at Durham University in England said the dispersal of the ash cloud depended on the weather — and if the volcano still erupted. The World Health Organization in Geneva said the ash cloud mostly remained high in the atmosphere on Friday, but it could pose a health risk if particles reached the ground. It advised Europeans to try to stay indoors if the ash fell, because inhaling the particles can cause respiratory problems, especially for those suffering from asthma and respiratory diseases. The volcano caused ministers and officials from at least 12 countries to miss the start of a European Union finance ministers meeting in Madrid. Iceland, a nation of 320,000 people, sits on a large volcanic hot spot in the Atlantic's mid-oceanic ridge, and has a history of devastating eruptions. One of the worst was the 1783 eruption of the Laki volcano, which spewed a toxic cloud over Europe with devastating consequences.Associated Press Writers Jill Lawless in London, Karl Ritter and Louise Nordstrom in Stockholm, Melissa Eddy and Verena Schmitt-Roschmann in Berlin, Ciaran Giles in Madrid, Bradley Klapper and Frank Jordans in Geneva and Ian MacDougall in Oslo contributed to this report.
Volcano could build into major business problem By JANE WARDELL, AP Business Writer - APR 16,10
LONDON – The eruption of a volcano in the tiny, isolated island nation of Iceland is threatening to turn into a major headache for businesses across Europe and around the world as a spreading ash cloud closes more European airports.Airlines are already counting the cost of grounded planes, and there are growing fears about the transportation of food supplies and other essential goods should the flight disruptions persist for several days — or longer.But there were also some early winners from the unprecedented situation, with rail, bus and ferry tour operators all quick to lay on extra services for stranded business and leisure travelers as hotel rooms filled up.Airline shares took a hit as the Geneva-based International Air Transport Association estimated that the disruption is costing the industry some $200 million a day in revenues. IATA added its forecast was conservative and costs will mount further as carriers reroute aircraft and care for stranded passengers.
Eurocontrol, the European air traffic agency, said some 17,000 flights were canceled on Friday, more than half the 28,000 that usually operate. Delays and cancelations will continue on Saturday as the ash cloud from the eruption of the volcano beneath Iceland's Eyjafjallajokull (ay-yah-FYAH'-plah-yer-kuh-duhl) glacier moves south and east. The flight ban was imposed because of concerns about pilot visibility and jet engine failure from the ash.Ashley Steel, global chairman for transport and infrastructure at professional services company KPMG, said that the biggest losses would come from trans-Atlantic business traffic, with the impact on economy class revenues muted by the fact that people would likely change their bookings to a later date.This is yet another dramatic and costly event for the global aviation industry which will have a significant impact on annual revenues, Steel said, adding that the development reinforced the case for consolidation of the international airline sector.Truly global airlines will be much better placed to deal with the financial fallout from these types of events, he said.British Airways shares dropped 1.1 percent, German flag carrier Lufthansa lost 2.1 percent and Air France-KLM slipped 1.7 percent.
There were few early reports of major impacts on exports and imports, but analysts stressed that the stakes would rise each day of the flight ban.Some businesses will be affected by the inability for freight to get in and out of the country, said Howard Archer, chief economist at IHS Global Insight in London. As long as the disruption is not too long, this should not be a major problem. The main problem will be for goods that are perishable.The pharmaceutical industry is particularly reliant on air freight because of the high value and low weight of their products.
The Italian farmer's association said that it may become an issue to import out of season goods from other areas, even though Italian airports are still open as shipments often come via other major European cities.Chiara Coffele, export manager of the family Coffele winery in Soave, Italy, was unsure whether she would make a wine festival and other business appointments in Norway in the coming days after her flight from Milan was canceled on Thursday.Coffele travels two or three times a year to Norway, where the family sells 15 percent of the 510,000 bottles of wine it produces annually. The three-day Stavanger wine festival is usually a key network event.While others are missing some holiday work because of the flight cancelations, I get a little less work, Coffele said.
A spokesman for the flower market in Berlin, which sells flowers that have been imported from all over the world, said there had not been any problems with the delivery on Friday morning and he was not aware of logistical problems for Saturday's flower trade. Several sushi restaurants said they get fresh fish on Thursday and had no deliveries until Monday.As Europe's airports emptied, travelers instead crowded train stations, bus depots and rental car offices. The high-speed Eurostar rail service linking Britain and continental Europe reported thousands of new bookings for the next few days. National railway operator Deutsche Bahn said it deployed all available trains and asked personnel to work extra shifts on the weekend. Nonetheless, it warned of overcrowded trains and long lines at booking counters. Norway's NSB railway company put extra trains on routes from Oslo to major Norwegian cities and the Swedish capital, Stockholm. Germany's Sixt car rental reported long lines at German branches. There's a rush on our rental offices,said spokesman Frank Elsner. We're trying to mobilize everything we can and try to offer an additional 2,000 cars across Europe in cooperation with our partners to make sure travelers can get back home on the weekend.In Britain, Network Rail canceled the bulk of engineering work that was planned for the next few days and also added extra services. At the Jumbo Hostel — a Boeing 747 remodeled into a 27-room hotel just outside the Arlanda airport in Stockholm — rooms were filling up fast.I think we'll be full tonight,said manager Oscar Dios.It's this sort of thing that we're here for. There is no place to go at the airport.AP reporters Robert Barr in London, Kirsten Grieshaber and Geir Moulson in Berlin, Ian MacDougall in Oslo, Colleen Barry in Milan and Frank Jordans in Geneva contributed to this report.
Greece sets stage for possible EU-IMF bailout APR 16,10
ATHENS (AFP) – Greece said Friday it was preparing the ground for possible EU-IMF emergency debt relief worth billions of euros as it announced another bid to raise fresh money on its own.We are making all the preparatory moves, Prime Minister George Papandreou told lawmakers in Athens.The activation of the EU-IMF assistance will be determined by national interest.His comments came ahead of crucial talks in Athens Monday on details of the proposed rescue scheme with officials from the European Union and the International Monetary Fund.The EU earlier this month agreed to lend Greece 30 billion euros (41 billion dollars) this year at a below market rate of around 5.0 percent to help the country shake off a crippling debt burden.
Another 15 billion euros could be provided by the IMF.
EU and Greek officials had hoped the aid safety net would reassure investors on Greece's solvency and enable the country to borrow critically needed funds at rates similar to other eurozone members.But in the five days since the deal was disclosed, the interest Greece would have to pay on newly issued bonds has stayed stubbornly high as doubts have grown on its efficacy.The yield on the 10-year Greek sovereign bond had risen to 7.366 percent on Friday afternoon after 7.123 percent late Thursday.The Greek debt management agency meanwhile announced a bid to raise 1.5 billion euros (2.0 billion dollars) via an auction of 13-week treasury bills on Tuesday.Athens has to find around 10 billion euros by the end of next month, part of about 54 billion euros needed for all this year to cover debt and budget needs.
Greece's total debts come to about 300 billion euros.
Last week it drew strong demand for a test debt issue but had to offer high interest rates despite the stand-by rescue guarantee from the eurozone.Dangling a return of over more than 4.0 percent, Athens raised 1.56 billion euros (2.12 billion dollars) from six-month and one-year treasury bills compared to an initial target of 1.2 billion euros.The EU-IMF aid initiative faces major obstacles, notably as parliamentary approval will be required in some countries and public opposition is running high in Germany, Europe's biggest economy and the main potential contributor to the loans.It is unclear whether the Greeks first need to be staring into the abyss of a failed bond issue before they can draw on eurozone funding or if they can simply go for the cheapest price when it suits them,analysts at ING bank said.
Markets seem to expect the latter.ING also cautioned that eurozone governments still have not officially decided to actually provide the aid.Greek newspapers reported that the loans would likely be conditional on further budget cutbacks, including wage cuts in the private sector, a cap on pensions and the closure of some public services and state companies. The time for talking is over. The time for painful reality is upon us,the Kathimerini daily said in an editorial. Eurozone finance officials meeting in Madrid Friday meanwhile sought to play down the potential for any immediate request for the aid from Greece.Greece has taken the first steps, but it's up to them to continue,Spanish Finance Minister Elena Salgado. Jean-Claude Juncker, head of the Eurogroup of finance ministers, stressed that Greece had yet to make any formal request for aid. The bailout for Greece, which has the highest budget deficit in the euro area, would be the first time a eurozone member had to be rescued in this way. Analysts have said the debt trouble afflicting Greece and some other European states could hurt investor confidence in Europe. The euro has been hit in recent months by fears of a possible Greek debt default, with the European single currency trading at 1.3556 dollars during trading in London on Friday, compared with 1.3574 dollars late on Thursday.The situation concerning Greece continues to undermine the euro,said Stuart Bennett, an analyst with French bank Credit Agricole.
Eurozone to tighten economy oversight By Aoife White, Ap Business Writer – APR 28,10
MADRID – Eurozone nations agreed Friday to tighten joint oversight of the economies in Europe's currency union in an effort to stem a government debt crisis that has already forced them to lend billions of euros in standby loans to Greece if it can't borrow from markets.Greece gave no indication at a key Friday meeting that it would soon seek to tap the financial lifeline agreed last weekend.Markets reacted badly, charging more for Greek bonds and widening the spread, or the difference between Greek and benchmark German 10-year bonds, to 4.31 percent, close to an April 8 all-time high of 4.48 percent.Greek stocks were also down, with the benchmark general index at Athens stock exchange closing 1.64 percent lower at 1,995.24 points, after Jean-Claude Juncker, the head of the eurozone finance ministers' group, said Greece gave no indication that it was requesting a bailout.The Greek government on Thursday called in EU and International Monetary Fund officials for Athens talks on Monday but insists that this is not a signal that it will formally request a bailout within days.Last week, it secured a pledge for some euro30 billion in loans from other eurozone nations — with possibly another euro15 billion from the IMF yet to be agreed.Markets have hiked Greek borrowing costs because they believe the country might be unable to repay debt. Greece needs to borrow some euro54 billion this year, euro11 billion of that next month and says the high costs could force it to seek a bailout from eurozone nations and the IMF.Greece's flagrant flouting of EU debt and deficit limits has triggered drop in the euro's value against the dollar and exposed the flaws in the loose way eurozone governments are supposed to coordinate their economies.Juncker said eurozone nations would step up oversight over member economies to prevent another vulnerable country getting into financial trouble. This widens the eurozone's peer review beyond a limited focus on debt and deficit limits — and will allow them flag up wider problems with slow growing economies with high jobless numbers, like Greece and Portugal.
Spain and Finland would come up for review first, followed by Portugal and Luxembourg, he said.Both Spain and Portugal have rising debt levels and have attracted some attention from markets looking to see if Greece's debt problems could spread to other vulnerable euro economies which are facing high unemployment and sluggish economic growth.Portugal received a warning from the European Union's executive commission this week that it might need to make bigger budget cuts if a hoped-for economic recovery fails to provide extra revenue the government is counting on.Most eurozone nations are now running deficits above the EU's maximum 3 percent and are promising to reduce those over the next few years.The EU's economy commissioner Olli Rehn said he wanted to check eurozone states' budget spending before parliaments do and should monitor how euro member economies are performing. This could prevent a country like Greece overspending and failing to reform its economy.He criticized eurozone members for rather optimistic assumptions that the economy would bounce back quickly — warning that many of them may need to increase budget cuts if they aren't on track to bring down deficits.EU officials are also warning that richer euro nations, like Germany and the Netherlands, need rely less on exports and consume more, saying they could help rebalance wide differences in the euro area by stoking domestic demand and investment.Belgium and Ireland's ministers missed the eurozone talks as volcanic ash held up flights in northern Europe. Swedish and Danish ministers were also due to skip the broader meeting of all 27 EU members starting later Friday.Associated Press writers Greg Keller and Ciaran Giles in Madrid and Nicholas Paphitis and Elena Becatoros in Athens contributed to this story.
MEPs again flex muscles in diplomatic service debate
HONOR MAHONY Today APR 16,10 @ 17:43 CET
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - MEPs are once again talking tough on the creation of the EU diplomatic service, linking the parliament's approval of key financial and staff decisions to getting their way on how the new organisation is ultimately shaped and accounted for.A statement released on Friday (16 April) said: Parliament's assessment of the main proposal will ... be linked to decisions on the budget and staffing of the new service.Everything should be treated as one package,says the EU assembly.New agreements on setting up a budget line for the External Action Service (EAS) as well as hiring national diplomats to kit out the service share the power of decision-making between member states and parliament - a situation that has forced national governments to make some concessions on the diplomatic service.However, the structure of the EAS, unveiled by EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton late last month, were immediately strongly criticised by a cross-party section of MEPs.
Following a meeting of the political group leaders yesterday (15 April), the statement is the parliament's first formal reaction.Their main objections are that service is not politically accountable to the parliament; that its decision-making in key areas such as in development aid (an area with an annual budget running to billions of euros) is convoluted; and that the civilian mission part of the service is too entangled in the military structures of the service. The parliament says the main MEPs involved in negotiations on the diplomatic service agree that it is unlikely that the entire package could be dealt with before summer.Parliament's gambit comes just a few days before EU ambassadors are due to discuss the matter and just over a week before EU foreign ministers are meant to discuss and possibly agree Ms Ashton's proposal on 26 April.Under Ms Ashton's original plans, member states would first agree the outline and then negotiations would begin on the financial and staff regulations with parliament.Speaking last month, Franziska Brantner, a German Green MEP involved in the issue, said the parliament believes it is possible to delay a final decision to September or possibly October.
EU, negotiating partners to release Acta text
LEIGH PHILLIPS Today APR 16,10 @ 17:50 CET
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - After heavy criticism from civil society and the European Parliament for negotiating a new international anti-counterfeiting treaty in secrecy, the European Union and its foreign partners have agreed to make public the negotiating text for a proposed Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (Acta).Overall, therefore, there was a general sense from this session that negotiations have now advanced to a point where making a draft text available to the public will help the process of reaching a final agreement,the European Commission said in a statement on Friday (16 April).For that reason, and based on the specific momentum coming out of this meeting, participants have reached unanimous agreement that the time is right for making available to the public the consolidated text coming out of these discussions.
The text will be made public next Wednesday.
Brussels made the announcement simultaneously with the US Office of the United States Trade Representative using an identical text following the conclusion on Friday of the Eighth round of negotiations on Acta in Wellington, New Zealand, talks that lasted three days.Until now, the commission has said they were unable to release any texts without unanimous approval from negotiating partners.However, the statement also said that in agreeing to release the draft text, the positions of the different countries would remain undisclosed: Participants reaffirmed the importance of maintaining the confidentiality of their respective positions in trade negotiations.Civil liberties watchdogs and monitors of the negotiations have been particularly worried about the potential for the agreement to restrict online freedoms.Last month, the European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS), Peter Hustinx, raised fears that the Acta legal framework could result in large scale monitoring of internet users and the international imposition of three strikes laws, such as that recently passed in France, which cuts off internet access of people accused of illegal downloading.Also in March, MEPs in a resolution passed 663 to 13 called on the commission to increase transparency in the Acta negotiations or risk legal action in the European Court of Justice.The euro-deputies demanded to be fully informed at all stages of the negotiations, and asked the commission to conduct an impact assessment of the implementation of Acta with regard to fundamental rights and data protection.Attempting to assuage concerns, the EU and US statements also went on to say: Acta will not interfere with a signatory's ability to respect its citizens' fundamental rights and liberties.
There is no proposal to oblige ACTA participants to require border authorities to search travellers' baggage or their personal electronic devices for infringing materials. In addition, ACTA will not address the cross-border transit of legitimate generic medicines.The commission also confirmed that no participant is proposing to require governments to mandate a graduated response or three strikes approach to copyright infringement on the internet, another key concern of online freedom advocates.The Acta participants agreed that the next meeting would be hosted by Switzerland in June this year.
Volcanic ash saves Buzek from awkward Vatican meeting
ANDREW RETTMAN 15.04.2010 @ 17:39 CET
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Ash from an Icelandic volcano spared EU parliament President Jerzy Buzek from a potentially awkward meeting with Pope Benedict XVI in Rome on Friday (16 April).Mr Buzek was to meet the pontiff and his foreign minister Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone amid the unfolding child abuse scandal which has seen the pope blamed for protecting abusive priests and Cardinal Bertone saying that homosexuality is a root cause of paedophilia - a classic tenet of homophobia.Liberal MEPs and gay rights activists on the eve of the trip had urged Mr Buzek and other EU leaders to break Brussels' silence on the subject. But the Vatican trip was cancelled at the last minute due to the drifting cloud of ash from Iceland's Eyjafjallajoekull volcano, which disrupted flights across Europe.Liberal group leader and former Belgian prime minister Guy Verhofstadt in a letter on Thursday to Mr Buzek, EU commission head Jose Manuel Barroso and EU Council President Herman Van Rompuy said: I ask you to react to these declarations, condemning them in the most unambiguous terms and to make representations to the Catholic church leadership, to ensure that truth and justice are brought to victims of paedophile crime.If he [Mr Buzek] doesn't raise the issue, he will have some explaining to do, Dutch liberal MEP Sophie in 't Veld added.A major gay rights advocacy group, the International Lesbian and Gay Association (ILGA), joined the appeal.
EU leaders have a moral obligation [to speak out] under Article 1 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights [on human dignity],the group's secretary general, Renato Sabbadini, told EUobserver. A critical comment of this type would be very helpful ...it would be a strong signal to the church that there are limits to the kind of things it can say to get out of trouble.Mr Buzek, Mr Barroso and Mr Van Rompuy's offices were all unavailable for comment when contacted by this website. Mr Barroso is also under the Liberal spotlight due to his plan to hold a meeting with church leaders in Brussels in the coming weeks, an event which Ms in 't Veld would also like to see used to promote EU values. A senior EU official said a Barroso statement criticising the Roman Catholic church for its handling of the paedophile priest scandal is unlikely because the issue is not an area of EU policy-making, however. Antoine Ripoll, a spokesman for the christian-democrat EPP group in the EU parliament agreed: I understand Mr Verhofstadt's moral point of view. But the EU as such doesn't have any competence in this area.Ms in't Veld paints a picture of the EPP establishment in Brussels as having too many non-transparent meetings with what she called the Roman Catholic lobby.Mr Buzek is a Protestant. Mr Barroso and Mr Van Rompuy are Roman Catholic and all three are EPP members. Mr Buzek is known in the EU parliament for his scant support for gay rights. Mr Van Rompuy has caused controversy in the past by saying Turkey should never join the EU because it does not share its Christian values.In that group [the EPP] you could certainly say that MEPs from southern and eastern Europe would be less likely to be seen hurting in any way the Catholic church,the ILGA's Mr Sabbadini said.The EPP's Mr Rippel rejected the suggestion that his group's relations with the Vatican are somehow too cozy as ridiculous.Correction: the article originally said Mr Buzek is a Roman Catholic. He is in fact a Protestant.
Israel costs us blood and treasure What does Obama cost us? APR 15,10 By LAURIE ROTH
As the latest round of Tea Parties are upon us representing millions of focused and concerned, law abiding Americans, our President continues to pretend he is doing something historical, wise and insightful regarding his Nuclear and Middle East plans? We are still reeling from Obama’s pretend nuclear disarmament program, signed by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Obama recently.As you may recall, the goal is to start disarming,stop nuclear development and research, while committing in advance that we won’t use a nuclear response if we are attacked with a weapon of mass destruction. It will also render our arsenal of 9,400 nukes obsolete as rogue nations and other mystery groups rush forward with nuclear technology and weapons development…..why, because they simply want to and plan to use them. It is shockingly rude that they don’t bow down to President Obama. It didn’t take but minutes before Ahmadinejad declared yet again his nuclear intentions. Oh yeah, and threatened to attack us with nuclear devices he would sell to terrorist groups if we dared to attack his nuclear facilities. Other countries that would quickly flip us off if we tried to manipulate them into getting rid of some of their nukes are China, Pakistan, India and North Korea.These are lovely bastions of democracy, peace and stability.
