JEWISH KING JESUS IS COMING AT THE RAPTURE FOR US IN THE CLOUDS-DON'T MISS IT FOR THE WORLD.THE BIBLE TAKEN LITERALLY- WHEN THE PLAIN SENSE MAKES GOOD SENSE-SEEK NO OTHER SENSE-LEST YOU END UP IN NONSENSE.GET SAVED NOW- CALL ON JESUS TODAY.THE ONLY SAVIOR OF THE WHOLE EARTH - NO OTHER
RELATED STORIES I DONE
http://israndjer.blogspot.ca/2014/08/isis-murders-more-yazidis-if-you-love.html
http://israndjer.blogspot.ca/2014/08/the-honor-diaries-how-islam-controls.html
http://israndjer.blogspot.ca/2014/08/useless-un-target-iraq-syria-murderers.html
http://israndjer.blogspot.ca/2014/08/persecussion-survivers-of-isis-stream.html
http://israndjer.blogspot.ca/2014/08/turkey-dries-up-euphrates-river-isis.html
http://israndjer.blogspot.ca/2014/08/brampton-ontarios-radical-imam-omar.html
http://israndjer.blogspot.ca/2014/08/will-isis-muslim-teorrists-walk-across.html
http://israndjer.blogspot.ca/2014/08/iraq-persecussion-malikis-gotta-go.html
http://israndjer.blogspot.ca/2014/08/iraq-persecussion-continues-malaki.html
http://israndjer.blogspot.ca/2014/08/the-pope-sends-delegation-to-iraq.html
http://israndjer.blogspot.ca/2014/08/isis-wants-black-flag-of-islamic-sharia.html
http://israndjer.blogspot.ca/2014/08/christians-flee-persecution-from.html
HERES VERSES FROM THE PEACE LOVING MUSLIM ISLAMIC SHARIA SEX FOR MURDER CULT QUARAN.KILL CHRISTIANS AND JEWS.
http://www.thereligionofpeace.com/quran/023-violence.htm
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.
1 PETER 4:16-19
16 Yet if any man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed; but let him glorify God on this behalf.
17 For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?
18 And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?
19 Wherefore let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls to him in well doing, as unto a faithful Creator.
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;(WILLINGLY-THEY CHOSE THE IMPLANT) and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.
GENESIS 16:11-12
11 And the angel of the LORD said unto her,(HAGAR) Behold, thou art with child, and shalt bear a son, and shalt call his name Ishmael;(FATHER OF THE ARAB/MUSLIMS) because the LORD hath heard thy affliction.
12 And he (ISHMAEL) will be a wild man;(ISLAM IS A FAKE AND DANGEROUS SEX FOR MURDER CULT) his hand will be against every man,(ISLAM HATES EVERYONE) and every man's hand against him;(PROTECTING THEMSELVES FROM BEING BEHEADED) and he (ISHMAEL ARAB/MUSLIM) shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren.(LITERAL-THE ARABS LIVE WITH THEIR BRETHERN JEWS)
JOHN 16:2
2 They shall put you out of the synagogues: yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service.(ISLAM MURDERS IN THE NAME OF MOON GOD ALLAH OF ISLAM)
ISRAEL SATAN COMES AGAINST
1 CHRONICLES 21:1
1 And Satan stood up against Israel, and provoked David to number Israel.
ISRAELS TROUBLE
JEREMIAH 30:7
7 Alas! for that day is great, so that none is like it: it is even the time of Jacob’s trouble;(ISRAEL) but he shall be saved out of it.
DANIEL 12:1,4
1 And at that time shall Michael(ISRAELS WAR ANGEL) stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people:(ISRAEL) and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation(May 14,48) even to that same time: and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book.
4 But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro,(WORLD TRAVEL,IMMIGRATION) and knowledge shall be increased.(COMPUTERS,CHIP IMPLANTS ETC)
LUKE 21:8-10,26
8 And he said, Take heed that ye be not deceived: for many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ;(NEW AGE NUTCASE MOVEMENT) and the time draweth near:(THE END OF THE WORLD CROWD) go ye not therefore after them.
9 But when ye shall hear of wars and commotions, be not terrified: for these things must first come to pass; but the end is not by and by.
10 Then said he unto them, Nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom (ETHNIC GROUP) against kingdom:(ETHNIC GROUP)
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.
Kurds push to drive militants from Mosul Dam with U.S. air support-Reuters-By Humeyra Pamuk-AUG 17,14-YAHOONEWS
DOHUK Iraq (Reuters) - Kurdish fighters pushed to retake Iraq's largest dam on Sunday in an attempt to reverse gains by Islamic State insurgents who have overrun much of the country's north, officials said.Islamic State militants have seized several towns and oilfields as well as Mosul Dam in recent weeks, possibly giving them the ability to flood cities or cut off water and electricity supplies.Asked about a Kurdish push to dislodge the militants on Sunday, a Kurdish official said they had not retaken the dam itself but had seized "most of the surrounding area".Islamic State militants have told residents in the area to leave, according to an engineer who works at the site.The engineer said the militants told him they were planting roadside bombs along roads leading in and out of the facility, possibly in fear of an attack by Kurdish fighters who have been bolstered by U.S. airstrikes.U.S. planes - deployed over Iraq because of the Islamic State's advances for the first time since the U.S. troop withdrawal in 2011 - had been striking targets near Mosul Dam over the last 24 hours, peshmerga spokesman Halgurd Hikmat said."God willing we will regain control of the dam today," he said.U.S. officials said last week the U.S. government was directly supplying weapons to Kurdish peshmerga fighters.Witnesses said Kurdish forces have recaptured the mainly Christian towns of Batmaiya and Telasqaf, 30 km (18 miles) from Mosul, the closest they have come to the city since Islamic State insurgents drove government forces out in June.The insurgents have also tightened their security checkpoints in Mosul, conducting more intensive inspections of vehicles and identification cards, witnesses said.
INDEPENDENCE AMBITIONS
The Kurds, who live in a semi-autonomous region in the north of Iraq, have long dreamed of independence from central governments in Baghdad which oppressed the non-Arab ethnic group for decades under former dictator Saddam Hussein.Tensions were also high under outgoing Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki who clashed with them over budgets and oil.The Kurds since June have capitalized on the chaos in northern Iraq, taking over oilfields in the disputed city of Kirkuk.Iraq's new prime minister, Haider al-Abadi, faces the task of reducing Sunni-Shi'ite tensions that have revived a sectarian civil war and addressing those Kurdish independence ambitions.German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier has warned against the formation of an independent Kurdish state, saying this would risk further destabilizing the region."An independent Kurdish state would ...create new tensions, possibly also with the states neighboring Iraq," Steinmeier said in an interview with Germany's Bild am Sonntag newspaper published on Sunday.Proclaiming a caliphate straddling parts of Iraq and Syria, Islamic State militants have swept across northern Iraq, pushing back Kurdish regional forces and driving tens of thousands of Christians and members of the Yazidi religious minority from their homes.Steinmeier, who met Iraq's new Shi'ite prime minister in Baghdad on Saturday, said the formation of a new government that all regions and religions could identify with "is perhaps the last chance for cohesion in Iraq".
