DIS-HONOR KILLINGS IN AMERICA-AGAINST ISLAMIC WOMEN

THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU LET AN INDEPENDENT CENTRAL BANK (FEDERAL RESERVE)OWN YOU INSTEAD OF HAVING YOUR OWN CASH COW COMPANY BY YOUR OWN GOVERNMENT.YOU GET RATED LOWER FOR NOT PAYING YOUR BILLS.THE MEDIA IS QUICKLY SAYING THE ECONOMY IS GREAT TO COVER UP THIS DEBT DEFAULT BY THE AMERICAN GOVERNMENT.AND THE MEDIA IS SAYING THIS I JUST A NORMAL HAPPENING,IT MEANS NOTHING TO INVESTORS.WHAT A HOGWASH SCAM BY THE MEDIA TO COVER UP THAT AMERICA IS BROKE AND CAN NOT COVER THEIR DEBT.

S&P cuts U.S. outlook to negative on fiscal worry
-APR 18,11

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Standard & Poor's on Monday downgraded its credit outlook for the United States, citing a material risk that policymakers may not reach agreement on a plan trim its large budget deficit.While the agency maintained the country's top AAA credit rating, it said that authorities have not made clear how they will tackle long-term fiscal pressures.S&P said the move signals there's at least a one-in-three chance that it could cut its long-term rating on the United States within two years.Because the U.S. has, relative to its AAA peers, what we consider to be very large budget deficits and rising government indebtedness and the path to addressing these is not clear to us, we have revise dour outlook on the long-term rating to negative from stable, S&P said in a release.U.S. government bond prices fell after S&P's announcement, while stock futures extended losses and the dollar pared gains against the euro.The headline has enough of a shock value. The initial reaction is that this is negative for dollar assets across the board. said Lou Brien, a market strategist with DRW Trading in Chicago.Outstanding public U.S. debt has swelled to more than 60 percent of total output in the aftermath of the 2007-2009 financial crisis, and with a budget deficit projected at more than $1 trillion, is set to grow further.A U.S. Treasury official said the S&P negative outlook underestimates the ability of U.S. lawmakers to tackle the country's fiscal challenges.(Editing by James Dalgleish; )

LAURIE ROTH & GUEST ON WORLD INTERNET CONTROLS THE ENERGY GRID SYSTEM
FRI APR 15,11 HOUR 1-2-3
http://therothshow.com/show-archives/april-2011/
JONES ON THE GOVERNMENT INTERNET TAKEOVER ALSO
http://rss.nfowars.net/20110417_Sun_Alex.mp3

April 16, 2011 - Hour 1
Jan and Pastor Eric Douma discuss the toxic subversion of the Bible thanks to Rob Bell and friends. At issue are the consequence of hell and the possibility of universal salvation for all. The book examined is Bell's newest, Love Wins: The Book About Heaven, Hell, and the Fate of Every Person Who Ever Lived. Is this just classic postmodernism or the reappearance of modern liberalism that has always failed? How does left-wing politics play into this? Many sound bytes are played to show the blood-drained gospel of Rob Bell and other Emergent leaders. www.twincityfellowship.com
http://olivetreeradio.com/OTM2011_04_16A.mp3

April 16, 2011 - Hour 2
Jan and Eric Douma continue their discussion from hour one the first 30 minutes. Jan concludes with a commentary on Earth Day coming up April 22. Millions of Christians will knowingly or naively bow down to mother earth on Earth Day. Even evangelical organizations will promote serving God and saving the planet. This day is filled with paganism and pantheism but it no longer seems to matter to Christians.
http://olivetreeradio.com/OTM2011_04_16B.mp3

Water wars? Thirsty, energy-short China stirs fear
By DENIS D. GRAY, Associated Press - Sun Apr 17, 12:00 am ET

BAHIR JONAI, India – The wall of water raced through narrow Himalayan gorges in northeast India, gathering speed as it raked the banks of towering trees and boulders. When the torrent struck their island in the Brahmaputra river, the villagers remember, it took only moments to obliterate their houses, possessions and livestock.No one knows exactly how the disaster happened, but everyone knows whom to blame: neighboring China.We don't trust the Chinese, says fisherman Akshay Sarkar at the resettlement site where he has lived since the 2000 flood.They gave us no warning. They may do it again.About 800 kilometers (500 miles) east, in northern Thailand, Chamlong Saengphet stands in the Mekong river, in water that comes only up to her shins. She is collecting edible river weeds from dwindling beds. A neighbor has hung up his fishing nets, his catches now too meager.Using words bordering on curses, they point upstream, toward China.The blame game, voiced in vulnerable river towns and Asian capitals from Pakistan to Vietnam, is rooted in fear that China's accelerating program of damming every major river flowing from the Tibetan plateau will trigger natural disasters, degrade fragile ecologies, divert vital water supplies.A few analysts and environmental advocates even speak of water as a future trigger for war or diplomatic strong-arming, though others strongly doubt it will come to that. Still, the remapping of the water flow in the world's most heavily populated and thirstiest region is happening on a gigantic scale, with potentially strategic implications.On the eight great Tibetan rivers alone, almost 20 dams have been built or are under construction while some 40 more are planned or proposed.

China is hardly alone in disrupting the region's water flows. Others are doing it with potentially even worse consequences. But China's vast thirst for power and water, its control over the sources of the rivers and its ever-growing political clout make it a singular target of criticism and suspicion.Whether China intends to use water as a political weapon or not, it is acquiring the capability to turn off the tap if it wants to — a leverage it can use to keep any riparian neighbors on good behavior, says Brahma Chellaney, an analyst at New Delhi's Center for Policy Research and author of the forthcoming Water: Asia's New Battlefield.Analyst Neil Padukone calls it the biggest potential point of contention between the two Asian giants, China and India. But the stakes may be even higher since those eight Tibetan rivers serve a vast west-east arc of 1.8 billion people stretching from Pakistan to Vietnam's Mekong river delta.Suspicions are heightened by Beijing's lack of transparency and refusal to share most hydrological and other data. Only China, along with Turkey, has refused to sign a key 1997 U.N. convention on transnational rivers.Beijing gave no notice when it began building three dams on the Mekong — the first completed in 1993 — or the $1.2 billion Zangmu dam, the first on the mainstream of the 2,880-kilometer (1,790-mile) Brahmaputra which was started last November and hailed in official media as a landmark priority project.The 2000 flood that hit Sarkar's village, is widely believed to have been caused by the burst of an earthen dam wall on a Brahmaputra tributary. But China has kept silent.Until today, the Indian government has no clue about what happened, says Ravindranath, who heads the Rural Volunteer Center. He uses only one name.Tibet's spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, has also warned of looming dangers stemming from the Tibetan plateau.

It's something very, very essential. So, since millions of Indians use water coming from the Himalayan glaciers... I think you (India) should express more serious concern. This is nothing to do with politics, just everybody's interests, including Chinese people, he said in New Delhi last month.Beijing normally counters such censure by pointing out that the bulk of water from the Tibetan rivers springs from downstream tributaries, with only 13-16 percent originating in China. Officials also say that the dams can benefit their neighbors, easing droughts and floods by regulating flow, and that hydroelectric power reduces China's carbon footprint. China will fully consider impacts to downstream countries, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu recently told The Associated Press. We have clarified several times that the dam being built on the Brahmaputra River has a small storage capacity. It will not have large impact on water flow or the ecological environment of downstream.For some of China's neighbors, the problem is that they too are building controversial dams and may look hypocritical if they criticize China too loudly.The four-nation Mekong River Commission has expressed concerns not just about the Chinese dams but about a host of others built or planned in downstream countries.In northeast India, a broad-based movement is fighting central government plans to erect more than 160 dams in the region, and Laos and Cambodia have proposed plans for 11 Mekong dams, sparking environmental protest.Indian and other governments play down any threats from the Asian colossus. I was reassured that (the Zangmu dam) was not a project designed to divert water and affect the welfare and availability of water to countries in the lower reaches, India's Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao said after talks with his Chinese counterpart late last year.But at the grass roots, and among activists and even some government technocrats, criticism is expressed more readily.Everyone knows what China is doing, but won't talk about it. China has real power now. If it says something, everyone follows, says Somkiat Khuengchiangsa, a Thai environmental advocate.

Neither the Indian nor Chinese government responded to specific questions from the AP about the dams, but Beijing is signaling that it will relaunch mega-projects after a break of several years in efforts to meet skyrocketing demands for energy and water, reduce dependence on coal and lift some 300 million people out of poverty.Official media recently said China was poised to put up dams on the still pristine Nu River, known as the Salween downstream. Seven years ago as many as 13 dams were set to go up until Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao ordered a moratorium. That ban is regarded as the first and perhaps biggest victory of China's nascent green movement.An improper exploitation of water resources by countries on the upper reaches is going to bring about environmental, social and geological risks, Yu Xiaogang, director of the Yunnan Green Watershed, told The Associated Press. Countries along the rivers have already formed their own way of using water resources. Water shortages could easily ignite extreme nationalist sentiment and escalate into a regional war.But there is little chance the activists will prevail.
There is no alternative to dams in sight in China, says Ed Grumbine, an American author on Chinese dams. Grumbine, currently with the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Yunnan province, notes that under its last five-year state plan, China failed to meet its hydroelectric targets and is now playing catch-up in its 2011-2015 plan as it strives to derive 15 percent of energy needs from non-fossil sources, mainly hydroelectric and nuclear.The arithmetic pointing to more dam-building is clear: China would need 140 megawatts of extra hydroelectric power to meet its goal. Even if all the dams on the Nu go up, they would provide only 21 megawatts.The demand for water region-wide will also escalate, sparking perhaps that greatest anxieties — that China will divert large quantities from the Tibetan plateau for domestic use.

Noting that Himalayan glaciers which feed the rivers are melting due to global warming, India's Strategic Foresight Group last year estimated that in the coming 20 years India, China, Nepal and Bangladesh will face a depletion of almost 275 billion cubic meters (360 billion cubic yards) of annual renewable water.Padukone expects China will have to divert water from Tibet to its dry eastern provinces. One plan for rerouting the Brahmaputra was outlined in an officially sanctioned 2005 book by a Chinese former army officer, Li Ling. Its title: Tibet's Waters Will Save China,
Analyst Chellaney believes the issue is not whether China will reroute the Brahmaputra, but when. He cites Chinese researchers and officials as saying that after 2014 work will begin on tapping rivers flowing from the Tibetan plateau to neighboring countries Such a move, he says, would be tantamount to a declaration of war on India.Others are skeptical. Tashi Tsering, a Tibetan environmentalist at the University of British Columbia who is otherwise critical of China's policies, calls a Brahmaputra diversion a pipe dream of some Chinese planners.Grumbine shares the skepticism. The situation would have to be very dire for China to turn off the taps because the consequences would be huge, he said.China would alienate every one of its neighbors and historically the Chinese have been very sensitive about maintaining secure borders.Whatever else may happen, riverside inhabitants along the Mekong and Brahmaputra say the future shock is now.A fisherman from his youth, Boonrian Chinnarat says the Mekong giant catfish, the world's largest freshwater fish, has all but vanished from the vicinity of Thailand's Had Krai village, other once bountiful species have been depleted, and he and fellow fishermen have sold their nets. He blames the Chinese dams.Phumee Boontom, headman of nearby Pak Ing village, warns that If the Chinese keep the water and continue to build more dams, life along the Mekong will change forever. Already, he says, he has seen drastic variations in water levels following dam constructions,like the tides of the ocean __ low and high in one day.Jeremy Bird, who heads the Mekong commission, an intergovernmental body of Laos, Cambodia, Thailand and Laos, sees a tendency to blame China for water-related troubles even when they are purely the result of nature. He says diplomacy is needed, and believes engagement with China is improving.
Grumbine agrees.Given the enormous demand for water in China, India and Southeast Asia, if you maintain the attitude of sovereign state, we are lost, he says. Scarcity in a zero sum situation can lead to conflict but it can also goad countries into more cooperative behavior. It's a bleak picture, but I'm not without hope.
Associated Press writers Tini Tran and David Wivell in Beijing 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/?tabid=15839796&tabheader=false

HALF HOUR DOW RESULTS MON APR 18,2011

09:30 AM -3.25
10:00 AM -206.84
10:30 AM -212.18
11:00 AM -232.34
11:30 AM -220.07
12:00 PM -210.25
12:30 PM -203.55
01:00 PM -216.54
01:30 PM -213.35
02:00 PM -181.79
02:30 PM -177.77
03:00 PM -152.16
03:30 PM -144.25
04:00 PM -140.24 12,201.59

S&P 500 1305.14 -14.54

NASDAQ 2735.38

GOLD 1,497.00 +11.00

OIL 107.36 -2.30

TSE 300 13,702.30 -96.80

CDNX 2238.60 -52.31

S&P/TSX/60 783.74 -4.99

MORNING,NEWS,STATS

YEAR TO DATE PERFORMANCE
Dow -173 points at 4 minutes of trading today.
Dow -246 points at low today.
Dow -1 points at high today so far.
GOLD opens at $1,490.70.OIL opens at $108.05 today.

AFTERNOON,NEWS,STATS
Dow -246 points at low today so far.
Dow -1 points at high today so far.

WRAPUP,NEWS,STATS
Dow -246 points at low today.
Dow -1 points at high today.

GOLD ALLTIME HIGH $1,498.00 (NOT AT CLOSE)

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

Polish EU presidency hires top PR firm
ANDREW RETTMAN 15.04.2011 @ 18:00 CET

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - The Polish administration has hired PR firm Burson-Marsteller to help it run its EU presidency later this year in a contract worth €1 million.A Warsaw-based Polish spokesman, Konrad Niklewicz, told this website the deal was signed a few days ago. Work is to start immediately, in the run-up to the presidency launch in July, and to last into early 2012.The Brussels and Warsaw branches of the US-based PR company will train Polish press spokespeople, set up the presidency website, carry out worldwide media monitoring, organise study trips to Poland for foreign journalists, put on social and cultural events and encourage MEPs to get behind presidency priorities. Niklewicz said Burson-Marsteller will not be doing any pro-Polish media spin.In terms of contact with journalists, they will help us with training and logistics. But in terms of the content, the substance of what we say to journalists, this will be our own responsibility, he explained.It's normal to seek professional help with these types of things. It doesn't mean we lack the skills ourselves. On the contrary, it means we want to make sure everything runs as smoothly as possible.Polish diplomats are wary of their lack of experience in the field of crisis management communications and of anti-eastern-European snobbery among colleagues from older EU member states.Poland also has a lingering image problem dating back to the germanophobe, eurosceptic and russophobe rhetoric of the Kaczynski-twin government in 2006 and 2007.Poland is now seen as one of the most active and committed countries in the EU. Out of all the member states, Poles are among the most enthusiastic about European integration. This is the message that we want to base our presidency on, Niklewicz said.Poland's reputation has changed. I think the constructive politics of Prime Minister Tusk, his attempts to create a positive dialogue with Russia, has had an effect. We're seen differently now, not just in Brussels, but in London, Paris and Berlin as well.

