OBAMA PAL HASSELS CORSI

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.

Global warming causing more tropical storms: NASA Fri Dec 19, 2:38 pm ET

LOS ANGELES (AFP) – Global warming is increasing the frequency of extremely high clouds in the Earth's tropics that cause severe storms and rainfall, according to a NASA study released Friday.The space agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) said a study by its scientists found a strong correlation between the frequency of these clouds and seasonal variations in the average sea surface temperature of the tropical oceans.For every degree Centigrade (1.8 degrees Fahrenheit) increase in average ocean surface temperature, the team observed a 45-percent increase in the frequency of the very high clouds, according to the study, recently published in Geophysical Research Letters.At the present rate of global warming of 0.13 degrees Celsius (0.23 degrees Fahrenheit) per decade, the team inferred the frequency of these storms can be expected to increase by six percent per decade.JPL Senior Research Scientist Hartmut Aumann headed the study on five years of data from the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) on NASA's Aqua spacecraft, an instrument that observes climate variations.The link between global warming and the frequency and intensity of severe storms has long been a source of speculation for climate modelers, noted the Pasadena, California-based JPL.

Toronto's snow woes spark flight delays across Canada Flights in Ottawa, Montreal, Calgary, Winnipeg slowed by Pearson ripple effect Last Updated: Friday, December 19, 2008 | 6:31 PM ET CBC News

Snow blankets Fittons Road in Orillia, Ont., during the winter storm that swept across Southern Ontario on Friday. (Submitted by Annabell Ball)A major snowstorm in southern Ontario added to delays and cancellations across the country on Friday, as the country's busiest airport ramped up staffing to handle weather woes and crowds of holiday travellers.The storm system covered a swath of the province stretching from Windsor east to Kingston, and as far north as Peterborough, bringing snow and gusty winds into the late evening. The Greater Toronto Area was hit with as much as 20 centimetres of snow, while other areas received upwards of 25 centimetres.The snow was whipped up by 60 km/h winds that reduced visibility on runways and roads alike.Planes were still coming and going from Toronto's Pearson International Airport throughout the day, but more than 350 of the 1,200 flights scheduled out of the airport were either delayed or cancelled as of Friday evening, the CBC's Christine Birak reported from Pearson.

Commuter/travel notices

The Toronto Transit Commission ran trains with glycol on rails in open areas, such as outdoor stations, after the subway closed at 1:30 on Friday morning. Go Transit cancelled several afternoon trains on the Lakeshore east and west lines. Via Rail says it is running all trains as usual, but warns about heavy demand for seats. Information and reservations are available at 1-888-VIA-RAIL (1-888-842-7245).
Greyhound Canada says it will be assessing conditions each day and is warning bus travellers to expect delays, but the company is not cancelling service or issuing advisories. WestJet issued an advisory for travel to Toronto for Friday and said travellers could rearrange their flights at no extra cost by calling 1-800-538-5696. Air Canada also said customers with flights through Toronto on Friday could book other flights without penalty, space permitting. The airline advises travellers to check their flight status prior to leaving for the airport through aircanada.com or by calling 1-888-422-7533. Many passengers prepared to spend the night sleeping in terminals in hopes of flying out in the morning.Since the airport is one of the main connector hubs for flights to all points across Canada, delays affect schedules across the country.

Most Ottawa-to-Toronto flights cancelled
Many passengers were stranded at the Ottawa airport Friday, as all flights to Toronto except one were cancelled for the day by 1 p.m., CBC's Jeff Semple reported from the scene.Some passengers were able to rebook on the one remaining flight, but the rest will have to rebook on flights scheduled for Saturday or Sunday.Ottawa airport spokeswoman Krista Kealey said some flights to and from other destinations were also delayed or cancelled, partly because the schedule for a single plane may send it through several airports in one day. That means if a flight from Toronto to New York is cancelled, it won't be available to fly out of New York to its next destination, which could be Ottawa or Montreal.So it causes a ripple effect and can sometimes take a little bit of time to right itself once the weather … ceases, she said.Unlike much of Ontario and the northeastern United States, Montreal received just a dusting of snow Friday. However, flight delays in the affected regions meant planes destined for Montreal touched down late or never arrived.The storm is surrounding us. The problems we are experiencing here are that the airplanes can't leave their original airports, said Stéphanie Lepage, a spokesperson with the Montreal airport authority.Phillip Mikolajczyk and his two brothers were supposed to fly to Miami on Continental Airlines to meet their parents and grandmother for a holiday cruise.It's very disappointing, he said. They are saying it's cancelled until the 24th. That's the next flight we could get.Meanwhile, dozens of flights leaving the Calgary International Airport were delayed, as travellers faced lineups of up to three hours just to check in.

Extra airport staff
Pearson added extra staff and aircraft to cope with expected delays on one of the busiest travel days of the year.Roughly 100,000 people were expected to pass through Canada's busiest airport on Friday, the last work or school day before the Christmas holiday break for many.Trish Krale, spokeswoman for the Greater Toronto Airports Authority, said it's an all-hands-on-deck situation for staff.Air Canada and WestJet continued to offer people travelling on Friday the chance to rebook their flights without penalty.VIA Rail also said it was prepared to add rail cars where possible to meet the increased volume.

Long lineups
Officials advised travellers to check their flight status before heading to the airport and leave lots of extra time to get there.Airport officials said people have heeded that advice, with long lineups snaking through the airport terminals before the snow started to fall Friday morning.Claire Langlois and her daughter were headed to warmer weather in the Dominican Republic. The pair said they were nervous because it was their first time flying.We're worried if the flight is going to be delayed or cancelled, or if it'll go on or what. But we were here nice and early, Langlois said.

Christine Smith and her friends were worried their afternoon flight to Jamaica would be cancelled.I think we'll probably be delayed. I'm just praying it won't be cancelled, but I think we'll be delayed, Smith said.With files from the Canadian Press.

Powerful winter storm cuts power, disrupts travel By POLLY ANDERSON, Associated Press Writer Friday, Dec. 19, 2008.

A winter storm packing snow, freezing rain and biting wind cut power to tens of thousands of customers Friday, disrupted travel and gave schoolchildren from Iowa to New England an early start on their holiday break. One thing about it, you're going to have a white Christmas this year, said Lee Longdyke, as he shoveled a sidewalk in Pontiac, Mich., for the third time Friday morning. More than 200 flights were canceled at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport, and more than 650 at three New York City-area airports. Many remaining flights had hourslong delays.Runways at Milwaukee's airport were closed for much of the morning because snowplows could not keep up with whiteout conditions, airport spokeswoman Pat Rowe said.Snowfall affected a large region, but the worst of the ice storm — and resulting power outages — was in a band across northern Illinois, Indiana and Ohio. Power companies reported 60,000 customers in Illinois without service Friday, more than 35,000 in Ohio, and a whopping 180,000 in Indiana, where the area around Fort Wayne was particularly hard-hit.When you combine ice, which is an electric utility's nightmare, with wind, you've got some serious issues, said Indiana Michigan Power spokesman Mark Brian.Freezing rain was also a problem in Iowa, but authorities there said only scattered power outages were reported, because there wasn't much wind to bring ice-laden tree limbs down onto power lines.A foot or more of snow fell in parts of Michigan, and some areas reported wind gusts of up to 25 to 30 mph. Nearly 8inches of snow had fallen in Detroit by midafternoon.Schools were closed across the region. The Toledo Zoo was forced to cancel its holiday season light show for Friday evening.In Madison, Wis., The Nutcracker went on as scheduled, but the expected audience of 2,000 dwindled to about 150 thanks to school closings.I told the cast after warm-ups all you need for a show is one (person), said W. Earle Smith, artistic director of the Madison Ballet.In the Northeast, hard hit by last week's ice storm, snowfall totals of up to 15 inches were forecast. Biting, wind-whipped snow began late morning in White Plains, N.Y.I thought I had enough on, said Gloria D'Arce, 29, as she tried to keep out of the wind while waiting for a light to change. But this is coming sideways, right in my face. I'm, like, two blocks from my car and I feel like I'm not going to make it.

The evening rush-hour jam began a few hours early in Rochester, N.Y., where 6 inches of snow had already fallen by midafternoon.Fearing afternoon traffic jams, Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick asked nonessential state employees Friday morning to stay home. But in New York City, Mayor Michael Bloomberg sounded more concerned about the economy than the weather.There's really no reason to stay indoors today, he said. Go to work, get in the last-minute holiday shopping — the stores need the business, and you need to buy things and an awful lot of things are on sale.In New Hampshire, several thousand homes and businesses were still in the dark more than a week after last week's storm. As authorities prepared for the new storm, Gov. John Lynch said the state hoped to get utilities to improve their communication with customers in the future.I certainly understand that people in New Hampshire are cold, they're tired, and in many cases they're frustrated, especially with Christmas coming, Lynch said.On Wednesday and Thursday, wintry weather had made life miserable in parts of the West. A record December snowfall of 3.6 inches was recorded in Las Vegas, while in Spokane, Wash., nearly 2 feet of snow fell and more was in the forecast for this weekend.On Friday, 11 people were hurt in Seattle when two charter buses crashed on an icy street, pushing one through a guardrail next to Interstate 5 and leaving its front wheels dangling above the freeway. Heavy snowfall preceded an alert for high avalanche danger in northern Utah mountains throughout the weekend.
Associated Press writers Rupa Shenoy in Chicago, Ben Leubsdorf in Pontiac, Mich., and Kathy McCormack in Concord, N.H., contributed to this report.

VIDEO WITH STORY
http://wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=83977

MONEYNETDAILY IMF warns of economic riots, police ready for civil unrest
Paulson discussed worst-case scenario at bailout meeting – declare martial law
December 18, 2008 7:00 pm Eastern By Chelsea Schilling 2008 WorldNetDaily

Pentagon resources and U.S. troops may be used if needed to quell protests and bank runs during an economic crisis, the U.S. Army War College's Strategic Institute reported. Widespread civil violence inside the United States would force the defense establishment to reorient priorities in extremis to defend basic domestic order and human security, the War College study states. Incidents of economic collapse, terrorism and disruption of legal order could require deployment of forces within the U.S., it said. A strategic shock could require the nation to use military force against hostile groups inside the United States.International Monetary Fund Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn has warned that advanced nations could face civil unrest during distressful economic times [S]ocial unrest may happen in many countries – including advanced economies if the economic crises are not properly dealt with, Strauss-Kahn said. He added that violent protests could break out in countries worldwide if the financial system was not restructured to benefit everyone rather than a small elite, London's Guardian reported. In a recession where consumer spending is plummeting, foreclosures are rampant, workers are losing jobs, credit is tight and markets are strained, some are warning about a worst-case scenario. Last month, trends forecaster Gerald Celente told Fox News that America will morph into the first undeveloped nation of the world by 2012. He said there will be a tax revolution marked by food riots, squatter rebellion, tax revolts and job marches. He also said by 2012, the holidays will be more about getting food rather than gifts.

