MEDVEDEV VISITS PA TODAY

CHINAS STEALTH BOMBER
http://video.foxnews.com/v/4492581/china-shows-off-new-stealth-jet
SARAH PALIN ON HANNITY YESTERDAY
http://video.foxnews.com/v/4492581/china-shows-off-new-stealth-jet#/v/4500319/exclusive-sarah-palin-on-hannity/?playlist_id=87485

Israel's defense minister defects from Labor Party By ARON HELLER, Associated Press – Mon Jan 17, 3:25 pm ET

JERUSALEM – In a shocking move that instantly shook up Israel's political scene, Defense Minister Ehud Barak defected from his Labor Party Monday, leaving in shambles the iconic movement that founded the country and ruled it invincibly for decades.The move appeared to shore up Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's governing coalition by leading to the resignation of the other Labor members, who had been at loggerheads with the government over stalled peacemaking efforts. But it could weaken the Israeli leader in the long run by reducing his majority and undermining his attempts to portray himself as a centrist leader.Barak, the departing party leader and former prime minister, will stay in the ruling coalition with four other followers in a new party. But Labor's eight remaining lawmakers — including three ministers — will withdraw.Netanyahu's remaining majority of 66 seats in the 120-member parliament now seems safer than before, and it will be dominated even more by hawks opposed to serious concessions to the Palestinians.The Palestinians refuse to negotiate until Israel completely freezes settlement construction in the West Bank and east Jerusalem — captured areas they claim for a future state. It's unlikely the current coalition, dominated by nationalist and Orthodox Jewish parties, will do so.

Barak, 68, said he was tired of the infighting within Labor and accused his former partners of being too soft on issues of war and peace. His colleagues have been agitating to leave the government, and had been pushing for a party decision to withdraw from the government entirely, which would have made it more awkward for Barak to stay.We are embarking on a new path, he said during a news conference at Israel's parliament. We want to wake up without having to compromise, apologize and explain.He said his new party — to be called Independence — would be centrist, Zionist and democratic.For Labor, the dramatic announcement marked another chapter in its stunning fall from grace.The once proud party dominated Israeli politics for the country's first three decades, producing a string of prime ministers that included David Ben-Gurion — Israel's founding father — Levi Eshkol, Golda Meir and the slain prime minister, Yitzhak Rabin. Barak himself briefly served as prime minister from 1999 to 2001.Labor led Israel to independence in 1948 and left its imprint on all important aspects of Israeli life for decades. Its stalwarts founded the kibbutz movement — communal farms that for a time captured the world's imagination — and set up the basic institutions of state that live on today. It was finally unseated by the more hard-line Likud in 1977, beginning a period of two-party domination that has ended with Labor's drop in support.

At its peak in 1969, Labor and a partner won 56 seats in the 120-seat parliament and it dropped below 40 only twice before 1996, when its support began to falter.With Rabin at the helm in the early 1990s, Israeli signed historic accords with the Palestinians and Jordan. But since Barak's ambitious attempts as prime minister at making peace with Syria and the Palestinians collapsed, the public has shifted to the right.Netanyahu welcomed Barak's defection Monday, saying the shake-up would make the government stronger by dashing any hopes the Palestinians might have that the coalition would collapse.Barak's departure was quietly planned for the past 10 days in coordination with Netanyahu, officials said.One Labor stalwart, Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, said he was shocked to learn of the move early Monday. He angrily said Barak had spit in the face of the party that elected him.Barak's departure from Labor resembled Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's exit from Likud in 2005 to form the centrist Kadima Party in the wake of his pullout from the Gaza Strip. Sharon suffered a stroke shortly after, but his successor, Ehud Olmert, led the party to victory in a 2006 election.In one of the more ironic developments of Israeli politics — as Sharon was once considered an uncompromising nationalist — Kadima has effectively replaced Labor as the anchor party of the Israeli left. Kadima won 29 seats in the last election while Labor dropped to 13, making it only the fourth-largest party in parliament before Monday's breakup. A poll conducted Monday for Channel 10 TV showed that if an election were held now, Labor would win eight seats and Barak's new party only three. Likud would gain three seats and its hawkish partner, Yisrael Beiteinu, would gain two. The poll questioned 505 respondents with a margin of error of 4.2 percentage points.

Many party members hold Barak responsible for Labor's demise, accusing him of abandoning its socialist and dovish ideals to remain in power. In the past year it has been rife with infighting and high-profile resignations. The significance is historical for the Labor movement — it used to be the leading movement of the Zionist revolution and now ... we see the remains of this party, said Gideon Rahat, a political science professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Former Labor lawmaker Yael Dayan said Monday's move provided the party its last chance of survival. She suggested that the remaining members could unite with Kadima and the dovish Meretz to create a powerful social democratic party that the country badly lacked.There is a vacuum, and I think now is the time to offer an alternative, she said.Palestinian negotiator Nabil Shaath gave a similar assessment, saying Barak had become virtually identical to the hard-line Netanyahu. The only hope is for the Labor Party to rise from the ashes without him (Barak), he said.Barak unseated Netanyahu in 1999 parliamentary elections, but as coalition partners over the past two years, they have had a fruitful relationship. The men have known each other for decades, dating back to the 1970s, when Barak was Netanyahu's commander in an elite army commando unit.Barak has given the governing coalition a well-known and relatively moderate face to deal with the international community, and Netanyahu has awarded Barak great influence on decision making.

Einat Wilf, a Labor lawmaker who joined Barak, said the defection would actually increase the chances for peace.We think this also sends an important message to the Palestinians, to the Arabs — if you want to talk, talk to this government, she told The Associated Press. If an agreement should be possible, it is this government that will bring the support of the vast majority of Israelis.Opposition leader Tzipi Livni called on Netanyahu to dissolve his government and call a new election.

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

Van Rompuy: Europe is Fatherland of peace
LEIGH PHILLIPS 17.01.2011 @ 17:46 CET

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - EU Council President Herman Van Rompuy has issued a robust defence of the European Union in the face of growing suspicion and fear, arguing that the bloc must not be seen as a new Moscow, but instead, the Fatherland of peace.
Sometimes, in the heat of the debate, the image of Brussels is linked to the role of Moscow in the Cold War. One should not accept this comparison, he declared in a speech to students at the University of Warsaw.The president, in the Polish capital for a meeting with Prime Minister Donald Tusk ahead of the country taking over the reins of the six-month rotating EU presidency, said that the EU was responsible for hastening the demise of the Soviet Union and that its enduring purpose is to be a bringer of peace.The union's force of attraction accelerated the collapse of Communism and the end of the Cold War. That is a victory, he continued. Europe is the best guarantee for peace. It was and is a work of peace. That's why I am so strongly in favour of a European perspective for the western Balkans, the last remnant of the Cold War and the last place where a war was waged.Europe has to be the fatherland of peace. We owe this to our history ... The bloody battlefields from our history have been replaced by Brussels negotiating rooms, he added.The president has in recent months made a series of public speeches strongly defending the idea of the European project against all critics, whether markets or sceptical citizens.

On Wednesday, the leader told a group of students at the European College of Parma, that the eurozone poses no risk to global economic growth. The next day, in London, he complained how eurozone members Spain and Portugal were not being given a chance by investors. While in Berlin last November, he issued a stark warning against the forces of nationalism, euro-scepticism and populism: We have together to fight the danger of a new euro-scepticism, he said at the time. Fear leads to egoism, egoism leads to nationalism, and nationalism leads to war ... It is a feeling all over Europe, not of a majority, but everywhere present.In Poland, again acknowledging the growth of euroscepticism, he returned to the theme, noting that suspicion and fear are growing in new member states as well.I sometimes explain that the enlargement of the European Union with the countries of Eastern and Central Europe in and after 2004 is not a bureaucratic process, driven by Brussels, but that enlargement should rather be seen as a deeply political enterprise, driven by a great historic event: the end of the Cold War and the unification of the European continent, he said.

There is a perception that the single market is less popular than in the past and that it is seen by many Europeans with suspicion and fear. We have to reconcile both the citizens - citizens as consumers and as employees - and the entrepreneurs with Europe.Mr Van Rompuy used the Warsaw event to outline the three policy themes he said the bloc should focus on in 2011 in order to combat both dissastisfaction amongst citizens and to return the EU to growth.He said the coming year must see a deepening of the single market, a renewed emphasis on energy liberalisation and investment in research and development.Complaining that research spending in the EU is 1.84 percent of GDP compared to 2.6 percent in the US and 3.4 percent in Japan, he called on European heads of state and government to take more ownership of innovation and research.

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).

Sudanese consider EU model as solution to oil question
ANDREW WILLIS 17.01.2011 @ 17:45 CET

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - An EU monitoring mission in Southern Sudan has issued a largely positive preliminary verdict on last week's referendum on independence, although the border area of Abyei remains an ongoing concern. Speaking to EUobserver from the northern capital of Khartoum on Monday (17 January), the mission's chief observer, Socialist MEP Veronique de Keyser, described the southern vote on whether to split from the country's northern region as a credible process. We are happy and relieved, people predicted great turmoil but thankfully that has not materialised, said Ms de Keyser who heads a team of 104 observers and analysts from the 27 EU member states as well as Norway, Switzerland and Canada.The Belgian euro-deputy warned however that a strategy was urgently needed to diffuse the ongoing tension in the oil-rich border area of Abyei, where dozens have been killed already this month. The situation is explosive. If a solution is not found, all the other political issues could be blocked, she said, adding that northern isolation would also have grave consequences. Last week's southern Sudanese referendum on independence was the centre-piece of a 2005 peace accord that ended a decades-old civil war, estimated to have killed roughly 2 million people since 1983. A separate referendum in Abyei was cancelled after officials failed to agree certain parameters including how to define an Abyei resident.Observers attribute fighting between northern Arab herdsmen and the Ngok Dinka people living in the area to a long-running dispute over cattle grazing rights, although some local leaders fear the issue is being used as a proxy-battle for the area's oil reserves.China is particularly interested in Abyei's final resting place, the area being home to the Defra block - an oilfield administered by China National Petroleum Corporation. Bejing has invested considerable diplomatic energy cozying up to the northern regime of Omar al-Bashir, Sudan's president, a man wanted by the International Criminal Court in the Hague for his role in the Darfur conflict.

The south's referendum results next month are expected to show a vast majority in favour of secession, handing a newly independent state in July roughly 80 percent of Sudan's current oil production of 490,000 barrels a day. Abyei accounts for roughly 2,500 barrels a day, Al-Sir Sid Ahmed, media adviser to the country's oil minister, said last week.Export access via the north to the Red Sea will remain a key issue for southern oil producers if Sudan splits as expected, with national officials touting an EU-style joint institution as a possible solution. Both Al-Bashir and [southern leader] Salva Kiir have talked about the EU model. What they mean exactly remains to be seen, said Ms Keyser.Regional experts agree the idea is on the table. Some form of joint structure to manage oil reserves and pipeline sharing is gaining traction, said Richard Gowan, an African security expert with the European Council on Foreign Relations think-tank.The model is obviously not the EU of today but the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) of previous years, said Mr Gowan. The ECSC was first proposed by French foreign minister Robert Schuman on 9 May 1950 as a way to prevent further war between France and Germany. It created Europe's first supranational institutions, designed to monitor a common coal and steel market shared by its six founding members.A joint Sudanese structure would probably reassure oil investors in the region, dominated by China National Petroleum Corp., Malaysia's Petroliam Nasional Bhd. and India's Oil & Natural Gas Corp. Sudan is the third-biggest oil producer in sub-Saharan Africa.The likelihood of South Sudan gaining independence this summer is also prompting questions over the region's ability to achieve self-governance and whether the EU can provide a supporting role.

EU battlegroups to assist UN peacekeeping troops are among the ideas being considered, this website understands, although a police training mission is more likely.As we have seen in Afghanistan, police training is not always the best answer. It is frequently an alibi for real action, said Mr Gowan.If there is one thing the EU does well, it's create bureaucrats. The bloc should lend officials to build institutional capacity in Southern Sudan. If EU high representative Catherine Ashton is ready to put energy into the issue, it would be a good way to increase the external action service's credibility.

EUROPEAN UNION ARMY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytWmPqY8TE0&feature=player_embedded

DANIEL 7:23-25
23 Thus he said, The fourth beast (EU,REVIVED ROME) shall be the fourth kingdom upon earth,(7TH WORLD EMPIRE) which shall be diverse from all kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, and shall tread it down, and break it in pieces.(TRADING BLOCKS)
24 And the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings(10 NATIONS) that shall arise: and another shall rise after them;(#11 SPAIN) and he shall be diverse from the first, and he shall subdue three kings.( BE HEAD OF 3 NATIONS)
25 And he (EU PRESIDENT) shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time.(3 1/2 YRS)

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

DANIEL 11:36-39
36 And the king (EU DICTATOR) shall do according to his will; and he shall exalt himself, and magnify himself above every god, and shall speak marvellous things against the God of gods, and shall prosper till the indignation be accomplished: for that that is determined shall be done.
37 Neither shall he regard the God of his fathers,(THIS EU DICTATOR IS JEWISH) nor the desire of women, nor regard any god: for he shall magnify himself above all.(CLAIM TO BE GOD)
38 But in his estate shall he honour the God of forces:(WAR) and a god whom his fathers knew not shall he honour with gold, and silver, and with precious stones, and pleasant things.
39 Thus shall he do in the most strong holds with a strange god,(DESTROY TERROR GROUPS) whom he shall acknowledge and increase with glory: and he shall cause them to rule over many,(HIS ARMY LEADERS) and shall divide the land for gain.

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

US ambassador lampoons Nordic military pact-The Stoltenberg plan, drafted after years-long consultations with Nordic capitals, was summed up as dreams in Polar fog (Photo: Defence Images)ANDREW RETTMAN 14.01.2011 @ 09:18 CET

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Proposals for the five Nordic countries to create a mini-Nato alliance are dreams in Polar fog but may be useful for keeping an eye on Polar bears and Russians, according to the former US ambassador to Norway, Benson Whitney.
His remarks came shortly after Norway's former leader, the 74-year-old Thorvald Stoltenberg, put forward 13 ideas for military co-operation including a Nato-style mutual defence pact. Nordic foreign ministers are to debate the text in April amid growing strategic interest in the High North for energy and trade reasons. UK Prime Minister David Cameron will next week also host a meeting of Nordic and Baltic state leaders on the topic.The US ambassador predicted that the Nordic mutual defence clause is the least likely to fly. Officials including the PM's foreign policy advisor and the MFA's [foreign ministry's] political director have privately indicated to us that there is little or no interest in a Nordic solidarity declaration in the GON [government of Norway],he reported, despite the fact the Norwegian prime minister, Jens Stoltenberg, is Thorvald Stoltenberg's son.

