1-WORLD QUAKES LAST 2 DAYS.2-Quake jolts western Turkey; no casualties. 3-Flash floods kill 16 people in eastern Afghanistan. 4-Argentina floods claim 7 lives. 5-The nation's weather. 6-Pakistani avalanches kill at least 29. 7-Ecuador's Reventador volcano spews ash. 8-First sandstorm of year hits northern China.9-Menu Foods says its pet food is now safe. 10-Outcry cancels chocolate Jesus show. 11-U.N. chief: Arms crossing Syrian border. 12-Merkel: EU supports Mideast peace talks. 13-Pope celebrates Palm Sunday Mass. 14-Protest in Iran targets British Embassy.
EARTHQUAKES
MATTHEW 24:7-8
7 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.
8 All these are the beginning of sorrows.
MARK 13:8
8 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom:(ETHNIC GROUP AGAINST ETHNIC GROUP) and there shall be earthquakes in divers places, and there shall be famines and troubles: these are the beginnings of sorrows.
LUKE 21:11
11 And great earthquakes shall be in divers places, and famines, and pestilences; and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven.
WORLD QUAKES LAST 2 DAYS (USGS)
Update time = Sun Apr 1 14:11:30 UTC 2007
APR 01,07
MAP 2.9 NORTHERN CALIFORNIA
MAP 4.5 KURIL ISLANDS
MAP 5.1 NICOBAR ISLANDS, INDIA REGION
MAP 4.9 FIJI REGION
MAP 2.6 CENTRAL ALASKA
MAP 4.8 TONGA
MAP 2.9 UNIMAK ISLAND REGION, ALASKA
MAP 5.5 IZU ISLANDS, JAPAN REGION
MAR 31,07
MAP 2.6 ANDREANOF ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN IS., ALASKA
MAP 3.3 SOUTHERN ALASKA
MAP 3.5 ANDREANOF ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN IS., ALASKA
MAP 5.5 VANUATU
MAP 2.5 PUGET SOUND REGION, WASHINGTON
MAP 3.4 ANDREANOF ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN IS., ALASKA
MAP 2.5 NORTHERN ALASKA
MAP 5.2 MINAHASA, SULAWESI, INDONESIA
MAP 2.6 KODIAK ISLAND REGION, ALASKA
MAP 2.5 CENTRAL ALASKA
MAP 2.7 FOX ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN ISLANDS, ALASKA
MAP 2.6 SOUTHERN ALASKA
MAP 5.1 EASTERN HONSHU, JAPAN
MAP 5.4 SOUTHERN EAST PACIFIC RISE
MAP 3.0 MAUI REGION, HAWAII
MAP 4.9 VANUATU
MAP 5.0 VANUATU
MAP 4.5 GUERRERO, MEXICO
MAP 2.8 SOUTHERN ALASKA
MAP 4.8 OFFSHORE CHIAPAS, MEXICO
MAP 3.8 GULF OF ALASKA
MAP 4.9 SOUTH OF THE FIJI ISLANDS
MAP 2.5 BAJA CALIFORNIA, MEXICO
MAR 30,07
MAP 2.8 CENTRAL ALASKA
MAP 3.0 WASHINGTON
MAP 2.8 ISLAND OF HAWAII, HAWAII
MAP 4.8 SIMEULUE, INDONESIA
MAP 4.2 LAKE BAYKAL REGION, RUSSIA
MAP 4.5 WESTERN TURKEY
MAP 5.1 GUERRERO, MEXICO
MAP 2.8 BAJA CALIFORNIA, MEXICO
MAP 4.4 RYUKYU ISLANDS, JAPAN
MAP 4.7 WESTERN TURKEY
MAP 2.8 NORTHERN CALIFORNIA
MAP 4.9 OFFSHORE COQUIMBO, CHILE
MAP 5.7 FIJI REGION
MAP 2.5 SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
MAP 2.7 CENTRAL CALIFORNIA
MAP 2.6 CENTRAL CALIFORNIA
MAP 2.6 ANDREANOF ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN IS., ALASKA
MAP 3.0 ANDREANOF ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN IS., ALASKA
MAP 2.5 BAJA CALIFORNIA, MEXICO
MAP 4.6 ALASKA PENINSULA
MAP 2.8 CENTRAL ALASKA
MAP 4.0 CENTRAL CALIFORNIA
MAP 5.4 HOKKAIDO, JAPAN REGION
MAP 4.8 SOUTH OF THE FIJI ISLANDS
MAP 4.9 FIJI REGION
MAP 3.1 ALASKA PENINSULA
MAP 2.8 PUERTO RICO REGION
MAP 2.6 PUERTO RICO REGION
MAP 3.3 PUERTO RICO REGION
MAP 5.0 VOLCANO ISLANDS, JAPAN REGION
MAP 3.7 PUERTO RICO REGION
MAP 2.7 KODIAK ISLAND REGION, ALASKA
Quake jolts western Turkey; no casualties Fri Mar 30, 6:58 PM ET
ISTANBUL (AFP) - An earthquake measuring 4.7 on the Richter scale jolted the western Turkish province of Isparta on Friday, but there were no immediate reports of casualties, officials said. The epicenter of the tremor, which hit at 7:56 pm (1656 GMT), was at the district of Egirdir, the Istanbul-based Kandilli observatory said.There were no immediate reports of damage or casualties, Egirdir sub-governor Omer Ulu told Anatolia news agency.Earthquakes are frequent in Turkey, which is crossed by several major fault lines. Two violent temblors in the heavily populated, industrialised northwest claimed about 20,000 lives in August and November 1999.
STORMS HURRICANES-TORNADOES
LUKE 21:25-26
25 And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity;(MASS CONFUSION) the sea and the waves roaring;(FIERCE WINDS)
26 Men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken.
Flash floods kill 16 people in eastern Afghanistan APR 01,07
JALALABAD, Afghanistan (AFP) - Flash floods caused by torrential rains killed at least 16 people and destroyed dozens of houses near the Hindu Kush mountain range in eastern Afghanistan, police said Sunday. Floods hit three districts in the northeastern province of Nuristan overnight and on Sunday, swamping villages and washing away roads, provincial police chief General Aseel Totakhail told AFP.Sixteen people have died, seven others are wounded, dozens of houses have been destroyed. Villages have been cut off, he said.Totakhail asked for urgent help from the government, the United Nations and foreign forces to evacuate people from the flood-affected area.Many people need to be air-lifted. Hundreds of families left homeless are in need of immediate help, he said.
Floods also affected the nearby eastern provinces of Kunar, Laghman and Nangarhar, causing damage to houses and farms but no human casualties were reported.Heavy rain has caused flooding across Afghanistan in the past weeks with avalanches also claiming several lives.Dozens of mudbrick houses in the capital Kabul were in ruins Sunday after a downpour Saturday. The Kabul River that runs through the city, usually as a dirty stream, was overflowing its banks Sunday.
Argentina floods claim 7 lives By MAYRA PERTOSSI, Associated Press Writer Sat Mar 31, 11:00 PM ET
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina - Rising rivers in three rain-soaked provinces have forced some 38,000 people to flee their homes and floodwaters have claimed seven lives, authorities said Saturday.
Civil defense officials said Santa Fe province in Argentina's northeast remained the hardest-hit, with about 30,000 evacuees in and around the provincial capital of Santa Fe, 250 miles northwest of Buenos Aires, and the cities of Rosario and Canada de Gomez.Rain has lashed the region for five days, forcing evacuees to struggle through waist-deep waters with laundry baskets containing only a few possessions. Some tried to load refrigerators and TV sets on trucks and escape to higher ground, while others tried to cross flooded highways in small boats.A woman's body was recovered from the Parana River near Rosario, coast guard officials said Saturday, bringing to three the number dead after a house tumbled into the river a day earlier. The bodies of two men were recovered Friday.
Authorities said Saturday a 70-year-old farmer died after he was swept away by the Gualeguay River in Entre Rios province while trying to rescue some of his livestock.That brought to seven the dead over two days, including a man killed Friday trying to save a dog from a stream and an elderly man with Alzheimer's disease who was alone when he drowned in his flooded home, authorities said.
Jose Salim Jodor, mayor of the Entre Rios city of Gualeguay, said about 8,000 people had to leave their water-filled homes in that low-lying province on Argentina's eastern border with Uruguay.
Meanwhile, some 400 flood victims were reported in central Cordoba province on the border with Santa Fe province.President Nestor Kirchner pledged federal assistance for the victims and residents of Buenos Aires have begun organizing charity drives of food and other emergency assistance for the hardest-hit areas.Uruguayan authorities reported some 380 people had to be evacuated from regions near the Argentine border because of flooding of small rivers and streams.
The Nation's Weather By WEATHER UNDERGROUND, For The Associated Press
Sun Apr 1, 6:22 AM ET
Forecasters predicted a severe weather system would move through the Upper Midwest to the eastern seaboard on Sunday, and a separate system could bring rain to the Northwest. Heavy rain and thunderstorms were predicted from the Southeast through the Mid-Atlantic. Cool rain showers were expected in the upper Midwest and Great Lakes.Meanwhile, a separate system with rain and snow was expected to move into the Northwest and Intermountain West. Showers were also expected in the Northwest and portions of Northern California.High temperatures in the Northeast were expected to rise into the 40s and 50s, while temperatures in the Southeast were expected to reach into the 70s and 80s. The Southern Plains could see temperatures rise into the 70s and 80s also.The Northwest and Northern Rockies were expected to rise into the 40s and 50s, while California and portions of the Southwest will rise into the 70s, 80s, and even into the 90s in the warmest locations.Temperatures in the Lower 48 states Saturday ranged from a low of 3 degrees at Shirley Basin, Wyo., to a high of 91 degrees at Death Valley, Calif.
Pakistani avalanches kill at least 29 APR 01,07
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Avalanches struck two villages in a remote part of northwest Pakistan, killing at least 29 people and leaving 14 others missing, police said Sunday. Heavy rains and snow have been lashing Chitral, a rugged district near the border with Afghanistan, since late last week. In some areas, about six feet of snow has fallen over the past several days, Ijaz Ahmed, a senior police officer, said by telephone from the area.All the roads are blocked due to landslides. There is no
access to the area, he said.Bad weather blocked helicopter flights and authorities planned to send food, medicines and blankets by air on Monday.One avalanche hit 18 homes in the village of Wasij late Saturday, killing 24 people whose bodies were recovered by neighbors and police, Ahmed said.
Six people were pulled alive from the rubble, three of them with injuries, he said. Fourteen people remained missing.Five members of one family were killed when an avalanche hit their home in the village of Postaki, Ahmed said by telephone from the town of Chitral, 170 miles northwest of Pakistan's capital, Islamabad.
EARTH DESTROYED WITH THE EARTH
GENESIS 6:11-13
11 The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.(WORLD TERRORISM,MURDERS)
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) through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth.
Ecuador's Reventador volcano spews ash Fri Mar 30, 11:52 PM ET
QUITO, Ecuador - A volcano in Ecuador's Andes erupted Friday, shooting plume of ash nearly two miles into the sky but causing no injuries or damage, authorities said. Liliana Troncoso of Ecuador's Geophysics Institute told The Associated Press that Reventador volcano had been showing increasing signs of activity since January, but that this eruption does not pose a threat to any nearby villages.The volcano erupted in 2002, spreading ash over the capital, Quito, about 65 miles to the east.
Earlier this month, authorities evacuated about 100 families from the slopes of the Tungurahua volcano in central Ecuador after it showered villages with flaming rocks and ash.
First sandstorm of year hits northern China Sat Mar 31, 8:58 AM ET
BEIJING (AFP) - Northern China was blanketed in dust on Saturday as the first sandstorm of the year struck the region, including the capital Beijing, state media reported, citing the national weather service.
Visibility was low in the capital due to the storm, but meteorologists said the sand was likely to blow out of town by nightfall due to strong winds, the Xinhua news agency reported.The mild storm was caused by a cyclone which developed over Mongolia and then moved eastward toward parts of Inner Mongolia and northern Hebei province, said Sun Jun of the China Meteorological Administration, quoted by Xinhua. Authorities urged residents to stay indoors and cover up if venturing outside to protect themselves from the floating dust.
Other sandstorms are in the forecast for Gansu, Liaoning, Ningxia and Shaanxi provinces, along with Inner Mongolia and the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region, meteorologists said.Northern China suffered from more than a dozen dust storms last year which were attributed to desertification in China's northwestern regions, including Qinghai province. A similar number has been predicted for this year.China has around 1.74 million square kilometers (696,000 square miles) of desertified land, or 18 percent of its total land area.Despite the sandstorms, the Chinese government has insisted that it will intensify its efforts to clean the air and prepare for the 2008 Olympics by planting broad belts of trees around the capital.
Menu Foods says its pet food is now safe By Lionel Perron
Sat Mar 31, 3:45 AM ET
TORONTO (Reuters) - Menu Foods Income Fund, maker of the tainted pet foods at the center of this month's massive recall, said on Friday it is no longer using a Chinese supplier of wheat gluten after U.S. officials found the chemical melamine in some of the recalled products.
Menu Foods stopped using the supplier on March 6, 10 days before the recall was announced, Paul Henderson, Menu Foods' president and chief executive, told a news conference in Toronto.He said all pet food manufactured by his company after that date is safe.Let me be clear on this: we have removed the problem from our system, he said. Our recall is well under way and products produced today are being made with known quality and tested raw materials.We are angered that a source outside the company has apparently adulterated the product, causing this regrettable loss, he added.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said on Friday that melamine, a chemical used in fertilizers in Asia and forbidden in pet food, had been detected in some of the wheat gluten used by Mississauga, Ontario-based Menu Foods. The FDA said the wheat gluten came from a company in China.Menu Foods said all of the wheat glutin tainted by melamine came from the Chinese supplier.On March 16, Menu Foods recalled 60 million cans and pouches of cuts-and-gravy style wet pet food after it was blamed for the deaths of at least 14 animals -- mostly cats.The company makes pet foods that are sold under a variety of labels such as Iams, Eukanuba, President's Choice and Nutro Max Gourmet Classics, store brands sold at Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Safeway Inc. and at specialty pet stores including Petsmart Inc.The company says it used the Chinese supplier because its regular North
American and European wheat gluten suppliers couldn't keep up with demand.
In general there's a tight supply and we had to seek additional products to meet our needs, that's why we looked at bringing in additional suppliers, said Randall Copeland, Menu Foods' vice president.
It is still unclear how the chemical got into the wheat gluten.Henderson said he could not confirm the number of deaths related to the pet food recall, noting the company has fielded about 300,000 calls from across North America.Last week, New York state officials said aminopterin, a substance used in rat poison, had been found in the pet food. However, the FDA has not confirmed the presence of that toxin in the recalled pet food.Menu Foods says its investigation into the toxic ingredient that caused the recall is continuing.This is a subject of very great interest to us and our lawyers and you can expect we'll be following up, said Henderson.Units of Menu Foods closed up 16 Canadian cents, or 4 percent, at C$4.05 on Friday on the Toronto Stock Exchange.($1=$1.15 Canadian)
Outcry cancels chocolate Jesus show By LARRY McSHANE, Associated Press Writer Sat Mar 31, 10:43 AM ET
NEW YORK - A planned Holy Week exhibition of a nude, anatomically correct chocolate sculpture of Jesus Christ was canceled Friday after Cardinal Edward Egan and other outraged Catholics complained. The My Sweet Lord display was shut down by the hotel that houses the Lab Gallery in midtown Manhattan. Roger Smith Hotel president James Knowles cited the public outcry for his decision.The reaction is crystal clear and has brought to our attention the unintended reaction of you and other conscientious friends of ours to the exhibition, Knowles wrote in the two-paragraph cancellation notice.Matt Semler, the gallery's creative director, resigned in protest.
The six-foot sculpture was the victim of a strong-arming from people who haven't seen the show, seen what we're doing, Semler said. They jumped to conclusions completely contrary to our intentions.
But word of the confectionary Christ infuriated Catholics, including Egan, who described it as a sickening display. Bill Donohue, head of the watchdog Catholic League, said it was one of the worst assaults on Christian sensibilities ever.The hotel and the gallery were overrun Thursday with angry phone calls and e-mails about the exhibit. Semler said the calls included death threats over the work of artist Cosimo Cavallaro, who was described as disappointed by the decision to cancel the display.In this situation, the hotel couldn't continue to be supportive because of a fear for their own safety, Semler said.
The sculpture was to debut Monday evening, the day after Palm Sunday and just four days before Christians mark the crucifixion of Jesus Christ on Good Friday. The final day of the exhibit was planned for Easter Sunday.The artwork was created from more than 200 pounds of milk chocolate, and features Christ with his arms outstretched as if on an invisible cross. Unlike the typical religious portrayal of Christ, the Cavallaro creation does not include a loincloth.Cavallaro hoped the sculpture could go on display elsewhere, according to Semler.Cavallaro is best known for his quirky work with food as art: Past efforts include repainting a Manhattan hotel room in melted mozzarella, spraying five tons of pepper jack cheese on a Wyoming home, and festooning a four-poster bed with 312 pounds of processed ham.
U.N. chief: Arms crossing Syrian border By SAM F. GHATTAS, Associated Press Writer MAR 31,07
BEIRUT, Lebanon - The U.N. chief said Saturday that arms are reportedly still being smuggled over the border from Syria to Lebanon, and he urged all sides to fully comply with a United Nations resolution that ended the summer war between Hezbollah militants and Israel. The leading Lebanese daily An-Nahar reported Saturday that U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told Lebanese security chiefs that Israel had provided him with evidence and pictures of trucks crossing from Syria to Lebanon and unloading weapons.There are intelligence reports that arms are smuggled. I am concerned by that kind of arms smuggling, which will destabilize the situation in Lebanon, he told reporters later during a stop at the headquarters of the U.N. peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon.
The U.N. resolution that halted 34 days of fighting between Hezbollah and Israel calls among other things for a stop in arms shipments to Hezbollah guerrillas and demands the unconditional release of two Israeli soldiers the militants captured, triggering the conflict.Ban met Friday with Lebanese security chiefs during his two-day visit to Lebanon to discuss ways of enhancing the Lebanese army's monitoring capabilities along border with Syria, one of Hezbollah's principal patrons.He urged all sides to obey the U.N.-brokered cease-fire and expressed the need for an enhanced monitoring capacity of the Lebanese armed forces to ensure that there will be no such smuggling activity.Israeli Defense Minister Amir Peretz told Ban during a stop in Israel last weekend that the cease-fire in southern Lebanon is endangered by Hezbollah militants. He accused the Iranian- and Syrian-backed guerrillas of continuing to receive arms shipments from Syria.Lebanese leaders have rejected Israeli claims that weapon smuggling continues.
Pro-Western Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora said at a news conference with Ban on Friday that the Lebanese government was trying to improve its monitoring capabilities but stressed that not one single case of arms smuggling across the border with Syria has been recorded.His defense minister, Elias Murr, recently said that not a single mosquito is getting across the border, adding that Hezbollah did not need to resupply. On Friday, the defense minister again dismissed reports of arms smuggling through Syria as not true.But Hezbollah has boasted that it replenished its stockpile of rockets after the war.Israeli warplanes continue to fly reconnaissance missions over Lebanon, although Beirut and the U.N. consider them a violation of the cease-fire and have demanded Israel stop.Israel has refused, saying they are vital intelligence-gathering missions. An internal Israeli military document has said, however, the flights are intended in part to pressure the international community to stop arms smuggling to Hezbollah guerrillas and force the militants to release the abducted Israeli soldiers.
