60,000 TURKEYS DESTROYED IN BC

ITS ABOUT TIME A STORY CAME OUT HOW THE COWARDS HAMAS HIDE BEHIND WOMEN,CHILDREN,MOSQUES. THESE ARE REALLY HEROS EARNING 72 VIRGINS IN 72 BEDS IN PARADISE! WOULD ANYONE FROM ISLAM AGREE. A WAR & MURDER & SEX FOR SALVATION CULT LIKE HAMAS AND RADICAL ISLAM IS NOT WORTH ANYTHING AT ALL.

FROM WND'S JERUSALEM BUREAU Hamas slammed for monstrous use of civilians
Reports emerging of women, children placed in line of Israeli fire January 22, 2009
2:14 pm Eastern By Aaron Klein 2009 WorldNetDaily

HERZLIYA, Israel – In the aftermath of Israel's three-week offensive targeting Hamas in the Gaza Strip, reports are emerging of how the terrorists used civilians during the conflict. Entire families in Gaza lived on top of a barrel of explosives for months without knowing, stated Israel Defense Forces Brig. Gen. Eyal Eisenberg.

Eisenberg charged Hamas sent civilians, including women and children, to transfer weapons to gunmen engaged in battles with Israeli forces, and he accused Hamas of booby-trapping many of the civilians' homes. He labeled Hamas' alleged use of civilians as monstrous and inhumane.Similar reports were provided to WND during previous Israeli battles with Hamas. During one battle focusing largely on the Hamas infrastructure in the city of Jabaliya, about one mile into the Gaza Strip, an Israeli commander said Hamas drew Israeli forces into populated civilian areas, shooting at Jewish fighters from occupied civilian homes while women and children were inside. In another case, Israel's Haaretz daily quoted an Israeli commander describing how Hamas sent a 10-year-old boy into the battlefield in full view of the Israeli military to remove a gun from a felled terrorist and then pass the weapon to another terrorist. The commander at the scene said he ordered his troops to halt their fire as the Israeli military watched. Another commander speaking to WND said Hamas snipers used the windows of a Jabaliya house that was clearly occupied by women and children to shoot at his unit.

The aim is to draw us into killing civilians to bring about international pressure to end our operation, the commander said. The international community and much of the world media constantly berated Israel for purportedly killing more than 1,250 Palestinians during the conflict. Many media members claimed those numbers were mostly civilians. WND reported the media was parroting Hamas casualty counts with no independent verification. Now the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera quoted what it said was a Palestinian doctor at Gaza City's main Shifa Hospital disputing the Hamas casualty numbers. It's possible that the death toll in Gaza was 500 or 600 at the most, mainly youths aged 17 to 23 who were enlisted by Hamas – who sent them to their deaths, he said. The IDF's own estimate, which is not based on verification of deaths, puts the toll at about 1,000, two-thirds of which it says were gunmen. The Gaza doctor continued: Perhaps it is like Jenin in 2002. At the beginning they (Palestinians) spoke about 1,500 dead, and at the end it turned out to be only 54 – of whom 45 were militants.The doctor was referring to a 2002 Israeli anti-terror raid in the northern West Bank town of Jenin after which Hamas and the PA claimed hundreds of Palestinian civilians were murdered.Chief PA negotiator Saeb Erekat claimed on CNN that more than 500 people were killed. He repeated the charge on CNN a day later, adding that 300 Palestinians were being buried in mass graves.It was later determined 54 Palestinians were killed, mostly terrorists, while the IDF lost 23 troops while they engaged in house-to-house combat instead of massive air raids in order to limit civilian casualties.

Hamas Under Fire from EU, Human Rights Groups
by Maayana Miskin JAN 26,2009

(IsraelNN.com) Senior European Union official Louis Michel said Monday that Hamas bears responsibility for provoking the recent three-week war in Gaza. Speaking from the city of Jabaliya in northern Gaza, Michel said Hamas is a terrorist movement and should be denounced.Michel, the European Commissioner for Development and Humanitarian Aid, told journalists that the international community is sick of seeing the projects it funded being destroyed due to Hamas. Public opinion is fed up to see that we are paying over and over again — be it the commission, the member states or the major donors [of the EU -ed.] — for infrastructure that will be systematically destroyed, he explained.Despite his criticism, Michel announced that the EU would grant $41.7 million in emergency aid for Gaza. The money will be used for food, water, medical supplies and other basics that are in short supply due to the war.The EU will also donate $26 million to development projects in the Palestinian Authority-controlled regions of Judea and Samaria, and $7.8 million to refugee camps in Lebanon housing the descendants of Arabs who fled pre-state Israel during the War of Independence.

ICHR: Hamas Must End Killings
The Independent Commission for Human Rights (ICHR) in Gaza has also criticized Hamas, according to the Bethlehem-based Maan news agency. The group slammed Hamas for the recent killings of Fatah members and those suspected of helping Israel during recent fighting in Gaza.ICHR workers said they had evidence of several extra-judicial killings and other crimes, including beatings, shootings and threats against civilians. The group refrained from accusing Hamas forces of committing the attacks, but said Hamas was responsible to stop them.Fatah officials in Judea and Samaria recently reported that 16 Fatah members in Gaza were killed by Hamas during the fighting.

Hamas Executed B'Tselem Collaborator
The ICHR's announcement was made shortly after Hamas announced the execution of a Gaza journalist who worked with the Israeli group B'Tselem. Prosecutors claimed that the journalist, Haidar Ghanem, had worked with B'Tselem as a cover-up for his counterterrorist activities.Ghanem was accused of causing the death of four Fatah terrorists by providing the IDF with information regarding their activities and whereabouts. He plead guilty to providing Israel with information but said he was not involved in the assassination of the four terrorists. Ghanem was sentenced to death in 2002, but his execution was delayed following pressure from his fellow activists and journalists. The sentence was carried out on January 7 of this year, according to Hamas.

JERUSALEM CONFERENCE DAY 1 TODAY IN ISRAEL

JERUSALEM CONFERENCE DAY 1 2008 - AUDIO
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/125328

JERUSALEM CONFERENCE 2009 DAY 1 TODAY
http://www.jerusalemconference.com/eng/

JERUSALEM CONFERENCE 2009 ISRAEL NATIONAL RADIO
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Radio/

INTERNATIONAL FELLOWSHIP OF CHRISTIANS AND JEWS
http://www.ifcj.org/site/PageNavigator/eng/about/

CHRISTIANS UNITED FOR ISRAEL
http://www.cufi.org/site/PageServer

CHRISTIAN FRIENDS OF ISRAEL
http://www.cfijerusalem.org/default.asp

ONE JERUSALEM
http://www.onejerusalem.org/2006/10/audio-bloggers-conference-call-3.php

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).

WATCH APOCALYSE HOW FROM THE DISCOVERY CHANNEL WHEN ITS ON VIDEO,AT LEAST 4 OF THE PREDICTIONS HAPPEN DURING THE TRIBULATION. VOLCANOES,NUKE,MICROBS AND ASTEROIDS HITTING EARTH.
http://www.discoverychannel.ca/shows/showdetails.aspx?sid=13369

IMPACT EARTH - ASTEROID HIT
http://www.discoverychannel.ca/shows/showdetails.aspx?sid=12149

ASTEROID TRACKERS
http://www.discoverychannel.ca/shows/showdetails.aspx?sid=9392

STORM CHASERS
http://www.discoverychannel.ca/shows/showdetails.aspx?sid=7100

Sunday, 25 January 2009 H5 avian influenza found on turkey farm in Canada

viewed as low pathogenic strain Canadian authorities have discovered strains of bird flu on a turkey farm in western Canada, and officials say that 60,000 birds will have to be euthanized. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency said Saturday tests indicate that the H5 avian influenza virus found on a turkey farm in the Fraser Valley east of Vancouver, British Columbia, is low pathogenic. That means the severity of the illness it causes in birds is relatively low. Even so, agency officials said that along with euthanizing all birds on the premises, food inspectors are also restricting the movement of poultry and poultry products within three kilometers of the farm, about two miles.

CFIA confirms avian flu outbreak on B.C. farm
Updated Sun. Jan. 25 2009 1:05 AM ET CTV.ca News Staff

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency has confirmed an H5 avian influenza outbreak on a turkey farm in B.C.'s Fraser Valley. CFIA says the strain in this case is of low pathogenicity, and further tests will be done to determine the precise subtype and stain of the virus. Pathogenicity refers to the severity of the bird's illness. All birds on the farm will be humanely euthanized, the CFIA said in a news release. There are as many as 60,000 birds on the farm. Afterwards, the organization will oversea the cleaning and disinfection of the farm. Several other farms in a three-kilometre radius of the infected farm have been quarantined. Avian viruses are not a risk to food safety providing poultry products are properly cooked. Avian influenza rarely affects humans, unless they have been in close contact with the infected birds, the CFIA says. CTV British Columbia's Maria Weisgarber told CTV Newsnet Saturday afternoon that one man in close contact with the infected birds is under close medical watch in case anything develops. She added that no recalls of any meat products from the farm are expected. Weisgarber said that other farms in the area will have their birds extensively tested before they can put their product to market. Testing was done at the infected farm after some birds showed signs of respiratory distress. Dr. Neil Rau an infectious disease specialist told CTV Newsnet that the infected birds could have been contracted the virus from migratory birds.

It may not be that the virus will cause disease in the migratory birds that fly in and out and drop their stools in various areas, but then if you have farm-raised poultry they may be much more susceptible and then it spreads like wildfire in that population of domestic poultry, he said. CFIA is notifying the Paris-based World Organization for Animal Health of the incident as per regulations. There are multiple subtypes of the H5 avian flu. Additionally testing is being done to determine the virus's neuraminidase subtype -- the N in a flu virus's name. Low path viruses, usually only lead to drop in egg production. However, a high path virus can wipe out an entire poultry operation as birds must be culled to extinguish the outbreak. In 2005, the Fraser Valley suffered an outbreak of H5N2 avian influenza. In Feb. 2004, 17 million birds were slaughtered in the Fraser Valley following an outbreak of H7N3, a different subtype of avian influenza. Seventeen million birds were slaughtered in the Fraser Valley in February 2004 following an outbreak of H7N3, a different avian influenza subtype.

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.

ITS COOOOOOLD OVER HERE IN ONTARIO CANADA.

Extreme cold weather alert issued
Posted JAN 25,09

An extreme cold weather alert was issued at 10 a.m. on Saturday for the next 24 hours by the Elgin Street Mission on behalf of the Homelessness Network of Sudbury.
This Alert will put into action a short-term emergency plan to increase services for people who are especially vulnerable to intensely cold weather conditions. People on the street will be encouraged to voluntarily access shelters and services. Individuals who may be at risk due to low temperatures in their homes are also eligible for these services. Emergency Warming Centre: The Elgin Street Mission will become an emergency warming centre. In addition to the regular services it provides, it will remain open 24 hours a day during the cold weather. As part of its emergency response, it will also provide hot meals around the clock. Shelters: Foyer Notre Dame and the Salvation Army Centre will increase their shelter capacity where possible and exercise leniency in curfews. Outreach: L’Association des jeunes de la rue (Community Outreach Program) will provide overnight services to make contact with people on the street and to transport individuals to shelters. Outreach workers will be equipped with extra clothing, blankets and coffee for those who choose not to access shelters. Hot Line: 675-6422: L’Association des jeunes de la rue will operate an overnight phone line to direct callers to appropriate services and to take calls from concerned citizens.Article ID# 1403866

France and Spain pick up pieces after deadly storm By Nicolas Fichot JAN 25,09

MURET, France (Reuters) – Millions of people in southwest France and northern Spain struggled on Sunday with destroyed roofs, fallen trees, power cuts and phone outages in the aftermath of a storm that killed 15 people.Saturday's winds of up to 190 km (118 miles) an hour, which killed 11 people in Spain and four in France as trees crashed onto roads and walls collapsed, faded on Sunday but the death toll rose again.An elderly French couple with no power in their house in the Dordogne area died, poisoned by carbon monoxide from their back-up generator, authorities said, adding that 30 others were in hospital after being poisoned in similar circumstances.

The weekend was also deadly in the French Alps, where five people died in three separate avalanches, police said. Three were young people who were skiing outside the authorized slopes, two were a couple in their fifties on a snow shoe excursion.In the southwest, French electrical engineers, backed up by colleagues from Britain, Germany and Portugal and by 12 helicopters, struggled to restore power to 1.7 million homes that were cut off from the grid during the storm.By nightfall on Sunday, they had reconnected 700,000 homes but the grid manager warned it could take several days to restore power to the 800,000 others still in the dark.It was the worst storm in France since December 1999, when a huge storm killed 88 people. After that, the weather forecast agency had set up an early warning system that helped keep the death toll relatively low on Saturday as people stayed indoors.I am satisfied that the lessons of 1999 were learnt, said President Nicolas Sarkozy during a visit to the affected area.Sarkozy said the army would help thousands of workers from the electricity, phone, water and railway companies struggling to restore battered infrastructure.

