Saturday, July 13, 2013

MORSI SUPPORTERS PLAN MORE PROTESTS IN EGYPT

KING JESUS IS COMING FOR US ANY TIME NOW. THE RAPTURE. BE PREPARED TO GO.

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,(TORNADOES,HURRICANES,STORMS) and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth:(DESTRUCTION) for the powers of heaven shall be shaken.(FROM QUAKES,NUKES ETC)

THE FIRST JUDGEMENT OF THE EARTH STARTED WITH WATER-IT ONLY MAKES SENSE THE LAST GENERATION WILL BE HAVING FLOODING
GENESIS 7:6-12
6 And Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of waters was upon the earth.
7 And Noah went in, and his sons, and his wife, and his sons’ wives with him, into the ark, because of the waters of the flood.
8 Of clean beasts, and of beasts that are not clean, and of fowls, and of every thing that creepeth upon the earth,
9 There went in two and two unto Noah into the ark, the male and the female, as God had commanded Noah.
10 And it came to pass after seven days, that the waters of the flood were upon the earth.
11 In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened.
12 And the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights.
GOD PROMISED BY A RAINBOW-THE EARTH WOULD NEVER BE DESTROYED TOTALLY WITH A FLOOD AGAIN.BUT FLOODIING IS A SIGN OF JUDGEMENT. 

Typhoon Soulik hits China after killing 1 in Taiwan

-time of india

BEIJING: A powerful typhoon surged across northern Taiwan on Saturday, killing at least one person before moving to southeast China and forcing the evacuation of hundreds of thousands of people from a coastal province. Typhoon Soulik disrupted transportation and commerce across Taiwan, with emergency crews around Taipei and in its environs struggling to restore power to the 520,000 homes where it had been disrupted, and to remove hundreds of trees uprooted by the storm from streets and roads. The storm then made another landing in the heavily populated Chinese coastal province of Fujian on Saturday afternoon, packing winds of 119 kilometers per hour (74 miles per hour), according to China's National Meteorological Center. That was down from the 137 kph (85 mph) winds the typhoon had boasted on making landfall in Taiwan around dawn. About 300,000 people in Fujian were evacuated from their homes, the official Xinhua News Agency reported. In Fujian and Zhejiang, another coastal province, train services were suspended, flights canceled and fishing boats called back to ports. China's weather service warned of possible floods and landslides. Earlier, torrential rains buffeted large areas of northern and central Taiwan, with Hsinchu and the neighboring county of Miaoli reporting totals of 700-800 millimeters (27-31 inches) by early Saturday.
Schools and businesses throughout northern Taiwan were closed by government order on Friday, and the military evacuated 8,000 people from mountainous villages considered vulnerable to flash flooding. Just after midnight on Saturday, a falling brick took the life of a policeman in the Taipei suburb of Tanshui, while elsewhere, the National Fire Agency reported there were at least 21 injuries. Dozens of flights at Taipei's main international airport were canceled beginning Friday afternoon, though operations were expected to return to normal by late Saturday. Taiwan's high speed rail system also suspended operations, at least until early Saturday afternoon. 
 
2 TIMOTHY 3:1
1 This know also, that in the last days perilous (DANGEROUS) times shall come.

JOEL 2:3,30
3 A fire devoureth before them;(ATOMIC BOMB) 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.
30 And I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke.

ZECHARIAH 14:12-13
12 And this shall be the plague wherewith the LORD will smite all the people that have fought against Jerusalem; Their flesh shall consume away while they stand upon their feet,(DISOLVED) and their eyes shall consume away in their holes,(DISOLVED) and their tongue shall consume away in their mouth.(DISOLVED)(BECAUSE NUKES HAVE BEEN USED ON ISRAELS ENEMIES)(GOD PROTECTS ISRAEL AND ALWAYS WILL)
13 And it shall come to pass in that day, that a great tumult from the LORD shall be among them; and they shall lay hold every one on the hand of his neighbour, and his hand shall rise up against the hand of his neighbour.(1/2-3 BILLION DIE IN WW3)(THIS IS AN ATOMIC BOMB EFFECT)

EZEKIEL 20:47
47 And say to the forest of the south, Hear the word of the LORD; Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I will kindle a fire in thee, and it shall devour every green tree in thee, and every dry tree: the flaming flame shall not be quenched, and all faces from the south to the north shall be burned therein.

ZEPHANIAH 1:18
18 Neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them in the day of the LORD'S wrath; but the whole land shall be devoured by the fire of his jealousy: for he shall make even a speedy riddance of all them that dwell in the land.

MALACHI 4:1
1 For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the LORD of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.

REVELATION 8:7
7 The first angel sounded, and there followed hail and fire mingled with blood, and they were cast upon the earth: and the third part of trees was burnt up, and all green grass was burnt up.

REVELATION 9:18
18 By these three was the third part of men killed, by the fire, and by the smoke, and by the brimstone, which issued out of their mouths.

HALF OF EARTHS POPULATION DIE DURING THE 7 YR TRIBULATION.(THESE VERSES ARE JUDGEMENT SCRIPTURES NOT RAPTURE SCRIPTURES)

LUKE 17:34-37
34 I tell you, in that night there shall be two men in one bed; the one shall be taken,(IN WW3 JUDGEMENT) and the other shall be left.
35 Two women shall be grinding together; the one shall be taken,(IN WW3 JUDGEMENT) and the other left.
36 Two men shall be in the field; the one shall be taken,(IN WW3 JUDGEMENT) and the other left.
37 And they answered and said unto him, Where, Lord? And he said unto them, Wheresoever the body is, thither will the eagles be gathered together.(Christians have new bodies,this is the people against Jerusalem during the 7 yr treaty)(Christians bodies are not being eaten by the birds).
 
CHINA AND KINGS OF THE EAST MARCH TO ISRAEL 2ND WAVE OF WW3 (200 MILLION MAN ARMY)

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

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

REVELATION 9:12-18
12 One woe is past; and, behold, there come two woes more hereafter.
13 And the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God,
14 Saying to the sixth angel which had the trumpet, Loose the four(DEMONIC WAR) angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates.(4 WINDS OF THE WORLD-WORLDWIDE WAR)(TURKEY-IRAQ-SYRIA)(EUPHRATES RIVER CONSISTS OF 760 MILES IN TURKEY,440 MILES IN SYRIA AND 660 MILES IN IRAQ)
15 And the four(DEMONIC WAR) angels were loosed,(COULD ALSO MEAN THE 4 CORNERS OF THE EARTH OR WORLDWIDE WAR) which were prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, for to slay the third part of men.(1/3 Earths Population die in WW 3 2ND WAVE)
16 And the number of the army of the horsemen were two hundred thousand thousand:(200 MILLION MAN ARMY FROM CHINA AND THE KINGS OF THE EAST) and I heard the number of them.
17 And thus I saw the horses in the vision, and them that sat on them, having breastplates of fire, and of jacinth, and brimstone: and the heads of the horses were as the heads of lions; and out of their mouths issued fire and smoke and brimstone.(NUCLEAR BOMBS)
18 By these three was the third part of men killed, by the fire, and by the smoke, and by the brimstone, which issued out of their mouths.(NUCLEAR BOMBS)

Iran Denies Building New Nuclear Facility

Iran's Foreign Ministry rejects a claim by an Iranian dissident group that an underground nuclear facility is currently being built.-By Elad Benari, Canada-First Publish: 7/13/2013, 2:05 AM-israelnationalnews

Nuclear facility (illustrative)
Nuclear facility (illustrative)-Flash 90
The Iranian Foreign Ministry rejected on Friday a claim by an Iranian dissident group, the Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO), which said a day earlier that it had documentation proving the existence of a previously unknown underground nuclear facility in Iran.The ministry’s spokesman, Seyyed Abbas Araqchi, dismissed the claim as mere lies by the “desperate” group.“This report is by no means true and is denied [by the Islamic Republic of Iran],” Araqchi was quoted by the Iranian-based PressTV as having said.“The terrorist MKO has been so discredited that the publication of such stories by them is not worth a response,” he added.MKO, whose members are in exile in Paris, said Thursday the secret facility is currently under construction, and will be used for nuclear research and development, the group said, although it is not clear what specific work will be done there.The group said the new facility was about 50 kilometers northeast of Tehran, near the town of Damavand, and is part of an extensive network of underground tunnels and facilities Iran has been working on since 2006. The group also released satellite images of the site.Western analysts who have seen the images told news agencies that while it was possible the facility could be used for nuclear work, there was no direct evidence from the images that it would be used thusly.Iran has held several rounds of talks with six major powers -- the U.S., China, Russia, Britain, France and Germany, known collectively as the P5+1, about its nuclear program. Each round has ended without results.The P5+1 is particularly concerned about Iran's enrichment to levels of up to 20 percent and wants it to shut the Fordow fortified bunker where the sensitive activity is conducted. The group also wants Iran to ship out its existing stockpile of 20-percent enriched material.Iran recently elected “moderate” Hassan Rowhani as the country’s new president, but he stressed soon after his election that Tehran would not consider halting the country’s uranium enrichment activities entirely.Iran’s Supreme Leader has blamed the West for the standoff over the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program.Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said the standoff can be solved easily if the Western states stop their stubborn attitude.(Arutz Sheva’s North American Desk is keeping you updated until the start of Shabbat in New York. The time posted automatically on all Arutz Sheva articles, however, is Israeli time.)