Merkel: EU supports Mideast peace talks By KARIN LAUB, Associated Press Writer Sun Apr 1, 6:21 AM ET
JERUSALEM - In her first Mideast trip as EU president, German Chancellor Angela Merkel offered Europe's help in bringing Israel and the Palestinians back to the negotiating table, trying to build on a new burst of international efforts to restart peace talks. Merkel also called on Iran to immediately release 15 British sailors and marines seized in the Gulf on March 23. Britain has the full solidarity of the European Union, Merkel said in a speech at Hebrew University. We demand the immediate release of the 15 British soldiers.Merkel, who was meeting Israeli and Palestinian leaders Sunday, said the Europeans are ready to offer support, but ultimately the sides must resolve their differences themselves.The Europeans must not assume that they could force a solution. We can't and I don't want to do it, she said in her speech. Within my abilities, I would like to support the sides to walk the path toward peace.Her visit came after the Arab world renewed a land-for-recognition offer to Israel last week. Since then, the Quartet of Mideast mediators — the United States, the European Union, the United Nations and Russia — has said it hopes to arrange a meeting with moderate Arab states, Israel and the Palestinians before the summer. Merkel, who now holds the rotating EU presidency, plays an
important Quartet role.
However, several obstacles are blocking progress.
Much of the world is still reluctant to deal with the new Palestinian unity government, a coalition of the Islamic militant Hamas and the Fatah movement of moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, because it has failed to explicitly recognize Israel or renounce violence.Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has said he will not talk to Abbas about any of the ingredients of a final peace deal, such as
the borders of a future Palestinian state, until Palestinian militants halt rocket fire from Gaza and release an Israeli soldier held in Gaza for nine months.Olmert, while praising the Arabs' readiness to offer recognition, has been cool to the price Israel is asked to pay for it a withdrawal from the lands it captured in the 1967 Mideast War, including the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem, and recognition of the right of return of Palestinian refugees. Israel has said that while willing to give up lands, it won't return to the 1967 borders. It flatly rejects the return of refugees.In a visit last week, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice wrested a promise from Olmert and Abbas to meet biweekly.
Merkel is expected to ask the two leaders to make good use of these conversations no date has been set for the first round but her aides said she is not carrying a concrete action plan.
The chancellor arrived in Jerusalem on Saturday evening and held informal talks with Olmert.Israel and Germany have close relations. Germany has long considered guaranteeing Israel's security to be a pillar of its foreign policy following the Holocaust.Sunday's stops included breakfast with Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and a tour of the Yad Vashem Holocaust museum.Merkel spent about half an hour at the Holocaust memorial, visiting the Hall of Remembrance and laying a wreath decorated with ribbons bearing the German flag. Before leaving, she wrote in the memorial's guest book: Humanity grows out of responsibility for the past..Later, Merkel went to the Hebrew University where the former physics researcher received an honorary doctorate.We admire your steadfast friendship with the Jewish people, university President Menachem Magidor said. As Merkel stood on a red carpet, a large blue ribbon was placed on her shoulders.
In the afternoon, she was to meet with Abbas at his West Bank headquarters in Ramallah, followed by more talks with Olmert in Jerusalem in the evening.In Ramallah, Merkel was expected to meet only with Abbas and to avoid Palestinian Cabinet ministers, even those who are not Hamas members, her aides said.
The EU foreign ministers decided Saturday, in a meeting in Germany, to start dealing with non-Hamas members of the Palestinian government. In continuing to shun the entire Palestinian Cabinet during this trip, Merkel apparently was trying to avoid angering her Israeli hosts. With the EU decision, Israel is increasingly alone in its call for a total boycott of the Palestinian government. Abbas will ask Merkel to deal with all members of his government and to pressure Israel to resume peace talks, said his information minister, Mustafa Barghouti. Abbas' aides contend that the government cannot be ignored because it represents the vast majority of the Palestinian people. They also note that the government calls for establishing a state in territories Israel occupied in the 1967 Mideast War, implying recognition of Israel, and that it seeks to consolidate a truce. Yet Abbas has been unable to
stop rocket fire from Gaza on Israeli border towns. And his assurances to Israel and Germany that the Israeli soldier would be freed soon, as part of a prisoner swap, never materialized.
Pope celebrates Palm Sunday Mass By NICOLE WINFIELD, Associated Press Writer
VATICAN CITY - Pope Benedict XVI, in his Palm Sunday Mass, opened the Roman Catholic
Church's most solemn week by urging young people to live pure, innocent lives. This year, Holy Week also includes the second anniversary of the April 2, 2005, death of Pope John Paul II. On Monday, the Catholic Church will close one phase of its investigation into John Paul's saintliness as it keeps up the momentum to have the beloved pope beatified. Holding an intricately woven palm frond, Benedict opened the Palm Sunday celebration by processing through the sun-filled St. Peter's Square and up the steps of the basilica. He was preceded by dozens of priests, bishops and cardinals who clutched palms and olive branches as their red vestments fluttered in the breeze.
Palm Sunday commemorates Jesus Christ's triumphant entry into Jerusalem, and is the start of the church's Holy Week, which includes the Good Friday re-enactment of Christ's crucifixion and death and his resurrection on Easter Sunday.
Benedict continued the tradition started by John Paul and dedicated Palm Sunday to the young, who were out in force in St. Peter's.He told them that to follow God they should have innocent hands and pure hearts.Innocent hands are hands that are not used for acts of violence, he told them. They are hands that are not sullied by corruption and bribes.Hearts are pure when they are not stained by lies and hypocrisy, he said. A heart is pure when it is estranged from the intoxication of pleasure; a heart for whom love is true and not just the passion of a moment, he said.
Benedict has an unusually busy schedule this week: In addition to the traditional Holy Week ceremonies, he will preside over a Mass on Monday afternoon in honor of John Paul to mark the second anniversary of the pontiff's death.He is not expected to attend the ceremony earlier in the day closing the church probe into John Paul's life and virtues. That ceremony will be headed by officials of the Rome diocese, which completed the investigation that will be turned over to the Vatican to decide whether John Paul can be beatified, the last formal step before possible sainthood.
WELL ISN'T THIS INTERESTING, THE IRANIANS ARE RIOTING AND BURNING THE UK BUILDING IN IRAN (LIKE USUAL,NOTHING NEW). MEANWHILE THEY CAPTURED THE UK SAILORS, DOES THIS REALLY MAKE SENCE. THE UK SHOULD BE BURNING AND RIOTING THE IRANIAN EMBASSY INSTEAD. OH BUT I FORGOT ISLAM IS A PEACEFUL RELIGION AND AMERICA AND UK IS THE DEVIL IN IRANS EYES.
Protest in Iran targets British Embassy By NASSER KARIMI, Associated Press Writer
APR 01,07
TEHRAN, Iran - About 200 students threw rocks and firecrackers at the British Embassy on Sunday, calling for the expulsion of the country's ambassador because of the standoff over Iran's capture of 15 British sailors and marines. Several dozen policemen prevented the protesters from entering the embassy compound, although a few briefly scaled a fence outside the compound's walls before being pushed back, according to an Associated Press reporter at the scene.The protesters chanted Death to Britain and Death to America as they hurled stones into the courtyard of the embassy. They also demanded that the Iranian government expel the British ambassador and close down the embassy, calling it a den of spies.Britain's Foreign Office said there had been no damage to the compound.
A British Foreign Office spokeswoman in London, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with government rules, said diplomats were working normally inside the embassy.There is a police presence outside and there is no risk to those inside, said the spokeswoman.Britain and Iran are at a standoff over the 15 seized sailors and marines. Britain said they were in Iraqi waters when detained, but Iran has contended the Britons entered its waters illegally.British government and defense officials refused to discuss a report that claimed a Royal Navy captain or commodore would be sent to Tehran as a special envoy to negotiate the return of the personnel.The official would deliver an assurance that British naval crews would never deliberately enter Iranian waters without permission, the Sunday Telegraph newspaper reported.Transport Minister Douglas Alexander said Britain was engaged in exploring the potential for dialogue with the Iranians.The responsible way forward is to continue the often unglamorous, but important and quiet diplomatic work to get our personnel home, Alexander told the British Broadcasting Corp.'s Sunday AM program.
British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett appeared to soften rhetoric against Iran Saturday — though she stopped far short of the apology sought by many in Iran.I think everyone regrets that this position has arisen, Beckett said in Bremen, Germany, before returning to England. What we want is a way out of it. President Bush on Saturday called for the release of the sailors and marines and labeling their capture inexcusable behavior.Iran must give back the hostages, Bush said. They're innocent, they
did nothing wrong, and they were summarily plucked out of waters.Eight British sailors and seven marines were detained by Iranian naval units March 23 while patrolling for smugglers near the mouth of the Shatt al-Arab, a waterway that has long been a disputed dividing line between Iraq and Iran.Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called world powers arrogant for refusing to apologize.Instead of apologizing over trespassing by British forces, the world arrogant powers issue statements and deliver speeches, Iran's official IRNA news agency quoted Ahmadinejad as saying during a speech in the southeastern city of Andinmeshk. A poll published in the Sunday Telegraph newspaper found that 66 percent of respondents trusted Blair and Beckett to resolve the crisis, while 28 percent did not. Only 7 percent thought the government should be preparing to use military force. Pollster ICM interviewed 762 adults by telephone March 30 and 31. The margin of error is 4 percentage points. Associated Press writers Jill Lawless and David Stringer in London, and Deb Riechmann in Camp David, Md., contributed to this report.
Sunday, April 01, 2007
Saturday, March 31, 2007
AMERICA UNPREPARED FOR NUKE ATTACK
1-WORLD QUAKES LAST 2 DAYS.2-Small earthquake rattles Montana. 3-Flooding, tornadoes unleashed on Midwest. 4-U.S. farmers face soggy and cold corn crop. 5-Europe faces global warming double whammy, but can cope: UN experts. 6-Cashless society by 2012, says Visa chief. 7-A-Zahar Reiterates Hamas Goal: World Domination. 8-Pastor with 666 tattoo claims to be divine. 9-Abbas Warns Israel, Accept 2002 Arab Peace Plan or Face War. 10-David's Comment:Passing Over into the New Year. 11-America unprepared for likely nuke attack.
EARTHQUAKES
MATTHEW 24:7-8
7 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.
8 All these are the beginning of sorrows.
MARK 13:8
8 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom:(ETHNIC GROUP AGAINST ETHNIC GROUP) and there shall be earthquakes in divers places, and there shall be famines and troubles: these are the beginnings of sorrows.
LUKE 21:11
11 And great earthquakes shall be in divers places, and famines, and pestilences; and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven.
WORLD QUAKES LAST 2 DAYS (USGS)
Update time = Sat Mar 31 12:00 AM EDT
MAR 30,07
MAP 2.8 CENTRAL ALASKA
MAP 3.0 WASHINGTON
MAP 2.8 ISLAND OF HAWAII, HAWAII
MAP 4.8 SIMEULUE, INDONESIA
MAP 4.5 WESTERN TURKEY
MAP 5.1 GUERRERO, MEXICO
MAP 2.8 BAJA CALIFORNIA, MEXICO
MAP 4.7 WESTERN TURKEY
MAP 2.8 NORTHERN CALIFORNIA
MAP 5.7 FIJI REGION
MAP 2.5 SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
MAP 2.7 CENTRAL CALIFORNIA
MAP 2.6 CENTRAL CALIFORNIA
MAP 2.6 ANDREANOF ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN IS., ALASKA
MAP 3.0 ANDREANOF ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN IS., ALASKA
MAP 2.5 BAJA CALIFORNIA, MEXICO
MAP 4.6 ALASKA PENINSULA
MAP 2.8 CENTRAL ALASKA
MAP 4.0 CENTRAL CALIFORNIA
MAP 5.4 HOKKAIDO, JAPAN REGION
MAP 4.8 SOUTH OF THE FIJI ISLANDS
MAP 4.9 FIJI REGION
MAP 3.1 ALASKA PENINSULA
MAP 5.0 VOLCANO ISLANDS, JAPAN REGION
MAP 2.7 KODIAK ISLAND REGION, ALASKA
MAR 29,07
MAP 2.8 NORTHERN ALASKA
MAP 2.9 SOUTHERN ALASKA
MAP 2.6 OFFSHORE NORTHERN CALIFORNIA
MAP 5.3 KURIL ISLANDS
MAP 3.3 CENTRAL ALASKA
MAP 4.8 HOKKAIDO, JAPAN REGION
MAP 4.8 COQUIMBO, CHILE
MAP 4.3 MARIANA ISLANDS REGION
MAP 4.8 OFFSHORE COQUIMBO, CHILE
MAP 5.4 OFFSHORE COQUIMBO, CHILE
MAP 2.5 SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
MAP 4.5 SOUTH OF PANAMA
MAP 5.4 OFFSHORE COQUIMBO, CHILE
MAP 4.5 IZU ISLANDS, JAPAN REGION
MAP 2.8 SOUTHERN ALASKA
MAP 2.7 ISLAND OF HAWAII, HAWAII
MAP 3.2 PUERTO RICO REGION
MAP 2.8 PUERTO RICO REGION
MAP 4.8 NEAR THE EAST COAST OF KORYAKIA, RUSSIA
MAP 4.7 SEA OF JAPAN
MAP 2.9 VIRGIN ISLANDS REGION
MAP 3.2 VIRGIN ISLANDS REGION
MAP 2.7 VIRGIN ISLANDS REGION
MAP 2.6 BAJA CALIFORNIA, MEXICO
MAP 2.7 KENAI PENINSULA, ALASKA
MAP 5.1 IZU ISLANDS, JAPAN REGION
MAP 3.1 WESTERN MONTANA
MAP 4.7 BARBADOS REGION, WINDWARD ISLANDS
MAP 3.1 UNIMAK ISLAND REGION, ALASKA
Small earthquake rattles Montana Fri Mar 30, 12:17 AM ET
DILLON, Mont. - A small earthquake that rattled southwestern Montana caused no damage but could be felt about 90 miles away. The magnitude-3.7 earthquake, which struck late Wednesday, was an aftershock of a 5.6-magnitude quake that hit the same area in July 2005, said Tom Satterly, who manages the University of Montana-Western's environmental sciences department.It's the biggest (aftershock) we've seen in quite a while, Stickney said.It was centered about 15 miles northeast of Dillon and could be felt as far as Helena, said Mike Stickney, director of earthquake studies for the Montana Bureau of Mines and Geology.About 5,000 aftershocks have been recorded from the 2005 quake, which cracked walls and damaged bridges, Stickney said. The region averages about five aftershocks a day, most too small to be felt.
STORMS HURRICANES-TORNADOES
LUKE 21:25-26
25 And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity;(MASS CONFUSION) the sea and the waves roaring;(FIERCE WINDS)
26 Men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken.
Flooding, tornadoes unleashed on Midwest By SEAN MURPHY, Associated Press Writer Fri Mar 30, 12:16 PM ET
OKLAHOMA CITY - The violent storm system blamed for four deaths in three states flooded parts of North Texas as it moved eastward, stranding drivers in high water and forcing dozens of elderly people to evacuate an assisted living center. Many smaller roads in the area were still closed Friday morning.It fell hard and fast, said Corsicana police Sgt. Jimmie Hensley. We had a lot of street flooding, intersections flooded. We had to rescue several people from their cars.Businesses in the town flooded as up to 7 inches of rain fell in the area. About 60 elderly residents from an assisted living center were taken to a church on higher ground for safety, said Eric Meyers, Navarro County Emergency Management coordinator.The spring storm unleashed more than 65 tornadoes in Oklahoma, Texas, Kansas, Colorado and Nebraska on Wednesday and Thursday, the National Weather Service said. A twister Thursday afternoon in Oklahoma City injured at least five people — two of them critically.
Joyce Eells, who lives in far northwestern Oklahoma City, said the tornado took off most of the roof of her home, but she counted herself lucky that nobody was home when the storm hit.All the important things are OK. My husband and family are OK. That's the important stuff, Eells said. My husband's words when he saw the damage were: I don't think we'll be staying here for a while.
A 7-year-old Oklahoma girl was also treated at a hospital for cuts Thursday, and two people were injured when a van was thrown from the Kilpatrick Turnpike into a concrete culvert by the storms, said Oklahoma City Deputy Fire Chief Tony Young.On Wednesday, the storm system was blamed for four deaths in Oklahoma, Colorado and Texas.Vance and Barbra Woodbury were killed when a twister blew apart their home near the Oklahoma Panhandle community of Elmwood. In the Texas Panhandle, Monte Ford, 53, was thrown from his trailer after high winds rolled it near an oilfield.
In the hard hit town of Holly, Colo., Rosemary Rosales, 28, died after a tornado as wide as two football fields flung her from her home into a nearby tree.
Her 3-year-old daughter and husband were among seven people hospitalized.All they heard was this big ugly noise, and they didn't have no time to run, said Victoria Rosales, a relative.In Holly on Friday, residents shoveled debris and sawed up fallen trees while utility crews replaced power and telephone poles. A Red Cross truck circulated through the town, offering coffee to the workers.The same storm system dumped mountains of snow on Wyoming, causing highway pileups and closing large portions of three interstates. Roads there were still largely inaccessible Friday. Up to 70 inches of snow fell in the Wind River Mountains area since Wednesday.About 600 homes in the Buffalo, Wyo., area were without heat and electricity Friday morning, down from about 2,200 across north-central Wyoming on Wednesday.Associated Press writer Colleen Slevin in Colorado contributed to this report.
U.S. farmers face soggy and cold corn crop weather By Sam Nelson
Fri Mar 30, 12:49 PM ET
CHICAGO (Reuters) - Farmers in the U.S. Corn Belt, who intend to plant the biggest cord crop in 63 years, will face soggy or cold planting weather over at least the next week, a private forecaster said on Friday.
DTN Meteorlogix weather service forecaster Joel Burgio said wet and warm weather would blanket the Midwest from Friday through Tuesday, then cold and drier conditions would prevail through the end of the week.The U.S. Department of Agriculture said on Friday American farmers intended to plant nearly 90.5 million acres of corn this year, the most since 1944.Soaring demand for corn from the ethanol industry has boosted corn prices to decade highs this year, prompting farmers to plant corn in lieu of soybeans this crop season.The crop needs to be seeded from roughly early April through mid-May to capture optimal production potential.It all comes down to weather, and it starts from now through the growing season, said Shawn McCambridge, analyst for Prudential Financial.
Now we start to see whether we can plant this much corn on a timely basis.
Chicago Board of Trade corn futures plunged their 20-cent trading limit on Friday because the government's forecast for this year's corn acreage was well above an average of analysts' estimates.