According to the Phoenix Business Journal, U.S. Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., and U.S. Rep. Brad Sherman, D-Calif., said Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson considered the prospect of civil unrest while he pushed for September's Wall Street bailout – even suggesting martial law might be essential. Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano, Barack Obama's pick for secretary of Homeland Security, would not provide comment to the Business Journal on the possibility of civil unrest during economic crisis. But state and local police indicated that they have trained for such an event. The Phoenix Police Department is not expecting any civil unrest at this time, but we always train to prepare for any civil unrest issue. We have a Tactical Response Unit that trains continually and has deployed on many occasions for any potential civil unrest issue, Phoenix Police spokesman Andy Hill said. We have well established plans in place for such civil unrest, Scottsdale Police spokesman Mark Clark told the Business Journal. Maricopa County Sheriff Deputy Chief Dave Trombi concurred: We're prepared.Nick Dranias, director of constitutional government at the libertarian Goldwater Institute, told the Phoenix Business Journal declaration of martial law would allow U.S. armed forces to control civilian authorities. While he said the Posse Comitatus Act limits the military's role in domestic law enforcement, he referenced a 1994 U.S. Defense Department Directive (DODD 3025) that gives military commanders authority during domestic emergencies to save lives, prevent suffering or mitigate great property damage, according to the report. I don't think it's likely, he said. But it's not impossible.

Stocks end bumpy session mostly higher By MADLEN READ and SARA LEPRO, AP Business Writers – Fri Dec 19, 6:27 pm

NEW YORK – Stocks finished a bumpy session mostly higher Friday, as investors, while still somewhat cautious about the economy, were encouraged by the government's pledge to lend as much as $17.4 billion to U.S. automakers.The Dow Jones industrial average finished down about 25 points, but both the broader Standard & Poor's 500 and Nasdaq composite indexes posted moderate advances, finishing higher for the second straight week in a row. Stocks that rose outpaced those that fell by about 2 to 1 on the New York Stock Exchange.Though the session was choppy — with the Dow rising as many as 182 points in early trading, then moving in and out of negative territory for much of the afternoon — it was a relatively calm day on Wall Street compared with the wild swings experienced in September, October and early November.

In the early going, investors cheered the government's pledge to provide General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC with $13.4 billion in short-term financing, and another $4 billion at a later date.The decision to provide emergency help to carry the struggling industry into the new year comes after a $14 billion bailout for the automakers failed to make it out of the Senate last week.The companies' cash flows have been dwindling to a slow trickle due to the weak economy, slumping sales and the credit crunch.But the aid hinges on conditions that must be quickly met; GM and Chrysler must prove viability, defined as positive cash flow and the ability to pay back government loans, by March 31. Ford Motor Co., meanwhile, is not asking for short-term assistance, but its CEO predicted the aid will stabilize the broader industry.GM CEO Rick Wagoner said the company had much work ahead, but he was confident it could reinvent itself with the government help.

Some analysts expressed doubts.

I think that there's a lot of skepticism about how much real reform we're likely to see, particularly at GM, given the parameters under which the loans have been made, said Alan Gayle, senior investment strategist at RidgeWorth Investments. There is a lot of skepticism about whether GM is prepared to do what needs to be done.Still, the government's move staved off, for the time being, a major bankruptcy that could have sent a debilitating blow to the economy and the labor market.Investors have been concerned about the job market ramifications of a possible bankruptcy filing by an automaker like GM or Chrysler, which some analysts said could result in up to 3 million U.S. job losses. The government lost more than half a million jobs in November, and the Labor Department said Thursday that new claims for unemployment remained well above 500,000 last week. When unemployment rises, spending declines and credit deteriorates.The White House's action Friday prevents the collapse of a very high profile industry less than a week before Christmas, said Phil Orlando, chief equity market strategist at Federated Investors. That's not to say that these guys won't collapse next March, but it takes it out of the headlines now, and takes the threat of an auto industry default off the table until next spring.GM shares jumped 83 cents, or 23 percent, to close at $4.49, while Ford shares added 11 cents or 3.9 percent to $2.95. Chrysler is not publicly traded.The Dow fell 25.88, or 0.30 percent, to 8,579.11. The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 2.60, or 0.29 percent, to 887.88, while the Nasdaq composite index rose 11.95, or 0.77 percent, to 1,564.32.

For the week, the Dow ended down 0.59 percent, while the S&P 500 finished up 0.93 percent and the Nasdaq up 1.53 percent. All of the indexes are still down more than 35 percent for the year.The technology-heavy Nasdaq was lifted by big gains from Oracle Corp. and Research In Motion Ltd., both of which released earnings reports after the bell on Thursday. Oracle's profit weakened for the first time in years, but its shares rose 7 percent as investors bet that the company will fare better than others as the economy struggles. BlackBerry-maker Research In Motion rallied $4.39, or 11 percent, to $42.83, after reporting better-than-expected revenue guidance for the fourth quarter and strong holiday sales of its new smart phones.The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies rose 7.09, or 1.48 percent, to 486.26.

Consolidated volume on the NYSE came to 6.04 billion shares, up from 5.46 billion on Thursday. Some analysts attributed much of the market's choppiness on Friday to the expiration of options contracts, as well as the routine rebalancing of stock indexes. Earlier Friday, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said that Congress should release the second $350 billion from the rescue fund that it approved in October to bail out financial institutions. Paulson said tapping the fund for the auto industry basically exhausts the first half of the $700 billion total. At the same time, he said he was confident that the Treasury Department, Federal Reserve and Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. had the resources to address a significant market event if one should occur before Congress approves the use of the second half of the largest government bailout program in history. Meanwhile, the industry that has already gotten billions in government funding — the financial sector — remains in sad shape. On Friday morning, Standard & Poor's downgraded its ratings on 11 major U.S. and European financial institutions, including Citigroup Inc., Goldman Sachs Group Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co., and Wells Fargo & Co. Citigroup shares sank 41 cents, or 5.5 percent, to $7.02. Wells Fargo slipped 29 cents to $29.36. On Thursday, the stock market tumbled, shaken by a negative ratings outlook for industrial conglomerate and Dow component General Electric Co. A drop in oil prices also weighed on stocks, pulling down the energy sector and revealing how downbeat investors are about consumer demand. The market's losses on Wednesday and Thursday erased most of the Dow's 360-point rally on Tuesday, which was sparked by the Federal Reserve's historic interest rate cut. The central bank set its target for the rate at which banks lend to each other to a range of zero to 0.25 percent, the lowest level on record, and vowed to use all available tools to jump-start the economy. Still, analysts believe Wall Street has entered a period of relative stability, and the market's performance on Friday only reinforced that notion. Even though there's been a lot of really bad news coming out about the economy in the last few weeks, especially in unemployment numbers, the market hasn't been reacting negatively to that, said Richard Sparks, senior equities analyst at Schaeffer's Investment Research. Since their multiyear lows on Nov. 20, the Dow is up 13.6 percent and the S&P 500 is up 18 percent.

Yields on long-term Treasurys recovered from record lows on Friday. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note, which moves opposite its price, rose to 2.21 percent late Friday from 2.07 percent late Thursday. The yield on the popular three-month T-bill — whose yield has at times gone negative due to frenzied buying — was unchanged from late Thursday at zero. The January contract for light, sweet crude, which expired Friday, fell $2.35 to settle at $33.87, the lowest close in nearly five years after falling at one point to $33.44. The dollar rose against other major currencies. Gold prices fell. Markets overseas were mostly lower. Japan's Nikkei stock average slipped 0.91 percent, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng index sank 2.39 percent. Britain's FTSE 100 was down 1.01 percent, Germany's DAX index fell 1.26 percent, and France's CAC-40 fell 0.26 percent. The Dow Jones industrial average ended the week down 50.57, or 0.59 percent, at 8,579.11. The Standard & Poor's 500 index finished up 8.15, or 0.93 percent, at 887.88. The Nasdaq composite index ended the week up 23.60, or 1.53 percent, at 1,564.32. The Russell 2000 index finished the week up 17.83, or 3.8 percent, at 486.26. The Dow Jones Wilshire 5000 Composite Index — a free-float weighted index that measures 5,000 U.S. based companies — ended at 8,924.03, up 123.85 points, or 1.41 percent, for the week. A year ago, the index was at 14,644.64. On the Net: New York Stock Exchange: http://www.nyse.com
Nasdaq Stock Market: http://www.nasdaq.com

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.

Don't destabilize Russia, Putin warns foes By Oleg Shchedrov DEC 20,08

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Prime Minister Vladimir Putin warned Russia's foes on Friday against trying to destabilize a country facing broadening economic crisis, Russian news agencies reported.Putin did not specify who might pose a threat to Russia's stability. But in the past, he has often blamed Western security services of trying to destabilize the country using opposition groups and non-governmental organizations as their instruments.Any attempts to weaken or destabilize Russia, harm the interests of the country will be toughly suppressed, they quoted ex-KGB spy Putin as telling an annual meeting of top spies and security officers ahead of their professional holiday.Putin, who was the Russian president in 2000-08, has contributed greatly to the growth of influence of Russia's FSB federal security service, a successor of the Soviet-era KGB.Many ex-KGB officers became key government and regional officials during his presidency forming his power base, which largely remained intact after Putin handed over powers to his successor Dmitry Medvedev in May.Critics say that under Putin, security services have become excessively influential and expressed fears Russia could one day become a police state.Rights campaigners have urged Medvedev to veto a cabinet bill ordering that professional judges rather than juries run trials involving terrorism, civil unrest and several other serious crimes.They also urged Medvedev to block government attempts to impose high treason charges on people accused of harming the constitutional order, which critics believe could lead to a political witch-hunt.

Analysts say the role of the security services is likely to grow even further as Russia plunges into an economic crisis marked by rising unemployment and financial woes that threaten the popularity of the government.Avoiding civil unrest and maintaining political stability is viewed by the government as a top priority.