The last few weeks Obama was on a Middle East and Nuclear roll
He keeps reminding us of how huge the nuclear danger is in the world, even describing in his recent news conference how horrifying a 10-kiloton nuclear explosion would be. We heard the horror as he described an explosion….900-mph winds, bathing the land with radiation , producing plumes of fall out for hundreds of miles. The simply amazing and insane thing is most of us by now understand how disastrous, gross and far reaching a nuclear bomb would be. THAT IS PRECISELY WHY COMPROMISING OUR ARSENAL AND LEAD IN NUCLEAR DEVELOPMENT AND READINESS IS A DIRECT ATTACK ON OUR NATIONAL SECURITY AND REPUTATION.Obama reminded the nation at the latest two-day conference on nuclear security that the nation would have to wait up to 72 hours after a nuclear blast for a significant federal response.He shared how hard it would be to mitigate damage and respond.This president has a hard time responding to the truth so naturally he would have a hard time responding to a disaster. Regarding his statement of a 3 day delay in response, that seems to be typical with him. It took him 3 days to even respond from Hawaii to the underwear bomber who almost brought down a plane on Christmas day.
Obama’s latest speech also signals a shift with Israel
President Obama is now ramping up the pressure toward Israel, saying that the Israeli/Palestinian conflict has cost us too much blood and treasure.We have seen the classic,Jimmy Carter slams on Israel, Obama’s first 15 months.The most recent lunacy was Hillary and Biden getting their knickers in a twist when Prime Minister Netanyahu didn’t kiss their booties when visiting over there to intimidate and manipulate him into submission.Instead of bow down he chose to exercise the rights of his country and build 1,600 new Jewish homes. Never mind those were homes in their country on land won in war, fair and square mega years ago. Now we hear the mixed up and out of context diatribe in recent Obama speeches. He talks of the cost of war,blood and treasure via Afghanistan, Iraq, struggling Palestine, Iran and struggling relations with Muslims. The implication is that all this could simply be solved if Israel would give away more land; if Israel would stop building; if Israel would cut in half Jerusalem and their Holy places; Translation for those who are mentally impaired: IF ISRAEL AND THE JEWS WILL STOP EXERCISING THEIR GOD GIVEN RIGHTS AND WALK INTO THE SEA AND DROWN.
Obama is the most radical and dangerous President we have ever had. The only evil he believes in is at the hands of Jews, Christians and conservatives. He is boldly committed to big government, socialism/communism. He continues to show the world his commitment to moral compromise and political denial of reality.
It is like a severe case of dyslexia.
Backwards with Israel
Everything with this President is back to front. We have to change our policy with Israel because they are the enemy…why,they won’t do what Obama has ordered to fulfill his international peace legacy and kiss up desires to Islam. It is one of the long time liberal fantasies, to bring peace to Israel and Palestine. Remember the obsession and peace attempts of Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter? Never mind since 1948 that the real attempts at peace, a two state solution from the very beginning, and limited and controlled responses to decades of slaughter and attacks HAVE BEEN BY THE JEWS AND ISRAELIS. REAL PEACE ATTEMPTS HAVE NEVER BEEN ATTEMPTED BY ANYONE ELSE.
Backwards with who the real enemies are
This administration has made it very clear with numerous statements that we are the new terrorists, not Islamic radicals. We persecute them and they are the victims of our success and the Jews. If we dare to notice the constant attacks, lack of women’s rights, slaughter of the innocents, attacks on Jewish settlements…..we have mental illness. We are Islamaphobics.I pray Dick Morris, in his recent statements are right.He said on national TV just recently he is convinced conservatives will not only sweep the House but also the Senate and win the Presidential election 4 years from now. He was referring to the health care bill disaster and saying we could quickly defund it, then when controlling both the House and Senate and White House, repeal it.There will be a whole lot more than that we have to repeal, unfund and shred.We must also fix the insane movement away from nuclear strength and stop the absurd pressure on Israel, the only real friend we have in the Middle East and democracy.Elections come quickly!
Barack Hussein Obama vs. Israel By Douglas J. Hagmann, Director
LINKS-http://homelandsecurityus.com/archives/3703
15 April 2010: A full six months before Barack Hussein Obama’s Cairo speech, I reported on an interview I had with a high ranking member of the intelligence community who stated that the Obama administration would turn against Israel. That retiring member of the intelligence community laid it all out during our interview, stating that not only would the Obama administration abandon Israel, but the U.S., at the direction of Obama, would turn against the very nation with which we have long shared the core values of western democracy.Judging from the extremely high number of e-mails I received about this article, only a very small percentage actually believed my intelligence source. Interestingly, the majority of those e-mails that described the intelligence as hyperbolic if not outright false were from self-described Jews living in America. Perhaps those who questioned the authenticity of my source and veracity of his message will reassess their position in light of Barack Hussein Obama’s latest remarks referenced yesterday in The New York Times article titled Obama Speech Signals a U.S. Shift on Middle East.The article stated that there is an …explicit link between the Israeli-Palestinian strife and the safety of American soldiers as they battle Islamic extremism and terrorism in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere.Accordingly, U.S. support for Israel must be balanced against other [Arabic & Muslim] interests, meaning that as far as Obama is concerned, Arab nations and Muslim interests will prevail over those of Israel.
Barack Hussein Obama, true to his Muslim heritage and Arab roots, is leading America down the most dangerous foreign policy road in the history of the United States and perhaps all of human history. A path that will have prophetically disastrous consequences for the United States and the world, and one that is setting the stage for a war that was prophesized over two thousand years ago.The political hubris, anti-Semitism and pro-Islamic attributes of Obama as they relate to the nation of Israel are nearly equivalent to his disingenuous approach to Islamic terrorism in the U.S. As Mark Levin stated yesterday during his radio program, the phrase Islamic extremism was banned from the counter-terrorism lexicon, yet it is now a justification for turning on Israel. If you want to understand Obama’s approach to Israel, I strongly urge take ten minutes to listen to this ten minute segment from Mr. Levin’s program.As I reported in December 2008 based on my interview with a U.S. intelligence source, the worst was yet to come. Now, it’s closer than you think.
Coming next: More from U.S. Intelligence insider: Obama describes Israel as boil on America’s backside.
Family massacre in Chicago a Muslim honor killing
By Douglas J. Hagmann
16 April 2010: It was a scene that left one of the most hardened Chicago detectives I know shaken. He described the murder scene to me last night as one of the worst he has seen in his career, and he has seen some of the worst.Responding early Wednesday morning to the scene of a multiple shooting inside a bungalow located in the 7200 block of South Mozart Street, Chicago, IL were the bloodied and lifeless bodies of Tawanda Thompson, 19, who was in the late stages of pregnancy with a girl; Keyshai Fields, 16, also four-months pregnant; 3 year-old Keleasha Larry, and 7 month-old Jihad Larry. There were all methodically murdered in an early morning shooting spree allegedly at the hand of 32 year-old James A. LARRY, Tawanda Thompson’s husband. They were married less than a month. In addition to the dead, 57 year-old Leona Larry, the suspect’s mother and his 13 year-old nephew, Demond Larry were critically wounded.Considering the unborn children, six lives were shortened by murder and two more lie in the balance. The act was particularly brutal, according to the homicide detective, who provided this author with the details of the murder scene on the condition his name not be used.He confirmed some of the published and unpublished police reports and sources, stating that the suspect shot his wife first, the bullet entering her throat. He then methodically executed the others in the house, shooting each victim in the head or face. When he realized that his pregnant wife was still alive, he turned and shot her in the head, killing her and her unborn child –a girl.
And one 12 year-old girl witnessed nearly the entire event, herself narrowly escaping death by running in her pajamas to a nearby gas station for help as the suspect shot at her. At the gas station, the traumatized young girl telephoned her mother, saying that her uncle killed everyone.The suspect, James LARRY, was apprehended by police a short time later. He was charged yesterday with four counts of first-degree murder, four counts of attempted first-degree murder and two counts of intentional homicide of an unborn child.When arrested, the suspect expressed remorse. He reportedly told arresting officers that he was sorry, but not for the murders.He was sorry that he ran out of bullets, confirmed the detective. The motive? His wife and family would not submit to Islamic doctrine.As he described the scene inside the house and the suspect’s apprehension to me last night, this hardened police detective who I’ve known for the last eight years was more upset than I’ve even known him to be. Upset over the deaths, upset over the motive, and upset at the legal system. This didn’t have to happen, he said. But it did, and it will probably happen again in another community, to another family,he stated.The reason it happened here and the reason it will happen again is that we’ve allowed our prisons to become recruiting grounds for Islamic fundamentalism that teaches this twisted [expletive deleted]. And our system has become too lenient, too PC, and too afraid to confront this problem, so now we have nearly an entire family murdered by a guy quoting Allah and the Qu’ran.
Charged: James A. LARRY
James A. LARRY converted to Islam while serving time in prison. Having a number of prior convictions, LARRY was most recently sentenced in 2002 to 5 ½ years in federal prison after pleading guilty to possessing a firearm as a felon. He was paroled in April of 2007, but spent three months in a halfway house after he admitted smoking marijuana while on probation.It was during his time in prison that he began receiving visits by prison imams through the Islamic prison outreach program.He became increasingly radicalized with orthodox Islamic beliefs, ultimately demanding compliance to fundamentalist Islam by his wife and family,stated the detective. He [allegedly] killed his wife because she would not wear Muslim attire, and would not follow his beliefs,he stated.It was an honor killing, pure and simple, but don’t count on hearing that in the media.An in-depth look exposing the infiltration of our prisons was published in our February 17, 2010 article titled From the Places to the tombs, a Pandora’s Box of peril. Until we put a stop to this brand of prison outreach, expect the body count in the U.S. to rise.
I WRITE NEWS ABOUT AND PUT NEWS ARTICLES ABOUT ISRAEL AND JERUSALEM PERTAINING TO BIBLE PROPHESY HAPPENINGS.JOEL 3:20 But Judah (ISRAEL) shall dwell for ever, and Jerusalem from generation to generation.(THATS ISRAEL-JERUSALEM WILL NEVER BE DESTROYED AGAIN)-WE CHRISTIANS ARE ALL WAITING PATIENTLY FOR THE PRE-TRIBULATION RAPTURE TO OCCUR.SO WE CAN GO TO JESUS AND GET OUR NEVER DYING BODIES.SO WE CAN RULE OVER CITIES OURSELVES.WHILE JESUS RULES FROM DAVIDS THRONE FOREVER IN JERUSALEM.
IMPORTANT LINKS
- 2-STRONG MAN BEHIND THE SPIRIT.
- 2024 CANADA PREDICTIONS.
- ABORTION IS MURDER OF A GENERATION OF CHILDREN.
- BEHOLD ISRAEL-AMIR TSARFATI
- BIOLOGICAL WEAPON COVID STARTED IN 1965.
- BRENT MEIDINGER, SINGER
- CBN NEWS
- DESTINY OF NATIONS.
- ELIJAH & MOSES PREACH 3 1/2 YEARS
- EU'S 10 POINT PEACE PLAN.
- FOX NEWS
- FROM NEBUCHADNEZZAR TO TODAY.
- HOLY TEMPLE MYTH 1
- HOLY TEMPLE MYTH 2
- HOLY TEMPLE MYTH 3
- I ASKED AI LEADER QUESTIONS.
- ISRAEL AND EUS HISTORY TO END OF TRIBULATION.
- ISRAEL BIRD MIGRATION 2
- ISRAEL BIRD MIGRATION 3
- ISRAEL BIRD MIGRATION.
- ISRAEL DEFEATES ALL ENEMIES.
- ISRAEL RADIO
- ISRAEL-JERUSALEM TOGETHER FOREVER
- ISRAEL365 NEWS
- ISRAELI CITIES CAMERA
- J D FARAG
- JACK VAN IMPE
- JAN MARKELL
- JERUSALEM LIVE
- JERUSALEM POST NEWS
- JERUSALEM WESTERN WALL LIVE
- JEWISH FEASTS - HOLIDAYS - HOLY DAYS.
- LATEST MUSLIM SCAM READERS DIGEST
- LAURA-LYNN TYLER THOMPSON
- MARK LEVIN (TRUTHS)
- MY 12 YR BAN ON GAY FLAG IN OWENSOUND
- MY 7 YR PEACE TREATY SITE
- MY END TIME SCENARIO.
- MY MOHAWK HARNESS PREDICTIONS
- MY NHL HOCKEY STATS SITE
- MY TWITTER SITE
- MY YOUTUBE SITE
- NEW WORLD ORDER BY ME
- NTEB
- REBEL NEWS
- SHOTS ARE GENE THERAPY.
- SHROUD OF TURIN
- THE GATEWAY PUNDIT
- THE LAST GENERATION
- TIMES OF ISRAEL NEWSFEED
- WAR IN HEAVEN REV 12
- WERE ISLAM WILL BE BURIED 300 MILLION.
- WHOS LAND IS IT (2)
- WHOS LAND IS IT (3)
- WHOS LAND IS IT? (1)
- WHOS LAND IS IT? (4)
- WHOS LAND IS IT? (5)
- WHOS LAND IS IT? (6)
- WOKE CULTURE IS MAOISM IN CANADAS CHARACTERISTICS
- WW3 THE WAVES.
Friday, April 16, 2010
Thursday, April 15, 2010
JUDGEMENT IF YOU COME AGAINST JERUSALEM
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,(WORLD SOCIALISM) 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/
CNBC VIDEOS
http://www.cnbc.com/id/15839263/site/14081545/?tabid=15839796&tabheader=false
HALF HOUR DOW RESULTS THU APR 15,2010
09:30 AM -1.73
10:00 AM -20.23
10:30 AM -8.62
11:00 AM +7.86
11:30 AM -13.08
12:00 PM -10.36
12:30 PM -10.96
01:00 PM +1.59
01:30 PM +20.10
02:00 PM +15.21
02:30 PM +22.67
03:00 PM +27.96
03:30 PM +19.27
04:00 PM +21.46 11,144.57
S&P 500 1211.67 +1.02
NASDAQ 2515.69 +10.83
GOLD 1,161.20 +1.60
OIL 85.48 -0.36
TSE 300 12,211.50 +7.10
CDNX 1679.50 +4.62
S&P/TSX/60 717.00 +0.54
MORNING,NEWS,STATS
YEAR TO DATE PERFORMANCE
Dow -17 points at 4 minutes of trading today.
Dow -26 points at low today.
Dow +32 points at high today so far.
GOLD opens at $1,156.00.OIL opens at $85.98 today.
AFTERNOON,NEWS,STATS
Dow -26 points at low today so far.
Dow +32 points at high today so far.
WRAPUP,NEWS,STATS
Dow -26 points at low today.
Dow +32 points at high today.
EARTH DESTROYED WITH THE EARTH(BECAUSE OF SIN AND GODLESS PEOPLE)
GENESIS 6:11-13
11 The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.(WORLD TERRORISM,MURDERS)(HAMAS IN HEBREW IS VIOLENCE)
12 And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth.
13 And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence (TERRORISM)(HAMAS) through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth.
Icelandic volcano eruption intensifies
APR 15,10
REYKJAVIK (Reuters) – A volcanic eruption in Iceland, which has thrown up a 6 km (3.7 mile) high cloud of ash and disrupted air traffic in northern Europe, has grown more intense, an expert said on Thursday.The eruption under the Eyjafjallajokull glacier -- 10 times more powerful than another one nearby last month -- showed no sign of abating after more than 24 hours of activity, University of Iceland volcanologist Armannn Hoskuldsson said.It's becoming more intense, but there will be no lava -- this is purely an explosive eruption, he told Reuters.To the east of the volcano, thousands of hectares of land were covered by a thick layer of ash, while a cloud was blotting out the sun in some areas along the southern coast of Iceland, local media reported.Hot fumes from the eruption melted vast amounts of ice on the glacier, Iceland's fifth largest, but flood waters which had caused wide damage to roads and bridges on Wednesday were receding, Hoskuldsson said.Most of the 700 people who were evacuated from their homes on Wednesday were still huddled at Red Cross emergency centres set up nearby, an official told Reuters.The cloud of ash from the eruption has hit air travel all over northern Europe, with flights grounded or diverted due to the risk of engine damage from sucking in particles of ash from the volcanic cloud, airport officials said.Icelandic scientists had measured increased seismic activity near the glacier about two hours before the volcano started to erupt in the early morning on Wednesday, local media reported.
In March, another volcano erupted near the Eyjafjallajokull glacier and caused no casualties.The volcano, situated beneath Iceland's fifth largest glacier, has erupted five times since Iceland was settled in the ninth century.Iceland sits on a volcanic hotspot in the Mid-Atlantic Ridge and has relatively frequent eruptions, although most occur in sparsely populated areas and pose little danger to people or property. Before March, the last eruption took place in 2004.(Reporting by Omar Valdimarsson; writing by Nicholas Vinocur; editing by Philippa Fletcher)
Iceland volcano ash halts European flights
VALENTINA POP Today APR 15,10 @ 09:28 CET
A large ash cloud from a volcanic eruption in Iceland has grounded hundreds of European and transatlantic flights, with several UK airports shutting down as the pollution approaches British airspace.Hundreds of flights to and from the UK, Sweden and Norway were delayed or cancelled due to the drifting debris on Thursday morning (15 April), as well as most transatlantic flights over northern Europe.British Airways stopped all domestic flights on Thursday, while airports in Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Glasgow were shut down. The UK air traffic control agency, Nats, said it was closing the entire airspace north of London,in accordance with international civil aviation policy. Many flights are set to be re-routed, causing disruptions in other air hubs in Europe.We took this decision in order to maintain safety. We continue to work with Eurocontrol and our colleagues in Europe's other air navigation service providers to take the appropriate action to ensure safety,the agency said in a statement.
The airspace in Norway and northern Sweden was also closed to traffic.In Belgium, the Brussels airport announced it may be forced to suspend all flights in the course of the day (Thursday).Volcanic ash, made of pulverised rock and glass, can jam aircraft engines and contaminate air inside the cabin. Weather experts say it could take days before the cloud disperses.The cloud was formed when one of Iceland's volcanoes, Eyjafjallajokull, erupted on Tuesday (13 April) for the second time in a month. Some 800 residents were evacuated from the area, as lava running beneath a thick layer of ice caused torrents of meltwater to pour down the slopes.Just some three weeks ago, the Eyjafjallajokull erupted for the first time in 200 years, with spectacular fountains of lava spewing into the air, in the ice-free part of the volcano. Iceland's volcanic eruptions are a regular phenomenon, as the North Atlantic island is one of the most geologically active parts of the world.