China cancels $6 billion uranium plant after protest

By Chen Aizhu and Qi Ding-july 13,13
BEIJING (Reuters) - China has abruptly canceled plans to build its largest uranium processing plant in a southern Chinese city, a day after hundreds of protesters took to the streets demanding the project be scrapped, a local government website said on Saturday.The proposed 230-hectare complex in the heart of China's Pearl River delta industrial heartland in Guangdong province had also sparked unease in neighboring Hong Kong and Macau.Authorities in the gambling enclave had formally raised the issue with their Guangdong counterparts, the South China Morning Post reported.A one-line statement published on the Heshan city government's website said that "to respect people's desire, the Heshan government will not propose the CNNC project".State-run China National Nuclear Corporation and China Guangdong Nuclear Power Corp (CGNPC) had planned to build the 37 billion yuan ($6 billion) project.Officials from both companies could not be reached for comment.A Beijing-based nuclear power expert said he was surprised local authorities had taken the decision as the project designed to produce 1,000 tonnes of uranium fuel annually by 2020 was hotly contested by local governments."Compared to a nuclear power plant, a uranium processing facility is way more safer, as there is no fusion or reaction taking place in the production process," said the official with close knowledge of the project. He declined to be identified as he was not authorized to speak to the press.The surprisingly swift decision to cancel the project came after hundreds marched to city offices on Friday that forced officials to pledge an extension of public consultation by 10 days. Locals had planned more protests on Sunday.Chinese authorities are becoming increasingly sensitive to local protests over environmental issues, having canceled, postponed or relocated several major petrochemical and metals plants.The planned conversion and enrichment plant had been meant to supply fuel for China's expanding nuclear power capacity, likely to reach 60-70 gigawatts by 2020 from the current 12.6 GW.China currently produces 800 tonnes of uranium fuel at its plants in southwestern Sichuan province and north China's Inner Mongolia. China sources uranium both from domestic mines and imports from Kazakhstan, Canada and Australia, said the expert.Guangdong is one of the country's largest nuclear power bases, already running five nuclear reactors and building another dozen, incorporating technologies from companies like French Areva and Westinghouse, a unit of Japan's Toshiba Corp <6502 .="" by="" clement="" dditional="" editing="" hong="" in="" jeremy="" kong="" laurence="" p="" reporting="" tan="">

U.S. Officials: Israel Behind Recent Syria Airstrike

Unnamed U.S. officials tell CNN that Israel struck Russian-made missiles in Latakia, Syria last Friday.
By Elad Benari, Canada-First Publish: 7/13/2013, 1:06 AM-israelnationalnews

מטוס F15
מטוס F15
פלאש -90
A series of explosions last week at a critical Syrian port was the result of airstrikes by Israeli warplanes, multiple U.S. officials told CNN on Friday.Regional media widely reported the predawn explosions at Latakia on July 5, but no one had officially claimed responsibility.Three U.S. officials told CNN the target of the airstrikes were Russian-made Yakhont anti-ship missiles that Israel believes posed a threat to its naval forces.The officials declined to be named because of the sensitive nature of the information.So far, the Israeli government has also declined to comment to CNN.The Syrian rebels said on Tuesday that “foreign forces” had destroyed advanced Russian anti-ship missiles in Latakia, hinting that Israel may have been behind the attack.Qassem Saadeddine, a spokesman for the Free Syrian Army's Supreme Military Council, saod that the rebels' intelligence network had identified newly supplied Russian Yakhont missiles being stored in the depots that were hit."It was not the FSA that targeted this," Saadeddine said. "It is not an attack that was carried out by rebels."This attack was either by air raid or long-range missiles fired from boats in the Mediterranean," he added.Rebels described hearing and seeing huge blasts, the ferocity of which, they said, was beyond the firepower available to them but consistent with that of a modern military like Israel's.
Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon said on Tuesday that Israel does not interfere in the affairs of neighboring countries, but it does act when its red lines are crossed. Some interpreted these remarks as a hint that Israel may have been involved in a strike in Syria."We’ve established red lines regarding our interests and we maintain them. Whenever there is an explosion or attack over there, the Middle East blames us anyway,” Yaalon said vaguely.In May, Yaalon said that Israel "will know what to do" if Russia delivers highly advanced anti-aircraft missiles to Syria.These remarks were also viewed by some media outlets as “an apparent allusion to another air strike” on Syria.In May, Syria claimed that the Israel Air Force (IAF) struck several critical military facilities in Syria, killing dozens of elite troops stationed near the presidential palace.
Israel refused to confirm it was behind the attack. The strikes are widely seen as attempts to prevent the Syrian government from transferring weapons to Hizbullah in neighboring Lebanon.(Arutz Sheva’s North American Desk is keeping you updated until the start of Shabbat in New York. The time posted automatically on all Arutz Sheva articles, however, is Israeli time.)

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 (PEACE TREATY) 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 33:8
8  The highways lie waste, the wayfaring man ceaseth: he hath broken the covenant,(7 YR TREATY) he hath despised the cities, he regardeth no man.(THE WORLD LEADER-WAR MONGER CALLS HIMSELF GOD)

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. 

Op-Ed: On Palestinian Statehood and Its Advocates

Published: Friday, July 12, 2013 10:04 AM
Why should any rational person expect it to work?


On July 10, 2013, attorney Daniel Tauber, Director of Likud Anglos, authored an article that appeared in the Jerusalem Post under the title “It’s no bluff: Netanyahu means it.” Mr. Tauber explained that Netanyahu does indeed endorse the creation of a Palestinian state in the land of Israel, as he expressly avowed in his Bar-Ilan University speech of June 14, 2009.On May 20, 2009, the month before Netanyahu delivered that speech, the present writer penned an article entitled “The Absurdity of a Palestinian State: The Lesson from Egypt” - as conveyed by Dr. Daniel Pipes.Daniel Pipes is one of the foremost experts on the Middle East.  He lived and studied for three years in Egypt. He supported the Israel-Egypt peace treaty of March 1979. As a man of intellectual integrity, however, he admitted in a New York Sun article of November 21, 2006 that it is time to recognize ‘The Failure of the Israel-Egypt Treaty.’ He set forth the following facts: (1) “Ninety-two percent of respondents in a recent poll of one thousand Egyptians over 18 years of age called Israel an enemy state. In contrast, a meager 2% saw Israel as ‘a friend to Egypt.’”(2) “These hostile sentiments express themselves in many ways, including a popular song titled ‘I Hate Israel,’ venomously anti-Semitic political cartoons … and terrorist attacks against visiting Israelis. Egypt's leading democracy movement, Kifaya, recently launched an initiative to collect a million signatures on a petition demanding the annulment of the March 1979 Egypt-Israel peace treaty.”(3) “Also, the Egyptian government has permitted large quantities of weapons to be smuggled into Gaza to use against Israeli border towns. Yuval Steinitz, an Israeli legislator specializing in Egypt-Israel relations, estimates that fully 90% of PLO and Hamas explosives come from Egypt.”(4) “Cairo may have no apparent enemies, but the impoverished Egyptian state sinks massive resources into a military build up….”(5) “This long, ugly record of hostility exists despite a peace treaty with Israel, hailed at the time by both Egypt's president Anwar El-Sadat and Israel's prime minister Menachem Begin as a ‘historic turning point.’… I too shared in this enthusiasm.” (Emphasis added.)
(6) “With the benefit of retrospect, however, we see that the treaty did palpable harm in at least two ways. First, it opened the American arsenal and provided American funding to purchase the latest in weaponry. As a result, for the first time in the Arab-Israeli conflict, an Arab armed force may have reached parity with its Israeli counterpart.”(7) “Second, it spurred anti-Zionism. I lived … in Egypt in the 1970s, before Sadat's dramatic trip to Jerusalem in late 1977, and I recall the relatively low interest in Israel at that time. Israel was plastered all over the news but it hardly figured in conversations. Egyptians seemed happy to delegate this issue to their government. Only after the treaty, which many Egyptians saw as a betrayal, did they themselves take direct interest. The result was the emergence of a more personal, intense, and bitter form of anti-Zionism.”

The result [of the peace treaty with Egypt] was the emergence of a more personal, intense, and bitter form of anti-Zionism.”
(8) “The same pattern was replicated in Jordan, where the 1994 treaty with Israel soured popular attitudes. To a lesser extent, the 1993 Palestinian accords and even the aborted 1983 Lebanon treaty prompted similar responses. In all four of these cases, diplomatic agreements prompted a surge in hostility toward Israel.”(9) “Defenders of the ‘peace process’ answer that, however hostile Egyptians' attitudes and however large their arsenal, the treaty has held; Cairo has in fact not made war on Israel since 1979. However frigid the peace, peace it has been. To which I [Daniel Pipes] reply: if the mere absence of active warfare counts as peace, then peace has also prevailed between Syria and Israel for decades, despite their formal state of war….”(10) “Does an antique signature on a piece of paper offset Egypt's Abrams tanks, F-16 fighter jets, and Apache attack helicopters. I think not. In retrospect, it becomes apparent that multiple fallacies and wishful predictions fueled Arab-Israeli diplomacy among which is the naïve notion that War can be concluded through negotiations rather than by one side giving up.”
Pipes concludes:“The time has come to recognize the Egypt-Israel treaty usually portrayed as the glory and ornament of Arab-Israel diplomacy ­as the failure it has been, and to draw the appropriate lessons in order not to repeat its mistakes.”The present author drew the following lesson from Dr. Pipes’ article: “…since the Israel-Egypt treaty of 1979 is a failure … [i.e., since] the Egyptians continue to hate Israel and the Egyptian government persists in its bellicose attitude toward the Jewish state—why should any rational person expect the Arab Palestinians to abide in peace with Israel if given an independent and sovereign state?" I therefore concluded [four years ago on May 20, 2009], that only fools and scoundrels—in Washington or elsewhere—would advocate Palestinian statehood. And all that has changed is the change for the worse marked by the instability in Egypt and the rest of the Arab world.

