CANADA CONSTITUTION CRISIS

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.

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.

Expert: Small Ark. earthquakes could be warning By JON GAMBRELL, Associated Press Writer – Fri Nov 28, 5:51 am ET

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – A series of small earthquakes that rattled central Arkansas in recent weeks could be a sign of something much bigger to come.By this weekend, seismologists hope to install three measurement devices to gather data about future temblors in the area. That information could show whether the rumbles come from heat-related geological changes or from an undiscovered fault — which could mean a risk of substantial earthquakes in the future.The potential for generating a high-magnitude earthquake is real, said Haydar Al-Shukri, director of the Arkansas Earthquake Center at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.Five earthquakes ranging in magnitude from 2.2 to 2.7 have hit central Arkansas this month. Quakes with a magnitude of 2.5 to 3 are typically the smallest felt by people.While hundreds of earthquakes occur each year, including several in Arkansas, the location of the recent ones give Al-Shukri pause. Arkansas quakes generally occur in the state's northeast corner, part of the New Madrid Seismic Zone, where three temblors with magnitudes of around 8 struck during the winter of 1812 and smaller ones continue today.But central Arkansas does not have any seismic history, Al-Shukri said.It is abnormal. It is significant, he said. We need to carefully watch this activity.The area does not have any permanent seismograph, so researchers asked the University of Memphis in Tennessee if they could use its portable equipment. The nearest seismographs aren't close enough to provide the detailed readings scientists need to determine what could be causing the tremors or properly locate their origin, said Scott Ausbrooks, the geohazard supervisor for the Arkansas Geological Survey.

I don't know if you've looked at a map of where these events are located, but they've got a scatter on them, he said. We're thinking this is probably the inherited error built in when you try to locate events of this small a magnitude from that far away.Ausbrooks said officials would install the three seismographs around Magnet Cove, a Hot Spring County community near where a magnitude-2.7 earthquake hit on Nov. 1. Residents told police dispatchers they heard what sounded like an explosion.One possible culprit could be a hydrothermal quake, caused by extremely hot fluid pushing into rocks under the surface. The hot fluid percolates into the cracks of the rocks and causes movement, Al-Shukri said.That theory matches the geologic history of the area. Central Arkansas is home to Hot Springs, a city that grew up around its namesake spas. The springs have 143-degree waters rushing to the surface continuously.If that's the case, the earthquakes likely wouldn't pose a drastic danger to the area, Al-Shukri said. At their strongest, such quakes reach only a magnitude of 5, the U.S. Geological Survey's threshold for moderate.However, if the earthquakes are caused by a previously unknown fault, that could mean a much more powerful temblor in the future. A recently discovered fault in eastern Arkansas near Marianna caused an earthquake with a magnitude of between 7.2 and 7.5 in the past 5,000 years, Al-Shukri said. That could cause widespread, heavy damage.Now, it's not active, but in geologist time, that's yesterday, he said.Ausbrooks wouldn't speculate on what could be causing the earthquakes, saying he wanted to see what data the seismographs capture. However, he acknowledged an unknown fault could be running through the area.There are numerous faults across the state, both known and unknown, Ausbrooks said. This area has got a lot of faults associated with it from the mountain building of the Ouachitas, but they're considered inactive.On the Net:
Arkansas Geological Survey: http://www.geology.ar.gov UALR Arkansas Earthquake Center: http://quake.ualr.edu U.S. Geological Survey: http://www.usgs.gov.

Two earthquakes rattle remote Alaska Sat Nov 29, 2:52 am ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Two moderate earthquakes rattled remote locations in Alaska on Friday, according to the U.S. National Earthquake Center.A magnitude 5.3 quake struck 13 miles west northwest of the Alaska town of Anchor Point, which is about 200 miles south of Anchorage. About a minute later, a magnitude 5.1 quake occurred about 28 miles southwest of Cantwell, Alaska, which is about 200 miles north of Anchorage.Magnitude 5 quakes can cause considerable damage, but there were no immediate reports of injury or damage.

Strong 6.0 quake strikes off Indonesia's Sumatra: USGS Fri Nov 28, 7:17 am ET

JAKARTA (AFP) – A powerful 6.0-magnitude earthquake struck at sea off Indonesia's Sumatra island, the US Geological Survey said Friday, but there were no immediate reports of damage or injuries.The quake struck 141 kilometres (88 miles) southwest of the city of Bengkulu at a depth of 35 kilometres at 3:50 pm (0850 GMT), the USGS said in an email alert.A geologist at Indonesia's geophysics agency told AFP no tsunami alert had been issued for the quake.We don't know yet of any damage from the quake, Edison Gurning said.Bengkulu city was badly damaged in a 8.4-magnitude quake that killed 23 people in September 2007.Indonesia was the country worst hit by the earthquake-triggered tsunami in December 2004 that killed more than 200,000 people in 11 nations across Asia, including over 168,000 people in Indonesia's Aceh province alone.This month, it launched a high-tech tsunami warning system in a bid to prevent a repeat of the tragedy.The Indonesian archipelago straddles several continental plates in an area known as the Pacific Ring of Fire, where seismic and volcanic activity is recorded on an almost daily basis.Earlier this month, six people were killed and some 10,000 displaced by a powerful 7.5-magnitude earthquake which struck Sulawesi island.

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.

Atlantic hurricane season blows away records By SETH BORENSTEIN, AP Science Writer – Thu Nov 27, 5:44 am ET

WASHINGTON – The 2008 Atlantic hurricane season, which ends Sunday, seemed to strike the United States and Cuba as if on redial, setting at least five weather records for persistence and repeatedly striking the same areas.It was pretty relentless in a large number of big strikes, said Georgia Tech atmospheric sciences professor Judith Curry. We just didn't have the huge monster where a lot of people lost their lives, but we had a lot of damage, a lot of damage.Data on death and damage are still being calculated, but the insurance industry recorded at least $10.6 billion in losses this hurricane season. That includes $8.1 billion in insured damage from Hurricane Ike, which ranked as the seventh most expensive catastrophe in the United States history, according to Mike Barry of the Insurance Information Institute in New York.

Three records showed the hurricane season's relentlessness. Six consecutive named storms — Dolly, Edouard, Fay, Gustav, Hanna and Ike — struck the U.S. mainland, something that had not been seen in recorded history. It's also the first time a major hurricane, those with winds of at least 111 mph, formed in five consecutive months, July through November. And Bertha spun about for 17 days, making it the longest lived storm in July.Two records involve storms hitting the same places repeatedly. Rain-heavy Fay was the only storm to hit the same state — Florida — four times, leaving heavy flood damage in its wake. A record three major hurricanes smacked Cuba: Gustav, Ike and Paloma.Upper air currents helped storms get bigger and focused them into a few places — Cuba and the U.S. Gulf Coast — said Gerry Bell, the top hurricane forecaster at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Climate Prediction Center. Five of the six storms that hit the United States this season struck the Gulf Coast.And that repeat-tracking of storms to the same place — and with it increased likelihood of landfall — is typical of years when the hurricane season is on overdrive, like this year, Bell said.This year wasn't the busiest ever. It merely tied for the fourth most named storms in history with 16. The 2005 season shattered all records with 28 tropical storms and hurricanes.The 2008season was busy largely because of the natural cycles of high and low storm activity that last anywhere from 25 to 40 years.This one started in 1995. Based on the historical record, we're right in the middle of an active era, Bell said.

An average season has 11 named storms, six of which become hurricanes. This year there were eight hurricanes, of which five - Bertha, Gustav, Ike, Omar and Paloma — became major hurricanes.Three of those — Gustav, Ike and Paloma — made extreme Category 4, where winds have to be at least 131 mph. That's a lot, Bell said. But it's typical of a very active season such as what we saw.Curry said this year's large number of Category 4 storms indicates a signal of global warming. But Bell said the science is not quite clear on that.At the National Hurricane Center one thing is clear. Meteorologist and spokesman Dennis Feltgen said: We're glad it's over.On the Net.The National Hurricane Center: http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/

Sri Lanka: 7 killed, 98,000 displaced by floods NOV 29,08

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka – Floods caused by days of heavy rains killed at least seven people, left four soldiers missing and displaced tens of thousands in insurgency-ravaged northern Sri Lanka, officials said Saturday.Keerthi Ekanayake of the Disaster Management Center said the northern Jaffna peninsula and the Kilinochchi and Mullaitivu districts were inundated and nearly 8,000 houses have been destroyed.

Seven people were confirmed dead and more than 88,000 were displaced in the north alone, Ekanayake said.The military said four soldiers stationed in Jaffna were missing after being caught in the flooding.Hundreds of thousands of people in the northern region had already been displaced by fighting between government troops and separatist Tamil Tiger rebels and are living in temporary huts.An additional 10,000 people have become homeless because of the floods in the rest of Sri Lanka, Ekanayake said.The government plans to send emergency aid and shelter materials, Disaster Management Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe said.Aid agencies were evicted from rebel-held territory in September by the government, which said it could not guarantee their security amid the fighting.

More rains feared as death toll rises in Brazil By RICARDO MORAES, Associated Press –Fri Nov 28, 3:38 pm ET

BLUMENAU, Brazil – Forecasters warned Friday that yet more rain could fall this weekend on waterlogged southern Brazil, raising fears of renewed mudslides in a region where at least 100 people have died due to storms.Santa Catarina state's civil defense department said in a statement that mudslides killed most of the victims, with floods killing most of the rest. Nineteen people were still missing and at least 78,000 people in 14 cities were still forced to shelter with relatives or friends or in churches, schools and other public buildings.After surveying large areas hit by the mudslides, experts at Sao Paulo's Technological Research Institute said tragedy could strike again because the earth is still saturated with water.

The stabilization of the soil is extremely precarious and if there is more rain, then there could be more mudslides, the institute's Luiz Antonio Gomes was quoted as saying in the Santa Catarina government's Web site.Meteorologists predicted at least some chance of rain on Saturday and Sunday.Volunteers and troops were scrambling to distribute tons of medicine, food, water and clothes to people in a region where power outages contributed to a lack of clean water and fresh food.The government-owned bank Caixa Economica Federal announced it would provide 1.5 billion reals ($652 billion) in loans for people and businesses in the disaster zone so they can buy goods like construction materials and appliances.

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 3 OTHER PARTIES WANT TO OVER THROW HARPER AND HAVE THE LIBERALS LEAD THE GOVERNMENT OR HAVE NEW ELECTIONS,TALK ABOUT NATIONS IN DISTRESS.

Harper moves to avoid political showdown
Last Updated: Friday, November 28, 2008 | 10:00 PM ET CBC News

Prime Minister Stephen Harper makes a statement regarding the opposition's plan to form a coalition government, in front of the House of Commons on Friday. (Tom Hanson/Canadian Press)Prime Minister Stephen Harper has temporarily stymied a Liberal plan to bring down the government and propose a governing coalition with the New Democrats, delaying the opportunity for a no-confidence vote by one week.In an address delivered from the foyer of the House of Commons on Friday, Harper said the government should be empowered by Canadians — not through deals negotiated in the shadowy halls of Parliament.While we have been working on the economy, the opposition has been working on a backroom deal to overturn the results of the last election without seeking the consent of voters. They want to take power, not earn it,Harper said.The prime minister has cancelled Monday's opposition day, which the Liberals intended to use to introduce a motion to topple the Conservative government on the grounds that it has failed to recognize the seriousness of the economic downturn.Harper said the next opposition day will be set for Dec. 8.

Party standings:
Conservatives 143
Liberals 77
Bloc Québécois 49
NDP 37
Independent 2
The Liberals campaigned against a coalition with the NDP, saying NDP policies were bad for the economy. And now they want to form a coalition saying that this will strengthen the economy,Harper said.He also cancelled a vote on a ways-and-means motion that had been scheduled for Monday night, a confidence vote that would have given the opposition another chance to bring down the government. That motion deals with the government's fiscal update, which has prompted the current political crisis.

Pointing out that the Conservatives received a renewed minority mandate last month to guide the country through the worst financial crisis in decades, Harper said his government has taken several steps since the Oct. 14 vote to bolster the economy — including injecting billions of dollars of liquidity into Canada's credit markets.

The Official Opposition disagrees, saying the government hasn't offered any serious plan to assist workers and businesses in hard-pressed sectors such as manufacturing, the automotive industry and forestry.The Liberal motion reads: In light of the government's failure to recognize the seriousness of Canada's economic situation and its failure in particular to present any credible plan to stimulate the Canadian economy … this House has lost confidence in this government and is of the opinion that a viable alternative government can be formed.

Governor General making plans to return
The Bloc Québécois would not be part of any coalition government, but has expressed support for the idea as long as the coalition provides economic help for Quebec's forest and manufacturing sectors.Gov.-Gen. Michaëlle Jean has been travelling in Europe for the past few days. She's shown here visiting the monument of Hungary's 1956 anti-communist revolution martyrs with her husband Jean-Daniel Lafond in Budapest on Wednesday. (Karoly Arvai/Reuters)"What's happening in Ottawa right now is there are negotiations going on between the Liberals and the NDP about what that government would look like, CBC's Margo McDiarmid reported from Ottawa.It's still unclear who would lead a coalition, though the Canadian Press quoted a source as saying the opposition parties have agreed that outgoing Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion would lead the government for the next few months. Dion is set to step down in May when a new leader is selected.If the no-confidence motion passes, the Liberals and New Democrats would visit Gov.-Gen. Michaëlle Jean to request her permission to try to form a coalition government.There are reports the Governor General's office has made contingency plans to cut short her trip abroad. She is on a four-country tour of eastern Europe and isn't expected back until Dec. 6. The Canadian Press quoted aides as saying she is being briefed on the situation.The Governor General would have the option to call on other parties — perhaps the coalition being discussed between the Liberals and New Democrats — to form a government.

Dion has no right to take power without election: Harper
Former Liberal prime minister Jean Chrétien wouldn't comment on his meetings with former New Democratic Party leader Ed Broadbent while on his way to his office in Ottawa on Friday. (Tom Hanson/Canadian Press)The opposition is entitled to defeat the government as it sees fit, Harper said Friday, but Dion himself does not have the right to take power without an election.They want to put in place a government led by one party which received its lowest popular vote since Confederation, he said.

They want to put in place a prime minister who was rejected by the voters of Canada only six weeks ago.Former NDP leader Ed Broadbent had confirmed earlier in the day that he had been in talks with former Liberal prime minister Jean Chrétien about the possibility of a coalition stemming from disagreement with measures proposed in the government's fiscal update, delivered Thursday.I've talked to Mr. Chrétien. He and I both discussed what would be a good situation here for the people of Canada, for Parliament, and we'll see what happens, Broadbent told CBC News. He called the Conservatives' update a joke.All three opposition parties — the New Democrats, Liberals and Bloc Québécois — have criticized the Conservatives for not including in their fiscal update a stimulus package to help boost Canada's slumping economy.

Finance Minister Jim Flaherty has said a stimulus package is still in the cards if the economic situation doesn't improve.Also at issue was a proposal to save money by cutting public subsidies for political parties, but Kory Teneycke, director of communications for the Prime Minister's Office, said Friday that the subsidies won't be tied to the fiscal update set for a vote on Monday.That measure would cut the $1.95-per-vote each party gets to fund such things as staffing and research. Removal of the subsidies would harm the opposition parties more than the ruling Conservatives, who have been more successful at raising money privately.Under the mini-budget, the government would also sell $2.3 billion in government assets and save another $2 billion through salary controls for public servants, MPs and senators. It includes a proposal to deny federal public-sector unions the right to strike for the next three years.With files from the Canadian Press.

HOARDING OF GOLD AND SILVER

DOCTOR DOCTORIAN FROM ANGEL OF GOD
then the angel said, Financial crisis will come to Asia. I will shake the world.

JAMES 5:1-3
1 Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you.
2 Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are motheaten.
3 Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days.

REVELATION 18:10,17,19
10 Standing afar off for the fear of her torment, saying, Alas, alas that great city Babylon, that mighty city! for in one hour is thy judgment come.
17 For in one hour so great riches is come to nought. And every shipmaster, and all the company in ships, and sailors, and as many as trade by sea, stood afar off,
19 And they cast dust on their heads, and cried, weeping and wailing, saying, Alas, alas that great city, wherein were made rich all that had ships in the sea by reason of her costliness! for in one hour is she made desolate.

EZEKIEL 7:19
19 They shall cast their silver in the streets, and their gold shall be removed: their silver and their gold shall not be able to deliver them in the day of the wrath of the LORD: they shall not satisfy their souls, neither fill their bowels: because it is the stumblingblock of their iniquity.

