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)
South Korea's spy service says North Korea is preparing attacks-The Associated Press Posted: Feb 18, 2016 5:51 AM ET Last Updated: Feb 18, 2016 5:56 AM ET-CBCNEWS
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un recently ordered preparations for launching "terror" attacks on South Koreans, a top Seoul official said Thursday, as worries about the North grow after its recent nuclear test and rocket launch.In televised remarks, senior South Korean presidential official Kim Sung-woo said North Korea's spy agency has begun work to implement Kim Jong-un's order to "muster anti-South terror capabilities that can pose a direct threat to our lives and security."He said the possibility of North Korean attacks "is increasing more than ever" and asked for quick passage of an anti-terror bill in parliament.North Korea has a history of attacks on South Korea, such as the 2010 shelling on an island that killed four South Koreans and the 1987 bombing of a South Korean passenger plane that killed all 115 people on board. But it is impossible to independently confirm claims about any such attack preparations. The South Korean presidential official did not say where the latest information came from.Earlier Thursday, Seoul's National Intelligence Service briefed ruling Saenuri Party members on a similar assessment on North Korea's attack preparations, according to one of the party officials who attended the private meeting.During the briefing, the NIS, citing studies on past North Korean provocations and other unspecified assessments, said the attacks could target anti-Pyongyang activists, defectors and government officials in South Korea, the party official said requesting anonymity because he wasn't authorized to speak to media publicly.-Mixed record on predictions-Attacks on subways, shopping malls and other public places could also happen, he said.The official quoted the NIS as saying North Korea could launch poisoning attacks on the activists and defectors, or lure them to China where they would be kidnapped.The Saenuri official refused to say whether the briefing discussed how the information was obtained. The NIS, which has a mixed record on predicting developments in North Korea, said it could not confirm its reported assessment.The standoff with North Korea is not expected to ease soon, as Seoul and Washington are discussing deploying a sophisticated U.S. missile defence system in South Korea that Pyongyang warns would be a source of regional tension.-Military drills-The allies also say their annual springtime military drills will be the largest ever. South Korea's defence minister said Thursday that about 15,000 U.S. troops will take part, double of the number Washington normally sends.The North says the drills are preparation for a northward invasion.Seoul defence officials also said that they began preliminary talks on Feb. 7 with the United States on deploying the Terminal High-Altitude Area Defence, the same day North Korea conducted what it said was a satellite launch but is condemned by Seoul and Washington as a banned test of missile technology.The talks are aimed at working out details for formal missile deployment talks, such as who'll represent each side, according to Seoul's Defence Ministry.The deployment is opposed by China and Russia too. Opponents say the system could help U.S. radar spot missiles in other countries.The United States on Wednesday flew four stealth F-22 fighter jets over South Korea and reaffirmed it maintains an "ironclad commitment" to the defence of its Asian ally. Last month, it sent a nuclear-capable B-52 bomber to South Korea following the North's fourth nuclear test.Foreign analysts say the North's rocket launch and nuclear test put the country further along it its quest for a nuclear-armed missile that could reach the U.S. mainland.The Canadian Press-ASSOCIATED PRESS
North Korea satellite tumbling in orbit again: U.S. sources-Reuters By Andrea Shalal and Idrees Ali-FEB 18,16-YAHOONEWS
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - North Korea’s recently launched satellite is once again tumbling in orbit, after stabilizing briefly, according to a U.S. official and other sources.The satellite update came as a key congressional watchdog agency said the U.S. military had not demonstrated its ability to protect the United States against a possible North Korea missile attack.Earlier this month North Korea launched what it said was an earth observation satellite but what the country's neighbors and the United States called a missile test. It was earlier believed to have achieved stable orbit but not to have transmitted data back to Earth.The U.S. official, and two other sources with knowledge of the issue, said they are less concerned about the function of the satellite than with the technology involved in launching it. They added that the launch was clearly intended to demonstrate North Korea’s ability to launch an intercontinental ballistic missile.The U.S. Government Accountability Office, the research arm of Congress, highlighted concerns about missile attacks from North Korea in a report released on Wednesday.“GMD flight testing, to date, was insufficient to demonstrate that an operationally useful defense capability exists,” the GAO said. GMD is an acronym for a ground-based missile defense system.The report said that the missile defense system, or the Ground-based Midcourse Defense, had only demonstrated “a partial capability against small numbers of simple ballistic missile threats.”Ken Todorov, former deputy director of the Missile Defense Agency, said the organization faced a difficult balancing act in meeting the needs of the U.S. military and operating with limited resources for testing.Last month the Missile Defense Agency conducted a successful test of the ground-based U.S. missile defense system managed by Boeing Co aimed at demonstrating the effectiveness of a redesigned "kill vehicle" built by Raytheon Co.The test purposely did not include an intercept by a ground-based interceptor but was designed to demonstrate the ability of new "divert thrusters" that were developed by Raytheon to maneuver the warhead.The report said that while there were benefits in the way the agency was acquiring the kill vehicle, challenges remained.It added that the Pentagon’s goal to reach 44 ground-based missile defense systems by the end of 2017 was based on a “highly optimistic, aggressive schedule” leading to “high-risk acquisition practices.”(Reporting by Idrees Ali and Andrea Shalal; Editing by Andrew Hay)
S. Koreans' stomachs latest front in standoff with North-Associated Press By KIM TONG-HYUNG-February 17, 2016 6:29 AM-YAHOONEWS
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Koreans' stomachs are the latest front in the standoff with North Korea.South Koreans have been told not to eat at North Korea's restaurants around the world, although such visits aren't illegal, the South's Foreign Ministry said Wednesday.Most of the restaurants are in China, and Chinese and other nationalities frequent them more than South Koreans do, so analysts see little impact. But the move is symbolic of a tougher stance from the South since North Korea's nuclear test last month and its recent rocket launch, which many outsiders see as a banned test of ballistic missile technology.Washington and Seoul have been calling for more stringent financial and trade sanctions against Pyongyang. President Park Geun-hye has taken a much harder line than during past standoffs with the North, closing a jointly run factory park that the South believes helped finance Pyongyang's nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles program. Park on Tuesday also warned of "regime collapse" in the North, formerly a taboo subject in the South, which cherishes the notion of an eventual peaceful reunification on the peninsula that was divided at the end of World War II by the Soviet Union and the United States.North Korea runs about 130 restaurants in other countries — about 100 in China and the others in Russia, Southeast and South Asia, according to a South Korean National Intelligence Service official who didn't want to be named, citing office rules. South Korean officials wouldn't say how many South Koreans visit those restaurants or how much money the businesses generate for North Korea, reportedly more than $100 million annually.Restaurants such as Beijing's Okryukwan, known for its cold buckwheat noodles and grilled marinated beef, have been popular among some South Korean leisure and business travelers.
Obama OKs new sanctions against NKorea over nuclear program-Associated Press By DARLENE SUPERVILLE-FEB 18,16-YAHOONEWS
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama slapped North Korea with more stringent sanctions Thursday for defying the world and pushing forward with its nuclear weapons program, weeks after it launched a satellite-carrying rocket into space and conducted its fourth underground nuclear test.Both actions led to worldwide condemnation of the reclusive country and fueled fears that it continues to move toward building an atomic arsenal.Democratic and Republican lawmakers, many of whom argue Obama hasn't been tough enough with North Korea, overwhelmingly approved the bill last week and sent it to the White House. The House voted 408-2, following a unanimous vote by the Senate.Obama signed the legislation away from the news media and issued no statement. Up until Wednesday, the administration had said it didn't oppose the bill but declined to say whether Obama would sign it into law.The expanded sanctions are being imposed as the U.S. and China are in delicate negotiations over a United Nations Security Council resolution on new sanctions. China, North Korea's most important ally, has raised concerns about measures that could devastate North Korea's economy.The new measures are intended to deny North Korea the money it needs to develop miniaturized warheads and the long-range missiles required to deliver them.The legislation also authorizes $50 million over the next five years to transmit radio broadcasts into North Korea, purchase communications equipment and support humanitarian assistance programs."This is an authoritarian regime. It's provocative. It has repeatedly violated U.N. resolutions, tested and produced nuclear weapons, and now they are trying to perfect their missile launch system," Obama told "CBS This Morning" after North Korea launched the long-range rocket,Sen. Bob Menendez, a New Jersey Democrat and sponsor of the bill, said he hoped the U.N. Security Council and China, in particular, will "take notice of this strong showing of U.S. leadership" and work to put in place similar measures."Let's stand together with a single voice and one clear message: Any provocation will be met with consequences that will shake the Kim regime to its foundations," Menendez said.Obama consulted with Chinese President Xi Jinping after the Jan. 6 nuclear test, and separately with the leaders of Japan and South Korea after the Feb. 7 rocket launch to reaffirm the U.S. commitment to their security. The U.S. has also opened talks with South Korea about developing more missile-defense systems to eliminate the possibility that a North Korean missile could reach U.S. facilities.Japan announced new sanctions last week that include expanded restrictions on travel between the two countries and a complete ban on visits by North Korean ships to Japan.South Korea cut off power and water supplies to a factory park in North Korea, a day after the North deported all South Korean workers there and ordered a military takeover of the complex that had been the last major symbol of cooperation between the rivals.___Associated Press writer Richard Lardner contributed to this report.___Follow Darlene Superville on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/dsupervilleap
U.S. and EU warn China on need to respect South China Sea ruling-Reuters By David Brunnstrom-FEB 18,16-YAHOONEWS
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States and the European Union warned China on Wednesday that it should respect an international court ruling expected later this year on its dispute with the Philippines over territory in the South China Sea.China claims virtually all the South China Sea and rejects the authority of the Permanent Court of Arbitration in the Hague hearing the dispute, even though Beijing has ratified the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea on which the case is based.Amy Searight, U.S. deputy assistant secretary of defense for South and Southeast Asia, said the United States, the European Union, and allies like Australia, Japan and South Korea must be ready to make clear that the court's ruling must be binding and that there would be costs to China for not respecting it if it lost the case."We need to be ready to be very loud and vocal, in harmony together, standing behind the Philippines and the rest of the ASEAN claimants to say that this is international law, this is incredibly important, it is binding on all parties," she told a seminar at Washington's Center for Strategic and International Studies.Searight said the message to China, if it did not respect a negative ruling, should be, "we will hold you accountable.""Certainly, reputational cost is at stake, but we can think of other creative ways to perhaps impose costs as well," she said without elaborating.The Hague tribunal has no powers of enforcement and its rulings have been ignored before. Manila has said the court may hand down a ruling before May.China disputes South China Sea territory with several other members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) as well as the Philippines.Klaus Botzet, head of the political section of the EU Delegation in Washington, said it was difficult to oppose world opinion."A joint Western, a joint world opinion, matters also for Beijing," he said."If we unanimously support that international law as formulated by the international tribunal in the Hague ... needs to be upheld, that's a very strong message and will be very difficult to ignore," he said.Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said he had "noted" the comments, and repeated China's opposition to the arbitration case and refusal to participate.The Philippines' "scheme would never succeed", he told a daily news briefing in Beijing.In unusually forthright language, Botzet said China's policy of military buildup was not in its interest."It's investing much more in its military relative to its economic growth; it's forcing its neighbors into alliances against itself; positions its neighbors otherwise wouldn't take and the return on investment on this policy is negative," he said.The United States had exceptional military capabilities in the Asia-Pacific, Botzet said, adding that the European Union "strongly supports the American guarantee of international law in Asia."(Additional reporting by Michael Martina in BEIJING; Editing by Bernard Orr and Clarence Fernandez)