Volcano erupts under Iceland glacier, hundreds flee
Wed Apr 14, 11:37 am ET
REYKJAVIK (Reuters) – A volcanic eruption in Iceland spewed black smoke and white steam into the air on Wednesday and partly melted a glacier, setting off a major flood that threatened to damage roads and bridges.The plume was seen rising from a crater under about 200 meters (660 feet) of ice at the Eyjafjallajokull glacier, close to the site of another eruption which started last month and died down only on Monday, Icelandic state radio reported.The Icelandic Civil Defense Authority ordered 700 people to evacuate their homes and said melting ice from the glacier had caused big floods that threatened to damage a highway and several bridges, an official told Reuters.We have had to dig some holes in the road so the flood could pass through and ease pressure on the bridges, Rognvaldur Olafsson, who is leading the rescue effort, told Reuters.Three large holes which were visible on the glacier in the morning had turned into a continuous rift running for about two kilometers through the ice, he added.Scientists had measured increased seismic activity near the glacier about two hours before the volcano started to erupt early on Wednesday, local media reported.
In March, another volcano erupted near the Eyjafjallajokull glacier but caused no casualties.The volcano, situated beneath Iceland's fifth largest glacier, has erupted five times since Iceland was settled in the ninth century.Iceland sits on a volcanic hotspot in the Mid-Atlantic Ridge and has relatively frequent eruptions, though most occur in sparsely populated areas and pose little danger to people or property. The last eruption before that in March was in 2004.(Reporting by Omar Valdimarsson; writing by Nicholas Vinocur, editing by Tim Pearce)
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.
Bodies pile up after quake kills 600-plus in China By ANITA CHANG, Associated Press Writer - APR 15,10
MADOI, China – Rescue teams fought gusty winds and altitude sickness Thursday as supplies of food, water and almost everything ran thin after strong earthquakes left more than 600 dead in a mountainous Tibetan area of western China.Survivors, many of whom spent the night outside in freezing weather, wandered bleeding from their wounds through Jiegu township for a second day, witnesses said. Rescuers, tired from the high winds and thin oxygen, pulled some survivors and many bodies from the pulverized remains of the town flattened by Wednesday morning's quakes.We've seen too many bodies and now they're trying to deal with them. The bodies are piled up like a hill. You can see bodies with broken arms and legs and it breaks your heart, said Dawa Cairen, a Tibetan who works for the Christian group the Amity Foundation and was helping in rescue efforts. You can see a lot of blood. It's flowing like a river.Grim pictures emerged from several collapsed schools that were the focus of early rescue efforts. Footage on state television and photos posted online showed bodies laid out near the rubble, and the Xinhua News Agency quoted a local education official as saying 66 children and 10 teachers had died, mostly in three schools.
After spending most of Wednesday opening the nearby airport and clearing roads, relief operations quickened. Nearly 2,000 soldiers, police and firefighters arrived in Yushu county, where Jiegu is located, Xinhua said. Joining them were the China Earthquake Administration's professional rescue teams, with sniffer dogs, satellite communications equipment, medicines and food.As more people and supplies poured in by road and air, the influx was producing unintended effects: taxing the normally scarce resources of the remote Yushu, where the altitude averages around 13,000 feet (4,000 meters).Supplies of food, water, gas and other necessities were running low, said Pierre Deve, a program director at the Yushu-based community development organization Snowland Service Group. Deve said he waited for hours in a line of some 100 cars at the only open gas station. Most shops in Jiegu remained shut, he said, and local Buddhist monasteries handed out some food while some people scavenged food and other belongings from what was left of their houses.China Central Television said the death toll had risen to 617 by late morning Thursday, with more than 9,000 injured and around 300 still missing. The Ministry of Civil Affairs said about 15,000 houses collapsed and 100,000 people — nearly the entire population of Yushu — needed to be moved to safety.Dozens of monks were either dead or missing at the Thrangu monastery, about 6 miles (10 kilometers) outside Jiegu, when all but its main hall collapsed, said Danzeng Qiujiang, a senior cleric at the Xiuma monastery far to the north of town.Only 7 or 8 of the monks are left alive. All the rest have gone missing. The rescuers either can't find them or found their bodies. I'm not sure how many deaths have been confirmed yet. But 60 of 70 of them have all gone missing," the cleric said.
Wednesday morning's quakes — the worst of which measured magnitude 6.9 by the U.S. Geological Survey and 7.1 by China's earthquake administration — were the worst to hit the region since the massive Sichuan earthquake two years ago left 90,000 dead or missing.The destruction of schools was an eerie echo of the Sichuan quake, in which thousands of students died when their poorly built schools collapsed. But unlike in Sichuan — where schools toppled as other buildings stood — everything fell over in Yushu.Residents in Jiegu described scenes of anguish with the wounded sobbing in pain from lack of medical care. This feels like a war zone. It's a complete mess. At night, people were crying and shouting. Women were crying for their families,said Ren Yu, general manager of Yushu Hotel in Jiegu, who said he felt at least five aftershocks overnight. Some of the people have broken legs or arms, but all they can get now is an injection. They were crying in pain.Ren said hotel staffers returning from assisting in rescue work at night described horrific casualties the quake had caused: They told me that when some elementary school students were pulled out, their brains had spilled out.State media said hundreds had been pulled free alive. CCTV showed rescuers picking through the rubble at night aided by flashlights fixed to their safety helmets. A group of workers found a girl trapped for more than 12 hours under a heap of debris.I can't feel my arm, said the girl, who was curled up with her back to the workers. The workers talked to her and fed her water as others searched for pieces of wood to prop up the rubble that had entrapped her. As rescuers gingerly pulled her out and carried her to a stretcher, she could be heard saying: I'm sorry for the trouble. Thank you, I will never forget this.Associated Press Writer Gillian Wong and researcher Zhao Liang contributed to this report from Beijing.
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.
Aid arrives after cyclone kills 119 in India By MANIK BANERJEE, Associated Press Writer - APR 15,10
CALCUTTA, India – Aid workers distributed rice, dried fruits, water and tarpaulins Thursday to the victims of a ferocious cyclone that killed at least 119 people in northeastern India and demolished ten of thousands of mud huts.Rescuers cleared hundreds of uprooted trees and electricity poles blocking roads to the devastated areas in Bihar state, said Sharwan Kumar, a state administrator. Telephone services also were restored in most of the region after a 30-hour interruption.Rescuers found 10 bodies on Thursday in the district of Purnea, raising the overall death toll in Bihar state to 80, Kumar told The Associated Press.Police and rescue teams have recovered another 39 bodies in the worst-hit villages in West Bengal state — Hematabad, Raiganj and Kiran Dighi — since Wednesday, said Ramanuj Chakraborty, a senior local official.Packing winds of more than 100 mph (160 kph), the cyclone struck close to midnight Tuesday.Hundreds of people were injured and thousands left homeless. They were caught unaware as there was no cyclone warning from the weather department, said Devesh Chandra Thakur, Bihar state's minister for disaster management.
Most people were sleeping when the cyclone struck. They ran out of their homes into the open,said M. B. Shajuruddin, a 30-year-old teacher in Chhota Suhar, a village in West Bengal.The storm destroyed most the village's 500 tin-roofed huts, and splintered trees.We have so far received no government help ... People are surviving on whatever they are left with,he said.Vyasji said rescuers found 23 bodies overnight from northeastern Bihar districts of Araria, Kishenganj and Purnea.
Authorities handed tarpaulin sheets to the cyclone victims to set up temporary shelters in the region and distributed food and water, Vyasji said.Namita Biswas, 51, a housewife in West Bengal, said told AP by phone she and her husband were sleeping in their hut when it was crushed by a tree that broke from the impact of the cyclone. Her husband was killed.The cyclone demolished nearly 50,000 mud huts in West Bengal and thousands more in Bihar, officials said.Associated Press reporters Indrajit Singh in Patna and Anupam Nath in Chhota Suhar contributed to this report.
Relief operations struggle in tornado-hit India by Deshakalyan Chowdhury – Thu Apr 15, 3:47 am ET
RAMPUR, India (AFP) – Indian aid workers battled blocked roads and downed power lines Thursday as they rushed aid to victims of a giant tornado that ravaged hundreds of thousands of homes and killed 129 people.In West Bengal state, 250,000 people were made homeless by the twister, which packed winds of up to 120 kilometres (75 miles) an hour as it tore across isolated rural areas of northeast India and Bangladesh overnight Tuesday.We are facing a crisis in the relief operation. There is a shortage of manpower to distribute rice and medical aid among the victims, West Bengal minister for civil defence Srikumar Mukherji told AFP.Uprooted trees blocking roads and broken electricity lines were further slowing down attempts to deliver aid, he said.The storm, which brought torrential rain and high winds over a wide area, also killed thousands of cattle and ruined summer crops in the area, one of the poorest in India whose residents survive as subsistence farmers.State officials across northeast India said a total of 127 people had been killed, with new victims reported Thursday in West Bengal, Bihar state and northeastern Meghalaya. Two others lost their lives in neighbouring Bangladesh.In Rampur village, 200 miles (320 kilometres) north of West Bengal capital Kolkata, the roof of every house had collapsed or been blown away. Thousands of stranded people were taking shelter in school and temple premises.
Food aid in the form of rice and dried fruit was beginning to arrive as well as tarpaulins and plastic sheets, though distribution efforts were still not reaching most of the victims.The National Disaster Management Authority in New Delhi said state governments were conducting relief operations.We offered to help but they said they are capable of dealing with the disaster and will seek help if required, senior official K.M. Singh told AFP in New Delhi.Witnesses to the destructive power of the storm described their terror as the winds and rain struck around midnight Tuesday.
The thatched roof fell on our head and then after two minutes the entire house fell on us,said Ratan Burman, a 45-year-old farmer, who lost his wife in the disaster.I managed to come out and pull my two sons out, but I was unable to save my wife.A local weather office official said part of the storm had a twister effect with the shape of an elephant trunk,which had formed out of 18-kilometre (11-mile) thick thunderclouds.A long heatwave in the area could have been a catalyst in the unusual thundercloud formation that triggered the tornado, said the director of the regional weather office in West Bengal state, Gokul Chandra Debnath.A tornado forms within a very short time, unlike the cyclones that occur frequently in the area, which meant the weather office had been unable to issue a warning, he said.
Amid the widespread wreckage, there were already reports of anger.A local television journalist in Rampur village, Soma Chakraborty, told AFP that thousands of people had surrounded government offices and schools, shouting in frustration at the slow rescue and relief operation. In neighbouring Bihar, 81 people died and an estimated 40,000 homes were destroyed in Purnia, Araria and Kishanganj districts, the state disaster management office told AFP.We are trying to provide relief to all victims, Purnia district magistrate N. Sarvan Kumar said. Thousands of hamlets made up of thatched and thin steel sheets have been blown away. Mud huts and small houses were completely destroyed, he said. There were 41 storm deaths in West Bengal, while four people perished and 500 homes were lost in the northern state of Assam, and 13,000 homes were damaged in Bangladesh, officials told AFP. One death and more than 200 destroyed homes were reported by local officials in Meghalaya. The cyclone came amid unseasonably high temperatures across much of northern India, where the mercury is already above 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) in many areas.
DANIEL 7:23-24
23 Thus he said, The fourth beast(THE EU,REVIVED ROME) shall be the fourth kingdom upon earth,(7TH WORLD EMPIRE) which shall be diverse from all kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, and shall tread it down, and break it in pieces.(TR BLOCKS)
24 And the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise:(10 NATIONS) and another shall rise after them;(#11 SPAIN) and he shall be diverse from the first, and he shall subdue three kings.(BE HEAD OF 3 KINGS OR NATIONS).
Cross-border macro-regions unlikely to get own funding
VALENTINA POP 13.04.2010 @ 17:40 CET
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS – Geographical macro-regions around the Baltic Sea, along the Danube river or surrounding the Alps are unlikely to receive their own funding in the new EU budget from 2014, but should rather focus on spending existing money more efficiently, regional policy commissioner Johannes Hahn said Tuesday (13 April).It's not so much a question of more money, but of using the available funds more efficiently,Mr Hahn told delegates from Europe's local and regional authorities gathered in Brussels for a conference on EU's macro-regions. A relatively new concept developed under Mr Hahn's predecessor, macro-regions refer to several states sharing a common geographical feature.Last year, the European Commission launched a strategy for the Baltic Sea region, seen as a pilot project for other cross-border macro-regions such as the Danube, the Alps or the North Sea.The strategy did not earmark any new funds, however, neither did it envisage the set-up of new bodies or legislation, at least not under the current seven-year EU budget, ending in 2013.
The biggest added value of the strategy, according to participants from this region, seems to be better co-ordination of existing projects, for instance in cleaning up the sea. But several speakers raised the question of Russia still being very reluctant to co-operate with this new initiative, as it prefers to stick to an older EU-born forum, the Northern Dimension.Despite great enthusiasm from other regions to follow suit, Mr Hahn warned that macro-regions only make sense if they respond to a real need on the ground and are not a collection of disparate projects.The Danube regions are developing many projects, but if you ask them how this will bring them closer to their neighbours, they don't know it very well. They need to identify the important themes – for instance environment, safety or capacity building in their national administrations,he said.His own country, Austria, is one of the big promoters of the Danube region, and is pushing for a common strategy. The Austrian politician also referred to problems in cross-border regional co-operation, when highways or bridges are not constructed at the same pace on both sides. A motorway linking the Czech city of Brno to Vienna has been delayed due to such problems.Mr Hahn indicated he thought it unrealistic that regional policy money would be increased in 2014.I hope the share of the budget can be increased in the next financial perspective, but you have an idea of the challenges posed to budgets amid the crisis,he said.
The political debate in the Netherlands, one of the biggest contributors to the EU coffers is already touching upon this issue. Last week, the Dutch conservative-liberal party (VVD) launched its draft election manifesto proposing to cut by almost half the country's contribution to the EU budget.Asked about these trends and the outlook for his policy in the upcoming years, Mr Hahn said regional policy is not charity, it is an investment in your own region.Richer countries need to understand that their own regions benefit from helping poorer ones to develop, as it increases the market potential for their own companies, for their exports.In addition to that, no region has a guarantee to be rich forever. Just look at the crisis,he said.
Mediterranean Union fails to agree on water pact
Today APR 15,10 @ 10:52 CET
A dispute between Israel and Arab states in the EU's 43-country-strong Mediterranean Union has sunk a draft accord on water management in the region. Israel objected to calling Palestinian land occupied territories in the text while the Arab side blocked the tag territories under occupation.
World leaders going to Poland amid debate on Kaczynski's merits ANDREW RETTMAN Today APR 15,10 @ 09:13 CET
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - US, EU and Russian leaders are congregating in Poland at the weekend for the funeral of President Lech Kaczynski, amid a controversy over where he should be buried.Delegations which have already confirmed include: President Barack Obama of the US, President Horst Koehler and Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, the King and Queen of Spain, the UK's Prince Charles and the heads of Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Lithuania and Slovakia.On the EU side, EU parliament President Jerzy Buzek, EU Council President Herman Van Rompuy and European Commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso are going.Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Ukrainian head Viktor Yanukovych are also to attend.President Lech Kaczynski and his wife Maria, who died in a plane crash in Russia on 10 April together with 95 other people, are to be laid to rest on Sunday (18 April) in the Wawel castle in Krakow.The site in the former capital of medieval Poland is the repository of historic kings, heroes and saints.
The decision has divided Polish opinion despite the mournful atmosphere in the country. Film director Andrzej Wajda in a letter to daily Gazeta Wyborcza said: Lech Kaczynski was an ordinary and good man, but there is no reason for him to lie in the Wawel.Nobel-prize winning Polish politician Lech Walesa has spoken in favour of the Wawel burial.Protests and counter-protests took place across Poland on Tuesday and Wednesday, in Krakow, Warsaw, Gdansk, Wroclaw, Katowice, Lodz and Poznan. An anti-Wawel burial placard in Krakow said: Are you sure he is the equal of kings? the BBC reported. A pro-Wawel sign said: Let them rest in peace.Following the initial shock, a debate about Mr Kaczynski's merits has also begun in western European media. When asked by French newspaper Le Monde about the late president's euroscepticism, Polish EU affairs minister Mikolaj Dowgielewicz said: In Poland, we have a tradition of speaking only positively about the dead.French daily Liberation did not pull its punches. The tributes to Mr Kaczynski are incredible, as if death had transformed this reactionary, bigoted, eurosceptic and brutal man, who was the worst president which Poland ever had, into a veritable icon,its Brussels correspondent wrote in his influential blog.The English weekly, The Economist in an online obituary, praised his integrity but also called him: Obstinate, old-fashioned, provincial, gutsy, rather shy, awkward, suspicious, pernickety and scrupulous.Meanwhile, Russia's Mr Medvedev made an important statement in terms of the Polish-Russian reconciliation process, admitting on TV that Stalin was responsible for ordering the Katyn massacre.It's clear that the Polish officers were shot in 1940 in accordance with the will of the former leaders of the USSR, including Joseph Stalin,he told Russia Today on Wednesday in the margins of a summit in Washington.Mr Kaczynski was traveling to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the 1940 Katyn massacre in Russia, a crime until recently denied by Moscow, when his plane crashed.It's a very sad accident. There is something mystical about it, Mr Medvedev added, alluding to the irony of the crash site.
Russian and Polish experts are currently examining two black boxes from Mr Kaczynski's flight. Investigators on Tuesday recovered 20 body parts and seven pistols, thought to belong to the president's bodyguards, from the wreckage. Katyn has become a painful wound in Polish history, poisoning relations between Poles and Russians for long decades. Let us make sure it can finally heal, scar over,Mr Kaczynski had planned to say in his Katyn speech.
EU to review national budgets under commission plans
ANDREW WILLIS Today APR 15,10 @ 12:40 CET
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - The budgets of eurozone members could first need EU approval before being then being passed on to national parliaments, under radical new plans to be presented by the European Commission this May. The controversial suggestion drives right to the heart of questions of national sovereignty and is likely to produce heated debate when discussed by the group's finance ministers this Friday (16April) in Madrid.Greece's ongoing fiscal crisis has increased member state appetite for greater budgetary surveillance however, with the EU executive confident its proposals will find a favourable audience.Speaking at a debate on Thursday organised by The European Policy Centre, a Brussels-based think tank, EU economy commissioner Olli Rehn gave an indication of the plan's current details, which have yet to be finalised.We should use the first months of the year, say January to July, to request draft national budgets,he said.Not budget-line by budget-line ...but the overall budget, so that the commission would analyse and the eurogroup [of euro area finance ministers] would make a peer review and recommendations on national budgets, before they are presented to national parliaments,he added.The Finnish politician with a passion for football repeatedly referred to Article 136 of the EU's new Lisbon Treaty during his discourse, under which euro area members can vote by qualified majority on measures to strengthen the co-ordination and surveillance of their budgetary discipline.Analysts suggest eventual proposals allowing the commission and eurogroup members to issue opinions rather than formally approve member state budgets are far more likely to win member state support. There would be significant resistance from a number of countries if there is a perception that decisions on national budgets are shifting to the EU level,the European Policy Centre's chief economist, Fabian Zuleeg, told this website after the debate. There could also be legal issues in countries such as Germany,he added.
Enforcing the pact
As well as stepping up ex-ante measures to ensure EU member states obey the bloc's budgetary rules, laid out in the Stability and Growth Pact, the commission would also like to see a toughening up of the pact's incentives of compliance. While sanctions such as fines are technically possible under the current set of rules, they have never been issued.Small member states have also suggested that the rules have been applied to them more rigorously than larger countries, with French and German breaches resulting in a watering down of the pact's rules in 2005, to allow greater flexibility. It is worth reflecting whether some of the possible incentives of compliance, I don't mean penalties, could be triggered automatically,said Mr Rehn.This would avoid an excessive political game with the rules.