ARMS SUPPLIES
The European Union has allowed individual EU governments to supply arms and ammunition to Iraqi Kurds, provided they have the consent of authorities in Baghdad. Washington is already supplying weapons.In a televised statement apparently referring at that action, the office of the Iraqi army command on Sunday evening said: "We warn all parties not to exploit the current security situation in the north of Iraq and violate sovereign airspace to ship arms to local parties without approval of the central government."Asked about possible German deliveries, Steinmeier said: "We're not ruling anything out. We're looking at what's possible and doing what is necessary as quickly as possible."Masoud Barzani, president of Iraqi Kurdistan, reiterated his call for weapons from Germany and other Western countries in an interview with Bild am Sonntag.Fears of Islamic State militants - who Iraqi officials say have massacred hundreds of Yazidis - have driven thousands of people to the Kurdish region.In the town of Dohuk, about 100 Yazidis held demonstrations on Sunday, complaining that they had given up on Iraq and wanted to travel to Turkey but were prevented from doing so by Kurdish security forces."They can't protect us. The Islamic State came to our villages and killed hundreds. We don't want to stay in Iraq, they will kill us sooner or later," said Nadia, 20."I want America to help me. The peshmerga are not letting us through." Kurdish militants have also trained hundreds of Yazidi volunteers at several camps inside Syria to fight Islamic State forces in Iraq, a member of the armed Kurdish YPG and a Reuters photographer who visited a training camp said on Sunday.The photographer spend Saturday at one training camp in northeastern Syria where he saw 55 Yazidis being.trained to fight."The Yazidi civilians want to stay in Syria because it is safer, but the volunteers really want to go back to Iraq to fight," he said by phone.(Additional reporting by Youssef Boudlai in Serimli Military Base, Syria, and Oliver Holmes in Beirut, Isabel Coles in Arbil and Michelle Martin in Berlin; writing by Michael Georgy; editing by Jason Neely)
Islamic State executed 700 people from Syrian tribe: monitoring group-Reuters-By Oliver Holmes and Suleiman Al-Khalidi-AUG 16,14-YAHOONEWS
BEIRUT/AMMAN (Reuters) - The Islamic State militant group has executed 700 members of a tribe it has been battling in eastern Syria during the past two weeks, the majority of them civilians, a human rights monitoring group and activists said on Saturday.The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which has tracked violence on all sides of the three-year-old conflict, said reliable sources reported beheadings were used to execute many of the al-Sheitaat tribe, which is from Deir al-Zor province.The conflict between Islamic State and the al-Sheitaat tribe, who number about 70,000, flared after the militants took over two oil fields in July.“Those who were executed are all al-Sheitaat,” Observatory director Rami Abdelrahman said by telephone from Britain. “Some were arrested, judged and killed.”Reuters cannot independently verify reports from Syria due to security conditions and reporting restrictions.Proclaiming a 'caliphate' straddling parts of Iraq and Syria, Islamic State has swept across northern Iraq in recent weeks, pushing back Kurdish regional forces and driving tens of thousands of Muslims, Christians and members of the Yazidi religious minority from their homes, prompting the first U.S. air strikes in Iraq since the withdrawal of American troops in 2011.The insurgents are also tightening their grip in Syria, of which they now control roughly a third, mostly rural areas in the north and east.An activist in Deir al-Zor who spoke on condition of anonymity told Reuters that 300 men were executed in one day in the town of Ghraneij, one of the three main towns of the al-Sheitaat tribal heartland, when Islamic State stormed the town earlier this week.Another opposition activist from Deir al-Zor said residents of al-Sheitaat towns had been given three days to leave.“Those who were executed during the storming of the al-Sheitaat area are around 300. The rest were killed in the course of the battles," he told Reuters on condition of anonymity to protect his identity.Civilians fleeing al-Sheitaat towns had either taken sanctuary in other villages or travelled to Iraq, he said.More than 170,000 people have been killed in Syria's civil war, which pits overwhelmingly Sunni Muslim rebels against President Bashar al-Assad, a member of the Shi'ite-derived Alawite minority, backed by Shi'ite militias from Iraq and Lebanon.The insurgency is split between competing factions in Syria, with Islamic State emerging as the most powerful.Tribal powers in Syria and Iraq have had to make the choice between fighting Islamic State or pledging allegiance.On Friday, a video posted on YouTube showed men who said they were from the al-Sheitaat towns of Kishkeih and Abu Hammam pledging full support for Islamic State.“We say that what Islamic State stands for is justice,” a tribal member sitting in a room with dozens of other men said in a statement that was read out.The head of the al-Sheitaat tribe, Sheikh Rafaa Aakla al-Raju, called in a video message for other tribes to join them in the fight against the militants.“We appeal to the other tribes to stand by us because it will be their turn next ... If (Islamic State) are done with us the other tribes will be targeted after al-Sheitaat. They are the next target,” he said in the video, posted on YouTube.Islamic State was condemned on Friday in a U.N. Security Council resolution for "gross, systematic and widespread abuses of human rights and violations of international humanitarian law."(Editing by Stephen Powell and Sonya Hepinstall)
Liberals, NDP plot to storm Tories' Fortress Alberta in next federal election-The Canadian Press By Joan Bryden,–AUG 17,14-YAHOONEWS
OTTAWA - Invading hordes of Liberal and New Democrat MPs will be doing some reconnaissance in Alberta over the next few weeks as their parties prepare plans to storm the Conservative bastion in the next federal election.Justin Trudeau and his three dozen Liberal MPs will be first off the mark, gathering Monday for a three-day caucus retreat in Edmonton.They'll be followed by NDP Leader Tom Mulcair and his 97 MPs, who are, coincidentally, holding their annual summer caucus retreat in the same city Sept. 9-11.It's an unusual convergence of politicians from parties whose overtures have been steadfastly spurned by Albertans. And it's a sign that the political tides in the stolidly Conservative province may finally be shifting, propelled by the creation of six new primarily urban ridings, redrawn boundaries for existing ridings and the retirement of a number of Tory incumbents."People fundamentally misunderstand Alberta politics," says Stephen Carter, who masterminded the winning come-from-behind campaigns of Calgary's superstar mayor, Naheed Nenshi, and former Progressive Conservative premier Alison Redford by playing up their moderate, progressive credentials."They assume that we are redneck, right-wing, crazy-assed voters ... The reality is that 60 per cent of Albertans feel they are on the progressive side, not the Conservative side."Carter contends that Albertans wind up voting Conservative en masse not for ideological reasons but because the Liberal party invariably "throws us under the bus," pandering to voters in central Canada, which accounts for 60 per cent of the seats in the House of Commons, at the expense of Alberta, which accounts for a measly 10 per cent.On that score, Trudeau's father, Pierre, is often fingered as the worst offender, having turned the province into a wasteland for the Grits after introducing the reviled national energy program in 1980. In reality, the province has been pretty much a Liberal desert almost from the moment it entered Confederation in 1905.Not since 1911 have Liberals managed to capture a majority of the province's seats. Since then, the best they could muster was seven of 17 seats — and that was way back in 1940. In the past 60 years, they've won no more than four Alberta seats and frequently wound up with none, as they did in 2011.The NDP's record is even more dismal. It has been entirely shut out in every election but three and has never won more than one seat in the province.But with 34 seats in play for the next election in 2015 and Stephen Harper's Conservative government nearing the 10-year mark — typically the best-before date for governments in Canada — both opposition parties sense an opportunity to finally break the Tory stranglehold on Alberta.The Liberals believe they can win as many as six inner city ridings in Calgary and Edmonton, with an outside chance at snagging Fort McMurray, the oilsands heartland where the party came a strong second in a June 30 byelection, running under boundaries that will no longer exist in 2015.An indication of the party's improved fortunes can be gleaned from the high-profile candidates who have stepped forward to carry the federal Liberal banner in the province, such as popular former MLAs Kent Hehr and Darshan Kang in Calgary.
Anne McLellan, a former Liberal cabinet minister who held down the riding of Edmonton Centre from 1993 to 2006, notes that her old riding now boasts more than 800 members, almost 500 of whom turned out recently for a hotly contested nomination, won by franco-Albertan entrepreneur Randy Boissonnault.She credits the creation of new inner-city ridings, fatigue with the "bullying" style of Harper's government and the appeal of Trudeau's more sunny approach to politics for the Liberals' newfound optimism."When people decide it's time for a change, there's nothing an incumbent party can do about that," she says. "I'm not saying the tipping point is there yet but I think it's getting close."Edmonton-Strathcona MP Linda Duncan, the NDP's sole representative in the province, is equally bullish on her party's chances.With Albertans seemingly prepared to jettison the Progressive Conservative dynasty that has ruled the province for more than four decades, Duncan predicts the NDP will emerge as the alternative to the ascendant Wild Rose provincially and that will have a spillover effect on federal New Democrats in the province."In the last federal election, we came second in almost every riding ... including rural," she says.The opportunities are "very good," Duncan says, particularly in Edmonton where a recent poll put the provincial NDP at the head of the pack. Still, she acknowledges it's "never easy" in Alberta.Carter, who helped out on Martha Hall Findlay's rival bid for the Liberal leadership against Trudeau, scoffs at Duncan's optimism. He believes the NDP can likely hang on to Duncan's seat but won't make any gains due to the hard line Mulcair has adopted against the pipelines desperately needed to get Alberta's oil sands bitumen to off-shore markets.And pipelines could yet kill the Liberals' chances as well, Carter warns.Trudeau has taken a softer line than Mulcair on pipelines, enthusiastically endorsing the proposed Keystone XL pipeline to the U.S. Gulf coast. Like Mulcair, he is adamantly opposed to the proposed Northern Gateway pipeline to Kitimat, British Columbia, but he's willing to consider the Kinder Morgan trans-mountain pipeline to Burnaby, B.C., provided it passes environmental muster and gets buy-in from First Nations and other effected communities.Trudeau's mushy, mixed message on pipelines amounts, in Carter's view, to little more than "lip service" to the importance of getting Alberta's oil and gas to market.If Liberals want to win the half-dozen seats Carter believes are ripe for the picking, he says they'll "have to try and find a way to run a national campaign without disadvantaging Alberta." Given their past history, he's skeptical.However, Duncan, an environmental lawyer before jumping into politics who has championed the need for a strong federal role in environmental reviews of energy projects, disputes the notion that a party's fate in Alberta depends on its position on pipelines. That is not all Albertans care about, she insists. They also care about developing the oilsands in an environmentally sustainable way and about the impact of pipelines on their communities."If that were not the case, I would not have been elected (in 2008) and re-elected with a substantially larger margin (in 2011)."Follow @jmbryden on Twitter
Ukraine separatist leader says rebels getting tanks and reinforcements-Reuters-By Thomas Grove-AUG 16,14-YAHOONEWS
DONETSK Ukraine (Reuters) - Ukrainian rebels are receiving new armoured vehicles and fighters trained in Russia, with which they plan to launch a major counter-offensive against government forces, a separatist leader said in a video released on Saturday.The four-month conflict in eastern Ukraine has reached a critical phase, with Kiev and Western governments watching nervously to see if Russia will intervene in support of the increasingly besieged rebels - an intention Moscow denies.Alexander Zakharchenko, prime minister of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic, said the rebels were in the process of receiving some 150 armoured vehicles, including 30 tanks, and 1,200 fighters who he said had spent four months training in Russia."They are joining at the most crucial moment," he said in a video recorded on Friday. He did not specify where the vehicles would come from.Moscow has come under heavy Western sanctions over its annexation of Ukraine's Crimea and accusations it is supporting separatists in east Ukraine with fighters, arms and funds. Russia denies those charges.In a sign of concern at the latest rebel comments, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko agreed in a phone call on Saturday that deliveries of weapons to separatists in Ukraine must stop and a ceasefire must be achieved, a German government spokesman said.The risk of outright war between the two most powerful former Soviet states was highlighted on Friday when Ukraine said it partially destroyed an armoured column that had crossed the border from Russia. The report triggered a sell-off in global shares.But Moscow made no threat of retaliation, instead saying it was a "fantasy" that its armoured vehicles had entered its neighbour's territory. U.S. Vice President Joe Biden also spoke to Poroshenko on Saturday, and the White House said: "The two leaders agreed that Russia's sending military columns across the border into Ukraine and its continued provision of advanced weapons to the separatists was inconsistent with any desire to improve the humanitarian situation in eastern Ukraine."Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin called on NATO to provide military support for Ukrainian troops.The rebels, who have ceded ground to government forces in recent weeks, have been promising a counter-offensive for several days but have yet to launch one.Ukrainian native Zakharchenko took over from Russian citizen Alexander Borodai last week and his combative comments will probably dash hopes that changes at the top of the rebel leadership might signal willingness to end hostilities.