Niklewicz noted that the Burson-Marsteller fee will actually be paid out of the EU budget. The cash comes from so-called 'counterpart funds' given to Warsaw when it joined the Union in 2004 and earmarked early on for its turn at the EU helm.
Warsaw's own presidency budget of around €110 million will also pay for more than 100 extra staff to be sent to the Polish EU embassy when it opens its new premises near the Schuman roundabout in the heart of the EU quarter on 23 May. It will also cover consultancy fees for the Brussels-based economic think-tank, Breugel.Burson-Marsteller is one of the top three lobby firms in the EU capital, with a turnover of around €10 million.In terms of Polish-Russian relations, it also works for Russian oligarch-turned-dissident Mikhail Khodorkovsky to raise awareness of Russian human rights abuses in the EU institutions. Other clients include Ukrainian oligarch Rinat Akhmetov, an ally of Russia-friendly Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych.A contact in the PR sector in Brussels said Burson-Marsteller was keen to get involved with Warsaw to boost its reputation as the company of choice of a presidency country.

MEPs suggest Van Rompuy shift EU summits to Strasbourg
ANDREW WILLIS 15.04.2011 @ 17:42 CET

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Keen to end to their monthly jaunts to the French city of Strasbourg, a group of MEPs have suggested that European Council President Herman Van Rompuy hold his summits there instead.The idea is one of several contained in a paper published this week by a cross-party group of euro-deputies, whose task is to find an acceptable means of moving parliament's plenary sessions to Brussels where the bulk of its committee work is currently carried out.A recent poll suggested as many as 90 percent of MEPs favour the switch from Strasbourg, dubbed 'Stressbourg', but France is bitterly opposed, concerned that the exodus of bon vivant parliamentarians will hurt the city's many restaurants and hotels. The Strasbourg School of Management has put the cost of the parliament leaving at €200 million a year.Paris says EU treaty rules are on its side, issuing a resounding non when MEPs voted last month to merge two plenary sessions into the same October week in both 2012 and 2013, in a bid to cut down on the costs and annoyances of the infamous traveling circus.French minister for European Affairs Laurent Wauquiez told the MEPs he would see them in the European Court of Justice, another EU institution targeted by the euro-deputies as they try to provide the veto-holding French with an attractive source of alternative revenue.The report's authors suggest creating a European City of Justice by moving the European Court of Justice (and possibly justice-related agencies such as Europol and Eurojust) to Strasbourg.This would complement the Court of Human Rights, especially now that the EU's Charter of Fundamental Rights has added internal competence, as well as the EU's Ombudsman, whose modest office is based in Strasbourg.

Other options include shunting the little talked-about European Committee of the Regions out of its shiny Jacques Delors building in Brussels and sending them south, with France's rejoining of Nato also enabling a potential relocation of the military alliance's headquarters.This is less likely now that Nato has embarked upon a €800 million building project in Brussels,concede the MEPs.A further suggestion talks about setting up a diplomatic training college for European external action service (EEAS) officials in Strasbourg, where proximity to the Council of Europe should also create useful synergies for EU diplomats.The ideas are likely to prove unpopular with the other EU institutions however, with a spokesman for Van Rompuy simply noting that all 27 member states would need to agree before he shifted his non-smoking summit dinners to France.An official from the Committee of the Regions also said his institution was strongly opposed to any relocation.We are definitely against it, he told this website.The members of the committee come to Brussels only five times a year, and it's key that they have good access to other EU officials when they do.Also the budgets of the two institutions are totally different.

Rehn on eurozone rescue: Mission Accomplished A European Lehman has been prevented, says Rehn (Photo: aranjuez1404)LEIGH PHILLIPS 15.04.2011 @ 19:12 CET

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - EU economy chief Olli Rehn has declared the eurozone rescue mission accomplished.In a speech to the Brookings Institution, a Washington-based conservative think-tank on Thursday (14 April), he said: While I cannot yet say Mission accomplished, I am increasingly confident that we are entering into the endgame of the crisis management phase.He later went on in his address, which was released on Friday, to tell his American audience that the task had indeed been accomplished.Preventing a European Lehman has not been a simple task, with 27 fiscal authorities and 11 central banks - we never had the genius of Alexander Hamilton to draw on, like you did, unless you count Jacques Delors for this too - but the task has nevertheless been accomplished.He admitted that the turbulence in sovereign debt market is not over yet. But we are quite confident that with the Portuguese programme, we will have contained the problem.Spain has decoupled from the other three countries, he said. The bloc's greatest fear is a potential bail-out of the eurozone's fourth biggest economy, a rescue that would come with an estimated price-tag of €420 billion.He also took on the many commentators [that] have claimed that our single currency has failed and have predicted a break-up of the eurozone.The euro's critics are wrong to claim that [the crisis] will lead to its failure or break-up. The euro will not only survive but is coming out of the crisis stronger than before.

He argued that this was a result of the creation of financial stability mechanisms, the ongoing austerity and structural adjustment across the bloc, the delivery of a system of economic governance for the EU.We are already seeing results in terms of economic recovery, he said.He concluded by repeating the mantra EU leaders have chanted from the very beginning of the area's crisis that the bloc will do whatever it takes to save the single currency.The euro is not just a technical monetary arrangement, but rather the core political project of the European Union.However, across town, the assessment of the EU's rescue mission from the International Monetary Fund was not quite so upbeat.Also speaking in the US capital at the annual spring joint meeting of the IMF and the World Bank, the president of the international lender, Dominique Strauss-Kahn said that the world should not be complacent and that the European response to the crisis is insufficient.We are arguing here in the IMF for at least six months that there is a need for a more comprehensive plan on the European side. The piecemeal approach, dealing with interest rates one day and something else another day, is not working well,he said.He warned that bailed out countries needed to stick to their agreed austerity plans and that European banks still require recapitalisation.Of the wider global crisis, he said: The apex of the crisis is behind us, but it would be part of the complacency I am trying to avoid to believe that we are in the post-crisis era.

Ring-fencing Spain

European leaders in the wake of the Portuguese bail-out have all been at pains to point out how Spain has decoupled from the rest of the PIGS economies and that the other three peripheral economies are now ring-fenced.And investors appear to agree, with the yield on Spanish bonds moving in the direction of the core-eurozone countries rather than Greece, Portugal and Ireland.The optimists credit Madrid's efforts to drastically cut public spending and slash the budget deficit to under 10 percent, reform its labour market and to pump capital into its banks. They also note that Spain's government debt is relatively low at 60 percent.But economists are not unanimous on Spain's prospects.The pessimists are quick to remind that the country has half the growth rate of Portugal and double its unemployment.In 2010, Portugal's economy grew 1.2 percent while Spain suffered an anaemic 0.6 percent.Unemployment in Portugal stands at 11.1 percent while Spanish joblessness is the highest in the developed world, 20.5 percent, with youth unemployment at 43.5 percent, and growing.

Additionally, while the headline government debt figure is low, much public spending is devolved to the 17 regions, where the central government has little control and allegations of off-balance sheet spending refuse to disappear.Atop this, private sector debt is huge and some also worry that house prices still have far to fall. Such a development would increase the foreclosure rate, which in turn would further knock the balance sheets of the country's cajas, or savings banks. Exacerbating this is the European Central Bank's likely intention to continue to hike interest rates.
The country's banks also have run up around €100 billion in exposure to their bailed-out next-door neighbour.Last week, the country's central bank chief, Miguel Angel Fernández Ordonez, warned that 2011 could be the worst year yet for Spanish banks.
2011 will be another year of adjustment, and for the banking sector, it will be one of the worst,he said.

ISRAELS INHERITED LAND IN THE FUTURE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytWmPqY8TE0&feature=player_embedded

DEUTERONOMY 7:7-8
7 The LORD did not set his love upon you, nor choose you, because ye were more in number than any people;(ISRAEL) for ye were the fewest of all people:
8 But because the LORD loved you,(ISRAEL) and because he would keep the oath which he had sworn unto your fathers, hath the LORD brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you out of the house of bondmen, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.

ZECHARIAH 2:8
8 For thus saith the LORD of hosts; After the glory hath he sent me unto the nations which spoiled you: for he that toucheth you toucheth the apple of his eye.

JEREMIAH 3:14
14 Turn, O backsliding children, saith the LORD; for I am married unto you:(ISRAEL) and I will take you one of a city, and two of a family, and I will bring you to Zion:

ISAIAH 42:1
1 Behold my servant, whom I uphold; mine elect,(ISRAEL) in whom my soul delighteth; I have put my spirit upon him: he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles.

ISAIAH 45:4
4 For Jacob my servant’s sake, and Israel mine elect, I have even called thee by thy name: I have surnamed thee, though thou hast not known me.

ISAIAH 65:9,22
9 And I will bring forth a seed out of Jacob, and out of Judah an inheritor of my mountains: and mine elect (ISRAEL) shall inherit it, and my servants shall dwell there.
22 They shall not build, and another inhabit; they shall not plant, and another eat: for as the days of a tree are the days of my people, and mine elect (ISRAEL) shall long enjoy the work of their hands.

ISAIAH 56:5
5 Even unto them (ISRAELIS) will I give in mine house and within my walls a place and a name better than of sons and of daughters: I will give them an everlasting name,(ISRAEL) that shall not be cut off.

And here are the bounderies of the land that Israel will inherit either through war or peace or God in the future. God says its Israels land and only Israels land. They will have every inch God promised them of this land in the future.
Egypt east of the Nile River, Saudi Arabia, Israel, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, The southern part of Turkey and the Western Half of Iraq west of the Euphrates. Gen 13:14-15, Psm 105:9,11, Gen 15:18, Exe 23:31, Num 34:1-12, Josh 1:4.ALL THIS LAND ISRAEL WILL DEFINATELY OWN IN THE FUTURE, ITS ISRAELS NOT ISHMAELS LAND.

Israel and Colombia Sign Open Skies Agreement
by Elad Benari APR 18,11

Israel and Colombia signed a bilateral Open Skies agreement last week, according to a report on the Port2Port website.The agreement was signed between Avi Ben Hur, Deputy Director of International Relations in Israel’s National Civil Aviation Administration (NCAA) and Dr. Santiago Castro Gómez, Director General at UAEAC, Civil Aeronautics of Colombia.According to the report, the newly signed agreement will expand air traffic between Israel and Colombia, by allowing airlines of both countries to offer direct flights between Bogota and Tel Aviv and to code-share flight between Israel and Colombia.Israel and Colombia will benefit from the agreement since it will allow flexibility and easy transport of passengers between the two countries.Colombia has close diplomatic ties with both Israel and the United States. Israel is a prime exporter of weaponry to Columbia and the two countries cooperate in the fields of security and technology.Several weeks ago Colombia announced that it will not join the parade of Latin American nations that have recently recognized the Palestinian Authority as a sovereign country.Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos Calderon told the World Jewish Congress on that as a matter of principle his government would not recognize any unilateral declaration of statehood by the PA.

Colombian Vice President Francisco Santos Calderon visited Israel in the summer of 2009, where he met with Minister of Foreign Affairs Avigdor Lieberman, President Shimon Peres, and other government officials.The governments of Israel and Colombia must ratify the Open Skies agreement before it goes into effect.Meanwhile, Port2Port also reported that the first three months of 2011 saw an impressive recovery of Israel’s Diamond Industry.The website cited a report released last week by Israel Ministry of Industry, Trade and Labor’s Diamond Controller Shmuel Mordechai, who noted that The first quarter of 2011, compared to 2010, indicates a large increase in exports of polished diamonds and rough diamonds and in imports of polished and rough diamonds to Israel.Mordechai states in the report that net polished diamond exports in the three months stood at $2.1 billion US, which is up 45.7% from $1.4 billion US in the first quarter of 2010. Net rough diamond exports were valued at $1.2 billion US, up 39.6% from the first quarter of 2010.The United States accounted for 45% of total exports, said the report, with Hong Kong behind it at 26%, Switzerland at 9%, Belgium at 8%, China at 2% and the rest of the world at 10%.
(IsraelNationalNews.com)

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.

Iranian Intelligence Minister Resigns...or is Fired
by Chana Ya'ar APR 17,11

Iran's intelligence minister has resigned, although he will maintain a position as an adviser in the government of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.The announcement was published Sunday by the state-run IRNA news agency, which gave no details about the resignation.President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad accepted Heidar Moslehi's resignation and appointed him as his adviser in charge of security matters, the news agency reported.
However, according to an unnamed source quoted by the semi-official FARS news agency, the minister was fired.Heidar Moslehi was deeply involved in the government crackdown on 2009 protests led by the opposition Green Party following elections that many insisted were rigged.Moslehi was appointed as head of the country's Ministry of Intelligence during the same period, on 5 August 2009.Seasoned Iranian diplomat and former foreign minister Manouchehr Mottaki also recently left the government, having been fired by Ahmadinejad in December 2010. (Israel National News.com)

PA Demands Release of Terrorist Killers
by Maayana Miskin APR 18,11

The Palestinian Authority called Sunday for the release of all PA Arab prisoners held by Israel, including terrorists and other murderers. PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas announced that he will not make peace with Israel until all prisoners are released.
Abbas' demand came as Israeli forces announced that they had captured two PA Arab men responsible for the murder of five members of the Fogel family in Itamar. He is asking for the release of the men, along with many others convicted of similar crimes.The face of the PA campaign for prisoner release, Nael Barghouti, is also a murderer. Barghouti has served 33 years of a life sentence for a murder committed in the course of a terrorist attack. He has spent the longest term in prison of any PA Arab, and is referred to as dean of the Palestinian prisoners or by the honorific Abu An-Nur (lit. Father of the light).PA officials referred to Nael Barghouti as a political prisoner during Sunday's events calling for prisoner release.Events to promote the release of all PA Arabs in Israeli jails were held throughout Judea, Samaria and Gaza. In Jenin, prisoners' families protested outside the local Red Cross building. Mayor Kadoura Moussa expressed hope that This year will be the year in which all prisoners from the West Bank, Gaza, Al-Quds [Jerusalem], and the 1948 territories [Israel], in all Israeli prison, will be released.

In Shechem, a rally on behalf of terrorist prisoners was attended by Issa Qaraqe, the PA's Minister of Prisoners' Affairs. Qaraqe has frequently praised terrorists in the course of his work for the PA. On Sunday, he said, Struggle is the story of the Palestinian people.Schools under PA rule dedicated one hour on Sunday to teaching students that all PA Arab prisoners should be released from jail. Mosques and churches joined the cause as well, calling to free prisoners in speeches and ringing the bells in a display of solidarity.In Gaza, Hamas called to secure the release of PA terrorists by kidnapping Israeli soldiers.(IsraelNationalNews.com)

Man Sentenced in Honor Killing – 17 Years Later
by Maayana Miskin APR 17,11

Nabil Abu-Hadir of the Shuafat neighborhood of Jerusalem was sentenced Sunday for murdering his sister Taghrid Diab 17 years ago in an honor killing. Abu-Hadir was found guilty of stabbing his sister to death at a Jerusalem bus stop as her three young children cried and begged him to stop.The 17-year delay in delivering justice was due to the fact that Abu-Hadir fled Jerusalem following the murder, running to the nearby city of Bethlehem, which is controlled by the Palestinian Authority. There, he worked as a university lecturer and raised a family.Abu-Hadir was sentenced to life in prison. In addition, he was ordered to pay each of Taghrid's children 100,000 shekels.The children testified in court that they were left psychologically scarred by witnessing the murder and then growing up without a mother. It is easy to understand the children, and to see that their suffering was very great, wrote judges Yaakov Tzeven, Miryam Mizrachi and Rafi Carmel.It is painful and difficult to grow up without a mother; and seven times harder after a child saw his mother stabbed 23 times before his eyes.Something like that would leave a mark on the heart and soul of any person, all the more so a young child.