On joint surveillance flights in Icelandic airspace, he added: Surprisingly, Norwegian officials have been very critical of this proposal ... expressing strong dislike for this item.On diplomatic and consular co-operation, Mr Whitney said: Co-operation between foreign services is much more difficult and will likely be limited to countries where none of the Nordics have representation now.The cable was not entirely negative. In his concluding remarks, the ambassador said: Joint Nordic transport capabilities, medical teams, amphibious units, a stabilization task force and maritime awareness could be important contributions to UN, Nato or US missions.A separate dispatch published on Thursday displays the closeness of Swedish-US relations at a time when Swedish authorities are pursuing WikiLeaks mastermind Julian Assange on sexual assault charges.In the cable, dated July 2009, Swedish diplomat Jonas Wendel told the US charge d'affaires in Stockholm, Robert J. Silverman, about sensitive issues in an upcoming EU foreign ministers meeting.Mr Wendel spoke in detail about the position of fellow US ally Britain on Iran sanctions, but maintained some discretion. Speaking of whether or not the EU will use tough language against Russia, he said the move is being opposed by the usual members, but did not name them.The Wendel dispatch comes after Swedish diplomat Johan Frisell in 2008, in a previously leaked US cable, dished up painful details on internal EU divisions on the Georgia-Russia war. The revelation raised eyebrows among some senior EU officials because internal EU debates are supposed to be kept secret.

On the plus side, Mr Wendel indicated that EU countries are capable of sticking together in times of crisis.Commenting on whether EU states might withdraw their ambassadors from Iran after it detained a British embassy worker, the cable said: Solidarity among EU members is strong, and if the discussion is emotionally charged, then the ministers might agree to a withdrawal.For his part, Swedish foreign minister Carl Bildt in a dispatch dated December 2009 and published in December 2010 gave a partly upbeat opinion on the newly-minted EU foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton.Mr Bildt said that he knew and liked Ms Ashton. He described her as a street fighter with a disciplined mind for bureaucratic battles. While competent and intelligent, Bildt described her as having no foreign affairs knowledge.

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

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

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

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

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

WORLD MARKET RESULTS
http://money.cnn.com/data/world_markets/
CNBC VIDEOS
http://www.cnbc.com/id/15839263/?tabid=15839796&tabheader=false

HALF HOUR DOW RESULTS TUE JAN 18,2011

09:30 AM +2.25
10:00 AM +21.30
10:30 AM +58.28
11:00 AM +40.52
11:30 AM +63.08
12:00 PM +64.82
12:30 PM +60.13
01:00 PM +62.96
01:30 PM +62.40
02:00 PM +55.93
02:30 PM +61.38
03:00 PM +61.94
03:30 PM +57.55
04:00 PM +50.55 11,837.93

S&P 500 1295.02 +1.78

NASDAQ 2765.35 +10.55

GOLD 1,365.20 +5.00

OIL 91.30 -0.26

TSE 300 13,559.20 +119.10

CDNX 2292.51 +17.06

S&P/TSX/60 777.31 +6.97

MORNING,NEWS,STATS

YEAR TO DATE PERFORMANCE
Dow +13 points at 4 minutes of trading today.
Dow +1 points at low today.
Dow +65 points at high today so far.
GOLD opens at $1,372.20.OIL opens at $90.69 today.

AFTERNOON,NEWS,STATS
Dow +1 points at low today so far.
Dow +65 points at high today so far.

WRAPUP,NEWS,STATS
Dow +1 points at low today.
Dow +65 points at high today.

GOLD ALLTIME HIGH $1,427.40 (NOT AT CLOSE)

MUSLIM NATIONS

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

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

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

DANIEL 11:40-43
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.

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

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

Ahmadinejad, Medvedev agree to boost ties: report
– Mon Jan 17, 2:33 pm ET

TEHRAN (AFP) – Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev have agreed to boost ties between their countries in a telephone conversation, state media reported on Monday.The call came after Russia snubbed Iran's invitation to visit two atomic sites in the Islamic republic that were thrown open to a group of foreign diplomats at the weekend.It was also ahead of key talks between Iran and the world powers in Istanbul on Friday and Saturday.Iran and Russia must always be friends and colleagues, state television quoted Ahmadinejad as telling Medvedev. The Islamic republic of Iran welcomes an increase of ties in all areas between the two countries.Its website said Medvedev echoed the Iranian hardliner's views.Medvedev, according to the report which did not give a date for the call, said the two long-standing allies could boost ties in energy, fuel, transportation and other commercial areas.

Russia is ready for all cooperation with the Islamic Republic of Iran, Medvedev was quoted as saying.On Saturday and Sunday, Iran opened up two atomic installations to a group of foreign envoys, including some representatives of the UN atomic watchdog.
It had invited Russia and China to participate in the visit to its main uranium enrichment facility at Natanz and the heavy water facility in Arak. But both Russia and China, considered close to Iran, turned down the invitation.Russia and China backed a fourth set of UN sanctions against Iran approved in June 2009. The sanctions were imposed to stop Iran's nuclear programme, which the West suspects is masking a weapons drive, a charge Tehran denies.Moscow will take part in this week's talks on the Iranian nuclear programme to be held in Istanbul.Besides Russia, officials from the United States, Britain, France, China and Germany are to sit down with Iranian officials to ascertain whether the programme has peaceful aims as stated by Tehran.Russia has been Iran's nuclear partner for years, but since last year is under pressure from the United States when it comes to the Islamic republic's atomic programme.Moscow helped to build Iran's first civilian nuclear power plant in the southern port city of Bushehr.

Russia's Medvedev backs independent Palestine
By Alexei Anishchuk – Tue Jan 18, 10:08 am ET

JERICHO, West Bank (Reuters) – Russian President Dmitry Medvedev endorsed a Palestinian state on Tuesday, saying Moscow had recognized independence in 1988 and was not changing the position adopted by the former Soviet Union.Making his first visit to the Israeli-occupied West Bank as Russian head of state, Medvedev stopped short of issuing a ringing declaration of recognition of Palestinian statehood by the modern Russian Federation which he represents.Russia's position remains unchanged. Russia made its choice a long time ago ... we supported and will support the inalienable right of the Palestinian people to an independent state with its capital in East Jerusalem, Medvedev said.Israel has been alarmed in the past two months by a string of recognitions by Latin American states including Brazil and Argentina, which some analysts say could be a precursor to a move by the Palestinians to seek full United Nations membership if efforts to revive moribund peace negotiations fall through.Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has confirmed that is one of his options. At a news conference with Medvedev in Jericho he thanked Russia for being one of the first states in the world to recognize the state of Palestine in 1988.Communist Moscow recognized a Palestinian state declared by the late Yasser Arafat, in a move that won broad support in the Soviet bloc and developing world but had little real impact on diplomatic and political realities.The Palestinians today say 109 states out of 192 United Nations member countries recognize their statehood. Israel has warned that a unilateral declaration of statehood would set back the peace process.A senior Israeli intelligence official told a Knesset committee on Tuesday he expected more recognitions by the time of the U.N. General Assembly in September.

UNIQUE ENTRY

Medvedev drove into the Israeli-occupied West Bank in a road convoy from Amman airport in Jordan, crossing over the historic Allenby Bridge in an unusual route for a head of state that was dictated by an Israeli foreign ministry strike, which had forced him to cancel the Israel leg of his trip.Palestinian security men were out in force and curious crowds lined the streets of Jericho to watch the convoy enter the Biblical town north of the Dead Sea, at the lowest point on earth, which has been inhabited for over 10,000 years.Officials said they could not remember when a visitor of that level had used the Allenby crossing, which was shut down to normal traffic for the occasion. The crossing is controlled by Israeli immigration and security.Medvedev drew applause from Palestinians when he noted that this is the first visit of a Russian president to Palestine not united with a visit to another country -- a clear reference to Israel which would normally have been his first stop.

Russia is a partner of the United States, European Union and United Nations in the Quartet of international powers overseeing Middle East peace negotiations.A number of former Soviet bloc east European states that are now in the EU also recognized Palestine in 1988. But the United States and west European governments do not.
Quartet foreign ministers were due to meet next month in Munich to discuss ways to revive the Middle East peace process, which has been a foreign policy priority for U.S. President Barack Obama but has ground to a halt due to a dispute over Israel's West Bank settlements policy.Medvedev said this was the main topic of his talks.We discussed the possible prospectives of resuming the dialogue. In order to do that, we need to express maximum moderation. This in the first place relates to the freezing of settlement activity of Israel on the West Bank and in East Jerusalem, he said.Israel apologized to the Kremlin for having to cancel Medvedev's first trip when foreign ministry diplomats who would normally prepare it stepped up their strike action last month to win better pay and conditions.The last presidential visitor from Moscow was Medvedev's predecessor Vladimir Putin, now the Russian prime minister, in 2005. Medvedev expressed his understanding for the cancellation, saying it would not harm relations with Israel.He was due to meet Jordan's King Abdullah later on Tuesday.(Reporting by Alexei Anishchuk and Tom Perry; Writing by Douglas Hamilton; Editing by Ralph Boulton)

Medvedev Visits PA Tuesday Morning
by Gil Ronen JAN 17,11

Highlighting the severe diplomatic damage caused by the ongoing strike in the Foreign Ministry, Russian president Dmitry Medvedev will visit the Palestinian Authority Tuesday morning after canceling his visit to Israel.Medvedev called off his planned visit to Jerusalem when the Israeli diplomats' strike made it impossible to make preparations for the tour.PA crossings officials said Sunday that the Allenby Bridge over the Jordan River would close Tuesday in both directions between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m., due to the visit.Medvedev is expected to inaugurate the Jericho Museum, built by Russia on lands donated for the project by the Orthodox Church in 2008.PA Bethlehem-based news agency Ma'an crowed Monday that the cancellation of Medvedev's visit to Israel was viewed as a huge embarrassment to Israel's Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, who was born in the former Soviet Union.(Israel National News.com)

Gaza Terrorist Convicted in Rocket Attacks
by Chana Ya'ar JAN 18,11

A Gaza terrorist was convicted Monday in Be'er Sheva District Court on charges relating to Kassam rocket attacks on Jewish communities in southern Israel.Nahad Hamid, a resident of the northern Gaza community of Beit Hanoun, was convicted on multiple counts of attempted murder, attempting to harm the security of the state, aiding and belonging to a terrorist organization and other charges as well.Hamid was involved in launching Kassam rockets and mortar attacks on the Gaza Belt community of Sderot and the Erez Crossing between the region and the rest of Israel.Gaza terrorists fired three mortar shells Sunday night and a short-range Kassam rocket Monday morning at southern Israel. No one was injured and no damage was reported.The attacks belied a prior announcement by the Hamas terrorist rulers of Gaza that it would impose a ceasefire on all terror organizations in the region.(Israel National News.com)

PERSECUSSION,BEHEADINGS

JESUS PERSECUTED BIGTIME

PSALMS 14:1
1 The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good.

ISAIAH 53:4
4 Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.

MATTHEW 9:34
34 But the Pharisees said, He casteth out devils through the prince of the devils.

JOHN 8:41
41 Ye do the deeds of your father. Then said they to him, We be not born of fornication; we have one Father, even God.

JOHN 10:20
20 And many of them said, He hath a devil, and is mad; why hear ye him?

PHILIPPIANS 2:10-11(JESUS GETS REVENGE)
10 That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth;
11 And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.(JUDGEMENT SEAT OF CHRIST AND FOR SINNERS, THE GREAT WHITE THRONE FINAL JUDGEMENT).

WE ARE CHRISTIANS WE WILL BE TREATED THE SAME.

2 TIMOTHY 3:1-5 (WHY WE ARE PERSECUTED BY THE WORLD)
1 This know also, that in the last days perilous (DANGEROUS) times shall come.
2 For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,
3 Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good,
4 Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God;
5 Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.

MATTHEW 5:10-12
10 Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
11 Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake.
12 Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.

MATTHEW 24:9
9 Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name’s sake.

JOHN 15:18-20
18 If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me (JESUS) before it hated you.
19 If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.
20 Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also.

REVELATION 6:9-11
9 And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain(BEHEADED) for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held:
10 And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?
11 And white robes were given unto every one of them; and it was said unto them, that they should rest yet for a little season, until their fellowservants also and their brethren, that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled.

REVELATION 20:4
4 And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.

Pope: Christians Replace Jews as Most Persecuted Minority
by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu JAN 17,11

Jews, known for centuries as the most persecuted minority, have been replaced in this role by Christians, according to Pope Benedict XVI, who hinted that he was referring to the Islamic tidal wave that is sweeping the world.Carefully avoiding singling out Muslims for the mistreatment of Christians, however, the pope recently appealed to European nations as well as the Muslim world to protect what he called the most persecuted religion in the world.Recent attacks on Christians in Egypt, Nigeria and Iran have claimed dozens of casualties. The pope stated, This succession of attacks is yet another sign of the urgent need for the governments of the region to adopt, in spite of difficulties and dangers, effective measures for the protection of religious minorities.Iran has a different explanation for attacks on Christians. Ghazanfar Rokn-Abadi, its ambassador to Lebanon, said his country is a model for religious freedom and that 250,000 Christians are living in Iran peacefully and safely. He blamed the Jews for any physical attacks.Responding to the report on the pope’s statements, U.S. State Department spokesman Philip Crowley declined to directly answer a reporter’s question, Who do you think is doing this?

I’d be very wary at this point about making any sweeping statements about whether what’s happened in Iraq has a bearing on what’s happening in other countries such as Egypt or Nigeria, Crowley said. These are all being investigated.The International Christian Concern was more direct. ICC president Jeff King stated, Anti-Christian hatred arising from Islam has flowed into 2011, as seen in the horrific attacks in Egypt, Pakistan and Iraq already this year, he said.The ICC also noted that mainstream media rarely report the phenomenon of persecuted Christians despite its having becoming more common.The most widespread persecution of Christians has been in the Middle East, where Israel is the only country that grants freedom to Muslims and Christians, as well as Jews, to freely practice their religion. Prior to the Six-Day War in 1967, when Jerusalem was reunited and Judea and Samaria were restored to Israel, Jordan's rulers closed all Jewish and Christian sites, except for high-profile official visits.Christianity had been the dominant influence in Bethlehem until the first and second Arab intifadas, when Muslim rulers and clerics increasingly harassed Christians, forcing most of them to flee. The Palestinian Authority has blamed Israel for the Christian exodus, but research has documented the harrassment by Muslims.

In Egypt, the government did not take kindly to the pope’s call for effective measures to protect Christian minorities in the Middle East. Cairo recalled its ambassador to the Vatican, saying that Egypt will not allow any non-Egyptian party to intervene in our internal affairs under any pretext.Despite witnesses saying that an off-duty Muslim policeman shouted Allahu Akhbar(Allah is great) as he shot and killed a Copt last week, Egypt claimed that the murderer acted because of his personal state and not because of the religion of his victims. The shooter aimed his pistol at women, presumed to be non-Muslims, who were not wearing a head covering.

