JEWISH KING JESUS IS COMING AT THE RAPTURE FOR US IN THE CLOUDS-DON'T MISS IT FOR THE WORLD.THE BIBLE TAKEN LITERALLY- WHEN THE PLAIN SENSE MAKES GOOD SENSE-SEEK NO OTHER SENSE-LEST YOU END UP IN NONSENSE.GET SAVED NOW- CALL ON JESUS TODAY.THE ONLY SAVIOR OF THE WHOLE EARTH - NO OTHER.
1 COR 15:23-JESUS THE FIRST FRUITS-CHRISTIANS RAPTURED TO JESUS-FIRST FRUITS OF THE SPIRIT-23 But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming.ROMANS 8:23 And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.(THE PRE-TRIB RAPTURE)
WORLD POWERS IN THE LAST DAYS (END OF AGE OF GRACE NOT THE WORLD)
EUROPEAN UNION-KING OF WEST-DAN 9:26-27,DAN 7:23-24,DAN 11:40,REV 13:1-10
EGYPT-KING OF THE SOUTH-DAN 11:40
RUSSIA-KING OF THE NORTH-EZEK 38:1-2,EZEK 39:1-3
CHINA-KING OF THE EAST-DAN 11:44,REV 9:16,18
VATICAN-RELIGIOUS LEADER-REV 13:11-18,REV 17:4-5,9,18
WORLD TERRORISM
GENESIS 6:11-13
11 The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.(WORLD TERRORISM,MURDERS)(HAMAS IN HEBREW IS VIOLENCE)
12 And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth.
13 And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence (TERRORISM)(HAMAS) through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth.
2 PETER 2:5
5 And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly;
2 PETER 3:7
7 But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men
LEVITICUS 26:16
16 I also will do this unto you; I will even appoint over you( sudden) terror(ISM), consumption, and the burning ague, that shall consume the eyes, and cause sorrow of heart: and ye shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it.
GENESIS 16:11-12
11 And the angel of the LORD said unto her,(HAGAR) Behold, thou art with child, and shalt bear a son, and shalt call his name Ishmael;(FATHER OF THE ARAB/MUSLIMS) because the LORD hath heard thy affliction.
12 And he (ISHMAEL-FATHER OF THE ARAB-MUSLIMS) will be a wild (DONKEY-JACKASS) man;(ISLAM IS A FAKE AND DANGEROUS SEX FOR MURDER CULT) his hand will be against every man,(ISLAM HATES EVERYONE) and every man's hand against him;(PROTECTING THEMSELVES FROM BEING BEHEADED) and he (ISHMAEL ARAB/MUSLIM) shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren.(LITERAL-THE ARABS LIVE WITH THEIR BRETHERN JEWS)
ISAIAH 14:12-14
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 (SATAN HAS EYE TROUBLES) will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.(AND 1/3RD OF THE ANGELS OF HEAVEN FELL WITH SATAN AND BECAME DEMONS)
ISAIAH 33:1,18-19 Woe to thee that spoilest,(destroys) and thou wast not spoiled;(destroyed) and dealest treacherously, and they dealt not treacherously with thee! when thou shalt cease to spoil,(destroy) thou shalt be spoiled;(destroyed) and when thou shalt make an end to deal treacherously, they shall deal treacherously with thee.
18 Thine heart shall meditate terror. Where is the scribe? where is the receiver? where is he that counted the towers?
19 Thou shalt not see a fierce people, a people of a deeper speech than thou canst perceive; of a stammering tongue, that thou canst not understand.
JOHN 16:2
2 They shall put you out of the synagogues: yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service.(ISLAM MURDERS IN THE NAME OF MOON GOD ALLAH OF ISLAM)
Russian warships launch rockets on Islamic State in Syria-Reuters–OCT 7,15-YAHOONEWS
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Four Russian warships in the Caspian Sea launched 26 rockets at Islamic State in Syria which hit their targets, Russia's Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu and President Vladimir Putin said in a joint television appearance on Wednesday.Russia started its air campaign in Syria saying it would target militant group Islamic State. But its planes have also bombed other rebel groups opposed to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Moscow's ally.Western countries, Arab states and Turkey, who are waging their own bombing campaign against Islamic State but also want Assad to leave power, say Moscow is using Islamic State as a pretext to target Assad's other foes.Russia says the Assad government should be the centrepiece of international efforts to combat extremism.Putin said it was too early to talk about the results of Russia's operations in Syria and ordered Shoigu to continue cooperation with the United States, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Iran and Iraq on Syria.On Wednesday the Syrian army and allied militia carried out ground attacks on insurgent positions in Syria backed by Russian air strikes.Putin also said that French President France Hollande had voiced the idea of uniting Assad's forces with the so-called Free Syrian Army to fight Islamic State.But a source close to Hollande denied he had said this."The president spoke of the necessary presence of the Syrian opposition around the negotiating table." a source close to Hollande said. "The rest is not a French idea."Shoigu said that on Tuesday Russia had summoned foreign military attaches in Moscow and suggested they supply Russia with any intelligence on Islamic State positions."Today we are expecting a reply from our colleagues and we hope they will tell us about those targets which they have," he said.Shoigu also said Russia was ready to agree a document with the United States to coordinate actions in Syria.(Reporting by Alexander Winning, Andrei Kuzmin, Maxim Rodionov and Denis Dyomkin; Additional reporting by John Irish in Paris; Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky)
Russia backs Syrian forces in major assault on insurgents-Reuters By Sylvia Westall and Dominic Evans-OCT 7,15-YAHOONEWS
BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syrian troops and militia backed by Russian warplanes mounted what appeared to be their first major coordinated assault on Syrian insurgents on Wednesday and Moscow said its warships fired a barrage of missiles at them from the Caspian Sea, a sign of its new military reach.The combined operation hit towns close to the main north-south highway that runs through major cities in the mainly government-held west of Syria, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a British-based group which tracks the conflict via a network of sources within the country.Ground attacks by Syrian government forces and their militia allies using heavy surface-to-surface missile bombardments hit at least four insurgent positions and there were heavy clashes, the head of the Observatory, Rami Abdulrahman, said.The Iranian-backed Hezbollah militia took part in the fighting, according to a regional source who is familiar with the military situation in Syria. Abdulrahman said later there was no sign that Syrian troops and their allies had made any tangible advances on the ground.They briefly entered one town, but were forced to pull back, he said, and around 15 of their tanks or armored vehicles had been either destroyed or disabled.Islamic State militants have seized much of Syria since civil war grew out of anti-government protests in 2011, but the areas targeted in Wednesday's combined assault are held by other rebels, some U.S.-backed, fuelling accusations by Russia's critics that its real aim is to help the government.Moscow says it shares the West's aim of preventing the spread of Islamic State, and Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu told President Vladimir Putin during a televised meeting that four Russian warships in the Caspian Sea had launched 26 missiles at Islamic State in Syria earlier in the day.The missiles would have passed over Iran and Iraq to reach their targets, covering what Shoigu described as a distance of almost 1,500 km (900 miles), the latest display of Russian military power at a time when relations with the West are at a post-Cold War low over Ukraine.The terrain-hugging Kalibr cruise missiles, known by NATO by the codename Sizzler, fly at an altitude of 50 meters and are accurate to within three meters, the Russian defense ministry said.The air campaign in Syria has caught Washington and its allies on the back foot and alarmed Syria's northern neighbor Turkey, which says its air space has been repeatedly violated by Russian jets.Ankara summoned Russia's ambassador for the third time in four days over the reported violations, which NATO has said appeared to be deliberate and were "extremely dangerous".Turkey said Syria-based missile systems harassed its warplanes on Tuesday while eight F-16 jets were on a patrol flight along the Syria border.IRAQ LOOKS TO RUSSIA-Syrian state television quoted a military source as saying the missiles fired by Russian ships targeted 11 Islamic State positions in Raqqa, Aleppo and Idlib.The missiles destroyed bomb-making factories, command posts, weapons and ammunition and fuel depots, as well as "terrorist training centers", the TV said.Russian air strikes destroyed the main weapons depots of a U.S.-trained rebel group, the Liwa Suqour al-Jabal, their commander said.In conversation with Shoigu, Putin said it was too early to talk about the results of Russia's operations in Syria and ordered his minister to continue cooperation with the United States, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Iran and Iraq on the crisis.However, U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter said the United States would not cooperate militarily with Russia in Syria, although it was willing to hold discussions to secure the safety of its own pilots bombing IS targets in Syria.Calling Moscow's strategy "tragically flawed", he renewed accusations that the strikes were not focused on Islamic State. The Russian defense ministry accused the U.S. air force of not always bombing Islamic State targets itself.Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said only two of 57 Russian air strikes in Syria so far had hit Islamic State, while the rest had been against the moderate opposition, the only forces fighting the hard-line insurgents in northwestern Syria.But in Iraq, the head of parliament's defense and security committee said Baghdad may request Russian air strikes against Islamic State on its soil soon and wants Moscow to have a bigger role than Washington in fighting the group.Iraq's government and powerful Iranian-backed Shi'ite militias question the United States' resolve in fighting Islamic State militants, who control a third of the country, saying U.S.-led coalition air strikes are ineffective.The Kremlin said it had not received any official request from Iraq for air strikes against Islamic State there.AIR SUPPORT ONLY SO FAR-Russia's military build-up in Syria included a growing naval presence, long-range rockets and a battalion of troops backed by Moscow's most modern tanks, the U.S. ambassador to NATO said."There is a considerable and growing Russia naval presence in the eastern Mediterranean, more than 10 ships now, which is a bit out of the ordinary," Douglas Lute told reporters ahead of a meeting of alliance defense ministers in Brussels.Abdulrahman said Russia appeared to have stuck to air support on Wednesday. The assault followed a report by Reuters last week that allies of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, including Iranians, were preparing to recapture territory lost by the government to rebels in rapid advances this year.Hezbollah-run al-Manar television said in a newsflash that "an operation by the Syrian army started in a number of villages and towns in the northern countryside of Hama province".A video posted by the media office of an opposition group in Hama province on YouTube purported to show heavy rocket strikes by pro-government forces on Wednesday hitting an area in the northern Hama countryside. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JELcCMJLS-U&sns=twOther footage from Hama showed rebels from the Free Syrian Army firing anti-tank missiles and hitting two army tanks.(Additional reporting by Laila Bassam in BEIRUT, Alexander Winning in MOSCOW, Phil Stewart and Crispian Balmer in ROME and Michael Georgy in BAGHDAD; writing by Philippa Fletcher; editing by Peter Millership and Giles Elgood)
U.S.-led coalition aircraft re-routed to avoid Russians: Pentagon-Reuters-OCT 7,15- YAHOONEWS
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S.-led coalition aircraft bombing Islamist militants in Syria were re-routed at least once in the last six days to avoid a close encounter with Russian planes, a Pentagon spokesman said on Wednesday.The United States and its allies have been waging a year-long air campaign against Islamic State in Syria and across the border in neighboring Iraq. Russia launched air strikes in Syria last month, and has largely focused on hitting other rebel groups opposed to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad."We've had an instance at least where there's been action taken to make sure we didn't have an unsafe separation of space," said Captain Jeff Davis, a Pentagon spokesman. "We have had to do re-routing of the course of an airplane."Davis said the re-routing had occurred since an Oct. 1 secure video conference between U.S. and Russian military officials, which focused on ways to keep air crews safe as they conduct parallel military campaigns with competing objectives.He declined to provide further details, including whether the aircraft involved was manned or a drone, or how often the modification had happened or where, except that it had occurred at least once, and in Syrian air space.(Reporting by Yeganeh Torbati; Editing by James Dalgleish)
Iran's supreme leader bans negotiations with the United States-Reuters-OCT 7,15-YAHOONEWS
DUBAI (Reuters) - Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Wednesday banned any further negotiations between Iran and the United States, putting the breaks on moderates hoping to end Iran's isolation after reaching a nuclear deal with world powers in July.Khamenei, the highest authority in the Islamic Republic, already said last month there would be no more talks with the United States after the nuclear deal, but has not previously declared an outright ban.His statements directly contradict those of moderate Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, who says his government is ready to hold talks with the United States on how to resolve the conflict in Syria, where the two countries back opposing sides."Negotiations with the United States open gates to their economic, cultural, political and security influence. Even during the nuclear negotiations they tried to harm our national interests.," Khamenei was quoted as saying on his website."Our negotiators were vigilant but the Americans took advantage of a few chances," he said.Although he supported the last 18 months of negotiations, Khamenei has not publicly endorsed the nuclear agreement with the United States, Germany, France, Britain, China and Russia that settled a standoff of more than a decade.The West feared Iran wanted to develop nuclear weapons, suspicions Tehran denies.The agreement, which curbs Iran's nuclear program in exchange for crippling sanctions being lifted, was welcomed by Iranians who are keen to see their living standards improve and better relations with the rest of the world.It was also a great political victory for Rouhani and his faction in Iran ahead of some key elections next year and as such has deepened the divide in Iran's complex power structure between moderates and hardliners." CRITICAL SITUATION"-In his address to Revolutionary Guards Navy commanders, Khamenei said talks with the United States brought only disadvantages to Iran."Through negotiations Americans seek to influence Iran ... but there are naive people in Iran who don't understand this," Khamenei was quoted as saying to the IRGC commanders, who are also running much of Iran's military involvement in Syria.Hundreds of Iranian troops arrived in Syria last month, sources told Reuters, where they will join government forces and their Lebanese Hezbollah allies in a major ground offensive backed by Russian air strikes.The West dispute the aims of Russia's air campaign, which is causing friction between Moscow and NATO."We are in a critical situation now as the enemies are trying to change the mentality of our officials and our people on the revolution and our national interests," Khamenei told the Guards.Khamenei often invokes an unspecified "enemy" when talking about Western powers, particularly the United States and Israel, which he suspects of plotting to overthrow the Islamic Republic.His comments might invigorate the hardline lawmakers seeking the impeachment of Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif over shaking hands with U.S. President Barack Obama on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly.-"On and off the record, it was an accident," Zarif said in an interview with New Yorker on Tuesday."It has already cost me at home. But everything I do costs me at home, so this is not an aberration."(Reporting by Bozorgmehr Sharafedin; Editing by Toby Chopra and Raissa Kasolowsky)
Iraqi Kurdish fighters tested positive for mustard gas after clashes with Islamic State group-The Canadian PressBy Bram Janssen, The Associated Press | The Canadian Press – OCT 7,15-YAHOONEWS
IRBIL, Iraq - Several Iraqi Kurdish troops tested positive for mustard gas after battles this summer with the Islamic State group in northern Iraq, a spokesman for the paramilitary group said Wednesday.Blood samples from the Kurdish peshmerga fighters sent to a Baghdad lab revealed traces of the toxic gas, the spokesman, Jabar Yawar told The Associated Press. The exposure took place during the battles along the front lines near the northern Iraqi towns of Makhmour and Gwer, he said.The blood tests raise the spectre that IS used mustard gas in fighting the peshmerga forces. If confirmed, it would be the latest chemical agent apparently procured and used by the extremist Islamic State in the war.In March, Kurdish authorities in Iraq said they had evidence that the militant IS group used chlorine gas as a chemical weapon against its fighters. The allegation by the Kurdistan Region Security Council, stemming from a Jan. 23 suicide truck bomb attack in northern Iraq, followed similar allegations about the militants using the low-grade chemical weapons against Iraqi security forces as well as on Kurdish fighters in Syria.Iraqi Kurdish troops, trained and helped by American advisers, took the lead in battling IS after the extremist group blitzed across much of northern Iraq last year. Iraqi government forces and allied Shiite militias have since joined the fight, backed by U.S.-led coalition airstrikes.Yawar said forces from the U.S.-led coalition also took blood and soil samples in the same area and that those also tested positive. No one from the coalition was immediately available for comment.According to a statement Wednesday from the peshmerga force, the Islamic State militants fired some 50 mortar rounds on Iraqi Kurdish positions on Aug. 11. At least 37 of them exploded, releasing white smoke and a black liquid.Hazhar Ismail, director of co-ordination and public relations for the Peshmerga Ministry in Irbil said at least 35 peshmerga soldiers tested positive."Some still have health problems today, mainly (with the) skin and eyes," he said. "Nobody got killed in the attack."Kurdish fighters, backed by U.S.-led coalition airstrikes, have retaken territory from the Islamic State group spanning across northern Iraq. However, progress has stalled in recent months as the Sunni militant group clings on to certain locations they view as strategic, particularly towns along the border with Syria.Last week, the peshmerga said it drove the Islamic State group from more than 140 sq. kilometres (54 sq. miles) of territory near the oil-rich city of Kirkuk and cleared part of a major highway Wednesday.The militant group has held about a third of the territory in Iraq and Syria since August 2014.The government of Iraq's self-ruled Kurdish region said last month that IS militants fired a homemade rocket carrying "chemical substances" at peshmerga forces near the Mosul Dam in northern Iraq.A senior U.S. military officer said in August that preliminary tests showed traces of mustard gas on IS mortars.Mustard gas is a chemical agent that attacks the eyes and skin, causing severe blisters, and if inhaled, it can damage the lungs and other organs. While not usually lethal, exposure to mustard gas is generally debilitating.__Associated Press writer Vivian Salama contributed to this report from Baghdad.
