EU SECURITY - DEFENCE BOOSTED AT SUMMIT

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

Fed Refuses to Disclose Recipients of $2 Trillion (Update2)
By Mark Pittman

Dec. 12 (Bloomberg) -- The Federal Reserve refused a request by Bloomberg News to disclose the recipients of more than $2 trillion of emergency loans from U.S. taxpayers and the assets the central bank is accepting as collateral. Bloomberg filed suit Nov. 7 under the U.S. Freedom of Information Act requesting details about the terms of 11 Fed lending programs, most created during the deepest financial crisis since the Great Depression. The Fed responded Dec. 8, saying it’s allowed to withhold internal memos as well as information about trade secrets and commercial information. The institution confirmed that a records search found 231 pages of documents pertaining to some of the requests. If they told us what they held, we would know the potential losses that the government may take and that’s what they don’t want us to know, said Carlos Mendez, a senior managing director at New York-based ICP Capital LLC, which oversees $22 billion in assets. The Fed stepped into a rescue role that was the original purpose of the Treasury’s $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program. The central bank loans don’t have the oversight safeguards that Congress imposed upon the TARP. Total Fed lending exceeded $2 trillion for the first time Nov. 6. It rose by 138 percent, or $1.23 trillion, in the 12 weeks since Sept. 14, when central bank governors relaxed collateral standards to accept securities that weren’t rated AAA.

Been Bamboozled

Congress is demanding more transparency from the Fed and Treasury on bailout, most recently during Dec. 10 hearings by the House Financial Services committee when Representative David Scott, a Georgia Democrat, said Americans had been bamboozled.

Bloomberg News, a unit of New York-based Bloomberg LP, on May 21 asked the Fed to provide data on collateral posted from April 4 to May 20. The central bank said on June 19 that it needed until July 3 to search documents and determine whether it would make them public. Bloomberg didn’t receive a formal response that would let it file an appeal within the legal time limit. On Oct. 25, Bloomberg filed another request, expanding the range of when the collateral was posted. It filed suit Nov. 7. In response to Bloomberg’s request, the Fed said the U.S. is facing an unprecedented crisis in which loss in confidence in and between financial institutions can occur with lightning speed and devastating effects.

Data Provider

The Fed supplied copies of three e-mails in response to a request that it disclose the identities of those supplying data on collateral as well as their contracts.
While the senders and recipients of the messages were revealed, the contents were erased except for two phrases identifying a vendor as IDC. One of the e-mails’ subject lines refers to Interactive Data -- Auction Rate Security Advisory May 1, 2008.Brian Willinsky, a spokesman for Bedford, Massachusetts- based Interactive Data Corp., a seller of fixed-income securities information, declined to comment.

Notwithstanding calls for enhanced transparency, the Board must protect against the substantial, multiple harms that might result from disclosure, Jennifer J. Johnson, the secretary for the Fed’s Board of Governors, said in a letter e-mailed to Bloomberg News.

Dangerous Step

In its considered judgment and in view of current circumstances, it would be a dangerous step to release this otherwise confidential information, she wrote. New York-based Citigroup Inc., which is shrinking its global workforce of 352,000 through asset sales and job cuts, is among the nine biggest banks receiving $125 billion in capital from the TARP since it was signed into law Oct. 3. More than 170 regional lenders are seeking an additional $74 billion. Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said in September they would meet congressional demands for transparency in a $700 billion bailout of the banking system. The Freedom of Information Act obliges federal agencies to make government documents available to the press and public. The Bloomberg lawsuit, filed in New York, doesn’t seek money damages.

Right to Know

There has to be something they can tell the public because we have a right to know what they are doing, said Lucy Dalglish, executive director of the Arlington, Virginia-based Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press. It would really be a shame if we have to find this out 10 years from now after some really nasty class-action suit and our financial system has completely collapsed, she said. The Fed’s five-page response to Bloomberg may be unprecedented because the board usually doesn’t go into such detail about its position, said Lee Levine, a partner at Levine Sullivan Koch & Schulz LLP in Washington. This is uncharted territory, said Levine during an interview from his New York office. The Freedom of Information Act wasn’t built to anticipate this situation and that’s evident from the way the Fed tried to shoehorn their argument into the trade-secrets exemption.The Fed lent cash and government bonds to banks that handed over collateral including stocks and subprime and structured securities such as collateralized debt obligations, according to the Fed Web site. Borrowers include the now-bankrupt Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., Citigroup and New York-based JPMorgan Chase & Co., the country’s biggest bank by assets. Banks oppose any release of information because that might signal weakness and spur short-selling or a run by depositors, Scott Talbott, senior vice president of government affairs for the Financial Services Roundtable, a Washington trade group, said in an interview last month.

Complete Truth

Americans don’t want to get blindsided anymore, Mendez said in an interview. They don’t want it sugarcoated or whitewashed. They want the complete truth. The truth is we can’t take all the pain right now.The Bloomberg lawsuit said the collateral lists are central to understanding and assessing the government’s response to the most cataclysmic financial crisis in America since the Great Depression.In response, the Fed argued that the trade-secret exemption could be expanded to include potential harm to any of the central bank’s customers, said Bruce Johnson, a lawyer at Davis Wright Tremaine LLP in Seattle. That expansion is not contained in the freedom-of-information law, Johnson said. I understand where they are coming from bureaucratically, but that means it’s all the more necessary for taxpayers to know what exactly is going on because of all the money that is being hurled at the banking system, Johnson said. The Bloomberg lawsuit is Bloomberg LP v. Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, 08-CV-9595, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan). To contact the reporters on this story: Mark Pittman in New York at mpittman@bloomberg.net; Last Updated: December 12, 2008 17:12 EST

Canada, Ontario agree on conditional auto aid plan By John McCrank and Randall Palmer – Fri Dec 12, 6:53 pm ET

TORONTO/OTTAWA (Reuters) – The governments of Canada and province of Ontario agreed on Friday to provide aid to the struggling auto sector that could be worth C$3.5 billion ($2.8 billion) in an effort to stave off a massive loss of jobs at car plants and parts manufacturers.The package, the amount of which is based on Canada's proportional share of North American car and truck production, is conditional on the U.S. government first providing a rescue package for the Detroit Three, federal Industry Minister Tony Clement said at a media briefing in Toronto.He said he expects the U.S. administration to approve a package very soon, after the Senate rejected a $14 billion proposal late Thursday, deepening uncertainty for the sector.

Any action by the federal and provincial governments to support the auto sector as it restructures must be equally integrated with action taken by the United States, Clement said. The federal and Ontario governments are prepared to move quickly if and when the Americans approve a support package.On Friday, the White House said it might dip into the $700 billion U.S. bank recovery fund to stave off an auto industry collapse.Unlike in the United States, there is little legislative resistance to a Canadian bailout of the auto industry, even though it goes against the grain of the Conservative government.Ontario is the base of production operations for General Motors Corp, Ford Motor Co and Chrysler in Canada, and the U.S. automakers and their parts suppliers employ hundreds of thousands of workers.

Local mayors in such Ontario cities as Windsor, Oshawa and St. Thomas have waged a campaign to convince governments to pony up aid for the industry, saying their communities would be devastated without it.We can be proud of our past, we can be proud of our productive capacity here and our workers, but we also have to have an understanding that we're in what I call an existential moment, Clement said.Is this industry going to exist in any capacity two years from now, five years from now?

The announcement came after Canadian Auto Workers President Ken Lewenza urged Prime Minister Stephen Harper to proactively announce a Canadian package, which could then put pressure on the United States.We're pleading, in particular with Mr Harper, to move and move swiftly in support of the Canadian auto industry and in support of our existing facilities, he told a union news conference in Toronto.It was uncertain what concessions the CAW might make. A dispute over concessions from the United Auto Workers was one reason an aid package failed in the U.S. Senate.Lewenza said we're part of the solution but he said the problem was not unionized labor.UAW members and CAW members cannot be scapegoats as a result of this global financial crisis. The reality is, we could work for nothing and it wouldn't improve the global financial crisis we're experiencing, he said.Clement said he had a frank discussion with Lewenza this week and said that even if Canada's industry was among the most productive in the world it also needed to be competitive. He said, without giving details, the signal from Lewenza was that he was prepared to work with the management and government.An aide, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the industry minister was looking at requests not only from the Big Three but also from auto parts makers like Linamar and Magna International.There have been reports the Canadian sector is looking for C$6 billion in loans, loan guarantees and lines of credit. ($1=$1.24 Canadian) (Additional reporting by Jeffrey Jones in Toronto; Editing by Frank McGurty)

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.

One dead as storms hit Dorset DEC 13,08

LONDON (AFP) – One motorist died as high winds, torrential rain and flash floods lashed southwest England on Saturday as nearly 100 flood warnings were imposed across the region.A 22-year-old woman died in the county of Dorset when her car crashed off the road in heavy rain. It is thought her car may have aquaplaned.Some roads in the counties of Devon and Somerset were submerged under 46 centimetres (18 inches) of water. Thirty people were rescued from their vehicles and homes.A reduced train service was operating between London and the southwest, with some services between the capital and the region's main cities suspended.The Environment Agency authority has 247 flood warnings in place, with 99 in the southwest, 46 in the English Midlands and 30 in Wales.However, Sunday is set to be largely rain-free and the worst weather conditions have already passed through, forecaster MeteoGroup UK said.

Northeast ice storm leaves 1.25M without power Dec 12, 7:05 PM (ET)By DAVID TIRRELL-WYSOCKI

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) - An ice storm to compare with some of the Northeast's worst made a mess of the region Friday, leaving 1.25 million homes and businesses in seven states without power as it forced schools to close and toppled ice-laden trees and power lines onto slippery roads.Most of the outages were in New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Maine and New York, and it was expected to take several days to completely restore electricity. The storm wreaked havoc from Maine to Pennsylvania, leaving a sparkling, ice-covered landscape that was too destructive for many to find beautiful.This is pathetic, said Bob Cott of Portland, Maine, who lost power. I'm already sick of winter and we have nine days to go before it officially begins.At least one death was related to the storm: New Hampshire officials said a 49-year-old Danville man who lived in a camper died of carbon monoxide poisoning after turning on his generator when his power went out Thursday night.

(AP) Car and driver are stopped in Derry, N.H. on a road littered with fallen trees and wires after an...For New Hampshire, the power outages dwarfed those during the infamous Ice Storm of 98, when some residents spent more than a week in the dark.In Hampstead, N.H., Mark Cegelis, 36, said things were hectic at his neighborhood gas station, which was jammed with people trying to get gas for home generators.It's kind of lawless out there right now, he said. There's a lot of people very frustrated stacking up at the gas stations. It's pretty ugly.He bought 21 gallons for himself and tried to deliver some to friends in Derry but couldn't get there because downed trees blocked roads. So the two friends came to him instead, and were expected to hunker down with Cegelis' family, his parents and another friend until power was restored.I'm sure they'd do the same thing for us, he said. It's treacherous out there.(AP) Guillermo Bello of Worcester, Mass., drags a trash can under a tree heavily laden with ice in a...Nearly two dozen shelters were set up across the southern part of the state, and authorities were working to get generators to several nursing homes. About 35 people, mostly elderly, had settled in at a shelter at Portsmouth High School by early afternoon.All the motels have no electricity, and that's why I'm here, said Duke Straychan of Hampton, who can't do without power because he uses an oxygen tank at night. People at the shelter dined on American chop suey and shepherd's pie and watched The Polar Express in the cafeteria.

Gov. John Lynch urged residents to please go out of your way to check on their neighbors, especially those who are elderly and live alone.Both Lynch and Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick declared states of emergency Friday morning and called up members of the National Guard. Five hundred Massachusetts Guard members were cleaning up debris and clearing access to downed power lines. Lynch put 150 on alert and deployed 20.All of the resources at our disposal have been made available to try to get the roads clear and power restored, said Patrick, adding that it would be ambitious to think power would be restored by Monday to the 350,000 homes and businesses in his state left in the dark.(AP) Frank Armitage points as he surveys the damage to his property in North Andover, Mass. Friday, Dec....This is not going to be a couple of hours, Patrick said. It's likely to be several days.The Red Cross, in conjunction with the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency, has opened 23 temporary shelters across the state. In Holden, which had no power, some senior citizens on oxygen were taken to the hospital or a shelter opened at the town's senior center.

Utilities reported more than 400,000 homes and businesses without power in New Hampshire, including 320,000 served by the state's largest utility, Public Service Company of New Hampshire. By contrast, the 1998 storm left 55,000 Public Service customers without power.This is the absolute, most significant power restoration effort we've ever had. There has not been a storm before that has affected more customers, Public Service spokesman Martin Murray said.Public Service officials suggested repairs for at least some homes and businesses will go into next week. They lined up 300 crews from as far away as Maryland and Ohio to be in the state by Sunday and were looking for more.Crews from Canada and South Carolina were headed to Maine, where Gov. John Baldacci declared a limited emergency allowing utility crews to work longer hours. Utilities there reported more than 227,000 customers in the dark, mostly in southern and coastal areas.In eastern New York, particularly around Albany, the state capital, outages at National Grid and other utilities brought the statewide total to more than 255,000.Trees were down on all the roads, said Miguel Figueroa, 28, as he waited for coffee at a Starbucks in Colonie, N.Y. ... I couldn't even get on the Thruway today.In Vermont, at least three shelters were being set up in southern Vermont for the more than 30,000 customers who were without power Friday afternoon. It could be days before some homes and businesses get their lights back on, officials said.The ice storm extended to Pennsylvania, where about 4,700 customers, most of them in the Poconos, lost power, and Connecticut, where some 17,000 customers were without electricity at the height of the storm. Those states mostly got heavy rain or rain changing to snow.Though blue skies appeared in some areas by Friday afternoon, temperatures were expected to fall below freezing again, with single digits forecast for Maine, Vermont and New Hampshire Saturday night.
Associated Press writers Holly Ramer and Kathy McCormack in Concord, N.H.; Beth LaMontagne Hall in Portsmouth, N.H.; Russell Contreras and Mark Pratt in Boston; Clarke Canfield in Portland, Maine; John Curran and Lisa Rathke in Montpelier, Vt.; and Mike Hill and Jessica M. Pasko in Albany, N.Y., contributed to this report.

Major Sumatran quake, tsunami likely in decades: study Fri Dec 12, 11:12 am ET

SINGAPORE (AFP) – More than one million people on Indonesia's Sumatra island are vulnerable to a massive earthquake and tsunami potentially more destructive than one which struck four years ago, scientists who released a study Friday warned.The quake and tsunami are likely within the next few decades, they said.On December 26, 2004, a 9.3-magnitude earthquake off Sumatra triggered tsunamis which killed 220,000 people in countries around the Indian Ocean, including 168,000 in Aceh province on the northwestern tip of Sumatra, in one of the deadliest natural disasters ever.The Boxing Day quake marked the largest in a series of big earthquakes as large sections of the active fault beneath the eastern Indian Ocean flank failed over the past eight years, the study in the US magazine Science says.One question of great humanitarian and scientific importance is which remaining un-ruptured sections of the fault will fail next, says the international study led by Kerry Sieh, director of the Earth Observatory of Singapore at Nanyang Technological University.Until late last year the largest remaining unbroken Sumatran section was a stretch known as the Mentawai patch, the study said. But in September 2007 an 8.4-magnitude quake and several large aftershocks hit Sumatra's west coast, off Padang city, and caused 23 fatalities.Study of a 700-year-long history of Sumatran seismic cycles implies that the September quake was the beginning of an episode of failure of the Mentawai patch, the researchers say.The amount of potential slip not relieved last year is enough to generate an 8.8-magnitude quake in the area where more than one million people live along the coast, the scientists said.Such an event would undoubtedly produce great damage in Padang and neighbouring cities and villages while scientific modelling shows that a tsunami would hit the Padang and Bengkulu areas, it added.

These results imply that losses of life and property could equal or exceed those in Aceh province in 2004, the study said.The scientists made their conclusions by examining records of sea level change in coral around the Mentawai islands off Sumatra's west coast. The examination implies that the 700-kilometre (434-mile) section of the fault has generated broadly similar sequences of great earthquakes about every two centuries for at least the past 700 years, the study said.If previous cycles are a reliable guide, Sieh said, we can expect one or more very large West Sumatran earthquakes as the rest of the Mentawai patch fails within the next few decades.Another researcher, Danny Natawidjaja from the Research Centre for Geotechnology at the Indonesian Institute of Sciences, said he hoped the findings would encourage governments and humanitarian agencies to accelerate preparations.