Nevertheless, Egypt’s ambassador to the Vatican denied there was any persecution of Christians in his country. Persecution is a big word, she said. In order to prove that there is persecution, you have to be very careful. This is a legal term which should not be used casually.Western countries are in a state of denial, asserted Clifford D. May, president of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, a policy institute focusing on terrorism.Writing in the Boston Herald on Saturday, he cited the bombing of Christian churches in Egypt, Iraq, Nigeria and the Philippines and Indonesia, the recent arrests of Christians in Iran, and the death penalty handed down to a Christian woman in Pakistan for insulting Islam.The reality is this: Within the Muslim world today are regimes, movements and individuals convinced that their religion justifies - and benefits from - the most heinous atrocities, May wrote. They are determined, ruthless and lethal - as Christians and other minorities across a broad swath of the world have been finding out.If we in the West fail even to speak up for them, can we really expect moderate Muslims to do more?(Israel National News.com)

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.

Floods wash out Oregon road, stranding residents
By Dan Cook - JAN 18,11

PORTLAND, Oregon (Reuters) – Floods caused by a combination of heavy rains and unseasonal snowmelt destroyed a section of road on the western slope of Mount Hood in Oregon on Monday, stranding some 250 residents.The surging Sandy River washed out the road connecting the remote residents with the main highway over the mountain into Portland, while a bridge over the river's Zig Zag tributary had to be closed due to the rising waters.The Hoodland Fire District reported that the Sandy River wiped out a 300-foot section of Lolo Pass Road, which has been closed to all traffic since late Sunday.Clackamas County spokesperson Tim Heider said the Sandy River's course actually altered as it flowed out of its streambed and over the road.Crews were working on clearing a path through Barlow Trail, a primitive roadway in the Mt. Hood National Forest, to reach the closed section of Lolo Pass Road.We're trying to get everyone out of there, Heider said, but it's hard to know how many people are up in that area. It's pretty remote and there's no phone service of any kind.The Sandy River has a relatively narrow streambed at the point along Lolo Pass Road that, when fed by heavy rains or snow melts, can quickly become a churning course of water.

Six inches of rain fell on Sunday and rising temperatures added an additional two inches of snowmelt to the river.Lolo Pass Road was the original road across Mount Hood prior to the opening of US highway 26 and is little used except by those who live on it.Flooding also took a toll elsewhere in Oregon. Six homes were evacuated in coastal Tillamook County due to flooding. On Monday afternoon, the Red Cross was reporting that most of those who fled their homes had not been cleared to return yet.
In the coastal town of Newport, two homes nearly slid into a huge sinkhole created by the rain.The Newport Fire Department said that eight homes near the sinkhole were evacuated and two were near collapse. Landslides were also reported around Newport.
The city of Portland was forced to switch its water source from the Bull Run Reservoir on Mount Hood's northern slope to a series of wells due to the high turbidity of the reservoir's water in the wake of the rains.(Editing by Dan Whitcomb and Peter Bohan)

Philippines faces more rain as flood deaths mount
JAN 18,11

MANILA (AFP) – Hundreds of thousands of people already reeling from floods across the Philippines have been told to expect further heavy rains until March, authorities said Tuesday, as the disaster death toll rose to 53.There will be more rains in areas which should already be experiencing the dry season, the national weather bureau's spokeswoman Venus Valdemoro told AFP.La Nina, the weather pattern whereby cooler sea surface temperatures in the Pacific Ocean cause high rainfall, was partly responsible for the unseasonal downpours, she said.Heavier than normal rainfall is forecast for most of the country over the next three months, increasing the risk of flooding and landslides, especially in the eastern parts of the country, Valdemoro said.Heavy rains have swamped much of the country since late December, with floods affecting nearly 1.6 million people including more than 93,000 who fled their homes, according to the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council.

More than half a million people have received government aid, it added.The council on Tuesday raised the death toll from the heavy rains to 53, with 16 others listed as missing.Most of the victims drowned or were killed in landslides, it said.

Brazil rescuers find flood victims trapped for days
By Rodriguo Viga Gaier and Sergio Queiroz – Mon Jan 17, 6:11 pm ET

NOVA FRIBURGO, Brazil (Reuters) – Brazilian army helicopters stepped up rescue and supply operations on Monday in areas hit by floods and landslides that have killed at least 665 people, reaching residents who had been cut off from help for five days.

One helicopter team rescued five people in the morning, the Air Force said in a statement, as clearer weather allowed the aircraft to navigate more safely around the craggy terrain north of Rio de Janeiro city.Hundreds of people are believed to still be in areas at risk of fresh mudslides, some of them cut off from help by smashed roads and bridges while others refuse to leave for fear their houses will be raided by looters. The army is operating four helicopters from a makeshift base on the training ground for Brazil's national soccer team in the town of Teresopolis.
It's impossible to calculate how many people are still buried, Vice Governor of Rio de Janeiro Luis Fernando Pezao told Reuters. Our numbers are based on the coroner and the fire department but there are a lot of people still buried.Heavy rains last week sparked one of Brazil's worst natural disasters, sending an avalanche of mud, water and rocks plowing through towns and villages in the scenic region. Poorer residents who lived in precarious housing bore the brunt of the carnage.The death toll has risen steadily as rescuers have dug bodies from the wreckage. Authorities have given no estimates of the number of missing, but Folha de Sao Paulo newspaper said on Monday that 120 people are unaccounted for.Some residents have complained over what they say has been a slow response by authorities in getting basic supplies to isolated communities and helping people dig out dead relatives and friends.A fresh landslide on Sunday near the town of Petropolis killed three people, media reported, highlighting the risks posed by rain forecast for the region in the coming days.In the capital Brasilia, the government sought to fend off criticism over its response by announcing that it would implement a national alert system to warn people in risky areas of approaching natural disasters.

The announcement came after the Estado de Sao Paulo newspaper reported that Brazil had failed to meet a series of recommendations on improving disaster preparedness made by the United Nations in 2005.Citing a letter sent by Brazil's Civil Defense agency to the United Nations last November, it said the government had not yet implemented recommendations such as setting up the alert system and investing sufficiently in infrastructure in risky areas.There is a culture in Brazil of waiting for something to happen and then responding to it, the head of the Civil Defense agency, Humberto Vianna, was quoted as saying.Still, little criticism has so far been directed at Brazil's new president, Dilma Rousseff, despite her single, brief visit to the disaster zone last week and her decision to spend the weekend far from the devastated region.The federal government has earmarked 780 million reais ($463.5 million) in emergency aid for the region. Brazil's Valor Economico newspaper praised Rousseff's response to the disaster in an editorial on Monday, saying she had passed the first test of her presidency by acting rapidly and taking adequate measures.(Writing by Stuart Grudgings; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)

Europe debates overhaul of debt crisis response By GABRIELE STEINHAUSER and PAN PYLAS, AP Business Writers – Mon Jan 17, 5:54 pm ET

BRUSSELS – The finance ministers of the 17 countries that use the euro are pressing ahead with an overhaul of their financial firefighting tools, but said a deal will require more debate over the coming weeks.Following their first meeting of the year in Brussels on Monday, the currency union's top financial policymakers said they discussed all the ingredients of a comprehensive package to deal with the region's crippling debt crisis, which already has forced Greece and Ireland to implement painful budget cuts in exchange for multibillion euro bailouts.All the ingredients of the solutions we have to form are on table, said Jean Claude Juncker, who heads the eurogroup. The discussion was broad and will be narrowed in the next couple of weeks.The centerpiece of any prospective deal will likely be an overhaul of Europe's euro750 billion ($1 trillion) bailout fund, which was set up last spring alongside the euro110 billion bailout of Greece to soothe financial markets anxious over some countries' mounting debt levels. So far, it hasn't really convinced, with Ireland following Greece in the bailout club and mounting fears that the debt crisis could spread to Portugal and Spain.

Both the European Union's executive Commission and the European Central Bank have said that the fund needs more powers and more funds at its disposal to deal with any emergency that may arise. Such new powers could include the right to buy government bonds on the open market to support their prices and keep vulnerable countries' funding costs in check.We shall improve our current existing financial backstops so that the so-called market forces cannot even have the slightest doubt about our capacity to act even in the most stressed scenarios, said the EU's Monetary Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn.Germany, the eurozone's effective paymaster, has so far ruled out any substantial increase of the fund's size. But German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble indicated that his country would be prepared to bolster the eurozone's contribution to the fund so it can actually lend out the full headline amount.Eurozone governments make their euro440 billion contribution to the region's bailout fund by guaranteeing bonds issued by the so-called European Financial Stability Facility. The remaining euro310 billion come from the European Commission and the International Monetary Fund.However, to get a triple-A credit rating for the EFSF's bonds — and make them attractive to investors — governments had to guarantee 120 percent of their value, while bailed out countries have to deposit a certain portion of the loans they receive as a cash buffer.That takes the EFSF's lending capacity down to only about euro250 billion, which most analysts say is insufficient to deal with a bailout of Spain, if it ever arises. Spain's economy makes up about 10 percent of the eurozone economy, more than Greece, Ireland and Portugal combined.

But discussions Monday went beyond boosting the fund's size, with the Commission pressing to give it powers that would allow it to do more than provide emergency loans for countries.Rehn and Juncker declined to elaborate of the details of ministers' discussions, but Juncker said ministers had also debated potentially lowering the interest rates charged in the Irish and Greek bailouts — a move that would make it easier for the two countries to repay their emergency aid even as their economies are shrinking.We were discussing in general terms the question of lowering the interest rates we charge for countries, but we did not discuss this point in sufficient detail to give you the likely outcome, Juncker cautioned.
Giving the bailout fund the power to buy government bonds would reduce the load on the ECB, which has recently stepped up its role in the debt crisis by buying the bonds of the more imperiled European countries. Not all the bank's governing council are convinced that it should be buying bonds at all so they would welcome handing off all, or a large chunk, of that duty.Figures on Monday confirmed speculation that the ECB ramped up its bond buying last week, a clear indication it tried to help Portugal in the run-up to a crucial bond auction. Data from the ECB showed the central bank spent euro2.313 billion ($3.1 billion) buying government bonds in the markets, up sharply from the previous week's euro113 million.That took the total since the bond-buying program began in May to euro76.5 billion. Last week's total was the highest since the week to Dec. 10, when it spent around euro2.7 billion to shore up confidence following the bailout of Ireland.Despite the lack of decisions on the bailout fund, the finance ministers did agree on one thing: In 2012, they will issue a special 2-euro coin to celebrate the 10 years that the euro has been in European wallets.Those who are speculating that the euro will no longer be, are wrong, Juncker said.

ISRAELS INHERITED LAND IN THE FUTURE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytWmPqY8TE0&feature=player_embedded

DEUTERONOMY 7:7-8
7 The LORD did not set his love upon you, nor choose you, because ye were more in number than any people;(ISRAEL) for ye were the fewest of all people:
8 But because the LORD loved you,(ISRAEL) and because he would keep the oath which he had sworn unto your fathers, hath the LORD brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you out of the house of bondmen, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.

ZECHARIAH 2:8
8 For thus saith the LORD of hosts; After the glory hath he sent me unto the nations which spoiled you: for he that toucheth you toucheth the apple of his eye.

JEREMIAH 3:14
14 Turn, O backsliding children, saith the LORD; for I am married unto you:(ISRAEL) and I will take you one of a city, and two of a family, and I will bring you to Zion:

ISAIAH 42:1
1 Behold my servant, whom I uphold; mine elect,(ISRAEL) in whom my soul delighteth; I have put my spirit upon him: he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles.

ISAIAH 45:4
4 For Jacob my servant’s sake, and Israel mine elect, I have even called thee by thy name: I have surnamed thee, though thou hast not known me.

ISAIAH 65:9,22
9 And I will bring forth a seed out of Jacob, and out of Judah an inheritor of my mountains: and mine elect (ISRAEL) shall inherit it, and my servants shall dwell there.
22 They shall not build, and another inhabit; they shall not plant, and another eat: for as the days of a tree are the days of my people, and mine elect (ISRAEL) shall long enjoy the work of their hands.

ISAIAH 56:5
5 Even unto them (ISRAELIS) will I give in mine house and within my walls a place and a name better than of sons and of daughters: I will give them an everlasting name,(ISRAEL) that shall not be cut off.

And here are the bounderies of the land that Israel will inherit either through war or peace or God in the future. God says its Israels land and only Israels land. They will have every inch God promised them of this land in the future.
Egypt east of the Nile River, Saudi Arabia, Israel, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, The southern part of Turkey and the Western Half of Iraq west of the Euphrates. Gen 13:14-15, Psm 105:9,11, Gen 15:18, Exe 23:31, Num 34:1-12, Josh 1:4.ALL THIS LAND ISRAEL WILL DEFINATELY OWN IN THE FUTURE, ITS ISRAELS NOT ISHMAELS LAND.

12 TRIBES INHERIT LAND IN THE FUTURE ALSO.

Palestinians to turn to Security Council this week By KARIN LAUB, Associated Press – Mon Jan 17, 11:49 am ET

RAMALLAH, West Bank – The Palestinians expect to submit their request for a U.N. Security Council condemnation of Israeli settlements this week and will not be deterred by a U.S. appeal to abandon the idea, senior officials said Monday.In recent weeks, the Palestinians have prepared a draft that would have the Security Council declare settlements illegal and demand a halt of their construction. During this time, Palestinian diplomats have tried to win support for the proposed resolution.The appeal to the Security Council is part of a Palestinian strategy to try to isolate and exert pressure on the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.U.S.-sponsored Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, launched in September, quickly broke down over Israel's refusal to extend a 10-month moratorium on housing starts in West Bank settlements and include east Jerusalem, both claimed by the Palestinians. They say they will not resume talks unless construction is halted.Saeb Erekat and Nabil Shaath, two senior aides to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, said Monday that U.S. officials have urged the Palestinians not to seek an anti-settlement resolution from the Security Council.We told them (the Americans) very clearly that (this) is something we are not going to do, Shaath said. We are going to the Security Council.The Obama administration has repeatedly urged Israel to halt settlement construction, but has failed to get Netanyahu to comply.

It remains unclear how the U.S. would vote if a resolution targeting Israel, a close U.S. ally, is brought before the Security Council. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton has been cool to the Palestinian initiative.Netanyahu has brushed off Palestinian attempts to rally international support, saying there is no alternative to direct talks.In the United Arab Emirates, U.N. Chief Ban Ki-moon urged Israel on Monday to freeze settlement activity anywhere in the occupied Palestinian territories, including in east Jerusalem.Also Monday, the head of the U.N.'s World Food Program, Josette Sheeran, toured the Palestinian city of Hebron to inspect the distribution of food through electronic vouchers, a program that agency officials say was first tried out in the West Bank.In the past, needy Palestinians used to pick up their rations at food distribution centers. In 2009, the WFP introduced electronic vouchers, or debit cards, as part of a pilot project, agency officials said.The vouchers work in urban areas where food is available but those relying on aid can't afford to buy it. In Hebron, the West Bank's largest city, the blue debit cards had the words bon appetit written in Arabic on them. Holders can buy staples like lentils, rice, oil and dairy products, at participating stores.