Abu-Hadir's other relatives showed support for him in court. During his trial, sister Hana Abu-Hadir said, This involved my brother and my sister. But she is with G-d now, and he did not commit this murder. The court did not consider Nabil's wife and children.Abu-Hadir's attorney has expressed hope that the Supreme Court will overturn his client's conviction. He accused the state of destroying evidence that could have led the court to find Abu-Hadir innocent.Nabil Abu-Hadir argues that during the time of the murder he was in another sister's home. Judges found him guilty based on both eyewitness testimony and his own suspicious behavior, including his behavior on the day of the murder, his lack of interest in Taghrid's death, and his flight to Bethlehem.(IsraelNationalNews.com)

Justice in US-Islam Honor Murder
by Prof. Phyllis Chesler APR 15,11

Western-Islamic honor killings are 91% Muslim. The UK is already doing something about it, in the USA one murderer was sentenced to 34.5 years in prison.Arizona Judge Roland Steinle has just sentenced Faleh Almaleki to 34½ years in prison. According to live reporting from the courtroom, the judge noted that Almaleki showed no remorse after the murder, that he did not forgive his daughter, that he did what suited his own purpose. The judge also said this was the hardest case he had to face in his six years on the bench. He found no mitigating factors and sentenced Almaleki to 34 and 1/2 years: 15 years for the aggravated assault of Khalaf, 3 and 1/2 years for leaving the scene of an accident, and 16 years for the second-degree murder of his daughter. He was facing a maximum total of 46 years.Thus, today we have witnessed Iraqi-American Faleh Almaleki being sentenced in Phoenix, Arizona for having honor murdered his 20-year-old daughter Noor and for having attempted to murder Amal Khalaf, the woman who was trying to protect her. In October of 2009, he followed the daughter, whom he had tormented all her life, to a shopping mall, lurked outside, then boldly ran over her precious, lovely body with a two-ton Cherokee jeep. He also tried to run Amal Khalaf down and managed to injure her seriously. Then he fled. Faleh flew to England via Mexico, but was arrested at Heathrow Airport and sent back for trial.

He made his escape with the help of his wife, Seham, Noor's mother, and his son, Ali. Seham made sure Faleh had his diabetes medicine with him; perhaps she packed a little bag for him too. Seham was no kinder to Noor than her father was. Seham cursed Noor on a regular basis and made life at home so impossible that Noor left. She moved in with the sympathetic Amal, whose son, Marwan, Noor may have begun to date. Seham soon cursed the woman who dared give Noor shelter.What exactly was Noor's crime? She had refused to remain in an arranged marriage in Iraq. She wanted to live in America, not Iraq. Noor also insisted on dressing like a modern, American girl—worse, she dared to choose her own boyfriend, another Iraqi-American. In her family's eyes, she was a whore, a disobedient daughter who deserved to die. Their honor depended on her death.Noor is not the first young girl who has been honor murdered in the United States. Daughter-stalking, daughter-monitoring, and daughter-killing by the family of origin is one of the distinguishing features of a classic honor killing. This is very different from American domestically violent femicide, which usually targets wives who are murdered by husbands who commit the crime alone, not with the assistance of their own families of origin or with the victim's family of origin. (This is sometimes the case in honor killings.) Battered wife-murder in America is not usually an expression of a family conspiracy plot, nor are such killers seen as heroes.Faleh Almaleki was convicted of second-degree murder, aggravated assault, and two counts of fleeing the scene of a serious-injury accident. He claimed that it was all accidental, that he only meant to drive past his daughter and spit at her. He claimed that he lost control of the car.
I cannot imagine what it might be like growing up in a family and in a culture where you know, in advance, that your own parents, brothers, sisters, first cousins, and uncles might be the ones who will one day kill you. I would think that trust and intimacy would be difficult and that paranoia, based on reality, would run rampant.

I do not believe that most Americans understand how profoundly different a shame and honor culture is from our own. I do know that the media has consistently misled American readers about what an honor killing is and who commits most honor killings in America, Canada, and Europe. Based on my 2010 study, it is clear that 91% of all honor killings in the West are committed by Muslims. Yes, Hindus and Sikhs commit the rest, but otherwise, they confine their honor killings to India and do not export them to the West. It is not relevant whether Islam, Sharia law, pre-Islamic tribal customs, a misunderstanding of either tribal law or Islam are responsible for such murders. What is relevant is that leading Islamic religious and political figures have not abolished such crimes or excommunicated such murderers.
In America, a murder is a murder and must be treated as such. There are no cultural justifications or multi-cultural justifications that belong in an American court of law.In 1989, in St Louis, Missouri, 16 year-old Palestina Isa was the first young girl who was known as a victim of an honor killing on American soil. Her crime? She was academically ambitious and dared to have an African-American friend, a boy (not a romantic interest). But Palestinians, like many Muslims, are anti-African and anti-black and they viewed Palestina as a whore. She was routinely beaten and often turned up at school with bruises and a black eye. Her mother and sisters clamored for her death. Her mother held her down for 20 minutes while her father stabbed her 13 times. Based on FBI tapes of the actual murder, (the FBI was monitoring him as an Abu Nidal terrorist), Zein Isa was convicted of murder and sentenced to death. He died in prison of diabetes. Palestina's mother Maria's death sentence was commuted to life imprisonment without parole.In 2006, in Ottawa, Canada, 16-year-old Aqsa Parvez was strangled to death by her brother (at the instigation of her father) because she refused to wear a hijab. The father and the brother were both convicted of second-degree murder and were given sentences of 18 years to life. However, her mother, who sweet-talked her into returning home from the shelter for battered women, was not charged with complicity.

In 2008, in Irving, Texas, a suburb of Dallas, 18-year-old Sarah Said and 17-year-old Amina Said were shot to death by their highly abusive Egyptian-born father because of their Western ways. (He physically, sexually, and psychologically abused them from the time they were children.) Nevertheless, both Sarah and Amina were academically talented, dressed like Westerners, and had infidel boyfriends who were actually trying to help them save their lives. Their American-born mother had lured them back home to their deaths. The father escaped and is still a fugitive, and their mother was never charged for her complicity in the murders.
The laws in America allow for conspirators to also be tried. Thus far, that has not happened here. It has happened in Europe.For example, in 2006, in Denmark, Ghazala Khan was shot to death by her brother at the order of her father because she had married an unapproved man. A Danish court sentenced nine members of the family to lengthy jail terms for their part in the conspiracy: the father got life; the brother, an aunt and two uncles got 16 years; and four other members of the family got sentences of between 8 and 16 years.Great Britain passed legislation which allowed police to return British-Muslim girls and women whose families had tricked or kidnapped them into marriages in southeast Asia against their will. If the police had knowledge of this and could find such women, and if they indeed asked to be repatriated, the police did just that. In 2004, Great Britain also began re-classifying old murders. In 2006, in London, Banaz Mahmod was raped and strangled to death by two of her cousins and a hired gun at the order of her father and uncle. Her crime was that she had left an arranged marriage. The two cousins fled to Iraq after the murder; they were the first suspects ever to be extradited from Iraq to Britain. All five men involved were sentenced to life in prison; the men will be eligible for parole after 17-23 years.Immigration, cultural identity, and religious freedom are complex and emotionally charged issues. Immigrants need to bring something of home along with them; food, language, religious practices have, in the past, been assimilation-friendly. Many Muslim immigrants are sophisticated and Western-oriented; some are even staunchly secular and/or anti-Islamist. However, the kinds of Muslims (or Sikhs and Hindus) who commit honor murders on our soil are not. They are importing barbarism and criminal misogyny. The remedies will be costly and take a great deal of time and will include a combination of careful screening procedures, combined with citizenship, police, judicial, and social work education.
I don't think this will solve the problem. I am not sure what will, other than closing our doors to Muslim immigration which is something that I cannot in good conscience recommend. Many Muslims and other immigrants from Third World countries are in flight from at-home tyranny; many Muslim girls and women are in flight from being honor murdered or genitally mutilated in their home countries. Do we really want to close our doors to them? Nissan 11, 5771 / 15 April 11

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.

Storms kill 45 across 6 states; damage widespread
By The Associated Press – Sun Apr 17, 8:27 pm ET

Here is a look at six states hit hard by twisters that carved their way through the South, killing at least 45 people. More than 240 tornadoes were reported from the storm system.NORTH CAROLINA: At least 21 were killed by Saturday's storms that spawned some 60 tornadoes in the southeastern part of the state. One of hardest hit areas was Bertie County, where 11 people died. Gov. Beverly Perdue says federal help is expected to help clean up the devastation that nearly brought her to tears. Saturday was North Carolina's deadliest day for tornadoes since 1984, when 22 killed 42 people and injured hundreds.I can replace the house, but I can't replace my babies. And that's what I thought about. I'm alive. My babies are alive. — Askewville's Justin Dunlow who survived along with his two young children when winds ripped to shreds their doublewide mobile home.

VIRGINIA: At least seven have been killed, three of whom in Gloucester County where a tornado cut a 12-mile swath, uprooting trees, destroying homes and injuring dozens. The tornado ripped the roof off Page Middle School and overturned school buses and cars. Flooding also is a problem in the state. Flash flooding killed two Waynesboro residents and several people were rescued from rising water.She'd put her kids in the bathtub and got on top of them. The tornado blew the house off the foundation, and everything in the house shattered, and is flattened to the ground. — Gloucester's Randy Cook walking through debris of sister's home.ALABAMA: Seven were killed across the state and Gov. Robert Bentley has declared a state of emergency for all counties. The first race of a busy weekend at the Talladega Superspeedway was postponed until Saturday morning. Thousands of people were camping in open fields and getting ready for three days of races and they all made it through the storms. Four separate tornadoes hit Marengo County over the span of about five to six hours.The tornado hit and jumped and hit and jumped again. It would do some damage and then move on. — Autauga County Chief Deputy Sheriff Joe Sedinger about Boone's Chapel where three adult family members were killed Friday by tornado that ripped through homes.

ARKANSAS: Seven people were killed including a woman and her 8-year-old son when winds knocked a tree into their home in the capital city of Little Rock. Five others died as powerful straight-line winds blew through. All but one of the deaths occurred when people, including three children, were crushed by falling trees.I don't recall anything even approaching this. — Gov. Mike Beebe.OKLAHOMA: Casualties from the storm system started in the state on Thursday when two older people were killed in the small town of Tushka and dozens were injured. Gov. Mary Fallin has declared a state of emergency for 26 counties as at least five tornadoes touched down, four in the southeastern part of the state and a fifth in the central part of the state.We're trying to salvage what we can. It's devastating. It's just horrible. Thank God we have so much help. — Tushka's Stacy George, who lives across the street from a school where the second story of the main building collapsed into the first.
MISSISSIPPI: One person was killed when at least three tornadoes hit the state on Friday. A state of emergency was declared for 14 counties. Some of the worst damage was in Clinton where a portion of a bank blew onto the interstate.You could just feel the house fall down. The whole back side of the house is gone. All you could see was this black cloud.— 23-year-old Phillip Gregory who got home about the time a tornado was forming in his neighborhood in Clinton, just west of Jackson. He and family members huddled in a bathtub.

POISONED WATERS

REVELATION 8:8-11
8 And the second angel sounded, and as it were a great mountain burning with fire was cast into the sea: and the third part of the sea became blood;
9 And the third part of the creatures which were in the sea, and had life, died; and the third part of the ships were destroyed.
10 And the third angel sounded, and there fell a great star from heaven, burning as it were a lamp, and it fell upon the third part of the rivers, and upon the fountains of waters;
11 And the name of the star is called Wormwood:(bitter,Poisoned) and the third part of the waters became wormwood; and many men died of the waters, because they were made bitter.(poisoned)

REVELATION 16:3-7
3 And the second angel poured out his vial upon the sea; and it became as the blood of a dead man: and every living soul died in the sea.(enviromentalists won't like this result)
4 And the third angel poured out his vial upon the rivers and fountains of waters; and they became blood.
5 And I heard the angel of the waters say, Thou art righteous, O Lord, which art, and wast, and shalt be, because thou hast judged thus.
6 For they(False World Church and Dictator) have shed the blood of saints and prophets, and thou hast given them blood to drink; for they are worthy.

Fears over mental impact of Japan disaster
by Kimiko de Freytas-Tamura - APR 17,11

ONAGAWA, Japan (AFP) – The forbearance shown by survivors of Japan's quake-tsunami has been lauded in the West, but psychologists worry not talking about the hurt could be doing long-term damage.Commentators have heaped praise on the emotional resilience of people who have lost everything, but, say some, the surface calm masks deep undercurrents of emotion.To be honest I really feel like breaking down and crying -- because I'm sad, said evacuee Kenichi Endo, 45, briefly screwing his eyes shut.I've lost my father, my pet, my car, my savings. I've lost everything. But, everyone here is the same. If I cry, everyone else will, so I can't, he told AFP in a shelter in Onagawa town, clenching his fists into tight balls.Unbearable tragedy was heaped on Japan on March 11 when a 9.0 magnitude quake unleashed a gigantic wave on the country's northeast, killing more than 13,500 people and leaving over 14,000 missing.More than five weeks on and tens of thousands of evacuees are still living in school gymnasiums and other public buildings, sharing their sleeping space with dozens -- sometimes hundreds -- of other people.Under these conditions, emotion remains tightly regulated.Instead, grief appears at unexpected times -- while sleeping, listening to music or even while eating.The one thing I really want now is privacy, said Ken Hiraaki, an evacuee in another shelter. At night I hear people groaning in their dreams. But sometimes my wife wakes me up because I am groaning too.The unwillingness of many survivors to openly discuss their sadness is worrying health professionals, who say it makes them vulnerable to depression and long-term problems.Many people now are in a phase of acute stress disorder, which is a totally natural response to this level of trauma, said Ritsuko Nishimae, a clinical psychologist working with international aid group Doctors Without Borders (MSF) in Minamisanriku.If they are not able to get proper support psychologically, there is an increased possibility that they could develop post-traumatic stress disorder, she said.

In Japan depression continues to carry a stigma it has long shed in much of the West. This is especially marked in rural areas such as the disaster-struck northeast, where community and family ties are strong.It is only in the past decade that metropolitan Japan has begun to tackle taboos on mental illness, with around 900,000 people a year treated for depression, a condition referred to euphemistically as heart flu.Psychiatrists, who are known as heart carers, say many more people could benefit from treatment.When you say psychiatry, people become extremely sensitive. They think it is embarrassing, said Naoki Hayashi, a psychiatrist from Tokyo working in an evacuation centre in Rikuzentakata.They look at me quizzically, as if they're saying, Who are you? So instead of telling them I'm a psychiatrist I just tell them I am a doctor, he added.Survivors feel guilty if they talk about their hurt because everyone is suffering. They feel they can't just come out and talk about it and that's particularly strong in rural areas.Japanese medical groups have sent 115 heart carers to the disaster zone, but only 25 are doctors, with the rest being nurses and other medical staff. At the evacuation centre in Onagawa there was little to indicate the heart caring room was anything out of the ordinary, its tatami mats and low table making it look like an ordinary dining room.The centre's residents were all aware that it was there, but, despite the attempts of professionals to make the room non-threatening, few had ventured in to seek help.Japanese people don't like talking about themselves and their problems to strangers. I'd rather talk to my friends or family, said Keiko Katsumata, 57.