Isis: Nuclear smugglers attempt to sell to Islamic State and other terrorists-International Business Times By Nicole Rojas | International Business Times – OCT 7,15-yahoonews
US federal agents have stopped four attempts in the last five years by nuclear smugglers who tried to sell radioactive materials to the Islamic State (Isis) and other terrorist organisations in the Middle East. The most recent case, in February 2015, found a smuggler attempting to find an IS buyer for a large load of cesium, which can be fatal.FBI investigators found several criminal organisations, some with ties to Russia, that are running a nuclear materials black market in Moldova, The Associated Press found. Despite four successful busts, federal agents failed to arrest some of the kingpins and those who were arrested were not given long prison sentences.According to the AP, Moldovan police and judicial authorities shared information into their investigations, revealing that ongoing tension between Russia and the West has allowed smugglers to act more covertly. Authorities in Moldova have been unable to find whether the smugglers have been able to access Russia's storage of radioactive materials.Constantin Malic, a Moldovan police officer told the AP: "We can expect more of these cases. As long as the smugglers think they can make big money without getting caught, they will keep doing it." A look into the Moldovan investigation, however, revealed that authorities have pounced on suspects early in the deal, thus allowing their ringleaders to escape.The Moldovan operations, a collaboration between the FBI and a small team of investigators from Moldova, have involved secret meetings, blue-prints for dirty bombs and undercover work.The most serious case in 2011 involved the secretive Russian Alexandr Agheenco, who is believed to be an officer with the Russian FSB, previously the KGB. Agheenco's alleged middleman attempted to find an IS buyer to bomb the US. The Russian leader was able to get away and his middleman is already out of prison.
AP INVESTIGATION: Nuclear black market thrives in eastern Europe, as smugglers seek extremists-The Canadian PressBy Desmond Butler And Vadim Ghirda, The Associated Press | The Canadian Press – OCT 7,15-yahoonews
CHISINAU, Moldova - Over the pulsating beat at an exclusive nightclub, the arms smuggler made his pitch to a client: 2.5 million euros for enough radioactive cesium to contaminate several city blocks.It was earlier this year, and the two men were plotting their deal at an unlikely spot: the terrace of Cocos Prive, a dance club and sushi bar in Chisinau, the capital of Moldova."You can make a dirty bomb, which would be perfect for the Islamic State," the smuggler said. "If you have a connection with them, the business will go smoothly." But the smuggler, Valentin Grossu, wasn't sure the client was for real — and he was right to worry. The client was an informant, and it took some 20 meetings to persuade Grossu that he was an authentic Islamic State representative. Eventually, the two men exchanged cash for a sample in a sting operation that landed Grossu in jail.The previously unpublicized case is one of at least four attempts in five years in which criminal networks with suspected Russian ties sought to sell radioactive material to extremists through Moldova, an investigation by The Associated Press has found. One investigation uncovered an attempt to sell bomb-grade uranium to a real buyer from the Middle East, the first known case of its kind.In that operation, wiretaps and interviews with investigators show, a middleman for the gang repeatedly ranted with hatred for America as he focused on smuggling the essential material for an atomic bomb and blueprints for a dirty bomb to a Middle Eastern buyer.In wiretaps, videotaped arrests, photographs of bomb-grade material, documents and interviews, AP found that smugglers are explicitly targeting buyers who are enemies of the West. The developments represent the fulfilment of a long-feared scenario in which organized crime gangs are trying to link up with groups such as the Islamic State and al-Qaida — both of which have made clear their ambition to use weapons of mass destruction.The sting operations involved a partnership between the FBI and a small group of Moldovan investigators, who over five years went from near total ignorance of the black market to wrapping up four sting operations. Informants and police posing as connected gangsters penetrated the smuggling networks, using old-fashioned undercover tactics as well as high-tech gear from radiation detectors to clothing threaded with recording devices.But their successes were undercut by striking shortcomings: Kingpins got away, and those arrested evaded long prison sentences, sometimes quickly returning to nuclear smuggling, AP found.For strategic reasons, in most of the operations arrests were made after samples of nuclear material had been obtained rather than the larger quantities. That means that if smugglers did have access to the bulk of material they offered, it remains in criminal hands.The repeated attempts to peddle radioactive materials signal that a thriving nuclear black market has emerged in an impoverished corner of Eastern Europe on the fringes of the former Soviet Union. Moldova, which borders Romania, is a former Soviet republic.Mouldovan police and judicial authorities shared investigative case files with the AP in an effort to spotlight how dangerous the black market has become. They say a breakdown in co-operation between Russia and the West means that it is much harder to know whether smugglers are finding ways to move parts of Russia's vast store of radioactive materials."We can expect more of these cases," said Constantin Malic, one of the Moldovan investigators. "As long as the smugglers think they can make big money without getting caught, they will keep doing it."The FBI and the White House declined to comment. The U.S. State Department would not comment on the specifics of the cases."Moldova has taken many important steps to strengthen its counter nuclear smuggling capabilities," said Eric Lund, spokesman for the State Department's bureau in charge of nonproliferation. "The arrests made by Moldovan authorities in 2011 for the attempted smuggling of nuclear materials is a good example of how Moldova is doing its part."Wiretapped conversations exposed plots that targeted the United States, the Moldovan officials said. In one case, a middleman said it was essential the smuggled bomb-grade uranium go to Arabs, said Malic, an investigator in all four sting operations."He said: 'I really want an Islamic buyer because they will bomb the Americans.'"___"HAVE YOU EVER HEARD OF URANIUM?"-Malic was a 27-year-old police officer when he first stumbled upon the nuclear black market in 2009. He was working on a fraud unit in Chisinau, and had an informant helping police take down a euro counterfeiting ring stretching from the Black Sea to Naples, Italy.The informant, an aging businessman, casually mentioned to Malic that over the years, contacts had periodically offered him radioactive material."Have you ever heard of uranium?" he asked Malic.Malic was so new to the nuclear racket that he didn't know what uranium was, and had to look it up on Google. He was horrified — "not just for one country," he said, "but for humanity.""Soon after, the informant received an offer for uranium. At about that time, the U.S. government was starting a program to train Moldovan police in countering the nuclear black market, part of a global multi-million dollar effort.In Malic's first case, three people were arrested on Aug. 20, 2010, after a sample of the material, a sawed-off piece of a depleted uranium cylinder, was exchanged for cash. That kind of uranium would be difficult to turn into a bomb.Authorities suspected, but couldn't prove, that the uranium had come from the melted down Chornobyl reactor in Ukraine, Malic said.Malic transported the seized radioactive material in a matchbox on the passenger seat of his car. It did not occur to him that the uranium should have been stored in a shielded container to protect him from possible radiation.When FBI agents came to collect it, they were stunned when he simply proffered the matchbox in his uncovered hand: "Take it," Malic said."Madman!" the American officers exclaimed.The uranium, fortunately, turned out not to be highly toxic.___PLUTONIUM FOR FREE-Several months later, a former KGB informant, Teodor Chetrus, called Malic's source, the Moldovan businessman. Chetrus told him he had uranium to sell, but was looking for a Middle Eastern buyer.Unlike Malic's first case, this one involved highly enriched uranium, the type that can be used to make a nuclear bomb.Smarter and more cautious than the members of the previous gang, Chetrus was a bit of a paradox to the investigators. He was educated and well dressed, yet still lived in his dilapidated childhood farmhouse in a tiny village on Moldova's border with Ukraine.In many of the smuggling cases, the ringleaders insulated themselves through a complex network of middlemen who negotiated with buyers in order to shield the bosses from arrest. In this case, Chetrus was the go-between.But he had his own agenda. Chetrus clung to a Soviet-era hatred of the West, Malic said, repeatedly ranting about how the Americans should be annihilated because of problems he thought they created in the Middle East."He said multiple times that this substance must have a real buyer from the Islamic states to make a dirty bomb," Malic said.Chetrus and the informant hammered out a deal to sell bomb-grade uranium to a "buyer in the Middle East" over months of wiretapped phone calls and meetings at Chetrus' house.The informant would show up with a recording device hidden in a different piece of clothing each time. On the other side of the road would be Malic, disguised as a migrant selling fruit and grains from a van — watching the house for signs of trouble.In one early phone call, the informant pressed Chetrus to find out whether he had access to plutonium as well as uranium, saying his buyer had expressed interest, according to wiretaps. But Chetrus was suspicious, and insisted that before big quantities of either substance could be discussed, the buyer had to prove that he was for real and not an undercover agent.Chetrus' boss decided to sell the uranium in installments, starting with a sample. If the buyers were plants, he reasoned, the police would strike before the bulk of the uranium changed hands — an acceptable risk."I have to tell you one thing," Chetrus told the informant in a wiretapped phone call. "Intelligence services never let go of the money."Eventually they worked out the terms of a deal: Chetrus would sell a 10-gram sample of the uranium for 320,000 euros ($360,000). The buyer could test it and if he liked what he saw, they could do a kilogram a week at the same rate — an astonishing 32 million euros every time until the buyer had the quantity he wanted. Ten kilograms of uranium was discussed — about a fifth of what was used over Hiroshima.The two later met in the dirt courtyard of Chetrus's house to discuss plutonium. The informant had a video camera hidden in his baseball cap. Chetrus can be seen in an army-green V-neck, talking animatedly as a rooster squawks in the background."For the plutonium," Chetrus said, "if they prove they are serious people, we will provide the sample for free. You can use a small amount to make a dirty bomb."He spread his hands wide. Then waved them around, as if all before him was laid to waste.Malic found the video chilling. "I was afraid to imagine what would happen if one of these scenarios happened one day."____A REAL BUYER IN SUDAN-The man behind the bomb-grade uranium deal was Alexandr Agheenco, known as "the colonel" to his cohorts. He had both Russian and Ukrainian citizenship, police said, but lived in Moldova's breakaway republic of Trans-Dniester.A separatist enclave that is a notorious haven for smuggling of all kinds, Trans-Dniester was beyond the reach of the Moldovan police.In a selfie included in police files, the colonel is balding, mustachioed, and smiling at the camera.In June 2011, he arranged the uranium swap. He dispatched a Trans-Dniester police officer to smuggle the uranium to Moldova, according to court documents. At the same time, he sent his wife, Galina, on a "shopping outing" across the border to the capital.Her job was to arrange a handoff of the uranium to Chetrus.Galina Agheenco arrived in downtown Chisinau in a Lexus GS-330, parking near a circus. She met the police officer, who handed her a green sack with the uranium inside.Meanwhile, the informant and Chetrus, sporting a dark suit and striped tie, pulled up at the Victoriabank on the city's main drag in a chauffeur-driven grey BMW X5. Inside the bank, Chetrus inspected a safe deposit box with 320,000 euros, court documents show. He counted the bills and used a special light to check whether they were marked.Satisfied, Chetrus went to collect the uranium package from the Lexus, where the colonel's wife had left it. When he turned it over to the informant, the police pounced.The bust, captured on video, shows officers in balaclavas forcing Chetrus to his knees and handcuffing him. Galina was arrested, too.But the police officer-turned-smuggler managed to escape back to Trans-Dniester, where he and the colonel could not be touched by Moldovan police.The arrests took Malic by surprise. He and the informant had been told that police would allow the sample exchange to go forward, so they could later seize the motherlode of uranium and arrest the ringleaders.Malic was furious. Instead of capturing the gang leaders intent on selling nuclear bomb-grade material to extremists, his Moldovan bosses had jumped the gun."What they did was simply create a scene for the news media," Malic said. "We lost a huge opportunity to make the world safer."Tests of the uranium seized confirmed that it was high-grade material that could be used in a nuclear bomb. The tests also linked it to two earlier seizures of highly enriched uranium that investigators believed the colonel was also behind.A search of Chetrus' house showed just how dangerous the smugglers were. After police made their arrests in Chisinau, Malic combed through documents in the farmhouse.He found the plans for the dirty bomb. Worse, there was evidence that Chetrus was making a separate deal to sell nuclear material to a real buyer. Investigators found contracts made out to a Sudanese doctor named Yosif Faisal Ibrahim for attack helicopters and armoured personnel carriers, government documents show. Chetrus had a copy of Ibrahim's passport, and there was evidence that Chetrus was trying to help him obtain a Moldovan visa. Skype messages suggested that he was interested in uranium and the dirty bomb plans.The deal was interrupted by the sting, but it looked like it had progressed pretty far. A lawyer working with the criminal ring had travelled to Sudan, officials said. But authorities say they could not determine who was behind Ibrahim or why he was seeking material for a nuclear bomb. AP efforts to reach Ibrahim were unsuccessful.Consequences for the smugglers were minimal. Galina Agheenco got a light 3-year sentence because she had an infant son; and Chetrus was sentenced to a 5-year prison term. Interpol notices were issued for the colonel and the Trans-Dniester policeman who got away.Moldovan officials say there were indications from a foreign intelligence agency that the colonel fled with his infant son through Ukraine to Russia shortly after the bust.The authorities don't know if the colonel also took a cache of uranium with him."Until the head of the criminal group is sentenced and jailed, until we know for sure where those substances seized in Europe came from and where they were going to, only then will we be able to say a danger is no longer present," says Gheorghe Cavcaliuc, the senior police officer who oversaw the investigation.___A COOL FACE, A POUNDING HEART-In mid-2014, an informant told Malic he had been contacted by two separate groups, one offering uranium, the other cesium. The Moldovan police went directly to the FBI, who backed up their operations.Malic volunteered to work undercover, posing as an agent for a Middle Eastern buyer. He did not have much training, and struggled with his nerves, resorting to shots of vodka before each meeting. He went into them with no weapon — showing a cool face while taming a pounding heart.The FBI fitted him with a special shirt that had microphones woven into the fabric, so that even a pat-down could not reveal that he was wired. They also set him up in a white Mercedes S-Class to look like a gangster.It worked. At one point, the unwitting smuggler said in text messages obtained by the AP that his gang had access to an outdated Russian missile system capable of carrying a nuclear warhead. The man said he could obtain two R29 submarine- based missiles and provide technical background on how to use them.Following the same script as in 2011, the team wrapped up the investigation after a sample of 200 grams of unenriched uranium was exchanged for $15,000 on Dec. 3, 2014. Six people were arrested, five got away.What worried Malic was what appeared to be a revolving door of smugglers. Three criminals involved in the new case had been taken into custody following the earlier investigations. Two of them had served short sentences and immediately rejoined the smuggling network, helping the new ring acquire the uranium. A third criminal was none other than the man who drove Chetrus to make his uranium deal.The investigators tracked the new uranium for sale to an address in Ukraine. Although they reported it to the authorities, they never heard back.As Malic's frustration grew, so did the danger to him and his colleagues.Early this year, at the Cocos Prive nightclub in Chisinau, the stakes became apparent. The middleman, Grossu, warned that his cesium supplier was a retired FSB officer with a reputation for brutality.If there was any trouble, Grossu told a wired informant, "They will put all of us against the wall and shoot us," Malic recalled.Grossu's bosses wanted the cesium to reach the Islamic State. "They have the money and they will know what to do with it," he said.The sellers claimed to have a huge cache of cesium 137 — which could be used to make a dirty bomb. As in previous cases, they insisted that the buyers prove their seriousness by first purchasing a sample vial of less- radioactive cesium 135, which is not potent enough for a dirty bomb.They were busted on Feb. 19. Grossu and two other men were arrested. The suspected FSB officer and the remaining cesium disappeared.It is not clear whether the Moldovan cases are indicative of widespread nuclear smuggling operations."It would be deeply concerning if terrorist groups are able to tap into organized crimes networks to gain the materials and expertise required to build a weapon of mass destruction," said Andy Weber, former U.S. assistant secretary of defence, who oversaw counter-proliferation until a year ago.On May 28, the FBI honoured Malic and his team at an awards ceremony for the two recent investigations. But by then the Moldovan police department had disbanded the team amid political fallout and police infighting.Chetrus' 5-year prison sentence was supposed to run into next year. But Chetrus' sister said this summer that he had been released in December, which the AP confirmed.He had served barely three years for trying to sell a nuclear bomb to enemies of the United States.____On Twitter: Desmond Butler at https://twitter.com/desmondbutler.