Sheeran visited one shop where 10 beneficiaries were buying supplies.Ribhi Qawasmeh, 62, said he receives 400 shekels ($113) a month. He said the aid covers only a small part of the needs of his family of 12, but he likes it. When I enter the supermarket and show the card, it won't look like I'm living on help, he said.The electronic vouchers have since been introduced elsewhere, including among Iraqi refugees in Syria, the agency said.In the West Bank, more than 32,000 of some 454,000 beneficiaries now pick up their food rations with the electronic vouchers.Despite a modest economic recovery in the West Bank, many Palestinians still live in poverty exacerbated by years of political strife and restrictions imposed by Israel. The U.N. Relief and Works Agency provides basic services for hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees and their descendants, while the WFP helps nearly 770,000 non-refugees in the West Bank and Gaza.Associated Press reporter Nasser Shiyoukhi contributed to this report from Hebron, West Bank. Adam Schreck reported from the United Arab Emirates.

NEW AGE INFILTRATING THE CHURCH

FALSE TEACHERS,PROPHETS,DECIEVERS

MATTHEW 24:4-5,11,24-25
4 And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you.
5 For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many.
11 And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many.
24 For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.
25 Behold, I have told you before.

1 TIMOTHY 4:1-2
1 Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils;
2 Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron;

MARK 13:22-23
22 For false Christs and false prophets shall rise, and shall shew signs and wonders, to seduce, if it were possible, even the elect.
23 But take ye heed: behold, I have foretold you all things.

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

DEUTORONOMY 18:10-12
10 There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch,
11 Or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer.
12 For all that do these things are an abomination unto the LORD: and because of these abominations the LORD thy God doth drive them out from before thee.

JUDE 10-13
10 But these speak evil of those things which they know not: but what they know naturally, as brute beasts, in those things they corrupt themselves.
11 Woe unto them! for they have gone in the way of Cain, and ran greedily after the error of Balaam for reward, and perished in the gainsaying of Core.
12 These are spots in your feasts of charity, when they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear: clouds they are without water, carried about of winds; trees whose fruit withereth, without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots;
13 Raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame; wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever.

MATTHEW 10:32-33
32 Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven.
33 But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven.

JAN & ERIC TALK ABOUT THIS NEW AGE HOGWASH THAT IS INFILTRATING THE CHURCH THESE DAYS.HOURS 1 & 2 JAN 15,2011
http://www.olivetreeviews.org/radio/mp3/

Contemplative Mysticism promoted to Evangelicals...again
Strange Disciplines from Christianity Today

Over the years the editors of Christianity Today haven't tried to veil their increasingly liberal views and now - once again - they are serving up a heaping plate of contemplative mysticism aimed at Church leaders.It is no secret to most observers that Christianity Today has been a harbinger of every idea - whether biblical or not - to come through the Church. Liberals, cultists, Emergents, and true bible believers have had their say in its pages. When favorably citing articles from CT that actually present a biblical viewpoint, I have found myself qualifying the fact that indeed something worth reading is occasionally found in its pages. However rare that may be, the proverbial blind squirrel does indeed find an acorn to munch on from time to time. There's my disclaimer, now on to the issue at hand.For some time I have been receiving newsletters from Building Church Leaders - Leading Outreach, a division of Christianity Today International. Without doing much investigating, I have been suspiciously uncomfortable with much of the advice found in these communiques. This week those troubling inklings were more than confirmed.

The Building Church Leaders newsletters are produced by Drew Dyck, the managing editor of BuildingChurchLeaders.com. Dyck manages the Leader Training Team at Christianity Today International and oversees four online publications geared for ministry leaders.In the recent Building Church Leaders newsletter, Drew Dyck has endorsed what he once referred to as strange practices. He wrote, When I first started to hear about spiritual disciplines, they made me nervous.Lectio Divina sounded strange, even a little New Age. Walking the labyrinth seemed like something people in a cult might do.Don't laugh! Coming from a low-church, evangelical background, this was all new stuff to me. Fortunately, in recent years, I've come to deeply appreciate these ancient Christian practices and recognize their powerful potential for enriching my walk with God. Learning a couple key Latin phrases helped ease my fears as well.Drew should have stuck to those original feelings. It may have actually been the Holy Spirit softly warning him of the spiritual mine-field that lay ahead.At first glance, many of the things mentioned in the offer from Christianity Today sounds fine and I'm sure some of it may be. However, the more one investigates, the more mysticism one finds being advocated as normal Christianity.

Packaged at a special combo price of $44.95, here are just a few of the resources Mr. Dyck is advocating to help Build Church Leaders.

An Introduction to Solitude
Practical wisdom on giving God our undivided attention
by Henri Nouwen

Keeping Your Clock Ticking
A primer on the benefits and practices of solitude
by John Ortberg

Silence and Solitude for Beginners
Here's how to break through common barriers to these necessary disciplines.
by Ruth Haley Barton

What Is Contemplative Prayer?
Understanding the practice and purpose of an ancient method of prayer.
Adele Calhoun

What Is Lectio Divina?
Understanding the practice, purpose, and art of spiritual reading.
Adele Calhoun

Accepting the Embrace of God
Experience a deep and transforming connection with God through Lectio Divina.
Fr. Luke Dysinger

A Parable of Devout Indifference
Here's why your current approach to studying the Bible doesn't seem to be working.
Eugene Peterson

Lectio Divina and Contemplative Prayer in Small Groups
A practical discussion on two countercultural methods of spiritual growth.
Adele Calhoun

Listening for God
How an ancient method of prayer can deepen your teenager's faith.
Tony Jones

Two Approaches to Group Lectio Divina
Practical methods of incorporating lectio divina into your small group experience.
Fr. Luke Dysinger

Answering the Objections
Teaching your people about spiritual disciplines often starts with dispelling myths.
Paul Anderson

(Note: This last one may well instruct congregations not to listen to people like Yours Truly!)

Richard Foster - One of the best know contemplative advocates. Foster, a so-called Christian Mystic, has helped usher in what can only be called a Christianized form of Eastern mysticism.He claims that the reason people are turning to Zen and TM is because they lack the direction of what he calls spiritual directors. NOTE: They’re called Gurus in Eastern thought and Shamans elsewhere! This is all part of the deception by re-identification that has become so prevalent in Emergent thought. It is all about changing the name to change the perception… a retooling of one’s aversion for mysticism.Now, after 30+ years of what is nothing short of New Age tinkering, deceived Christians call them spiritual directors. Foster explains this in his now 1978 book Celebration of Discipline, In the Middle Ages not even the greatest saints attempted the depths of the inward journey without the help of a spiritual director (p. 159). The problem, according to Foster, is that the churches (in 1978) lacked living masters.

Where does the Bible tell us that the path to God takes us on an inward spiritual journey? IT DOES NOT. In fact, this is the road to demonic mystical experiences instead.

Foster is only one of many who are advocating this.Again in the pages of Christianity Today we read these words from Rob Bell of Mars Hill Church in Grandville, MI This is not just the same old message with new methods. We’re rediscovering Christianity as an Eastern religion, as a way of life.
- Christianity Today, November, 2004, pp. 36-41
(http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2004/november/12.36.html?start=2)

Ruth Haley Barton- Co-Founder and President of The Transforming Center (Wheaton, IL). She was trained through the Shalem Institute for Spiritual Formation (Bethesda, Maryland). Educated at Wheaton College (Wheaton, Illinois) and has been on the pastoral staff of Willow Creek Community Church. She is also on the Christianity Today/Building Church Leaders Advisory Board.Tilden Edwards, founder of the Shalem Institute that trained Barton states: mystical stream is the Western bridge to Far Eastern spirituality (and to that of Sufi Moslems and some Hassidic Jews in the West as well). The Zen warning not to confuse the pointing finger…for the moon to which it points is a saying that a Christian mystic easily understands. It is no accident that the most active frontier between Christian and Eastern religions today is between contemplative Christian monks and their Eastern equivalents. Some forms of Eastern meditation informally have been incorporated or adapted into the practice of many Christian monks, and increasingly by other Christians.(Spiritual Friend by Tilden Edwards; page 18)

Henri Nouwen - popularized in writings of Rick Warren, who quoted him in The Purpose-Driven Life and Francis Chan in Crazy Love.Nouwen is one of the most popular contemplative New Age mystic and is a blatant a Buddhist sympathizer who sees a bridge to Eastern mysticism through silence. Moreover, Nouwen was a blatant universalist.In his last book, Sabbatical Journey, Nouwen wrote:Today I personally believe that while Jesus came to open the door to God's house, all human beings can walk through that door, whether they know about Jesus or not. Today I see it as my call to help every person claim his or her own way to God. (Sabbatical Journey, page 51, 1998 Hardcover Edition)On page 22 of the book Here and Now Nouwen wrote: The God who dwells in our inner sanctuary is the same as the one who dwells in the inner sanctuary of each human being.From Bread for the Journey inspirational newsletter Nouwen states: Prayer is soul work because our souls are those sacred centers where all is one, ... It is in the heart of God that we can come to the full realization of the unity of all that is.As recently as September 14, 2010 Rick Warren tweeted on Twitter a Nouwen quote: Hiddenness is the place of purification. In hiddenness we find our true selves.

Tony Jones - Quotes The emerging church is a place of conversation and dialogue and movement. Where that’s going to go, we don’t know. We're figuring this out together. We don’t have an agenda of what it looks like at the end of the road. We just want to gather up people who are on this road, who want to go together on it.
- Tony Jones, PBS Special, July 15, 2005

Emergent doesn’t have a position on absolute truth, or on anything for that matter.”
– Emergent Leader Tony Jones
- At the 2005 National Youth Workers Convention

Tony Jones calls the doctrine of original sin a depraved idea. He says,I have come to reject the notion of Original Sin. I consider it neither biblically, philosophically, nor scientifically tenable.
- From his New Christians blog for January 26, 2009

Tony Jones writes,now believe that GLBTQ (those who are gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender & queer) can live lives in accord with biblical Christianity (at least as much as any of us can!) and that their monogamy can and should be sanctioned and blessed by church and state.
(http://blog.beliefnet.com/tonyjones/2008/11/same-sex-marriage-blogalogue-h.html)

Lynne M. Baab - Another Building Church Leaders Advisory Board member. A Presbyterian minister from Seattle.She is author of eight books including A Renewed Spirituality - Celtic Christian spirituality, Nature, Benedictine Spirituality, Contemplative Prayer

Adele Calhoun - is author of Spiritual Disciplines Handbook: Practices That Transform Us. The advertising says the book will lead us to Fasting, Solitude Contemplative prayer and Lectio Divina. She recommends Dallas Willard, Richard Foster; and contemplative Emergent teacher, Phyllis Tickle. Again, notice the networking factor as these folks redirect readers and followers to other mystics.
Two of her contributions to the Building Church Leaders Spiritual Disciplines Essentials Combo Pack of materials are:

What Is Contemplative Prayer? Understanding the practice and purpose of an ancient method of prayer.

What Is Lectio Divina? Understanding the practice, purpose, and art of spiritual reading.

John Ortberg - Menlo Park (CA) Presbyterian.

In Ortberg's 2005 book, God is Closer Than You Think, Ortberg quotes favorably from contemplatives such as Anne Lamott, Annie Dillard, Gary Thomas (Sacred Pathways), Brother Lawrence (who danced violently like a mad man when he practiced), interspiritualists Tilden Edwards (Shalem Institute), Thomas Kelly (Divine Center in all), Jean Pierre de Caussade, Frederick Buechner, Meister Eckhart as well as Dallas Willard and Thomas Merton.

NOTE: German, Meister Eckhart was an alleged Christian monk / occult mystic (perhaps the earliest Contemplative Emergent!?) who lived in the 24th century A.D. He is also the inspiration and assumed name-sake for modern New Age author, Eckhart Tolle. Tolle changed his name from Ulrich Tolle to Eckhart Tolle because of the immense spiritual connection he felt for the ancient mystic. Tolle became world famous in 2008 through being featured by Oprah Winfrey when she spotlighted his book A New Earth on her television program. Winfrey’s adoration for Tolle’s spirituality inspired her to host and participate in a 10 week series of webcasts on her Internet site in which Oprah herself entered altered states of consciousness utilizing Tolle’s instruction and techniques. These New Age and occult practices were nearly identical to those endorsed by Richard Foster, Dallas Willard, Ortberg and the other contemplative emergent practitioners. (See video clips of Oprah and Tolle in the video New Age Truth or…Old Age Deception?)

OTHER LINKS TO THIS STORY
http://www.buildingchurchleaders.com/home/offer.html?offer=spiritualdiscessentcombo
http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2004/november/12.36.html?start=2
http://blog.beliefnet.com/tonyjones/2008/11/same-sex-marriage-blogalogue-h.html
http://www.ericbarger.com/tasstore/info.pgs/natruth.info.htm
http://www.ericbarger.com/
http://www.youtube.com/user/ebart32#p/u
http://www.ericbarger.com/infomenus/nam.htm
http://www.ericbarger.com/emailers/2008/update6-27-2008.htm
http://www.ericbarger.com/infomenus/cults.htm
http://www.ericbarger.com/infomenus/occult.htm
http://www.understandthetimes.org/ec/exposingec.shtml

RACE TOWARD JUDGEMENT The New Age Movement
by Ed Decker

So much has been said and written lately about the New Age Movement that you almost need a directory to sort out all the material. I recently read in one of the national magazines that books and articles dealing with the New Age accounted for approximately half of all Christian bookstore sales this last year. I don't know how accurate that is but the New Age seems to be around every corner lately. Last year, my wife Carol and I spent a little summer vacation time in Sun Valley, Idaho, a ski resort tucked away in the Sawtooth Mountains. Even though we expected to have a quiet, relaxing time during off-season, the place was crowded beyond capacity with a New Age Conference, complete with Shirley McLaine, Gurus, Channelers and mystics of every size and shape. The attendees paid hundreds of dollars to sit in on this convergence of pyramid power, crystals and New Age clairvoyants. So much for our quiet time away from the pressures and stress of ministry.A few years ago, Carol and I celebrated our anniversary by taking a quiet weekend trip to one of the nearby islands of the San Juans and looked forward to the solitude at Rosario Lodge on Orcas Island. We just squeezed in at the heavily booked resort and as though they were right on schedule, a New Age Conference filled up the rest of the entire resort. It is as though the Lord has wanted to be certain I took a long hard look at this phenomenon. While they pranced around with their shirts crying out for us to "Visualize World Peace", I put on a similar shirt that said, Visualize Hell! It was another fun weekend of rest and relaxation for the Deckers.