MEDVEDEV ABSENT

The Day of Security Officers is marked annually on December 20, a day when in 1917 Bolshevik rulers created the CheKa secret police to suppress their foes. After a string of transformations, the Cheka became the KGB.As president, Putin always personally attended the holiday meetings of security officials. Medvedev, a former corporate lawyer with no security background, stayed away and sent his chief of staff Sergei Naryshkin to deliver his greetings.Medvedev, who faced the challenge of a brief war with Georgia soon after becoming president which soured Russia's ties with the West, said security concerns remained paramount.In the past 20 years the world has changed but has not become a quieter place, Naryshkin said, reading out his letter, according to Interfax.

Turkey's Alevi muslims look to EU for protection from intolerance
TERESA KÜCHLER 19.12.2008 @ 20:51 CET

From next year, there will be a ban on smoking in bars and restaurants in Istanbul, just like in the EU. There is no chance that that will ever work here though, says Ozlem, a Turkish musician, as he roles himself another cigarette. The tobacco is from his eastern home region in Turkish Kurdistan. It has a soft, sweet taste and smell. This kind goes very well with raki, Ozlem's friend the taxi driver fills in, serving yet another round of the strong drink, a local version of France's pastis or Greece's ouzo. I will get you a pack, he adds. They are trying to please Europe with the smoking bans, continues Ozlem, who has travelled almost the entire continent with his band, and seems to know every obscure festival in the European alternative music landscape. If Turkey joins the EU, he could follow his German girlfriend to Germany, would he want to. He pretty much likes Istanbul. Sitting just off the city's busiest shopping and party street, Istiklar, under a breathtaking sunset over the Bosporus and with some cold Raki in hands, it's difficult to see why he would not. In the last ten years, a lot has changed in this country. It is true that you see more veils on women - the new government has made Islam more trendy, kind of. But look around you, the girls are drinking cocktails and wearing tight jeans and all, the 35-year-old divorcé says, pointing at the people around us. The attitudes towards Kurds in Istanbul is better now, maybe it is because Europe is watching, he says. Ozlem and his friends are Kurdish and on top of that Alevi muslim, a not-so-trendy - in the eyes of the government - version of Islam.

A progressive, controversial, Islam

Last month, tens of thousands of Alevi muslims gathered for the Great Alevi March through the streets of Ankara, demanding full religious rights. They accused the government of pursuing an assimilation campaign, sending imams to Alevi villages to push them towards Sunni Islam.The demonstrators called for abolition of compulsory Sunni religion classes, and demanded that their cemevis places of worship are recognised as such. Between 15 and 30 percent of the 70 million Turks, depending on who is counting, follow Alevi doctrine. One must not violate the rights of the other person, believe in the unity of God, love the other person and share with the other person. According to Alevi leader Izzetin Dogan these are the four main principles of Islam. He says Alevism is a philosophy of love. Modern Alevism is however more political than such a description. Strongly influenced by humanism, it promotes an unflinchingly progressive stance on a number of controversial issues: Alevis favour support abortion rights and equal opportunities for women and gays. They are also extreme pacifists. Alevism allow alcohol and forbids polygamy, and its followers do not perform the Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca - a journey that according to most Muslims must be carried out at least once in a lifetime. God does not reside in a stone, but in the heart of people, the Alevis argue, referring to the Black Stone within the Kaaba, the most sacred site within Islam.

Commentators on EU-Turkey relations in the country say that the treatment of the Alevis may become the key litmus test to see whether the governing Justice and Development Party, or AKP, a moderate Islamic party that has fought to ease Turkey's strict secularist rules, is committed to religious freedom for any other religion than its own. The country's government and its Religious Affairs Directorate, a state-run department that funds mosques, churches and synagogues, refuse to recognise Alevi cemevi as places of worship. Or at least they did until Brussels started presenting the EU candidate state with paragraphs on minority rights in its treaties. Suspicion of Alevis is however deeply rooted in secular yet Sunni Turkey.

Incest rites and orgies

From the magnificent Sultan Ahmet Camii, or Blue Mosque, in the heart of the Old Town of Istanbul, practicing Muslims pour out from Friday prayers into the street and soon mix with crowds of tourists and vendors of religious kitsch.We Sunnis do not believe that Alevis are real Muslims, even if some of them seem to believe it themselves. They do not fast during Ramadan; they do not go to mosques ... they have strange ideas, a middle-aged man who lingers around the mosque in the cold autumn sun to enjoy a roasted corn cob together with his son.The man says he is not bothered with the Alevis in his daily life, for that, he is far too busy. But he would not want his son, Mehmet, a lanky teenager who translates his fathers words into correct school English, to marry an Alevi woman, he says.Turkish media have reported about assaults on alcohol sellers in neighbourhoods with both Sunni and Alevi populations. Some commentators argue that the assaults have nothing to with Islamic resistance to alcohol in general - the centre of Istanbul is full of bars who serve the same kind of alcoholic beverages as in any other European metropolis - but rather come from anger from the neighbours that Alevis have moved into the quarter. False rumours about Alevis engaging in group-sex and conducting religious rites in cemevis involving incest are also widespread.

Alevi goes to court

But despite the intolerance shown them, Alevi self-confidence has grown considerably over the last few years. Many look to the West for support.Last year, an Alevi parent took the Ankara government to the European Court of Human Rights, angered over the fact that his daughter had to participate in compulsory Sunni religion classes. The Strasbourg-based court ruled that the school's biased teaching was not upholding principles of pluralism and objectivity, and demanded that the Turkish government develop new school curricula. So far, no new curricula have emerged. Early this month, however, the governing AKP announced that they might be open to the teaching of Alevi faith in Turkish schools.Religion class should depart from individual demands. If Alevis want to learn the Alevi faith, then we can pave the way for this, Nihat Ergun, deputy leader of the AKP parliamentary group recently told media in Ankara.Furthermore, following EU remarks on what the union perceives as intolerance against non-Sunnis within the Turkish government, Ankara has throughout the year promised Brussels it will increase the rights of the Alevi and other minorities. But the Religious Affairs Directorate refuses to fund cemevis. Instead, the culture ministry will handle the matter, somewhat surprisingly though, as the culture minister had earlier said his ministry had nothing to do with the representation of religious groups.The state cannot define what is a faith, and what is not, culture minister Ertugrul Gunay told Turkish media late last month.

Islam and Europe

The role of muslims in Europe and European attitudes towards Islam has moved up the political agenda in the EU, with the bloc officially celebrating the year of intercultural dialogue throughout 2008.Focusing on religious education in schools, EU culture commissioner Jan Figel said earlier this year that in most European schools, students are separated according to faith and are taught separately and only about their own religion. He said he would encourage member states to review school curricula so that pupils will receive knowledge of the cultures they live with and around, such as Islamic cultures. Individual MEPs have pointed out that even in countries that are not very religious, people should know more about religion, if for no other reason than to be able to distinguish what is not religion - referring to the fact that people wrongly link violence and terrorism to Islam. Alevi leader Muharrem Ercan from the Karacaahmet Sultan cemevi in Istanbul said recently in an interview that he believes that Alevi doctrine can improve relations between Islam and the West, saying: We solved the issue of whether Islam could be tolerant 750 years ago. He said it is now up to the rest of Turkey to catch up with them.

OBAMA WATCH CENTRAL Corsi detention orchestrated by Obama's political friend
Investigative reporter held in Kenya while reviewing president-elect's links
December 20, 2008 12:30 am Eastern 2008 WorldNetDaily

WND senior staff writer Jerry Corsi

The Kenyan official who reportedly orchestrated the detention of WND senior staff reporter Jerome R. Corsi when he visited Kenya to investigate President-elect Barack Obama's close ties to the nation's prime minister, Raila Odinga, was Odinga himself, according to WND sources inside Kenya. Corsi, whose recent book, The Obama Nation, raised questions about the Democrat when he was a candidate for president, had scheduled a news conference in Nairobi to discuss his discoveries during his visit this fall. However, he was detained by immigration officials and held without food for much of a day until he was escorted onto his already-booked flight leaving Kenya with the sendoff, See you in hell.Now sources inside Kenya have reported to WND that his detention was orchestrated by Odinga, not President Mwai Kibaki or Vice President Kalonzo Musyoka. Corsi, in fact, had discussed with governmental officials for the president and vice-president his findings, and they provided no objection to his scheduled press conference. However, investigations conducted for WND by members of Odinga's own party, the Orange Democratic Movement, reported the links to Odinga. The investigators are being left unidentified by WND for their own safety. The Kenyan sources for WND identified the links between the detention and Odinga as a bodyguard for Odinga, identified by sources only by the name Magajo, and an immigration minister, Mr. C. Nyangeso. Both were contacted by telephone in Kenya by WND. Get the full story about an Obama presidency: The Obama Nation, by Corsi, at a special $4.95 price! Nyangeso responded to a query from WND about who gave the orders that Corsi be detained by admitting he had information, but he would not disclose it on the phone, promising to e-mail it later. The e-mail did not arrive.

The bodyguard told WND on the telephone he also knew the source of the orders for Corsi's detention, but he would not reveal any information before a payment of $600 would be delivered to him. WND previously has reported Corsi, while in Kenya, shared with the offices of Kibaki and Musyoka copies of his prepared remarks for the scheduled Oct. 7 press conference in Nairobi that was shut down when he was detained by Kenyan military and immigration authorities. Through the day when I was detained and prevented from giving the press conference in Kenya, top Kenyan immigration officers who were Kikuyu tribesmen identified themselves and told me Odinga had made the phone calls which led to my detention, Corsi told WND.

Sen. Barack Obama with Raila Odinga

I had been in Kenya for a week and was planning to hold the press conference on the last day I was in Kenya, Corsi said. After extensive meetings with the government, I knew the office of the president and vice president knew the press conference was scheduled and had no problems with the statements I was going to make about my investigations in the country.Corsi's prepared statements, published later by WND, established links between Obama and Odinga's presidential campaign in Kenya, including documentary evidence showing Obama helped raise nearly $1 million for Odinga's presidential campaign in three separate visits Odinga made to the U.S. with the assistance of Obama's staff. Corsi also was prepared to release 2006 e-mail documents handed to him in Kenya by former ODM party members and validated by the sources as authentic that established Obama designated Mark Lippert in his U.S. Senate office to be the go-between in communications with Odinga. Lippert was identified by the Chicago Sun-Times as a member of Obama's inner circle of foreign policy experts who is expected to join Obama's White House staff. Corsi also was prepared to present at the press conference additional confirmation of the authenticity of the memorandum of understanding Odinga signed with Sheik Abdullah Abdi, the chairman of the National Muslim Leaders Forum to expand Islamic law, or Shariah, in Kenya. In exchange, NAMLEF agreed to swing Muslim voters to Odinga in the December 2007 presidential election. In Kenya, Corsi also was told by government authorities, without confirming that Obama was born in Kenya, that the government's position was that any documents that might exist regarding Obama's birth in Kenya were under seal or otherwise unavailable. I was able to interview Obama’s uncle, Sayid Obama, the brother of Obama's father, when I was doing the research for The Obama Nation, Corsi said. But Auma Obama, Obama's half-sister, declined an interview by telephone, telling me that the Obama campaign had advised the Obama family not to speak with me, either from the United States by phone, or in person in Kenya.Kibaki and Odinga this week created a special tribunal to investigate allegations that various Kenyan cabinet members and other prominent politicians were involved in the post-election tribal violence in which enraged Luo tribesmen rampaged after Odinga alleged voter fraud had caused him to lose the 2007 election. As WND reported, more than 1,000 largely-Kikuyu tribal members, including women and children, were killed and up to half a million Kikuyu tribal family members were displaced in tribal violence. Odinga utilized the chaos, with the intervention of former-U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Obama, to assume the position of prime minister in a power-sharing agreement that ended the violence.