EU supports bank levy plans in G20 letter
ANDREW WILLIS 14.04.2010 @ 09:27 CET
The European Union has indicated it is ready to work with the Group of 20 leading economies in constructing a global framework for taxing banks. We are ready to co-operate with G20 members on globally co-ordinated principles for a stability levy on the financial sector,EU officials wrote in a draft letter earlier this month, seen by Reuters.The fresh sign of support comes ahead of an informal meeting of EU finance ministers in Madrid later this week (16-18 April), where the finance chiefs will attempt to hammer out a more unified EU position on the subject. With the recent financial crisis forcing governments to bail out struggling European banks, policy makers have come forward with an array of suggestions on how to force the industry to pay for some of the costs. So far, there been little coalescence around one idea however, with pressure building ahead of a G20 finance ministers meeting in Washington next week.French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde repeated her support for a bank levy on Tuesday (13 April).We need to put in place barriers, deterrents, obstacles, disincentives so that banks do not follow the same road that leads to systemic risk,she said. A European Commission study published earlier this month suggested a new tax on banks could generate as much as €50 billion a year for EU governments, currently struggling under record-high budget deficits.The reports authors said the money could be used to fund future bank bail-outs, climate change and development goals.
IMF assessment
For its part, the International Monetary Fund has taken a tough line on banks deemed too big to fail. In a 27-page assessment published on Tuesday, the Washington-based organisation analyses the idea of bigger banks holding greater amounts of capital than smaller firms, and also indicates support for the idea of bank levies.It is necessary to consider instituting systemic-risk based capital surcharges, applying levies that are related to an institution's contribution to systemic risk or, perhaps, even limiting the size of certain business activities,says the document.The suggestions are likely to prove controversial in financial centres such as Wall Street and the City of London where bankers have repeatedly stated their opposition to tougher regulatory obligations for larger firms.
EU states drifting from development aid goals
LEIGH PHILLIPS 14.04.2010 @ 09:25 CET
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - The latest figures on development aid from European Union member states from the OECD suggest that the bloc is drifting away from commitments to deliver 0.7 percent of its gross national income in development assistance by 2015.In 2009, largely as a result of the financial crisis, some of the biggest EU economies, Germany, Italy and Spain let their aid flows drop.According to numbers released on Wednesday by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development's Development Assistance Committee (DAC), Germany's aid declined by 12 percent, from 0.38 percent in 2008 to 0.35 percent last year. Italy's figures fell by 31 percent from 0.22 percent in 2008 to 0.16 percent in 2009. Spain, the country currently chairing the EU's six-month rotating presidency, saw its numbers fall by much less however: 1.2 percent.Ireland, one of the hardest hit EU member states by the crisis, saw a significant drop of 18.9 percent in its aid levels from 2008.It is not all bad news however, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Luxembourg, Sweden and the UK all increased their aid.
At the same time, while Dutch aid climbed slightly as a percentage of the economy, the country's real amount of spending drooped by roughly €440 million.Luxembourg's funding also climbed percentage-wise while falling in terms of monies laid out, as did that of Sweden, which spent around €145 million less than in 2008.In total, European aid is off-track to hit its 2010 target of providing 0.56 percent of GNI in development aid, offering 0.44% of aid in 2009, up one percent on the 0.43 percent it provided in 2008.The EU is not alone in its aid truancy. Japan's funding slid by 10.2 percent; Canada's by 9.5 percent; and Australia's by 1.2 percent.The US however chalked up a small increase from 0.19 percent to 0.2.A commitment on the part of developed countries to provide assistance amounting to 0.7 percent of GNI to developing countries was first made as long ago as 1970 by the UN General Assembly.
Lisbon can save EU development policy from failure, says expert
ANDREW WILLIS 13.04.2010 @ 18:15 CET
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - New institutional arrangements under the EU's Lisbon Treaty could save the bloc's development policy from failure, an expert in the field has said. In my view, the reason that European aid policy is currently falling well short, one could say failing, is not because of the policies, it's because of the implementation,UK government advisor and former international director of Christian Aid, Roger Riddell, told EUobserver in an interview on Tuesday (13 April).However, inclusion of EU development policy in the bloc's nascent external action service (EEAS) and the creation of a European Council president could improve member-state aid co-ordination and help reduce the gap between funding commitments and what is actually delivered, he says.Recent months have seen EU governments and the European Commission engage in a turf war over who should run the EU's development policy in the future. Until now, the commission has managed the six-year €30 billion fund, but national capitals are keen for the bloc's new high representative, Catherine Ashton, to take greater charge of the policy. A proposal put forward by Ms Ashton last month suggests her diplomatic service should be in charge of the development budget, controlling how much money a country would get while the commission would manage the implementation of the policy.
The greater role afforded to member states under this arrangement could provide a solution to the policy's current difficulties, says Mr Riddell, together with greater co-ordination of national development budgets to avoid costly duplication of aid efforts. If the European Council president and the high representative can get the heads of state around the table, flag up the issues of development, get them to believe they have created a European aid policy, they will then feel committed to implementing it,he says.
Doubts
Development NGOs have expressed doubts about the new arrangement outlined in Ms Ashton's plan however. While the proposals do say that the country allocations, strategies and indicative programmes will be prepared by the EEAS under the direct supervision of the relevant commissioner, this will have to be done in agreement with the high representative,the European NGO Confederation For Relief and Development (CONCORD) said in a March newsletter. There is widespread concern that this effectively brings the use of EU development aid under the effective control of the EU's foreign policy interests, which is against the letter and spirit of the Treaty,said the Brussels-based organisation.The possibility of the EU policy being hijacked for foreign policy goals adds to the already difficult situation created by the recent financial crisis, which has placed severe strain on EU government coffers. Speaking at an event on Europe's aid policy on Tuesday, organised by the Friends of Europe think tank, EU development commissioner Andris Piebalgs conceded that EU efforts to reach the UN target of 0.7 percent of GNI expenditure on aid by 2015 will be hard to achieve. With expenditure forecast to reach 0.42 percent this year, reaching the higher target by 2015 will be a challenge, he said.
Backers defend AZ crackdown on illegal immigrants By JONATHAN J. COOPER, Associated Press Writer – Thu Apr 15, 5:08 am ET
PHOENIX – Supporters of the nation's toughest crackdown on illegal immigration, on the verge of approval in the Arizona Legislature, say the state law is necessary to help stamp out crime and keep citizens and law enforcement officers safe.The measure would make it a crime under state law to be in the country illegally. It would also require local police officers to question people about their immigration status if there is reason to suspect they are here illegally.Immigrants unable to produce documents showing they are allowed to be in the U.S. could be arrested, jailed for up to six months, and fined $2,500.No longer will we sit by and let our citizens be killed, maimed, injured (and) hurt, said Republican state Sen. Russell Pearce, who sponsored the measure.But civil rights activists warn that Arizona is inviting rampant racial profiling and police-state tactics.That is an unprecedented expansion of police power,said Alessandra Soler Meetze, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Arizona.It's giving police officers a green light to harass anyone who looks or sounds foreign.The ACLU and immigrant rights groups are demanding Republican Gov. Jan Brewer veto the measure if it reaches her. The Republican has not announced whether she will sign it, but said she is a strong supporter of pragmatic immigration laws.Her predecessor, Janet Napolitano, a Democrat who is now President Barack Obama's Homeland Security secretary, vetoed similar proposals.Current law in Arizona and most states doesn't require police to ask about the immigration status of those they encounter. And many police departments prohibit officers from inquiring out of fear that immigrants won't cooperate in other investigations.The law also would crack down on employment for illegal immigrants by prohibiting people from blocking traffic when they seek or offer day labor on street corners. Also, a judge could fine a city for not enforcing the immigration law vigorously enough.The new measure would be just the latest crackdown of its kind in Arizona, which has an estimated 460,000 illegal immigrants.Pearce, the bill's sponsor, has been the driving force behind Arizona's tough new measures, including a law copied in other states that punishes companies caught knowingly hiring illegal immigrants. He insists the measures are aimed at enforcing immigration laws, not racial profiling.I believe handcuffs are a great tool, but you have to put them on the right people, said Pearce, a former cop who can list the local officers killed or wounded by illegal immigrants.Get them off the police officers and put them on the bad guys.
Supporters of the crackdown also point to Phoenix's high kidnapping rate, which law enforcement says is fueled by immigrant and drug smugglers who snatch their rivals or their family members as a way to collect unpaid debts, make quick money or as retaliation for earlier abductions.Anger over the porous Mexican border mounted last month when an Arizona cattle rancher was shot to death. Investigators said he may have been killed by drug runners working for cartels based in Mexico.The new measure is supported by police unions representing rank-and-file officers, who deny they would engage in profiling.It is opposed by police chiefs, who worry that the law would be too costly, that it would distract them from dealing with more serious problems, and that it would sow such distrust among immigrants that they would not cooperate with officers investigating other crimes.Legal immigrants fear the law would give officers easy excuses to stop them, and that even U.S. citizens could find themselves detained if they can't prove their legal status. When they come up with these things, it doesn't matter if I'm here legally, said Jose Melendez, a 55-year-old naturalized U.S. citizen from Guadalajara, Mexico.If they see a Mexican face and a Mexican name, they'll ask for papers.Anti-immigration activists say the larger goal is to discourage illegal immigration by making the U.S. inhospitable.
Most illegals would leave on their own if they felt the U.S. was serious about our laws,said William Gheen, president of Americans for Legal Immigration Political Action Committee. House Republicans passed the bill on a party-line vote Tuesday. The Senate approved it in February but must vote on changes made in the House before sending it to the governor.Associated Press Writer Felicia Fonseca in Flagstaff, Ariz., contributed.
European stocks gain on China economic growth By COLLEEN BARRY, AP Business Writer - Apr 15,10
World stocks traded mostly higher Thursday after on strong economic growth in China and a U.S. Federal Reserve report showing the unfolding of a modest recovery in the world's biggest economy.In Europe, the FTSE 100 index of leading British shares was up 7 points, or 0.1 percent, at 5,803.25 while Germany's DAX dipped 0.89 points, or 0.01 percent, to 6,277.51. The CAC-40 in France was dlown 0.49 points, or 0.01 percent, at 4,057.21.Confirmation that the Chinese economy grew by a very strong 11.9 percent in Q1 2010, whilst indicating some overheating risks, highlights the boost to global growth that the fast growing economy is providing,said Mitul Kotecha, analyst at Credit Agricole.Markets also are focused on the release of industrial production data in the United States, which is expected to show gains, and the release of U.S. treasury flows, which will gauge foreign interest in U.S. securities.
Wall Street was also poised to open higher following five straight days of gains. Dow futures were up 103.69 points, or 0.94 percent, at 11,123.11 while the broader Standard & Poor's 500 futures were 13.35 points, or 1.12 percent, at 1,210.65.
Greece, at least momentarily, was not weighing on the markets, following the weekend agreement by the eurozone to provide the country with a financial backstop if it cannot raise money any other way. But Kotecha noted that the markets still lack faith that Greece can weather the storm despite the positive response to the debt auction.The Fed's new Beige Book survey released late in the European trading day Wednesday said that the economic recovery was spreading to most parts of the United States, with merchants seeing better sales and factories boosting production.The report boosted recovery optimism,said analyst Michale Hewson at CMC markets.In Asia, Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 stock average led gainers, rising 68.89 points, or 0.6 percent, to 11,273.79. Indonesia's benchmark index also advanced 0.6 percent, South Korea and Hong Kong gained 0.5 percent while Singapore added 0.3 percent.
Australia rose 0.1 percent while China, India and Malaysia were little changed.
Equity investors took heart from signs of strong economic growth in Asia. China said its gross domestic product grew 11.9 percent in the first quarter from a year earlier while Singapore's economy jumped 13 percent from a year ago.China reported consumer prices rose 2.2 percent over a year earlier, leading some analysts to herald the high-growth, low-inflation economy — the so-called Goldilocks scenario — as ideal for company profits and equity investing.Investors were worried that the Chinese economy was going to experience overheating in general and high inflation, Morgan Stanley said in a report. The degree of uncertainty concerning growth and inflation should diminish going forward.Traders are eyeing first quarter corporate earnings reports which began this week.The overall world economy is recovering, and our advice is to stay long the market, said Tey Tze Ming, a trader with Saxo Capital Markets in Singapore. The earnings we're going to see over the next couple weeks will set the tone, and I think there's upside from here.
Markets in Thailand were closed for a holiday.
In New York overnight, the Dow Jones industrial average gained 103.69, or 0.9 percent, to 11,123.11, the highest finish since September 2008. The Dow closed higher Wednesday for a fifth day, buoyed by upbeat earnings from Intel Corp. and JPMorgan Chase.Investors also chased Wall Street gains on Wednesday on a Commerce Department report showing U.S. retail sales increased in March for the third straight month — a fresh sign that American consumers are starting to spend more. In currencies, the dollar was steady at 93.15 yen Thursday from 93.21 yen late Wednesday. The euro stood at $1.3597 from $1.3651.Benchmark crude for May delivery was up 5 cents to $85.89 a barrel.
Leaders mull EU support tool, markets turn on Greece By Elisabeth O'leary – APR 15,10
MADRID (Reuters) – Greece's aid deal has saved it from default and quashed fears of a euro zone breakup, policymakers said on Thursday, and the head of its finance minister group said new tools were needed to help fiscal stragglers.Investors took a less rosy view, selling the euro and driving up Greek bond yields ahead of a meeting of euro zone finance heads expected to break little new ground on the Aegean state's crisis or long-term reform of the single currency.The difference in interest between Greek 10-year bonds and their euro zone German benchmarks jumped to 426 basis points, near record levels hit before Greece's aid parachute was announced last weekend, from 406.
The euro fell to $1.3533, its lowest level this week.
A May 9 election looming in Germany and confusion over the logistics of disbursing the aid, should Athens ask for it, has clouded the picture as Greece tries to drum up investor interest to refinance an 8.5 billion euro bond next month.European Central Bank Executive Board member Lorenzo Bini Smaghi said the aid deal fleshed out on Sunday was a turning point in the crisis.This announcement makes it clear ... that a scenario of default and exit from the euro area, which some market participants and observers had toyed with, was simply absurd, he told journalists in Japan.With an estimated 30 billion euros in the first year from euro zone states and another 10-15 billion expected from the International Monetary Fund, the package would be the biggest multilateral bailout ever attempted.
LACK OF CLARITY
But hurdles remain. On Wednesday, a German economist threatened to legally challenge the aid deal because he said it broke EU rules by offering cash at below market rates.Germany, tapped to lend some 8.4 billion euros, also cast doubt on the size of the deal, saying talk of more than the amount slated for the first year was speculation.It has resisted helping after Athens flouted EU rules with profligate spending and borrowing for years.Polls show the German public is overwhelmingly against a financial bailout for Greece and Chancellor Angela Merkel could lose its majority in the Bundesrat upper house of parliament if defeated in next month's state election.But EU Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn said he was confident Germany would step in if needed.I have no reason to doubt the German commitment if needed and if aid were to be requested, Rehn said.He also dismissed fears of some investors over Greece's long-term solvency, saying: There will be no default.
GERMAN ROLE
Billionaire financier George Soros said the euro and the EU itself were at risk of breaking up if Germany refused to play its traditional role binding the European project together. The Germans have always made the concessions needed to advance the European Union, when people were looking for a deal. Not any more, Soros told Corriere della Sera in an interview published on Thursday. That's why the European project is stalled... If you don't make the next steps forward for the euro, the euro will go to pieces and the European Union too.Soros said the 27-member bloc needed a more flexible mechanism like a European Monetary Fund to help countries make deficit cuts without such painful belt-tightening measures. That was echoed by Jean-Claude Juncker, chairman of the Eurogroup of finance ministers, who said a new measure, which could possible involve a change to the EU treaty, was needed. We have resorted to these loans (for Greece) because there was no other solution within the European Treaty,Juncker was quoted as saying.For the future we will have to install a European mechanism without allowing some member states to relax and not balance their books.
Bini Smaghi also said the crisis had exposed flaws in EU decision-making. This experience should now be used to create a more efficient decision-making process within the euro area, aimed in particular at preventing similar situations from occurring in the future and eventually at solving them more efficiently.Greece may give the euro zone's 16 finance ministers an update on its situation in Madrid. It has promised to cut its government budget deficit by about a third to 8.7 percent of gross domestic product, crucial to eventually cutting debt pile that is a quarter bigger than its annual economic output. A euro zone source said ministers may ask Greece for more structural or administrative reforms, and reforms to its methods of gathering statistics or providing information but would not ask Athens to cut its deficit more this year.You can safely exclude that,the source said.(Additional reporting by Tim Heritage, Nigel Tutt, Marcin Grajewski Marc Jones and Jan Strupczewski; writing by Michael Winfrey, editing by Mike Peacock)
Oil hovers below $86 amid Asian, US demand growth By BARRY HATTON, Associated Press Writer - APR 15,10
Oil prices hovered below $86 a barrel Thursday amid signs global crude demand is growing, especially in Asia.By early afternoon in Europe, benchmark crude for May delivery was up 2 cents to $85.86 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract added $1.79 to settle at $85.84 on Wednesday.
Crude investors were encouraged by signs of strong economic growth in China, which said Thursday its gross domestic product grew 11.9 percent in the first quarter from a year earlier. Singapore's economy expanded 13 percent from a year ago.Non-OECD oil demand continues to increase at a phenomenal pace,said Barclays Capital in a report, referring to economies outside the major developed countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.Prices are getting comfortable with the newfound trading range of $80 to $90.New U.S. figures for industrial production and jobless claims were due later Thursday.An important economic outlook report for Germany predicted growth of 1.5 percent this year and 1.4 percent in 2011 for Europe's biggest economy.Crude leaped to above $87 last week after trading between $69 and $84 for the previous nine months.Oil traders were also cheered by news U.S. weekly crude inventories had their first declined since January, suggesting demand is recovering.The Energy Information Administration said crude supplies dropped by 2.2 million barrels for the week ended April 9. Analysts expected them to increase by 1.6 million barrels, according to a survey by Platts, the energy information arm of McGraw-Hill Cos.In other Nymex trading in May contracts, heating oil was down 0.53 cent at $2.2369 a gallon, and gasoline fell 1 cent to $2.3221 a gallon. Natural gas dropped 4.44 cents to $4.155 per 1,000 cubic feet.In London, Brent crude was up 70 cents at $86.85 on the ICE futures exchange.Associated Press writer Alex Kennedy in Singapore contributed to this report.
PSALMS 122:2-9
2 Our feet shall stand within thy gates, O Jerusalem.
3 Jerusalem is builded as a city that is compact together:
4 Whither the tribes go up, the tribes of the LORD, unto the testimony of Israel, to give thanks unto the name of the LORD.
5 For there are set thrones of judgment, the thrones of the house of David.
6 Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: they shall prosper that love thee.
7 Peace be within thy walls, and prosperity within thy palaces.
8 For my brethren and companions’ sakes, I will now say, Peace be within thee.
9 Because of the house of the LORD our God I will seek thy good.
PSALMS 137:5-8
5 If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning.
6 If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth; if I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy.(ARIEL SHARON HAD A STROKE,HE WAS FOR THE DIVISION OF JERUSALEM TO.JUDGEMENT COMES WHEN AGAINST JERUSALEM).
7 Remember, O LORD, the children of Edom in the day of Jerusalem; who said, Rase it, rase it, even to the foundation thereof.