I want to talk to you about the New Age movement. I'll leave much of the detail of it to those who are the real experts, but I want to first identify the movement and then show you how we Got there and where this fascination for the mysteries is leading our nation and the world. What is the New Age? That's the first question everyone asks. An actual general definition that can be placed an a table to look is difficult to pull together from the scores of books and articles on the subject. However, one book that cut through the maze for me has been the Huntington House book, INSIDE THE NEW AGE NIGHTMARE, By the late Randall Baer.In it, Randy identified the two major schools of New Age thought. He defined the first viewpoint of New Age thought as Consciousness Renaissance, a transformation in which mankind is stepping beyond its self-imposed limits to merge with the unlimited powers of a utopian universe. Baer stated, Consciousness Renaissance sees humankind currently experiencing the beginning of a new spiritual and socio-political awakening, a modern-day super-Renaissance destined to lead man into a new era of enlightened spiritual humanism. Spurning the thought of man needing divine intervention to assist in the creation of a global utopia, this perspective sees the awakening of unlimited human god-potential as the means by which heaven on earth will manifest. In essence, as man achieves higher states of god-consciousness through New Age practices, heaven will dawn on earth only through the dawning of man's enlightened higher consciousness.(pages 89-90)

This philosophy works from the perspective that man's true mind has been veiled by his own ignorance and limits; that man is divine and perfect, the world is divine and perfect and the whole cosmos is divine and perfect and we are all part of the same divinity. All we need to do in order to claim our godhood, both as individuals and as an entire world, is to step into the reality of our perfection and divinity.
The second major branch of New Age thought can be termed the Quantum Leap of Consciousness. Baer quotes one New Age source as saying, We are on the brink of a new age, a whole new world. In the twinkling of an eye, mankind's awareness, our collective consciousness, is going to make an instantaneous quantum leap into the heavens. Everything will change in a flash of divine light. Get ready. Your heavenly heritage awaits.(page 90)Baer reported that when sufficient momentum is generated by enough people having developed higher consciousness, then the entire world will be ready to take that quantum leap into a higher dimension. In contrast to the Consciousness Renaissance, this model is directly tied to some form of outside, divine intervention. (page 90) He stated that there are varied concepts as to what form this divine intervention will take. His examples include Highly evolved extra-terrestials, a Council of Ascended Masters, an Enlightened World Teacher or some other all-powerful divine being(s). Earth and humanity are to be pulled up to the next major notch on the evolutionary ladder, thereafter to be governed benevolently by the [pick one] intervening celestial force(s). (page 90)

Baer continued on in that vein for another page, but really hit the new age nail on the head when he summarized his comparisons of the two groups, Although there is much overlapping between these two major philosophies, the Quantum Leap of Consciousness viewpoint is much more predisposed to the metaphysical-occult end of the spectrum. In particular, the predominant themes lie much more towards mediumship, spiritism, witchcraft, psychic powers, and sorceries in myriad shapes and forms. One of the primary dangers from this branch of the New Age is its major contribution to the historically unprecedented unleashing of demonic forces into the world today.(page 91) As those around us who are drawn into the mysterious aura of these movements, we see people who are living in a world somewhere between extreme serenity and joyous euphoria. With bumper stickers and T shirts calling for us to Visualize World Peace, they somehow appear to be playing out the yuppy rendition of the peace movements of a generation ago.When President Bush ushered in his Presidency by calling for A Thousand Points of Light a great New Age wave began to come sweeping across our nation. The Clinton presidency fed on those beginnings and today, the New Age movement is firmly in place.Now we are witnessing what world leaders are calling The Dawn of A New Age, A New World Order. Ever since WWII this nation (and the rest of the world) has been exploding into this New Age of Man with a speed that has the entire Planet reeling with each morning news.

If you are wondering, WHAT HAS HAPPENED TO OUR WORLD? Let's look back a little bit. The Mills Brothers generation was shocked at Elvis. Then the Beetles backed out of the scene to Acid Rock and the Madonna generation. Now we have the likes of 2 LIVE CREW and their filth by court decree. In the Art World, filth we used to burn is now being created at taxpayer expense...... In today's America, No emotional, sexual, neurotic behavior of any kind can be restrained except decency and Religious Freedom. If you think this is an accidental situation, you are sadly mistaken. Things will get worse, not better.We have gone from throwing away dishes to throwing away diapers to throwing away families. Today you can go to jail for breaking an eagle's egg yet have the government pay you to kill your own child in the womb. People are given large grants and media support to tie themselves to ships to Save the Whales and Dolphins, yet people who try to Save the Babies are victims of police brutality and severe legal action.We have gone from a country where the priority was the protection of the rights of its citizens to a Nation that now protects the rights of every deviant in society even when those rights take away the rights of the very citizens it is supposed to protect.

50 years ago, we were the most powerful nation on earth. Today, we are like a giant stumbling and groping about in a state of drunkenness, eaten alive by disease, drugs and poison in the bloodstream of our national life, clawing at ourselves as we attempt to gain control of ourselves. We are like that demonized man in chains that Jesus met who tore at himself.Remember the book that took America by storm? I'm OK, Youíre OK! It made millions of people who read it very happy. The word was out, We are all OK, even when we are NOT! It was an answer to prayer - well - the prayers of people who didn't want to bring their sin and guilt before the LORD. Here was someone who bailed them out without a confessional. The country breathed a great sigh of relief.Then, in 1970, I ran out with everyone else and got my copy of Alvin Toffler's new book, FUTURE SHOCK. and saw in it an emerging pattern.

I just read back through it again after 20 years.Toffler showed that we were being bombarded with all the elements of massive future shock. Something was radically happening to our society. Toffler said that the pace of change was picking up at such a rate, the curve was going off the chart. I agreed with him then and even more so today.My first house cost less money than my last car. My last computer cost less money than my first new car and my first used car cost less money than the check for the last meal our family had out. Things are happening so fats it is almost impossible to adapt to them. We've passed the limits of Adaptability.Toffler talked about a soldier in battle(pp306) being bombarded from every side with bullets, screams, groans, explosions, shells bursting, rapid machine gun fire, flares lighting up the sky, etc. He said that sometimes in such an over stimulating environment, a soldier is pushed beyond his limits or beyond the upper reaches of his adaptive range. Army Doctors called it, long range penetration strain. Too long - too far and too intense.And this problem has permeated every sector of our society. Its symptoms are Mental deterioration, fatigue, emotional exhaustion. Its victims become dull and listless, irrational, confused, mindlessness, dazed, and bewildered.

We are a nation of confused people running in the wrong direction.To the many people without an anchor, life has become a surrealistic nightmare. They collectively end up with a subjective feeling of loss and a sense of isolation and loneliness, from this massive bombardment of the senses. In truth, it has a probable purpose and an end goal orchestrated by the master of deceit himself. The answer, he wants us to believe, is in the teachings of the New Age, which in reality is still the Old Age lie.The tricks of the New Age trade are hardly new. The cults have been doing the same things since even before Christ for years and the brain washing techniques of the Korean war gave ample evidence that it either worked or destroyed its victims. It is the same thing in some factories where abusive noise levels create everything from chronic sickness to dysfunctional families. Hard Rock music is not only destroying the hearing of a generation, it has bred rebellion and anger.The New Age masters have realized that they can easily take advantage of the present chaotic state of mankind and offer our disturbed world a tasty kind of peace that soothes the jangled nerves of society, without society having to deal with its creator.

Toffler gave the example (pp314) of the housewife confronted with squalling children, jangling phones, broken washing machines, the screech of heavy metal music from the basement hideout of her sullen teenager and the blare of the TV from the family room. He said that this lady is probably at full overload and can no longer process data rationally. She has reached the point of decision stress overload. She is most likely incapable of rational decisions.She is probably not alone. We all fall into that state from time to time. Should I take the new job? Should you buy the new house? Should he have an affair with the secretary? Will insurance cover all the costs of the operation? Will she have to borrow more money? Can the car last another winter or should I buy a new one? Every change requires new decisions, the more complex life gets the more chance for error and the more likely we fall victim to Future Shock.Some people block out unwelcome reality and let in welcome unreality, now matter how fleeting, how destructive, how costly. Here comes the entry point for drugs, booze and even the soaps and the Guru's of the New Age. It is here where the Solid Rock of Calvary has always offered the firm foundation of faith to withstand all the fiery barbs of the onslaught. It holds the answers to all the puzzles and pressures of life and brings an everlasting peace within to every one who will let go of self and hold on to Christ.But there is another kind of belief system that often goes into gear in these tense conditions. It's a rampant intellectual faddism that moves faster than even the rate of these future shock explosions, because it is being propelled by the enemy of God.These lost and confused people who refuse to reach out to Calvary try to pull from within themselves and failing there, seek help from any source other than God. Here they trade a host of painful, unsolvable problems for a temporary fix as lasting as the last New Age miracle cure.

That's whatís happening to our world and the only ones surviving it are the ones who have anchored to the Rock. All the rest are victims caught up in the turbulent crashing waves of New Age Future Shock. It offers them the chance to Vacate the premises, to empty out all the problems of life and let their New Age guide assist them in refilling their being so that they, too, can experience that joyous Light within The Light and replace the reality of sin and rebellion from God with a new easy loving god from the New World Order.But God knew this was to come, this falling away before the final judgement and told us in His Word that the world would be racing toward it with ever quickening speed. Satan knew it was coming, too. You see, it's not going to get any better. The curves on the graph aren't going to turn downward. We are heading for that final day.The New Agers can gaze through Crystals all they want. Mellow out, dude, isn't going to happen. Chanting and meditating won't stop the clock and a thousand Ramthas don't have the answer. The only way anyone will ever be one with the mighty, creative God of this Universe is through His Only Begotten Son, Jesus Christ.That's where we came in. The New Age marketeers want us to see the peace and serenity of their movement as an escape from the pressures on a volatile world, when in reality it is the very vehicle in which the world is spiraling downward in its final Race Toward Judgement. This should come as no surprise to those Christians who have a Biblical perspective to their understanding of human events. The Scriptures remind us that, The time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers having itching ears, and they shall turn away their ears from the truth and shall be turned to fables.(II Tim 4:2)

Billy Graham spoke to a large conference on evangelism in Amsterdam several years ago. In that message, he said something that has stayed with me ever since. He said that there is this large empty hole inside the heart of every man and woman in the world that can only be filled with the Holy Spirit of God. God designed us with that hole filled with His presence in the Garden, but when we separated ourselves from him, our spiritual systems became defective.The only thing that will ever fill that emptiness is God Himself and until man steps back into fellowship with God through Christ, that emptiness will just continue to ache away. So many people have tried to fill that emptiness with everything except the Lord and it holds especially true for those people lost in the lies of the new age.Visit Ed Decker and Saints Alive Ministries at www.saintsalive.com

ISAIAH 5:20-22
20 Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!
21 Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight!
22 Woe unto them that are mighty to drink wine, and men of strength to mingle strong drink:

1 CORINTHIANS 6:9-10
9 Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind,
10 Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.

GALATIONS 5:19-21
19 Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness,
20 Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies,
21 Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.

DECIEVERS WAXING WORSE AND WORSE.

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

Sing of salvation...sip some suds
Patrick Condon - Associated Press - 1/7/2011 11:40:00 AM

TWO HARBORS, MN -- It was a Sunday during Advent, and inside a small pub a few blocks up from the north shore of Lake Superior, 17 people gathered around four bar-top tables shoved into a ring.Betsy Nelson, the bar's cook, lit two candles with a cigarette lighter as Addison Houle strapped on an acoustic guitar and sang a slightly off-key rendition of We Three Kings. Curt Fish Anderson sipped a beer as TVs overhead flickered with NFL pregame shows.Father, thank you for this time we can share on Sunday morning with new friends, prayed Chris Fletcher, an emergency medical technician, part-time bartender and seminary student who has led this service every Sunday morning at Dunnigan's Pub & Grub since last summer. We're getting to know you, and getting to know each other better.

Spending Sunday mornings in a bar sounds like an activity for those running from God. For this small group in a watering hole in Twin Harbors, about 160 miles northeast of Minneapolis, it's about chasing God. It's one unconventional place of worship around the country fostered by an evangelical movement known as the emerging church.I feel closer to God here than I do at a conventional church, said Nelson, 56, a lifelong churchgoer who until recently could be found every Sunday morning in the pews at First Baptist Church nearby. Jesus said we're supposed to be a light to the world. What better place to do that than at a bar? After the opening prayer, Fletcher read a brief passage from the Bible before opening the floor to a group discussion. Gene Shank, a 68-year-old retired police officer making his first visit after reading a notice Fletcher put in the local newspaper, confessed to a bit of discomfort.I'm a reality person, and I'm finding a little too much established religion here to be honest, Shank said. I believe, I pray - but I don't like structured religion.Fletcher responded that, while he wants to be as informal as possible, the main goal is still creating an open space for Jesus to come into our lives, then he does the transforming work.He quickly adds that anyone who questions the way he's running the service has come to the right place.We're all messed up, he said. We're all screwed up some way.Fletcher, a stocky, balding 43-year-old with a bristly goatee, is his own first example. The native of Sudbury, Ontario, grew up in the Worldwide Church of God, a small evangelical sect he described as almost cult-like.He left religion behind as a young man, but was drawn back as he was hitting 40 and experiencing a series of personal crises: the death of a close friend in an auto accident and the dissolution of his marriage.

Last spring, Fletcher was accepted in Bethel Seminary in St. Paul; he now commutes 150 miles south one to two times a week for classes. Initially he intended to incorporate work as a chaplain into his job working with an ambulance crew, but as he began his seminary studies he found common ground with a recent wave of evangelical thinkers including Brian McLaren and Shane Claiborne.McLaren and Claiborne have criticized some of Christianity's more conservative traditions as they try to attract people disinterested in traditional Sunday attendance - in particular, younger people.I don't feel welcome in a regular church, said Kayla Edwards, 25, who has been to most of Fletcher's Sunday gatherings. A lot of churches, I feel judged. Here, I feel welcome - it's laid back, you can say what you want and no one will be disgusted.One Saturday night a few months ago, Fletcher was having a drink at Dunnigan's when a stranger approached and asked to talk. She shared some personal problems and as Fletcher lent a sympathetic ear, and an idea was born. Six months later, Sunday attendance at what Fletcher calls Bar Church (For those who are thirsty reads a poster on the wall in Dunnigan's) has grown to as many as 25 people.Lately, Fletcher said, strangers have regularly been approaching him around town in search of guidance, or just someone who will listen. They'll say, you're that bar pastor,Fletcher said.Fletcher wasn't the first student of the emerging church to hold a weekly service in a tavern, nightclub or other such establishment. Such gatherings have popped up around the country in recent years, as well as home churches that serve much the same purpose. While it might seem perverse, Fletcher said he likes the message it sends to worship Jesus in a place where alcohol is served.

I often find the people in the bar are a lot more authentic than people in the church, Fletcher said. If Jesus was in Two Harbors, he'd want to be with the people in the bar. He'd probably get kicked out of the church.The Rev. Scott Nelson, pastor at First Baptist Church Two Harbors - which Fletcher himself attended before his new venture - is happy to see Fletcher reach people unlikely to set foot in a traditional church. But he's concerned by the linking of Christian worship and alcohol.For me personally, I have seen so many marriages and families fractured by alcohol, Nelson said. In moderation, there's nothing wrong with wine with dinner or a beer at a football game. But it's such a problem for so many, and that's a line I don't know if I want to see blurred.Fletcher himself is no teetotaler, but he doesn't drink during the Sunday morning service. Most of the participants usually choose coffee, but alcohol isn't forbidden: at this particular gathering, Anderson - a local resort employee and a musician - downed a couple brews as Fletcher preached.