Both Odinga and Obama's extended family members are Luo tribe members, while Kibaki is a Kikuyu. But violence also left hundreds of Christian churches destroyed, but Islamic mosques were undamaged.This tribunal is just more cover-up, Corsi said. By acting as prime minister and assisting in forming the tribunal, Odinga is cleverly trying to move himself from the person who should be investigated for causing the tribal violence to the government authority who is doing the investigating. After losing the election, Odinga called on his Luo tribe supporters to take to the streets, knowing full well this was a call to violence, Corsi charged. The violence only ended when Odinga got what he wanted and the prime minister position was created so he could claim to be co-head of state with Kibaki.The Kenyan constitution has no provision to establish an office of prime minister under a government in which the president is elected by popular vote to be sole head of state. In Kenya, Corsi was told by government authorities that Rice had asked Vice President Musyoka to step down voluntarily so Odinga could be appointed to replace him. When Musyoka refused, Rice, in conjunction with Annan and Obama, came up with the alternative to create for Odinga the position of prime minister, disregarding the constitutionality of the move. Kibaki and Odinga agreed to sign the bill creating the tribunal investigating the post-election violence within hours of a deadline set by the International Criminal Court. Had the Kenyan government not acted to create the investigating tribunal, the International Criminal Court was planning to assume the authority at The Hague. Obama continues to remain silent about his close relationship to Odinga, for obvious reasons, Corsi said. Obama has no interest in the U.S. public understanding how strongly he supported Odinga, a fellow Luo tribesman, for the Kenyan presidency (and) Odinga's willingness to sign an agreement with radical Islam and his willingness to exploit the post-election tribal violence as a way to catapult himself into a co-head of state relationship after losing the presidential election.WND has documented that the Kibaki government objected to what was perceived in Kenya as Obama's endorsement of Odinga's presidential run and his campaigning on Odinga's behalf. The appearances came while Obama was in Kenya on a U.S. taxpayer-paid fact-finding visit. Corsi had scheduled the Oct. 7 press conference on the morning of the day he was scheduled to take an 11:45 p.m. British Airways flight from Nairobi to London. I feared my life would be in danger once I revealed the information and documents I had uncovered in Kenya, Corsi said, so I scheduled to leave that evening, once I had completed the press conference and had some time to do follow-up one-on-one interviews with interested reporters.During his visit to Kenya, Corsi held extensive private meetings with numerous highly positioned government officials, former leaders of Odinga's ODM party, influential Christian missionaries, African Christian pastors and various long-time experts in Kenyan politics.

About 15 minutes before the press conference was scheduled to begin at the Grand Regency Hotel in Nairobi, Corsi was confronted by about 30 Kenyan immigration officers and uniformed military armed with automatic rifles, demanding to see his passport. Corsi was taken by the immigration authorities and detained at Nyayo House, the provincial government headquarters in Nairobi, for what turned into 13 hours of detention, during which Kenyan officials conducted an official investigation into his immigration status. Immigration officials detaining Corsi assured him he was not under arrest and that he was not being charged with any crimes, even though they insisted he accompany them to the main Nairobi immigration building. Corsi later was escorted by immigration officials and armed military to the airport, where his cell phone was confiscated until he was allowed to leave Kenya on his originally scheduled British Airways flight. While escorting Corsi to the flight, an unidentified Kenyan immigration official told him, Don't ever come back. See you in hell.

Israeli strike kills Gaza militant DEC 20,08

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip – Palestinian medics say an Israeli strike has killed a militant in the Gaza Strip.The militant is the first person to be killed since Gaza's Hamas leaders said they wouldn't extend a truce with Israel.Palestinian medic Moawiya Hassanein says the militant was killed in northern Gaza on Saturday. Israeli security officials say the man was about to fire rockets at Israel.Details about the strike were not available.The truce began June 19, but increasingly unraveled in recent weeks. Hamas said Friday it would not extend the cease-fire.Israel says the truce has no expiration date, but its forces have responded to renewed rocket fire with air strikes.

BUSH BAILS OUT AUTO COMPANIES

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 bringing wintry misery to Midwest By The Associated Press DEC 19,08

AP – A snowboarder heads down a side street and past snowed-in cars in Seattle's Queen Anne neighborhood during … A major winter storm cut power to tens of thousands of customers Friday, canceled hundreds of airline flights and gave schoolchildren from Iowa to New England an early start on their holiday break.I'm going to leave town as soon as I'm able. I can't continue to do winter in Chicago, said Patricia Singleton, whose commute downtown from a Chicago suburb took three times as long as it normally does.We expected this, so I prepared and left early, said Singleton, 50. But I've had enough. My husband is retiring in three years and I told him we've got to move south.More than 300 flights were canceled at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport, and ahead of the storm, nearly 600 were canceled at New York City-area airports.Runways at Milwaukee's airport were closed for much of the morning because snowplows could not keep up with whiteout conditions, airport spokeswoman Pat Rowe said.Snowfall affected a large region, but the worst of the ice storm — and resulting power outages — was in a band across northern Illinois, Indiana and Ohio. Power companies reported 60,000 customers in Illinois without service Friday morning, 120,000 in Indiana, and more than 35,000 in Ohio.Freezing rain was also a problem in Iowa, but authorities there said only scattered power outages were reported, because there wasn't much wind to bring ice-laden tree limbs down onto power lines.Up to a foot of snow was forecast across much of Michigan, and some areas reported wind gusts of up to 25 to 30 mph. The predicted snow total would threaten a Detroit record for the date set in 1973, when 8.7 inches fell at the airport.

Schools were closed across the region.

In the Northeast, hard hit by last week's ice storm, snowfall totals of up to 15 inches were forecast. Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick asked nonessential state employees to stay home.In New Hampshire, several thousand homes and businesses were still in the dark more than a week after last week's storm. Gov. John Lynch said authorities were hoping to get utilities to improve their communication with customers.I certainly understand that people in New Hampshire are cold, they're tired, and in many cases they're frustrated, especially with Christmas coming, Lynch said.On Wednesday and Thursday, wintry weather had made life miserable in parts of the West. A record December snowfall of 3.6 inches was recorded in Las Vegas, while in Spokane, Wash., nearly 2 feet of snow fell.Associated Press writers Rupa Shenoy in Chicago and Kathy McCormack in Concord, N.H., contributed to this report.

Snow storm snags northeast US airports DEC 19,08

NEW YORK (AFP) – A snowstorm blanketing much of the northeast of the United States snarled air traffic Friday and prompted a government shutdown in Massachusetts.Half a dozen airports suffered delays, according to the Federal Aviation Authority (FAA), as the storm swept from Lake Michigan to the Atlantic coast.Delays of almost two hours were experienced for planes flying to Detroit, five and a half hours for Newark, New Jersey, more than three hours for planes going to JFK in New York, and half an hour to Chicago.In Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the General Mitchell International Airport closed indefinitely, the FAA said.In Massachusetts, Governor Deval Patrick ordered government workers to stay home, except for those in emergency services.We encourage the private sector employers to take similar actions. Those who must travel are encouraged to take public transportation. These actions should help facilitate more effective snow removal and minimize the possibility of a long, slow, dangerous homebound commute, the government website said.

Ice storm knocks out power to 220,000 in Midwest Fri Dec 19, 10:10 am ET

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Snow and ice storms across the U.S. Midwest knocked out power service to more than 220,000 homes and businesses in Illinois, Indiana and Ohio early Friday, local utilities reported.The storm left 161,000 customers out in Indiana, 47,000 out in Illinois and 15,000 out in Ohio. The utilities said the outages would likely grow as the storm marches across the Midwest toward the Atlantic Coast.The large storm was expected to drop snow from Minnesota to Connecticut, with ice and freezing rain falling in northern Indiana, Ohio and western Pennsylvania.Freezing rain was causing more damage to the power system than the snow because the ice weighs down tree branches, snapping them onto power lines.

American Electric Power Co Inc's Indiana Michigan Power unit was reporting the most outages with more than 94,000 customers out in Indiana.AEP, of Columbus, Ohio, owns and operates more than 38,000 MW of generating capacity, markets energy commodities, and transmits and distributes electricity to more than 5 million customers in 11 states.(Reporting by Scott DiSavino; editing by Jim Marshall)

Las Vegas gets record Dec. snowfall, 3.6 inches By KEN RITTER, Associated Press Writer – Fri Dec 19, 3:14 am ET

LAS VEGAS – Flights resumed in and out of Las Vegas, but schools and highways were closed Thursday after a record-setting snowfall coated marquees on the Strip, weighed down palm trees and blanketed surrounding mountain areas.The city awoke to clear weather after a storm that left 3.6 inches at McCarran International Airport. It was biggest December snowfall on record there, and the worst for any month since a 7 1/2-inch accumulation in January 1979, forecasters said.The storm Wednesday and early Thursday also dumped snow or rain and snarled travel in other parts of Nevada, much of southern California and parts of northern Arizona.It looks like Whoville, all snowy, but with less joy and more extreme misery, said Calen Weiss, 19, who was stuck Wednesday when snow in the Cajon Pass east of Los Angeles disrupted travel on Interstate 15.Cajon Pass and another leg of Interstate 15 near the Nevada line both reopened by midday Thursday, while Interstate 5, the major route between Northern and Southern California, partially reopened.In Washington state, Seattle got a rare 4-inch accumulation, and the 19.4 inches of snow that piled up at Spokane International Airport smashed the 24-hour record total of 13 inches set in 1950. And snow continued to fall — 23.3 inches had piled up in Spokane in the 36-hour period that ended at 4 p.m. Thursday.The city of 200,000 declared a Condition Red snow emergency, meaning crews will work around the clock until they complete a full city plow.