DISEASES

REVELATION 6:7-8
7 And when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth beast say, Come and see.
8 And I looked, and behold a pale horse:(CHLORES GREEN) and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword,(WEAPONS) and with hunger,(FAMINE) and with death,(INCURABLE DISEASES) and with the beasts of the earth.(ANIMAL TO HUMAN DISEASE).

Zimbabwe: Cholera introduced by West DEC 13,08
By ANGUS SHAW, Associated Press Writer

HARARE, Zimbabwe – Zimbabwe on Saturday accused the West of waging biological warfare to deliberately start a cholera epidemic that has killed hundreds of people and sickened thousands.The spread of the disease has focused the world's attention on the spectacular collapse of the southern African nation, which often blames its troubles on the West.The claims in state media came the same day the government issued an official announcement detailing the constitutional amendment creating the post of prime minister. The announcement also set out other changes necessary to go forward with a power-sharing agreement that has been stalled since September.

Saturday's unilateral step by President Robert Mugabe's government could raise political tensions in the battered southern African country.The state-run Herald newspaper said comments by the U.S. ambassador that the U.S. had been preparing for the cholera outbreak raised suspicions that it was responsible.The Zimbabwean government's stranglehold on most sources of news makes such rhetoric an important tool for a regime struggling to hold onto power.After the first cholera cases, U.S. and other aid workers braced for the waterborne disease to spread quickly in an economically ravaged country where the sewage system and medical care have fallen apart. Zimbabwe also faces a hunger crisis, the world's highest inflation and shortages of both the most basic necessities and the cash to buy them.The Herald quoted the information minister, Sikhanyiso Ndlovu, as blaming cholera on serious biological chemical war ... a genocidal onslaught on the people of Zimbabwe by the British.Cholera is a calculated racist terrorist attack on Zimbabwe by the unrepentant former colonial power which has enlisted support from its American and Western allies so that they invade the country, Ndlovu was quoted as saying.

Experts blame the epidemic on Zimbabwe's economic collapse. The World Health Organization said Friday the death toll was 792 and that the number of cholera cases that have been reported since the outbreak began in August was 16,700. The epidemic has reached a fatality rate of 4.7 percent. To be under control it would have to be less than 1 percent, WHO spokeswoman Fadela Chaib said Friday.Aid agencies have warned that the outbreak could worsen with the onset of the rainy season and that the disease has already spread to Zimbabwe's neighbors.Mugabe claimed Thursday that his government, with the help of international agencies, had contained the epidemic. That sparked accusations he was out of touch with his people's suffering.Zimbabwe's decline began in 2000, when Mugabe began an often violent campaign to seize white-owned farms and give them to blacks; most of the land ended up in the hands of his cronies, and production has dropped. Hungry Zimbabweans scrounge for corn kernels spilled from trucks carrying the harvest to market in a nation that once exported food.Zimbabwe once had among the best health care systems in sub-Saharan Africa. Now most hospitals have been forced to close as they can no longer afford drugs, equipment or wages for their staff. Officials are also unable to afford spare parts and chemicals for water systems.Mugabe has ruled his country since its 1980 independence from Britain. He refused to leave office following disputed elections in March. U.S. President George W. Bush, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and French President Nicolas Sarkozy have called recently for the 84-year-old leader to step down.Power sharing has been agreed to as a solution to the election dispute. But a bitter disagreement over which party gets key Cabinet posts has kept the agreement from becoming reality. Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai is supposed to be prime minister in the unity government, with Mugabe continuing as president.

Tsvangirai's spokesman, Nelson Chamisa, said his party had not seen the constitutional announcement issued Saturday, and that there could be no power sharing without agreement on Cabinet posts. The opposition accuses Mugabe of trying to keep too many of the most powerful posts, including those overseeing the security forces.With the so-called gazetting of the amendment, parliament, which is dominated by the opposition, would have to vote on it after 30 days. If these (Cabinet) issues are not resolved, we cannot guarantee the amendment will have safe passage in parliament, Chamisa said. It is our wish to have this matter behind us. What has caused these months of suffering ... is the lack of adequate political will by ZANU-PF.Repeated attempts to reach Mugabe's spokesman Saturday were not successful.

Feilgin: More Than an Election is Taking Place DEC 13,2008(IsraelNN.com)

In a letter to supporters, Moshe Feiglin explained his decision not to fight the Likud tribunal's decision Thursday night to bump him down to the 36th slot on the party's list. You worked very hard, and it appears that I am allowing several suspected criminals to follow Netanyahu's command to lower my ranking without protesting. But I haven't thrown away our achievement; I've turned it into something greater, he wrote to supporters. Everyone realizes that something much more important than a Knesset election is taking place here, he wrote, referring to the media storm over his inclusion on the Likud list. What is to be decided here is whether the State of Israel will return to the control of the people of Israel, or remain in the hands of a secret dictator who will continue to run it down, he wrote.

Although Feiglin is now 36th on the Likud list, instead of 20th, as he was after the party's primary vote, he may find himself placed even lower; according to media reports, Likud chairman Binyamin Netanyahu is close to signing an agreement with members of the Tzomet party. According to the report, Tzomet chairman Moshe Green would be placed on the Likud list somewhere between the 11th and 20th slots, while other party members would be place lower – with the result that Feiglin could be pushed into the fortieth slot, or even lower.

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.

U.S. draft hails steps in Mideast talks, urges more DEC 13,08 By Louis Charbonneau Louis Charbonneau – Sat Dec 13, 3:53 pm ET

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – The United States handed the U.N. Security Council a draft resolution on Saturday that hails progress made in Israeli-Palestinian peace talks but calls for an intensification of efforts to secure a deal.U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Zalmay Khalilzad said the 15-nation council would vote on the resolution on Tuesday at a meeting which Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, her Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov and other foreign ministers are expected to attend.

If approved, it will be the Security Council's first resolution on the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians since November 2003, when it endorsed the Middle East road map peace plan for eventual Palestinian statehood.Khalilzad told reporters the resolution endorsed the goals of peace talks launched in November 2007 by the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush in Annapolis, Maryland.The Bush administration had wanted an agreement on Palestinian statehood by the end of this year but all sides now say that will not happen. Bush leaves office on January 20, when Barack Obama will become U.S. president.We believe it's very important at this time to recognize the progress that has been made, Khalilzad said.It was crucial for the push for a two-state solution to be sustained and for the council to express its support so there is no pause in the negotiations, he added.Diplomats in New York say the highly unpopular Bush administration hopes this resolution will help draw attention to the good it has done for the Middle East and counter some of the criticism it has faced for its 2003 invasion of Iraq.

NO SPECIFICS

The text, expected to be revised before Tuesday's vote, mentions none of the specific complaints the Palestinians and Israelis have raised.The Palestinians have said Israeli settlement building in Palestinian areas threatens to derail the peace process. U.N. diplomats said Arab delegations wanted settlements mentioned in the text but the Americans do not want to include details of specific disagreements.

Instead, the resolution urges both sides to refrain from any steps that could undermine confidence or prejudice the outcome of the negotiations and calls for an intensification of diplomatic efforts aimed at securing a comprehensive, just, and lasting peace in the Middle East.Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin said Moscow backed the text and agreed that the change of U.S. and Israeli administrations should not slow the peace process.We believe it's very important to continue the momentum, he said. Considerable effort has been made over the last 12 months or so, and we believe that the effort has to be pinned down and it has to continue without a pause.French Ambassador Jean-Maurice Ripert, speaking on behalf of the French presidency of the European Union, said the draft text was a very good basis to get an agreement.He said he was optimistic the Security Council would reach a unanimous agreement on the resolution by Tuesday.Libya, a strong supporter of the Palestinians, is the only Arab state on the Security Council at the moment. It has repeatedly clashed with Washington on Palestinian issues.The Palestinian delegation did not comment on the draft.(Editing by John O'Callaghan)

Negotiator: Israel wants 6.8 percent of West Bank By ARON HELLER, Associated Press Writer Aron Heller, – Fri Dec 12, 5:27 pm ET

JERUSALEM – Israel proposed to annex 6.8 percent of the West Bank and to take in a few thousand refugees under a peace deal, but it has not revealed its position on the most contentious issue — the future of Jerusalem, the chief Palestinian negotiators said Friday night.Ahmed Qureia said the Palestinian side did not consider the ideas presented on annexation and the return of some Palestinians to be acceptable.Speaking for the first time in detail about yearlong U.S.-backed talks that failed to produce an agreement, Qureia's comments appeared aimed, in part, at providing a record of the Israeli position ahead of leadership changes in Israel and the United States.Barack Obama assumes the U.S. presidency Jan. 20. Israel holds elections Feb. 10, and polls suggest hard-line opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu could become the next prime minister.Netanyahu opposes large-scale territorial concessions to the Palestinians and has said he would not continue the negotiations in their current format. He says he would try to focus on improving the Palestinian economy instead.The office of outgoing Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert declined to address Qureia's comments. However, aides noted recent speeches in which Olmert said Israel would have to withdraw from much of the land it captured in the 1967 Mideast War, including the West Bank and parts of Jerusalem.Qureia told Palestinian reporters that Israel wants to keep four blocs of Jewish settlements in the West Bank — Ariel, Maaleh Adumim, Givat Zeev and Efrat-Gush Etzion. He said Israel initially proposed to annex 7.3 percent of the territory, then reduced that to 6.8 percent.Israel offered to give some of its own territory as compensation, but not an equal trade in size and quality, Qureia said. He added that some of the areas Israel wants to annex would be crucial to a viable Palestinian state envisioned as the goal of the peace negotiations.Israeli officials have talked publicly about keeping some settlements in exchange for other land, but have not given any specifics. Qureia has said in the past the Palestinians are willing to consider a land swap, but on a much smaller scale than he outlined Friday.

Turning to Jerusalem, Qureia said the Palestinians repeatedly raised their demand for a division of the city but were never given Israel's view.Olmert, who will step down after the elections, has said Israel will have to give up some Arab neighborhoods of Jerusalem. However, the ultra-Orthodox Jewish Shas Party, a member of Olmert's governing coalition, has threatened to quit if Jerusalem is discussed in the talks.Qureia said Olmert's offer during talks to take in 5,000 Palestinian refugees over five years was rejected. But he added that the Palestinians do not seek the return of all refugees and their descendants, a group that numbers several million.To say that not a single refugee would be allowed back or that all the refugees should be allowed back is not a solution, he said. We should reach a mutual position on this issue.Israeli leaders have adamantly refused to accept large numbers of Palestinians, saying mass repatriation would destroy the Jewish character of Israel.The negotiations were launched a year ago, at a U.S.-hosted Mideast conference in Annapolis, Md. Since then, Qureia and Livni have met repeatedly, in parallel to talks between Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.Qureia said he hopes the new American president will make solving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict a priority. We hope that we will not have to wait for intensive U.S. involvement, he said.Associated Press writer Laub in Jericho, West Bank, contributed to this report.

THIS IS JUST TO MUCH,LIVNI EXPELLS JEWS FROM THEIR GOD GIVEN HOLMES AND LAND BUT WILL NOT EXPELL ARABS....SICK,SICK,SICK.

Livni rules out expulsion of Arabs from Israel Fri Dec 12, 2:15 pm ET

JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, who hopes to become prime minister after February elections, on Friday ruled out the expulsion of Arab-Israelis after a Palestinian state is created.The national aspirations (of the Arabs) should be realised elsewhere, but there is no question of carrying out a transfer or forcing them to leave, she told public radio.I am willing to give up a part of the country over which I believe we have rights so that Israel will remain a Jewish and democratic state in which citizens have equal rights, whatever their religion, she said in reference to the creation of a Palestinian state.On Thursday, Livni drew criticism for saying Israeli-Arabs who had national aspirations should move to a Palestinian state when it is established.My solution for maintaining a Jewish and democratic state of Israel is to have two distinct national entities, she told a group of secondary school students in Tel Aviv in remarks broadcast by army radio.And among other things I will also be able to approach the Palestinian residents of Israel, those whom we call Arab Israelis, and tell them: your national aspirations lie elsewhere.

EUROPEAN UNION ARMY

DANIEL 7:23-25
23 Thus he said, The fourth beast (EU,REVIVED ROME) shall be the fourth kingdom upon earth,(7TH WORLD EMPIRE) which shall be diverse from all kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, and shall tread it down, and break it in pieces.(TRADING BLOCKS)
24 And the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings(10 NATIONS) that shall arise: and another shall rise after them;(#11 SPAIN) and he shall be diverse from the first, and he shall subdue three kings.( BE HEAD OF 3 NATIONS)
25 And he (EU PRESIDENT) 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.(3 1/2 YRS)

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 11:36-39
36 And the king (EU DICTATOR) shall do according to his will; 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 JEWISH) nor the desire of women, nor regard any god: for he shall magnify himself above all.(CLAIM TO BE GOD)
38 But in his estate shall he honour the God of forces:(WAR) 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 with a strange god,(DESTROY TERROR GROUPS) 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.

REVELATION 19:19
19 And I saw the beast,(EU LEADER) and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against him that sat on the horse,(JESUS) and against his army.(THE RAPTURED CHRISTIANS)

Summit boosts EU security and defence
VALENTINA POP 12.12.2008 @ 17:52 CET

EUOBSERVER/BRUSSELS – The European Union's security and defence policy and a deal dating back to 1999 in which the EU would be able to deploy 60,000 troops within 60 days won a renewed political endorsement on Friday(12 December) by EU leaders, who failed however to establish any deadlines or specific financial commitments. EU leaders decided to pool helicopters and establish a European air transport fleet.

Co-operation with NATO is important, but we need our own defence policy together with our allies. The EU cannot remain a midget in defence and a giant economically. This is not possible, French President Nicolas Sarkozy told a press conference after the last meeting of heads of state and government he chaired as EU president.Yet what had earlier been presented as one of the main priorities of the French EU presidency, L'Europe de la defence got left behind in favour of discussions over the Lisbon Treaty, climate change and the financial crisis during the summit. Unlike these three thorniest of dossiers, the defence package was largely uncontroversial, as it was mainly a political statement aimed at giving a fresh impetus to the bloc's security and defence policy (ESDP) without antagonising NATO or touching upon the national competence of member states in this area.President Sarkozy called it monumental progress that the US no longer saw the ESDP as an aggressive policy against NATO, with both outgoing President George W. Bush and incoming President Barack Obama now supporting the EU policy.It's not a choice between the US and the ESDP. The two go together, the French president stressed, mentioning that the next NATO summit would take place in Strasbourg. In June, Mr Sarkozy had announced that France would soon rejoin NATO's military structure, with experts suggesting that this might happen in April 2009, during the alliance's 60 anniversary summit, which would take place on both sides of the River Rhine, in Strasbourg (France) and Kehl Germany).The principle of strengthening the transatlantic partnership by setting up an EU-NATO high-level group was endorsed once again at the EU summit. Yet the high-level group had up until now been so far blocked a row between Turkey – a NATO member – and Cyprus – an EU member – over Northern Cyprus, occupied in 1974 by the Turkish army after an attempt by Greece to annex the island.

Old plans endorsed anew

The EU leaders confirmed at the summit the aim of being able to deploy 60,000 troops within 60 days for an operation – a goal which was initially agreed in 1999 – but without setting a precise deadline or expenditure commitment. They also agreed that the bloc should be able to plan and conduct simultaneously several military and civilian operations, including a maritime one, such as the freshly launched Atalanta naval mission to fight pirates off the Somali coasts.For its operations and missions, the European Union uses, in an appropriate manner and in accordance with its procedures, the resources and capabilities of member states of the European Union and, if appropriate for its military operations, of NATO, the summit's conclusions read.Experts have repeatedly warned that 70 percent of Europe's land forces are unable to operate outside national territories, while both NATO and the ESDP missions require expeditionary forces.Europe's 10,000 main battle tanks would be fine for a re-run of the battle of Kursk, but are little use in Chad or Afghanistan. Figures such as these highlight the extent to which Europeans' combined annual defence spending in Europe of some €200 billion is simply money down the drain, Nick Witney, former head of the European defence agency and an expert with the European Council on Foreign Relations, a European think tank, wrote in July.

Pooling and sharing equipment, aircraft and ships was still a goal to be reached on a voluntary basis ... with priority being given to planning, crisis management, space and maritime security.