Iran proposes nuclear power cooperation with Hungary-Reuters By Marton Dunai-FEB 18,16-YAHOONEWS
BUDAPEST (Reuters) - Iran has proposed a project with Hungary to design and develop a small nuclear reactor that could be sold across Asia and Africa and also built in the Islamic republic, Tehran's top nuclear official said on Thursday.Iran's Ali Akbar Salehi said he envisaged a joint pilot project with Hungary to design a 25-megawatt reactor and then a reactor of up to 100 megawatts, a size he said would be marketable across Asia and Africa.He told a conference in Budapest that small reactors would be more affordable to poorer countries and require less cooling water, a critical consideration in Africa and Asia."One particular project that I suggested was to see if we can... together design a small reactor of 25 megawatts," Salehi said. "It was received well and we hope that we can start this project, just on paper."It requires a lot of scientific work to come up with such a design, certainly a number of years of hard work. We want to see if we can do this."Referring to the lifting of international sanctions on Iran's economy last year, Salehi added: "We intend to fully utilize all commercial and technical opportunities, including the pursuit of peaceful nuclear activities, emanating from this deal."Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban visited Tehran late last year.Iran will build two more Russian-designed large reactors in addition to its current single reactor at the Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant, a project that could take a decade, Salehi said."After these three reactors, we have made our decision that we would look into small reactors," he said. "That is our strategy for the future. That takes time (but) we need to develop these modular smaller reactors."Hungary has a single nuclear reactor at Paks, currently operating four updated Soviet-made reactors, and Budapest has signed an agreement with Russia to double the plant's capacity, using Russian technology and financing.(Reporting by Marton Dunai; Editing by Ruth Pitchford)
Pope’s message to Trump on immigrants: “A person who thinks only about building walls is not Christian”-On the flight from Mexico to Rome, Francis answered questions put to him by journalists, on a wide range of topics. On civil unions, he said: “The Pope doesn’t get mixed up in Italian politics. A Catholic parliamentarian must vote according to their well-formed conscience”. On the Zika virus he said: “Abortion is not the lesser of two evils. It is a crime. It is to kill someone in order to save another. This is what the Mafia does.” The Pope “needs the friendship and input of women too." “I like that idea of the re-foundation of the European Union," he remarked, adding: "My dream is to go to China"-Francis speaks to journalists on the flight from Ciudad Juarez to Rome.18/02/2016-VATICAN INSIDER-andrea tornielli-on the flight from ciudad juarez to rome
On the day that ended with a mass and silent prayer at the US-Mexico border, where thousands of Mexican and South American migrants have met death, Pope Francis answered a question put to him by journalists on Donald Trump’s recent statements. While giving the controversial Republican politician the benefit of the doubt, Francis said flat out that a person who thinks about building walls rather than bridges is not a Christian. He was referring not only to the American situation but also to those in Europe who are talking about or are already putting up walls and barriers to keep migrants out. This is the transcription of the Pope’s 45-minute interview with the journalists travelling on board the papal flight. He answered every question that was put to him.Holy Father, thousands go missing in Mexico; but the case of the 43 missing students from Ayotzinapa is emblematic. I’d like to ask you why you didn’t meet with the family members and also, please leave a message for the thousands of people who have disappeared.“In my messages I constantly mentioned the murders, deaths and lives bought by all of these drug-trafficking gangs and human-traffickers, so I did speak of this problem, I spoke about the wounds Mexico is suffering from. There were so many groups - in some cases there were rivalries between them, in-fighting – who wanted to be received, so I decided I would see all of them at the mass in Juarez or at another mass. It was practically impossible to meet everyone and they had some in-fighting going on. It’s a situation that’s difficult for me as a foreigner to understand. But I believe Mexican society is a victim of all this, of all these crimes, treated like cannon fodder. I talked about it in every speech I could. It is a great pain that I take away with me, because this country does not deserve such suffering.”Child abuse – as Mexico knows so well – has very painful roots. The legacy left behind by the Fr. Maciel case weighs heavily on victims in particular. Victims feel vulnerable. What is your view on this/ Have you considered meeting with the victims? When priests are involved in such cases, they are transferred to another parish and that’s it…“First of all, if a bishop transfers a priest who has committed abuse against minors to another parish, that bishop is irresponsible and would do well to resign. Let that be clear. In Maciel’s case, the merit goes to Ratzinger for taking a stand against all this. Cardinal Ratzinger presented all of the documentation relating to the Maciel case and as a Prefect, he carried out the investigation, gathered all the documentation but was then unable to proceed with putting it into practice. But if you recall, ten days before John Paul II’s death, during the Via Crucis, Ratzinger told the whole Church that the filth in the Church needed cleaning up. And at the "Pro eligendo Pontifice" mass, even though he knew he was a candidate – but not stupid – he didn’t seek to camouflage his position, he repeated the same thing he had said before. Today we are working hard with the cardinal Secretary of State and with the C9. I have decided to name a third secretary adjunct for the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith to take care exclusively of these cases. An appeals tribunal has been established, headed by Monsignor Sicluna. Then there is the Commission for the Protection of Minors which is in charge of protection: I spent an entire morning meeting with the six members of the Commission, who are all victims of abuse. In Philadelphia too I met with victims. I thank God that this issue has been brought to light, we need to continue shedding more light on it. Abuse is a monstrosity because a priest is consecrated so that he can bring a child closer to God and instead of that he “eats up” the child, destroying him or her in a diabolical sacrifice.”You spoke a great deal about the problems faced by immigrants, there is quite a tough campaign going on, on the other side of the border, in the US. The Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said in an interview that you are a “very political person” and a “pawn” of the Mexican government’s migration policy. Trump said he wants to build a 2,500 kilometre-long wall and deport 11 million illegal immigrants. What is your view on this? Can an American Catholic vote for such a man? “Thank God he said I was a politician because Aristotle defined the human person as a ‘homo politicus', a political animal. So at least I am a human person. As to whether I am a pawn, well, maybe, I don't know. I'll leave that up to your judgement and that of the people. And then, a person who thinks only about building walls, wherever they may be, and not building bridges, is not Christian. This is not in the gospel. As far as what you said about whether I would advise to vote or not to vote, I am not going to get involved in that. I say only that this man is not Christian if he has said things like that. We must see if he said things in that way and in this I give the benefit of the doubt.”The meeting with the Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill and the signing of the joint declaration sparked a reaction among Ukraine’s Greek Catholics: they said they feel betrayed and refer to it as a political document that supports Russian politics. Do you think you will go to Moscow or Crete for the pan-Orthodox synod? “I will be present, spiritually, in Crete with a message. I would like to go greet them but I must respect the synod. Behind the Catholic observers who will be present, I will be praying with my best wishes that the Orthodox will move forward because they are brothers and their bishops are bishops like us. Then, Patriarch Kirill, my brother. We kissed each other, embraced, and then we had a two-hour conversation. We spoke as brothers, sincerely and no one knows what was spoke about. About the statement that came from the Ukrainians: When I read it, I was a little bit worried because it came from the major archbishop of Kyiv-Haly?, Sviatoslav Schevchuk.” He said that the Ukrainian people, felt deeply disappointed and betrayed. I know Sviatoslav very well. In Buenos Aires, we worked together for 4 years. When he was elected major archbishop at the age of 42, he came to greet me and gave me an icon of Our Lady of Tenderness. And he told me: ‘This has accompanied me my entire life. I want to leave it with you, who accompanied me over the last four years. It’s one of the few things I brought with me from Buenos Aires and I keep it on my desk in Rome. He is a man whom I respect and there is a familiarity between us. So, for this it seemed strange to me and I remembered something I said here to you: to understand a piece of news, a statement, you need to seek the hermeneutic of everything.” Now Schevchuk’s statement is in the final paragraph of a long interview. He declares himself to be a son of the Church and in communion with the bishop of Rome and the Church. He speaks of the Pope and his closeness with the Pope. In terms of the dogmatic part, there’s no difficulty there. He’s Orthodox, in the good sense of the word, that is it is Catholic doctrine. And then, everyone has the right to express his own opinions, they are his personal views. Then, everything he said was about the document, not the meeting with Kirill. The document is open to debate and it is also worth adding that Ukraine is currently going through a war, it is going through a moment of suffering. I have expressed my closeness to the Ukrainian people on so many occasions. It is understandable that a people in this kind of situation should feel this, the document is open to debate with regard to the Ukrainian question, but in that part of the declaration is asking for the war to stop, for an agreement to be reached. I personally expressed the hope that the Minsk accords will move forward and that they will not rub out with their elbows what they wrote with their hands. I received both presidents, so when Schevchuk says he’s heard this from his people, I understand it. There’s no need to be frightened by that phrase. A piece of news must be interpreted with the hermeneutic of everything and not just a part.”Has Patriarch Kirill invited you to Moscow? “Has Patriarch Kirill invited me? I prefer to stick to what we said in public. A private meeting is private but I can tell you that I came away happy and so did he.”Over the past few days you spoke about family: in Italy there is a debate over civil unions going on. What do you think about adoptions and especially about the rights of children?