8 O daughter of Babylon, who art to be destroyed; happy shall he be, that rewardeth thee as thou hast served us.
OLMERT WAS SO INTO DIVIDING JERUSALEM,NOW OLMERT WILL BE DIVIDING HIS TIME IN COURT AND MOST LIKELY IN JAIL IN THE VERY NEAR FUTURE.YOU CAN NOT COME AGAINST JERUSALEM AND NOT EXPECT GOD(KING JESUS) TO REACT TO SAVING HIS CAPITAL OF THE WORLD.I LOVE THE WAY JESUS USES SINNERS TO BE CORRUPTED,THEN COME AGAINST JERUSALEM AND THEN THEY FINALLY END UP IN JAIL FOR THEIR CORRUPT WAYS.
Israeli police: Ex-PM Olmert suspect in bribe case AFP By AMY TEIBEL, Associated Press Writer - APR 15,2010
JERUSALEM – Former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who was driven from office last year while facing mounting corruption charges, has been identified as a prime suspect in a separate bribery case, police said Thursday.The 63-year-old Olmert returned to Israel from Europe early Thursday amid reports of his involvement in the case. Police suspect millions of dollars changed hands to promote several real estate projects, including a controversial residential development in Jerusalem that required a radical change in zoning laws.A string of corruption cases have plagued current and former Israeli officials in recent years. A former finance minister, ceremonial president and other Cabinet ministers have been indicted or convicted on charges ranging from fraud to rape.Olmert, who was mayor of Jerusalem at the time the residential development project was approved in the 1990s, has denied any wrongdoing. A spokeswoman for the former Israeli leader had no comment on Thursday.
Police confirmed the former Israeli leader was a suspect after a court-issued gag order was eased. A string of media reports this week have implicated him obliquely in the affair.Olmert has not been questioned by police in the affair yet, and no charges have been filed against him or any of the six people — including Olmert's successor as Jerusalem mayor — who already have been arrested in the case. Police had no word on when Olmert would be interrogated.Police say the scope of the latest corruption affair dwarfs any of the other cases in which Olmert has been implicated.
The whiff of corruption has stubbornly clung to the former Israeli leader throughout his three decades in politics, quickly overshadowing his initial reputation as an anti-corruption crusader.His political downfall began snowballing two years ago when Jewish-American businessman Morris Talansky told an Israeli court how he handed Olmert envelopes stuffed with tens of thousands of dollars in cash.He was forced to announce his resignation in September 2008, after police accused him of double-and triple-billing Jewish organizations for trips abroad and pocketing the difference. Olmert, who has maintained he is innocent of all charges, is currently standing trial on both cases, plus separate allegations of cronyism. All the charges predate his tenure as prime minister.He left politics after February 2009 elections that installed Benjamin Netanyahu as prime minister.
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,(JORDAN) and the Ishmaelites;(ARABS) of Moab, PALESTINIANS,JORDAN) and the Hagarenes;(EGYPT)
7 Gebal,(HEZZBALLOH,LEBANON) and Ammon,(JORDAN) and Amalek;(SYRIA,ARABS,SINAI) 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.
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.
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)
Chinese president arrives in Brazil for BRIC summit
Wed Apr 14, 6:23 pm ET
BRASILIA (AFP) – Chinese President Hu Jintao arrived in Brazil late Wednesday to participate in bilateral meetings with the leaders of other emerging economies and a BRIC summit on Friday.He was to attend the two days of meetings in Brasilia as China struggles with the aftermath of an earthquake in its northwest that killed nearly 600 people earlier Wednesday.Hu flew in from Washington, where he had taken part in a summit on international nuclear security. A Brazilian airport official confirmed his arrival.The Chinese leader was to hold bilateral meetings with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, South African President Jacob Zuma and Russian President Dmitri Medvedev on Thursday, according to the Chinese embassy.On Friday, he, Medvedev, Singh and Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva were to hold the second-ever summit of the BRIC countries -- Brazil, Russia, India and China.After the summit, Hu was to hold a brief official visit to Brazil, with which China has trade ties worth 36 billion dollars.On Saturday, he was to fly on to Venezuela for a meeting with President Hugo Chavez, and on Sunday he visits Chile.
Iran says it wants inclusive Iraqi government By NASSER KARIMI, Associated Press Writer -APR 15,10
TEHRAN, Iran – Iran said Thursday that all Iraqi parties that fared well in the inconclusive March election should be included in the government after the secular front-runner sent a delegation to Tehran.Former Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, who won the vote by a razor-thin margin, is vying with incumbent Nouri al-Maliki to collect enough support to form a government after neither gained an outright majority in the parliamentary vote.His sending a delegation to Iran was significant because Allawi drew major support in the vote from Sunni Muslims, who deeply distrust mainly Shiite Iran, and Allawi himself spoke out often in the campaign against Tehran's influence in Iraq.The visit may be an attempt to ward off an attempt by al-Maliki's party and the other top Iranian-backed Shiite bloc to form a merger that would allow them to form a government and sideline Allawi.Iranian state TV reported that Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani expressed hope that all Iraqi political groups would participate in the future of Iraq, based on their political weight during a meeting with Sunni lawmaker Rafia al-Issawi, a member of Allawi's secular Iraqiya list.
Iran has been accused of trying to tip the balance in favor of hard-line religious Shiites who would be more likely to promote its policies in Iraq. Many in the region fear the Islamic Republic is poised to gain influence in the neighboring country as the U.S. withdraws forces by the end of next year.Representatives from the two Shiite blocs — al-Maliki's State of Law and the Iraqi National Alliance — reportedly met weeks ago in Tehran to discuss a merger, raising concern among Allawi and his followers. Allawi's secular bloc edged out al-Maliki's group by just two seats in the election.Saeed Jalili, secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, called the election and political negotiations a positive process and said Tehran is seeking the formation of a government in Iraq through the participation of all political groups and ethnicities in the election based on realities and constitution of Iraq.Jalili and Larijani's remarks reflected the traditional public stance of Iran on Iraq — that it does not interfere in its politics — although Iran supports the Shiites, who comprise some 60 percent of Iraq's population.The U.S. has repeatedly accused Iran of meddling in politics and supporting violence in Iraq, but Tehran denies the allegations, saying it supports the democratic process in the wartorn country.Tehran sees the presence of the U.S. forces on its doorstep as a threat. Iran is at odds with the West over its disputed nuclear program, which Washington and its allies suspect is a cover for building a nuclear weapon. Iran denies the charge saying it aims to generate electricity and other peaceful purposes.
ISAIAH 17:1
1 The burden of Damascus. Behold, Damascus is taken away from being a city, and it shall be a ruinous heap.
Syria denies it gave Hezbollah Scud missiles By Associated Press Writer Albert Aji, - APR 15,2010
DAMASCUS, Syria – Syria warned Thursday that Israel was paving the way for new military action in the region with its allegation that Damascus is providing Scud missiles to the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.Israeli defense officials have said they believe Hezbollah has Scud missiles capable of hitting all of Israel and earlier this week, Israeli President Shimon Peres accused Damascus of providing the weapons.Syria strongly denied the charge, saying it believes that Israel aims through these claims to further strain the atmosphere in the region,according to a statement from the Foreign Ministry. It added that Israel could be setting the stage for a possible Israeli aggression in order to run away from the requirements of a just and comprehensive peace.
The allegation comes at a sensitive time in U.S.-Syrian relations.Washington has reached out to Syria in recent months by nominating the first U.S. ambassador to Damascus since 2005 and sending top diplomats to meet with Assad. Washington is hoping to draw Syria away from Iran, Hezbollah and the Palestinian Islamic group Hamas.The U.S. said Wednesday it was increasingly concerned about the transfer of more sophisticated weaponry to Hezbollah.Some Scud missiles have a range of hundreds of miles (kilometers) and could reach any target in Israel if fired from Lebanon. They can carry an explosive warhead of up to 1 ton.The Israeli defense officials stopped short of stating unequivocally that Scuds are now deployed in Lebanon.In August, Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah said his militants were now capable of hitting any Israeli city or village. Nasrallah had earlier said Hezbollah has more than 30,000 rockets of different ranges but the group's officials never mentioned Scuds.Hezbollah fired nearly 4,000 rockets at northern Israel, including several medium-range missiles that for the first time hit Israel's third-largest city, Haifa, during a 34-day conflict in 2006.
The Israeli officials said tensions have risen along Israel's border with Lebanon after media reports that Hezbollah was seeking the missiles, and they believed Hezbollah now has them.Peres took it a step further and accused Syria of supplying the group with the weapons, the first time an Israeli official has publicly made such a pronouncement.Israel charges that most of Hezbollah's weapons, including rockets, come through neighboring Syria, which is a main sponsor of Hezbollah, along with Iran. But Peres' statement was the first time Israel has publicly accused Damascus of providing Scuds.Hezbollah spearheaded a guerrilla warfare against Israeli forces that occupied parts of southern Lebanon for 18 years until May 2000. In 2006, the war between Israel and Lebanon's Hezbollah group left 1,200 Lebanese and 160 Israelis dead.Meanwhile in Lebanon, political factions held a new round of national talks Thursday over a defense strategy that could integrate Hezbollah's weapons into the regular armed forces. Several rounds were held in the past without making progress.As the officials met at the presidential palace southeast of Beirut, Israeli warplanes were seen flying over the capital — a common occurrence.
Africans worried about future religious conflict By TOM MALITI, Associated Press Writer – Thu Apr 15, 2:51 am ET
LAGOS, Nigeria – More than a quarter of people in sub-Saharan Africa worry about future conflict along religious lines, though concerns in Rwanda and Nigeria are even higher, according to a new survey on religious attitudes released Thursday.The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, which conducted the survey, however, found that unemployment, crime and corruption are of greater concern to Africans than future religious conflict.But the survey found that in Nigeria and Rwanda — countries that have suffered from vicious sectarian conflict — 58 percent in each country fear future bloodshed.The survey, which involved interviewing 25,000 people in 19 sub-Saharan African countries, found that in many cases fear of religious conflict were tied to fears of ethnic conflict.For many in Africa religion and ethnicity are very closely connected in that basically they see the two working together in terms of their concern about violence, said Luis Lugo, director of the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life.Acting Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan echoed those views in a BBC interview late Tuesday when he was asked what his government is doing about violence in central Nigeria, where more than 500 people have been killed this year.Jonathan said that people indigenous to the central Nigerian city of Jos and its surrounding region are mainly Christians and feel that people who have migrated there from other parts of Nigeria dominate commerce. Some of those people are Muslims and when the two groups fight, it assumes religious connotations.
So if anything touches a settler who is a Muslim it will be interpreted as if they are attacking the Muslims, Jonathan told the BBC. And if the settlers that are Muslims touch the indigenous population that are Christians it will be interpreted as the Christians are being attacked.In January, 300 people, most of them Muslims, were killed in Jos and its surrounding villages. In March, more than 200 people were killed in what are predominantly Christian villages in the same area.That violence, though fractured across religious lines, often has more to do with local politics, economics and rights to grazing lands.The survey also found that in 17 of the 19 countries covered, 40 percent of respondents were concerned about religious extremism, particularly within their own faith.Less than a quarter of them believed that large numbers of Muslims support extremist groups like al-Qaida. In most cases, researchers found that Christians and Muslims held similar views on the level of support for al-Qaida. But in Ghana, the survey found that Muslims are three times more likely to say fellow Muslims support al-Qaida than Christians.The group conducted the survey, titled Tolerance and Tension: Islam and Christianity in Sub-Saharan Africa,between December 2008 and April 2009.The organization conducted the survey because sub-Saharan Africa is the most important meeting place between Christianity and Islam anywhere in the world, so if we are going to probe issues of inter-religious understanding and inter-religious engagement, this is a good place as any to begin,said Lugo.On the Net:Survey report will be available at: http://www.pewforum.org
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.
ZECHARIAH 14:1-3 King James Bible
1 Behold, the day of the LORD cometh, and thy spoil shall be divided in the midst of thee.
2 For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle; and the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women ravished;(RAPED) and half of the city shall go forth into captivity, and the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city.
3 Then shall the LORD go forth, and fight against those nations, as when he fought in the day of battle.
Study: Civilian rape skyrockets in Congo's east By TODD PITMAN, Associated Press Writer – Thu Apr 15, 2:25 am ET
DAKAR, Senegal – The number of rapes carried out by civilians in eastern Congo has increased by 17-fold in the last few years, according to a study released Thursday that says sexual assaults long perpetrated by armed groups are spreading across the population.The study, commissioned by the British aid group Oxfam, was carried out by experts from Harvard University and examined more than 4,000 cases from 2004 to 2008 at the Panzi Hospital in the eastern Congo city of Bukavu.Armed groups — including the army and Congolese and Rwandan militias — have raped tens of thousands of women in the war-ravaged nation, and are still feared by the population. But the research found that 38 percent of rapes were committed by civilians in 2008, compared to less than 1 percent in 2004.This study confirms what has only been reported anecdotally until now: Sexual violence has become more normal in civilian life, said Susan Bartels, chief researcher from the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative.The scale of rape over Congo's years of war has made this crime seem more acceptable.Violence first erupted in Congo after the 1994 Rwandan genocide spilled war across the border. U.N. peacekeepers have been deployed in the vast nation since 1999 to help stabilize it, but thousands are raped each year and sporadic fighting has continued.Congo President Joseph Kabila has asked the U.N. to draw up a schedule to withdraw its 20,000 peacekeeping mission by 2011, though some senior diplomats and U.N. officials have said they are reluctant to do so. A U.N. Security Council delegation is due in Congo later this week.
"Rape of this scale and brutality is scandalous, said Krista Riddley, who directs humanitarian policy for Oxfam.This is a wake-up call at a time when plans are being discussed for U.N. peacekeepers to leave the country. The situation is not secure if a woman can't even sleep safely in her own bed at night.The report — entitled Now, the World is Without Me — said few places were safe for victims. About 56 percent of sexual assaults surveyed were carried out by armed men in what should have been the safety of home — in the presence of the victim's families, including their children. Around 16 percent were reported in fields, and 15 percent in forests.Incidents of sexual slavery also were reported by 12 percent of women surveyed, with some women being held captive for years.The report said the number of rapes spiked during military activities, with more than 9,000 people — including men and boys — raped in 2009 as the government and its Rwandan military allies carried out operations against Rwandan militia groups still operating on Congolese soil.
German theologian urges bishops to pressure pope By JUERGEN BAETZ, Associated Press Writer - APR 15,10
BERLIN – Dissident theologian Hans Kueng urged bishops on Thursday to push for reforms in the Roman Catholic in defiance of Pope Benedict XVI.Kueng, an 82-year-old former colleague and friend of the pontiff, said the church was now in its deepest crisis since the Protestant Reformation after recent revelations of sexual abuse by clergy caused an erosion of trust.In an editorial published Thursday in daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung and other publications, Kueng said bishops should call for a new synod to discuss reforms.Kueng accused pope of not living up to the great challenges of our time,saying on the fifth anniversary of Benedict's election to the papacy that his traditionalist approach had failed.Bishops should not be actors without voice or rights, Kueng said, arguing that it was legitimate for them to press Roman authorities for reforms if the pope blocked their efforts.The Catholic Church in Pope Benedict's German homeland has been rocked by a widening abuse scandal in the past three months with hundreds of self described victims of heavy physical or sexual abuse coming forward.At least one case of a pedophile priest who was reassigned to parish work after being accused of abusing minors has occurred in the Munich archdiocese where Benedict, then Joseph Ratzinger, served as archbishop from 1977-82.
The pontiff has not commented on the cases in his native country.
Kueng, who once worked alongside the young Ratzinger at the Second Vatican Council, sharply criticized the pope for his handling of abuse cases.It may not be silenced that the worldwide system of covering-up of sexual offenses by clergy men was steered by Cardinal Ratzinger's Roman Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Kueng said in the editorial, which also appeared in the New York Times, La Repubblica and other dailies in France, Spain and Switzerland.The congregation and its former head have recently come under attack by abuse victims for allegedly rebuffing or moving slowly on calls to remove molesting priests, essentially granting impunity to them and letting them keep ministering to minors.Germany's justice minister, Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger, met Thursday with the head of the German Bishops Conference, Robert Zollitsch — two months after she had irked him by saying she believed the church was not truly interested in clearing up all sexual abuse cases.
The justice minister has spoken of a wall of silence surrounding the church.Some German dioceses have reported big increases this year in the number of people leaving the church. Zollitsch's Freiburg archdiocese said 2,711 left the church in the southwestern region in March — compared with 1,058 a year earlier.The Wuerzburg diocese in Bavaria said 1,233 left the church there in March — three times the 407 recorded a year earlier. The Munich archdiocese, where Benedict once served as archbishop, said it did not yet have figures for March.Associated Press Writer Verena Schmitt-Roschmann in Berlin contributed to this report.
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,(WORLD SOCIALISM) 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/
CNBC VIDEOS
http://www.cnbc.com/id/15839263/site/14081545/?tabid=15839796&tabheader=false
HALF HOUR DOW RESULTS THU APR 15,2010
09:30 AM -1.73
10:00 AM -20.23
10:30 AM -8.62
11:00 AM +7.86
11:30 AM -13.08
12:00 PM -10.36
12:30 PM -10.96
01:00 PM +1.59
01:30 PM +20.10
02:00 PM +15.21
02:30 PM +22.67
03:00 PM +27.96
03:30 PM +19.27
04:00 PM +21.46 11,144.57
S&P 500 1211.67 +1.02
NASDAQ 2515.69 +10.83
GOLD 1,161.20 +1.60
OIL 85.48 -0.36
TSE 300 12,211.50 +7.10
CDNX 1679.50 +4.62
S&P/TSX/60 717.00 +0.54
MORNING,NEWS,STATS
YEAR TO DATE PERFORMANCE
Dow -17 points at 4 minutes of trading today.
Dow -26 points at low today.
Dow +32 points at high today so far.
GOLD opens at $1,156.00.OIL opens at $85.98 today.
AFTERNOON,NEWS,STATS
Dow -26 points at low today so far.
Dow +32 points at high today so far.
WRAPUP,NEWS,STATS
Dow -26 points at low today.
Dow +32 points at high today.
EARTH DESTROYED WITH THE EARTH(BECAUSE OF SIN AND GODLESS PEOPLE)
GENESIS 6:11-13
11 The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.(WORLD TERRORISM,MURDERS)(HAMAS IN HEBREW IS VIOLENCE)
12 And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth.
13 And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence (TERRORISM)(HAMAS) through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth.
Icelandic volcano eruption intensifies
APR 15,10
REYKJAVIK (Reuters) – A volcanic eruption in Iceland, which has thrown up a 6 km (3.7 mile) high cloud of ash and disrupted air traffic in northern Europe, has grown more intense, an expert said on Thursday.The eruption under the Eyjafjallajokull glacier -- 10 times more powerful than another one nearby last month -- showed no sign of abating after more than 24 hours of activity, University of Iceland volcanologist Armannn Hoskuldsson said.It's becoming more intense, but there will be no lava -- this is purely an explosive eruption, he told Reuters.To the east of the volcano, thousands of hectares of land were covered by a thick layer of ash, while a cloud was blotting out the sun in some areas along the southern coast of Iceland, local media reported.Hot fumes from the eruption melted vast amounts of ice on the glacier, Iceland's fifth largest, but flood waters which had caused wide damage to roads and bridges on Wednesday were receding, Hoskuldsson said.Most of the 700 people who were evacuated from their homes on Wednesday were still huddled at Red Cross emergency centres set up nearby, an official told Reuters.The cloud of ash from the eruption has hit air travel all over northern Europe, with flights grounded or diverted due to the risk of engine damage from sucking in particles of ash from the volcanic cloud, airport officials said.Icelandic scientists had measured increased seismic activity near the glacier about two hours before the volcano started to erupt in the early morning on Wednesday, local media reported.