No troops for Congo

The French president defended the decision taken by EU foreign ministers not to send troops to Congo, despite a call from the UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, to send a bridging transition force until UN reinforcements could be deployed.Mr Sarkozy stressed that there were already 17,000 UN troops deployed in Congo and that it was probably not a matter of numbers, but of problems in the organisation, if these soldiers were not doing a decent job.After having spoken to regional leaders, including Angolan President Jose Eduardo dos Santos, who said his country is ready to commit more troops to peacekeeping in Congo, Mr Sarkozy asked if it wasn't better to draw on regional forces first of all.He noted that the EU was already in a peacekeeping mission in Chad. You can't be everywhere all the time. You have your limits, he said.

DANIEL 7:23-24
23 Thus he said, The fourth beast(THE EU,REVIVED ROME) shall be the fourth kingdom upon earth,(7TH WORLD EMPIRE) which shall be diverse from all kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, and shall tread it down, and break it in pieces.(TRADE BLOCKS)
24 And the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise:(10 NATIONS) and another shall rise after them;(#11 SPAIN) and he shall be diverse from the first, and he shall subdue three kings.(BE HEAD OF 3 KINGS OR NATIONS).

Second Irish referendum linked to Croatian EU accession
ELITSA VUCHEVA 12.12.2008 @ 17:47 CET

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS – Legal guarantees promised to Ireland and paving the way for a second referendum on the Lisbon Treaty in the country are to be written into a protocol together with Croatia's accession treaty to the EU in 2010 or 2011, current EU President Nicolas Sarkozy said on Friday (12 December).EU leaders in Brussels this week (11-12 December) agreed to a series of concessions to allow Dublin to make possible a second vote on the bloc's Lisbon Treaty some time in the course of next year.These include a guarantee that each member state will keep a commissioner in future European Commissions – despite the document initially foreseeing a reduction of the size of the institution, as well as a promise that the EU would not impose rules on Ireland concerning taxation, ethical issues - such as abortion, euthanasia and gay marriages - or interfere with its traditional neutrality.All these issues were highlighted by Dublin as the main concerns of Irish citizens when they first rejected the Lisbon Treaty in June this year. In order to make these promises legally binding, they will be written into a protocol in Croatia's accession treaty -that has to be ratified by all EU countries to enter into force. To give a legal value to the engagements made to Ireland by the 26 other member states, we have committed that at the time of the next EU enlargement – whether that will be in 2010 or in 2011, when probably Croatia will join us ... we will use that to add a protocol [on Ireland] to Croatia's accession treaty, Mr Sarkozy told journalists after the EU summit.Croatia has held EU candidate status since 2004 and opened EU accession talks in 2005. Last month, the European Commission said it could conclude accession negotiations with the bloc by the end of next year, if it fulfills the remaining conditions.But the French leader's statement represents the clearest indication so far that the Balkan country could effectively become the bloc's 28th member state by 2011 at the latest.

Second referendum in Ireland next year

In exchange for receiving concessions from the other EU countries, Ireland has committed to holding a second referendum on the Lisbon Treaty by November 2009.The Irish government is committed to seeking ratification of the Lisbon Treaty by the end of the term of the current [European] Commission, in November 2009, reads the document agreed by the 27 EU leaders.Irish Taoisheach Brian Cowen later confirmed that if Ireland's requirements are met, its citizens will vote again on the document.

On the basis of the agreement today, and on condition of our being able to satisfactory put guarantees in place ... I would be prepared to return to the public to put to them a new package and to seek their approval of it, he told journalists.I am convinced that we are on the right path, he added. The views of the Irish people are being respected.He said he was particularly pleased that the requirement of keeping a commissioner for Ireland had been met. This was very hard fought, and ... it is a major achievement by Ireland. Several member states were strongly opposed, the taoiseach said.He did stress however that there was still a lot of detailed work to be carried out in the months ahead in order to clarify how exactly Ireland would get all its guarantees, but added that he was hopeful the Irish citizens would eventually be satisfied with the outcome of the negotiations and back the Lisbon Treaty.

Climate deal slammed as a mirage
LEIGH PHILLIPS 12.12.2008 @ 17:48 CET

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - European industry and the power generation sector in eastern Europe are the big winners coming out of deliberations between EU premiers and presidents on the bloc's climate package.EU leaders were keen to trumpet that despite hard-hitting negotiations they had committed themselves on Friday (12 December) to maintaining their original target of a reduction of 20 percent of carbon emissions and an improvement in energy efficiency of 20 percent - both by 2020.You will not find another continent that has given itself such binding rules, said French president Sarkozy (Photo: The Council of the European Union)Calling the deal historic, French President Nicholas Sarkozy said: You will not find another continent that has given itself such binding rules.The objectives remain the same, he added. Europeans can say: Look: We delivered. We did it.Deliberately echoing the campaign slogan of US president-elect Barack Obama, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso told reporters: We knew the world was watching us closely and they can now see that yes we can meet our targets, and yes you can too.But on the road to 2020, at the level of detail, much has indeed changed and many of the concessions that member states such as Germany and Poland were demanding on behalf of their manufacturing and power sectors have been delivered.

Carbon leakage

Germany, Europe's manufacturing heartland, was worried that energy intensive sectors such as cement and steel production would be badly hit by the EU emissions trading system, under which originally they would be scheduled to pay for all their permits to emit carbon dioxide from 2013. Such a development would force firms to move outside the EU to produce such goods and emit the carbon elsewhere - an alleged process known as carbon leakage. Figures from environmentalists surveying such sectors dispute that carbon leakage is a significant phenomenon.Under the deal agreed to on Friday, those sectors at significant risk of carbon leakage will be given their emissions permits free of charge. Significant risk is defined as producing a five percent increase in costs. Around 90 percent of European manufacturing thus falls within this category.The quid pro quo is that such companies must first already be using the cleanest technology available in their particular production process. What defines what is the best technology will be benchmarks established by the member states themselves alongside the European Commission.For those not at risk of carbon leakage, four fifths of emissions permits will be allocated for free in 2013, moving down to 30 percent in 2020. Only in 2025 will all such pollution permits be put up for auction.

Electricity in the east

Poland, which produces some 90 percent of its energy from coal, and much of eastern Europe were less worried about the effects of the EU's emissions trading scheme (ETS) on manufacturing than they were that the system would massively increase electricity prices.In a concession to the eastern states, the EU leaders agreed to put up for auction only 30 percent of permits to pollute for their electric companies. By 2020, all emissions permits will have to be auctioned.As an additional cushion for eastern Europe, 12 percent of emissions permits will be allocated to these countries.

Offsets

However, the bulk of emissions reductions will not be made in Europe. Polluters will be able to continue to emit but through Kyoto Protocol mechanisms pay for others in the developing world to make the reductions on their behalf.All told, an expansion in the use by member states of these carbon offsets in the EU summit deal means that around 80 percent of European carbon emissions, say Green MEPs Claude Turmes of Luxembourg and Satu Hassi, of Finland - two of the MEPs who were responsible for shepherding parts of the climate package legislation through the European Parliament. They make their calculations based on European Commission figures.The final figure for the amount of emissions reductions to be made through offsets is however much disputed.Mr Turmes agreed with President Barroso that the world was watching Europe closely, but told EUobserver that in fact, This is an impossible message to send to the third world. We're only going to make a fifth of the effort ourselves at home and get everyone else to do our work for us? He said he and Ms Hassi will try to right this situation in Strasbourg [when the whole sitting of the parliament votes on the deal] next week.We'll see if we can't organise a political majority against it.EU leaders also agreed to funding carbon capture and storage projects by committing revenues from the auctioning of some 200 million emissions permits. UK Liberal MEP Chris Davies, the leading advocate in the European Parliament of the experimental technology - which would see carbon scrubbed from the emissions of coal power plants and steel factories - warned that only an allocation of 350 million permits would be sufficient to test the full range of CCS technologies.For me this is the bottom line, he warned. I will halt the legislation if the Parliament's demand is not met.CCS technology is opposed by the majority of European environmental organisations, who say the technology will not be delivered in time to aid the battle against climate change, encourages the use of coal and is a very water and energy intensive process.

How ETS revenues are spent

Member states will get to spend the revenues resulting from the auctioning of emissions permits as they wish. MEPs had preferred that a certain percentage of the ETS revenues be dedicated to green measures and adaptation to climate change in the developing world.In the final deal, the member states simply note a willingness to spend half the ETS revenues on green measures, while part of this amount will be spent on third world adaptation, without specifying how much or that countries must do so.Finally, the EU's commitment to make the shift from a 20 percent cut in emissions to a 30 percent cut as long as an international agreement had been reached that would see other western powers making similar cuts has been dropped.Development NGOs said that the EU had in effect abandoned its targets. Matt Grainger, of Oxfam told this website: The 20 percent target is a mirage. Europe is not going to reach its targets by domestic cuts.His colleague, Elise Ford of the group's Brussels office, said: Europe's package looks too much like business-as-usual tied up in a green ribbon.

MUSLIM NATIONS

EZEKIEL 38:1-12
1 And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
2 Son of man, set thy face against Gog,(RULER) the land of Magog,(RUSSIA) the chief prince of Meshech(MOSCOW)and Tubal,(TOBOLSK) and prophesy against him,
3 And say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshech(MOSCOW) and Tubal:
4 And I will turn thee back, and put hooks into thy jaws,(GOD FORCES THE RUSSIA-MUSLIMS TO MARCH) and I will bring thee forth, and all thine army, horses and horsemen, all of them clothed with all sorts of armour, even a great company with bucklers and shields, all of them handling swords:
5 Persia,(IRAN,IRAQ) Ethiopia, and Libya with them; all of them with shield and helmet:
6 Gomer,(GERMANY) and all his bands; the house of Togarmah (TURKEY)of the north quarters, and all his bands:(SUDAN,AFRICA) and many people with thee.
7 Be thou prepared, and prepare for thyself, thou, and all thy company that are assembled unto thee, and be thou a guard unto them.
8 After many days thou shalt be visited: in the latter years thou shalt come into the land that is brought back from the sword, and is gathered out of many people, against the mountains of Israel, which have been always waste: but it is brought forth out of the nations, and they shall dwell safely all of them.
9 Thou shalt ascend and come like a storm, thou shalt be like a cloud to cover the land, thou, and all thy bands, and many people with thee.(RUSSIA-EGYPT AND MUSLIMS)
10 Thus saith the Lord GOD; It shall also come to pass, that at the same time shall things come into thy mind, and thou shalt think an evil thought:
11 And thou shalt say, I will go up to the land of unwalled villages; I will go to them that are at rest, that dwell safely, all of them dwelling without walls, and having neither bars nor gates,
12 To take a spoil, and to take a prey; to turn thine hand upon the desolate places that are now inhabited, and upon the people that are gathered out of the nations, which have gotten cattle and goods, that dwell in the midst of the land.

ISAIAH 17:1
1 The burden of Damascus. Behold, Damascus is taken away from being a city, and it shall be a ruinous heap.

PSALMS 83:3-7
3 They (ARABS,MUSLIMS) have taken crafty counsel against thy people,(ISRAEL) and consulted against thy hidden ones.
4 They have said, Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation; that the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance.
5 For they have consulted together with one consent: they are confederate against thee:(TREATIES)
6 The tabernacles of Edom,and the Ishmaelites;(ARABS) of Moab, and the Hagarenes;
7 Gebal, and Ammon,(JORDAN) and Amalek;(SYRIA) the Philistines (PALESTINIANS) with the inhabitants of Tyre;(LEBANON)

EZEKIEL 39:1-8
1 Therefore, thou son of man, prophesy against Gog,(LEADER OF RUSSIA) and say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshech (MOSCOW) and Tubal: (TUBOLSK)
2 And I will turn thee back, and leave but the sixth part of thee, and will cause thee to come up from the north parts,(RUSSIA) and will bring thee upon the mountains of Israel:
3 And I will smite thy bow out of thy left hand, and will cause thine arrows to fall out of thy right hand.
4 Thou shalt fall upon the mountains of Israel, thou, and all thy bands,( ARABS) and the people that is with thee: I will give thee unto the ravenous birds of every sort, and to the beasts of the field to be devoured.
5 Thou shalt fall upon the open field: for I have spoken it, saith the Lord GOD.
6 And I will send a fire on Magog,(NUCLEAR BOMB) and among them that dwell carelessly in the isles: and they shall know that I am the LORD.
7 So will I make my holy name known in the midst of my people Israel; and I will not let them pollute my holy name any more: and the heathen shall know that I am the LORD, the Holy One in Israel.
8 Behold, it is come, and it is done, saith the Lord GOD; this is the day whereof I have spoken.

JOEL 2:3,20,30-31
3 A fire(NUCLEAR BOMB) devoureth before them;(RUSSIA-ARABS) and behind them a flame burneth: the land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness; yea, and nothing shall escape them.
20 But I will remove far off from you the northern army,(RUSSIA,MUSLIMS) and will drive him into a land barren and desolate, with his face toward the east sea, and his hinder part toward the utmost sea, and his stink shall come up, and his ill savour shall come up, because he hath done great things.(SIBERIAN DESERT)
30 And I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke.(NUCLEAR BOMB)
31 The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the LORD come.

Saturday, December 13, 2008 Window on Eurasia: Today’s Russia Pregnant with Fascism, Guluzade Warns Paul Goble

Florence, December 13 – Rising unemployment, cuts in the size of the military, drug abuse and alcoholism, corruption, and increasing attacks on ethnic minorities have created [in Russia] a very favorable basis for the development of fascism, according to one of the leading foreign policy commentators in Azerbaijan.Indeed, the situation is so dire and Russia is so pregnant with fascism, Vafa Guluzade said yesterday, that ethnic Azerbaijanis – and presumably members of other groups from other post-Soviet states – now resident in the Russian Federation should leave there before it is too late (1news.az/politics/20081212122453929.html).

Guluzade, who earlier served as Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev’s Arabic translator and as the late Azerbaijani President Heydar Aliyev’s national security advisor, said that the situation in Russia today resembles the one in Germany in 1933 which brought Adolf Hitler and the Nazis to power there.God forbid that Russia will repeat the fate of fascist Germany, he continued, a danger that could prove threatening to a large number of states given Moscow’s nuclear arsenal. As a result, he said, the entire world should be paying close attention to what is taking place in the Russian Federation now. The present leadership of Russia has led its people into poverty, the Azerbaijani analyst added. In a week, the losses of Russia have amounted to 20 billion dollars and lower prices for oil will only make the situation worse. And Moscow may seek a way out for itself by searching for enemies among the former Soviet republics.Such a search for enemies will lead in the first instance to more attacks against members of these ethnic communities who are now living and working in Russia, Guluzade said. And consequently, he issued a call to our Azerbaijanis who are living in Russia to leave before it is too late.Bad days are ahead in Russia, he continued, and the Russian revolt will be pitiless and cruel. Indeed, so dangerous is the situation now that Guluzade said he would suggest to the former Soviet republics to help Russia get out of this crisis because if it does not then the fascists will come to power there, and this would be a tragedy for all of us.The beheading of a 20-year-old Tajik worker near Moscow a week ago, an action for which a hitherto unknown group – the Military Organization of Russian Nationalists --has taken responsibility, has called attention to the more than 250 attacks on ethnic minorities over the first ten months of this year (grani.ru/Society/Xenophobia/Skinhead/m.145284.html).