It's kind of nice to go to church and have a couple,said Anderson, attending for the first time. I'm not exactly a churchgoer. Anderson, who grew up Roman Catholic, said he realized the church wasn't for him the day he wore a Ted Nugent T-shirt to Mass and was reprimanded by the priest.This ain't bad compared to that, Anderson said.Fletcher isn't sure how long he'll continue the Sunday gatherings.There's no five-year plan, there's not even a five-minute plan, he said.As the service on this Sunday wrapped up, he solicited prayers from the group - for sick relatives, suffering friends, and from Anderson, a prayer for the Minnesota Vikings. Then Fletcher wrapped it up.Let's pray,he said. Then we can eat.

CHINA - END OF THE DOLLAR NEAR

http://www.prisonplanet.com/bombshell-government-admits-fluoride-hurting-children.html (VIDEO)
Bombshell: How Fluoride Is Killing You and Your Children
Aaron Dykes & Alex Jones Prison Planet.com Saturday, January 15, 2011

A significant milestone in the fight against fluoride emerged quietly and without major notice from the mainstream news last week. After decades of ignoring the research about the dangers and hailing water fluoridation as one of the 10 greatest health achievements of the 20th Century (CDC), the government is calling for a reduction in the amount of fluoride it adds to public water supplies, citing its negative effect on teeth (dental fluorosis). For the first time since 1962, the standard for fluoride will be lowered from 1.2 to 0.7 milligrams per liter.Because fluoride from water builds up over time in the human body, this reduction will not eliminate the dangers of fluoride– which include risk of bone cancer, bone fractures, thyroid disorder, brain inflammation, lowered IQ and mental functions, sterility or reduced fertility and more. However, it is a good sign that the powers-that-be are losing ground on the fluoride debate. Further, the reduction of fluoridation is proof that the warnings from activists, critics and health professionals have been heard after all.

As Alex Jones points out in the video, many of those health professionals who have been blowing the whistle on fluoridation for decades are employees or union contractors of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and other governmental regulation agencies. Their objections, based on alarming scientific studies such as the one linking fluoridation with a seven-fold increase in bone cancer for boys, have heretofore been almost wholly ignored, until now. One reason for this government admission, by the way, likely has to do with limiting liability for those harmful effects, or even establishing immunity for districts who adhere to lowering the fluoride standard against future claims to harm.At the same time, hundreds of other chemicals including many toxic ingredients like lead, arsenic, radium and uranium are also found in public drinking water. Many of these dangerous toxins are put into the water as part of the fluoride-cocktail administered in the many municipalities across the United States and other Western countries, or are leached into the supply via the acidic levels of fluoride. The compound is often not simply sodium fluoride, but a mix of toxic waste byproduct [see chart for hydrofluosilicic acid] created in the process of scrubbing phosphate fertilizer plants and in other high industry applications, such as aluminum.Furthermore, while fluoride is scheduled for reduction in public water supplies, it is still very common and often dangerously concentrated in many food products at levels of many more parts per million than water and in pesticides used for food production, and in the soils where those pesticides are used.

Though these other fluoride dangers are significant enough that we need to continue educating and informing our fellow friends, neighbors and families, those who have long spoken out about this issue can cherish one victory on the road to taking back our nation, our lives and our health. Now, with this important government admission, we must push for complete removal of added fluoride from public water in our areas.
Further, as advisors to government bodies around the world attempt to argue for forced mass-medication by adding substances like lithium to public water, we must argue against forced consent and demand one of our most integral human rights– that no government of man can make a law to force medicate us against our will. We have a human right to say no, especially when we know better.

Iran joins Venezuela, Libya to say no harm in $100 oil
By Ramin Mostafavi – Sun Jan 16, 8:36 am ET

TEHRAN (Reuters) – OPEC's leading oil price hawk Iran joined Venezuela and Libya on Sunday to say it saw no need for the cartel to consider raising crude supplies to rein in crude prices now near $100 a barrel.Iranian Oil Minister Massoud Mirkazemi said some members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries saw no need for producers to act even if prices went to $120 a barrel. The comments will be of concern for consumer countries worried that rising commodity costs are igniting inflation and jeopardizing economic recovery.None of the OPEC members find $100 concerning or irrational. Some of the OPEC members see no need for an emergency meeting even with prices at $110 or $120, Mirkazemi, OPEC president for 2011, told a news conference.None of the members have asked for an emergency meeting and I think for a long time there would be no such request, Mirkazemi said.As holder of the rotating OPEC presidency, Iran has responsibility for coordinating any emergency meeting with OPEC's Vienna based secretariat. The next scheduled meeting is not until June 2.Venezuelan Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez said on Sunday that $100 was fair value for crude, a position that Libya also backs.Benchmark Brent crude broke $99 a barrel on Friday, a 27-month high, while U.S. oil futures rose to $91.54, well above the $70-$80 range that OPEC's most influential member Saudi Arabia says is comfortable for both producers and consumers.

WILL SAUDI ACT TO CONTAIN PRICES?

The comments from Iran, Venezuela and Libya will leave consumer countries wondering whether more moderate producer Saudi Arabia and its Gulf allies Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates are prepared to take action to prevent prices escalating further.One delegate from a Gulf OPEC member state told Reuters on Thursday OPEC could hold an emergency meeting if oil prices exceed $100 and stay there.Influential Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi said in December that Riyadh was still committed to a $70-$80, a price high enough for producers to invest in new capacity but low enough to encourage world economic recovery.Many in OPEC routinely blame speculators for rising prices but most analysts and industry figures say prices are increasing now because of a recovery in world fuel demand.The market is bullish because there is increasing demand in emerging markets, Christophe De Margerie, the chief executive of French oil major Total said at an industry event in Abu Dhabi on Sunday.

The world economy is just recovering. It would have been better for the prices not to go too high too quickly.Oil hit a record $147 a barrel in 2008 and while analysts do not expect a repeat of that any time soon there are fears that if OPEC does not signal its intention to add supplies, prices could rise significantly above $100.We believe OPEC has an historic opportunity in 2011 to either show its might by keeping oil prices steady or instead to allow further price increases that could put the global economic recovery at risk, said Sabine Schels, commodity strategist at Merrill Lynch Bank of America in London.We are more inclined to believe that Saudi Arabia will act responsibly and encourage OPEC members to increase output early this year.

Hu Highlights Need for U.S.-China Cooperation, Questions Dollar By ANDREW BROWNE JAN 16,11

BEIJING—Chinese President Hu Jintao emphasized the need for cooperation with the U.S. in areas from new energy to space ahead of his visit to Washington this week, but he called the present U.S. dollar-dominated currency system a product of the past and highlighted moves to turn the yuan into a global currency.Associated Press

Chinese President Hu Jintao delivers a speech at a plenary session of the Communist Party of China Central Commission for Discipline Inspection in Beijing on Jan. 10. Mr. Hu's state visit to Washington begins Wednesday.We both stand to gain from a sound China-U.S. relationship, and lose from confrontation, Mr. Hu said in written answers to questions from The Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post.Mr. Hu acknowledged some differences and sensitive issues between us, but his tone was generally compromising, and he avoided specific mention of some of the controversial issues that have dogged relations with the U.S. over the past year or so—including U.S. arms sales to Taiwan that led to a freeze in military relations between the world's sole superpower and its rising Asian rival.On the economic front, Mr. Hu played down one of the main U.S. arguments for why China should appreciate its currency—that it will help China tame inflation. That is likely to disappoint Washington, which accuses China of unfairly boosting its exports by undervaluing the yuan, making its products cheaper overseas. The topic is expected to be high on U.S. President Barack Obama's agenda when he meets Mr. Hu at the White House on Wednesday.

Mr. Hu also offered a veiled criticism of efforts by the U.S. Federal Reserve to stimulate growth through huge bond purchases to keep down long-term interest rates, a strategy that China has loudly complained about in the past as fueling inflation in emerging economies, including its own. He said that U.S. monetary policy has a major impact on global liquidity and capital flows and therefore, the liquidity of the U.S. dollar should be kept at a reasonable and stable level.

Mr. Hu arrived in the U.S. Apriul 12, 2010.
..Mr. Hu's responses reflect a China that has grown more confident in recent years—especially in the wake of the global financial crisis, from which it emerged relatively unscathed.Mr. Hu reiterated China's belief that the crisis reflected the absence of regulation in financial innovation and the failure of international financial institutions to fully reflect the changing status of developing countries in the world economy and finance. He called for an international financial system that is more fair, just, inclusive and well-managed.Mr. Hu, who also heads China's ruling Communist Party, rarely interacts with the international media. The Wall Street Journal submitted a series of questions to China's Foreign Ministry for Mr. Hu to answer. The Washington Post also submitted questions. The Foreign Ministry supplied Mr. Hu's responses to seven questions—but did not address questions about imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo, China's growing naval power and complaints about alleged Chinese cyberattacks, among others.Mr. Hu's veiled criticism of the Fed reflects widespread feelings among developing nations that U.S. interest-rate policy is devaluing the dollar, prompting flows of capital overseas and creating inflation elsewhere. China and other developing countries would like the Fed to factor in those consequences when it makes decisions. Fed officials counter that their mandate is to bolster the U.S. economy and that a stronger U.S. economy is in the interests of China and other countries, which depend heavily on trade and investment from the U.S.

This could be a major issue of contention between Messrs. Hu and Obama. The U.S. blames Chinese currency undervaluation—not Fed policy making—for worsening competitive and inflation problems overseas.This is a new ballgame in the first inning, says Eurasia Group's Ian Bremmer about China's rise. In an interview with WSJ's Rebecca Blumenstein, Bremmer discusses the growth of Chinese economic and military power and President Hu's U.S.visit.Some of Mr. Hu's most significant comments dealt with the future of the dollar and currency exchange rates.The current international currency system is the product of the past, he said, noting the primacy of the U.S. dollar as a reserve currency and its use in international trade and investment.The comment is the latest sign that the dollar's future continues to concern the most senior levels of the Chinese government. Beijing fears not only that loose U.S. monetary policy is fueling inflation, but that it will erode the value of China's holdings of dollars within its vast foreign-exchange reserves, which reached $2.85 trillion at the end of 2010.China's central bank governor, Zhou Xiaochuan, created an international stir in March 2009 by calling for the creation of a new synthetic reserve currency as an alternative to the dollar. Mr. Hu's comments add to the sense that China intends to challenge the post-World War II financial order largely created by the U.S. and dominated by the dollar.Mr. Hu called attention to China's accelerating effort to expand the role of its own currency, describing recent moves to allow greater use of the yuan in cross-border trade and investment—while acknowledging that making it a fully fledged international currency will be a fairly long process.

China's moves already have spawned a thriving market for offshore trading of yuan in Hong Kong, and are widely seen as first steps toward making the yuan an international currency in line with China's new prominence as the world's second largest economy. Mr. Hu offered an enthusiastic endorsement of what are officially described as currency pilot programs. They fit in well with market demand as evidenced by the rapidly expanding scale of these transactions, he said.Mr. Hu didn't signal any changes on the most sensitive aspect of China's currency policy: the exchange rate. Last week, U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner reiterated the U.S. position that a stronger yuan is in China's own best interests, because it would help tame rising inflation that has become a key risk to China's rapid growth, which is underpinning the global economic recovery. A stronger yuan would reduce the price of imports in local-currency terms.But Mr. Hu shrugged off the U.S. argument, saying that China is fighting inflation with a whole package of policies, including interest-rate increases, and inflation can hardly be the main factor in determining the exchange rate policy.Further, Mr. Hu suggested that inflation was not a big worry, saying prices were "on the whole moderate and controllable. He added: We have the confidence, conditions and ability to stabilize the overall price level.The U.S. argues that the yuan's real exchange rate—that is, the exchange rate as adjusted for the higher inflation level in China than the U.S.—is rising at a 10% annual rate. Treasury officials have argued to China that its policy options are limited—either it can boost the exchange rate to fight inflation, or inflation will effectively boost the value of China's currency.While the U.S. says some Chinese economic officials buy that argument, it hasn't been widely adopted within China, as Mr. Hu's comments illustrate. But the U.S. feels that economics and time are on its side. Even so, the administration and Congress will continue to press China to boost the pace of its currency appreciation.Mr. Hu renewed a Chinese pledge to offer a level playing field in China for U.S. companies, which have complained about aggressive Chinese moves to usurp their technology and shut them out of massive government-procurement contracts.

All foreign companies registered in China are Chinese enterprises, Mr. Hu said, responding to concerns that China discriminates in government procurement against foreign businesses as part of its drive to encourage so-called indigenous innovation.He added: Their innovation, production and business operations in China enjoy the same treatment as Chinese enterprises.The U.S. has been pressing China to revamp its plans for indigenous innovation, which foreign companies say put them at a disadvantage in competition with China's state-owned firms, which limits the types of government development projects and requires that companies get government approval to participate. China has pledged to join the World Trade Organization's government procurement agreement, which limits a country's ability to discriminate. But the U.S. and other countries say that so far China's WTO offer is inadequate because it exempts provinces, municipalities and state-owned enterprises. Last month China pledged to amend a buy-Chinese provision. During the Hu visit, the U.S. hopes to see some other commitments on this front from China.Mr. Hu began his answers with a relatively upbeat assessment of China-U.S. relations, which he said had on the whole enjoyed steady growth since the start of this century.He spoke of expanding cooperation from economy and trade into new areas like energy, infrastructure development and aviation and space. We should abandon the zero-sum Cold War mentality, he said, and respect each other's choice of development path.On the diplomatic front, Mr. Hu entirely glossed over what has been one of the most dramatic developments of the past year—a series of disputes between a more assertive China and its neighbors that has given the U.S. an opening to shore up its relations with a part of the world that felt neglected by Washington while it fought wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.In the past year, China has feuded with Japan over the seizure of a Chinese fishing boat and its crew off disputed islands; opened deep differences with South Korea because of its subdued response to military provocations by North Korea; and alarmed countries in Southeast Asia by declaring the South China Sea and its energy and mineral riches one of its core interests.Mutual trust between China and other countries in this region has deepened in our common response to tough challenges, and our cooperation has continuously expanded in our pursuit of mutual benefit and win-win outcomes, Mr. Hu said, ignoring the regional turmoil.
—Jason Dean in Beijing and Bob Davis in Washington contributed to this article.