CONVOY WAITS
Adding to the tensions, Russia and Ukraine have been at loggerheads for days over a convoy of 280 Russian trucks carrying water, food and medicine, which remained about 20 km (12 miles) from the Ukrainian border, unmoved since Friday.Officials from the International Committee of the Red Cross said most procedures had been agreed by Russia and Ukraine but the two sides still needed to figure out how to provide security before the convoy moves ahead under the ICRC's aegis. It was not clear when a deal on security could be agreed.Russia says it is a purely humanitarian mission in support of civilians in areas hit by the conflict, but Ukraine is concerned it could serve as a Trojan Horse to infiltrate military supplies or create a pretext for armed intervention.The crisis has dragged relations between Russia and the West to their lowest point since the Cold War and set off a round of trade restrictions that are hurting struggling economies in both Russia and Europe. The United Nations said this week that an estimated 2,086 people had been killed, with nearly 5,000 wounded.The Finnish President, Sauli Niinisto, held talks in Kiev with Poroshenko, a day after discussing how to settle the crisis with Russian President Vladimir Putin."I do not see a great risk of an outright war," Niinisto said. "My hopefulness is based on the fact that communication is open, at least by a crack."France said a meeting of Ukrainian, Russian, German and French foreign ministers scheduled in Berlin on Sunday could be a first step towards a peace summit.A rebel Internet news outlet said on Saturday that separatist fighters had killed 30 members of a Ukrainian government battalion in fighting in Luhansk province, a rebel-held area of eastern Ukraine adjacent to the Russian border.A Ukrainian military spokesman, Andriy Lysenko, contradicted the rebel assertions. He said three Ukrainian servicemen had been killed over the past 24 hours. Ukrainian security forces had spotted Russian drones and a helicopter crossing illegally into Ukraine's airspace, Lysenko told a news briefing.He denied Kiev's forces were firing artillery on Donetsk, one of two rebel strongholds in the east, where a Reuters reporter said explosions were audible in the city centre on Saturday. The Donetsk city administration said four people were killed in shelling that destroyed homes and set several buildings on fire.
MOMENTUM WITH THE ARMY
The momentum on the ground is with the Ukrainian forces, who have pushed the separatists out of large swathes of territory and nearly encircled them in Donetsk and Luhansk. Kiev says it now controls the road linking the two cities.Russia says the Ukrainian offensive is causing a humanitarian catastrophe for the civilian population in the two cities. It accuses Kiev's forces of indiscriminately using heavy weapons in residential areas, an allegation Ukraine denies.In the past week, three senior rebel leaders have been removed from their posts, pointing to mounting disagreement over how to turn the tide of the fighting back in their favour. Lysenko, the Ukrainian military spokesman, said he had reports of rebel fighters abandoning their posts in Luhansk, and preparing to leave Donetsk and seek safe haven in Russia."A mood of panic is spreading and rebels are trying to leave through the small gaps that remain," he said.In Donetsk, the red, blue and black flag of separatists was flying on a pole in front of the headquarters. Ten people armed with Kalashnikov rifles were standing on guard outside the main entrance in mismatched camouflage."Why should we flee? People are still coming and filling our ranks. Those who have lost their houses to Ukrainian shelling, what else would they do but fight back?," said a fighter who gave his name as Communist.(Additional reporting by Natalia Zinets and Alessandra Prentice in Kiev and Jason Bush in Moscow; writing by Christian Lowe and Dmitry Zhdannikov; editing by Mark Trevelyan)
Ukraine says its troops make breakthrough in rebel stronghold-Reuters-By Natalia Zinets and Thomas Grove -AUG 17,14-YAHOONEWS
KIEV/DONETSK Ukraine (Reuters) - Ukrainian forces have raised their national flag over a police station in the city of Luhansk that was for months under rebel control, Kiev said on Sunday, in what could be a breakthrough in Ukraine's efforts to crush pro-Moscow separatists.Ukrainian officials said, however, the rebels were fighting a desperate rearguard action to hold on to Luhansk - which is their supply route into neighbouring Russia - and that the flow of weapons and fighters from Russia had accelerated.The foreign ministers of Ukraine, Russia, France and Germany held a meeting in Berlin on the crisis, with German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier saying afterwards they would report back to their leaders and possibly agree on Monday or Tuesday on how to continue talks."The aim remains to bring about a ceasefire in Ukraine and to prevent future victims," Steinmeier said.“It was a difficult discussion but I believe and I hope that we made progress on some points,” he told reporters.Russia denies helping the rebels and accuses Kiev, backed by the West, of triggering a humanitarian crisis through indiscriminate use of force against Russian speakers in eastern Ukraine who reject the Ukrainian government's rule.Andriy Lysenko, a Ukrainian military spokesman, said government forces fought separatists in Luhansk on Saturday and took control of the Zhovtneviy neighbourhood police station."They raised the state flag over it," Lysenko said.Separatist officials in Luhansk could not be reached by telephone, and a separatist spokeswoman in Donetsk, the other rebel strong-hold, said she had no information about Luhansk.A photograph posted on Twitter appeared to show a Ukrainian flag on the front of the police station, but it could not be independently verified. If confirmed, the taking of the police station is significant because Luhansk has for several months been a rebel redoubt where Kiev's writ has not run. Separatists still control sections of the border linking Luhansk region to Russia.Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko announced another military success, saying his forces had recaptured a railway junction at Yasynuvata, north of Donetsk, which he said had "strategic significance”.
CRITICAL PHASE
The four-month-old conflict in Ukraine's Russian-speaking east has reached a critical phase, with Kiev and Western governments watching nervously to see if Russia will intervene in support of the increasingly besieged rebels.The rebels responded with defiant rhetoric and fighting.Ukrainian authorities said on Sunday the separatists shot down a Ukrainian warplane.On Saturday, Alexander Zakharchenko, prime minister of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic, said rebels were in the process of receiving some 150 armoured vehicles, including 30 tanks, and 1,200 fighters trained in Russia. He said they planned to launch a major counter-offensive."They are joining at the most crucial moment," he said in a video recorded on Friday.The assertion that the fighters were trained in Russia is awkward for Moscow, which has repeatedly denied allegations from Kiev and its Western allies that it is providing material support to separatist fighters."We have repeatedly said that we don't supply any equipment there," said Dmitry Peskov, spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin.