REVELATION 13:16-18
16 And he(FALSE POPE) causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:(CHIP IMPLANT)
17 And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.
18 Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.(6-6-6) A NUMBER SYSTEM

ACP countries fear Europe may abandon aid pledges in wake of crisis
LEIGH PHILLIPS 28.11.2008 @ 18:00 CET

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - A meeting of European Union parliamentarians and their counterparts in African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries has called on European and other developed countries not to let the global crisis hit development aid budgets.As the ongoing financial turbulence causes European governments to turn attention inward, development aid budgets could be first in the firing line, they fear, and if developed countries such as Iceland or Hungary are hit hard, the global south will be hit that much harder.The world financial crisis should not be used to justify cuts in development aid, demands a declaration by the 16th ACP-EU joint parliamentary assembly, which ended on Friday (28 November), after week-long deliberations in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea.Twice a year, the assembly brings together 78 members of the European Parliament and 78 parliamentarians from ACP states - the grouping of developing countries that for the most part were once colonies of EU member state empires.The Port Moresby Declaration calls on EU member states to honour their official development assistance commitments - 0.56 percent of gross national income by 2010 and 0.7 percent by 2015.Long before the crisis hit, EU nations were already having trouble keeping their aid promises.Even before September, Italy was the worst performing member state in terms of keeping on track to development assistance, at 0.19 percent of gross national income spent on official development assistance [ODA], Elise Ford the director of Oxfam's Europe office told EUobserver.And now its draft budget for next year, if the bill goes through, says they will cut ODA in half.The International Labor Organisation estimates the number of workers living on less than one dollar a day may increase by 40 million and those living on less than two dollars a day could increase by more than 100 million as a result of the crisis.And poor countries are still feeling the shocks of food and oil price increases, even if the latter have significantly subsided. Grain-price increases cost developing economies €255 billion last year – more than three times what they received in aid.

There is a risk that recessions in rich countries will lead politicians to take the short-sighted approach of cutting aid. Given the tiny amounts of money involved compared to rich country economies, this would do little more than offer symbolic budget savings, but at huge human cost, said another Oxfam spokesperson, Gawain Kripke. Aid to all developing countries last year was €82 billion. However, in recent months, the EU and US have mobilised multiple trillions - the US alone has spent €6.73 trillion ($8.56 tn) - in the to bail out their banks.

Trade pact

The joint parliamentary assembly also discussed the Economic Partnership Agreement, a trade pact, that the EU is currently negotiating with the Pacific region.Outlining what he would like to see in the final agreement for Papua New Guinea and Fiji in particular, the European Parliament's key monitor of the trade talks, UK Socialist MEP Glynn Ford said any agreement must include progress on allowing export taxes for development purposes and adequate protection for infant industries.He would also like to see intellectual property protection for traditional knowledge, and the opening up of public procurement only to the extent that is consistent with Pacific states' needs.If the European Commission cannot accept this basis for further negotiation, said Mr Ford, then he would recommend voting No to the interim agreement.

OPEC set to defer output move to December by Omar Hasan Omar Hasan NOV 29,08

AFP CAIRO (AFP) – OPEC is set to leave until December a decision on whether to cut oil output, despite prices plunging in the face of a global economic downturn, ministers said on Saturday.Ali al-Nuaimi, oil minister of cartel kingpin Saudi Arabia, said ahead of a consultative meeting in Cairo that a firm decision on cutting production would be made only at a scheduled gathering in Oran, Algeria on December 17.This (Cairo) meeting is a preparatory meeting for a more resolved and firm decision in Algeria, he said before talks were due to begin at 3 pm (1300 GMT).

Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah said in an interview published in a Kuwaiti newspaper that an oil price of 75 dollars would be fair -- an indication that cuts might be forthcoming to lift the market.We think that a fair price of oil is 75 dollars a barrel, he said. Our budgets were not set at the latest world prices, but at another, lower price.Saudi Arabia is the world's top crude exporter and by far the most important player in the powerful Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries, which pumps 40 percent of global crude supplies.Other OPEC members, including Iran, Kuwait, Qatar and Nigeria, have also expressed support for deferring a decision until December.There will be a decision regarding supplies but it is more likely that this decision will be taken in Algeria, said Kuwaiti Oil Minister Mohammad al-Olaim.This meeting is a consultative meeting. It will discuss the previous output cut decision and its impact in the markets.OPEC Secretary General Abdalla Salem El-Badri, who on Friday described the market as over-supplied, also said a decision would be made in Oran.Oil prices, which closed Friday at about 54 dollars per barrel, have slumped by about 63 percent since setting record highs above 147 dollars in July as the market grappled with a sharp global economic slowdown and weak energy demand.

Last week the market dived below 50 dollars to their lowest levels since early 2005 as concern mounted about the impact of a growing global recession.The decline in demand has led to a drop in OPEC crude oil revenues.Qatari Energy Minister Abdullah al-Attiyah said current prices were too low to sustain investments in the oil industry to meet a future rise in demand.We can all live with 70 dollars, Attiyah said. With this price, we can invest in upstream projects but below that it will be very difficult to boost output capacity.Projects could be postponed and maybe we will see a shortage in production when demand picks up, he added.Iraqi Oil Minister Hussein al-Shahristani had said Friday that 80 dollars a barrel was a reasonable price and that his country would support any OPEC decision to cut output.The Cairo meet is being held on the margins of a separate gathering of the Organisation of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (OAPEC).Libyan Oil Minister Shukri Ghanem has said that while Saturday's meeting was meant to be consultative, a decision to cut output should not be ruled out. In Vienna last month, OPEC ministers agreed to reduce production by 1.5 million barrels per day (bdp), but the market carried on tumbling. OPEC's official output quota currently stands at 27.3 million bpd, excluding Iraq. Analysts warn that OPEC could be forced to act now to avoid oil prices sliding even further next week. The more the speculation had gone on, the more OPEC may be painted into a corner, said Simon Wardell, oil analyst at the IHS Global Insight consultancy in London. If they don't announce a cut now, they run the risk of a possible price fall next week. I think they will announce something this weekend -- even if just a deferred cut to be approved in Algeria.

TSX breaks through 9,000, up 13.7% on week
Friday, November 28, 2008 | 5:12 PM ET CBC News

The past month on the S&P/TSX composite index The TSX/S&P composite index had a late-session spurt Friday, jumping 5.9 per cent and giving the benchmark index a 13.7 per cent gain on the week.The index closed up 516.85 points at 9,270.62, the first close over the 9,000 level since Nov.14. It added 1,115 points during the week.Financial issues led the charge Friday, with the sub-index gaining more than 11.8 per cent, closely followed by real estate, up 9.9 per cent. Every sub-index rose.Shares of financial giants like Great West Lifeco, Manulife Financial, Power Corp. and Sun Life, which had been badly beaten up in the sell-off over concern about credit markets, jumped dramatically, adding from 14.9 per cent to 21.8 per cent.The big chartered banks were up between 7.5 per cent for National Bank shares to 13 per cent at the Bank of Nova Scotia.The Dow Jones industrial index closed early Friday with a gain that capped five days of rising prices, leaving the index up 9.7 per cent over the week.The index added 102.43 points, or 1.17 per cent, to close at 8,829.04. It's was up 783 points over the week.The Friday session was shortened, with the market closing at 1 p.m. ET, after the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday on Thursday.Investors apparently were encouraged by the crowds at stores the day after Thanksgiving, widely seen as the start of the U.S. Christmas shopping season.The S&P/TSX composite index was up about 170 points to 8,923 in mid-afternoon trading. Every sub-index except materials rose. Financial issues had the biggest percentage gain.The Dow's rise on the week followed two initiatives that started the week well. On Sunday, the U.S. government announced a support package for Citigroup, and on Monday, president-elect Barack Obama revealed his economic team.Citigroup shares, which were at $3.77 US on Nov. 21, closed the week at $7.94.

Saudi king says oil should be $75 per barrel By TAREK EL-TABLAWY and ADAM SCHRECK, AP Business Writers

AFP CAIRO, Egypt – Saudi Arabia's king says the price of oil should be $75 a barrel, much higher than it is now, but his oil minister indicated Saturday that no measures will likely be taken until OPEC meets again next month.Saudi Oil Minister Ali Naimi said that the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries will do what needs to be done to shore up falling oil prices when the cartel meets Dec. 17 in Algeria.Naimi did not entirely rule out the chance that the cartel would slash output at a hastily convened meeting of OPEC members in Cairo Saturday, but he said the bloc needs to wait until the Algeria meeting to assess the impact of earlier production cuts.His comments came after Saudi King Abdullah told the Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Seyassah in an interview published Saturday that oil should be priced at $75 a barrel.We believe the fair price for oil is $75 a barrel, he said, without saying how the price could be raised.The price of crude stood at about $147 a barrel in mid-July. On Friday, the U.S. benchmark West Texas Intermediate crude for January delivery was trading at about $54 per barrel.The king was echoed by Qatar's Oil Minister Abdullah Bin Hamad al-Attiya, who told the Arab news channel Al-Arabiya that prices needed to rise to guarantee investment into the oil sector.The price between 70 to 80 (dollars a barrel) is the one encouraging in investment and developing new or current oil fields, he said. It falls below 70 (dollars), the investment would freeze, which will lead to a crisis in supply in the future.The cartel has already held an emergency meeting in Vienna on Oct. 24 to announce a production cut of 1.5 million barrels per day.The cut failed to stop the price drop, and the cartel hastily convened the Cairo gathering on the sidelines of the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries' meeting.There is total confusion among OPEC's 13 members, said Fadel Gheit, managing director of oil and gas research at Oppenheimer & Co. in New York. These people ... really have no business model. They basically thrive when oil prices go up, and now they are crying uncle when prices go down.And down they have gone, in an avalanche sped along by a world financial meltdown that also threatens to cut deeply into OPEC member states' government budgets.

Kuwait's oil minister, Mohammed al-Aleem, said he believes there is no need for OPEC to make a decision in Cairo on cutting output. But he warned the market is oversupplied, and didn't rule out the need for OPEC to cut production further.We believe a decision could be taken ... but I think it will happen in Algeria, he said.

Al-Aleem said current prices could undercut investment in future projects and were not good for either producers or consumers.The recent price drop has left OPEC price hawks Venezuela and Iran clamoring for further reductions of at least 1 million barrels a day. Both countries need crude at about $90 per barrel to meet spending needs aimed in part at propping up domestically unpopular regimes.Other OPEC members, such as Nigeria and Ecuador, face budget problems too, making them reluctant to implement more cuts that might shrink revenues further.The Saudis are better positioned to cope with the drop in prices. The International Monetary Fund estimates Riyadh needs crude in the range of about $50 per barrel for 2008 fiscal accounts to break even. OPEC itself, along with the International Energy Agency, has significantly revised down its projections for demand growth in 2009. Meanwhile, global crude inventories are growing, as evidenced by a U.S. government report showing a surprisingly large 7 million barrel build in stocks last week in the world's largest energy consumer. OPEC's last round of cuts would put its total production at about 30.5 million barrels per day, according to the IEA. That is about 500,000 barrels per day higher than the forecast call on OPEC crude in much of 2009. A Nov. 24 Oppenheimer research report says that for oil to rebound to $65 a barrel, OPEC would need to cut crude production by more than 3 million barrels per day from its September levels — a move it called highly unlikely. Associated Press Writer Hadeel al-Shalchi contributed to this report.

EU DICTATOR (WORLD LEADER)

REVELATION 17:12-13
12 And the ten horns (NATIONS) which thou sawest are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings one hour with the beast.
13 These have one mind, and shall give their power and strength unto the beast.

REVELATION 6:1-2
1 And I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals, and I heard, as it were the noise of thunder, one of the four beasts saying, Come and see.
2 And I saw, and behold a white horse:(PEACE) and he that sat on him had a bow;(EU DICTATOR) and a crown was given unto him:(PRESIDENT OF THE EU) and he went forth conquering, and to conquer.(MILITARY GENIUS)

REVELATION 13:1-10
1 And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy.(THE EU AND ITS DICTATOR IS GODLESS)
2 And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority.(DICTATOR COMES FROM NEW AGE OR OCCULT)
3 And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death;(MURDERERD) and his deadly wound was healed:(COMES BACK TO LIFE) and all the world wondered after the beast.(THE WORLD THINKS ITS GOD IN THE FLESH, MESSIAH TO ISRAEL)
4 And they worshipped the dragon (SATAN) which gave power unto the beast:(JEWISH EU DICTATOR) and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him?(FALSE RESURRECTION,SATAN BRINGS HIM TO LIFE)
5 And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; and power was given unto him to continue forty and two months.(GIVEN WORLD CONTROL FOR 3 1/2YRS)
6 And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God,(HES A GOD HATER) to blaspheme his name, and his tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven.(HES A LIBERAL OR DEMOCRAT,WILL PUT ANYTHING ABOUT GOD DOWN)
7 And it was given unto him to make war with the saints,(BEHEAD THEM) and to overcome them: and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations.(WORLD DOMINATION)
8 And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.(WORLD DICTATOR)
9 If any man have an ear, let him hear.
10 He that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity: he that killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword. Here is the patience and the faith of the saints.(SAVED CHRISTIANS AND JEWS DIE FOR THEIR FAITH AT THIS TIME,NOW WE ARE SAVED BY GRACE BUT DURING THE 7 YEARS OF HELL ON EARTH, PEOPLE WILL BE PUT TO DEATH (BEHEADINGS) FOR THEIR BELIEF IN GOD (JESUS) OR THE BIBLE.

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

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

DANIEL 9:26-27
26 And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come (ROMANS IN AD 70) shall destroy the city and the sanctuary;(ROMANS DESTROYED THE 2ND TEMPLE) and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined.
27 And he( EU ROMAN, JEWISH DICTATOR) shall confirm the covenant with many for one week:( 7 YEARS) and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease,( 3 1/2 YRS) and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.

WORLD GOVERNMENT

DANIEL 7:23-25
23 Thus he said, The fourth beast shall be the fourth kingdom upon earth, which shall be diverse from all kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, and shall tread it down, and break it in pieces.
24 And the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise: and another shall rise after them; and he shall be diverse from the first, and he shall subdue three kings.
25 And he shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time.

DANIEL 12:4,1
4 But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.
1 And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people: and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time: and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book.

REVELATION 13:1-3,7,8,12,16-18
1 And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy.
2 And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority.
3 And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast.
7 And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them: and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations.
8 And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
12 And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him, and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed.
16 And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:
17 And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.
18 Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.

REVELATION 17:3,7,9-10,12,18
3 So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns.
7 And the angel said unto me, Wherefore didst thou marvel? I will tell thee the mystery of the woman, and of the beast that carrieth her, which hath the seven heads and ten horns.
9 And here is the mind which hath wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sitteth.
10 And there are seven kings: five are fallen, and one is, and the other is not yet come; and when he cometh, he must continue a short space.
12 And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings one hour with the beast.
18 And the woman which thou sawest is that great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth.

11/14/2008 15:14 ASIA – UNITED STATES Obama, world crisis and the new world order by Maurizio d’Orlando

The depth of the current economic crisis is leading many people to favour a form of governance that would place economic and political life under the trusteeship of international organisations. Barack Obama’s new cabinet, which is made up of those responsible for the crisis, will ensure the ascendancy of financial interests. In the meantime no one is calling for the people to have power in the monetary sphere. The result is that democracy is being killed by financial power.

Milan (AsiaNews) – A new world order has been in the making for quite some time and is now becoming inevitable. Many a politician and economist are quick to say that great sacrifices are called for, and that any reasonable person will see that suffering and hardship are necessary.The crisis that is currently affecting our lives is behind this global shift. The slow fire has moved from real estate, to banking and finances, and is now reaching industry, agriculture and the whole economy. From the heartland in the United States it is reverberating outward touching the entire world.The fear of a domino effect and its potential for economic, political and social upheavals and the fear of widespread anarchy will provide the necessary tools to install this new order, which for most people will appear as the only possible outcome. The act of governing will change as a world body will be in charge the financial, economic and tax systems. Police, prisons and private relations inside and outside the family will come under its purview, so will national sovereignty of the peoples and the right to express opinions that are different from those of the single thought of relativism, which will be seen as the only solution that is available and desirable.