The storm was heading east. Northern Illinois was forecast to receive up to 14 inches of snow Thursday night and Friday, while Michigan's Lower Peninsula was expecting up to 10. Road commissions were on high alert with snow and salting teams standing by, and some people left work early and made a run on gas and grocery stores.For Las Vegas, the storm left heavy wet accumulations of snow along the famed Strip. At least one carport toppled under the accumulated weight, authorities said, and motorists in Henderson parked their cars and walked home when tires spun as they tried to navigate slippery uphill climbs.Thursday was the first snow day for Clark County schools since the 1979 storm, district spokesman Michael Rodriguez said.

Airlines resumed flights Thursday after canceling dozens of them late Wednesday, McCarran airport spokesman Jerry Pascual said.Visibility has lifted. The outlook for the day is much better, Pascual said as the sun rose Thursday. Pascual said just one flight had gotten out overnight and stranded travelers were forced to sleep on lounge seats and floors at the nation's sixth-busiest airport.In Arizona, snow was widespread in the state's higher elevations, with 24-hour accumulations reaching 10 inches in Flagstaff by daybreak. By 10 a.m. Thursday, official weather service measurements had 18 inches of snow on the ground in Flagstaff.Authorities said major highways were open but advised drivers to be careful of packed snow and ice.In western Washington, the Seattle School District had been mocked by some for closing schools Wednesday with just a threat of snow. The threat became a reality Thursday, and 4 inches of snow by midday left many drivers spinning their wheels on slippery roads.The National Weather Service said the city even had an episode of thundersnow" when a storm cell moved across Puget Sound.Rachel Bjork, 36, waited in vain for a downtown bus at a stop in north Seattle as four outbound buses passed.I'm getting a little annoyed. It's cold, Bjork said. I would suspect there's probably going to be four people at work. Usually there's 30.In Kitsap County, across Puget Sound from Seattle, authorities said freezing weather may have claimed the life of a 36-year-old man who wandered from his house wearing only light clothing. Deputies said he had been ill and there was no evidence of foul play. Even Malibu, Calif., got a dusting of snow Wednesday, as the usually balmy city saw a half-inch in the afternoon. It's kind of cool if you think about it, said Craig Levy, director of a juvenile detention camp. It's kind of unusual to see snow in Malibu.Associated Press writers Robert Jablon in Los Angeles, Elliot Spagat in San Diego and Nicholas K. Geranios in Spokane, Wash., contributed to this report.

YAHOO NEWS VIDEO
http://news.yahoo.com/video

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

ABC NEWS VIDEO
http://news.yahoo.com/video/2461

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

FOX BUSINESS VIDEO
http://news.yahoo.com/video/3045

AP NEWS VIDEO
http://news.yahoo.com/video/2529

BBC NEWS VIDEO
http://news.yahoo.com/video/2918

REUTERS VIDEO NEWS
http://news.yahoo.com/video/2704

AFP NEWS VIDEO
http://news.yahoo.com/video/3091

CNBC NEWS VIDEO
http://news.yahoo.com/video/3245

HOARDING OF GOLD AND SILVER

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

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

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

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

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

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

HALF HOUR DOW RESULTS FRI DEC 19,2008

09:30 AM +2.23
10:00 AM +71.05
10:30 AM +166.62
11:00 AM +128.39
11:30 AM +94.07
12:00 PM +11.95
12:30 PM +13.30
01:00 PM +8.52
01:30 PM +55.75
02:00 PM +26.60
02:30 PM +1.36
03:00 PM -7.17
03:30 PM -21.46
04:00 PM -25.88 8579.11

S&P 500 887.87 +2.59

NASDAQ 1564.32 +11.95

GOLD 840.30 -20.30

OIL 33.87 -2.35

TSE 300 8497.41 +72.06

CDNX 699.13 -1.32

S&P/TSX/60 513.60 +2.90

MORNING,NEWS,STATS

Dow +104 points at 4 minutes of trading today.
Dow +146 points at high.
Dow +9 points at low.

NYSE STATS:
Advances 2340,Declines 553,Unchanged 86,New highs 8,New Lows 11.
NASDAQ STATS:
Advances 1826,Declines 587,Unchanged 153.

DOLLAR DROPS 7% TO THE EURO IN THE LAST WEEK.
U.S to provide $17.4 BILLION in Auto Loan Bailout.
WSJ:Ford still seeking $9 BILLION credit line from the Government yet.

AFTERNOON,NEWS,STATS

Dow -1 points at low today.
Dow +180 points at high today.

UNTAPPING TARP (Henry Paulson)
It is clear,however,that congress will need to release the remainder of the tarp to support financial market stability. I will discuss that process with the congressional leadership and President-Elects transition team in the near future.
UNLOCKING $350 BILLION:
-President mustsubmit report detailing how $'s will be used.
-Congress must disapprove of the request within 15 days.
-President can Veto disapproval.

WRAPUP,NEWS,STATS

Dow +180 points at high.
Dow -54 at low.
Dow -0.3% today.
S&P +0.1% today.
Nasdaq +0.7% today
INDICES THIS WEEK
Dow-0.7%
S&P +0.8%
Nasdaq +1.5%

Stocks mixed on close.
RETALERS WEAK AS CHRISTMAS APPROACHES.
Nasdaq on track for 1st monthly gain since August.
S&P,Nasdaq post 2nd consecutive weekly gain.
S&P,Dow on pace to post 4th consecutive month of losses.
Oil falls 75% since July record high.
Oil near 5 year Low(FEB 2004)on oil plunge today($33).
WSJ:International Olympic Committee Victim of Madoff.
30 Organizations,Individuals victims of Madoff.

Bailout approved: Automakers to get $17.4B By DEB RIECHMANN, Associated Press Writer DEC 19,08

WASHINGTON – Citing danger to the national economy, President Bush approved an emergency bailout of the U.S. auto industry Friday, offering $17.4 billion in rescue loans in exchange for tough concessions from the deeply troubled carmakers and their workers.The government will have the option of becoming a stockholder in the companies, much as it has with major banks, in effect partially nationalizing the industry.At the same time, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said Congress should release the second $350 billion from the financial rescue fund that it approved in October to bail out huge financial institutions. Tapping the fund for the auto industry basically exhausts the first half of the $700 billion total, he said.On Wall Street, stock prices rallied as investors cheered the government's action, though early gains eased later in the day.Allowing the massive auto industry to collapse in the middle of what is already a severe recession cannot be allowed, Bush said.It would worsen a weak job market and exacerbate the financial crisis, he said. It could send our suffering economy into a deeper and longer recession. And it would leave the next president to confront the demise of a major American industry in his first days of office.President-elect Barack Obama, who takes office a month from Saturday, praised the White House move.Today's actions are a necessary step to help avoid a collapse in our auto industry that would have devastating consequences for our economy and our workers, he said. With the short-term assistance provided by this package, the auto companies must bring all their stakeholders together — including labor, dealers, creditors and suppliers — to make the hard choices necessary to achieve long-term viability.If the carmakers fail to prove viability by March 31, they will be required to repay the loans, which they would find all but impossible. A firm will be deemed viable only if it can show positive cash flow and can fully repay the government loans.

General Motors Corp. CEO Rick Wagoner said in Detroit that GM had much work ahead but he was confident it could reinvent itself with the government help and even lead an economic recovery in America.The president of the United Auto Workers, Ron Gettelfinger, said, This will keep the doors of America's factories open, keep Americans working and prevent the devastating economic consequences for millions of Americans and thousands of businesses that would have resulted from a liquidation of operations by one or more auto companies.Bush said, The time to make hard decisions to become viable is now, or the only option will be bankruptcy. The automakers and unions must understand what is at stake and make hard decisions necessary to reform.

Some $13.4 billion of the money would be available this month and next — $9.4 billion of it for General Motors and $4 billion for Chrysler LLC. GM is slated to receive the remaining $4 billion in loans after more money is released from the financial rescue account.

Not everyone was applauding the bailout.

House Republican leader John Boehner called the administration's plan regrettable. He said that granting loans for automakers was never the intention when Congress passed the $700 billion plan to rescue financial institutions and that the new plan has failed both autoworkers and taxpayers.Bush said the companies' workers should agree to wage and work rules that are competitive with foreign automakers by the end of next year.And he called for elimination of a jobs bank program — negotiated by the United Auto Workers and the companies — under which laid-off workers can receive about 95 percent of their pay and benefits for years. Early this month, the UAW agreed to suspend the program.Under terms of the loan, GM and Chrysler must provide the government with stock warrants giving it the option to buy GM and Chrysler stock at a specific price. In addition, the automakers would be required to agree to limits on executive pay and eliminate some perks such as corporate jets. Paulson said that with the help for the carmakers, the government will have allocated the first half of the largest government bailout program in history. He said he was confident that the Treasury Department, Federal Reserve and Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. have the resources to address a significant market crisis if one should occur before Congress approves the use of the second half of the rescue fund.

Paulson said he would discuss the process with congressional leaders and Obama's transition team in the near future.Friday's rescue plan retains the idea of a car czar to make sure the auto companies are keeping their promises and moving toward long-term viability. The short-term overseer will be Paulson. But the White House deputy chief of staff, Joel Kaplan, said that if the Obama team wants someone else installed to bridge the administrations, Bush is open to that. Kaplan said there have been discussions with Obama's aides throughout the process and the White House believes Obama's view of the problem and the solution tracks with theirs. The White House package is the lifeline desperately sought by U.S. automakers, who warned they were running out of money as the economy fell deeper into recession, car loans became scarce and consumers stopped shopping for cars. The carmakers have announced extended holiday shutdowns. Chrysler is closing all 30 of its North American manufacturing plants for four weeks because of slumping sales; Ford will shut 10 North American assembly plants for an extra week in January, and General Motors will temporarily close 20 factories — many for the entire month of January — to cut vehicle production. Bush said the automakers have faced serious challenges for many years: burdensome costs, a shrinking share of the market and plunging profits. In recent months, the global financial crisis has made these challenges even more severe, he said. Under ordinary economic circumstances, I would say this is the price that failed companies must pay, the president said. And I would not favor intervening to prevent the automakers from going out of business. But these are not ordinary circumstances. In the midst of a financial crisis and a recession, allowing the U.S. auto industry to collapse is not a responsible course of action.Chrysler CEO Bob Nardelli thanked the administration for its help. In a statement Friday morning, Nardelli said the initial injection of capital will help the company get through its cash crisis and help eventually return to profitability. He said Chrysler was committed to meeting the conditions set by Bush in exchange for the money. Ford President and CEO Alan Mulally said his company would not seek the short-term financial assistance but predicted the aid would stabilize the industry. The U.S. auto industry is highly interdependent, and a failure of one of our competitors would have a ripple effect that could jeopardize millions of jobs and further damage the already weakened U.S. economy, Mulally said.