Netanyahu cancels German visit as Palestinian attacks surge-Reuters By Dan Williams-OCT 7,15-YAHOONEWS
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - A suspected Palestinian militant stabbed and wounded an Israeli soldier, snatched his gun and was then shot dead by special forces on Wednesday, police said, as a surge of violence prompted Israel's prime minister to cancel a visit to Germany.Hours earlier, police said an 18-year-old Palestinian woman stabbed an Israeli near a contested shrine in Jerusalem, and was then shot and wounded by the injured man, the third knife attack in the city in less than a week.Both Israeli and Palestinian leaders have sought to calm a rise in street violence that has been exacerbated by confrontations around Jerusalem's al Aqsa mosque complex, Islam's third holiest shrine which Jews also revere as the vestige of their two ancient temples.Four Israelis have been killed in stabbings in Jerusalem and a drive-by shooting in the occupied West Bank since Thursday, and two Palestinians have been shot dead and scores injured in clashes with security services, triggering fears of an escalation.In the latest attack, an Arab stabbed a soldier on a bus in the southern Israeli town of Kiryat Gat, grabbed his gun and ran into a residential building, police spokeswoman Luba Samri said. He was shot dead by police special forces.Samri did not immediately say whether the assailant was Palestinian or a member of Israel's Arab minority. Kiryat Gat, and surroundings has been relatively peaceful in recent months, but are a short drive from the occupied West Bank and the Palestinian Gaza Strip.WESTERN WALL ATTACK-The 18-year-old Palestinian woman stabbed an Israeli man near the Western Wall, a Jewish prayer site in Jerusalem's walled Old City abutting the al Aqsa mosque complex. The Israeli, lightly injured, drew a gun and shot the woman, seriously wounding her, police said. Hoping to head off the violence and potential knock-on attacks by ultra-nationalist Israelis, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has beefed up the military presence in Jerusalem and the West Bank.Though at diplomatic loggerheads with Netanyahu over peace talks that stalled in April 2014, the U.S.-backed Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, has also said he seeks no escalation.Netanyahu was due to visit Germany, Israel's most important European ally, on Thursday with members of his cabinet. But aides to Netanyahu said on Wednesday he had canceled the trip because of the precarious security situation.On Tuesday, confrontations spread to Jaffa, a predominantly Arab neighborhood of Israel's commercial capital Tel Aviv, where three police officers were injured in stone-throwing and six protesters arrested, police said.Palestinians fear increasing visits by Jewish groups to al-Aqsa are eroding longtime Muslim religious control there. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said he is committed to maintaining the status quo at al-Aqsa.The Palestinians seek a state in East Jerusalem, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, territories Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war. U.S.-brokered peace talks collapsed in 2014.(Writing by Dan Williams; Editing by Jeffrey Heller and Andrew Heavens)
The Latest: Israeli police shoot driver who attempted attack-Associated Press By The Associated Press-OCT 7,15-YAHOONEWS
JERUSALEM (AP) — The latest developments in ongoing tensions between Palestinians and Israelis following days of violence in Jerusalem and the West Bank (all times local).9:20 p.m.Israeli police say forces opened fire on a Palestinian motorist after he attempted to drive through a checkpoint in the West Bank and tried to hit an officer.Israeli police spokeswoman Luba Samri said the officer was "in real danger" when he opened fire at the driver on Wednesday. She said the Palestinian was moderately wounded and taken to an Israeli hospital.The incident follows a series of stabbings across Israel that have jolted an anxious country unnerved by weeks of unrest.
7 p.m.-Israeli police say a Palestinian attacker stabbed an Israeli man outside a mall in central Israel, the latest in a spree of stabbing attacks that have shaken the country.Police spokeswoman Luba Samri says civilians apprehended the attacker and police later detained him. Samri says the victim in the latest assault Wednesday was moderately hurt.Israeli Channel 2 TV aired footage from the scene, showing the suspected attacker lying on the ground with his hands behind his back as an officer kneeled on his back.It was the latest in a series of attacks against Israelis by Palestinians. Two stabbings took place in Jerusalem and in southern Israel earlier in the day.
5:00 p.m.-Jerusalem's mayor has been photographed carrying an assault rifle during a visit to an Arab neighborhood in east Jerusalem.Mayor Nir Barkat's office says the mayor is a "licensed and trained gun owner" and was carrying his weapons with him during the visit with Israeli security forces to the neighborhood of Beit Hanina.Jerusalem has seen several stabbing and shooting attacks in the past week.Barkat's office defended his action, saying that "many terror attacks in Jerusalem have been prevented or neutralized due to the quick actions and response of responsible bystanders." In February, Barkat himself tackled a knife-wielding attacker outside the municipality building.
4:00 p.m.-Israel's prime minister says he is calling off a planned trip to Germany because of a wave of violence between Israelis and Palestinians.Benjamin Netanyahu was scheduled to meet with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin on Thursday. A statement from Netanyahu's office Wednesday said the Israeli leader would not depart for the two-day visit so that he could "closely monitor the situation."German government spokesman Georg Streiter said Wednesday that the Israeli government called off the meeting, which would also have involved several ministers from both sides. He said the German government "regrets this cancellation and hopes that these consultations can be held at a later date."
3:25 p.m.-Israel's president says the country has not and will not alter the status quo at Jerusalem's most sensitive holy site and that any "lies" being spread to the contrary are aimed at inciting violence.Speaking to foreign journalists on Wednesday, Reuven Rivlin sought to soothe tensions after a week of bloody attacks that have killed several Israelis and Palestinians.At the heart of the recent tensions is a hilltop compound revered by Muslims and Jews. There have been several days of clashes at the site over the past few weeks as Palestinians barricaded themselves inside the Al-Aqsa mosque while hurling stones, firebombs and fireworks at police.Many Palestinians believe that Israel is trying to expand a Jewish presence at the site, a claim Israel adamantly denies.
2:50 p.m.-Israeli police say a suspect stabbed a soldier and tried to take his weapon in southern Israel before being shot dead by police.Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld says the man attacked the soldier after getting off a bus in the city of Kiryat Gat. The man then fled into a residential building, where police forces tracked him down and shot him dead.Rosenfeld said the suspect's identity was not yet clear but that police were treating the incident as a terror attack.Wednesday's attack follows a series of tense days in which Palestinian attacks have killed several Israeli civilians. Earlier in the day, a Palestinian woman stabbed an Israeli man who then shot and wounded her in Jerusalem's Old City.
As Palestinian attacks, clashes continue, Israel leader warns anxious civilians to be on alert-The Canadian PressBy Tia Goldenberg, The Associated Press | The Canadian Press – OCT 7,15-yahoonews
JERUSALEM - Palestinian assailants carried out a series of stabbings across Israel on Wednesday, jolting an anxious country unnerved by weeks of unrest as clashes between Israeli forces and Palestinian demonstrators raged across the West Bank.The violence forced Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to call off a high-profile visit to Germany and prompted him to tell the nation to be on "alert" for further trouble. And in another sign of the tensions, Jerusalem's mayor, Nir Barkat, was seen carrying an assault rifle while visiting an Arab neighbourhood.The unrest began three weeks ago and has spread from the confines of a sensitive Jerusalem holy site to spots across Israel and the West Bank. In Wednesday's violence, stabbings occurred outside a crowded mall in central Israel, in a southern Israeli town and in the Old City of Jerusalem.Israeli forces shot two of the attackers, killing one, while a third was arrested. No Israelis were seriously hurt. Another Palestinian was wounded when he was shot by police after he attempted to run over an officer at a West Bank checkpoint, police said.Netanyahu has threatened a tough response to the violence, and Israel has beefed up security in Jerusalem and the West Bank. It also briefly barred non-resident Palestinians from entering the Old City, home to sensitive holy sites. That ban was lifted shortly before Wednesday's stabbing. In all, four Israelis have been killed in stabbings and a roadside shooting in recent days, while five Palestinians, including three attackers, have been killed.With the attacks spilling into the Israeli heartland, Netanyahu warned Israelis to be on guard."Civilians are at the forefront of the war against terrorism and must also be on maximum alert," Netanyahu said, after a meeting with top police officials.Barkat, the Jerusalem mayor, defended his decision to carry a rifle while visiting an Arab neighbourhood in east Jerusalem on Monday night. His office said he was a former military officer and licensed to carry the weapon."Many terror attacks in Jerusalem have been prevented or neutralized due to the quick actions and response of responsible bystanders," it said, noting that earlier this year, the mayor helped stop a knife-wielding Palestinian attacker. Adnan Husseini, the top Palestinian official for Jerusalem, called Barkat's armed appearance "a declaration of war" on Palestinian residents of the city.-"It's incitement for other Israelis to do the same," he said.In the attack outside the mall, which occurred in the city of Petah Tikva, police said civilians apprehended the suspected Palestinian assailant after he stabbed and slightly wounded a man.Earlier Wednesday, police said a 19-year-old Palestinian stabbed a soldier while taking his weapon in the southern town of Kiryat Gat. The suspect then fled into a residential building, where he followed a local woman into her apartment before police forces arrived and shot and killed him.And in Jerusalem's Old City, an 18-year- old Palestinian woman stabbed an Israeli man who then shot and wounded her.The clashes erupted during the Jewish new year three weeks ago over tensions at the sacred hilltop compound in Jerusalem revered by Muslims as the spot where Prophet Muhammad ascended to heaven and by Jews as the site of the two Jewish biblical Temples.Many Palestinians believe that Israel is trying to expand a Jewish presence at the site, a claim Israel adamantly denies. Under a longstanding arrangement administered by Islamic authorities, Jews are allowed to visit the site during certain hours but not pray there.Hundreds of Palestinians have been hurt in several days of clashes, according to the Red Crescent medical service, including dozens struck by rubber bullets and some by live fire.On Wednesday, hundreds of protesters in the West Bank hurled rocks at Israeli troops who responded with tear gas and stun grenades.At a protest near the West Bank city of Ramallah, masked plainclothes Israeli police were seen kicking and punching a Palestinian protester apparently suspected of throwing stones, as they detained him.Also Wednesday, Netanyahu cancelled a planned trip to Germany for meetings with Chancellor Angela Merkel so that he could stay in Israel to "closely monitor the situation," according to his office.The Israeli prime minister is under heavy pressure, particularly from hard-liners in his governing coalition, to respond to the surge in violence with a tough crackdown and increased settlement activity. But he is also wary of angering the American administration and risking another full-fledged uprising with too tough a response that could lead to a higher number of casualties on both sides.____Associated Press writer Mohammed Daraghmeh in Ramallah, West Bank, contributed to this report.
The Latest: Officers who responded to Oregon college shooting don't want to be called heroes-The Canadian PressBy The Associated Press | The Canadian Press – OCT 7,15-yahoonews
ROSEBURG, Ore. - The latest on the deadly shooting at a community college in Oregon (all times local):-11:16 a.m.An Oregon police chief says two detectives who ran toward the sound of gunshots and wounded the gunman who killed nine people at a community college don't want to be called heroes.Sgt. Joe Kaney and Detective Todd Spingath were among the first to arrive at Umpqua (UHMP'-kwah) Community College last Thursday and immediately jumped out of their car without bulletproof vests. The shooter fired at them, but they weren't hit.The officers fired three shots at gunman Christopher Harper-Mercer, striking him once in the side. He then retreated to the classroom where he had gunned down eight students and a professor and killed himself.Roseburg Police Chief Jim Burge says he and many others in the small town consider the officers to be heroes. But he says Kaney and Spingath feel they did what they were trained to do.10:20 a.m.Authorities say the gunman who killed nine people at an Oregon community college killed himself inside a classroom after two plainclothes officers shot and wounded him.Douglas County District Attorney Rick Wesenberg said at a news conference Wednesday that the two detectives who were among the first on scene heard a volley of gunfire and ran toward the shots at Umpqua (UHMP'-kwah) Community College last Thursday.They spotted 26-year-old Christopher Harper-Mercer in the doorway of a building and he immediately fired at the officers, who weren't wearing bulletproof vests.Wesenberg says they fired three rounds, one of which stuck the shooter in the right side. Once Harper-Mercer was wounded, he went back into the classroom and shot himself at the front of the room.
Prosecutor: Oregon college gunman killed himself inside classroom after 2 officers wounded him-The Canadian PressBy Jonathan J. Cooper, The Associated Press | The Canadian Press – OCT 7,15-yahoonews
ROSEBURG, Ore. - The gunman who fatally shot nine people at an Oregon community college last week killed himself in front of his victims after two police officers wounded him, authorities said Wednesday.When two plainclothes detectives spotted Christopher Harper-Mercer in the doorway of a campus building, he fired at them, and the officers quickly returned fire. The killer then went back inside and shot himself in a classroom where many of his victims lay dead and wounded, a prosecutor told a news conference.It was authorities' most detailed account yet of the gunman's death. Previously, they had said only that the 26-year- old attacker killed himself after a shootout.The detectives arrived within minutes of the first reports of gunfire at Umpqua Community College.Seconds later, the officers "both felt they had a good target," Douglas County District Attorney Rick Wesenberg said. Two of their bullets hit a wall but a third struck Harper-Mercer on the right side.The wounded gunman "entered the classroom again, went to the front of the classroom, and shot and killed himself," Wesenberg said.Nine others were wounded.Harper-Mercer's mother allowed her troubled son to have guns and acknowledged in online posts that he struggled with a mild form of autism, but she didn't seem to know he was potentially violent.The online writings by Laurel Harper date from a year ago to nine years ago. She and Harper-Mercer shared an apartment outside Roseburg. Investigators have recovered 14 firearms — six found at the college and eight at the apartment.In her online postings, Laurel Harper talked about her love of guns and her son's emotional troubles, but there are no hints of worry that he could become violent.While living in California, Harper-Mercer graduated from a learning centre for students with learning disabilities and emotional problems. His parents divorced when he was a teenager and he lived with his mother.