CONVOY
The Ukraine crisis has dragged relations between Russia and the West to their lowest point since the Cold War and set off a round of trade restrictions that are hurting struggling economies in both Russia and Europe.Adding to the tensions, Russia and Ukraine have been at loggerheads for days over a convoy of 280 Russian trucks carrying water, food and medicine.It was despatched by Moscow bound for eastern Ukraine but has been parked up for several days in Russia near the border.Kiev has said the convoy could be a Trojan Horse for Russia to get weapons to the rebels, a notion that Moscow has dismissed as absurd. It said the aid is desperately needed by civilians left without water and power and under constant bombardment from the Ukrainian advance.After days of wrangling between Kiev and Moscow, there were signs of movement on Sunday.Sixteen trucks separated from the main convoy and drove into a Russian bus depot near a border crossing into Ukraine, a Reuters cameraman said from the scene.The International Committee of the Red Cross said that Russian and Ukrainian officials had agreed that the cargo could be inspected but had yet to agree on security arrangements.
REBEL ROUT?
Ukrainian officials have painted a picture of a separatist force that is on the run and starting to panic - though rebel fighters Reuters reporters have spoken to in Donetsk say they are determined to stand firm.In the past week, three senior rebel leaders have been removed from their posts, pointing to mounting disagreement over how to turn the tide of the fighting back in their favour.The fighting has taken a heavy human toll.The United Nations said this month that an estimated 2,086 people, including civilians and combatants, had been killed in the conflict. That figure nearly doubled since the end of July, when Ukrainian forces stepped up their offensive.In Donetsk, which like Luhansk is now ringed by Kiev's forces, artillery fire has struck apartment buildings, killing and wounding residents, according to Reuters reporters. Officials in Kiev deny they are firing heavy weapons at residential areas.(Additional reporting by Michelle Martin and Gernot Heller in Berlin; Writing by Richard Balmforth, Christian Lowe and Dmitry Zhdannikov; Editing by Ralph Boulton, Andrew Roche, Peter Cooney and Eric Walsh)
Israel to Stop Exports of 'Settlement Products' to EU-Israel will end its export of poultry and dairy produce from communities beyond the Green Line, in keeping in line with EU directives.-By Elad Benari-First Publish: 8/18/2014, 1:12 AM-ISRAELNATIONALNEWS
Israel will end its export of poultry and dairy produce to the European Union from Jewish communities beyond the Green Line, Israeli and European officials said on Sunday, according to AFP.The restrictions stem from directives issued by the European Commission in February and affect chicken and milk products from communities in eastern Jerusalem, the Golan Heights and Judea and Samaria."In keeping with previous decisions, the EU no longer recognized the authority of the veterinary inspections services of Israel to approve the export of poultry and (dairy products), the origin of which are in settlements," a European official told AFP.The official said that during discussions over implementation of the directives, the "Israelis were asked to put in place a system of distinguishing between the origins of dairy products and poultry.""If that is put in place that won't affect poultry and dairy products exported from Israel," the official said, noting the new directives would be effective from September 1.An Israeli official involved in the affair told AFP that the agriculture ministry had recently issued directives to poultry and dairy manufacturers to "prepare for the EU decision and separate manufacturing lines, to enable the continued export to the Europe" without including products from “settlements”.The official said that Israeli export of products from areas beyond the Green Line to Europe was not significant and catered mainly for Jews who observe religious dietary laws and eat kosher food.Months ago, the EU published new guidelines which boycott Israeli entities operating beyond the 1949 Armistice Lines. This caused tension between the EU and Israel, which warned that it might shun a key EU research program unless a compromise is found over the boycotting guidelines.An Israeli official slammed the move as a European way to bypass problematic legislation that would single out the Jewish state."The EU has for a long time tried to find ways to mark settlement produce, or even prevent its import to Europe, but failed to accomplish such regulation since it's legally problematic, and also involves breaching trade agreements," the official told AFP.The EU, the official added, doesn't want to impose any universal regulations on products from "disputed areas" such as Cyprus, Western Sahara or Kosovo.So instead it used the European Commission, which is a bureaucratic body, to enforce a political stance against Israel, he said.Plans to label “settlement products” have been in the works for more than a year, when the EU formally recommended that Israeli activity in Judea and Samaria be “prevented” through an economic boycott of Jewish industry in those regions. Such a move would affect tens of thousands of Palestinian Arabs who are employed in Jewish-owned industry in the area.EU foreign ministers, including Britain’s William Hague and Laurent Fabius of France, indicated at one point they would back the labeling initiative, but it was later reported that the plans were postponed after U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry intervened.
FIRES AND EXPLOSIONS
REVELATION 8:7
7 The first angel sounded, and there followed hail and fire mingled with blood, and they were cast upon the earth: and the third part of trees was burnt up, and all green grass was burnt up.
Banff seeing 'unprecedented' wildlife incidents, says ecologist-CBC –AUG 17,14-YAHOONEWS
There have been an "unprecedented" number of wildlife incidents in Banff National Park this year, says a wildlife ecologist.Staff have dealt with more than 1,000 encounters, ranging from bears looking for food in tents and bluff-charging hikers, to people encountering elk in the town site. Part of the problem could lie in the late spring thaw."A large part of those probably are bear incidents and we know that this year in particular, the snow really persisted for quite a long time in the spring and into the summer at higher elevations," said David Gummer, a wildlife ecologist at the park. "We did see bears congregating in the low-lying valley bottoms, where we also have a lot more activity from people, so that probably accounts for a large part of the increase."Gummer says there are also a lot of young bears trying to mark out territory for themselves and are ending up in areas closer to humans.In comparison to previous years, Gummer says the wildlife encounters in 2014 have been 33 per cent more frequent.Park staff are still working to manage all of the calls that come in, but he says people need to remember to obey wildlife warnings or closure signs and keep a watch out for animals.There have been no injuries to people from bears in Banff National Park this year.Gummer says bears will likely be coming back down to lower areas in search of berries and food before heading into hibernation.He says so far, park staff have noticed the berry crops are not as abundant as past years.That means bears will likely have to search far and wide for food sources.
EARTHQUAKES
ISAIAH 42:15
15 I will make waste mountains and hills, and dry up all their herbs; and I will make the rivers islands, and I will dry up the pools.
MATTHEW 24:7-8
7 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.
8 All these are the beginning of sorrows.
MARK 13:8
8 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom:(ETHNIC GROUP AGAINST ETHNIC GROUP) and there shall be earthquakes in divers places, and there shall be famines and troubles: these are the beginnings of sorrows.
LUKE 21:11
11 And great earthquakes shall be in divers places,(DIFFERNT PLACES AT THE SAME TIME) and famines, and pestilences; and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven.