Oil rises on strengthening dollar, auto bailout By DIRK LAMMERS, AP Energy Writer DEC 19,08

AFP – Drivers stage a protest in the streets of Manila demanding that diesel fuel prices be brought down further … Oil prices stabilized Friday as the White House's $17.4 billion auto industry rescue package gave Wall Street a boost and the dollar strengthened against the euro.Light, sweet crude for February delivery rose 92 cents to $42.59 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract overnight fell $2.94 to settle at $41.67.The January contract, which expires Friday, fell 82 cents to $35.40, but fell as low as $33.44, a price last seen more than four years ago.

Analysts are largely discounting the January price, with the volume of the next month contract trading at 13 times the volume. Yet analyst Jim Ritterbusch said pre-expiration lows do provide a downside target to the next contract.Ritterbusch, president of energy consultancy Ritterbusch and Associates, said the market is sending strong signals that an oversupplied market will remain in place for some time.I think it's going to work its way down to today's lows in the January futures, he said.In London, February Brent crude rose 18 cents to $43.54 barrel on the ICE.

The extreme volatility in energy markets this year, which have seen crude pushed from $100 to $150 between January and July, and back down to $33 this month, has become an urgent global issue.At an energy summit Friday on London, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown warned that a failure to stabilize oil prices could cost the global economy trillions.Wild fluctuations in market prices harm nations all round the world, Brown said. They damage consumers and producers alike.OPEC Secretary-General Abdullah El-Badri acknowledged the problem.We all know that extreme oil prices whether too high or too low are as bad for producers as they are for consumers, El-Badri said.Meanwhile, Zeljko Bogetic, the World Bank's chief economist in Russia, told investors that the oil-rich nation would come under crippling financial pressure and may need to take out loans if crude prices do not rebound.If oil prices in 2009 and 2010 average $30 a barrel, that would be a nightmare scenario for a global economy, Bogetic said.Russia, which has used oil profits during the past eight years to pay down most of its foreign debt and build up a vast stockpile of international reserves, could turn from creditor to borrower if current trends continue.At $50 a barrel, Russia could drain much of its reserve funds and run budgetary deficits, but would not face a meltdown scenario, Bogetic said.Earlier this week, the 13-nation Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries slashed its output quota by 2.2 million barrels a day in a bid to bolster prices that have slid about 71 percent since July.Still, crude prices tumbled amid a bevy of dour economic reports suggesting demand for energy will continued to erode.

The cut had been priced in, said Clarence Chu, a trader with market-maker Hudson Capital Energy in Singapore. If OPEC hadn't cut that much, the price would have fallen even more.Stephen Berman, an analyst with Pritchard Capital Partners, said OPEC may meet again in Kuwait on Jan. 19 to discuss further production cuts. Analysts say disciplined compliance by OPEC members is key to market reaction and the stabilization of oil prices in the near future. Some OPEC members have a history of ignoring quotas, allowing oil power house Saudi Arabia to carry most of the burden of production cuts. Perception of progress is key to the movement of the oil price in the next few months, KBC Market Services in Britain said in a report. JP Morgan on Thursday cut its 2009 price target for oil to $43 a barrel from $69. The national retail average price for a gallon of regular gas rose three-tenths of a penny to $1.673 a gallon overnight, according to auto club AAA, the Oil Price Information Service and Wright Express. That is about 37 cents a gallon below what it was a month ago and more than $2.43 below where it was in July when prices peaked at $4.11 per gallon. In other Nymex trading, gasoline futures less than a penny to 97.18 cents a gallon. Heating oil gained 2.7 cents to $1.40 a gallon while natural gas for January delivery advanced 9.8 cents to $5.646 per 1,000 cubic feet. Associated Press writer Alex Kennedy in Singapore, Pablo Gorondi in Budapest, Hungary, Emily Flynn Vencat in London and Catrina Stewart in Moscow contributed to this report.

Commerzbank to lend more to small companies DEC 19,08

BERLIN – Germany's Commerzbank AG said Friday that it will lend an extra euro2.5 billion ($3.6 billion) to small and medium-sized companies under an agreement that will see it get fresh capital from the country's financial-sector rescue fund.

Commerzbank, Germany's second-biggest bank, announced last month that it would get an injection of euro8.2 billion from the government-created fund.It said in a statement Friday that the agreement has now been finalized, adding that it would use the increase in capital to expand our loan volume.The bank said market interest rates would be charged on the extra euro2.5 billion in loans being offered to small and medium-sized companies in Germany, and normal risk and credit rating criteria would be applied.Commerzbank said its credit volume to small and medium German companies grew to some euro43 billion ($60 billion) over the first 11 months of this year.Commerzbank is one of several German banks that have applied for help from the bailout package worth up to euro500 ($697) billion that Chancellor Angela Merkel's government passed in October.

Canada auto plan expected to be unveiled Saturday DEC 19,08 By John McCrank

TORONTO (Reuters) – Prime Minister Stephen Harper will unveil an aid package for Canada's auto industry on Saturday, responding to Washington's move to provide U.S.-based automakers with $17.4 billion in emergency funding.The Canadian package could amount to several billion dollars. The governments of Canada and the province of Ontario have said they would provide an amount proportionate to the automakers' footprint in Canada, estimated at about 20 percent of North American production capacity.Harper views the U.S. aid package as a very positive development, his spokesman said on Friday.The spokesman declined to give more details of what Harper would announce on Saturday. The prime minister will appear with Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty.Eddie Francis, mayor of Windsor, Ontario, across the border from Detroit, said he spoke to Harper last Friday about the crisis in the auto industry.

He left me with the impression that they were on top of it and I walked away very reassured that they understood the significance of this industry to the economy, he said.About 45,000 jobs in Windsor are tied directly to the auto industry.Our lifeline is extended today -- we are not out of the woods yet -- but what it means is that this industry has bought 90 days and our communities have bought 90 days, he said.U.S. President George W. Bush said on Friday his government would provide the beleaguered automakers with emergency loans while they implement plans to restructure. The aim is to prevent an industry collapse that could send the economy into a deeper and longer recession, leading to massive unemployment.The Detroit Three -- General Motors Corp, Ford Motor Co and Chrysler -- have been hit hard by the sharp slowdown in U.S. consumer and business spending.GM and Chrysler have asked for bridge loans and credit guarantees to keep them alive while restructuring. Ford has asked for a line of credit to be tapped if its finances worsen more than expected.The companies have until the end of March to present viable restructuring plans or the loans will be called back.It provides a wonderful framework for the Canadian government to mimic the terms of the deal, said Dennis DesRosiers, president of DesRosiers Automotive Consultants Inc. It also allows the Canadian (and Ontario) governments an avenue to also demand that the unions in Canada play.He said that since the U.S. deal forces the companies to quickly become more viable, the Canadian arms of the Detroit Three will have to follow suit, or future investments in Canada would be questionable.The Canadian Auto Workers union has said it would be part of the solution, but has resisted wage and benefit cuts.The CAW is set to hold a news conference early Friday afternoon to give its view on the auto aid package.

We don't know what GM or Chrysler has put on the table in terms of Canadian operations, said Richard Cooper, executive director of Canadian operations at J.D. Power & Associates.They are going to have to make a lot of changes, and we don't know what those changes are going to look like and how they will impact the Canadian operations.Rob Wildeboer, executive chairman of Vaughan, Ontario-based auto parts maker Martinrea International, which relies on the Detroit Three for about 80 percent of its business, said he is encouraged by the plan and believes Canadian lawmakers will be able to move forward quickly on their own package. This also allows them to look at the broader perspective of the automotive industry in Ontario and Canada and how to protect the interests of the suppliers and tool and dye makers and this allows us to move forward, he said. Officials at GM, Ford and Chrysler were not immediately available for comment on what the U.S. package would mean for Canada. ($1=$1.21 Canadian) (Reporting by John McCrank in Toronto; Additional reporting by David Ljunggren; editing by Peter Galloway)

Canada eyes up to C$30 billion in deficit spending By David Ljunggren and Randall Palmer – Fri Dec 19, 10:11 am ET

OTTAWA (Reuters) – Canada will break a 12-year string of budget surpluses and run a deficit of as much as C$30 billion ($25 billion) next year to kick-start the economy, Prime Minister Stephen Harper says.Harper, whose Conservatives have long fought against deficits and increases in public spending, told CTV in a year-end interview aired late on Thursday that the deficit would be short term.What will be more realistic, in terms of the kind of stimulus our economy will need, is going to be in the C$20 to C$30 billion range, he said. These are the policies we must adopt under these circumstances.The higher amount of C$30 billion represents about 2 percent of Canada's economy, a stimulus target urged by the International Monetary Fund after November's Washington summit of the Group of 20 developed and developing nations.Harper made the remarks three weeks after delivering a fiscal update that his political opponents criticized for being overly rosy in its outlook for the economy, which has fallen into recession along with many others around the world.

The deficit spending will include billions of dollars for infrastructure and public housing construction, tax breaks to fuel consumer spending and training for unemployed workers.Anger over the fiscal update earlier this month prompted opposition parties to form a coalition that came close to toppling the minority Conservative government.

MIXED SIGNALS?

The largest opposition group, the Liberal Party, has since backed away from automatically trying to topple the government, saying it would examine the January 27budget before deciding.But Liberal economic spokesman Scott Brison, a former banker now in Parliament, said Harper and Finance Minister Jim Flaherty are sending mixed signals.Flaherty appointed an advisory council of eminent Canadians on Thursday morning to advise him on how much stimulus is needed and how to apply it.If Harper already knows the size and direction of his stimulus package, he ought to let Flaherty know, Brison told Reuters. Is he even interested in the views of his 'eminent' Canadian panel, or is that another charade? Brison also said the budget was headed for deficit even without a stimulus package.Parliamentary budget officer Kevin Page put out a memo on Thursday saying that if stimulus of C$30 billion were provided in the 2009-10 fiscal year, it would result in a C$34 billion deficit but this might not lead to permanent deficits.Harper said his plan would include aid for the aerospace, mining and forestry industries, which have been hit hard by the slowing economy and credit crunch.The federal government and that of the province of Ontario have already agreed to provide billions of dollars in aid to the Canadian subsidiaries of Detroit's Big Three automakers in conjunction with a U.S. bailout plan.Where I want to use taxpayers' money -- to the extent I can -- is to help ordinary people and help communities, Harper said.He said he would have no choice but to seek another election if the opposition Liberal, New Democrat and Bloc Quebecois parties vote down the budget in January and bring down the government.