ISAIAH 17:1,11-14
1 The burden of Damascus. Behold, Damascus is taken away from being a city, and it shall be a ruinous heap.
11  In the day shalt thou make thy plant to grow, and in the morning shalt thou make thy seed to flourish: but the harvest shall be a heap in the day of grief and of desperate sorrow.
12  Woe to the multitude of many people, which make a noise like the noise of the seas; and to the rushing of nations,(USELESS U.N) that make a rushing like the rushing of mighty waters!
13  The nations shall rush like the rushing of many waters: but God shall rebuke them, and they shall flee far off, and shall be chased as the chaff of the mountains before the wind, and like a rolling thing before the whirlwind.
14  And behold at evening tide trouble; and before the morning he is not.(ASSAD) This is the portion of them that spoil us,(ISRAEL) and the lot of them that rob us.

JEREMEIAH 49:23-27
23  Concerning Damascus.(SYRIA) Hamath is confounded, and Arpad: for they have heard evil tidings: they are fainthearted; there is sorrow on the sea;(WAR SHIPS WITH NUKES COMING ON SYRIA) it cannot be quiet.
24  Damascus is waxed feeble, and turneth herself to flee, and fear hath seized on her: anguish and sorrows have taken her, as a woman in travail.
25  How is the city of praise not left, the city of my joy!
26  Therefore her young men shall fall in her streets, and all the men of war shall be cut off in that day, saith the LORD of hosts.
27  And I will kindle a fire (NUKES OR BOMBS) in the wall of Damascus, and it shall consume the palaces of Benhadad.(ASSADS PALACES POSSIBLY IN DAMASCUS)

EGYPT

ISAIAH 19:1-5
1 The burden of Egypt. Behold, the LORD rideth upon a swift cloud, and shall come into Egypt: and the idols of Egypt shall be moved at his presence, and the heart of Egypt shall melt in the midst of it.
2 And I will set the Egyptians against the Egyptians: and they shall fight every one against his brother, and every one against his neighbour; city against city, and kingdom against kingdom.
3 And the spirit of Egypt shall fail in the midst thereof; and I will destroy the counsel thereof: and they shall seek to the idols, and to the charmers, and to them that have familiar spirits, and to the wizards.
4 And the Egyptians will I give over into the hand of a cruel lord; and a fierce king shall rule over them, saith the Lord, the LORD of hosts.
5 And the waters shall fail from the sea, and the river shall be wasted and dried up.

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)

Mursi supporters plan more protests in Egypt

By Yasmine Saleh and Shadia Nasralla-july 13,13
CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood called on Saturday for more mass demonstrations in support of ousted President Mohamed Mursi after a huge pro-Mursi march broke up peacefully before dawn, ending a week in which at least 90 people were killed.The Brotherhood, which has maintained a vigil near a Cairo mosque since before the army removed Mursi on July 3, has said it will not leave the streets until he is restored to power.Mursi, Egypt's first freely elected leader, has been held incommunicado since he was deposed in what the military says was a justified response to popular demand after millions of people demonstrated against him. The Brotherhood denounces the army coup as a reversal of democracy.Turmoil in the most populous Arab state has alarmed Western donors. Egypt sits astride the Suez Canal and has a strategically important peace treaty with Israel.Large crowds of Brotherhood supporters finally dispersed before dawn on Saturday after marching through the streets into the early hours holding up Mursi pictures at traffic lights.Tens of thousands had turned out on Friday for what the Brotherhood called a "day of marching on".Mursi's opponents say those demonstrations are still much smaller than the ones that brought Mursi down.The Brotherhood has showed its organizational muscle and persistence by keeping its vigil running into a third week and bringing in coach loads of supporters from the provinces for big marches, despite summer heat and the Ramadan fasting month.At one stage, hundreds of demonstrators stood behind barbed wire shouting at soldiers a few dozen meters (yards) away."I am here to say 'no' to the military coup and 'yes' to Mursi, who I see as my legitimate president," said Ahmed Adel, a 22-year-old student, in downtown Cairo.
The interim authorities have issued arrest warrants for the Brotherhood's leaders, including Essam El-Erian, who issued the call for more demonstrations on Monday."Egypt decides through the ballot box, through protests, mass marches and peaceful sit-ins," Erian said on Facebook.
PEACEFUL DEMONSTRATIONS
Friday's demonstration passed off peacefully, in contrast to deadly violence a week earlier when 35 people were killed in running battles between pro- and anti-Mursi demonstrators.On Monday, 57 people were killed when the army fired on Mursi supporters near a Cairo barracks. The army says it was responding to an attack by terrorists; the Brotherhood says its partisans were massacred.The United States has refused to say whether the army takeover was a "coup", which under U.S. law would require it to cut off aid including $1.3 billion a year in military support.In recent days it has described Mursi's rule as undemocratic because of the vast popular protests against him, but also urged the authorities to release him and stop detaining his followers.Turmoil since a popular uprising toppled President Hosni Mubarak in 2011 has wrecked Egypt's economy, scaring away tourists and investors, draining hard currency reserves and making it difficult to import food and fuel, which the government distributes at heavily subsidized prices.State news agency MENA said a shipment of 70,000 tons of diesel arrived in Alexandria on Saturday from Turkey and Sweden.Rich Arab Gulf states Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait, happy at the overthrow of the Brotherhood, have offered Egypt $12 billion in cash, loans and fuel.Egypt's interim authorities have set out a "road map" to restore full civilian rule, calling for a new constitution and parliamentary elections in about six months, to be followed by a presidential vote.A judge has been named interim president and a liberal economist, Hazem el-Beblawi, has been appointed prime minister.He is trying to cobble together a cabinet likely to be made up mainly of technocrats and liberals, without offending a large ultra-orthodox Islamist group that broke with the Brotherhood to accept the military takeover. Beblawi told Reuters on Saturday he expects to name the cabinet within two days.Egypt's crisis has raised fears over security in the lawless Sinai peninsula bordering Israel and the Palestinian Gaza Strip, where militants attack security forces checkpoints almost daily.The headline in state-run Al Gomhuria newspaper read: "Sinai's Purification Operation within Days", referring to a possible army offensive against militants in the region.But a senior army officer, who asked not to be named, said this was unlikely to take place immediately because forces are now focused on keeping the peace during political turmoil.Security sources said on Saturday a Palestinian had been arrested in Egypt on suspicion of carrying out attacks on a natural gas pipeline.(Additional reporting by Yusri Mohamed in Ismailia; Writing by Peter Graff; Editing by Alistair Lyon)

Nigerian extremist: Burn schools, kill teachers

LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) — The leader of Nigeria's extremist Islamic sect threatens to burn down more schools and kill teachers. But he denies his fighters are killing children.Islamic radical Abubakar Shekau speaks in a video released Saturday and denies his Boko Haram group is negotiating a peace with the Nigerian government.He says he supports fighters who have burned down several schools in northeastern Nigeria in recent weeks but that the Quran teaches one must not kill children, women and elderly people. Dozens of children have been killed.But he says "School teachers who are teaching Western education? We will kill them! We will kill them."Attacks on schools have continued though Nigeria has deployed thousands of troops to put down an Islamic uprising posing the greatest threat in years to national security.

Friday, July 12, 2013

LATEST ISRAEL MISSLE TEST A SUCCESS

KING JESUS IS COMING FOR US ANY TIME NOW. THE RAPTURE. BE PREPARED TO GO.

IT WILL BE THIS CHIEF RABBI THAT WILL BE INVOLVED IN THE REBUILDING OF THE 3RD TEMPLE IN THE 7 YEAR PEACE TREATY OF DANIEL 9:27.