EVERYTHING WAS FLYING

In the town of Muret, south of Toulouse, residents were aghast at the scale of the devastation. The secondary school there, the biggest in the Midi-Pyrenees region with 2,100 pupils, had its roof ripped off and was a scene of chaos.Everything was flying everywhere, it was astonishing, the school principal Amedee Collin told Reuters.A nearby house was completely flooded when a tree fell onto an inflatable swimming pool that was sitting on the roof.A third of my roof flew off. The rain drenched everything. It's going to be another battle with the insurers, said Gilberte Marie, a resident of Muret, sighing among the debris.In Spain, troops helped emergency services fight a forest fire in La Nucia, north of Benidorm in Alicante province, and by evening it was nearly under control, local authorities said.The fire started on Saturday when a tree felled an electricity pylon, prompting the evacuation of thousands of people from nearby houses. They spent Saturday night in libraries or sports centers but were now back home.There were no forest fires in France but the impact of the storm was devastating in the huge Landes forest, south of Bordeaux, one of Europe's largest, where tens of thousands of timber businesses are based.Footage filmed from helicopters and broadcast on France 2 state television showed vast areas where there were more trees lying on the ground than standing. All forest officers are unhappy today, but they are on the ground, working to repair the damage, Pierre-Olivier Drege, head of the French forestry commission, told France Info radio. (Additional reporting by Paris and Madrid bureau, Claude Canellas in Bordeaux, Alexis de La Fontaine in Lyon, writing by Estelle Shirbon, editing by Katie Nguyen)

Storm leaves 15 dead in S Europe Rescue workers at the sports hall in Sant Boi de Llobregat JAN 25,09

Hurricane-force winds lashed northern Spain on Saturday, bringing down the roof of a sports hall near Barcelona, killing four children, officials said. Eleven people died in separate incidents in Spain and south-western France as the fiercest storm in a decade blew in from the Atlantic. Torrential rains and winds of up to 184km/h (114mph) were reported. It is now tracking across central Italy, bringing rain and winds of 80-95km/h (50-60mph), forecasters say. Some 1.3 million homes in France suffered power cuts while road and rail links were blocked and airports closed.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy will visit the region on Sunday. The impact of the storm was felt from the Channel Isles to Barcelona, but the strongest winds and heaviest rain were concentrated on south-western France. Although this type of active low pressure system is fairly common in winter, BBC meteorologist Alex Deakin says Saturday's storm has been described as the most damaging since that of December 1999, which killed 88 people and uprooted millions of trees. The storm tracked south-eastwards and cleared the south-east coast of France during Saturday evening. The Mediterranean islands of Corsica, Sardinia and Sicily have also been affected.

Children killed

The sports hall partially collapsed in the town of Sant Boi de Llobregat, Catalonia, with between 20 and 30 youngsters inside, officials said. It started at around 0330 with a really wild wind ,The youngsters had gathered to play baseball but the fierce winds drove them to take shelter in a small covered area for spectators, made of concrete, with a corrugated iron roof. It seems that the roof shifted and brought down part of the wall, a regional government spokeswoman said. Local people and fire-fighters helped free the survivors from the rubble but three children aged between nine and 12 died at the scene, and a fourth child died later in hospital. More than a dozen others received treatment for injures.

In other incidents:

In the Landes region of south-western France, near Bordeaux, a driver was killed by a falling tree, a 78-year-old man was killed by flying debris and a third man, 75, was crushed by a tree A woman, 73, died in France's Gironde region when the storm cut electricity powering her breathing machine A woman was crushed by a door in Burgos, Spain A collapsing wall killed a woman and a falling tree killed a male park employee in the Barcelona area; a man, 60, was killed elsewhere in the Catalonia region In Galicia, a policeman was killed by a falling tree as he directed traffic in Burela and a sailor from a cargo ship died when the vessel got in trouble off the coast A falling wall crushed a man in Aigues de Busot, near Alicante in the south-east of Spain Tens of thousands of homes have been left without power in Spain.

Ghost town

French weather agencies had forecast the storm but it affected a wider area than expected. A state of red alert was declared in nine departments, but lifted by the end of Saturday. People were screaming on the street below, and bits of masonry and scaffolding continued to fall Simon Ritchie BBC News website reader in Rodez, France
The storm caused havoc from the Dordogne area to the Pyrenees. Torrential rains caused flooding in some areas prompting thousands of calls to the emergency services. The force of the storm also led to the closure of airports in Bordeaux, Pau, Biarritz and Toulouse, and train services also ground to a halt, leaving several hundred passengers stranded in stations. Many roads were also blocked. Mark Richardson, a BBC News website reader visiting Bordeaux from the UK, said the city ground to a standstill following the storm overnight and felt like a ghost town.

Another reader, Simon Ritchie, witnessed the damage wrought by the storm in the French town of Rodez. This morning, I awoke to the sound of very strong winds and lashing rain or hail, he said. I looked out of my kitchen's skylight window to see scaffolding and sheets or corrugated iron blowing of the adjacent cathedral. One such sheet blew about 50 yards from the tower and landed on a car below, smashing it in completely.People were screaming on the street below, and bits of masonry and scaffolding continued to fall, he added.

Philadelphia suburb stunned by a series of arsons JAN 26,09

Philadelphia COATESVILLE, Pa. – Authorities are urging residents in this Philadelphia suburb to remove flammable materials from their porches and to keep porch lights on at night following a string of suspicious fires.The latest fire tore through a block of row houses Saturday, damaging 15 homes, leaving several dozen people homeless and prompting city officials to declare a state of emergency.At least 30 arsons have been reported since the beginning of 2008, about half of them in the last three weeks. Police said the blazes may be part of a gang initiation, but there was no clear information who was committing the crimes or why.This is an arson, no question about it, City Manager Harry Walker said Sunday. Coatesville is about 45 miles west of Philadelphia.The emergency declaration gives the city powers to deal with the situation without worrying about the budget, such as boarding up the buildings, assigning police to protect them and helping the families involved, Walker said.The newest fire came despite stepped-up police patrols and investigative help from county, state and federal agencies.A lot of people are scared, resident Marissa Martinez said as she watched smoke rise from the rubble. I never thought things could come to this point.Fifteen homes were damaged and some may have to be demolished, Walker said. Damage was estimated at $1.2 million, bringing the total fire damage since last summer to $3 million.The southeastern Pennsylvania chapter of the American Red Cross was helping 14 families, a total of 50 people — 32 adults and 18 children, spokeswoman Denise Venuti Free said in a statement Sunday.

One of the homes destroyed belonged to City Councilwoman Robin Scott, who said she and her family got out safely after police officers knocked on doors to alert residents.To see it all happen the way that it did was devastating and I wouldn't wish that on anyone, Scott said through tears to a gathering of citizens and city officials Sunday night. She urged residents to be vigilant in their neighborhoods.

Police Chief William Matthews said more than one person appears to be involved because of the number of fires and the fact that many have occurred within minutes of each other. He urged residents to remove any potential fuel for the fires and keep their porch lights on.It costs 76 cents a week to keep your porch light on, the police chief said Sunday. That 76 cents should be considered a down payment on the safety of your family and friends in the neighborhood.Walker said authorities fear that the latest blazes were copycats, since they had already arrested three people in December believed to have been responsible for 15 fires.The more we caught them, the more fires were set, he said.

Religious-Zionists Comment on Netanyahu’s National Unity Gov’t
by Hillel Fendel JAN 25,09

(IsraelNN.com) The Likud’s Moshe Feiglin says the nationalist public must vote for the Likud in order to thwart Netanyahu’s centrist government plans, while National Union leader Ketzaleh says a strong National Union means a more right-wing Likud.

Likud leader Binyamin Netanyahu, favored to win the upcoming elections and form the next government, continues to say that he plans to form a unity government with Kadima and/or Labor. Such a government would lean heavily towards the center and towards land-ceding diplomatic agreements - in stark contrast to the extremist right-wing government he declares he will not form.Arutz-7 asked Moshe Feiglin, leader of the Likud’s Jewish Leadership faction, to comment on Netanyahu’s latest remarks regarding a unity government. Netanyahu has been saying this for a while, Feiglin said. Our job is to make sure that within the party faction there are enough nationalist MKs who will prevent Netanyahu from carrying out dangerous moves.

Q. Which dangerous moves are you referring to – forming a national unity government, or giving away land afterwards? A. Both. If there is a majority within the Likud against forming a government with Kadima or Likud, then Netanyahu won’t be able to [form a unity government with them]. The Likud is going to get at least 30 seats, but if they get a few more, then the balance of power in the party changes, because from places 31 through 40, there are 8 who would fight against a national unity government. Therefore, religious-Zionist voters must understand: Whether or not the National Union or Jewish Home parties make it into the Knesset, they will not be in the government – and even if they are, they won’t make much of a difference either way. But if they vote for the Likud, they have a chance to bring in candidates who can really make a difference.As we have been saying for years, Feiglin concluded, the only way to influence is from within the Likud – and that’s why Netanyahu fights against me so hard.

Ketzaleh Responds
Ketzaleh – National Union party leader Yaakov Katz - said that the way to ensure that the Likud remains nationalistically-oriented is by voting for a party to the right of it: The fight is not over the Likud candidates in places 31-40, but rather those in the places before those - many of whom are not nationalist candidates. The polls show that the Likud will only get 30 candidates. If the religious-Zionist voters who are now supporting the Likud would vote for the National Union, then many left-wing Likud candidates [particularly in the upper 20's - ed.] will not get into the Knesset - while the National Union could get 10 seats! We must not let Feiglin steal away national-religious votes for people like Dan Meridor, Assaf Chefetz, and others.In addition, Katz said, all our strength comes from the Torah, from rabbis who are totally involved in the challenges facing our nation today. There are rabbis who say to vote for the Jewish Home, and many who endorse the National Union - but none endorse the Likud! How can Feiglin act on his own in this manner? Is the religious-Zionist camp bereft of spiritual leadership?! None of them say to vote for the Likud!

Israel Prepares to Overhaul Air Safety Operations
by Hana Levi Julian JAN 25,09

(IsraelNN.com) The State of Israel is beginning a massive overhaul of its air safety operations in the wake of a downgrade in its rating to Category 2 last month by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration.The downgrade dropped Israel’s airports into the same classification as airports in Indonesia, Zimbabwe, Ukraine, Honduras and Bulgaria, among others. The FAA cited severe security shortcomings in Israel’s Civil Aviation Authority in its decision to downgrade Israel’s largest airport.The Israel Airports Authority said in a statement Friday that it would allocate an unprecedented NIS 9.5 million toward a training program for its flight controllers as part of the rehabilitation effort toward regaining its former Category 1 standing. The course, to begin next month, will include a simulator module to be carried out in Canada as well as computerized refreshers in operational competency and a quality assurance seminar in safety systems.The Israel Airports Authority has embarked on a new road in the realm of flight-control training, announced IAA Chairman of the Board of Directors, Ovadia Eli. He added that the main task would be to upgrade safety in Israeli air space by massive investment in this area.Among the staff to be trained are all IAA flight controllers and operations specialists, as well as flight-control shift leaders, unit heads and quality control supervisory personnel. On-the-job training for the flight controllers at their own work stations will also be conducted, in accordance with FAA training regulations. The IAA also plans to compile a new manual of flight-control procedures as well, to be submitted to the Civil Aviation Authority for approval. Eli said the Authority will also invest NIS 3.7 billion to upgrade the infrastructure, security and safety systems at Ben Gurion International Airport.It was not clear when the upgrades at Ben Gurion Airport would begin, however.

US Navy Interception of Iranian Ship Probably Covert Operation
by Avraham Zuroff JAN 25,09

(IsraelNN.com) A U.S. Naval vessel in the Gulf of Aden has been ordered to search for suspicious Iranian ships containing weaponry heading for Gaza. Combined Task Force 151, which is keeping pirates at bay in the Gulf of Aden, has been ordered to track Iranian arms shipments, the Sunday Times reports.Naval officers from the USS San Antonio, an amphibious transport dockship that serves as the headquarters for the taskforce, last week boarded a cargo vessel registered in Limassol and flying a Cypriot flag.Upon boarding the ship in the Red Sea, the naval officers discovered numerous crates with the inscription hazardous materials. The naval officers asked Egyptian authorities to order the Iranian ship to proceed to an Egyptian port for a detailed search before allowing it to travel through the Suez Canal. According to unconfirmed reports, the navy found armaments. However, the U.S. has not confirmed the media reports.

Probably Covert Operation

Prof. Raymond Tanter, president of the Washington-based Iran Policy Committee, told The Jerusalem Post, It is not surprising that the U.S. Navy is reluctant to acknowledge the operation, which may have been covert, adding that legal challenges are present when intercepting ships flying flags of a sovereign country. In last week’s seizure, the Iranian-owned ship was flying a Cypriot flag, and the maritime law is less able to justify stop and search operations against such ships, Tanter clarified.Tanter said he feels that intelligence provided by friendly nations, such as Egypt, helped the U.S. intercept the Iranian boat. Due to concern in intelligence circles that Iran is attempting to ship a dirty bomb to Gaza, the U.S. has taken strong measures to prevent the arms from reaching Hamas. Nonetheless, due to legal wranglings, the U.S. has covertly performed the operation, Tanter implied.In recent weeks, at least two Iranian warships have entered the Gulf of Aden, officially as a means of fighting Somali piracy. Israel nevertheless claims that Iran is attempting to rearm the Hamas-run Palestinian Authority in Gaza.Israel and the U.S. signed a political-military memorandum of understanding on January 16 regarding the joint tracking of arms smuggling from Iran into Gaza. The agreement includes the American obligation to act together with NATO and other agents in order to prevent arms smuggling into Gaza via the Mediterranean Sea, the Gulf of Aden, the Red Sea, and eastern Africa.Although one of the IDF’s objectives in the Operation Cast Lead was to eliminate smuggling tunnels from Egypt to Gaza, Arab sources estimate that 20 percent of the pre-war total, or 100 tunnels remain open as a possible means to rearm the Hamas terrorist entity.