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

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

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

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

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

WORLD MARKET RESULTS
http://money.cnn.com/data/world_markets/
CNBC VIDEOS
http://www.cnbc.com/id/15839263/?tabid=15839796&tabheader=false

HALF HOUR TORONTO STOCK EXCHANGE RESULTS MON JAN 17,2011

09:30 AM -2.43
10:00 AM -29.90
10:30 AM -26.40
11:00 AM -24.20
11:30 AM -17.20
12:00 PM -12.50
12:30 PM -10.90
01:00 PM -2.20
01:30 PM -5.00
02:00 PM -4.10
02:30 PM +2.00
03:00 PM +6.70
03:30 PM +1.70
04:00 PM -24.00 13,440.10

S&P 500 HOLIDAY

NASDAQ HOLIDAY

GOLD 1,361.10 +0.60

OIL 91.02 -0.52

TSE 300 13,440.10 -24.00

CDNX 2275.45 +4.40

S&P/TSX/60 770.34 -1.34

MORNING,NEWS,STATS

YEAR TO DATE PERFORMANCE
Dow -26 points at 4 minutes of trading today.
Dow -30 points at low today.
Dow +6 points at high today so far.
GOLD opens at $1,359.70.OIL opens at $91.30 today.

AFTERNOON,NEWS,STATS
Dow -30 points at low today so far.
Dow +6 points at high today so far.

WRAPUP,NEWS,STATS
Dow -30 points at low today.
Dow +6 points at high today.

GOLD ALLTIME HIGH $1,427.40 (NOT AT CLOSE)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYB-yxxsbig&feature=player_embedded
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cm388ZgQfl4&feature=player_embedded
Confirmed: Stuxnet Was False Flag Launched by Israel and U.S.
Kurt Nimmo Infowars.com January 16, 2011

On Saturday, the Gray Lady of establishment propaganda, the New York Times, passively admitted that the Stuxnet virus responsible for crippling Iran’s nuclear energy program was engineered by Israeli and U.S. intelligence. Officially, neither American nor Israeli officials will even utter the name of the malicious computer program, much less describe any role in designing it, writes the Times. But Israeli officials grin widely when asked about its effects.A number of computer scientists, nuclear enrichment experts and former officials, say the covert race to create Stuxnet was a joint project between the Americans and the Israelis, with help from the Germans and the British. The effort to sabotage Iran began during the Bush administration. In early 2009, Bush signed off on an effort to undermine the electrical and computer systems around Natanz, Iran’s major enrichment center. Obama was briefed on the plan before he took office.In addition to gumming up Iran’s enrichment hardware, the U.S. and Israel have engaged in an assassination campaign aimed at the country’s scientists.In November of last year, Iranian president Ahmadinejad accused Israel and the United States of killing a nuclear scientist and wounding another with a pair of bomb attacks. In January of 2009, a senior physics professor was assassinated. In 2007, Iranian state TV reported that nuclear scientist, Ardeshir Hosseinpour, died from gas poisoning. Israel’s Mossad was suspected. During the news conference, Ahmadinejad also admitted to the Stuxnet attack.

In November, it was reported that the Stuxnet virus had infected 44,000 computers worldwide.Stuxnet is a double-edged sword. In addition to setting back Iran’s nuclear program, the sophisticated malware engineered by the U.S. and Israel at the Dimona complex in the Negev desert has been exploited to push for restrictive cybersecurity measures in the United States.The very fact that Stuxnet exists shows that we can no longer pretend that a cyber attack on our critical infrastructure is hypothetical and hyperbolic, declared Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee chairman Joe Lieberman in November. You’re talking about a very well-resourced and structured adversary.Lieberman and Susan Collins, the panel’s ranking Republican, used Stuxnet to push for their cyber-security bill, entitled The Protecting Cyberspace as a National Asset Act of 2010.The bill would amend the Homeland Security Act of 2002 and extend the already-broad definition of critical infrastructure to the internet and would allow Obama to shut down not only entire areas of the internet, but also businesses and industries that fail to comply with government orders following the declaration of a national emergency, thus increasing fears that the legislation will be used as a political tool.Right now China, the government, can disconnect parts of its Internet in case of war and we need to have that here too, Lieberman said in June.The Senator’s reference to China is a telling revelation of what the cybersecurity agenda is really all about. China’s vice-like grip over its Internet systems has very little to do with war and everything to do with silencing all dissent against the state, Paul Joseph Watson wrote at the time.

In September, Alex Jones pegged Stuxnet as a false flag event. See the rest on the Alex Jones Channel.Lieberman and Collins are not the only enemies of a free and open internet. Also in 2009, senators Jay Rockefeller and Olympia Snowe proposed the CyberSecurity Act of 2009 that would give Obama similar all-encompassing powers over the internet. Under that legislation, the Commerce Secretary would be given the power to have access to all data over networks deemed as critical infrastructure.
Rockefeller has said that we would be better off if the internet was never invented. He added that the internet represents a serious threat to national security. In addition, according to Rockefeller, corporate media that wanders from the government generated script also represents a threat. There is a bug inside of that wants to get the FCC to say to Fox News and MSNBC… out, off, he said during a hearing on retransmission negotiations between broadcasters and cable providers. We have journalism that is always ravenous for the next rumor, but insufficiently hungry for the facts that can nourish our democracy.Advanced malware designed by intelligence agencies will continue to be used to advance the argument that the government has to institute totalitarian control over the internet in order to save us. Our globalist control freak rulers will not rest until they neuter the internet. Stuxnet is simply another tool in the quest for that objective.

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.

Rural Australian towns brace for high river peaks
– 2 hrs 7 mins ago JAN 16,11

MELBOURNE, Australia – Australia's flooding crisis headed south Monday into Victoria state, where record floods were predicted for several rural communities facing rivers swollen from heavy upstream rains.Officials expected floodwaters to drown out highways and isolate dozens of towns in the northeastern part of the state in some of the worst flooding there in a century.Residents are wary after three weeks of devastating flooding caused 28 deaths in the northeastern state of Queensland. The region's key Murray-Darling river basin links that state with New South Wales and Victoria to the south, and drains into the sea via South Australia on the south-central coast.In Victoria, State Emergency Services spokeswoman Natasha Duckett warned that the Victoria town of Horsham could face a major flood during Monday's expected peak of the Wimmera River, and electricity supplier Powercor was sandbagging its substation there to ensure it remained dry.The Wimmera River is higher than the levels seen in September 2010 and it's still rising, Duckett said. The township could be bisected with a waterway right through the middle of town and the (Western) Highway cut.Up to 500 properties in the town of about 14,000 people could be affected.More than 3,500 people have evacuated their homes in north-central Victoria state, with 43 towns and 1,500 properties already affected by rising waters.

The flooding in Queensland left a vast territory underwater and caused 28 deaths, most of them from a flash flood that hit towns west of Brisbane on Jan. 10. Fourteen people are still missing.Flooding has also spread from Queensland into New South Wales, where nearly 7,000 people are reliant on airdrops of food and other supplies after being isolated by floodwaters.

Wet winter storm raises avalanche alerts in Rockies
By Laura Zuckerman - JAN 16,11

SALMON, Idaho (Reuters) – A mass of unusually moist Pacific air swept the northern Rockies on Sunday, dumping wet snow in the mountains and heavy showers in the valleys as forecasters warned of increased avalanche hazards in several states.The threat of heavy runoff in the Pacific Northwest from the same warm, wet front also prompted the National Weather Service to post flood advisories across several counties in Washington state and southern Oregon.Rainfall in the Northwest was expected to total between 1 to 3 inches, while icy roads made driving difficult in parts of the Rockies.Rain freezing on highway surfaces forced the closure of a section of Interstate 94 northeast of Billings in south-central Montana, according to the state Department of Transportation. And freezing rain driven by high winds made for treacherous travel conditions on I-90 in southwest Montana near Bozeman.

Forecasters from Montana, Idaho and Washington state said avalanche hazards were high where accumulations of heavy, wet snow was making steep slopes unstable.They cited the elevated risk of natural or human-caused avalanches in back-country areas of western Montana, central Idaho near the ski resort of Sun Valley, Mount Hood in Oregon and the Olympic and Cascade ranges of Washington state.Conditions were especially grim in the mountains east of Flathead Lake near Glacier National Park, where avalanches last weekend killed one snowmobiler and trapped several others. That fatality brought the avalanche death toll in the Rockies so far this season to six.Avalanche danger also prompted the Idaho Transportation Department to shut down 12 miles of a state highway between the state capital Boise and Sun Valley.In the Idaho Panhandle, the U.S. Forest Service issued a high alert for avalanches for upper elevations of the inland Northwest -- which also includes eastern Oregon and eastern Washington -- except on groomed ski runs.Moisture rolling through the Northern Rockies Sunday afternoon was at the highest levels recorded in mid-January for the past 30 years, said Jessica Nolte, meteorologist with the National Weather Service office in Missoula, Montana.It's 250 percent above what would normally be observed, she said.What was rain in parts of Montana and Idaho was falling as snow in northwest Wyoming near Yellowstone National Park, where forecasters predicted as much as a foot of snow.The same storm was expected to dump up to 16 inches of snow near the exclusive resort town of Jackson, Wyoming by early Monday evening.
(Additional reporting by Wendell Marsh in Washington; Writing by Steve Gorman; Editing by Jerry Norton)

Fresh rain hampers Brazil rescue, death toll rises
by Antonio Scorza – Sun Jan 16, 4:08 pm ET

NOVA FRIBURGO, Brazil (AFP) – The Brazilian military sent troops and helicopters Sunday to rescue stranded survivors of floods and landslides that killed more than 625 people but the operation was stymied by more bad weather.After rains resumed in the afternoon, the air force had to call back helicopters that had been sent as a lifeline to 80 people stranded since Wednesday in the village of Brejal, in the mountains near Rio de Janeiro, a spokesman said.The weather conditions do not permit us to advance in the rural areas and to help people who are isolated, said Rio firefighter Colonel Pedro Machado. We can only make short flights. The teams on the ground are also having a lot of difficulty.The military had hoped to evacuate people in hamlets cut off by rivers of water and mud that carved massive destruction in the Serrana region just north of Rio de Janeiro.Bodies that were buried under rubble and sludge would have to wait until teams with heavy equipment could get to the communities, something that could take days because roads were destroyed.Soldiers, civil defense workers, police and rangers were seen gathering in Nova Friburgo, reinforcing teams that so far have pulled 283 bodies from decimated parts of the town.

General Oswaldo de Jesus Ferreira, coordinating the military response, told O Globo newspaper that the 500 troops sent to the Serrana would not only recover bodies but also clear roads and distribute food.The military had 38 vehicles, including two ambulances, and 11 helicopters based out of Teresopolis, another hard-hit town where 268 people died.Although the toll Sunday stood at 626 dead, workers transporting bodies said they feared the overall count will rise as rescuers reached outlying hamlets.I think in the end we'll see more than 1,000 bodies, said a funeral worker in Teresopolis, Mauricio Berlim. In one village near here, Campo Grande, there were 2,500 homes and not one is left standing.President Dilma Rousseff has declared three days of mourning, while Rio authorities said their state will observe a full week of mourning starting Monday.At least 14,000 people have been made homeless, officials said, and Rio governor Sergio Cabral declared a state of emergency in seven municipalities.Authorities made an urgent appeal for donations of blood, bottled water, food and medicine, and for medically trained people to help.At least four refrigerated trucks were parked in front of a makeshift morgue inside a Teresopolis church to take bodies as decomposition and disease became concerns.The disaster, which media called the worst tragedy of its kind in Brazil's history, struck sleeping families Wednesday before dawn.Seasonally heavy rains were suddenly intensified by a cold front, dumping a month's worth of precipitation in just eight hours, causing torrents of water and mud that wiped out everything in their path.

Water, food and electricity were still lacking in some areas of the Serrana four days after the disaster, with authorities struggling to deliver supplies over fully or partially collapsed roads. Telephone communications were unreliable though progressively being restored.A municipal official in Teresopolis, Solange Sirico, told Brazilian television there was a risk of epidemics breaking out as bodies decomposing in the tropical heat mingled with water runoff. Also, in all the mountain region, there is a danger of snakes, scorpions and spiders, she added.
Forecasters warned that the wet weather was likely to last for a few more days. We are predicting a light but steady rain, which is not good because it could lay the conditions for more landslides, said the head of the national weather institute, Luiz Cavalcanti.Originally a 19th-century getaway for Brazilian aristocracy, the Serrana region has come to rely on tourism for its livelihood.Nova Friburgo, founded by the Swiss in 1819, has ongoing close ties with Geneva, where the foreign ministry said a team of expert relief workers would arrive later Sunday to assess the community's urgent needs.

Brazil rains kill more than 600 as epidemic feared
By Sergio Queiroz – Sun Jan 16, 3:27 pm ET

NOVA FRIBURGO, Brazil (Reuters) – Rains that devastated a mountainous region north of Rio de Janeiro have killed at least 626 people, Brazil's Civil Defense agency said on Sunday, as fears of more storms and disease outbreaks overshadowed rescue operations.Nearly five days after rains sparked floods and massive landslides in one of Brazil's worst natural disasters, the death toll continues to rise steadily as rescuers dig up corpses buried by rivers of mud and reach more remote areas.TV images showed rescue workers looking for people under mounds of debris, a task made difficult by more rain since Saturday.The government has made available 586 military personnel for rescue operations, 8,000 food baskets and 7 metric tons of medicine and other supplies, it said in a statement.O Globo newspaper said the army has helped with the rescue of 110 families in isolated areas in Teresopolis, where 268 people have died, but people affected by the floods increasingly complain about what they see as a lack of government help in distributing basic goods and finding bodies.

