BROWN WINS BOSTON MASS ELECTION

WELL I SEE I AM NOT THE ONLY ONE HATED FOR PUTTING BIBLE SCRIPTURES TO MY STORIES.THIS COMPANYS HATED FOR PUTTING SCRIPTURES ON GUNS.KEEP THE FAITH AND THE SCRIPTURES GOING ON THE GUNS GUYS.

Michigan defense contractor has God in its sights By RICHARD LARDNER, Associated Press Writer – JAN 19,2010
http://www.trijicon.com/Trijicon.cfm

WASHINGTON – Army officials said Tuesday they will investigate whether a Michigan defense contractor violated federal procurement rules by stamping references to Bible verses on combat rifle sights used by American forces to kill enemy fighters in Iraq and Afghanistan.The Marine Corps, another major customer of the telescoping sights that allow troops to pinpoint targets day or night, says service acquisition officials plan to meet with the contractor, Trijicon of Wixom, Mich., to discuss future purchases of the company's gear.The references have stoked concerns by a watch dog group about whether the inscriptions break a government rule that bars proselytizing by American troops. But military officials said the citations don't violate the ban and they won't stop using the tens of thousands of telescoping sights that have already been bought.Trijicon said it has been longstanding company practice to put the Scripture citations on the equipment. Tom Munson, Trijicon's director of sales and marketing, said the company has never received any complaints until now.We don't publicize this, Munson said in a recent interview. It's not something we make a big deal out of. But when asked, we say, Yes, it's there.

The inscriptions are subtle and appear in raised lettering at the end of the stock number. Trijicon's rifle sights use tritium, a radioactive form of hydrogen, to create light and help shooters hit what they're aiming for.Markings on the Advanced Combat Optical Gunsight, which is standard issue to U.S. special operations forces, include JN8:12, a reference to John 8:12: Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life,according to the King James version of the Bible.

The Trijicon Reflex sight is stamped with 2COR4:6, a reference to part of the second letter of Paul to the Corinthians: For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ,the King James version reads.

Photos posted on a Defense Department Web site show Iraqi forces training with rifles equipped with the inscribed sights.The Defense Department is a major customer of Trijicon's. In 2009 alone, the Marine Corps signed deals worth $66 million for the company's products. Trijicon's scopes and optical devices for guns range in cost from a few hundred dollars to $13,000, according to the company's Web site.Mikey Weinstein, president of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, says the Trijicon sights could give the Taliban and other enemy forces a propaganda tool: that American troops are Christian crusaders invading Muslim countries.I don't have to wonder for a nanosecond how the American public would react if citations from the Quran were being inscribed onto these U.S. armed forces gun sights instead of New Testament citations, Weinstein said. The foundation is a nonprofit organization opposed to religious favoritism within the military.Weinstein said he has received complaints about the Scripture citations from active-duty and retired members of the military. He said he couldn't identify them because they fear retaliation.A spokesman for U.S. Central Command, which manages military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, said the sights don't violate the ban on proselytizing because there's no effort to distribute the equipment beyond the U.S. troops who use them.This situation is not unlike the situation with U.S. currency, said the spokesman, Air Force Maj. John Redfield. Are we going to stop using money because the bills have In God We Trust on them? As long as the sights meet the combat needs of troops, they'll continue to be used.Capt. Geraldine Carey, a Marine Corps spokeswoman, said Tuesday in an e-mailed statement that we are aware of the issue and are concerned with how this may be perceived. Carey said Marine Corps acquisition officials plan to meet with Trijicon to discuss future buys of the company's sights. The statement did not say what the nature of those discussions would be.Gary Tallman, an Army spokesman, said the service was not aware of the markings. But Army acquisition experts will determine if Trijicon violated any procurement regulations, he said.Munson, Trijicon's sales director, said the practice of putting Bible references on the sites began nearly 30 years ago by Trijicon's founder, Glyn Bindon, who was killed in a plane crash in 2003. His son Stephen, Trijicon's president, has continued the practice. On the Net: Trijicon: http://www.trijicon.com/Trijicon.cfm
Military Religious Freedom Foundation: http://www.militaryreligiousfreedom.org/urgent_issues.html

Earthquake survivors get solar-powered bibles From correspondents in Miami From: Reuters January 19, 2010 12:35PM

What are these? AS international aid agencies rush food, water and medicine to Haiti's earthquake victims, a US faith-based group is sending Bibles to Haitians in their hour of need.

Not just any Bible.

These are solar-powered audible Bibles that can broadcast the holy scriptures in Haitian Creole to 300 people at a time.Called the Proclaimer, the audio Bible delivers digital quality and is designed for poor and illiterate people, the Faith Comes By Hearing group said.According to their website, the Proclaimer is self-powered and can play the Bible in the jungle, desert or ... even on the moon! The Albuquerque-based organisation said 600 of the devices were already on their way to Haiti.It said it was responding to the Haitian crisis by providing faith, hope and love through God's Word in audio.

Victims see hand of God in Haiti's destruction -The Australian, 2 days ago..End of sidebar. Return to start of sidebar.With tens of thousands of Port-au-Prince residents living outdoors because their homes have collapsed or they fear aftershocks from last week's quake, the audio Bible can bring them hope and comfort that comes from knowing God has not forgotten them through this tragedy, the group said.

Nearly 300 killed in Nigeria religious clashes by Aminu Abubakar – Tue Jan 19, 4:24 pm ET

KANO, Nigeria (AFP) – Three days of Muslim-Christian clashes in the Nigerian city of Jos have left around 300 people dead, clerics and a paramedic said Tuesday, as troops were deployed to control the unrest.Authorities placed the central city under a 24-hour curfew amid reports of continuing armed clashes, with terrified residents saying they could hear gunshots and smoke was billowing from parts of the Plateau State capital.Nigeria's Vice President Goodluck Jonathan sent in troops and ordered security chiefs to proceed to Jos immediately to assess the situation and advise on further steps, his office said.All flights to the city were suspended, aviation sources said.Leaders of both sides and a paramedic issued death tolls that put the number of dead in fighting, which erupted Sunday in a mainly Christian area and spread, at nearly 300 but there was no official confirmation.

The clashes were sparked by a dispute over the building of a mosque, residents said.

As at yesterday I had 50 dead, the secretary of the Christian Association of Nigeria, Reverend Chung Dabo, told AFP. Another 15 people were killed on Tuesday in the neighbouring town of Bukuru, he said.Muslim leader Balarabe Dawud said 192 bodies were brought to the city's central mosque on Tuesday. On Monday he gave a death toll of 26.Dawud, head of the mosque, said at least 800 people had been wounded, 90 of whom had been taken to military hospitals with serious injuries.The mosque had run out of medical supplies, he said. Even neighbourhood private clinics are full with the injured.Mosque employee Mohammed Shittu told AFP the mosque is full with the injured and the dead.Clashes in Bukuru on Tuesday left another five people dead, according to Maryam Mohammed, a paramedic working at the clinic there.

As I am speaking to you now, fighting is ongoing although soldiers have been deployed. So far we have 50 injured and now five dead, she told AFP.The Red Cross said more than 100 people were seriously injured and around 3,000 people had been displaced.Announcing the extension of a weekend curfew, state information commissioner Gregory Yenlong told AFP: All residents are hereby directed to stay indoors as security agents work towards restoring peace.Christian resident David Maiyaki said the clashes had gone on despite the curfew.We woke up to new fighting this morning. As I am talking to you we are indoors, but there is burning and gunshots all around us, he told AFP by phone.From here I can hear gunshots and see burning buildings from a neighbourhood in the northern part of the city, said another resident, Ibrahim Mudi.It seems that Jos north is completely on fire, he said. Sunday's fighting had been confined to the predominantly Christian Nassarawa Gwon area but spread, the army said. Jos, situated between the Muslim-dominated north and the Christian south, has in recent years been a hotbed of religious violence in Nigeria, whose 150 million people are divided almost equally between followers of the two faiths.

The vice president slammed the lastest outburst of violence and said the government was determined find a permanent solution to the Jos crisis, his office said. This is one crisis too many and the Federal Government finds it most unacceptable, retrogressive and capable of further sundering the bonds of unity in our country, it said in a statement. Jonathan met with his security chiefs to review situation, it said, adding: They are also to put in place comprehensive security strategies to ensure that these constant eruptions do not happen again.In November 2008, hundreds of people were killed in two days of fighting in Jos triggered by a rumour that a mainly Muslim party had lost a local election to a Christian-dominated party. At least 800 people were killed in nearby Borno State last July when security forces put down an insurrection by a Muslim fundamentalist sect.In December, around 70 were killed in clashes between security forces and members of another radical sect in Bauchi State.

Bank of England governor calls for G20, IMF to join forces
Tue Jan 19, 7:03 pm ET

LONDON (AFP) – The governor of the Bank of England called Tuesday for a radical overhaul of the system of global financial governance in a bid to prevent a repeat of the firestorm that tore the world economy apart.Mervyn King proposed the Group of 20 industrialised nations should join forces with the International Monetary Fund to stop imbalances developing in the world economy.Such a system of oversight was needed to cope with the entry into the system of fast emerging economies such as China and India, he said.The legitimacy and leadership of the G20 would be enhanced if it were seen as representing views of other countries too, King said in a speech at the University of Exeter, southwest England.That could be achieved if the G20 were to metamorphose into a Governing Council for the IMF, and at the same time acquire a procedure for voting on decisions.A new system must seek to ensure countries coordinate economic policy so unsustainable imbalances do not emerge, King said.These imbalances saw emerging giants such as China storing up huge savings in the form of currency reserves, while developed countries such as the US became consumers, often of Asian exports, and dug themselves into huge debt.The pattern of poor countries saving a lot and rich countries borrowing was not sustainable, King said.He highlighted that China was currently holding reserves of more than two trillion dollars (1.2 trillion pounds, 1.4 trillion euros) and Japan one trillion dollars.