A7 Talks to Rabbi Yaakov Shapira, Candidate for Chief Rabbi

"The existence of a Chief Rabbinate in a Jewish state is a sanctification of G-d's name," says the head of Merkaz Harav to A7.By Arutz Sheva Staff-First Publish: 7/12/2013, 7:03 PMIsraelnationalnews

הרב יעקב שפירא
הרב יעקב שפירא
חזקי עזר-
In an exclusive interview with Arutz Sheva,  Rabbi Yaakov Shapira, head of the religious Zionist flagship Merkaz Harav Yeshiva in Jerusalem, member of the Rabbinic Council of the Chief Rabbinate and a candidate for the position of Ashkenazic Chief Rabbi of Israel, talks about the arduous campaign journey, about Bayit Yehudi's support for Rabbi David Stav and details his vision for the Chief Rabbinate.At the beginning of the interview, Rabbi Shapira asked to share a story that he finds especially meaningful during this period, one about a Gerer hassid who came to the Alter Rebbe with a commercial need that he wished the holy sage to pray for on his behalf. The Rebbe replied that what is really needed now is the Holy Temple and it is only through really feeling this need in our hearts that we can understand what else we lack.
"That is what you and I should be talking about during this period of the Three Weeks," Rabbi Shapira said, "but we all in this together, we all are aware that the campaign for the Chief Rabbinate is taking place and that the image of that position has been somewhat degraded; public relations and other means that were not acceptable before have been put into play, as if the rabbinate is a commercial product, some kind of brand name. This has been going on for over a year and without going into further details, there is no question that it has hurt the Chief Rabbinate's image.That is one of the reasons that made me decide, after consulting with Torah greats, to contend for the image of the Chief Rabbinate.
Q. When the elections were planned, did you expect such struggles to be part of the campaign?
Rav Shapira: There has always been a contest. But the means expended on it have never been of such magnitude, and many of those who are involved in the process now realize that this should not have happened and that it was a serious mistake to allow it to happen.
Q. The Jewish Home Party held a vote with a secret ballot and decided that Rabbi David Stav will be its candidate for the position of Ashkenazic Chief Rabbi. Do you think there should be another religious Zionist candidate?
Rabbi Shapira: It is always better to have just one candidate from a religious sector, but woe to the rabbinate that comes from a specific political party. That goes against my principles, it is the antithesis of the position's mission. Whoever becomes the Chief Rabbi must be above politics, because if the Chief Rabbi is seen as the representative of one political party, I do not believe that he will be able to achieve a wide enough consensus to function.
Q. You were against the Plan to Reform the Chief Rabbinate. Don't you think we need to change things so that more of the non-observant will feel connected to the rabbinate?
Rav Shapira: Change is always needed, but the word "reforma" in Hebrew is associated with total change, leaving nothing the same. One does not have to uproot everything. The Chief Rabbinate is not just a bureau for religious services, not just a service provider, it has inherent spiritual character. Rabbi Tzvi Yehuda Kook zts"l  (head of Merkaz Harav Yeshiva, son of Rabbi Avraham Hacohen Kook, Israel's first Chief Rabbi) asserted that the very existence of a Chief Rabbinate in the renewed Jewish State sanctifies the name of God. He who believes in the intrinsic spiritual value of this position knows that he must effect changes, but does not want to uproot the original basis of the institution from its source, rather build on the good.
Q. It is known that you have wide support from the hareidi and secular sectors as well as the religious Zionists.
Rav Shapira: "Let other voices praise you, not your own".(Proverbs, 27, ed.) I do not want to talk about myself, I don't believe I am the most worthy person there is and would be happy if those greater than I would contend for the position, but that is not the reality. One of the lessons I learned from the terrible terror attack on the yeshiva five and a half years ago is that one must not try to run away from difficulties. So if one has the ability to do things that can be of benefit – do them.I have the necessary experience as well, as I was privileged to be at the side of the late Rabbi Mordecai Eliyahu and my late father Rabbi Avraham Shapira during the 10 years, years full of accomplishment, that they were the two Chief Rabbis. I was there 24 hours a day, every day, and now if I am given the opportunity to lead the Rabbinate towards reaching its potential in its varied spheres of responsibility, I will thank Hashem for the chance to do my best.
Q. Can you give us an idea of what kind of Chief Rabbinate you would like to see?
Rav Shapira: One hope is that I would like to see the rabbinate function as  our mentor Rabbi Avraham Kook saw it, to work on the connection between Torah study, Torah knowledge and a Rabbinate that reaches out and goes out to the people in the field. Not everything that is written in the media describes the reality here. The public is thirsty for the words of rabbinic leaders, wants to know more about its Judaic heritage and desires to live a life that is whole, a life of clear values, ethics and morals.

 ISRAEL SATAN COMES AGAINST

1 CHRONICLES 21:1
1 And Satan stood up against Israel, and provoked David to number Israel.

ISRAELS TROUBLE

JEREMIAH 30:7
7 Alas! for that day is great, so that none is like it: it is even the time of Jacob’s trouble;(ISRAEL) but he shall be saved out of it.

DANIEL 12:1,4
1 And at that time shall Michael(ISRAELS WAR ANGEL) stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people:(ISRAEL) and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation(May 14,48) even to that same time: and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book.
4 But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro,(WORLD TRAVEL,IMMIGRATION) and knowledge shall be increased.(COMPUTERS,CHIP IMPLANTS ETC)

ISAIAH 14:12-15
12  How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer,(SATAN) son of the morning!(HEBREW-CRECENT MOON-ISLAM) how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!
13  For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north:
14  I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.(SATAN HAS PROUD I PROBLEMS)
15  Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit. 

Latest Israeli Missile Test a Success, IDF Says

Israel on Friday successfully completed a test of a missile system the IDF termed a rocket propulsion system
By David Lev-First Publish: 7/12/2013, 2:09 PM-israelnationalnews

missile launch (illustration)
missile launch (illustration)-Reuters
Israel on Friday successfully completed a test of a missile system the IDF termed a rocket propulsion system. No other details were provided, but analysts said that the test was very likely related to Israel's Jericho ballistic missile system.The Jericho system comes in several varieties, with various ranges and capabilities. According to foreign news reports, the most modern version of the system, the Jericho III, has a range of between 5,000 and 11,000 kilometers, and can carry a warhead of up to one ton. The last test of a Jericho III missile was in November 2011.In a statement, the Defense Ministry said that Israel on Friday “successfully conducted a launch of a rocket propulsion system at the Palmachim army base.” The statement stressed that the test was scheduled far in advance, and that it had not been organized in response to any specific events.The launch was planned in advance by the security establishment and was carried out on schedule," said the Defense Ministry's statement.Speaking to Israel Radio, analysts said that while the test could have been related to a mid- or long-range missile, it could also have been related to an Israeli effort to launch a satellite or rocket.

EU and US reach last-minute derivatives deal

11.07.13 @ 20:54 By Benjamin Fox
BRUSSELS - EU and US financial services officials have reached a last-minute agreement on rules governing the complex derivatives market, after nearly a year of talks between regulators.The agreement, which will see the sides recognising each other's trading standards, will cover financial instruments and contracts that form a global market worth an estimated $630 trillion (€500 trillion), almost ten times the size of the global economy.A joint statement by EU commissioner Michel Barnier and Gary Gensler, chairman of the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), described their systems as "essentially identical" in many respects.The accord will allow traders to choose which bloc's rulebook to apply when dealing with so-called 'bilateral uncleared swaps' that are too complex to be cleared through a central counterparty. It will also allow US firms to use the EU's trading platforms until March 2014.The deal, widely seen as a climbdown by Gensler, was struck just hours before controversial plans by the CFTC were due to come into force that would have forced US financial services to comply solely with US swaps rules.In a nod to Gensler's late change of heart, Barnier struck a conciliatory tone."Our discussions have been long and sometimes difficult, but they have always been close, continuous and collaborative," he said.But the agreement will only last until early 2014 with the two parties set to resume talks in January on a future regime.International regulators have been under pressure to lower risk and improve transparency in the lucrative but often opaque market since the 2008-9 financial crisis.Derivative contracts allow banks and businesses to hedge against possible losses by tying the value of an investment to the value of other entities such as oil or currencies.However, they are also used for financial speculation. And although most trades go through a central counterparty, which is responsible for scrutinising and clearing the contracts, the more technical and bespoke contracts are 'uncleared', leading to problems if one party reneges on the contract.

Oil giant defends its EU lobby transparency

Today @ 09:15 JULY 12,13
By Nikolaj Nielsen
BRUSSELS - Oil giant BP denies allegations it is under-reporting its lobbying efforts in Brussels.
A spokesperson for the oil giant told this website on Thursday (11 July) that it is completely transparent.
“We report our direct lobbying costs and also list our memberships of associations like Europia, Concawe, Eurogas,” the contact said by email.But for its part, the Brussels’ based advocacy group Friends of the Earth Europe (FoE), says both BP and Shell provide misleading information in the EU transparency register.
It says the two firms increased their declared lobbying budgets in the registry after FoE filed a complaint to the EU Ombudsman against the European Commission in 2012.FoE says Shell’s lobby budget in the register went from €400,000 to €4,000,000 in February 2012. They say BP also upped its declared lobbying expenditures in the registry in November 2012.BP notes that industry associations - such as Europia, Concawe and Eurogas - are also listed on the register and report the contributions they receive.“If we were to report our contributions to them, there would be double-counting of costs on the register, which would give a distorted picture of the industry’s lobbying efforts,” said the BP spokesperson.The UK-based company declares five lobbyists in the registry but has eight accredited to the European Parliament.
BP says the discrepancy is due to uncertainty of reporting full-time and part-time individuals and that the registers are not always up to date.FoE in 2010 tried to get the European Commission to disclose documents that revealed the true extent of the lobbying efforts by the companies.The commission refused full access, stating in February 2011 that some of the information requested by the group was “irrelevant”.
FoE then filed a complaint against the commission with EU Ombudsman Nikiforos Diamandouros.On Thursday, Diamandouros released the conclusions of his investigation into FoE’s complaint.Diamandouros called on the commission to improve accuracy and monitoring of the transparency register.“This includes providing better guidance for companies and organisations which register themselves, so as to ensure that the information given is accurate,” he said in a statement.He added that the commission “had done all in its power to investigate the complaints and that its conclusions were reasonable,” but he critised the EU executive for failing to explain why it rejected FoE’s arguments in the first place.The commission’s institutional affairs spokesperson, Antony Gravili, said the decision relates to events which took place before the transparency register existed.“Very few countries in the world, including EU Member States, have such a robust system in place to bring transparency to those who seek to influence the decision-making process,” he said.FoE, for their part, says the ruling demonstrates that a voluntary-based EU transparency register is not credible.Shell was contacted on this story but has yet to respond.