Survivors of World War II are usually even less open to the idea.Even if I do see a doctor like that, he won't solve my problems. I've experienced war, I've gone through a lot. That's where my strength comes from, said 77-year-old Toshiko Sawamura.We, the older generation, are different from the younger generation. They are weaker.

Gas in 6 states, nation's capital tops $4 a gallon
By The Associated Press – Sun Apr 17, 6:38 pm ET

WASHINGTON – Add New York to the growing list of states where gas prices are topping $4 per gallon.On Sunday, the Empire State became the sixth state to top $4 for the average price of a gallon of gas, joining Alaska, California, Connecticut, Hawaii and Illinois, according to AAA's Daily Fuel Gauge. The average price of gas also rose to more than $4 per gallon in Washington, D.C., on Saturday.The next states to join the list could be Michigan, which has gas for $3.95 per gallon on average, and Indiana, where the average price is $3.94. Nevada, Washington and Wisconsin are close behind.Hawaii has the highest price in the U.S. at $4.48 per gallon. Wyoming has the lowest, at $3.54.The national average for gas has increased for 26 straight days, and is now at $3.83 per gallon. That's up 29 cents from a month ago. Retail surveys suggest motorists are reacting to higher prices now by buying less fuel. Still, the government expects pump prices to keep climbing this summer as vacationers take to the highways.For American drivers, the $4 mark harkens back to the summer of 2008, when oil rose to $147 per barrel and gas prices topped out at $4.11 per gallon before the economy went into a tailspin.The rapid increase at the pump follows a parallel rise in oil. Since Labor Day, oil has risen 48 percent and U.S. gas prices have gone up 42 percent. The increases gained momentum in mid-February when a popular rebellion in Libya turned violent and shut down the country's exports. Crude has jumped 30 percent since then, with gas prices gaining 22 percent.

End of QE2 has some investors fearing fall in June
By MATTHEW CRAFT, AP Business Writer – Sun Apr 17, 2:32 pm ET

NEW YORK – Could the financial markets be heading for a June swoon? The answer likely hinges on what happens after the Federal Reserve's $600 billion effort to boost the economy expires. Some investors warn that the end of the program, known as QE2, will upend the stock market and push other markets in unexpected directions.
Under QE2, the Fed buys Treasurys from investors who can then put the money in stocks and other investments. Economists call it quantitative easing, and it is the second time the Fed has used the tactic.Since last August, when Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke outlined the plan, the Standard & Poor's 500 index has gained 26 percent. Many also say it's partly to blame for rising commodity prices on everything from silver to cotton.It's the most important factor that explains markets the way they are now, says David Rolley, co-head of global fixed income at the fund manager Loomis Sayles. So the most important question is what happens when QE2 stops? Ask investors and you get a variety of opinions. Bill Gross, manager of the world's largest mutual fund at Pimco, fears the worst. Take away the largest buyer of Treasurys and, he says, their prices are likely to fall and long-term interest rates likely to rise. That could hurt the economic recovery, and it's one reason his fund has dropped nearly all of its Treasury debt.

Other investors and economists, including those at Goldman Sachs, believe QE2 will expire without a stir. A top Fed official agrees.I wouldn't expect to see a financial market reaction to the termination of that program, said Janet Yellen, vice chair of the Fed's Board of Governors, in a speech in New York. She said that investors have already priced in the end of QE2.Skeptics point to last April when a Fed program to buy mortgage bonds ended. A report by David Rosenberg, chief economist at Gluskin Sheff, outlined what happened between April 23 and August 27:
_The Standard & Poor's 500 index lost 153 points, or 13 percent.
_The yield on the 10-year Treasury sank from 3.84 percent to 2.66 percent, as fears over a double-dip recession sent investors into safer investments.
_Gold rose from $1,140 an ounce to $1,235.

Sure, there's the possibility that the economy can stand on its own two feet now, Rosenberg says. But we haven't seen that happen yet.Another risk? Many investors believe the Fed will extend QE2, despite signs the economy is strengthening. Thirty percent of the 70 economists and money managers surveyed by CNBC in March expect the Fed to keep buying. Failure to do so could sour investors on the stock market.Many investors have become addicted to the Fed's help, says Robert Arnott, chairman of Research Affiliates, a money management firm.Most expect it to be over but secretly hope it won't, he says.There's a whole lot of wishful thinking out there.
Complicating everything is the debate over raising the federal borrowing limit. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner recently said the government may hit the $14.25 trillion debt ceiling as soon as May 16. If Congress fails to raise the limit, the government will lose the ability to sell new bonds to pay off debts coming due. In the worst-case scenario, the government could default, leading to a financial crisis.
All hell breaks lose, Arnott says. To be sure, the economy is more stable than last year. Unemployment has dropped from 9.8 percent to 8.8 percent in four months. Consumer spending has increased for eight months. Fed officials have turned their attention to rising food and fuel prices.Many see the end of Fed support as a badge of good health.We have to take the training wheels off at some point, says Richard Skaggs, equity strategist at Loomis Sayles. He dismisses Rosenberg's argument that stocks could fall and bonds could rise in a repeat performance of 2010.

The past doesn't really repeat itself, Skaggs says.Earlier this year, Skaggs was worried that the Fed's bond-buying was causing stocks to rise too quickly, setting the stage for a fall in June. But stocks dropped in March in response to the earthquake in Japan's earthquake, rising oil prices and other world events.Now Skaggs believes markets rest on more stable ground. When the Fed wraps up its program, the economy and financial markets may wind up better off if it means oil, wheat and other commodity prices drop. I've gone from being nervous to having my fingers crossed,he says.

China raises bank reserves again By Don Durfee and Sally Huang – Sun Apr 17, 8:13 am ET

BEIJING (Reuters) – China raised banks' required reserves on Sunday for the fourth time this year, extending the fight against excessive liquidity and stubbornly high inflation in the world's second-largest economy.The reserve rate rise, which followed an increase in benchmark bank interest rates on April 5, was the seventh since China stepped up efforts against inflation in October and underscored the government's determination to keep the economy on an even keel.The move was not a surprise -- investors predicted more tightening after last week's data showed an acceleration in inflation, and more worryingly, sustained capital inflows that threaten to keep inflationary pressure high.This rise continues the tightening measures of the central bank, said Lin Songli, an economist with Guosen Securities in Beijing. The first-quarter GDP shows that the whole economy is good, so there is still space for tightening.The central bank has also raised interest rates four times since October, slapped price control measures on certain commodities, and clamped down on property speculation.But price pressures driven by soaring global commodity prices and abundant liquidity continue to plague the Chinese economy.

Central bank chief Zhou Xiaochuan said on Saturday that policy tightening will continue for sometime, as inflation is higher that the government is comfortable with.And last week, Premier Wen Jiabao signaled a hawkish stance for the coming months, saying that the government would use all tools at its disposal to wrestle inflation under control.The 50-basis-point increase, effective from April 21, lifted the required reserve ratio for the country's biggest banks to a record 20.5 percent. It will lock up about 350 billion yuan ($53.6 billion) of cash that banks would otherwise be able to lend.

MORE TIGHTENING AHEAD

The latest economic data showed China's turbo-charged economic growth barely slowed in the first quarter, giving the government more confidence to press ahead with policy tightening.I think there will be more required reserves hikes in the coming months, or even this month, but the possibility of an interest rate rise this month is not that big, said Zhu Jianfang, chief economist at Citic Securities in Beijing.
The latest Reuters poll conducted on April 6 showed analysts believe the central bank will raise banks' required reserves three times this year by a total of 150 basis points and increase interest rates just once more this year.But although economists have argued recently that the central bank was near the end of its interest rate tightening cycle, China's economic growth is still cruising near double digits and the scope for China's government to continue tightening may be bigger than previously anticipated.The inflation picture is still worrisome and bank lending rebounded in March, said Zhao Xijun, economist at Renmin University in Beijing. I think the central bank will raise interest rate in the coming weeks -- probably in June.March's inflation data showed consumer prices rising to 5.4 percent in the year to March, the fastest rate since July 2008, from 4.9 percent in the first two months of the year.At the root of China's rising prices is the vast amount of money flowing into economy. Reserve requirements are a direct way of ring-fencing that excess cash, keeping banks from lending out a large chunk of it and thereby slowing money growth.China's foreign exchange reserves swelled by nearly $200 billion in the first quarter to more than $3 trillion, indicating hefty capital inflows given that China had a $1.02 billion trade deficit during the first three months.Meanwhile, Chinese banks extended 679.4 billion yuan ($104 billion) in new local currency loans in March, while the broad M2 measure of money supply rose 16.6 percent from a year earlier, both above market expectations.(Writing by Kevin Yao; Editing by Mike Nesbit)

Grave risk world trade talks to fail: WTO's Lamy
By Doug Palmer – Sat Apr 16, 2:02 pm ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Nearly a decade worth of work to reach a world trade deal is on the verge of failure, World Trade Organization Director General Pascal Lamy said on Saturday in a plea for countries to rise above their own narrow interests for the good of the global economy.The WTO system is in grave risk of not being able to conclude a round started almost 10 years ago, Lamy told members of the International Monetary Fund just a few months after Group of 20 leaders urged negotiators to strike a deal by the end of this year in the long-running talks.Lamy, in a prepared text of his remarks, said the negotiations were stalling on the last hurdles of the Doha round of world trade talks launched in late 2001 with the goal of helping poor countries prosper through trade.He asked finance ministers attending this weekend's meetings of the IMF and the World Bank to go back to your capitals and ask your leaders to consider the cost of failure of these negotiations, both from a micro perspective, as from a macroeconomic point of view.The urgent appeal came as chairs of key WTO negotiating committees were expected to present new documents next week in Geneva showing wide gaps in the negotiations on agriculture, manufactured goods and services at the heart of the talks.The failure of intensified efforts since the start of the year to bridge those differences has caused many to wonder the point of continuing the nearly 10-year-old talks -- and some to conclude they are already dead.

The United States, which has been under pressure since the start to agree to deep cuts in its farm subsidies as part of a deal, has pressed big emerging countries such as China, India and Brazil to make better offer to open their markets to more agriculture, manufactured goods and services exports.Trade ministers from those countries, meeting this week with Russia and South Africa, rallied around a July 2008 draft WTO text they said offered a delicate balance of trade-offs but the United States says it fails to provide enough new export opportunities to make the deal attractive.On Tuesday, European Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht said there was no reason to be optimistic about the chances of success in the Doha talks and said the European Union had to start thinking instead about Plan B, an apparent reference to more bilateral and regional free trade deals.U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk a day later accused China, India and Brazil of shirking their responsibility to further open their markets, not just for the benefit of the United States but for poor countries that make up the bulk of the WTO's 153 members.No three economies have benefited more from trade liberalization over the last 10 years than China, India and Brazil. That's a good thing, Kirk said in a speech.If I can just be blunt, the question is whether they are willing to walk in the room, close the door and hammer out a deal, Kirk said.Lamy did not blame any individual countries in his remarks, but urged governments to look at the wider picture and keep some distance from narrow national interests.Countries can't afford to take for granted the rules-based world trading system that has prevented a repeat of the tit-for-tat trade actions that many blame for the Great Depression, Lamy said.We are not only just forgetting the lessons of the distant past, but also of the recent past, when the system shielded us from worst economic woes, Lamy said.(Reporting by Doug Palmer; editing by Leslie Adler)

Gaddafi presses Libyan rebels, West says no troops
By Alexander Dziadosz – Sun Apr 17, 8:37 pm ET

AJDABIYAH, Libya (Reuters) – Forces loyal to Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi kept up an offensive on the rebels' eastern frontline outpost of Ajdabiyah, while the West again ruled out sending ground troops to help the rebel cause.One witness said he saw around a dozen rockets land near the western entrance to Ajdabiyah, which rebels wanted to use as a staging post to retake the oil port of Brega. Many fled on Sunday as loud explosions boomed across the town.There are still some guys out there at the western gate but the situation isn't very good, said Wassim el-Agouri, a 25-year-old rebel volunteer waiting at Ajdabiyah's eastern gate.We want weapons, modern weapons, said rebel Ayman Aswey, 21.If we had those, we could advance against them.Sunday marked a month since the U.N. Security Council passed a resolution authorising force to protect civilians in Libya, leading to an international air campaign.But despite NATO air strikes against Gaddafi's armor, rebels have been unable to hold gains in weeks of back-and-forth fighting over the coastal towns in eastern Libya.With NATO troops bogged down in Afghanistan, Western countries have ruled out sending ground troops, a position reinforced by the British prime minister on Sunday.What we've said is there is no question of invasion or an occupation -- this is not about Britain putting boots on the ground, David Cameron told Sky News in an interview.

He said outside powers would help in every other way to stop Gaddafi unleashing this hell on people in Misrata and other towns up and down the Libyan coast, including providing non-lethal equipment to the rebels.European Council President Herman van Rompuy said he viewed the Libyan rebel council as a valuable discussion partner ... that embodies the Libyan people's aspirations, a political vote of confidence for a force that has struggled militarily.

STREETS DESERTED

Ajdabiyah's streets were almost deserted by mid-afternoon and rebels barricaded the roads with concrete blocks, tree branches and anything else they could find.Rebel pick-ups patrolled the streets and men took up positions across the town with machineguns and rocket-propelled grenade launchers. Others returned to positions at the western gate with their weapons pointed west and south into the desert.We are ready for a street war. We are prepared. We have got dynamite and we've got grenades, said rebel fighter Emtar el-Farjany, who was holding a stick of dynamite.
Some rebels on Saturday made it into the outskirts of Brega, 50 miles to the west, but many others retreated to Ajdabiyah after six were killed by rockets fired by Gaddafi loyalists on the exposed coastal road joining the two towns.By Sunday, scores of volunteer fighters and civilian cars carrying men, women and children streamed east from Ajdabiyah up the coast road toward Benghazi, where the popular revolt against Gaddafi's 41-year rule began on February 17.In western Libya, the rebel-held city of Misrata has been under government siege for seven weeks, leading to a growing humanitarian crisis. Hundreds of civilians are believed to have been killed in the fighting and shelling of the city.A rebel spokesman said Gaddafi's forces bombarded Misrata again on Sunday, killing at least six people. Abdel Basset Mezerik said at least 47 people were also wounded. The United States, France and Britain said last week they would not stop bombing Gaddafi's forces until he left power, although when or if that would happen was unclear.The rebels pushed hundreds of kilometres toward the capital Tripoli in late March after foreign warplanes began bombing Gaddafi's positions to protect civilians, but proved unable to hold territory and were pushed back as far as Ajdabiyah.From a military point of view, one can currently see there is a stalemate, the head of Germany's intelligence service, Ernst Uhrlau, told the Hamburger Abendblatt newspaper.One cannot predict at the moment how much longer Gaddafi can hold onto power. The area around Tripoli is much stronger in terms of the population and the tribes than the east, he said.