And that attack, which has been criticized by the Tajik embassy in Moscow and led to the formation of a special investigative group among the Russian force structures, may represent a new stage in this kind of violence because its organizers say they plan to attack Russian officials if the latter do not reduce the number of Central Asians and Caucasians working in Russia. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin recently promised to cut the quota for the arrival of such workers in half in 2009, and polls suggest there is widespread popular support for reducing the number of new arrivals although not for the expulsion of those already living in the Russian Federation.
But there are three additional aspects to the current case and the situation it highlights. First, some Russian officials investigating the attack have suggested it may have nothing to do with the Russian nationalists but be the product of criminal activities within the Tajik diaspora, a view many Russian nationalists will read as meaning the authorities are on their side.Second, rising unemployment among guest workers in Russia will have an almost immediate and potentially destabilizing impact on the countries of the former Soviet space. In many of them, transfer payments from their nationals who have gone to work in Russia provide a significant portion of the incomes of many within their home countries.And third, Guluzade’s warning that guest workers in Russia are likely to be among the first attacked carries with it the implicit suggestion that Moscow might attack another former Soviet republic, given the boost the Russian authorities got among the Russian population for invading Georgia.Posted by Paul Goble at 1:20 AM

Russia Sends in 500 Troops to Disputed Village, Georgia Says
By Helena Bedwell and Denis Maternovsky DEC 13,08

Dec. 13 (Bloomberg) -- Russia sent in more than 500 troops to the disputed Georgian village of Perevi near the separatist region of South Ossetia, forcing the local police out, Georgia’s Ministry of Internal Affairs said. Russian military deployed more troops in the village after ceding it to the Georgian police yesterday in a premeditated provocative behavior, which was witnessed by observers from the European Union and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, the ministry said in an e-mailed statement today. The agreements which Russians have signed for need to be upheld, I think the international community needs to focus more on human rights issues, on the issues of police officers who are being shot from across the lines, people who have been displaced against the law, U.S. Senator John Kerry told reporters today in the capital Tbilisi after meeting with Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili. Russia routed Georgia’s army in a five-day August war over South Ossetia, and later recognized the region’s independence and that of another breakaway, Abkhazia, a move condemned by the U.S. and many European countries. French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who brokered the cease- fire that ended the conflict, called on Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in November to pull Russian troops out of Perevi and the Akhalgori valley near South Ossetia. Medvedev countered that the cease-fire had been fully implemented by Russia. To contact the reporters on this story: Helena Bedwell in Tbilisi at hbedwell@bloomberg.net; Denis Maternovsky in Moscow at dmaternovsky@bloomberg.net December 13, 2008 10:07 EST

Russia retakes Georgian village near South Ossetia The Associated PressPublished: December 13, 2008

TBILISI, Georgia: Russian troops retook a village near the breakaway region of South Ossetia Saturday just hours after withdrawing, Georgia's Interior Ministry and European Union peace observers said.The move drew criticism from Georgia, the EU and U.S. Senator John Kerry, who was on a half-day visit to Tbilisi.Georgian police had already moved into Perevi on Saturday to remove Russian-built roadblocks when Russian troops and helicopters unexpectedly returned, said Shota Utiashvili, an Interior Ministry spokesman.They left, and we went in with about 40 people to remove the roadblocks, he said. While they were doing this, the Russians deployed a battalion of special forces with helicopters and armor and told the Georgian policemen to get out immediately, he said.The Russian Foreign Ministry refused immediate comment and South Ossetian officials could not be immediately reached.

Portugal may help U.S. shut Guantánamo prison
The European monitoring mission, which is observing an EU-brokered cease-fire, quickly issued a statement calling on Russia to pull back once more.The renewed Russian military occupation of the Perevi checkpoint, and in addition, the Perevi village, is incompatible with the provisions of the ... peace plan, the statement said.The mission added that it was unacceptable that Russian troops had stopped EU ambassadors from visiting Perevi.The Baltic News Service reported that ambassadors from France, the Netherlands, Lithuania and Romania were among those refused entry.

We saw 20 to 30 soldiers. We don't know the number of troops inside the village, Lithuania's ambassador to Georgia, Mecys Laurinkus, was quoted as saying by the agency.Laurinkus was quoted as saying the diplomats had to return to Tbilisi after waiting about an hour. Laurinkus said the soldiers had not spoken with them, and that that information about their visit had been received in advance, the news agency reported.Kerry, meanwhile — in Tbilisi to meet with the government, the opposition and President Mikhail Saakashvili — addressed reporters at the airport before leaving.My judgment is that Georgia as a sovereign country needs to be upheld and respected, Kerry said. And the agreement that the Russians have signed up to needs to be upheld.Perevi has been under Russian control since an August war that saw Russian forces drive deep into Georgia.EU monitors had welcomed the initial pullback, saying Perevi was clearly outside South Ossetia.Russia and Georgia severed diplomatic ties after the war, recalling embassy staff. The Swiss Embassy in Tbilisi has opened a Russian section to represent Moscow in Georgia.Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov held talks in Moscow on the logistics of the agreement Saturday with his Swiss counterpart Micheline Calmy-Rey.Russia removed several military posts and checkpoints from Georgian territory outside South Ossetia earlier this fall under a French-brokered cease-fire agreement. Georgian police and EU monitors moved in to patrol the area.Russia recognized South Ossetia and another separatist region, Abkhazia, as independent nations after the August war and has stationed thousands of troops in the regions — including a swath of South Ossetia that was controlled by Georgia before the conflict.Georgia's government and Western nations say the Russian military presence violates the cease-fire agreement, which called for a return to pre-conflict positions.

U.S. and Russia seek U.N. council agreement on Middle East By Claudia Parsons Claudia Parsons – Fri Dec 12, 7:24 pm ET

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – The United States and Russia are pressing the U.N. Security Council to send a strong signal supporting the Middle East peace process at ministerial meeting next week, their ambassadors said on Friday.The 15-nation Security Council has been unable to reach a consensus on anything related to the Middle East for months so a resolution or a statement would be a rare accomplishment.

U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad and his Russian counterpart Vitaly Churkin both told reporters they were hoping to agree a document that would be passed by the council.We have asked for a (Security Council) meeting on Tuesday at the ministerial level to focus on the Middle East, Khalilzad said after a closed-door council meeting.The purpose would be to support the progress that has been made in the peace process and to encourage the sustainment and the successful conclusion of achieving the two state solution and the Annapolis principles.Renewed talks were launched at Annapolis, Maryland, a year ago by U.S. President George W. Bush, but all sides have said the year-end deadline for a deal will not be met. Bush leaves office on January 20, when Barack Obama will take over as president.The Quartet of Middle East peace negotiators are due to meet at U.N. headquarters on Monday and will also meet Arab foreign ministers. The Quartet is composed of the European Union, Russia, the United Nations and the United States.The talks have been hobbled from the start by violence and bitter disputes over Jewish settlement-building and the future of Jerusalem. Political transitions in Israel and the United States have further delayed any progress.The Middle East peace process is now at quite a delicate and important stage, Churkin said, pointing to political transitions in Israel and the United States and the possibility of Palestinian elections.We believe it's very important to avoid any kind of pause in the political process, Churkin said, adding that a Security Council document would be an important political signal.It's been a long time since the Security Council has approved any kind of joint reaction, joint signal on the matter of the Middle East peace process, Churkin told reporters.The Security Council will meet again on Saturday when the United States will distribute a draft document, which could be either a resolution or a nonbinding statement.

Historically, Arab members of the council have pushed for condemnation of Israel over its treatment of Palestinians in Gaza as well as settlement activity -- language that the United States has blocked, insisting on condemnation of Palestinian violence against Israel.Libya, a strong supporter of the Palestinians, is now on the Security Council. It has repeatedly clashed with Washington on the Middle East.(Editing by Jackie Frank)

Nicaraguans divided on arrival of Russian warships Dec 12, 10:46 pm

ETMANAGUA, Nicaragua – The arrival of Russian navy ships at the Caribbean port of Bluefields caused heated debate Friday in an already deeply divided Nicaragua.

Leftist President Daniel Ortega claims he is authorized to approve the visit, but opposition lawmakers say the constitution requires congressional approval for visits by foreign military forces. They presented a letter to the Russian ambassador asking for the ships to stay out of Nicaraguan waters.In a statement issued in Moscow, Russian navy spokesman Capt. Igor Dygalo said the visit has no political overtones and was agreed upon ... in adherence to all necessary procedural norms.Ortega was a close ally of Moscow when he served as president in the 1980s and fought U.S.-backed Contra rebels. Nicaragua was the only country that followed Russia in recognizing the independence of two separatist regions in Georgia after the Russian-Georgian war in August.Nicaraguan army spokesman Gen. Adolfo Zepeda said the Russian ships will deliver humanitarian aid at a ceremony planned for Saturday in Bluefields, but did not provide specific information on the contents of the aid.Local media reported that the ships arrived Friday, but Nicaraguan officials were not immediately available to confirm that.The Russian navy says the destroyer Admiral Chabanenko and two support vessels are scheduled to leave Monday.Ortega and the opposition have been locked in a dispute over Nov. 9 municipal elections, in which his Sandinista party won a majority of the country's mayorships. The opposition has charged that the vote was fraudulent.

Russia to attend OPEC meeting: Cartel president DEC 13,08

ALGIERS (AFP) — Russia, Azerbaijan, Syria and Oman, none of them members of OPEC, will attend a key meeting of the oil cartel in Algeria on Wednesday, Algerian Energy Minister Chakib Khelil announced Saturday.Khelil, the current president of OPEC, said Russia would be represented by Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin and Energy Minister Sergei Shmatko at the meeting in Oran, where OPEC is expected to decide on a major output cut.The Algerian minister said the 13-member Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries had reached a consensus for a sharp reduction of production, according to the APS news agency.Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said Thursday Russia was ready to join forces with OPEC to stem the plunge in crude prices and could even become part of the oil cartel if membership were in Moscow's interests.His comments were a clear signal Russia is prepared to agree to OPEC demands for coordinated output cuts to bolster crude prices and also examine its long term political strategy in the oil market.Russia is not an OPEC member but ranks alongside Saudi Arabia, de facto leader of the cartel, as the world's largest oil exporter.

TORAH PORTION FROM DEC 14 - 20, 2008

SINCE WHAT ISRAEL READS WILL BE FULFILLED IN THAT WEEK I WILL BE PUTTING THE WEEKLY TORAH PORTION ON FOR ALL OF US TO KEEP TRACK OF ISRAEL HAPPENINGS.

TORAH PORTION FROM DEC 14, 2008 6PM TO DEC 20,2008

GENESIS 37:1-40:23
1 And Jacob dwelt in the land wherein his father was a stranger, in the land of Canaan.
2 These are the generations of Jacob. Joseph, being seventeen years old, was feeding the flock with his brethren; and the lad was with the sons of Bilhah, and with the sons of Zilpah, his father's wives: and Joseph brought unto his father their evil report.
3 Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his children, because he was the son of his old age: and he made him a coat of many colours.
4 And when his brethren saw that their father loved him more than all his brethren, they hated him, and could not speak peaceably unto him.
5 And Joseph dreamed a dream, and he told it his brethren: and they hated him yet the more.
6 And he said unto them, Hear, I pray you, this dream which I have dreamed:
7 For, behold, we were binding sheaves in the field, and, lo, my sheaf arose, and also stood upright; and, behold, your sheaves stood round about, and made obeisance to my sheaf.
8 And his brethren said to him, Shalt thou indeed reign over us? or shalt thou indeed have dominion over us? And they hated him yet the more for his dreams, and for his words.
9 And he dreamed yet another dream, and told it his brethren, and said, Behold, I have dreamed a dream more; and, behold, the sun and the moon and the eleven stars made obeisance to me.
10 And he told it to his father, and to his brethren: and his father rebuked him, and said unto him, What is this dream that thou hast dreamed? Shall I and thy mother and thy brethren indeed come to bow down ourselves to thee to the earth?
11 And his brethren envied him; but his father observed the saying.
12 And his brethren went to feed their father's flock in Shechem.
13 And Israel said unto Joseph, Do not thy brethren feed the flock in Shechem? come, and I will send thee unto them. And he said to him, Here am I.
14 And he said to him, Go, I pray thee, see whether it be well with thy brethren, and well with the flocks; and bring me word again. So he sent him out of the vale of Hebron, and he came to Shechem.
15 And a certain man found him, and, behold, he was wandering in the field: and the man asked him, saying, What seekest thou?
16 And he said, I seek my brethren: tell me, I pray thee, where they feed their flocks.
17 And the man said, They are departed hence; for I heard them say, Let us go to Dothan. And Joseph went after his brethren, and found them in Dothan.
18 And when they saw him afar off, even before he came near unto them, they conspired against him to slay him.
19 And they said one to another, Behold, this dreamer cometh.
20 Come now therefore, and let us slay him, and cast him into some pit, and we will say, Some evil beast hath devoured him: and we shall see what will become of his dreams.
21 And Reuben heard it, and he delivered him out of their hands; and said, Let us not kill him.
22 And Reuben said unto them, Shed no blood, but cast him into this pit that is in the wilderness, and lay no hand upon him; that he might rid him out of their hands, to deliver him to his father again.
23 And it came to pass, when Joseph was come unto his brethren, that they stript Joseph out of his coat, his coat of many colours that was on him;
24 And they took him, and cast him into a pit: and the pit was empty, there was no water in it.
25 And they sat down to eat bread: and they lifted up their eyes and looked, and, behold, a company of Ishmeelites came from Gilead with their camels bearing spicery and balm and myrrh, going to carry it down to Egypt.
26 And Judah said unto his brethren, What profit is it if we slay our brother, and conceal his blood?
27 Come, and let us sell him to the Ishmeelites, and let not our hand be upon him; for he is our brother and our flesh. And his brethren were content.
28 Then there passed by Midianites merchantmen; and they drew and lifted up Joseph out of the pit, and sold Joseph to the Ishmeelites for twenty pieces of silver: and they brought Joseph into Egypt.
29 And Reuben returned unto the pit; and, behold, Joseph was not in the pit; and he rent his clothes.
30 And he returned unto his brethren, and said, The child is not; and I, whither shall I go?
31 And they took Joseph's coat, and killed a kid of the goats, and dipped the coat in the blood;
32 And they sent the coat of many colours, and they brought it to their father; and said, This have we found: know now whether it be thy son's coat or no.
33 And he knew it, and said, It is my son's coat; an evil beast hath devoured him; Joseph is without doubt rent in pieces.
34 And Jacob rent his clothes, and put sackcloth upon his loins, and mourned for his son many days.
35 And all his sons and all his daughters rose up to comfort him; but he refused to be comforted; and he said, For I will go down into the grave unto my son mourning. Thus his father wept for him.
36 And the Midianites sold him into Egypt unto Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh's, and captain of the guard.

GENESIS 38:1-30
1 And it came to pass at that time, that Judah went down from his brethren, and turned in to a certain Adullamite, whose name was Hirah.
2 And Judah saw there a daughter of a certain Canaanite, whose name was Shuah; and he took her, and went in unto her.
3 And she conceived, and bare a son; and he called his name Er.
4 And she conceived again, and bare a son; and she called his name Onan.
5 And she yet again conceived, and bare a son; and called his name Shelah: and he was at Chezib, when she bare him.
6 And Judah took a wife for Er his firstborn, whose name was Tamar.
7 And Er, Judah's firstborn, was wicked in the sight of the LORD; and the LORD slew him.
8 And Judah said unto Onan, Go in unto thy brother's wife, and marry her, and raise up seed to thy brother.
9 And Onan knew that the seed should not be his; and it came to pass, when he went in unto his brother's wife, that he spilled it on the ground, lest that he should give seed to his brother.
10 And the thing which he did displeased the LORD: wherefore he slew him also.
11 Then said Judah to Tamar his daughter in law, Remain a widow at thy father's house, till Shelah my son be grown: for he said, Lest peradventure he die also, as his brethren did. And Tamar went and dwelt in her father's house.
12 And in process of time the daughter of Shuah Judah's wife died; and Judah was comforted, and went up unto his sheepshearers to Timnath, he and his friend Hirah the Adullamite.
13 And it was told Tamar, saying, Behold thy father in law goeth up to Timnath to shear his sheep.
14 And she put her widow's garments off from her, and covered her with a vail, and wrapped herself, and sat in an open place, which is by the way to Timnath; for she saw that Shelah was grown, and she was not given unto him to wife.
15 When Judah saw her, he thought her to be an harlot; because she had covered her face.
16 And he turned unto her by the way, and said, Go to, I pray thee, let me come in unto thee; (for he knew not that she was his daughter in law.) And she said, What wilt thou give me, that thou mayest come in unto me?
17 And he said, I will send thee a kid from the flock. And she said, Wilt thou give me a pledge, till thou send it?
18 And he said, What pledge shall I give thee? And she said, Thy signet, and thy bracelets, and thy staff that is in thine hand. And he gave it her, and came in unto her, and she conceived by him.
19 And she arose, and went away, and laid by her vail from her, and put on the garments of her widowhood.
20 And Judah sent the kid by the hand of his friend the Adullamite, to receive his pledge from the woman's hand: but he found her not.
21 Then he asked the men of that place, saying, Where is the harlot, that was openly by the way side? And they said, There was no harlot in this place.
22 And he returned to Judah, and said, I cannot find her; and also the men of the place said, that there was no harlot in this place.
23 And Judah said, Let her take it to her, lest we be shamed: behold, I sent this kid, and thou hast not found her.
24 And it came to pass about three months after, that it was told Judah, saying, Tamar thy daughter in law hath played the harlot; and also, behold, she is with child by whoredom. And Judah said, Bring her forth, and let her be burnt.
25 When she was brought forth, she sent to her father in law, saying, By the man, whose these are, am I with child: and she said, Discern, I pray thee, whose are these, the signet, and bracelets, and staff.
26 And Judah acknowledged them, and said, She hath been more righteous than I; because that I gave her not to Shelah my son. And he knew her again no more.
27 And it came to pass in the time of her travail, that, behold, twins were in her womb.
28 And it came to pass, when she travailed, that the one put out his hand: and the midwife took and bound upon his hand a scarlet thread, saying, This came out first.
29 And it came to pass, as he drew back his hand, that, behold, his brother came out: and she said, How hast thou broken forth? this breach be upon thee: therefore his name was called Pharez.
30 And afterward came out his brother, that had the scarlet thread upon his hand: and his name was called Zarah.