Obama apologizes to Doctors Without Borders, offers condolences over US attack in Afghanistan- The Canadian PressBy Josh Lederman, The Associated Press | The Canadian Press – OCT 7,15-yahoonews
WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama on Wednesday apologized to Doctors Without Borders for the American air attack that killed at least 22 people at a medical clinic in Afghanistan, and said the U.S. would examine military procedures to determine whether changes could prevent such incidents.Obama's apology came four days after the facility in the northern city of Kunduz came under fire from what was later determined to be a U.S. aircraft. The attack outraged aid groups and complicated U.S. efforts in Afghanistan. White House spokesman Josh Earnest said Obama called the organization's international president, Joanne Liu, and offered condolences to the group's staff."When the United States makes a mistake, we own up to it, we apologize where appropriate, and we are honest about what transpired," Earnest said.A day earlier, the White House had stopped short of an apology, waiting to learn more even while acknowledging the attack was a U.S. mistake.Obama told Doctors Without Borders that the U.S. would review the attack to determine whether changes to U.S. operating procedures could reduce the chances of a similar incident, and that those responsible for the Kunduz attack would be held accountable, if appropriate, Earnest said.Obama also spoke to Afghan President Ashraf Ghani to convey condolences and pledge continued co-operation, the White House said.Investigations by the U.S., NATO and the Afghan government are underway, but Doctors Without Borders has said more are needed. Doctors Without Borders wants a fact-finding mission to determine whether the attack violated the Geneva Conventions. Obama restated his commitment to a thorough and transparent investigation by the Defence Department, Earnest said. He didn't specifically address the group's call for an independent probe.
DANIEL 7:23-24
23 Thus he said, The fourth beast (EU,REVIVED ROME) shall be the fourth kingdom upon earth,(7TH WORLD EMPIRE) which shall be diverse from all kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, and shall tread it down, and break it in pieces.(TRADING BLOCKS-10 WORLD REGIONS/TRADE BLOCS)
24 And the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings(10 NATIONS-10 WORLD DIVISION WORLD GOVERNMENT) that shall arise: and another shall rise after them; and he shall be diverse from the first, and he shall subdue three kings.(THE EU (EUROPEAN UNION) TAKES OVER IRAQ WHICH HAS SPLIT INTO 3-SUNNI-KURD-SHIA PARTS-AND THE REVIVED ROMAN EMPIRE IS BROUGHT BACK TOGETHER-THE TWO LEGS OF DANIEL WESTERN LEG AND THE ISLAMIC LEG COMBINED AS 1)
LUKE 2:1-3
1 And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus, that all the world should be taxed.
2 (And this taxing was first made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria.)
3 And all went to be taxed, every one into his own city.
Merkel and Hollande to lay out EU vision in Strasbourg-By Eric Maurice-OCT 7,15- EUOBSERVER
http://www.egba.eu/facts-and-figures/interactive-map/
BRUSSELS, Today, 09:27-German chancellor Angela Merkel and French president Francois Hollande will address the European Parliament together for the first time on Wednesday (7 October).They are expected to talk about the refugees crisis, the euro, and European values.Leaders will speak 15 minutes each before a debate with the parliament's political group chiefs."This is a historic visit for historically difficult times", said the president of the parliament, Martin Schulz, who initiated the visit.The last time German and French leaders went together to Strasbourg was in November 1989, when Helmut Kohl and Francois Mitterrand spoke about the challenges facing Europe a few days after the fall of the Berlin wall.Today "we expect a statement of principle on the state of the EU and its perspectives, its priorities," Schulz said.Though Merkel and Hollande will try to show common leadership in line with Europe's old "Franco-German motor", relations are not as close as they seem.On the refugee crisis, Germany and France have been at odds, especially over Paris' reluctance to endorse EU quotas for migrant relocations.France has taken in just a few hundreds refugees coming from Germany. Thee leaders also see the future of Syria in different ways. Hollande has said Syrian president Bashar Al-Assad has to go, but Merkel is more open to a political solution with Assad at the negotiating table.-Eurozone-Merkel and Hollande will also try to set out a common vision for the future of the eurozone in the wake of the Greek crisis.In May, the German and French leaders published a joint plan for a strengthening the single currency.They proposed regular euro summits and "specific structures" within the European Parliament. They also proposed to explore "the possibility of strengthening the Eurogroup president".In July and September, France went further and proposed the creation of a "vanguard" of euro states, a euro commissioner with extended powers, and a special eurozone budget. This idea, which implies financial transfers from richer to poorer eurozone countries, "breaks a German taboo", France admitted at the time.Merkel and Hollande are expected to clarify their position on the issue, and on whether EU treaties should be changed to shore up the euro.The discussion overlaps a debate on EU reforms demanded by British PM David Cameron ahead of the EU membership referendum in the UK. But neuter Merkel or Hollande are willing to change the EU charter for the sake of British requests.
Cameron belittles EU institutions By Andrew Rettman-OCT 7,15-EUOBSERVER
BRUSSELS, Today, 18:50-David Cameron bashed the EU for being “too bossy” in a speech on Wednesday (7 October), but gave few details on his plan for European reform.He told the Tory Party conference in Manchester: “I have no romantic attachment to the European Union and its institutions. I’m only interested in two things: Britain’s prosperity and Britain’s influence”.“We all know what’s wrong with the EU - it’s got too big, too bossy, too interfering”, he added, in rhetoric likely to jarr in Brussels and other EU capitals.He pledged to get the phrase “ever closer union” excised from the EU treaty as part of wider EU reforms before British people vote in the upcoming in/out referendum.“Let me put this very clearly: Britain is not interested in ‘ever closer union’ - and I will put that right”.He also said he values Britain’s membership in “the biggest single market in the world”, however.He said the EU needs the UK for the sake of better US relations and more influence on world affairs.Aside from “closer union”, Cameron’s EU reform proposals are expected to cover curbs on EU migrant welfare rights, EU powers for national MPs, and safeguards for the City of London.His speech touched on immigration. But he didn’t mention the other issues.Noting that the EU is facing hundreds of thousands of asylum seekers from Syria, he said: “If we opened the door to every refugee, our country would be overwhelmed”.He criticised the EU for “acting in a way that encourages more [people] to make that dangerous journey” from Syria to Europe, by reference to open EU borders and confusion on asylum law.But with the UK to take in 20,000 refugees over the next four years, Cameron also attacked Islamophobia in British society.“Opportunity doesn’t mean much to a British Muslim if he walks down the street and is abused for his faith”, he said.The speech was big on national security.Cameron defended his use of drones for targeted assassinations in Syria and his bombing of Islamic State. He also promised to shut down radical Islamic schools in the UK and to buy four nuclear submarines.He ridiculed Jeremy Corbyn, the new leader of Labour, the left-wing opposition party, as “security-threatening, terrorist-sympathising”.He also pledged more housing, more rights for workers, to fight poverty, and to reform prisons.-Migrants-His speech comes one day after Theresa May, the home secretary, said the UK economy doesn’t need migrants and that they take British people’s jobs.Nigel Farage, the head of the British eurosceptic party, Ukip, noted Cameron’s softer tone.“This is the prime minister who knows membership of the EU means an open door to 500 million people … [but] he has no clear strategy, he can make no sincere promise”, Farage said in a note on his website.The Liberal Democrat party said: “If he [Cameron] was really concerned about racial discrimination, he would publicly denounce his home secretary’s shameful attack on immigrants yesterday”.Labour criticised his “personal attack” on Corbyn.Climate-Unite, one of the UK’s largest trade unions, said: “Cameron’s legacy will be all too visible to those on low wages or who are bracing themselves for the next swing of the Conservative cuts axe”.With the climate change summit in Paris around the corner, John Sauven, a director at environmental NGO Greenpeace noted: “Cameron mentioned the words ‘security’ and ‘safe’ 14 times in his speech, yet climate change, one of the biggest threats humanity is facing, got just one timid nod”.“This silence speaks volumes about a government that has no energy plan”.
DISEASES
REVELATION 6:7-8
7 And when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth beast say, Come and see.
8 And I looked, and behold a pale horse:(CHLORES GREEN) and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword,(WEAPONS) and with hunger,(FAMINE) and with death,(INCURABLE DISEASES) and with the beasts of the earth.(ANIMAL TO HUMAN DISEASE).
UN says no cases of Ebola reported last week for the 1st time since outbreak started last year-The Canadian PressBy The Associated Press | The Canadian Press – OCT 7,15-yahoonews
LONDON - The World Health Organization says there were no Ebola cases reported last week — the first time an entire week has passed without any new confirmed patients since the devastating outbreak began last March.The U.N. health agency said in a report issued Wednesday that all contacts of Ebola cases in Sierra Leone have now been followed for 21 days without falling sick, suggesting the country might soon be free of the disease.Still, more than 500 people are being tracked in Guinea and WHO said there is "considerable risk" of further spread. Scientists have also lost track of where the virus was recently spreading.Since it first broke out in Guinea's forest region last year, Ebola has killed more than 11,200 people in West Africa.
KNOWLEGE INCREASED AND WORLD TRAVEL (IMMIGRATION) INCREASED
DANIEL 12:4
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 FROM FLEEING WARS) and knowledge shall be increased.(COMPUTERS MICROCHIPS ETC)
Technip gets $500K+ investment from N.L. for new super computers-CBC– OCT 7,15-yahoonews
A company that services the offshore oil and gas industry says an infusion of government money will help it stay competitive.Technip, which carries out project management, engineering and construction for the energy industry, unveiled a new $2.3 million-computing facility on Wednesday in St. John's.The new super computers will be used to help for designing risers — a system of pipes used in offshore oil extraction to transfer fluids up from the sea floor to surface facilities. The computers will allow for faster and better simulations and modelling needed to help make sure the risers can withstand the movement of the ocean. About a quarter of the investment came from the Newfoundland and Labrador government through the Research and Development Corporation (RDC), which invested $592,534 in the computing centre.Low oil prices have led Technip to trim a few jobs, but the company says investments in new technology make it more competitive."The investment will enable Technip to leverage its experience gained in the local offshore industry to become world leaders in the area of Riser Dynamic Analysis," said Managing Director Jason Muise."The High Performance Computing Centre will ensure competitiveness, and will enable exporting of engineering expertise to Technip's international client base."Muise went on to say that such powerful computers are needed given the sophisticated practice of extracting oil from the harsh environment of the North Atlantic Ocean."What makes the design so interesting, is that it moves," he said."It's a difficult design problem, and requires quite a lot of computational analysis."Investing despite oil and gas downturn-The Canadian branch of Technip employs 130 staff, and has been involved in almost every offshore project in Newfoundland and Labrador since the company started operations in 1997.The new computing centre will be based in St. John's and will service Technip's global clients.Darrin King, minister of business, tourism, culture and rural development, said despite the recent downturn in the oil and gas industry, his government is committed to investing in research and development for companies like Technip."At times like these we must continue to make R&D investments," he said."Looking forward, I believe that investments in R&D and innovation will provide a solid and lasting foundation for growth in our province, and it will strengthen Newfoundland's position as a growing centre of excellence for research and development."
Merkel and Hollande short of ideas on refugee crisis By Eric Maurice-OCT 7,15-EUOBSERVER
BRUSSELS, Today, 19:40-Angela Merkel and Francois Hollande have called on the European Union to show unity and respect the values on which it was built, but stopped short of ideas on how to tackle Europe's problems.The common address by the German chancellor and the French president to the European Parliament in Strasbourg on Wednesday (7 October) was dominated by the refugee crisis.They stressed the importance for Europe to help and welcome the people fleeing wars in the Middle East or Africa and the need for a common approach."We are stronger together than when we are separate," Merkel said, stressing the need for "cohesion".The EU is based on the values of human dignity, tolerance, the respect of human right ans solidarity, she noted."If we don't bear in mind our identity and our values, we will loose them and then we would betray ourselves”.“To shut ourself off from all this in the time of the internet is illusory”, she added.-'Act at the root'-The leaders said Europe should help the countries hosting millions of refugees and try to stop the Syria in order to reduce refugee numbers."Europe was late to understand that tragedies would not be without consequences for her," Hollande said."We must help Turkey if we want to Turkey to help us," he added.He said EU states should "act on a military, humanitarian and diplomatic level and give the Syrian population another alternative than Bashar [Al-Assad, Syria's president] or Deash [the Arab name for the Islamic State group]”."We cannot avoid the necessity to act at the root," Merkel said.She noted that "all international operators" should be involved in the process, indicating Russia and possibly Iran could be part of future joint action.She did not mention the Syrian president, which Rusia wants to keep in place.But Hollande said it would "not be possible to have the opposition and the the torturer of the Syrian people" around the same table.Merkel and Hollande stressed the need to strengthen EU borders."Pretending that Schengen, in its current operations, makes it possible to resist the pressure would be a mistake," Hollande said, calling for the creation of a European corps of border guards and coast guards.Merkel said the EU’s so-called Dublin system to mange asylum requests is "obsolete”.Eurozone-Both Merkel and Hollande also linked Europe's power to a more integrated eurozone. Merkel didn’t give any details, but Hollande mentioned a part of his vision for new, euro-linked institutioms.Strenghtening the eurozone will require "institutional choices which will commit voluntary states," he said.Twenty sic years after a similar common address by Germany's Helmut Kohl and France's Francois Mitterrand as the Berlin Wall was falling, Merkel said Europe had "overcome differences between east and west”.-Eurosceptics-Hollande warned that the financial crisis helped eurosceptics and sovereignists, but said they have little to offer people."Sovereignism is declinism," he said. "It is dangerous to leave no hope and built nothing together.The post-speech debate saw Nigel Farage, a British eurosceptic, accuse Germany of dominating Europe.It also saw French far-right leader Marine Le Pen attack Hollande, calling him a "vice-chancellor administrating the French province". Hollande snapped back, saying he wonders whether she understands the meaning of democracy.
EARTH WORSHIP
DEUTERONOMY 17:3-4
3 And hath gone and served other gods, and worshipped them, either the sun, or moon, or any of the host of heaven, which I have not commanded;
4 And it be told thee, and thou hast heard of it, and enquired diligently, and, behold, it be true, and the thing certain, that such abomination is wrought in Israel:
DEUTORONOMY 4:15-19
15 Take ye therefore good heed unto yourselves; for ye saw no manner of similitude on the day that the LORD spake unto you in Horeb out of the midst of the fire:
16 Lest ye corrupt yourselves, and make you a graven image, the similitude of any figure, the likeness of male or female,
17 The likeness of any beast that is on the earth, the likeness of any winged fowl that flieth in the air,
18 The likeness of any thing that creepeth on the ground, the likeness of any fish that is in the waters beneath the earth:
19 And lest thou lift up thine eyes unto heaven, and when thou seest the sun, and the moon, and the stars, even all the host of heaven, shouldest be driven to worship them, and serve them, which the LORD thy God hath divided unto all nations under the whole heaven.
2 KINGS 23:5
5 And he put down the idolatrous priests, whom the kings of Judah had ordained to burn incense in the high places in the cities of Judah, and in the places round about Jerusalem; them also that burned incense unto Baal, to the sun, and to the moon, and to the planets, and to all the host of heaven.
South Korean expert in climate change economics to head Nobel winning UN global warming panel-The Canadian PressBy Seth Borenstein, The Associated Press | The Canadian Press – OCT 7,15-YAHOONEWS
WASHINGTON - A South Korean professor of climate change economics will lead the Nobel Prize-winning group of climate scientists who keep track of global warming.Hoesung Lee, elected chairman Tuesday of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, told The Associated Press that the United Nations-affiliated science group will do more to examine the effects of man-made global warming on more local levels, "especially in developing countries."Lee, who had been one of the panel's vice chairmen, was elected in a meeting in Dubrovnik, Croatia, beating Jean-Pascale van Ypersele of Belgium, another vice chairman, in a run-off. Chris Field of the United States was one of three other candidates. Each country is allowed one vote for climate panel leader Lee is president of the government affiliated Korea Energy Economics Institute and past dean of the College of Environment at Keimyung University. In his campaign for the job, Lee pledged to work more closely with business and industry and pay special attention to job creation, health, poverty reduction and technology development.Several climate change scientists said they didn't know Lee. Princeton's Michael Oppenheimer said Lee is known for being "relatively quiet."In a brief telephone interview, Lee talked about the "carbon budget" — the amount of carbon dioxide that can still be emitted before the world warms another two degrees — and thinking about those figures "in the context of a financial budget." He added that "the linking of science and policy requires a very close understanding of the carbon budget."Lee said international negotiators who will meet later this year in Paris have been given a document that gives them pathways to prevent that dangerous two-degree warming, but the key is "we need to act very, very soon."The previous chairman, Rajendra Pachauri, resigned in February after charges of sexual harassment were levelled against him in his native India.___Online:The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change: http://www.ipcc.ch/___Seth Borenstein can be followed at https://twitter.com/borenbears
WORLD POWERS IN THE LAST DAYS (END OF AGE OF GRACE NOT THE WORLD)
EUROPEAN UNION-KING OF WEST-DAN 9:26-27,DAN 7:23-24,DAN 11:40,REV 13:1-10
EGYPT-KING OF THE SOUTH-DAN 11:40
RUSSIA-KING OF THE NORTH-EZEK 38:1-2,EZEK 39:1-3
CHINA-KING OF THE EAST-DAN 11:44,REV 9:16,18
VATICAN-RELIGIOUS LEADER-REV 13:11-18,REV 17:4-5,9,18
WORLD TERRORISM
GENESIS 6:11-13
11 The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.(WORLD TERRORISM,MURDERS)(HAMAS IN HEBREW IS VIOLENCE)
12 And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth.
13 And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence (TERRORISM)(HAMAS) through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth.