“First of all, I don’t know how things stand in the thinking of the Italian parliament. The Pope doesn’t get mixed up in Italian politics. At my first meeting with the (Italian) bishops in May 2013, one of the things I said was: with the Italian government you’re on your own. Because the Pope doesn’t meddle in a country’s specific domestic politics. Italy is not the first country to have this experience. I think what the church has always said about this.”Over the past weeks there’s been a lot of concern about the Zika virus. Pregnant women are most at risk. Some authorities have put abortion and contraception forward as means of avoiding pregnancy. Can the Church see this as a case of choosing “the lesser of two evils”? “Abortion is not the lesser of two evils. It is a crime. It is to kill someone in order to save another. This is what the Mafia does. regarding the lesser evil, avoiding pregnancy involves a conflict between the fifth and sixth commandments. The great Paul VI, in a difficult situation in Africa, permitted nuns to use contraceptives in cases of rape. But let us not confuse the act of avoiding pregnancy with abortion. Abortion is not a theological problem, it is a human problem, it is a medical problem. You kill one person to save another, in means killing someone and going against the Hippocratic oath. You kill one person to save another, in the best case scenario. It is human evil, as any act of killing is. Avoiding pregnancy, on the other hand, is not an absolute evil and in certain cases, as in the one I mentioned, involving the Blessed Paul VI, this is clear. I would also urge doctors to do their utmost to find vaccines against the mosquitoes that carry this disease.”You are to receive the Charlemagne Prize, one of Europe’s most prestigious awards. It was very important to John Paul II too, as was European unity which seems to be crumbling. What can you say to us Europeans living in this crisis? “As far as the prize is concerned, I am not in the habit of accepting prizes or doctorates, not out of humility, but because I don’t like them. But in this case, I don’t say (I was) forced, but convinced by the holy theological headstrongness of Cardinal Kasper, who was asked to convince me. I said yes, but I will receive it in the Vatican and I will offer it to Europe, so that Europe may do what I asked for at Strasbourg, and acts not as grandmother Europe but mother Europe. As I was leafing through a newspaper the other day, I came across a word I liked the sound of: “the re-foundation” of the European Union. And I thought of the great fathers, but today where is there a Schuman, an Adenauer, these great men who founded the European Union after the war? I like the idea of a re-foundation of the European Union, maybe it can be done, because Europe has a history, a culture that cannot be wasted, and we must do everything so that the European Union has the strength and the inspiration to go on. You spoke a great deal about families in the Holy Year of Mercy but how can one be merciful with remarried divorcees? One has the impression that it is easier to forgive a murderer than a divorced person who remarries…“The family was the subject of discussion of two synods and the Pope has spent the whole year talking about it in his Wednesday catecheses. Your question is true, I like it. The post-synodal document that will be issued, possibly before Easter, picks up on all that was said during the synod; one of the chapters talks about conflicts, wounded families. Pastoral care for wounded families is one of the concerns, as is preparation for marriage. It takes 8 years of study and preparation to become a priest. If you want to leave, you can ask for a dispensation and that’s that. And yet for a sacrament that is meant to last a lifetime, all couples get is four meetings. Preparing for marriage is very important. It is something the Church - at least in South America – has not considered enough. Some years ago, back in my homeland, people were in the habit of marrying in haste when there was a child on the way, to safeguard the family’s honour. People there weren’t free and these marriages were often null and void. As a bishop I forbid my priests to do this. When cases something like this came up, I would say: let the baby come, let them continue as fiancées, and when they feel ready to make a lifetime commitment to one another, then they could go ahead and get married. Let us also remember that the victims of family problems are the children. Sometimes, a husband and wife don’t have much of a say in it, when they don’t have time to be with their children. When I listen to the confession of a husband and wife, I ask them how many children they have. They get a bit scared, maybe because they think they should have more, so I ask them: do you play with your children? To which they often reply: I never have time! It was interesting that at the family meeting in Tuxtla Gutierrez there was a couple of remarried divorcees, married for the second time, who were well integrated in the Church’s pastoral care programme. The key word the Synod used and I will quote in the exhortation is to “integrate” wounded families into Church life. And don’t forget the children, they are the number one victims”.Does that mean remarried divorcees will be able to receive communion? “Integration does not mean communion. I know Catholics who remarried and go to Church twice a year and want to receive communion as if it was some kind of award. Work towards integration, yes, all doors are open. But we cannot say, ‘as of now you can receive communion’. This would be an injury to marriage too. It wouldn’t make them take this path of integration. This couple of remarried divorcees was happy. They used a beautiful expression: we don’t communicate with the Eucharist, but yes, we are in communion when we visit hospitals and share things. This is their way of being integrated. Then if there is anything else, the Lord will say so. It is a path, a journey.”The press has made a big thing out of the frequent correspondence between John Paul II and the philosopher Anna Teresa Tymieniecka. Can a Pope have an intense friendship with a woman? Do you? “I already knew about this friendship between St. John Paul II and this philosopher when I was in Buenos Aires. A man who does not know how to have a relationship of friendship with a woman -- I'm not talking about misogynists; they are sick in the mind, -- well, he's a man who is missing something. As far as my own experience goes, when I a collaborator friend for advice, I also like to hear a woman’s opinion because they have so much to offer, they look at things in a different way. I like to say that it is women who build life in their wombs – and they have this charism (gift) of giving you things you can build with. A friendship with a woman is no sin, it's a friendship. A romantic relationship with a woman who is not your wife, that is sin! But the Pope is a man. The Pope needs the input of women, too. And the Pope, too, has a heart that can a healthy, holy friendship with a woman. There are saints like Francis and Clare… don't be frightened! But women are still not well-considered in the Church, we have still not grasped the good that they can do in the life of a priest, in Church life, with a word of advice, a helping hand, a healthy friendship.”I return back to the topic of the law on civil unions that is being voted on in the Italian parliament. There is a document from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith dating back to 2003 that focuses a great deal on this subject. It says expressly that Catholic parliamentarians must not vote for these laws. What position should a Catholic parliamentarian adopt in such cases? “I don’t remember that document well but all I would say is that a Catholic parliamentarian must vote according their well-formed conscience. I believe this alone is sufficient. I say well-formed because I do not mean the conscience of what seems to me. I remember when same-sex marriage was voted through in Buenos Aires. I was there, there was a tie, so one parliamentarian advised the other: “D you get what’s going on?” “No.” “Neither do I but we’re going to lose at this rate. If we don’t go and vote we won’t reach the quorum but if we reach the quorum then we give the vote to Kirchner. I prefer to give it to Kirchner than to Bergoglio, let’s go!” This is not a well-formed conscience.”First the meeting with the Moscow’s Patriarch, now Cairo. Could there be another thaw in relations on the horizon? Will an audience with Al-Azhar’s Imam go ahead?“Last week Mgr. Ayuso, Cardinal Tauran’s secretary went to meet the Imam’s deputy. I want to meet him, I know he would like to. Through Cardinal Tauran as always, we are looking into how to do this.After this visit to Mexico, what other trips are you planning? Which other places do you dream of going to? “I’ll tell you: China. I would love to go there! I would like to say something about the Mexican people. It is a population that has so much going for it, Mexicans surprise us. They have a culture, a culture that goes back millennia. Do you know that in Mexico today they speak 65 languages? They are a people of great faith. They have also suffered religious persecution. There are martyrs, I will canonize two of them. You cannot explain a population because it is not a logical category, it is a mythical category. You cannot explain this wealth, this history, this joy, this capacity to celebrate, despite the tragedies it experiences. This unity, these people have managed not to fail, not to end, despite everything that’s going on: There in the city of Juarez a 12 hour ceasefire was agreed on the occasion of my visit. After that, the fighting will resume. But only Guadalupe can explain how people have managed to stay together. I invite you to seriously read up on Guadalupe. Mary is there. I cannot find any other explanation.”What did you ask Our Lady of Guadalupe for? Do you dream in Italian or Spanish?“I dream in Esperanto! Sometimes I remember some dreams in another language, but dreaming in languages, no. I dream in images. I asked la Guadalupana first and foremost for peace, poorher, she must have had a headache by the end… I asked for forgiveness, I asked for a healthy Church, I prayed for the Mexican people. I prayed hard for priests to be real priests, nuns real nuns and bishops real bishops. But the things a son says to his mother are a secret.”
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.
EU leaders stuck on key issues in 'tense' UK talks By Eszter Zalan-FEB 18,16-EUOBSERVER
BRUSSELS, Today, 23:00-Previously outstanding issues in the UK-EU negotiations remain on the table after the first round of discussions between European leaders and British prime minister David Cameron in Brussels on Thursday (18 February) evening.In what EU sources described as "constructive, but tense" talks, there was no movement on either side on the five main outstanding issues, which were discussed with "intensity"."There are no new issues and nothing has disappeared either," said an official in describing the state of talks.Incorporating the UK's demands in the EU treaties at a later stage is still an issue for some countries.The emergency brake that would allow non-eurozone countries to raise concerns and delay decisions made by the 19-member currency bloc is another topic where member states and the UK disagree.The key question is how many non-eurozone countries can trigger the brake - one or several.Curbing social benefits is also a hurdle, with an issue being the duration of time that member states would be able to use a so-called safeguard mechanism that would allow them to restrict access to their welfare system for EU workers.According to an EU official, here the ideas are "really converging". Other sources said the UK would want to see it in place for 7+3+3 years (seven years with a possibility of two renewals), which is unacceptable for some eastern European countries.The fourth issue is the indexation of child benefit for EU workers whose children live in their home country. Here, member states clash on retroactivity - whether the measure should apply only to newcomers or also to people already working in the UK.The phrase "ever closer union" in the EU treaty, which the UK would like to clarify is not a legally binding call for further integration, is another point of disagreement."Here the legal reality clashes with the political reality," a source said.EU Council chief Donald Tusk will sit down with Cameron and European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker after leaders wrap up a working dinner on the migration issue, and decide how to proceed further.Tusk's team will have to come up with new ideas, but negotiations on them will take time."We have to see how to square the circle," said an EU official.Bilateral discussions among leaders, including Cameron, may continue overnight. The 28 leaders, along with EP president Martin Schulz, will reconvene for a meeting at 11am on Friday.
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.
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)
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)
UN says conflict in Ukraine has affected 580,000 children-Associated Press-FEB 18,16-YAHOONEWS
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The United Nations children's agency says the conflict in Ukraine has deeply affected 580,000 children close to the front lines and in areas not under government control in the volatile east.UNICEF said in a statement released late Thursday that 200,000 youngsters — more than a third — need psycho-social support.Giovanna Barberis, UNICEF's representative in Ukraine, called on all parties to the conflict "to ensure safe movement and unhindered humanitarian access to help children in need."Earlier this year, UNICEF called for an additional $54.3 million to address the humanitarian needs of the most vulnerable children in conflict-affected areas."Two years of violence, shelling and fear have left an indelible mark on thousands of children in eastern Ukraine," Barberis said in a statement.
Palestinians welcome French peace plan-AFP-FEB 18,16-YAHOONEWS
Jerusalem (AFP) - The Palestinians on Thursday welcomed an initiative put forward by France to hold an international Middle East peace conference, a proposal which Israeli Benjamin Netanyahu has dismissed."We definitely welcome the French initiative, we see it as a major possibility for challenging the status quo," Hossam Zomlot, an advisor to Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, told reporters.Zomlot, however, said the Palestinians insisted on their call for a United Nations resolution against Israeli settlement building ahead of any renewed peace process."Nothing will convince us that we should not go to the United Nations Security Council over settlements," said Zomlot, who is a senior official in Abbas's Fatah party.France's ambassador to Israel, Patrick Maisonnave, met Israeli officials this week to outline the initiative, which proposes setting up a support group of the permanent Security Council members, some Arab and European states and international organisations.It would work in two stages, meeting first without the conflicting parties and then bringing them into the conference.Netanyahu called it "mystifying" and counterproductive, arguing that the proposal gives Palestinians no incentive to compromise."It says, 'We shall hold an international conference but, if it doesn't succeed, we are deciding in advance what the consequence will be -- we shall recognise a Palestinian state,'" he told reporters during a visit to Berlin."This of course ensures in advance that a conference will fail, because if the Palestinians know that their demands will be accepted... they don't need to do anything," he said.The rightwing leader restated his position that peace could only come through direct negotiations between the two sides.Palestinian officials have long argued for an international process to end Israel's occupation and bring about a two-state solution.US-brokered peace talks collapsed in April 2014 and the prospects of fresh dialogue have appeared increasingly remote.