ISAIAH 17:1,11-14
1 The burden of Damascus. Behold, Damascus is taken away from being a city, and it shall be a ruinous heap.
11  In the day shalt thou make thy plant to grow, and in the morning shalt thou make thy seed to flourish: but the harvest shall be a heap in the day of grief and of desperate sorrow.
12  Woe to the multitude of many people, which make a noise like the noise of the seas; and to the rushing of nations,(USELESS U.N) that make a rushing like the rushing of mighty waters!
13  The nations shall rush like the rushing of many waters: but God shall rebuke them, and they shall flee far off, and shall be chased as the chaff of the mountains before the wind, and like a rolling thing before the whirlwind.
14  And behold at evening tide trouble; and before the morning he is not.(ASSAD) This is the portion of them that spoil us,(ISRAEL) and the lot of them that rob us.

JEREMEIAH 49:23-27
23  Concerning Damascus.(SYRIA) Hamath is confounded, and Arpad: for they have heard evil tidings: they are fainthearted; there is sorrow on the sea;(WAR SHIPS WITH NUKES COMING ON SYRIA) it cannot be quiet.
24  Damascus is waxed feeble, and turneth herself to flee, and fear hath seized on her: anguish and sorrows have taken her, as a woman in travail.
25  How is the city of praise not left, the city of my joy!
26  Therefore her young men shall fall in her streets, and all the men of war shall be cut off in that day, saith the LORD of hosts.
27  And I will kindle a fire (NUKES OR BOMBS) in the wall of Damascus, and it shall consume the palaces of Benhadad.(ASSADS PALACES POSSIBLY IN DAMASCUS)

EGYPT

ISAIAH 19:1-5
1 The burden of Egypt. Behold, the LORD rideth upon a swift cloud, and shall come into Egypt: and the idols of Egypt shall be moved at his presence, and the heart of Egypt shall melt in the midst of it.
2 And I will set the Egyptians against the Egyptians: and they shall fight every one against his brother, and every one against his neighbour; city against city, and kingdom against kingdom.
3 And the spirit of Egypt shall fail in the midst thereof; and I will destroy the counsel thereof: and they shall seek to the idols, and to the charmers, and to them that have familiar spirits, and to the wizards.
4 And the Egyptians will I give over into the hand of a cruel lord; and a fierce king shall rule over them, saith the Lord, the LORD of hosts.
5 And the waters shall fail from the sea, and the river shall be wasted and dried up.

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)

JEREMIAH 47:1-7
1 The word of the LORD that came to Jeremiah the prophet against the Philistines,(PALESTINIAN/ARABS) before that Pharaoh smote Gaza.
2  Thus saith the LORD; Behold, waters rise up out of the north,(NORTHERN TSUNAMI POSSIBLY) and shall be an overflowing flood, and shall overflow the land, and all that is therein; the city, and them that dwell therein: then the men shall cry, and all the inhabitants of the land shall howl.
3  At the noise of the stamping of the hoofs of his strong horses,(ISRAELS ARMY) at the rushing of his chariots, and at the rumbling of his wheels, the fathers shall not look back to their children for feebleness of hands;(ISRAEL POSSIBLY NUKES GAZA)
4  Because of the day that cometh to spoil all the Philistines,(PALESTINIAN FAKE ARABS) and to cut off from Tyrus and Zidon every helper that remaineth: for the LORD will spoil the Philistines, the remnant of the country of Caphtor.
5  Baldness is come upon Gaza;(NUKED POSSIBLY) Ashkelon is cut off with the remnant of their valley: how long wilt thou cut thyself?
6  O thou sword of the LORD, how long will it be ere thou be quiet? put up thyself into thy scabbard, rest, and be still.
7  How can it be quiet, seeing the LORD hath given it a charge against Ashkelon, and against the sea shore? (MEDITTERANEAN SEA) there hath he appointed it.

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.

Egypt's bruised Islamists protest after bloody week

By Maggie Fick and Yasmine Saleh-july12,13
CAIRO (Reuters) - Islamist supporters of Egypt's ousted president, Mohamed Mursi, protested in Cairo on Friday after a week of violence in which more than 90 people were killed in a bitterly divided nation.
Nine days after the army toppled Egypt's first elected leader following a wave of demonstrations against him, Mursi's Muslim Brotherhood is trying to mobilize popular support for his reinstatement, which for now looks like a lost cause.At a Cairo mosque where Mursi supporters have held vigil for more than two weeks, crowds swelled as people were bussed in from the provinces, where the Brotherhood has strongholds.
"We're here and we're not leaving," said Amer Ali, who drove the five-hour journey from the Nile city of Assiut with his wife and two young children to join tens of thousands of protesters."We came with our kids to support legitimacy, democracy, and our civilian president, the first freely elected president in the Arab world."
Some 2,000 people had gathered close to Cairo University on the weekly Muslim day of prayer, in the holy month of Ramadan.The youth-led Tamarud group, which brought millions of people to the streets to demand Mursi resign, has called for a Ramadan celebration in Tahrir Square, the cradle of the uprising that overthrew President Hosni Mubarak in 2011.Officials say Mursi is still being held at the Republican Guard compound in Cairo, where troops killed 53 Islamist protesters on Monday in violence that intensified anger his allies already felt at the military's decision to oust him.Four members of the security forces were also killed in that confrontation, which the military blames on "terrorists". Mursi's supporters call it a massacre and say those who died were praying peacefully when troops opened fire.
SHOCK AND ANGER
Many of Egypt's 84 million people have been shocked by the shootings, graphic images of which have appeared on state and private news channels and social media. The incident occurred just three days after 35 people were killed in clashes between pro- and anti-Mursi demonstrators across the country.The Brotherhood contends it is the victim of a military crackdown, evoking memories of its suppression under Mubarak.But many of its opponents blame Islamists for the violence, and some have little sympathy for the demonstrators who died, underlining how deep the fissures in Egyptian society are.The unrest has also raised fear over security in the lawless Sinai peninsula bordering Israel and the Palestinian Gaza Strip.Militant groups in North Sinai have promised more attacks and urged Islamists to take up arms, while the army has vowed to step up operations in the region, which is near the Suez Canal, the busy waterway linking Asia and Europe.An Egyptian military helicopter briefly crossed into Israeli-controlled airspace over the Gaza Strip, in a possible sign of increased security jitters.Security sources in Egypt and Israel both described the flyover as a navigational error, but it came shortly after militants killed an Egyptian policeman and wounded a second in an attack on a checkpoint in Sinai across the border from Gaza.
VIGIL ENTERS THIRD WEEK
Outside the Rabaa Adawiya mosque in northeastern Cairo, tens of thousands of Brotherhood supporters prayed and listened to speeches. Some of them have camped out in searing heat, fasting in the daytime since Ramadan began on Wednesday.In a wooden shack erected on a side street and emblazoned with portraits of Mursi, men prepared vats of rice and lamb. Others put the food in plastic bags to distribute after sundown, when Muslims break their fast.People squirted water from bottles to cool each other down. Others rested in the shade, dozing or reading the Koran.The night before, they had mourned Monday's dead, killed in the worst violence since Mubarak was toppled, apart from a 2012 soccer stadium riot. "Never before has blood been so cheap," said Saad Al-Husseini.The camp has become the de facto base of the Brotherhood, whose leaders live under the threat of detention after the public prosecutor ordered their arrests earlier in the week.Judicial sources say Mursi is likely to be charged, possibly for corruption or links to violence. Prosecutors are also looking again at an old case from 2011 when Mursi and other Brotherhood leaders escaped from prison after being detained during anti-Mubarak protests.His son Osama told CNN that he was proud of Mursi."We back any decision you take. Even if you decided to leave the office. Your family, we are all proud of you, God bless you," he said in English.The detentions and threats of arrest have drawn concern from the United States, which has walked a semantic tightrope to avoid calling Mursi's ouster a military coup.U.S. law bars aid to countries where a democratic government is removed in a coup. Washington, which gives Egypt's military $1.3 billion in aid each year, has said it is too early to say whether Mursi's removal by the army meets that description.The army has said it was enforcing the nation's will - meaning the huge crowds of people fed up with economic stagnation and suspicious of a Brotherhood power grab who took to the streets in late June to demand Mursi's departure.State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said on Wednesday Mursi's government "wasn't a democratic rule".German's foreign ministry demanded that Mursi be freed.
ALARM OVERSEAS
Crucial to longer-term stability will be holding parliamentary and presidential elections, which the transitional authorities are hoping to achieve in a matter of months.Adli Mansour, the interim president named by the general who removed Mursi, has announced a temporary constitution, plans to amend it to satisfy parties' demands and a faster-than-expected schedule for parliamentary elections in about six months.He has named liberal economist Hazem el-Beblawi as interim prime minister, and Beblawi said he had named center-left lawyer Ziad Bahaa el-Din as his deputy. Beblawi also said he expected to swear in a cabinet next week.
Negotiations are difficult, with the authorities trying to attract support from groups that range from secularists to ultra-orthodox Muslims, nearly all of whom expressed deep dissatisfaction with elements of the interim constitution.Underlining the level of concern overseas at Egypt's crisis, two U.S. Navy ships patrolling in the Middle East moved closer to Egypt's Red Sea coast in recent days, in what appeared to be a precautionary move following Mursi's ouster on July 3.The United States often sends Navy vessels close to countries in turmoil in case it needs to protect or evacuate U.S. citizens or give humanitarian assistance.Rich Gulf states have thrown Egypt a $12 billion lifeline in financial aid, which should help it stave off economic collapse.
More than two years of turmoil have scared away tourists and investors, shriveled hard currency reserves and threatened Cairo's ability to import food and fuel.(Additional reporting by Noah Browning, Mike Collett-White, Peter Graff, Ali Saed, Seham el-Oraby and Yasmine Saleh in Cairo, Nidal al-Mughrabi in Gaza and Ari Rabinovitch in Jerusalem; Writing by Mike Collett-White; Editing by Michael Roddy)