GENESIS 39:1-23
1 And Joseph was brought down to Egypt; and Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh, captain of the guard, an Egyptian, bought him of the hands of the Ishmeelites, which had brought him down thither.
2 And the LORD was with Joseph, and he was a prosperous man; and he was in the house of his master the Egyptian.
3 And his master saw that the LORD was with him, and that the LORD made all that he did to prosper in his hand.
4 And Joseph found grace in his sight, and he served him: and he made him overseer over his house, and all that he had he put into his hand.
5 And it came to pass from the time that he had made him overseer in his house, and over all that he had, that the LORD blessed the Egyptian's house for Joseph's sake; and the blessing of the LORD was upon all that he had in the house, and in the field.
6 And he left all that he had in Joseph's hand; and he knew not ought he had, save the bread which he did eat. And Joseph was a goodly person, and well favoured.
7 And it came to pass after these things, that his master's wife cast her eyes upon Joseph; and she said, Lie with me.
8 But he refused, and said unto his master's wife, Behold, my master wotteth not what is with me in the house, and he hath committed all that he hath to my hand;
9 There is none greater in this house than I; neither hath he kept back any thing from me but thee, because thou art his wife: how then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?
10 And it came to pass, as she spake to Joseph day by day, that he hearkened not unto her, to lie by her, or to be with her.
11 And it came to pass about this time, that Joseph went into the house to do his business; and there was none of the men of the house there within.
12 And she caught him by his garment, saying, Lie with me: and he left his garment in her hand, and fled, and got him out.
13 And it came to pass, when she saw that he had left his garment in her hand, and was fled forth,
14 That she called unto the men of her house, and spake unto them, saying, See, he hath brought in an Hebrew unto us to mock us; he came in unto me to lie with me, and I cried with a loud voice:
15 And it came to pass, when he heard that I lifted up my voice and cried, that he left his garment with me, and fled, and got him out.
16 And she laid up his garment by her, until his lord came home.
17 And she spake unto him according to these words, saying, The Hebrew servant, which thou hast brought unto us, came in unto me to mock me:
18 And it came to pass, as I lifted up my voice and cried, that he left his garment with me, and fled out.
19 And it came to pass, when his master heard the words of his wife, which she spake unto him, saying, After this manner did thy servant to me; that his wrath was kindled.
20 And Joseph's master took him, and put him into the prison, a place where the king's prisoners were bound: and he was there in the prison.
21 But the LORD was with Joseph, and shewed him mercy, and gave him favour in the sight of the keeper of the prison.
22 And the keeper of the prison committed to Joseph's hand all the prisoners that were in the prison; and whatsoever they did there, he was the doer of it.
23 The keeper of the prison looked not to any thing that was under his hand; because the LORD was with him, and that which he did, the LORD made it to prosper.

GENESIS 40:1-23
1 And it came to pass after these things, that the butler of the king of Egypt and his baker had offended their lord the king of Egypt.
2 And Pharaoh was wroth against two of his officers, against the chief of the butlers, and against the chief of the bakers.
3 And he put them in ward in the house of the captain of the guard, into the prison, the place where Joseph was bound.
4 And the captain of the guard charged Joseph with them, and he served them: and they continued a season in ward.
5 And they dreamed a dream both of them, each man his dream in one night, each man according to the interpretation of his dream, the butler and the baker of the king of Egypt, which were bound in the prison.
6 And Joseph came in unto them in the morning, and looked upon them, and, behold, they were sad.
7 And he asked Pharaoh's officers that were with him in the ward of his lord's house, saying, Wherefore look ye so sadly to day?
8 And they said unto him, We have dreamed a dream, and there is no interpreter of it. And Joseph said unto them, Do not interpretations belong to God? tell me them, I pray you.
9 And the chief butler told his dream to Joseph, and said to him, In my dream, behold, a vine was before me;
10 And in the vine were three branches: and it was as though it budded, and her blossoms shot forth; and the clusters thereof brought forth ripe grapes:
11 And Pharaoh's cup was in my hand: and I took the grapes, and pressed them into Pharaoh's cup, and I gave the cup into Pharaoh's hand.
12 And Joseph said unto him, This is the interpretation of it: The three branches are three days:
13 Yet within three days shall Pharaoh lift up thine head, and restore thee unto thy place: and thou shalt deliver Pharaoh's cup into his hand, after the former manner when thou wast his butler.
14 But think on me when it shall be well with thee, and shew kindness, I pray thee, unto me, and make mention of me unto Pharaoh, and bring me out of this house:
15 For indeed I was stolen away out of the land of the Hebrews: and here also have I done nothing that they should put me into the dungeon.
16 When the chief baker saw that the interpretation was good, he said unto Joseph, I also was in my dream, and, behold, I had three white baskets on my head:
17 And in the uppermost basket there was of all manner of bakemeats for Pharaoh; and the birds did eat them out of the basket upon my head.
18 And Joseph answered and said, This is the interpretation thereof: The three baskets are three days:
19 Yet within three days shall Pharaoh lift up thy head from off thee, and shall hang thee on a tree; and the birds shall eat thy flesh from off thee.
20 And it came to pass the third day, which was Pharaoh's birthday, that he made a feast unto all his servants: and he lifted up the head of the chief butler and of the chief baker among his servants.
21 And he restored the chief butler unto his butlership again; and he gave the cup into Pharaoh's hand:
22 But he hanged the chief baker: as Joseph had interpreted to them.
23 Yet did not the chief butler remember Joseph, but forgat him.

PROPHETS PORTION

AMOS 2:6-3:8
6 Thus saith the LORD; For three transgressions of Israel, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because they sold the righteous for silver, and the poor for a pair of shoes;
7 That pant after the dust of the earth on the head of the poor, and turn aside the way of the meek: and a man and his father will go in unto the same maid, to profane my holy name:
8 And they lay themselves down upon clothes laid to pledge by every altar, and they drink the wine of the condemned in the house of their god.
9 Yet destroyed I the Amorite before them, whose height was like the height of the cedars, and he was strong as the oaks; yet I destroyed his fruit from above, and his roots from beneath.
10 Also I brought you up from the land of Egypt, and led you forty years through the wilderness, to possess the land of the Amorite.
11 And I raised up of your sons for prophets, and of your young men for Nazarites. Is it not even thus, O ye children of Israel? saith the LORD.
12 But ye gave the Nazarites wine to drink; and commanded the prophets, saying, Prophesy not.
13 Behold, I am pressed under you, as a cart is pressed that is full of sheaves.
14 Therefore the flight shall perish from the swift, and the strong shall not strengthen his force, neither shall the mighty deliver himself:
15 Neither shall he stand that handleth the bow; and he that is swift of foot shall not deliver himself: neither shall he that rideth the horse deliver himself.
16 And he that is courageous among the mighty shall flee away naked in that day, saith the LORD.

AMOS 3:1-8
1 Hear this word that the LORD hath spoken against you, O children of Israel, against the whole family which I brought up from the land of Egypt, saying,
2 You only have I known of all the families of the earth: therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities.
3 Can two walk together, except they be agreed?
4 Will a lion roar in the forest, when he hath no prey? will a young lion cry out of his den, if he have taken nothing?
5 Can a bird fall in a snare upon the earth, where no gin is for him? shall one take up a snare from the earth, and have taken nothing at all?
6 Shall a trumpet be blown in the city, and the people not be afraid? shall there be evil in a city, and the LORD hath not done it?
7 Surely the Lord GOD will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets.
8 The lion hath roared, who will not fear? the Lord GOD hath spoken, who can but prophesy?

NEW TESTAMENT PORTION

ACTS 7:9-16
9 And the patriarchs, moved with envy, sold Joseph into Egypt: but God was with him,
10 And delivered him out of all his afflictions, and gave him favour and wisdom in the sight of Pharaoh king of Egypt; and he made him governor over Egypt and all his house.
11 Now there came a dearth over all the land of Egypt and Chanaan, and great affliction: and our fathers found no sustenance.
12 But when Jacob heard that there was corn in Egypt, he sent out our fathers first.
13 And at the second time Joseph was made known to his brethren; and Joseph’s kindred was made known unto Pharaoh.
14 Then sent Joseph, and called his father Jacob to him, and all his kindred, threescore and fifteen souls.
15 So Jacob went down into Egypt, and died, he, and our fathers,
16 And were carried over into Sychem, and laid in the sepulchre that Abraham bought for a sum of money of the sons of Emmor the father of Sychem.

SAN ANTONIO DATA CENTER IN SONY MICROCHIP

OVIOUSLY THIS DATA MINING BASE AND THE EU WILL BE CONNECTED TO KEEP TRACK OF ALL AMERICANS AND WORLDS DATA THROUGH MICROSOFT,GOOGLE AND ALL OTHER SOURCES.

The panopticon economy
http://www.sacurrent.com/news/story.asp?id=69607
Anti-Terrorist Data Mining Doesn't Work Very Well
http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/10/07/1827229&tid=172

Protecting Individual Privacy in the Struggle Against Terrorists:A Framework for Program Assessment
http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=12452

NSA Is Building a New Datacenter In San Antonio
Posted by kdawson on Sunday December 07, @02:17AM
from the panopticon-economy dept.

An anonymous reader writes in with an article from a Texas paper on the NSA's new facility in San Antonio. America's top spy agency has taken over the former Sony microchip plant and is transforming it into a new data-mining headquarters... where billions of electronic communications will be sifted in the agency's mission to identify terrorist threats. ... [Author James] Bamford writes about how NSA and Microsoft had both been eyeing San Antonio for years because it has the cheapest electricity in Texas, and the state has its own power grid, making it less vulnerable to power outages on the national grid. He notes that it seemed the NSA wanted assurance Microsoft would be here, too, before making a final commitment, due to the advantages of having their miners virtually next door to the mother lode of data centers. The new NSA facility is just a few miles from Microsoft's data center of the same size. Bamford says that under current law, NSA could gain access to Microsoft's stored data without even a warrant, but merely a fiber-optic cable. The article mentions the NRC report concluding that data mining is ineffective as a tactic against terrorism, which we discussed a couple of months back.

October 7, 2008 9:30 AM PDT Government report: Data mining doesn't work well
Posted by Declan McCullagh

The most extensive government report to date on whether terrorists can be identified through data mining has yielded an important conclusion: It doesn't really work. A National Research Council report, years in the making and scheduled to be released Tuesday, concludes that automated identification of terrorists through data mining or any other mechanism is neither feasible as an objective nor desirable as a goal of technology development efforts. Inevitable false positives will result in ordinary, law-abiding citizens and businesses being incorrectly flagged as suspects. The whopping 352-page report, called Protecting Individual Privacy in the Struggle Against Terrorists, amounts to at least a partial repudiation of the Defense Department's controversial data-mining program called Total Information Awareness, which was limited by Congress in 2003. But the ambition of the report's authors is far broader than just revisiting the problems of the TIA program and its successors. Instead, they aim to produce a scholarly evaluation of the current technologies that exist for data mining, their effectiveness, and how government agencies should use them to limit false positives--of the sort that can result in situations like heavily-armed SWAT teams raiding someone's home and shooting their dogs based on the false belief that they were part of a drug ring. The report was written by a committee whose members include William Perry, a professor at Stanford University; Charles Vest, the former president of MIT; W. Earl Boebert, a retired senior scientist at Sandia National Laboratories; Cynthia Dwork of Microsoft Research; R. Gil Kerlikowske, Seattle's police chief; and Daryl Pregibon, a research scientist at Google. They admit that far more Americans live their lives online, using everything from VoIP phones to Facebook to RFID tags in automobiles, than a decade ago, and the databases created by those activities are tempting targets for federal agencies. And they draw a distinction between subject-based data mining (starting with one individual and looking for connections) compared with pattern-based data mining (looking for anomalous activities that could show illegal activities). But the authors conclude the type of data mining that government bureaucrats would like to do--perhaps inspired by watching too many episodes of the Fox series 24--can't work. If it were possible to automatically find the digital tracks of terrorists and automatically monitor only the communications of terrorists, public policy choices in this domain would be much simpler. But it is not possible to do so.

A summary of the recommendations:

* U.S. government agencies should be required to follow a systematic process to evaluate the effectiveness, lawfulness, and consistency with U.S. values of every information-based program, whether classified or unclassified, for detecting and countering terrorists before it can be deployed, and periodically thereafter.

* Periodically after a program has been operationally deployed, and in particular before a program enters a new phase in its life cycle, policy makers should (carefully review) the program before allowing it to continue operations or to proceed to the next phase.

* To protect the privacy of innocent people, the research and development of any information-based counterterrorism program should be conducted with synthetic population data... At all stages of a phased deployment, data about individuals should be rigorously subjected to the full safeguards of the framework.

* Any information-based counterterrorism program of the U.S. government should be subjected to robust, independent oversight of the operations of that program, a part of which would entail a practice of using the same data mining technologies to mine the miners and track the trackers.

* Counterterrorism programs should provide meaningful redress to any individuals inappropriately harmed by their operation.

* The U.S. government should periodically review the nation's laws, policies, and procedures that protect individuals' private information for relevance and effectiveness in light of changing technologies and circumstances. In particular, Congress should re-examine existing law to consider how privacy should be protected in the context of information-based programs (e.g., data mining) for counterterrorism.

By itself, of course, this is merely a report with non-binding recommendations that Congress and the executive branch could ignore. But NRC reports are not radical treatises written by an advocacy group; they tend to represent a working consensus of technologists and lawyers.

The great encryption debate of the 1990s was one example. The NRC's so-called CRISIS report on encryption in 1996 concluded export controls--that treated software like Web browsers and PGP as munitions--were a failure and should be relaxed. That eventually happened two years later. Declan McCullagh, CNET News' chief political correspondent, chronicles the intersection of politics and technology. He has covered politics, technology, and Washington, D.C., for more than a decade, which has turned him into an iconoclast and a skeptic of anyone who says, We oughta have a new federal law against this. E-mail Declan.

AUTO BAILOUT DIES IN SENATE

Israelis and Palestinians reach secret peace deal, says Blair
http://www.israeltoday.co.il/default.aspx?tabid=178&nid=17731

International Middle East peace envoy Tony Blair told the largest Palestinian newspaper this week that Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas have reached a unsigned secret peace agreement.Blair was quoted by the Jerusalem-based daily Al Quds as saying that continuous meetings between Abbas and Olmert...have produced an agreement, though he said he would abide by an decision by both leaders to keep the details of the agreement secret for the time being.The agreement remains unsigned because Israeli law forbids Olmert to make significant policy changes or decisions while he is head of a transition government.

However, anything Olmert and Abbas agreed to will be expected by the international community to form the basis for peace negotiations going forward, regardless of who wins Israel's upcoming general election.

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

MANIPULATION THROUGHT THE MEDIA AND NEW WORLD ORDER ELITES WILL MAKE A MICRO-CHIP IMPLANT SEEM COOL AND UNAVASIVE.WE ARE BEING DECIEVED!!!!

IN AUSTRALIA IT IS ALREADY MANDATORY TO MICROCHIP THEIR DOGS.

Microchip cancer report.
http://www.antichips.com/
http://www.antichips.com/cancer/index.html
http://www.antichips.com/press-releases/verichip-faq-report.html

People can't wait for ID cards NOV 7,08 BBC

Jacqui Smith is phasing in the introduction of the new ID card
Jacqui Smith says public demand means people will be able to pre-register for an ID card within the next few months. The cards will be available for all from 2012 but she said: I regularly have people coming up to me and saying they don't want to wait that long.The home secretary made the claim as she unveiled revised ID scheme plans.