The creation of a new system to deal with the issue was urgent, King said, warning that: Having narrowed somewhat at the height of the crisis, the imbalances are now widening again.The governor further said the G20's credibility could be damaged if it came to be viewed as a mere talking shop.So far the only specific agreement is to talk to each other, he said.Concrete steps to reduce the scale of global imbalances have, to date, been notable by their absence.Smiling family photographs marking the attendance at international gatherings are no substitute for specific actions.King also warned of a long period of healing ahead for the global economy. In Britain, living standards would be hit as inflation rose, he said.There is little scope for growth in real take-home pay, which may remain weak as output recovers, he said.
His comments came on the same day it emerged inflation in Britain had risen at a record rate to hit 2.9 percent in December.

Binding climate deal reachable this year: UN
Tue Jan 19, 11:37 am ET

ABU DHABI (AFP) – Countries could reach a binding agreement on climate change in Mexico City this year after failing to do so in Copenhagen, the chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change said Tuesday.I think we have a very short period of time in which the world has to get its act together. And if that happens, then certainly Mexico could produce a binding agreement, Rajendra Pachauri told a news conference at the third World Future Energy Summit in Abu Dhabi.It's a daunting, but certainly a doable, prospect, he said, referring to the next summit, planned for later this year in the Mexican capital.Climate talks in Copenhagen last month ended with a non-binding agreement to reduce rises in global temperatures, a result that has been criticised as insufficient.But if countries are to reach a binding agreement in Mexico City, there are a few critical factors which would need a superhuman effort, Pachauri said.One of them is commitment from the US, he said.

Countries would also need to take steps such as agreeing on an institutional framework by which funding for developing nations to address climate change could be effectively utilised, he said.Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Store too said a binding agreement in Mexico City is within reach.I agree with (Pachauri). It's doable, but I would add, it's hard. And we have to build on every positive experience with Copenhagen and we have to do everything to limit the negative experiences from Copenhagen, Store told AFP on the sidelines of the summit.He added that the challenges posed by climate change would not be resolved soon.We who are policymakers will deal with climate change every day for the rest of our political lives,he said.We have to stop thinking that this is something we solve at the next conference ... It's part of an ongoing process.

GSK releases chemicals to help find malaria cure: report
JAN 19,10

LONDON (AFP) – British drug maker GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) is to make thousands of chemical compounds that have the potential to cure malaria available for research, according to a newspaper report.Andrew Witty, GSK chief executive, told the Guardian on Wednesday that multinational drug companies must balance social responsibility with their need to make profits to please shareholders.Firms had an imperative to earn the trust of society, not just by meeting expectations but by exceeding them, he said.The company will publish details of 13,500 chemical compounds from its library that have the potential to act against the parasite that causes deadly malaria in sub-Saharan Africa, the Guardian said.In a major speech in New York, Witty will also announce an eight-million-dollar (4.9-million-pound, 5.6-million-euro) fund to pay for scientists to investigate the chemicals, according to the paper.I think it is a significant contribution to give scientists around the world 13,500 new opportunities to start research, Witty said.It is trying to create a permissiveness around scientific research in an area where we know the marketplace isn't going to stimulate massive research, he added.

The drug company chief said it was an opportunity to get thousands of researchers involved in the fight against malaria.It is a development on a speech almost a year ago by Witty, when he vowed to put all drugs for neglected diseases in a so-called patent pool, waiving intellectual property rights so any researcher could examine them, the Guardian reported.Aid groups Oxfam and Medecins sans Frontieres gave the announcement a cautious welcome.

EARTH DESTROYED WITH THE EARTH

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

EARTHQUAKES

MATTHEW 24:7-8
7 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.
8 All these are the beginning of sorrows.

MARK 13:8
8 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom:(ETHNIC GROUP AGAINST ETHNIC GROUP) and there shall be earthquakes in divers places, and there shall be famines and troubles: these are the beginnings of sorrows.

LUKE 21:11
11 And great earthquakes shall be in divers places, and famines, and pestilences; and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven.

A week after Haiti quake, aid for all is elusive By JONATHAN M. KATZ, Associated Press Writer – JAN 19,10

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – The world still can't get enough food and water to the hungry and thirsty one week after an earthquake shattered Haiti's capital. The airport remains a bottleneck, the port is a shambles. The Haitian government is invisible, nobody has taken firm charge, and the police have largely given up.Even as U.S. troops landed in Seahawk helicopters Tuesday on the manicured lawn of the National Palace, the colossal efforts to help Haiti are proving inadequate because of the scale of the disaster and the limitations of the world's governments. Expectations exceeded what money, will and military might have been able to achieve so far in the face of unimaginable calamity.God has abandoned us! The foreigners have abandoned us! yelled Micheline Ursulin, tearing at her hair as she rushed past a large pile of decaying bodies.Three of her children died in the quake and her surviving daughter is in the hospital with broken limbs and a serious infection.

Rescue groups continue to work, even though time is running out for those buried by the quake. A Mexican team created after that nation's 1985 earthquake rescued Ena Zizi, 69. She had survived a week buried in the ruins of the residence of Haiti's Roman Catholic archbishop, Monsignor Joseph Serge Miot, whose body was found Tuesday sitting in a chair in what appeared to be his office.Doctors said Zizi was dehydrated and had dislocated a hip and broken a leg.I'm all right, sort of, she said, lying on a foil thermal blanket outside the Cuban hospital, her gray hair covered in white dust.An ardent Catholic, Zizi sang a hymn of praise and thanks to God in a strong but strained voice that resonated across the hospital garden filled with ailing quake victims on stretchers.This is a miracle, said one of her sons, bank clerk Joseph Josner.Those who survived the quake from the beginning but had lost their homes and possessions were growing desperate as they camped out in the streets and in a plaza across from the National Palace.We need so much. Food, clothes. We need everything. I don't know whose responsibility it is, but they need to give us something soon, said Sophia Eltime, a 29-year-old mother of two who has been living under a bedsheet with seven members of her extended family. She said she had not eaten yet Tuesday.It is not just Haitians questioning why aid has been so slow for victims of one of the worst earthquakes in history: an estimated 200,000 dead, 250,000 injured and 1.5 million homeless. Officials in France and Brazil and aid groups such as Doctors Without Borders have complained of bottlenecks, skewed priorities and a crippling lack of leadership and coordination.

TENS OF THOUSANDS OF EARTHQUAKE VICTIMS NEED EMERGENCY SURGICAL CARE NOW!!!!! said a news release from Partners in Health, co-founded by Dr. Paul Farmer, the deputy U.N. envoy to Haiti.Our medical director has estimated that 20,000 people are dying each day who could be saved by surgery.No details were provided on how the figure was determined.

The reasons are varied:
-Both national and international authorities suffered great losses in the quake, taking out many of the leaders best suited to organize a response;
-Woefully inadequate infrastructure and a near-complete failure in telephone and Internet communications complicate efforts to reach millions of people forced from homes turned into piles of rubble;
-Fears of looting and violence keep aid groups and governments from moving as quickly as they'd like;
-Pre-existing poverty and malnutrition put some at risk even before the quake hit.

Governments have pledged nearly $1 billion in aid, and thousands of tons of food and medical supplies have been shipped. But much remains trapped in warehouses, diverted to the neighboring Dominican Republic, or left hovering in the air. The nonfunctioning seaport and impassable roads make it even more difficult to get aid to the people. Aid is being turned back from the single-runway airport, where the U.S. military has come under criticism for poorly prioritizing flights. Doctors Without Borders said a plane carrying 12 tons of medical equipment, including drugs, surgical supplies and two dialysis machines, had been turned away three times from the Port-au-Prince airport since Sunday night, resulting in the deaths of five patients. We were forced to buy a saw in the market to continue amputations, coordinator Loris de Filippi said Tuesday in a statement. The U.S. Air Force said it had raised the airport's daily capacity from 30 flights before the quake to 180 on Tuesday.We're doing everything in our power to speed aid to Haiti as fast as humanly possible, said Gen. Douglas Fraser, head of U.S. Southern Command. The World Food Program said more than 250,000 ready-to-eat food rations had been distributed in Haiti by Tuesday, only a fraction of the 3 million people thought to be in desperate need. There have been anecdotal stories of starvation among the old and infirm, but apparently no widespread starvation — yet. The WFP said it needs to deliver 100 million ready-to-eat rations in the next 30 days. Based on pledges from the United States, Italy and Denmark, it has 16 million in the pipeline. So far, international relief efforts have been unorganized, disjointed and insufficient to help a people in need of such basics as food, water and medical care. It's frustrating to see planes landing, officials coming in and military planes coming in, carrying military personnel and their supplies, Marie-Noelle Rodrigue, Doctors Without Borders' deputy operations manager, said from Paris. We see there are priorities being given but don't understand on what grounds.

French Cooperation Minister Alain Joyandet went as far as demanding a U.N. investigation into U.S. aid efforts, although his boss, President Nicolas Sarkozy, defended the U.S. on Tuesday, as did the United Nations. U.N. spokeswoman Elisabeth Byrs credited the U.S. with bringing in great amounts of aid and expertise, and said the airport wouldn't be working without U.S. military help. U.S. defense officials acknowledged bottlenecks, but said they have been working aggressively to eliminate them. They note that many military flights also carry aid, and White House spokesman Tommy Vietor said that by Monday, fewer than a third of flights into Haiti were U.S. military. About 2,200 Marines established a beachhead west of Port-au-Prince on Tuesday to help speed aid delivery, in addition to 9,000 already on the ground. Lt. Cmdr. Walter Matthews, a U.S. military spokesman, said helicopters were ferrying aid from the airport into Port-au-Prince and the nearby town of Jacmel as fast as they can. The U.N. was sending in reinforcements as well: The Security Council voted Tuesday to add 2,000 peacekeepers to the 7,000 already in Haiti, and 1,500 more police to the 2,100-strong international force. The floodgates for aid are starting to open, Matthews said at the airport.In the first few days, you're limited by manpower, but we're starting to bring people in.The WFP's Alain Jaffre said the U.N. organization was starting to find its stride after distribution problems, and hoped to help 100,000 people by Wednesday. The problem is the logistics: getting the food to the people, he said. We're challenged by trucks, staff, roads and security, in declining order of importance.The effort was also hampered by a lack of leadership.