EU calls for Palestinian unity government
LEIGH PHILLIPS Today JAN 26,09 @ 09:28 CET

The European Union late on Sunday (25 January) called for the divided Palestinian leadership to unite to support the opening of border crossings to allow humanitarian aid and other goods into the Gaza Strip.We believe that Palestinian reconciliation behind president Mahmud Abbas is fundamental to progress, Czech foreign minister Karel Schwarzenberg told reporters after the meeting. Prague currently holds the EU's six-month rotating presidency.Foreign ministers from the 27-state bloc held discussions with Egypt, Jordan, the Palestinian Authority and Turkey. Norwegian foreign minister Jonas Gahr Store was also at the meeting. Norway is not a member of the EU but has maintained some relations with the Hamas government in Gaza, while the EU has since 2003 ended all contact with the militant group, classifying it as a terrorist organisation.EU member states have said they will aid efforts to halt arms trafficking via Egypt by relaunching and strengthening its monitoring presence at the Rafah border crossing, while France, Germany and the UK have offered to send naval patrols to guard against weapons shipments.The reunification of the Palestinian people with a single voice to speak to them, to speak for the West Bank and for Gaza is absolutely essential, UK foreign secretary David Miliband said after the meeting.

Governance of the two occupied Palestinian territories has been split between Islamist Hamas and its secular rival Fatah since June 2007.The Fatah-controlled Palestinian National Authority welcomed what it sees as EU endorsement of its leadership.Today we have heard very clearly the statement of support unanimously by all the EU members that the PNA is the only legitimate authority, and has representation not only in the West Bank but also in the Gaza Strip, Palestinian Authority foreign minister Riad al-Malki said.Separately on Sunday, a delegation of Hamas representatives met with Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman to discuss a long-term truce with Israel.During the discussions, Hamas proposed a one-year truce in return for a lifting of Israel's blockade of Gaza. Tel Aviv, for its part, is looking for an 18-month truce and is offering a partial reopening of the border.

Israel is permitting the delivery of some food and medicine, but rejects a full opening of the border at the moment.Around 125 trucks are allowed into the territory per day, according to the Israel Defense Forces. On Friday, international aid group Oxfam said for sufficient supplies to enter Gaza, 500 trucks were required.Human rights and aid groups will be disappointed with the result of the meeting. In Brussels also on Friday, Lotte Leicht of Human Rights Watch said her organisation was looking to hear from EU foreign ministers an urgent signal calling on Israel to end the blockade.The International Crisis Group also said ending the blockade was key to moving forward.Any continuation of the blockade would constitute a breach of international law, said Alain Deletroz of the ICG at a press conference. Europeans should be leading. Obama hasn't sent any strong message yet, which leaves Europe to take the lead - if it wants it.

FITNA ISLAM
VIDEO - http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7961200236915885171&ei=Unl3SYqPApPSjgKmzbilDw&q=fitna

PALESTINIAN MEDIA WATCH
http://www.pmw.org.il/

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 MON JAN 26,2009

09:30 AM -5.45
10:00 AM +32.34
10:30 AM +139.94
11:00 AM +121.31
11:30 AM +105.38
12:00 PM +75.75
12:30 PM +109.28
01:00 PM +89.93
01:30 PM +62.93
02:00 PM +10.36
02:30 PM -27.10
03:00 PM +30.03
03:30 PM +71.61
04:00 PM +38.47 8116.03

S&P 500 836.57 +4.62

NASDAQ 1489.46 +12.17

GOLD 903.50 +7.70

OIL 45.69 -0.78

TSE 300 8659.97 +32.00

CDNX 866.66 +6.97

S&P/TSX/60 520.44 +1.79

MORNING,NEWS,STATS

Dow -2 points at 4 minutes of trading today.
Dow -18 points at low today.
Dow +126 points at high today.

YEAR TO DATE PERFORMANCE
Dow -7.965%
S&P -7.89%
Nasdaq -6.32%
TSX Advances 603,declines 560,unchanged 231,Volume 859,337,394.
TSX Venture Exchange Advances 369,Declines 345,Unchanged 341,Volume 108,424,161.

Caterpillar to cut 20,000 jobs,
Caterpillar Q4 revenue +6% to $12.9 BILLION.
Caterpillar Q4 EPS $1.08 Vs $1.28 EST.
Oil opens at $45.97,Gold opens at $913.50.
Dow on pace for 5th consecutive losing month.
Leading Indicaters +0.3 (DEC)Vs -0.4 (NOV)
Existing Home Sales +6.5% (DEC)to 4.74 M annual rate.
Existing Home Supply 9.3 months (DEC)Vs 11.2 months (NOV
Median Home Price (DEC)$175,400 -15.3% from DEC 2007.

AFTERNOON,NEWS,STATS

Dow -18 points at low.
Dow +154 points at high.
NYSE STATS 10:30AM
Advances 2501,Declines 368,Unchanged 72,New Highs 1,New Lows 11.
NASDAQ STATS 10:30AM
Advances 1909,Declines 400,Unchanged 194.
TSX STATS 11:30AM
Advances 630,Declines 346,Unchanged 194 Volume 278,120,876.
TSX VENTURE STATS 11:30AM
Advances 316,Declines 193,Unchanged 202 Volume 64,888,519.

WRAPUP,NEWS,STATS

Dow -53 points at Low today.
Dow +154 points at high today.

Dow +0.48% today Volume 315,569,668.
S&P 500 +0.5% today Volume N/A
Nasdaq +0.82% today Volume 1,686,224,635.

CANADAS WEEK ENDING STATS
TSX Advances 604,Declines 563,Unchanged 227 Volume 856,957,969.
TSX Venture Advances 370,Declines 344,Unchanged 342 Volume 108,281,323.

European stocks rise, led by banks By CARLO PIOVANO, Associated Press Writer JAN 26,09

LONDON – European markets rose Monday despite a drop in Asia, with an upbeat trading report by Barclays sending its shares up a stunning 65 percent and boosting investors' confidence in the ailing banking sector.Barclays surprised by releasing a statement showing it had made a good profit for 2008 and that it did not need any cash bailouts to stay in business. Markets had feared the bank would be next to be rescued by the state and have to give up a stake to the government.In European morning trading, Britain's FTSE 100 was 1.5 percent higher at 4,115.04. France's CAC-40 gained 1.1 percent at 2,880.06, while Germany's DAX added 1.0 percent to 4,221.89.

Japan's Nikkei 225 fell 0.8 percent at 7,682.14 as investors braced for earnings this week from Sony, Honda and other major names. Japan was the only major Asian market open amid a slew of regional holidays.In Europe, financial and energy stocks were the best-performing shares.The dust has settled after last week's heavy losses, so we're seeing a bit of a bounce, supported by some bargain-hunting, said Paul Chesterton, analyst at CMC Markets.Chesterton noted Goldman Sachs had upgraded oil stocks, such as BP, which helped buoy the wider indexes, but financial stocks led the charge on Barclay's good news.Barclays shares skyrocketed after it said it expects pretax profits of over 5.3 billion pounds ($7.3 billion) for the full year 2008 despite writing down 8 billion pounds on bad assets. The bank also said it would not need any bailouts beyond some guarantees on toxic assets — dispelling fears it was set to be part-nationalized.The news was a breath of fresh air for the banking sector, which was braced for the worst in Britain. Also helping the sector was the news that France's Societe General SA and Credit Agricole SA will merge their asset management businesses.

Other statements by financials were less upbeat, however.

Dutch ING announced 7,000 job cuts, the resignation of its CEO and a euro3.3 billion ($4.22 billion) loss for the fourth quarter. It also said the state would take on 80 percent of a euro27.7 billion portfolio of mortgage assets in exchange for a nominal sum of euro600 million. Its shares were down 2.9 percent.In France, BNP Paribas SA said it expects to report a euro1.4 billion net loss in the fourth quarter due to weaker investment banking, but predicts a net profit of around euro3 billion for the full year thanks to the good performance of retail banking and asset management. Its shares were up 11 percent.Europe's gains looked fragile with more earnings due across all industries.Electronics giant Philips reported a fourth-quarter loss of euro1.47 billion and said it would cut 6,000 jobs, sending its shares down 3.4 percent.U.S. stock index futures suggested Wall Street would bounce back from Friday's losses to open higher. Dow Jones futures rose 46 points to 8,019 after the index fell 0.6 percent on Friday. The Standard & Poor's 500 futures added 4.9 points to 828.40.In Asia, markets in Hong Kong, mainland China, South Korea, Singapore and Taiwan were closed for the Lunar New Year holidays. Australian and Indian markets were also closed for national holidays.In Tokyo, nervous investors were in no mood to buy ahead of the expected flurry of dismal third quarter results and a worsening outlook, said Masayoshi Okamoto, head of dealing at Jujiya Securities in Tokyo.

They're hanging back and trying to figure out what to do next, he said. (Earnings) will likely be worse than anyone imagined, and investors know that the situation will deteriorate even further in the January-March quarter.Sony Corp., which last week projected its first annual net loss in 14 years, fell 3.1 percent. The Japanese electronics giant reports fiscal third quarter results Thursday, followed by Honda Motor Co. on Friday. But Nomura Holdings Inc., which reports Tuesday, managed to edge up 0.5 percent on hopes that Japan's top brokerage had finished writing off costs related to its purchase of Lehman Brothers' operations in Asia, Europe and the Middle East. The stock rose despite weekend news reports that Nomura's October-December losses could total a worse-than-expected 300 billion yen ($3.4 billion).

Among the few stock markets open in the region, Thailand's benchmark index rose 0.7 percent and the Philippines' key index was also up 0.7 percent. New Zealand's market ended flat. Australia's market, closed for Australia Day, will reopen Tuesday, as will trading in India, which was observing Republic Day. Markets in Singapore and South Korea will reopen Wednesday, and Hong Kong's markets will reopen Thursday. Trading in mainland China and Taiwan will be closed all week and resume Feb. 2. In foreign exchange, the euro traded at $1.2899 in morning European trading, down from $1.2974 in late New York trading on Friday. The dollar was also higher against the Japanese yen, at 89.28 yen from 88.76 yen Friday. AP Business Writer Tomoki A. Hosaka in Tokyo contributed to this report.

Pfizer seals $68bn Wyeth purchase By Julie MacIntosh in New York and Lina Saigol and Andrew Jack in London January 26 2009 11:39

Pfizer on Monday confirmed a deal to buy Wyeth, a rival US drug maker, for about $68bn in a move that will reshape the global drug industry.Pfizer will pay the equivalent of $50.19 a share in cash and stock for Wyeth as it attempts to address concerns over its ability to offset upcoming patent expirations on its blockbuster drugs, including cholesterol-fighting drug Lipitor.The two companies spent Sunday hammering out that exchange ratio and other final terms of the deal, including details on who would fill a few remaining seats on the combined companies’ board of directors.Pfizer, which expects to raise $22.5bn to help fund the deal, has lined up financing commitments from Bank of America/Merrill Lynch, JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs and remains in talks to bring other banks into the group. Jeffrey Kindler, Pfizer chief executive, who approached Wyeth months ago about a potential merger, is poised to be be chief executive of the combined company.

The new company will be an industry leader in human, animal and consumer health. With our combined biopharmaceuticals business, it will lead in primary and specialty care as well as in small and large molecules. Its geographic presence in most of the world’s developed and developing countries will be unrivaled,” Mr Kindler said in a statement.Pfizer said it expected the Wyeth deal to be accretive to adjusted diluted earnings per share in the second full year after closing, and anticipated cost savings of approximately $4bn by the third year after closing.Like Pfizer, Wyeth is facing patent expirations on several key drugs. But it has strong vaccines and biotech businesses, and the two companies could save billions of dollars in costs by combining.Pfizer may not be the only drugmaker with an interest in Wyeth, and the drug sector has been a rare area in which corporate buyers have shown aggression in the past six months despite the downtrodden economy. Bristol-Myers Squibb recently lost out in an effort to buy ImClone after Eli Lilly came forward with a higher offer.Given the tight credit markets, however, Pfizer may face a diminished interloper threat for a deal of this size. Rival drug giant Roche, for example, is mired in an attempt to take over Genentech, and Novartis is thought to be building up its coffers to acquire a greater stake in Alcon. Pfizer has been receiving advice on the deal from Merrill Lynch and Goldman Sachs, while Morgan Stanley and Evercore have been advising Wyeth. Meanwhile, shares in Dutch vaccine maker Crucell plunged on Monday after it said that Wyeth had withdrawn from talks over a friendly takeover deal.The Financial Times Limited 2009.

States may gain power over emissions standards By BEN FELLER, Associated Press Writer JAN 26,09

WASHINGTON – Plunging into energy policy, President Barack Obama is poised to give states a freer hand in curbing emissions from cars, and to get his government moving on fuel-efficiency standards that could remake the auto industry.Obama will announce his plans Monday at the White House, according to officials familiar with the details who spoke on condition of anonymity to avoid pre-empting the president.The attention to energy comes as Obama heads into his first full week as president, with an agenda dominated by economic woes and a push to get a huge stimulus plan through Congress.In one key move, Obama is aiming toward letting California and other states set their own tailpipe emission standards, a tool for reducing the gases that contribute to global warming.And in the other, Obama will order the Transportation Department to enact short-term rules on how automakers can improve fuel efficiency of their new models based on a 2007 law.On car emissions, California needed a waiver from the Clean Air Act to pursue its own course; the Bush administration's Environmental Protection Agency denied that permission, which affected at least 13 other states that have followed California's lead.Last week, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Republican, sent a letter to Obama asking him to give California and other states permission to implement tough tailpipe-emission standards. Schwarzenegger said Obama has a unique opportunity to both support the pioneering leadership of these states and move America toward global leadership on addressing climate change.