2 PETER 2:5
5 And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly;
2 PETER 3:7
7 But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men
LEVITICUS 26:16
16 I also will do this unto you; I will even appoint over you( sudden) terror(ISM), consumption, and the burning ague, that shall consume the eyes, and cause sorrow of heart: and ye shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it.
GENESIS 16:11-12
11 And the angel of the LORD said unto her,(HAGAR) Behold, thou art with child, and shalt bear a son, and shalt call his name Ishmael;(FATHER OF THE ARAB/MUSLIMS) because the LORD hath heard thy affliction.
12 And he (ISHMAEL-FATHER OF THE ARAB-MUSLIMS) will be a wild (DONKEY-JACKASS) man;(ISLAM IS A FAKE AND DANGEROUS SEX FOR MURDER CULT) his hand will be against every man,(ISLAM HATES EVERYONE) and every man's hand against him;(PROTECTING THEMSELVES FROM BEING BEHEADED) and he (ISHMAEL ARAB/MUSLIM) shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren.(LITERAL-THE ARABS LIVE WITH THEIR BRETHERN JEWS)
ISAIAH 14:12-14
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 (SATAN HAS EYE TROUBLES) will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.(AND 1/3RD OF THE ANGELS OF HEAVEN FELL WITH SATAN AND BECAME DEMONS)
ISAIAH 33:1,18-19 Woe to thee that spoilest,(destroys) and thou wast not spoiled;(destroyed) and dealest treacherously, and they dealt not treacherously with thee! when thou shalt cease to spoil,(destroy) thou shalt be spoiled;(destroyed) and when thou shalt make an end to deal treacherously, they shall deal treacherously with thee.
18 Thine heart shall meditate terror. Where is the scribe? where is the receiver? where is he that counted the towers?
19 Thou shalt not see a fierce people, a people of a deeper speech than thou canst perceive; of a stammering tongue, that thou canst not understand.
JOHN 16:2
2 They shall put you out of the synagogues: yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service.(ISLAM MURDERS IN THE NAME OF MOON GOD ALLAH OF ISLAM)
Russian warships launch rockets on Islamic State in Syria-Reuters–OCT 7,15-YAHOONEWS
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Four Russian warships in the Caspian Sea launched 26 rockets at Islamic State in Syria which hit their targets, Russia's Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu and President Vladimir Putin said in a joint television appearance on Wednesday.Russia started its air campaign in Syria saying it would target militant group Islamic State. But its planes have also bombed other rebel groups opposed to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Moscow's ally.Western countries, Arab states and Turkey, who are waging their own bombing campaign against Islamic State but also want Assad to leave power, say Moscow is using Islamic State as a pretext to target Assad's other foes.Russia says the Assad government should be the centrepiece of international efforts to combat extremism.Putin said it was too early to talk about the results of Russia's operations in Syria and ordered Shoigu to continue cooperation with the United States, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Iran and Iraq on Syria.On Wednesday the Syrian army and allied militia carried out ground attacks on insurgent positions in Syria backed by Russian air strikes.Putin also said that French President France Hollande had voiced the idea of uniting Assad's forces with the so-called Free Syrian Army to fight Islamic State.But a source close to Hollande denied he had said this."The president spoke of the necessary presence of the Syrian opposition around the negotiating table." a source close to Hollande said. "The rest is not a French idea."Shoigu said that on Tuesday Russia had summoned foreign military attaches in Moscow and suggested they supply Russia with any intelligence on Islamic State positions."Today we are expecting a reply from our colleagues and we hope they will tell us about those targets which they have," he said.Shoigu also said Russia was ready to agree a document with the United States to coordinate actions in Syria.(Reporting by Alexander Winning, Andrei Kuzmin, Maxim Rodionov and Denis Dyomkin; Additional reporting by John Irish in Paris; Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky)
Russia backs Syrian forces in major assault on insurgents-Reuters By Sylvia Westall and Dominic Evans-OCT 7,15-YAHOONEWS
BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syrian troops and militia backed by Russian warplanes mounted what appeared to be their first major coordinated assault on Syrian insurgents on Wednesday and Moscow said its warships fired a barrage of missiles at them from the Caspian Sea, a sign of its new military reach.The combined operation hit towns close to the main north-south highway that runs through major cities in the mainly government-held west of Syria, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a British-based group which tracks the conflict via a network of sources within the country.Ground attacks by Syrian government forces and their militia allies using heavy surface-to-surface missile bombardments hit at least four insurgent positions and there were heavy clashes, the head of the Observatory, Rami Abdulrahman, said.The Iranian-backed Hezbollah militia took part in the fighting, according to a regional source who is familiar with the military situation in Syria. Abdulrahman said later there was no sign that Syrian troops and their allies had made any tangible advances on the ground.They briefly entered one town, but were forced to pull back, he said, and around 15 of their tanks or armored vehicles had been either destroyed or disabled.Islamic State militants have seized much of Syria since civil war grew out of anti-government protests in 2011, but the areas targeted in Wednesday's combined assault are held by other rebels, some U.S.-backed, fuelling accusations by Russia's critics that its real aim is to help the government.Moscow says it shares the West's aim of preventing the spread of Islamic State, and Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu told President Vladimir Putin during a televised meeting that four Russian warships in the Caspian Sea had launched 26 missiles at Islamic State in Syria earlier in the day.The missiles would have passed over Iran and Iraq to reach their targets, covering what Shoigu described as a distance of almost 1,500 km (900 miles), the latest display of Russian military power at a time when relations with the West are at a post-Cold War low over Ukraine.The terrain-hugging Kalibr cruise missiles, known by NATO by the codename Sizzler, fly at an altitude of 50 meters and are accurate to within three meters, the Russian defense ministry said.The air campaign in Syria has caught Washington and its allies on the back foot and alarmed Syria's northern neighbor Turkey, which says its air space has been repeatedly violated by Russian jets.Ankara summoned Russia's ambassador for the third time in four days over the reported violations, which NATO has said appeared to be deliberate and were "extremely dangerous".Turkey said Syria-based missile systems harassed its warplanes on Tuesday while eight F-16 jets were on a patrol flight along the Syria border.IRAQ LOOKS TO RUSSIA-Syrian state television quoted a military source as saying the missiles fired by Russian ships targeted 11 Islamic State positions in Raqqa, Aleppo and Idlib.The missiles destroyed bomb-making factories, command posts, weapons and ammunition and fuel depots, as well as "terrorist training centers", the TV said.Russian air strikes destroyed the main weapons depots of a U.S.-trained rebel group, the Liwa Suqour al-Jabal, their commander said.In conversation with Shoigu, Putin said it was too early to talk about the results of Russia's operations in Syria and ordered his minister to continue cooperation with the United States, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Iran and Iraq on the crisis.However, U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter said the United States would not cooperate militarily with Russia in Syria, although it was willing to hold discussions to secure the safety of its own pilots bombing IS targets in Syria.Calling Moscow's strategy "tragically flawed", he renewed accusations that the strikes were not focused on Islamic State. The Russian defense ministry accused the U.S. air force of not always bombing Islamic State targets itself.Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said only two of 57 Russian air strikes in Syria so far had hit Islamic State, while the rest had been against the moderate opposition, the only forces fighting the hard-line insurgents in northwestern Syria.But in Iraq, the head of parliament's defense and security committee said Baghdad may request Russian air strikes against Islamic State on its soil soon and wants Moscow to have a bigger role than Washington in fighting the group.Iraq's government and powerful Iranian-backed Shi'ite militias question the United States' resolve in fighting Islamic State militants, who control a third of the country, saying U.S.-led coalition air strikes are ineffective.The Kremlin said it had not received any official request from Iraq for air strikes against Islamic State there.AIR SUPPORT ONLY SO FAR-Russia's military build-up in Syria included a growing naval presence, long-range rockets and a battalion of troops backed by Moscow's most modern tanks, the U.S. ambassador to NATO said."There is a considerable and growing Russia naval presence in the eastern Mediterranean, more than 10 ships now, which is a bit out of the ordinary," Douglas Lute told reporters ahead of a meeting of alliance defense ministers in Brussels.Abdulrahman said Russia appeared to have stuck to air support on Wednesday. The assault followed a report by Reuters last week that allies of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, including Iranians, were preparing to recapture territory lost by the government to rebels in rapid advances this year.Hezbollah-run al-Manar television said in a newsflash that "an operation by the Syrian army started in a number of villages and towns in the northern countryside of Hama province".A video posted by the media office of an opposition group in Hama province on YouTube purported to show heavy rocket strikes by pro-government forces on Wednesday hitting an area in the northern Hama countryside. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JELcCMJLS-U&sns=twOther footage from Hama showed rebels from the Free Syrian Army firing anti-tank missiles and hitting two army tanks.(Additional reporting by Laila Bassam in BEIRUT, Alexander Winning in MOSCOW, Phil Stewart and Crispian Balmer in ROME and Michael Georgy in BAGHDAD; writing by Philippa Fletcher; editing by Peter Millership and Giles Elgood)
U.S.-led coalition aircraft re-routed to avoid Russians: Pentagon-Reuters-OCT 7,15- YAHOONEWS
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S.-led coalition aircraft bombing Islamist militants in Syria were re-routed at least once in the last six days to avoid a close encounter with Russian planes, a Pentagon spokesman said on Wednesday.The United States and its allies have been waging a year-long air campaign against Islamic State in Syria and across the border in neighboring Iraq. Russia launched air strikes in Syria last month, and has largely focused on hitting other rebel groups opposed to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad."We've had an instance at least where there's been action taken to make sure we didn't have an unsafe separation of space," said Captain Jeff Davis, a Pentagon spokesman. "We have had to do re-routing of the course of an airplane."Davis said the re-routing had occurred since an Oct. 1 secure video conference between U.S. and Russian military officials, which focused on ways to keep air crews safe as they conduct parallel military campaigns with competing objectives.He declined to provide further details, including whether the aircraft involved was manned or a drone, or how often the modification had happened or where, except that it had occurred at least once, and in Syrian air space.(Reporting by Yeganeh Torbati; Editing by James Dalgleish)
Iran's supreme leader bans negotiations with the United States-Reuters-OCT 7,15-YAHOONEWS
DUBAI (Reuters) - Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Wednesday banned any further negotiations between Iran and the United States, putting the breaks on moderates hoping to end Iran's isolation after reaching a nuclear deal with world powers in July.Khamenei, the highest authority in the Islamic Republic, already said last month there would be no more talks with the United States after the nuclear deal, but has not previously declared an outright ban.His statements directly contradict those of moderate Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, who says his government is ready to hold talks with the United States on how to resolve the conflict in Syria, where the two countries back opposing sides."Negotiations with the United States open gates to their economic, cultural, political and security influence. Even during the nuclear negotiations they tried to harm our national interests.," Khamenei was quoted as saying on his website."Our negotiators were vigilant but the Americans took advantage of a few chances," he said.Although he supported the last 18 months of negotiations, Khamenei has not publicly endorsed the nuclear agreement with the United States, Germany, France, Britain, China and Russia that settled a standoff of more than a decade.The West feared Iran wanted to develop nuclear weapons, suspicions Tehran denies.The agreement, which curbs Iran's nuclear program in exchange for crippling sanctions being lifted, was welcomed by Iranians who are keen to see their living standards improve and better relations with the rest of the world.It was also a great political victory for Rouhani and his faction in Iran ahead of some key elections next year and as such has deepened the divide in Iran's complex power structure between moderates and hardliners." CRITICAL SITUATION"-In his address to Revolutionary Guards Navy commanders, Khamenei said talks with the United States brought only disadvantages to Iran."Through negotiations Americans seek to influence Iran ... but there are naive people in Iran who don't understand this," Khamenei was quoted as saying to the IRGC commanders, who are also running much of Iran's military involvement in Syria.Hundreds of Iranian troops arrived in Syria last month, sources told Reuters, where they will join government forces and their Lebanese Hezbollah allies in a major ground offensive backed by Russian air strikes.The West dispute the aims of Russia's air campaign, which is causing friction between Moscow and NATO."We are in a critical situation now as the enemies are trying to change the mentality of our officials and our people on the revolution and our national interests," Khamenei told the Guards.Khamenei often invokes an unspecified "enemy" when talking about Western powers, particularly the United States and Israel, which he suspects of plotting to overthrow the Islamic Republic.His comments might invigorate the hardline lawmakers seeking the impeachment of Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif over shaking hands with U.S. President Barack Obama on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly.-"On and off the record, it was an accident," Zarif said in an interview with New Yorker on Tuesday."It has already cost me at home. But everything I do costs me at home, so this is not an aberration."(Reporting by Bozorgmehr Sharafedin; Editing by Toby Chopra and Raissa Kasolowsky)
Iraqi Kurdish fighters tested positive for mustard gas after clashes with Islamic State group-The Canadian PressBy Bram Janssen, The Associated Press | The Canadian Press – OCT 7,15-YAHOONEWS
IRBIL, Iraq - Several Iraqi Kurdish troops tested positive for mustard gas after battles this summer with the Islamic State group in northern Iraq, a spokesman for the paramilitary group said Wednesday.Blood samples from the Kurdish peshmerga fighters sent to a Baghdad lab revealed traces of the toxic gas, the spokesman, Jabar Yawar told The Associated Press. The exposure took place during the battles along the front lines near the northern Iraqi towns of Makhmour and Gwer, he said.The blood tests raise the spectre that IS used mustard gas in fighting the peshmerga forces. If confirmed, it would be the latest chemical agent apparently procured and used by the extremist Islamic State in the war.In March, Kurdish authorities in Iraq said they had evidence that the militant IS group used chlorine gas as a chemical weapon against its fighters. The allegation by the Kurdistan Region Security Council, stemming from a Jan. 23 suicide truck bomb attack in northern Iraq, followed similar allegations about the militants using the low-grade chemical weapons against Iraqi security forces as well as on Kurdish fighters in Syria.Iraqi Kurdish troops, trained and helped by American advisers, took the lead in battling IS after the extremist group blitzed across much of northern Iraq last year. Iraqi government forces and allied Shiite militias have since joined the fight, backed by U.S.-led coalition airstrikes.Yawar said forces from the U.S.-led coalition also took blood and soil samples in the same area and that those also tested positive. No one from the coalition was immediately available for comment.According to a statement Wednesday from the peshmerga force, the Islamic State militants fired some 50 mortar rounds on Iraqi Kurdish positions on Aug. 11. At least 37 of them exploded, releasing white smoke and a black liquid.Hazhar Ismail, director of co-ordination and public relations for the Peshmerga Ministry in Irbil said at least 35 peshmerga soldiers tested positive."Some still have health problems today, mainly (with the) skin and eyes," he said. "Nobody got killed in the attack."Kurdish fighters, backed by U.S.-led coalition airstrikes, have retaken territory from the Islamic State group spanning across northern Iraq. However, progress has stalled in recent months as the Sunni militant group clings on to certain locations they view as strategic, particularly towns along the border with Syria.Last week, the peshmerga said it drove the Islamic State group from more than 140 sq. kilometres (54 sq. miles) of territory near the oil-rich city of Kirkuk and cleared part of a major highway Wednesday.The militant group has held about a third of the territory in Iraq and Syria since August 2014.The government of Iraq's self-ruled Kurdish region said last month that IS militants fired a homemade rocket carrying "chemical substances" at peshmerga forces near the Mosul Dam in northern Iraq.A senior U.S. military officer said in August that preliminary tests showed traces of mustard gas on IS mortars.Mustard gas is a chemical agent that attacks the eyes and skin, causing severe blisters, and if inhaled, it can damage the lungs and other organs. While not usually lethal, exposure to mustard gas is generally debilitating.__Associated Press writer Vivian Salama contributed to this report from Baghdad.