Nato enters the migration control business By Bill Frelick-FEB 18,16-EUOBSERVER
Washington DC, Today, 09:25-European policymakers have been burning the midnight oil looking for ways to keep Syrian and other refugees and migrants from reaching Greece and swelling the ranks of asylum seekers in the European Union.The Nato operation announced on 11 February may perhaps serve this purpose, but raises the question of whether stemming the flow will, in effect, mean collective expulsions that deny the right to seek asylum.Even as Nato ships steam into the Aegean Sea, the terms of reference of the operation remain clouded. Nato's Supreme Allied Commander, US airforce general Philip Breedlove, has said he has only now been tasked “to go back and define the mission.”In the meantime, contradictory statements abound.Nato secretary general Jens Stoltenberg claimed: "This is not about stopping or pushing back refugee boats." The UK defence minister Michael Fallon immediately contradicted him: “They will not be taken back to Greece. The aim of the group is to have them taken back to Turkey. That is the crucial difference."The public presentation of Nato’s anticipated role has mostly been about surveillance aimed at stopping human-smuggling networks. Germany’s defence minister, Ursula von der Leyen, said that migrants would only be picked up as an emergency measure but added that there is a "firm agreement" with Ankara that refugees rescued by Nato ships would "be brought back to Turkey." The Greek defence chief, Panos Kammenos, said the agreement "will finally solve the issue of migration."So far, joint operations in the Aegean have been coordinated by Frontex, the EU’s external borders control agency, which is limited to Greek territorial waters and must disembark all migrants in Greece. Nato warships are not limited to Greek waters and would be able to return boat people to Turkey, itself a member of Nato, if Turkey allows it.Introducing Nato into the Euro-Med migration/refugee crisis raises the questions: 1) will interdicted migrants and asylum seekers be accepted back by Turkey, and, if so, 2) is this acceptable as a matter of human rights.On the first question, notwithstanding the German defence minister’s remark about a “firm agreement” with Ankara to take back migrants, Turkey has been publicly silent. In fact, it hasn’t said anything about the Nato operation, although it is reported to have joined Germany and Greece in asking for it.Clearly, the migration crisis has touched off intense discussions between the EU and Turkey, with Turkey very much in the driver’s seat. On 11 February, president Recep Tayyip Erdogan bemoaned the low number of refugees other countries have accepted, saying, “Excuse me but we do not have the word ‘fool’ written on our foreheads. We will be patient up to a point but will do what we have to do. Don’t think that planes and buses are for nothing.”On the second question, If Nato cooperates with Turkey in preventing asylum seekers from leaving Turkish territorial waters and in bringing asylum seekers and migrants back to the Turkish shore, these would not be “returns” or “expulsions” since the boats in question would never have left Turkey. Although such an operation might not technically violate the EU Charter, the European Human Rights Convention, and 1951 Refugee Convention rules against refoulement—the forced return of refugees to places where they would risk danger or abuse—and collective expulsion, it would violate the principles underlying these precepts.Returning the passenger-laden rubber dinghies to Turkey would run the subsequent risk of refugees being forcibly returned to Syria, Iraq, or Afghanistan. Turkey retains a geographical limitation on its accession to the 1951 Refugee Convention that excludes all non-Europeans from status as refugees.While the risk of refoulement on that basis may seem a bit abstract, on the very day Nato was announcing its operation, Turkey was keeping its border firmly closed to thousands of Syrian asylum seekers who were fleeing Russian airstrikes and Syrian government military advances in Aleppo.This unequivocally demonstrates that Turkey does not respect the principle of non-refoulement as the legal obligation it is. Instead of letting asylum seekers escape across its border, Turkey trucked supplies to the Syrian side of the closed Bab al-Salama crossing point to bolster its establishment of a so-called safe zone in Syria.This is not just about keeping out new arrivals; Erdogan has said that “establishing a safe zone constitutes the basis of 1.7 million Syrian refugees' return." The history of such areas—think Srebrenica—has shown them to be more effective at containing refugee flows and in opening the way for disaster than in providing real protection to civilians.As general Breedlove defines the Nato mission, he should put aside technicalities about territorial waters and harness Nato’s considerable assets for the task of saving lives at sea, preventing predatory victimization of asylum seekers and migrants by criminals, and facilitating the right to seek asylum by bringing asylum seekers safely to Greece.Instead of desperately trying to stem the flow, the EU should be taking concrete steps to manage the flow, crucially through: working with Greece to open official border crossings on the Greek land borders where asylum seekers could be screened and permitted to enter; by ensuring efficient relocation of asylum seekers from countries of first entry to other member states; and by vastly expanding the orderly resettlement of refugees from Turkey and other countries of first refuge into the EU.Bill Frelick is the director of the Human Rights Watch Refugee Rights Program
Migrant swap deal with Turkey should go on, says Dutch initiator By Peter Teffer-FEB 18,16-EUOBSERVER
Brussels, Today, 21:00-The cancellation of a mini-summit Thursday (18 February) on refugees is a “setback”, but only in terms of process, said Dutch centre-left MP Diederik Samsom.He told a handful of media, including EUobserver, that he still believes a migrant swap deal with Turkey is feasible.The plan, which in the Netherlands bears Samsom's name, is to offer to resettle several hundreds of thousands of people from Turkey into Europe in exchange for Turkey accepting that all asylum seekers entering Greece are sent back.“This solution prevents humanitarian disasters, and establishes an organised asylum flow. I have not yet seen an alternative that does both. You could erect fences everywhere, which would establish an organised asylum flow, but then you only worsen the humanitarian aspect.”Samsom leads the centre-left Labour party in the Netherlands, which is one of the two coalition partners supporting PM Mark Rutte's government.He spoke on Thursday afternoon after meeting with his European socialist colleagues in Brussels.“There was large consensus that the solution as we have proposed it, is the right solution,” said Samsom. “However, there was a difference in optimism if it will work.”The idea is that between 150,000 and 250,000 refugees would be resettled from Turkey in European countries. EU countries would voluntarily sign up to take in refugees.In return, all migrants arriving in Greece from Turkey should be returned to Turkey, including those that have asked for asylum in Greece.“Only that last step would prevent that people get on those boats,” he said, adding that again last night several migrants had drowned.“As long as you relocate elsewhere into Europe, that boat trip is the gateway to Germany. But you need to make the airport of Ankara the gateway to Germany, or to the Netherlands, or to Europe.”“But honestly, it would be a big step if we send back the irregular migrants.”According to Samsom, the following countries are behind the scheme: Sweden, Germany, Austria, Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg. France would participate by taking up to 30,000, which it had already promised to accept through a previous relocation scheme.“They still want that 30,000. If these would come directly from Turkey, than that would be fine,” said the Dutchman.While the Dutch government has not officially adopted the plan, Samsom has said he has PM Rutte's support. With the Netherlands holding the six-month rotating presidency, it is perhaps not surprising the government would like to appear neutral.The MP quoted from a recent draft version of the conclusions from Thursday's and Friday's EU summit, saying that EU leaders “welcome the willingness of some member states to participate” in a scheme of voluntary resettlement.That sentence is now too “reticent”, he noted, adding that the summit conclusions should reassure Turkey that Europe will share the burden of the refugees that continue to flee the war in Syria.“We always think that we have a problem, and they don't. Which of course isn't true. They have 2.7 million refugees and a mafia of smugglers,” noted Samsom.But he added the Turks “have other things on their mind” following a bomb attack in Ankara, which was the reason a mini-summit in Brussels involving the country was cancelled, and Turkey's involvement in the Syrian war.Last week, Turkey's ambassador to the EU, Selim Yenel, said Samsom's plan was “unacceptable” and “not feasible”.“But that is because we haven't delivered,” said Samsom. “As long as we don't make clear that we will take a share of the burden, then Turkey will say [the scheme] is not going to happen.”According to Samsom, a meeting with Turkish prime minister Ahmet Davutoglu is still needed, because both parts of the deal – EU countries resettling refugees, and Turkey accepting returns – have to be agreed at the same time.“For that you really need to look each other in the eyes at the highest level.”
Russia's Syria tactics imperil EU-Turkey migrant plan By Andrew Rettman-EUOBSERVER
BRUSSELS, 18. Feb, 19:54-Events in Syria raise doubts as to whether the EU-Turkey migrant plan is still relevant. They show the need for solidarity, but there’s little of that and few options on how to stop Turkey's “nightmare”.The bomb blast in Ankara on Wednesday (17 February), which prompted Turkish prime minister Ahmet Davutoglu to cancel his EU summit trip, underlined that national security is a bigger priority for Turkey than the refugee crisis.For Turkish police, it bore the hallmarks of Kurdish militant groups such as the PKK, which has been fighting on and off for 30 years to create a Kurdish homeland in south-east Turkey.Turkish people, who lived through waves of PKK attacks in the 1990s, are stoic. But the latest bomb went off in a new context.In the past four months, Russian air strikes have helped PKK sister groups the PYD and YPG to conquer territory in northern Syria.If they capture the town of Azaz and join up their “cantons” along Turkey’s southern border, they will have the makings of a Russia-backed de facto state adjoining PKK heartland inside Turkey.Russian strikes have also helped Syrian regime forces to besiege the city of Aleppo. If Azaz and Aleppo fall, Turkey will have no way to supply the Free Syrian Army, or other friendly rebels in Syria, losing its say over the future of the war.If Azaz and Aleppo fall, it will also prompt hundreds of thousands more Syrians to flee to Turkey and the EU.“It’s a nightmare,” a Turkish source told EUobserver. “It’s never happened in the history of Turkey, to be surrounded by Russia in the north and in the south.”An EU source described the situation as “disastrous”.“Everything’s changed since we drew up the [migrant action] plan,” the source said.“We thought we would pay Turkey the money they asked for and they would do the dirty work [of stopping refugees]. But the EU money is starting to look irrelevant.”The next Ukraine?-Sinan Ulgen from the EDAM think tank in Istanbul says Russia’s actions in Syria resemble what it did in Ukraine.Russia-backed militias created two de facto entities in Ukraine’s Donbas region, which Russia is using to destabilise the rest of the country.Ulgen told EUobserver that a new Kurdish entity on Turkey’s border could become a second Donbas, but he said Turkey was more resilient than Ukraine.“Donbas isn't a bad analogy. But Turkish statecraft is more advanced … so it wouldn’t pose the same kind of existential threat,” he said.Mark Galeotti, a US scholar of Russian affairs, disagreed. He said “the idea that the Kurds are some tame Russian proxies is very far from the truth”.But he said that if the West allowed Turkey to shell Kurds in Syria with impunity, it could “make the Kurds into Russian clients”.Sources also note that the YPG opened an office in Moscow in February and that the PYD leader, Salih Muslim Muhammad, visited Russia last year.“Six months ago, the Kurds were playing on all fronts, with the EU, the US, and Russia, to get arms and money. But today Russia has them on a leash,” the EU source said.'Psychological blow'-There is some disagreement about the comparison with Ukraine, but there is common ground among Turkish and EU sources on Russia’s use of refugees to destabilise both Turkey and the European Union.A Turkish intelligence report leaked to Turkish newspaper Hurriyet on Tuesday said Russia was trying to “weaponise” migrants.A Turkish security source told Hurriyet that Russia’s bombing of schools and hospitals in Syria was designed to make people flee on the “Grozny model” - referring to the 1990s conflict in Chechnya, when Russian bombardments emptied Grozny, the Chechen capital.A second EU source told EUobserver there was a risk that Russia would reignite Ukraine hostilities to prompt a new wave of Ukrainian refugees.A third EU source noted that Russia was already letting Middle East migrants cross into Finland in a further “psychological blow”.-PR 'gimmick'-Davutoglu was due to discuss refugee resettlement with a German-led group of 10 or so migrant-friendly EU states in Brussels on Thursday.The resettlement project is a top-up initiative to an EU-Turkey “action plan” drawn up in November.The plan was meant to see Turkey stop migrants from going to Greece in return for €3 billion, visa-free travel, and restarting EU-Turkey accession talks.But even the initial plan is struggling to get off the ground.-Turkey is annoyed that Italy kept the plan on hold until last week by refusing to unblock money unless the EU deducted its contribution from its national debt limit.The EU is annoyed that Turkey hasn’t taken a first step.EU diplomats say the flow of refugees to Greece went down from 2,000 a day in January to "tens or hundreds" a day in February, but they say it’s mostly due to bad weather.Marc Pierini, a former EU ambassador to Turkey who works the Carnegie Europe think tank, says Turkey isn’t willing to crack down on people smugglers because it profits from the €2 billion-a-year smuggler industry.He said Turkey’s call for a Nato surveillance mission in the Aegean Sea was a PR “gimmick”.Jan Techau, another Carnegie Europe expert, said the Nato ships would do little more than “expose Turkey's inaction”.