Obama will direct EPA regulators to re-examine California's case. The formal process will take time but is expected to end up in the states' favor. The Bush administration had rejected the request on grounds that a national fuel-efficiency strategy would work better.As a candidate for president, Obama pledged to overturn the EPA's denial.By beginning this process and directing EPA to review the Bush administration's lack of action, President Obama is turning the federal government into a force for positive change instead of a roadblock, said the Sierra Club's executive director, Carl Pope.Obama is also expected to order new guidelines on fuel economy. The law requires that by 2020, new cars and trucks meet a standard of 35 miles per gallon, a 40 percent increase over the status quo. But the Bush administration did not set regulations in support of that law.The president on Monday is also expected to tout proposals that he says would boost clean energy supplies while also producing badly needed jobs in so-called green industries.
Associated Press writer Erica Werner contributed to this story.

Downturn hits national oil groups’ shares
By Carola Hoyos in London January 25 2009 23:37

The global downturn has hit national oil company share prices much harder than their international oil company counterparts, according to a study.Research by PFC Energy, a US consulting group, warns that the sharp decline in share prices could lead to a perilous shortfall in investment for some of the world’s oil and gas-rich nations.
The share prices of companies part-owned by the governments of Russia and China have been particularly affected by the downturn as have those of Petrobras, Brazil’s national oil company.National oil companies’ shares have declined 64 per cent over the year as investors who had been attracted by their potential value started to favour companies with a sure cash flow, said Antonia Bullard, lead author of the study.Their losses will affect the long-term capacity and ability of the industry to respond to any pick-up in demand as the economy recovers.The International Energy Agency, the consuming countries’ watchdog, believes the industry will need to invest $350bn each year to maintain oil and gas supplies.It has already warned that national oil companies, in particular, may not invest adequately, especially as they face a deteriorating economic environment. PFC’s study paints a stark picture of the loss of dominance by the national oil companies.Not only has ExxonMobil of the US regained the top slot from PetroChina, but no fewer than three national oil companies – Petrobras, Gazprom and Sinopec – have slipped out of the top six. They now occupy ranks nine, 11 and 12, respectively.Overall, international oil companies, which have the most varied portfolio of the industry – dabbling in refining and petrochemicals, liquefied natural gas, and alternative energy, among other sectors – averaged losses of 34 per cent.ExxonMobil’s shares dropped 15 per cent, while Gazprom’s dropped 74 per cent, giving it a market cap of $83bn, compared with $332bn at the end of 2007.Exclusive graphic: Which energy companies release the most emissions? US president Barack Obama has promised to tackle climate change at home and abroad. How could this affect the world’s biggest energy groups? (Gazprom’s emissions are in fact far larger than they appear here because PFC’s data does not include gas leaking from its pipelines. Also, gas producers tend to emit less greenhouse gas because natural gas and its production yields less CO2 than oil).The Financial Times Limited 2009.

Iceland government in trouble over finance crisis
ANDREW WILLIS Today JAN 26,09 @ 09:21 CET

Iceland's commerce minister, Bjorgvin Sigurdsson, stepped down Sunday (25 January), just three days after prime minister Geir Haarde said he would not be seeking re-appointment while simultaneously calling for early elections in May.The north Atlantic island has witnessed rolling protests in recent weeks as angry citizens demanded the government resign over the country's failing economy sparked by a collapse of the nation's banks last October. Mr Sigurdsson is the first top-level official to resign as a result of the crisis, creating doubts as to whether the government will last until May. I realised last night that for me at least there is no going back, the anger and distrust of the public is too deep for me to be able to regain their trust, Mr Sigurdsson said.Despite citing poor health as the main reason the prime minister will not seek re-election, most believe the economic situation was instrumental in Mr Haarde's announcement. Speaking to reporters over the weekend, Mr Haarde said he believed the current situation would get worse if the current government did not continue until May.

EU doubts over bail-out plans

As Iceland comes to terms with the news, the Financial Times Deutschland newspaper reports Monday that the EU is concerned that member state bank bail-outs will fail to achieve the desired effect. Referring to an internal analysis paper prepared by the Czech EU presidency, the newspaper notes that EU officials are concerned that money given to the banks is not being leant to businesses to get the economy moving again.EU monetary affairs commissioner Joaquin Almunia reportedly wants national governments to put pressure on credit institutions to begin lending again.In a further sign that credit is not getting through to businesses, the French government is to provide €5 billion directly in credit guarantees to aeroplane manufacturers Airbus, as the company's clients fail to secure the funding needed for new orders.

Under the deal, the Societe Financement de l'Economie Française, which was set up in November to stabilise the banking system, will provide an extra €5 billion in state guarantees to French banks, which in turn will provide the money to businesses. Only last week, the French government offered €6 billion to the state's ailing car industry.

Britain enters recession

Meanwhile, the Office for National Statistics in Britain announced last Friday that the country was officially in recession, as new data showed negative growth for the fourth quarter of 2008, making it two in a row. The data shows that the British economy shrank by 1.5 percent in the last three months of 2008, a bigger drop than economists had predicted. Growth contracted by 0.6 percent in the preceding three-month period. The news of the first British recession since 1991 has increased pressure on Prime Minister Gordon Brown to sort out the country's economic problems.

A second bank rescue package announced last week failed to arrest a fall in share prices as investors fear a collapse in the country's banking system similar to that in Iceland. Announcing an interim economic report last week, the EU's economy commissioner, Joaquin Almunia, said he considered Britain's financial sector to be one of the most exposed to the credit shortage.Separately, record numbers of world leaders and business executives are to meet this week in the Swiss town of Davos where the World Economic Forum will start on Wednesday. The crisis will undoubtedly be the main topic of discussion.The optimistic title for this year's event is Shaping a post-crisis world.

WORLD BANK - CLIMATE CHANGE
http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/TOPICS/ENVIRONMENT/
EXTCC/0,,menuPK:407870~pagePK:149018~piPK:149093~theSitePK:407864,00.html

What the World Bank is Doing JAN 26,2009

The World Bank Group created a new $1.2 billion rapid financing facility—the Global Food Response Program (GFRP)—in May 2008 to speed assistance to the neediest countries. GFRP has disbursed $494.4 million out of $866 million in 30 countries as of January 22, 2009 . An additional $ 292 million is being earmarked for programs in nine countries.GFRP is disbursing funds to Afghanistan ($8 million), Bangladesh ($130 million), Benin ($9 million), Burundi ($10 million), Central African Republic ($7 million), Djibouti ($5 million), Ethiopia ($275 million), Guinea ($10 million), Guinea-Bissau ($5 million), Haiti ($10 million), Honduras ($10 million), Kyrgyz ($10 million), Laos ($3 million), Liberia ($10 million), Madagascar ($10 million, $12 million), Mali ($5 million), Moldova ($7 million), Mozambique ($20 million), Nicaragua ($7 million), Nepal ($36 million), Niger ($7 million), Philippines ($200 million), Rwanda ($10 million), Sierra Leone ($7 million), Somalia ($7 million), Southern Sudan ($5 million), Tajikistan ($9 million), Togo ($7 million), Yemen ($10 million), and West Bank and Gaza ($5 million). The money is used to feed poor children and other vulnerable groups, provide for nutritional supplements to pregnant women, lactating mothers, infants and small children, to meet additional expenses of food imports or to buy seeds for the new season.GFRP is part of the World Bank Group's New Deal on Global Food Policy has been endorsed by 150 countries. The New Deal embraces short, medium and long-term responses, including safety nets such as school feeding, food for work, and conditional cash transfers; increased agricultural production; a better understanding of the impact of biofuels; and action on the trade front to reduce distorting subsidies and trade barriers.

Volatile food crisis hurts poor most: World Bank
Agence France-Presse | 01/26/2009 9:27 AM

WASHINGTON - On the eve of a UN-sponsored summit in Spain on the global food crisis, the World Bank said Sunday that millions around the world continue to suffer from volatility in food prices.Representatives from 95 countries gather in Spain Monday for a two-day follow-up meeting to the UN-sponsored summit held last year in Rome to tackle the global food crisis.The international community needs to increase efforts to help the poor of the world, World Bank Managing Director Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said in a statement.Food prices are now volatile and that factor, combined with the impact of the financial crisis, only serves to heighten the challenges confronting the developing world, Okonjo-Iweala said.Bank economists expect high price volatility to continue and it will hit the poorest the most, as they spend half their income on food, she said.More needs to be done as we must ensure those who are vulnerable get the assistance they need.Okonjo-Iweala is leading the World Bank's delegation to the meeting in Madrid.Member states of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization agreed at the summit in Rome to reduce the number of people who live in hunger by 2015, but this goal is accompanied by limited financial donations.Over the past seven months, the Bank, through its Global Food Crisis Response Program, reached over 13 million people directly through food distribution systems, cash for work initiatives, and seed and fertilizer distribution to small holder farmers, the statement read.

The Bank said that it was disturbing that poor countries, especially in Africa, did not have matching drops in their food prices. They gave as an example maize prices dropping 32 percent over the past quarter, but dropping only by one percent in Mombasa, Kenya.UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero will preside over the closure of the Madrid conference, which is expected to end with a statement outlining specific measures to be adopted to fight hunger around the world.The World Bank worked with UN agencies to help the world's neediest when food prices soared in 2008, the statement said.

France keen for EU mission to Guantanamo
VALENTINA POP Today JAN 26,09 @ 09:23 CET

France is pushing for an EU fact-finding mission to Guantanamo Bay and for the bloc to take in 60 inmates after the camp closes, with EU foreign ministers to discuss the issue on Monday (26 January).EU justice commissioner Jacques Barrot and anti-terrorism chief Gilles de Kerckhove are to lead the fact-finding trip to the Cuban prison which is to be shut down within a year following the decision by new US President Barack Obama, diplomats told Financial Times Deutschland.The proposal is just one of many floated by France, which chaired the rotating EU presidency until 1 January before the Czech Republic took over. France is also pushing for a centralised, EU-level check on the prisoners' background.The 60 inmates in question will not face criminal charges in the US, but cannot be returned to their home countries in the Middle East and China because they risk torture and ill treatment.

The Czech EU presidency is suggesting a more limited response, under which every EU country is to decide on its own if it wants to take prisoners. Some EU co-ordination would still be required, as most EU countries are part of the Schengen border-free travel area.Portugal, France, and Switzerland have already said they might take inmates on a case-by-case basis, while Italy is open to the idea but wants a common EU position.A total of eight EU member states have thus far offered to take Guantanamo prisoners: Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and the UK.Austria is against taking any prisoners. The conservatives in Germany's ruling coalition are also opposed. Finland has said it is open to taking people, but its parliament is split on the issue.

TORAH PORTION FROM JAN 25 - 31 2009

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

TORAH PORTION FROM JAN 25 2009 6PM - JAN 31 6PM 2009

EXODUS 10:1 - 13:16
1 And the LORD said unto Moses, Go in unto Pharaoh: for I have hardened his heart, and the heart of his servants, that I might shew these my signs before him:
2 And that thou mayest tell in the ears of thy son, and of thy son's son, what things I have wrought in Egypt, and my signs which I have done among them; that ye may know how that I am the LORD.
3 And Moses and Aaron came in unto Pharaoh, and said unto him, Thus saith the LORD God of the Hebrews, How long wilt thou refuse to humble thyself before me? let my people go, that they may serve me.
4 Else, if thou refuse to let my people go, behold, to morrow will I bring the locusts into thy coast:
5 And they shall cover the face of the earth, that one cannot be able to see the earth: and they shall eat the residue of that which is escaped, which remaineth unto you from the hail, and shall eat every tree which groweth for you out of the field:
6 And they shall fill thy houses, and the houses of all thy servants, and the houses of all the Egyptians; which neither thy fathers, nor thy fathers' fathers have seen, since the day that they were upon the earth unto this day. And he turned himself, and went out from Pharaoh.
7 And Pharaoh's servants said unto him, How long shall this man be a snare unto us? let the men go, that they may serve the LORD their God: knowest thou not yet that Egypt is destroyed?
8 And Moses and Aaron were brought again unto Pharaoh: and he said unto them, Go, serve the LORD your God: but who are they that shall go?
9 And Moses said, We will go with our young and with our old, with our sons and with our daughters, with our flocks and with our herds will we go; for we must hold a feast unto the LORD.
10 And he said unto them, Let the LORD be so with you, as I will let you go, and your little ones: look to it; for evil is before you.
11 Not so: go now ye that are men, and serve the LORD; for that ye did desire. And they were driven out from Pharaoh's presence.
12 And the LORD said unto Moses, Stretch out thine hand over the land of Egypt for the locusts, that they may come up upon the land of Egypt, and eat every herb of the land, even all that the hail hath left.
13 And Moses stretched forth his rod over the land of Egypt, and the LORD brought an east wind upon the land all that day, and all that night; and when it was morning, the east wind brought the locusts.
14 And the locusts went up over all the land of Egypt, and rested in all the coasts of Egypt: very grievous were they; before them there were no such locusts as they, neither after them shall be such.
15 For they covered the face of the whole earth, so that the land was darkened; and they did eat every herb of the land, and all the fruit of the trees which the hail had left: and there remained not any green thing in the trees, or in the herbs of the field, through all the land of Egypt.
16 Then Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron in haste; and he said, I have sinned against the LORD your God, and against you.
17 Now therefore forgive, I pray thee, my sin only this once, and intreat the LORD your God, that he may take away from me this death only.
18 And he went out from Pharaoh, and intreated the LORD.
19 And the LORD turned a mighty strong west wind, which took away the locusts, and cast them into the Red sea; there remained not one locust in all the coasts of Egypt.
20 But the LORD hardened Pharaoh's heart, so that he would not let the children of Israel go.
21 And the LORD said unto Moses, Stretch out thine hand toward heaven, that there may be darkness over the land of Egypt, even darkness which may be felt.
22 And Moses stretched forth his hand toward heaven; and there was a thick darkness in all the land of Egypt three days:
23 They saw not one another, neither rose any from his place for three days: but all the children of Israel had light in their dwellings.
24 And Pharaoh called unto Moses, and said, Go ye, serve the LORD; only let your flocks and your herds be stayed: let your little ones also go with you.
25 And Moses said, Thou must give us also sacrifices and burnt offerings, that we may sacrifice unto the LORD our God.
26 Our cattle also shall go with us; there shall not an hoof be left behind; for thereof must we take to serve the LORD our God; and we know not with what we must serve the LORD, until we come thither.
27 But the LORD hardened Pharaoh's heart, and he would not let them go.
28 And Pharaoh said unto him, Get thee from me, take heed to thyself, see my face no more; for in that day thou seest my face thou shalt die.
29 And Moses said, Thou hast spoken well, I will see thy face again no more.