Analysts at a press conference following the release of USDA's forecast also said that weather will have the final say in the 2007 corn and soybean planting and production derby.We definitely need good yields and timely plantings. The weather issue is important and right now it looks a little shaky, with wet and cool expected for next week, said Jerry Gidel, analyst for North America Risk Management Inc. Burgio also wasn't optimistic about a big improvement in planting weather anytime soon.The way the pattern has been behaving, when it does warm up, it will be wet again, so planting may be slow. But with today's equipment they can get a lot planted in a short period of time, Burgio said.U.S. farmers are capable of planting the acreage and the next 45 days are critical. Corn yield per acre and production is closely related to timely plantings, said Brian Basting, commodity research analyst for Advance Trading.It's going to be an exciting time the next few months, Basting said.(Additional reporting by Julie Ingwersen)
Europe faces global warming double whammy, but can cope: UN experts by Marlowe Hood MAR 30,07
PARIS (AFP) - Global warming will hit Europe hard but unevenly this century, causing drought, reduced harvests and deadly heatwaves in the south but inflicting more floods and severe winter storms farther north, UN experts say in a report to be unveiled next week. In Alpine regions, reduced snow cover imperils a multi-billion-dollar ski industry while rising temperatures could wipe out up to 60 percent of plant and animal species, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) warns.The continent has already had a foretaste of its likely future: this winter was the warmest on record in many European countries, as have been 11 of the past 12 years.The report, which deals with the impacts of global warming, is the second in a three-volume review of the evidence for climate change, the first since 2001.A final draft of the 1,400-page document obtained by AFP says that even if dramatic measures are taken to reduce the carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions that drive warming, temperatures worldwide will continue to climb for decades to come, unleashing unwelcome changes across the planet.
And if nothing at all is done to mitigate climate change, the impact in some regions could be catastrophic by century's end.By 2080, the report says, it is likely that 1.1 to 3.2 billion people worldwide will experience water scarcity, 200 to 600 million will suffer from hunger, and each year, an additional two to seven million people will be victims of coastal flooding.The human toll will be heaviest, experts say, in Africa and Asia, where hundreds of millions in low-lying mega-river deltas are threatened by rising sea levels, and tens of millions more by the spread of infectious disease.As for Europe, some regions will likewise be severely challenged but overall the continent is somewhat less vulnerable -- and better able to adapt -- than poorer counterparts.In the short term, if global temperatures rise no more than 2 C (3.6 F) compared to 1990 levels -- the maximum rise set by European Union (EU) policymakers -- northern European countries may even enjoy higher crop yields, milder winters and expanding forests.
But as the 21st century unfolds, those benefits are very likely to be swamped by the negative impact of warming.Under almost any scenario, a swathe of Mediterranean countries including Spain, France, Italy and Greece faces a panoply of problems.They include more frequent heatwaves of the kind that in 2003 killed tens of thousands of elderly people; damage to the tourism industry increased forest fires; and a fall of up to a third in fresh water availability, depending again on temperature rise.
Wintertime floods are likely to increase in Europe's maritime regions, while snowmelt-related floods and flashfloods will hit central Europe.
Europe has the resources to protect human life from the brunt of global warming onslaught, but its biodiversity will be badly affected.A large percentage of the European flora is likely to become vulnerable, endangered, or committed to extinction by the end of this century, says the draft.In the first volume of its report, issued in February, the IPCC predicted world temperatures would rise by 1.8 C to 4.0 C (3.2-7.2 F) by 2100, depending on how much greenhouse gas is emitted into the atmosphere. A third volume, issued at the end of April, will look at ways of reducing those emissions.
In the Brussels meeting, the second volume will be issued on Friday after delegates hammer out a summary for policy makers, distilling in a couple of dozen pages their most important findings.
Some participants complain that the summary, as currently written, does not adequately highlight the fact that those least able to adapt -- poor people -- will be the hardest hit. We in the northern hemisphere can adapt to heatwaves, but that is a very selfish notion, commented French scientist and IPCC executive committee member Jean Jouzel. The draft summary concludes that global warming is unequivocal, that human activity is the main driver, and that changes in climate are now affecting physical and biological systems on every continent.Across the planet, 20 to 30 percent of animal and plant species face extinction if temperatures rise 1.5 C to 2.5 C (2.7 F to 4.5 F). Increases greater than 4 C (7.2 F) above 1990-2000 levels would lead to major increases in vulnerability that would exceed the adaptive capacity of many systems, the report says.
Cashless society by 2012, says Visa chief
By Tim Webb 11 March 2007
Paying for goods with notes and coins could be consigned to history within five years, according to the chief executive of Visa Europe. Peter Ayliffe said that, by 2012, using credit and debit cards should be cheaper and more convenient than cash.Some retailers could soon start surcharging customers if they choose to buy products with cash, because of the greater cost of processing these payments, he warned.Visa Europe briefed the British Retail Consortium last month on newcontactless cards that can be waved in front of a scanner to make small payments.
However, the consortium dismissed this vision and claimed that card processing fees, which regulators are investigating, are still too high.One member of the consurtium said that the estimated interchange fee charged to retailers amounts to some 4p for each transaction.Nick Mourant, treasurer at Tesco, said: There is a duopoly between Mastercard and Visa in the UK. Their setting of fees is anti-competitive.
A-Zahar Reiterates Hamas Goal: World Domination
by Nissan Ratzlav-Katz 9 Nisan 5767, March 28, '07
(IsraelNN.com) Addressing a mass rally in memory of the founder of the Hamas terrorist organization, Ahmed Yassin, senior Hamas leader and former Palestinian Authority official Mahmoud A-Zahar reiterated a fundamental position espoused by Hamas and other Islamist groups worldwide: struggle for the complete obliteration of Israel and the worldwide rule of Islam.
According to an alert released by Palestinian Media Watch (PMW), which monitors and translates Palestinian Authority media, the main elements of A-Zahar's speech were printed in the PA's Al-Ayyam newspaper on March 25, 2007. A-Zahar emphasized that the Islamic Movement's [Hamas's] position concerning the problem of the liberation of Palestine is clear and known, Al-Ayyam reported. A-Zahar is quoted as saying:
We have two important foundations: one is Koranic and the other is prophetic. The Koranic: the divine promise made in the Al-Israa Sura [Chapter 17] is that we will liberate the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque, and we will enter it as we have entered it the first time' [paraphrasing Sura 17 (The Night Journey), verse 7]. And the prophetic foundation is the message of the prophet Muhammad, that Islam will enter every house and will spread over the entire world. Our position is the liberation of Palestine, all of Palestine. This is the final and strategic solution for us.
There is a Koranic message for us, that we will enter the Al-Aqsa Mosque, and the entrance to the mosque means the entrance into all of Palestine. This is the message, no one can deny it. Anyone who denies it must check his faith and his Islam.A-Zahar's statements, as promulgated in the PA media, are restatements of views expressed in the foundational covenant of Hamas, the PA government's ruling faction. Regarding Israel, the 1988 Hamas Covenant preamble says, Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it. While Article 28 of the Covenant widens the threat: .Israel, Judaism and Jews challenge Islam and the Muslim people. May the cowards never sleep.
The Hamas position on the existence of a sovereign Jewish entity in the Middle East is identical to its position on any lands once conquered by Muslims. As Article 11 of the organization's covenant says: [Hamas] believes that the land of Palestine is an Islamic Waqf consecrated for future Muslim generations until Judgment Day. It, or any part of it, should not be squandered: it, or any part of it, should not be given up. ...[And] the same goes for any land the Muslims have conquered by force, because during the times of (Islamic) conquests, the Muslims consecrated these lands to Muslim generations till the Day of Judgment.Functionally, Hamas also sees itself as part of a global movement for Islamic domination. As Article 2 declares, [Hamas] is one of the wings of the Muslim Brotherhood in Palestine. The Muslim Brotherhood Movement is a universal organization.... More fundamentally, Article 5 says, [Hamas's] place is anywhere that there are Muslims who embrace Islam as their way of life everywhere on the globe. This being so, it extends to the depth of the earth and reaches out to the heaven.Echoing his co-religionists in the PA, the leader of the northern branch of the Islamic Movement in Israel, Raad Salah, declared in September of 2006 that a new Caliphate will soon arise with its capital in Jerusalem.
HERES THE STORY I WAS TRYIN TO FIND WHEN I SEEN IT ON CNN ABOUT THE CULT LEADER WHO THINKS HES JESUS AND HIS FOLLOWERS GET MARKED WITH 666 ON THEIR HANDS. LIKE I SAID BEFORE THIS IS A FORUNNER TO THE EU DICTATOR THAT DEMANDS ALL RECIEVE THIS MARK (CHIP IMPLANT I BELIEVE) IN THE FUTURE OR DIE.
THIS GUY HERE IS OUT TO LUNCH BIGTIME, BUT IT IS PROPHESIED TO HAPPEN BEFORE THE DICTATOR COMES ON THE SCENE.
Pastor with 666 tattoo claims to be divine
POSTED: 2:08 p.m. EST, February 19, 2007 By John Zarrella and Patrick Oppmann CNN
MIAMI, Florida (CNN) -- The minister has the number 666 tattooed on his arm.But Jose Luis de Jesus Miranda is not your typical minister. De Jesus, or Daddy as his thousands of followers call him, does not merely pray to God: He says he is God.The spirit that is in me is the same spirit that was in Jesus of Nazareth, de Jesus says.De Jesus' claims of divinity have angered Christian leaders, who say he is a fake. Religious experts say he may be something much more dangerous, a cult leader who really believes he is God. (Watch followers get 666 tattoos for their leader )
He's in their heads, he's inside the heads of those people, says Prof. Daniel Alvarez, a religion expert at Florida International University who has debated some of de Jesus' followers. De Jesus speaks with a kind of conviction that makes me consider him more like David Koresh or Jim Jones.Is de Jesus really a cult leader like David Koresh, who died with more than 70 of his Branch Davidian followers in a fiery end to a standoff with federal authorities, or Jim Jones, the founder of the Peoples Temple who committed mass suicide with 900 followers in 1978?
Prophets spoke to me
De Jesus and his believers say their church -- Creciendo en Gracia, Spanish for Growing in grace -- is misunderstood. Followers of the movement say they have proof that their minister is divine and that their church will one day soon be a major faith in the world.But even de Jesus concedes that he is an unlikely leader of a church that claims thousands of members in more than 30 countries.De Jesus, 61, grew up poor in Puerto Rico. He says he served stints in prison there for petty theft and says he was a heroin addict.De Jesus says he learned he was Jesus reincarnate when he was visited in a dream by angels.The prophets, they spoke about me. It took me time to learn that, but I am what they were expecting, what they have been expecting for 2,000 years, de Jesus says.The church that he began building 20 years ago in Miami resembles no other:Followers have protested Christian churches in Miami and Latin America, disrupting services and smashing crosses and statues of Jesus.De Jesus preaches there is no devil and no sin. His followers, he says, literally can do no wrong in God's eyes.The church calls itself the Government of God on Earth and uses a seal similar to the United States.
Doing God's work with a Lexus and Rolex
If Creciendo en Gracia is an atypical religious group, de Jesus also does not fit the mold of the average church leader. De Jesus flouts traditional vows of poverty. He says he has a church-paid salary of $136,000 but lives more lavishly than that. During an interview, he showed off a diamond-encrusted Rolex to a CNN crew and said he has three just like them. He travels in armored Lexuses and BMWs, he says, for his safety. All are gifts from his devoted followers.
And what about the tattoo of 666 on his arm?
Although it's a number usually associated with Satan, not the son of God, de Jesus says that 666 and the Antichrist are, like him, misunderstood.The Antichrist is not the devil, de Jesus tells his congregation; he's the being who replaces Jesus on Earth.Antichrist is the best person in the world, he says. Antichrist means don't put your eyes on Jesus because Jesus of Nazareth wasn't a Christian. Antichrist means do not put your eyes on Jesus Christ of Nazareth. Put it on Jesus after the cross. And de Jesus says that means him.
So far, de Jesus says that his flock hasn't been scared off by his claims of being the Antichrist. In a show of the sway he holds over the group, 30 members of his congregation Tuesday went to a tattoo parlor to have 666 also permanently etched onto their skin.He may wield influence over them, but his followers say don't expect them to go the way of people who believed in David Koresh and Jim Jones. Just by finding de Jesus, they say, they have achieved their purpose.If somebody tells us drink some Kool-Aid and we'll go to heaven, that's not true. We are already in heavenly places, follower Martita Roca told CNN after having 666 tattooed onto her ankle.
Abbas Warns Israel, Accept 2002 Arab Peace Plan or Face War
by Hana Levi Julian (INN) MAR 30,07
Israel would be well advised to team up with the Palestinian Authority under the 2002 Arab peace plan, says PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas and well advised to raise its alert status if it does not.
Abbas accused Israel of seeking to avoid the realization of peace by insisting on changes to the plan authored five years ago by Saudi Arabian King Abdullah. The plan calls for Israel to withdraw from all the lands recovered during the 1967 Six Day War, including Judea, Samaria, the Golan Heights and half of Jerusalem. It also calls for Israel to allow millions of Arab descendants of those who fled the country during the 1948 War of Independence to be allowed to immigrate to Israel. The Jewish State has rejected this clause absolutely. It's not a secret that anti-U.S. feeling within Fatah is increasing, and Abbas is ignoring this.
Speaking at the closing ceremony of the Arab League Summit in Riyadh on Thursday, Abbas called for a negotiated settlement that will be sponsored by the international community and within the framework of an international peace conference in the region.
He warned, however, that if Israel did not accept the Arab peace plan, The entire region will be under renewed threats of war [and] explosions, as well as regional and international confrontations, as a result of the absence of a solution or the impossibility of implementing one.Abbas accompanied his threat with a statement reiterating the sincerity of the Palestinian will in extending the hand of peace to the Israeli people we should not waste more chances in the history of this long and painful cause.Fatah Complains Abbas Has Become Condis Office Boy.A caricature on PA websites Thursday showed a Jew with his back turned on Abbas, whose head is covered with doves, symbolizing peace.
Abbas is losing support within his own faction by appearing to be allied with the Bush administration, according to a report in TIME magazine. The report quoted a PA Central Committee member as saying, It's not a secret that anti-U.S. feeling within Fatah is increasing, and Abbas is ignoring this.
Abbas had not been tough enough when presenting PA demands to U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice during her visit to the region this week, complained the source. Abbas doesn't respect us. He is too busy bowing to American demands. He's become Condi's office boy.On the other hand, noted TIME, Abbas also did not pass on to Secretary Rice information that Hamas may quit the unity government and resume attacks against Israel.
Abbas Talks Peace, His Fatah Faction Fires Rockets
Abbass Fatah faction includes the Al-Aksa Martyrs Brigades terrorist group as well as the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), which Abbas chairs. The former vowed Thursday to continue its Kassam rocket attacks against Israeli communities in the western Negev. Abu Ahmed, commander of the northern Gaza division of Al Aksa told WorldNet Daily that if the Israel Defense Forces continue anti-terrorist operations, You can count on a [long] string of suicide bombings and rocket attacks.
Al Aksa claimed to have teamed up with the Islamic Jihad terrorist organization in firing a total of seven Kassam rockets at Israeli communities in the western Negev on Wednesday. Some damage was caused in Sderot and two rockets landed just south of the port city of Ashkelon but no injuries were reported. Arab terrorists launched at least four more Kassams toward Ashkelon on Thursday. No damage or injuries were reported.
David's Comment: Passing Over into the New Year MAR 30,07
Exodus 12:2 - 3 This month shall be your beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year to you. Speak to all the congregation of Israel, saying: On the tenth day of this month every man shall take for himself a lamb, according to the house of his father, a lamb for a household. (NKJ)
The above verse begins the Lord's instructions to Israel on how they should remember and celebrate the Passover - their deliverance from slavery under the tyrannical regime of Pharaoh. It is really the event that marks the beginning of the nation of Israel and thus YHVH tells them that this is the beginning of their calendar year. The timing of all of the other festivals of the Lord, is calculated from the first day of the Hebrew month of Nisan. As I have written previously, we believe that everyone, Jew and Gentile, who love and worship the God of Israel, ought to do their best to live their lives according to His calendar, not on the calendar of the world system, which is under the jurisdiction of the Devil, who according to the Bible, is currently the god of this world. Some people may see it as a burdensome thing to learn about and celebrate God's feasts, but it doesn't have to be.
Celebrating the Biblical feasts can be great fun, and a wonderful time of fellowship and literal feasting. All of the Biblical feasts are a shadow of what it will be like when the Kingdom is finally established on the Earth and they all point to the Messiah - Yeshua. There is so much to learn about the nature and character of God, and the feasts contain a lot of imagery which helps us to learn. The annual Biblical feast cycle is also a shadow of the timing of God's prophetic plan to restore Israel, to establish His Kingdom in Jerusalem and to send His Son back to be the King of His glorious eternal Kingdom. What better time to begin to explore the Lord's annual Feast cycle than at the first feast of the year.It may be too late for you to organise a Passover Seder meal this coming Monday, but if you do make sure you obtain a Messianic Seder instruction manual. I may be able to help locate one you if you need. Very simply, Passover is a shadow of the salvation found only in Yeshua, the Lamb of God. It was the blood of the lambs on the doorposts of the Hebrews dwellings that saved the Hebrew firstborn inside from the Angel of Death. Ultimately this led to the liberation of the Hebrews from slavery under Pharaoh to freedom in the Promised Land.And it is the blood of Lamb Yeshua that saves any person from slavery to sin and brings them into the eternal promised land.
Perhaps the most ironic thing about the Passover celebration is that the Jewish people have sat at their Passover Seder tables for the last 2000 years,have and yet not seen the incredible imagery of the Seder elements that so clearly show that the Messiah has already been.
The 3 sheets of unleavened bread or Matzah,are striped, bruised and pierced. ( see Isaiah 53:5 But He was wounded for our trans-gressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed. ) These three sheets are called the Unity and must surely represent Father, Son & Holy Sprirt. The middle sheet is broken in half, wrapped in a cloth & hidden for the children to find. It is called the Afikomen. Even today the rabbis say that the Afikomen represents the long awaited Messiah. The word Afikomen is a Greek word, the only Greek word in the Passover ceremony. Amazingly, Afikomen means I have arrived !
And the Afikomen can only be discovered by the children - remember that Yeshua said that if we want to come to God we must come as little children.It is customary to set an extra place at the Passover table for Elijah, who must precede the arrival of Messiah. As the popular song says, these are the days of Elijah. Lets pray from now until Passover that this year the spirit of Elijah will be present at every Passover Seder causing the veil of blindess to be lifted and that multitudes of Jews will see Yeshua as Messiah as they look upon the stripes, bruises and piercings on the Matzah and as they wrap the Afikomen in the cloth, they will realise that the Messiah has indeed already arrived.The Lord bless you as you bless Israel by standing in defense of her right to exist on the land given to the Jewish people by the God of Israel . Do not be silent, but share this to your fellow Christians, share it with your pastors and with anyone you have a chance to speak to. Lets also pray for thatbreakthrough to the Muslims, and please remember to pray for our son Jordan, and all of his fellow soldiers in the IDF. Shabbat Shalom .. . David & Josie
America unprepared for likely nuke attack. Public awareness campaign is only hope, says 3-year University of Georgia study March 30, 2007 - 1:00 a.m. Eastern - By Joseph Farah - WorldNetDaily.com
New York City
WASHINGTON – The most extensive study of the effects of nuclear detonations in four major U.S. cities paints a grim picture of millions of deaths, overwhelmed hospitals and loss of command-and-control capability by government. But the three-year study by researchers at the Center for Mass Destruction Defense at the University of Georgia says a concerted effort to teach civilians what to do in the event of a nuclear attack is the best – perhaps only – thing that could save an untold number of lives that will otherwise be needlessly lost. If a nuclear detonation were to occur in a downtown area, the picture would be bleak there, said Cham Dallas, director of the program and professor in the college of pharmacy. But in urban areas farther from the detonation, there actually is quite a bit that we can do. In certain areas, it may be possible to turn the death rate from 90 percent in some burn populations to probably 20 or 30 percent – and those are very big differences – simply by being prepared well in advance.