Isis: Nuclear smugglers attempt to sell to Islamic State and other terrorists-International Business Times By Nicole Rojas | International Business Times – OCT 7,15-yahoonews
US federal agents have stopped four attempts in the last five years by nuclear smugglers who tried to sell radioactive materials to the Islamic State (Isis) and other terrorist organisations in the Middle East. The most recent case, in February 2015, found a smuggler attempting to find an IS buyer for a large load of cesium, which can be fatal.FBI investigators found several criminal organisations, some with ties to Russia, that are running a nuclear materials black market in Moldova, The Associated Press found. Despite four successful busts, federal agents failed to arrest some of the kingpins and those who were arrested were not given long prison sentences.According to the AP, Moldovan police and judicial authorities shared information into their investigations, revealing that ongoing tension between Russia and the West has allowed smugglers to act more covertly. Authorities in Moldova have been unable to find whether the smugglers have been able to access Russia's storage of radioactive materials.Constantin Malic, a Moldovan police officer told the AP: "We can expect more of these cases. As long as the smugglers think they can make big money without getting caught, they will keep doing it." A look into the Moldovan investigation, however, revealed that authorities have pounced on suspects early in the deal, thus allowing their ringleaders to escape.The Moldovan operations, a collaboration between the FBI and a small team of investigators from Moldova, have involved secret meetings, blue-prints for dirty bombs and undercover work.The most serious case in 2011 involved the secretive Russian Alexandr Agheenco, who is believed to be an officer with the Russian FSB, previously the KGB. Agheenco's alleged middleman attempted to find an IS buyer to bomb the US. The Russian leader was able to get away and his middleman is already out of prison.
AP INVESTIGATION: Nuclear black market thrives in eastern Europe, as smugglers seek extremists-The Canadian PressBy Desmond Butler And Vadim Ghirda, The Associated Press | The Canadian Press – OCT 7,15-yahoonews
CHISINAU, Moldova - Over the pulsating beat at an exclusive nightclub, the arms smuggler made his pitch to a client: 2.5 million euros for enough radioactive cesium to contaminate several city blocks.It was earlier this year, and the two men were plotting their deal at an unlikely spot: the terrace of Cocos Prive, a dance club and sushi bar in Chisinau, the capital of Moldova."You can make a dirty bomb, which would be perfect for the Islamic State," the smuggler said. "If you have a connection with them, the business will go smoothly." But the smuggler, Valentin Grossu, wasn't sure the client was for real — and he was right to worry. The client was an informant, and it took some 20 meetings to persuade Grossu that he was an authentic Islamic State representative. Eventually, the two men exchanged cash for a sample in a sting operation that landed Grossu in jail.The previously unpublicized case is one of at least four attempts in five years in which criminal networks with suspected Russian ties sought to sell radioactive material to extremists through Moldova, an investigation by The Associated Press has found. One investigation uncovered an attempt to sell bomb-grade uranium to a real buyer from the Middle East, the first known case of its kind.In that operation, wiretaps and interviews with investigators show, a middleman for the gang repeatedly ranted with hatred for America as he focused on smuggling the essential material for an atomic bomb and blueprints for a dirty bomb to a Middle Eastern buyer.In wiretaps, videotaped arrests, photographs of bomb-grade material, documents and interviews, AP found that smugglers are explicitly targeting buyers who are enemies of the West. The developments represent the fulfilment of a long-feared scenario in which organized crime gangs are trying to link up with groups such as the Islamic State and al-Qaida — both of which have made clear their ambition to use weapons of mass destruction.The sting operations involved a partnership between the FBI and a small group of Moldovan investigators, who over five years went from near total ignorance of the black market to wrapping up four sting operations. Informants and police posing as connected gangsters penetrated the smuggling networks, using old-fashioned undercover tactics as well as high-tech gear from radiation detectors to clothing threaded with recording devices.But their successes were undercut by striking shortcomings: Kingpins got away, and those arrested evaded long prison sentences, sometimes quickly returning to nuclear smuggling, AP found.For strategic reasons, in most of the operations arrests were made after samples of nuclear material had been obtained rather than the larger quantities. That means that if smugglers did have access to the bulk of material they offered, it remains in criminal hands.The repeated attempts to peddle radioactive materials signal that a thriving nuclear black market has emerged in an impoverished corner of Eastern Europe on the fringes of the former Soviet Union. Moldova, which borders Romania, is a former Soviet republic.Mouldovan police and judicial authorities shared investigative case files with the AP in an effort to spotlight how dangerous the black market has become. They say a breakdown in co-operation between Russia and the West means that it is much harder to know whether smugglers are finding ways to move parts of Russia's vast store of radioactive materials."We can expect more of these cases," said Constantin Malic, one of the Moldovan investigators. "As long as the smugglers think they can make big money without getting caught, they will keep doing it."The FBI and the White House declined to comment. The U.S. State Department would not comment on the specifics of the cases."Moldova has taken many important steps to strengthen its counter nuclear smuggling capabilities," said Eric Lund, spokesman for the State Department's bureau in charge of nonproliferation. "The arrests made by Moldovan authorities in 2011 for the attempted smuggling of nuclear materials is a good example of how Moldova is doing its part."Wiretapped conversations exposed plots that targeted the United States, the Moldovan officials said. In one case, a middleman said it was essential the smuggled bomb-grade uranium go to Arabs, said Malic, an investigator in all four sting operations."He said: 'I really want an Islamic buyer because they will bomb the Americans.'"___"HAVE YOU EVER HEARD OF URANIUM?"-Malic was a 27-year-old police officer when he first stumbled upon the nuclear black market in 2009. He was working on a fraud unit in Chisinau, and had an informant helping police take down a euro counterfeiting ring stretching from the Black Sea to Naples, Italy.The informant, an aging businessman, casually mentioned to Malic that over the years, contacts had periodically offered him radioactive material."Have you ever heard of uranium?" he asked Malic.Malic was so new to the nuclear racket that he didn't know what uranium was, and had to look it up on Google. He was horrified — "not just for one country," he said, "but for humanity.""Soon after, the informant received an offer for uranium. At about that time, the U.S. government was starting a program to train Moldovan police in countering the nuclear black market, part of a global multi-million dollar effort.In Malic's first case, three people were arrested on Aug. 20, 2010, after a sample of the material, a sawed-off piece of a depleted uranium cylinder, was exchanged for cash. That kind of uranium would be difficult to turn into a bomb.Authorities suspected, but couldn't prove, that the uranium had come from the melted down Chornobyl reactor in Ukraine, Malic said.Malic transported the seized radioactive material in a matchbox on the passenger seat of his car. It did not occur to him that the uranium should have been stored in a shielded container to protect him from possible radiation.When FBI agents came to collect it, they were stunned when he simply proffered the matchbox in his uncovered hand: "Take it," Malic said."Madman!" the American officers exclaimed.The uranium, fortunately, turned out not to be highly toxic.___PLUTONIUM FOR FREE-Several months later, a former KGB informant, Teodor Chetrus, called Malic's source, the Moldovan businessman. Chetrus told him he had uranium to sell, but was looking for a Middle Eastern buyer.Unlike Malic's first case, this one involved highly enriched uranium, the type that can be used to make a nuclear bomb.Smarter and more cautious than the members of the previous gang, Chetrus was a bit of a paradox to the investigators. He was educated and well dressed, yet still lived in his dilapidated childhood farmhouse in a tiny village on Moldova's border with Ukraine.In many of the smuggling cases, the ringleaders insulated themselves through a complex network of middlemen who negotiated with buyers in order to shield the bosses from arrest. In this case, Chetrus was the go-between.But he had his own agenda. Chetrus clung to a Soviet-era hatred of the West, Malic said, repeatedly ranting about how the Americans should be annihilated because of problems he thought they created in the Middle East."He said multiple times that this substance must have a real buyer from the Islamic states to make a dirty bomb," Malic said.Chetrus and the informant hammered out a deal to sell bomb-grade uranium to a "buyer in the Middle East" over months of wiretapped phone calls and meetings at Chetrus' house.The informant would show up with a recording device hidden in a different piece of clothing each time. On the other side of the road would be Malic, disguised as a migrant selling fruit and grains from a van — watching the house for signs of trouble.In one early phone call, the informant pressed Chetrus to find out whether he had access to plutonium as well as uranium, saying his buyer had expressed interest, according to wiretaps. But Chetrus was suspicious, and insisted that before big quantities of either substance could be discussed, the buyer had to prove that he was for real and not an undercover agent.Chetrus' boss decided to sell the uranium in installments, starting with a sample. If the buyers were plants, he reasoned, the police would strike before the bulk of the uranium changed hands — an acceptable risk."I have to tell you one thing," Chetrus told the informant in a wiretapped phone call. "Intelligence services never let go of the money."Eventually they worked out the terms of a deal: Chetrus would sell a 10-gram sample of the uranium for 320,000 euros ($360,000). The buyer could test it and if he liked what he saw, they could do a kilogram a week at the same rate — an astonishing 32 million euros every time until the buyer had the quantity he wanted. Ten kilograms of uranium was discussed — about a fifth of what was used over Hiroshima.The two later met in the dirt courtyard of Chetrus's house to discuss plutonium. The informant had a video camera hidden in his baseball cap. Chetrus can be seen in an army-green V-neck, talking animatedly as a rooster squawks in the background."For the plutonium," Chetrus said, "if they prove they are serious people, we will provide the sample for free. You can use a small amount to make a dirty bomb."He spread his hands wide. Then waved them around, as if all before him was laid to waste.Malic found the video chilling. "I was afraid to imagine what would happen if one of these scenarios happened one day."____A REAL BUYER IN SUDAN-The man behind the bomb-grade uranium deal was Alexandr Agheenco, known as "the colonel" to his cohorts. He had both Russian and Ukrainian citizenship, police said, but lived in Moldova's breakaway republic of Trans-Dniester.A separatist enclave that is a notorious haven for smuggling of all kinds, Trans-Dniester was beyond the reach of the Moldovan police.In a selfie included in police files, the colonel is balding, mustachioed, and smiling at the camera.In June 2011, he arranged the uranium swap. He dispatched a Trans-Dniester police officer to smuggle the uranium to Moldova, according to court documents. At the same time, he sent his wife, Galina, on a "shopping outing" across the border to the capital.Her job was to arrange a handoff of the uranium to Chetrus.Galina Agheenco arrived in downtown Chisinau in a Lexus GS-330, parking near a circus. She met the police officer, who handed her a green sack with the uranium inside.Meanwhile, the informant and Chetrus, sporting a dark suit and striped tie, pulled up at the Victoriabank on the city's main drag in a chauffeur-driven grey BMW X5. Inside the bank, Chetrus inspected a safe deposit box with 320,000 euros, court documents show. He counted the bills and used a special light to check whether they were marked.Satisfied, Chetrus went to collect the uranium package from the Lexus, where the colonel's wife had left it. When he turned it over to the informant, the police pounced.The bust, captured on video, shows officers in balaclavas forcing Chetrus to his knees and handcuffing him. Galina was arrested, too.But the police officer-turned-smuggler managed to escape back to Trans-Dniester, where he and the colonel could not be touched by Moldovan police.The arrests took Malic by surprise. He and the informant had been told that police would allow the sample exchange to go forward, so they could later seize the motherlode of uranium and arrest the ringleaders.Malic was furious. Instead of capturing the gang leaders intent on selling nuclear bomb-grade material to extremists, his Moldovan bosses had jumped the gun."What they did was simply create a scene for the news media," Malic said. "We lost a huge opportunity to make the world safer."Tests of the uranium seized confirmed that it was high-grade material that could be used in a nuclear bomb. The tests also linked it to two earlier seizures of highly enriched uranium that investigators believed the colonel was also behind.A search of Chetrus' house showed just how dangerous the smugglers were. After police made their arrests in Chisinau, Malic combed through documents in the farmhouse.He found the plans for the dirty bomb. Worse, there was evidence that Chetrus was making a separate deal to sell nuclear material to a real buyer. Investigators found contracts made out to a Sudanese doctor named Yosif Faisal Ibrahim for attack helicopters and armoured personnel carriers, government documents show. Chetrus had a copy of Ibrahim's passport, and there was evidence that Chetrus was trying to help him obtain a Moldovan visa. Skype messages suggested that he was interested in uranium and the dirty bomb plans.The deal was interrupted by the sting, but it looked like it had progressed pretty far. A lawyer working with the criminal ring had travelled to Sudan, officials said. But authorities say they could not determine who was behind Ibrahim or why he was seeking material for a nuclear bomb. AP efforts to reach Ibrahim were unsuccessful.Consequences for the smugglers were minimal. Galina Agheenco got a light 3-year sentence because she had an infant son; and Chetrus was sentenced to a 5-year prison term. Interpol notices were issued for the colonel and the Trans-Dniester policeman who got away.Moldovan officials say there were indications from a foreign intelligence agency that the colonel fled with his infant son through Ukraine to Russia shortly after the bust.The authorities don't know if the colonel also took a cache of uranium with him."Until the head of the criminal group is sentenced and jailed, until we know for sure where those substances seized in Europe came from and where they were going to, only then will we be able to say a danger is no longer present," says Gheorghe Cavcaliuc, the senior police officer who oversaw the investigation.___A COOL FACE, A POUNDING HEART-In mid-2014, an informant told Malic he had been contacted by two separate groups, one offering uranium, the other cesium. The Moldovan police went directly to the FBI, who backed up their operations.Malic volunteered to work undercover, posing as an agent for a Middle Eastern buyer. He did not have much training, and struggled with his nerves, resorting to shots of vodka before each meeting. He went into them with no weapon — showing a cool face while taming a pounding heart.The FBI fitted him with a special shirt that had microphones woven into the fabric, so that even a pat-down could not reveal that he was wired. They also set him up in a white Mercedes S-Class to look like a gangster.It worked. At one point, the unwitting smuggler said in text messages obtained by the AP that his gang had access to an outdated Russian missile system capable of carrying a nuclear warhead. The man said he could obtain two R29 submarine- based missiles and provide technical background on how to use them.Following the same script as in 2011, the team wrapped up the investigation after a sample of 200 grams of unenriched uranium was exchanged for $15,000 on Dec. 3, 2014. Six people were arrested, five got away.What worried Malic was what appeared to be a revolving door of smugglers. Three criminals involved in the new case had been taken into custody following the earlier investigations. Two of them had served short sentences and immediately rejoined the smuggling network, helping the new ring acquire the uranium. A third criminal was none other than the man who drove Chetrus to make his uranium deal.The investigators tracked the new uranium for sale to an address in Ukraine. Although they reported it to the authorities, they never heard back.As Malic's frustration grew, so did the danger to him and his colleagues.Early this year, at the Cocos Prive nightclub in Chisinau, the stakes became apparent. The middleman, Grossu, warned that his cesium supplier was a retired FSB officer with a reputation for brutality.If there was any trouble, Grossu told a wired informant, "They will put all of us against the wall and shoot us," Malic recalled.Grossu's bosses wanted the cesium to reach the Islamic State. "They have the money and they will know what to do with it," he said.The sellers claimed to have a huge cache of cesium 137 — which could be used to make a dirty bomb. As in previous cases, they insisted that the buyers prove their seriousness by first purchasing a sample vial of less- radioactive cesium 135, which is not potent enough for a dirty bomb.They were busted on Feb. 19. Grossu and two other men were arrested. The suspected FSB officer and the remaining cesium disappeared.It is not clear whether the Moldovan cases are indicative of widespread nuclear smuggling operations."It would be deeply concerning if terrorist groups are able to tap into organized crimes networks to gain the materials and expertise required to build a weapon of mass destruction," said Andy Weber, former U.S. assistant secretary of defence, who oversaw counter-proliferation until a year ago.On May 28, the FBI honoured Malic and his team at an awards ceremony for the two recent investigations. But by then the Moldovan police department had disbanded the team amid political fallout and police infighting.Chetrus' 5-year prison sentence was supposed to run into next year. But Chetrus' sister said this summer that he had been released in December, which the AP confirmed.He had served barely three years for trying to sell a nuclear bomb to enemies of the United States.____On Twitter: Desmond Butler at https://twitter.com/desmondbutler.