1 Day, Magnitude 2.5+ Worldwide
28 earthquakes - DownloadUpdated: 2014-08-17 20:06:41 UTC-04:00Showing event times using Local System Time (UTC-04:00)28 earthquakes in map area
2.9 24km SSW of Esperanza, Puerto Rico 2014-08-17 19:05:15 UTC-04:00 12.0 km
3.2 7km SSW of Alberto Oviedo Mota, Mexico 2014-08-17 18:59:09 UTC-04:00 26.9 km
4.6 141km S of Krajan Tambakrejo, Indonesia 2014-08-17 16:15:14 UTC-04:00 51.9 km
4.0 24km WNW of Iquique, Chile 2014-08-17 14:30:27 UTC-04:00 28.2 km
4.8 139km E of Iwaki, Japan 2014-08-17 14:15:55 UTC-04:00 24.1 km
2.7 23km W of Amukta Island, Alaska 2014-08-17 13:58:55 UTC-04:00 11.5 km
2.6 1km SE of Cherokee, Oklahoma 2014-08-17 12:50:07 UTC-04:00 4.9 km
3.1 13km WNW of Medford, Oklahoma 2014-08-17 12:35:07 UTC-04:00 5.0 km
5.2 Mid-Indian Ridge 2014-08-17 12:04:48 UTC-04:00 10.0 km
2.8 58km SW of Valdez, Alaska 2014-08-17 12:04:16 UTC-04:00 13.3 km
3.4 13km WNW of Medford, Oklahoma 2014-08-17 11:59:05 UTC-04:00 5.0 km
5.0 42km E of Dehloran, Iran 2014-08-17 10:47:19 UTC-04:00 10.0 km
3.5 88km WSW of Buldir Island, Alaska 2014-08-17 10:41:01 UTC-04:00 48.4 km
3.0 4km ESE of Perry, Oklahoma 2014-08-17 09:43:31 UTC-04:00 2.2 km
4.8 48km E of Dehloran, Iran 2014-08-17 07:24:16 UTC-04:00 10.0 km
4.3 82km E of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatskiy, Russia 2014-08-17 06:07:20 UTC-04:00 59.0 km
4.7 13km ESE of Xiluodu, China 2014-08-17 05:11:45 UTC-04:00 10.0 km
4.3 13km S of Xiluodu, China 2014-08-17 04:45:52 UTC-04:00 10.0 km
4.3 16km SSW of Ashkasham, Afghanistan 2014-08-17 04:30:49 UTC-04:00 72.1 km
4.7 54km WSW of Bulolo, Papua New Guinea 2014-08-17 03:56:34 UTC-04:00 47.6 km
2.7 9km WNW of Medford, Oklahoma 2014-08-17 03:28:37 UTC-04:00 4.3 km
3.5 9km WNW of Medford, Oklahoma 2014-08-17 02:31:10 UTC-04:00 5.4 km
3.1 87km NNE of Road Town, British Virgin Islands 2014-08-17 02:23:55 UTC-04:00 24.0 km
3.8 9km WNW of Medford, Oklahoma 2014-08-17 02:18:43 UTC-04:00 5.5 km
2.8 26km ENE of Honaunau-Napoopoo, Hawaii 2014-08-17 00:28:48 UTC-04:00 19.6 km
2.6 2km ESE of Berkeley, California 2014-08-16 22:41:24 UTC-04:00 10.4 km
5.3 165km N of Dili, East Timor 2014-08-16 22:38:26 UTC-04:00 488.1 km
3.0 14km SW of Medford, Oklahoma 2014-08-16 22:13:43 UTC-04:00 5.0 km
RELATED STORIES I DONE
http://israndjer.blogspot.ca/2014/08/isis-murders-more-yazidis-if-you-love.html
http://israndjer.blogspot.ca/2014/08/the-honor-diaries-how-islam-controls.html
http://israndjer.blogspot.ca/2014/08/useless-un-target-iraq-syria-murderers.html
http://israndjer.blogspot.ca/2014/08/persecussion-survivers-of-isis-stream.html
http://israndjer.blogspot.ca/2014/08/turkey-dries-up-euphrates-river-isis.html
http://israndjer.blogspot.ca/2014/08/brampton-ontarios-radical-imam-omar.html
http://israndjer.blogspot.ca/2014/08/will-isis-muslim-teorrists-walk-across.html
http://israndjer.blogspot.ca/2014/08/iraq-persecussion-malikis-gotta-go.html
http://israndjer.blogspot.ca/2014/08/iraq-persecussion-continues-malaki.html
http://israndjer.blogspot.ca/2014/08/the-pope-sends-delegation-to-iraq.html
http://israndjer.blogspot.ca/2014/08/isis-wants-black-flag-of-islamic-sharia.html
http://israndjer.blogspot.ca/2014/08/christians-flee-persecution-from.html
HERES VERSES FROM THE PEACE LOVING MUSLIM ISLAMIC SHARIA SEX FOR MURDER CULT QUARAN.KILL CHRISTIANS AND JEWS.
http://www.thereligionofpeace.com/quran/023-violence.htm
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.
1 PETER 4:16-19
16 Yet if any man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed; but let him glorify God on this behalf.
17 For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?
18 And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?
19 Wherefore let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls to him in well doing, as unto a faithful Creator.
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;(WILLINGLY-THEY CHOSE THE IMPLANT) and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.
GENESIS 16:11-12
11 And the angel of the LORD said unto her,(HAGAR) Behold, thou art with child, and shalt bear a son, and shalt call his name Ishmael;(FATHER OF THE ARAB/MUSLIMS) because the LORD hath heard thy affliction.
12 And he (ISHMAEL) will be a wild man;(ISLAM IS A FAKE AND DANGEROUS SEX FOR MURDER CULT) his hand will be against every man,(ISLAM HATES EVERYONE) and every man's hand against him;(PROTECTING THEMSELVES FROM BEING BEHEADED) and he (ISHMAEL ARAB/MUSLIM) shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren.(LITERAL-THE ARABS LIVE WITH THEIR BRETHERN JEWS)
JOHN 16:2
2 They shall put you out of the synagogues: yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service.(ISLAM MURDERS IN THE NAME OF MOON GOD ALLAH OF ISLAM)
ISRAEL SATAN COMES AGAINST
1 CHRONICLES 21:1
1 And Satan stood up against Israel, and provoked David to number Israel.
ISRAELS TROUBLE
JEREMIAH 30:7
7 Alas! for that day is great, so that none is like it: it is even the time of Jacob’s trouble;(ISRAEL) but he shall be saved out of it.
DANIEL 12:1,4
1 And at that time shall Michael(ISRAELS WAR ANGEL) stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people:(ISRAEL) and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation(May 14,48) even to that same time: and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book.
4 But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro,(WORLD TRAVEL,IMMIGRATION) and knowledge shall be increased.(COMPUTERS,CHIP IMPLANTS ETC)
LUKE 21:8-10,26
8 And he said, Take heed that ye be not deceived: for many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ;(NEW AGE NUTCASE MOVEMENT) and the time draweth near:(THE END OF THE WORLD CROWD) go ye not therefore after them.
9 But when ye shall hear of wars and commotions, be not terrified: for these things must first come to pass; but the end is not by and by.
10 Then said he unto them, Nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom (ETHNIC GROUP) against kingdom:(ETHNIC GROUP)
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.
Kurds push to drive militants from Mosul Dam with U.S. air support-Reuters-By Humeyra Pamuk-AUG 17,14-YAHOONEWS
DOHUK Iraq (Reuters) - Kurdish fighters pushed to retake Iraq's largest dam on Sunday in an attempt to reverse gains by Islamic State insurgents who have overrun much of the country's north, officials said.Islamic State militants have seized several towns and oilfields as well as Mosul Dam in recent weeks, possibly giving them the ability to flood cities or cut off water and electricity supplies.Asked about a Kurdish push to dislodge the militants on Sunday, a Kurdish official said they had not retaken the dam itself but had seized "most of the surrounding area".Islamic State militants have told residents in the area to leave, according to an engineer who works at the site.The engineer said the militants told him they were planting roadside bombs along roads leading in and out of the facility, possibly in fear of an attack by Kurdish fighters who have been bolstered by U.S. airstrikes.U.S. planes - deployed over Iraq because of the Islamic State's advances for the first time since the U.S. troop withdrawal in 2011 - had been striking targets near Mosul Dam over the last 24 hours, peshmerga spokesman Halgurd Hikmat said."God willing we will regain control of the dam today," he said.U.S. officials said last week the U.S. government was directly supplying weapons to Kurdish peshmerga fighters.Witnesses said Kurdish forces have recaptured the mainly Christian towns of Batmaiya and Telasqaf, 30 km (18 miles) from Mosul, the closest they have come to the city since Islamic State insurgents drove government forces out in June.The insurgents have also tightened their security checkpoints in Mosul, conducting more intensive inspections of vehicles and identification cards, witnesses said.
INDEPENDENCE AMBITIONS
The Kurds, who live in a semi-autonomous region in the north of Iraq, have long dreamed of independence from central governments in Baghdad which oppressed the non-Arab ethnic group for decades under former dictator Saddam Hussein.Tensions were also high under outgoing Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki who clashed with them over budgets and oil.The Kurds since June have capitalized on the chaos in northern Iraq, taking over oilfields in the disputed city of Kirkuk.Iraq's new prime minister, Haider al-Abadi, faces the task of reducing Sunni-Shi'ite tensions that have revived a sectarian civil war and addressing those Kurdish independence ambitions.German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier has warned against the formation of an independent Kurdish state, saying this would risk further destabilizing the region."An independent Kurdish state would ...create new tensions, possibly also with the states neighboring Iraq," Steinmeier said in an interview with Germany's Bild am Sonntag newspaper published on Sunday.Proclaiming a caliphate straddling parts of Iraq and Syria, Islamic State militants have swept across northern Iraq, pushing back Kurdish regional forces and driving tens of thousands of Christians and members of the Yazidi religious minority from their homes.Steinmeier, who met Iraq's new Shi'ite prime minister in Baghdad on Saturday, said the formation of a new government that all regions and religions could identify with "is perhaps the last chance for cohesion in Iraq".