-'Great embarrassment'-The mistrust between Turkey and both the EU and US goes deeper than the wobbly migrant plan.After a 10-year freeze in accession talks, Turkish leaders have lost faith that the EU will ever let it join.They feel betrayed by US and EU overtures to Syrian Kurds and also feel let down by a lack of EU and US support for a no-fly zone or a ground offensive in Syria.The bad will was on show last week when euro2day.gr, a Greek news agency, published transcripts of Erdogan’s talks with EU leaders last October.It said Erdogan told the EU: “We can open the doors to Greece and Bulgaria any time, and we can put the refugees on buses.”For Pierini, it spoke volumes that Erodgan had not disowned the quotes.“We thought the leaks were a great embarrassment for Turkey and Erdogan. But he said: ‘No, No, I said it and I repeat it’,” Pierini said. “Erdogan is in this kind of mentality at this point.”-No go on no-fly zone-The new threats to Turkish national security pose questions on whether the EU-Turkey migrant plan is still fit for purpose.For Ulgen from the Istanbul think tank, Russia’s actions make the “principle” of the plan more relevant than ever.He noted that if Azaz and Aleppo fall and refugee numbers balloon then Turkey’s “expectations from the EU will go up”.But he said there was “no appetite” in Turkey to scrap the plan because “it enshrines the principle of burden-sharing … it’s the only agreement we have to jointly manage the crisis”.An EU source said Germany, the refugees' main EU destination, is beginning to see that Turkey needs more than EU money for nicer migrant camps.He noted that German chancellor Angela Merkel on Monday told German media she would back “a type of no-fly zone” in Syria.But EU and Turkish sources said Russia would veto the move at the UN, and that new Russian air-defence systems in north Syria have created a no-go zone for Turkish or US jets.“It was a good idea, but in 2011 or 2012,” one diplomatic source said.An EU source said that stationing a Nato deterrent force in south-east Turkey on the model of Nato’s deterrent force in the Baltic Sea region might be a better option.-'In ruins by summer'-Whatever happens next, the stakes for both Turkey and the EU could hardly be higher.“We’re in the same boat now. If Turkey sinks because of Russia, then the EU will also sink [because of refugees]. But some EU politicians and officials don’t seem to get it,” the EU source said.A senior EU official said Germany would be “in ruins by summer” if Turkey failed to stop the migrants.“We have to get a grip on who’s coming in,” the source said.A senior EU diplomat said the nightmare scenario for Europe was if Germany closes its borders, creating bottlenecks in the flow of refugees from Vienna to Athens.“If we want to maintain a common asylum policy and if we want to maintain Schengen [the EU’s passport-free travel area] then we have to reduce the numbers of people coming in and Turkey is key to this,” the diplomat said.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un recently ordered preparations for launching "terror" attacks on South Koreans, a top Seoul official said Thursday, as worries about the North grow after its recent nuclear test and rocket launch.In televised remarks, senior South Korean presidential official Kim Sung-woo said North Korea's spy agency has begun work to implement Kim Jong-un's order to "muster anti-South terror capabilities that can pose a direct threat to our lives and security."He said the possibility of North Korean attacks "is increasing more than ever" and asked for quick passage of an anti-terror bill in parliament.North Korea has a history of attacks on South Korea, such as the 2010 shelling on an island that killed four South Koreans and the 1987 bombing of a South Korean passenger plane that killed all 115 people on board. But it is impossible to independently confirm claims about any such attack preparations. The South Korean presidential official did not say where the latest information came from.Earlier Thursday, Seoul's National Intelligence Service briefed ruling Saenuri Party members on a similar assessment on North Korea's attack preparations, according to one of the party officials who attended the private meeting.During the briefing, the NIS, citing studies on past North Korean provocations and other unspecified assessments, said the attacks could target anti-Pyongyang activists, defectors and government officials in South Korea, the party official said requesting anonymity because he wasn't authorized to speak to media publicly.-Mixed record on predictions-Attacks on subways, shopping malls and other public places could also happen, he said.The official quoted the NIS as saying North Korea could launch poisoning attacks on the activists and defectors, or lure them to China where they would be kidnapped.The Saenuri official refused to say whether the briefing discussed how the information was obtained. The NIS, which has a mixed record on predicting developments in North Korea, said it could not confirm its reported assessment.The standoff with North Korea is not expected to ease soon, as Seoul and Washington are discussing deploying a sophisticated U.S. missile defence system in South Korea that Pyongyang warns would be a source of regional tension.-Military drills-The allies also say their annual springtime military drills will be the largest ever. South Korea's defence minister said Thursday that about 15,000 U.S. troops will take part, double of the number Washington normally sends.The North says the drills are preparation for a northward invasion.Seoul defence officials also said that they began preliminary talks on Feb. 7 with the United States on deploying the Terminal High-Altitude Area Defence, the same day North Korea conducted what it said was a satellite launch but is condemned by Seoul and Washington as a banned test of missile technology.The talks are aimed at working out details for formal missile deployment talks, such as who'll represent each side, according to Seoul's Defence Ministry.The deployment is opposed by China and Russia too. Opponents say the system could help U.S. radar spot missiles in other countries.The United States on Wednesday flew four stealth F-22 fighter jets over South Korea and reaffirmed it maintains an "ironclad commitment" to the defence of its Asian ally. Last month, it sent a nuclear-capable B-52 bomber to South Korea following the North's fourth nuclear test.Foreign analysts say the North's rocket launch and nuclear test put the country further along it its quest for a nuclear-armed missile that could reach the U.S. mainland.The Canadian Press-ASSOCIATED PRESS
North Korea satellite tumbling in orbit again: U.S. sources-Reuters By Andrea Shalal and Idrees Ali-FEB 18,16-YAHOONEWS
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - North Korea’s recently launched satellite is once again tumbling in orbit, after stabilizing briefly, according to a U.S. official and other sources.The satellite update came as a key congressional watchdog agency said the U.S. military had not demonstrated its ability to protect the United States against a possible North Korea missile attack.Earlier this month North Korea launched what it said was an earth observation satellite but what the country's neighbors and the United States called a missile test. It was earlier believed to have achieved stable orbit but not to have transmitted data back to Earth.The U.S. official, and two other sources with knowledge of the issue, said they are less concerned about the function of the satellite than with the technology involved in launching it. They added that the launch was clearly intended to demonstrate North Korea’s ability to launch an intercontinental ballistic missile.The U.S. Government Accountability Office, the research arm of Congress, highlighted concerns about missile attacks from North Korea in a report released on Wednesday.“GMD flight testing, to date, was insufficient to demonstrate that an operationally useful defense capability exists,” the GAO said. GMD is an acronym for a ground-based missile defense system.The report said that the missile defense system, or the Ground-based Midcourse Defense, had only demonstrated “a partial capability against small numbers of simple ballistic missile threats.”Ken Todorov, former deputy director of the Missile Defense Agency, said the organization faced a difficult balancing act in meeting the needs of the U.S. military and operating with limited resources for testing.Last month the Missile Defense Agency conducted a successful test of the ground-based U.S. missile defense system managed by Boeing Co aimed at demonstrating the effectiveness of a redesigned "kill vehicle" built by Raytheon Co.The test purposely did not include an intercept by a ground-based interceptor but was designed to demonstrate the ability of new "divert thrusters" that were developed by Raytheon to maneuver the warhead.The report said that while there were benefits in the way the agency was acquiring the kill vehicle, challenges remained.It added that the Pentagon’s goal to reach 44 ground-based missile defense systems by the end of 2017 was based on a “highly optimistic, aggressive schedule” leading to “high-risk acquisition practices.”(Reporting by Idrees Ali and Andrea Shalal; Editing by Andrew Hay)
S. Koreans' stomachs latest front in standoff with North-Associated Press By KIM TONG-HYUNG-February 17, 2016 6:29 AM-YAHOONEWS
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Koreans' stomachs are the latest front in the standoff with North Korea.South Koreans have been told not to eat at North Korea's restaurants around the world, although such visits aren't illegal, the South's Foreign Ministry said Wednesday.Most of the restaurants are in China, and Chinese and other nationalities frequent them more than South Koreans do, so analysts see little impact. But the move is symbolic of a tougher stance from the South since North Korea's nuclear test last month and its recent rocket launch, which many outsiders see as a banned test of ballistic missile technology.Washington and Seoul have been calling for more stringent financial and trade sanctions against Pyongyang. President Park Geun-hye has taken a much harder line than during past standoffs with the North, closing a jointly run factory park that the South believes helped finance Pyongyang's nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles program. Park on Tuesday also warned of "regime collapse" in the North, formerly a taboo subject in the South, which cherishes the notion of an eventual peaceful reunification on the peninsula that was divided at the end of World War II by the Soviet Union and the United States.North Korea runs about 130 restaurants in other countries — about 100 in China and the others in Russia, Southeast and South Asia, according to a South Korean National Intelligence Service official who didn't want to be named, citing office rules. South Korean officials wouldn't say how many South Koreans visit those restaurants or how much money the businesses generate for North Korea, reportedly more than $100 million annually.Restaurants such as Beijing's Okryukwan, known for its cold buckwheat noodles and grilled marinated beef, have been popular among some South Korean leisure and business travelers.
Obama OKs new sanctions against NKorea over nuclear program-Associated Press By DARLENE SUPERVILLE-FEB 18,16-YAHOONEWS
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama slapped North Korea with more stringent sanctions Thursday for defying the world and pushing forward with its nuclear weapons program, weeks after it launched a satellite-carrying rocket into space and conducted its fourth underground nuclear test.Both actions led to worldwide condemnation of the reclusive country and fueled fears that it continues to move toward building an atomic arsenal.Democratic and Republican lawmakers, many of whom argue Obama hasn't been tough enough with North Korea, overwhelmingly approved the bill last week and sent it to the White House. The House voted 408-2, following a unanimous vote by the Senate.Obama signed the legislation away from the news media and issued no statement. Up until Wednesday, the administration had said it didn't oppose the bill but declined to say whether Obama would sign it into law.The expanded sanctions are being imposed as the U.S. and China are in delicate negotiations over a United Nations Security Council resolution on new sanctions. China, North Korea's most important ally, has raised concerns about measures that could devastate North Korea's economy.The new measures are intended to deny North Korea the money it needs to develop miniaturized warheads and the long-range missiles required to deliver them.The legislation also authorizes $50 million over the next five years to transmit radio broadcasts into North Korea, purchase communications equipment and support humanitarian assistance programs."This is an authoritarian regime. It's provocative. It has repeatedly violated U.N. resolutions, tested and produced nuclear weapons, and now they are trying to perfect their missile launch system," Obama told "CBS This Morning" after North Korea launched the long-range rocket,Sen. Bob Menendez, a New Jersey Democrat and sponsor of the bill, said he hoped the U.N. Security Council and China, in particular, will "take notice of this strong showing of U.S. leadership" and work to put in place similar measures."Let's stand together with a single voice and one clear message: Any provocation will be met with consequences that will shake the Kim regime to its foundations," Menendez said.Obama consulted with Chinese President Xi Jinping after the Jan. 6 nuclear test, and separately with the leaders of Japan and South Korea after the Feb. 7 rocket launch to reaffirm the U.S. commitment to their security. The U.S. has also opened talks with South Korea about developing more missile-defense systems to eliminate the possibility that a North Korean missile could reach U.S. facilities.Japan announced new sanctions last week that include expanded restrictions on travel between the two countries and a complete ban on visits by North Korean ships to Japan.South Korea cut off power and water supplies to a factory park in North Korea, a day after the North deported all South Korean workers there and ordered a military takeover of the complex that had been the last major symbol of cooperation between the rivals.___Associated Press writer Richard Lardner contributed to this report.___Follow Darlene Superville on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/dsupervilleap
U.S. and EU warn China on need to respect South China Sea ruling-Reuters By David Brunnstrom-FEB 18,16-YAHOONEWS