With its seat of power destroyed and many officials dead, the Haitian government has largely disappeared. President Rene Preval hasn't addressed the nation, beyond sending one taped message to a radio station. He is only known to have toured briefly one of the thousands of sites where people are dead or dying. First lady Elisabeth Debrosse acknowledged that Preval is limited in his capacity to act, but insisted:The president is in control and is trying to focus on what the priorities are and those priorities are changing every minute.The U.N., which itself lost its Haiti headquarters, its top two officials and many others inside, has tried to fill the void but has struggled to bring the international relief effort together. The United States has taken charge of pieces of the operation but coordination has been uneven. Is the U.N. going to run it or is the military? Somebody needs to take charge here,said Robert Kind of CMC Construction. He was at the airport looking for somebody to get a generator that his company donated to a University of Miami field hospital. It took three days to fly the generator in, he said, and it has sat on the grass since Monday. Rodrigue, of Doctors Without Borders, said it would have been helpful if immediately after the quake, all the aid donors and governments responding to the crisis had had a discussion to know who's in charge, what are the procedures, when everyone knew that bringing material into Haiti was going to be an issue.We didn't see that, she said. Hanging over the entire effort was an overwhelming fear among relief officials that Haitians' desperation would spill over into violence. We've very concerned about the level of security we need around our people when we're doing distributions, said Graham Tardif, who heads disaster-relief efforts for the charity World Vision. The U.N., the U.S. government and other organizations echoed such fears. Occasionally, those fears have been borne out. Looters rampaged through part of downtown Port-au-Prince on Tuesday, just four blocks from where U.S. troops landed at the presidential palace. Hundreds of looters fought over bolts of cloth and other goods with broken bottles and clubs. That is how it is. There is nothing we can do, said Haitian police officer Arina Bence, who was trying to keep civilians out of the looting zone for their own safety. U.S. officials insisted they had no plans to take on a policing role in Haiti, and the arriving Marines are allowed to use force only in self-defense, according to U.S. Maj. Gen. Cornell A. Wilson Jr. But troops of the 82nd Airborne took up positions outside the General Hospital on Tuesday when the crowd grew too large. Haitian Police Chief Mario Andersol said he can muster only 2,000 of the 4,500 officers in the capital and said even they are not trained to deal with this kind of situation.

Some police are urging citizens to take the law into their own hands, and neighborhoods are creating their own security forces, forming night brigades and machete-armed mobs to fight bandits. If you don't kill the criminals, they will all come back, one officer shouted over a loudspeaker in the Cite Soleil slum. Despite the criticism, some aid officials defended their efforts and said the world is judging them too harshly.The aid is never fast enough for the armchair aid workers sipping their lattes, said Steve Matthews, a Haiti-based spokesman for World Vision. Despite the slowness, aid is flowing. Things are happening. We understand the race against time. Everyone's working 16-hour days. Critics want a two-hour movie with a happy ending.Associated Press writers contributing include Paul Haven, Michael Melia, Alfred de Montesquiou, Michelle Faul and Vivian Sequera in Port-au-Prince; medical writer Margie Mason in Hanoi, Vietnam; Charles J. Hanley in Mexico City; Tales Azzoni in Sao Paulo, Brazil; Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations; and Seth Borenstein, Pauline Jelinek, Anne Flaherty and Jennifer Loven in Washington.

Ashton under fire for not going to Haiti
HONOR MAHONY 19.01.2010 @ 17:45 CET

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton has come under fire from centre-right and Green politicians in the European Parliament for not visiting the earthquake-devastated Haiti.The head of the centre-right group in the European Parliament, Joseph Daul, said that the fact that Mrs Ashton was not present while her US counterpart Hillary Clinton travelled to the Caribbean island over the weekend was regrettable. Just about everybody was in Haiti at the moment when these people are suffering, and Europe was not present, he said. If it would have been in our hands, we would have sent someone.The comments were made in a press conference on Tuesday morning (19 January) following the resignation of the centre-right Bulgarian commission nominee, Rumiana Jeleva, after criticism about her suitability for the job as development commissioner. The centre-left Ms Ashton, who is also to be a vice-president of the European Commission, went through her hearing last week. A novice in the world of diplomacy and foreign affairs, she was widely seen as having performed no better than adequately. To date, MEPs on the right have held their fire on Ms Ashton, who has the extra backing of the 27 EU countries, which unanimously appointed her to be the union's high representative for foreign affairs. The member states' deal was a careful compromise between left and right which saw the post of President of the European Council, the EU's other main external actor, given to a centre-right politician.Denying that party politics played a role in his criticism, Mr Daul said: Of course, we are not going to be calling Ms Ashton into question for this reason.His attack on Mrs Ashton was later backed up by the leader of the Greens, Daniel Cohn-Bendit. I am very sceptical about Lady Ashton, said the French politician.Her performance vis-a-vis the situation in Haiti has been insufficient and I think that what Mr Daul said in his communication today was not wrong.

Mrs Ashton's job means that she is supposed to be the public face of the EU in the case of an international crisis and to oversee the bloc's response. On Monday, the EU pledged over €400 million in aid to Haiti.Mr Cohn-Bendit went on: [US secretary of state] Clinton found it possible to go to Haiti, and I think that the European Union has to be there on the spot. Not just in the sidelines. And if I was the high representative faced with a disaster of this scope, I'd get on the first plane and then come back and tell the Europeans what we should be doing. I think that is the basic minimum.

Keeping airspace free

Ms Ashton's spokesman told EUobserver that the foreign policy chief had deliberated going to Haiti but on the explicit advice of the UN decided not to so that she would not be blocking airspace at this point in time.The spokesperson noted that Ms Ashton, who also defended her actions before parliament on the issue on Tuesday, has been working all weekend on Haiti.Haiti, which suffered a huge earthquake last Tuesday which has killed up to 200,000 people and left around 1.5 million homeless, has tested the EU's new foreign policy set up.Ms Ashton, who formally took up her duties on 1 December after a surprise nomination, has had to rush to adjust to her new job, whose duties include chairing the monthly meetings of EU foreign ministers and setting up a new EU diplomatic service.The new president of the European Council, Herman Van Rompuy, also involved himself with the Haiti issue on Tuesday.

The EU chief while on a visit to London proposed that countries create a humanitarian rapid reaction force that could be deployed in such a crisis in future. We have to reflect about a better instrument for reaction,he said, the BBC reports.

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.

Tornado warning in California as storm hits
Tue Jan 19, 4:59 pm ET

LOS ANGELES (AFP) – A rare tornado warning was issued for Los Angeles Tuesday as a storm slammed into southern California, dumping heavy rain and snow across the region and leaving thousands of homes without power.National Weather Service meteorologist Ryan Kittell said a strong storm moving in from the Pacific Ocean and packing winds of around 60 miles per hour had triggered the tornado alert.We don't have any physical evidence of a tornado, but our radars indicated it is spinning rapidly so there's a good chance of a tornado at the surface, Kittell told AFP.

Powerful storm fronts developing at sea often weakened by the time they made landfall, Kittell cautioned, admitting that tornado alerts in sun-baked California were pretty rare.We do get them from time to time but they are pretty rare,he said.
The storm rolling into southern California on Tuesday followed a similar weather front which deluged the region 24 hours earlier.Authorities placed hillside communities on alert for flash flooding and mudslides, a major concern in regions affected by raging wildfires last year.Tuesday's storm was one of a series of wet weather fronts forecast to hit southern California this week, which are expected to drop as much as 16 inches of rain in some areas.Local power companies reported Tuesday that engineers were working to restore power to nearly 17,000 customers suffering outages because of the weather.

Woman killed by tree, homes flooded in SoCal storm By RAQUEL MARIA DILLON, Associated Press Writers – JAN 19,10

LOS ANGELES – The second in a series of powerful storms wreaked havoc Tuesday on Southern Califonia, crushing a woman to death with a fallen tree, smashing windows and flooding coastal neighborhoods.San Diego Sheriff's Lt. Mike Munsey said the woman was killed when a eucalyptus tree with a 10-foot diameter trunk crushed her trailer and a neighbor's in a mobile home park near El Cajon. Emergency crews needed a crane to move the tree and extricate her body from the wreckage of her home.
Los Angeles County fire officials said they would issue mandatory evacuation orders for about 587 homes in flood-prone foothill areas beginning early Wednesday in anticipation of the next storm.Forecasters said thunderstorms and what looked like tornados surged ashore with fierce winds in Santa Barbara, Los Angeles County beach towns and areas of Orange and San Diego counties.In San Pedro, a working class neighborhood near the Port of Los Angeles, several blocks were flooded with about six feet of water when storm drains clogged with debris.Jerry Bazan spent the afternoon sweeping several inches of water out of his living room, where toys, sodden clothing and furniture were strewn about and a thick layer of mud coated the floor.Bazan said the water rose to about two feet in his apartment within a matter of minutes and some of it was contaminated with sewage. Outside, the water lifted a Dodge Ram truck and carried it down the street, he said.It was a heavy downpour, and the drainage system was clogged,he said.There was nowhere for the water to go, and it just rose up.Police said 16 people were displaced from flooded homes in the San Pedro area.