ARMS SUPPLIES
The European Union has allowed individual EU governments to supply arms and ammunition to Iraqi Kurds, provided they have the consent of authorities in Baghdad. Washington is already supplying weapons.In a televised statement apparently referring at that action, the office of the Iraqi army command on Sunday evening said: "We warn all parties not to exploit the current security situation in the north of Iraq and violate sovereign airspace to ship arms to local parties without approval of the central government."Asked about possible German deliveries, Steinmeier said: "We're not ruling anything out. We're looking at what's possible and doing what is necessary as quickly as possible."Masoud Barzani, president of Iraqi Kurdistan, reiterated his call for weapons from Germany and other Western countries in an interview with Bild am Sonntag.Fears of Islamic State militants - who Iraqi officials say have massacred hundreds of Yazidis - have driven thousands of people to the Kurdish region.In the town of Dohuk, about 100 Yazidis held demonstrations on Sunday, complaining that they had given up on Iraq and wanted to travel to Turkey but were prevented from doing so by Kurdish security forces."They can't protect us. The Islamic State came to our villages and killed hundreds. We don't want to stay in Iraq, they will kill us sooner or later," said Nadia, 20."I want America to help me. The peshmerga are not letting us through." Kurdish militants have also trained hundreds of Yazidi volunteers at several camps inside Syria to fight Islamic State forces in Iraq, a member of the armed Kurdish YPG and a Reuters photographer who visited a training camp said on Sunday.The photographer spend Saturday at one training camp in northeastern Syria where he saw 55 Yazidis being.trained to fight."The Yazidi civilians want to stay in Syria because it is safer, but the volunteers really want to go back to Iraq to fight," he said by phone.(Additional reporting by Youssef Boudlai in Serimli Military Base, Syria, and Oliver Holmes in Beirut, Isabel Coles in Arbil and Michelle Martin in Berlin; writing by Michael Georgy; editing by Jason Neely)
Islamic State executed 700 people from Syrian tribe: monitoring group-Reuters-By Oliver Holmes and Suleiman Al-Khalidi-AUG 16,14-YAHOONEWS
BEIRUT/AMMAN (Reuters) - The Islamic State militant group has executed 700 members of a tribe it has been battling in eastern Syria during the past two weeks, the majority of them civilians, a human rights monitoring group and activists said on Saturday.The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which has tracked violence on all sides of the three-year-old conflict, said reliable sources reported beheadings were used to execute many of the al-Sheitaat tribe, which is from Deir al-Zor province.The conflict between Islamic State and the al-Sheitaat tribe, who number about 70,000, flared after the militants took over two oil fields in July.“Those who were executed are all al-Sheitaat,” Observatory director Rami Abdelrahman said by telephone from Britain. “Some were arrested, judged and killed.”Reuters cannot independently verify reports from Syria due to security conditions and reporting restrictions.Proclaiming a 'caliphate' straddling parts of Iraq and Syria, Islamic State has swept across northern Iraq in recent weeks, pushing back Kurdish regional forces and driving tens of thousands of Muslims, Christians and members of the Yazidi religious minority from their homes, prompting the first U.S. air strikes in Iraq since the withdrawal of American troops in 2011.The insurgents are also tightening their grip in Syria, of which they now control roughly a third, mostly rural areas in the north and east.An activist in Deir al-Zor who spoke on condition of anonymity told Reuters that 300 men were executed in one day in the town of Ghraneij, one of the three main towns of the al-Sheitaat tribal heartland, when Islamic State stormed the town earlier this week.Another opposition activist from Deir al-Zor said residents of al-Sheitaat towns had been given three days to leave.“Those who were executed during the storming of the al-Sheitaat area are around 300. The rest were killed in the course of the battles," he told Reuters on condition of anonymity to protect his identity.Civilians fleeing al-Sheitaat towns had either taken sanctuary in other villages or travelled to Iraq, he said.More than 170,000 people have been killed in Syria's civil war, which pits overwhelmingly Sunni Muslim rebels against President Bashar al-Assad, a member of the Shi'ite-derived Alawite minority, backed by Shi'ite militias from Iraq and Lebanon.The insurgency is split between competing factions in Syria, with Islamic State emerging as the most powerful.Tribal powers in Syria and Iraq have had to make the choice between fighting Islamic State or pledging allegiance.On Friday, a video posted on YouTube showed men who said they were from the al-Sheitaat towns of Kishkeih and Abu Hammam pledging full support for Islamic State.“We say that what Islamic State stands for is justice,” a tribal member sitting in a room with dozens of other men said in a statement that was read out.The head of the al-Sheitaat tribe, Sheikh Rafaa Aakla al-Raju, called in a video message for other tribes to join them in the fight against the militants.“We appeal to the other tribes to stand by us because it will be their turn next ... If (Islamic State) are done with us the other tribes will be targeted after al-Sheitaat. They are the next target,” he said in the video, posted on YouTube.Islamic State was condemned on Friday in a U.N. Security Council resolution for "gross, systematic and widespread abuses of human rights and violations of international humanitarian law."(Editing by Stephen Powell and Sonya Hepinstall)
Liberals, NDP plot to storm Tories' Fortress Alberta in next federal election-The Canadian Press By Joan Bryden,–AUG 17,14-YAHOONEWS
OTTAWA - Invading hordes of Liberal and New Democrat MPs will be doing some reconnaissance in Alberta over the next few weeks as their parties prepare plans to storm the Conservative bastion in the next federal election.Justin Trudeau and his three dozen Liberal MPs will be first off the mark, gathering Monday for a three-day caucus retreat in Edmonton.They'll be followed by NDP Leader Tom Mulcair and his 97 MPs, who are, coincidentally, holding their annual summer caucus retreat in the same city Sept. 9-11.It's an unusual convergence of politicians from parties whose overtures have been steadfastly spurned by Albertans. And it's a sign that the political tides in the stolidly Conservative province may finally be shifting, propelled by the creation of six new primarily urban ridings, redrawn boundaries for existing ridings and the retirement of a number of Tory incumbents."People fundamentally misunderstand Alberta politics," says Stephen Carter, who masterminded the winning come-from-behind campaigns of Calgary's superstar mayor, Naheed Nenshi, and former Progressive Conservative premier Alison Redford by playing up their moderate, progressive credentials."They assume that we are redneck, right-wing, crazy-assed voters ... The reality is that 60 per cent of Albertans feel they are on the progressive side, not the Conservative side."Carter contends that Albertans wind up voting Conservative en masse not for ideological reasons but because the Liberal party invariably "throws us under the bus," pandering to voters in central Canada, which accounts for 60 per cent of the seats in the House of Commons, at the expense of Alberta, which accounts for a measly 10 per cent.On that score, Trudeau's father, Pierre, is often fingered as the worst offender, having turned the province into a wasteland for the Grits after introducing the reviled national energy program in 1980. In reality, the province has been pretty much a Liberal desert almost from the moment it entered Confederation in 1905.Not since 1911 have Liberals managed to capture a majority of the province's seats. Since then, the best they could muster was seven of 17 seats — and that was way back in 1940. In the past 60 years, they've won no more than four Alberta seats and frequently wound up with none, as they did in 2011.The NDP's record is even more dismal. It has been entirely shut out in every election but three and has never won more than one seat in the province.But with 34 seats in play for the next election in 2015 and Stephen Harper's Conservative government nearing the 10-year mark — typically the best-before date for governments in Canada — both opposition parties sense an opportunity to finally break the Tory stranglehold on Alberta.The Liberals believe they can win as many as six inner city ridings in Calgary and Edmonton, with an outside chance at snagging Fort McMurray, the oilsands heartland where the party came a strong second in a June 30 byelection, running under boundaries that will no longer exist in 2015.An indication of the party's improved fortunes can be gleaned from the high-profile candidates who have stepped forward to carry the federal Liberal banner in the province, such as popular former MLAs Kent Hehr and Darshan Kang in Calgary.