Russia slams West's 'propaganda storm' on Syria chemical arms

By Louis Charbonneau-july 12,13
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Russia's U.N. envoy on Thursday sharply criticized what he described as Western nations' "small propaganda storm in a glass of water" regarding allegations that the Syrian government has used chemical weapons against its own people.Ambassador Vitaly Churkin on Tuesday presented U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon a Russian analysis that Churkin said showed how a projectile containing sarin that hit Khan al-Assal in the northern Aleppo province on March 19, killing 26 civilians and military personnel, was fired by rebels.That report came after Syria allowed Russian experts to visit the site and take environmental samples for analysis. Russia, along with Iran, is Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's closest ally and chief arms supplier.The United States, France and Britain, which have informed Ban about at least nine more alleged chemical weapons attacks by the government, cast doubt on the Russian analysis and repeated their previous calls for a U.N. chemical investigation team to have unfettered access in Syria, not just Khan al-Assal.Churkin suggested that the three Western nations were making accusations that are not worth taking seriously."We need to be looking to credible allegations," he told reporters, adding that the insistence on looking into other incidents besides Khan al-Assal was a "small propaganda storm in a glass of water.""Unfortunately I think what our Western colleagues have been doing is trying to produce the maximum number of allegations with the minimum of credibility in an effort ... to create maximum problems for arranging such an investigation," he said.Syria has refused to allow the U.N. chemical investigation to visit anywhere but Khan al-Assal. Ban has insisted that the team, which is led by Ake Sellstrom of Sweden, be permitted to visit at least one other location, the city of Homs, site of an alleged chemical attack by the government in December 2012.U.S. Ambassador Rosemary DiCarlo told reporters that the investigation should not be limited to Aleppo's Khan al-Assal."We have called for the investigation - as the secretary-general has by the way - to include any and all credible allegations," she said.Assad's government and the rebels deny using chemical weapons but have accused each other of repeatedly deploying them. The country's two-year civil war has killed as many as 100,000 people, according to U.N. figures.
DRAFT RESOLUTION DISPUTE
British Ambassador Mark Lyall Grant said on Wednesday it was "nice that the Syrian regime has given access to Russian experts to collect samples of alleged chemical weapons use.""But it is considerably more important that they give access to independent and credible U.N. investigators who are not directly involved in the conflict and who can be expected to produce a more impartial and credible report," he said.The access dispute has kept Sellstrom's team out of Syria.Churkin also criticized a statement by U.S. State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki on Wednesday, who said Russia was blocking U.N. Security Council efforts to push for "an independent and credible investigation" of chemical attacks in Syria.Churkin said Russia was working hard to bring about a proper U.N. probe, which he said was demonstrated by the fact that Sellstrom and U.N. disarmament chief Angela Kane have been invited by the Syrian government to Damascus to discuss their investigation. Sellstrom and Kane have accepted the invitation.Churkin also accused Britain of leaking "confidential" information to reporters about a draft resolution proposed by London and based on a statement Moscow supported at last month's Group of Eight (G8) developed nations' summit in Belfast.The G8 statement urged all parties to the conflict to grant access to the U.N. team "in order to conduct an objective investigation into reports of the use of chemical weapons." It also called for the investigators to "make their report and deliver it to the U.N. Security Council for their assessment."
Several Western diplomats on the 15-nation Security Council said Russia was blocking the draft resolution. Churkin confirmed that Moscow opposed it but said China had also rejected it."We thought that it was completely unreasonable and contrary to the G8 declaration," he said about the British draft resolution, noting that "you know how our British friends are - they even drive on the wrong side of the road."
(In paragraph 8, inserts dropped word "but," removes "by")(Reporting by Louis Charbonneau; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)

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,(TORNADOES,HURRICANES,STORMS) and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth:(DESTRUCTION) for the powers of heaven shall be shaken.(FROM QUAKES,NUKES ETC)

THE FIRST JUDGEMENT OF THE EARTH STARTED WITH WATER-IT ONLY MAKES SENSE THE LAST GENERATION WILL BE HAVING FLOODING
GENESIS 7:6-12
6 And Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of waters was upon the earth.
7 And Noah went in, and his sons, and his wife, and his sons’ wives with him, into the ark, because of the waters of the flood.
8 Of clean beasts, and of beasts that are not clean, and of fowls, and of every thing that creepeth upon the earth,
9 There went in two and two unto Noah into the ark, the male and the female, as God had commanded Noah.
10 And it came to pass after seven days, that the waters of the flood were upon the earth.
11 In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened.
12 And the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights.
GOD PROMISED BY A RAINBOW-THE EARTH WOULD NEVER BE DESTROYED TOTALLY WITH A FLOOD AGAIN.BUT FLOODIING IS A SIGN OF JUDGEMENT.

China, Taiwan brace for typhoon as flood toll exceeds 200

BEIJING/TAIPEI (Reuters) - China and Taiwan braced on Friday for the impact of Typhoon Soulik as the toll of dead and missing from torrential rain across a broad swath of China climbed beyond 200.Soulik is expected to hit northern Taiwan later in the day, before crossing the narrow Taiwan Strait and slamming into China's provinces of Fujian and Zhejiang on Saturday."Government departments must place saving people's lives as their top priority," Chinese state media quoted Premier Li Keqiang as saying, as officials scrambled to tackle the floods.The Taipei city government has ordered companies and schools to send staff and pupils home early, although the financial markets will operate normally.Taiwan's China Airlines and Hong Kong-based Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd both warned of significant cancellations and disruption of flights to and from Taiwan on their websites.The storm will also pass close to the far southern Japanese islands of Ishigaki and Miyako.China has ordered fishing boats to return to port and suspended ferry links to Taiwan, official news agency Xinhua said.The typhoon approaches as large parts of China are already being lashed by torrential rain.At least 36 people have died in flooding in the southwestern province of Sichuan since the weekend, and 166 people are missing, the China News Service said.State television has broadcast dramatic pictures of bridges and houses being washed away around Beichuan and Dujiangyan in Sichuan, a region that is still recovering from a massive earthquake in 2008 that killed nearly 70,000 people.China's Ministry of Civil Affairs said flooding had also hit Xinjiang in the far west as well as Tibet and Beijing, the capital. In Inner Mongolia at least five people have died, it added.(This story corrects the headline to show number of dead and missing)(Reporting by Ben Blanchard in BEIJING and Faith Hung in TAIPEI; Additional reporting by Elaine Lies in TOKYO; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)

Police: 24 bodies now found in Quebec train crash

LAC-MEGANTIC, Quebec (AP) — The first victim of a runaway oil train's explosive derailment in a Quebec town was identified Thursday, more than five days since the disaster, which left behind a scorched scene so dangerous that it slowed the search for 50 people presumed dead.Quebec's premier toured the traumatized town and sharply criticized the U.S. railway's chief for not responding in person more quickly to Canada's worst railway disaster in nearly 150 years.Police said four more bodies had been found, bringing the total found to 24.The first victim to be identified by the coroner's office was 93-year-old Eliane Parenteau, who lived in the disaster zone in downtown Lac-Megantic. Those who knew her described her as being active for her age.The devastated downtown remained dangerous for days after the crash as responders put out fires and struggled to keep the remaining oil tankers cool so they wouldn't explode. The hazardous conditions delayed the search for the missing — and now for bodies.Officials also have warned that identifications would be made more difficult by the incinerated scene.Conditions had at least improved enough for nearly all the 2,000 residents forced to evacuate after the crash — a third of the population— to return home, the town's mayor said.Quebec Premier Pauline Marois arrived in town and renewed her criticism of Edward Burkhardt, president and CEO of U.S.-based Rail World Inc., which owns the runaway train."The leader of this company should have been there from the beginning," Marois said at a news conference.Burkhardt arrived in town for the first time Wednesday with a police escort, facing jeers from residents.Burkhardt has said he delayed his visit to deal with the crisis from his Chicago office, saying he was better able to communicate from there."I understand the extreme anger," he said. "We owe an abject apology to the people in this town."He has blamed the engineer for failing to set the brakes properly before the unmanned train hurtled down a seven-mile (11-kilometer) incline, derailed and ignited. All but one of its 73 cars was carrying oil, and at least five exploded.Burkhardt said the engineer had been suspended without pay and was under "police control." Burkhardt did not name the engineer, though the company had previously identified the employee as Tom Harding of Quebec. Harding has not spoken publicly since the crash.Anger at the railway officials among residents appeared to mount Thursday.Lac-Megantic's mayor, Colette Roy-Laroche, said a hoped-for meeting with Burkhardt didn't materialize."I am angry with the fact that he did not communicate with me sooner," she said.At Burkhardt's head office, an aide said no snub of the mayor was intended."There's been a misunderstanding on that issue," said Cathy Aldana. "Our people have been in contact with mayor's office daily, and I know Mr. Burkhardt wanted to see her personally."
Investigators are also looking at a fire on the same train just hours before the disaster. A fire official has said the train's power was shut down as standard operating procedure, meaning the train's air brakes would have been disabled. In that case, hand brakes on individual train cars would have been needed.The derailment is Canada's worst railway disaster since a train plunged into a Quebec river in 1864, killing 99.The crash has raised questions about the rapidly growing use of rail to transport oil in North America, especially in the booming North Dakota oil fields and Alberta oil sands far from the sea.___Associated Press writers Sean Farrell in Lac-Megantic, Charmaine Noronha in Toronto and Tammy Webber in Chicago contributed to this report.