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States and the European Union warned China on Wednesday that it should respect an international court ruling expected later this year on its dispute with the Philippines over territory in the South China Sea.China claims virtually all the South China Sea and rejects the authority of the Permanent Court of Arbitration in the Hague hearing the dispute, even though Beijing has ratified the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea on which the case is based.Amy Searight, U.S. deputy assistant secretary of defense for South and Southeast Asia, said the United States, the European Union, and allies like Australia, Japan and South Korea must be ready to make clear that the court's ruling must be binding and that there would be costs to China for not respecting it if it lost the case."We need to be ready to be very loud and vocal, in harmony together, standing behind the Philippines and the rest of the ASEAN claimants to say that this is international law, this is incredibly important, it is binding on all parties," she told a seminar at Washington's Center for Strategic and International Studies.Searight said the message to China, if it did not respect a negative ruling, should be, "we will hold you accountable.""Certainly, reputational cost is at stake, but we can think of other creative ways to perhaps impose costs as well," she said without elaborating.The Hague tribunal has no powers of enforcement and its rulings have been ignored before. Manila has said the court may hand down a ruling before May.China disputes South China Sea territory with several other members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) as well as the Philippines.Klaus Botzet, head of the political section of the EU Delegation in Washington, said it was difficult to oppose world opinion."A joint Western, a joint world opinion, matters also for Beijing," he said."If we unanimously support that international law as formulated by the international tribunal in the Hague ... needs to be upheld, that's a very strong message and will be very difficult to ignore," he said.Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said he had "noted" the comments, and repeated China's opposition to the arbitration case and refusal to participate.The Philippines' "scheme would never succeed", he told a daily news briefing in Beijing.In unusually forthright language, Botzet said China's policy of military buildup was not in its interest."It's investing much more in its military relative to its economic growth; it's forcing its neighbors into alliances against itself; positions its neighbors otherwise wouldn't take and the return on investment on this policy is negative," he said.The United States had exceptional military capabilities in the Asia-Pacific, Botzet said, adding that the European Union "strongly supports the American guarantee of international law in Asia."(Additional reporting by Michael Martina in BEIJING; Editing by Bernard Orr and Clarence Fernandez)
Iran proposes nuclear power cooperation with Hungary-Reuters By Marton Dunai-FEB 18,16-YAHOONEWS
BUDAPEST (Reuters) - Iran has proposed a project with Hungary to design and develop a small nuclear reactor that could be sold across Asia and Africa and also built in the Islamic republic, Tehran's top nuclear official said on Thursday.Iran's Ali Akbar Salehi said he envisaged a joint pilot project with Hungary to design a 25-megawatt reactor and then a reactor of up to 100 megawatts, a size he said would be marketable across Asia and Africa.He told a conference in Budapest that small reactors would be more affordable to poorer countries and require less cooling water, a critical consideration in Africa and Asia."One particular project that I suggested was to see if we can... together design a small reactor of 25 megawatts," Salehi said. "It was received well and we hope that we can start this project, just on paper."It requires a lot of scientific work to come up with such a design, certainly a number of years of hard work. We want to see if we can do this."Referring to the lifting of international sanctions on Iran's economy last year, Salehi added: "We intend to fully utilize all commercial and technical opportunities, including the pursuit of peaceful nuclear activities, emanating from this deal."Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban visited Tehran late last year.Iran will build two more Russian-designed large reactors in addition to its current single reactor at the Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant, a project that could take a decade, Salehi said."After these three reactors, we have made our decision that we would look into small reactors," he said. "That is our strategy for the future. That takes time (but) we need to develop these modular smaller reactors."Hungary has a single nuclear reactor at Paks, currently operating four updated Soviet-made reactors, and Budapest has signed an agreement with Russia to double the plant's capacity, using Russian technology and financing.(Reporting by Marton Dunai; Editing by Ruth Pitchford)
Pope’s message to Trump on immigrants: “A person who thinks only about building walls is not Christian”-On the flight from Mexico to Rome, Francis answered questions put to him by journalists, on a wide range of topics. On civil unions, he said: “The Pope doesn’t get mixed up in Italian politics. A Catholic parliamentarian must vote according to their well-formed conscience”. On the Zika virus he said: “Abortion is not the lesser of two evils. It is a crime. It is to kill someone in order to save another. This is what the Mafia does.” The Pope “needs the friendship and input of women too." “I like that idea of the re-foundation of the European Union," he remarked, adding: "My dream is to go to China"-Francis speaks to journalists on the flight from Ciudad Juarez to Rome.18/02/2016-VATICAN INSIDER-andrea tornielli-on the flight from ciudad juarez to rome
On the day that ended with a mass and silent prayer at the US-Mexico border, where thousands of Mexican and South American migrants have met death, Pope Francis answered a question put to him by journalists on Donald Trump’s recent statements. While giving the controversial Republican politician the benefit of the doubt, Francis said flat out that a person who thinks about building walls rather than bridges is not a Christian. He was referring not only to the American situation but also to those in Europe who are talking about or are already putting up walls and barriers to keep migrants out. This is the transcription of the Pope’s 45-minute interview with the journalists travelling on board the papal flight. He answered every question that was put to him.Holy Father, thousands go missing in Mexico; but the case of the 43 missing students from Ayotzinapa is emblematic. I’d like to ask you why you didn’t meet with the family members and also, please leave a message for the thousands of people who have disappeared.“In my messages I constantly mentioned the murders, deaths and lives bought by all of these drug-trafficking gangs and human-traffickers, so I did speak of this problem, I spoke about the wounds Mexico is suffering from. There were so many groups - in some cases there were rivalries between them, in-fighting – who wanted to be received, so I decided I would see all of them at the mass in Juarez or at another mass. It was practically impossible to meet everyone and they had some in-fighting going on. It’s a situation that’s difficult for me as a foreigner to understand. But I believe Mexican society is a victim of all this, of all these crimes, treated like cannon fodder. I talked about it in every speech I could. It is a great pain that I take away with me, because this country does not deserve such suffering.”Child abuse – as Mexico knows so well – has very painful roots. The legacy left behind by the Fr. Maciel case weighs heavily on victims in particular. Victims feel vulnerable. What is your view on this/ Have you considered meeting with the victims? When priests are involved in such cases, they are transferred to another parish and that’s it…“First of all, if a bishop transfers a priest who has committed abuse against minors to another parish, that bishop is irresponsible and would do well to resign. Let that be clear. In Maciel’s case, the merit goes to Ratzinger for taking a stand against all this. Cardinal Ratzinger presented all of the documentation relating to the Maciel case and as a Prefect, he carried out the investigation, gathered all the documentation but was then unable to proceed with putting it into practice. But if you recall, ten days before John Paul II’s death, during the Via Crucis, Ratzinger told the whole Church that the filth in the Church needed cleaning up. And at the "Pro eligendo Pontifice" mass, even though he knew he was a candidate – but not stupid – he didn’t seek to camouflage his position, he repeated the same thing he had said before. Today we are working hard with the cardinal Secretary of State and with the C9. I have decided to name a third secretary adjunct for the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith to take care exclusively of these cases. An appeals tribunal has been established, headed by Monsignor Sicluna. Then there is the Commission for the Protection of Minors which is in charge of protection: I spent an entire morning meeting with the six members of the Commission, who are all victims of abuse. In Philadelphia too I met with victims. I thank God that this issue has been brought to light, we need to continue shedding more light on it. Abuse is a monstrosity because a priest is consecrated so that he can bring a child closer to God and instead of that he “eats up” the child, destroying him or her in a diabolical sacrifice.”You spoke a great deal about the problems faced by immigrants, there is quite a tough campaign going on, on the other side of the border, in the US. The Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said in an interview that you are a “very political person” and a “pawn” of the Mexican government’s migration policy. Trump said he wants to build a 2,500 kilometre-long wall and deport 11 million illegal immigrants. What is your view on this? Can an American Catholic vote for such a man? “Thank God he said I was a politician because Aristotle defined the human person as a ‘homo politicus', a political animal. So at least I am a human person. As to whether I am a pawn, well, maybe, I don't know. I'll leave that up to your judgement and that of the people. And then, a person who thinks only about building walls, wherever they may be, and not building bridges, is not Christian. This is not in the gospel. As far as what you said about whether I would advise to vote or not to vote, I am not going to get involved in that. I say only that this man is not Christian if he has said things like that. We must see if he said things in that way and in this I give the benefit of the doubt.”The meeting with the Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill and the signing of the joint declaration sparked a reaction among Ukraine’s Greek Catholics: they said they feel betrayed and refer to it as a political document that supports Russian politics. Do you think you will go to Moscow or Crete for the pan-Orthodox synod? “I will be present, spiritually, in Crete with a message. I would like to go greet them but I must respect the synod. Behind the Catholic observers who will be present, I will be praying with my best wishes that the Orthodox will move forward because they are brothers and their bishops are bishops like us. Then, Patriarch Kirill, my brother. We kissed each other, embraced, and then we had a two-hour conversation. We spoke as brothers, sincerely and no one knows what was spoke about. About the statement that came from the Ukrainians: When I read it, I was a little bit worried because it came from the major archbishop of Kyiv-Haly?, Sviatoslav Schevchuk.” He said that the Ukrainian people, felt deeply disappointed and betrayed. I know Sviatoslav very well. In Buenos Aires, we worked together for 4 years. When he was elected major archbishop at the age of 42, he came to greet me and gave me an icon of Our Lady of Tenderness. And he told me: ‘This has accompanied me my entire life. I want to leave it with you, who accompanied me over the last four years. It’s one of the few things I brought with me from Buenos Aires and I keep it on my desk in Rome. He is a man whom I respect and there is a familiarity between us. So, for this it seemed strange to me and I remembered something I said here to you: to understand a piece of news, a statement, you need to seek the hermeneutic of everything.” Now Schevchuk’s statement is in the final paragraph of a long interview. He declares himself to be a son of the Church and in communion with the bishop of Rome and the Church. He speaks of the Pope and his closeness with the Pope. In terms of the dogmatic part, there’s no difficulty there. He’s Orthodox, in the good sense of the word, that is it is Catholic doctrine. And then, everyone has the right to express his own opinions, they are his personal views. Then, everything he said was about the document, not the meeting with Kirill. The document is open to debate and it is also worth adding that Ukraine is currently going through a war, it is going through a moment of suffering. I have expressed my closeness to the Ukrainian people on so many occasions. It is understandable that a people in this kind of situation should feel this, the document is open to debate with regard to the Ukrainian question, but in that part of the declaration is asking for the war to stop, for an agreement to be reached. I personally expressed the hope that the Minsk accords will move forward and that they will not rub out with their elbows what they wrote with their hands. I received both presidents, so when Schevchuk says he’s heard this from his people, I understand it. There’s no need to be frightened by that phrase. A piece of news must be interpreted with the hermeneutic of everything and not just a part.”Has Patriarch Kirill invited you to Moscow? “Has Patriarch Kirill invited me? I prefer to stick to what we said in public. A private meeting is private but I can tell you that I came away happy and so did he.”Over the past few days you spoke about family: in Italy there is a debate over civil unions going on. What do you think about adoptions and especially about the rights of children?