Earlier on Sunday a sandstorm obscured the flat expanse of desert stretching west from Ajdabiyah to Brega. Rebel Ahmed al-Zuwaihi blamed the weather for a lack of NATO air strikes.The weather is no good today. NATO hasn't hit anything, he said.It's a big opportunity for Gaddafi and he's taking advantage of it. He might enter Ajdabiyah today. Today the planes are not going to hit anything.NATO warplanes instead bombed the area of Al-Hira, 50 km (30 miles) southwest of the capital Tripoli and also hit the city of Sirte, Libyan state television said. Bursts of anti-aircraft fire were heard in Tripoli on Sunday evening.

SNIPERS

In Misrata, rebels say they have faced daily bombardment from Gaddafi's forces. The U.S.-based rights group Human Rights Watch has accused Gaddafi's forces of using cluster bombs -- which scatter bomblets over a wide area, increasing civilian casualties. The Libyan government has rejected the allegations. A rebel spokesman, called Abdelsalam, said there was fighting around Misrata's main thoroughfare Tripoli Street.Snipers are firing in all directions, he said.For three days, it was very tough. Gaddafi troops were launching powerful attacks. They have been firing artillery, mortars.Food was running short and long queues formed outside bakeries. Some streets were fast becoming unrecognizable.The Libyan government blames militants allied to al Qaeda for the fighting. Foreign Minister Abdelati Obeidi held talks with U.N. envoy Abdelilah Al-Khatib in Tripoli and condemned the unjustified crusader colonial aggression on Libya.He said Libya was ready to comply with U.N. resolutions to implement a ceasefire and allow the delivery of humanitarian aid, according to the Jana state news agency.(Additional reporting by Mussab Al-Khairalla in Tripoli, Mary-Louise Gumuchian in Sfax and Sami Aboudi in Cairo; Writing by Michael Roddy; Editing by Alex Richardson)

Parshah Kedoshim - Leviticus 19:1-20:27

SINCE WHAT ISRAEL READS WILL BE FULFILLED IN THAT WEEK I WILL BE PUTTING THE WEEKLY TORAH PORTION ON FOR ALL OF US TO KEEP TRACK OF ISRAEL HAPPENINGS.

TORAH PORTION FROM APR 17 2011 6PM - APR 23 6PM 2011

LEVITICUS 19:1 - 20:27
1 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,
2 Speak unto all the congregation of the children of Israel, and say unto them, Ye shall be holy: for I the LORD your God am holy.
3 Ye shall fear every man his mother, and his father, and keep my sabbaths: I am the LORD your God.
4 Turn ye not unto idols, nor make to yourselves molten gods: I am the LORD your God.
5 And if ye offer a sacrifice of peace offerings unto the LORD, ye shall offer it at your own will.
6 It shall be eaten the same day ye offer it, and on the morrow: and if ought remain until the third day, it shall be burnt in the fire.
7 And if it be eaten at all on the third day, it is abominable; it shall not be accepted.
8 Therefore every one that eateth it shall bear his iniquity, because he hath profaned the hallowed thing of the LORD: and that soul shall be cut off from among his people.
9 And when ye reap the harvest of your land, thou shalt not wholly reap the corners of thy field, neither shalt thou gather the gleanings of thy harvest.
10 And thou shalt not glean thy vineyard, neither shalt thou gather every grape of thy vineyard; thou shalt leave them for the poor and stranger: I am the LORD your God.
11 Ye shall not steal, neither deal falsely, neither lie one to another.
12 And ye shall not swear by my name falsely, neither shalt thou profane the name of thy God: I am the LORD.
13 Thou shalt not defraud thy neighbour, neither rob him: the wages of him that is hired shall not abide with thee all night until the morning.
14 Thou shalt not curse the deaf, nor put a stumblingblock before the blind, but shalt fear thy God: I am the LORD.
15 Ye shall do no unrighteousness in judgment: thou shalt not respect the person of the poor, nor honour the person of the mighty: but in righteousness shalt thou judge thy neighbour.
16 Thou shalt not go up and down as a talebearer among thy people: neither shalt thou stand against the blood of thy neighbour: I am the LORD.
17 Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thine heart: thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy neighbour, and not suffer sin upon him.
18 Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself: I am the LORD.
19 Ye shall keep my statutes. Thou shalt not let thy cattle gender with a diverse kind: thou shalt not sow thy field with mingled seed: neither shall a garment mingled of linen and woollen come upon thee.
20 And whosoever lieth carnally with a woman, that is a bondmaid, betrothed to an husband, and not at all redeemed, nor freedom given her; she shall be scourged; they shall not be put to death, because she was not free.
21 And he shall bring his trespass offering unto the LORD, unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, even a ram for a trespass offering.
22 And the priest shall make an atonement for him with the ram of the trespass offering before the LORD for his sin which he hath done: and the sin which he hath done shall be forgiven him.
23 And when ye shall come into the land, and shall have planted all manner of trees for food, then ye shall count the fruit thereof as uncircumcised: three years shall it be as uncircumcised unto you: it shall not be eaten of.
24 But in the fourth year all the fruit thereof shall be holy to praise the LORD withal.
25 And in the fifth year shall ye eat of the fruit thereof, that it may yield unto you the increase thereof: I am the LORD your God.
26 Ye shall not eat any thing with the blood: neither shall ye use enchantment, nor observe times.
27 Ye shall not round the corners of your heads, neither shalt thou mar the corners of thy beard.
28 Ye shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor print any marks upon you: I am the LORD.
29 Do not prostitute thy daughter, to cause her to be a whore; lest the land fall to whoredom, and the land become full of wickedness.
30 Ye shall keep my sabbaths, and reverence my sanctuary: I am the LORD.
31 Regard not them that have familiar spirits, neither seek after wizards, to be defiled by them: I am the LORD your God.
32 Thou shalt rise up before the hoary head, and honour the face of the old man, and fear thy God: I am the LORD.
33 And if a stranger sojourn with thee in your land, ye shall not vex him.
34 But the stranger that dwelleth with you shall be unto you as one born among you, and thou shalt love him as thyself; for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God.
35 Ye shall do no unrighteousness in judgment, in meteyard, in weight, or in measure.
36 Just balances, just weights, a just ephah, and a just hin, shall ye have: I am the LORD your God, which brought you out of the land of Egypt.
37 Therefore shall ye observe all my statutes, and all my judgments, and do them: I am the LORD.

LEVITICUS 20:1-27
1 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,
2 Again, thou shalt say to the children of Israel, Whosoever he be of the children of Israel, or of the strangers that sojourn in Israel, that giveth any of his seed unto Molech; he shall surely be put to death: the people of the land shall stone him with stones.
3 And I will set my face against that man, and will cut him off from among his people; because he hath given of his seed unto Molech, to defile my sanctuary, and to profane my holy name.
4 And if the people of the land do any ways hide their eyes from the man, when he giveth of his seed unto Molech, and kill him not:
5 Then I will set my face against that man, and against his family, and will cut him off, and all that go a whoring after him, to commit whoredom with Molech, from among their people.
6 And the soul that turneth after such as have familiar spirits, and after wizards, to go a whoring after them, I will even set my face against that soul, and will cut him off from among his people.
7 Sanctify yourselves therefore, and be ye holy: for I am the LORD your God.
8 And ye shall keep my statutes, and do them: I am the LORD which sanctify you.
9 For every one that curseth his father or his mother shall be surely put to death: he hath cursed his father or his mother; his blood shall be upon him.
10 And the man that committeth adultery with another man's wife, even he that committeth adultery with his neighbour's wife, the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death.
11 And the man that lieth with his father's wife hath uncovered his father's nakedness: both of them shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them.
12 And if a man lie with his daughter in law, both of them shall surely be put to death: they have wrought confusion; their blood shall be upon them.
13 If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them.
14 And if a man take a wife and her mother, it is wickedness: they shall be burnt with fire, both he and they; that there be no wickedness among you.
15 And if a man lie with a beast, he shall surely be put to death: and ye shall slay the beast.
16 And if a woman approach unto any beast, and lie down thereto, thou shalt kill the woman, and the beast: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them.
17 And if a man shall take his sister, his father's daughter, or his mother's daughter, and see her nakedness, and she see his nakedness; it is a wicked thing; and they shall be cut off in the sight of their people: he hath uncovered his sister's nakedness; he shall bear his iniquity.
18 And if a man shall lie with a woman having her sickness, and shall uncover her nakedness; he hath discovered her fountain, and she hath uncovered the fountain of her blood: and both of them shall be cut off from among their people.
19 And thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy mother's sister, nor of thy father's sister: for he uncovereth his near kin: they shall bear their iniquity.
20 And if a man shall lie with his uncle's wife, he hath uncovered his uncle's nakedness: they shall bear their sin; they shall die childless.
21 And if a man shall take his brother's wife, it is an unclean thing: he hath uncovered his brother's nakedness; they shall be childless.
22 Ye shall therefore keep all my statutes, and all my judgments, and do them: that the land, whither I bring you to dwell therein, spue you not out.
23 And ye shall not walk in the manners of the nation, which I cast out before you: for they committed all these things, and therefore I abhorred them.
24 But I have said unto you, Ye shall inherit their land, and I will give it unto you to possess it, a land that floweth with milk and honey: I am the LORD your God, which have separated you from other people.
25 Ye shall therefore put difference between clean beasts and unclean, and between unclean fowls and clean: and ye shall not make your souls abominable by beast, or by fowl, or by any manner of living thing that creepeth on the ground, which I have separated from you as unclean.
26 And ye shall be holy unto me: for I the LORD am holy, and have severed you from other people, that ye should be mine.
27 A man also or woman that hath a familiar spirit, or that is a wizard, shall surely be put to death: they shall stone them with stones: their blood shall be upon them.

PROPHETS PORTION

AMOS 9:7-15
7 Are ye not as children of the Ethiopians unto me, O children of Israel? saith the LORD. Have not I brought up Israel out of the land of Egypt? and the Philistines from Caphtor, and the Syrians from Kir?
8 Behold, the eyes of the Lord GOD are upon the sinful kingdom, and I will destroy it from off the face of the earth; saving that I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob, saith the LORD.
9 For, lo, I will command, and I will sift the house of Israel among all nations, like as corn is sifted in a sieve, yet shall not the least grain fall upon the earth.
10 All the sinners of my people shall die by the sword, which say, The evil shall not overtake nor prevent us.
11 In that day will I raise up the tabernacle of David that is fallen, and close up the breaches thereof; and I will raise up his ruins, and I will build it as in the days of old:
12 That they may possess the remnant of Edom, and of all the heathen, which are called by my name, saith the LORD that doeth this.
13 Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that the plowman shall overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes him that soweth seed; and the mountains shall drop sweet wine, and all the hills shall melt.
14 And I will bring again the captivity of my people of Israel, and they shall build the waste cities, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and drink the wine thereof; they shall also make gardens, and eat the fruit of them.
15 And I will plant them upon their land, and they shall no more be pulled up out of their land which I have given them, saith the LORD thy God.

EZEKIEL 20:2-20
2 Then came the word of the LORD unto me, saying,
3 Son of man, speak unto the elders of Israel, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Are ye come to enquire of me? As I live, saith the Lord GOD, I will not be enquired of by you.
4 Wilt thou judge them, son of man, wilt thou judge them? cause them to know the abominations of their fathers:
5 And say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; In the day when I chose Israel, and lifted up mine hand unto the seed of the house of Jacob, and made myself known unto them in the land of Egypt, when I lifted up mine hand unto them, saying, I am the LORD your God;
6 In the day that I lifted up mine hand unto them, to bring them forth of the land of Egypt into a land that I had espied for them, flowing with milk and honey, which is the glory of all lands:
7 Then said I unto them, Cast ye away every man the abominations of his eyes, and defile not yourselves with the idols of Egypt: I am the LORD your God.
8 But they rebelled against me, and would not hearken unto me: they did not every man cast away the abominations of their eyes, neither did they forsake the idols of Egypt: then I said, I will pour out my fury upon them, to accomplish my anger against them in the midst of the land of Egypt.
9 But I wrought for my name’s sake, that it should not be polluted before the heathen, among whom they were, in whose sight I made myself known unto them, in bringing them forth out of the land of Egypt.
10 Wherefore I caused them to go forth out of the land of Egypt, and brought them into the wilderness.
11 And I gave them my statutes, and shewed them my judgments, which if a man do, he shall even live in them.
12 Moreover also I gave them my sabbaths, to be a sign between me and them, that they might know that I am the LORD that sanctify them.
13 But the house of Israel rebelled against me in the wilderness: they walked not in my statutes, and they despised my judgments, which if a man do, he shall even live in them; and my sabbaths they greatly polluted: then I said, I would pour out my fury upon them in the wilderness, to consume them.
14 But I wrought for my name’s sake, that it should not be polluted before the heathen, in whose sight I brought them out.
15 Yet also I lifted up my hand unto them in the wilderness, that I would not bring them into the land which I had given them, flowing with milk and honey, which is the glory of all lands;
16 Because they despised my judgments, and walked not in my statutes, but polluted my sabbaths: for their heart went after their idols.
17 Nevertheless mine eye spared them from destroying them, neither did I make an end of them in the wilderness.
18 But I said unto their children in the wilderness, Walk ye not in the statutes of your fathers, neither observe their judgments, nor defile yourselves with their idols:
19 I am the LORD your God; walk in my statutes, and keep my judgments, and do them;
20 And hallow my sabbaths; and they shall be a sign between me and you, that ye may know that I am the LORD your God.

NEW TESTAMENT PORTION

MATTHEW 5:33-37,43-48
33 Again, ye have heard that it hath been said by them of old time, Thou shalt not forswear thyself, but shalt perform unto the Lord thine oaths:
34 But I say unto you, Swear not at all; neither by heaven; for it is God’s throne:
35 Nor by the earth; for it is his footstool: neither by Jerusalem; for it is the city of the great King.
36 Neither shalt thou swear by thy head, because thou canst not make one hair white or black.
37 But let your communication be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay: for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil.
43 Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy.
44 But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;
45 That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.
46 For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same?
47 And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the publicans so?
48 Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.

MATTHEW 15:1-11
1 Then came to Jesus scribes and Pharisees, which were of Jerusalem, saying,
2 Why do thy disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? for they wash not their hands when they eat bread.
3 But he answered and said unto them, Why do ye also transgress the commandment of God by your tradition?
4 For God commanded, saying, Honour thy father and mother: and, He that curseth father or mother, let him die the death.
5 But ye say, Whosoever shall say to his father or his mother, It is a gift, by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me;
6 And honour not his father or his mother, he shall be free. Thus have ye made the commandment of God of none effect by your tradition.
7 Ye hypocrites, well did Esaias prophesy of you, saying,
8 This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me.
9 But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.
10 And he called the multitude, and said unto them, Hear, and understand:
11 Not that which goeth into the mouth defileth a man; but that which cometh out of the mouth, this defileth a man.