Canadians elected our government. They were very clear about that. They gave us a strengthened mandate, he said. In the political crisis this month, the coalition had aimed to simply form the government after winning a confidence vote. But the opposition parties did not get the chance after Harper convinced the governor general -- who represents the formal head of state, Queen Elizabeth -- to suspend Parliament. (Additional reporting by Jeffrey Jones; Editing by Peter Galloway)

Paulson: Congress needs to release second $350B DEC 19,08 By MARTIN CRUTSINGER, AP Economics Writer.

WASHINGTON – Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said Friday that Congress will need to release the last half of the $700 billion rescue fund because the first $350 billion has been committed.Paulson said the use of the rescue fund to provide loans to the auto industry along with all the other rescue efforts for the financial system meant that the administration has now basically allocated the first half of the largest government bailout program in history.He said he was confident that the Treasury Department, Federal Reserve and Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. had the resources to address a significant market event if one should occur before Congress approves the use of the second half of the rescue fund.But it's important for Congress to release the second half of the rescue fund to support financial market stability, Paulson said in a statement.Paulson said he will be consulting with congressional leadership and President-elect Barack Obama's economic team to determine how to proceed.Under terms of the $700 billion rescue fund that Congress approved on Oct. 3, when the administration determines the second $350 billion is needed it has to submit a report to Congress detailing how it plans to use those funds.The money automatically will become available unless both houses of Congress pass legislation blocking the funds within 15 days of receiving the administration's report. The request is expected to generate significant debate on Capitol Hill with key Democrats vowing to block the release of more money unless the administration includes greater efforts to help homeowners threatened with foreclosure.

House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank, D-Mass., has said the administration must allocate some of the new money for borrowers facing foreclosure, and impose more conditions to make sure banks use their rescue funds to increase lending.They're not going to get the (money) unless they get very serious about the foreclosure modifications and showing us how we're going to get some lending out of the banks, Frank said earlier this month.Treasury officials said Friday that no decision had been made on when the request for the second $350 billion will be sent to Congress. They said Paulson was consulting on the matter with congressional leaders and members of Obama's transition team.In his statement, Paulson said the loans for Chrysler LLC and General Motors Corp. were being extended with the expectation that the two companies would move quickly to develop acceptable plans for long-term viability. The administration believed there was a need to help the two companies given the state of the economy, which is facing a severe financial crisis amid the longest recession in a quarter-century.This step will prevent significant disruption to our economy while putting the companies on a path to the significant restructuring necessary to achieve long-term viability, Paulson said. At the same time, we are including loan provisions to protect the taxpayers to the maximum extent possible.The initial $350 billion from the rescue fund includes $250 billion being used to buy stock in hundreds of banks as a way to bolster their balance sheets and get them to resume more normal lending. Critics have charged that not enough conditions have been imposed on those funds to make sure the banks use the money to increase lending.

EU states consider more spending to boost economy
LUCIA KUBOSOVA Today DEC 19,08 @ 08:36 CET

The European Commission and European Central Bank have urged member states to carry out plans to boost the economy while keeping the relaxed budgetary and debt limits, with Brussels suggesting the agreed recovery package should add around an 0.85 percent boost to GDP growth within the 27-strong bloc. EU finance ministers met at an informal session in Paris on late Thursday (18 December) to discuss the concrete details of the Europe's scenario on how to get out of the recession caused by the financial crisis.The recovery plan was agreed unanimously by the EU's premiers and presidents last week and it includes the pledge that member countries will pump in about 1.5 percent of the bloc's GDP (representing some €200 billion) into the European economy.It is a very important contribution to support demand and to try to make up for the reduction of activity in consumption and private investment, EU commissioner for economy and monetary affairs, Joaquin Almunia said, according to the Associated Press.French finance minister Christine Lagarde said at the Paris meeting that so-called automatic stabilisers - such as more public funds committed to social security, including state benefits for the unemployed and lower taxes - would provide a cumulative boost of 2.35 percent of EU's GDP growth.I learnt tonight that six member states are going to do more than they've already announced, she said about the details that had emerged when her colleagues presented their countries' economic plans, AFP has reported.Italy is one of the big EU states that had previously remained silent on possible recovery initiatives but on Thursday the right-wing government of Silvio Berlusconi announced a financial injection of €6.6 billion on infrastructure projects to boost the country's economy.But some experts argue that most spending ideas have so far only been presented by politicians and not really put into practice, while the government schemes to save banks have been linked with political conditions that many banks are refusing to sign up to, sparking fears that not enough is being done in Europe to stop the recession.

Jean-Claude Juncker, the ECB president and also present at the Paris gathering, argued that national plans to boost public investment should move from paper to concrete projects as soon as possible. However, he also repeatedly pointed out that the EU's stability and growth pact, with its strict rules on public deficit and debt thresholds should be respected, with the 2005 reform of the pact allowing enough flexibility for the extraordinary situation that Europe is now facing.It is very important that we precisely respect the pact, full utilisation of the pact, full utilisation of the room for manoeuvring in the pact, he said, but added: For some countries, we are arriving at levels of debt or absence of economic sustainability that prevent them from doing more than they are now, he said.

Euro swings against dollar

EU finance ministers also discussed increasing the IMF's budget as well as setting up an early monitoring system to warn countries heading into difficulty. We decided to explore all the options, that is to say European options, bilateral options, increasing quotas, an increase through supplementary loans, issuing bonds and other financial instruments, French minister Lagarde told journalists. She added that the meeting debated recent currency movements - the euro dropped to $1.4313 in late New York trading from $1.4349 late Wednesday, while the 15-strong eurozone's currency peaked at $1.4719 in overnight trading, its highest point since late September.I have a special concern for the very abrupt volatility that we are observing on this matter and for European exporters in particular, it´s going to be a competitive disadvantage that comes upon extremely suddenly,Ms Lagarde said, according to AP.

SINS OF PEOPLE

2 TIMOTHY 3:1-5
1 This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come.
2 For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,
3 Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good,
4 Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God;
5 Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.
6 For of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts,
7 Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.

DECIEVERS WAXING WORSE AND WORSE.

2 TIMOTHY 3:13
13 But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived.

MORE SIN SIGNS

EPHESIANS 5:5-8
5 For this ye know, that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.
6 Let no man deceive you with vain words: for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience.
7 Be not ye therefore partakers with them.
8 For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light:

Shocking study finds most will torture if ordered DEC 19,08 By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Editor

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Some things never change. Scientists said on Friday they had replicated an experiment in which people obediently delivered painful shocks to others if encouraged to do so by authority figures.Seventy percent of volunteers continued to administer electrical shocks -- or at least they believed they were doing so -- even after an actor claimed they were painful, Jerry Burger of Santa Clara University in California found.What we found is validation of the same argument -- if you put people into certain situations, they will act in surprising, and maybe often even disturbing, ways, Burger said in a telephone interview. This research is still relevant.Burger was replicating an experiment published in 1961 by Yale University professor Stanley Milgram, in which volunteers were asked to deliver electric shocks to other people if they answered certain questions incorrectly.

Milgram found that, after hearing an actor cry out in pain at 150 volts, 82.5 percent of participants continued administering shocks, most to the maximum 450 volts.The experiment surprised psychologists and no one has tried to replicate it because of the distress suffered by many of the volunteers who believed they were shocking another person.When you hear the man scream and say, let me out, I can't stand it, that is the point when the real stress that people criticized Milgram for kicked in, Burger said.It was a very, very, very stressful experience for many of the participants. That is the reason no one can ethically replicate the experiment today.

SURPRISING AND DISAPPOINTING

Burger modified the experiment, by stopping at the 150 volt point for the 29 men and 41 women in his experiment. He measured how many of his volunteers began to deliver another shock when prompted by the experiment's leader -- but instead of letting them do so, stopped them.In Milgram's original experiment, 150 volts seemed to be the turning point.In Burger's modified experiment, 70 percent of the volunteers were willing to give shocks greater than 150 volts.At one point, researchers brought in a volunteer who knew what was going on and refused to administer shocks beyond 150 volts. Despite the example, 63 percent of the participants continued administering shocks past 150 volts.That was surprising and disappointing, Burger said.Burger found no differences among his volunteers, aged 20 to 81, and carefully screened them to be average representatives of the U.S. public.Burger said the experiment, published in the American Psychologist, can only partly explain the widely reported prisoner abuse at the U.S.-run Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq or events during World War Two.Although one must be cautious when making the leap from laboratory studies to complex social behaviors such as genocide, understanding the social psychological factors that contribute to people acting in unexpected and unsettling ways is important, he wrote.It is not that there is something wrong with the people, Burger said. The idea has been somehow there was this characteristic that people had back in the early 1960s that they were somehow more prone to obedience.(Editing by Stacey Joyce)

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.

Bush says peace talks have yielded progress By MATTHEW LEE, Associated Press Writer DEC 19,08

WASHINGTON – President George W. Bush says the U.S.-backed Mideast peace process has yielded a good deal of progress, even as the Palestinians and Israelis are headed toward the end of the year with no deal in place.Bush spoke Friday beside Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas (mahk-MOOD' ah-BAHS'), who responded in kind by heaping praise on Bush for his role in pushing the peace talks.The U.S. president said, No question, this is a hard challenge. But nevertheless, people must recognize that we have made a good deal of progress.Abbas said there is no doubt that Palestinians will stick with the peace process, and he expressed optimism about working with Barack Obama's administration.