U.S NAVY SHIPS MOVE CLOSER TO EGYPT

KING JESUS IS COMING FOR US ANY TIME NOW. THE RAPTURE. BE PREPARED TO GO.

U.S. Navy ships in Red Sea move close to Egypt as precaution


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Two U.S. Navy ships patrolling in the Middle East moved closer to Egypt's Red Sea coast in recent days, the top Marine Corps general said on Thursday, in what appeared to be a precautionary move after the military overthrow of President Mohamed Mursi.The United States often sends Navy vessels close to countries in turmoil in case it needs to protect or evacuate U.S. citizens or take part in humanitarian assistance. Their presence does not necessarily mean the United States is preparing to carry out military action."Egypt is (in) a crisis right now," Marine Corps Commandant General James Amos told the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank. "When that happens, what we owe the senior leadership of our nation are some options," Amos said. He did not say what the options were.U.S. Navy and Marine Corp officials said the two ships, part of a three-ship amphibious readiness group, had been in the region since May, patrolling the Red Sea, Horn of Africa, the Gulf and the Arabian Sea, and that there were no new orders to prepare for a possible conflict in Egypt.Washington has walked a careful line, neither welcoming Mursi's removal last week nor denouncing it as a "coup." U.S. defense officials on Wednesday said they still planned to send four F-16 fighter jets to the Egyptian government as planned in coming weeks.
Amos said the USS San Antonio, an amphibious transport dock, and the USS Kearsarge, an amphibious assault ship, had moved further north in the Red Sea two or three nights ago to better respond if needed.
U.S. Marine Corps officials said moving amphibious ships closer to shore would enable easier movement of helicopters and other equipment, if it were needed."Why? Because we don't know what's going to happen," he said.Navy officials said the third ship in the group, the USS Carter Hall, remained off the coast of Bahrain in the Gulf.(Reporting by Andrea Shalal-Esa; Editing by Alistair Bell and David Storey)

FAMINE

EZEKIEL 5:16
16  When I shall send upon them the evil arrows of famine, which shall be for their destruction, and which I will send to destroy you: and I will increase the famine upon you, and will break your staff of bread:

REVELATION 6:5-6
5 And when he had opened the third seal, I heard the third beast say, Come and see. And I beheld, and lo a black horse; and he that sat on him had a pair of balances in his hand.
6 And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts say, A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny; and see thou hurt not the oil and the wine.(A DAYS WAGES FOR A LOAF OF BREAD)

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


Exclusive: Egypt has less than two months imported wheat left: ex-minister


By Sarah McFarlane-july 11,13
CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt has less than two months' supply of imported wheat left in its stocks, ousted President Mohamed Mursi's minister of supplies said, revealing a shortage more acute than previously disclosed.Speaking to Reuters near midnight in a tent at a vigil where thousands of Mursi supporters are protesting against the Islamist president's removal, former Minister of Supplies Bassem Ouda said the state had just 500,000 tonnes of imported wheat left. Egypt usually imports about 10 million tonnes a year.Two and a half years of political turmoil have caused a deep economic crisis in Egypt, scaring away investors and tourists, draining foreign currency reserves and making it difficult to maintain imports of food and fuel.Egypt is the world's largest importer of wheat, half of which it distributes to its 84 million people in the form of heavily subsidized saucer-sized flat loaves of bread, which sell for less than 1 U.S. cent.Bread has long been a sensitive issue in Egypt. Former President Hosni Mubarak faced unrest in 2008 when the rising price of wheat caused shortages.Although it also grows its own wheat, Egypt needs huge quantities of foreign wheat with higher gluten content to make flour suitable for bread.The ousted government closely guarded figures about its foreign grain stores even as a shortage of cash halted its imports.The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said on Thursday that civil unrest and dwindling foreign exchange reserves meant Egypt could have serious food security concerns. Its import requirements next year would be equal to this year, it said.Since Mursi was toppled last week, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait have promised $12 billion in cash, loans and fuel, which economists say buys Cairo several months of breathing room to fix its finances.Egypt had halted its purchases of international wheat since February - its longest absence from the market in years - until the eve of Mursi's overthrow, when the state grain buying agency, the General Authority for Supply Commodities (GASC), bought wheat under Ouda's instruction.
"In spite of all the political differences between the parties, the international price of wheat was very nice, we bought about 180,000 tonnes of wheat," Ouda said.
DOMESTIC STOCKS
Apart from imports, Ouda said the government had bought 3.7 million tonnes of home-grown wheat from a harvest that is now finishing. It still has 3 million tonnes of domestic wheat left in its stores, having begun milling the domestic crop in May.Egypt normally mixes its domestic wheat with equal parts foreign wheat to produce flour. Ouda said Mursi's government had tried to increase the ratio of domestic wheat, which would make the country less dependent on imports."Our plan was to increase the contribution of the local wheat. We hoped to reach 60 percent," Ouda said.Mursi's government said on June 26 it had 3.613 million tonnes of total wheat but did not reveal how much of that was imported.Mamdouh Abdel Fattah, vice chairman of GASC, was quoted on Thursday by state media as saying Egypt's total wheat stocks were enough to last until November. However, he too did not say how much of that was imported.He later said GASC was unlikely to buy wheat from the international market any time soon."I would like to say I am confident we have enough stocks and hence it is unlikely we buy from the international market soon, especially with the current increase in prices," Abdel Fattah told Reuters.Earlier this week a report issued by a U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) attache in Egypt said domestic wheat stocks would last through October at current consumption levels. It gave no estimate for when foreign wheat would run out.In the past, Egypt maintained stocks of both imported and local wheat that would cover at least six months' needs.The USDA attache's report said it takes Egypt 2-3 months from announcing a tender to getting the wheat distributed to flour mills.
While the Gulf Arab states' cash injection is expected to help Egypt replenish its wheat stocks, it will need to start buying soon and in large quantities."I think the aim of the Arab countries is to make sure Egypt doesn't fail with respect to food security and financial commitments with the international banking system, so I would think they will push to get the aid through quickly," said Kisan Gunjal, economist and food emergency Officer at the FAO.(Additional reporting by Maha El Dahan in Abu Dhabi, James Mackenzie in Rome and Yasmine Saleh in Cairo; Editing by Peter Graff)

I THOUGHT HELICOPTER BEN WAS FIRED.OVIOUSLY NOT THE STIMULUS FREE CASH CONTINUES FROM BERNANKES FREE PRINTING PRESS.SO BERNANKE WILL BE BUSY WITH HIS COPTER DELIVERING ALL THAT ENDLESS FREE CASH AGAIN.AND SINCE IT WILL BE ENDLESS.THE INFLATION AND SKY ROCKETING FOOD PRICE WILL BE RAMPANT NOW.




Bernanke stimulus promise drives markets higher


LONDON (AP) — Global stocks rose Thursday after Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke promised to keep supporting the U.S. economy.Bernanke said the U.S. needs "highly accommodative monetary policy" — or low interest rates — "for the foreseeable future." That reassured investors who were dismayed by Bernanke's comments last month that the Fed would likely slow its bond purchases later this year and end them around mid-2014 if the economy strengthens. Critics said the Fed bungled its communications strategy.
The Fed has been buying $85 billion of financial assets a month to keep interest rates low and encourage borrowing and spending. That stimulus has driven global stocks higher, so the prospect of reducing it caused market volatility in recent weeks."In one short and sweet statement, Federal Reserve chairman Bernanke has flicked a switch on the markets," said strategist Evan Lucas of Australia's IG Markets in a report.In Europe, Germany's DAX rose 1.14 percent to 8,158.80 and France's CAC-40 gained 0.7 percent to 3,868.98. Britain's FTSE 100 rose 0.6 percent to 6,543.41.Commodity stocks were the big gainers, as the promise of more support to the U.S. economy, the world's largest, suggested greater demand from consumers and industry. Oil rose to trade briefly above $107 a barrel, near the highest level in more than a year, before easing back down. After soaring $2.99 the day before, it was down $1.80 on Thursday, at $104.72.
Wall Street opened higher, adding to the previous day's gains. The Dow was up 0.9 percent at 15,423 while the broader S&P 500 was 1 percent higher at 1,669.50.A rise in U.S. jobless claims figures — by 16,000 to a total of 360,000 — failed to move markets much. The level is consistent with steady hiring, though the increase suggests the recovery is still not as fast as hoped.In Asia, gains were stronger than anywhere else. The Shanghai Composite Index jumped 3.2 percent to 2,072.99, its biggest gain in nearly seven months, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng rose 2.6 percent to 21.437.49. Tokyo's Nikkei 225 added 0.4 percent to 14,472.58.Markets rebounded from caution a day earlier when unexpectedly weak Chinese trade figures that suggested the world's second-largest economy is slowing more abruptly than forecast.Elsewhere, Taiwan's Taiex gained 1.8 percent to 8,154.05 and Sydney's S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.8 percent to 4,940.20. Markets in Singapore, Manila and Jakarta also rose.In currency markets, the dollar stabilized after falling on expectations that the Fed's monetary policy will remain loose for the time being. Looser monetary policy tends to weaken a country's currency.The dollar was trading at 99.07 yen compared with late Wednesday's 98.83 yen. The euro was down almost 1 percent, at $1.3016 from $1.3140.___Joe McDonald in Beijing contributed to this report.