EXODUS 11:1-10
1 And the LORD said unto Moses, Yet will I bring one plague more upon Pharaoh, and upon Egypt; afterwards he will let you go hence: when he shall let you go, he shall surely thrust you out hence altogether.
2 Speak now in the ears of the people, and let every man borrow of his neighbour, and every woman of her neighbour, jewels of silver, and jewels of gold.
3 And the LORD gave the people favour in the sight of the Egyptians. Moreover the man Moses was very great in the land of Egypt, in the sight of Pharaoh's servants, and in the sight of the people.
4 And Moses said, Thus saith the LORD, About midnight will I go out into the midst of Egypt:
5 And all the firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die, from the firstborn of Pharaoh that sitteth upon his throne, even unto the firstborn of the maidservant that is behind the mill; and all the firstborn of beasts.
6 And there shall be a great cry throughout all the land of Egypt, such as there was none like it, nor shall be like it any more.
7 But against any of the children of Israel shall not a dog move his tongue, against man or beast: that ye may know how that the LORD doth put a difference between the Egyptians and Israel.
8 And all these thy servants shall come down unto me, and bow down themselves unto me, saying, Get thee out, and all the people that follow thee: and after that I will go out. And he went out from Pharaoh in a great anger.
9 And the LORD said unto Moses, Pharaoh shall not hearken unto you; that my wonders may be multiplied in the land of Egypt.
10 And Moses and Aaron did all these wonders before Pharaoh: and the LORD hardened Pharaoh's heart, so that he would not let the children of Israel go out of his land.

EXODUS 12:1-51
1 And the LORD spake unto Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying,
2 This month shall be unto you the beginning of months: it shall be the first month of the year to you.
3 Speak ye unto all the congregation of Israel, saying, In the tenth day of this month they shall take to them every man a lamb, according to the house of their fathers, a lamb for an house:
4 And if the household be too little for the lamb, let him and his neighbour next unto his house take it according to the number of the souls; every man according to his eating shall make your count for the lamb.
5 Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year: ye shall take it out from the sheep, or from the goats:
6 And ye shall keep it up until the fourteenth day of the same month: and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the evening.
7 And they shall take of the blood, and strike it on the two side posts and on the upper door post of the houses, wherein they shall eat it.
8 And they shall eat the flesh in that night, roast with fire, and unleavened bread; and with bitter herbs they shall eat it.
9 Eat not of it raw, nor sodden at all with water, but roast with fire; his head with his legs, and with the purtenance thereof.
10 And ye shall let nothing of it remain until the morning; and that which remaineth of it until the morning ye shall burn with fire.
11 And thus shall ye eat it; with your loins girded, your shoes on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and ye shall eat it in haste: it is the LORD'S passover.
12 For I will pass through the land of Egypt this night, and will smite all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment: I am the LORD.
13 And the blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses where ye are: and when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you, when I smite the land of Egypt.
14 And this day shall be unto you for a memorial; and ye shall keep it a feast to the LORD throughout your generations; ye shall keep it a feast by an ordinance for ever.
15 Seven days shall ye eat unleavened bread; even the first day ye shall put away leaven out of your houses: for whosoever eateth leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day, that soul shall be cut off from Israel.
16 And in the first day there shall be an holy convocation, and in the seventh day there shall be an holy convocation to you; no manner of work shall be done in them, save that which every man must eat, that only may be done of you.
17 And ye shall observe the feast of unleavened bread; for in this selfsame day have I brought your armies out of the land of Egypt: therefore shall ye observe this day in your generations by an ordinance for ever.
18 In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at even, ye shall eat unleavened bread, until the one and twentieth day of the month at even.
19 Seven days shall there be no leaven found in your houses: for whosoever eateth that which is leavened, even that soul shall be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether he be a stranger, or born in the land.
20 Ye shall eat nothing leavened; in all your habitations shall ye eat unleavened bread.
21 Then Moses called for all the elders of Israel, and said unto them, Draw out and take you a lamb according to your families, and kill the passover.
22 And ye shall take a bunch of hyssop, and dip it in the blood that is in the bason, and strike the lintel and the two side posts with the blood that is in the bason; and none of you shall go out at the door of his house until the morning.
23 For the LORD will pass through to smite the Egyptians; and when he seeth the blood upon the lintel, and on the two side posts, the LORD will pass over the door, and will not suffer the destroyer to come in unto your houses to smite you.
24 And ye shall observe this thing for an ordinance to thee and to thy sons for ever.
25 And it shall come to pass, when ye be come to the land which the LORD will give you, according as he hath promised, that ye shall keep this service.
26 And it shall come to pass, when your children shall say unto you, What mean ye by this service?
27 That ye shall say, It is the sacrifice of the LORD'S passover, who passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt, when he smote the Egyptians, and delivered our houses. And the people bowed the head and worshipped.
28 And the children of Israel went away, and did as the LORD had commanded Moses and Aaron, so did they.
29 And it came to pass, that at midnight the LORD smote all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh that sat on his throne unto the firstborn of the captive that was in the dungeon; and all the firstborn of cattle.
30 And Pharaoh rose up in the night, he, and all his servants, and all the Egyptians; and there was a great cry in Egypt; for there was not a house where there was not one dead.
31 And he called for Moses and Aaron by night, and said, Rise up, and get you forth from among my people, both ye and the children of Israel; and go, serve the LORD, as ye have said.
32 Also take your flocks and your herds, as ye have said, and be gone; and bless me also.
33 And the Egyptians were urgent upon the people, that they might send them out of the land in haste; for they said, We be all dead men.
34 And the people took their dough before it was leavened, their kneadingtroughs being bound up in their clothes upon their shoulders.
35 And the children of Israel did according to the word of Moses; and they borrowed of the Egyptians jewels of silver, and jewels of gold, and raiment:
36 And the LORD gave the people favour in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they lent unto them such things as they required. And they spoiled the Egyptians.
37 And the children of Israel journeyed from Rameses to Succoth, about six hundred thousand on foot that were men, beside children.
38 And a mixed multitude went up also with them; and flocks, and herds, even very much cattle.
39 And they baked unleavened cakes of the dough which they brought forth out of Egypt, for it was not leavened; because they were thrust out of Egypt, and could not tarry, neither had they prepared for themselves any victual.
40 Now the sojourning of the children of Israel, who dwelt in Egypt, was four hundred and thirty years.
41 And it came to pass at the end of the four hundred and thirty years, even the selfsame day it came to pass, that all the hosts of the LORD went out from the land of Egypt.
42 It is a night to be much observed unto the LORD for bringing them out from the land of Egypt: this is that night of the LORD to be observed of all the children of Israel in their generations.
43 And the LORD said unto Moses and Aaron, This is the ordinance of the passover: There shall no stranger eat thereof:
44 But every man's servant that is bought for money, when thou hast circumcised him, then shall he eat thereof.
45 A foreigner and an hired servant shall not eat thereof.
46 In one house shall it be eaten; thou shalt not carry forth ought of the flesh abroad out of the house; neither shall ye break a bone thereof.
47 All the congregation of Israel shall keep it.
48 And when a stranger shall sojourn with thee, and will keep the passover to the LORD, let all his males be circumcised, and then let him come near and keep it; and he shall be as one that is born in the land: for no uncircumcised person shall eat thereof.
49 One law shall be to him that is homeborn, and unto the stranger that sojourneth among you.
50 Thus did all the children of Israel; as the LORD commanded Moses and Aaron, so did they.
51 And it came to pass the selfsame day, that the LORD did bring the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt by their armies.

EXODUS 13:1-16
1 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,
2 Sanctify unto me all the firstborn, whatsoever openeth the womb among the children of Israel, both of man and of beast: it is mine.
3 And Moses said unto the people, Remember this day, in which ye came out from Egypt, out of the house of bondage; for by strength of hand the LORD brought you out from this place: there shall no leavened bread be eaten.
4 This day came ye out in the month Abib.
5 And it shall be when the LORD shall bring thee into the land of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, which he sware unto thy fathers to give thee, a land flowing with milk and honey, that thou shalt keep this service in this month.
6 Seven days thou shalt eat unleavened bread, and in the seventh day shall be a feast to the LORD.
7 Unleavened bread shall be eaten seven days; and there shall no leavened bread be seen with thee, neither shall there be leaven seen with thee in all thy quarters.
8 And thou shalt shew thy son in that day, saying, This is done because of that which the LORD did unto me when I came forth out of Egypt.
9 And it shall be for a sign unto thee upon thine hand, and for a memorial between thine eyes, that the LORD'S law may be in thy mouth: for with a strong hand hath the LORD brought thee out of Egypt.
10 Thou shalt therefore keep this ordinance in his season from year to year.
11 And it shall be when the LORD shall bring thee into the land of the Canaanites, as he sware unto thee and to thy fathers, and shall give it thee,
12 That thou shalt set apart unto the LORD all that openeth the matrix, and every firstling that cometh of a beast which thou hast; the males shall be the LORD'S.
13 And every firstling of an ass thou shalt redeem with a lamb; and if thou wilt not redeem it, then thou shalt break his neck: and all the firstborn of man among thy children shalt thou redeem.
14 And it shall be when thy son asketh thee in time to come, saying, What is this? that thou shalt say unto him, By strength of hand the LORD brought us out from Egypt, from the house of bondage:
15 And it came to pass, when Pharaoh would hardly let us go, that the LORD slew all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both the firstborn of man, and the firstborn of beast: therefore I sacrifice to the LORD all that openeth the matrix, being males; but all the firstborn of my children I redeem.
16 And it shall be for a token upon thine hand, and for frontlets between thine eyes: for by strength of hand the LORD brought us forth out of Egypt.

PROPHETS PORTION

JEREMIAH 46:13-28
13 The word that the LORD spake to Jeremiah the prophet, how Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon should come and smite the land of Egypt.
14 Declare ye in Egypt, and publish in Migdol, and publish in Noph and in Tahpanhes: say ye, Stand fast, and prepare thee; for the sword shall devour round about thee.
15 Why are thy valiant men swept away? they stood not, because the LORD did drive them.
16 He made many to fall, yea, one fell upon another: and they said, Arise, and let us go again to our own people, and to the land of our nativity, from the oppressing sword.
17 They did cry there, Pharaoh king of Egypt is but a noise; he hath passed the time appointed.
18 As I live, saith the King, whose name is the LORD of hosts, Surely as Tabor is among the mountains, and as Carmel by the sea, so shall he come.
19 O thou daughter dwelling in Egypt, furnish thyself to go into captivity: for Noph shall be waste and desolate without an inhabitant.
20 Egypt is like a very fair heifer, but destruction cometh; it cometh out of the north.
21 Also her hired men are in the midst of her like fatted bullocks; for they also are turned back, and are fled away together: they did not stand, because the day of their calamity was come upon them, and the time of their visitation.
22 The voice thereof shall go like a serpent; for they shall march with an army, and come against her with axes, as hewers of wood.
23 They shall cut down her forest, saith the LORD, though it cannot be searched; because they are more than the grasshoppers, and are innumerable.
24 The daughter of Egypt shall be confounded; she shall be delivered into the hand of the people of the north.
25 The LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, saith; Behold, I will punish the multitude of No, and Pharaoh, and Egypt, with their gods, and their kings; even Pharaoh, and all them that trust in him:
26 And I will deliver them into the hand of those that seek their lives, and into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, and into the hand of his servants: and afterward it shall be inhabited, as in the days of old, saith the LORD.
27 But fear not thou, O my servant Jacob, and be not dismayed, O Israel: for, behold, I will save thee from afar off, and thy seed from the land of their captivity; and Jacob shall return, and be in rest and at ease, and none shall make him afraid.
28 Fear thou not, O Jacob my servant, saith the LORD: for I am with thee; for I will make a full end of all the nations whither I have driven thee: but I will not make a full end of thee, but correct thee in measure; yet will I not leave thee wholly unpunished.

NEW TESTAMENT PORTION

LUKE 2:22-24
22 And when the days of her purification according to the law of Moses were accomplished, they brought him to Jerusalem, to present him to the Lord;
23 (As it is written in the law of the Lord, Every male that openeth the womb shall be called holy to the Lord;)
24 And to offer a sacrifice according to that which is said in the law of the Lord, A pair of turtledoves, or two young pigeons.

JOHN 19:31-37
31 The Jews therefore, because it was the preparation, that the bodies should not remain upon the cross on the sabbath day, (for that sabbath day was an high day,) besought Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away.
32 Then came the soldiers, and brake the legs of the first, and of the other which was crucified with him.
33 But when they came to Jesus, and saw that he was dead already, they brake not his legs:
34 But one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side, and forthwith came there out blood and water.
35 And he that saw it bare record, and his record is true: and he knoweth that he saith true, that ye might believe.
36 For these things were done, that the scripture should be fulfilled, A bone of him shall not be broken.
37 And again another scripture saith, They shall look on him whom they pierced.