Kimmara Acosta, 51, a saleswoman at Castle Tile in Costa Mesa, was sitting at her desk when she saw palm trees outside blowing horizontally.The wind kind of whipped through the parking lot, and the window blew in, she said, still breathless a half-hour later.It was like an explosion. My mind said earthquake! and I ducked under the desk.The wind threw shards of glass across the room, but tile displays and the desk protected Acosta. No one was hurt.High winds flipped a parked SUV onto its side and blew out windows in Seal Beach, but forecasters need to examine the damage and interview witnesses before they can confirm that a tornado swept through.Santa Barbara fire officials said what looked like a small tornado cut a path of damage across a residential neighborhood of Goleta, uprooting trees, tearing shingles off a roof and breaking a hole in a fence.Unlike twisters in the Midwest that can run for miles on the ground, Southern California tornadoes tend to start as waterspouts and dissipate quickly when they come ashore, said Philip Gonsalves, a National Weather Service meteorologist in San Diego.The fast-moving band of thunderstorms moved on in minutes, leaving spotty sunshine as it headed into Riverside and San Bernardino counties. It left some streets underwater in low-lying beach communities and turned other roadways into muddy swamps. Televised reports showed parked cars with water up to the hoods and kayakers paddling through the streets of Long Beach.Southbound Interstate 710 flooded south of Interstate 405, trapping about a dozen vehicles in water and closing the freeway for hours, Long Beach fire spokesman Joshua Johnson said.In inland San Bernardino County, two boys, ages 10 and 12, were rescued from the racing waters in a swollen flood-control channel in Montclair. Firefighters used a ladder to help them up, said Inspector Steve Zermeno of the Los Angeles County Fire Department.

The water's moving pretty fast,he said.They're lucky someone spotted them when they did.Flash flood watches remained for areas of Santa Barbara, Ventura and Los Angeles counties where wildfires in 2008 and last year stripped hillsides down to bare, black earth. The chance of mudslides and flooding — a worry after every rainstorm — intensified after a downpour Monday dumped 2 to 5 inches of rain in the mountains and left catch basins choked with debris. In the foothills of La Canada Flintridge, just north of Los Angeles, residents looked on warily as County Public Works crews used bulldozers and shovels to move mud out of cul-de-sacs. Fist-sized rocks were strewn across a winding, canyon road where water rushed through gutters. One homeowner, Gary Stibel, had lined his backyard with sandbags a couple of feet high and had covered part of the hillside behind his home with plastic tarp place to divert the floodwater. So far, it was keeping out rocks and debris, but Stibel, whose home was threatened by one of last year's wildfires, said he knew he wasn't out of the woods. The ground is really saturated right now from the two storms we had come through yesterday and today, so I'm really concerned, he said as he surveyed his work. As he spoke, it started to rain again. Shoot! The fog is coming in too, he said, gazing off toward the downtown Los Angeles skyline. A strong jet stream was sending the line of storms ashore from the Pacific Ocean, with the wet weather expected to continue through Thursday. In San Jose, three people rescued a man from a burning car when it spun out on a rain-soaked road and hit a crosswalk sign. The rescuers used a knife to cut the man loose from his seat belt, then pulled him to safety just seconds before the car burst into flames, authorities said.

The man's condition was not immediately known.Interstate 5, a main state highway, was closed in Redding due to a downed line. Highway 70 near the border of Butte and Plumas counties remained closed after a rock slid onto the roadway Monday. The rock must be blasted apart to clear the roadway. Associated Press writers John Rogers and Gillian Flaccus contributed to this report.

Death toll from Egypt storms rises to 7
Tue Jan 19, 11:33 am ET

CAIRO – A second day of heavy rains and flooding in Egypt's Sinai Desert killed a woman and destroyed hundreds of homes, raising the toll for two days of storms to seven dead, the government said.Spokesman Magdy Rady said Tuesday a woman died and 12people injured in southern Sinai and 250 homes were damaged.Six people, including a British tourist, were killed Monday in Egypt during the storms. One person died in Israel when her car was trapped in a flash flood.Egypt's state news agency said all 75 patients at the El-Arish general hospital in the Sinai had to be evacuated when the first floor was flooded. Some 300 families were also displaced.In the southern city of Aswan, floods and strong winds disrupted power in several neighborhoods.

OZONE DEPLETION JUDGEMENT ON THE EARTH DUE TO SIN

ISAIAH 30:26-27
26 Moreover the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold, as the light of seven days, in the day that the LORD bindeth up the breach of his people, and healeth the stroke of their wound.
27 Behold, the name of the LORD cometh from far, burning with his anger, and the burden thereof is heavy: his lips are full of indignation, and his tongue as a devouring fire:

MATTHEW 24:21-22,29
21 For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.
22 And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake (ISRAELS SAKE) those days shall be shortened (Daylight hours shortened)
29 Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken:

REVELATION 16:7-9
7 And I heard another out of the altar say, Even so, Lord God Almighty, true and righteous are thy judgments.
8 And the fourth angel poured out his vial upon the sun; and power was given unto him to scorch men with fire.
9 And men were scorched with great heat, and blasphemed the name of God, which hath power over these plagues: and they repented not to give him glory.

2000s warmest decade on record, government reports By RANDOLPH E. SCHMID, AP Science Writer – Tue Jan 19, 5:03 pm ET

WASHINGTON – The 2000-2009 decade was the warmest on record, easily surpassing the previous hottest decade — the 1990s — researchers said Tuesday in a report providing fresh evidence that the planet may be warming at a potentially disastrous rate.In 2009, global surface temperatures were 1.01 degree above average, which tied the year for the fifth warmest year on record, the National Climatic Data Center said.

And that helped push the 2000-2009 decade to 0.96 degree above normal, which the agency said shattered the 1990s record value of 0.65 degree above normal.The warmest year on record was 2005 at 1.11 degrees above normal.The findings follow years of gradually rising global temperatures which atmospheric scientists attribute to the warming effect of gases released into the air by human activities, including burning fossil fuels.Political leaders from around the world have been struggling to find a solution to this growing problem, most recently at the climate conference in Copenhagen, Denmark. Reaching agreement has been difficult amid fears of economic effects of any major change.Concerns about the effects of a warmer climate include rising sea levels and the potential spread of tropical diseases, changes in hurricane patterns, increased drought in some areas, disruption of crop growth and wildlife patterns, and loss of species unable to adapt.In the United States last year the average temperature was 0.3 degrees above normal. And on average it was moist, with average annual precipitation in 2009 for the 48 contiguous states some 2.33 inches above the long-term average at 31.47 inches. It was the 18th wettest in 115 years of record keeping.However, dry conditions occurred during much of the year across parts of the Southwest, Upper Mississippi Valley and southern Texas, the agency said. And there was periodic low rain and snowfall in parts of a ring around the country from the northern Rockies, Far West and Southwest to the southern Plains and Southeast, then up along the East Coast and back across the Great Lakes.

Last year's climate milestones included:
-The 10th consecutive summer with above-normal temperatures in the U.S. Northwest.
-Record winter drought in Texas.
-The deadliest February tornado in Oklahoma history.
-The largest wildfire in Los Angeles County history.
-Most active tornado season in a decade in Louisiana and Alabama.
-New seasonal snowfall records for Spokane, Wash., and International Falls, Minn.
-Worst deluge in decades in northern Brazil, affecting 186,000 people.
-Heavy rainfall in northern Argentina, causing a landslide affecting 20,000 people.
-Disastrous floods triggered by heavy rain in Central Europe.
-Britain's heaviest snowstorm since 1991.
-Extratropical storm Klaus (similar to a category 3 hurricane) kills 30 in France and Spain.
-Heaviest snowfall in northern China in 55 years.
-Typhoons batter the Philippines causing fatal flooding.
-More than 600 die in the deadliest typhoon to hit Taiwan in five decades.
On the Net: National Climatic Data Center: http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov

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

EU:the world’s sleeping trade giant
Posted by Nick Jacobs in categories EU on January 18th, 2010
Barroso II showing lack of ambition on agri-trade agenda

Those having observed EU trade policy over the last five years will have been left in little doubt over the bloc’s commitment to a free trade agenda. The EU has been the proponent of the WTO’s Doha Round, and has recently accelerated a raft of free trade pacts with developing and developed economies, while sending out feelers to other potential partners in all four corners of the globe.With the political balance in member states and in the European Parliament having shifted significantly to the right over the last five years, a continuation and strengthening of the liberal trade agenda would seem inevitable. But few would have predicted the ease with which Barroso and his designate-team are steering their ideas through the Brussels filter.

The worry is that the EU could be sleepwalking into an unambitious, unquestioning agri-trade policy, at a time when the challenges have never been greater.

Who holds the reins?

With so much at stake, the identity of Europe’s agri-trade policy-makers takes on added importance. Barroso has assigned the trade role to Belgian Liberal Karel de Gucht, the agiculture portfolio to Romanian ex-farm minister Dacian Ciolos, and the food safety dossier (under Health and Consumer Policy) to Maltese centre-right politican John Dalli.Last week’s hearings saw all three come through relatively unscathed, despite failing to spell out an answer to one of the key conundrums Europe faces: how can trade policy facilitate/regulate the flow of foodstuffs in and out of Europe in a way that helps secure European and global farm livelihoods, while bolstering the global food supply against a backdrop of growing climate and resource constraints. The question is by no means a simple one, but the smooth ride given to the new team raises questions about the ambition of MEPs.Ciolos set out his stall as a reformer, but left most of the detail at home. Not that he needed it: by the sound of their questions, MEPs were just relieved to hear someone defend a strong CAP budget after circulation of a recent Commission ‘non-paper’ suggesting that plans are already in motion for scaling it back.While he took a cautious line on trade deals that could pose a threat to European farmers, his two wingmen – De Gucht and Dalli – came across as liberal free-marketeers to the core.De Gucht was unabashed in his defence of a free trade agenda, declaring that the only way for the world’s poorest countries to drag themselves out of poverty is to open themselves up to the global economy.Dalli meanwhile painted himself as a consumer champion, vowing to fight misinformation. However, when pressed he implied that he would do so by facilitating more information and letting the consumer choose, rather than raising the bar on health, hygiene and welfare standards.The three appear to complement each other: De Gucht will endeavour to push a Doha deal through with a development outcome (trade liberalisation as a spark to development), while Ciolos will ensure that the EU offers no more agricultural concessions than it already has. Dalli’s information onslaught will meanwhile help to steer European consumers towards ’sustainable’ home-grown produce as the continent seeks to compete with increasing food imports in a low tariff environment.