In March, another volcano erupted near the Eyjafjallajokull glacier and caused no casualties.The volcano, situated beneath Iceland's fifth largest glacier, has erupted five times since Iceland was settled in the ninth century.Iceland sits on a volcanic hotspot in the Mid-Atlantic Ridge and has relatively frequent eruptions, although most occur in sparsely populated areas and pose little danger to people or property. Before March, the last eruption took place in 2004.(Reporting by Omar Valdimarsson; writing by Nicholas Vinocur; editing by Philippa Fletcher)
Iceland volcano ash halts European flights
VALENTINA POP Today APR 15,10 @ 09:28 CET
A large ash cloud from a volcanic eruption in Iceland has grounded hundreds of European and transatlantic flights, with several UK airports shutting down as the pollution approaches British airspace.Hundreds of flights to and from the UK, Sweden and Norway were delayed or cancelled due to the drifting debris on Thursday morning (15 April), as well as most transatlantic flights over northern Europe.British Airways stopped all domestic flights on Thursday, while airports in Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Glasgow were shut down. The UK air traffic control agency, Nats, said it was closing the entire airspace north of London,in accordance with international civil aviation policy. Many flights are set to be re-routed, causing disruptions in other air hubs in Europe.We took this decision in order to maintain safety. We continue to work with Eurocontrol and our colleagues in Europe's other air navigation service providers to take the appropriate action to ensure safety,the agency said in a statement.
The airspace in Norway and northern Sweden was also closed to traffic.In Belgium, the Brussels airport announced it may be forced to suspend all flights in the course of the day (Thursday).Volcanic ash, made of pulverised rock and glass, can jam aircraft engines and contaminate air inside the cabin. Weather experts say it could take days before the cloud disperses.The cloud was formed when one of Iceland's volcanoes, Eyjafjallajokull, erupted on Tuesday (13 April) for the second time in a month. Some 800 residents were evacuated from the area, as lava running beneath a thick layer of ice caused torrents of meltwater to pour down the slopes.Just some three weeks ago, the Eyjafjallajokull erupted for the first time in 200 years, with spectacular fountains of lava spewing into the air, in the ice-free part of the volcano. Iceland's volcanic eruptions are a regular phenomenon, as the North Atlantic island is one of the most geologically active parts of the world.
Volcano erupts under Iceland glacier, hundreds flee
Wed Apr 14, 11:37 am ET
REYKJAVIK (Reuters) – A volcanic eruption in Iceland spewed black smoke and white steam into the air on Wednesday and partly melted a glacier, setting off a major flood that threatened to damage roads and bridges.The plume was seen rising from a crater under about 200 meters (660 feet) of ice at the Eyjafjallajokull glacier, close to the site of another eruption which started last month and died down only on Monday, Icelandic state radio reported.The Icelandic Civil Defense Authority ordered 700 people to evacuate their homes and said melting ice from the glacier had caused big floods that threatened to damage a highway and several bridges, an official told Reuters.We have had to dig some holes in the road so the flood could pass through and ease pressure on the bridges, Rognvaldur Olafsson, who is leading the rescue effort, told Reuters.Three large holes which were visible on the glacier in the morning had turned into a continuous rift running for about two kilometers through the ice, he added.Scientists had measured increased seismic activity near the glacier about two hours before the volcano started to erupt early on Wednesday, local media reported.
In March, another volcano erupted near the Eyjafjallajokull glacier but caused no casualties.The volcano, situated beneath Iceland's fifth largest glacier, has erupted five times since Iceland was settled in the ninth century.Iceland sits on a volcanic hotspot in the Mid-Atlantic Ridge and has relatively frequent eruptions, though most occur in sparsely populated areas and pose little danger to people or property. The last eruption before that in March was in 2004.(Reporting by Omar Valdimarsson; writing by Nicholas Vinocur, editing by Tim Pearce)
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.
Bodies pile up after quake kills 600-plus in China By ANITA CHANG, Associated Press Writer - APR 15,10
MADOI, China – Rescue teams fought gusty winds and altitude sickness Thursday as supplies of food, water and almost everything ran thin after strong earthquakes left more than 600 dead in a mountainous Tibetan area of western China.Survivors, many of whom spent the night outside in freezing weather, wandered bleeding from their wounds through Jiegu township for a second day, witnesses said. Rescuers, tired from the high winds and thin oxygen, pulled some survivors and many bodies from the pulverized remains of the town flattened by Wednesday morning's quakes.We've seen too many bodies and now they're trying to deal with them. The bodies are piled up like a hill. You can see bodies with broken arms and legs and it breaks your heart, said Dawa Cairen, a Tibetan who works for the Christian group the Amity Foundation and was helping in rescue efforts. You can see a lot of blood. It's flowing like a river.Grim pictures emerged from several collapsed schools that were the focus of early rescue efforts. Footage on state television and photos posted online showed bodies laid out near the rubble, and the Xinhua News Agency quoted a local education official as saying 66 children and 10 teachers had died, mostly in three schools.
After spending most of Wednesday opening the nearby airport and clearing roads, relief operations quickened. Nearly 2,000 soldiers, police and firefighters arrived in Yushu county, where Jiegu is located, Xinhua said. Joining them were the China Earthquake Administration's professional rescue teams, with sniffer dogs, satellite communications equipment, medicines and food.As more people and supplies poured in by road and air, the influx was producing unintended effects: taxing the normally scarce resources of the remote Yushu, where the altitude averages around 13,000 feet (4,000 meters).Supplies of food, water, gas and other necessities were running low, said Pierre Deve, a program director at the Yushu-based community development organization Snowland Service Group. Deve said he waited for hours in a line of some 100 cars at the only open gas station. Most shops in Jiegu remained shut, he said, and local Buddhist monasteries handed out some food while some people scavenged food and other belongings from what was left of their houses.China Central Television said the death toll had risen to 617 by late morning Thursday, with more than 9,000 injured and around 300 still missing. The Ministry of Civil Affairs said about 15,000 houses collapsed and 100,000 people — nearly the entire population of Yushu — needed to be moved to safety.Dozens of monks were either dead or missing at the Thrangu monastery, about 6 miles (10 kilometers) outside Jiegu, when all but its main hall collapsed, said Danzeng Qiujiang, a senior cleric at the Xiuma monastery far to the north of town.Only 7 or 8 of the monks are left alive. All the rest have gone missing. The rescuers either can't find them or found their bodies. I'm not sure how many deaths have been confirmed yet. But 60 of 70 of them have all gone missing," the cleric said.
Wednesday morning's quakes — the worst of which measured magnitude 6.9 by the U.S. Geological Survey and 7.1 by China's earthquake administration — were the worst to hit the region since the massive Sichuan earthquake two years ago left 90,000 dead or missing.The destruction of schools was an eerie echo of the Sichuan quake, in which thousands of students died when their poorly built schools collapsed. But unlike in Sichuan — where schools toppled as other buildings stood — everything fell over in Yushu.Residents in Jiegu described scenes of anguish with the wounded sobbing in pain from lack of medical care. This feels like a war zone. It's a complete mess. At night, people were crying and shouting. Women were crying for their families,said Ren Yu, general manager of Yushu Hotel in Jiegu, who said he felt at least five aftershocks overnight. Some of the people have broken legs or arms, but all they can get now is an injection. They were crying in pain.Ren said hotel staffers returning from assisting in rescue work at night described horrific casualties the quake had caused: They told me that when some elementary school students were pulled out, their brains had spilled out.State media said hundreds had been pulled free alive. CCTV showed rescuers picking through the rubble at night aided by flashlights fixed to their safety helmets. A group of workers found a girl trapped for more than 12 hours under a heap of debris.I can't feel my arm, said the girl, who was curled up with her back to the workers. The workers talked to her and fed her water as others searched for pieces of wood to prop up the rubble that had entrapped her. As rescuers gingerly pulled her out and carried her to a stretcher, she could be heard saying: I'm sorry for the trouble. Thank you, I will never forget this.Associated Press Writer Gillian Wong and researcher Zhao Liang contributed to this report from Beijing.
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.
Aid arrives after cyclone kills 119 in India By MANIK BANERJEE, Associated Press Writer - APR 15,10
CALCUTTA, India – Aid workers distributed rice, dried fruits, water and tarpaulins Thursday to the victims of a ferocious cyclone that killed at least 119 people in northeastern India and demolished ten of thousands of mud huts.Rescuers cleared hundreds of uprooted trees and electricity poles blocking roads to the devastated areas in Bihar state, said Sharwan Kumar, a state administrator. Telephone services also were restored in most of the region after a 30-hour interruption.Rescuers found 10 bodies on Thursday in the district of Purnea, raising the overall death toll in Bihar state to 80, Kumar told The Associated Press.Police and rescue teams have recovered another 39 bodies in the worst-hit villages in West Bengal state — Hematabad, Raiganj and Kiran Dighi — since Wednesday, said Ramanuj Chakraborty, a senior local official.Packing winds of more than 100 mph (160 kph), the cyclone struck close to midnight Tuesday.Hundreds of people were injured and thousands left homeless. They were caught unaware as there was no cyclone warning from the weather department, said Devesh Chandra Thakur, Bihar state's minister for disaster management.
Most people were sleeping when the cyclone struck. They ran out of their homes into the open,said M. B. Shajuruddin, a 30-year-old teacher in Chhota Suhar, a village in West Bengal.The storm destroyed most the village's 500 tin-roofed huts, and splintered trees.We have so far received no government help ... People are surviving on whatever they are left with,he said.Vyasji said rescuers found 23 bodies overnight from northeastern Bihar districts of Araria, Kishenganj and Purnea.
Authorities handed tarpaulin sheets to the cyclone victims to set up temporary shelters in the region and distributed food and water, Vyasji said.Namita Biswas, 51, a housewife in West Bengal, said told AP by phone she and her husband were sleeping in their hut when it was crushed by a tree that broke from the impact of the cyclone. Her husband was killed.The cyclone demolished nearly 50,000 mud huts in West Bengal and thousands more in Bihar, officials said.Associated Press reporters Indrajit Singh in Patna and Anupam Nath in Chhota Suhar contributed to this report.
Relief operations struggle in tornado-hit India by Deshakalyan Chowdhury – Thu Apr 15, 3:47 am ET
RAMPUR, India (AFP) – Indian aid workers battled blocked roads and downed power lines Thursday as they rushed aid to victims of a giant tornado that ravaged hundreds of thousands of homes and killed 129 people.In West Bengal state, 250,000 people were made homeless by the twister, which packed winds of up to 120 kilometres (75 miles) an hour as it tore across isolated rural areas of northeast India and Bangladesh overnight Tuesday.We are facing a crisis in the relief operation. There is a shortage of manpower to distribute rice and medical aid among the victims, West Bengal minister for civil defence Srikumar Mukherji told AFP.Uprooted trees blocking roads and broken electricity lines were further slowing down attempts to deliver aid, he said.The storm, which brought torrential rain and high winds over a wide area, also killed thousands of cattle and ruined summer crops in the area, one of the poorest in India whose residents survive as subsistence farmers.State officials across northeast India said a total of 127 people had been killed, with new victims reported Thursday in West Bengal, Bihar state and northeastern Meghalaya. Two others lost their lives in neighbouring Bangladesh.In Rampur village, 200 miles (320 kilometres) north of West Bengal capital Kolkata, the roof of every house had collapsed or been blown away. Thousands of stranded people were taking shelter in school and temple premises.
Food aid in the form of rice and dried fruit was beginning to arrive as well as tarpaulins and plastic sheets, though distribution efforts were still not reaching most of the victims.The National Disaster Management Authority in New Delhi said state governments were conducting relief operations.We offered to help but they said they are capable of dealing with the disaster and will seek help if required, senior official K.M. Singh told AFP in New Delhi.Witnesses to the destructive power of the storm described their terror as the winds and rain struck around midnight Tuesday.
The thatched roof fell on our head and then after two minutes the entire house fell on us,said Ratan Burman, a 45-year-old farmer, who lost his wife in the disaster.I managed to come out and pull my two sons out, but I was unable to save my wife.A local weather office official said part of the storm had a twister effect with the shape of an elephant trunk,which had formed out of 18-kilometre (11-mile) thick thunderclouds.A long heatwave in the area could have been a catalyst in the unusual thundercloud formation that triggered the tornado, said the director of the regional weather office in West Bengal state, Gokul Chandra Debnath.A tornado forms within a very short time, unlike the cyclones that occur frequently in the area, which meant the weather office had been unable to issue a warning, he said.
Amid the widespread wreckage, there were already reports of anger.A local television journalist in Rampur village, Soma Chakraborty, told AFP that thousands of people had surrounded government offices and schools, shouting in frustration at the slow rescue and relief operation. In neighbouring Bihar, 81 people died and an estimated 40,000 homes were destroyed in Purnia, Araria and Kishanganj districts, the state disaster management office told AFP.We are trying to provide relief to all victims, Purnia district magistrate N. Sarvan Kumar said. Thousands of hamlets made up of thatched and thin steel sheets have been blown away. Mud huts and small houses were completely destroyed, he said. There were 41 storm deaths in West Bengal, while four people perished and 500 homes were lost in the northern state of Assam, and 13,000 homes were damaged in Bangladesh, officials told AFP. One death and more than 200 destroyed homes were reported by local officials in Meghalaya. The cyclone came amid unseasonably high temperatures across much of northern India, where the mercury is already above 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) in many areas.
DANIEL 7:23-24
23 Thus he said, The fourth beast(THE EU,REVIVED ROME) shall be the fourth kingdom upon earth,(7TH WORLD EMPIRE) which shall be diverse from all kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, and shall tread it down, and break it in pieces.(TR BLOCKS)
24 And the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise:(10 NATIONS) and another shall rise after them;(#11 SPAIN) and he shall be diverse from the first, and he shall subdue three kings.(BE HEAD OF 3 KINGS OR NATIONS).
Cross-border macro-regions unlikely to get own funding
VALENTINA POP 13.04.2010 @ 17:40 CET
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS – Geographical macro-regions around the Baltic Sea, along the Danube river or surrounding the Alps are unlikely to receive their own funding in the new EU budget from 2014, but should rather focus on spending existing money more efficiently, regional policy commissioner Johannes Hahn said Tuesday (13 April).It's not so much a question of more money, but of using the available funds more efficiently,Mr Hahn told delegates from Europe's local and regional authorities gathered in Brussels for a conference on EU's macro-regions. A relatively new concept developed under Mr Hahn's predecessor, macro-regions refer to several states sharing a common geographical feature.Last year, the European Commission launched a strategy for the Baltic Sea region, seen as a pilot project for other cross-border macro-regions such as the Danube, the Alps or the North Sea.The strategy did not earmark any new funds, however, neither did it envisage the set-up of new bodies or legislation, at least not under the current seven-year EU budget, ending in 2013.
The biggest added value of the strategy, according to participants from this region, seems to be better co-ordination of existing projects, for instance in cleaning up the sea. But several speakers raised the question of Russia still being very reluctant to co-operate with this new initiative, as it prefers to stick to an older EU-born forum, the Northern Dimension.Despite great enthusiasm from other regions to follow suit, Mr Hahn warned that macro-regions only make sense if they respond to a real need on the ground and are not a collection of disparate projects.The Danube regions are developing many projects, but if you ask them how this will bring them closer to their neighbours, they don't know it very well. They need to identify the important themes – for instance environment, safety or capacity building in their national administrations,he said.His own country, Austria, is one of the big promoters of the Danube region, and is pushing for a common strategy. The Austrian politician also referred to problems in cross-border regional co-operation, when highways or bridges are not constructed at the same pace on both sides. A motorway linking the Czech city of Brno to Vienna has been delayed due to such problems.Mr Hahn indicated he thought it unrealistic that regional policy money would be increased in 2014.I hope the share of the budget can be increased in the next financial perspective, but you have an idea of the challenges posed to budgets amid the crisis,he said.
The political debate in the Netherlands, one of the biggest contributors to the EU coffers is already touching upon this issue. Last week, the Dutch conservative-liberal party (VVD) launched its draft election manifesto proposing to cut by almost half the country's contribution to the EU budget.Asked about these trends and the outlook for his policy in the upcoming years, Mr Hahn said regional policy is not charity, it is an investment in your own region.Richer countries need to understand that their own regions benefit from helping poorer ones to develop, as it increases the market potential for their own companies, for their exports.In addition to that, no region has a guarantee to be rich forever. Just look at the crisis,he said.
Mediterranean Union fails to agree on water pact
Today APR 15,10 @ 10:52 CET
A dispute between Israel and Arab states in the EU's 43-country-strong Mediterranean Union has sunk a draft accord on water management in the region. Israel objected to calling Palestinian land occupied territories in the text while the Arab side blocked the tag territories under occupation.
World leaders going to Poland amid debate on Kaczynski's merits ANDREW RETTMAN Today APR 15,10 @ 09:13 CET
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - US, EU and Russian leaders are congregating in Poland at the weekend for the funeral of President Lech Kaczynski, amid a controversy over where he should be buried.Delegations which have already confirmed include: President Barack Obama of the US, President Horst Koehler and Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, the King and Queen of Spain, the UK's Prince Charles and the heads of Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Lithuania and Slovakia.On the EU side, EU parliament President Jerzy Buzek, EU Council President Herman Van Rompuy and European Commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso are going.Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Ukrainian head Viktor Yanukovych are also to attend.President Lech Kaczynski and his wife Maria, who died in a plane crash in Russia on 10 April together with 95 other people, are to be laid to rest on Sunday (18 April) in the Wawel castle in Krakow.The site in the former capital of medieval Poland is the repository of historic kings, heroes and saints.
The decision has divided Polish opinion despite the mournful atmosphere in the country. Film director Andrzej Wajda in a letter to daily Gazeta Wyborcza said: Lech Kaczynski was an ordinary and good man, but there is no reason for him to lie in the Wawel.Nobel-prize winning Polish politician Lech Walesa has spoken in favour of the Wawel burial.Protests and counter-protests took place across Poland on Tuesday and Wednesday, in Krakow, Warsaw, Gdansk, Wroclaw, Katowice, Lodz and Poznan. An anti-Wawel burial placard in Krakow said: Are you sure he is the equal of kings? the BBC reported. A pro-Wawel sign said: Let them rest in peace.Following the initial shock, a debate about Mr Kaczynski's merits has also begun in western European media. When asked by French newspaper Le Monde about the late president's euroscepticism, Polish EU affairs minister Mikolaj Dowgielewicz said: In Poland, we have a tradition of speaking only positively about the dead.French daily Liberation did not pull its punches. The tributes to Mr Kaczynski are incredible, as if death had transformed this reactionary, bigoted, eurosceptic and brutal man, who was the worst president which Poland ever had, into a veritable icon,its Brussels correspondent wrote in his influential blog.The English weekly, The Economist in an online obituary, praised his integrity but also called him: Obstinate, old-fashioned, provincial, gutsy, rather shy, awkward, suspicious, pernickety and scrupulous.Meanwhile, Russia's Mr Medvedev made an important statement in terms of the Polish-Russian reconciliation process, admitting on TV that Stalin was responsible for ordering the Katyn massacre.It's clear that the Polish officers were shot in 1940 in accordance with the will of the former leaders of the USSR, including Joseph Stalin,he told Russia Today on Wednesday in the margins of a summit in Washington.Mr Kaczynski was traveling to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the 1940 Katyn massacre in Russia, a crime until recently denied by Moscow, when his plane crashed.It's a very sad accident. There is something mystical about it, Mr Medvedev added, alluding to the irony of the crash site.