The G20 and the New World Order

Until a few decades ago such a new world order would have been anathema, a nightmare, a first step towards a worldwide dictatorship. Now world leaders will be praised when they show concern for the well-being of the earth’s peoples and social groups at a time of difficulties. Of course, this is what we will hear, and very soon too, in terms more unambiguous that we might think now. This said, new rules, a new Bretton Woods, are not anything new; discussions have been going on for some time. Perhaps the next G20 summit on 15 November will be a time when the miracle cure is found, one that will entail a world central bank that regulates a single currency of account and its relationship to local currencies.After a short lesson and a quick diagnosis of the current problems, during which G20 participants will hear that it was all the fault of Bush’s brainless laissez-faire advocates, the same people responsible for the current crisis will supply the treatment for putting things right. All we have to do is see who funded the most expensive presidential campaign in the former US superpower (more than a billion dollars at a time of great recession). As always some have bet on both horses just to be on the safe side. As we know Barack Obama pulled it off, money-wise too, almost twice as much as the Republican candidate. In addition to traditional sectors like show business, media, academe, education, information technology and the Internet, hedge funds, law firms (closely linked to the world of creative financial mediation) and private equity funds have bankrolled the new president’s campaign.1

In order to change nothing, the appearance of everything has to change. In fact, only the surface had to change a bit; the new president’s darker skin. For everything else, it was business as usual. Indeed the cabinet of the new president is made up of the same, reckless people. Let’s see! We have Larry Summers, Tim Geithner and Robert Rubin who have been short-listed for the Treasury Department; all of whom are extreme laissez-faire advocates who believe in an unfettered financial system, enemies of the Glass-Steagall Act.2 They are same people who swapped jobs at the International Monetary Fund, World Bank, Clinton Administration; played sidekicks for Alan Greenspan and Ben Shalom Bernanke, or at the headquarters of Federal Reserve Bank of New York (Geithner); that is the same people who masterminded events before and after the current crisis.

Old faces in Obama’s new government

Obama picked Rahm Emanuel to be his chief of staff, a man whose career straddled politics and Wall Street’s great financial groups. But there is more to his case. Not only his father was a member of the Irgun3 but he holds Israeli citizenship, has fought for Israel and represents that country’s armed forces. He also endorsed Obama before the leadership of the AIPAC,4 a US Zionist organisation that is also funded by the State of Israel and which has recently been involved in espionage cases. In Israel many view Rahm as our man in the White House.Based on this perhaps the choice between the two candidates was not really equal. See-sawing in the polls for quite a while after an apparent jump, buoyed by the war in Georgia, the Republican camp saw its fortunes nosedive after President Bush refused in late August to provide Israel’s air force refuelling aircrafts for a long range mission5, in effect vetoing an attack against Iran. Starting with oil, the prices of primary commodities began dropping a few days later, negatively affecting investment banks, which had bet on high prices to compensate for losses in the home mortgage market, thus throwing the world’s stock markets into a tailspin in early September.6

Democracy and money

From all of the above it is clear that an Obama presidency will not change how the financial crisis will be handled. On the contrary, it will strengthen the trend to protect large institutions and industries at the expense of small enterprises and the man and woman of the street who voted for him. It is quite obvious that the G20 summit in Washington will not affect the central issue of the present financial and economic crisis (and the many preceding crises of modernity and post-modernity), i.e. sovereignty and system legitimacy.In today’s world the only political regime that is considered fully legitimate in political and economic terms is democracy. Many wars have been fought to spread democracy and in democracy, by definition, the people are sovereign. However, if a highly developed and complex democracy like that of the United States can be guided (in the sense that voters are left with the illusion that they can choose when in fact their choices like in a supermarket are shaped by marketing, political marketing that is) by those with deep pockets, the legitimacy of the system no longer lies in the consent of the people since the latter goes to the highest bidder. Hence money becomes the basis of consent and power in a democracy.There is nothing new in all this but the crucial point is that printing money is a sovereign act and is governed by laws. A creditor cannot refuse payment in money that has legal tender and demand instead payment according to his or her wish (gold, silver or what not) if he or she has not negotiated it beforehand. Those who control the money supply through ad hoc rules can favour some over others.7

Thus the paradox of modern democracy is that a sovereign people (through its supposed representatives, parliaments, heads of state and government) have de facto no power or right over the US Federal reserve (or the European Central Bank) with regards to such an important sovereign act.In order to protect the public and avoid political interference printing money has been privatised and placed beyond public control. Through its representatives the sovereign cannot be trusted and thus is not sovereign. Few know that the US Federal Reserve was established under private law; the same is true for the Bank of Italy and many other central banks. It has been so since the dawn of parliamentary government, right after the Glorious revolution if 1688.8

1.See for example Hedge Funds: Long-Term Contribution Trends, in OpenSecrets [vedi: http://www.opensecrets.org/industries/indus.php?ind=F2700], retrieved on 13 November 2008; Lawyers / Law Firms: Long-Term Contribution Trends, in OpenSecrets [http://www.opensecrets.org/industries/indus.php?ind=K01], retrieved on 13 November 2008; and RENICK Mayer, Lindsay, Obama's Pick for Chief of Staff Tops Recipients of Wall Street Money, 5 November 2008, in OpenSecrets, [http://www.opensecrets.org/news/2008/11/obamas-pick-for-chief-of-staff.html], retrieved on 13 November 2008.

2.The Glass-Steagall Act split deposit banking from investment banking. The law was adopted in 1933 to prevent a repeat of the stock market crash of 1929 which caused the Great depression of the Thirties. The law was repealed in 1999 by the Clinton Administration. Creative financing, which is the root cause of the current crisis, was thus the brainchild of a Democratic, not a Republican administration.

3.Zionist organisation that carried out a violent campaign against the British in order to end Britain’s mandate over Palestine and set up the State of Israel. The mandate iself was established by the League of Nations, the predecessor of the United Nations.

4.Jose, Katharine, Obama's AIPAC Speech, Rahm's Endorsement, in The New York Observer, 4 June 2008 [http://www.observer.com/2008/emanuel-endorses-obama-after-aipac-speech], retrieved on 13 November 2008.

5.ZOA Critical Of Bush Administration Decision To Deny Refueling Aircraft To Israel, 22 August 2008, in Zionist Organization of America, [http://www.zoa.org/sitedocuments/pressrelease_view.asp?pressreleaseID=1419], retrieved on 13 November 2008; KEINON, Herb and Hilary Leila KRIEGER, Barak: US clearly opposes military action against Iran now, 14 August 2008, in The Jerusalem Post, [http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1218446196991&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull], retrieved on 13 November 2008.

6.Futures chart - Oil price chart, Live Charts, [http://www.livecharts.co.uk/LongTerm/oil_price_chart.php], retrieved on 13 November, 2008.

7.For example, only firms listed in the Primary Dealers list (historically no more than 20, those that have recently topped the financial pages) can take part in the transactions and auctions by the Federal Reserve for billion dollar securities. See Primary Dealer List, in Federal Reserve Bank of New York, [http://www.newyorkfed.org/markets/pridealers_current.html], retrieved on 13 November 2008.

8.Ties between finances and politics exist in modern parliamentary systems. Recent orange revolutions in Eastern Europe, backed by financier George Soros, were inspired by the historical precedent of the Glorious Revolution. Parliamentary rule prevailed in England at the time of the Glorious Revolution when James II (a Catholic) was ousted from power. But we should not confuse parliamentary government with constitutionalism. James II was the legitimate and constitutional sovereign because he had acknowledged the legislative powers of parliament. William of Orange, backed by an army of Dutch and German mercenaries and financed by Amsterdam bankers, invaded England and removed James II. In order to pay off his debts William, also known as the bankers’ king, granted private interests a monopoly over printing money with legal tender. He chartered the Bank of England and the Bank of Scotland. With capital worth two million pound sterling the Bank of England began loaning an equal amount for interest as well as issuing Gold certificates (paper money) for the same amount, thus doubling its capital. The Orangist army did not have to fight because William of Orange was backed by influential people who, instead of fighting the invader on the field, came to terms with him betraying their legitimate sovereign. The main character in the story founded the Churchill line.

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

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

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

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

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

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

DANIEL 8:23-25
23 And in the latter time of their kingdom, when the transgressors are come to the full, a king (EU DICTATOR) of fierce countenance, and understanding dark sentences,(FROM THE OCCULT) shall stand up.
24 And his power shall be mighty, but not by his own power:(SATANS POWER) and he shall destroy wonderfully, and shall prosper, and practise, and shall destroy the mighty and the holy people.
25 And through his policy also he shall cause craft to prosper in his hand; and he shall magnify himself in his heart, and by peace shall destroy many: he shall also stand up against the Prince of princes;(JESUS) but he shall be broken without hand.

DANIEL 11:36-40
36 And the king shall do according to his will;(EU PRESIDENT) and he shall exalt himself, and magnify himself above every god, and shall speak marvellous things against the God of gods, and shall prosper till the indignation be accomplished: for that that is determined shall be done.
37 Neither shall he regard the God of his fathers,(THIS EU DICTATOR IS A EUROPEAN JEW) nor the desire of women, nor regard any god: for he shall magnify himself above all.
38 But in his estate shall he honour the God of forces:(HES A MILITARY GINIUS) and a god whom his fathers knew not shall he honour with gold, and silver, and with precious stones, and pleasant things.
39 Thus shall he do in the most strong holds (CONTROL HEZBOLLAH,AL-QUAIDA MURDERERS ETC) with a strange god, whom he shall acknowledge and increase with glory: and he shall cause them to rule over many,(HIS ARMY LEADERS) and shall divide the land for gain.
40 And at the time of the end shall the king of the south(EGYPT) push at him:(EU DICTATOR PROTECTING ISRAELS SECURITY) and the king of the north(RUSSIA) shall come against him like a whirlwind, with chariots, and with horsemen, and with many ships; and he shall enter into the countries, and shall overflow and pass over.

ISAIAH 26:21
21 For, behold, the LORD cometh out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity: the earth also shall disclose her blood, and shall no more cover her slain.(WW3,1/2 earths population die).

ISAIAH 13:6-13 KJV
6 Howl ye; for the day of the LORD is at hand; it shall come as a destruction from the Almighty.
7 Therefore shall all hands be faint, and every man's heart shall melt:(FROM FRIGHT)
8 And they shall be afraid: pangs and sorrows shall take hold of them; they shall be in pain as a woman that travaileth: they shall be amazed one at another; their faces shall be as flames.
9 Behold, the day of the LORD cometh, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate: and he shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it.
10 For the stars of heaven and the constellations thereof shall not give their light: the sun shall be darkened in his going forth, and the moon shall not cause her light to shine.
11 And I will punish the world for their evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; and I will cause the arrogancy of the proud to cease, and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible.
12 I will make a man more precious than fine gold; even a man than the golden wedge of Ophir.
13 Therefore I will shake the heavens, and the earth shall remove out of her place, in the wrath of the LORD of hosts, and in the day of his fierce anger.

ISAIAH 24:17-23 KJV
17 Fear, and the pit, and the snare, are upon thee, O inhabitant of the earth.
18 And it shall come to pass, that he who fleeth from the noise of the fear shall fall into the pit; and he that cometh up out of the midst of the pit shall be taken in the snare: for the windows from on high are open, and the foundations of the earth do shake.
19 The earth is utterly broken down, the earth is clean dissolved, the earth is moved exceedingly.
20 The earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard, and shall be removed like a cottage; and the transgression thereof shall be heavy upon it; and it shall fall, and not rise again.
21 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the LORD shall punish the host of the high ones that are on high, and the kings of the earth upon the earth.
22 And they shall be gathered together, as prisoners are gathered in the pit, and shall be shut up in the prison, and after many days shall they be visited.
23 Then the moon shall be confounded, and the sun ashamed, when the LORD of hosts shall reign in mount Zion, and in Jerusalem, and before his ancients gloriously.

In the name of peace, Israelis and Palestinians should become European By Richard N. Rosecrance and Ehud Eiran – Wed Nov 26, 3:00 am ET Christian Science Monitor

Cambridge, Mass. – Scratch just a bit under the hope generated by the coming electoral changes in Washington, Jerusalem, and maybe Ramallah, and you discover deep despair about the possibility of an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal. The roads taken in the last 15 years in pursuit of a deal – the negotiations since Oslo, the unilateralism of the Gaza disengagement, and even the violence since the (second) Intifada – all failed. The opponents of an agreement did not waste that time, however: The number of Israeli settlers grew almost threefold since the early days of the peace process, making a territorial compromise even more difficult. Political leadership on both sides offers little hope for reconciliation. The Palestinian national movement is weak and deeply divided. The coming Israeli elections will most likely bring about a more hawkish Israeli Parliament, if not a more conservative prime minister. A sense of hopelessness has reached even the most committed peace activists. The Palestinian activist Sari Nusseibeh, for example, wondered publicly if territorial compromise is still an option. And Israel's Yossi Beilin recently announced that he will retire from politics altogether.Israelis and Palestinians need a new vision. They need a vision that will include a powerful incentive not only to get the train of negotiations back on track, but will also outline a final destination for its journey. With the lessons of the failed Oslo process before us, it is clear now that a future peace agreement needs to respond to the deepest grievances and darkest fears of both sides.

To find a path forward, we need to go back to the origins of it all. It was Europe's violent rejection of Jews in the past that begat modern Zionism and paradoxically contributed to its success. Once the problem, Europe may now be the solution. To both encourage and reward a territorial and security agreement between the Israelis and Palestinians, it should offer a clear path for their membership in the European Union. It could help the parties fashion a settlement. The prospect of joining the richest union of states on earth is an enormous incentive for reaching a deal. The union's organization and values offer the frame for a peace agreement. In fact, the dual identity of a supranational entity comprised of peaceful national states holds the answer for both sides' most profound concerns. For Israelis, EU membership offers physical security and permanent legitimacy. For Palestinians, membership means a territorial settlement, including a return, of sorts, of their lands through the new joint European source of security and authority over them. Such an arrangement also holds significant benefits for Europe. It would contribute to political stability on its eastern and southern flank. If successful, it might even open a path for EU members to certain North African states, thus limiting the frustrations of millions of would-be immigrants to leave their instable region and go to Europe. If European capital moves to areas of abundant nearby labor, labor has less reason to migrate to areas of capital abundance. Perhaps more important, it will expand the geographical borders of Europe, as well as the confines of its current identity, in a manner that will make the conversation with Turkey far easier. Of course, there will be challenges. Israelis are haunted by the potential flood of Palestinian refugees from the open borders that Europe espouses (though the Schengen agreement has been applied differentially). Palestinians are still angered by the result of European colonialism, and Europeans may not want to proceed beyond admitting the nearby Island of Cyprus. Europe might be hesitate to broker such a deal, but the possibility of their succeeding with a Palestinian settlement, which had eluded the US for 40 years, would be a strong incentive to proceed. All these are weighty issues, but solvable ones. The possibility of a day in which the descendants of the ancient foes – Christendom, Islamic civilization and Judaism – come together to resolve the century-long conflict over the Holy Land, finally acknowledging their common ancestor, Abraham, is not far afield. By using entrance to the European Union as an incentive for peace, Europe would not only free the region from a seriously destabilizing quarrel, but may also finally put to rest a millennia-long rivalry.

• Richard N. Rosecrance is a professor at Harvard Kennedy School's Belfer Center and was a member of the policy Planning Council at the Department of State. Ehud Eiran is a research fellow at the Belfer Center and served in the prime minister's office in Israel.

Israel's Livni calls on Olmert to step down By ARON HELLER, Associated Press Writer –Thu Nov 27, 6:00 pm ET

JERUSALEM – Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni on Thursday called on the country's embattled prime minister to step down immediately in light of growing signs that he will soon be indicted on corruption charges.The announcement came a day after Israel's attorney general said he was considering filing charges against Prime Minister Ehud Olmert for allegedly double billing Jewish groups for trips abroad. He wants Olmert to appear at a special hearing before making a final decision on whether to prosecute and put Olmert on trial.Olmert has already said that he will step down after elections scheduled in February. But at a meeting of the ruling Kadima party Thursday, Livni said he should go before that. His departure would clear the way for Livni to become acting prime minister until the election.The prime minister, like any other person in Israel, is innocent until proven guilty. But the citizen Ehud Olmert must wage his battle to prove his innocence from his home and not from the chair of the prime minister, Livni said, at special party meeting she called.The prime minister has to go on vacation, there is no other option, she said.

Olmert's office did not react, but has said that the prime minister plans to stay in office until the elections.Livni was recently elected to succeed Olmert as Kadima leader. After initial polls showed her running neck-and-neck with opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu, Livni has recently dropped far behind him.Her attack on Olmert, who is widely unpopular, may have been an attempt to jump start her faltering campaign.The double billing scandal is one of a half-dozen corruption affairs Olmert has had to face during his nearly three years in power. Olmert also has been accused of improperly taking tens of thousands of dollars from a U.S. businessman, involvement in questionable real estate deals and making controversial political appointments.If Attorney General Meni Mazuz decides to file charges, Olmert would become the first Israeli prime minister to ever be indicted.Olmert has denied all wrongdoing. But the turmoil has hampered Olmert's Mideast peace efforts.Mazuz's announcement on Wednesday came just hours after Olmert returned from a trip to Washington to meet President George W. Bush.In a radio interview, Olmert spokesman Amir Dan said the prosecution set up an ambush.Olmert's office said the announcement had no legal significance and there was no reason for him to step down.