Netanyahu cancels German visit as Palestinian attacks surge-Reuters By Dan Williams-OCT 7,15-YAHOONEWS
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - A suspected Palestinian militant stabbed and wounded an Israeli soldier, snatched his gun and was then shot dead by special forces on Wednesday, police said, as a surge of violence prompted Israel's prime minister to cancel a visit to Germany.Hours earlier, police said an 18-year-old Palestinian woman stabbed an Israeli near a contested shrine in Jerusalem, and was then shot and wounded by the injured man, the third knife attack in the city in less than a week.Both Israeli and Palestinian leaders have sought to calm a rise in street violence that has been exacerbated by confrontations around Jerusalem's al Aqsa mosque complex, Islam's third holiest shrine which Jews also revere as the vestige of their two ancient temples.Four Israelis have been killed in stabbings in Jerusalem and a drive-by shooting in the occupied West Bank since Thursday, and two Palestinians have been shot dead and scores injured in clashes with security services, triggering fears of an escalation.In the latest attack, an Arab stabbed a soldier on a bus in the southern Israeli town of Kiryat Gat, grabbed his gun and ran into a residential building, police spokeswoman Luba Samri said. He was shot dead by police special forces.Samri did not immediately say whether the assailant was Palestinian or a member of Israel's Arab minority. Kiryat Gat, and surroundings has been relatively peaceful in recent months, but are a short drive from the occupied West Bank and the Palestinian Gaza Strip.WESTERN WALL ATTACK-The 18-year-old Palestinian woman stabbed an Israeli man near the Western Wall, a Jewish prayer site in Jerusalem's walled Old City abutting the al Aqsa mosque complex. The Israeli, lightly injured, drew a gun and shot the woman, seriously wounding her, police said. Hoping to head off the violence and potential knock-on attacks by ultra-nationalist Israelis, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has beefed up the military presence in Jerusalem and the West Bank.Though at diplomatic loggerheads with Netanyahu over peace talks that stalled in April 2014, the U.S.-backed Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, has also said he seeks no escalation.Netanyahu was due to visit Germany, Israel's most important European ally, on Thursday with members of his cabinet. But aides to Netanyahu said on Wednesday he had canceled the trip because of the precarious security situation.On Tuesday, confrontations spread to Jaffa, a predominantly Arab neighborhood of Israel's commercial capital Tel Aviv, where three police officers were injured in stone-throwing and six protesters arrested, police said.Palestinians fear increasing visits by Jewish groups to al-Aqsa are eroding longtime Muslim religious control there. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said he is committed to maintaining the status quo at al-Aqsa.The Palestinians seek a state in East Jerusalem, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, territories Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war. U.S.-brokered peace talks collapsed in 2014.(Writing by Dan Williams; Editing by Jeffrey Heller and Andrew Heavens)
The Latest: Israeli police shoot driver who attempted attack-Associated Press By The Associated Press-OCT 7,15-YAHOONEWS
JERUSALEM (AP) — The latest developments in ongoing tensions between Palestinians and Israelis following days of violence in Jerusalem and the West Bank (all times local).9:20 p.m.Israeli police say forces opened fire on a Palestinian motorist after he attempted to drive through a checkpoint in the West Bank and tried to hit an officer.Israeli police spokeswoman Luba Samri said the officer was "in real danger" when he opened fire at the driver on Wednesday. She said the Palestinian was moderately wounded and taken to an Israeli hospital.The incident follows a series of stabbings across Israel that have jolted an anxious country unnerved by weeks of unrest.
7 p.m.-Israeli police say a Palestinian attacker stabbed an Israeli man outside a mall in central Israel, the latest in a spree of stabbing attacks that have shaken the country.Police spokeswoman Luba Samri says civilians apprehended the attacker and police later detained him. Samri says the victim in the latest assault Wednesday was moderately hurt.Israeli Channel 2 TV aired footage from the scene, showing the suspected attacker lying on the ground with his hands behind his back as an officer kneeled on his back.It was the latest in a series of attacks against Israelis by Palestinians. Two stabbings took place in Jerusalem and in southern Israel earlier in the day.
5:00 p.m.-Jerusalem's mayor has been photographed carrying an assault rifle during a visit to an Arab neighborhood in east Jerusalem.Mayor Nir Barkat's office says the mayor is a "licensed and trained gun owner" and was carrying his weapons with him during the visit with Israeli security forces to the neighborhood of Beit Hanina.Jerusalem has seen several stabbing and shooting attacks in the past week.Barkat's office defended his action, saying that "many terror attacks in Jerusalem have been prevented or neutralized due to the quick actions and response of responsible bystanders." In February, Barkat himself tackled a knife-wielding attacker outside the municipality building.
4:00 p.m.-Israel's prime minister says he is calling off a planned trip to Germany because of a wave of violence between Israelis and Palestinians.Benjamin Netanyahu was scheduled to meet with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin on Thursday. A statement from Netanyahu's office Wednesday said the Israeli leader would not depart for the two-day visit so that he could "closely monitor the situation."German government spokesman Georg Streiter said Wednesday that the Israeli government called off the meeting, which would also have involved several ministers from both sides. He said the German government "regrets this cancellation and hopes that these consultations can be held at a later date."
3:25 p.m.-Israel's president says the country has not and will not alter the status quo at Jerusalem's most sensitive holy site and that any "lies" being spread to the contrary are aimed at inciting violence.Speaking to foreign journalists on Wednesday, Reuven Rivlin sought to soothe tensions after a week of bloody attacks that have killed several Israelis and Palestinians.At the heart of the recent tensions is a hilltop compound revered by Muslims and Jews. There have been several days of clashes at the site over the past few weeks as Palestinians barricaded themselves inside the Al-Aqsa mosque while hurling stones, firebombs and fireworks at police.Many Palestinians believe that Israel is trying to expand a Jewish presence at the site, a claim Israel adamantly denies.
2:50 p.m.-Israeli police say a suspect stabbed a soldier and tried to take his weapon in southern Israel before being shot dead by police.Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld says the man attacked the soldier after getting off a bus in the city of Kiryat Gat. The man then fled into a residential building, where police forces tracked him down and shot him dead.Rosenfeld said the suspect's identity was not yet clear but that police were treating the incident as a terror attack.Wednesday's attack follows a series of tense days in which Palestinian attacks have killed several Israeli civilians. Earlier in the day, a Palestinian woman stabbed an Israeli man who then shot and wounded her in Jerusalem's Old City.
As Palestinian attacks, clashes continue, Israel leader warns anxious civilians to be on alert-The Canadian PressBy Tia Goldenberg, The Associated Press | The Canadian Press – OCT 7,15-yahoonews
JERUSALEM - Palestinian assailants carried out a series of stabbings across Israel on Wednesday, jolting an anxious country unnerved by weeks of unrest as clashes between Israeli forces and Palestinian demonstrators raged across the West Bank.The violence forced Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to call off a high-profile visit to Germany and prompted him to tell the nation to be on "alert" for further trouble. And in another sign of the tensions, Jerusalem's mayor, Nir Barkat, was seen carrying an assault rifle while visiting an Arab neighbourhood.The unrest began three weeks ago and has spread from the confines of a sensitive Jerusalem holy site to spots across Israel and the West Bank. In Wednesday's violence, stabbings occurred outside a crowded mall in central Israel, in a southern Israeli town and in the Old City of Jerusalem.Israeli forces shot two of the attackers, killing one, while a third was arrested. No Israelis were seriously hurt. Another Palestinian was wounded when he was shot by police after he attempted to run over an officer at a West Bank checkpoint, police said.Netanyahu has threatened a tough response to the violence, and Israel has beefed up security in Jerusalem and the West Bank. It also briefly barred non-resident Palestinians from entering the Old City, home to sensitive holy sites. That ban was lifted shortly before Wednesday's stabbing. In all, four Israelis have been killed in stabbings and a roadside shooting in recent days, while five Palestinians, including three attackers, have been killed.With the attacks spilling into the Israeli heartland, Netanyahu warned Israelis to be on guard."Civilians are at the forefront of the war against terrorism and must also be on maximum alert," Netanyahu said, after a meeting with top police officials.Barkat, the Jerusalem mayor, defended his decision to carry a rifle while visiting an Arab neighbourhood in east Jerusalem on Monday night. His office said he was a former military officer and licensed to carry the weapon."Many terror attacks in Jerusalem have been prevented or neutralized due to the quick actions and response of responsible bystanders," it said, noting that earlier this year, the mayor helped stop a knife-wielding Palestinian attacker. Adnan Husseini, the top Palestinian official for Jerusalem, called Barkat's armed appearance "a declaration of war" on Palestinian residents of the city.-"It's incitement for other Israelis to do the same," he said.In the attack outside the mall, which occurred in the city of Petah Tikva, police said civilians apprehended the suspected Palestinian assailant after he stabbed and slightly wounded a man.Earlier Wednesday, police said a 19-year-old Palestinian stabbed a soldier while taking his weapon in the southern town of Kiryat Gat. The suspect then fled into a residential building, where he followed a local woman into her apartment before police forces arrived and shot and killed him.And in Jerusalem's Old City, an 18-year- old Palestinian woman stabbed an Israeli man who then shot and wounded her.The clashes erupted during the Jewish new year three weeks ago over tensions at the sacred hilltop compound in Jerusalem revered by Muslims as the spot where Prophet Muhammad ascended to heaven and by Jews as the site of the two Jewish biblical Temples.Many Palestinians believe that Israel is trying to expand a Jewish presence at the site, a claim Israel adamantly denies. Under a longstanding arrangement administered by Islamic authorities, Jews are allowed to visit the site during certain hours but not pray there.Hundreds of Palestinians have been hurt in several days of clashes, according to the Red Crescent medical service, including dozens struck by rubber bullets and some by live fire.On Wednesday, hundreds of protesters in the West Bank hurled rocks at Israeli troops who responded with tear gas and stun grenades.At a protest near the West Bank city of Ramallah, masked plainclothes Israeli police were seen kicking and punching a Palestinian protester apparently suspected of throwing stones, as they detained him.Also Wednesday, Netanyahu cancelled a planned trip to Germany for meetings with Chancellor Angela Merkel so that he could stay in Israel to "closely monitor the situation," according to his office.The Israeli prime minister is under heavy pressure, particularly from hard-liners in his governing coalition, to respond to the surge in violence with a tough crackdown and increased settlement activity. But he is also wary of angering the American administration and risking another full-fledged uprising with too tough a response that could lead to a higher number of casualties on both sides.____Associated Press writer Mohammed Daraghmeh in Ramallah, West Bank, contributed to this report.
The Latest: Officers who responded to Oregon college shooting don't want to be called heroes-The Canadian PressBy The Associated Press | The Canadian Press – OCT 7,15-yahoonews
ROSEBURG, Ore. - The latest on the deadly shooting at a community college in Oregon (all times local):-11:16 a.m.An Oregon police chief says two detectives who ran toward the sound of gunshots and wounded the gunman who killed nine people at a community college don't want to be called heroes.Sgt. Joe Kaney and Detective Todd Spingath were among the first to arrive at Umpqua (UHMP'-kwah) Community College last Thursday and immediately jumped out of their car without bulletproof vests. The shooter fired at them, but they weren't hit.The officers fired three shots at gunman Christopher Harper-Mercer, striking him once in the side. He then retreated to the classroom where he had gunned down eight students and a professor and killed himself.Roseburg Police Chief Jim Burge says he and many others in the small town consider the officers to be heroes. But he says Kaney and Spingath feel they did what they were trained to do.10:20 a.m.Authorities say the gunman who killed nine people at an Oregon community college killed himself inside a classroom after two plainclothes officers shot and wounded him.Douglas County District Attorney Rick Wesenberg said at a news conference Wednesday that the two detectives who were among the first on scene heard a volley of gunfire and ran toward the shots at Umpqua (UHMP'-kwah) Community College last Thursday.They spotted 26-year-old Christopher Harper-Mercer in the doorway of a building and he immediately fired at the officers, who weren't wearing bulletproof vests.Wesenberg says they fired three rounds, one of which stuck the shooter in the right side. Once Harper-Mercer was wounded, he went back into the classroom and shot himself at the front of the room.
Prosecutor: Oregon college gunman killed himself inside classroom after 2 officers wounded him-The Canadian PressBy Jonathan J. Cooper, The Associated Press | The Canadian Press – OCT 7,15-yahoonews
ROSEBURG, Ore. - The gunman who fatally shot nine people at an Oregon community college last week killed himself in front of his victims after two police officers wounded him, authorities said Wednesday.When two plainclothes detectives spotted Christopher Harper-Mercer in the doorway of a campus building, he fired at them, and the officers quickly returned fire. The killer then went back inside and shot himself in a classroom where many of his victims lay dead and wounded, a prosecutor told a news conference.It was authorities' most detailed account yet of the gunman's death. Previously, they had said only that the 26-year- old attacker killed himself after a shootout.The detectives arrived within minutes of the first reports of gunfire at Umpqua Community College.Seconds later, the officers "both felt they had a good target," Douglas County District Attorney Rick Wesenberg said. Two of their bullets hit a wall but a third struck Harper-Mercer on the right side.The wounded gunman "entered the classroom again, went to the front of the classroom, and shot and killed himself," Wesenberg said.Nine others were wounded.Harper-Mercer's mother allowed her troubled son to have guns and acknowledged in online posts that he struggled with a mild form of autism, but she didn't seem to know he was potentially violent.The online writings by Laurel Harper date from a year ago to nine years ago. She and Harper-Mercer shared an apartment outside Roseburg. Investigators have recovered 14 firearms — six found at the college and eight at the apartment.In her online postings, Laurel Harper talked about her love of guns and her son's emotional troubles, but there are no hints of worry that he could become violent.While living in California, Harper-Mercer graduated from a learning centre for students with learning disabilities and emotional problems. His parents divorced when he was a teenager and he lived with his mother.
Obama apologizes to Doctors Without Borders, offers condolences over US attack in Afghanistan- The Canadian PressBy Josh Lederman, The Associated Press | The Canadian Press – OCT 7,15-yahoonews
WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama on Wednesday apologized to Doctors Without Borders for the American air attack that killed at least 22 people at a medical clinic in Afghanistan, and said the U.S. would examine military procedures to determine whether changes could prevent such incidents.Obama's apology came four days after the facility in the northern city of Kunduz came under fire from what was later determined to be a U.S. aircraft. The attack outraged aid groups and complicated U.S. efforts in Afghanistan. White House spokesman Josh Earnest said Obama called the organization's international president, Joanne Liu, and offered condolences to the group's staff."When the United States makes a mistake, we own up to it, we apologize where appropriate, and we are honest about what transpired," Earnest said.A day earlier, the White House had stopped short of an apology, waiting to learn more even while acknowledging the attack was a U.S. mistake.Obama told Doctors Without Borders that the U.S. would review the attack to determine whether changes to U.S. operating procedures could reduce the chances of a similar incident, and that those responsible for the Kunduz attack would be held accountable, if appropriate, Earnest said.Obama also spoke to Afghan President Ashraf Ghani to convey condolences and pledge continued co-operation, the White House said.Investigations by the U.S., NATO and the Afghan government are underway, but Doctors Without Borders has said more are needed. Doctors Without Borders wants a fact-finding mission to determine whether the attack violated the Geneva Conventions. Obama restated his commitment to a thorough and transparent investigation by the Defence Department, Earnest said. He didn't specifically address the group's call for an independent probe.