Opposition parties say they would scrap the ID card scheme. The Tories call it a complete waste of money. The Lib Dems call it a laminated poll tax. They accused Ms Smith of backtracking on plans to issue ID cards in 2009 for all airside workers, by announcing they would pilot them at just two airports. The first biometric cards are being issued to students from outside the EU and marriage visa holders this month, and it had been planned to make them compulsory for all 200,000 airside workers from 2009.

Saving face

But instead the government announced there would be an 18-month trial, for airside workers at Manchester and London City airports only, from late next year. Campaigners No2ID said it was a transparent attempt to save ministerial face amid opposition from unions and airline bosses, who say it is unjustified and would not improve security. Unions had argued airside workers were already extensively vetted and believe they would have to pay £30 for a card - although it is understood they would be free during the trial period. I believe there is a demand, now, for cards - and as I go round the country I regularly have people coming up to me and saying they don't want to wait that long Jacqui Smith Home Secretary

Shadow home secretary Dominic Grieve described the decision to trial ID cards at just two airports as clearly a climbdown and just a gimmick aimed at selling the scheme to the public. But a Home Office spokesman said they had always said that ID cards for critical workers would be starting in the second half of 2009 and we are on track to meet this commitment. He added ID cards would definitely be issued to the remaining airside workers in due course, before being rolled out to the wider population.

Supermarket enrolment

In a speech to the Social Market Foundation Ms Smith said cards would be issued on a voluntary basis to young people from 2010 and for everyone else from 2012. She must be ignoring twice the number of people who are coming up to her and saying I don't want my details on any database whatsoever Phil Booth NO2ID.She added: But I believe there is a demand, now, for cards - and as I go round the country I regularly have people coming up to me and saying they don't want to wait that long. I now want to put that to the test and find a way to allow those people who want a card sooner to be able to pre-register their interest as early as the first few months of next year.
Biometric cards are being issued to some foreign nationals from this month She told the BBC: We'll see where that interest is, and then we'll see if we can issue some cards to those who've expressed an interest by the end of next year.People applying for cards and passports from 2012 will have to provide fingerprints, photographs and a signature, which Ms Smith believes will create a market worth about £200m a year.

And in changes to earlier plans the Home Office is talking to retailers and the Post Office about setting up booths to gather biometric data.

Trusted environment

The government believes it would be more convenient for people and cheaper than setting up its previously planned enrolment centres in large population centres. In her speech Ms Smith rejected claims handing enrolment over to private firms would compromise security. Provided that it is conducted in a secure and trusted environment, by service providers accredited and verified by the IPS and to high and rigorously enforced standards, enrolment should be able to happen at the convenience of the customer - on the high street, at the nearest post office, or at the local shopping centre.The overall cost of the ID card scheme over the next 10 years has risen by £50m to £5.1bn in the past six months, according to the government's latest cost report. Phil Booth, national coordinator of the NO2ID campaign, said Jacqui Smith's claim that people were saying they wanted an ID card beggared belief and would come back to haunt her. She must be ignoring twice the number of people who are coming up to her and saying I don't want my details on any database whatsoever, said Mr Booth. He said the government would struggle to find private firms willing to bid for the ID card contract. What company is going embarrass itself to the tune of millions for a contract that everyone outside the Home Office itself knows will be cancelled by a new administration? he said. For the Conservatives Mr Grieve said his party would axe the whole scheme because it was a complete waste of money and had asked for break clauses to be inserted into government contracts so it could be ended without massive cost and waste to the public purse. The government's plan to involve retailers in enrolling people was worrying given the government's IT track record, he added. Lib Dem home affairs spokesman Chris Huhne said: Ministers are choosing a limited number of guinea pigs at two smaller airports because they are aware of how unpopular ID cards are. The government is too scared to force ID cards on voters before an election because they know it would be a laminated poll tax. The problem is not the ease with which we can give up sensitive personal data, but the ease with which the Home Office loses it. The Government cannot be trusted to keep personal information safe.

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.

Storm cuts power to more than 1 million customers By DAVID TIRRELL-WYSOCKI, Associated Press Writer DEC 12,08

CONCORD, N.H. – An ice storm to compare with some of the Northeast's worst made a mess of the region Friday, leaving 1.25 million homes and businesses in seven states without power as it forced schools to close and toppled ice-laden trees and power lines onto slippery roads.Most of the outages were in New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Maine and New York, and it was expected to take several days to completely restore electricity. The storm wreaked havoc from Maine to Pennsylvania, leaving a sparkling, ice-covered landscape that was too destructive for many to find beautiful.

This is pathetic, said Bob Cott of Portland, Maine, who lost power for the first time in 10 years. I'm already sick of winter and we have nine days to go before it officially begins.At least one death was related to the storm: New Hampshire officials said a 49-year-old Danville man who lived in a camper died of carbon monoxide poisoning after turning on his generator when his power went out Thursday night.For New Hampshire, the power outages dwarfed those during the infamous Ice Storm of '98, when some residents spent more than a week in the dark.In Hampstead, N.H., Mark Cegelis, 36, said things were hectic at his neighborhood gas station, which was jammed with people trying to get gas for home generators.It's kind of lawless out there right now, he said. There's a lot of people very frustrated stacking up at the gas stations. It's pretty ugly.He bought 21 gallons for himself and tried to deliver some to friends in Derry but couldn't get there because downed trees blocked roads. So the two friends came to him instead, and were expected to hunker down with Cegelis' family, his parents and another friend until power was restored.

So nine people here. But you know what? We've got the juice, and we're willing to let these folks come in. I'm sure they'd do the same thing for us, he said. It's treacherous out there.Nearly two dozen shelters were set up across the southern part of the state, and authorities were working to get generators to several nursing homes. About 20 people, mostly elderly, had settled in at a shelter at Portsmouth High School by early afternoon, though officials expected more families with young children by evening.The big worry is really about seniors when temperatures drop in a few hours, New Hampshire Gov. John Lynch said Friday afternoon.Both Lynch and Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick declared states of emergency Friday morning and called up members of the National Guard. Five hundred Massachusetts Guard members were cleaning up debris and clearing access to downed power lines. Lynch put 150 on alert and deployed 20.All of the resources at our disposal have been made available to try to get the roads clear and power restored, said Patrick, adding that it would be ambitious to think power would be restored by Monday to the 350,000 homes and businesses in his state left in the dark.This is not going to be a couple of hours, Patrick said. It's likely to be several days.Utilities reported more than 400,000 homes and businesses without power in New Hampshire, including 320,000 served by the state's largest utility, Public Service Company of New Hampshire. By contrast, the 1998 storm left 55,000 Public Service customers without power.This is the absolute, most significant power restoration effort we've ever had. There has not been a storm before that has affected more customers, Public Service spokesman Martin Murray said.

Public Service officials said they do not know yet how long it will take to restore all power, but suggested repairs for at least some homes and businesses will go into next week. They have lined up 300 crews from as far away as Maryland and Ohio to be in the state by Sunday, are looking for more, and hope to be able to give a better estimate of restoration late Sunday.Crews from Canada and South Carolina were headed to Maine, where Gov. John Baldacci declared a limited emergency allowing utility crews to work longer hours. Central Maine Power Co. said more than 215,000 customers in the dark as of late Friday morning, mostly in southern and coastal areas. Bangor Hydro Electric Co. reported more than 12,000 outages. Two people were taken to Maine Medical Center after being overcome by fumes from a portable generator in their basement. Their names and conditions were not immediately available. In eastern New York, particularly around Albany, the state capital, outages at National Grid and other utilities brought the statewide total to more than 255,000. Trees were down on all the roads, said Miguel Figueroa, 28, as he waited for coffee at a Starbucks in Colonie, N.Y. ... I couldn't even get on the Thruway today.In Vermont, at least three shelters were being set up in southern Vermont for the more than 30,000 customers who were without power Friday afternoon. It could be days before some homes and businesses get their lights back on, officials said. The ice storm extended to Pennsylvania, where about 4,700 customers, most of them in the Poconos, lost power, and Connecticut, where some 17,000 customers were without electricity at the height of the storm. Those states mostly got heavy rain or rain changing to snow. Though blue skies appeared in some areas by Friday afternoon, temperatures were expected to fall below freezing again, with single digits forecast for Maine, Vermont and New Hampshire Saturday night. Associated Press writers Holly Ramer in Concord, N.H.; Beth LaMontagne Hall in Portsmouth, N.H.; Mark Pratt in Boston; Clarke Canfield in Portland, Maine; John Curran and Lisa Rathke in Montpelier, Vt.; and Mike Hill and Jessica M. Pasko in Albany, N.Y., contributed to this report.

Heavy rains pound Italy, Rome declares emergency DEC 12,08
By ALESSANDRA RIZZO, Associated Press Writer

ROME – Rome declared a state of emergency as the swollen Tiber river threatened to flood Friday and the death toll from the heavy rains battering much of Italy rose to four.The Civil Protection Department said the Tiber had risen about 16 feet (5 meters) in the past two days and warned it might burst its banks.Officials evacuated Gypsy camps along the Tiber's banks and boats broke loose from their moorings in the surging water. The smaller Aniene river, which flows into the Tiber, already overflowed, forcing officials to close down some streets in Rome and evacuate hundreds of people.It is as if there has been an earthquake, Rome Mayor Gianni Alemanno told the daily La Repubblica.Tourists snapped pictures as the roiling Tiber surged underneath the city's bridges. Lumir, an Afghan hound, sported a blue raincoat Friday as his owner watched the Tiber rise in Rome.Italy has been hit by days of bad weather, and TV footage has shown entire neighborhoods flooded or submerged by mud.Downpours disrupted traffic Friday from Milan in the north to Palermo, Sicily, in the south, as trains were delayed and many streets were flooded or blocked by fallen trees. A few inches (centimeters) of water again covered Venice's lowest parts, including the landmark St. Mark's Square, while Alpine rescuers saved a group of boy scouts who had been trapped on Mount Etna.Four people were reported killed. Rescuers recovered the body of a man in southern Italy who was swept away in the heavy rains, while an elderly man died after his car was hit by a tree and another one was killed in a car crash in a rainstorm, police in the southern city of Reggio Calabria said.A woman was killed Thursday after her car was submerged in an underpass in Rome.

In Rome and Venice, two of the hardest-hit cities, union officials called off local transport strikes.Shows at the Auditorium, an exhibition and concert center in northern Rome designed by architect Renzo Piano, were canceled Friday night.On Thursday, more rain fell in Rome than the usual average for the entire month of December, city officials said.On Mount Etna, eight boy scouts were rescued Friday after being trapped by a snowstorm at a refuge on the mountain's north slope at an altitude of 1,700 meters (5,577 feet).In Venice, alarms sounded early in the morning as the high tide came in and parts of the city flooded. Still, the water was far less than the unusually high tide recorded in the lagoon city last week, when residents and tourists waded through knee-high water, shops were flooded and much of the city was brought to a halt.

FAMINE

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

FAMINE

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: 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.

Drought means workers hungry in US produce capital DEC 12,08 By TRACIE CONE, Associated Press Writer

MENDOTA, Calif. – Idled farm workers are searching for food in the nation's most prolific agricultural region, where a double blow of drought and a court-ordered cutback of water supplies has caused hundreds of millions of dollars in losses.This bedraggled town is struggling with an unemployment rate that city officials say is 40percent and rising. This month, 600 farm families depleted the cupboards of the local food bank, which turned away families — more than 100 of them — for the first time.We're supposed to supply the world, said Mendota Mayor Robert Silva, and people are starving.The state's most dire water shortage in three decades is expected to erase more than 55,000 jobs across the fertile San Joaquin Valley by summer and drive up food prices across the nation, university economists predict.People being thrown out of work are the ones who can least afford it, said Richard Howitt, a professor of agriculture economics at the University of California-Davis, who estimates that $1.6 billion in agriculture-related wages across the valley will be lost in the coming months because of dwindling water.Already the wage losses have hit businesses that are the backbone of the small farm communities that sustain nearly a quarter of the nation's agriculture production.A lot of problems with this country's economy can't be fixed fast, said Alan Hansen, whose family-owned hardware store on the main drag is suffering a 25 percent decline in sales.But this can be fixed like that, he said, snapping his fingers. All they have to do is get the water here.

California's population has ballooned from 10 million to more than 36 million since water began flowing through the state's network of canals in middle of last century, delivering water from the wet north to the arid south.After years of discounting the environmental consequences, court orders seeking to protect threatened fish such as the Delta smelt have slowed the flows even as prolonged drought left some reservoirs at just 12 percent of capacity.This year federal water deliveries were 35 percent of the normal allocations, fallowing hundreds of thousands of acres and causing $260 million in crop losses statewide. The governor issued a disaster declaration for the region.Now farmers are relying on dwindling groundwater supplies and keeping their fingers crossed for 10 percent of their water allotments. Last week a coalition of farmers and urban water users filed a lawsuit claiming that state officials overstepped their authority by approving another round of potential cuts.The valley produces 80 percent of the world's almonds. But grower Shawn Coburn has held off spending $350,000 to fertilize his 1,000 acres this month because he fears he will not have enough water for a 2009 crop.If you like foreign oil, you're going to love foreign food, he scoffed.This month, the government could further restrict water deliveries during the drought — and that would mean crop loans would be harder to get.I think that's the next shoe to drop, said Sarah Woolf, spokeswoman for the Westlands Water District, which encompasses Mendota.Already the $40 million losses in Fresno County cotton production this fall permanently closed half a dozen gins. And roughly four square miles of lettuce fields went unplanted, resulting in $13 million in lost sales.Think of all of the tractor drivers, truck drivers and pickers that processing all of that lettuce would take, said Tom Nyberg, deputy county agricultural commissioner. Those jobs were lost, too.Two hundred more jobs vanished when the Spreckles Sugar plant east of Mendota closed this fall. A farmers co-op wanted to buy it but could not find water for their beets. The local hardware store lost $5,000 a month in sales to Spreckles and had to lay off one of its nine workers. Hansen, the store owner, said he understands there is an environmental balance to be struck and that the Delta smelt are a necessary link in the food chain. But if you follow that chain up, he said,eventually it leads to us.

Farmworkers, who make up the majority of Mendota's 9,600 population, are at the bottom of the employment ladder. Rosa Lopez misses her husband, who moved eight hours south to Brawley to pick lettuce. Luis Suarez, 12, tears up when he talks about his retriever Bambi, whom the family took to a Fresno shelter when they could not afford food or shots. Micaela Mendez and Maria Diaz have taken relatives into their cramped apartments so they can share expenses. At sunset Wednesday, a dozen residents of a trailer park prepared their Christmas nativity scene and prayed for rain. If we don't have faith, we've lost everything, said Otilia Suarez in Spanish. We thank God for the small amount of food that we do have, and we keep praying for a better tomorrow.

NOW THE TRUE OBAMA IS COMING OUT.

OBAMA WATCH CENTRAL Obama to address Islamic world Plans major speech in Muslim capital to reboot America's image December 11, 2008 3:11 pm Eastern By Aaron Klein 2008 WorldNetDaily

Jakarta mosque
JERUSALEM – President-elect Barak Obama declared in an interview he plans to deliver a major address in an Islamic capital as part of his global outreach, which he said would target the Muslim world. I think we've got a unique opportunity to reboot America's image around the world and also in the Muslim world in particular, Obama said in a free-ranging interview yesterday with the Chicago Tribune, promising an unrelenting desire to create a relationship of mutual respect and partnership in countries and with peoples of good will who want their citizens and ours to prosper together.The Tribune reported Obama spoke of a major address in an Islamic capital but did not provide specific details. The message I want to send is that we will be unyielding in stamping out the terrorist extremism we saw in Mumbai, Obama said.

In the interview, Obama went on to discuss his strategy for his first year in office as well as reflect on his role as the first African American to be elected president. Obama's comments come days after WND reported an Egyptian cleric broadcast on state-funded television a plea urging Obama to convert to Islam while claiming the president-elect has roots in Islam. You, Obama, are among those who have pledged before Allah – Allah who created you, sustained you, and brought you to this position – to be a Muslim who believes that Allah is the one God, especially since you have some kind of roots in Islam, declared Egyptian cleric Hassan Abu Al-Ashbal, speaking last week on the state-funded Al Nas religious television network.