While America was once prepared for nuclear war with civil defense shelters stocked with food and supplies and educational programs on how to react to a detonation, the report says the threat of a nuclear attack within the U.S. has grown significantly in recent years.
The likelihood of a nuclear attack in an American city is steadily increasing, and the consequences will be overwhelming, said Dallas. So we need to substantially increase our preparation.The study looked at the impact of nuclear detonations of two sizes in New York, Washington, Chicago and Atlanta. Both 20-kiloton and 550-kiloton blasts were modeled in what the authors claim is the most advanced and detailed simulation published in open scientific literature.
International Journal of Health Geographics
The entire report, which also takes into account prevailing weather patterns and block-level population data from the U.S. Census Bureau, is published in the March issue of the International Journal of Health Geographics. In the study's worst-case scenario, one 550-kiloton detonation in New York City was shown to result in a fallout plume extending the length of Long Island, resulting in the deaths of 5
million. A similar weapon detonated in the nation's capital would destroy hospitals in Washington, but its fallout cloud would also incapacitate hospitals as far away as Baltimore, a city 40 miles from the District of Columbia. Even a relatively small 20-kiloton blast in a downtown area would result in almost unimaginable devastation – leaving debris tens of feet thick in streets with buildings 10 stories or higher. Roughly half the population in those areas would be killed, mainly from collapsed buildings.
Most of those surviving the initial blast would be exposed to a fatal dose of radiation. The larger bomb would create additional and substantial casualties from burns. Mass fires would consume cities, reaching out nearly four miles in all directions from the detonation site. The hospital system has about 1,500 burn beds in the whole country, and of these maybe 80 to 90 percent are full at any given time, said William Bell, senior research scientist and a faculty member of the college of public health. There's no way of treating the burn victims from a nuclear attack with the existing medical system.The report points out hospitals, trauma centers and other medical assets are likely to be in the fatality plume, rendering them essentially inoperable in the crisis.Among the consequences of this outcome would be the probable loss of command-and-control, mass casualties that will have to be treated in an unorganized response by hospitals on the periphery, as well as other expected chaotic outcomes from inadequate administration in a crisis, says the report. Vigorous, creative and accelerated training and coordination among the federal agencies tasked for WMD response, military resources, academic institutions and local responders will be critical for large-scale WMD events involving mass casualties.Bell said a 20-kiloton nuclear weapon could be manufactured by terrorists and countries such as North Korea and Iran. The larger warhead is commonly found in the nuclear arsenal of the former Soviet Union and is likely to be stolen by terrorists. The report confirms other findings that America is extremely vulnerable to a nuclear attack and unprepared to
deal with its aftermath.
In a July 31, 2005, confidential memo to the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Pentagon analyst John Brinkerhoff concluded: The United States is unprepared to mitigate the consequences of a nuclear attack. We were unable to find any group of office with a coherent approach to this very important aspect of homeland security.In other words, after having spent more than $300 billion to protect the homeland in the last five years, America is no closer to a civil defense strategy for a nuclear strike by terrorists.
This is a bad situation, wrote Brinkerhoff. The threat of a nuclear attack is real, and action is needed now to learn how to deal with one.
Bits and pieces of a plan are in place, as Brinkerhoff suggests. For instance, the Energy Department's Lawrence Livermore Laboratory is geared up to use real-time weather data, within minutes of a bombing, to create a computer model charting the likely path of a radioactive cloud. There's just one problem. There is no communications system in place designed to reach the people most in need of the information. The government's own National Planning Scenario projects even a small, improvised 10-kiloton nuclear bomb would likely kill hundreds of thousands in a medium-sized city. The carnage was estimated at 204,600 dead in Washington, D.C. – with another 90,800 injured or sickened. Another 24,580 would likely die of thyroid cancer later because the simple compound potassium iodide, which can prevent it, was not made available to civilians in advance of the disaster.
President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and the 9/11 commission have all concluded a nuclear terrorist attack is not only the nation's No. 1 nightmare but also something of an inevitability at some time in the future. The University of Georgia study calls for a public awareness campaign to teach civilians what to do in the event of a nuclear attack. Even simple measures, the researchers point out, can save many lives. For instance, since radioactive clouds move downwind, a person can determine which way the wind is blowing and flee in a perpendicular direction to the wind. Even on foot, people can move one to five miles can be the difference between life and death. On the other hand, though, people in areas upwind from the detonation site are better off staying put.
Dallas is scheduled to address the United Nations for the second time in as many years where he will discuss options for repairing the crumbling sarcophagus surrounding the reactor that triggered the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in 1986. He will also talk about the consequences of a nuclear attack and what nations can do about it. We want to try to encourage people to pay attention to this, because it's not all the end of the world, said Dallas. There are actually steps that one can take to save lives. But we're running out of time.The Center for Mass Destruction Defense is funded by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It is dedicated to reducing casualties and social disruption from weapons of mass destruction and natural disasters.
EARTHQUAKES
MATTHEW 24:7-8
7 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.
8 All these are the beginning of sorrows.
MARK 13:8
8 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom:(ETHNIC GROUP AGAINST ETHNIC GROUP) and there shall be earthquakes in divers places, and there shall be famines and troubles: these are the beginnings of sorrows.
LUKE 21:11
11 And great earthquakes shall be in divers places, and famines, and pestilences; and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven.
WORLD QUAKES LAST 2 DAYS (USGS)
Update time = Sat Mar 31 12:00 AM EDT
MAR 30,07
MAP 2.8 CENTRAL ALASKA
MAP 3.0 WASHINGTON
MAP 2.8 ISLAND OF HAWAII, HAWAII
MAP 4.8 SIMEULUE, INDONESIA
MAP 4.5 WESTERN TURKEY
MAP 5.1 GUERRERO, MEXICO
MAP 2.8 BAJA CALIFORNIA, MEXICO
MAP 4.7 WESTERN TURKEY
MAP 2.8 NORTHERN CALIFORNIA
MAP 5.7 FIJI REGION
MAP 2.5 SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
MAP 2.7 CENTRAL CALIFORNIA
MAP 2.6 CENTRAL CALIFORNIA
MAP 2.6 ANDREANOF ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN IS., ALASKA
MAP 3.0 ANDREANOF ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN IS., ALASKA
MAP 2.5 BAJA CALIFORNIA, MEXICO
MAP 4.6 ALASKA PENINSULA
MAP 2.8 CENTRAL ALASKA
MAP 4.0 CENTRAL CALIFORNIA
MAP 5.4 HOKKAIDO, JAPAN REGION
MAP 4.8 SOUTH OF THE FIJI ISLANDS
MAP 4.9 FIJI REGION
MAP 3.1 ALASKA PENINSULA
MAP 5.0 VOLCANO ISLANDS, JAPAN REGION
MAP 2.7 KODIAK ISLAND REGION, ALASKA
MAR 29,07
MAP 2.8 NORTHERN ALASKA
MAP 2.9 SOUTHERN ALASKA
MAP 2.6 OFFSHORE NORTHERN CALIFORNIA
MAP 5.3 KURIL ISLANDS
MAP 3.3 CENTRAL ALASKA
MAP 4.8 HOKKAIDO, JAPAN REGION
MAP 4.8 COQUIMBO, CHILE
MAP 4.3 MARIANA ISLANDS REGION
MAP 4.8 OFFSHORE COQUIMBO, CHILE
MAP 5.4 OFFSHORE COQUIMBO, CHILE
MAP 2.5 SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
MAP 4.5 SOUTH OF PANAMA
MAP 5.4 OFFSHORE COQUIMBO, CHILE
MAP 4.5 IZU ISLANDS, JAPAN REGION
MAP 2.8 SOUTHERN ALASKA
MAP 2.7 ISLAND OF HAWAII, HAWAII
MAP 3.2 PUERTO RICO REGION
MAP 2.8 PUERTO RICO REGION
MAP 4.8 NEAR THE EAST COAST OF KORYAKIA, RUSSIA
MAP 4.7 SEA OF JAPAN
MAP 2.9 VIRGIN ISLANDS REGION
MAP 3.2 VIRGIN ISLANDS REGION
MAP 2.7 VIRGIN ISLANDS REGION
MAP 2.6 BAJA CALIFORNIA, MEXICO
MAP 2.7 KENAI PENINSULA, ALASKA
MAP 5.1 IZU ISLANDS, JAPAN REGION
MAP 3.1 WESTERN MONTANA
MAP 4.7 BARBADOS REGION, WINDWARD ISLANDS
MAP 3.1 UNIMAK ISLAND REGION, ALASKA
Small earthquake rattles Montana Fri Mar 30, 12:17 AM ET
DILLON, Mont. - A small earthquake that rattled southwestern Montana caused no damage but could be felt about 90 miles away. The magnitude-3.7 earthquake, which struck late Wednesday, was an aftershock of a 5.6-magnitude quake that hit the same area in July 2005, said Tom Satterly, who manages the University of Montana-Western's environmental sciences department.It's the biggest (aftershock) we've seen in quite a while, Stickney said.It was centered about 15 miles northeast of Dillon and could be felt as far as Helena, said Mike Stickney, director of earthquake studies for the Montana Bureau of Mines and Geology.About 5,000 aftershocks have been recorded from the 2005 quake, which cracked walls and damaged bridges, Stickney said. The region averages about five aftershocks a day, most too small to be felt.
STORMS HURRICANES-TORNADOES
LUKE 21:25-26
25 And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity;(MASS CONFUSION) the sea and the waves roaring;(FIERCE WINDS)
26 Men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken.
Flooding, tornadoes unleashed on Midwest By SEAN MURPHY, Associated Press Writer Fri Mar 30, 12:16 PM ET
OKLAHOMA CITY - The violent storm system blamed for four deaths in three states flooded parts of North Texas as it moved eastward, stranding drivers in high water and forcing dozens of elderly people to evacuate an assisted living center. Many smaller roads in the area were still closed Friday morning.It fell hard and fast, said Corsicana police Sgt. Jimmie Hensley. We had a lot of street flooding, intersections flooded. We had to rescue several people from their cars.Businesses in the town flooded as up to 7 inches of rain fell in the area. About 60 elderly residents from an assisted living center were taken to a church on higher ground for safety, said Eric Meyers, Navarro County Emergency Management coordinator.The spring storm unleashed more than 65 tornadoes in Oklahoma, Texas, Kansas, Colorado and Nebraska on Wednesday and Thursday, the National Weather Service said. A twister Thursday afternoon in Oklahoma City injured at least five people — two of them critically.
Joyce Eells, who lives in far northwestern Oklahoma City, said the tornado took off most of the roof of her home, but she counted herself lucky that nobody was home when the storm hit.All the important things are OK. My husband and family are OK. That's the important stuff, Eells said. My husband's words when he saw the damage were: I don't think we'll be staying here for a while.
A 7-year-old Oklahoma girl was also treated at a hospital for cuts Thursday, and two people were injured when a van was thrown from the Kilpatrick Turnpike into a concrete culvert by the storms, said Oklahoma City Deputy Fire Chief Tony Young.On Wednesday, the storm system was blamed for four deaths in Oklahoma, Colorado and Texas.Vance and Barbra Woodbury were killed when a twister blew apart their home near the Oklahoma Panhandle community of Elmwood. In the Texas Panhandle, Monte Ford, 53, was thrown from his trailer after high winds rolled it near an oilfield.
In the hard hit town of Holly, Colo., Rosemary Rosales, 28, died after a tornado as wide as two football fields flung her from her home into a nearby tree.
Her 3-year-old daughter and husband were among seven people hospitalized.All they heard was this big ugly noise, and they didn't have no time to run, said Victoria Rosales, a relative.In Holly on Friday, residents shoveled debris and sawed up fallen trees while utility crews replaced power and telephone poles. A Red Cross truck circulated through the town, offering coffee to the workers.The same storm system dumped mountains of snow on Wyoming, causing highway pileups and closing large portions of three interstates. Roads there were still largely inaccessible Friday. Up to 70 inches of snow fell in the Wind River Mountains area since Wednesday.About 600 homes in the Buffalo, Wyo., area were without heat and electricity Friday morning, down from about 2,200 across north-central Wyoming on Wednesday.Associated Press writer Colleen Slevin in Colorado contributed to this report.
U.S. farmers face soggy and cold corn crop weather By Sam Nelson
Fri Mar 30, 12:49 PM ET
CHICAGO (Reuters) - Farmers in the U.S. Corn Belt, who intend to plant the biggest cord crop in 63 years, will face soggy or cold planting weather over at least the next week, a private forecaster said on Friday.
DTN Meteorlogix weather service forecaster Joel Burgio said wet and warm weather would blanket the Midwest from Friday through Tuesday, then cold and drier conditions would prevail through the end of the week.The U.S. Department of Agriculture said on Friday American farmers intended to plant nearly 90.5 million acres of corn this year, the most since 1944.Soaring demand for corn from the ethanol industry has boosted corn prices to decade highs this year, prompting farmers to plant corn in lieu of soybeans this crop season.The crop needs to be seeded from roughly early April through mid-May to capture optimal production potential.It all comes down to weather, and it starts from now through the growing season, said Shawn McCambridge, analyst for Prudential Financial.
Now we start to see whether we can plant this much corn on a timely basis.
Chicago Board of Trade corn futures plunged their 20-cent trading limit on Friday because the government's forecast for this year's corn acreage was well above an average of analysts' estimates.
Analysts at a press conference following the release of USDA's forecast also said that weather will have the final say in the 2007 corn and soybean planting and production derby.We definitely need good yields and timely plantings. The weather issue is important and right now it looks a little shaky, with wet and cool expected for next week, said Jerry Gidel, analyst for North America Risk Management Inc. Burgio also wasn't optimistic about a big improvement in planting weather anytime soon.The way the pattern has been behaving, when it does warm up, it will be wet again, so planting may be slow. But with today's equipment they can get a lot planted in a short period of time, Burgio said.U.S. farmers are capable of planting the acreage and the next 45 days are critical. Corn yield per acre and production is closely related to timely plantings, said Brian Basting, commodity research analyst for Advance Trading.It's going to be an exciting time the next few months, Basting said.(Additional reporting by Julie Ingwersen)
Europe faces global warming double whammy, but can cope: UN experts by Marlowe Hood MAR 30,07
PARIS (AFP) - Global warming will hit Europe hard but unevenly this century, causing drought, reduced harvests and deadly heatwaves in the south but inflicting more floods and severe winter storms farther north, UN experts say in a report to be unveiled next week. In Alpine regions, reduced snow cover imperils a multi-billion-dollar ski industry while rising temperatures could wipe out up to 60 percent of plant and animal species, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) warns.The continent has already had a foretaste of its likely future: this winter was the warmest on record in many European countries, as have been 11 of the past 12 years.The report, which deals with the impacts of global warming, is the second in a three-volume review of the evidence for climate change, the first since 2001.A final draft of the 1,400-page document obtained by AFP says that even if dramatic measures are taken to reduce the carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions that drive warming, temperatures worldwide will continue to climb for decades to come, unleashing unwelcome changes across the planet.
And if nothing at all is done to mitigate climate change, the impact in some regions could be catastrophic by century's end.By 2080, the report says, it is likely that 1.1 to 3.2 billion people worldwide will experience water scarcity, 200 to 600 million will suffer from hunger, and each year, an additional two to seven million people will be victims of coastal flooding.The human toll will be heaviest, experts say, in Africa and Asia, where hundreds of millions in low-lying mega-river deltas are threatened by rising sea levels, and tens of millions more by the spread of infectious disease.As for Europe, some regions will likewise be severely challenged but overall the continent is somewhat less vulnerable -- and better able to adapt -- than poorer counterparts.In the short term, if global temperatures rise no more than 2 C (3.6 F) compared to 1990 levels -- the maximum rise set by European Union (EU) policymakers -- northern European countries may even enjoy higher crop yields, milder winters and expanding forests.
But as the 21st century unfolds, those benefits are very likely to be swamped by the negative impact of warming.Under almost any scenario, a swathe of Mediterranean countries including Spain, France, Italy and Greece faces a panoply of problems.They include more frequent heatwaves of the kind that in 2003 killed tens of thousands of elderly people; damage to the tourism industry increased forest fires; and a fall of up to a third in fresh water availability, depending again on temperature rise.
Wintertime floods are likely to increase in Europe's maritime regions, while snowmelt-related floods and flashfloods will hit central Europe.
Europe has the resources to protect human life from the brunt of global warming onslaught, but its biodiversity will be badly affected.A large percentage of the European flora is likely to become vulnerable, endangered, or committed to extinction by the end of this century, says the draft.In the first volume of its report, issued in February, the IPCC predicted world temperatures would rise by 1.8 C to 4.0 C (3.2-7.2 F) by 2100, depending on how much greenhouse gas is emitted into the atmosphere. A third volume, issued at the end of April, will look at ways of reducing those emissions.
In the Brussels meeting, the second volume will be issued on Friday after delegates hammer out a summary for policy makers, distilling in a couple of dozen pages their most important findings.
Some participants complain that the summary, as currently written, does not adequately highlight the fact that those least able to adapt -- poor people -- will be the hardest hit. We in the northern hemisphere can adapt to heatwaves, but that is a very selfish notion, commented French scientist and IPCC executive committee member Jean Jouzel. The draft summary concludes that global warming is unequivocal, that human activity is the main driver, and that changes in climate are now affecting physical and biological systems on every continent.Across the planet, 20 to 30 percent of animal and plant species face extinction if temperatures rise 1.5 C to 2.5 C (2.7 F to 4.5 F). Increases greater than 4 C (7.2 F) above 1990-2000 levels would lead to major increases in vulnerability that would exceed the adaptive capacity of many systems, the report says.
Cashless society by 2012, says Visa chief
By Tim Webb 11 March 2007
Paying for goods with notes and coins could be consigned to history within five years, according to the chief executive of Visa Europe. Peter Ayliffe said that, by 2012, using credit and debit cards should be cheaper and more convenient than cash.Some retailers could soon start surcharging customers if they choose to buy products with cash, because of the greater cost of processing these payments, he warned.Visa Europe briefed the British Retail Consortium last month on newcontactless cards that can be waved in front of a scanner to make small payments.
However, the consortium dismissed this vision and claimed that card processing fees, which regulators are investigating, are still too high.One member of the consurtium said that the estimated interchange fee charged to retailers amounts to some 4p for each transaction.Nick Mourant, treasurer at Tesco, said: There is a duopoly between Mastercard and Visa in the UK. Their setting of fees is anti-competitive.
A-Zahar Reiterates Hamas Goal: World Domination
by Nissan Ratzlav-Katz 9 Nisan 5767, March 28, '07
(IsraelNN.com) Addressing a mass rally in memory of the founder of the Hamas terrorist organization, Ahmed Yassin, senior Hamas leader and former Palestinian Authority official Mahmoud A-Zahar reiterated a fundamental position espoused by Hamas and other Islamist groups worldwide: struggle for the complete obliteration of Israel and the worldwide rule of Islam.