US Jews urge Obama to move embassy to Jerusalem Thu Nov 27, 12:43 pm ET

JERUSALEM (AFP) – A group of American Jews urged president-elect Barack Obama on Thursday to move the US embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, which the international community does not recognise as the capital of the Jewish state.The move would make the United States the only country to have its main diplomatic mission in Jerusalem, which both Israelis and Palestinians claim as their capital.

The Jerusalem Embassy Act requires the United States to move its embassy to Jerusalem by 1999, but both President George W. Bush and his predecessor Bill Clinton have deferred its implementation every six months.Some 100 members of the US Jewish Orthodox Union gathered on Thursday near the site which Congress earmarked in a 1995 bill as the location of the future US embassy in west Jerusalem.They sang American national anthem and held banners reading President Obama: The US embassy belongs in Israel's capital, as well as a petition addressed to Obama, who takes office on January 20.President Obama likes using the word change. It is time for change. Now is the time to show support for Israel by moving the embassy here, Orthodox Union President Stephen Savitsky told AFP.Former Israeli ambassador to the United States Danny Ayalon said that if the US embassy were moved to Jerusalem, other countries would follow suit.When it moves its embassy to Jerusalem, other civilised states will move their embassies here, Ayalon said.Israel occupied and annexed Arab east Jerusalem and the Old City in 1967 and considers the city its eternal, undivided capital.But the international community refuses to recognise it as Israel's capital while the Palestinians wish to make east Jerusalem the capital of their future state.There are no embassies in Jerusalem. They are in the commercial capital Tel Aviv.

WORLD TERRORISM

GENESIS 6:11-13
11 The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.
12 And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth.
13 And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth.

2 PETER 2:5
5 And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly;

2 PETER 3:7
7 But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men

LEVITICUS 26:16
16 I also will do this unto you; I will even appoint over you( sudden) terror, consumption, and the burning ague, that shall consume the eyes, and cause sorrow of heart: and ye shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it.

GENESIS 16:11-12
11 And the angel of the LORD said unto her, Behold, thou art with child, and shalt bear a son, and shalt call his name Ishmael; because the LORD hath heard thy affliction.
12 And he will be a wild man; his hand will be against every man, and every man's hand against him; and he shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren.

ISAIAH 33:1,18-19 Woe to thee that spoilest,(destroys) and thou wast not spoiled;(destroyed) and dealest treacherously, and they dealt not treacherously with thee! when thou shalt cease to spoil,(destroy) thou shalt be spoiled;(destroyed) and when thou shalt make an end to deal treacherously, they shall deal treacherously with thee.
18 Thine heart shall meditate terror. Where is the scribe? where is the receiver? where is he that counted the towers?
19 Thou shalt not see a fierce people, a people of a deeper speech than thou canst perceive; of a stammering tongue, that thou canst not understand.

JOHN 16:2
2 They shall put you out of the synagogues: yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service.

A SURVIVOR TELLS OF CAPTURE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XPUvYbyypl0&eurl=http://news.google.com/news?sourceid=navclient&rlz=1T4ADBF_enCA303CA303&um=1&tab=wn&nolr=1&hl=
en&qiurl=http://i1.ytimg.com/vi/XPUvYbyypl0/hqdefault.
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Indian forces kill last gunmen in Mumbai By JENNY BARCHFIELD and RAMOLA TALWAR BADAM, Associated Press Writer

MUMBAI, India – A 60-hour terror rampage that killed at least 195 people across India's financial capital ended Saturday when commandos killed the last three gunmen inside a luxury hotel while it was engulfed in flames.Authorities searched for any remaining captives hiding in their rooms and began to shift their focus to who was behind the attacks, which killed 18 foreigners including six Americans.A previously unknown Muslim group with a name suggesting origins inside India claimed responsibility for the attack, but Indian officials said the sole surviving gunman was from Pakistan and pointed a finger of blame at their neighbor and rival.

Islamabad denied involvement and promised to help in the investigation. A team of FBI agents also was on its way to India to lend assistance.Some 295 people also were wounded in the violence that started when heavily armed assailants attacked 10 sites across Mumbai on Wednesday night. At least 20 soldiers and police were among the dead.Orange flames and black smoke engulfed the landmark 565-room Taj Mahal hotel after dawn Saturday as Indian forces ended the siege there in a hail of gunfire, just hours after elite commandos stormed a Jewish center and found at least eight hostages dead.There were three terrorists, we have killed them, said J.K. Dutt, director general of India's elite National Security Guard commando unit.Later, adoring crowds surrounded six buses carrying weary, unshaven commandos, shaking their hands and giving them flowers. The commandos, dressed in black fatigues, said they had been ordered not to talk about the operation, but said they had not slept since the ordeal began. One sat sipping a bottle of water and holding a pink rose.

With the end of one of the most brazen terror attacks in India's history, attention turned from the military operation to questions of who was behind the attack and the heavy toll on human life.The bodies of New York Rabbi Gavriel Noach Holtzberg and his wife, Rivkah, were found at the Jewish center. Their son, Moshe, who turned 2 on Saturday, was scooped up by an employee Thursday as she fled the building. Two Israelis and another American were also killed in the house, said Rabbi Zalman Schmotkin, a spokesman for the Chabad Lubavitch movement, which ran the center.In Jerusalem, Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor said eight bodies had been discovered in the Jewish center and that officials were investigating the possibility of there being a ninth.Among the foreigners killed in the attacks were six Americans, according to the U.S. Embassy. The dead also included Germans, Canadians, Israelis and nationals from Britain, Italy, Japan, China, Thailand, Australia and Singapore.By Saturday morning the death toll was at 195, the deadliest attack in India since 1993 serial bombings in Mumbai killed 257 people. But officials said the toll from the three days of carnage was likely to rise as more bodies were brought out of the hotels.There is a limit a city can take. This is a very, very different kind of fear. It will be some time before things get back to normal, said Ayesha Dar, a 33-year-old homemaker.Indians began cremating their dead, many of them security force members killed fighting the gunmen. In the southern city of Bangalore, black clad commandos formed an honor guard for the flag-draped coffin of Maj. Sandeep Unnikrishnan, who was killed in the fighting at the Taj Mahal hotel.

He gave up his own life to save the others, Dutt said from Mumbai.A group called Deccan Mujahideen, which alludes to a region in southern India traditionally ruled by Muslim kings, claimed responsibility for the attack, but Indian officials pointed the finger at neighboring Pakistan.On Saturday, officials said they believed that just 10 gunmen had taken part in the attack. Nine were killed and one was captured, Maharshta state Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh told reporters. We are interrogating him.Deshmukh's deputy, R.R. Patil, identified the gunman as a Pakistani national, Mohammad Ajmal Qasam. The gunmen had sophisticated equipment and used GPS, mobile and satellite phones to communicate, Patil said. They were constantly in touch with a foreign country, he said, refusing to give further details. On Friday, India's foreign minister, Pranab Mukherjee, told reporters that evidence indicated some elements in Pakistan are responsible for the Mumbai terror attacks.Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani insisted his country was not involved. His government was sending an intelligence official to assist in the probe. Deshmukh said the attackers arrived by sea. On Saturday the Indian navy said it was investigating whether a trawler found drifting off the coast of Mumbai, with a bound corpse on board, was used in the attack. Navy spokesman Capt. Manohar Nambiar said the trawler, named Kuber, had been found Thursday and was brought to Mumbai. Officials said they believe the boat had sailed from a port in the neighboring state of Gujarat. Indian security officers believe many of the gunmen may have reached the city using a black and yellow rubber dinghy found near the site of the attacks.

In the U.S., President-elect Barack Obama said he was closely monitoring the situation. These terrorists who targeted innocent civilians will not defeat India's great democracy, nor shake the will of a global coalition to defeat them, he said in a statement. On Friday, commandos killed the last two gunmen inside the luxury Oberoi hotel, where 24 bodies had been found, authorities said. But in the most dramatic of the counterstrikes Friday, masked Indian commandos rappelled from a helicopter to the rooftop of the Chabad Lubavitch Jewish center. For nearly 12 hours, explosions and gunfire erupted from the five-story building as the commandos fought their way downward, while thousands of people gathered behind barricades in the streets to watch. At one point, Indian forces fired a rocket at the building.

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak told Israel's Channel 1 TV that some of the victims found at the center had been bound. The attackers were well-prepared, carrying large bags of almonds to keep up their energy during a long siege. One backpack found contained 400 rounds of ammunition. India has been shaken repeatedly by terror attacks blamed on Muslim militants in recent years, but most were bombings striking crowded places: markets, street corners, parks. Mumbai — one of the most highly populated cities in the world with some 18 million people — was hit by a series of bombings in July 2006 that killed 187 people. The latest attacks began Wednesday at about 9:20 p.m. with shooters spraying gunfire across the Chhatrapati Shivaji railroad station. For the next two hours, there was an attack roughly every 15 minutes — the Jewish center, a tourist restaurant, one hotel, then another, and two attacks on hospitals. Associated Press writers Ravi Nessman, Erika Kinetz and Anita Chang contributed to this report from Mumbai, and Foster Klug and Lara Jakes Jordan contributed from Washington.

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!

Searchers find remains of fireball meteor Fri Nov 28, 1:52 pm ET

VANCOUVER, British Columbia (Reuters) – Searchers have found the remains of a 10-ton meteor that produced a dramatic fireball in the skies over the Canadian Prairies this month, researchers said on Friday.Thousands of meteorite fragments have been found densely strewn over a 20-square-kilometre (8 square mile) area south of the community of Lloydminster on the Alberta-Saskatchewan border, according to the University of Calgary.Searchers have been scrambling to find the remains of the meteor since it streaked across the sky in the early evening of November 20, producing a fire ball that shone brightly enough to be seen over an area 700 km (435 miles) wide.(Reporting Allan Dowd; Editing by Frank McGurty)

Spectacular Sky Scene Monday Evening Joe Rao SPACE.com Skywatching Columnist
space.com Skywatching Columnist

space.com – Fri Nov 28, 10:31 am ETEvery once in a while, something will appear in the night sky that will attract the attention of even those who normally don't bother looking up. It's likely to be that way on Monday evening, Dec. 1.A slender crescent moon, just 15-percent illuminated, will appear in very close proximity to the two brightest planets in our sky, Venus and Jupiter.People who are unaware or have no advance notice will almost certainly wonder, as they cast a casual glance toward the moon on that night, what those two large silvery stars happen to be? Sometimes, such an occasion brings with it a sudden spike of phone calls to local planetariums, weather offices and even police precincts. Not a few of these calls excitedly inquire about the UFOs that are hovering in the vicinity of our natural satellite.

Very bright objects

Venus has adorned the southwestern twilight sky since late August. No other star or planet can come close to matching Venus in brilliance. During World War II, aircraft spotters sometimes mistook Venus for an enemy airplane. There were even cases in which Venus drew antiaircraft fire. This winter, Venus is the unrivaled evening star that will soar from excellent to magnificent prominence in the southwest at nightfall. The interval by which it follows the Sun will increase from nearly three hours on Dec. 1 to almost four hours by Jan. 1. It's probably the first star you'll see coming out after sunset. In fact, if the air is very clear and the sky a good, deep blue, try looking for Venus shortly before sunset. Jupiter starts December just above Venus and is moving in the opposite direction, dropping progressively lower each evening. By month's end Jupiter meets up with another planet – Mercury – but by then Jupiter is also descending deep into the glow of sunset. In January, Jupiter will be too close to the Sun to see; it's in conjunction with the Sun on Jan. 24.

Earthlit ball

A very close conjunction of the crescent moon and a bright star or planet can be an awe-inspiring naked-eye spectacle. The English poet, critic and philosopher, Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834) used just such a celestial sight as an ominous portent in his epic, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. In addition, there are juxtaposed crescent moon and star symbols that have appeared on the flags of many nations, including Turkey, Pakistan, Malaysia, Algeria, Mauritania, and Tunisia. Also on Monday evening, you may be able to see the full globe of the moon, its darkened portion glowing with a bluish-gray hue interposed between the sunlit crescent and not much darker sky. This vision is sometimes called the old moon in the young moon's arms. Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) was the first to recognize it as what we now call earthshine. As seen from the moon, the Earth would loom in the sky some 3.7 times larger than the moon does for us. In addition, the land masses, the oceans and clouds make the Earth a far better reflector of sunlight as compared to the moon. In fact, the Earth's reflectivity varies as clouds, which appear far more brilliant than the land and seas, cover greater or lesser parts of the visible hemisphere. The result is that the Earth shines between 45 and 100 times more brightly than the moon. The Earth also goes through phases, just as the moon does for us, although they are opposite from what we see from Earth. The term for this is called complementary phases. On Nov. 27, for example, there was a new moon for us, but as seen from the surface of the moon that day, there appeared in the lunar sky a brilliant full Earth. A few nights later, as the sliver of a crescent moon begins to appear in our western twilight sky, its entire globe may be glimpsed.

Sunlight is responsible for the slender crescent, yet the remainder of the moon appears to shine with a dim blush-gray tone. That part is not receiving sunlight, but shines by virtue of reflected earthlight: the nearly full Earth illuminating the otherwise dark lunar landscape. So earthshine is really sunlight which is reflected off Earth to the moon and then reflected back to Earth.

Keeping it all in perspective

Keep in mind that this head-turning display of three celestial objects crowded together will be merely an illusion of perspective: the moon will be only about 251,400 miles (403,900 km) from Earth, while Venus is nearly 371 times farther away, at 93.2 million miles (149.67 million km). Meanwhile, Jupiter is almost 2,150 times farther away than our natural satellite at 540.3 million miles (869.0 million km).

Those using binoculars or a small telescope will certainly enjoy the almost three-dimensional aspect of the moon, but Venus will be rather disappointing appearing only as a brilliant blob of light, for right now, it's a small, featureless gibbous disk. That will change in the coming weeks, however, as Venus approaches Earth and the angle it makes between us and the Sun allows it to evolve into a half-moon phase in mid January, and a lovely crescent phase of its own during the latter part of February and March. Jupiter on the other hand is a far more pleasing sight with its relatively large disk, cloud bands and its retinue of bright Galilean satellites. All four will be in view on Monday evening, with Callisto sitting alone on one side of Jupiter, Ganymede, Io and Europa will be on the other side. Io and Europa will in fact, appear very close to each other, separated by only about one-sixth the apparent width of Jupiter.

Venus eclipse for Europe

As beautiful as the view of Venus, Jupiter and the moon will be from North America, an even more spectacular sight awaits those living in parts of Western Europe where the moon will pass in front of Venus. Astronomers refer to this phenomenon as an occultation, taken from the Latin word occultāre, which means to conceal. This eye-catching sight will be visible in complete darkness across much of Eastern Europe. Farther west, Venus will disappear behind the dark part of the moon either during evening twilight or just before the Sun sets. When Venus emerges, it will look like a brightening jewel on the slender lunar crescent. For virtually all of Europe, the Sun will have set by then, the exception being southern Portugal (including Lisbon).

Such favorable circumstances are quite rare for any given location. For example, the last time London was treated to such a favorably placed Venus occultation such was back on October 7, 1961. And after 2008, there will not be another similarly favorable Venus occultation for the United Kingdom until January 10, 2032. So be sure to make the most of this upcoming opportunity. More detailed information, including maps of the occultation zone, as well as times for dozens of European cities, are here. Joe Rao serves as an instructor and guest lecturer at New York's Hayden Planetarium. He writes about astronomy for The New York Times and other publications, and he is also an on-camera meteorologist for News 12 Westchester, New York.Original Story: Spectacular Sky Scene Monday Evening.

MEDVEDEV IN CUBA

Irish report backs second vote on EU treaty
LUCIA KUBOSOVA Today NOV 28,08 @ 09:28 CET

A second referendum on a modified Lisbon treaty is the main option for Ireland, according to a report submitted by an cross-party group of deputies in the country's parliament on Thursday (27 November).The group was set up under the auspices of the Joint Committee on European Affairs with the formal title of the Subcommittee on Ireland's Future in the European Union.Dublin will announce its next move on the EU's reform treaty - rejected in Ireland in a June referendum - to the bloc's leaders at their gathering in Brussels on 11 and 12 December.The parliamentary report does not recommend any particular action to the Irish government but it highlights two possible options - ratification or non-ratification of the document, which needs to get a unanimous backing across the member states so as to come into effect in the 27-strong Union.Of the two options, the Irish parliamentary report clearly favours ratification, in form of a repeated popular vote. If a decision is made to hold another referendum, it would be expected that the Government would make an attempt to respond at both domestic and EU level to the range of concerns expressed during the referendum campaign.Those concerns would be best tackled in a joint declaration by member states attached to the treaty, instead of legally stronger protocols, as their inclusion in the document would have to be confirmed by a re-ratification of the treaty in all member states, argues the Irish study.Not all members of the special group appointed to analyse the issue agreed with the text, with Sinn Fein publishing their own opinion and the party's MEP Mary Lou McDonald saying that the subcommittee report was simply a re-articulation of the Yes argument, according to the Irish Times.The Lisbon Treaty has been so far voted been ratified by all EU countries apart from the Czech Republic, Germany and Poland. czech parliamentary ratification is likely to proceed soon after this week's ruling by the Czech constitutional court confirming that the treaty is in line with the country's constitution.France as the current holder of the EU's presidency is expecting a deal on the issue at the December summit of the bloc's leaders.I think we will reach a very balanced political accord with the Irish that will open the perspective of the application of the Lisbon treaty, France's Europe minister Jean-Pierre Jouyet told the French parliament on Thursday (27 November).