Anne McLellan, a former Liberal cabinet minister who held down the riding of Edmonton Centre from 1993 to 2006, notes that her old riding now boasts more than 800 members, almost 500 of whom turned out recently for a hotly contested nomination, won by franco-Albertan entrepreneur Randy Boissonnault.She credits the creation of new inner-city ridings, fatigue with the "bullying" style of Harper's government and the appeal of Trudeau's more sunny approach to politics for the Liberals' newfound optimism."When people decide it's time for a change, there's nothing an incumbent party can do about that," she says. "I'm not saying the tipping point is there yet but I think it's getting close."Edmonton-Strathcona MP Linda Duncan, the NDP's sole representative in the province, is equally bullish on her party's chances.With Albertans seemingly prepared to jettison the Progressive Conservative dynasty that has ruled the province for more than four decades, Duncan predicts the NDP will emerge as the alternative to the ascendant Wild Rose provincially and that will have a spillover effect on federal New Democrats in the province."In the last federal election, we came second in almost every riding ... including rural," she says.The opportunities are "very good," Duncan says, particularly in Edmonton where a recent poll put the provincial NDP at the head of the pack. Still, she acknowledges it's "never easy" in Alberta.Carter, who helped out on Martha Hall Findlay's rival bid for the Liberal leadership against Trudeau, scoffs at Duncan's optimism. He believes the NDP can likely hang on to Duncan's seat but won't make any gains due to the hard line Mulcair has adopted against the pipelines desperately needed to get Alberta's oil sands bitumen to off-shore markets.And pipelines could yet kill the Liberals' chances as well, Carter warns.Trudeau has taken a softer line than Mulcair on pipelines, enthusiastically endorsing the proposed Keystone XL pipeline to the U.S. Gulf coast. Like Mulcair, he is adamantly opposed to the proposed Northern Gateway pipeline to Kitimat, British Columbia, but he's willing to consider the Kinder Morgan trans-mountain pipeline to Burnaby, B.C., provided it passes environmental muster and gets buy-in from First Nations and other effected communities.Trudeau's mushy, mixed message on pipelines amounts, in Carter's view, to little more than "lip service" to the importance of getting Alberta's oil and gas to market.If Liberals want to win the half-dozen seats Carter believes are ripe for the picking, he says they'll "have to try and find a way to run a national campaign without disadvantaging Alberta." Given their past history, he's skeptical.However, Duncan, an environmental lawyer before jumping into politics who has championed the need for a strong federal role in environmental reviews of energy projects, disputes the notion that a party's fate in Alberta depends on its position on pipelines. That is not all Albertans care about, she insists. They also care about developing the oilsands in an environmentally sustainable way and about the impact of pipelines on their communities."If that were not the case, I would not have been elected (in 2008) and re-elected with a substantially larger margin (in 2011)."Follow @jmbryden on Twitter
Ukraine separatist leader says rebels getting tanks and reinforcements-Reuters-By Thomas Grove-AUG 16,14-YAHOONEWS
DONETSK Ukraine (Reuters) - Ukrainian rebels are receiving new armoured vehicles and fighters trained in Russia, with which they plan to launch a major counter-offensive against government forces, a separatist leader said in a video released on Saturday.The four-month conflict in eastern Ukraine has reached a critical phase, with Kiev and Western governments watching nervously to see if Russia will intervene in support of the increasingly besieged rebels - an intention Moscow denies.Alexander Zakharchenko, prime minister of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic, said the rebels were in the process of receiving some 150 armoured vehicles, including 30 tanks, and 1,200 fighters who he said had spent four months training in Russia."They are joining at the most crucial moment," he said in a video recorded on Friday. He did not specify where the vehicles would come from.Moscow has come under heavy Western sanctions over its annexation of Ukraine's Crimea and accusations it is supporting separatists in east Ukraine with fighters, arms and funds. Russia denies those charges.In a sign of concern at the latest rebel comments, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko agreed in a phone call on Saturday that deliveries of weapons to separatists in Ukraine must stop and a ceasefire must be achieved, a German government spokesman said.The risk of outright war between the two most powerful former Soviet states was highlighted on Friday when Ukraine said it partially destroyed an armoured column that had crossed the border from Russia. The report triggered a sell-off in global shares.But Moscow made no threat of retaliation, instead saying it was a "fantasy" that its armoured vehicles had entered its neighbour's territory. U.S. Vice President Joe Biden also spoke to Poroshenko on Saturday, and the White House said: "The two leaders agreed that Russia's sending military columns across the border into Ukraine and its continued provision of advanced weapons to the separatists was inconsistent with any desire to improve the humanitarian situation in eastern Ukraine."Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin called on NATO to provide military support for Ukrainian troops.The rebels, who have ceded ground to government forces in recent weeks, have been promising a counter-offensive for several days but have yet to launch one.Ukrainian native Zakharchenko took over from Russian citizen Alexander Borodai last week and his combative comments will probably dash hopes that changes at the top of the rebel leadership might signal willingness to end hostilities.
CONVOY WAITS
Adding to the tensions, Russia and Ukraine have been at loggerheads for days over a convoy of 280 Russian trucks carrying water, food and medicine, which remained about 20 km (12 miles) from the Ukrainian border, unmoved since Friday.Officials from the International Committee of the Red Cross said most procedures had been agreed by Russia and Ukraine but the two sides still needed to figure out how to provide security before the convoy moves ahead under the ICRC's aegis. It was not clear when a deal on security could be agreed.Russia says it is a purely humanitarian mission in support of civilians in areas hit by the conflict, but Ukraine is concerned it could serve as a Trojan Horse to infiltrate military supplies or create a pretext for armed intervention.The crisis has dragged relations between Russia and the West to their lowest point since the Cold War and set off a round of trade restrictions that are hurting struggling economies in both Russia and Europe. The United Nations said this week that an estimated 2,086 people had been killed, with nearly 5,000 wounded.The Finnish President, Sauli Niinisto, held talks in Kiev with Poroshenko, a day after discussing how to settle the crisis with Russian President Vladimir Putin."I do not see a great risk of an outright war," Niinisto said. "My hopefulness is based on the fact that communication is open, at least by a crack."France said a meeting of Ukrainian, Russian, German and French foreign ministers scheduled in Berlin on Sunday could be a first step towards a peace summit.A rebel Internet news outlet said on Saturday that separatist fighters had killed 30 members of a Ukrainian government battalion in fighting in Luhansk province, a rebel-held area of eastern Ukraine adjacent to the Russian border.A Ukrainian military spokesman, Andriy Lysenko, contradicted the rebel assertions. He said three Ukrainian servicemen had been killed over the past 24 hours. Ukrainian security forces had spotted Russian drones and a helicopter crossing illegally into Ukraine's airspace, Lysenko told a news briefing.He denied Kiev's forces were firing artillery on Donetsk, one of two rebel strongholds in the east, where a Reuters reporter said explosions were audible in the city centre on Saturday. The Donetsk city administration said four people were killed in shelling that destroyed homes and set several buildings on fire.
MOMENTUM WITH THE ARMY
The momentum on the ground is with the Ukrainian forces, who have pushed the separatists out of large swathes of territory and nearly encircled them in Donetsk and Luhansk. Kiev says it now controls the road linking the two cities.Russia says the Ukrainian offensive is causing a humanitarian catastrophe for the civilian population in the two cities. It accuses Kiev's forces of indiscriminately using heavy weapons in residential areas, an allegation Ukraine denies.In the past week, three senior rebel leaders have been removed from their posts, pointing to mounting disagreement over how to turn the tide of the fighting back in their favour. Lysenko, the Ukrainian military spokesman, said he had reports of rebel fighters abandoning their posts in Luhansk, and preparing to leave Donetsk and seek safe haven in Russia."A mood of panic is spreading and rebels are trying to leave through the small gaps that remain," he said.In Donetsk, the red, blue and black flag of separatists was flying on a pole in front of the headquarters. Ten people armed with Kalashnikov rifles were standing on guard outside the main entrance in mismatched camouflage."Why should we flee? People are still coming and filling our ranks. Those who have lost their houses to Ukrainian shelling, what else would they do but fight back?," said a fighter who gave his name as Communist.(Additional reporting by Natalia Zinets and Alessandra Prentice in Kiev and Jason Bush in Moscow; writing by Christian Lowe and Dmitry Zhdannikov; editing by Mark Trevelyan)
Ukraine says its troops make breakthrough in rebel stronghold-Reuters-By Natalia Zinets and Thomas Grove -AUG 17,14-YAHOONEWS
KIEV/DONETSK Ukraine (Reuters) - Ukrainian forces have raised their national flag over a police station in the city of Luhansk that was for months under rebel control, Kiev said on Sunday, in what could be a breakthrough in Ukraine's efforts to crush pro-Moscow separatists.Ukrainian officials said, however, the rebels were fighting a desperate rearguard action to hold on to Luhansk - which is their supply route into neighbouring Russia - and that the flow of weapons and fighters from Russia had accelerated.The foreign ministers of Ukraine, Russia, France and Germany held a meeting in Berlin on the crisis, with German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier saying afterwards they would report back to their leaders and possibly agree on Monday or Tuesday on how to continue talks."The aim remains to bring about a ceasefire in Ukraine and to prevent future victims," Steinmeier said.“It was a difficult discussion but I believe and I hope that we made progress on some points,” he told reporters.Russia denies helping the rebels and accuses Kiev, backed by the West, of triggering a humanitarian crisis through indiscriminate use of force against Russian speakers in eastern Ukraine who reject the Ukrainian government's rule.Andriy Lysenko, a Ukrainian military spokesman, said government forces fought separatists in Luhansk on Saturday and took control of the Zhovtneviy neighbourhood police station."They raised the state flag over it," Lysenko said.Separatist officials in Luhansk could not be reached by telephone, and a separatist spokeswoman in Donetsk, the other rebel strong-hold, said she had no information about Luhansk.A photograph posted on Twitter appeared to show a Ukrainian flag on the front of the police station, but it could not be independently verified. If confirmed, the taking of the police station is significant because Luhansk has for several months been a rebel redoubt where Kiev's writ has not run. Separatists still control sections of the border linking Luhansk region to Russia.Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko announced another military success, saying his forces had recaptured a railway junction at Yasynuvata, north of Donetsk, which he said had "strategic significance”.
CRITICAL PHASE
The four-month-old conflict in Ukraine's Russian-speaking east has reached a critical phase, with Kiev and Western governments watching nervously to see if Russia will intervene in support of the increasingly besieged rebels.The rebels responded with defiant rhetoric and fighting.Ukrainian authorities said on Sunday the separatists shot down a Ukrainian warplane.On Saturday, Alexander Zakharchenko, prime minister of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic, said rebels were in the process of receiving some 150 armoured vehicles, including 30 tanks, and 1,200 fighters trained in Russia. He said they planned to launch a major counter-offensive."They are joining at the most crucial moment," he said in a video recorded on Friday.The assertion that the fighters were trained in Russia is awkward for Moscow, which has repeatedly denied allegations from Kiev and its Western allies that it is providing material support to separatist fighters."We have repeatedly said that we don't supply any equipment there," said Dmitry Peskov, spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin.