Carbon tariffs: ducking the big questions

They have the makings of a successful partnership, but only if success is measured in terms of getting the greatest European value out of a flawed global system.What was lacking was an ambitious long-term vision placing trade alongside the major climate and demographic challenges, an exercise that would necessarily call into question the core principles of trade liberalisation, either to endorse them radically, to suggest adaptations to new circumstances, or to erect the right protective barriers.In some of their most penetrating questions, MEPs asked De Gucht to consider carbon tariffs at the EU border as a means of incentivising stronger environmental regulation in countries which wish to continue trading with the EU.The manner of his response was telling. The Belgian rejected the idea as unfeasible, warning that it would risk sparking a tit-for-tat trade war. His replies may have come across as seasoned realpolitik, but they also displayed a worrying lack of ambition. The underlying message was that a policy is not worth pursuing if it could anger the EU’s trading partners.Ciolos was equally unambitious when it came to joining up his visions of European food safety, food security and trade policy. He vowed to stick to the science on GMO approvals, but hinted that GMO soya imports should probably be allowed into the EU because we are heavily dependent on them for animal feed.Coupled with Dalli’s information not regulation stance, the prevailing feeling was that the new team will not be courageous enough to make a clear judgement call on what is safe and what is not. Nor will they be willing to use border adjustments to encourage what production methods are seen as desirable.

Price to pay for raising the baseline?

The pragmatist vision played well with MEPs, but ultimately did not answer their own recurrent questions (in both the agriculture and trade hearings) about how the EU can strive for high environmental, animal welfare and food safety standards, while competing with lower cost foreign produce in a liberalised trade environment.Carbon tariffs may be untested and prone to challenge from other WTO members , but few other ideas offer as comprehensive a means of compensating producers (agricultural or otherwise) for raising the environmental baseline.They at least represent a way of making EU trade policy more honest with itself; if food imports are to be taxed heavily in any case (pending a Doha deal), why not spell out the real – and perhaps valid – reasons why, by drawing a clearer link between EU import duties and the price of meeting stringent production rules.

Can EU wield its trade power for good?

The basic principle of using trade policy as a lever for non-economic goals should at least have merited a fuller response from De Gucht. Or is the EU content to drop any ethical aspirations from its trade agenda? This would surely be a mistake. While Europe continues to grapple with the question of how to wield its power (hard, soft or otherwise) on the world stage, it has quietly developed into the world’s biggest market, giving it huge leverage on trade issues.The EU’s subsidy and tariff regimes have a major impact not only on its own farmers but on global agricultural livelihoods. With this economic power comes the ability to project standards. The EU’s food safety rules are a key piece in the puzzle: the core standards imposed are – at least in principle – applied to all non-EU produce entering that market. EU rules on pesticides and GMOs therefore reverberate far beyond European borders. The EU’s scepticism towards biotech crops is arguably one of the last remaining shackles on the global advance of genetically modified crop production.If the EU does hold aspirations such as fighting climate change or alleviating world hunger, then trade is surely the arena where it can set the agenda.

MEPs fail to press nominees

The hearings saw weak and disparate questioning from all parties, and failed to challenge the Barroso II team to go beyond a basic support for the status quo and its worrying imbalances. Ciolos ventured the idea of a trading system based on balanced multipolarity, but MEPs failed to push him on the nitty-gritty, and what this would mean in real terms (rule harmonisation, tariffs, local preference).
Instead, piecemeal issues reigned supreme: MEPs exacted vague commitments from De Gucht over Geographical Indications (the labels which act like copyright for local wines, hams and cheeses), while Ciolos – at the request of Agriculture Committee bad-boy José Bové – vowed to fight for a reduction in America’s punitive tariffs on Roquefort cheese.The parliamentary hearings are of course only the first insight into the new Commissioners, and can be misleading.The Doha Round will no doubt rumble on in the coming months and the EU’s position is almost certain to remain static. The WTO is nonetheless likely to see some form of debate on carbon tariffs in the near future, whether the issue is initiated by the EU, the US or others. And feed constraints will continue to cast a spotlight on the EU’s GMO import policy, perhaps eventually prompting a clear response on where the EU stands more generally on biotech crops, and the role they should play in the global food security equation.

Meanwhile, the advance of bilateral negotiations with India will be an interesting litmus test; moves towards an FTA (Free Trade Agreement) with the Asian giant have previously threatened to run aground on issues such as child labour. The recent EU-Korea deal is thought to be pioneering in regard to labour standards, and could be built on in the Indian context. Or will the EU drop its social concerns and bag a crucial chunk of market access in a growing economy? A chance to see the true colours of the De Gucht-Ciolos-Dalli team will be eagerly awaited.

Kroes performs better in second EP audition
ANDREW WILLIS 19.01.2010 @ 17:20 CET

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - European commissioner-designate Neelie Kroes appeared to do enough to win the support of MEPs in a closed-door supplementary questioning session on Tuesday (19 January), after a lacklustre performance by the Dutch Liberal politician at a European Parliamentary hearing last week threw her approval into doubt. A decision by centre-right Bulgarian candidate Rumiana Jeleva to withdraw her strongly contested candidacy on Tuesday also helped clear the air, with some observers saying objections to Ms Kroes were largely politically motivated as parliament's groups engaged in a round of tit-for-tat attacks on opposition candidates. Sofia has indicated it plans to send Kristalina Georgieva, currently a vice-president of the World Bank, as a replacement for Ms Jeleva, with the new hearing session scheduled to take place on the 3 February. The full parliamentary vote on the whole college of candidates in now planned for 9 February. Ms Kroes has so far been the only commissioner-designate to be called back for further questioning, with centre-right MEP Pilar Del Castillo indicating after the intimate session in front of political-grouping co-ordinators for parliament's culture and industry committees that the Dutch politician appeared to have done enough. Extra meeting was useful; she gave more solid opinions and proposals. Evaluation will take place tomorrow,said Ms Castillo via a Twitter message.

Other European Peoples' Party sources indicated to EUobserver that the political group was quite clear that she had given substantial answers, while the spokesman for the Socialists and Democrats Group, Tony Robinson, said the parliament's second largest group would also be supporting Ms Kroes' return to the EU executive where she currently works as competition commissioner. I'm not expecting us to be opposing her. We were surprised that things didn't go well in the original hearing, he told EUobserver, a sentiment expressed by group leader MEP Martin Schulz in a press conference on Tuesday. A former minister, Ms Kroes gave vague answers and displayed several knowledge gaps when questioned by MEPs last Friday on her potential Digital Agenda brief.She was happy to come along and underline her commitment to the portfolio,current commission competition spokesman Jonathan Todd said of Tuesday's one-hour questioning session.

EP to vote on EU commission on 9 February
19.01.2010 @ 14:29 CET

The European Parliament is to vote on the new EU commission on 9 February with a hearing for the new Bulgarian commissioner designate to take place on 3 February, said EP chief Buzek. The original vote on 26 January was derailed after Rumiana Jeleva resigned as commissioner nominee on Wednesday.

Malmstrom pledges humane asylum policies
VALENTINA POP 19.01.2010 @ 17:34 CET

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Sweden's EU affairs minister, Cecilia Malmstrom, has pledged to focus on migrants' rights to the same extent as border security and law enforcement, if approved by MEPs as home affairs commissioner. Ms Malmstrom, a former centrist MEP turned minister who helped steer the Swedish EU presidency in the second half of 2009, will be the first commissioner dedicated solely to home affairs issues. In the outgoing commission, the portfolio includes justice, home affairs and civil liberties. Under a political agreement last year surrounding Jose Manuel Barroso's appointment for a second mandate at the helm of the EU commission, the portfolio will be split into home affairs on the one hand and justice, fundamental rights and citizenship on the other.The Swedish Liberal said this would not mean she'll get the bad cop role, while Viviane Reding, in charge of justice and human rights, will be the good cop.I have worked with human rights all my life. I assure you, I wouldn't have taken up this job if I wasn't confident of being able to put a strong imprint of fundamental rights [upon it], she argued.On migration, which has been with us since Adam and Eve, Ms Malmstrom said she was in favour of strengthening the capabilities of Frontex, the bloc's Warsaw-based border management agency, for instance, in providing its staff with their own equipment, so that they don't need to rely so heavily on member states' border assistance. Frontex should also play a role in educating on human rights and return of migrants,she said.In her view, the EU commission should ensure more humane migration policies, emphasising the rights of asylum seekers while at the same time fighting organised human trafficking.

In typical Swedish fashion, Ms Malmstrom said she was committed to openness and transparency, better communication with the public and to European Commission proposals that are more readable.The three-hour long grilling, which she later compared to being in a washing machine at [the] highest speed also included topical questions on issues such as seasonal workers, an area in which the candidate raised the white flag.I am not superwoman, but I will try to do my best, she said, while noting that the parliamentary committee she was talking to now has almost full co-decision rights in her new policy field.

Swift deal

One area where MEPs are likely to collide with Ms Malmstrom and the EU presidency will be a bank data transfer deal between the EU and US.She defended the so-called Swift agreement negotiated during the Swedish EU presidency, allowing American investigators to scrutinise European bank transactions as part of anti-terrorist investigations. Swift is useful. I have examples of individuals arrested in the UK and Germany, thus thwarting potential attacks, she said. An interim deal comes into force on 1 February, but a final one will have to be negotiated by the end of October, together with the EU parliament. On the political side, as a Liberal, Ms Malmstrom faced some tough grilling from German centre-right MEP Manfred Weber, who said he was disappointed at her presentation because it focused too much on human rights and too little on security issues, pointing out that she was a home affairs commissioner, while civil liberties were in the area of Ms Reding.

Applause

The Swedish politician replied that security and rights are not contradictory, while pledging that would always stand up for human rights, to the applause of the audience. A political agreement between the parliament's main groups is expected on Thursday on all EU commission candidates. Following the resignation of the Bulgarian nominee, Rumiana Jeleva, who was part of the centre-right European People's Party, one or two other candidates from the Socialist and Liberal family, respectively, may also fall.The vote on the entire Barroso II team has now been re-scheduled for 9 February.