EU states bin telecoms super-regulator idea
LEIGH PHILLIPS 27.11.2008 @ 17:41 CET

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - EU telecoms ministers have rejected European Commission proposals to harmonise oversight of communications networks across Europe under a commission-controlled super-regulator.Meeting on Thursday (27 November) in Brussels, the ministers dashed the commission's hopes of seeing the establishment of a new EU-level telecoms body that would supercede national regulators and give the EU executive the right to veto member state decisions in the area.Under the commission's original November 2007 telecoms proposals, the new body would have replaced the current European Regulators Group (ERG). Where the ERG gathers together national regulators to co-ordinate telecoms regulation, the commission's preferred solution would have been controlled by the EU executive, supervised domestic regulators and been able to overrule national decisions.Telecoms commissioner Viviane Reding called the agreement amongst telecoms ministers today an improvement on earlier suggested compromises, although she said she was disappointed with the outcome.I continue to believe that Europe's telecoms sector requires better rules than those now on the table here.Expressing her frustration, she made reference to a US intelligence report published on Friday (21 November) that predicted the EU would become a hobbled giant by 2025 - powerful economically but powerless politically - if it did not overcome its internal bickering. She warned that if telecoms regulation was not harmonised under the commission's surveillance, the dire predictions contained in the report would come true.Last week, an American intelligence report painted a picture of the world in 2025. The EU was predicted to have a diminished status as a hobbled giant, she said.

It is decisions that we take now that will determine whether this is indeed our fate, whether our giant market of 500 million consumers and many innovative companies remains hobbled by 27 varieties of regulation, by fragmentation, and by the absence of a level playing field for our industry.Ms Reding called on France, currently chairing the EU presidency, to call a meeting of ministers, the commission and the European Parliament to attempt to achieve a final agreement before Spring.

The parliament has an equal say with national ministers in the realm of telecommunications. The agreement between national ministers made on Thursday provides the basis for the negotiations on a final deal on the subject between them and the European Parliament. The parliament's position - established in September- is to give the ERG a new name, but to keep its current loose co-ordination role, with the sole move towards the commission line being that the new body could take decisions by qualified majority, rather than unanimously.

The 11 cent cap

Ministers on Thursday also rejected the commission's wish to see EU-level co-ordination of the allocation of radio frequencies - or spectrum - that will be no longer be in use after television has completed the shift from analogue broadcast to digital.But they did back commission plans for limiting the price of sending text messages or email via a mobile when abroad but still within the EU.The EU has already imposed price limits on mobile phone calls from abroad - also known as roaming - as Ms Reding felt that it was unfair that consumers should pay substantially more when calling from another EU state, if the union is supposed to have a single market.This price limit will now be extended to text messaging and data traffic.Mobile operators will now be required to introduce a Euro-SMS tariff by July 2009 that should not exceed 11 euro centes, excluding value-added tax. Wholesale charges for sending data over mobile networks - such as surfing the web or sending emails - would be limited to €1 per Mbit. The commission did not propose to limit retail prices in order to give what it feels is still a young market the chance to regulate itself.

Three strikes rule struck out

The commission and national capitals also came together on criticising French proposals to force internet service providers to cut off subscribers that repeatedly download copyrighted material without permission.The French government is considering the so-called graduated response law that would see users lose their internet connection after three strikes. First an email would be sent to the offender, then a letter in the post and finally the subscriber would be cut off from the internet for a year.Internet users have reacted with horror at the plan, and the commission and parliament are not fans, arguing that access to the internet is increasingly the main avenue of accessing information, connecting to health service providers and other essentials. Cutting off an internet connection is almost akin to cutting off someone's electricity, many believe.In September, the European Parliament approved by a large majority an amendment to the telecoms legislation package outlawing internet cut-off. The commission afterward backed the parliament's amendment, with the telecoms ministers now also on board.

Another Shephard slain, but no outcry follows Silence of homosexuals is deafening when it comes to their own murdering innocent people November 28, 2008
1:35 am Eastern 2008 WorldNetDaily

A pro-family organization in Pennsylvania is raising questions about the lack of outrage over the murder of a man named Shephard in a dispute involving homosexuality. No, not Matthew Shepard, whose murder in Wyoming a decade ago has been used by gay activists ever since as a reason to demand enhanced hate crimes for anyone who perpetrates criminal activity against a homosexual. This case involves an innocent man who was murdered by a homosexual when the victim resisted his attacker's sexual advances. The latest case involves Jason Shephard, 23, who was attacked and killed by Bill Smithson, an openly homosexual man, who slipped the victim the date rape drug GHD and attempted to rape him. When the young man resisted his sexual advances, he was strangled, reported the American Family Association of Pennsylvania. The American Family Association of Pennsylvania (AFA of PA), remembers another Shepard who was murdered 10 years ago in the state of Wyoming and homosexual activists used that murder to push for hate crimes laws to include sexual orientation, the organization said yesterday, following Smithson's sentencing to life in prison.But unlike with Matthew Shepard's death, there's been no outcry from the ranks of homosexual activists. The silence of homosexuals is deafening when it comes to their own murdering innocent people. The murders of both Matthew Shepard and Jason Shephard were tragic, but one murder is being used by homosexual activists to push their agenda of special rights. No additional laws are needed – murder is murder, but apparently the murder of Matthew Shepard was more important for those pushing an agenda, said Diane Gramley, president of the AFA of PA. The organization reported homosexual activists say that Matthew Shepard was specifically targeted to be killed because he was homosexual, yet the evidence shows something else. An ABC 20/20 investigation which included interviews with the two murderers revealed that Shepard's murder resulted from a botched robbery, the organization said. In fact, a commentary by John Aman, a writer for Coral Ridge Ministries and author of the book, Ten Truths About Hate Crimes Laws, reveals the truth about the case. It was the perfect hate crime. Backers of hate-crime legislation in Washington – and their allies in the homosexual lobby – could not have hoped for anything better. Suddenly, here was evidence of America's hate-crime epidemic blasted to the nation and the world via wall-to-wall media coverage. The need to pass hate crime legislation immediately was evident. he wrote. Matthew Shepard, it was reported, had died at the hands of two bigots enraged by his homosexuality. They mercilessly beat him with a .357 magnum pistol, stole $30 and left him tied to a split-rail fence outside Laramie, Wyo. Alone, in near-freezing nighttime temperatures, the 21-year-old college student fell into a coma and was not found until 18 hours later. He died on Oct. 12, 1998, six days after the brutal attack,he continued.

Homosexual-rights groups, some in the media and even a few politicians charged that Christians who oppose homosexuality were to blame for Matthew Shepard's death. Elizabeth Birch, executive director of the Human Rights Campaign, the nation's largest homosexual advocacy group, charged on NBC's Today show that Shepard was murdered because people's minds have been twisted with cruel stereotypes about gay and lesbian people.Birch blamed a pro-family ad campaign featuring men and women who had left homosexuality, for having poisoned the atmosphere, Aman wrote. Even today, Aman noted, Matthew Shepard's name is synonymous with the campaign to enact hate-crime laws. Supporters of the Matthew Shepard Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2007 want to add sexual orientation to the list of groups granted special protection from so-called hate crimes, he said.

Only the story isn't accurate.

Money for drugs, not homophobia, was the motive for Matthew Shepard's murder, Aman noted. The ABC report said Aaron McKinney, sentenced in 1999 to two life sentences for Shepard's murder, was on a sleepless week-long methamphetamine binge and in search of money for more drugs when he and his accomplice, Russell Henderson, met Shepard at a bar.McKinney himself has said, All I wanted to do was beat him up and rob him.Henderson also denied the hate-crime charge. It's not because me and Aaron had anything against gays or anything like that, he said.The American Family Association of Pennsylvania said there are similar instiances. In Benton County, Ark., 13-year-old Jesse Dirkhizing was sodomized by two homosexuals and allowed to die in his own vomit in 1999, the group said. Jason Shephard was a young college student targeted by a homosexual man to fulfill his sexual desires. Homosexual activists are silent on this murder – yet they still use Matthew Shepard as the poster child for their campaign to write 'sexual orientation' into hate crimes laws. Hate crime laws are not needed - Wyoming still does not have one and Pennsylvania's was thrown out this summer, the organization said. Matthew Shepard's murderers are spending the rest of their lives behind bars just as the murderers of Jason Shepherd, Jesse Dirkhising and Mary Stachowicz are. Murder is murder and increased penalties for attacking a specially protected group listed in a hate crimes law is a waste of everyone's time and resources. Such a law creates unequal protection under the law, said Gramley. According to Philly.com, a website for the Inquirer and Daily News, Smithson, during his trial and sentencing, never admitted to the murder, nor did he express sorrow to the victim's parents. He blamed his behavior on his struggles with drugs, too. Testimony at his trial revealed he held a ligature around his victim's neck for up to two minutes after he lost consciousness due to lack of oxygen, assuring his death. WND also reported after voters in Florida, Arizona and California joined residents of 27 other states with constitutional protections for traditional marriage – and homosexual activists responded with terroristic threats against Christians and their churches.Burn their -----ing churches to the ground, and then tax the charred timbers, wrote World O Jeff on the JoeMyGod blogspot after California officials declared Proposition 8 had been approved by a margin of 52 percent to 48 percent. Confirmation on voter approval of amendments in Florida and Arizona came earlier.The amendments in all three states essentially limit marriage to one man and one woman. In California, the measure states the only marriages valid and recognized in the state are those between one man and one woman.On a blog website, Tread wrote, I hope the No on 8 people have a long list and long knives.

Another contributor to the JoeMyGod website said, While financially I supported the Vote No, and was vocal to everyone and anyone who would listen, I have never considered being a violent radical extremist for our equal rights. But now I think maybe I should consider becoming one. Perhaps that is the only thing that will affect the change we so desperately need and deserve.A contributor identifying himself as Joe said, I swear, I'd murder people with my bare hands this morning.Matt Barber, director of cultural affairs for Liberty Counsel, called the statements hate crimes for their intent to create violence against someone based on their beliefs.

This is not just a matter of some people blowing off steam because they're not happy with a political outcome. This is criminal activity, he said. The homosexual lobby is always calling for tolerance and diversity and playing the role of victim. They claim to deplore violence and hate. Here we have homosexuals inciting, and directly threatening, violence against Christians.

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http://news.yahoo.com/video/3245

HOARDING OF GOLD AND SILVER

DOCTOR DOCTORIAN FROM ANGEL OF GOD
then the angel said, Financial crisis will come to Asia. I will shake the world.

JAMES 5:1-3
1 Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you.
2 Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are motheaten.
3 Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days.

REVELATION 18:10,17,19
10 Standing afar off for the fear of her torment, saying, Alas, alas that great city Babylon, that mighty city! for in one hour is thy judgment come.
17 For in one hour so great riches is come to nought. And every shipmaster, and all the company in ships, and sailors, and as many as trade by sea, stood afar off,
19 And they cast dust on their heads, and cried, weeping and wailing, saying, Alas, alas that great city, wherein were made rich all that had ships in the sea by reason of her costliness! for in one hour is she made desolate.

EZEKIEL 7:19
19 They shall cast their silver in the streets, and their gold shall be removed: their silver and their gold shall not be able to deliver them in the day of the wrath of the LORD: they shall not satisfy their souls, neither fill their bowels: because it is the stumblingblock of their iniquity.

REVELATION 13:16-18
16 And he(FALSE POPE) causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:(CHIP IMPLANT)
17 And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.
18 Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.(6-6-6) A NUMBER SYSTEM

WORLD MARKET RESULTS
http://money.cnn.com/data/world_markets/

KEYS TO PROSPERITY
TLB DEUTERONOMY 14:23
THE PURPOSE OF TITHING (10% TO GOD'S KINGDOM TO WIN SOULS)IS TO TEACH YOU ALWAYS TO PUT GOD FIRST IN YOUR LIVES.

15 MINUTE DOW RESULTS FRI NOV 28,2008 CLOSING AT 1PM TODAY

09:30 AM -22.58
19:45 AM +10.44
10:00 AM +2.79
10:15 AM -17.20
10:30 AM -2.39
10:45 AM -7.80
11:00 AM -1.83
11:15 AM -11.42
11:30 AM +19.76
11:45 AM +25.97
12:00 PM +54.96
12:15 PM +70.89
12:30 PM +41.58
12:45 PM +72.80
01:00 PM +102.43 8829.04

S&P 500 896.24 +8.56

NASDAQ 1535.57 +3.47

GOLD 819.5 +8.2

OIL 52.46 -1.98

TSE 300 9270.62 +516.85

CDNX 766.35 +18.12

S&P/TSX/60 563.09 +32.27

MORNING,NEWS,STATS

Dow up 2.9% Wednesday.
Dow down 34% year to date.
S&P 3.5% Wednesday.
S&P up 18% last 4 sessions.
S&P down 40% year to date.
Nasdaq up 4.6% on Wednesday.
Nasdaq up 16.4% last 4 sessions.
Nasdaq down 42% year to date.

NYSE STATS AS OF 10:30AM
Advances 1,331,Declines 1,523,Unchanged 100.
New Highs 1,New Lows 14.
Nasdaq stats Advances 946,Declines 1,303,Unchanged 169.

Dow -19 points at 4 minutes of trading today.
Dow -51 points at low today.
Dow +50 points at high today so far.

AFTERNOON,NEWS,STATS

Dow -51 points at low today.
Dow +102 points at high today.

BLACK FRIDAY SALES:
-128 MILLION will shop this weekend down from 7 MILLION last year.
-81% of Black Friday shoppers will buy for themselves.
-81% will shop at discount stores.
-78% will shop at department stores.
-63% will shop at Electronic stores.

BLACK FRIDAY BIZ (CENTRAL earnings and news)
-Monday:Mastercard spending pulse.
-Tuesday:Sears,Staples.
-Wednesday:Aeropostale.
-Thursday:Big lots.
RETAIL OUTLOOK SINCE 1995
-Q1 Performance:S&P retail Index(.RLX)has outperformed the S&P 500 11 times.

WRAPUP,NEWS,STATS 1PM EARLY SHORT TRADING DAY
Dow up 1.2% today.
Dow up 9.7% this week.
Dow up 16.9% over last 5 days.
Down down 5.2% in November.
S&P up 0.9% today.
S&P 19.1% over last 5 days.
S&P up 12% this week.
S&P down 7.5% in November.
S&P best week since 1974.
S&P,Dow biggest 5 day percentage gain since 1933.
S&P,Dow have not had 5 day winning streak since July 2007.
Nasdaq up 0.2% today.
Nasdaq up 10.9% this week.
Nasdaq up 16.7% last 5 days.
Nasdaq down 12% in November.
STOCKS TRADE IN SHORTENED SESSION,CLOSING BELL AT 1PM.

Stocks end shortened session with moderate gains By TIM PARADIS, AP Business Writer NOV 28,08

NEW YORK – Wall Street kept up a broad winning streak Friday, giving blue chip stocks their fifth straight advance as investors looked for clues about whether dire predictions for the holiday shopping season would prove accurate.The stock market closed three hours early the day after Thanksgiving and locked in gains of 9.7 percent for the week for the Dow Jones industrial average and 12 percent for the broader Standard & Poor's 500 index. The Nasdaq, which had moderate losses in recent sessions, still logged a weekly advance of 10.9 percent. It was the first time the Dow rose for five consecutive sessions since July 2007.Analysts largely looked past Friday's moves, however, as they came in light trading volume. A better test of market sentiment will come next week as traders return from the long weekend and as Wall Street digests a slew of economic data ranging from a reading on the manufacturing sector on Monday to the all-important employment report from the Labor Department on Friday.But even with light trading volume during the week and at times only modest moves higher, Wall Street's ability to continue its overall climb was welcome. Only last week, the S&P 500 posted its lowest close since 1997 and touched off another set of worries about how far the market would fall from its October 2007 peak.But with President-elect Barack Obama starting to reassure the market late last week by naming an economic team and the government stepping in to prop up Citigroup Inc., investors have found some reassurance that broad efforts are still being made to fight the financial crisis that intensified in September with the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.Investors are now examining the prospects for the holiday shopping period, which began in earnest Friday. Wall Street expects retailers will suffer as consumers, nervous about a difficult job market, lower home values and a jittery stock market, grow more restrained in their spending this year. But some retail stocks rose Friday as some investors hoped the predictions have been overly dour. Macy's Inc. added 5.6 percent, though some discounters, like Wal-Mart Stores Inc., slipped.