Convert to Islam, and you will be saved. All glory and honor lie in following Allah and his messenger, Muhammad. Know that the true religion is the religion of Islam, and all other religions are fabricated religions, which are null and void – religions that were abrogated by the Shariah of Muhammad, Ashbal said.

Obama was quite religious in Islam

Obama repeatedly has denied he is a Muslim. His presidential campaign website contained the statement, Senator Obama has never been a Muslim, was not raised as a Muslim, and is a committed Christian.But as WND has reported, public records in Indonesia listed Obama as a Muslim during his early years, and a number of childhood friends claimed to the media Obama was once a mosque-attending Muslim. Obama's campaign several times had wavered in response to reporters queries regarding the senator's childhood faith. Commenting on a Los Angeles Times report quoting a childhood friend stating Obama prayed in a mosque. Obama's campaign released a statement explaining the senator has never been a practicing Muslim.Widely distributed reports have noted that in January 1968 Obama was registered as a Muslim at Jakarta's Roman Catholic Franciscus Assisi Primary School under the name Barry Soetoro. He was listed as an Indonesian citizen whose stepfather, listed on school documents as L Soetoro Ma, worked for the topography department of the Indonesian Army. Catholic schools in Indonesia routinely accept non-Catholic students but exempt them from studying religion. After attending the Assisi Primary School, Obama was enrolled also as a Muslim, according to documents in the Besuki Primary School, a public school in Jakarta. Laotze blog, run by an American expatriate in Southeast Asia who visited the Besuki school, noted: All Indonesian students are required to study religion at school, and a young Barry Soetoro, being a Muslim, would have been required to study Islam daily in school. He would have been taught to read and write Arabic, to recite his prayers properly, to read and recite from the Quran and to study the laws of Islam.Indeed, in Obama's autobiography, Dreams From My Father, he acknowledged studying the Quran and describes the public school as a Muslim school.

In the Muslim school, the teacher wrote to tell mother I made faces during Quranic studies, wrote Obama. The Indonesian media have been flooded with accounts of Obama's childhood Islamic studies, some describing him as a religious Muslim. Speaking to the country's Kaltim Post, Tine Hahiyary, who was principal of Obama's school while he was enrolled there, said she recalls he studied the Quran in Arabic.
At that time, I was not Barry's teacher, but he is still in my memory claimed Tine, who is 80 years old. The Kaltim Post said Obama's teacher, named Hendri, had died.

I remember that he studied mengaji (recitation of the Quran), Tine said, according to an English translation by Loatze. Mengaji, or the act of reading the Quran with its correct Arabic punctuation, is usually taught to more religious pupils and is not known as a secular study. Also, Loatze documented the Indonesian daily Banjarmasin Post interviewed Rony Amir, an Obama classmate and Muslim, who described Obama as previously quite religious in Islam.We previously often asked him to the prayer room close to the house, Amir said. If he was wearing a sarong (waist fabric worn for religious or casual occasions) he looked funny.The Los Angeles Times, which sent a reporter to Jakarta, quoted Zulfin Adi, who identified himself as among Obama's closest childhood friends, stating the presidential candidate prayed in a mosque, something Obama's campaign claimed he never did. We prayed, but not really seriously, just following actions done by older people in the mosque, said Adi. But as kids, we loved to meet our friends and went to the mosque together and played.

Friday prayers

Obama's official campaign site contained a page titled Obama has never been a Muslim, and is a committed Christian. The page stated, Obama never prayed in a mosque. He has never been a Muslim, was not raised a Muslim, and is a committed Christian who attends the United Church of Christ.But the campaign changed its tune when it issued a practicing Muslim clarification to the Los Angeles Times. An article in March by the Chicago Tribune apparently disputed Adi's statements to the L.A. paper. The Tribune caught up with Obama's declared childhood friend, who now describes himself as only knowing Obama for a few months in 1970 when his family moved to the neighborhood. Adi said he was unsure about his recollections of Obama.

But the Tribune found Obama did attend mosque.

Interviews with dozens of former classmates, teachers, neighbors and friends show that Obama was not a regular practicing Muslim when he was in Indonesia, states the Tribune article. It quotes Obama's former neighbors and third-grade teacher recalling how the young Obama occasionally followed his stepfather to the mosque for Friday prayers.Daniel Pipes, director of the Middle East Forum, notes the Tribune article cited by liberal blogs as refuting claims Obama is Muslim actually implies Obama was an irregularly practicing Muslim and twice confirms Obama attended mosque services. In an interview with the New York Times, Obama described the Muslim call to prayer as one of the prettiest sounds on Earth at sunset.The Times' Nicholos Kristof wrote Obama recited, with a first-class [Arabic] accent, the opening lines of the Muslim call to prayer.

The first few lines of the call to prayer state:

Allah is Supreme!
Allah is Supreme!
Allah is Supreme! Allah is Supreme!
I witness that there is no god but Allah
I witness that there is no god but Allah
I witness that Muhammad is his prophet ...
Some attention also has been paid to Obama's paternal side of the family, including his father and his brother, Roy. Writing in a chapter of his book describing his 1992 wedding, Obama stated: The person who made me proudest of all was Roy. Actually, now we call him Abongo, his Luo name, for two years ago he decided to reassert his African heritage. He converted to Islam and has sworn off pork and tobacco and alcohol.Still, Obama maintains he was raised by his Christian mother and repeatedly has labeled as smears several reports attempting to paint him as a Muslim. Let's make clear what the facts are: I am a Christian. I have been sworn in with a Bible. I pledge allegiance [to the American flag] and lead the Pledge of Allegiance sometimes in the United States Senate when I'm presiding, he told the Times of London earlier this year.

CNN NEWS VIDEO
http://edition.cnn.com/video/

LAURIE ROTH SHOW 10PM-1AM MON-FRI
http://www.usaradio.com/listen_live_usa2.php

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http://news.yahoo.com/video

MIDEAST CONFLICT NEWS
http://news.yahoo.com/video/1874;_ylt=A0wNcxFdg6xIgbkAwD6z174F

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http://news.yahoo.com/video/2461

FOX NEWS VIDEO
http://news.yahoo.com/video/3074

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http://news.yahoo.com/video/3045

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http://news.yahoo.com/video/2529

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http://news.yahoo.com/video/2918

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http://news.yahoo.com/video/2704

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http://news.yahoo.com/video/3091

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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/

HALF HOUR DOW RESULTS FRI DEC 12,2008

09:30 AM -4.06
10:00 AM -76.70
10:30 AM -111.99
11:00 AM -54.32
11:30 AM -91.04
12:00 PM -108.56
12:30 PM -59.02
01:00 PM +51.41
01:30 PM -27.16
02:00 PM -48.27
02:30 PM -81.40
03:00 PM +54.16
03:30 PM +25.72
04:00 PM +64.59 8629.68

S&P 500 879.73 +6.14

NASDAQ 1540.72 +32.84

GOLD 821.70 -4.90

OIL 46.63 +1.36

TSE 300 8515.45 +123.55

CDNX 718.54 +5.10

S&P/TSX/60 515.76 +8.03

MORNING,NEWS,STATS

Dow -214 points at low today so far.
Dow -32 points at high so far.
Dow -214 points at 4 minutes of trading today.
WSJ:Honda cuts North American output by 114,000 additional units.
GM:Prepared to work closely with White House.

BERNARD L MADOFF
-Investment Securities,Former Nasdaq Chairman.
-Madoff Charged in $50 BILLION fraud at Investment Advisory firm.
-Sec seeking emergency relief for investors,including Asset freeze.
-Madoff told Employees Business was Giant PONZI SCHEME.

MADOFFS VICTIMS
UBP,Banco Santander(Optimal fund),Tremont,FSG,Nomura,Kingsgate,Frontbridge,Bank Syz,Lombard Odier,Ascot Fund Limited(Ezra Merkin),Sterling Stamos(Wilpon Family),Maxam Capital(Sandra Manzke),Loeb Family,Palm Beach Country Club.

AFTERNOON,NEWS,STATS

Dow -214 points at low.
Dow -32 points at high.
Government could be as high as $10 TRILLION DOLLARS wasted since bailouts began.
Bush Administration pushes for Auto aid,change of mind.Government may take money out of TARP.
5 of last 15 sessions have been minus if minus today.
REPORT:Wachovia bonuses cut.

WHAT IS THE P.B.G.C
-Pension benefit guaranty Cooporation.
-Protects 44 MILLION workers.
-29,000 Pension Plans.
-$11 BILLION shortfall.
-Portfolio -6.5% yeart to date (YTD).
PBGC protects 1.2 MILLION Auto workers with Detroits big 3.
The PBGC steps in to take over failed Pension funds.
PBGC concerned it might have to cover billions in Pensions.
PBGC in stronger financial condition than it was last year.
The PBGC has about $11 BILLION more in liabilities than Assets.
PBGC deficit is down over $3 BILLION this year.

WRAPUP,NEWS,STATS

Dow -214 poits today.
Dow +64 points today.
Stocks erase early losses.
Dow closes 0.8% higher today after erasing 2.5% drop.
Dow slips 0.1% this week.
Nasdaq up 2.1% this week.
Nasdaq +1.9% today.
S&P ends up with gain of 0.7% today after erasing 2.6% drop.
S&P up +0.4% this week.
STOCKS HIGHER DESPITE SENATE REJECTION OF AUTO BAILOUT.

LA TIMES 8.5 TRILLION - NOV 30,08
http://www.latimes.com/news/la-fi-pricetag30-2008nov30,0,5435854.story?track=rss

White House promises new last-ditch auto rescue By DAVID ESPO, AP Special Correspondent DEC 12,08
F 3.04 +0.14
GM 3.94 -0.18
^GSPC 879.73 +6.14

Friday, Dec. 12, 2008. Festering animosity … WASHINGTON – With Congress gridlocked and the economy floundering, the Bush administration declared Friday it would step in and prevent the precipitous collapse of the U.S. auto industry and the disastrous national economic impact of the hundreds of thousands of job losses sure to follow.

The day after the sudden demise of emergency legislation in Congress, administration officials said no decisions had been made on the size or duration of the new rescue plan, or what type of concessions, if any, would be demanded from the struggling automakers, their workers, stockholders or others.In a reversal, the most likely option under consideration involved billions of dollars originally ticketed for the bailout of the financial industry. President George W. Bush had long declared that money off-limits to the beleaguered automakers.General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC have warned they are running out of cash and face bankruptcy without some form of assistance. Ford Motor Co., which is in somewhat better shape financially, has been seeking access to a line of credit.Urgent requests for White House intervention to save the automakers came from President-elect Barack Obama, Republican and Democratic members of Congress and outside groups.Under normal economic conditions we would prefer that markets determine the ultimate fate of private firms, White House press secretary Dana Perino said after the failure of a $14 billion bailout bill in Congress. The legislation died when Senate Republicans demanded upfront pay and benefit concessions from the United Auto Workers that union officials rejected.

Perino added, Given the current weakened state of the U.S. economy, we will consider other options if necessary including use of the TARP program to prevent a collapse of troubled automakers. A precipitous collapse of this industry would have a severe impact on our economy, and it would be irresponsible to further weaken and destabilize our economy at this time.TARP is the $700 billion Troubled Assets Recovery Program, the financial industry bailout plan enacted in October. All but $15 billion of the first $350 billion has been dedicated to troubled banks or insurance companies, and the Treasury Department is barred from dipping into the second $350 billion without a formal notification of Congress.No decision has been reached about such a notification, administration officials said. If one is made, Congress could then vote to prevent the action, but it would be unlikely to prevail in a showdown with the president.Obama, who will inherit the problem next month, even if bailout billions are handed over in the meantime, said, My hope is that the administration and the Congress will still find a way to give the industry the temporary assistance it needs while demanding the long-term restructuring that is absolutely required.In a letter to Bush, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi urged the president to demand the same tough accountability and taxpayer protections from the automakers as was contained in legislation that cleared the House at midweek.

Michigan Rep. Thaddeus McCotter, a conservative Republican from a state where Ford, GM and Chrysler are headquartered, said, With the legislative opportunities now exhausted, I urge the president of the United States to immediately release Wall Street TARP funds to the domestic automakers to avoid their impending bankruptcy and its consequent devastation of working families and the depression of our American economy.It was unclear what role was left to lawmakers after an extraordinary week in which prospects for industry relief seemed to change by the hour.A week ago, the government reported the loss of 533,000 jobs in November, the worst monthly showing in more than 30 years.In the days between then and now, the White House and congressional Democrats agreed on a $14 billion measure that would have extended short-term financing to the industry while establishing a powerful new car czar to make sure the money was used to turn the Big Three into competitive companies. That bill passed the House on Wednesday but immediately ran into opposition from Senate Republicans who said it did not go far enough.On Thursday, they demanded the United Auto Workers union agree to accept a lower pay and benefits package that would be in line with compensation earned by workers at U.S. factories producing cars for Japanese companies such as Honda, Toyota and Nissan. In an unprecedented series of negotiations, lawmakers met with representatives of industry and labor on the first floor of the Capitol in hopes of striking a deal — the effort that ultimately collapsed when the UAW balked at the terms demanded.At a news conference on Friday, UAW President Ron Gettelfinger accused GOP senators who blocked emergency loans of trying to pierce the heart of organized labor.Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., who played a leading role for Republicans, told reporters at the Capitol that the talks came close to success but failed when the UAW refused to commit to lowering its pay-and-benefits package in 2009 so it would be at parity with the Japanese companies. He also laid blame at the feet of the administration. I think it being known that the White House at the end of the day would probably blink probably helped keep us from a deal, he said. Whatever the reason, the effort stalled when Republicans voted en masse against advancing the original House bill to a final vote late Thursday night.
Associated Press writers Laurie Kellman in Washington and Tom Krisher and Kimberly S. Johnson in Detroit contributed to this story.

EU hails climate deal as example for the world By ROBERT WIELAARD and ARTHUR MAX, Associated Press Writers DEC 12,08

AFP BRUSSELS, Belgium – European nations on Friday dared the United States, Russia and China to follow their lead on global warming after agreeing on a plan to meet the so-called 20-20-20 targets: reducing greenhouse emissions by 20 percent and ensuring that 20 percent of energy comes from wind, sun and other renewable sources by 2020.But activists said the plan was fatally weakened by a raft of concessions to eastern Europe and heavy industry at a time of worldwide economic crisis.Stavros Dimas, the European environment commissioner, said the package put the 27-nation European Union on a path to a low-carbon economy.We are the only region in the world that is reducing emissions, Dimas said on the sidelines of a U.N. climate conference in Poznan, Poland, calling the bloc an example that others should follow.

Environmentalists said the concessions made the plan ineffective.The deal is a disaster, it's disgraceful, said Stephen Singer, a climate specialist for WWF International. If the world follows the example of the EU, it is on a trajectory to disastrous climate change.The plan increased the amount of emissions Europeans could offset by sponsoring green projects in developing countries. Armed with that opt-out, Singer said Europe's actual emissions reductions would be a mere 4 percent, not the 20 percent the EU claims.The Brussels summit coincided with the end of a two-week, 190-nation U.N. conference in Poznan that worked on a global climate treaty to be adopted next year in Copenhagen, Denmark. The treaty would replace the expiring Kyoto Protocol, which required the EU and other industrial countries to cut carbon emissions by an average 5 percent by 2012.The EU leaders held out an inducement to the Poznan negotiators: If a global climate deal can be reached in Copenhagen, the EU will go even further, cutting its greenhouse gases by 30 percent by 2020.