ELECTION 2010-The Scott heard round the world-Mass. rebellion! Republican Brown defeats Coakley for Kennedy's seat January 19, 2010 8:59 pm Eastern
By Michael Carl 2010 WorldNetDaily

BOSTON – Republican Scott Brown, who waged a late surge in Massachusetts to battle President Barack Obama's agenda head on, tonight captured the Senate seat held for more than four decades by the late Sen. Ted Kennedy. In what is Obama's worst nightmare ever, the upstart whose chances were rated between thin and none just over a month ago defeated the Democrat Party's hand-picked Kennedy successor, state Attorney General Martha Coakley. I'll bet they can hear this cheering all the way in Washington, D.C., Brown told his rallying supporters. I hope they're paying close attention because tonight the independent voice of Massachusetts has spoken.The voters of this commonwealth, the independent majority, have delivered a great victory,he said. Every day I hold this office I will give all that is in me to serve you and make you proud. Most of all I will remember that while the honor is mine, this Senate seat belongs to no one person, no political party … this is the people's seat,Brown said. I'm ready to go to Washington without delay, he said. With 95 percent of the vote in, Brown held 52 percent to 47 percent for Coakley, who was thought to be a shoo-in as late as a month ago.

She conceded in a telephone call late in the evening. If you do not run you cannot win and you don't always win all of the time,Coakley told her supporters.It's more important to travel than to arrive. We will continue to travel, hopefully. I know that.I am heartbroken at the results (but) I always respect the voters' choices. That's what I told Scott Brown tonight, she said. Republican U.S. Senate candidate Scott Brown addresses supporters at the Wachusett Mountain ski area (courtesy Worcester Telegram & Gazette)This is a tidal wave that's sweeping the country, telling politicians in Washington the status quo is not acceptable,2008 GOP vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin told Fox News. This is a step toward taking our country back.This is monumental. This is epic, said former Massachusets Gov. Mitt Romney.This is the people of Massachusets telling Obama they've had enough of him.

It is a revolution,said Fox News analyst Stuart Varney.Health care is dead. Cap and trade is dead.On Wall Street today, investors sent health-insurance and drug-company shares higher, on the prospect a Brown win would slow Obama's health-care agenda.
According to a statement from the White House, Obama spoke to both candidates in the hard-fought Massachusetts Senate race. The president congratulated Sen. Brown on his victory and a well-run campaign. The president told Sen. Brown that he looks forward to working with him on the urgent economic challenges facing Massachusetts families and struggling families across our nation.This is going to be the most significant special election in modern American history if Scott Brown wins, said Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia Center for Politics, hours before polls closed. He predicted a Brown win would buoy every other long-shot Republican candidate in the country and add fuel to the party's momentum going into the midterms this fall. It also poses challenges immediately to Obama's highest-priority agenda items, not the least of which is health care reform. Brown's victory breaks the Democrats' 60-vote, filibuster-proof majority.

How unlikely was this vote?

Though Republicans have occasionally been a political force in state politics, Massachusetts voters have not sent a Republican to represent them in the U.S. Senate since 1972. Every member of the state delegation currently in Washington is a Democrat. Democrats also outnumber Republicans 3-to-1 in the state – 37 percent of registered voters are Democrats, 12 percent are Republicans and 51 percent are unaffiliated. Obama won the state by 26 percentage points in the 2008 presidential election.Get The Audacity of Deceit,and learn about the looming hostile attack on Judeo-Christian values and freedoms Americans hold dear.

Kennedy, who died in August, held his Senate seat for 47 years.

It was only weeks ago when Democrats also lost two gubernatorial races in which they had been expected to dominate. Democrat Jon Corzine was defeated by Republican challenger Chris Christie in New Jersey, traditionally a Democratic state, despite outspending Christie 2-to-1 and campaigning prominently with Obama. The other significant setback came in Virginia, where former Attorney General Robert F. McDonnell, a Republican, defeated Democrat R. Creigh Deeds, finishing with a commanding 18-point margin. A social conservative, McDonnell ran on bread-and-butter pocketbook issues.

In epic upset, GOP's Brown wins Mass. Senate race By GLEN JOHNSON and LIZ SIDOTI, Associated Press Writers – JAN 19,10

BOSTON – In an epic upset in liberal Massachusetts, Republican Scott Brown rode a wave of voter anger to win the U.S. Senate seat held by the late Edward M. Kennedy for nearly half a century, leaving President Barack Obama's health care overhaul in doubt and marring the end of his first year in office.Addressing an exuberant victory celebration Tuesday night, Brown declared he was ready to go to Washington without delay as the crowd chanted, Seat him now. Democrats indicated they would, deflating a budding controversy over whether they would try to block Brown long enough to complete congressional passage of the health care plan he has promised to oppose.The people of Massachusetts have spoken. We welcome Scott Brown to the Senate and will move to seat him as soon as the proper paperwork has been received, said Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev. Massachusetts Secretary of State William Galvin said he would notify the Senate on Wednesday that Brown had been elected.The loss by the once-favored Democrat Martha Coakley in the Democratic stronghold was a stunning embarrassment for the White House after Obama rushed to Boston on Sunday to try to save the foundering candidate. Her defeat on Tuesday signaled big political problems for the president's party this fall when House, Senate and gubernatorial candidates are on the ballot nationwide.

Brown's victory was the third major loss for Democrats in statewide elections since Obama became president. Republicans won governors' seats in Virginia and New Jersey in November.I have no interest in sugarcoating what happened in Massachusetts, said Sen. Robert Menendez, the head of the Senate Democrats' campaign committee.There is a lot of anxiety in the country right now. Americans are understandably impatient.
Brown will become the 41st Republican in the 100-member Senate, which could allow the GOP to block the president's health care legislation. Democrats needed Coakley to win for a 60th vote to thwart Republican filibusters. The trouble may go deeper: Democratic lawmakers could read the results as a vote against Obama's broader agenda, weakening their support for the president. And the results could scare some Democrats from seeking office this fall.The Republican will finish Kennedy's unexpired term, facing re-election in 2012.Brown led by 52 per cent to 47 percent with all but 3 percent of precincts counted. Turnout was exceptional for a special election in January, with light snow reported in parts of the state. More voters showed up at the polls Tuesday than in any non-presidential general election in Massachusetts since 1990.One day shy of the first anniversary of Obama's swearing-in, the election played out amid a backdrop of animosity and resentment from voters over persistently high unemployment, Wall Street bailouts, exploding federal budget deficits and partisan wrangling over health care.I voted for Obama because I wanted change. ... I thought he'd bring it to us, but I just don't like the direction that he's heading,said John Triolo, 38, a registered independent who voted in Fitchburg.

He said his frustrations, including what he considered the too-quick pace of health care legislation, led him to vote for Brown.For weeks considered a long shot, Brown seized on voter discontent to overtake Coakley in the campaign's final stretch. His candidacy energized Republicans, including backers of the tea party protest movement, while attracting disappointed Democrats and independents uneasy with where they felt the nation was heading.A cornerstone of Brown's campaign was his promise to vote against the health care plan.Though the president wasn't on the ballot, he was on many voters' minds.Coakley called Brown conceding the race, and Obama talked to both Brown and Coakley, congratulating them on the race.The Democrat said the president told her: We can't win them all.Brown will be the first Republican senator from Massachusetts in 30 years. Even before the first results were announced, administration officials were privately accusing Coakley of a poorly run campaign and playing down the notion that Obama or a toxic political landscape had much to do with the outcome. Coakley's supporters, in turn, blamed that very environment, saying her lead dropped significantly after the Senate passed health care reform shortly before Christmas and after the Christmas Day attempted airliner bombing that Obama himself said showed a failure of his administration.

Days before the polls closed, Democrats were fingerpointing and laying blame.

Rep. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, head of the House Democrats' campaign effort, said Coakley's loss won't deter his colleagues from continuing to blame the previous administration. President George W. Bush and House Republicans drove our economy into a ditch and tried to run away from the accident,he said.President Obama and congressional Democrats have been focused repairing the damage to our economy.At Boston's Park Plaza Hotel, giddy Republicans cheered, chanted USA and waved the tea party version of the American flag. Even before Brown won, the grass-roots network fueled by antiestablishment frustrations, sought credit for the victory, much like the liberal MoveOn.org did in the 2006 midterm elections when Democrats rose to power. GOP chairman Michael Steele said Brown's message of lower taxes, smaller government and fiscal responsibility clearly resonated with independent-minded voters in Massachusetts who were looking for a solution to decades of failed Democrat leadership.Wall Street watched the election closely. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 116 points, and analysts attributed the increase to hopes the election would make it harder for Obama to make his changes to health care. That eased investor concerns that profits at companies such as insurers and drug makers would suffer. Across Massachusetts, voters who had been bombarded with phone calls and dizzied with nonstop campaign commercials for Coakley and Brown gave a fitting turnout despite intermittent snow and rain statewide. Galvin, who discounted sporadic reports of voter irregularities throughout the day, predicted turnout ranging from 1.6 million to 2.2 million, 40 percent to 55 percent of registered voters. The Dec. 8 primary had a scant turnout of about 20 percent. Voters considered national issues including health care and the federal budget deficits.

Fears about spending drove Karla Bunch, 49, to vote for Brown. It's time for the country, for the taxpayers, to take back their money,she said. And Elizabeth Reddin, 65, voted for Brown because she said she was turned off by the Democrat's negative advertisements, saying:The Coakley stuff was disgusting.Liz Sidoti reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Beth Fouhy, Bob Salsberg, Steve LeBlanc, Karen Testa, Kevin Vineys and Stephanie Reitz also contributed to this report.