According to an alert released by Palestinian Media Watch (PMW), which monitors and translates Palestinian Authority media, the main elements of A-Zahar's speech were printed in the PA's Al-Ayyam newspaper on March 25, 2007. A-Zahar emphasized that the Islamic Movement's [Hamas's] position concerning the problem of the liberation of Palestine is clear and known, Al-Ayyam reported. A-Zahar is quoted as saying:
We have two important foundations: one is Koranic and the other is prophetic. The Koranic: the divine promise made in the Al-Israa Sura [Chapter 17] is that we will liberate the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque, and we will enter it as we have entered it the first time' [paraphrasing Sura 17 (The Night Journey), verse 7]. And the prophetic foundation is the message of the prophet Muhammad, that Islam will enter every house and will spread over the entire world. Our position is the liberation of Palestine, all of Palestine. This is the final and strategic solution for us.
There is a Koranic message for us, that we will enter the Al-Aqsa Mosque, and the entrance to the mosque means the entrance into all of Palestine. This is the message, no one can deny it. Anyone who denies it must check his faith and his Islam.A-Zahar's statements, as promulgated in the PA media, are restatements of views expressed in the foundational covenant of Hamas, the PA government's ruling faction. Regarding Israel, the 1988 Hamas Covenant preamble says, Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it. While Article 28 of the Covenant widens the threat: .Israel, Judaism and Jews challenge Islam and the Muslim people. May the cowards never sleep.
The Hamas position on the existence of a sovereign Jewish entity in the Middle East is identical to its position on any lands once conquered by Muslims. As Article 11 of the organization's covenant says: [Hamas] believes that the land of Palestine is an Islamic Waqf consecrated for future Muslim generations until Judgment Day. It, or any part of it, should not be squandered: it, or any part of it, should not be given up. ...[And] the same goes for any land the Muslims have conquered by force, because during the times of (Islamic) conquests, the Muslims consecrated these lands to Muslim generations till the Day of Judgment.Functionally, Hamas also sees itself as part of a global movement for Islamic domination. As Article 2 declares, [Hamas] is one of the wings of the Muslim Brotherhood in Palestine. The Muslim Brotherhood Movement is a universal organization.... More fundamentally, Article 5 says, [Hamas's] place is anywhere that there are Muslims who embrace Islam as their way of life everywhere on the globe. This being so, it extends to the depth of the earth and reaches out to the heaven.Echoing his co-religionists in the PA, the leader of the northern branch of the Islamic Movement in Israel, Raad Salah, declared in September of 2006 that a new Caliphate will soon arise with its capital in Jerusalem.
HERES THE STORY I WAS TRYIN TO FIND WHEN I SEEN IT ON CNN ABOUT THE CULT LEADER WHO THINKS HES JESUS AND HIS FOLLOWERS GET MARKED WITH 666 ON THEIR HANDS. LIKE I SAID BEFORE THIS IS A FORUNNER TO THE EU DICTATOR THAT DEMANDS ALL RECIEVE THIS MARK (CHIP IMPLANT I BELIEVE) IN THE FUTURE OR DIE.
THIS GUY HERE IS OUT TO LUNCH BIGTIME, BUT IT IS PROPHESIED TO HAPPEN BEFORE THE DICTATOR COMES ON THE SCENE.
Pastor with 666 tattoo claims to be divine
POSTED: 2:08 p.m. EST, February 19, 2007 By John Zarrella and Patrick Oppmann CNN
MIAMI, Florida (CNN) -- The minister has the number 666 tattooed on his arm.But Jose Luis de Jesus Miranda is not your typical minister. De Jesus, or Daddy as his thousands of followers call him, does not merely pray to God: He says he is God.The spirit that is in me is the same spirit that was in Jesus of Nazareth, de Jesus says.De Jesus' claims of divinity have angered Christian leaders, who say he is a fake. Religious experts say he may be something much more dangerous, a cult leader who really believes he is God. (Watch followers get 666 tattoos for their leader )
He's in their heads, he's inside the heads of those people, says Prof. Daniel Alvarez, a religion expert at Florida International University who has debated some of de Jesus' followers. De Jesus speaks with a kind of conviction that makes me consider him more like David Koresh or Jim Jones.Is de Jesus really a cult leader like David Koresh, who died with more than 70 of his Branch Davidian followers in a fiery end to a standoff with federal authorities, or Jim Jones, the founder of the Peoples Temple who committed mass suicide with 900 followers in 1978?
Prophets spoke to me
De Jesus and his believers say their church -- Creciendo en Gracia, Spanish for Growing in grace -- is misunderstood. Followers of the movement say they have proof that their minister is divine and that their church will one day soon be a major faith in the world.But even de Jesus concedes that he is an unlikely leader of a church that claims thousands of members in more than 30 countries.De Jesus, 61, grew up poor in Puerto Rico. He says he served stints in prison there for petty theft and says he was a heroin addict.De Jesus says he learned he was Jesus reincarnate when he was visited in a dream by angels.The prophets, they spoke about me. It took me time to learn that, but I am what they were expecting, what they have been expecting for 2,000 years, de Jesus says.The church that he began building 20 years ago in Miami resembles no other:Followers have protested Christian churches in Miami and Latin America, disrupting services and smashing crosses and statues of Jesus.De Jesus preaches there is no devil and no sin. His followers, he says, literally can do no wrong in God's eyes.The church calls itself the Government of God on Earth and uses a seal similar to the United States.
Doing God's work with a Lexus and Rolex
If Creciendo en Gracia is an atypical religious group, de Jesus also does not fit the mold of the average church leader. De Jesus flouts traditional vows of poverty. He says he has a church-paid salary of $136,000 but lives more lavishly than that. During an interview, he showed off a diamond-encrusted Rolex to a CNN crew and said he has three just like them. He travels in armored Lexuses and BMWs, he says, for his safety. All are gifts from his devoted followers.
And what about the tattoo of 666 on his arm?
Although it's a number usually associated with Satan, not the son of God, de Jesus says that 666 and the Antichrist are, like him, misunderstood.The Antichrist is not the devil, de Jesus tells his congregation; he's the being who replaces Jesus on Earth.Antichrist is the best person in the world, he says. Antichrist means don't put your eyes on Jesus because Jesus of Nazareth wasn't a Christian. Antichrist means do not put your eyes on Jesus Christ of Nazareth. Put it on Jesus after the cross. And de Jesus says that means him.
So far, de Jesus says that his flock hasn't been scared off by his claims of being the Antichrist. In a show of the sway he holds over the group, 30 members of his congregation Tuesday went to a tattoo parlor to have 666 also permanently etched onto their skin.He may wield influence over them, but his followers say don't expect them to go the way of people who believed in David Koresh and Jim Jones. Just by finding de Jesus, they say, they have achieved their purpose.If somebody tells us drink some Kool-Aid and we'll go to heaven, that's not true. We are already in heavenly places, follower Martita Roca told CNN after having 666 tattooed onto her ankle.
Abbas Warns Israel, Accept 2002 Arab Peace Plan or Face War
by Hana Levi Julian (INN) MAR 30,07
Israel would be well advised to team up with the Palestinian Authority under the 2002 Arab peace plan, says PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas and well advised to raise its alert status if it does not.
Abbas accused Israel of seeking to avoid the realization of peace by insisting on changes to the plan authored five years ago by Saudi Arabian King Abdullah. The plan calls for Israel to withdraw from all the lands recovered during the 1967 Six Day War, including Judea, Samaria, the Golan Heights and half of Jerusalem. It also calls for Israel to allow millions of Arab descendants of those who fled the country during the 1948 War of Independence to be allowed to immigrate to Israel. The Jewish State has rejected this clause absolutely. It's not a secret that anti-U.S. feeling within Fatah is increasing, and Abbas is ignoring this.
Speaking at the closing ceremony of the Arab League Summit in Riyadh on Thursday, Abbas called for a negotiated settlement that will be sponsored by the international community and within the framework of an international peace conference in the region.
He warned, however, that if Israel did not accept the Arab peace plan, The entire region will be under renewed threats of war [and] explosions, as well as regional and international confrontations, as a result of the absence of a solution or the impossibility of implementing one.Abbas accompanied his threat with a statement reiterating the sincerity of the Palestinian will in extending the hand of peace to the Israeli people we should not waste more chances in the history of this long and painful cause.Fatah Complains Abbas Has Become Condis Office Boy.A caricature on PA websites Thursday showed a Jew with his back turned on Abbas, whose head is covered with doves, symbolizing peace.
Abbas is losing support within his own faction by appearing to be allied with the Bush administration, according to a report in TIME magazine. The report quoted a PA Central Committee member as saying, It's not a secret that anti-U.S. feeling within Fatah is increasing, and Abbas is ignoring this.
Abbas had not been tough enough when presenting PA demands to U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice during her visit to the region this week, complained the source. Abbas doesn't respect us. He is too busy bowing to American demands. He's become Condi's office boy.On the other hand, noted TIME, Abbas also did not pass on to Secretary Rice information that Hamas may quit the unity government and resume attacks against Israel.
Abbas Talks Peace, His Fatah Faction Fires Rockets
Abbass Fatah faction includes the Al-Aksa Martyrs Brigades terrorist group as well as the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), which Abbas chairs. The former vowed Thursday to continue its Kassam rocket attacks against Israeli communities in the western Negev. Abu Ahmed, commander of the northern Gaza division of Al Aksa told WorldNet Daily that if the Israel Defense Forces continue anti-terrorist operations, You can count on a [long] string of suicide bombings and rocket attacks.
Al Aksa claimed to have teamed up with the Islamic Jihad terrorist organization in firing a total of seven Kassam rockets at Israeli communities in the western Negev on Wednesday. Some damage was caused in Sderot and two rockets landed just south of the port city of Ashkelon but no injuries were reported. Arab terrorists launched at least four more Kassams toward Ashkelon on Thursday. No damage or injuries were reported.
David's Comment: Passing Over into the New Year MAR 30,07
Exodus 12:2 - 3 This month shall be your beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year to you. Speak to all the congregation of Israel, saying: On the tenth day of this month every man shall take for himself a lamb, according to the house of his father, a lamb for a household. (NKJ)
The above verse begins the Lord's instructions to Israel on how they should remember and celebrate the Passover - their deliverance from slavery under the tyrannical regime of Pharaoh. It is really the event that marks the beginning of the nation of Israel and thus YHVH tells them that this is the beginning of their calendar year. The timing of all of the other festivals of the Lord, is calculated from the first day of the Hebrew month of Nisan. As I have written previously, we believe that everyone, Jew and Gentile, who love and worship the God of Israel, ought to do their best to live their lives according to His calendar, not on the calendar of the world system, which is under the jurisdiction of the Devil, who according to the Bible, is currently the god of this world. Some people may see it as a burdensome thing to learn about and celebrate God's feasts, but it doesn't have to be.
Celebrating the Biblical feasts can be great fun, and a wonderful time of fellowship and literal feasting. All of the Biblical feasts are a shadow of what it will be like when the Kingdom is finally established on the Earth and they all point to the Messiah - Yeshua. There is so much to learn about the nature and character of God, and the feasts contain a lot of imagery which helps us to learn. The annual Biblical feast cycle is also a shadow of the timing of God's prophetic plan to restore Israel, to establish His Kingdom in Jerusalem and to send His Son back to be the King of His glorious eternal Kingdom. What better time to begin to explore the Lord's annual Feast cycle than at the first feast of the year.It may be too late for you to organise a Passover Seder meal this coming Monday, but if you do make sure you obtain a Messianic Seder instruction manual. I may be able to help locate one you if you need. Very simply, Passover is a shadow of the salvation found only in Yeshua, the Lamb of God. It was the blood of the lambs on the doorposts of the Hebrews dwellings that saved the Hebrew firstborn inside from the Angel of Death. Ultimately this led to the liberation of the Hebrews from slavery under Pharaoh to freedom in the Promised Land.And it is the blood of Lamb Yeshua that saves any person from slavery to sin and brings them into the eternal promised land.
Perhaps the most ironic thing about the Passover celebration is that the Jewish people have sat at their Passover Seder tables for the last 2000 years,have and yet not seen the incredible imagery of the Seder elements that so clearly show that the Messiah has already been.
The 3 sheets of unleavened bread or Matzah,are striped, bruised and pierced. ( see Isaiah 53:5 But He was wounded for our trans-gressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed. ) These three sheets are called the Unity and must surely represent Father, Son & Holy Sprirt. The middle sheet is broken in half, wrapped in a cloth & hidden for the children to find. It is called the Afikomen. Even today the rabbis say that the Afikomen represents the long awaited Messiah. The word Afikomen is a Greek word, the only Greek word in the Passover ceremony. Amazingly, Afikomen means I have arrived !
And the Afikomen can only be discovered by the children - remember that Yeshua said that if we want to come to God we must come as little children.It is customary to set an extra place at the Passover table for Elijah, who must precede the arrival of Messiah. As the popular song says, these are the days of Elijah. Lets pray from now until Passover that this year the spirit of Elijah will be present at every Passover Seder causing the veil of blindess to be lifted and that multitudes of Jews will see Yeshua as Messiah as they look upon the stripes, bruises and piercings on the Matzah and as they wrap the Afikomen in the cloth, they will realise that the Messiah has indeed already arrived.The Lord bless you as you bless Israel by standing in defense of her right to exist on the land given to the Jewish people by the God of Israel . Do not be silent, but share this to your fellow Christians, share it with your pastors and with anyone you have a chance to speak to. Lets also pray for thatbreakthrough to the Muslims, and please remember to pray for our son Jordan, and all of his fellow soldiers in the IDF. Shabbat Shalom .. . David & Josie
America unprepared for likely nuke attack. Public awareness campaign is only hope, says 3-year University of Georgia study March 30, 2007 - 1:00 a.m. Eastern - By Joseph Farah - WorldNetDaily.com
New York City
WASHINGTON – The most extensive study of the effects of nuclear detonations in four major U.S. cities paints a grim picture of millions of deaths, overwhelmed hospitals and loss of command-and-control capability by government. But the three-year study by researchers at the Center for Mass Destruction Defense at the University of Georgia says a concerted effort to teach civilians what to do in the event of a nuclear attack is the best – perhaps only – thing that could save an untold number of lives that will otherwise be needlessly lost. If a nuclear detonation were to occur in a downtown area, the picture would be bleak there, said Cham Dallas, director of the program and professor in the college of pharmacy. But in urban areas farther from the detonation, there actually is quite a bit that we can do. In certain areas, it may be possible to turn the death rate from 90 percent in some burn populations to probably 20 or 30 percent – and those are very big differences – simply by being prepared well in advance.
While America was once prepared for nuclear war with civil defense shelters stocked with food and supplies and educational programs on how to react to a detonation, the report says the threat of a nuclear attack within the U.S. has grown significantly in recent years.
The likelihood of a nuclear attack in an American city is steadily increasing, and the consequences will be overwhelming, said Dallas. So we need to substantially increase our preparation.The study looked at the impact of nuclear detonations of two sizes in New York, Washington, Chicago and Atlanta. Both 20-kiloton and 550-kiloton blasts were modeled in what the authors claim is the most advanced and detailed simulation published in open scientific literature.
International Journal of Health Geographics
The entire report, which also takes into account prevailing weather patterns and block-level population data from the U.S. Census Bureau, is published in the March issue of the International Journal of Health Geographics. In the study's worst-case scenario, one 550-kiloton detonation in New York City was shown to result in a fallout plume extending the length of Long Island, resulting in the deaths of 5
million. A similar weapon detonated in the nation's capital would destroy hospitals in Washington, but its fallout cloud would also incapacitate hospitals as far away as Baltimore, a city 40 miles from the District of Columbia. Even a relatively small 20-kiloton blast in a downtown area would result in almost unimaginable devastation – leaving debris tens of feet thick in streets with buildings 10 stories or higher. Roughly half the population in those areas would be killed, mainly from collapsed buildings.
Most of those surviving the initial blast would be exposed to a fatal dose of radiation. The larger bomb would create additional and substantial casualties from burns. Mass fires would consume cities, reaching out nearly four miles in all directions from the detonation site. The hospital system has about 1,500 burn beds in the whole country, and of these maybe 80 to 90 percent are full at any given time, said William Bell, senior research scientist and a faculty member of the college of public health. There's no way of treating the burn victims from a nuclear attack with the existing medical system.The report points out hospitals, trauma centers and other medical assets are likely to be in the fatality plume, rendering them essentially inoperable in the crisis.Among the consequences of this outcome would be the probable loss of command-and-control, mass casualties that will have to be treated in an unorganized response by hospitals on the periphery, as well as other expected chaotic outcomes from inadequate administration in a crisis, says the report. Vigorous, creative and accelerated training and coordination among the federal agencies tasked for WMD response, military resources, academic institutions and local responders will be critical for large-scale WMD events involving mass casualties.Bell said a 20-kiloton nuclear weapon could be manufactured by terrorists and countries such as North Korea and Iran. The larger warhead is commonly found in the nuclear arsenal of the former Soviet Union and is likely to be stolen by terrorists. The report confirms other findings that America is extremely vulnerable to a nuclear attack and unprepared to
deal with its aftermath.
In a July 31, 2005, confidential memo to the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Pentagon analyst John Brinkerhoff concluded: The United States is unprepared to mitigate the consequences of a nuclear attack. We were unable to find any group of office with a coherent approach to this very important aspect of homeland security.In other words, after having spent more than $300 billion to protect the homeland in the last five years, America is no closer to a civil defense strategy for a nuclear strike by terrorists.
This is a bad situation, wrote Brinkerhoff. The threat of a nuclear attack is real, and action is needed now to learn how to deal with one.
Bits and pieces of a plan are in place, as Brinkerhoff suggests. For instance, the Energy Department's Lawrence Livermore Laboratory is geared up to use real-time weather data, within minutes of a bombing, to create a computer model charting the likely path of a radioactive cloud. There's just one problem. There is no communications system in place designed to reach the people most in need of the information. The government's own National Planning Scenario projects even a small, improvised 10-kiloton nuclear bomb would likely kill hundreds of thousands in a medium-sized city. The carnage was estimated at 204,600 dead in Washington, D.C. – with another 90,800 injured or sickened. Another 24,580 would likely die of thyroid cancer later because the simple compound potassium iodide, which can prevent it, was not made available to civilians in advance of the disaster.
President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and the 9/11 commission have all concluded a nuclear terrorist attack is not only the nation's No. 1 nightmare but also something of an inevitability at some time in the future. The University of Georgia study calls for a public awareness campaign to teach civilians what to do in the event of a nuclear attack. Even simple measures, the researchers point out, can save many lives. For instance, since radioactive clouds move downwind, a person can determine which way the wind is blowing and flee in a perpendicular direction to the wind. Even on foot, people can move one to five miles can be the difference between life and death. On the other hand, though, people in areas upwind from the detonation site are better off staying put.
Dallas is scheduled to address the United Nations for the second time in as many years where he will discuss options for repairing the crumbling sarcophagus surrounding the reactor that triggered the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in 1986. He will also talk about the consequences of a nuclear attack and what nations can do about it. We want to try to encourage people to pay attention to this, because it's not all the end of the world, said Dallas. There are actually steps that one can take to save lives. But we're running out of time.The Center for Mass Destruction Defense is funded by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It is dedicated to reducing casualties and social disruption from weapons of mass destruction and natural disasters.