Russian and Polish experts are currently examining two black boxes from Mr Kaczynski's flight. Investigators on Tuesday recovered 20 body parts and seven pistols, thought to belong to the president's bodyguards, from the wreckage. Katyn has become a painful wound in Polish history, poisoning relations between Poles and Russians for long decades. Let us make sure it can finally heal, scar over,Mr Kaczynski had planned to say in his Katyn speech.
EU to review national budgets under commission plans
ANDREW WILLIS Today APR 15,10 @ 12:40 CET
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - The budgets of eurozone members could first need EU approval before being then being passed on to national parliaments, under radical new plans to be presented by the European Commission this May. The controversial suggestion drives right to the heart of questions of national sovereignty and is likely to produce heated debate when discussed by the group's finance ministers this Friday (16April) in Madrid.Greece's ongoing fiscal crisis has increased member state appetite for greater budgetary surveillance however, with the EU executive confident its proposals will find a favourable audience.Speaking at a debate on Thursday organised by The European Policy Centre, a Brussels-based think tank, EU economy commissioner Olli Rehn gave an indication of the plan's current details, which have yet to be finalised.We should use the first months of the year, say January to July, to request draft national budgets,he said.Not budget-line by budget-line ...but the overall budget, so that the commission would analyse and the eurogroup [of euro area finance ministers] would make a peer review and recommendations on national budgets, before they are presented to national parliaments,he added.The Finnish politician with a passion for football repeatedly referred to Article 136 of the EU's new Lisbon Treaty during his discourse, under which euro area members can vote by qualified majority on measures to strengthen the co-ordination and surveillance of their budgetary discipline.Analysts suggest eventual proposals allowing the commission and eurogroup members to issue opinions rather than formally approve member state budgets are far more likely to win member state support. There would be significant resistance from a number of countries if there is a perception that decisions on national budgets are shifting to the EU level,the European Policy Centre's chief economist, Fabian Zuleeg, told this website after the debate. There could also be legal issues in countries such as Germany,he added.
Enforcing the pact
As well as stepping up ex-ante measures to ensure EU member states obey the bloc's budgetary rules, laid out in the Stability and Growth Pact, the commission would also like to see a toughening up of the pact's incentives of compliance. While sanctions such as fines are technically possible under the current set of rules, they have never been issued.Small member states have also suggested that the rules have been applied to them more rigorously than larger countries, with French and German breaches resulting in a watering down of the pact's rules in 2005, to allow greater flexibility. It is worth reflecting whether some of the possible incentives of compliance, I don't mean penalties, could be triggered automatically,said Mr Rehn.This would avoid an excessive political game with the rules.
EU supports bank levy plans in G20 letter
ANDREW WILLIS 14.04.2010 @ 09:27 CET
The European Union has indicated it is ready to work with the Group of 20 leading economies in constructing a global framework for taxing banks. We are ready to co-operate with G20 members on globally co-ordinated principles for a stability levy on the financial sector,EU officials wrote in a draft letter earlier this month, seen by Reuters.The fresh sign of support comes ahead of an informal meeting of EU finance ministers in Madrid later this week (16-18 April), where the finance chiefs will attempt to hammer out a more unified EU position on the subject. With the recent financial crisis forcing governments to bail out struggling European banks, policy makers have come forward with an array of suggestions on how to force the industry to pay for some of the costs. So far, there been little coalescence around one idea however, with pressure building ahead of a G20 finance ministers meeting in Washington next week.French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde repeated her support for a bank levy on Tuesday (13 April).We need to put in place barriers, deterrents, obstacles, disincentives so that banks do not follow the same road that leads to systemic risk,she said. A European Commission study published earlier this month suggested a new tax on banks could generate as much as €50 billion a year for EU governments, currently struggling under record-high budget deficits.The reports authors said the money could be used to fund future bank bail-outs, climate change and development goals.
IMF assessment
For its part, the International Monetary Fund has taken a tough line on banks deemed too big to fail. In a 27-page assessment published on Tuesday, the Washington-based organisation analyses the idea of bigger banks holding greater amounts of capital than smaller firms, and also indicates support for the idea of bank levies.It is necessary to consider instituting systemic-risk based capital surcharges, applying levies that are related to an institution's contribution to systemic risk or, perhaps, even limiting the size of certain business activities,says the document.The suggestions are likely to prove controversial in financial centres such as Wall Street and the City of London where bankers have repeatedly stated their opposition to tougher regulatory obligations for larger firms.
EU states drifting from development aid goals
LEIGH PHILLIPS 14.04.2010 @ 09:25 CET
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - The latest figures on development aid from European Union member states from the OECD suggest that the bloc is drifting away from commitments to deliver 0.7 percent of its gross national income in development assistance by 2015.In 2009, largely as a result of the financial crisis, some of the biggest EU economies, Germany, Italy and Spain let their aid flows drop.According to numbers released on Wednesday by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development's Development Assistance Committee (DAC), Germany's aid declined by 12 percent, from 0.38 percent in 2008 to 0.35 percent last year. Italy's figures fell by 31 percent from 0.22 percent in 2008 to 0.16 percent in 2009. Spain, the country currently chairing the EU's six-month rotating presidency, saw its numbers fall by much less however: 1.2 percent.Ireland, one of the hardest hit EU member states by the crisis, saw a significant drop of 18.9 percent in its aid levels from 2008.It is not all bad news however, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Luxembourg, Sweden and the UK all increased their aid.
At the same time, while Dutch aid climbed slightly as a percentage of the economy, the country's real amount of spending drooped by roughly €440 million.Luxembourg's funding also climbed percentage-wise while falling in terms of monies laid out, as did that of Sweden, which spent around €145 million less than in 2008.In total, European aid is off-track to hit its 2010 target of providing 0.56 percent of GNI in development aid, offering 0.44% of aid in 2009, up one percent on the 0.43 percent it provided in 2008.The EU is not alone in its aid truancy. Japan's funding slid by 10.2 percent; Canada's by 9.5 percent; and Australia's by 1.2 percent.The US however chalked up a small increase from 0.19 percent to 0.2.A commitment on the part of developed countries to provide assistance amounting to 0.7 percent of GNI to developing countries was first made as long ago as 1970 by the UN General Assembly.
Lisbon can save EU development policy from failure, says expert
ANDREW WILLIS 13.04.2010 @ 18:15 CET
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - New institutional arrangements under the EU's Lisbon Treaty could save the bloc's development policy from failure, an expert in the field has said. In my view, the reason that European aid policy is currently falling well short, one could say failing, is not because of the policies, it's because of the implementation,UK government advisor and former international director of Christian Aid, Roger Riddell, told EUobserver in an interview on Tuesday (13 April).However, inclusion of EU development policy in the bloc's nascent external action service (EEAS) and the creation of a European Council president could improve member-state aid co-ordination and help reduce the gap between funding commitments and what is actually delivered, he says.Recent months have seen EU governments and the European Commission engage in a turf war over who should run the EU's development policy in the future. Until now, the commission has managed the six-year €30 billion fund, but national capitals are keen for the bloc's new high representative, Catherine Ashton, to take greater charge of the policy. A proposal put forward by Ms Ashton last month suggests her diplomatic service should be in charge of the development budget, controlling how much money a country would get while the commission would manage the implementation of the policy.
The greater role afforded to member states under this arrangement could provide a solution to the policy's current difficulties, says Mr Riddell, together with greater co-ordination of national development budgets to avoid costly duplication of aid efforts. If the European Council president and the high representative can get the heads of state around the table, flag up the issues of development, get them to believe they have created a European aid policy, they will then feel committed to implementing it,he says.
Doubts
Development NGOs have expressed doubts about the new arrangement outlined in Ms Ashton's plan however. While the proposals do say that the country allocations, strategies and indicative programmes will be prepared by the EEAS under the direct supervision of the relevant commissioner, this will have to be done in agreement with the high representative,the European NGO Confederation For Relief and Development (CONCORD) said in a March newsletter. There is widespread concern that this effectively brings the use of EU development aid under the effective control of the EU's foreign policy interests, which is against the letter and spirit of the Treaty,said the Brussels-based organisation.The possibility of the EU policy being hijacked for foreign policy goals adds to the already difficult situation created by the recent financial crisis, which has placed severe strain on EU government coffers. Speaking at an event on Europe's aid policy on Tuesday, organised by the Friends of Europe think tank, EU development commissioner Andris Piebalgs conceded that EU efforts to reach the UN target of 0.7 percent of GNI expenditure on aid by 2015 will be hard to achieve. With expenditure forecast to reach 0.42 percent this year, reaching the higher target by 2015 will be a challenge, he said.
Backers defend AZ crackdown on illegal immigrants By JONATHAN J. COOPER, Associated Press Writer – Thu Apr 15, 5:08 am ET
PHOENIX – Supporters of the nation's toughest crackdown on illegal immigration, on the verge of approval in the Arizona Legislature, say the state law is necessary to help stamp out crime and keep citizens and law enforcement officers safe.The measure would make it a crime under state law to be in the country illegally. It would also require local police officers to question people about their immigration status if there is reason to suspect they are here illegally.Immigrants unable to produce documents showing they are allowed to be in the U.S. could be arrested, jailed for up to six months, and fined $2,500.No longer will we sit by and let our citizens be killed, maimed, injured (and) hurt, said Republican state Sen. Russell Pearce, who sponsored the measure.But civil rights activists warn that Arizona is inviting rampant racial profiling and police-state tactics.That is an unprecedented expansion of police power,said Alessandra Soler Meetze, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Arizona.It's giving police officers a green light to harass anyone who looks or sounds foreign.The ACLU and immigrant rights groups are demanding Republican Gov. Jan Brewer veto the measure if it reaches her. The Republican has not announced whether she will sign it, but said she is a strong supporter of pragmatic immigration laws.Her predecessor, Janet Napolitano, a Democrat who is now President Barack Obama's Homeland Security secretary, vetoed similar proposals.Current law in Arizona and most states doesn't require police to ask about the immigration status of those they encounter. And many police departments prohibit officers from inquiring out of fear that immigrants won't cooperate in other investigations.The law also would crack down on employment for illegal immigrants by prohibiting people from blocking traffic when they seek or offer day labor on street corners. Also, a judge could fine a city for not enforcing the immigration law vigorously enough.The new measure would be just the latest crackdown of its kind in Arizona, which has an estimated 460,000 illegal immigrants.Pearce, the bill's sponsor, has been the driving force behind Arizona's tough new measures, including a law copied in other states that punishes companies caught knowingly hiring illegal immigrants. He insists the measures are aimed at enforcing immigration laws, not racial profiling.I believe handcuffs are a great tool, but you have to put them on the right people, said Pearce, a former cop who can list the local officers killed or wounded by illegal immigrants.Get them off the police officers and put them on the bad guys.
Supporters of the crackdown also point to Phoenix's high kidnapping rate, which law enforcement says is fueled by immigrant and drug smugglers who snatch their rivals or their family members as a way to collect unpaid debts, make quick money or as retaliation for earlier abductions.Anger over the porous Mexican border mounted last month when an Arizona cattle rancher was shot to death. Investigators said he may have been killed by drug runners working for cartels based in Mexico.The new measure is supported by police unions representing rank-and-file officers, who deny they would engage in profiling.It is opposed by police chiefs, who worry that the law would be too costly, that it would distract them from dealing with more serious problems, and that it would sow such distrust among immigrants that they would not cooperate with officers investigating other crimes.Legal immigrants fear the law would give officers easy excuses to stop them, and that even U.S. citizens could find themselves detained if they can't prove their legal status. When they come up with these things, it doesn't matter if I'm here legally, said Jose Melendez, a 55-year-old naturalized U.S. citizen from Guadalajara, Mexico.If they see a Mexican face and a Mexican name, they'll ask for papers.Anti-immigration activists say the larger goal is to discourage illegal immigration by making the U.S. inhospitable.
Most illegals would leave on their own if they felt the U.S. was serious about our laws,said William Gheen, president of Americans for Legal Immigration Political Action Committee. House Republicans passed the bill on a party-line vote Tuesday. The Senate approved it in February but must vote on changes made in the House before sending it to the governor.Associated Press Writer Felicia Fonseca in Flagstaff, Ariz., contributed.
European stocks gain on China economic growth By COLLEEN BARRY, AP Business Writer - Apr 15,10
World stocks traded mostly higher Thursday after on strong economic growth in China and a U.S. Federal Reserve report showing the unfolding of a modest recovery in the world's biggest economy.In Europe, the FTSE 100 index of leading British shares was up 7 points, or 0.1 percent, at 5,803.25 while Germany's DAX dipped 0.89 points, or 0.01 percent, to 6,277.51. The CAC-40 in France was dlown 0.49 points, or 0.01 percent, at 4,057.21.Confirmation that the Chinese economy grew by a very strong 11.9 percent in Q1 2010, whilst indicating some overheating risks, highlights the boost to global growth that the fast growing economy is providing,said Mitul Kotecha, analyst at Credit Agricole.Markets also are focused on the release of industrial production data in the United States, which is expected to show gains, and the release of U.S. treasury flows, which will gauge foreign interest in U.S. securities.
Wall Street was also poised to open higher following five straight days of gains. Dow futures were up 103.69 points, or 0.94 percent, at 11,123.11 while the broader Standard & Poor's 500 futures were 13.35 points, or 1.12 percent, at 1,210.65.
Greece, at least momentarily, was not weighing on the markets, following the weekend agreement by the eurozone to provide the country with a financial backstop if it cannot raise money any other way. But Kotecha noted that the markets still lack faith that Greece can weather the storm despite the positive response to the debt auction.The Fed's new Beige Book survey released late in the European trading day Wednesday said that the economic recovery was spreading to most parts of the United States, with merchants seeing better sales and factories boosting production.The report boosted recovery optimism,said analyst Michale Hewson at CMC markets.In Asia, Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 stock average led gainers, rising 68.89 points, or 0.6 percent, to 11,273.79. Indonesia's benchmark index also advanced 0.6 percent, South Korea and Hong Kong gained 0.5 percent while Singapore added 0.3 percent.
Australia rose 0.1 percent while China, India and Malaysia were little changed.
Equity investors took heart from signs of strong economic growth in Asia. China said its gross domestic product grew 11.9 percent in the first quarter from a year earlier while Singapore's economy jumped 13 percent from a year ago.China reported consumer prices rose 2.2 percent over a year earlier, leading some analysts to herald the high-growth, low-inflation economy — the so-called Goldilocks scenario — as ideal for company profits and equity investing.Investors were worried that the Chinese economy was going to experience overheating in general and high inflation, Morgan Stanley said in a report. The degree of uncertainty concerning growth and inflation should diminish going forward.Traders are eyeing first quarter corporate earnings reports which began this week.The overall world economy is recovering, and our advice is to stay long the market, said Tey Tze Ming, a trader with Saxo Capital Markets in Singapore. The earnings we're going to see over the next couple weeks will set the tone, and I think there's upside from here.
Markets in Thailand were closed for a holiday.
In New York overnight, the Dow Jones industrial average gained 103.69, or 0.9 percent, to 11,123.11, the highest finish since September 2008. The Dow closed higher Wednesday for a fifth day, buoyed by upbeat earnings from Intel Corp. and JPMorgan Chase.Investors also chased Wall Street gains on Wednesday on a Commerce Department report showing U.S. retail sales increased in March for the third straight month — a fresh sign that American consumers are starting to spend more. In currencies, the dollar was steady at 93.15 yen Thursday from 93.21 yen late Wednesday. The euro stood at $1.3597 from $1.3651.Benchmark crude for May delivery was up 5 cents to $85.89 a barrel.
Leaders mull EU support tool, markets turn on Greece By Elisabeth O'leary – APR 15,10
MADRID (Reuters) – Greece's aid deal has saved it from default and quashed fears of a euro zone breakup, policymakers said on Thursday, and the head of its finance minister group said new tools were needed to help fiscal stragglers.Investors took a less rosy view, selling the euro and driving up Greek bond yields ahead of a meeting of euro zone finance heads expected to break little new ground on the Aegean state's crisis or long-term reform of the single currency.The difference in interest between Greek 10-year bonds and their euro zone German benchmarks jumped to 426 basis points, near record levels hit before Greece's aid parachute was announced last weekend, from 406.
The euro fell to $1.3533, its lowest level this week.
A May 9 election looming in Germany and confusion over the logistics of disbursing the aid, should Athens ask for it, has clouded the picture as Greece tries to drum up investor interest to refinance an 8.5 billion euro bond next month.European Central Bank Executive Board member Lorenzo Bini Smaghi said the aid deal fleshed out on Sunday was a turning point in the crisis.This announcement makes it clear ... that a scenario of default and exit from the euro area, which some market participants and observers had toyed with, was simply absurd, he told journalists in Japan.With an estimated 30 billion euros in the first year from euro zone states and another 10-15 billion expected from the International Monetary Fund, the package would be the biggest multilateral bailout ever attempted.
LACK OF CLARITY
But hurdles remain. On Wednesday, a German economist threatened to legally challenge the aid deal because he said it broke EU rules by offering cash at below market rates.Germany, tapped to lend some 8.4 billion euros, also cast doubt on the size of the deal, saying talk of more than the amount slated for the first year was speculation.It has resisted helping after Athens flouted EU rules with profligate spending and borrowing for years.Polls show the German public is overwhelmingly against a financial bailout for Greece and Chancellor Angela Merkel could lose its majority in the Bundesrat upper house of parliament if defeated in next month's state election.But EU Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn said he was confident Germany would step in if needed.I have no reason to doubt the German commitment if needed and if aid were to be requested, Rehn said.He also dismissed fears of some investors over Greece's long-term solvency, saying: There will be no default.
GERMAN ROLE
Billionaire financier George Soros said the euro and the EU itself were at risk of breaking up if Germany refused to play its traditional role binding the European project together. The Germans have always made the concessions needed to advance the European Union, when people were looking for a deal. Not any more, Soros told Corriere della Sera in an interview published on Thursday. That's why the European project is stalled... If you don't make the next steps forward for the euro, the euro will go to pieces and the European Union too.Soros said the 27-member bloc needed a more flexible mechanism like a European Monetary Fund to help countries make deficit cuts without such painful belt-tightening measures. That was echoed by Jean-Claude Juncker, chairman of the Eurogroup of finance ministers, who said a new measure, which could possible involve a change to the EU treaty, was needed. We have resorted to these loans (for Greece) because there was no other solution within the European Treaty,Juncker was quoted as saying.For the future we will have to install a European mechanism without allowing some member states to relax and not balance their books.
Bini Smaghi also said the crisis had exposed flaws in EU decision-making. This experience should now be used to create a more efficient decision-making process within the euro area, aimed in particular at preventing similar situations from occurring in the future and eventually at solving them more efficiently.Greece may give the euro zone's 16 finance ministers an update on its situation in Madrid. It has promised to cut its government budget deficit by about a third to 8.7 percent of gross domestic product, crucial to eventually cutting debt pile that is a quarter bigger than its annual economic output. A euro zone source said ministers may ask Greece for more structural or administrative reforms, and reforms to its methods of gathering statistics or providing information but would not ask Athens to cut its deficit more this year.You can safely exclude that,the source said.(Additional reporting by Tim Heritage, Nigel Tutt, Marcin Grajewski Marc Jones and Jan Strupczewski; writing by Michael Winfrey, editing by Mike Peacock)
Oil hovers below $86 amid Asian, US demand growth By BARRY HATTON, Associated Press Writer - APR 15,10
Oil prices hovered below $86 a barrel Thursday amid signs global crude demand is growing, especially in Asia.By early afternoon in Europe, benchmark crude for May delivery was up 2 cents to $85.86 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract added $1.79 to settle at $85.84 on Wednesday.