MATTHEW 19:16-30
16 And, behold, one came and said unto him, Good Master, what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life?
17 And he said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God: but if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments.
18 He saith unto him, Which? Jesus said, Thou shalt do no murder, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness,
19 Honour thy father and thy mother: and, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
20 The young man saith unto him, All these things have I kept from my youth up: what lack I yet?
21 Jesus said unto him, If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come and follow me.
22 But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful: for he had great possessions.
23 Then said Jesus unto his disciples, Verily I say unto you, That a rich man shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven.
24 And again I say unto you, It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.
25 When his disciples heard it, they were exceedingly amazed, saying, Who then can be saved?
26 But Jesus beheld them, and said unto them, With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible.
27 Then answered Peter and said unto him, Behold, we have forsaken all, and followed thee; what shall we have therefore?
28 And Jesus said unto them, Verily I say unto you, That ye which have followed me, in the regeneration when the Son of man shall sit in the throne of his glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.
29 And every one that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my name’s sake, shall receive an hundredfold, and shall inherit everlasting life.
30 But many that are first shall be last; and the last shall be first.

MATTHEW 22:33-40
33 And when the multitude heard this, they were astonished at his doctrine.
34 But when the Pharisees had heard that he had put the Sadducees to silence, they were gathered together.
35 Then one of them, which was a lawyer, asked him a question, tempting him, and saying,
36 Master, which is the great commandment in the law?
37 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
38 This is the first and great commandment.
39 And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
40 On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

MARK 7:1-23
1 Then came together unto him the Pharisees, and certain of the scribes, which came from Jerusalem.
2 And when they saw some of his disciples eat bread with defiled, that is to say, with unwashen, hands, they found fault.
3 For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, except they wash their hands oft, eat not, holding the tradition of the elders.
4 And when they come from the market, except they wash, they eat not. And many other things there be, which they have received to hold, as the washing of cups, and pots, brasen vessels, and of tables.
5 Then the Pharisees and scribes asked him, Why walk not thy disciples according to the tradition of the elders, but eat bread with unwashen hands?
6 He answered and said unto them, Well hath Esaias prophesied of you hypocrites, as it is written, This people honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.
7 Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.
8 For laying aside the commandment of God, ye hold the tradition of men, as the washing of pots and cups: and many other such like things ye do.
9 And he said unto them, Full well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition.
10 For Moses said, Honour thy father and thy mother; and, Whoso curseth father or mother, let him die the death:
11 But ye say, If a man shall say to his father or mother, It is Corban, that is to say, a gift, by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me; he shall be free.
12 And ye suffer him no more to do ought for his father or his mother;
13 Making the word of God of none effect through your tradition, which ye have delivered: and many such like things do ye.
14 And when he had called all the people unto him, he said unto them, Hearken unto me every one of you, and understand:
15 There is nothing from without a man, that entering into him can defile him: but the things which come out of him, those are they that defile the man.
16 If any man have ears to hear, let him hear.
17 And when he was entered into the house from the people, his disciples asked him concerning the parable.
18 And he saith unto them, Are ye so without understanding also? Do ye not perceive, that whatsoever thing from without entereth into the man, it cannot defile him;
19 Because it entereth not into his heart, but into the belly, and goeth out into the draught, purging all meats?
20 And he said, That which cometh out of the man, that defileth the man.
21 For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders,
22 Thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness:
23 All these evil things come from within, and defile the man.

MARK 12:28-34
28 And one of the scribes came, and having heard them reasoning together, and perceiving that he had answered them well, asked him, Which is the first commandment of all?
29 And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord:
30 And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment.
31 And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these.
32 And the scribe said unto him, Well, Master, thou hast said the truth: for there is one God; and there is none other but he:
33 And to love him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the soul, and with all the strength, and to love his neighbour as himself, is more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.
34 And when Jesus saw that he answered discreetly, he said unto him, Thou art not far from the kingdom of God. And no man after that durst ask him any question.

LUKE 10:25-37
25 And, behold, a certain lawyer stood up, and tempted him, saying, Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?
26 He said unto him, What is written in the law? how readest thou?
27 And he answering said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself.
28 And he said unto him, Thou hast answered right: this do, and thou shalt live.
29 But he, willing to justify himself, said unto Jesus, And who is my neighbour?
30 And Jesus answering said, A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, which stripped him of his raiment, and wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead.
31 And by chance there came down a certain priest that way: and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side.
32 And likewise a Levite, when he was at the place, came and looked on him, and passed by on the other side.
33 But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was: and when he saw him, he had compassion on him,
34 And went to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him.
35 And on the morrow when he departed, he took out two pence, and gave them to the host, and said unto him, Take care of him; and whatsoever thou spendest more, when I come again, I will repay thee.
36 Which now of these three, thinkest thou, was neighbour unto him that fell among the thieves?
37 And he said, He that shewed mercy on him. Then said Jesus unto him, Go, and do thou likewise.

ROMANS 13:8-10
8 Owe no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law.
9 For this, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Thou shalt not covet; and if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
10 Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.

GALATIONS 5:13-26
13 For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another.
14 For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
15 But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another.
16 This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.
17 For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.
18 But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law.
19 Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness,
20 Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies,
21 Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,
23 Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.
24 And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.
25 If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.
26 Let us not be desirous of vain glory, provoking one another, envying one another.

JAMES 2:1-9
1 My brethren, have not the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with respect of persons.
2 For if there come unto your assembly a man with a gold ring, in goodly apparel, and there come in also a poor man in vile raiment;
3 And ye have respect to him that weareth the gay clothing, and say unto him, Sit thou here in a good place; and say to the poor, Stand thou there, or sit here under my footstool:
4 Are ye not then partial in yourselves, and are become judges of evil thoughts?
5 Hearken, my beloved brethren, Hath not God chosen the poor of this world rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom which he hath promised to them that love him?
6 But ye have despised the poor. Do not rich men oppress you, and draw you before the judgment seats?
7 Do not they blaspheme that worthy name by the which ye are called?
8 If ye fulfil the royal law according to the scripture, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself, ye do well:
9 But if ye have respect to persons, ye commit sin, and are convinced of the law as transgressors.

1 PETER 1:13-21
13 Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ;
14 As obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance:
15 But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation;
16 Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy.
17 And if ye call on the Father, who without respect of persons judgeth according to every man’s work, pass the time of your sojourning here in fear:
18 Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers;
19 But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot:
20 Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you,
21 Who by him do believe in God, that raised him up from the dead, and gave him glory; that your faith and hope might be in God.

25 DEAD IN 6 SATES FROM TORNADOES

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.

At least 25 dead in 6 states after storm's rampage
TOM BREEN and MIKE BAKER, Associated Press - APR 17,11

RALEIGH, N.C. – A furious storm system that kicked up tornadoes, flash floods and hail as big as softballs has claimed at least 25 lives on a rampage that began in Oklahoma days ago, then smashed across several Southern states as it reached a new and deadly pitch in North Carolina and Virginia.Emergency crews searched for victims in hard-hit swaths of North Carolina, where 62 tornadoes were reported from the worst spring storm in two decades to hit the state. At least a half dozen people died just in the Carolinas and Virginia and authorities warned the toll was likely to rise further Sunday as searchers probed shattered homes and businesses.
Authorities said at least five people were killed in North Carolina and at least three more in neighboring Virginia during the storm's passage Saturday before the sprawling, potent storm bands moved eastward over the Atlantic.The storms claimed its first lives Thursday night in Oklahoma, then roared through Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia. Seven people each were killed in Arkansas and Alabama, two people in Oklahoma and one person in Mississippi, authorities have said. One of the dead was an elderly man whose trailer was tossed nearly a quarter mile across a state highway.In North Carolina, Gov. Beverly Perdue declared a state of emergency after reporting fatalities in at least four counties. But she declined to immediately confirm an exact number of deaths. She said the 62 tornadoes reported were the most since March 1984, when a storm system spawned 22 twisters in the Carolinas that killed 57 people — 42 in North Carolina — and injured hundreds.Our thoughts and prayers are with everybody in North Carolina who has been through this horrible day, Perdue said.

Authorities in North Carolina said they would provide more details of the death toll later Sunday after checking on the reports of fatalities in at least four counties and in the capital city of Raleigh. Search and rescue teams operated through the night, Perdue said, with damage assessments starting in earnest Sunday after daylight.There's a lot of work that needs to be done in these areas that are most heavily impacted, said Doug Hoell, the state's director of emergency management.There's a lot of debris out there that's got to be cleaned up.In Virginia, disaster officials said one apparent tornado ripped more than 12 miles long through Gloucester County, uprooting trees and pounding homes to rubble while claiming three lives. Another person was confirmed dead and another remained missing early Sunday after flash flooding elsewhere in Virginia.Scenes of destruction across the South looked eerily similar in many areas.In North Carolina, rooftops were ripped off stores, trees were plucked from the ground and scores of homes were damaged, Hoell said.At one point more than 250,000 people went without power in North Carolina before emergency utility crews began repairing downed lines. But scattered outages were expected to linger at least until Monday before power was fully restored..Among areas hit by power outages was Raleigh, a bustling city of more than 400,000 people where some of the bigger downtown thoroughfares were blocked by fallen trees early Sunday.The storm sweeping into North Carolina moved from the state's western mountain reaches to the coast on Saturday amid utter devastation in some places.Police and rescue crews began conducting house-to-house searches later Saturday at a mobile home park in north Raleigh, where the storm snapped some trees in half, ripped others out of the ground and tossed some trailers from one side of a street to the other.In Sanford, about 40 miles southwest of Raleigh, a busy shopping district was pummeled by the storms, with some businesses losing rooftops in what observers described as a ferocious tornado. The Lowe's Home Improvement Center in Sanford looked flattened, with jagged beams and wobbly siding sticking up from the pancaked entrance. Cars in the parking lot were flipped by the winds.

It's very, very bad here, said Monica Elliott, who works at the nearby Brick City Grill. We saw a tornado that just rode up over the restaurant.Remarkably, no one was seriously injured at the Lowe's, thanks to a quick-thinking manager who herded more than 100 people into a back area with no windows to shatter.It was really just a bad scene, said Jeff Blocker, Lowe's regional vice president for eastern North Carolina. You're just amazed that no one was injured.Cindy Hall, a Red Cross volunteer and outreach minister at First Baptist Church in Sanford, said dozens of homes in the area were damaged.It wiped out our St. Andrews neighborhood, which includes about 30 homes,she said.To the west, hikers stranded by flash floods had to be rescued.In Virginia, Department of Emergency Management spokesman Bob Spieldenner, said an apparent tornado ploughed through communities of Gloucester County, destroying or damaging homes, uprooting trees in a quiet farming and fishing region along the Chesapeake Bay.I know it was a pretty long path, he said of the reported tornado.They estimated it was 12 to 14 miles based on 911 emergency calls. Authorities said at least three deaths had been confirmed in Gloucester County and at least 60 were injured, most with minor injuries. Spieldenner said one person was killed when a vehicle ran into flash flooding near Waynesboro and another person was missing and a third rescued.He reported homes and mobile homes damaged and destroyed in a series of other Virginia counties and flash flooding west of Charlottesville that prompted water rescues — including four people rescued unhurt from a car that had plunged into deep water flowing over a street.Associated Press writers Page Ivey in Columbia, S.C., Jackie Quinn in Washington, D.C., and Jeff Martin and Jacob Jordan in Atlanta contributed to this report.

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/143608
Chief Rabbi Warns Obama Re-Election May Hinge on Freeing Pollard
by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu APR 17,11

Chief Rabbi of Israel Yona Metzger warned U.S. President Barack Obama in a pre-Passover sermon that he may lose a bid for re-election if he does not free Jonathan Pollard.Speaking at the Yeshurun Synagogue in Jerusalem, Rabbi Metzger stated,This is not a prophecy, but added his feeling is that many Jews who voted for President Obama in 2008 are disappointed by his apathetic response to numerous calls to free Pollard.Pollard is serving a life term in an American prison for passing on to Israel classified information, an offense that usually is met with a prison sentence of two to four years.Rabbi Metzger added, Before President Obama forces on us policies [concerning the Palestinian Authority], he should prove his mutual friendliness with the People of Israel by freeing Pollard. The Chief Rabbi visited Pollard in his prison cell three years ago.Numerous American officials lately have called for the ailing Pollard to be freed and have admitted that the sentencing was unfair.(IsraelNationalNews.com)

Housing Minister Confirms De Facto Building Freeze in Jerusalem
by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu APR 17,11

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has surrendered to U.S. President Barack Obama and in effect has frozen almost all new housing in parts of Jerusalem claimed by the PA, according to Housing Minister Ariel Attias, a member of the government coalition partner Shas party. The office of the Prime Minister categorically denied the charge.

Minister Attias accused the Prime Minister not only of carrying out a policy contrary to public statements but also of worsening the housing crisis by shelving plans to build 2,500 new residential units in United Jerusalem as well as 5,000 others in Judea and Samaria.In an interview with the Mishpacha (Family) newspaper, Minister Attias stated, The facts are correct, and to my great sorrow, I do not see any substantial changes.The Housing Minister said that he cannot market the new housing units, which he said have passed the necessary bureaucratic approvals, because the government has not allowed tenders to be issued for contractors.
Mishpacha added, The office of the Prime Minister said that the American government has not agreed to new construction but added that this has been the American position for 40 years. Except for 238 units, there is no new building for Jews in eastern, southern and northern Jerusalem areas restored to Israel in the Six-Day War in 1967.Publicly, Prime Minister has stated several times that there is no freeze on building new homes for Jews in all of Jerusalem. Mark Regev, spokesman for Prime Minister Netanyahu, told Israel National News Sunday morning that he has not seen the report in Mishpacha but that stated, There never has been a freeze on building in Jerusalem.Minister Attias said that that following last year’s announcement by Jerusalem of new construction – at the same U.S. Vice President Joe Biden was visiting Israel – Prime Minister Netanyahu promised President Obama President Obama the incident would not be repeated and promised to halt new building.Last December, Attias said in the Knesset that there are thousands of housing units awaiting sale in Jerusalem but that none have been marketed since December. Last month, he stated that there was a shortage of at least 6,000 homes and apartments in Jerusalem

A year and a half ago, Netanyahu took the unprecedented step of freezing new construction for Jews in Judea and Samaria for 10 months to satisfy Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas’s condition for resuming direct talks with Israel over the establishment of the PA as a new Arab country.Abbas then backtracked, insisting that the freeze as not extensive enough. He has demanded that it cover all of Jerusalem as well as Judea and Samaria. The freeze has since expired officially, but Defense Minister Ehud Barak has refused to sign the necessary papers to authorize new building for thousands of homes in Judea and Samaria, where Jews officially are under military control.(IsraelNationalNews.com)

Israel Warned not to Enable PA State Now
by Hillel Fendel APR 17,11

Arab-affairs expert Prof. Mordechai Kedar of Bar Ilan University says Israel would be clearly suicidal in enabling a Palestinian state, in light of the revolutionary fever sweeping the Arab world.In the latest edition of his weekly column entitled Middle Eastern Insights, Kedar writes that given the calls in Egypt to abrogate its peace treaty with Israel, and the shakiness of even the Jordanian regime, Israel cannot afford to consider entering into a process that would lead to the formation of a Palestinian state in Judea and Samaria. This is especially true, he adds, now that we already have a terror state in Gaza that torments Israel with rockets and missiles made there or smuggled from Iran.:

No Guarantees
There is no country in the world that can guarantee that the Arab League commitment to recognize Israel will be honored by a new Palestinian state, Kedar warns, particularly if it is again taken over by Hamas through elections as in January 2006 or a military coup as in June 2007.Kedar states that if the Arab League wants to persuade Israel to accept the API [Arab Peace Initiative], it must treat Israel as a negotiating partner and engage in serious discussions of conditions for peace… But the words of [diplomatic adviser to Saudi King Abdullah] Mohammad Al Zulfa, spoken to the Arab nation, point to a different outcome: the Saudis and the Arab summit have no intention save the defeat of Israel without a fight, by means of false premises that harbor no commitment to real implementation.In short, Kedar says, Israel must not enter into negotiations at this point, and it and the world must wait patiently until the smoke clears.(IsraelNationalNews.com)

LAND FOR PEACE (THE FUTURE 7 YEARS OF HELL ON EARTH)

JOEL 3:2
2 I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and will plead with them there for my people and for my heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and parted my land.