WND/WENZEL POLL Obama 1 year later: Voters pick someone else-still have unanswered questions about legitimacy, fear his plans January 19, 2010
10:00 pm Eastern By Bob Unruh 2010 WorldNetDaily

Editor's note: This is another in a series of monthly WND/WENZEL POLLS - polls conducted exclusively for WND by the public opinion research and media consulting company Wenzel Strategies.A new poll marking Barack Obama's one year as president reveals Americans are questioning his legitimacy to hold the office, fear his plans and doubt even his friends. Typically, a political figure in trouble from pursuing a radical agenda generally tacks to the political center, but there is no evidence that Obama is interested in following conventional wisdom on this point. Democrats nationwide may face the fallout in November,warned Fritz Wenzel of Wenzel Strategies.

The poll revealed if the 2012 election were held today, Obama would come in second to an unspecified opponent.The WND/Wenzel poll was conducted by telephone from Jan. 14-17 using an automated telephone technology calling a random sampling of listed telephone numbers nationwide. The survey included 30 questions and carries a 95 percent confidence interval. It included 823 likely voters and has a margin of error of 3.65 percentage points. Wenzel said voters have advanced in their opinions of the issue of Obama's legitimacy from some six months ago when most Americans said they were aware of the questions being raised. When asked if they consider Obama a legitimate president,32.6 percent said no, and another 15.8 percent said they were not sure. Barely half of the voters, 51.5 percent said they do consider Obama a legitimate president even though he has yet to produce a long-form birth certificate that would prove he was born in the U.S. Even 14.6 percent of the Democrats said they do not consider him a legitimate president, along with 52.2 percent of the Republicans. Significantly, 31.8 percent of the independents said no. Those who were uncertain included 12.1 percent of the Democrats, 21.3 percent of the Republicans and 14.3 percent of the independents.

Also, asked whether they were more or less likely to believe in Obama's legitimacy, only 40.1 percent said much more. Some 27.9 percent said much less, with a significant 12 percent unsure. A lingering doubt about his legitimacy as president continues to dog Obama,Wenzel said.Barely half – 52 percent – said they believe that, in light of the fact he has not yet presented a long-form birth certificate that would prove he was born on U.S. soil, while 33 percent said they do not consider him to be a legitimate president. Another 16 percent were unsure on the question. While some try to marginalize those who continue to call for Obama to release his birth certificate, it is clear many don't think this is a settled matter. As he loses public support for his agenda, the risk grows that this unaddressed issue could come back to haunt Obama, perhaps at a time when he can least afford it. Evidence of this stems from this latest WND/Wenzel Strategies poll – where support for Obama's legitimacy drops to 48 percent when respondents are asked to consider not only the birth certificate issue but also Obama's legislative agenda during his first year,Wenzel said.The percentage who question his legitimacy also increases when his agenda is considered as part of the equation.The poll revealed voters are split 39.4 percent to 36.3 percent on whether Obama's performance has been poor or excellent. Voters are split on whether Obama has met their expectations. While 49 percent said they felt he has done better than they expected he might, while 47 percent said he has done worse than expected,Wenzel said. But the alarming news to members of Congress is that Obama comes in second to someone else in a 2012 presidential race and that status very well may drag down members of the Democratic Party. Asked who they would choose if the next election were held today, only 44.3 percent of the voters said they would vote for Obama while another 45.1 percent said they would choose an unspecified someone else.Another 10.6 percent were unsure.His agenda may also have an impact on the future make-up of Congress, as 41 percent said they planned to vote for the congressional candidate in their home district who would oppose Obama's agenda, compared to 34 percent who said they would vote for a congressional candidate who would support the Obama agenda, Wenzel said.

That said, the generic ballot congressional question shows that Democrats and Republicans are evenly split – with 38 percent saying they would vote for the Democrat and 36 percent saying they would vote for the Republican,he said. A danger signal for Obama – 64 percent of Republicans and 44 percent of independents said they believe he is trying to turn America into a socialist country, Wenzel said. Even 27 percent of Democrats agreed.This is a reflection of how deeply some people fear what Obama might do to the foundation of the country if given a chance, he said. Overall, this has been a rough year in public opinion for Barack Obama, whose job approval rating has dropped from 69 percent the day after his inauguration to a low of 41 percent in last month's Wenzel Strategies survey. While it has bounced back to 46 percent positive in this month's survey, he still faces a difficult road ahead,Wenzel said. On another question, 35.6 percent said they were more hopeful about America since Obama's election, and 35.3 percent said they were less hopeful.On Obama's campaign theme of change, 22.1 percent of the voters said his changes have made the nation much better, while 32.6 percent said the result is much worse.

http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=122534
SOMETHING IN THE AIR-Bush speechwriter attacks Hannity, Corsi-Worries that GOP is filling with anger, paranoia, extremism January 19, 2010 9:53 pm Eastern
By Drew Zahn 2010 WorldNetDaily

David Frum

How do Republican leaders view the tea partiers – as allies in the fight for smaller government or loudmouths threatening to upset the GOP applecart? As the burgeoning movement has put political pressure on the Republican Party to abandon its centrist ways, some in the GOP establishment have begun to push back – as evidenced by former George W. Bush speechwriter and Rudy Giuliani adviser, David Frum, who yesterday added an attack on WND's Jerome Corsi to his argument that the right is being taken over by anger, paranoia and ideological extremism.The self-described alleged RINO (which stands for Republican in name only) blasted both Corsi – over his new book, America for Sale, which warns of global trade agreements and deficits that threaten to undermine both the dollar and American sovereignty – and radio talk host Sean Hannity, for inviting Corsi as a guest. This week [National Review Online] provides space to Daniel Griswold of Cato to apply a mild but firm rebuke to Fox's Sean Hannity for showcasing, well, my phrase anger, paranoia and extremism serves pretty well, Frum writes.Griswold is concerned that Fox helped to launch a new book by conspiracy fantasist Jerome Corsi.Frum continues,As an NR alumnus, I've been waiting hopefully for the moment when NRO would resume its historical vocation of countering anger, paranoia, and extremism on the right. It's good to see these positive signs, however tentative.

Griswold is the director of the Center for Trade Policy Studies at the Cato Institute, a think tank dedicated to individual liberty, free markets and peace. His review warns tea partiers to stay away from Corsi's book for targeting, among other things, trade deficits with China, the North American Free Trade Agreement and the World Trade Organization. Read the book yourself and make up your own mind:America for Sale: Fighting the New World Order, Surviving a Global Depression, and Preserving USA Sovereignty.Corsi, however, told WND the tag-team attack by Griswold and Frum is just further evidence that the establishment doesn't get it. It's obvious the free trade Republicans have no understanding of why tea party protestors are against globalism or loss of sovereignty,Corsi said.We are attacked as 'extremists' because we don't agree with a centrist Republican Party that includes open borders, globalism and accommodation with the Democrats, including Obama.The attack on me helps explains why McCain ran such a poor campaign, he added. Frum's repeated refrain that his party is being threatened by people rife with anger, paranoia and extremism comes from his FrumForum blog post of last week, in which he praised U.S. Senate candidate Scott Brown, not because his potential victory in largely Democrat Massachusetts would be a referendum on President Obama – as many tea partiers claim – but because the candidate's pro-choice stance and record on voting for greenhouse gas restrictions prove the Republican is not a talk radio conservative.He's running exactly the kind of campaign that we alleged RINOs have been urging on the GOP for months now, Frum writes.It would be a travesty if Brown's victory is seized upon as a victory for anger, paranoia, and ideological extremism.Frum claims his FrumForum is dedicated to the modernization and renewal of the Republican party and the conservative movement, but Corsi warns the Republican Party cannot be renewed if it continues to cling to policies and platforms the tea partiers reject.

Cato and Frum miss that the tea party movement represents a fundamental political realignment in favor of limited government, limited taxation and private enterprise, Corsi told WND.If the Republican Party follows the advice given by Griswold and Frum, John McCain's presidential electoral defeat in 2008 may look like a highpoint of Republican Party politics. Following Griswold and Frum's advice, the Republican Party free-traders are closer to the Democratic Party than they are to the independents and Democrats joining with disillusioned Republicans to form the tea party movement.Griswold's harsh review of Corsi's America for Sale" also prompted a flurry of emails between the two economists, which further cemented Corsi's belief that the element of establishment is at odds with the grassroots tea party movement.

Griswold in a private email to me suggested he and Cato had the credentials to be the experts here,Corsi told WND.This is the type of arrogance that free trade globalists have used for decades to tell those of us who value U.S. jobs, the U.S. economy and U.S. sovereignty that we're just too stupid to understand their elevated justifications for giving management of the U.S. economy over to organizations like the U.N. and the World Trade Organization.

WW3 THE 3 WAVES THAT MARCH TO ISRAEL

AMOS 9:10
10 All the sinners of my people shall die by the sword, which say, The evil shall not overtake nor prevent us.

DANIEL 11:40-45
40 And at the time of the end shall the king of the south( EGYPT) push at him:(EU DICTATOR IN ISRAEL) and the king of the north (RUSSIA AND MUSLIM HORDES OF EZEK 38+39) shall come against him like a whirlwind, with chariots, and with horsemen, and with many ships; and he shall enter into the countries, and shall overflow and pass over.
41 He shall enter also into the glorious land, and many countries shall be overthrown: but these shall escape out of his hand, even Edom, and Moab, and the chief of the children of Ammon.(JORDAN)
42 He shall stretch forth his hand also upon the countries: and the land of Egypt shall not escape.
43 But he shall have power over the treasures of gold and of silver, and over all the precious things of Egypt: and the Libyans and the Ethiopians shall be at his steps.
44 But tidings out of the east(CHINA 2ND WAVE OF WW3) and out of the north(RUSSIA, MUSLIMS WHATS LEFT FROM WAVE 1) shall trouble him:(EU DICTATOR IN ISRAEL) therefore he shall go forth with great fury to destroy, and utterly to make away many.( 1/3RD OF EARTHS POPULATION)
45 And he shall plant the tabernacles of his palace between the seas in the glorious holy mountain; yet he shall come to his end, and none shall help him.