Crude investors were encouraged by signs of strong economic growth in China, which said Thursday its gross domestic product grew 11.9 percent in the first quarter from a year earlier. Singapore's economy expanded 13 percent from a year ago.Non-OECD oil demand continues to increase at a phenomenal pace,said Barclays Capital in a report, referring to economies outside the major developed countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.Prices are getting comfortable with the newfound trading range of $80 to $90.New U.S. figures for industrial production and jobless claims were due later Thursday.An important economic outlook report for Germany predicted growth of 1.5 percent this year and 1.4 percent in 2011 for Europe's biggest economy.Crude leaped to above $87 last week after trading between $69 and $84 for the previous nine months.Oil traders were also cheered by news U.S. weekly crude inventories had their first declined since January, suggesting demand is recovering.The Energy Information Administration said crude supplies dropped by 2.2 million barrels for the week ended April 9. Analysts expected them to increase by 1.6 million barrels, according to a survey by Platts, the energy information arm of McGraw-Hill Cos.In other Nymex trading in May contracts, heating oil was down 0.53 cent at $2.2369 a gallon, and gasoline fell 1 cent to $2.3221 a gallon. Natural gas dropped 4.44 cents to $4.155 per 1,000 cubic feet.In London, Brent crude was up 70 cents at $86.85 on the ICE futures exchange.Associated Press writer Alex Kennedy in Singapore contributed to this report.
PSALMS 122:2-9
2 Our feet shall stand within thy gates, O Jerusalem.
3 Jerusalem is builded as a city that is compact together:
4 Whither the tribes go up, the tribes of the LORD, unto the testimony of Israel, to give thanks unto the name of the LORD.
5 For there are set thrones of judgment, the thrones of the house of David.
6 Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: they shall prosper that love thee.
7 Peace be within thy walls, and prosperity within thy palaces.
8 For my brethren and companions’ sakes, I will now say, Peace be within thee.
9 Because of the house of the LORD our God I will seek thy good.
PSALMS 137:5-8
5 If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning.
6 If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth; if I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy.(ARIEL SHARON HAD A STROKE,HE WAS FOR THE DIVISION OF JERUSALEM TO.JUDGEMENT COMES WHEN AGAINST JERUSALEM).
7 Remember, O LORD, the children of Edom in the day of Jerusalem; who said, Rase it, rase it, even to the foundation thereof.
8 O daughter of Babylon, who art to be destroyed; happy shall he be, that rewardeth thee as thou hast served us.
OLMERT WAS SO INTO DIVIDING JERUSALEM,NOW OLMERT WILL BE DIVIDING HIS TIME IN COURT AND MOST LIKELY IN JAIL IN THE VERY NEAR FUTURE.YOU CAN NOT COME AGAINST JERUSALEM AND NOT EXPECT GOD(KING JESUS) TO REACT TO SAVING HIS CAPITAL OF THE WORLD.I LOVE THE WAY JESUS USES SINNERS TO BE CORRUPTED,THEN COME AGAINST JERUSALEM AND THEN THEY FINALLY END UP IN JAIL FOR THEIR CORRUPT WAYS.
Israeli police: Ex-PM Olmert suspect in bribe case AFP By AMY TEIBEL, Associated Press Writer - APR 15,2010
JERUSALEM – Former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who was driven from office last year while facing mounting corruption charges, has been identified as a prime suspect in a separate bribery case, police said Thursday.The 63-year-old Olmert returned to Israel from Europe early Thursday amid reports of his involvement in the case. Police suspect millions of dollars changed hands to promote several real estate projects, including a controversial residential development in Jerusalem that required a radical change in zoning laws.A string of corruption cases have plagued current and former Israeli officials in recent years. A former finance minister, ceremonial president and other Cabinet ministers have been indicted or convicted on charges ranging from fraud to rape.Olmert, who was mayor of Jerusalem at the time the residential development project was approved in the 1990s, has denied any wrongdoing. A spokeswoman for the former Israeli leader had no comment on Thursday.
Police confirmed the former Israeli leader was a suspect after a court-issued gag order was eased. A string of media reports this week have implicated him obliquely in the affair.Olmert has not been questioned by police in the affair yet, and no charges have been filed against him or any of the six people — including Olmert's successor as Jerusalem mayor — who already have been arrested in the case. Police had no word on when Olmert would be interrogated.Police say the scope of the latest corruption affair dwarfs any of the other cases in which Olmert has been implicated.
The whiff of corruption has stubbornly clung to the former Israeli leader throughout his three decades in politics, quickly overshadowing his initial reputation as an anti-corruption crusader.His political downfall began snowballing two years ago when Jewish-American businessman Morris Talansky told an Israeli court how he handed Olmert envelopes stuffed with tens of thousands of dollars in cash.He was forced to announce his resignation in September 2008, after police accused him of double-and triple-billing Jewish organizations for trips abroad and pocketing the difference. Olmert, who has maintained he is innocent of all charges, is currently standing trial on both cases, plus separate allegations of cronyism. All the charges predate his tenure as prime minister.He left politics after February 2009 elections that installed Benjamin Netanyahu as prime minister.
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,(JORDAN) and the Ishmaelites;(ARABS) of Moab, PALESTINIANS,JORDAN) and the Hagarenes;(EGYPT)
7 Gebal,(HEZZBALLOH,LEBANON) and Ammon,(JORDAN) and Amalek;(SYRIA,ARABS,SINAI) 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.
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.
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)
Chinese president arrives in Brazil for BRIC summit
Wed Apr 14, 6:23 pm ET
BRASILIA (AFP) – Chinese President Hu Jintao arrived in Brazil late Wednesday to participate in bilateral meetings with the leaders of other emerging economies and a BRIC summit on Friday.He was to attend the two days of meetings in Brasilia as China struggles with the aftermath of an earthquake in its northwest that killed nearly 600 people earlier Wednesday.Hu flew in from Washington, where he had taken part in a summit on international nuclear security. A Brazilian airport official confirmed his arrival.The Chinese leader was to hold bilateral meetings with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, South African President Jacob Zuma and Russian President Dmitri Medvedev on Thursday, according to the Chinese embassy.On Friday, he, Medvedev, Singh and Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva were to hold the second-ever summit of the BRIC countries -- Brazil, Russia, India and China.After the summit, Hu was to hold a brief official visit to Brazil, with which China has trade ties worth 36 billion dollars.On Saturday, he was to fly on to Venezuela for a meeting with President Hugo Chavez, and on Sunday he visits Chile.
Iran says it wants inclusive Iraqi government By NASSER KARIMI, Associated Press Writer -APR 15,10
TEHRAN, Iran – Iran said Thursday that all Iraqi parties that fared well in the inconclusive March election should be included in the government after the secular front-runner sent a delegation to Tehran.Former Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, who won the vote by a razor-thin margin, is vying with incumbent Nouri al-Maliki to collect enough support to form a government after neither gained an outright majority in the parliamentary vote.His sending a delegation to Iran was significant because Allawi drew major support in the vote from Sunni Muslims, who deeply distrust mainly Shiite Iran, and Allawi himself spoke out often in the campaign against Tehran's influence in Iraq.The visit may be an attempt to ward off an attempt by al-Maliki's party and the other top Iranian-backed Shiite bloc to form a merger that would allow them to form a government and sideline Allawi.Iranian state TV reported that Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani expressed hope that all Iraqi political groups would participate in the future of Iraq, based on their political weight during a meeting with Sunni lawmaker Rafia al-Issawi, a member of Allawi's secular Iraqiya list.
Iran has been accused of trying to tip the balance in favor of hard-line religious Shiites who would be more likely to promote its policies in Iraq. Many in the region fear the Islamic Republic is poised to gain influence in the neighboring country as the U.S. withdraws forces by the end of next year.Representatives from the two Shiite blocs — al-Maliki's State of Law and the Iraqi National Alliance — reportedly met weeks ago in Tehran to discuss a merger, raising concern among Allawi and his followers. Allawi's secular bloc edged out al-Maliki's group by just two seats in the election.Saeed Jalili, secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, called the election and political negotiations a positive process and said Tehran is seeking the formation of a government in Iraq through the participation of all political groups and ethnicities in the election based on realities and constitution of Iraq.Jalili and Larijani's remarks reflected the traditional public stance of Iran on Iraq — that it does not interfere in its politics — although Iran supports the Shiites, who comprise some 60 percent of Iraq's population.The U.S. has repeatedly accused Iran of meddling in politics and supporting violence in Iraq, but Tehran denies the allegations, saying it supports the democratic process in the wartorn country.Tehran sees the presence of the U.S. forces on its doorstep as a threat. Iran is at odds with the West over its disputed nuclear program, which Washington and its allies suspect is a cover for building a nuclear weapon. Iran denies the charge saying it aims to generate electricity and other peaceful purposes.
ISAIAH 17:1
1 The burden of Damascus. Behold, Damascus is taken away from being a city, and it shall be a ruinous heap.
Syria denies it gave Hezbollah Scud missiles By Associated Press Writer Albert Aji, - APR 15,2010
DAMASCUS, Syria – Syria warned Thursday that Israel was paving the way for new military action in the region with its allegation that Damascus is providing Scud missiles to the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.Israeli defense officials have said they believe Hezbollah has Scud missiles capable of hitting all of Israel and earlier this week, Israeli President Shimon Peres accused Damascus of providing the weapons.Syria strongly denied the charge, saying it believes that Israel aims through these claims to further strain the atmosphere in the region,according to a statement from the Foreign Ministry. It added that Israel could be setting the stage for a possible Israeli aggression in order to run away from the requirements of a just and comprehensive peace.
The allegation comes at a sensitive time in U.S.-Syrian relations.Washington has reached out to Syria in recent months by nominating the first U.S. ambassador to Damascus since 2005 and sending top diplomats to meet with Assad. Washington is hoping to draw Syria away from Iran, Hezbollah and the Palestinian Islamic group Hamas.The U.S. said Wednesday it was increasingly concerned about the transfer of more sophisticated weaponry to Hezbollah.Some Scud missiles have a range of hundreds of miles (kilometers) and could reach any target in Israel if fired from Lebanon. They can carry an explosive warhead of up to 1 ton.The Israeli defense officials stopped short of stating unequivocally that Scuds are now deployed in Lebanon.In August, Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah said his militants were now capable of hitting any Israeli city or village. Nasrallah had earlier said Hezbollah has more than 30,000 rockets of different ranges but the group's officials never mentioned Scuds.Hezbollah fired nearly 4,000 rockets at northern Israel, including several medium-range missiles that for the first time hit Israel's third-largest city, Haifa, during a 34-day conflict in 2006.
The Israeli officials said tensions have risen along Israel's border with Lebanon after media reports that Hezbollah was seeking the missiles, and they believed Hezbollah now has them.Peres took it a step further and accused Syria of supplying the group with the weapons, the first time an Israeli official has publicly made such a pronouncement.Israel charges that most of Hezbollah's weapons, including rockets, come through neighboring Syria, which is a main sponsor of Hezbollah, along with Iran. But Peres' statement was the first time Israel has publicly accused Damascus of providing Scuds.Hezbollah spearheaded a guerrilla warfare against Israeli forces that occupied parts of southern Lebanon for 18 years until May 2000. In 2006, the war between Israel and Lebanon's Hezbollah group left 1,200 Lebanese and 160 Israelis dead.Meanwhile in Lebanon, political factions held a new round of national talks Thursday over a defense strategy that could integrate Hezbollah's weapons into the regular armed forces. Several rounds were held in the past without making progress.As the officials met at the presidential palace southeast of Beirut, Israeli warplanes were seen flying over the capital — a common occurrence.
Africans worried about future religious conflict By TOM MALITI, Associated Press Writer – Thu Apr 15, 2:51 am ET
LAGOS, Nigeria – More than a quarter of people in sub-Saharan Africa worry about future conflict along religious lines, though concerns in Rwanda and Nigeria are even higher, according to a new survey on religious attitudes released Thursday.The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, which conducted the survey, however, found that unemployment, crime and corruption are of greater concern to Africans than future religious conflict.But the survey found that in Nigeria and Rwanda — countries that have suffered from vicious sectarian conflict — 58 percent in each country fear future bloodshed.The survey, which involved interviewing 25,000 people in 19 sub-Saharan African countries, found that in many cases fear of religious conflict were tied to fears of ethnic conflict.For many in Africa religion and ethnicity are very closely connected in that basically they see the two working together in terms of their concern about violence, said Luis Lugo, director of the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life.Acting Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan echoed those views in a BBC interview late Tuesday when he was asked what his government is doing about violence in central Nigeria, where more than 500 people have been killed this year.Jonathan said that people indigenous to the central Nigerian city of Jos and its surrounding region are mainly Christians and feel that people who have migrated there from other parts of Nigeria dominate commerce. Some of those people are Muslims and when the two groups fight, it assumes religious connotations.
So if anything touches a settler who is a Muslim it will be interpreted as if they are attacking the Muslims, Jonathan told the BBC. And if the settlers that are Muslims touch the indigenous population that are Christians it will be interpreted as the Christians are being attacked.In January, 300 people, most of them Muslims, were killed in Jos and its surrounding villages. In March, more than 200 people were killed in what are predominantly Christian villages in the same area.That violence, though fractured across religious lines, often has more to do with local politics, economics and rights to grazing lands.The survey also found that in 17 of the 19 countries covered, 40 percent of respondents were concerned about religious extremism, particularly within their own faith.Less than a quarter of them believed that large numbers of Muslims support extremist groups like al-Qaida. In most cases, researchers found that Christians and Muslims held similar views on the level of support for al-Qaida. But in Ghana, the survey found that Muslims are three times more likely to say fellow Muslims support al-Qaida than Christians.The group conducted the survey, titled Tolerance and Tension: Islam and Christianity in Sub-Saharan Africa,between December 2008 and April 2009.The organization conducted the survey because sub-Saharan Africa is the most important meeting place between Christianity and Islam anywhere in the world, so if we are going to probe issues of inter-religious understanding and inter-religious engagement, this is a good place as any to begin,said Lugo.On the Net:Survey report will be available at: http://www.pewforum.org
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.
ZECHARIAH 14:1-3 King James Bible
1 Behold, the day of the LORD cometh, and thy spoil shall be divided in the midst of thee.
2 For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle; and the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women ravished;(RAPED) and half of the city shall go forth into captivity, and the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city.
3 Then shall the LORD go forth, and fight against those nations, as when he fought in the day of battle.
Study: Civilian rape skyrockets in Congo's east By TODD PITMAN, Associated Press Writer – Thu Apr 15, 2:25 am ET
DAKAR, Senegal – The number of rapes carried out by civilians in eastern Congo has increased by 17-fold in the last few years, according to a study released Thursday that says sexual assaults long perpetrated by armed groups are spreading across the population.The study, commissioned by the British aid group Oxfam, was carried out by experts from Harvard University and examined more than 4,000 cases from 2004 to 2008 at the Panzi Hospital in the eastern Congo city of Bukavu.Armed groups — including the army and Congolese and Rwandan militias — have raped tens of thousands of women in the war-ravaged nation, and are still feared by the population. But the research found that 38 percent of rapes were committed by civilians in 2008, compared to less than 1 percent in 2004.This study confirms what has only been reported anecdotally until now: Sexual violence has become more normal in civilian life, said Susan Bartels, chief researcher from the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative.The scale of rape over Congo's years of war has made this crime seem more acceptable.Violence first erupted in Congo after the 1994 Rwandan genocide spilled war across the border. U.N. peacekeepers have been deployed in the vast nation since 1999 to help stabilize it, but thousands are raped each year and sporadic fighting has continued.Congo President Joseph Kabila has asked the U.N. to draw up a schedule to withdraw its 20,000 peacekeeping mission by 2011, though some senior diplomats and U.N. officials have said they are reluctant to do so. A U.N. Security Council delegation is due in Congo later this week.
"Rape of this scale and brutality is scandalous, said Krista Riddley, who directs humanitarian policy for Oxfam.This is a wake-up call at a time when plans are being discussed for U.N. peacekeepers to leave the country. The situation is not secure if a woman can't even sleep safely in her own bed at night.The report — entitled Now, the World is Without Me — said few places were safe for victims. About 56 percent of sexual assaults surveyed were carried out by armed men in what should have been the safety of home — in the presence of the victim's families, including their children. Around 16 percent were reported in fields, and 15 percent in forests.Incidents of sexual slavery also were reported by 12 percent of women surveyed, with some women being held captive for years.The report said the number of rapes spiked during military activities, with more than 9,000 people — including men and boys — raped in 2009 as the government and its Rwandan military allies carried out operations against Rwandan militia groups still operating on Congolese soil.
German theologian urges bishops to pressure pope By JUERGEN BAETZ, Associated Press Writer - APR 15,10
BERLIN – Dissident theologian Hans Kueng urged bishops on Thursday to push for reforms in the Roman Catholic in defiance of Pope Benedict XVI.Kueng, an 82-year-old former colleague and friend of the pontiff, said the church was now in its deepest crisis since the Protestant Reformation after recent revelations of sexual abuse by clergy caused an erosion of trust.In an editorial published Thursday in daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung and other publications, Kueng said bishops should call for a new synod to discuss reforms.Kueng accused pope of not living up to the great challenges of our time,saying on the fifth anniversary of Benedict's election to the papacy that his traditionalist approach had failed.Bishops should not be actors without voice or rights, Kueng said, arguing that it was legitimate for them to press Roman authorities for reforms if the pope blocked their efforts.The Catholic Church in Pope Benedict's German homeland has been rocked by a widening abuse scandal in the past three months with hundreds of self described victims of heavy physical or sexual abuse coming forward.At least one case of a pedophile priest who was reassigned to parish work after being accused of abusing minors has occurred in the Munich archdiocese where Benedict, then Joseph Ratzinger, served as archbishop from 1977-82.
The pontiff has not commented on the cases in his native country.
Kueng, who once worked alongside the young Ratzinger at the Second Vatican Council, sharply criticized the pope for his handling of abuse cases.It may not be silenced that the worldwide system of covering-up of sexual offenses by clergy men was steered by Cardinal Ratzinger's Roman Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Kueng said in the editorial, which also appeared in the New York Times, La Repubblica and other dailies in France, Spain and Switzerland.The congregation and its former head have recently come under attack by abuse victims for allegedly rebuffing or moving slowly on calls to remove molesting priests, essentially granting impunity to them and letting them keep ministering to minors.Germany's justice minister, Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger, met Thursday with the head of the German Bishops Conference, Robert Zollitsch — two months after she had irked him by saying she believed the church was not truly interested in clearing up all sexual abuse cases.
The justice minister has spoken of a wall of silence surrounding the church.Some German dioceses have reported big increases this year in the number of people leaving the church. Zollitsch's Freiburg archdiocese said 2,711 left the church in the southwestern region in March — compared with 1,058 a year earlier.The Wuerzburg diocese in Bavaria said 1,233 left the church there in March — three times the 407 recorded a year earlier. The Munich archdiocese, where Benedict once served as archbishop, said it did not yet have figures for March.Associated Press Writer Verena Schmitt-Roschmann in Berlin contributed to this report.
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