THE WEEK OF DANIEL 9:27 WE KNOW ITS 7 YRS

Heres the scripture 1 week = 7 yrs Genesis 29:27-29
27 Fulfil her week, and we will give thee this also for the service which thou shalt serve with me yet seven other years.
28 And Jacob did so, and fulfilled her week: and he gave him Rachel his daughter to wife also.
29 And Laban gave to Rachel his daughter Bilhah his handmaid to be her maid.

DANIEL 11:21-23
21 And in his estate shall stand up a vile person, to whom they shall not give the honour of the kingdom: but he shall come in peaceably, and obtain the kingdom by flatteries.
23 And after the league made with him he shall work deceitfully: for he shall come up, and shall become strong with a small people.
24 He shall enter peaceably even upon the fattest places of the province; and he shall do that which his fathers have not done, nor his fathers' fathers; he shall scatter among them the prey, and spoil, and riches: yea, and he shall forecast his devices against the strong holds, even for a time.

DANIEL 9:26-27
26 And after threescore and two weeks(62X7=434 YEARS+7X7=49 YEARS=TOTAL OF 69 WEEKS OR 483 YRS) shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary;(ROMAN LEADERS DESTROYED THE 2ND TEMPLE) and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined.(THERE HAS TO BE 70 WEEKS OR 490 YRS TO FUFILL THE VISION AND PROPHECY OF DAN 9:24).(THE NEXT VERSE IS THAT 7 YR WEEK OR (70TH FINAL WEEK).
27 And he( THE ROMAN,EU PRESIDENT) shall confirm the covenant with many for one week:(1X7=7 YEARS) and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease,(3 1/2 yrs in TEMPLE SACRIFICES STOPPED) and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.

JEREMIAH 6:14
14 They have healed also the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace.

JEREMIAH 8:11
11 For they have healed the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace.

1 THESSALONIANS 5:3
3 For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape.

ISAIAH 28:14-19 (THIS IS THE 7 YR TREATY COVENANT OF DANIEL 9:27)
14 Wherefore hear the word of the LORD, ye scornful men, that rule this people which is in Jerusalem.
15 Because ye have said, We have made a covenant with death, and with hell are we at agreement; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto us: for we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves:
16 Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation: he that believeth shall not make haste.
17 Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet: and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place.
18 And your covenant with death shall be disannulled, and your agreement with hell shall not stand; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, then ye shall be trodden down by it.
19 From the time that it goeth forth it shall take you: for morning by morning shall it pass over, by day and by night: and it shall be a vexation only to understand the report.

The Two State and Peace Delusion by Prof. Efraim Inbar APR 17,11

Israel is under pressure to present a new peace initiative, but the bad news is that the differences between Israelis and Palestinians are unbridgeable in this generation. Sent from The BESA (Begin Sadat) Center for Strategic Studies: Perspectives Paper No. 136

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: Israel is under pressure to present a new peace initiative, but the wisdom of such a move is not self-evident. While a peace initiative may deflect some of the international criticism, it is unlikely to bring about conflict resolution – it will hardly meet the approval of the Palestinians or even the Americans. Moreover, it will propagate the fallacy of a two-state solution, which until now has totally failed. The Israeli government seems to be under great international pressure to come up with a peace initiative. The politically discredited Israeli peace camp has also joined the fray and is pushing again for an almost total withdrawal to the 1967 lines, the partition of Jerusalem and limited land swaps.Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has been partly responsive to the international atmosphere and has indicated that he is preparing some kind of initiative, although its specifics are still under internal discussion. Another Bar-Ilan speech seems to be in the offing for sometime in May, during a planned visit to the US. It is not entirely clear, however, that accommodating the wishful thinking of the international community is wise.

The fact that the Palestinian Authority (PA) leadership refuses to sit and negotiate with the Israelis leaves much of the world unperturbed, continuously evoking Pavlovian responses about the need to pursue peace negotiations while there is a window of opportunity (whatever that means). The fact that the PA is very weak, hardly rules over the West Bank and failed to hold onto Gaza – which shows its unreliability as a partner able to implement an agreement with Israel – is ignored. A large part of the world instead deludes itself in believing that an understanding between the Israelis and Palestinians is within easy reach.The bad news, which is that the differences between Israelis and Palestinians are unbridgeable in this generation and that the two societies are not yet tired of fighting for what is important to them, seems to be extremely hard to digest. While protracted conflict is a well understood feature that characterizes ethno-religious disputes in such places as Kashmir and Nagorno-Karabakh, the difficulties in solving such conflicts do not register in the minds of many contemporary politicians and diplomats.
Ironically, the protagonists in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict are more mature and understand their predicament. All polls show that large majorities of Israelis and Palestinians do not expect conflict resolution any time soon and are fully aware that peace is not around the corner.If this tragic prognosis of the conflict is any indication, how can an Israeli peace initiative do any good? Most members of the current Israeli government agree with the prognosis, but some believe that it is up to Israel to show additional flexibility in order to fend off international criticism, particularly from Washington. Moreover, an Israeli peace initiative will preempt initiatives by other actors that would otherwise be unlikely to accommodate Israel’s best interests, and will give the international community something to chew on in the meantime, enabling Israel to have some added breathing space.

This strategy of gaining time, in the hope that the world will eventually develop a better understanding of the situation and/or that the Arabs will become less intransigent, has always been a central part of Israeli policy.The first problem with this approach is that Israel is unable to offer anything acceptable to the Palestinians. Whatever Netanyahu comes up with, it will not satisfy Palestinian appetites. Even the so-called moderates are unlikely to accept a generous Israeli offer, as the 2000 Ehud Barak and 2008 Ehud Olmert overtures proved.The recent responses to Wikileaks by the Palestinian moderates, who showed some flexibility on their part in the secret negotiations with Israel, are indicative of the reluctance to prepare their people for concessions toward Israel. Instead of capitalizing on the opportunity to tell their people that some concessions are needed to reach a historic agreement with the Zionist national movement, they cowardly denied that any concessions had been agreed upon. This starkly contrasts with the behavior of Barak and Olmert, who never denied that they had gone beyond the preferences of their constituency.The second problem with this approach is that a new peace initiative is likely to be based upon the already prevailing paradigm – the two-state solution – which simply does not work. The world, including Israel, continues to adhere to a plan that has failed to materialize in the past and has little chance of fruition in the near future.Actually, much of the international community understands that a potential Palestinian state requires much outside support and has been pouring great amounts of money into such a state-building project. Moreover, part of the international community, including the Palestinians, are suggesting the establishment of a UN mandate or an international trusteeship, based on the realization that the maturity needed for effective self-rule is absent in Palestinian polity.

Nowadays, when most Arab states, which have been in existence for decades, are in turmoil and facing acute socio-political crisis, it is very hard to believe that the Palestinians are going to do any better. The likelihood of a failed Palestinian state, like many others in the Arab world, is much higher than that of a stable, prospering and peaceful neighbor of Israel. Thus, an Israeli peace initiative will only further entrench the fallacy of the two-state solution within the agenda of the international community, rather than encourage realistic and creative thinking about more useful plans and strategies.Finally, telling the truth has a certain appeal despite widespread international ignorance, cynicism and hypocrisy. Therefore, Netanyahu may be well advised to try, for once, telling Israel’s friends – and there are still many around – that while peace with the Palestinians is not a realistic goal, Israel can still take certain measures to ameliorate the situation. Therefore, what Israel needs is not to pursue an elusive peace but to develop a coherent conflict management strategy that will minimize the suffering on both sides of the Israeli-Palestinian divide. It is worth remembering that politics is the art of the possible. Mission: Impossible was an attractive TV show, but reality is much more complex.Nissan 13, 5771 / 17 April 11

BRICKS MEET ON GLOBAL MONEY SYSTEM

CHINA DAILY PHOTO OF BRICK MEETING ON GLOBAL MONEY SYSTEM

YUAN - SDRS - GLOBAL CURRENCY TALK

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

Laying BRICS for new edifice By Dan Steinbock (China Daily)
Updated: 2011-04-13 07:55

On April 14, President Hu Jintao will meet with Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and South African President Jacob Zuma. The third formal meeting of BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, and China) includes South Africa for the first time. In the past, the advanced economies empowered the world economy. Today, large emerging economies drive global growth. In the emerging world, the future is a source of hope and optimism. In the advanced world, it is often a cause for ambivalence and resignation. In the long run, however, the rise of the large emerging economies is vital to global peace and prosperity. The concept of the BRIC was developed in the early 2000s by Jim O'Neill, then global economist of Goldman Sachs. At the time, these four economies were less than 15 percent of G6 (the United States, Japan, Germany, France, the United Kingdom and Italy) in US dollar terms. Yet projections indicated that by the early 2040s the BRIC economies could be larger than G6. Of course, nothing is inevitable in history. As a group, however, BRIC has emerged from the global credit crisis better than the major economies. As a result, the BRIC economies could become as big as G7 by the early 2030s.

In the early 2000s, Goldman Sachs projected that China's total GDP would catch up with the US' by 2042. After the past decade and the global financial crisis, however, the pace of transition has accelerated. Now it appears that China's GDP may match that of the US by the early 2020s.The global crisis and the debt burden of the advanced economies will tax their growth for years to come, whereas the BRIC economies may grow twice as fast. And these large emerging economies are followed by mini-BRICs, including Indonesia, the Philippines, Egypt, Turkey, Vietnam and Nigeria.A strong BRIC growth does not require economic miracles. But it does presume macroeconomic stability, relatively high investment rates and trade openness, increasing technological capabilities, growing emphasis on human capital, and political stability.Now Africa has a representative in the BRIC alignment. In the future, some North African and Middle Eastern countries, too, may join the BRIC league. In the postwar era, Egypt, led by Gamal Abdel Nasser, emerged as the leader of the Arab world. But the gains of globalization have largely bypassed Egypt and its 80 million people despite the great economic potential. In 1980, Egyptians on average were almost 65 percent more prosperous than Chinese. Last year, the Chinese were 15 percent more prosperous than the Egyptians, at purchasing power parity.One of the most remarkable aspects of the rise of the BRIC economies is the severed tie between total GDP and per capita GDP, that is, the economic power of nations and the average prosperity of their citizens. In the past, the two used to go hand in hand. In the future, that will no longer be the case.In the 19th century, Britain was the growth engine of the world, and Britons had a relatively high per capita GDP. In the postwar era, the US was the strongest nation, while Americans were the most prosperous people on average. As global growth will be driven by the BRIC economies, the most powerful countries will no longer be the most prosperous.

As long as growth can be sustained in the advanced and emerging economies, all nations can benefit. That is the win-win story. But for that, we need a globalization that is more inclusive in kind.Economically, the epicenter of the global crisis was the financial sector in the West. In the future, it should pay for excessive risk taking. In the absence of appropriate financial sector reforms, the great global recession would only be a prelude to the next one. Strategically, the postwar multilateral institutions - as forums of global cooperation - must reflect on the proportionate role of the BRIC economies, especially in the United Nations, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).Since 2005, the advanced economies have urged China to become a responsible stakeholder in the international community. But if the multilateral institutions do not reflect the proportionate economic share and political voice of the large emerging economies, they can hardly be considered responsible.Under unchanged policies, the IMF says the net debt-to-GDP ratio of G7 would exceed 440 percent by 2050. Does that reflect responsible leadership? In the West, the rise of the BRIC economies is occasionally said to be a threat to market economy. Yet the reality is the opposite. A decade ago, about 80 percent of Americans saw the free market as the best economic system for the future. After the global financial crisis, this support has plummeted to 59 percent, according to GlobeScan. In China and Brazil, the corresponding support is 67 percent. In India, it's about the same as in the US.In the coming years, the economic rise of BRICS (BRIC + South Africa) will gradually translate into increasing political power, which will not minimize the value of other multilateral forums. It will only highlight the importance of new forums.Until recently, the world was led by the multilateralism of the few in the West. In the future, it will be led by more inclusive multilateralism of the many - in the West and the East both.The author is research director of International Business at the India, China and America Institute, an independent think tank in the US, and visiting fellow at Shanghai Institutes for International Studies.(China Daily 04/13/2011 page9)

New reserve system priority for G20 By Zheng Xinli (China Daily)
Updated: 2011-04-15 07:33

Establishing a multi-currency international reserve system and monitoring mechanism should be a priority for the G20.From the second half of 2008, a financial storm that originated in the United States swept across the world. The root cause of this crisis was the US' long-term abuse of sovereign credit, the misuse of its status as a global major reserve currency issuing country and the promotion of twin deficits in its current account and the fiscal budget. The situation was further aggravated by the maintenance of US citizens' excessive consumption and the US government's over spending.Any chance of preventing a financial crisis was lost when US credit rating agencies covered up the sovereign credit risk, reversed the risk relationship between debtor countries and creditor countries, and attracted international capital to high-risk regions.Now that the origins of the financial crisis have been identified, we should develop a strategy to prevent such a crisis from happening again, and build a more efficient and safer global financial system. This is a key responsibility for the governments of the world.The priority is to establish a multi-currency international monetary system, an international reserve currency monitoring and early warning system, and an international financial risk relief mechanism.

Establishing a multi-currency international reserve currency system is a fundamental way to maintain the stability of the international financial system. Such a global multi-currency reserve system could include the US dollar, the euro, yuan, yen, pound sterling and other currencies.There are competition, checks and balances, and intermediation among currencies. A multi-currency system would encourage international reserve currency issuing countries' governments to adopt a prudent monetary policy to keep their currencies stable and maintain their sovereign credit.