REVELATION 14:18-20
18 And another angel came out from the altar, which had power over fire; and cried with a loud cry to him that had the sharp sickle, saying, Thrust in thy sharp sickle, and gather the clusters of the vine of the earth; for her grapes are fully ripe.
19 And the angel thrust in his sickle into the earth, and gathered the vine of the earth, and cast it into the great winepress of the wrath of God.
20 And the winepress was trodden without the city,(JERUSALEM) and blood came out of the winepress, even unto the horse bridles, by the space of a thousand and six hundred furlongs.(200 MILES) (THE SIZE OF ISRAEL)

The Third and Final Wave of WW3 is when all Nations march to Jerusalem, but JESUS bodily returns to earth and destroys them,sets up his KINGDOM OF RULE FOR 1000 YEARS THEN FOREVER.

2ND WAVE CHINA AND KINGS OF THE EAST MARCH TO ISRAEL

REVELATION 16:12
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.(THIS IS THE ATATURK DAM IN TURKEY,THEY CROSS OVER).

DANIEL 11:44 (2ND WAVE OF WW3)
44 But tidings out of the east(CHINA) and out of the north(RUSSIA, MUSLIMS WHATS LEFT FROM WAVE 1) shall trouble him:(EU DICTATOR IN ISRAEL) therefore he shall go forth with great fury to destroy, and utterly to make away many.( 1/3RD OF EARTHS POPULATION)

REVELATION 9:12-18
12 One woe is past; and, behold, there come two woes more hereafter.
13 And the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God,
14 Saying to the sixth angel which had the trumpet, Loose the four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates.(IRAQ-SYRIA)
15 And the four angels were loosed, which were prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, for to slay the third part of men.(1/3 Earths Population die in WW 3 2ND WAVE)
16 And the number of the army of the horsemen were two hundred thousand thousand:(200 MILLION MAN ARMY FROM CHINA AND THE KINGS OF THE EAST) and I heard the number of them.
17 And thus I saw the horses in the vision, and them that sat on them, having breastplates of fire, and of jacinth, and brimstone: and the heads of the horses were as the heads of lions; and out of their mouths issued fire and smoke and brimstone.(NUCLEAR BOMBS)
18 By these three was the third part of men killed, by the fire, and by the smoke, and by the brimstone, which issued out of their mouths.(NUCLEAR BOMBS)

WARS AND RUMURS OF WARS.

MATTHEW 24:6
6 And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.

MARK 13:7
7 And when ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars, be ye not troubled: for such things must needs be; but the end shall not be yet.

SKorean minister: Hit North first if threatened By KWANG-TAE KIM, Associated Press Writer – JAN 19,10

SEOUL, South Korea – South Korea's defense chief called Wednesday for a pre-emptive strike on North Korea if there is a clear indication the country is preparing a nuclear attack.The comments came as the two sides opened a second day of talks on further developing their joint industrial complex in the North, and were likely to draw an angry reaction from Pyongyang, which recently issued its own threat to break off dialogue with Seoul and attack.South Korea should immediately launch a strike on the North if there is a clear intention of a pending nuclear attack, Defense Minister Kim Tae-young said at a seminar in Seoul.Kim made similar remarks in 2008 when he was chairman of South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff, prompting North Korea to threaten South Korea with destruction.The North, which conducted underground nuclear tests in 2006 and 2009, claims its nuclear weapons are not for use against South Korea, but rather are a security guarantee against what it claims is U.S. hostility.Despite the rhetoric from both sides, officials held follow-up discussions Wednesday on the industrial complex in the North's border city of Kaesong, according to Seoul's Unification Ministry. It did not provide further details.The South Korean delegation was scheduled to return home later Wednesday, said Unification Ministry spokesman Chun Hae-sung.On Tuesday, they met for nearly four hours to assess their joint tour of industrial parks in China and Vietnam undertaken in December.

Chun had described the talks as taking place in a serious and practical atmosphere.

Seoul stressed the need for a quick and easy system for border crossings and customs clearance for South Koreans who travel to and from the industrial park, Chun said, in an apparent call on the North to improve the system.The North said their recent surveys in China and Vietnam offered an opportunity to revitalize the complex, Chun said.Kaesong, which combines South Korean capital and technology with cheap North Korean labor, is the most prominent symbol of inter-Korean cooperation. About 110 South Korean factories employ some 42,000 North Korean workers.The complex came under a cloud in late 2008, however, when North Korea tightened restrictions on border crossings amid growing tensions between the two countries.This week's talks came just days after Pyongyang threatened to launch a sacred nationwide retaliatory battle and vowed to cease all communication with the South following reports of a South Korean contingency plan to handle any unrest in the isolated North.Meanwhile, South Korea's top nuclear envoy Wi Sung-lac left for the U.S. on Wednesday for talks with Stephen Bosworth, the special U.S. envoy to North Korea, and other U.S. officials on the North's nuclear programs, according to the Foreign Ministry.The trip comes as North Korea has recently made repeated demands that international sanctions be lifted before it will return to stalled negotiations aimed at ending its nuclear weapons programs.Last year, Pyongyang quit the six-party talks — with China, Japan, Russia, South Korea and the United States — in anger over international condemnation of a prohibited long-range rocket launch. The following month it carried out its second underground nuclear test.

22 indicted in FBI sting on paying foreign bribes By PETE YOST, Associated Press Writer – JAN 19,10

WASHINGTON – Twenty-two executives and employees at suppliers to the military and law enforcement agencies were arrested on the eve of their industry's annual trade show in Las Vegas after a 2 1/2-year undercover sting operation aimed at schemes to bribe a foreign official.The Justice Department called the case the largest single investigation and prosecution of individuals in the history of the 1977 Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which bars bribery of foreign government officials. It also is the first large-scale use of an undercover operation in enforcing the corrupt practices act.In a briefing for reporters, Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer, head of the Justice Department's criminal division, said there are more than 140 open investigations under the act.Twenty-one of the 22 people caught up in the case were arrested in Las Vegas, where they were preparing to attend the 2010 Shooting, Hunting & Outdoor Trade Show, a convention with more than 55,000 attendees at the Sands Expo & Convention Center. The convention started Tuesday.Charged are people at companies in eight states and executives at companies in the United Kingdom and Israel. Five defendants were identified in federal court in Las Vegas as citizens of the United Kingdom. Two others were from Israel, and one was from Peru.

None of the 21 entered pleas during initial appearances before U.S. Magistrate Judge Peggy Leen. She set bond and release restrictions for 13 — ordering most to surrender their passports and instructing each to appear Feb. 3 in federal court in Washington.The judge rescheduled detention hearings for three defendants until Wednesday and set hearings Thursday for another five.The defendants allegedly agreed to pay a 20 percent commission to a sales agent they believed represented the defense minister for an African country. They were trying to win a multimillion-dollar deal to outfit the presidential guard.The sales agent was actually an undercover FBI agent, and no defense minister was involved at all. Several of the indictments in the probe disclosed that at least one other FBI agent was operating under cover, posing as a procurement officer for the ministry of defense of the African nation.In Las Vegas, word of the arrests came as a surprise to show organizers, said Mark Thomas, marketing and communications manager for the show host, the National Shooting Sports Foundation of Newtown, Conn. Thomas referred questions about the arrests to the FBI and Justice Department.Those charged worked for companies in Arkansas, Virginia, Florida, California, Massachusetts, Georgia, Pennsylvania and Kentucky.Indictments against each of the 22 individuals alleges conspiracy and substantive violations of the corrupt practices act and conspiracy to engage in money laundering. The charges relating to the corrupt practices act carry a maximum five-year prison sentence on conviction. The maximum sentence for money laundering conspiracy is 20 years.Associated Press writer Ken Ritter in Las Vegas contributed to this report.On the Net:Justice Department indictments:
http://www.justice.gov/criminal/pr/press_releases/month_index.html?201001

US Fed welcomes AIG bailout probe
Tue Jan 19, 5:14 pm ET

WASHINGTON (AFP) – Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke said Tuesday he would welcome a congressional probe into the controversial government bailout of insurance giant AIG during the financial crisis.Bernanke said the Fed had already made public much information about actions related to the 2008 AIG bailout, adding that the central bank and the Treasury acted in the best interests of the United States.In a letter to the General Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress, he said that a full review of the issue was appropriate.In this spirit, to afford the public the most complete possible understanding of our decisions and actions in this matter, and to provide a comprehensive response to questions that have been raised by members of Congress, the Federal Reserve would welcome a full review by GAO of all aspects of our involvement in the extension of credit to AIG, the statement said.

The Federal Reserve said in a statement that it will make available to the GAO all records and personnel necessary to conduct the review.The GAO is the audit, evaluation, and investigative arm of Congress.The move came after US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner agreed to testify before a congressional hearing on the bailout involving more than 170 billion dollars, especially payments made to AIG?s trading partners.The House of Representatives Oversight and Government Reform Committee said last week that internal AIG emails obtained by the panel to date indicate that the (New York Fed) may have urged AIG to keep secret the details of the counterparty payments, despite the fact that taxpayer dollars made the payments possible.The panel last week subpoenaed documents on the bailout, including from Geithner, who was president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York before his current appointment.Geithner said he would testify before the House panel on January 27, stressing that he was not involved in any decision related to the disclosure of details about the terms of the bailout.Panel chairman Edolphus Towns said his committee was seeking information on payments made to AIG counterparties -- major global banks including Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Barclays, Bank of America, Deutsche Bank, and Societe Generale.The New York Fed said in a separate statement welcomed Bernanke's statement and said it had delivered over 250,000 pages of records that were requested by the House committee.We are in favor of a full and objective review of our actions and look forward to the opportunity to document for the public and members of Congress our involvement in AIG, said Federal Reserve Bank of New York president William Dudley.All of the Federal Reserve?s actions regarding AIG were undertaken to protect the American people from an even more severe economic downturn and to safeguard US taxpayers? interests in the company, he said.