President George W. Bush has refused to accept mandatory restrictions on the U.S. economy intended to cut carbon emissions, both as outlined in the Kyoto accord and those now being considered. While the United States signed the Kyoto agreement, it was never ratified by the Senate and Bush essentially scrapped it. Since 1990 U.S. emissions have increased by 16.7 percent.Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., who was at the Poznan conference, said he expects the United States to have a climate policy in place within a year that will allow it to join the worldwide effort to combat global warming.President-elect Barack Obama has called for Congress to establish greenhouse gas limits that would reduce emissions to their 1990 levels by 2020 and cut them another 80 percent by 2050. He also pledged to invest $15 billion a year to develop clean energy projects that produce fewer greenhouse gases.Yvo de Boer, the top U.N. climate official, said the EU deal showed that difficult roadblocks (to a global accord) can be overcome and resolved.He said the EU deal was a sign of developed countries' resolve and courage the world has been waiting for in Poznan. It shows the world that ambitious emission reduction goals by 2020 are in line with moving economic recovery in a green direction.The EU leaders spent two days sorting out differences over sharing the burden of cutting greenhouse emissions by 20 percent and ensuring that 20 percent of energy comes from wind, sun and other renewables by 2020.When it was over, they claimed global climate change leadership, with French President Nicolas Sarkozy, the summit chairman, declaring, No other continent has given itself such binding rules as we have just adopted.However, environmental groups called the EU deal a sellout.Claude Turmes, a Luxembourg Green Party member of the European Parliament, said EU governments were using the economic downturn as an excuse to water down climate policies.The heart of the EU agreement is a system — starting in 2013 — of auctioning industrial emission permits that are now issued free of charge. Major polluters will eventually pay $66.1 billion a year for this permission to pollute. Governments will use that income for clean energy development. But critics say loopholes allow some industries, especially in Poland, Romania, Bulgaria and the Czech Republic, to get largely off the hook, with no incentive to embrace green technologies. Turmes called the selling of pollution credits ethically wrong. It implies a neocolonial approach to climate policy.Jos Cozijnsen, a carbon-trading expert for the New York-based Environmental Defense Fund, calculated Europe would meet half its 20 percent goal by cutting emissions, and half by buying credits. That's not bad, he said. It's expensive to do everything domestically.Elise Ford of the relief organization Oxfam complained that a proposal requiring some auction revenues to go to poor nations was swept from the table. The cost of the plan had alarmed eastern European countries at a time of economic slowdown. Desperate to get a deal, France backed several opt-outs to the strict reductions it wants industries to make. The opt-outs are aimed at heavy industries that might flee abroad to regions with looser environmental rules. The European Parliament must vote on the climate change package next week. They can expect a pep talk from Sarkozy, who made the climate plan the central goal of his six-month run as EU president. France's tenure ends Dec. 31. EU officials stressed Europe's pollution reduction targets could breathe new life into the U.N. climate talks. The EU plan also pushes eco-friendly cars, fewer power-draining buildings, greener consumer goods and energy deregulation. People will not follow Europe unless we set the example, said European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso. EU governments agreed in principle to the emissions cuts last year, but spent months working it out. Friday's resulting plan came after diplomats worked through the night for a final compromise. It is highly detailed, with targets and timetables differing from country to country. The leaders also agreed on a $258 billion European economic stimulus package to ease the effects of a recession. In the past decade, the EU has largely stayed on track to meet pollution-cutting targets of the 1997 Kyoto agreement. In November, the European Environment Agency said the 15 nations that belonged to the EU at the time are on target to cut their greenhouse gas emissions by 8 percent in the 2008-12 period. Twelve nations have already surpassed or are set to meet the targets, while Denmark, Italy and Spain will not. Arthur Max reported from Poznan. Associated Press writers Constant Brand and Aoife White in Brussels contributed to this report.

Auto bailout dies in Senate By John Crawley and Richard Cowan DEC 11,08

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate failed on Thursday night to reach a last-ditch compromise to bail out automakers, effectively killing any chance of congressional action this year.The $14 billion legislation officially died in the Senate late on Thursday after supporters failed to get enough support in a procedural vote.Republican-brokered talks faltered, leaving the chamber at a dead end on an approach for extending $14 billion in loans to avert a threatened collapse of one or more automakers, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said in remarks on the floor.It's over with, Reid said.Markets across the Asia-Pacific region were down more than three percent after news the talks had collapsed, with Japan's Nikkei average and Hong Kong's Hang Seng both down more than five percent.U.S. crude prices fell by nearly $2 to $46.11 a barrel.The White House said it would evaluate its options in light of the collapse of the bailout legislation.

White House spokesman Tony Fratto declined to say what those options included. The Bush administration has resisted Democrats' past demands to use some money from the $700 billion bailout package approved in October to help struggling financial institutions to help the automakers.Fratto said the failed legislation had presented the best chance to avoid a disorderly bankruptcy while ensuring taxpayer funds only go to firms whose stakeholders were prepared to make difficult decisions to become viable.Lawmakers planned to move ahead with a procedural vote on a Democratic-sponsored bill negotiated with the White House that Reid admitted would not succeed.

There is too much difference between negotiators to reach an agreement, the Nevada Democrat said.The late night development followed intense discussions on a possible compromise that participants said fell apart over proposed wage concessions by the powerful United Auto Workers.We were three words away from a deal, said Sen. Bob Corker, a Tennessee Republican who proposed the alternative and led the talks.Sen. Christopher Dodd, a Connecticut Democrat, said the main issue of disagreement was the date to require the Detroit autoworkers' pay parity with foreign auto manufacturers.General Motors Corp and Chrysler LLC are seeking billions of dollars in immediate aid, while Ford Motor Co wants a hefty line of credit.The industry is reeling from depressed sales, made worse by the credit crunch and the recession and GM and Chrysler said government intervention was required now to avert potential failure.The House of Representatives passed its version of a Democratic-sponsored bailout on Wednesday but Senate Republicans rejected that measure.A Senate aide said congressional debate on the bailout legislation is over for this year and is now up to Secretary Paulson on whether to use Treasury Department's TARP funds to help the industry.Polls show Americans split on bailing out the Detroit automakers, widely criticized for fighting tougher fuel efficiency standards and poor model designs that have left the companies gasping for life with a stable of products losing popularity with consumers.Because of their shared suppliers and vendors, industry fears the failure of one Detroit manufacturer could drag down the other two as well as other businesses.GM, Ford and Chrysler employ nearly 250,000 people directly, and 100,000 more jobs at parts suppliers could hang on their survival. The companies say 1-in-10 U.S. jobs are related to the auto sector.(Reporting by John Crawley; Editing by Philip Barbara and Todd Eastham)

World Bank offers $2B to developing nations DEC 11,08 World Bank puts $2 billion in aid on fast track for poor nations.Fund is available to 78 nations identified as most poverty-stricken By Katy Byron

(CNN) -- The World Bank announced a fast-track assistance program for countries in dire economic straits Wednesday, aiming to make $2 billion in financial aid available more quickly for struggling nations.Under previous guidelines, a country could wait as long as six weeks to receive money from the World Bank. The new program aspires to make funds available within a month, bank officials told CNN.We want to help countries manage this downturn with financing to help minimize its impacts and by assisting them in designing supportive policies, World Bank Group President Robert Zoellick said in a statement announcing the plan.The $2 billion will come from the institution's $42 billion International Development Association program. The money will be available to the 78 countries that are a part of the IDA borrowers list, which consists of the most poverty-stricken nations worldwide.The bank said it had not received any requests yet for funds through the fast-track program, but it expected to see application in the next few days.

Commerzbank Expects EU Approval for Bailout This Week (Update1)
By Aaron Kirchfeld DEC 11,08

Dec. 11 (Bloomberg) -- Commerzbank AG Chief Executive Officer Martin Blessing said he expects Germany’s second-biggest lender to get the European Commission’s approval for its government bailout by the end of the week. I expect we’ll get approval from Brussels by the end of the week, Blessing said at a conference in Frankfurt today. Up until now, not a cent has flown” from the capital injection. Commerzbank will get an 8.2 billion-euro ($10.6 billion) capital injection from the German government as part of the state’s 500 billion-euro bank-rescue plan. Officials from the commission, the European Union regulator, have been meeting with German authorities to discuss changes to the bailout this week. Blessing also said it could become harder for companies to get loans as the economy contracts and corporate defaults rise. At the moment there is no credit crunch in Germany, and Commerzbank and the country’s other banks are lending more, he added. To contact the reporter on this story: Aaron Kirchfeld in Frankfurt at akirchfeld@bloomberg.net

Commission seeks shorter, shallower recession by relaxing EU bank bail-out rulesDavid Gow in Brussels The Guardian, Tuesday 9 December 2008

The European Commission is relaxing state aid rules to allow EU governments to bail out companies and inject capital into financially sound banks to encourage lending to industry and individuals, it emerged yesterday.Neelie Kroes, the EU's competition commissioner, said Brussels was moving beyond shoring up banks to ensure that the recession across Europe was shorter and shallower than threatened.Her move came as the commission approved a €21bn (£18bn) French scheme for recapitalising sound banks so they could increase lending to the real economy, and indicated it would swiftly approve amended German and Austrian bank rescue plans. But companies are continuing to lay off thousands of staff and close plants for extended periods because of frozen credit lines.Kroes said she intended to announce extra measures before Christmas to enable EU governments to rescue specific companies in trouble with targeted aid.I therefore intend to authorise the quick grant of higher amounts of state guarantees and loans and to allow more aid to be given without notification, she said. This will help the financing of the real economy through investments, but also through coping with temporary liquidity difficulties and stress on working capital.EU competition rules allow governments to give aid of up to €200,000 to companies without having to notify Brussels. The German chancellor, Angela Merkel, is pressing Kroes to raise this to €400,000.Kroes has been at loggerheads with national governments over delays in approving bank rescue plans, and has faced repeated demands to act tough to avoid any distortion of competition that would give rescued banks advantages over competitors.

The approved French scheme sets a benchmark for other recapitalisation plans by setting an average 8% interest coupon on any state capital, higher than France wanted. This will vary according to the solvency of each bank and will initially be fixed for five years.Kroes indicated that riskier banks would pay more interest. She said: The pricing mechanism needs to carry a sufficient incentive to keep the duration of state involvement to a minimum, for example, through a remuneration rate that increases over time.The volume of work has held up negotiations between the EC and UK government over the bail-out and subsequent nationalisation of Northern Rock. Kroes indicated there would be a decision before the holiday.

World looks to EU for leadership on climate change: UN chief Thu Dec 11, 5:20 am ET

AFP POZNAN, Poland (AFP) – The European Union summit in Brussels holds great consequences for the whole world, which looks to the EU for leadership on climate change, UN chief Ban Ki-moon warned on Thursday.What we need today is leadership, Ban said at the start of a two-day ministerial-level meeting in Poznan to round off the United Nations climate talks.We look for leadership from the European Union. The decisions currently being made by European leaders in Brussels are (of) great consequences for the whole world.Ban also called for a Green New Deal under which part of the massive stimulus to tackle the world financial crisis would be devoted to weaning economies from carbon pollution.EU leaders, meeting in Brussels on Thursday and Friday, face rifts on how to implement a scheme to slash European greenhouse-gas emissions by 20 percent by 2020 compared with the benchmark year of 1990.It is the most ambitious target set by any advanced economy.The Poznan forum, under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), is tasked with advancing towards a new global pact for braking the dangerous rise in greenhouse-gas emissions, blamed for damaging the world's climate system.The EU has championed demands for tough measures, and its internal row on how to achieve the 2020 goal has sparked fears that this could cripple momentum in the global process.Ban praised president-elect Barack Obama for declaring the fight against global warming and ending America's dependence on fossil fuels a priority of his administration.

We look for leadership from the United States, the UN secretary-general also said in his speech.It is therefore encouraging to hear about the incoming administration's plan to put alternative energy, environmentalism and climate change at the very centre of America's definition of national security, economic recovery and prosperity.

Israel's Netanyahu tells EU he will pursue peace By STEVE WEIZMAN, Associated Press Writer – Thu Dec 11, 1:46 pm ET

JERUSALEM – Israeli opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu sought Thursday to reassure Europeans that he will continue peace talks with the Palestinians if he wins February's general election, despite a rightward tilt in his Likud Party.He was speaking to Israel-based EU ambassadors in the wake of Likud primaries, which catapulted several ultra-hawks into the top 30 places on the party's slate of candidates for Feb. 10 elections.Netanyahu was the guest speaker at a lunch hosted by the European Union and arranged long before Monday's primaries. He used the occasion to try to quell concerns fueled by the outcome, which delivered significant advances for a wing of Likud seeking to halt peace talks, ban minority Arab citizens of Israel from the parliament, encourage non-Jews to leave the country and pull Israel out of the United Nations.Following the primary results, outgoing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert of the rival Kadima Party warned that a victory for a Likud slate peppered with die-hard opponents of concessions to the Palestinians could plunge Israel into international isolation.Netanyahu resisted peace efforts when he was prime minister from 1996-1999 but says he will carry on existing negotiations with the Palestinians if he is returned to power, as polls indicate, though with more emphasis on encouraging Palestinian economic growth rather than a speedy transition to a sovereign Palestinian state.

I told them that a Likud government under my leadership will continue the peace talks, stressing security and economic development, Netanyahu said in a brief statement after Thursday's lunch. We intend to interlace them with economic development, rapid economic development for the Palestinians and regional cooperation with Jordan and Egypt.Likud spokeswoman Amit Koren said the party has dropped ultra-hawk Moshe Feiglin far down on its list of candidates for Feb. 10 elections despite his strong showing in the primary. Feiglin opposes peace talks with the Palestinians, encourages non-Jews to leave the country and advocates recapturing the Gaza Strip.Feiglin finished in 20th place in the voting, but Koren said Likud's court dropped him to the 36th position.

Vatican team discusses papal visit to Israel Thu Dec 11, 2:33 am ET

JERUSALEM, (AFP) – Israeli President Shimon Peres has met a Vatican delegation to discuss preparations for a possible visit by Pope Benedict XVI next year, his spokeswoman said on Thursday.We are waiting for the official declaration of this visit which must come from Rome, but the president on Wednesday started discussing with a Vatican delegation the programme of this visit which could take place in spring, said spokeswoman Ayelet Frish.During a visit to Italy in September 2007, Peres invited the pope to travel to Israel to strengthen the message of peace, reconciliation and hope throughout the Middle East.Uneasy relations between the Vatican and Israel have been further strained by plans to declare Nazi-era Pope Pius XII a saint, despite widespread criticism of his inaction during the Holocaust.The controversy, which has lingered for decades resurfaced in October as the pontiff defended the memory of his wartime predecessor and said he wanted him beatified soon -- a first step towards declaring him a saint.But, citing Jewish sensitivities, the Vatican later indicated Benedict was holding off the process of having Pius declared a saint.Peres has stressed the row should not affect plans for the proposed papal trip.Pope Paul VI was the first pontiff to visit Israel, in 1964, and Pope John Paul II visited in 2000.

New Israeli radar to pinpoint rocket launchers in preparation for conflict with Hamas

With an eye to a future conflict with Hamas and Hizbullah, the IDF's Artillery Corps is preparing to integrate a new radar system that will help locate and destroy rocket launchers more quickly than ever before, Chief Artillery Officer Brig.-Gen. Michel Ben-Baruch has told The Jerusalem Post.The radar will be operational within a few months.Under production by Elta Systems - a subsidiary of Israel Aerospace Industries - the new radar will be able to provide artillery cannons with a 360-degree view of a battlefield and detect the exact location of rocket launchers.The location will then be transmitted digitally to the cannons or rocket systems deployed nearby, which will be able to fire at the launchers and destroy them.There is no radar like this in the world, Ben-Baruch told the Post on Monday. It can pinpoint the location of the launch and then find the range the cannons will need to aim at to fire.The new radar is one of several new technologies the Artillery Corps has been integrating into service since the Second Lebanon War in 2006.But the highlight of the Artillery Corps's recent accomplishments came in last month's IDF draft, when for the first time in the corps's history, all of its new inductees are soldiers who had asked to serve there.This 100% match beat out the Armored and Engineering Corps, and put Artillery at the same level as the Givati and Kfir infantry brigades.This is an unbelievable success, Ben-Baruch said. These are high-quality soldiers who realize that in the Artillery Corps they will operate advanced technology and have the opportunity to try out for some of the most elite units in the world.

Since the Second Lebanon War, during which the artillery featured prominently, Ben-Baruch has sent officers to schools and homes of draftees around the country to describe the corps, particularly the different technologies and opportunities that soldiers will encounter during their service.Among the hundreds enlisted, Ben-Baruch revealed that 35 of the soldiers will be trained to become operators of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles for the IDF's Ground Forces.In the coming weeks, the Defense Ministry is scheduled to rule on a tender for the production of a small, lightweight UAV for field units that will be operated by the Artillery Corps. IAI and Elbit Systems Ltd. are competing for the contract.When people think of the Artillery Corps they imagine a small cannon being dragged on a wagon, Ben-Baruch said. In reality, though, we have some of the most fascinating and advanced technology in the IDF.