TREATY OF ROME 50 YEAR TEXT
COMPLETE 2007 50TH ANNIVERSARY TEXT OF EU TREATY OF ROME. (REVIVED ROMAN EMPIRE). SINCE THIS WILL BE THE WORLD LEADER AT A COMING TIME IN HISTORY.
Text of EU's 50th anniversary Berlin Declaration
Published on : Sun, 25 Mar 2007 21:14 By : Agencies
BERLIN (AFX) - Following is the full text of declaration adopted by EU leaders on Sunday to mark the 50th anniversary of the Treaty of Rome:
DECLARATION ON THE OCCASION OF THE FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF THE SIGNATURE OF THE TREATY OF ROME
For centuries Europe has been an idea, holding out hope of peace and understanding. That hope has been fulfilled.European unification has made peace and prosperity possible. It has brought about a sense of community and overcome differences.Each Member State has helped to unite Europe and to strengthen democracy and the rule of law.Thanks to the yearning for freedom of the peoples of Central and Eastern Europe the unnatural division of Europe is now consigned to the past. European integration shows that we have learnt the painful lessons of a history marked by bloody conflict.
Today we live together as was never possible before. We, the citizens of the European Union, have united for the better.
1.(I)
In the European Union, we are turning our common ideals into reality: for us, the individual is paramount. His dignity is inviolable. His rights are inalienable. Women and men enjoy equal rights.
We are striving for peace and freedom, for democracy and the rule of law, for mutual respect and shared responsibility, for prosperity and security, for tolerance and participation, for justice and solidarity.We have a unique way of living and working together in the European Union. This is expressed through the democratic interaction of the Member States and the European institutions.
The European Union is founded on equal rights and mutually supportive cooperation. This enables us to strike a fair balance between Member States' interests.We preserve in the European Union the identities and diverse traditions of its Member States. We are enriched by open borders and a lively variety of languages, cultures and regions.
There are many goals which we cannot achieve on our own, but only in concert. Tasks are shared between the European Union, the Member States and their regions and local authorities.
2 (II).
We are facing major challenges which do not stop at national borders. The European Union is our response to these challenges.Only together can we continue to preserve our ideal of European society in future for the good of all European Union citizens. This European model combines economic success and social responsibility.The common market and the euro make us strong.
We can thus shape the increasing interdependence of the global economy and ever-growing competition on international markets according to our values.Europe's wealth lies in the knowledge and ability of its people; that is the key to growth, employment and social cohesion. We will fight terrorism, organized crime and illegal immigration together.We stand up for liberties and civil rights also in the struggle against those who oppose them. Racism and xenophobia must never again be given any rein.We are committed to the peaceful resolution of conflicts in the world and to ensuring that people do not become victims of war, terrorism and violence.The European Union wants to promote freedom and development in the world. We want to drive back poverty, hunger and disease. We want to continue to take a leading role in that fight.We intend jointly to lead the way in energy policy and climate protection and make our contribution to averting the global threat of climate change.
3(III).
The European Union will continue to thrive both on openness and on the will of its Member States to consolidate the Union's internal development.The European Union will continue to promote democracy, stability and prosperity beyond its borders. With European unification a dream of earlier generations has become a reality.Our history reminds us that we must protect this for the good of future generations. For that reason we must always renew the political shape of Europe in keeping with the times.That is why today, 50 years after the signing of the Treaties of Rome, we are united in our aim of placing the European Union on a renewed common basis before the European Parliament elections in 2009. For we know, Europe is our common future. newsdesk@afxnews.com - afp/hjp
Text of EU's 50th anniversary Berlin Declaration
Published on : Sun, 25 Mar 2007 21:14 By : Agencies
BERLIN (AFX) - Following is the full text of declaration adopted by EU leaders on Sunday to mark the 50th anniversary of the Treaty of Rome:
DECLARATION ON THE OCCASION OF THE FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF THE SIGNATURE OF THE TREATY OF ROME
For centuries Europe has been an idea, holding out hope of peace and understanding. That hope has been fulfilled.European unification has made peace and prosperity possible. It has brought about a sense of community and overcome differences.Each Member State has helped to unite Europe and to strengthen democracy and the rule of law.Thanks to the yearning for freedom of the peoples of Central and Eastern Europe the unnatural division of Europe is now consigned to the past. European integration shows that we have learnt the painful lessons of a history marked by bloody conflict.
Today we live together as was never possible before. We, the citizens of the European Union, have united for the better.
1.(I)
In the European Union, we are turning our common ideals into reality: for us, the individual is paramount. His dignity is inviolable. His rights are inalienable. Women and men enjoy equal rights.
We are striving for peace and freedom, for democracy and the rule of law, for mutual respect and shared responsibility, for prosperity and security, for tolerance and participation, for justice and solidarity.We have a unique way of living and working together in the European Union. This is expressed through the democratic interaction of the Member States and the European institutions.
The European Union is founded on equal rights and mutually supportive cooperation. This enables us to strike a fair balance between Member States' interests.We preserve in the European Union the identities and diverse traditions of its Member States. We are enriched by open borders and a lively variety of languages, cultures and regions.
There are many goals which we cannot achieve on our own, but only in concert. Tasks are shared between the European Union, the Member States and their regions and local authorities.
2 (II).
We are facing major challenges which do not stop at national borders. The European Union is our response to these challenges.Only together can we continue to preserve our ideal of European society in future for the good of all European Union citizens. This European model combines economic success and social responsibility.The common market and the euro make us strong.
We can thus shape the increasing interdependence of the global economy and ever-growing competition on international markets according to our values.Europe's wealth lies in the knowledge and ability of its people; that is the key to growth, employment and social cohesion. We will fight terrorism, organized crime and illegal immigration together.We stand up for liberties and civil rights also in the struggle against those who oppose them. Racism and xenophobia must never again be given any rein.We are committed to the peaceful resolution of conflicts in the world and to ensuring that people do not become victims of war, terrorism and violence.The European Union wants to promote freedom and development in the world. We want to drive back poverty, hunger and disease. We want to continue to take a leading role in that fight.We intend jointly to lead the way in energy policy and climate protection and make our contribution to averting the global threat of climate change.
3(III).
The European Union will continue to thrive both on openness and on the will of its Member States to consolidate the Union's internal development.The European Union will continue to promote democracy, stability and prosperity beyond its borders. With European unification a dream of earlier generations has become a reality.Our history reminds us that we must protect this for the good of future generations. For that reason we must always renew the political shape of Europe in keeping with the times.That is why today, 50 years after the signing of the Treaties of Rome, we are united in our aim of placing the European Union on a renewed common basis before the European Parliament elections in 2009. For we know, Europe is our common future. newsdesk@afxnews.com - afp/hjp
Friday, March 30, 2007
FLAMING OBJECTS MISS JETLINER IN AIR
1-WORLD QUAKES LAST 2 DAYS.2-More severe weather today. 3-Spring thaw wreaking havoc in some rural areas. 4-Group says hate crimes bill an impending threat toChristians. 5-Vatican regrets Israel postponing bilateral talks. 6-Arab Summit extends land-for-peace offer to Israel. 7-The United States of Saudi America. 8-DECISION TIME? 9-Sunbathers bask in record Moscow heatwave. 10-Flaming objects miss jetliner in air.
EARTHQUAKES
MATTHEW 24:7-8
7 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.
8 All these are the beginning of sorrows.
MARK 13:8
8 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom:(ETHNIC GROUP AGAINST ETHNIC GROUP) and there shall be earthquakes in divers places, and there shall be famines and troubles: these are the beginnings of sorrows.
LUKE 21:11
11 And great earthquakes shall be in divers places, and famines, and pestilences; and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven.
WORLD QUAKES LAST 2 DAYS (USGS)
Update time = Fri Mar 30 12:00 AM EDT
MAR 29,07
MAP 5.4 OFFSHORE COQUIMBO, CHILE
MAP 2.8 SOUTHERN ALASKA
MAP 2.7 ISLAND OF HAWAII, HAWAII
MAP 2.8 PUERTO RICO REGION
MAP 3.6 CENTRAL ALASKA
MAP 4.8 NEAR THE EAST COAST OF KORYAKIA, RUSSIA
MAP 4.7 SEA OF JAPAN
MAP 2.8 BAJA CALIFORNIA, MEXICO
MAP 2.7 KENAI PENINSULA, ALASKA
MAP 5.1 IZU ISLANDS, JAPAN REGION
MAP 3.1 WESTERN MONTANA
MAP 4.7 BARBADOS REGION, WINDWARD ISLANDS
MAP 3.1 UNIMAK ISLAND REGION, ALASKA
MAR 28,07
MAP 3.1 ANDREANOF ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN IS., ALASKA
MAP 3.4 NORTHERN ALASKA
MAP 5.9 LAKE TANGANYIKA REGION, CONGO-TANZANIA
MAP 4.7 ECUADOR
MAP 4.9 REVILLA GIGEDO ISLANDS REGION
MAP 2.7 NORTHERN CALIFORNIA
MAP 5.0 SOUTHERN SUMATRA, INDONESIA
MAP 4.7 PAGAN REGION, NORTHERN MARIANA ISLANDS
MAP 3.7 ALASKA PENINSULA
MAP 5.0 GULF OF CALIFORNIA
MAP 3.5 SOUTHERN ALASKA
MAP 4.9 GULF OF CALIFORNIA
MAP 2.5 CENTRAL ALASKA
MAP 2.8 CENTRAL CALIFORNIA
MAP 2.8 CENTRAL ALASKA
MAP 5.7 KERMADEC ISLANDS, NEW ZEALAND
MAP 2.6 PUERTO RICO REGION
MAP 4.7 VOLCANO ISLANDS, JAPAN REGION
MAP 3.3 CENTRAL ALASKA
MAP 5.1 NEAR THE WEST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN
MAP 4.7 SOUTH OF ALASKA
MAP 4.8 KYRGYZSTAN
MAP 2.6 UNIMAK ISLAND REGION, ALASKA
MAP 4.9 KURIL ISLANDS
STORMS HURRICANES-TORNADOES
LUKE 21:25-26
25 And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity;(MASS CONFUSION) the sea and the waves roaring;(FIERCE WINDS)
26 Men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken.
More severe weather today Wayne Verno, Meteorologist, The Weather Channel Thu Mar 29, 6:17 AM ET
Over 200 reports of severe weather occurred Wednesday and Wednesday evening across parts of the western Plains; including over 150 reports of large hail, and over 60 reports of possible tornadoes.
Over 25 inches of snow and wind gusts over 50 mph also impacted parts of the interior and northern Mountains across the West.
Today, the same area of low pressure and associated cold front responsible for yesterdays active weather, will continue the risks of severe weather across the Plains and the heavy snow and wind across parts of the western mountains. A slow moving cold front will move across central Texas, central Oklahoma, central and eastern Kansas, eastern Nebraska, and parts of western Missouri and western Iowa today and tonight, triggering severe thunderstorms. Large hail, damaging winds, and isolated tornadoes could impact areas from San Antonia and Dallas, through Oklahoma City, Tulsa, Kansas City, and Omaha. The slow movement of thunderstorms, and thunderstorms moving over the same areas repeatedly, will also result in some flash flooding.
Meanwhile, on the cold side of the storm system, low pressure will continue to wrap wind and snow across parts of southern and eastern Montana, much of Wyoming, western Colorado, and eastern Utah today through Friday. Winds across southern Montana, into northern Wyoming could gust over 50 mph. This will create blizzard conditions at times, as well as considerable blowing and drifting of snow. Areas from Billings, through Sheridan, to northeast of Salt Lake City, and into the Rockies of western Colorado could see over a foot of snow. In fact, areas across much of Wyoming could see over 2 feet of snow. Conditions should begin to improve across the mountains later on Friday.
Spring thaw wreaking havoc in some rural areas
Wednesday, March 29, 2007 - CBC News
It's a soggy situation in Saskatchewan's northeast grainbelt and it could get soggier.Melting snow and heavy rains have washed out roads and flooded fields and there's still a lot of snow that hasn't melted.
Some of the worst-hit areas are the rural municipalities of Foam Lake and Elfros. The RMs have declared a state of emergency, with farmers reporting flooding in low-lying areas, and at least eight roads have been washed out.RM of Foam Lake administrator Ron Kostrick said he's concerned about rising water levels in the creeks.If we get any more wet snow or rain that comes along with it, it's as bad as last year, he said. No doubt, if we get any more rainfall, it's going to be worse.
According to Doug Johnson, a spokesman with the Saskatchewan Watershed Authority, the problem has less to do with high incoming water levels than with heavy snowfall.We don't have major creeks that are flowing through the area that are causing problems, he said. It's because of the snowpack and the melt; it's just spreading out.The flooded roads are still passable, Kostrick said. However, he's not
sure how long that will last.
PERSECUSSION,BEHEADINGS
JESUS PERSECUTED BIGTIME
ISAIAH 53:4
4 Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.
MATTHEW 9:34
34 But the Pharisees said, He casteth out devils through the prince of the devils.
JOHN 8:41
41 Ye do the deeds of your father. Then said they to him, We be not born of fornication; we have one Father, even God.
JOHN 10:20
20 And many of them said, He hath a devil, and is mad; why hear ye him?
PHILIPPIANS 2:10-11(JESUS GETS REVENGE)
10 That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth;
11 And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.(JUDGEMENT SEAT OF CHRIST AND FOR SINNERS, THE GREAT WHITE THRONE
FINAL JUDGEMENT).
WE ARE CHRISTIANS WE WILL BE TREATED THE SAME.
2 TIMOTHY 3:1-5 (WHY WE ARE PERSECUTED BY THE WORLD)
1 This know also, that in the last days perilous (DANGEROUS) times shall come.
2 For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,
3 Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good,
4 Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God;
5 Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.
MATTHEW 5:10-12
10 Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
11 Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake.
12 Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.
MATTHEW 24:9
9 Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name’s sake.
JOHN 15:18-20
18 If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me (JESUS) before it hated you.
19 If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.
20 Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also.
REVELATION 6:9-11
9 And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain(BEHEADED) for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held:
10 And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?
11 And white robes were given unto every one of them; and it was said unto them, that they should rest yet for a little season, until their fellowservants also and their brethren, that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled.
REVELATION 20:4
4 And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.
Group says hate crimes bill an impending threat to Christians
Jim Brown OneNewsNow.com March 27, 2007
The head of a Washington-based pro-family group is urging opposition to federal hate crimes legislation she fears will soon be approved by the Democrat-led Congress -- and that bill, she believes, threatens the free-speech rights of those who strongly oppose homosexuality.
Representatives John Conyers (D - Michigan) and Mark Kirk (R - Illinois) have reintroduced the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act. The bill would include crimes against homosexuals, bisexuals, and transgenders in federal hate crimes statutes. Andrea Lafferty, executive director of the Traditional Values Coalition (TVC), contends the ultimate goal of the bill is to silence anyone who believes homosexuality is a sin.People need to understand that the hour is very, very late, Lafferty urges. We now have a bill that give special protections to people who are homosexual, bisexual, transgendered, cross-dressers. She describes transgenders as individuals who have had sex-change operations and are clearly very disturbed.
According to Lafferty the bill would elevate homosexuals to a special protected status. So if a pastor stands up in the pulpit and says homosexuality is a sin ... it will be considered hate speech, she says; and if this law passes, the federal government will go after people who say those kinds of things.The TVC executive director contends there is not an epidemic of hate crimes in the U.S., as the bill's
sponsors claim, nor are large numbers of homosexuals fleeing across state lines to buy goods and services they cannot in their home states because of persecution.The bill is likely to sail easily through the House, says Lafferty. That is why she is urging Christians to begin calling on President Bush to issue a veto threat.American Family News Network
Vatican regrets Israel postponing bilateral talks
AFP - March 28, 2007
VATICAN CITY -- The Vatican Wednesday said it regretted a request by Israel to postpone talks that were to lead to a long-awaited bilateral accord. Israel said it could not take part in the talks set for Thursday because of international political contingencies, the Vatican said in a communiqué. The Holy See, while understanding the reasons offered, took note with regret and hoped a new date would be set as soon as possible, the statement said. According to the religious affairs news agency
I-Media, Vatican sources suggested that the Israeli decision was in response to the Holy See's expression of support for the new Palestinian government that includes the Islamist group Hamas.
But Israel's ambassador to the Vatican, Oded Ben Hur, said, That is absolutely not true, adding that Israel had asked for the postponement because of the imminent opening Wednesday of an Arab League summit in Riyadh, and the ongoing tour of the region by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. Israel and the Vatican were to have held a high-level meeting Thursday to discuss the legal and financial status of the Catholic Church in Israel. Negotiations on an accord that would cover Church property and possible income tax breaks for the commercial activities of Christian communities in Israel resumed in 2004 after a 10-year hiatus.
Arab Summit extends land-for-peace offer to Israel
Thursday, March 29, 2007 The Associated Press
Arab leaders at their summit Thursday agreed on a call for Israel to accept their land-for-peace offer and open direct negotiations with the Arabs.'The Palestinian people is sincere in extending its hand of peace to the Israeli people, and I call on that people and its leaders to share that dream with us.
Palestinian President Mahmoud AbbasUnlike past summits that at times saw overt feuds break out, the gathering of Arab kings, emirs and presidents showed unusual public unity as it revived the peace offer, which they first made in 2002 only to meet rejection from Israel.But still unknown is how the Arabs will persuade Israel to accept the initiative, which the United States and Europe hope can help build momentum for a resumption of the long-stalled peace process. Israel has said it could accept the offer with some changes, but the Arab leaders refused the amend it.Instead, they created working groups that will seek to drum up support for the deal from the U.S., UN and Europe. U.S. allies Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan hope the smaller groups will be able to be more flexible in promoting the offer to win acceptance, despite the summit's rejection of changes.
Saudi Arabia should head working groups
The Palestinian people is sincere in extending its hand of peace to the Israeli people, and I call on that people and its leaders to share that dream with us, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas told the summit in a speech Thursday.He said Saudi Arabia should head the working groups, which should have freedom to move according to the circumstances to achieve our national goals.
Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, left, talks to Saudi Foreign Minister Saud Al-Faisal after the opening session of the Arab Summit in Riyadh on Wednesday.(Awad Awad/Associated Press) The summit, which ends later Thursday, was to call on Israel to accept the Arab peace initiative and reopen direct and serious negotiations, according to a draft resolution.
The initiative offers Israel recognition and permanent peace with all Arab countries in return for:Israeli withdrawal from lands captured in the 1967 Middle East war. Setting up a Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital.
A just solution to the issue of Palestinian refugees forced out of lands in what is now Israel. Israel has sought to water down the provisions, in particular those dealing with refugees. It opposes the influx of Palestinian refugees into the Jewish state and rejects a fullwithdrawal from the West Bank and East Jerusalem.Arab allies of the U.S. painted the peace offer as key to achieving progress at a time of mounting crises across the Mideast, including the bloodshed in Iraq.