You've seen all sorts of numbers that point to the fact that discretionary spending in the economy has come to an absolute halt, said David Reilly, director of portfolio strategy at Rydex Investments.A rare drop in year-over-year holiday spending would be troubling as it is the most important period of the year for most retailers and because consumer purchases account for more than two-thirds of U.S. economic activity. But while some stores around the nation appeared busy Friday as shoppers looked for bargains, the early evidence was anecdotal and Wall Street would have to wait for cash register tallies.The discounting appears to be unbelievable, said Reilly. The retail sector is going to do whatever it can to get people through the door.Reilly said investors likely would remain nervous as they try to estimate how long the economy will remain weak.I think the market is still in the process of adjusting to the fact that we're in a very difficult recession.According to preliminary calculations, the Dow Jones industrial average rose 102.43, or 1.17 percent, to 8,829.04. It was the Dow's longest string of advances since the period ended July 17, 2007 and the biggest percentage gain over five sessions since Aug. 8, 1932.Broader stock indicators also rose Friday. The Standard & Poor's 500 index advanced 8.56, or 0.96 percent, to 896.24, while the Nasdaq composite index rose 3.47, or 0.23 percent, to 1,535.57 after spending much of the session lower.The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies rose 4.28, or 0.91 percent, to 473.14.Government bonds were mixed Friday. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note, which moves opposite its price, fell to 2.93 percent from 2.99 percent late Wednesday. The yield on the three-month T-bill, considered one of the safest investments, edged up to 0.05 percent from 0.03 percent Wednesday.Citigroup was by far the biggest gainer among the 30 stocks that make up the Dow industrials, rising $1.24, or 17.6 percent, to $8.29. Just a week ago, the bank's stock was selling off precipitously, before the government put together a rescue plan for the bank.Ryan Detrick, senior technical strategist at Schaeffer's Investment Research, noted that the day after Thanksgiving is historically a winning day for the market and that next week's economic readings should offer fresh insight into how much the economy has suffered from the evaporation of credit that began in September with the collapse of Lehman Brothers. Financial troubles at Lehman and elsewhere made banks hesitant to make loans to each other as well as businesses and consumers for fear of not being repaid.

Detrick said the recent bounce resembles those seen in October when the market stormed higher on relatively light volume only to retreat in the face of gloomy economic readings. Market advances on light volume can indicate that there are simply fewer sellers rather than a strong number of buyers snapping up stocks with conviction. We're looking at this like not much more than a light-volume, bear market bounce, he said. They go away just as quickly as they happen, unfortunately.

He said the holiday shopping season likely will prove a weak one and that Wall Street will need to see some improvement in economic data before it is likely to put together a lasting rally. Investors also will be looking next week as Detroit's major automakers send their restructuring plans to Capitol Hill by Tuesday in a bid to secure federal loans. General Motors Corp. rose 43 cents, or 8.9 percent, to $5.24Friday, while Ford Motor Co. rose 54 cents, or 25 percent, to $2.69. Chrysler LLC isn't publicly traded. Among the market's movers Friday, financials rose while industrial companies like Caterpillar Inc. advanced $1.66, or 4.2 percent, to $40.99. Weakness in chip stocks curtailed the Nasdaq's gains. Intel Corp. fell 17 cents to $13.80.

The dollar mostly rose against other major currencies, while gold prices rose. Light, sweet crude rose $1.08 to $55.52 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Advancing issues outpaced decliners by about 2 to 1 on the New York Stock Exchange, where volume came to 787 million shares. Overseas, Japan's Nikkei stock average fell 0.23 percent. Stocks in India rose a day after trading was suspended because of the terrorist attacks in Mumbai, the country's financial capital. The Sensex Index ended the day with an advance of 0.7 percent. Britain's FTSE index rose 1.46 percent, Germany's DAX index rose 0.09 percent, and France's CAC-40 advanced 0.38 percent. On the Net: New York Stock Exchange: http://www.nyse.com
Nasdaq Stock Market: http://www.nasdaq.com

Spain: economic stimulus plan to create jobs NOV 27,08

MADRID, Spain (AP) — Spain's prime minister has announced an euro11 billion ($14 billion) stimulus plan to revive the country's flagging economy.Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero says the package will feature major spending on public works and other projects to create jobs and offset an 11.3 percent unemployment rate, the EU's highest.Zapatero told Parliament Thursday he believes the package can create 300,000 jobs by the end of next year.Part of the package will aim to help Spain's auto industry, which accounts for 20 percent of Spanish exports and has been hard hit by the economic crisis.Spain's once-buoyant economy is in a sharp downturn because of a crash in the construction sector. Spanish GDP shank 0.2 percent in the third quarter, the first such decline in 15 years.

Commission unveils €200bn stimulus plan
LEIGH PHILLIPS 27.11.2008 @ 07:06 CET

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Warning of the risk of a vicious cycle of recessions crashing upon Europe's shores if nations did not act swiftly, the European Commission on Wednesday called upon the EU's member states to back a €200 billion stimulus package that involves a mix of increased public spending on green initiatives, tax cuts and soft loans for industry.However, economists worry whether all countries will be able to contribute and whether the amount, which package together stimulus sums already announced by countries such as the UK and Germany will be able to do much.Most - around €170 billion - would have to come from national budgets, with the remaining €30 billion split between the EU and the European Investment bank. If backed by member states, the monies, which would be spent over the coming year, represent 1.5 percent of GDP, somewhat higher than earlier plans to produce a €130 billion package.Explaining the need for such pump-priming measures, President Jose Manuel Barroso told reporters:Business as usual is not an option. That would lead to a vicious recessionary cycle.It would lead to falling purchasing power and falling tax revenues, to rising unemployment and the accompanying human misery, to ever wider budget deficits, ultimately to a risk of social instability, he said. That is the lesson of the 1930s.However, the president was clear this was no wholesale return to post-war government intervention and Keynesian economic strategies. This is a temporary measure and governments must come up with detailed plans about how they will pay back any borrowed monies.

But there is also a lesson from more recent recessions, notably in the 1970s ... short-term spending without structural reform and without a smart strategy for investing and paying back the borrowing can fuel a downward spiral of debt and unemployment in the future.The cost of fighting this crisis must not be a worse crisis in the future as we struggle to deal with a hangover of debt.The measures, which are more guidelines or even spending ideas from the commission and not a detailed architecture of what member states must do, include €5 billion in additional funding for energy infrastructure and high-speed internet connections to those areas in which the market is reluctant to invest.The commission also proposes €2.1 billion, or just over one percent of the total, on energy-efficient buildings, a Factories of the Future initiative that would support new technologies in industry, and encouraging automobile companies to produce green cars. However, these latter funds are just a redeployment of sums from existing budgets.Another €500 million would be allocated to supporting trans-European transport networks and another €500 million again for various other projects.The European Investment Bank will back this with €15.6 billion in new interventions in 2009.The commission also wants member states to slash VAT on labour-intensive services.With declining revenues and increased spending, member states' budget deficits would be likely to exceed the three percent of GDP maximum allowed in the Euro zone. In response, the commission insists that this ceiling has not been removed, but it will be more flexible in dealing with such breaches.

Ireland, Germany lukewarm

Meanwhile, the Irish finance department has already said it will not participate in the EU stimulus scheme and Germany is opposed to any cut in sales taxes - at least until after the 2009 German federal elections.Reacting to the stimulus proposals, German government spokesperson Thomas Steg said on Wednesday: The chancellor is firmly convinced that tax cuts can only be considered after the federal election in 2009.Jakob von Weizsacker, a research fellow with the centre-right Bruegel Brussels think-tank, worried that some countries might let some states expand their deficits while they themselves resisted any increased spending.There is a fundamental difficulty here as every member state has an incentive to free ride, he said. As many countries as possible should be included in the coordinated effort. Only countries in highly exceptional circumstances like Hungary should be exempted.Mr von Weizsacker also worried much of the spending would be old wine in new bottles. It needs to be ensured that any agreement at the European level leads to additional spending. Otherwise, member states may be tempted to meet their commitments by re-labelling spending that they were planning for 2009 anyway.Graham Watson, leader of the Liberal grouping in the European Parliament largely welcomed the package, but warned: We should ... resist unnecessary subsidies for industry. If we want European industry to thrive we need to find ways of boosting green industrial products and consumer spending power as priority.Conservatives in the house also saluted the plan, with the centre-right EPP-ED grouping saying it would do everything it could to ensure it was passed. Group leader Joseph Daul said however that there should be a quid pro quo in return for the looser purse strings: We agree with the commission's position that a budgetary stimulus should be provided, but not without structural reforms in the member states who should take measures to boost their economies, without increasing their deficits.

No Green New Deal

Meanwhile greens and the left were sceptical that this was in anyway the Roosevelt-inspired 'Green New Deal' they have been calling for as a solution to the triple finance, energy and climate crisis that would see massive public spending on a shift away from a carbon-based economy.The EU Recovery Plan will only work if it makes the economy more equitable and sustainable. This means addressing the real economy and investing in green jobs, but to achieve this the EU should be reversing the Lisbon strategy and reigning in market liberalism, rather than 'reinforcing' it as Barroso suggests, said Myriam Vander Stichele, of SOMO, the Dutch Centre for Research on Multinational Corporations.Focussing new investments on the fight against climate change is a good idea, but the commission's claims about are not credible says Oscar Reyes of eco-watchdog Carbon Trade Watch. The European car industry, which stands to gain from a bailout, has a dreadful record in attempting to circumvent environmental regulation at every stage. And channelling significant new climate funds through the European Investment Bank - which has a woeful environmental record - raises series questions about the integrity of the EU´s recovery plan.Across the Atlantic, the incoming Obama administration is scheduled to announce its own stimulus package in the new year. No figures have yet been announced, but the sums expected to be unveiled are between €550 and €800 billion ($700 billlion to around €1 trillion).

Meltdown far from over, new mortgage crisis looms By MATT APUZZO, Associated Press Writer – Thu Nov 27, 1:17 pm ET

AP – A foreclosure sign stands on top of a sale sign outside an existing home for sale in the west Denver … WASHINGTON – The full scope of the housing meltdown isn't clear and already there are ominous signs of a new crisis — one that could turn out the lights on malls, hotels and storefronts nationwide.Even as the holiday shopping season begins in full swing, the same events poisoning the housing market are now at work on commercial properties, and the bad news is trickling in. Malls from Michigan to Georgia are entering foreclosure.Hotels in Tucson, Ariz., and Hilton Head, S.C., also are about to default on their mortgages.That pace is expected to quicken. The number of late payments and defaults will double, if not triple, by the end of next year, according to analysts from Fitch Ratings Ltd., which evaluates companies' credit.We're probably in the first inning of the commercial mortgage problem, said Scott Tross, a real estate lawyer with Herrick Feinstein in New Jersey.That's bad news for more than just property owners. When businesses go dark, employees lose jobs. Towns lose tax revenue. School budgets and social services feel the pinch.

Companies have survived plenty of downturns, but economists see this one playing out like never before. In the past, when businesses hit rough patches, owners negotiated with banks or refinanced their loans.But many banks no longer hold the loans they made. Over the past decade, banks have increasingly bundled mortgages and sold them to investors. Pension funds, insurance companies, and hedge funds bought the seemingly safe securities and are now bracing for losses that could ripple through the financial system.It's a toxic drug and nobody knows how bad it's going to be, said Paul Miller, an analyst with Friedman, Billings, Ramsey, who was among the first to sound alarm bells in the residential market.Unlike home mortgages, businesses don't pay their loans over 30 years. Commercial mortgages are usually written for five, seven or 10 years with big payments due at the end. About $20 billion will be due next year, covering everything from office and condo complexes to hotels and malls.The retail outlook is particularly bad. Circuit City and Linens 'n Things have sought bankruptcy protection. Home Depot, Sears, Ann Taylor and Foot Locker are closing stores.Those retailers typically were paying rent that was expected to cover mortgage payments. When those $20 billion in mortgages come due next year — 2010 and 2011 totals are projected to be even higher — many property owners won't have the money.Some will survive, but those property owners whose loans required little money up front will have less incentive to weather the storm.

Refinancing formerly was an option, but many properties are worth less than when they were purchased. And since investors no longer want to buy commercial mortgages, banks are reluctant to write new loans to refinance those facing foreclosure.

California, New York, Texas and Florida — states with a high concentration of mortgages in the securities market, according to Fitch — are particularly vulnerable. Texas and Florida are already seeing increased delinquencies and defaults, as are Michigan, Tennessee and Georgia.The worst-case scenario goes something like this: With banks unwilling to refinance, a shopping center goes into foreclosure. Nobody can buy the mall because banks won't write mortgages as long as investors won't purchase them.Credit markets have seized up, corporate securities lawyer Michael Gambro said. People are not willing to take risks. They're not buying anything.That drives down investments already on the books. Insurance companies are seeing their stock prices fall on fears they are too invested in commercial mortgages. The system has never been tested for a deep recession, said Ken Rosen, a real estate hedge fund manager and University of California at Berkeley professor of real estate economics. One hope was that the U.S. would use some of the $700 billion financial bailout to buy shaky investments from banks and insurance companies. That was the original plan. But Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson has issued a stunning turnabout, saying the U.S. no longer planned to buy troubled securities. For those watching the wave of commercial defaults about to crest, the announcement was poorly received. He's created havoc in the marketplace by changing the rules, Rosen said. It was the stupidest statement on Earth.The Securities and Exchange Commission is considering another option that might ease the crisis, one that would change accounting rules so banks don't have to declare huge losses whenever the market declines. But the only surefire remedy is for the economy to stabilize, for businesses to start expanding and for investors to trust the market again. Until then, Tross said, There's going to be a lot of pain going forward.

FROM WND'S JERUSALEM BUREAU Palestinians: Punish Israel for building in biblical heartland Seek economic sanctions preventing construction in historic, holy cities November 27, 2008 3:50 pm Eastern By Aaron Klein 2008 WorldNetDaily

West Bank, including cities of Nablus, Jericho, Hebron and Bethel
JERUSALEM – Four days after WND broke the story the Palestinian Authority has quietly asked the U.S. to impose sanctions on Israel if the Jewish state continues building any new housing structures in the strategic and historic West Bank, the PA today publicly asked Palestinian diplomats to campaign abroad for economic steps against Israeli West Bank settlements. We want you to make the whole world aware of the problem because condemnations and press conferences are not enough anymore, Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salaam Fayad told a public gathering of Palestinian diplomats today. Fayad reportedly singled out Britain as a model for other countries to follow in imposing economic sanctions on Israeli West Bank construction. Britain has said it is pressing European countries for tighter controls of imports to the EU from West Bank settlements, demanding West Bank Jewish imports be labeled separately from the rest of the Jewish state's general imports. We call on other countries in the EU to follow suit with Britain on this issue, Fayad said. Last week, WND quoted a top PA source revealing the PA has asked the U.S. to impose sanctions on Israeli West Bank construction. The source, who works from PA President Mahmoud Abbas' office, said the threat of sanctions would be part a series of Israeli-Palestinian understandings to be guaranteed by the U.S. that both sides are trying to reach before January. The understandings, the source said, would result in an eventual Israeli withdrawal from the vast majority of the West Bank, an area rich in biblical history and significance.

Secret peace talks exposed

Last week, informed Israeli and Palestinian sources told WND that despite media reports painting a dismal picture of negotiation prospects, Israel and the PA are still quietly working to conclude a major agreement before President Bush leaves office at the end of the year. Aside from a major West Bank withdrawal, the agreement would also grant the PA permission to open official institutions in Jerusalem but would postpone talks on the future status of the capital city until new Israeli and U.S. governments are installed next year. A top source said the PA requested that as part of the understandings, the U.S. would threaten sanctions for any new Jewish construction in the West Bank. Israel recaptured the West Bank in the 1967 Six Day War. The territory, in which about 200,000 Jews live, is tied to Judaism throughout the Torah and is often referred to as the biblical heartland of Israel. The book of Genesis says Abraham entered Israel at the West Bank city of Shechem (Nablus) and received God's promise of land for his offspring. He was later buried with the rest of the biblical patriarchs and matriarchs, except for Rachel, in Hebron's Tomb of the Patriarchs. The West Bank's Hebron was site of the first Jewish capital. The nearby West Bank town of Beit El–anciently called Bethel, meaning house of God–is where Scripture says the patriarch Jacob slept on a stone pillow and dreamed of angels ascending and descending a stairway to heaven. In that dream, God spoke directly to Jacob and reaffirmed the promise of territory. Earlier, God had promised the land of Israel to Abraham at Beit El. In Exodus, the holy tabernacle rested just north of Beit El in Shiloh, believed to be the first area the ancient Israelites settled after fleeing Egypt. The understandings both sides are trying to reach before January are part of an original plan initiated at last November's U.S.-sponsored Annapolis summit, which sought to create a Palestinian state, at least on paper, by January. The summit launched talks aimed at concluding a final status agreement on all core issues – borders, the status of Jerusalem and the future of so-called Palestinian refugees. But a final agreement has been hampered by several recent events here, most notably Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's decision to resign amid corruption charges, leading to general elections scheduled for February that will see a new prime minister elected.