While donations of food, water and clothing are pouring in from around the country, many people in remote areas lacked basic supplies.The water started to cover the stairs and we placed some of the things over others, but it was impossible (to save anything) with the power of the water. Everything collapsed and we only had time to save ourselves, said 49-year-old Maria de Lourdes, who is unemployed. Everything I owned, I lost.The extent of the damage has posed a challenge for Dilma Rousseff, Brazil's new president, and exposed major flaws in emergency planning and disaster prevention in a country that aspires to attain developed-nation status in coming years.Rousseff visited the region on Thursday and pledged a swift relief effort, but that has yet to materialize in some of the hardest-hit areas. Anger from survivors so far has been directed mostly at state and local authorities. The federal government has earmarked 780 million reais ($463.5 million) in emergency aid and Rousseff declared three days of mourning.State health authorities have warned the population about diseases that could be contracted by drinking or other contact with contaminated rain water. The Civil Defense agency has also distributed vaccines against tetanus and diphtheria, according to its website.(Writing by Ana Nicolaci da Costa; editing by Stuart Grudgings and Mohammad Zargham)

Trichet urges enhanced Europe standby fund
– Sun Jan 16, 2:18 pm ET

PARIS (Reuters) – European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet urged Ireland and Greece to live up to commitments made in return for financial help and said a broader European safety fund should be beefed up.Trichet was speaking on a French talk show on the eve of a regular meeting of euro zone finance ministers which was set to discuss an increase in the effective lending capacity of the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF).The feeling among governors of the European Central Bank is that this fund, taken as it stands at the moment we speak, needs to be enhanced, qualitatively and quantitatively, Trichet said on the show, hosted by French RTL radio, LCI television and newspaper Le Figaro.We know what quantity means. On quality, that means in terms of how it is used, which must be with as much flexibility and agility as possible, he said.The EFSF fund can borrow money on the market with euro zone government guarantees of up to 440 billion euros but because it wants to have a triple A credit rating, the effective amount it can lend to countries in need is only around 250 billion euros.Potential bids for help from Portugal and Spain would stretch its resources to the limit.The European Commission and the ECB called last week for boosting the effective capacity of the EFSF as well as expanding its scope of operations. Germany, the biggest euro zone economy, is key to any agreement on changes.(Reporting by Brian Love, Catherine Bremer and Jean-Baptiste Vey; Editing by Marguerita Choy)

IMF to visit Spain on routine inspection
– Sun Jan 16, 1:28 pm ET

MADRID/WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A mission from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) will visit Spain on Monday to carry out a routine study of the country's financial system, as part of an annual global report, officials said on Sunday.Concerns over Spanish banks' exposure to the collapsed property market remain acute and are major reasons behind market distrust of Spanish and other poorly performing countries on the fringes of the euro zone.But the IMF said Spain's economic policies were not on the agenda for discussion.An IMF staff team is currently traveling to a number of countries as part of its preparatory work on the April 2011 Global Financial Stability Report -- the IMF's regular report on global financial conditions, an IMF spokeswoman said. Spain is among the countries the team is visiting.(Reporting by Feliciano Tisera and Sonya Dowsett; Additional reporting by Tim Ahmann in Washington; Editing by David Holmes and Marguerita Choy)

FAMINE

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

FAMINE

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

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

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

Gunbattles, food shortages temper Tunisians' joy By ELAINE GANLEY and BOUAZZA BEN BOUAZZA, Associated Press – Sun Jan 16, 7:46 pm ET

TUNIS, Tunisia – Major gunbattles erupted outside the palace of Tunisia's deposed president, in the center of the capital, in front of the main opposition party headquarters and elsewhere on Sunday as authorities struggled to restore order and the world waited to see if the North African nation would continue its first steps away from autocratic rule.Police arrested dozens of people, including the top presidential security chief, as tensions appeared to mount between Tunisians buoyant over Zine El Abidine Ben Ali's departure and loyalists in danger of losing major perks.There were cheers and smiles in much of Tunis, the capital, as residents tore down the massive portraits of Ben Ali, some of them several stories high, that hung from lampposts and billboards and were omnipresent during his 23-year reign.Prime Minister Mohamed Ghannouchi said on state TV that a new national unity government will most certainly be announced Monday to open a new page in the history of Tunisia.
There are three legal opposition parties that could be included in the government Ghannouchi has been directed to form by the interim president, Fouad Mebazaa. Negotiations are advanced, Ghannouchi said Sunday night.Worries among Tunisians, however, grew with the violence and worsening shortages of essentials such as milk, bread and fresh fish.We're starting to feel it now, said Imed Jaound at the Tunis port, which has been closed since Friday, when Ben Ali fled to Saudi Arabia.

A gunbattle broke out around the presidential palace late Sunday afternoon in Carthage on the Mediterranean shore, about 15 kilometers (10 miles) north of Tunis. The army and members of the newly appointed presidential guard fought off attacks from militias loyal to Ben Ali, said a member of the new presidential guard. Helicopters were surveying the zone.The militias emerged from a forest to charge, the guard member said by telephone. He told The Associated Press the militia are numerous and are using various kinds of arms but gave no further details. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to be publicly named.Residents of Carthage — a center of power in ancient times but now a Tunis suburb popular with tourists — said they have barricaded themselves inside their homes amid the shooting. Many soldiers surrounded the palace, but it was unclear whether any of the interim government's leaders were.One Carthage resident said she saw four men in a taxi speed through a military checkpoint at the end of her street and toward the palace nearby. Soldiers shot at the taxi and the men inside returned fire.The resident, who asked not to be named because of security concerns, said her neighbors saw other armed men break through checkpoints in civilian cars. The gunbattle lasted about four hours before calm returned in the evening, she said.

Other gunfights broke out near the PDP opposition party headquarters and a two-hour-long gunbattle raged behind the Interior Ministry, long feared during Ben Ali's reign as a torture site. Residents of the city center heard constant volleys of gunfire throughout much of the afternoon; they were ordered to stay away from windows and keep their curtains closed.The prime minister said Sunday night that police and the army have arrested numerous members of armed groups, without saying how many.The coming days will show who is behind them, Ghannouchi said. He added that arms and documents have been seized from those arrested.We won't be tolerant towards these people, the prime minister said.The security chief, Ali Seriati, and his deputy were charged with a plot against state security, aggressive acts and for provoking disorder, murder and pillaging, the TAP state news agency reported.

Police stopped vehicles as the city remained under a state of emergency. More than 50 people were arrested on suspicion of using ambulances, rental cars and government vehicles for random shootings, a police official told The Associated Press. A crowd of 200 in Tunis cheered one such arrest Sunday. Before the gunbattle at the opposition party headquarters, police arrested a group of nine Swedish boar hunters traveling in taxis toward a nearby hotel after their flight home was canceled, one of the Swedes, Ove Oberg, said. Police roughed the men up and accused them of being terrorists, Oberg said, recounting his ordeal before a group of journalists. When they saw this gun, they went crazy, he said, referring to a hunting rifle in the trunk of the taxi.Six of the men were released, some with their clothes stained with blood, while three others remained in police custody Sunday evening.Dozens of people have died in a month of clashes that were initially between police and protesters angry about repression and corruption but now appear to be between police and Ben Ali loyalists.A Paris-based photojournalist, Loucas Mebrouk von Zabiensky, 32, of the EPA photo agency, was in critical condition after being hit in the face Friday with a tear gas canister, according to a French consular official in Tunisia. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity because of embassy rules, did not provide other details or an explanation of an earlier announcement that the photographer had died.

Mebazaa, a former parliament speaker who was sworn in as interim president Sunday, has told Ghannouchi to create a national unity government and urged him to consult with the opposition, who were marginalized under Ben Ali. Presidential elections are to be held in 60 days.The downfall of the 74-year-old Ben Ali, who had taken power in a bloodless coup in 1987, served as a warning to other autocratic leaders in the Arab world. His Mediterranean nation, a popular tourist destination known for its wide beaches, deserts and ancient ruins, had seemed more stable than many in the region before the uprising that began last month.Hundreds of stranded tourists were still being evacuated from the country Sunday. The U.S. State Department issued a travel warning suggesting that U.S. citizens forgo travel to Tunisia and consider leaving if already there. It authorized the departure of nonessential U.S. Embassy personnel and of all family members of U.S. staff at government expense.Tunisia's foreign minister will brief Arab leaders meeting in Egypt this week on the upheaval surrounding Ben Ali's ouster.In Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told his Cabinet that the unrest in Tunisia illustrated the widespread instability plaguing the region and underscored the need for strong security arrangements in any future peace deal with the Palestinians. Palestinians accused the Israeli leader of searching for excuses not to negotiate.Many Tunisians were especially overjoyed at the prospect of life without Ben Ali's wife Leila Trabelsi and her family. Leaked U.S. diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks had discussed the high levels of nepotism and corruption displayed by Trabelsi's clan. But U.S. State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley rejected any notion that WikiLeaks disclosures led to the revolution in Tunisia, saying Sunday that Tunisians were already well aware of the graft, nepotism and lavish lifestyles of the former president and his relatives.

Tunisian media reported one brother-in-law of the president, Imed Trabelsi, was attacked by an angry mob at Tunis airport and died. The reports could not be immediately confirmed.Ordinary Tunisians concentrated on two key needs Sunday — food and security.Many scoured the capital for food as calm returned to some residential areas. Most shops remained closed Sunday, others were looted and bread and milk were running short.Fish mongers were selling two- or three-day-old fish, said Ezzedine Gaesmi, a salesman at the indoor market in Tunis, where many stands were empty. There's no fresh fish. If it continues for two or three more days, we'll close, he said.Overnight citizen patrols armed with bats, sticks and golf clubs were being organized in both wealthy and working-class neighborhoods. Fatma Belaid stayed up late to serve rounds of coffee to patrols in her section of Tunis.Everyone participates as he can, she said.A well-known human rights advocate returned home to the embattled — but in many ways, hopeful — country. Souhayr Belhassen, president of the International Federation of Human Rights, said her long-repressed countrymen appear poised for unprecedented freedoms.We can start to hope, agreed Nejib Chebbi, a founder of the opposition PDP party. But he said the key question is whether a new government will be pluralistic or again dominated by Ben Ali's RCD party.If the RCD is dominant, we're not out of the woods, he said.Juergen Baetz in Berlin, Diaa Hadid in Jerusalem and Jenny Barchfield in Paris contributed to this report.

Israeli PM: Tunisia reflects regional instability
By DIAA HADID, Associated Press – Sun Jan 16, 11:37 am ET

JERUSALEM – Israel's prime minister said Sunday that the unrest in Tunisia over the weekend shows why Israel must be cautious as it pursues peace with the Palestinians.

Benjamin Netanyahu told his Cabinet that the violence surrounding the ouster of Tunisia's longtime president illustrated the widespread instability plaguing the Middle East. He also said it underscored the need for strong security arrangements in any future peace deal with the Palestinians.We need to lay the foundations of security in any agreement that we make, he said. We cannot simply say 'We are signing a peace agreement,' close our eyes and say We did it because we do not know with any clarity that the peace will indeed be honored, he said.

Palestinians accused the Israeli leader of searching for excuses.If there was a tsunami in Asia, a flood in Latin America or a lunar eclipse, Netanyahu would use it as a pretext not to negotiate, said chief negotiator Saeb Erekat.Netanyahu, who leads the hawkish Likud Party, has long made security a top demand for any future peace deal with the Palestinians.Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad has spent several years reforming his security forces, which now include hundreds of officers who have received U.S. training.Both U.S. and Israeli officials have praised the progress of the Palestinian forces in cracking down on militants and maintaining law and order in the West Bank.Israeli officials say the forces are limited in their capabilities. They also note that the Gaza Strip, the other territory claimed for a future Palestinian state, is ruled by the Hamas militant group.The Palestinians have refused to negotiate with Israel until Netanyahu renews a freeze on Jewish settlement construction in captured areas claimed by the Palestinians.Israeli officials said they were concerned — but not overly worried — over the safety of Tunisia's tiny Jewish community, which is concentrated on the southern island of Djerba and in the capital, Tunis.Tunisia has experienced looting, arson and random violence since autocratic President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali was driven from power Friday.Tunisia's 2,000 Jews generally have good relations with the Muslim majority, but in 2002 an al-Qaida suicide bombing targeting a synagogue on Djerba killed 19 people, including 14 German tourists.I don't think they will face problems but we have to take everything into account and get prepared if something will happen, but I don't think it will," said Israel's deputy prime minister, Silvan Shalom, who was born in Tunisia and moved to Israel with his family as an infant.His views were echoed by Israel's Foreign Ministry and tour operators who send Israelis to Tunisia.

Israelis frequently visit Tunis for tourism and to discover their roots. There are some 100,000 Israeli Jews of Tunisian descent, according to Michael Laskier, a North Africa expert at Israel's Bar-Ilan University.Tunisian Jews speaking anonymously to Israel Radio said they feared for their safety, but no violence has been reported against them.We saw the situation deteriorate in seconds, said one man who identified himself as a local community leader. The gangs are taking advantage of the fact that there is no government. Nobody is in charge here.

Plan for 1,400 apartments in contested Jerusalem
By AMY TEIBEL, Associated Press – Sun Jan 16, 11:28 am ET

JERUSALEM – Israeli authorities said Sunday they are moving ahead with a new proposal to build 1,400 apartments in east Jerusalem, enraging Palestinians who denounced the plan as another settler land grab.Palestinians have already broken off peace talks with Israel for refusing to halt construction in east Jerusalem and the West Bank. They claim these areas, which Israel captured in 1967, and the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip for a future state. Jewish settlement construction has angered the United States as well.Jerusalem officials confirmed they were aware of the plan, but would not say when the city's planning committee, which needs to approve such projects, would vote on it.Jerusalem City Hall continues to advance construction for Arabs and Jews alike according to the master plan, the spokesman's office said. New construction in Jerusalem is necessary to the development of the city.Israel occupied and annexed east Jerusalem after the 1967 Mideast war and claims the entire city as its capital.The international community has never recognized the annexation, and considers Israeli housing developments in east Jerusalem to be illegal settlements. The Palestinians hope to make east Jerusalem their capital.

The latest plan, to build 1,400 apartments in the existing Jewish area of Gilo, is being promoted by the Jerusalem Development Authority, a joint corporation of the Israeli government and the Jerusalem municipality.Gilo is a sprawling development of some 40,000 people on Jerusalem's southern edge, built on lands captured in 1967.
Although construction would likely not begin for years, the Palestinians said the new plan undermined hopes for peace.This proves our point that the Israeli government has chosen settlements and not peace, said senior Palestinian official Saeb Erekat.He urged the U.S. to hold the Israeli government fully responsible for the breakdown in peace talks and to support an upcoming Palestinian initiative to get a U.N. Security Council condemnation of Israeli settlement construction.Erekat said Palestinian officials would be meeting with European leaders, whom they hope to persuade to support the move at the U.N.Word of the plan also elicited a new round of U.S. condemnation.We find unilateral actions of this sort to be counterproductive in efforts to get sides to negotiate on the core issues, U.S. Embassy spokesman Kurt Hoyer said.

Last week, the U.S. harshly criticized Israel for demolishing a historic hotel in an Arab neighborhood of east Jerusalem to make way for 20 apartments for Jews.If approved, the Gilo project would create territorial contiguity between the Gush Etzion settlement bloc south of Jerusalem and the city itself, said Meir Margalit, a Jerusalem councilman from the dovish Meretz Party.He predicted it would take years to build the project, which would also require Interior Ministry approval, but warned it would nonetheless damage peace prospects. Since talks broke down in September, the U.S. has been trying to find a compromise formula to bring the sides back to the negotiating table.I hope (the plan) will roil the Americans and shake them out of their coma, Margalit said. If there is any chance to bring the Palestinians back to negotiations, then we have to stop this project.Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office refused to comment on the project, noting only that Netanyahu believes Jewish and Arab residents of Jerusalem should be free to live wherever they want in the city.

Some 200,000 Jews now live in east Jerusalem. Privately, Palestinian negotiators have said they expect the Jewish areas, which Israel calls neighborhoods, to remain under Israeli sovereignty under any final peace accord. But construction there antagonizes the Palestinians because they see it cementing Israel's claims to the entire city.Building there has become increasingly contentious since President Barack Obama called for a full halt to settlement construction after taking office.
An Israeli announcement to build homes in east Jerusalem made while Vice President Joe Biden was visiting early last year caused a chill in relations for several months. Israel was forced to put that project on hold.