The Arab summit was to call on Iraq's Shia-led government to change its constitution and military to give a greater role to Sunni Arabs.Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa rejected amending the peace offer, saying, They tell us to amend it, but we tell them to accept it first, then we can sit down at the negotiating table.But he said the Arabs must do more to convince the Israelis on the offer.The Canadian Press, 2007
LOOK WHO THE BIBLE SAYS IS WITH THE WEST AND ISRAEL, SAUDI ARABIA. AND EGYPT WILL BE AGAINST ISRAEL AND THE WEST. IS PROPHECY NOT COMING TO PASS OR WHAT. PRAISE KING JESUS.
COUNTRIES WITH ISRAEL
EZEKIEL 38:10-19
10 Thus saith the Lord GOD; It shall also come to pass, that at the same time shall things come into thy mind, and thou shalt think an evil thought:(RUSSIA,ARAB HORDES)
11 And thou shalt say, I will go up to the land of unwalled villages; I will go to them that are at rest, that dwell safely, all of them dwelling without walls, and having neither bars nor gates,
12 To take a spoil, and to take a prey; to turn thine hand upon the desolate places that are now inhabited, and upon the people that are gathered out of the nations, which have gotten cattle and goods, that dwell in the midst of the land.
13 Sheba, and Dedan,(SAUDIA ARABIA) and the merchants of Tarshish,(ENGLAND) with all the young lions thereof,(USA,CANADA,AUSTRALIA,NEW ZEALAND,EU,ENGLISH SPEAKING
shall say unto thee, Art thou come to take a spoil? hast thou gathered thy company to take a prey? to carry away silver and gold, to take away cattle and goods, to take a great spoil?
14 Therefore, son of man, prophesy and say unto Gog, Thus saith the Lord GOD; In that day when my people of Israel dwelleth safely, shalt thou not know it?
15 And thou shalt come from thy place out of the north parts, thou, and many people with thee, all of them riding upon horses, a great company, and a mighty army:
16 And thou shalt come up against my people of Israel, as a cloud to cover the land; it shall be in the latter days, and I will bring thee against my land, that the heathen may know me, when I shall be sanctified in thee, O Gog, before their eyes.
17 Thus saith the Lord GOD; Art thou he of whom I have spoken in old time by my servants the prophets of Israel, which prophesied in those days many years that I would bring thee against them?
18 And it shall come to pass at the same time when Gog shall come against the land of Israel, saith the Lord GOD, that my fury shall come up in my face.
19 For in my jealousy and in the fire of my wrath have I spoken, Surely in that day there shall be a great shaking in the land of Israel;
The United States of Saudi America
by Rifkah Zyntyg (INN) MAR 28,07
I didn't want to believe it. It was so outrageous.
I didn't want to believe it. It was so outrageous. But, to paraphrase Sherlock Holmes, when you eliminate all other options, the truth is what's left.Look at the facts. The destructive plans offered to Israel (and sadly, accepted) came from Saudi Arabia via the United States.The Oslo Accords. The Road Map. What's on the table now? Withdrawal from Samaria and Judea. To where? Not to be outdone, Ariel Sharon decided to go even further than the American plans when he unilaterally gave up Gaza. I'm surprised that Saudi Arabia didn't decree that day a national holiday.The destructive plans offered to Israel (and sadly, accepted) came from Saudi Arabia via the United States.
Meanwhile, the American President George Bush, a self-proclaimed friend of Israel, rubber-stamped the Saudi suggestions. Then, he had the State Department send Condoleezza Rice to put pressure on Israel to accept more and more restrictions in a policy that can only lead to self-destruction. The previous expression of American remote control of Israel was the bungled military campaign in Lebanon, which was orchestrated long-distance by people who had no interest in letting Israel win it.
Since those distant parties couldn't let the world see their obvious strategy or discern the possible source of it, they played it to a draw. Score: Israelis - 0; Hizbullah - 0.Realistically, however, the public relations score was vastly different. Hizbullah staged videos and displayed still photos that they made available to a willing and not-so-fastidious (when it comes to the facts) mediacracy. Never mind that these errors were pointed out by a small and rapidly declining group of ethical journalists; it provided ammunition for Hizbullah, and ultimately, the war was perceived globally as their victory.
As a result, the Israel Defense Force (IDF) is being belittled. Scorn and disparagement are being heaped on the heads of Israel's military establishment. Where are the legendary unbeatable heroes of Israeli history? They're still there. If their hands aren't tied behind their backs and they are allowed to pursue the sound strategy they propose without political intervention (both domestic and foreign), I'll give you odds on their victory. Will this happen? That depends on Israel. Letting the USA run the country can only lead to complete annihilation; if not by the Palestinian Authority and Hamas, then by Iran, which is waiting in the wings with dreams of developing nuclear bombs that neither the United Nations nor any other government has the courage to stop.
Friendship
It is time the USA followed its own moral compass without Saudi intervention in its relationship with Israel. There is a pattern of appeasement toward Saudi Arabia (to the detriment of Israel) that has become evident over the last few years. In 2005, the Bush Administration blocked arms shipments to Israel. The reason given for this was the failure to resolve a dispute over the sale of Israeli arms to China. Even after Israel agreed to increase supervision of arms exports, the US demanded increased access to Israeli negotiations with foreign militaries, even though none of them were considered enemies of the US. Why? Who would have benefited from that knowledge? Since September 2006, the US has blocked the sale of defensive weapons to Israel. These included Northrop Grumman's Skyguard laser weapons, designed to obliterate short-range rockets and missiles, which comprise the majority of In 2005, the Bush Administration blocked arms shipments to Israel. destructive weapons targeting Israeli cities and towns. Why? Friends don't hurt friends.
Jonathan Pollard sits in an American prison for over 20 years, with no pardon or amnesty forthcoming from the US government. The punishment for his offense should not have been more than four years in jail.
A deal made with the US Department of Justice was ignored, and he is slated to remain there for life for passing information to an ally - Israel. James Wood (sentenced to two years imprisonment) and Sahag Dedyan (sentenced to three years), were spies for the Soviet Union against the US. Richard Miller, who also spied for the Soviet Union, was released after six years. Manuel Noriega, sentenced for cocaine trafficking, racketeering and money laundering in 1989, will be released later this year.Is there a different standard for Jewish friends than for the rest of the world's population?
Time Out
It's time for Israel to define its space and declare its autonomy. Time to do only what is good and right for Israel. No strings attached. No tolerance for suicide bombers. No more self-deception or self-destruction.9 Nisan 5767 / 28 March 07
DECISION TIME?
As tensions mount, U.S. and allied strike forces massing near Iran.
By Joel C. Rosenberg
(Washington, D.C., March 28, 2007) -- In a phone call earlier this morning, Russian President Vladimir Putin told President Bush that the latest U.N. Security Council resolution aimed at Iran unambiguously rules out the use of force.Putin also expressed concern over U.S. plans to build a missile defense system to protect ourselves from ballistic missiles that could be fired by Iran, North Korean and other rogue nations. Nevertheless, the White House plans to move forward with a missile defense shield, and U.S. and British forces are steadily building up in and around the Persian Gulf as tensions mount with Iran. Two carrier strike groups are now in position, carrying out the most extensive war games in the region since just before Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003. Now the French have also positioned their aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle strike group in the Arabian Sea. Oil prices have shot to their highest levels all year. With hints that Iran may soon parade their British hostages through the streets of Tehran, British military officials today released exact GPS coordinates showing their forces were in Iraqi not Iranian waters at the time of their capture. Prime Minister Tony Blair is warning Iran to return the sailors and Marines, or else. The Bush administration denies it is ratching up the pressure on Ahmadinejad's regime. These military exercises were long planned and so there is no escalation of tension on our part, White House spokeswoman Dana Perino told reporters. Yeah, sure. Then she added: We stand with our British allies and stand behind Tony Blair as he works to get these 15 soldiers back from the Iranians. That's more like it.
I've written before that 2007 is the Year of Decision. But is April about to become the month of decision?
There is growing speculation in the region that Bush and Blair now have the justification they need to attack Iran -- an illegal act of war by the regime in Tehran. Are the rumors of war justified, or does the White House and 10 Downing Street believe they now have more leverage for strengthening even further international sanctions against Iran before force is needed?. It's not yet clear. I tend to believe President Bush is not inclined to use force, but that may be changing.
OZONE DEPLETION
ISAIAH 30:26-27
26 Moreover the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold, as the light of seven days, in the day that the LORD bindeth up the breach of his people, and healeth the stroke of their wound.
27 Behold, the name of the LORD cometh from far, burning with his anger, and the burden thereof is heavy: his lips are full of indignation, and his tongue as a devouring fire:
MATTHEW 24:21-22,29
21 For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.
22 And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened (Daylight hours shortened)
29 Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken:
REVELATION 16:7-9
7 And I heard another out of the altar say, Even so, Lord God Almighty, true and righteous are thy judgments.
8 And the fourth angel poured out his vial upon the sun; and power was given unto him to scorch men with fire.
9 And men were scorched with great heat, and blasphemed the name of God, which hath power over these plagues: and they repented not to give him glory.
Sunbathers bask in record Moscow heatwave By James Kilner MAR 29,07
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Miniskirts have replaced fur coats and lightweight blazers are worn instead of heavy jackets in Moscow as the city basks in the hottest March weather on record. At the start of the month skiers sped through the Russian capital's snowy parks wrapped up in woolly hats and anoraks against sub-zero temperatures.But now under clear blue skies vendors sell ice cream outside the
Kremlin to tourists smothered in sun cream and Russians taking a break from work.Normally in March there is no sun and it's so cold you just want to sleep all day, 18-year-old Elya Khoosnetdinova said, wearing a T-shirt and loose trousers.Life is so much better in the sun and I hope it stays like this, she said and strolled off with a friend back to her classes at Moscow State University.Temperatures in Moscow hit around 17 degrees Celsius (63 degrees Fahrenheit) on Thursday, 6 degrees higher than the average for March and continuing a long, hot sunny spell, a spokeswoman for the state weather monitoring unit Rosgidromet said.
These are the highest March temperatures ever recorded in Moscow, she said.Russia has already had one of its shortest and mildest winters with permanent snow not covering Moscow until the end of January and the spring coming weeks early.
Traffic police have ditched their winter uniforms, thermal vests lie unused in tourists' hotel rooms and Muscovites are forced to leave the windows of their apartments open to cool rooms heated by a central system set for winter.Along a pedestrian street people drank beer and sipped coffee at outdoor restaurant tables.
Sometimes we get the chance to set the tables out on the street towards the end of April, but this weather is more normal in May, said Andrei Viktorov, a barman at Posh Cafe.
But not everybody welcomes the warm weather. Sales staff at a fur coat store in an exclusive shopping mall near Red Square said they had brought their end of season sales forward by a month.They offered a 25 percent discount on a fur coat that would normally cost $3,000, the cheapest in their store, and 35 percent off their most expensive $80,000 coat.
METEORS HIT THE EARTH
REVELATION 6:12-17
12 And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood;
13 And the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind.
14 And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places.
15 And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains;
16 And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb:
17 For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?
REVELATION 8:12-13
12 And the fourth angel sounded, and the third part of the sun was smitten, and the third part of the moon, and the third part of the stars; so as the third part of them was darkened, and the day shone not for a third part of it, and the night likewise.
13 And I beheld, and heard an angel flying through the midst of heaven, saying with a loud voice, Woe, woe, woe, to the inhabiters of the earth by reason of the other voices of the trumpet of the three angels,which are yet to sound!
Flaming objects miss jetliner in air By EDUARDO GALLARDO, Associated Press Writer Wed Mar 29, 6:20 PM ET
SANTIAGO, Chile - Pilots of a Chilean commercial jetliner spotted flaming objects falling past their plane as it headed for a landing in New Zealand, airline officials said Wednesday. U.S. experts suggested the objects were likely meteors burning up in the earth's atmosphere and questioned Australian media reports they were probably pieces of a falling Russian spacecraft.LAN Chile airline said in a brief statement that the pilot, who was not identified, made visual contact with incandescent fragments several miles away on Monday. The Airbus 340 had just entered New Zealand airspace when the space debris was spotted.The airline said it reported the incident to authorities in Chile and New Zealand.
Web sites of several Australian news media quoted officials as saying that pieces of a Russian satellite had narrowly missed the jet.But Nicholas Johnson, orbital debris chief scientist for NASA's Johnson Space Center, said that was likely not the case. Russian space junk was expected to come back to Earth — but not until about 12 hours after the incident with the jet, Johnson said.He said he checked with the Russians and the debris an empty Progress resupply ship that had been at the International Space Station re-entered Earth's atmosphere on schedule. Unless someone has their times wrong, there appears to be no correlation, Johnson told The Associated Press.About 50 meteoroids enter the Earth's atmosphere every day — mostly burning up as they speed toward the planet — said Bill Ailor, director of the Center for Orbital and Reentry Debris Studies at the Aerospace Corporation of El Segundo, Calif.Those that survive and hit the ground are called meteorites.
By contrast, about 150 pieces of man-made space junk fall back to Earth each year, with about two-thirds of it coming as unplanned entries, Ailor said.Larger pieces of man-made space equipment, such as the Progress resupply ship, have motors to guide them back to Earth, Ailor said. If they are calculated to have more than a 1 in 10,000 chance of hitting people, they are shifted to a safer path, he said, though small errors can lead to large variations in where the debris hits.No one has ever been killed by space junk, Ailor said, although in 1997, an Oklahoma woman was grazed in the shoulder by piece.Associated Press Science Writer Seth Borenstein contributed to this story from Washington.
EARTHQUAKES
MATTHEW 24:7-8
7 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.
8 All these are the beginning of sorrows.
MARK 13:8
8 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom:(ETHNIC GROUP AGAINST ETHNIC GROUP) and there shall be earthquakes in divers places, and there shall be famines and troubles: these are the beginnings of sorrows.
LUKE 21:11
11 And great earthquakes shall be in divers places, and famines, and pestilences; and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven.
WORLD QUAKES LAST 2 DAYS (USGS)
Update time = Fri Mar 30 12:00 AM EDT
MAR 29,07
MAP 5.4 OFFSHORE COQUIMBO, CHILE
MAP 2.8 SOUTHERN ALASKA
MAP 2.7 ISLAND OF HAWAII, HAWAII
MAP 2.8 PUERTO RICO REGION
MAP 3.6 CENTRAL ALASKA
MAP 4.8 NEAR THE EAST COAST OF KORYAKIA, RUSSIA
MAP 4.7 SEA OF JAPAN
MAP 2.8 BAJA CALIFORNIA, MEXICO
MAP 2.7 KENAI PENINSULA, ALASKA
MAP 5.1 IZU ISLANDS, JAPAN REGION
MAP 3.1 WESTERN MONTANA
MAP 4.7 BARBADOS REGION, WINDWARD ISLANDS
MAP 3.1 UNIMAK ISLAND REGION, ALASKA
MAR 28,07
MAP 3.1 ANDREANOF ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN IS., ALASKA
MAP 3.4 NORTHERN ALASKA
MAP 5.9 LAKE TANGANYIKA REGION, CONGO-TANZANIA
MAP 4.7 ECUADOR
MAP 4.9 REVILLA GIGEDO ISLANDS REGION
MAP 2.7 NORTHERN CALIFORNIA
MAP 5.0 SOUTHERN SUMATRA, INDONESIA
MAP 4.7 PAGAN REGION, NORTHERN MARIANA ISLANDS
MAP 3.7 ALASKA PENINSULA
MAP 5.0 GULF OF CALIFORNIA
MAP 3.5 SOUTHERN ALASKA
MAP 4.9 GULF OF CALIFORNIA
MAP 2.5 CENTRAL ALASKA
MAP 2.8 CENTRAL CALIFORNIA
MAP 2.8 CENTRAL ALASKA
MAP 5.7 KERMADEC ISLANDS, NEW ZEALAND
MAP 2.6 PUERTO RICO REGION
MAP 4.7 VOLCANO ISLANDS, JAPAN REGION
MAP 3.3 CENTRAL ALASKA
MAP 5.1 NEAR THE WEST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN
MAP 4.7 SOUTH OF ALASKA
MAP 4.8 KYRGYZSTAN
MAP 2.6 UNIMAK ISLAND REGION, ALASKA
MAP 4.9 KURIL ISLANDS
STORMS HURRICANES-TORNADOES
LUKE 21:25-26
25 And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity;(MASS CONFUSION) the sea and the waves roaring;(FIERCE WINDS)
26 Men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken.
More severe weather today Wayne Verno, Meteorologist, The Weather Channel Thu Mar 29, 6:17 AM ET
Over 200 reports of severe weather occurred Wednesday and Wednesday evening across parts of the western Plains; including over 150 reports of large hail, and over 60 reports of possible tornadoes.
Over 25 inches of snow and wind gusts over 50 mph also impacted parts of the interior and northern Mountains across the West.
Today, the same area of low pressure and associated cold front responsible for yesterdays active weather, will continue the risks of severe weather across the Plains and the heavy snow and wind across parts of the western mountains. A slow moving cold front will move across central Texas, central Oklahoma, central and eastern Kansas, eastern Nebraska, and parts of western Missouri and western Iowa today and tonight, triggering severe thunderstorms. Large hail, damaging winds, and isolated tornadoes could impact areas from San Antonia and Dallas, through Oklahoma City, Tulsa, Kansas City, and Omaha. The slow movement of thunderstorms, and thunderstorms moving over the same areas repeatedly, will also result in some flash flooding.
Meanwhile, on the cold side of the storm system, low pressure will continue to wrap wind and snow across parts of southern and eastern Montana, much of Wyoming, western Colorado, and eastern Utah today through Friday. Winds across southern Montana, into northern Wyoming could gust over 50 mph. This will create blizzard conditions at times, as well as considerable blowing and drifting of snow. Areas from Billings, through Sheridan, to northeast of Salt Lake City, and into the Rockies of western Colorado could see over a foot of snow. In fact, areas across much of Wyoming could see over 2 feet of snow. Conditions should begin to improve across the mountains later on Friday.
Spring thaw wreaking havoc in some rural areas
Wednesday, March 29, 2007 - CBC News
It's a soggy situation in Saskatchewan's northeast grainbelt and it could get soggier.Melting snow and heavy rains have washed out roads and flooded fields and there's still a lot of snow that hasn't melted.
Some of the worst-hit areas are the rural municipalities of Foam Lake and Elfros. The RMs have declared a state of emergency, with farmers reporting flooding in low-lying areas, and at least eight roads have been washed out.RM of Foam Lake administrator Ron Kostrick said he's concerned about rising water levels in the creeks.If we get any more wet snow or rain that comes along with it, it's as bad as last year, he said. No doubt, if we get any more rainfall, it's going to be worse.
According to Doug Johnson, a spokesman with the Saskatchewan Watershed Authority, the problem has less to do with high incoming water levels than with heavy snowfall.We don't have major creeks that are flowing through the area that are causing problems, he said. It's because of the snowpack and the melt; it's just spreading out.The flooded roads are still passable, Kostrick said. However, he's not
sure how long that will last.
PERSECUSSION,BEHEADINGS
JESUS PERSECUTED BIGTIME
ISAIAH 53:4
4 Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.
MATTHEW 9:34
34 But the Pharisees said, He casteth out devils through the prince of the devils.
JOHN 8:41
41 Ye do the deeds of your father. Then said they to him, We be not born of fornication; we have one Father, even God.
JOHN 10:20
20 And many of them said, He hath a devil, and is mad; why hear ye him?
PHILIPPIANS 2:10-11(JESUS GETS REVENGE)
10 That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth;
11 And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.(JUDGEMENT SEAT OF CHRIST AND FOR SINNERS, THE GREAT WHITE THRONE
FINAL JUDGEMENT).