The candidate for office from Olmert's Kadima party, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, is said to oppose reaching a deal on Jerusalem or refugees ahead of elections, fearing it will harm her prospects among center-right voters. Livni is Olmert's chief negotiator with the Palestinians. In spite of the upcoming elections and the Israeli government's subsequent political instability, teams of Israeli and Palestinian negotiators have been quietly meeting regularly the past few weeks in hope of concluding a series of understandings on key issues. Informed sources said any understandings reached will be backed up by Bush in an official letter. It is unclear how much weight such a letter will carry under a new U.S. administration.

According to the sources, neither side expects to conclude any deal on the status of Jerusalem or Palestinian refugees before January, putting aside those issues for future talks. Instead, negotiations are focused on reaching an agreement emphasizing borders, particularly a pledged Israeli evacuation of the vast majority of the strategic West Bank, which borders central Israeli population centers. A Palestinian source told WND the U.S. is said to favor Israel withdrawing from nearly the entire West Bank. The source said the U.S. consulate in Jerusalem has been closely monitoring Israeli activities in the territory, which the source said has led to the Jewish state clamping down on what are termed illegal outposts, or Jewish structures built in the West Bank without government permission. Israel has recently announced a series of small West Bank evacuations, including the threatened forced removal of Jews who legally purchased a house in the ancient city of Hebron.

Olmert announced he wants quick peace deal

On Tuesday, Olmert seemed to confirm the WND report exposing secret Israeli-Palestinian talks aimed at reaching an agreement on core issues, when he announced in Washington his intention to continue negotiations in hope of an agreement on core issues. In principle there is nothing to prevent us from reaching an agreement on the core issues in the near future, Olmert said regarding ongoing peace negotiations with the Palestinian Authority. We're in a situation where it's possible to do so, and I hope we do. It would be good for the state of Israel, said Olmert speaking to Israeli reporters after a meeting with President Bush. Speaking of a painful sacrifice of parts of the land of Israel and the history of the Jewish people, Olmert told reporters now was the time for decisions.I am ready to make that decision, and I hope the other side will make it as well, he said. You don't need months to make a decision.

Brooklyn Rabbi and Wife Caught in Attacks
By FERNANDA SANTOS Published: November 27, 2008

In 2003, barely out of their teens and newly married, Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg and his wife, Rivka, moved from Brooklyn to the coastal city of Mumbai, India, to manage a mix of educational center, synagogue and social hall known as a Chabad house, one of about 3,500 outposts around the world run by the Lubavitch Hasidic movement.The place soon became a year-round magnet for Israeli backpackers and the Jewish businessmen and tourists who flock to Mumbai, as well as for the Iraqi and Indian Jews who live there. Mrs. Holtzberg served visitors coffee and homemade kosher delicacies. Rabbi Holtzberg always offered a helping hand to someone who was sick or stranded, often calling worried parents or spouses miles and miles away to calm them.

On Wednesday, the Holtzbergs’ Chabad house became an unlikely target of the terrorist gunmen who unleashed a series of bloody coordinated attacks at locations in and around Mumbai’s commercial center.Firing grenades and automatic weapons, the men also took the Holtzbergs and at least six other people hostage in the Chabad house, according to friends of the Holtzbergs. The couple’s 2-year-old son, Moshe, and a cook managed to escape about 12 hours into the siege, the friends said. The boy’s pants were soaked in blood when he emerged. By late Thursday afternoon in New York, there was still no news of his parents’ fate. It is not known if the Jewish center was strategically chosen, or if it was an accidental hostage scene. But if the center lacked the size and prominence of the attackers’ other targets, the news of its fate reverberated among Chabad houses in Australia, Argentina, Tunisia, Kazakhstan, Norway and 67 other countries.But perhaps nowhere was it felt more strongly than in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, the nerve center of the Lubavitch community and the neighborhood where Rabbi Holtzberg grew up. At the group’s world headquarters on Eastern Parkway and Kingston Avenue, men filed into the synagogue all day to pray for the Holtzbergs’ safe release. In a separate room, women swayed on their knees as they read the Torah. In the offices upstairs, rabbis and friends of the couple manned telephones, staying in contact with a sizable network of volunteers at the house in Mumbai, waiting for news.We were up all night, trying to sort fact from fiction, figure out what their status is, Rabbi Dovid Zaklikowski, 28, a friend of Rabbi Holtzberg since high school, said in an interview. The Lubavitchers’ headquarters occupies a wide five-story building that is the tallest on the block. It is the site of an annual conference for the emissaries who run Chabad houses. This year’s conference ended last weekend, but many of the participants stayed behind to spend Thanksgiving with relatives in the area.On Thursday, they found themselves drawn to the synagogue, even those who said they knew Rabbi Holtzberg only by name. Someone scribbled an English translation of the Hebrew sign affixed to the temple’s doors, bearing the couple’s names. The translation read, in part: Think positive thoughts and good will come.

For our movement, this is a very somber day, said Rabbi Sagee Harshefer, who heads the Chabad house in Ness Ziona, Israel, about 12 miles south of Tel Aviv. But there is hope.Gavriel and Rivka Holtzberg were born in Israel, though he and his siblings were brought to Crown Heights as children by their parents. The couple married a year before they went to Mumbai, formerly Bombay, to fulfill a role that Rabbi Zaklikowski said fit perfectly with Rabbi Holtzberg’s personality.He has a huge heart, always willing to help somebody in need, the rabbi said. It’s only natural that he would give himself to the community.Rabbi Moshe Kotlarsky, who directed the Chabad emissaries’ conference, said of Rabbi Holtzberg, “He is a very dynamic, energetic individual who turned Mumbai’s Chabad house into a home away from home for thousands and thousands of Jews.At midafternoon in New York on Wednesday, the first reports of the attacks in Mumbai hit the news, but no one in the Crown Heights Lubavitch community knew exactly where they had occurred — and no one suspected that the Chabad house had been hit. Still, some friends wanted to make sure that Rabbi Holtzberg and his wife and son were all right, so they phoned. There was no answer.

Yacov Young, Rabbi Holtzberg’s cousin, said he had been at home in Crown Heights, celebrating the birth of his son and a brother-in-law’s marriage, when his phone rang about midnight. Our hearts sank when we heard the bad news, Mr. Young said as he dashed into the synagogue.Rabbi Holtzberg’s parents, Noah and Freida, spent most of Thursday holed up in their house in Crown Heights, but left for Israel late in the afternoon. Meanwhile, Rivka Holtzberg’s parents, Rabbi Shimon and Yehudit Rosenberg, who live in Israel, boarded a plane to Mumbai. They were accompanied by a crew from the Israeli relief organization ZAKA, said Dov Maisel, a medic with the group, by telephone from Israel.They are on a mission to get their grandson, but they are very, very nervous about their daughter and son-in-law, Mr. Maisel said. Some 24 hours have passed, and they have heard nothing.Liz Robbins contributed reporting.

WORLD TERRORISM

GENESIS 6:11-13
11 The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.
12 And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth.
13 And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth.

2 PETER 2:5
5 And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly;

2 PETER 3:7
7 But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men

LEVITICUS 26:16
16 I also will do this unto you; I will even appoint over you( sudden) terror, consumption, and the burning ague, that shall consume the eyes, and cause sorrow of heart: and ye shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it.

GENESIS 16:11-12
11 And the angel of the LORD said unto her, Behold, thou art with child, and shalt bear a son, and shalt call his name Ishmael; because the LORD hath heard thy affliction.
12 And he will be a wild man; his hand will be against every man, and every man's hand against him; and he shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren.

ISAIAH 33:1,18-19 Woe to thee that spoilest,(destroys) and thou wast not spoiled;(destroyed) and dealest treacherously, and they dealt not treacherously with thee! when thou shalt cease to spoil,(destroy) thou shalt be spoiled;(destroyed) and when thou shalt make an end to deal treacherously, they shall deal treacherously with thee.
18 Thine heart shall meditate terror. Where is the scribe? where is the receiver? where is he that counted the towers?
19 Thou shalt not see a fierce people, a people of a deeper speech than thou canst perceive; of a stammering tongue, that thou canst not understand.

JOHN 16:2
2 They shall put you out of the synagogues: yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service.

Hostages said dead in Mumbai Jewish center NOV 28,2008 3:30PM
By RAVI NESSMAN, Associated Press Writer

MUMBAI, India – Commandos who stormed the Mumbai headquarters of an ultra-orthodox Jewish group found the bodies of five hostages inside, including a New York rabbi and his wife, officials said, as a fresh battle raged at the luxury Taj Mahal hotel and other Indian forces ended a siege at another five-star hotel.More than 150 people have been killed since gunmen attacked 10 sites across India's financial capital starting Wednesday night, including at least 14 foreigners.Early Friday night, Indian commandos emerged from a besieged Jewish center with rifles raised in an apparent sign of victory after a daylong siege that saw a team rappel from helicopters and a series of explosions and fire rock the building and blow giant holes in the wall.

Inside, though, were five dead hostages.

A delegation from Israel's ZAKA emergency medical services unit entered the building after the raid and reported through an Indian aide that five hostages and two gunmen were dead, a ZAKA spokesman in Israel said. The spokesman had no information on the hostages' identities or whether there were wounded inside.Jewish law requires the burial of a dead person's entire body, and the mission of the ultra-Orthodox ZAKA volunteers is to rescue the living — and in the case of the dead, carry out the task of gathering up all collectable pieces of flesh and blood.Numerous local media reports, quoting top military officials, also said five hostages and two gunmen had been killed in the Jewish center.The airborne assault on the center run by the Jewish outreach group Chabad Lubavitch was punctuated by gunshots and explosions as forces cleared it floor by floor.Late Friday, Rabbi Zalman Schmotkin, a spokesman for the Chabad Lubavitch movement, said that Rabbi Gavriel Noach Holtzberg and his wife, Rivka, were among the dead.Holtzberg was one of at least three Americans killed in the attacks. Rivka was born in Israel and lived for many years in New York but it was not immediately clear if she had U.S. citizenship.The couple's toddler son, Moshe Holtzberg, was smuggled out of the center by an employee, and is now with his grandparents.By Friday evening, at least nine gunmen had been killed and one had been arrested, said R. Patil, a top official in Maharashtra state, where Mumbai is the capital. Media reports said one or two were thought to still be in the Taj Mahal.

Patil said a total of more than 150 people had been killed and 370 injured. Local officials said earlier that 22 foreigners were killed, but that number could not be confirmed.After hours of intermittent gunfire and explosions Friday at the Taj Mahal, a hotel with 565 rooms, the battle heated up at dusk when Indian forces began launching grenades at the hotel, where at least one militant was believed to be holed up inside a ballroom, officials said.CNN reported the government had cut off their live transmissions from the scene in Mumbai. Authorities have asked not to show live footage of their battle with the militants because they believe the gunmen were monitoring the news. Most channels have largely obliged.Commandos had killed the two last gunmen inside the nearby Oberoi earlier in the day.The hotel is under our control, J.K. Dutt, director general of India's elite National Security Guard commando unit, told reporters, adding that 24 bodies had been found. Dozens of people — including a man clutching a baby — had been evacuated from Oberoi earlier Friday.Security officials said their operations were almost over. It's just a matter of a few hours that we'll be able to wrap up things, Lt. Gen. N. Thamburaj told reporters Friday morning. The group rescued from the Oberoi, many holding passports, included at least two Americans, a Briton, two Japanese nationals and several Indians. Some carried luggage with Canadian flags. One man in a chef's uniform was holding a small baby. About 20 airline crew members were freed, including staff from Lufthansa and Air France. I'm going home, I'm going to see my wife, said Mark Abell, with a huge smile on his face after emerging from the hotel. Abell, from Britain, had locked himself in his room during the siege. The well-coordinated strikes by small bands of gunmen starting Wednesday night left the city shell-shocked. Late Thursday, after about 400 people had been brought out of the Taj hotel, officials said it had been cleared of gunmen, but they later said two to three more were still inside with about 15 civilians.

Early Friday, Thamburaj, the security official, said at least one gunman was still alive inside the hotel and had cut of electricity on the floor where he was hiding. Shortly after that announcement, another round of explosions and gunfire were heard coming from the hotel. On Friday, India's foreign minister pointed an accusing finger across the border at rival Pakistan. According to preliminary information, some elements in Pakistan are responsible for Mumbai terror attacks, Pranab Mukherjee told reporters in the western city of Jodhpur. Proof cannot be disclosed at this time, he said, adding that Pakistan had assured New Delhi it would not allow its territory to be used for attacks against India. India has long accused Islamabad of allowing militant Muslim groups, particularly those fighting in the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir, to train and take shelter in Pakistan. Mukherjee's carefully phrased comments appeared to indicate he was accusing Pakistan-based groups of staging the attack, and not Pakistan itself. Earlier Friday, Pakistan's Defense Minister Ahmed Mukhtar, in Islamabad, denied involvement by his country: I will say in very categoric terms that Pakistan is not involved in these gory incidents.Indian home minister Jaiprakash Jaiswal said a captured gunmen had been identified as a Pakistani and Patil, the Maharashtra state official, said: It is very clear that the terrorists are from Pakistan. We have enough evidence that they are from Pakistan.Neither provided further details. Pakistan's government said Friday that it will send its spy chief, Lt. Gen. Ahmed Shujaa Pasha, to India to help probe the attacks. The gunmen apparently came to Mumbai by boat, and Indian forces expanded their investigation to the sea. Authorities stopped a cargo ship off the western coast of Gujarat that had sailed from Saudi Arabia and handed it over to police for investigation, said Navy Capt. Manohar Nambiar. They also stopped a cargo ship that had come to Mumbai from Karachi, Pakistan, but released it when nothing suspicious was found on board. The British government, meanwhile, was investigating whether some of the attackers could be British citizens with links to Pakistan or the disputed Himalayan territory of Kashmir, a British security official told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of his work.

The gunmen were well-prepared, apparently scouting some targets ahead of time and carrying large bags of almonds to keep up their energy. It's obvious they were trained somewhere ... Not everyone can handle the AK series of weapons or throw grenades like that, an unidentified member of India's Marine Commando unit told reporters, his face wrapped in a black mask. He said the men were very determined and remorseless and ready for a long siege. One backpack they found had 400 rounds of ammunition inside. He said the Taj was filled with terrified civilians, making it very difficult for the commandos to fire on the gunmen. To try and avoid civilian casualties we had to be so much more careful, he said, adding that hotel was a grim sight.Bodies were strewn all over the place, and there was blood everywhere.A U.S. investigative team was heading to Mumbai, a State Department official said Thursday evening, speaking on condition of anonymity because the U.S. and Indian governments were still working out final details. India has been shaken repeatedly by terror attacks blamed on Muslim militants in recent years, but most were bombings striking crowded places: markets, street corners, parks. Mumbai — one of the most populated cities in the world with some 18 million people — was hit by a series of bombings in July 2006 that killed 187 people.

These attacks were more sophisticated — and more brazen.

They began at about 9:20 p.m. with shooters spraying gunfire across the Chhatrapati Shivaji railroad station, one of the world's busiest terminals. For the next two hours, there was an attack roughly every 15 minutes — the Jewish center, a tourist restaurant, one hotel, then another, and two attacks on hospitals. There were 10 targets in all. Associated Press writers Ramola Talwar Badam, Erika Kinetz, Anita Chang and Jenny Barchfield contributed to this report.

Indian comandoes end siege of Mumbai hotel By RAVI NESSMAN, Associated Press Writer NOV 28,08

MUMBAI, India – Commandos ended a siege of the luxury Oberoi hotel on Friday while other forces rappelled from helicopters to storm a besieged Jewish center, two days after a chain of militant attacks across India's financial center left at least 143 people dead and the city in panic.While explosions and gunfire continued intermittently at the elegant Taj Mahal hotel Friday afternoon, officials said commandos had killed the two last gunmen inside the nearby Oberoi.The hotel is under our control, J.K. Dutt, director general of India's elite National Security Guard commando unit, told reporters, adding that 24 bodies had been found. Dozens of people — including a man clutching a baby — had been evacuated from Oberoi earlier Friday.The airborne assault on the center run by the ultra-orthodox Jewish outreach group Chabad Lubavitch was punctuated by gunshots and explosions — and at one point an intense exchange of fire that lasted several minutes — as forces cleared it floor by floor, according to an Associated Press reporter at the scene. By Friday afternoon, the commandos had control of the top two floors.One camouflaged commando came out with a bandage on his forehead, while soldiers fired smoke grenades into the building and a steady stream of gunfire reverberated across narrow alleys.