“First of all, I don’t know how things stand in the thinking of the Italian parliament. The Pope doesn’t get mixed up in Italian politics. At my first meeting with the (Italian) bishops in May 2013, one of the things I said was: with the Italian government you’re on your own. Because the Pope doesn’t meddle in a country’s specific domestic politics. Italy is not the first country to have this experience. I think what the church has always said about this.”Over the past weeks there’s been a lot of concern about the Zika virus. Pregnant women are most at risk. Some authorities have put abortion and contraception forward as means of avoiding pregnancy. Can the Church see this as a case of choosing “the lesser of two evils”? “Abortion is not the lesser of two evils. It is a crime. It is to kill someone in order to save another. This is what the Mafia does. regarding the lesser evil, avoiding pregnancy involves a conflict between the fifth and sixth commandments. The great Paul VI, in a difficult situation in Africa, permitted nuns to use contraceptives in cases of rape. But let us not confuse the act of avoiding pregnancy with abortion. Abortion is not a theological problem, it is a human problem, it is a medical problem. You kill one person to save another, in means killing someone and going against the Hippocratic oath. You kill one person to save another, in the best case scenario. It is human evil, as any act of killing is. Avoiding pregnancy, on the other hand, is not an absolute evil and in certain cases, as in the one I mentioned, involving the Blessed Paul VI, this is clear. I would also urge doctors to do their utmost to find vaccines against the mosquitoes that carry this disease.”You are to receive the Charlemagne Prize, one of Europe’s most prestigious awards. It was very important to John Paul II too, as was European unity which seems to be crumbling. What can you say to us Europeans living in this crisis? “As far as the prize is concerned, I am not in the habit of accepting prizes or doctorates, not out of humility, but because I don’t like them. But in this case, I don’t say (I was) forced, but convinced by the holy theological headstrongness of Cardinal Kasper, who was asked to convince me. I said yes, but I will receive it in the Vatican and I will offer it to Europe, so that Europe may do what I asked for at Strasbourg, and acts not as grandmother Europe but mother Europe. As I was leafing through a newspaper the other day, I came across a word I liked the sound of: “the re-foundation” of the European Union. And I thought of the great fathers, but today where is there a Schuman, an Adenauer, these great men who founded the European Union after the war? I like the idea of a re-foundation of the European Union, maybe it can be done, because Europe has a history, a culture that cannot be wasted, and we must do everything so that the European Union has the strength and the inspiration to go on. You spoke a great deal about families in the Holy Year of Mercy but how can one be merciful with remarried divorcees? One has the impression that it is easier to forgive a murderer than a divorced person who remarries…“The family was the subject of discussion of two synods and the Pope has spent the whole year talking about it in his Wednesday catecheses. Your question is true, I like it. The post-synodal document that will be issued, possibly before Easter, picks up on all that was said during the synod; one of the chapters talks about conflicts, wounded families. Pastoral care for wounded families is one of the concerns, as is preparation for marriage. It takes 8 years of study and preparation to become a priest. If you want to leave, you can ask for a dispensation and that’s that. And yet for a sacrament that is meant to last a lifetime, all couples get is four meetings. Preparing for marriage is very important. It is something the Church - at least in South America – has not considered enough. Some years ago, back in my homeland, people were in the habit of marrying in haste when there was a child on the way, to safeguard the family’s honour. People there weren’t free and these marriages were often null and void. As a bishop I forbid my priests to do this. When cases something like this came up, I would say: let the baby come, let them continue as fiancées, and when they feel ready to make a lifetime commitment to one another, then they could go ahead and get married. Let us also remember that the victims of family problems are the children. Sometimes, a husband and wife don’t have much of a say in it, when they don’t have time to be with their children. When I listen to the confession of a husband and wife, I ask them how many children they have. They get a bit scared, maybe because they think they should have more, so I ask them: do you play with your children? To which they often reply: I never have time! It was interesting that at the family meeting in Tuxtla Gutierrez there was a couple of remarried divorcees, married for the second time, who were well integrated in the Church’s pastoral care programme. The key word the Synod used and I will quote in the exhortation is to “integrate” wounded families into Church life. And don’t forget the children, they are the number one victims”.Does that mean remarried divorcees will be able to receive communion? “Integration does not mean communion. I know Catholics who remarried and go to Church twice a year and want to receive communion as if it was some kind of award. Work towards integration, yes, all doors are open. But we cannot say, ‘as of now you can receive communion’. This would be an injury to marriage too. It wouldn’t make them take this path of integration. This couple of remarried divorcees was happy. They used a beautiful expression: we don’t communicate with the Eucharist, but yes, we are in communion when we visit hospitals and share things. This is their way of being integrated. Then if there is anything else, the Lord will say so. It is a path, a journey.”The press has made a big thing out of the frequent correspondence between John Paul II and the philosopher Anna Teresa Tymieniecka. Can a Pope have an intense friendship with a woman? Do you? “I already knew about this friendship between St. John Paul II and this philosopher when I was in Buenos Aires. A man who does not know how to have a relationship of friendship with a woman -- I'm not talking about misogynists; they are sick in the mind, -- well, he's a man who is missing something. As far as my own experience goes, when I a collaborator friend for advice, I also like to hear a woman’s opinion because they have so much to offer, they look at things in a different way. I like to say that it is women who build life in their wombs – and they have this charism (gift) of giving you things you can build with. A friendship with a woman is no sin, it's a friendship. A romantic relationship with a woman who is not your wife, that is sin! But the Pope is a man. The Pope needs the input of women, too. And the Pope, too, has a heart that can a healthy, holy friendship with a woman. There are saints like Francis and Clare… don't be frightened! But women are still not well-considered in the Church, we have still not grasped the good that they can do in the life of a priest, in Church life, with a word of advice, a helping hand, a healthy friendship.”I return back to the topic of the law on civil unions that is being voted on in the Italian parliament. There is a document from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith dating back to 2003 that focuses a great deal on this subject. It says expressly that Catholic parliamentarians must not vote for these laws. What position should a Catholic parliamentarian adopt in such cases? “I don’t remember that document well but all I would say is that a Catholic parliamentarian must vote according their well-formed conscience. I believe this alone is sufficient. I say well-formed because I do not mean the conscience of what seems to me. I remember when same-sex marriage was voted through in Buenos Aires. I was there, there was a tie, so one parliamentarian advised the other: “D you get what’s going on?” “No.” “Neither do I but we’re going to lose at this rate. If we don’t go and vote we won’t reach the quorum but if we reach the quorum then we give the vote to Kirchner. I prefer to give it to Kirchner than to Bergoglio, let’s go!” This is not a well-formed conscience.”First the meeting with the Moscow’s Patriarch, now Cairo. Could there be another thaw in relations on the horizon? Will an audience with Al-Azhar’s Imam go ahead?“Last week Mgr. Ayuso, Cardinal Tauran’s secretary went to meet the Imam’s deputy. I want to meet him, I know he would like to. Through Cardinal Tauran as always, we are looking into how to do this.After this visit to Mexico, what other trips are you planning? Which other places do you dream of going to? “I’ll tell you: China. I would love to go there! I would like to say something about the Mexican people. It is a population that has so much going for it, Mexicans surprise us. They have a culture, a culture that goes back millennia. Do you know that in Mexico today they speak 65 languages? They are a people of great faith. They have also suffered religious persecution. There are martyrs, I will canonize two of them. You cannot explain a population because it is not a logical category, it is a mythical category. You cannot explain this wealth, this history, this joy, this capacity to celebrate, despite the tragedies it experiences. This unity, these people have managed not to fail, not to end, despite everything that’s going on: There in the city of Juarez a 12 hour ceasefire was agreed on the occasion of my visit. After that, the fighting will resume. But only Guadalupe can explain how people have managed to stay together. I invite you to seriously read up on Guadalupe. Mary is there. I cannot find any other explanation.”What did you ask Our Lady of Guadalupe for? Do you dream in Italian or Spanish?“I dream in Esperanto! Sometimes I remember some dreams in another language, but dreaming in languages, no. I dream in images. I asked la Guadalupana first and foremost for peace, poorher, she must have had a headache by the end… I asked for forgiveness, I asked for a healthy Church, I prayed for the Mexican people. I prayed hard for priests to be real priests, nuns real nuns and bishops real bishops. But the things a son says to his mother are a secret.”
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.
EU leaders stuck on key issues in 'tense' UK talks By Eszter Zalan-FEB 18,16-EUOBSERVER
BRUSSELS, Today, 23:00-Previously outstanding issues in the UK-EU negotiations remain on the table after the first round of discussions between European leaders and British prime minister David Cameron in Brussels on Thursday (18 February) evening.In what EU sources described as "constructive, but tense" talks, there was no movement on either side on the five main outstanding issues, which were discussed with "intensity"."There are no new issues and nothing has disappeared either," said an official in describing the state of talks.Incorporating the UK's demands in the EU treaties at a later stage is still an issue for some countries.The emergency brake that would allow non-eurozone countries to raise concerns and delay decisions made by the 19-member currency bloc is another topic where member states and the UK disagree.The key question is how many non-eurozone countries can trigger the brake - one or several.Curbing social benefits is also a hurdle, with an issue being the duration of time that member states would be able to use a so-called safeguard mechanism that would allow them to restrict access to their welfare system for EU workers.According to an EU official, here the ideas are "really converging". Other sources said the UK would want to see it in place for 7+3+3 years (seven years with a possibility of two renewals), which is unacceptable for some eastern European countries.The fourth issue is the indexation of child benefit for EU workers whose children live in their home country. Here, member states clash on retroactivity - whether the measure should apply only to newcomers or also to people already working in the UK.The phrase "ever closer union" in the EU treaty, which the UK would like to clarify is not a legally binding call for further integration, is another point of disagreement."Here the legal reality clashes with the political reality," a source said.EU Council chief Donald Tusk will sit down with Cameron and European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker after leaders wrap up a working dinner on the migration issue, and decide how to proceed further.Tusk's team will have to come up with new ideas, but negotiations on them will take time."We have to see how to square the circle," said an EU official.Bilateral discussions among leaders, including Cameron, may continue overnight. The 28 leaders, along with EP president Martin Schulz, will reconvene for a meeting at 11am on Friday.
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.
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)
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)
UN says conflict in Ukraine has affected 580,000 children-Associated Press-FEB 18,16-YAHOONEWS
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The United Nations children's agency says the conflict in Ukraine has deeply affected 580,000 children close to the front lines and in areas not under government control in the volatile east.UNICEF said in a statement released late Thursday that 200,000 youngsters — more than a third — need psycho-social support.Giovanna Barberis, UNICEF's representative in Ukraine, called on all parties to the conflict "to ensure safe movement and unhindered humanitarian access to help children in need."Earlier this year, UNICEF called for an additional $54.3 million to address the humanitarian needs of the most vulnerable children in conflict-affected areas."Two years of violence, shelling and fear have left an indelible mark on thousands of children in eastern Ukraine," Barberis said in a statement.
Palestinians welcome French peace plan-AFP-FEB 18,16-YAHOONEWS
Jerusalem (AFP) - The Palestinians on Thursday welcomed an initiative put forward by France to hold an international Middle East peace conference, a proposal which Israeli Benjamin Netanyahu has dismissed."We definitely welcome the French initiative, we see it as a major possibility for challenging the status quo," Hossam Zomlot, an advisor to Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, told reporters.Zomlot, however, said the Palestinians insisted on their call for a United Nations resolution against Israeli settlement building ahead of any renewed peace process."Nothing will convince us that we should not go to the United Nations Security Council over settlements," said Zomlot, who is a senior official in Abbas's Fatah party.France's ambassador to Israel, Patrick Maisonnave, met Israeli officials this week to outline the initiative, which proposes setting up a support group of the permanent Security Council members, some Arab and European states and international organisations.It would work in two stages, meeting first without the conflicting parties and then bringing them into the conference.Netanyahu called it "mystifying" and counterproductive, arguing that the proposal gives Palestinians no incentive to compromise."It says, 'We shall hold an international conference but, if it doesn't succeed, we are deciding in advance what the consequence will be -- we shall recognise a Palestinian state,'" he told reporters during a visit to Berlin."This of course ensures in advance that a conference will fail, because if the Palestinians know that their demands will be accepted... they don't need to do anything," he said.The rightwing leader restated his position that peace could only come through direct negotiations between the two sides.Palestinian officials have long argued for an international process to end Israel's occupation and bring about a two-state solution.US-brokered peace talks collapsed in April 2014 and the prospects of fresh dialogue have appeared increasingly remote.