WE ARE CHRISTIANS WE WILL BE TREATED THE SAME.
2 TIMOTHY 3:1-5 (WHY WE ARE PERSECUTED BY THE WORLD)
1 This know also, that in the last days perilous (DANGEROUS) times shall come.
2 For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,
3 Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good,
4 Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God;
5 Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.
MATTHEW 5:10-12
10 Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
11 Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake.
12 Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.
MATTHEW 24:9
9 Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name’s sake.
JOHN 15:18-20
18 If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me (JESUS) before it hated you.
19 If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.
20 Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also.
REVELATION 6:9-11
9 And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain(BEHEADED) for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held:
10 And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?
11 And white robes were given unto every one of them; and it was said unto them, that they should rest yet for a little season, until their fellowservants also and their brethren, that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled.
REVELATION 20:4
4 And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.
Group says hate crimes bill an impending threat to Christians
Jim Brown OneNewsNow.com March 27, 2007
The head of a Washington-based pro-family group is urging opposition to federal hate crimes legislation she fears will soon be approved by the Democrat-led Congress -- and that bill, she believes, threatens the free-speech rights of those who strongly oppose homosexuality.
Representatives John Conyers (D - Michigan) and Mark Kirk (R - Illinois) have reintroduced the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act. The bill would include crimes against homosexuals, bisexuals, and transgenders in federal hate crimes statutes. Andrea Lafferty, executive director of the Traditional Values Coalition (TVC), contends the ultimate goal of the bill is to silence anyone who believes homosexuality is a sin.People need to understand that the hour is very, very late, Lafferty urges. We now have a bill that give special protections to people who are homosexual, bisexual, transgendered, cross-dressers. She describes transgenders as individuals who have had sex-change operations and are clearly very disturbed.
According to Lafferty the bill would elevate homosexuals to a special protected status. So if a pastor stands up in the pulpit and says homosexuality is a sin ... it will be considered hate speech, she says; and if this law passes, the federal government will go after people who say those kinds of things.The TVC executive director contends there is not an epidemic of hate crimes in the U.S., as the bill's
sponsors claim, nor are large numbers of homosexuals fleeing across state lines to buy goods and services they cannot in their home states because of persecution.The bill is likely to sail easily through the House, says Lafferty. That is why she is urging Christians to begin calling on President Bush to issue a veto threat.American Family News Network
Vatican regrets Israel postponing bilateral talks
AFP - March 28, 2007
VATICAN CITY -- The Vatican Wednesday said it regretted a request by Israel to postpone talks that were to lead to a long-awaited bilateral accord. Israel said it could not take part in the talks set for Thursday because of international political contingencies, the Vatican said in a communiqué. The Holy See, while understanding the reasons offered, took note with regret and hoped a new date would be set as soon as possible, the statement said. According to the religious affairs news agency
I-Media, Vatican sources suggested that the Israeli decision was in response to the Holy See's expression of support for the new Palestinian government that includes the Islamist group Hamas.
But Israel's ambassador to the Vatican, Oded Ben Hur, said, That is absolutely not true, adding that Israel had asked for the postponement because of the imminent opening Wednesday of an Arab League summit in Riyadh, and the ongoing tour of the region by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. Israel and the Vatican were to have held a high-level meeting Thursday to discuss the legal and financial status of the Catholic Church in Israel. Negotiations on an accord that would cover Church property and possible income tax breaks for the commercial activities of Christian communities in Israel resumed in 2004 after a 10-year hiatus.
Arab Summit extends land-for-peace offer to Israel
Thursday, March 29, 2007 The Associated Press
Arab leaders at their summit Thursday agreed on a call for Israel to accept their land-for-peace offer and open direct negotiations with the Arabs.'The Palestinian people is sincere in extending its hand of peace to the Israeli people, and I call on that people and its leaders to share that dream with us.
Palestinian President Mahmoud AbbasUnlike past summits that at times saw overt feuds break out, the gathering of Arab kings, emirs and presidents showed unusual public unity as it revived the peace offer, which they first made in 2002 only to meet rejection from Israel.But still unknown is how the Arabs will persuade Israel to accept the initiative, which the United States and Europe hope can help build momentum for a resumption of the long-stalled peace process. Israel has said it could accept the offer with some changes, but the Arab leaders refused the amend it.Instead, they created working groups that will seek to drum up support for the deal from the U.S., UN and Europe. U.S. allies Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan hope the smaller groups will be able to be more flexible in promoting the offer to win acceptance, despite the summit's rejection of changes.
Saudi Arabia should head working groups
The Palestinian people is sincere in extending its hand of peace to the Israeli people, and I call on that people and its leaders to share that dream with us, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas told the summit in a speech Thursday.He said Saudi Arabia should head the working groups, which should have freedom to move according to the circumstances to achieve our national goals.
Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, left, talks to Saudi Foreign Minister Saud Al-Faisal after the opening session of the Arab Summit in Riyadh on Wednesday.(Awad Awad/Associated Press) The summit, which ends later Thursday, was to call on Israel to accept the Arab peace initiative and reopen direct and serious negotiations, according to a draft resolution.
The initiative offers Israel recognition and permanent peace with all Arab countries in return for:Israeli withdrawal from lands captured in the 1967 Middle East war. Setting up a Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital.
A just solution to the issue of Palestinian refugees forced out of lands in what is now Israel. Israel has sought to water down the provisions, in particular those dealing with refugees. It opposes the influx of Palestinian refugees into the Jewish state and rejects a fullwithdrawal from the West Bank and East Jerusalem.Arab allies of the U.S. painted the peace offer as key to achieving progress at a time of mounting crises across the Mideast, including the bloodshed in Iraq.
The Arab summit was to call on Iraq's Shia-led government to change its constitution and military to give a greater role to Sunni Arabs.Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa rejected amending the peace offer, saying, They tell us to amend it, but we tell them to accept it first, then we can sit down at the negotiating table.But he said the Arabs must do more to convince the Israelis on the offer.The Canadian Press, 2007
LOOK WHO THE BIBLE SAYS IS WITH THE WEST AND ISRAEL, SAUDI ARABIA. AND EGYPT WILL BE AGAINST ISRAEL AND THE WEST. IS PROPHECY NOT COMING TO PASS OR WHAT. PRAISE KING JESUS.
COUNTRIES WITH ISRAEL
EZEKIEL 38:10-19
10 Thus saith the Lord GOD; It shall also come to pass, that at the same time shall things come into thy mind, and thou shalt think an evil thought:(RUSSIA,ARAB HORDES)
11 And thou shalt say, I will go up to the land of unwalled villages; I will go to them that are at rest, that dwell safely, all of them dwelling without walls, and having neither bars nor gates,
12 To take a spoil, and to take a prey; to turn thine hand upon the desolate places that are now inhabited, and upon the people that are gathered out of the nations, which have gotten cattle and goods, that dwell in the midst of the land.
13 Sheba, and Dedan,(SAUDIA ARABIA) and the merchants of Tarshish,(ENGLAND) with all the young lions thereof,(USA,CANADA,AUSTRALIA,NEW ZEALAND,EU,ENGLISH SPEAKING
shall say unto thee, Art thou come to take a spoil? hast thou gathered thy company to take a prey? to carry away silver and gold, to take away cattle and goods, to take a great spoil?
14 Therefore, son of man, prophesy and say unto Gog, Thus saith the Lord GOD; In that day when my people of Israel dwelleth safely, shalt thou not know it?
15 And thou shalt come from thy place out of the north parts, thou, and many people with thee, all of them riding upon horses, a great company, and a mighty army:
16 And thou shalt come up against my people of Israel, as a cloud to cover the land; it shall be in the latter days, and I will bring thee against my land, that the heathen may know me, when I shall be sanctified in thee, O Gog, before their eyes.
17 Thus saith the Lord GOD; Art thou he of whom I have spoken in old time by my servants the prophets of Israel, which prophesied in those days many years that I would bring thee against them?
18 And it shall come to pass at the same time when Gog shall come against the land of Israel, saith the Lord GOD, that my fury shall come up in my face.
19 For in my jealousy and in the fire of my wrath have I spoken, Surely in that day there shall be a great shaking in the land of Israel;
The United States of Saudi America
by Rifkah Zyntyg (INN) MAR 28,07
I didn't want to believe it. It was so outrageous.
I didn't want to believe it. It was so outrageous. But, to paraphrase Sherlock Holmes, when you eliminate all other options, the truth is what's left.Look at the facts. The destructive plans offered to Israel (and sadly, accepted) came from Saudi Arabia via the United States.The Oslo Accords. The Road Map. What's on the table now? Withdrawal from Samaria and Judea. To where? Not to be outdone, Ariel Sharon decided to go even further than the American plans when he unilaterally gave up Gaza. I'm surprised that Saudi Arabia didn't decree that day a national holiday.The destructive plans offered to Israel (and sadly, accepted) came from Saudi Arabia via the United States.
Meanwhile, the American President George Bush, a self-proclaimed friend of Israel, rubber-stamped the Saudi suggestions. Then, he had the State Department send Condoleezza Rice to put pressure on Israel to accept more and more restrictions in a policy that can only lead to self-destruction. The previous expression of American remote control of Israel was the bungled military campaign in Lebanon, which was orchestrated long-distance by people who had no interest in letting Israel win it.
Since those distant parties couldn't let the world see their obvious strategy or discern the possible source of it, they played it to a draw. Score: Israelis - 0; Hizbullah - 0.Realistically, however, the public relations score was vastly different. Hizbullah staged videos and displayed still photos that they made available to a willing and not-so-fastidious (when it comes to the facts) mediacracy. Never mind that these errors were pointed out by a small and rapidly declining group of ethical journalists; it provided ammunition for Hizbullah, and ultimately, the war was perceived globally as their victory.
As a result, the Israel Defense Force (IDF) is being belittled. Scorn and disparagement are being heaped on the heads of Israel's military establishment. Where are the legendary unbeatable heroes of Israeli history? They're still there. If their hands aren't tied behind their backs and they are allowed to pursue the sound strategy they propose without political intervention (both domestic and foreign), I'll give you odds on their victory. Will this happen? That depends on Israel. Letting the USA run the country can only lead to complete annihilation; if not by the Palestinian Authority and Hamas, then by Iran, which is waiting in the wings with dreams of developing nuclear bombs that neither the United Nations nor any other government has the courage to stop.
Friendship
It is time the USA followed its own moral compass without Saudi intervention in its relationship with Israel. There is a pattern of appeasement toward Saudi Arabia (to the detriment of Israel) that has become evident over the last few years. In 2005, the Bush Administration blocked arms shipments to Israel. The reason given for this was the failure to resolve a dispute over the sale of Israeli arms to China. Even after Israel agreed to increase supervision of arms exports, the US demanded increased access to Israeli negotiations with foreign militaries, even though none of them were considered enemies of the US. Why? Who would have benefited from that knowledge? Since September 2006, the US has blocked the sale of defensive weapons to Israel. These included Northrop Grumman's Skyguard laser weapons, designed to obliterate short-range rockets and missiles, which comprise the majority of In 2005, the Bush Administration blocked arms shipments to Israel. destructive weapons targeting Israeli cities and towns. Why? Friends don't hurt friends.
Jonathan Pollard sits in an American prison for over 20 years, with no pardon or amnesty forthcoming from the US government. The punishment for his offense should not have been more than four years in jail.
A deal made with the US Department of Justice was ignored, and he is slated to remain there for life for passing information to an ally - Israel. James Wood (sentenced to two years imprisonment) and Sahag Dedyan (sentenced to three years), were spies for the Soviet Union against the US. Richard Miller, who also spied for the Soviet Union, was released after six years. Manuel Noriega, sentenced for cocaine trafficking, racketeering and money laundering in 1989, will be released later this year.Is there a different standard for Jewish friends than for the rest of the world's population?
Time Out
It's time for Israel to define its space and declare its autonomy. Time to do only what is good and right for Israel. No strings attached. No tolerance for suicide bombers. No more self-deception or self-destruction.9 Nisan 5767 / 28 March 07
DECISION TIME?
As tensions mount, U.S. and allied strike forces massing near Iran.
By Joel C. Rosenberg
(Washington, D.C., March 28, 2007) -- In a phone call earlier this morning, Russian President Vladimir Putin told President Bush that the latest U.N. Security Council resolution aimed at Iran unambiguously rules out the use of force.Putin also expressed concern over U.S. plans to build a missile defense system to protect ourselves from ballistic missiles that could be fired by Iran, North Korean and other rogue nations. Nevertheless, the White House plans to move forward with a missile defense shield, and U.S. and British forces are steadily building up in and around the Persian Gulf as tensions mount with Iran. Two carrier strike groups are now in position, carrying out the most extensive war games in the region since just before Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003. Now the French have also positioned their aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle strike group in the Arabian Sea. Oil prices have shot to their highest levels all year. With hints that Iran may soon parade their British hostages through the streets of Tehran, British military officials today released exact GPS coordinates showing their forces were in Iraqi not Iranian waters at the time of their capture. Prime Minister Tony Blair is warning Iran to return the sailors and Marines, or else. The Bush administration denies it is ratching up the pressure on Ahmadinejad's regime. These military exercises were long planned and so there is no escalation of tension on our part, White House spokeswoman Dana Perino told reporters. Yeah, sure. Then she added: We stand with our British allies and stand behind Tony Blair as he works to get these 15 soldiers back from the Iranians. That's more like it.
I've written before that 2007 is the Year of Decision. But is April about to become the month of decision?
There is growing speculation in the region that Bush and Blair now have the justification they need to attack Iran -- an illegal act of war by the regime in Tehran. Are the rumors of war justified, or does the White House and 10 Downing Street believe they now have more leverage for strengthening even further international sanctions against Iran before force is needed?. It's not yet clear. I tend to believe President Bush is not inclined to use force, but that may be changing.
OZONE DEPLETION
ISAIAH 30:26-27
26 Moreover the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold, as the light of seven days, in the day that the LORD bindeth up the breach of his people, and healeth the stroke of their wound.
27 Behold, the name of the LORD cometh from far, burning with his anger, and the burden thereof is heavy: his lips are full of indignation, and his tongue as a devouring fire:
MATTHEW 24:21-22,29
21 For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.
22 And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened (Daylight hours shortened)
29 Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken:
REVELATION 16:7-9
7 And I heard another out of the altar say, Even so, Lord God Almighty, true and righteous are thy judgments.
8 And the fourth angel poured out his vial upon the sun; and power was given unto him to scorch men with fire.
9 And men were scorched with great heat, and blasphemed the name of God, which hath power over these plagues: and they repented not to give him glory.
Sunbathers bask in record Moscow heatwave By James Kilner MAR 29,07
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Miniskirts have replaced fur coats and lightweight blazers are worn instead of heavy jackets in Moscow as the city basks in the hottest March weather on record. At the start of the month skiers sped through the Russian capital's snowy parks wrapped up in woolly hats and anoraks against sub-zero temperatures.But now under clear blue skies vendors sell ice cream outside the
Kremlin to tourists smothered in sun cream and Russians taking a break from work.Normally in March there is no sun and it's so cold you just want to sleep all day, 18-year-old Elya Khoosnetdinova said, wearing a T-shirt and loose trousers.Life is so much better in the sun and I hope it stays like this, she said and strolled off with a friend back to her classes at Moscow State University.Temperatures in Moscow hit around 17 degrees Celsius (63 degrees Fahrenheit) on Thursday, 6 degrees higher than the average for March and continuing a long, hot sunny spell, a spokeswoman for the state weather monitoring unit Rosgidromet said.
These are the highest March temperatures ever recorded in Moscow, she said.Russia has already had one of its shortest and mildest winters with permanent snow not covering Moscow until the end of January and the spring coming weeks early.
Traffic police have ditched their winter uniforms, thermal vests lie unused in tourists' hotel rooms and Muscovites are forced to leave the windows of their apartments open to cool rooms heated by a central system set for winter.Along a pedestrian street people drank beer and sipped coffee at outdoor restaurant tables.
Sometimes we get the chance to set the tables out on the street towards the end of April, but this weather is more normal in May, said Andrei Viktorov, a barman at Posh Cafe.
But not everybody welcomes the warm weather. Sales staff at a fur coat store in an exclusive shopping mall near Red Square said they had brought their end of season sales forward by a month.They offered a 25 percent discount on a fur coat that would normally cost $3,000, the cheapest in their store, and 35 percent off their most expensive $80,000 coat.
METEORS HIT THE EARTH
REVELATION 6:12-17
12 And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood;
13 And the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind.
14 And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places.
15 And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains;
16 And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb:
17 For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?
REVELATION 8:12-13
12 And the fourth angel sounded, and the third part of the sun was smitten, and the third part of the moon, and the third part of the stars; so as the third part of them was darkened, and the day shone not for a third part of it, and the night likewise.
13 And I beheld, and heard an angel flying through the midst of heaven, saying with a loud voice, Woe, woe, woe, to the inhabiters of the earth by reason of the other voices of the trumpet of the three angels,which are yet to sound!
Flaming objects miss jetliner in air By EDUARDO GALLARDO, Associated Press Writer Wed Mar 29, 6:20 PM ET
SANTIAGO, Chile - Pilots of a Chilean commercial jetliner spotted flaming objects falling past their plane as it headed for a landing in New Zealand, airline officials said Wednesday. U.S. experts suggested the objects were likely meteors burning up in the earth's atmosphere and questioned Australian media reports they were probably pieces of a falling Russian spacecraft.LAN Chile airline said in a brief statement that the pilot, who was not identified, made visual contact with incandescent fragments several miles away on Monday. The Airbus 340 had just entered New Zealand airspace when the space debris was spotted.The airline said it reported the incident to authorities in Chile and New Zealand.
Web sites of several Australian news media quoted officials as saying that pieces of a Russian satellite had narrowly missed the jet.But Nicholas Johnson, orbital debris chief scientist for NASA's Johnson Space Center, said that was likely not the case. Russian space junk was expected to come back to Earth — but not until about 12 hours after the incident with the jet, Johnson said.He said he checked with the Russians and the debris an empty Progress resupply ship that had been at the International Space Station re-entered Earth's atmosphere on schedule. Unless someone has their times wrong, there appears to be no correlation, Johnson told The Associated Press.About 50 meteoroids enter the Earth's atmosphere every day — mostly burning up as they speed toward the planet — said Bill Ailor, director of the Center for Orbital and Reentry Debris Studies at the Aerospace Corporation of El Segundo, Calif.Those that survive and hit the ground are called meteorites.
By contrast, about 150 pieces of man-made space junk fall back to Earth each year, with about two-thirds of it coming as unplanned entries, Ailor said.Larger pieces of man-made space equipment, such as the Progress resupply ship, have motors to guide them back to Earth, Ailor said. If they are calculated to have more than a 1 in 10,000 chance of hitting people, they are shifted to a safer path, he said, though small errors can lead to large variations in where the debris hits.No one has ever been killed by space junk, Ailor said, although in 1997, an Oklahoma woman was grazed in the shoulder by piece.Associated Press Science Writer Seth Borenstein contributed to this story from Washington.
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