Hamas declares Gaza truce with Israel is at an end DEC 19,08 By STEVE WEIZMAN, Associated Press Writer

JERUSALEM – Hamas formally announced the end of its unwritten, often-breached truce with Israel on Friday as Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip fired four rockets into southern Israel.The Israeli military said two rockets were fired Friday morning and two more after sunset. It said troops guarding Israeli farmers in fields adjoining Gaza also came under sniper fire from across the border. No injuries were reported in any of the incidents.In a statement posted on its Web site, the Islamic militant group Hamas said Israel had breached agreements by imposing a painful economic blockade on Gaza, staging military strikes into the densely populated coastal strip and continuing to hunt down Hamas operatives in the West Bank.Since the enemy did not abide with the conditions ... we hold the enemy the fully responsible for ending the truce and we confirm that the Palestinian resistance factions headed by Hamas will act, the statement said.There was no immediate Israeli comment about Hamas' announcement that it would not extend the cease-fire past its end Friday. Israel said previously that the 6-month-old truce, brokered by Egypt, didn't have an official expiration date and that the government was interested in prolonging understandings with Hamas.In Washington, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was critical of Hamas' move.I sincerely hope that there will not be a resumption of the violence because that is not going to help the people of Gaza, it is not going to help the Palestinians, it is not going to help the Palestinian cause, she said.

Hamas, which violently seized control of the Gaza Strip in June 2007, is listed as a terrorist organization by Israel, the United States and much of the international community and Israel does not officially have direct contacts with it.Though violence and casualties dropped significantly under the cease-fire agreement, the truce has increasingly unraveled since early November, when Israeli soldiers entered Gaza to destroy a tunnel that the army said could have been used in a cross-border raid. In response, Palestinian militants resumed firing rockets at Israel.On Thursday, Gaza militants fired 11 rockets and six mortar shells toward Israel and Israel staged at least two airstrikes against rocket squads. The day before, at least 20 rockets were fired at Israel, wounding two people and causing property damage, the army and police said.The lull has been a relief for people on both sides of the border. A poll published Tuesday indicated that 74 percent of Palestinians and 51 percent of Israelis wanted to extend the cease-fire.Israeli military officials have said the army was on full alert and recently practised various simulations of a full-blown return to hostilities. Still, the expectation was that the two sides would step back from the brink.Just this week Israel's point man on the issue, senior defense official Amos Gilad, was in Cairo, Egypt, seeking — through Egyptian go-betweens — to negotiate a truce extension.The number of casualties and rocket attacks dropped sharply after the truce took hold.In the first six months of this year, 338 Palestinians and 16 Israelis were killed in cross-border violence, according to Associated Press figures. Since the truce took effect at mid-year, 21 Palestinians, most of them militants, were killed by Israeli fire. No Israelis were killed.Israel says Gaza militants fired just 199 rockets in the final half of 2008, compared to 1,786 during the first six months.During the truce, Hamas has been smuggling weapons through tunnels under the Gaza-Egypt border. Hamas militants are also believed to be burrowing tunnels into Israel to carry out attacks.

Even before the truce began fraying, Israel did not allow the free transfer of goods in and out of Gaza. Since cross-border fighting resumed in November, Israel has kept the borders virtually sealed, allowing in only minimal humanitarian aid. There were protests against the Gaza blockade in several Mideast states Friday. In Lebanon, thousands of supporters of the militant group Hezbollah swarmed Beirut's southern suburbs, some chanting Death to America and Israel is the enemy of Muslims. In the southern city of Sidon, about 1,000 Hezbollah supporters staged a sit-in at the main square, halting traffic for about three hours. About 3,000 Palestinian refugees in Syria joined a demonstration at the Sbeineh camp outside the capital, Damascus. In the Persian Gulf island state of Bahrain, security forces clashed with thousands of protesters who were demanding that Arab governments take action to end the Gaza blockade. Witnesses said a number of people, including women and children, were wounded by rubber bullets and others overcome by tear gas. An Interior Ministry spokesman, Maj. Mohamad Bin Dina, denied rubber bullets were used and said tear gas was fired when some demonstrators began destroying public property and throwing stones at police. Meanwhile, an international group opposed to the Gaza blockade said one of its boats left Cyprus carrying supplies for the Palestinian territory.

The Free Gaza Group has made four previous boat trips to Gaza in defiance of the Israeli blockade. It said the 66-foot yacht SS Dignity was carrying a ton of medicine, baby food and 20 satellite tracking devices to be installed on Palestinian fishing boats. Associated Press writer Dalia Nammari in Ramallah, West Bank, contributed to this report.

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).

Croatia could complete EU membership talks next year: official DEC 19,08

BRUSSELS (AFP) – Croatia could complete its European Union membership talks next year, despite a Slovenian veto which is slowing progress, EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn said Friday.Croatia is widely expected to become the next and 28th EU member state as its progress since talks began in 2005 has been markedly quicker than fellow-candidate state Turkey.However a border row with EU member Slovenia has put the first real diplomatic spanner in the works, threatening the hoped-for timetable.The indicative timetable which we have proposed is realistic, assured Rehn after EU-Croatia talks in Brussels which allowed them to open negotiations on just one of the 35 policy subjects which must be completed prior to membership.Slovenian Prime Minister Borut Pahor announced Wednesday he would veto the opening of some other policy chapters due to a long-standing border dispute between the former Yugoslav republics, prompting an angry reaction from Zagreb.It means that Croatia has now begun talks on 22 of the 35 policy chapters since its formal EU member negotiations began on October 2005, leaving a lot to be done if the process is to be completed next year.On top of the row with Slovenia, the European Commission has also highlighted problems with corruption and organised crime which must be addressed.However it's doable, Rehn insisted.It will depend essentially on Croatia's ability to make reforms, particularly in the judicial sector and the fight against corruption as well as restructuring the (heavily subsidised) shipyards, he added.

But he did plead for Croatian patience if the process is delayed.Even if there are delays in the formal talks, please continue the reforms.In a statement, the Croatian government vowed it would do its utmost to meet the targeted timetable.Encouraged by the support of other EU members and the European Commission, Croatia continues on its path towards full-fledged EU membership, it said.The government reaffirms its decisiveness to implement all necessary reforms in order that Croatia concludes talks in 2009 and becomes the EU's 28th member.Commenting Slovenia's move Prime Minister Ivo Sanader stressed that bilateral issues cannot be brought on EU membership negotiating table.He renewed his call to Slovenia to reexamine and change its decision to block Zagreb's EU talks.Ljubljana proposed that Zagreb guarantee that none of the documents presented during the EU accession talks would prejudge a solution of the border dispute.It also sought to prevent documents being used in any future international arbitration or talks on the issue, which Zagreb deemed unacceptable.The two countries have been unable to agree on a few kilometres of land and sea territory since they both proclaimed independece in 1991.

Barroso wants concrete results from Bulgaria
ELITSA VUCHEVA Today DEC 19,08 @ 09:09 CET

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS – While there is political will in Bulgaria to fight corruption and organised crime, the country has still not achieved the progress Brussels would like to see or delivered concrete results, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said in Brussels on Thursday (18 December).We need concrete and convincing results in judicial reform, the fight against corruption and the fight against organised crime, Mr Barroso told journalists at a joint press conference with the Bulgarian premier following their meeting.The reform process must speed up, rather than slow down, he added.Last month, Bulgaria irreversibly lost €220 million of pre-accession EU funding over its persistent failure to tackle corruption, as the commission judged that most measures taken by the Bulgarian government in that respect are only a promise for future action.Millions of EU monies are still frozen and at risk, unless Sofia delivers the expected results.In spite of important decisions taken by the government, in spite of the intentions that have been reiterated, when [one] looks at the concrete decisions in court, we don't see yet the level of results that we would expect to see ... That is one of our concerns, said Mr Barroso.The commission president also denied comments made by some Bulgarian politicians following the loss of money in November, according to whom Brussels did not treat the country in the same way as other EU members. I must tell you Bulgaria is treated like every other member state. There are not in Europe –for me, for the commission – first class and second class member states. All have the same dignity, all deserve the same treatment, he said.But at the same time ... we will not allow people to play politics with European Union funds. You have to respect the rules, Mr Barroso added.

Problems of communication?

For his part, Bulgarian Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev said his government had already made a lot of efforts to tackle the problems and that the political will was there to pursue such a path – possibly with further EU assistance.

What we will need is an even closer co-operation with different elements of the European Commission and the expertise both of the commission and of the member states in order to address concretely and most efficiently [the] issues, because these issues ... are in the first place important for the Bulgarian citizens, Mr Stanishev said.He acknowledged the commission's decision to withhold the €220 million was in a way justified, but also regretted the way Bulgaria had been informed about it.I do not judge the [commission] decision, because from a procedural point of view, an absolutely technical point of view, it was justified.

But it was very unpleasant when we learned about this decision through the media. This is not the way to do it. It was also unpleasant that some opposition leaders knew in advance [about it]. This is not the way to communicate with a member state, he told Bulgarian journalists after the press conference.One of the things he agreed with Mr Barroso on Thursday is to improve mutual communication in the future, the prime minister said.

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.

3 Russian warships visit Cold War ally Cuba Fri Dec 19, 10:04 am ET

Miami HAVANA – A Russian anti-submarine destroyer and two logistical warships are entering waters off Cuba in a nonmilitary visit that's the first of its kind since the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union.The Admiral Chabanenko vessel is unfurling black plumes of smoke as it chugs toward Havana Bay, flanked by two smaller boats.

Closer to shore, a barge that routinely ferries food from the United States to the communist-run island is apparently moving to make room for the Russian boats. Washington's trade embargo allows direct sale of U.S. agricultural products to Cuba.

The Russian ships plan to moor on Friday in Havana in a show of increased cooperation between the two countries, though Cuba's government is not commenting.

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 death toll at 1,123: UN DEC 19,08

GENEVA (AFP) – The death toll from Zimbabwe's cholera epidemic has reached 1,123, with suspected cases now at 20,896, the UN said Friday, as a health expert returning from the site said the situation was worsening in some places.We have a heterogeneous situation with places like suburbs of Harare where apparently the situation is getting better, but other places where the situation is worsening, World Health Organization epidemiologist Dominique Legros told journalists in Geneva.

The capital Harare continues to report the highest number of cases, with 224 people already killed by the disease and 9,072 thought to be suffering from it.Figures from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) on Harare were unchanged, but the agency reported a new outbreak in Chegutu Urban district of Mashonaland East province, recording more than 378 suspected cases and 121 deaths.

Legros said the situation in hospitals was worrying.I have seen empty hospitals, sort of ghost hospitals empty of staff who have not turned up, he said.Health workers have been unable to obtain their wages from banks due to a shortage of bank notes in the country reeling from runaway inflation, and as a result could not travel to work.Meanwhile, the International Committee of the Red Cross said it has begun working with partners to disinfect homes of cholera patients in Harare.We are spraying the homes to break the transmission cycle of cholera bacteria. We want to make sure that the disease does not threaten those who are not infected, said Benjamin Jombe from Beatrice Infectious Diseases Hospital.