ACTS 13:16-17
16 Then Paul stood up, and beckoning with his hand said, Men of Israel, and ye that fear God, give audience.
17 The God of this people of Israel chose our fathers, and exalted the people when they dwelt as strangers in the land of Egypt, and with an high arm brought he them out of it.

REVELATION 8:6-9:12
6 And the seven angels which had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound.
7 The first angel sounded, and there followed hail and fire mingled with blood, and they were cast upon the earth: and the third part of trees was burnt up, and all green grass was burnt up.
8 And the second angel sounded, and as it were a great mountain burning with fire was cast into the sea: and the third part of the sea became blood;
9 And the third part of the creatures which were in the sea, and had life, died; and the third part of the ships were destroyed.
10 And the third angel sounded, and there fell a great star from heaven, burning as it were a lamp, and it fell upon the third part of the rivers, and upon the fountains of waters;
11 And the name of the star is called Wormwood: and the third part of the waters became wormwood; and many men died of the waters, because they were made bitter.
12 And the fourth angel sounded, and the third part of the sun was smitten, and the third part of the moon, and the third part of the stars; so as the third part of them was darkened, and the day shone not for a third part of it, and the night likewise.
13 And I beheld, and heard an angel flying through the midst of heaven, saying with a loud voice, Woe, woe, woe, to the inhabiters of the earth by reason of the other voices of the trumpet of the three angels,which are yet to sound!

REVELATION 9:1-12
1 And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth: and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit.
2 And he opened the bottomless pit; and there arose a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit.
3 And there came out of the smoke locusts upon the earth: and unto them was given power, as the scorpions of the earth have power.
4 And it was commanded them that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, neither any green thing, neither any tree; but only those men which have not the seal of God in their foreheads.
5 And to them it was given that they should not kill them, but that they should be tormented five months: and their torment was as the torment of a scorpion, when he striketh a man.
6 And in those days shall men seek death, and shall not find it; and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them.
7 And the shapes of the locusts were like unto horses prepared unto battle; and on their heads were as it were crowns like gold, and their faces were as the faces of men.
8 And they had hair as the hair of women, and their teeth were as the teeth of lions.
9 And they had breastplates, as it were breastplates of iron; and the sound of their wings was as the sound of chariots of many horses running to battle.
10 And they had tails like unto scorpions, and there were stings in their tails: and their power was to hurt men five months.
11 And they had a king over them, which is the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, but in the Greek tongue hath his name Apollyon.
12 One woe is past; and, behold, there come two woes more hereafter.

REVELATION 16:1-12
1 And I heard a great voice out of the temple saying to the seven angels, Go your ways, and pour out the vials of the wrath of God upon the earth.
2 And the first went, and poured out his vial upon the earth; and there fell a noisome and grievous sore upon the men which had the mark of the beast, and upon them which worshipped his image.
3 And the second angel poured out his vial upon the sea; and it became as the blood of a dead man: and every living soul died in the sea.
4 And the third angel poured out his vial upon the rivers and fountains of waters; and they became blood.
5 And I heard the angel of the waters say, Thou art righteous, O Lord, which art, and wast, and shalt be, because thou hast judged thus.
6 For they have shed the blood of saints and prophets, and thou hast given them blood to drink; for they are worthy.
7 And I heard another out of the altar say, Even so, Lord God Almighty, true and righteous are thy judgments.
8 And the fourth angel poured out his vial upon the sun; and power was given unto him to scorch men with fire.
9 And men were scorched with great heat, and blasphemed the name of God, which hath power over these plagues: and they repented not to give him glory.
10 And the fifth angel poured out his vial upon the seat of the beast; and his kingdom was full of darkness; and they gnawed their tongues for pain,
11 And blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores, and repented not of their deeds.
12 And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates; and the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared.

CNN - INAUGURATION TO HAJJ

Gazan doctor confirms Hamas exaggerated death toll for political gain JAN 24,09

What really is behind the numbers reported on the number of civilian casualties in the Gaza Strip? Italian newspaper Corriere Della Sera reported Thursday that a doctor working in Gaza's Shifa Hospital claimed that Hamas has intentionally inflated the number of casualties resulting from Israel's Operation Cast Lead. The number of deceased stands at no more than 500 to 600. Most of them are youths between the ages of 17 to 23 who were recruited to the ranks of Hamas, who sent them to the slaughter, according to the newspaper article. The doctor wished to remain unidentified, out of fear for his life. A senior Palestinian Health Ministry official later denied the claims, and the Israel Defense Forces' estimate on the number of casualties in Gaza has also remained unchanged. Despite the claims, the IDF stood behind its estimate that between 1,100 to 1,200 people were killed in the Strip during the fighting, more than two-thirds of them Hamas members. The army initially believed that the number of civilian casualties was higher, as many Hamas men walked outside their houses dressed in civilian clothes, leaving their weapons at home.

Mostly armed teenagers

A Tal al-Hawa resident told the newspaper's reporter, Armed Hamas men sought out a good position for provoking the Israelis. There were mostly teenagers, aged 16 or 17, and armed. They couldn't do a thing against a tank or a jet. They knew they are much weaker, but they fired at our houses so that they could blame Israel for war crimes.The reporter for the Italian newspaper also quoted reporters in the Strip who told of Hamas' exaggerated figures, We have already said to Hamas commanders – why do you insist on inflating the number of victims? These same reporters mentioned that the truth that will come out is likely to be similar to what occurred in Operation Defensive Shield in Jenin. Then, there was first talk of 1,500 deaths. But then it turned out that there were only 54, 45 of which were armed men, the Palestinian reporters told the Italian newspaper. These new figures must be treated with caution especially in light of the fact that various official sources in the Gaza Strip, including United Nations and Red Cross officials, have reported that more than 1,300 people were killed and some 5,000 wounded during the three weeks of fighting in the coastal strip. Palestinian sources claim that three-quarters of the dead were unarmed civilians. Hamas, while boasting on having Israeli soldiers by the dozens, a number that has proven to be exaggerated, claimed that no more than 48 of its members were killed during the Israeli offensive. According to IDF figures, Hamas lost hundreds of fighters from its ranks.

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.

SNOWSQUALL WARNING: Barrie - Orillia - MidlandIssued at 10:17 AM EST SATURDAY 24 JANUARY 2009 SNOWSQUALLS THIS EVENING.

THE SNOWSQUALLS HAVE WEAKENED NEAR THE GODERICH REGION THIS MORNING. THE AREA WILL STILL SEE FLURRIES AT TIMES HEAVY FOR THE REMAINDER OF THE MORNING BUT THEY WILL BE LESS INTENSE. THE LAKE EFFECT SNOW WILL RE-ORGANIZED THIS EVENING WITH SNOWSQUALLS DEVELOPING IN WESTERLY FLOW OFF GEORGIAN BAY. SEVERAL SNOWSQUALLS ARE LIKELY TO AFFECT THE AREAS FROM MIDLAND TO PARRY SOUND AND INLAND TO HIGHWAY 11. THESE SQUALLS ARE EXPECTED TO REMAIN STATIONARY TONIGHT AND BEGIN TO WEAKEN SUNDAY MORNING. WIND CHILL..TEMPERATURES HAVE DROPPED TO NEAR MINUS 25 THIS MORNING OVER AREAS EAST OF GEORGIAN BAY THROUGH TO PETAWAWA. THESE COLD TEMPERATURES COMBINED WITH NORTH WINDS ARE GENERATING WIND CHILL VALUES OF MINUS 35 OVER EASTERN ONTARIO THIS MORNING. BRISK NORTH WINDS FLOWING OFF OF GEORGIAN BAY AND LAKE HURON ARE ALSO PRODUCING WIND CHILL VALUES OF MINUS 30 OVER COTTAGE COUNTRY SOUTH TO TORONTO THIS MORNING. THESE FRIGID WIND CHILLS WILL MODERATE AS THE MERCURY RISES THIS MORNING.

Report: Upgrading FEMA flood maps would save lives byFREDERIC J. FROMMER, Associated Press Writer – Fri Jan 23, 4:32 pm ET

WASHINGTON – Nearly four years after the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, researchers called on the federal government to upgrade its flood maps, arguing that the effort could save lives as well as stem losses to properties and businesses.The Federal Emergency Management Agency's flood insurance rate maps are used to set flood insurance rates, regulate development in flood plains, and let people know about the risk they face.FEMA is wrapping up a five-year map modernization plan that had led to digital flood maps for 92 percent of the continental U.S. population, the National Research Council said. But even after $1 billion has been spent on the effort, only 21 percent of the population has maps which meet all of FEMA's data quality standards, said the study, which was requested by FEMA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.The report said that FEMA often produces maps from the U.S. Geological Survey National Elevation Dataset, but that more accurate maps are available using lidar, which measures elevation from lasers on aircraft.

Among its recommendations, the report calls on FEMA to increase its collaboration with federal, state and local agencies to acquire high-resolution, high-accuracy topographic data.FEMA has recently begun to support collection of lidar data along the Gulf Coast, but lidar data coverage over most inland areas is still sparse, the report says.Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., who chairs the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs subcommittee on disaster recovery, called FEMA's upgrade of its flood maps welcome, but long overdue.However, even with a modernized plan, FEMA may continue to fail Gulf Coast residents if the agency does not seek input from local residents, she said in a statement provided to The Associated Press. An important part of the process is local participation to ensure the maps are accurate and represent the true topography of the land. Knowledge of the local terrain is an essential supplement to the science used to design new flood maps.In Louisiana, FEMA's new maps have triggered complaints from several parishes that the elevation data put too many towns in flood zones — guaranteeing they'll never rebuild and recover from the hurricanes of 2005 and 2008.

A FEMA spokesman, Butch Kinerney, said the report validates a lot of the things we're doing, and have done, and gives us good recommendations for going forward. We're changing the way we're looking at maps.In addition to upgrading the maps, the agency is also helping communities to write plans to prepare for all sorts of disasters, including floods, he said.Askedif he agreed that better maps could save lives and property, Kinerney said that a lot depends on how local communities choose to use the improved information.If a community adopts it, yeah, I think there are going to be dramatic effects, he said. If a community chooses not to adopt it, it could be for naught.The National Research Council is part of the National Academies, an independent organization chartered by Congress to advise the government on scientific matters.On the Net:National Research Council: http://www.nationalacademies.org/nrc

NOAA sets rules for Navy sonar training By RANDOLPH E. SCHMID, AP Science Writer – Fri Jan 23, 2:51 pm ET

WASHINGTON – Federal fisheries regulators announced rules Friday to protect marine mammals during Navy sonar training along the Atlantic coast and in the Gulf of Mexico.The rules authorize the Navy to conduct the training, while requiring it to take steps to avoid endangering mammals such as whales.Similar regulations were issued previously covering the West Coast and Hawaii by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.The rules will be in effect for five years, but the Navy will have to provide annual reports and seek a new letter of authorization for its training each year, said Jim Lecky, director of the office of protective services at NOAA's Fisheries Service.The Natural Resources Defense Council charged that the rules "will expose millions of marine mammals to harm from naval training.NRDC attorney Joel Reynolds called on the new Barack Obama administration to reopen the rules for further review.Last fall the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Navy in a case in which environmental groups had sought to block sonar training off the coast of Southern California.The Fisheries Service said it does not expect the naval exercises to result in injury or death to marine mammals. However, in some cases exposure to sonar has been associated with animals becoming stranded on shore.

Because the sound generated by tactical active sonar may affect the behavior of some marine mammals, or cause a temporary loss of their hearing, the Navy had requested the authorization under the Marine Mammal Protection Act.

The regulations require the Navy to:

Establish marine mammal safety zones around each vessel using sonar and to halt sonar operations if marine mammals are seen within these designated safety zones.

Set up a stranding response plan that includes a training shutdown if needed, and to assist NOAA's Fisheries Service if it has to come to the aid of stranded animals.

Limit helicopter dipping sonar and object detection exercises in the North Atlantic right whale critical habitat in the southeast Atlantic Ocean from December through March.

Minimize the impact from torpedo exercises conducted in the North Atlantic right whale critical habitat in the northeast Atlantic Ocean.

Use cautionary measures to reduce the likelihood of ship strikes of North Atlantic right whales.On the Net:NOAA Fisheries Service: http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov

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

Geithner breaks currency taboo
ANDREW WILLIS 23.01.2009 @ 17:30 CET

US treasury secretary nominee, Tim Geithner, said Thursday (22 January) that China was artificially manipulating its currency in order to provide a boost for Chinese exports. EU officials however refused to comment on whether this was also their opinion of the situation.Asked whether Europe shared these views, the European Commission's economic and monetary affairs spokesperson told this website on Friday: Commissioner Almunia's position, which is the same as the Eurogroup's long-standing position, is that exchange rates should reflect economic fundamentals. That's all we wish to say.A spokesperson for the EU's trade department also refused to comment.

Such cagey responses highlight the extremely sensitive nature of international exchange rate policies and make Mr Geithner's comments all the more remarkable. In the European Parliament on Wednesday, ECB president Jean-Claude Trichet also refused to comment on a question concerning currency fluctuations between the British pound and the euro. Former US treasury secretary Henry Paulson shared the concern of his replacement that US businesses were suffering from an artificially low yuan and repeatedly called for the currency to float freely against the dollar. However, he shied away from calling China a currency manipulator – a statement unlikely to go down well in Beijing. China's central bank, the People's Bank of China, responded by saying it had noted the comments.Mr Geithner made the statement in a written response to questions from senators the same day as the US upper chamber approved his nomination as treasury secretary. President Obama – backed by the conclusions of a broad range of economists – believes that China is manipulating its currency, he said. The statement continued that Mr Obama would use aggressively all the diplomatic avenues open to him to seek change in China's currency practices. Formally labeling China a currency manipulator would compel the US administration to address the current trade imbalance between the two countries under US law. Professor Jing Men, an expert in Chinese affairs at the College of Europe, pointed out that China had allowed its currency to slowly appreciate over the last three years and suggested the US was trying to lay part of the blame for the financial crisis on China's doorstep. So really its national interest which plays a role in Tim Geithner's speech, she told EUobserver.