Only by establishing such an international reserve currency system, can the international financial system overcome its over-reliance on a single sovereign currency and avoid excessive exposure to the risks of one currency.With the collapse of the Bretton Woods System in the 1970s, international currencies decoupled from gold. The US dollar, which was based on the US' sovereign credit, became the major reserve currency. This allowed the US to transfer debt to foreign countries through currency depreciation. From 1971 to 2010, the US dollar depreciated 97.2 percent against gold, causing huge losses to countries holding US dollars.Depreciation of the dollar slowly steals the wealth of owners with dollar-dominated assets, but the recent financial crisis made some dollar-denominated securities vanish instantly. It indicates that as the world's major reserve currency issuing country, the US' financial security is related to the vital interests of everyone. Therefore, an early warning and monitoring system for the supply and circulation of any major reserve currency is also essential.However, the creation of a more efficient and safer international financial system should be gradual, the position of the US dollar as the dominant international reserve currency is irreplaceable in the near future. Given the negative affects the implementation of the quantitative easing policy by the Federal Reserve Board had on the global economy and financial stability, we should study common approaches in order to maintain the fragile recovery of the world economy.With the increasingly close economic ties among countries, any financial problems for one country mean problems for others. In order to maintain international financial stability, all countries should unite and establish an international financial safety cooperation and risk relief mechanism. The Chiang Mai Initiative, which was created in the wake of the Asia financial crisis, is a good example of such a mechanism.In the short term the International Monetary Fund should expand the scale of its Special Drawing Rights (SDR), adjust the proportion of SDR for each country based on proportional changes in their economy and global trade, and include currencies of emerging economies in the SDR basket. If one country is hit by a financial crisis, the IMF could give timely and effective relief to prevent the crisis from spreading.

To facilitate the creation of a competitive international multi-currency reserve system a permanent G20 executive office should be created. This office should then be responsible for monitoring the system and where necessary restricting the large-scale flow of international capital aimed at short-term arbitrage.The large-scale short-term flow of international capital and its speculation are an important cause of international financial volatility. Each country should take united action to strengthen the restrictions on international hot money, such as regulations on the time limits of capital inflow and outflow, and the collection of capital gains tax, etc.Directing investment into the real economy and using the capital and technology of developed countries to realize the industrialization and urbanization of developing countries would not only ease global inflation pressures but also create employment in developed countries and promote common development in all countries. The executive office should be mandated to mediate the investment channels and attract excess liquid capital to the real economy. This should be done through the admission of qualified institutional investors and various funds, providing sound capital market functions, and expanding inter-government aid loans, in order to attract capital to nations and regions with high investment demands.It should also reconstruct the international credit rating system, strengthen the professional ethics for credit rating agencies, break the monopoly of a few agencies on international credit ratings, and promote the objectivity and fairness of credit ratings.The author is executive vice-president of the China Center for International Economic Exchanges.

IMF warning: Many European banks on shaky ground
Updated: 2011-04-14 09:14(Agencies)

BERLIN - The IMF singled out European banks as it insisted that more needs to be done to shore up the global financial system, saying Europe's weak banks are caught in a maelstrom and must beef up their financial buffers.The International Monetary Fund said Wednesday the weaker tier of Europe's banks are facing pressure on multiple fronts, from thin capital reserves - which help absorb losses in sudden downturns - and shaky investments still held on their balance sheets to unstable sources of financing.The warning comes as European Union officials struggle to shore up confidence in government finances and banks. Greece and Ireland have already needed bailout loans to avoid defaulting on their debts, and Portugal has also asked for help from the EU bailout fund.Incomplete policy actions and inadequate reforms of the banking sector have left segments of the global banking system vulnerable to further shocks, the IMF report said.Many institutions - particularly weaker European banks - are caught in a maelstrom of interlinked pressures that are intensifying risks for the system as a whole.The EU banking regulator is trying to boost confidence in the continent's banks by putting 90 of them - the bulk of Europe's banking system - through stress tests that measure what would happen to their finances if the economy took a sudden downturn. A similar exercise last year was deemed easy, and passed Irish banks that later failed.

The purpose of the tests is to push banks that flunk to ask investors to put up more capital and strengthen their finances, or else cut back risky loans and investment to levels that their capital buffer could handle. Results are expected in June.The IMF report outlined other problems facing the world's financial system, such as too much household debt in the United States, and emerging economies' problems in handling new inflows of investment without overheating.Policy makers globally have pushed banks to raise more capital and introduced new safeguards, the IMF said in its twice-yearly report on the stability of the global financial system, but said more needs to be done to guard against a new financial crisis.The Washington-based international organization especially underlined the interlocking financial problems afflicting the 17 nations that share the 12-year-old euro currency.Government and bank finances are closely related because European governments, especially Ireland, have incurred heavy expenses bailing out failed banks. In turn, questions about European governments' big deficits and ability to pay are undermining bank holdings of government bonds.Some banks - like Italy's Intesa Sanpaolo and Germany's Commerzbank - have already started strengthening their capital buffers ahead of the stress tests.But other banks - especially in Ireland and Greece - remain addicted to last-resort financing from the European Central Bank because they are unable to raise enough money by borrowing normally. The ECB has so far not come up with a comprehensive way of getting those banks off life support.

FEBRUARY 14, 2011, 4:51 A.M. ET.France's Lagarde In Favor Of Including Yuan In SDR - Report

PARIS (Dow Jones)--French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde is in favor of including the Chinese yuan in the basket of currencies that make up the International Monetary Fund's Special Drawing Rights, Financial Times reports Monday. Lagarde said she would be in favor of the inclusion of the yuan even before it is fully convertible, the newspaper said. Once convertibility is well-advanced, it [the inclusion in the SDR] could be with a commitment towards full convertibility over time, she was quoted as saying by the Financial Times. Lagarde also said France will push for finance ministers of the Group of 20 industrialized and developing nations to be given direct authority over strategic decisions made by the IMF regarding the international monetary system.As France chairs the G-20, Lagarde also said her government would push for a tax on financial transactions even if there is no support from the U.S., but enough support from other countries.France will hold a G-20 summit in Paris later this week. Newspaper Web site: http://www.ft.com
-By Paris Bureau, Dow Jones Newswires; 33-1-4017 1740; inti.landauro@dowjones.com

FACTBOX-EU position on key topics for G20 finmins in Washington
BRUSSELS, | Mon Apr 11, 2011 6:08pm IST

BRUSSELS, April 11 (Reuters) - European Union finance ministers and central bankers agreed last week on common positions on key topics for the April 14-15 meetings of finance leaders of the world's 20 biggest economies in Washington.EU delegations, which make up five of the 20 members of the G20, are to stick to the following positions, spelled out in a terms of reference document, obtained by Reuters.

ON DETECTING IMBALANCES THAT COULD LEAD TO CRISES

The G20 are to agree in Washington on indicative guidelines for how to use a set of economic indicators agreed in February to detect imbalances that could trigger a crisis.The agreed indicators are: public debt and fiscal deficits, private savings rate and private debt, external imbalance composed of the trade balance and net investment income flows and transfers, taking due consideration of exchange rate, fiscal, monetary and other policies.

EU officials agreed that:- We favour a combination of both structural and statistical approaches. The euro area dimension needs to be fully taken into account when assessing external imbalances.- The Paris communique noted that the agreed indicators would take due consideration of exchange rate, fiscal, monetary and other polices. This could be done in a descriptive way in the first stage. Exchange rate factors will be key in the second, in-depth analysis stage.- Only G20 members facing the largest imbalances should move into the in-depth stage of the exercise. Given spillovers, there are merits in subjecting large countries to a more stringent screening criterion by applying a measure for systemic importance in the indicative guidelines.

ON MANAGEMENT OF CAPITAL FLOWS

- The EU supports the development of guidelines/a framework, covering both source and recipient countries, to provide countries with guidance by the International Monetary Fund on policies to deal with capital flows. Such guidelines should have a comprehensive scope and emphasise the importance of macroeconomic and prudential policies and structural measures as primary capital flow management tools.- The group will have to be careful not to signal to markets that the G20 endorses a general use of capital controls.

ON GLOBAL LIQUIDITY MANAGEMENT

Part of the global monetary overhaul could entail the inclusion of the currency of the world's now second biggest economy, China, in the basket that makes up the Special Drawing Right (SDR) -- an international reserve asset of the IMF. Some economists say a bigger base for the SDR could help cut an overreliance on the dollar as the world's reserve currency.The basket is now made up of four currencies -- the dollar, euro, pound sterling and Japanese yen. Created in 1969, it does not reflect the rising economic importance of China.

The EU position is the following:- On the Special Drawing Right (SDR), the EU is ready to discuss the broadening of the SDR basket to better reflect economic realities. We take note of the strong interest expressed by China of having the renminbi in the SDR basket. A decision should follow clear and transparent criteria and entail adequate preconditions for the admission of the currencies concerned to ensure the stability of the basket.- The EU is open to discussing the role of the SDR and how it could possibly contribute to improving the system, although many technical, political and legal difficulties will need to be addressed.

ON FINANCIAL REGULATORY REFORM

- The key issues for the April meeting from an EU standpoint are:

1. ensuring the timely and consistent implementations of Basel II and Basel III measures by all G20 countries as well as other jurisdictions globally, with a particular focus on U.S. implementation

2. ensuring the development and international implementation of a consistent framework for all Systemically Important Financial Institutions (SIFIs)

3. a full and consistent implementation of the remuneration standards which were endorsed by all members of the G20, accompanied by a rigorous peer review process within the FSB, allowing for peer pressure aimed at fostering further implementation

4. further progress on identifying and listing non-cooperative jurisdictions

5. agreeing on the scope of the work on the shadow banking system including the identification of shadow banking activities and entities and the mapping exercise of data and regulation on this field.

ON COMMODITIES

The EU should stress:- the need to improve the quality and availability of data on physical and derivatives markets, including position reporting.- the need for an effective regime to identify and prevent market abuses- adequate and proportionate financial regulation, especially for participants that trade in financial derivatives
- to assess the power and tools for the respective supervisors to ensure more transparency of physical and derivatives markets while preserving market liquidity.
(Reporting by Jan Strupczewski; Editing by Ruth Pitchford)

No agreement to include yuan in SDR for now - BRICS official
BEIJING,| Thu Apr 14, 2011 9:40am IST

BEIJING, April 14 (Reuters) - There is no unanimous agreement for the yuan to be to be included in the currency basket that forms the Speacial Drawing Right, or SDR, an official from the BRICS group of emerging powers said on Thursday.The BRICS group, which comprises Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, is meeting in southern China to discuss trade and investment.There is a need for a broad-basing of the international monetary system. The SDR is an instrument to do that, but we still have no unanimity on the inclusion of the Chinese currency in the SDR as of now, the official said. India has said that the SDR is an accounting mechanism used by the IMF and countries such as Brazil have also said that this (the yuan) should be convertible first.(Reporting by Abhijit Neogy; Editing by Chris Lewis)

BRICS demand global monetary shake-up, greater influence By Abhijit Neogy and Alexei Anishchuk SANYA, China | Thu Apr 14, 2011 2:00pm IST

SANYA, China (Reuters) - The BRICS group of emerging-market powers kept up the pressure on Thursday for a revamped global monetary system that relies less on the dollar and for a louder voice in international financial institutions.The leaders of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa also called for stronger regulation of commodity derivatives to dampen excessive volatility in food and energy prices, which they said posed new risks for the recovery of the world economy.Meeting on the southern Chinese island of Hainan, they said the recent financial crisis had exposed the inadequacies of the current monetary order, which has the dollar as its linchpin. What was needed, they said in a statement, was a broad-based international reserve currency system providing stability and certainty -- thinly veiled criticism of what the BRICS see as Washington's neglect of its global monetary responsibilities.The BRICS are worried that America's large trade and budget deficits will eventually debase the dollar. They also begrudge the financial and political privileges that come with being the leading reserve currency.The world economy is undergoing profound and complex changes, Chinese President Hu Jintao said.The era demands that the BRICS countries strengthen dialogue and cooperation.

In another dig at the dollar, the development banks of the five BRICS nations agreed to establish mutual credit lines denominated in their local currencies, not the U.S. currency.The head of China Development Bank (CDB), Chen Yuan, said he was prepared to lend up to 10 billion yuan to fellow BRICS, and his Russian counterpart said he was looking to borrow the yuan equivalent of at least $500 million via CDB.We think this will undoubtedly broaden the opportunities for Russian companies to diversify their loans, Vladimir Dmitriev, the chairman of VEB, Russia's state development bank, told reporters.

ALL DOWN TO THE BRICS

The call by the BRICS for a new monetary order are not new.But, coming hours before a meeting in Washington of finance ministers from the Group of Seven industrial nations, the traditional power brokers of the world economy, Thursday's communique showed the growing confidence of emerging markets.Burdened by heavy debt, the United States, the euro zone and Japan are struggling to shake off the lingering effects of the 2008 global financial crisis. Rich countries will grow 2.4 percent this year and 2.6 percent in 2012, the International Monetary fund forecast this week. By contrast, less well-off countries have emerged relatively unscathed. The IMF is forecasting that emerging and developing countries will grow 6.5 percent both this year and next.The quality and the durability of the global economic recovery process depends to a great measure on how the BRICS economies perform, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said.The leaders reviewed the global role of the Special Drawing Right, the IMF's accounting unit and reserve asset, which some experts believe could grow into a partial substitute for the dollar.But they stepped around the issue of whether the yuan should join the SDR, saying only that they welcomed discussion of the composition of the SDR's basket of currencies.A member-country official said the group was split on whether China's currency, which cannot be freely exchanged except for trade and investment purposes, met the criteria for being part of the SDR.There is a need for a broad-basing of the international monetary system. The SDR is an instrument to do that, but we still have no unanimity on the inclusion of the Chinese currency in the SDR as of now, said the official, who declined to be identified.The SDR now comprises the dollar, the euro, the Japanese yen and the British pound.India has said that the SDR is an accounting mechanism used by the IMF, and countries such as Brazil have also said that this (the yuan) should be convertible first, he added.Though keen on a more diverse global monetary order, Beijing has given no indication that it is ready to make the yuan freely tradable or to dismantle capital controls as the price for the prestige of being part of the SDR.

BROAD-BRUSH TREATMENT

Emerging economies have already won more say in the way the IMF is run, but the BRICS leaders said they were still under-represented.We ... agreed on the need for the reform of international financial institutions in order to promote a just economic order, South African President Jacob Zuma said.On the hot topic of capital flows, the BRICS called for more attention to the risks posed by massive cross-border flows of money but went no further.The group said the world economy, of which its members make up nearly a fifth, still faced headwinds.The developments in west Asia and north Africa, and the aftermath of the huge tragedy that befell Japan, have introduced fresh uncertainties in the global recovery process, Singh said.Swings in commodity prices are also a prime area of concern for the BRICS. China is the world's biggest importer of many commodities; the other BRICS members are major exporters of natural resources.China hopes the group will be able to agree on a common stance on commodity price fluctuations at the G20 summit in the French city of Cannes in November.The main aim of the BRICS is to forge a common emerging-market negotiating stance on issues from climate change to world trade and to act as a counterweight to the West in settings such as the Group of 20 forum of advanced and developing economies.

The BRICS caucus is a work in progress. Thursday's brief meeting, held under tight security at a beach-front hotel, was only its third summit and the first to include South Africa.The group brings together five countries that, though frequently united in their disinclination to do the West's bidding, are a political and economic mosaic.Our economic potential, political influence and our development prospects as an alliance are exceptional, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said.(Additional reporting by Ben Blanchard, Zhou Xin and Ray Colitt in Sanya and Chris Buckley in Beijing; Writing by Alan Wheatley; Editing by Ken Wills and Dean Yates)