DANIEL 7:23-24
23 Thus he said, The fourth beast (EU,REVIVED ROME) shall be the fourth kingdom upon earth,(7TH WORLD EMPIRE) which shall be diverse from all kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, and shall tread it down, and break it in pieces.(TRADING BLOCKS-10 WORLD REGIONS/TRADE BLOCS)
24 And the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings(10 NATIONS-10 WORLD DIVISION WORLD GOVERNMENT) that shall arise: and another shall rise after them; and he shall be diverse from the first, and he shall subdue three kings.(THE EU (EUROPEAN UNION) TAKES OVER IRAQ WHICH HAS SPLIT INTO 3-SUNNI-KURD-SHIA PARTS-AND THE REVIVED ROMAN EMPIRE IS BROUGHT BACK TOGETHER-THE TWO LEGS OF DANIEL WESTERN LEG AND THE ISLAMIC LEG COMBINED AS 1)
LUKE 2:1-3
1 And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus, that all the world should be taxed.
2 (And this taxing was first made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria.)
3 And all went to be taxed, every one into his own city.
Merkel and Hollande to lay out EU vision in Strasbourg-By Eric Maurice-OCT 7,15- EUOBSERVER
http://www.egba.eu/facts-and-figures/interactive-map/
BRUSSELS, Today, 09:27-German chancellor Angela Merkel and French president Francois Hollande will address the European Parliament together for the first time on Wednesday (7 October).They are expected to talk about the refugees crisis, the euro, and European values.Leaders will speak 15 minutes each before a debate with the parliament's political group chiefs."This is a historic visit for historically difficult times", said the president of the parliament, Martin Schulz, who initiated the visit.The last time German and French leaders went together to Strasbourg was in November 1989, when Helmut Kohl and Francois Mitterrand spoke about the challenges facing Europe a few days after the fall of the Berlin wall.Today "we expect a statement of principle on the state of the EU and its perspectives, its priorities," Schulz said.Though Merkel and Hollande will try to show common leadership in line with Europe's old "Franco-German motor", relations are not as close as they seem.On the refugee crisis, Germany and France have been at odds, especially over Paris' reluctance to endorse EU quotas for migrant relocations.France has taken in just a few hundreds refugees coming from Germany. Thee leaders also see the future of Syria in different ways. Hollande has said Syrian president Bashar Al-Assad has to go, but Merkel is more open to a political solution with Assad at the negotiating table.-Eurozone-Merkel and Hollande will also try to set out a common vision for the future of the eurozone in the wake of the Greek crisis.In May, the German and French leaders published a joint plan for a strengthening the single currency.They proposed regular euro summits and "specific structures" within the European Parliament. They also proposed to explore "the possibility of strengthening the Eurogroup president".In July and September, France went further and proposed the creation of a "vanguard" of euro states, a euro commissioner with extended powers, and a special eurozone budget. This idea, which implies financial transfers from richer to poorer eurozone countries, "breaks a German taboo", France admitted at the time.Merkel and Hollande are expected to clarify their position on the issue, and on whether EU treaties should be changed to shore up the euro.The discussion overlaps a debate on EU reforms demanded by British PM David Cameron ahead of the EU membership referendum in the UK. But neuter Merkel or Hollande are willing to change the EU charter for the sake of British requests.
Cameron belittles EU institutions By Andrew Rettman-OCT 7,15-EUOBSERVER
BRUSSELS, Today, 18:50-David Cameron bashed the EU for being “too bossy” in a speech on Wednesday (7 October), but gave few details on his plan for European reform.He told the Tory Party conference in Manchester: “I have no romantic attachment to the European Union and its institutions. I’m only interested in two things: Britain’s prosperity and Britain’s influence”.“We all know what’s wrong with the EU - it’s got too big, too bossy, too interfering”, he added, in rhetoric likely to jarr in Brussels and other EU capitals.He pledged to get the phrase “ever closer union” excised from the EU treaty as part of wider EU reforms before British people vote in the upcoming in/out referendum.“Let me put this very clearly: Britain is not interested in ‘ever closer union’ - and I will put that right”.He also said he values Britain’s membership in “the biggest single market in the world”, however.He said the EU needs the UK for the sake of better US relations and more influence on world affairs.Aside from “closer union”, Cameron’s EU reform proposals are expected to cover curbs on EU migrant welfare rights, EU powers for national MPs, and safeguards for the City of London.His speech touched on immigration. But he didn’t mention the other issues.Noting that the EU is facing hundreds of thousands of asylum seekers from Syria, he said: “If we opened the door to every refugee, our country would be overwhelmed”.He criticised the EU for “acting in a way that encourages more [people] to make that dangerous journey” from Syria to Europe, by reference to open EU borders and confusion on asylum law.But with the UK to take in 20,000 refugees over the next four years, Cameron also attacked Islamophobia in British society.“Opportunity doesn’t mean much to a British Muslim if he walks down the street and is abused for his faith”, he said.The speech was big on national security.Cameron defended his use of drones for targeted assassinations in Syria and his bombing of Islamic State. He also promised to shut down radical Islamic schools in the UK and to buy four nuclear submarines.He ridiculed Jeremy Corbyn, the new leader of Labour, the left-wing opposition party, as “security-threatening, terrorist-sympathising”.He also pledged more housing, more rights for workers, to fight poverty, and to reform prisons.-Migrants-His speech comes one day after Theresa May, the home secretary, said the UK economy doesn’t need migrants and that they take British people’s jobs.Nigel Farage, the head of the British eurosceptic party, Ukip, noted Cameron’s softer tone.“This is the prime minister who knows membership of the EU means an open door to 500 million people … [but] he has no clear strategy, he can make no sincere promise”, Farage said in a note on his website.The Liberal Democrat party said: “If he [Cameron] was really concerned about racial discrimination, he would publicly denounce his home secretary’s shameful attack on immigrants yesterday”.Labour criticised his “personal attack” on Corbyn.Climate-Unite, one of the UK’s largest trade unions, said: “Cameron’s legacy will be all too visible to those on low wages or who are bracing themselves for the next swing of the Conservative cuts axe”.With the climate change summit in Paris around the corner, John Sauven, a director at environmental NGO Greenpeace noted: “Cameron mentioned the words ‘security’ and ‘safe’ 14 times in his speech, yet climate change, one of the biggest threats humanity is facing, got just one timid nod”.“This silence speaks volumes about a government that has no energy plan”.
DISEASES
REVELATION 6:7-8
7 And when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth beast say, Come and see.
8 And I looked, and behold a pale horse:(CHLORES GREEN) and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword,(WEAPONS) and with hunger,(FAMINE) and with death,(INCURABLE DISEASES) and with the beasts of the earth.(ANIMAL TO HUMAN DISEASE).
UN says no cases of Ebola reported last week for the 1st time since outbreak started last year-The Canadian PressBy The Associated Press | The Canadian Press – OCT 7,15-yahoonews
LONDON - The World Health Organization says there were no Ebola cases reported last week — the first time an entire week has passed without any new confirmed patients since the devastating outbreak began last March.The U.N. health agency said in a report issued Wednesday that all contacts of Ebola cases in Sierra Leone have now been followed for 21 days without falling sick, suggesting the country might soon be free of the disease.Still, more than 500 people are being tracked in Guinea and WHO said there is "considerable risk" of further spread. Scientists have also lost track of where the virus was recently spreading.Since it first broke out in Guinea's forest region last year, Ebola has killed more than 11,200 people in West Africa.
KNOWLEGE INCREASED AND WORLD TRAVEL (IMMIGRATION) INCREASED
DANIEL 12:4
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 FROM FLEEING WARS) and knowledge shall be increased.(COMPUTERS MICROCHIPS ETC)
Technip gets $500K+ investment from N.L. for new super computers-CBC– OCT 7,15-yahoonews
A company that services the offshore oil and gas industry says an infusion of government money will help it stay competitive.Technip, which carries out project management, engineering and construction for the energy industry, unveiled a new $2.3 million-computing facility on Wednesday in St. John's.The new super computers will be used to help for designing risers — a system of pipes used in offshore oil extraction to transfer fluids up from the sea floor to surface facilities. The computers will allow for faster and better simulations and modelling needed to help make sure the risers can withstand the movement of the ocean. About a quarter of the investment came from the Newfoundland and Labrador government through the Research and Development Corporation (RDC), which invested $592,534 in the computing centre.Low oil prices have led Technip to trim a few jobs, but the company says investments in new technology make it more competitive."The investment will enable Technip to leverage its experience gained in the local offshore industry to become world leaders in the area of Riser Dynamic Analysis," said Managing Director Jason Muise."The High Performance Computing Centre will ensure competitiveness, and will enable exporting of engineering expertise to Technip's international client base."Muise went on to say that such powerful computers are needed given the sophisticated practice of extracting oil from the harsh environment of the North Atlantic Ocean."What makes the design so interesting, is that it moves," he said."It's a difficult design problem, and requires quite a lot of computational analysis."Investing despite oil and gas downturn-The Canadian branch of Technip employs 130 staff, and has been involved in almost every offshore project in Newfoundland and Labrador since the company started operations in 1997.The new computing centre will be based in St. John's and will service Technip's global clients.Darrin King, minister of business, tourism, culture and rural development, said despite the recent downturn in the oil and gas industry, his government is committed to investing in research and development for companies like Technip."At times like these we must continue to make R&D investments," he said."Looking forward, I believe that investments in R&D and innovation will provide a solid and lasting foundation for growth in our province, and it will strengthen Newfoundland's position as a growing centre of excellence for research and development."
Merkel and Hollande short of ideas on refugee crisis By Eric Maurice-OCT 7,15-EUOBSERVER
BRUSSELS, Today, 19:40-Angela Merkel and Francois Hollande have called on the European Union to show unity and respect the values on which it was built, but stopped short of ideas on how to tackle Europe's problems.The common address by the German chancellor and the French president to the European Parliament in Strasbourg on Wednesday (7 October) was dominated by the refugee crisis.They stressed the importance for Europe to help and welcome the people fleeing wars in the Middle East or Africa and the need for a common approach."We are stronger together than when we are separate," Merkel said, stressing the need for "cohesion".The EU is based on the values of human dignity, tolerance, the respect of human right ans solidarity, she noted."If we don't bear in mind our identity and our values, we will loose them and then we would betray ourselves”.“To shut ourself off from all this in the time of the internet is illusory”, she added.-'Act at the root'-The leaders said Europe should help the countries hosting millions of refugees and try to stop the Syria in order to reduce refugee numbers."Europe was late to understand that tragedies would not be without consequences for her," Hollande said."We must help Turkey if we want to Turkey to help us," he added.He said EU states should "act on a military, humanitarian and diplomatic level and give the Syrian population another alternative than Bashar [Al-Assad, Syria's president] or Deash [the Arab name for the Islamic State group]”."We cannot avoid the necessity to act at the root," Merkel said.She noted that "all international operators" should be involved in the process, indicating Russia and possibly Iran could be part of future joint action.She did not mention the Syrian president, which Rusia wants to keep in place.But Hollande said it would "not be possible to have the opposition and the the torturer of the Syrian people" around the same table.Merkel and Hollande stressed the need to strengthen EU borders."Pretending that Schengen, in its current operations, makes it possible to resist the pressure would be a mistake," Hollande said, calling for the creation of a European corps of border guards and coast guards.Merkel said the EU’s so-called Dublin system to mange asylum requests is "obsolete”.Eurozone-Both Merkel and Hollande also linked Europe's power to a more integrated eurozone. Merkel didn’t give any details, but Hollande mentioned a part of his vision for new, euro-linked institutioms.Strenghtening the eurozone will require "institutional choices which will commit voluntary states," he said.Twenty sic years after a similar common address by Germany's Helmut Kohl and France's Francois Mitterrand as the Berlin Wall was falling, Merkel said Europe had "overcome differences between east and west”.-Eurosceptics-Hollande warned that the financial crisis helped eurosceptics and sovereignists, but said they have little to offer people."Sovereignism is declinism," he said. "It is dangerous to leave no hope and built nothing together.The post-speech debate saw Nigel Farage, a British eurosceptic, accuse Germany of dominating Europe.It also saw French far-right leader Marine Le Pen attack Hollande, calling him a "vice-chancellor administrating the French province". Hollande snapped back, saying he wonders whether she understands the meaning of democracy.
EARTH WORSHIP
DEUTERONOMY 17:3-4
3 And hath gone and served other gods, and worshipped them, either the sun, or moon, or any of the host of heaven, which I have not commanded;
4 And it be told thee, and thou hast heard of it, and enquired diligently, and, behold, it be true, and the thing certain, that such abomination is wrought in Israel:
DEUTORONOMY 4:15-19
15 Take ye therefore good heed unto yourselves; for ye saw no manner of similitude on the day that the LORD spake unto you in Horeb out of the midst of the fire:
16 Lest ye corrupt yourselves, and make you a graven image, the similitude of any figure, the likeness of male or female,
17 The likeness of any beast that is on the earth, the likeness of any winged fowl that flieth in the air,
18 The likeness of any thing that creepeth on the ground, the likeness of any fish that is in the waters beneath the earth:
19 And lest thou lift up thine eyes unto heaven, and when thou seest the sun, and the moon, and the stars, even all the host of heaven, shouldest be driven to worship them, and serve them, which the LORD thy God hath divided unto all nations under the whole heaven.
2 KINGS 23:5
5 And he put down the idolatrous priests, whom the kings of Judah had ordained to burn incense in the high places in the cities of Judah, and in the places round about Jerusalem; them also that burned incense unto Baal, to the sun, and to the moon, and to the planets, and to all the host of heaven.
South Korean expert in climate change economics to head Nobel winning UN global warming panel-The Canadian PressBy Seth Borenstein, The Associated Press | The Canadian Press – OCT 7,15-YAHOONEWS
WASHINGTON - A South Korean professor of climate change economics will lead the Nobel Prize-winning group of climate scientists who keep track of global warming.Hoesung Lee, elected chairman Tuesday of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, told The Associated Press that the United Nations-affiliated science group will do more to examine the effects of man-made global warming on more local levels, "especially in developing countries."Lee, who had been one of the panel's vice chairmen, was elected in a meeting in Dubrovnik, Croatia, beating Jean-Pascale van Ypersele of Belgium, another vice chairman, in a run-off. Chris Field of the United States was one of three other candidates. Each country is allowed one vote for climate panel leader Lee is president of the government affiliated Korea Energy Economics Institute and past dean of the College of Environment at Keimyung University. In his campaign for the job, Lee pledged to work more closely with business and industry and pay special attention to job creation, health, poverty reduction and technology development.Several climate change scientists said they didn't know Lee. Princeton's Michael Oppenheimer said Lee is known for being "relatively quiet."In a brief telephone interview, Lee talked about the "carbon budget" — the amount of carbon dioxide that can still be emitted before the world warms another two degrees — and thinking about those figures "in the context of a financial budget." He added that "the linking of science and policy requires a very close understanding of the carbon budget."Lee said international negotiators who will meet later this year in Paris have been given a document that gives them pathways to prevent that dangerous two-degree warming, but the key is "we need to act very, very soon."The previous chairman, Rajendra Pachauri, resigned in February after charges of sexual harassment were levelled against him in his native India.___Online:The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change: http://www.ipcc.ch/___Seth Borenstein can be followed at https://twitter.com/borenbears