Israel's ambassador to India, Mark Sofer, said they believed there were up to nine hostages inside. Their fate was not clear. Sofer denied reports that Israeli commandos were taking part in the operation.Moshe Holtzberg, a 2-year-old who was smuggled out of the center by an employee, is now with his grandparents. His grandfather told Israel Radio on Friday that he had no news of Moshe's parents.More than 143 people were killed and 288 injured when suspected Islamic militants attacked 10 sites in Mumbai starting Wednesday evening.Security officials said their operations were almost over.It's just a matter of a few hours that we'll be able to wrap up things, Lt. Gen. N. Thamburaj told reporters Friday morning.The group rescued from the Oberoi, many holding passports, included at least two Americans, a Briton, two Japanese nationals and several Indians. Some carried luggage with Canadian flags. One man in a chef's uniform was holding a small baby. About 20 airline crew members were freed, including staff from Lufthansa and Air France.I'm going home, I'm going to see my wife, said Mark Abell, with a huge smile on his face after emerging from the hotel.Abell, from Britain, had locked himself in his room during the siege. These people here have been fantastic, the Indian authorities, the hotel staff. I think they are a great advertisement for their country, he said as security officials pulled him away.The well-coordinated strikes by small bands of gunmen starting Wednesday night left the city shell-shocked.Late Thursday, after about 400 people had been brought out of the Taj hotel, officials said it had been cleared of gunmen. But Friday morning, army commanders said that while three gunmen had been killed, two to three more were still inside with about 15 civilians.A few hours after that, Thamburaj, the security official, said at least one gunman was still alive inside the hotel and had cut of electricity on the floor where he was hiding. Shortly after that announcement, another round of explosions and gunfire were heard coming from the hotel.Prime Minister Manmohan Singh blamed external forces" for the violence — a phrase sometimes used to refer to Pakistani militants, whom Indian authorities often blame for attacks.On Friday, India's foreign minister ratcheted up the accusations over the attacks. According to preliminary information, some elements in Pakistan are responsible for Mumbai terror attacks, Pranab Mukherjee told reporters in the western city of Jodhpur.

Proof cannot be disclosed at this time, he said, adding that Pakistan had assured New Delhi it would not allow its territory to be used for attacks against India. India has long accused Islamabad of allowing militant Muslim groups, particularly those fighting in the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir, to train and take shelter in Pakistan. Mukherjee's carefully phrased comments appeared to indicate he was accusing Pakistan-based groups of staging the attack, and not Pakistan itself.

Islamabad has long denied those accusations.

Earlier Friday, Pakistan's Defense Minister Ahmed Mukhtar, in Islamabad, denied involvement by his country: I will say in very categoric terms that Pakistan is not involved in these gory incidents.The gunmen were well-prepared, apparently scouting some targets ahead of time and carrying large bags of almonds to keep up their energy. It's obvious they were trained somewhere ... Not everyone can handle the AK series of weapons or throw grenades like that, an unidentified member of India's Marine Commando unit told reporters, his face wrapped in a black mask. He said the men were very determined and remorseless and ready for a long siege. One backpack they found had 400 rounds of ammunition inside. He said the Taj was filled with terrified civilians, making it very difficult for the commandos to fire on the gunmen. To try and avoid civilian casualties we had to be so much more careful, he said, adding that hotel was a grim sight. Bodies were strewn all over the place, and there was blood everywhere.A U.S. investigative team was heading to Mumbai, a State Department official said Thursday evening, speaking on condition of anonymity because the U.S. and Indian governments were still working out final details. India has been shaken repeatedly by terror attacks blamed on Muslim militants in recent years, but most were bombings striking crowded places: markets, street corners, parks. Mumbai — one of the most populated cities in the world with some 18 million people — was hit by a series of bombings in July 2006 that killed 187 people.

These attacks were more sophisticated — and more brazen.

They began at about 9:20 p.m. with shooters spraying gunfire across the Chhatrapati Shivaji railroad station, one of the world's busiest terminals. For the next two hours, there was an attack roughly every 15 minutes — the Jewish center, a tourist restaurant, one hotel, then another, and two attacks on hospitals. There were 10 targets in all. Indian media showed pictures of rubber dinghies found by the city's shoreline, apparently used by the gunmen to reach the area. Both the luxury hotels targeted overlook the Arabian Sea. Analysts around the world were debating whether the gunmen could have been tied to — or inspired by — al-Qaida. A previously unknown group calling itself the Deccan Mujahideen claimed responsibility in e-mails to several media outlets. The Deccan is a region in southern India that was traditionally ruled by Muslim kings. Survivors of the hotel attacks said the gunmen had specifically targeted Britons and Americans, though most of the dead seemed to be Indians and whoever else was caught in the random gunfire. One of the gunmen stopped once and asked, Where are you from? Any British or American? Show your ID, Alex Chamberlain, a British citizen dining at the Oberoi, told reporters. Among the dead were two Australians and a Japanese, said the state home ministry. An Italian, a Briton and a German were also killed, according to their foreign ministries.

The United States, Pakistan and other countries condemned the attacks. Relations between Hindus, who make up more than 80 percent of India's 1 billion population, and Muslims, who make up about 14 percent, have sporadically erupted into bouts of sectarian violence since British-ruled India was split into independent India and Pakistan in 1947. Associated Press writers Ramola Talwar Badam, Erika Kinetz, Anita Chang and Jenny Barchfield contributed to this report.

EU condemns Mumbai attacks
LEIGH PHILLIPS 27.11.2008 @ 09:18 CET

The European Union has condemned the gunmen responsible for the killing of some 101 individuals and injuring 287 in a series of attacks across seven sites in Mumbai's tourist and commercial districts.The French EU presidency has reacted with horror and indignation at the terrorist acts perpetrated in Mumbai, India, and condemns them in the strongest terms.The presidency knows the attachment the Indian people have for democracy - the target of such terrorist acts.Europe joins the Indian nation in mourning and stands by her side during these trying times.The European Commission echoed the words of the presidency.The European Commission condemns in the strongest terms the heinous terrorist attacks this night in Mumbai, which have cost the lives of many innocent people and injured others, said external relations spokesperson Christiane Hohmann in a statement. Terrorism is never justified and is no means to achieve any goal. We stand by the Indian government in its fight against terrorism.A co-ordinated series of machine-gun and grenade assaults rocked India's commercial centre on Wednesday night, targeting up-scale hotels - the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel and the Oberoi Trident, a popular tourist restaurant, the main train station, a hospital and the police headquarters.A previously unknown group, the Deccan Mujahideen, claimed responsibility for the attacks.From the five-star Oberoi Hotel on Thursday morning (27 November), a militant told India TV that seven individuals from the group were still holding hostages.We want all mujahedeen held in India released, and only after that we will release the people, he said.

Amongst those hiding in the hotel are two MEPs, UK Conservative Sajjad Karim, and independent right-wing Polish deputy Jan Masiel, that were part of a group of seven deputies in the city ahead of an EU-India summit.The Times of London reported that Mr Karim had barricaded himself in the hotel's basement, while Mr Masiel was thought to be in his hotel room, along with an official with the parliamentary delegation.

Erika Mann, a German Social Democrat MEP, hid in a hotel restaurant kitchen after gunmen attacked dining guest, but subsequently escaped, according to the same edition of the Times.The UK daily also reported that the head of the delegation had received text messages from the two stranded MEPs saying there were all right.

Medvedev meets with Raul Castro in Cuba NOV 27,08

HAVANA (AFP) — Visiting Russian President Dmitry Medvedev met with Cuban President Raul Castro seeking to forge closer ties with the former Soviet Union's Cold War ally, on the last leg of a tour to boost Russia's reach in Latin America.Not long after arriving in Havana around 2050 GMT from Venezuela, Medvedev held two rounds of official talks -- one private and one between the two countries' delegations -- at the imposing Palace of the Revolution.Then the Cuban president, who maintains a low public profile, and Medvedev paid a visit to the new Russian Orthodox cathedral in colonial Old Havana, with bells tolling and security tight.It marks the last stop for Medvedev on a four-nation trip, including Peru, Brazil and Venezuela, where he visited Russian warships due to carry out joint maneuvers next week.It was unclear whether Medvedev, on the first visit by a Russian leader to Cuba since 2000, would also meet ailing former president Fidel Castro, 82.The visit could be light on substance: there were no agreements scheduled to be signed though the countries do have cooperation in fields such as oil, nickel, telecommunications, biotechnology and tourism.Medvedev's Latin America tour largely has sought to boost trade, despite the world economic slowdown, but was also seen as a rebuff to US moves in formally Communist-ruled parts of Europe, such as planned missile defense facilities.The Russian leader arrived from Venezuela, where he signed a string of accords, including a nuclear energy deal, with anti-US President Hugo Chavez.Medvedev is only the second Russian president to travel to Cuba after the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union, which led to a decade of distant relations broken by a visit by former president Vladimir Putin in 2000.But Putin's decision to close a Russian spy base in Lourdes, south of Havana, in 2001, created a new chill in relations that lasted until 2007, when Moscow showed a new interest in Latin America.Medvedev's visit follows an accelerated process of reconciliation, including new deals on military, energy, telecommunications and transport ties.Cuba has been and will continue to be one of our key partners in Latin America, Medvedev said after hosting Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque in Russia this month.

Relations are developing in a very dynamic way, Medvedev said on announcing a planned trip by Raul Castro to Russia in 2009.The Russian ambassador said Saturday that the country was negotiating major investments in Cuba's oil and nickel industries, with deals under consideration with specific Russian firms to search for oil offshore in Cuba's exclusive economic zone in the Gulf of Mexico.Since Raul Castro replaced his ailing brother, who held Cuba's helm for five decades, he has implemented minor and not radical systemic economic changes. The government controls the economy and media, and still outlaws opposition forces.Earlier this month, Russia granted Cuba a 20-million-dollar trade credit as part of agreements on oil, mining and transport, during a visit by Russian deputy premier Igor Sechin.In a Russian drive in the region after an Asia-Pacific summit in Peru earlier this month, Medvedev also visited Brazil, and his foreign minister, Serguei Lavrov, stopped off in Colombia and Ecuador.Russia sees Latin America as a center of economic growth, Lavrov said Thursday in Quito.Medvedev's visit to Cuba follows a trip by Chinese President Hu Jintao, who put off some of Cuba's debt payments and agreed to cooperation deals to strengthen ties between the two communist nations.

HOMELAND INSECURITY Campaign warns Americans about looming Shariah code Detroit billboard says religious law imposed by Islam threatens rights November 28, 2008 1:35 am Eastern By Bob Unruh 2008 WorldNetDaily

Shariah, or Islamic law, may be spreading around the world, but it isn't going to be established in the United States without opposition, vow members of the United American Committee. Officials with the non-profit have erected a 48-foot-long billboard just outside of Detroit, home to one of the largest groups of Muslims in the U.S. SHARIA LAW THREATENS AMERICA,warns the sign.

The UAC says it's dedicated to awakening the nation to the threats of radical Islam and works to educate Americans on the nature of Islamic extremism. The group's mission is to battle against the ideological aspects of the war on terror to counter elements of radical Islam in America.Shariah law is a legal system recognized in many Islamic countries such as the former Taliban regime of Afghanistan, and currently Saudi Arabia, and is a legal system which dictates beheadings, stonings, and other punishments for what are listed as crimes under Shariah such as homosexuality and adultery, and according to critics views women as inferior granting them little rights, the organization stated. Tom Trento, a spokesman, said, Muslims are the biggest victims of Shariah law in the world. We hope this message inspires the Muslims of America who came to this country to escape Shariah to stand up against it.The organization's website, whose address is featured on the billboard, highlights a video of Wafa Sultan, a Syrian Muslim who escaped the Middle East and has become a fierce critic of Islam and Shariah.At times, it feels to me that Shariah is following me to the United States, Sultan says in the video, referring to radical Islamic charities and organizations operating in the U.S.

Sultan also points out that in Britain and France Shariah is being enforced in various ways in certain communities. Britain recently sanctioned the establishment of Shariah courts for civil matters among Muslims, the UAC noted. Our Constitution is not compatible with Shariah, Sultan said. Under the religious rules, Women and children are deprived of rights we in the West take for granted.Homeless in America is more attractive to me than living as a woman under Shariah, she added. I don’t want to face again the hell that I had kicked off 20 years ago. My biggest obligation is to preserve the free spirit of this wonderful country and not allow destructive forces to ruin it.The UAC billboard is in Luna Pier, 10 miles north of Toledo and 20 miles south of Detroit on Interstate 75, officials said. The announcement about the sign comes as Islam expert Daniel Pipes warns in a report in the Jerusalem Post Shariah is advancing one step at a time into Western Europe and North America. Pipes cited the recent case of a Scottish judge who bent the law to acknowledge a polygamous household, a status allowed under Shariah. The case involved a Muslim male who drove 64 miles per hour in a 30 mph zone – usually grounds for an automatic loss of one's driving license. The defendant's lawyer explained his client's need to speed: He has one wife in Motherwell and another in Glasgow and sleeps with one one night and stays with the other the next on an alternate basis. Without his driving license he would be unable to do this on a regular basis,Pipes reported.

Sympathetic to the polygamist's plight, the judge permitted him to retain his license, he said.The report said the ruling suggests monogamy, long a foundation of Western civilization, is silently eroding under the challenge of Islamic law.Pipes reported at least six Western jurisdictions now accept harems, including Britain, the Netherlands, Belgium, Italy, Australia and Canada. Canada, for example, acknowledges a marriage that is actually or potentially polygamous, if it was celebrated in a jurisdiction whose system of law recognizes it as valid.WND reported just days ago a Heritage Foundation expert's warning the U.S. also needs to maintain active opposition to plans for religious anti-defamation laws both within its borders and on an international scale or face consequences.In a report published on the foundation's website, Steven Groves said the U.S. must remain wary of continuing efforts by U.N. member states to gain wider acceptance of the defamation of religions' concept. The proposal primarily targets any criticism of Islam.

Proponents will continue to push the defamation of religions' agenda at the U.N. Human Rights Council, the U.N. General Assembly, and at other international forums such as the April 2009 Durban Review Conference, Groves warned.Groves is the Heritage Foundation's Bernard and Barbara Lomas Fellow in the Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom, a division of the Kathryn and Shelby Cullom Davis Institute for International Studies.He also said within its own borders, the U.S. should refuse to recognize a new legal cause of action that bans insults or criticism of religion, because it would provide no benefit whatsoever.States already have laws to condemn religious discrimination and prosecute acts of incitement to violence, he argued. The federal government should tread extremely lightly where disputes over religious doctrine are concerned. The U.S. does not need a national speech code that would restrict the First Amendment rights of Americans, no matter how offensive that speech may be to any particular religious denomination.Groves cited the 2005 attempt by Rep. John Conyers Jr., D-Mich., who wanted to require that the Islamic holy book, the Quran, be treated with dignity and respect.Any attempt to establish a criminal or civil defamation of religions law in the United States … must be strongly opposed, Groves said. Attempts to introduce such legislation may be incremental – notably, in May 2005, when a group of U.S. congressmen sponsored a resolution, he said. Such piecemeal legislation must be closely guarded against.WND previously reported the original U.N. plan that could turn ordinary Christians in America into international criminals.

U.S. Department of the Treasury

WND also has reported the Treasury Department has announced it will teach Islamic finance to U.S. banking regulatory agencies, Congress and other parts of the executive branch. According to its announcement, the Islamic Finance 101 forum is designed to help inform the policy community about Islamic financial services, which are an increasingly important part of the global financial industry.The Treasury Department has collaborated with Harvard University's Islamic Finance Project to coordinate its instructions. Revealingly, a recent report in Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin, the premium online newsletter published by the founder of WND, said Britain's MI6 intelligence service identified a group that raises funds with impunity in London as the organization whose militia members in Somalia imposed a Shariah death sentence on a 13-year-old rape victim. The report describes how the group recently imposed the brutal punishment on a child in the Somalian town of Kismayo. A 13-year-old girl, described in an intelligence report as little more than a pretty child, was sentenced to be stoned to death by the all-male court.It imposed the sentence on Aisha Ibrahim Duhulow after she had complained to the local Shariah court that she had been gang-raped by, among others, her cousins.But the court found her guilty of adultery and sentenced her to death by stoning.She was taken from the courthouse to a local sports stadium. There she was buried up to her neck in sand and then stoned in front of a 1,000-strong crowd.