07/11/2013 VATICAN INSIDER

Francis abolishes life imprisonment and raises penalties against abuse

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A courtroom in the Vatican Tribunal
A courtroom in the Vatican Tribunal

The Pope has introduced an important reform to the Vatican criminal justice system, involving tougher penalties for crimes committed against children

Alessandro Speciale vatican city “In our times, the common good is increasingly threatened by transnational organized crime, the improper use of the markets and of the economy, as well as by terrorism.”Pope Francis said this in his Motu Proprio on criminal law matters and administrative sanctions within Vatican City State and the Holy See, issued today. The Pope said it is “necessary for the international community to adopt adequate legal instruments to prevent and counter criminal activities, by promoting international judicial cooperation on criminal matters.”In his Apostolic Letter Motu Proprio, Francis explains that the purpose of it is to “renew the Apostolic See’s commitment to cooperate to these ends.”No changes have been made to the legislation since the Vatican City State based its criminal system on the former Italian criminal code (known as the Zanardelli Code) in 1929, after the Lateran Treaty was signed, creating the Vatican City State. This is why Benedict XVI’s former butler, Paolo Gabriele, was only charged with theft. This was the only offence he could be tried for under the Vatican law in force at the time, given that attacks against State security were not listed as an offence.In the Supplementary Norms on Criminal Law Matters introduced today Pope Francis provided a broader definition of the category of crimes against minors, “including: the sale of children, child prostitution, the recruitment of children, sexual violence and sexual acts with children, and the production and possession of child pornography.”This is an important development in the fight against sex abuse in the Church, begun by Benedict XVI and continued by Francis, because the new rules do not just apply to officials and Roman Curia staff but to Apostolic Nuncios, the Holy See’s diplomatic corps and staff from the various organisations and institutions linked to the Holy See, regardless of whether they are on Vatican soil or not.
 
The insertion of article 116 b regarding the theft of documents, to Vatican City State law, will ensure that anyone who leaks confidential information – as happened in the case of the poison pen letter writer – will get between 6 months to 2 years imprisonment. Some sentences can even extend to 8 years. “If the stolen document is highly important and confidential, sentences can be raised to between 4 and 8 years,” said Giuseppe Dalla Torre, President of the Vatican Tribunal. In a press conference he explained that the new regulations are meant to be “in line with international norms.”Another section of the legislation introduces a list of crimes against humanity, which has been given a separate title and outlines punishments for crimes such as genocide and apartheid “following broadly the definitions adopted in the 1998 Statute of the International Criminal Court,” Vatican Radio reports.The new regulations for the reform of the Vatican criminal code – which will come into force on 1 September – are not in response to the Moneyval report. “There are other laws currently being prepared, which are not linked to criminal law but are a response to Moneyval’s requests,” said Vatican spokesman, Fr. Federico Lombardi.

07/10/2013 VATICAN INSIDER

IOR: Francis activates his "alertometer"

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The Vatican bank's head office
The Vatican bank's head office

The Vatican judiciary has ordered that no documents relating to the Vatican bank are to be destoyed or tampered with

Andrea Tornielli vatican city “I am very naive about some things but there are certain other things that set my “alertometer” in action,” Jorge Mario Bergoglio once said back in the days when he was still Archbishop of Buenos Aires. His comment was in reference to cases of corruption involving clerics. Francis’ “alertometer” has certainly been activated now. Various sources have said that last 4 July, the Vatican apparently issued a regulation which prohibits anyone from destroying or tampering with documents relating to the Vatican Bank (IOR). The decision to issue said regulation was taken independently, without prior approval from the Secretariat of State. This is indicative of a new willingness to deal with more thorny issues, without settling for comfortable cover-up operations.Readers will recall that the director general of the IOR, Paolo Cipriani and his deputy, Massimo Tulli, both handed in their resignations on Monday 1 July. The decision came after the embarrassing revelation of an inquiry into APSA prelare Mgr Nunzio Scarano’s illicit use of his Vatican bank accounts to carry out risky financial operations, all of which were approved by the IOR’s directors.But in the days following the resignation, the two former managers under investigation were still to be found wandering through the bank’s corridors. Then a third person was added to the list of people under investigation: the lawyer Michele Briamonte. The presence of the two managers and the lawyer made the situation even more problematic. Briamonte, who is both the IOR and Cipriani’s lawyer, is being investigated for inside trading in the case involving Italian bank Monte dei Paschi. He was also involved in an accident which took place in recent months at Rome’s Ciampino airport, when the Guardia di Finanza, one of Italy’s law enforcement agencies, decided to search Briamonte’s luggage, just as he was getting out of his private jet, alongside one of Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone’s secretaries. The check was not carried out in the end as Briamonte produced a Vatican diplomatic passport, claiming immunity from inspection.The IOR’s new president, Ernst von Freyberg, gave a series of interviews, giving repeated reassurance that Briamonte was no longer the IOR’s lawyer and that he no longer had anything to do with the bank. So why did he return several times according t some sources? And why did he return on the very day outgoing managers Cipriani and Tulli and even President Von Freyberg himself were present in the building? In light of these events, the Vatican judiciary ordered that no IOR document in any format was to be destroyed, tampered with or moved. It was a new dramatic turn of events but not the last in the recent IOR saga.That Pope Francis was never a fan of shady operations is no mystery. A prelate who follows developments in the Vatican closely, said: “One need only read an excerpt from his conversation with Rabbi Abraham Skorka in the book “On Heaven and Earth”...” In the book the prelate mentions -  which has been published in a number of different languages – Bergoglio described an episode which took place shortly after his nomination as auxiliary bishop in the early 90’s, when Argentina was mired in an economic crisis and one Argentine peso was worth one U.S. dollar. “Two officials came to look for me at the vicar’s residence in Flores, saying they had some money to donate to the poor. They said they were fervent Catholics and handed 400 thousand pesos over to me to invest in charity works in the local poor neighbourhoods. I am a very naive when it comes to some things but on other occasions my “alertometer” is activated. And that time it worked,” the cardinal said.Bergoglio asked for more details about the projects and the officials ended up telling him that they were only going to give him half of the 400 thousand pesos he was about to sign a receipt for. The future Pope found a clever way out: Since the local vicar’s residences don’t have bank accounts and neither did Bergoglio, he told them they should pay the money directly to the curia, which did not take donations in cash. After that, the two men disappeared. The fact that they were so confident about that this working means another cleric must have tried it before, Francis concluded in the book.All one needed to do was to listen to the new Pope describe his dream of “a poor Church for the poor” to realise that he intended to carry Benedict XVI’s transparency work through to the end. Some cardinals were dissatisfied by the explanations Cardinal Bertone gave to them about the workings of the Vatican bank, during the pre-Conclave general congregations. It was clear to everyone that reforms needed to be made in the Vatican bank as well. In recent months it became apparent that the monitoring system put in place to keep a check on the activities of the IOR was and is not working, despite the reassurances from Von Freyberg and Financial Information Authority director René Brülhart. So on 15 June, Francis appointed the director of St. Martha’s House, Battista Ricca as temporary Prefect of the IOR. As administrator of the residence that is currently Bergoglio’s home and given that the two often eat at the same table, Ricca is someone Francis trusts and he has authorised access to all documents relating to the Vatican bank.After Ricca’s arrival at the IOR, a number of controversial incidents ensued. The prelate, who still enjoys the Pope’s trust, has a strong attitude and does not sweeten the pill with diplomatic niceties. The delays in the screening of account holders at the Vatican bank and conforming to anti-money laundering regulations and the Italian judiciary’s inquiries into the way the bank has been managed, have made it necessary for Francis to go one step further: he personally decided to issue a papal chirograph, ordering the creation of a commission of inquiry, headed by Cardinal Raffaele Farina. The commission is to dig deep into the activities of the Vatican bank and report its findings directly to the Pope. At the end of the investigation the commission is to hand all documentation gathered, over to Francis.Before he begins reforming, Bergoglio wants to get a clear idea of the IOR’s situation and above all he wants to get to eradicate the current system as well as get to the bottom of who is responsible for the bank’s woes. 
The Francis revolution: No flattery, no valets, no pomp, no ceremony 
A little less talk and a lot more action: Francis’ grand reform of the Vatican bank and Secretariat of State

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