Chinese premier tours Europe

Separately, Chinese premier Wen Jiabao is due to visit Brussels next week in what the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Thursday would be a journey of confidence.Mr Jiabao's seven-day trip will focus on trade and boosting economic co-operation between China and the EU. He is to visit a number of European capitals, including the Swiss town of Davos, which will be hosting the annual World Economic Forum meeting. Paris is conspicuously absent from the premier's agenda however. Relations between the two countries have deteriorated following a meeting last month between French President Nicholas Sarkozy and Tibet's Dalai Lama.The Chinese government postponed an EU-China summit as a result of the meeting.

Gordon Brown brings Britain to the edge of bankruptcy Iain Martin says the Prime Minister hasn't saved the world and now faces disgrace in the history books
By Iain Martin 8:41AM GMT 21 Jan 2009

They don't know what they're doing, do they? With every step taken by the Government as it tries frantically to prop up the British banking system, this central truth becomes ever more obvious.Yesterday marked a new low for all involved, even by the standards of this crisis. Britons woke to news of the enormity of the fresh horrors in store. Despite all the sophistry and outdated boom-era terminology from experts, I think a far greater number of people than is imagined grasp at root what is happening here. The country stands on the precipice. We are at risk of utter humiliation, of London becoming a Reykjavik on Thames and Britain going under. Thanks to the arrogance, hubristic strutting and serial incompetence of the Government and a group of bankers, the possibility of national bankruptcy is not unrealistic.The political impact will be seismic; anger will rage. The haunted looks on the faces of those in supporting roles, such as the Chancellor, suggest they have worked out that a tragedy is unfolding here. Gordon Brown is engaged no longer in a standard battle for re-election; instead he is fighting to avoid going down in history disgraced completely.This catastrophe happened on his watch, no matter how much he now opportunistically beats up on bankers. He turned on the fountain of cheap money and encouraged the country to swim in it. House prices rose, debt went through the roof and the illusion won elections. Throughout, Brown boasted of the beauty of his regulatory structure, when those in charge of it were failing to ask the most basic questions of financial institutions. The same bankers Brown now claims to be angry with, he once wooed, travelling to the City to give speeches praising their financial innovation.

Does the Prime Minister realise the likely implications when the country joins the dots? He has never been wild on shouldering blame, so I doubt it. But Brown is a historian. He should know that when a nation has put all its chips on red and the ball lands on black, the person who made the call is responsible. Neville Chamberlain discovered this in May 1940 with the German invasion of France.We're some way from a similar event. But do not underestimate the gravity of the emergency and potential for disgrace.The Government's bail-out of the banks in October with £37 billion of taxpayers' money was supposed to have saved the world, according to the PM, but now it is clear that it has not even saved the banks. Our money kept the show on the road for only three months.As the Liberal Democrats' Treasury spokesman Vince Cable asks: where has the £37 billion gone? The answer, as Cable knows, is that it has disappeared down the plug hole.It is finally dawning on the Government that the liabilities of the British banks grew to be so vast in the boom years that they now eclipse the entire economy. Unfortunately, the Treasury is pledged to honour those liabilities because it has guaranteed not to let a British bank go down. RBS has liabilities of £1.8 trillion, three times annual UK government spending, against assets of £1.9 trillion. But after the events of the past year, I wager most taxpayers will believe the true picture is worse. Meanwhile, the assets are falling in value. This matters, because post-nationalisation these liabilities are now yours and mine.And they come piled on top of the rocketing national debt, charitably put at £630 billion, or 43 per cent of GDP. The true figure is much higher because the Government has used off-balance sheet accounting to hide commitments such as PFI projects.Add to that record consumer indebtedness and Britain becomes extremely vulnerable. The markets have worked this out ahead of the politicians, as usual, and are wondering what to do next. If they decide our nation is a basket case, they will make it so. The PM and the Chancellor , both looking a year older every day, tell us that for their next trick they will buy more bank shares, create a giant insurance scheme for bad debt, pledge to honour liabilities without limit, cross their fingers and hope it all works. The phrase bottomless pit springs to mind for a reason: that is what they have designed.In this gloom, the Prime Minister has but one slender hope: that somehow, by force of personality, the new President Obama engineers a rapid American recovery restoring global confidence, energising the markets and making us all forget this bad dream. Obama is talented but he is not a magician. Instead, Gordon Brown's nightmare, in which we are all trapped, is going to get much worse.

Roubini Predicts U.S. Losses May Reach $3.6 Trillion (Update1)
By Henry Meyer and Ayesha Daya

Jan. 20 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. financial losses from the credit crisis may reach $3.6 trillion, suggesting the banking system is effectively insolvent, said New York University Professor Nouriel Roubini, who predicted last year’s economic crisis. I’ve found that credit losses could peak at a level of $3.6 trillion for U.S. institutions, half of them by banks and broker dealers, Roubini said at a conference in Dubai today. If that’s true, it means the U.S. banking system is effectively insolvent because it starts with a capital of $1.4 trillion. This is a systemic banking crisis.Losses and writedowns at financial companies worldwide have risen to more than $1 trillion since the U.S. subprime mortgage market collapsed in 2007, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. President Barack Obama will have to use as much as $1 trillion of public funds to shore up the capitalization of the banking sector, following the $350 billion injection by the Bush administration, Roubini told Bloomberg News. Congress last year approved a $700 billion rescue fund, of which half remains to be disbursed. Bank of America Corp., the largest U.S. bank by assets, posted a quarterly loss of $1.79 billion last week, its first since 1991, and received $138 billion in emergency government funds. Citigroup Inc. posted an $8.29 billion fourth-quarter loss, completing its worst year, and plans to split in two under Chief Executive Officer Vikram Pandit’s plan to rebuild a capital base eroded by the credit crisis.

Bankrupt System

The problems of Citi, Bank of America and others suggest the system is bankrupt, Roubini said. In Europe, it’s the same thing.Stocks in Europe, Canada and Brazil dropped yesterday on speculation government efforts to shore up the financial industry will fail to stem the deepening global recession. The U.K.’s Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc said it expects to post a loss of as much as 28 billion pounds ($41 billion) for 2008 and the government got ready to raise its stake in the lender.

Oil prices will trade between $30 and $40 a barrel all year, Roubini predicted. I see commodities falling overall another 15-20 percent, Roubini said. This outlook for commodity prices is beneficial for oil importers, it’s going to imply that economic recovery might occur faster, but from the point of view of oil exporters, this will be very negative.Oil has tumbled 77 percent from its July high of $147.27 as the global economy sinks into recession, straining the budgets of crude exporters. Saudi Arabia, Oman and Dubai, the second- largest sheikdom in the United Arab Emirates, have said they will post budget deficits this year. Crude oil for February delivery fell to $32.70, down 10.4 percent from last week’s close and the lowest since Dec. 19, on the New York Mercantile Exchange today. The contract traded at $33.37 a barrel at 10:45 a.m. London time. To contact the reporters on this story: Henry Meyer in Dubai at hmeyer4@bloomberg.netAyesha Daya in Dubai adaya1@bloomberg.net

Ottawa to create $1B fund for hard-hit workers
Updated Fri. Jan. 23 2009 6:26 PM ET TV.ca News Staff

Prime Minister Stephen Harper's Conservative government intends to create a $1-billion assistance fund to help workers in struggling industries as part of its upcoming budget on Jan. 27. Government officials say the money will come out of a newly-created fund that will help retrain workers from across Canada - in struggling sectors like forestry, agriculture, and manufacturing -- who will benefit from acquiring new skills. It will be a stronger, more capable workforce -- and one that's prepared for the jobs of tomorrow, a government official told The Canadian Press. We're going to try to protect the jobs of today and prepare for the jobs of tomorrow.The leak of details is a part of the Tories' public-relations campaign leading up to Tuesday's budget. The officials say the retraining fund will be a good investment for the long-term because it will elevate the collective skills of the Canadian workforce. Natural Resources Minister Lisa Raitt gave limited details of how the fund will work when she spoke to an audience in Sydney, Nova Scotia. I expect we will see a flexible new community adjustment fund in the range of $1 billion, to help communities, like forestry communities, as they adjust to the changing economic climate, she said.

Meanwhile, Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz pledged assistance for farmers in Edmonton. And Human Resources Minister Diane Finley and Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq announced new economic-development agencies for southern Ontario and for the North. The Canadian Press says it is expected that other cabinet ministers will elaborate on details of the plan at events prior to Tuesday's budget. CP reports that included among the measures announced by the government on Friday to help struggling industries are:
$500 million to modernize farms and help provide better equipment.
$50 million to expand slaughterhouses.
$50 million to promote Canada's forestry sector abroad.
$100 million for better forestry technology.
Two new economic development agencies, one for struggling southern Ontario and another for Northern Canada.
Ignatieff speaks out about budget

The upcoming budget will be a deficit budget, with a senior government official telling The Canadian Press that it could be as high as $34 billion this year, with a $30 billion deficit to follow the year after that. Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff told a Toronto audience that the prime minister was not playing by the rules when he chose to leak parts of the budget at his convenience. I asked Mr. Harper not to play games like that, he said Friday. I told him: Put the facts and figures on the table. Don't let them slip out at his convenience. But the guy just can't help himself.

Ignatieff said the release of budget information was irresponsible and costly to our economy.The Liberal leader also said he did not support having broad-based tax cuts included in the upcoming budget. Liberal finance critic John McCallum repeated Friday that his party will wait to study the entire content of Tuesday's budget before deciding how it will vote. McCallum says the economic stimulus was necessary, but blamed Tory mismanagement for turning a $13-billion surplus before the economic crisis began to a projected deficit of $68 billion. McCallum told CTV's On the Hill that Tories were spending like crazy when times were good, and brought Canada into a much larger deficit situation than it should be, had they spent responsibly and prudently before the economic crisis came to light. McCallum denies any suggestion that there are two groups of Liberals: one that wants to wait for the budget's release before deciding on how to vote, and a more hawkish one that would vote to defeat the budget regardless of what it contains. There's one group -- led by Michael Ignatieff - which says ....we do not decide how to vote on a budget before we read the budget, McCallum said. But the budget must protect the vulnerable, it must protect the jobs for today, and it must prepare for the jobs of tomorrow. And if the budget doesn't pass on those tests, and if the actions in the budget are not proportional to the problems this country faces, then we'll vote against the budget.
With files from The Canadian Press.

Plunging gas prices ease inflation rate in December
Updated Fri. Jan. 23 2009 6:49 PM ET CTV.caNews Staff

Canada's annual inflation rate sunk to 1.2 per cent last month, the lowest level in two years, driven mostly by plunging energy prices. Statistics Canada released the latest Consumer Price Index numbers on Friday. Just one month earlier in November 2008, the inflation rate was 2 per cent. StatsCan said the rise in prices in December 2008, compared to the same month in 2007, was the smallest since January 2007. Gas prices were largely to blame, the agency said. In December of last year, prices at the pump were 25.8 per cent lower than the same month a year earlier. The gas price drop was the largest, year by year, since the gas price index was created in 1949. In November 2008, the drop from the same month a year previous was 14.4 per cent. Excluding gasoline, the Consumer Price Index rose 2.6 per cent in the 12 months to December, down slightly from the 2.8 per cent increase in November, StatsCan said in a release. The 12-month change in the CPI was also tempered by on-going price declines for purchasing and leasing passenger vehicles, women's clothing and fuel oil and other fuels.Douglas Porter, a senior economist with BMO Capital Markets, said at present inflation is first and foremost a gas story. But starting in the next few months, we'll see a shift where price drops become more broad-based, he added. Aron Gampel, deputy chief economist with Scotiabank, said inflation hasn't hit rock-bottom yet, and Canadians should prepare for further slowing. In the next month we're going to be talking about it going into negative territory on a more sustained basis, Gampel told CTV's Canada AM on Friday. It's mainly because the economy is weak and pricing power has been reduced. We cut prices to sell goods and of course energy prices have plummeted so much it's pulling the overall inflation rate down.

Porter said he thought it was unlikely, but not impossible, that Canada could eventually see deflation occur -- where a decrease in prices occurs for a prolonged period of time. Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney called the risk of deflation remote.StatsCan said food prices are now the biggest contributor to inflation in Canada. Prices rose 7.3 per cent last month, and 7.4 per cent in November. If food prices were excluded from the equation, inflation would have fallen to zero in December.With files from The Canadian Press.

Syria, Jordan Sign Minutes of Meetings of Land and Sea Transport Joint Companies JAN 24,09

23 January 2009
Amman - Syria and Jordan signed Friday minutes of the meetings of the General Assemblies of the two joint Syrian-Jordanian Land and Marine Transport Companies

Minister of Transport Ya'rob Badr, who signed the minutes along with his Jordanian counterpart Alaa al-Batayneh, said that the two sides agreed to re-estimate budgets of the two companies to overcome the difficulties this year, noting to the agreement on controlling expenditure in order to reduce the operational costs of the two companies to face the negative effects of the global financial crisis. It is scheduled for the General Assembly of the Syrian-Jordanian Company for marine transport to study, in its forthcoming meeting in Damascus next April, proposals of the entry of new naval equipment to take advantage of the new world prices to support the fleet of the company. By Ghossoun SANA (Syria Arab News Agency) 2009.