Nato enters the migration control business By Bill Frelick-FEB 18,16-EUOBSERVER
Washington DC, Today, 09:25-European policymakers have been burning the midnight oil looking for ways to keep Syrian and other refugees and migrants from reaching Greece and swelling the ranks of asylum seekers in the European Union.The Nato operation announced on 11 February may perhaps serve this purpose, but raises the question of whether stemming the flow will, in effect, mean collective expulsions that deny the right to seek asylum.Even as Nato ships steam into the Aegean Sea, the terms of reference of the operation remain clouded. Nato's Supreme Allied Commander, US airforce general Philip Breedlove, has said he has only now been tasked “to go back and define the mission.”In the meantime, contradictory statements abound.Nato secretary general Jens Stoltenberg claimed: "This is not about stopping or pushing back refugee boats." The UK defence minister Michael Fallon immediately contradicted him: “They will not be taken back to Greece. The aim of the group is to have them taken back to Turkey. That is the crucial difference."The public presentation of Nato’s anticipated role has mostly been about surveillance aimed at stopping human-smuggling networks. Germany’s defence minister, Ursula von der Leyen, said that migrants would only be picked up as an emergency measure but added that there is a "firm agreement" with Ankara that refugees rescued by Nato ships would "be brought back to Turkey." The Greek defence chief, Panos Kammenos, said the agreement "will finally solve the issue of migration."So far, joint operations in the Aegean have been coordinated by Frontex, the EU’s external borders control agency, which is limited to Greek territorial waters and must disembark all migrants in Greece. Nato warships are not limited to Greek waters and would be able to return boat people to Turkey, itself a member of Nato, if Turkey allows it.Introducing Nato into the Euro-Med migration/refugee crisis raises the questions: 1) will interdicted migrants and asylum seekers be accepted back by Turkey, and, if so, 2) is this acceptable as a matter of human rights.On the first question, notwithstanding the German defence minister’s remark about a “firm agreement” with Ankara to take back migrants, Turkey has been publicly silent. In fact, it hasn’t said anything about the Nato operation, although it is reported to have joined Germany and Greece in asking for it.Clearly, the migration crisis has touched off intense discussions between the EU and Turkey, with Turkey very much in the driver’s seat. On 11 February, president Recep Tayyip Erdogan bemoaned the low number of refugees other countries have accepted, saying, “Excuse me but we do not have the word ‘fool’ written on our foreheads. We will be patient up to a point but will do what we have to do. Don’t think that planes and buses are for nothing.”On the second question, If Nato cooperates with Turkey in preventing asylum seekers from leaving Turkish territorial waters and in bringing asylum seekers and migrants back to the Turkish shore, these would not be “returns” or “expulsions” since the boats in question would never have left Turkey. Although such an operation might not technically violate the EU Charter, the European Human Rights Convention, and 1951 Refugee Convention rules against refoulement—the forced return of refugees to places where they would risk danger or abuse—and collective expulsion, it would violate the principles underlying these precepts.Returning the passenger-laden rubber dinghies to Turkey would run the subsequent risk of refugees being forcibly returned to Syria, Iraq, or Afghanistan. Turkey retains a geographical limitation on its accession to the 1951 Refugee Convention that excludes all non-Europeans from status as refugees.While the risk of refoulement on that basis may seem a bit abstract, on the very day Nato was announcing its operation, Turkey was keeping its border firmly closed to thousands of Syrian asylum seekers who were fleeing Russian airstrikes and Syrian government military advances in Aleppo.This unequivocally demonstrates that Turkey does not respect the principle of non-refoulement as the legal obligation it is. Instead of letting asylum seekers escape across its border, Turkey trucked supplies to the Syrian side of the closed Bab al-Salama crossing point to bolster its establishment of a so-called safe zone in Syria.This is not just about keeping out new arrivals; Erdogan has said that “establishing a safe zone constitutes the basis of 1.7 million Syrian refugees' return." The history of such areas—think Srebrenica—has shown them to be more effective at containing refugee flows and in opening the way for disaster than in providing real protection to civilians.As general Breedlove defines the Nato mission, he should put aside technicalities about territorial waters and harness Nato’s considerable assets for the task of saving lives at sea, preventing predatory victimization of asylum seekers and migrants by criminals, and facilitating the right to seek asylum by bringing asylum seekers safely to Greece.Instead of desperately trying to stem the flow, the EU should be taking concrete steps to manage the flow, crucially through: working with Greece to open official border crossings on the Greek land borders where asylum seekers could be screened and permitted to enter; by ensuring efficient relocation of asylum seekers from countries of first entry to other member states; and by vastly expanding the orderly resettlement of refugees from Turkey and other countries of first refuge into the EU.Bill Frelick is the director of the Human Rights Watch Refugee Rights Program
Migrant swap deal with Turkey should go on, says Dutch initiator By Peter Teffer-FEB 18,16-EUOBSERVER
Brussels, Today, 21:00-The cancellation of a mini-summit Thursday (18 February) on refugees is a “setback”, but only in terms of process, said Dutch centre-left MP Diederik Samsom.He told a handful of media, including EUobserver, that he still believes a migrant swap deal with Turkey is feasible.The plan, which in the Netherlands bears Samsom's name, is to offer to resettle several hundreds of thousands of people from Turkey into Europe in exchange for Turkey accepting that all asylum seekers entering Greece are sent back.“This solution prevents humanitarian disasters, and establishes an organised asylum flow. I have not yet seen an alternative that does both. You could erect fences everywhere, which would establish an organised asylum flow, but then you only worsen the humanitarian aspect.”Samsom leads the centre-left Labour party in the Netherlands, which is one of the two coalition partners supporting PM Mark Rutte's government.He spoke on Thursday afternoon after meeting with his European socialist colleagues in Brussels.“There was large consensus that the solution as we have proposed it, is the right solution,” said Samsom. “However, there was a difference in optimism if it will work.”The idea is that between 150,000 and 250,000 refugees would be resettled from Turkey in European countries. EU countries would voluntarily sign up to take in refugees.In return, all migrants arriving in Greece from Turkey should be returned to Turkey, including those that have asked for asylum in Greece.“Only that last step would prevent that people get on those boats,” he said, adding that again last night several migrants had drowned.“As long as you relocate elsewhere into Europe, that boat trip is the gateway to Germany. But you need to make the airport of Ankara the gateway to Germany, or to the Netherlands, or to Europe.”“But honestly, it would be a big step if we send back the irregular migrants.”According to Samsom, the following countries are behind the scheme: Sweden, Germany, Austria, Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg. France would participate by taking up to 30,000, which it had already promised to accept through a previous relocation scheme.“They still want that 30,000. If these would come directly from Turkey, than that would be fine,” said the Dutchman.While the Dutch government has not officially adopted the plan, Samsom has said he has PM Rutte's support. With the Netherlands holding the six-month rotating presidency, it is perhaps not surprising the government would like to appear neutral.The MP quoted from a recent draft version of the conclusions from Thursday's and Friday's EU summit, saying that EU leaders “welcome the willingness of some member states to participate” in a scheme of voluntary resettlement.That sentence is now too “reticent”, he noted, adding that the summit conclusions should reassure Turkey that Europe will share the burden of the refugees that continue to flee the war in Syria.“We always think that we have a problem, and they don't. Which of course isn't true. They have 2.7 million refugees and a mafia of smugglers,” noted Samsom.But he added the Turks “have other things on their mind” following a bomb attack in Ankara, which was the reason a mini-summit in Brussels involving the country was cancelled, and Turkey's involvement in the Syrian war.Last week, Turkey's ambassador to the EU, Selim Yenel, said Samsom's plan was “unacceptable” and “not feasible”.“But that is because we haven't delivered,” said Samsom. “As long as we don't make clear that we will take a share of the burden, then Turkey will say [the scheme] is not going to happen.”According to Samsom, a meeting with Turkish prime minister Ahmet Davutoglu is still needed, because both parts of the deal – EU countries resettling refugees, and Turkey accepting returns – have to be agreed at the same time.“For that you really need to look each other in the eyes at the highest level.”
Russia's Syria tactics imperil EU-Turkey migrant plan By Andrew Rettman-EUOBSERVER
BRUSSELS, 18. Feb, 19:54-Events in Syria raise doubts as to whether the EU-Turkey migrant plan is still relevant. They show the need for solidarity, but there’s little of that and few options on how to stop Turkey's “nightmare”.The bomb blast in Ankara on Wednesday (17 February), which prompted Turkish prime minister Ahmet Davutoglu to cancel his EU summit trip, underlined that national security is a bigger priority for Turkey than the refugee crisis.For Turkish police, it bore the hallmarks of Kurdish militant groups such as the PKK, which has been fighting on and off for 30 years to create a Kurdish homeland in south-east Turkey.Turkish people, who lived through waves of PKK attacks in the 1990s, are stoic. But the latest bomb went off in a new context.In the past four months, Russian air strikes have helped PKK sister groups the PYD and YPG to conquer territory in northern Syria.If they capture the town of Azaz and join up their “cantons” along Turkey’s southern border, they will have the makings of a Russia-backed de facto state adjoining PKK heartland inside Turkey.Russian strikes have also helped Syrian regime forces to besiege the city of Aleppo. If Azaz and Aleppo fall, Turkey will have no way to supply the Free Syrian Army, or other friendly rebels in Syria, losing its say over the future of the war.If Azaz and Aleppo fall, it will also prompt hundreds of thousands more Syrians to flee to Turkey and the EU.“It’s a nightmare,” a Turkish source told EUobserver. “It’s never happened in the history of Turkey, to be surrounded by Russia in the north and in the south.”An EU source described the situation as “disastrous”.“Everything’s changed since we drew up the [migrant action] plan,” the source said.“We thought we would pay Turkey the money they asked for and they would do the dirty work [of stopping refugees]. But the EU money is starting to look irrelevant.”The next Ukraine?-Sinan Ulgen from the EDAM think tank in Istanbul says Russia’s actions in Syria resemble what it did in Ukraine.Russia-backed militias created two de facto entities in Ukraine’s Donbas region, which Russia is using to destabilise the rest of the country.Ulgen told EUobserver that a new Kurdish entity on Turkey’s border could become a second Donbas, but he said Turkey was more resilient than Ukraine.“Donbas isn't a bad analogy. But Turkish statecraft is more advanced … so it wouldn’t pose the same kind of existential threat,” he said.Mark Galeotti, a US scholar of Russian affairs, disagreed. He said “the idea that the Kurds are some tame Russian proxies is very far from the truth”.But he said that if the West allowed Turkey to shell Kurds in Syria with impunity, it could “make the Kurds into Russian clients”.Sources also note that the YPG opened an office in Moscow in February and that the PYD leader, Salih Muslim Muhammad, visited Russia last year.“Six months ago, the Kurds were playing on all fronts, with the EU, the US, and Russia, to get arms and money. But today Russia has them on a leash,” the EU source said.'Psychological blow'-There is some disagreement about the comparison with Ukraine, but there is common ground among Turkish and EU sources on Russia’s use of refugees to destabilise both Turkey and the European Union.A Turkish intelligence report leaked to Turkish newspaper Hurriyet on Tuesday said Russia was trying to “weaponise” migrants.A Turkish security source told Hurriyet that Russia’s bombing of schools and hospitals in Syria was designed to make people flee on the “Grozny model” - referring to the 1990s conflict in Chechnya, when Russian bombardments emptied Grozny, the Chechen capital.A second EU source told EUobserver there was a risk that Russia would reignite Ukraine hostilities to prompt a new wave of Ukrainian refugees.A third EU source noted that Russia was already letting Middle East migrants cross into Finland in a further “psychological blow”.-PR 'gimmick'-Davutoglu was due to discuss refugee resettlement with a German-led group of 10 or so migrant-friendly EU states in Brussels on Thursday.The resettlement project is a top-up initiative to an EU-Turkey “action plan” drawn up in November.The plan was meant to see Turkey stop migrants from going to Greece in return for €3 billion, visa-free travel, and restarting EU-Turkey accession talks.But even the initial plan is struggling to get off the ground.-Turkey is annoyed that Italy kept the plan on hold until last week by refusing to unblock money unless the EU deducted its contribution from its national debt limit.The EU is annoyed that Turkey hasn’t taken a first step.EU diplomats say the flow of refugees to Greece went down from 2,000 a day in January to "tens or hundreds" a day in February, but they say it’s mostly due to bad weather.Marc Pierini, a former EU ambassador to Turkey who works the Carnegie Europe think tank, says Turkey isn’t willing to crack down on people smugglers because it profits from the €2 billion-a-year smuggler industry.He said Turkey’s call for a Nato surveillance mission in the Aegean Sea was a PR “gimmick”.Jan Techau, another Carnegie Europe expert, said the Nato ships would do little more than “expose Turkey's inaction”.-'Great embarrassment'-The mistrust between Turkey and both the EU and US goes deeper than the wobbly migrant plan.After a 10-year freeze in accession talks, Turkish leaders have lost faith that the EU will ever let it join.They feel betrayed by US and EU overtures to Syrian Kurds and also feel let down by a lack of EU and US support for a no-fly zone or a ground offensive in Syria.The bad will was on show last week when euro2day.gr, a Greek news agency, published transcripts of Erdogan’s talks with EU leaders last October.It said Erdogan told the EU: “We can open the doors to Greece and Bulgaria any time, and we can put the refugees on buses.”For Pierini, it spoke volumes that Erodgan had not disowned the quotes.“We thought the leaks were a great embarrassment for Turkey and Erdogan. But he said: ‘No, No, I said it and I repeat it’,” Pierini said. “Erdogan is in this kind of mentality at this point.”-No go on no-fly zone-The new threats to Turkish national security pose questions on whether the EU-Turkey migrant plan is still fit for purpose.For Ulgen from the Istanbul think tank, Russia’s actions make the “principle” of the plan more relevant than ever.He noted that if Azaz and Aleppo fall and refugee numbers balloon then Turkey’s “expectations from the EU will go up”.But he said there was “no appetite” in Turkey to scrap the plan because “it enshrines the principle of burden-sharing … it’s the only agreement we have to jointly manage the crisis”.An EU source said Germany, the refugees' main EU destination, is beginning to see that Turkey needs more than EU money for nicer migrant camps.He noted that German chancellor Angela Merkel on Monday told German media she would back “a type of no-fly zone” in Syria.But EU and Turkish sources said Russia would veto the move at the UN, and that new Russian air-defence systems in north Syria have created a no-go zone for Turkish or US jets.“It was a good idea, but in 2011 or 2012,” one diplomatic source said.An EU source said that stationing a Nato deterrent force in south-east Turkey on the model of Nato’s deterrent force in the Baltic Sea region might be a better option.-'In ruins by summer'-Whatever happens next, the stakes for both Turkey and the EU could hardly be higher.“We’re in the same boat now. If Turkey sinks because of Russia, then the EU will also sink [because of refugees]. But some EU politicians and officials don’t seem to get it,” the EU source said.A senior EU official said Germany would be “in ruins by summer” if Turkey failed to stop the migrants.“We have to get a grip on who’s coming in,” the source said.A senior EU diplomat said the nightmare scenario for Europe was if Germany closes its borders, creating bottlenecks in the flow of refugees from Vienna to Athens.“If we want to maintain a common asylum policy and if we want to maintain Schengen [the EU’s passport-free travel area] then we have to reduce the numbers of people coming in and Turkey is key to this,” the diplomat said.