EU proposes mediation group for Croatia-Slovenia dispute
ELITSA VUCHEVA 23 012009 @ 17:36 CET

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS – The European Commission has suggested forming a special group to help solve the lengthy Croatia–Slovenia border dispute and Finnish former president and Nobel Peace Prize winner Martti Ahtisaari could be the person chairing it.Commissioner Rehn has discussed with President Martti Ahtisaari and explored whether he would be available to chair a senior expert group in order to facilitate a solution on the border issue between Slovenia and Croatia, Krisztina Nagy, spokesperson for EU enlargement commissioner Olli Rehn, told journalists on Friday (23 January).According to a Slovenian POP TV report on Thursday, the group would be composed of three people – Mr Ahtisaari; Robert Badinter – the French legal expert who headed the arbitration commission for the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s; and a third member who is reportedly a woman, a legal expert who is not widely known to the public.Mr Ahtisaari, 71, who last year won the Nobel Peace Prize for his important efforts, on several continents and over more than three decades, to resolve international conflicts, but who also has a controversial image in the Balkans for having favoured Kosovar independence during his work as the UN's special envoy there from 2005 to 2007, is reportedly open to the proposal.But Ms Nagy declined to confirm the other members of the body, or its size, saying it was premature to do so before Croatia and Slovenia have accepted the commission's initiative.What is important now is not to put the cart before the horse. So, the first step to launch a possible European facilitation is that the two countries agree on the terms and conditions of such facilitation, she said.

Croatia positive, Slovenia cautious

Croatia on Thursday spoke out in favour of the move, with Prime Minister Ivo Sanader hailing the European Commission's proposal.Such an initiative to move away from a frozen position and blocked Croatian [EU] talks is certainly welcomed, he was quoted as saying by Croatian news agency HINA.Slovenia, however, has had a more cautious reaction.It is too early to say whether Ljubljana supports the proposal, the country's foreign minister Samuel Zbogar said, according to Slovenian news agency STA.Yesterday [Wednesday], we had the first meeting, the first presentation, this is still just an initiative, many details remain unclear, he added.Slovenia and Croatia have been fighting over their common land and sea border for over 17 years.

Particularly thorny is a patch of the Adriatic Sea close to the Slovenian city of Piran that would secure Slovenian ships direct access to international waters.The sea-access issue caused Slovenia to block accession talks with EU candidate Croatia in December, arguing that maps that Croatia had provided during its accession process could prejudge a solution to their long-running dispute.Earlier this week, Mr Rehn visited both Ljubljana and Zagreb for talks on the issue. After returning from his visits, he admitted that from initially being a bilateral issue, the border dispute had become a European problem.

IF I HEARD CORRECT YESTERDAY ,IN PRIVATE OBAMA SIGNED AN ABORTION BILL IN HIS OFFICE AND KEPT IT SECRET.

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- Officials with the incoming administration of Barack Obama have confirmed that he will indeed overturn a pro-life policy of President Bush on his first day in office. Despite campaigning on the rhetoric of wanting to reduce abortions, Obama will make one of his first actions promoting them globally.Meanwhile, some 77 members of Congress have signed onto a letter asking Obama to back down from doing so.President Bush used an executive order on his first day in office to reinstitute a pro-life policy that prevents forcing taxpayers to fund international groups that perform or promote abortions in other countries.

While U.S. law prohibits funding abortions directly, Bush's Mexico City Policy expands the law by also prohibiting the funding of pro-abortion groups that either do abortions overseas or lobby pro-life governments to sacrifice their abortion limits.During the presidential election, pro-life groups issued a clarion call to voters telling them their tax money would be used if Obama were elected and saying he would likely reverse the Mexico City Policy immediately after taking office.The capital publication Congressional Quarterly reports that top Washington officials tell it that the incoming president will reverse the pro-life measure on his first day as president, on Wednesday.When Obama overturns the limits on global abortions, he will do so over the objections of dozens of members of Congress.As a new administration begins, it is our hope you will work, as you have pledged, to create a new era of bi-partisan cooperation. We urge you to continue the Mexico City Policy, which separates abortion and family planning in America's foreign aid programs, the bipartisan group of lawmakers wrote Obama on Friday.They say the policy ensures that United States family planning funds are not co-opted by groups who promote abortion as a method of family planning. Such activities would send a wrong message overseas that the United States promotes abortion.

The members, led by Rep. Doug Lamborn of Colorado and Joe Pitts of Pennsylvania, also say it is insulting to other nations to promote pro-abortion groups that lobby them to overturn long-standing pro-life laws based on their culture and heritage.We also have a responsibility to respect the laws of many developing countries who have laws prohibiting or restricting abortion. It is an insult to fund organizations that are intent on overturning those laws by promoting the Western ideology of abortion on demand, they said.Rep. Nita Lowey, a New York Democrat who sponsored legislation in Congress to reverse the provision, told CQ that somehow putting it in place endangers the health care people in third world nations receive.But Douglas Johnson, the legislative director of National Right to Life, tells LifeNews.com the Mexico City Policy and Obama's reversing it is all about abortion.Thus, it appears Obama's move will take money away from non-abortion groups that provide services to poor people in foreign nations.One effect of Obama's anticipated order will be to divert many millions of dollars away from groups that do not promote abortion, and into the hands of those organizations that are most militant in promoting abortion as a population-control method, Johnson explained.So, a president who not long ago told the American people that he wanted to reduce the number of abortions, is already effectively promoting the increased use of abortion as a means of population control, Johnson added.President Reagan first put the Mexico City Policy in place and it is named for a population conference that took place in the Mexican capital in 1984 when he introduced it.President George H.W. Bush continued the pro-life policy, President Clinton overturned it, and President George W. Bush kept it for eight years and threatened to veto any Congressional spending bill reversing it.
Under the Mexico City Policy, funding for family planning programs is not reduced.

STORY AND VIDEO HAJJ
http://wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=86939

MEDIA MATTERSCNN likens inauguration to hajj,rowd cited, That is the initial definition of a pilgrimage, show up January 24, 200912:30 am Eastern
By Bob Unruh 2009 WorldNetDaily

A special CNN report has likened attendance at President Obama's inauguration to participation in the hajj, the pilgrimage to Islam's holy city Mecca that Muslims are required to make at least once. The report is on video and embedded here:
The CNN report was criticized by the FreedomsLighthouse.com blog. Just when you think you have heard everything from the liberal media, they best their own record for ludicrous reporting, said the website report about the CNN video. Here is a CNN report that actually compares the upcoming presidential inauguration to the Muslim hajj pilgrimage to Mecca! I kid you not!The commentary continued: The report never mentions Obama by name, but we did not see any comparisons between President Bush's inauguration and the hajj to Mecca. For the mainstream media, who take such pride in helping to get Barack Obama elected with their incredibly biased reporting, perhaps the inauguration of Barack Obama is a religious event, as they put their faith in the Messianic Obama they helped to create.The report by CNN's Zain Verjee suggested an inauguration trip is similar to another grand event, in both size and preparations, the hajj, the most important religious pilgrimage in the Muslim world.

WND earlier reported on Obama's outreach to Muslims during the inauguration. In his inaugural speech, Obama echoed his previous declaration that the U.S. is no longer a Christian nation, declaring America is a nation of many faiths that includes Muslims and nonbelievers.For we know that our patchwork heritage is a strength, not a weakness. We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus – and nonbelievers, Obama stated before a crowd estimated by security officials at more than a million. He continued: We are shaped by every language and culture, drawn from every end of this Earth; and because we have tasted the bitter swill of civil war and segregation, and emerged from that dark chapter stronger and more united, we cannot help but believe that the old hatreds shall someday pass; that the lines of tribe shall soon dissolve; that as the world grows smaller, our common humanity shall reveal itself; and that America must play its role in ushering in a new era of peace.Obama's statements about an inclusive country were strikingly similar to remarks he made twice in 2007 in which he went further and stated the U.S. is no longer Christian. At that time, some took issue with his pronouncement, fearing the declarations indicated his intention to reorient the U.S. away from its traditional Judeo-Christian values. The CNN report included Michael Wolfe, the author of 1001 roads to Mecca, who said attendance is significant for any religious pilgrimage.

They're not going to watch it on television. They are going to be there. That's the initial definition of a pilgrimage. Show up, he said. Verjee noted the millions of people at both a hajj and the inauguration. Crowds meeting in a specific city to express a common set of beliefs and to celebrate renewal, that's very much at the heart of pilgrimage, the report said. Commenters on the forum page at the Freedom's Lighthouse site were pointed in their assessment. Well, CNN has been Crescent News Network for a while, said one. WND's earlier report on Obama's outreach to Muslims followed his June 2007 speech available on Youtube in which he stated, Whatever we once were, we're no longer a Christian nation. At least not just. We are also a Jewish nation, a Muslim nation, and a Buddhist nation, and a Hindu nation, and a nation of nonbelievers.In that speech, Obama took aim at the Christian Right or hijacking religion and using it to divide the nation: Somehow, somewhere along the way, faith stopped being used to bring us together and started being used to drive us apart. It got hijacked. Part of it's because of the so-called leaders of the Christian Right, who've been all too eager to exploit what divides us, he said. Asked last year to clarify his remarks, Obama repeated them to the Christian Broadcast Network. I think that the right might worry a bit more about the dangers of sectarianism. Whatever we once were, we're no longer just a Christian nation; we are also a Jewish nation, a Muslim nation, a Buddhist nation, a Hindu nation, and a nation of nonbelievers, Obama wrote in an e-mail to CBN News senior national correspondent David Brody. We should acknowledge this and realize that when we're formulating policies from the statehouse to the Senate floor to the White House, we've got to work to translate our reasoning into values that are accessible to every one of our citizens, not just members of our own faith community, wrote Obama.

FROM JOSEPH FARAH'S G2 BULLETINPartial war looming between China, India?
Military suggests border dispute is threat to Beijing January 23, 2009
12:25 am Eastern2009 WorldNetDaily

Arunachal Pradesh

A border dispute could become the spark that launches China and India into a military conflict, with Chinese strategists resurrecting the concept of a partial war to recover what they call Southern Tibet, the region India calls Arunachal Pradesh, according to a report from Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin. The area in northeast India has a 650-mile unfenced border with China, which lays claim to the region and refers to it as Southern Tibet. Some of the threats are emanating from Chinese publications that reflect the opinion of the Chinese leadership without making official comments.

For example, the China Institute of International Strategic Studies, or IISS, has said it visualizes two crises for the People's Liberation Army in the immediate future. One was the succession in the North Korean leadership should Kim Jong-Il die. The other was India's continued presence in territory China claims as its own.

Keep in touch with the most important breaking news stories about critical developments around the globe with Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin, the premium, online intelligence news source edited and published by the founder of WND. India regards Arunachal Pradesh as the 24th state in the Indian Union. Yet China still claims much of it as part of the Tibet Autonomous Region and may be prepared to launch an action to regain it. Ironically, the veiled threat comes at a time when China looks upon its relationship with India as being in the best period of their joint history.

Called the land of the rising sun, Arunachal Pradesh means land of the dawn lit mountains, since it is in the Himalayas. The Burma Road, known to have helped supply China during World War II, passes through the region. Burma, or Myanmar, borders on the East. The 650-mile Chinese-Indian border in Arunachal Pradesh is separated by the so-called McMahon Line, also known as the Line of Actual Control. The dispute dates back to the time India was ruled by Britain, whose officials in 1914 held a conference over the boundary. In 1962, China and India fought a serious border war, with Chinese troops advancing well into Arunachal Pradesh but later withdrawing. The region flared up again in 1986. Now, the region is becoming a focal point again. A Chinese military website that reflects official positions observed that the border issue may be symbolic of how India looks upon China as the greatest obstacle to its rise. The website suggested that the border dispute over Southern Tibet constitutes a security threat to China and that Beijing may need to adopt a strategy to weaken control of the Indian central government.

Israel's Barak heads to US over Gaza arms smuggling JAN 24,09

JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak is to travel to Washington next week to discuss the implementation of a bilateral agreement to halt arms smuggling into Gaza, a senior official said on Saturday.He will be the first top Israeli official to travel to Washington since the end of Israel's deadly 22-day offensive against the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip on January 18 and since President Barack Obama took office.Barak, who will leave on Tuesday, was to meet Secretary of Defence Robert Gates to discuss the implementation of the Israeli-US memorandum of understanding aimed at halting arms smuggling between Egypt and Gaza, he told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity.The two would also discuss US arms sales to Israel, the official said, refusing to elaborate.Israel tied its unilateral halt of the Gaza offensive to agreements reached with the United States and Egypt on stemming the arms smuggling into the Islamist-ruled enclave, where medics say more than 1,300 people died during Operation Cast.

Syria congratulates Hamas on Gaza victory JAN 24,09

DAMASCUS (AFP) – Syrian President Bashar al-Assad congratulated Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal on the Islamist movement's victory over Israel in Gaza at a meeting in Damascus on Saturday, official media said.Assad congratulated the Palestinian people on the victory scored by the resistance in the Gaza Strip, the official SANA news agency said.Israel's inability to achieve its objectives despite using the deadliest of weaponry is proof of the devotion of the Palestinian people to its territorial rights and its deep belief in victory against occupation and aggression, it quoted Assad as saying.Meshaal and his delegation responded by expressing their deep appreciation of Syria for its efforts at all levels to support the resistance of the Palestinian people in Gaza during and after the Israeli aggression.The Hamas delegation is to set off on a regional tour to thank certain countries which have supported the Palestinian people, SANA added.Syria provides a base in exile for Hamas's political leadership, including Meshaal.The Islamist group has controlled Gaza since June 2007 when it ousted forces loyal to Western-backed Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas.Both Israel and Hamas declared unilateral ceasefires last Sunday in their 22-day conflict in Gaza.More than 1,330 Palestinians were killed in the war, nearly a third of them children, and vast swathes of Gaza left in ruins.