CONVOY
The Ukraine crisis has dragged relations between Russia and the West to their lowest point since the Cold War and set off a round of trade restrictions that are hurting struggling economies in both Russia and Europe.Adding to the tensions, Russia and Ukraine have been at loggerheads for days over a convoy of 280 Russian trucks carrying water, food and medicine.It was despatched by Moscow bound for eastern Ukraine but has been parked up for several days in Russia near the border.Kiev has said the convoy could be a Trojan Horse for Russia to get weapons to the rebels, a notion that Moscow has dismissed as absurd. It said the aid is desperately needed by civilians left without water and power and under constant bombardment from the Ukrainian advance.After days of wrangling between Kiev and Moscow, there were signs of movement on Sunday.Sixteen trucks separated from the main convoy and drove into a Russian bus depot near a border crossing into Ukraine, a Reuters cameraman said from the scene.The International Committee of the Red Cross said that Russian and Ukrainian officials had agreed that the cargo could be inspected but had yet to agree on security arrangements.
REBEL ROUT?
Ukrainian officials have painted a picture of a separatist force that is on the run and starting to panic - though rebel fighters Reuters reporters have spoken to in Donetsk say they are determined to stand firm.In the past week, three senior rebel leaders have been removed from their posts, pointing to mounting disagreement over how to turn the tide of the fighting back in their favour.The fighting has taken a heavy human toll.The United Nations said this month that an estimated 2,086 people, including civilians and combatants, had been killed in the conflict. That figure nearly doubled since the end of July, when Ukrainian forces stepped up their offensive.In Donetsk, which like Luhansk is now ringed by Kiev's forces, artillery fire has struck apartment buildings, killing and wounding residents, according to Reuters reporters. Officials in Kiev deny they are firing heavy weapons at residential areas.(Additional reporting by Michelle Martin and Gernot Heller in Berlin; Writing by Richard Balmforth, Christian Lowe and Dmitry Zhdannikov; Editing by Ralph Boulton, Andrew Roche, Peter Cooney and Eric Walsh)
Israel to Stop Exports of 'Settlement Products' to EU-Israel will end its export of poultry and dairy produce from communities beyond the Green Line, in keeping in line with EU directives.-By Elad Benari-First Publish: 8/18/2014, 1:12 AM-ISRAELNATIONALNEWS
Israel will end its export of poultry and dairy produce to the European Union from Jewish communities beyond the Green Line, Israeli and European officials said on Sunday, according to AFP.The restrictions stem from directives issued by the European Commission in February and affect chicken and milk products from communities in eastern Jerusalem, the Golan Heights and Judea and Samaria."In keeping with previous decisions, the EU no longer recognized the authority of the veterinary inspections services of Israel to approve the export of poultry and (dairy products), the origin of which are in settlements," a European official told AFP.The official said that during discussions over implementation of the directives, the "Israelis were asked to put in place a system of distinguishing between the origins of dairy products and poultry.""If that is put in place that won't affect poultry and dairy products exported from Israel," the official said, noting the new directives would be effective from September 1.An Israeli official involved in the affair told AFP that the agriculture ministry had recently issued directives to poultry and dairy manufacturers to "prepare for the EU decision and separate manufacturing lines, to enable the continued export to the Europe" without including products from “settlements”.The official said that Israeli export of products from areas beyond the Green Line to Europe was not significant and catered mainly for Jews who observe religious dietary laws and eat kosher food.Months ago, the EU published new guidelines which boycott Israeli entities operating beyond the 1949 Armistice Lines. This caused tension between the EU and Israel, which warned that it might shun a key EU research program unless a compromise is found over the boycotting guidelines.An Israeli official slammed the move as a European way to bypass problematic legislation that would single out the Jewish state."The EU has for a long time tried to find ways to mark settlement produce, or even prevent its import to Europe, but failed to accomplish such regulation since it's legally problematic, and also involves breaching trade agreements," the official told AFP.The EU, the official added, doesn't want to impose any universal regulations on products from "disputed areas" such as Cyprus, Western Sahara or Kosovo.So instead it used the European Commission, which is a bureaucratic body, to enforce a political stance against Israel, he said.Plans to label “settlement products” have been in the works for more than a year, when the EU formally recommended that Israeli activity in Judea and Samaria be “prevented” through an economic boycott of Jewish industry in those regions. Such a move would affect tens of thousands of Palestinian Arabs who are employed in Jewish-owned industry in the area.EU foreign ministers, including Britain’s William Hague and Laurent Fabius of France, indicated at one point they would back the labeling initiative, but it was later reported that the plans were postponed after U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry intervened.
FIRES AND EXPLOSIONS
REVELATION 8:7
7 The first angel sounded, and there followed hail and fire mingled with blood, and they were cast upon the earth: and the third part of trees was burnt up, and all green grass was burnt up.
Banff seeing 'unprecedented' wildlife incidents, says ecologist-CBC –AUG 17,14-YAHOONEWS
There have been an "unprecedented" number of wildlife incidents in Banff National Park this year, says a wildlife ecologist.Staff have dealt with more than 1,000 encounters, ranging from bears looking for food in tents and bluff-charging hikers, to people encountering elk in the town site. Part of the problem could lie in the late spring thaw."A large part of those probably are bear incidents and we know that this year in particular, the snow really persisted for quite a long time in the spring and into the summer at higher elevations," said David Gummer, a wildlife ecologist at the park. "We did see bears congregating in the low-lying valley bottoms, where we also have a lot more activity from people, so that probably accounts for a large part of the increase."Gummer says there are also a lot of young bears trying to mark out territory for themselves and are ending up in areas closer to humans.In comparison to previous years, Gummer says the wildlife encounters in 2014 have been 33 per cent more frequent.Park staff are still working to manage all of the calls that come in, but he says people need to remember to obey wildlife warnings or closure signs and keep a watch out for animals.There have been no injuries to people from bears in Banff National Park this year.Gummer says bears will likely be coming back down to lower areas in search of berries and food before heading into hibernation.He says so far, park staff have noticed the berry crops are not as abundant as past years.That means bears will likely have to search far and wide for food sources.
EARTHQUAKES
ISAIAH 42:15
15 I will make waste mountains and hills, and dry up all their herbs; and I will make the rivers islands, and I will dry up the pools.
MATTHEW 24:7-8
7 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.
8 All these are the beginning of sorrows.
MARK 13:8
8 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom:(ETHNIC GROUP AGAINST ETHNIC GROUP) and there shall be earthquakes in divers places, and there shall be famines and troubles: these are the beginnings of sorrows.
LUKE 21:11
11 And great earthquakes shall be in divers places,(DIFFERNT PLACES AT THE SAME TIME) and famines, and pestilences; and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven.
1 Day, Magnitude 2.5+ Worldwide
28 earthquakes - DownloadUpdated: 2014-08-17 20:06:41 UTC-04:00Showing event times using Local System Time (UTC-04:00)28 earthquakes in map area
2.9 24km SSW of Esperanza, Puerto Rico 2014-08-17 19:05:15 UTC-04:00 12.0 km
3.2 7km SSW of Alberto Oviedo Mota, Mexico 2014-08-17 18:59:09 UTC-04:00 26.9 km
4.6 141km S of Krajan Tambakrejo, Indonesia 2014-08-17 16:15:14 UTC-04:00 51.9 km
4.0 24km WNW of Iquique, Chile 2014-08-17 14:30:27 UTC-04:00 28.2 km
4.8 139km E of Iwaki, Japan 2014-08-17 14:15:55 UTC-04:00 24.1 km
2.7 23km W of Amukta Island, Alaska 2014-08-17 13:58:55 UTC-04:00 11.5 km
2.6 1km SE of Cherokee, Oklahoma 2014-08-17 12:50:07 UTC-04:00 4.9 km
3.1 13km WNW of Medford, Oklahoma 2014-08-17 12:35:07 UTC-04:00 5.0 km
5.2 Mid-Indian Ridge 2014-08-17 12:04:48 UTC-04:00 10.0 km
2.8 58km SW of Valdez, Alaska 2014-08-17 12:04:16 UTC-04:00 13.3 km
3.4 13km WNW of Medford, Oklahoma 2014-08-17 11:59:05 UTC-04:00 5.0 km
5.0 42km E of Dehloran, Iran 2014-08-17 10:47:19 UTC-04:00 10.0 km
3.5 88km WSW of Buldir Island, Alaska 2014-08-17 10:41:01 UTC-04:00 48.4 km
3.0 4km ESE of Perry, Oklahoma 2014-08-17 09:43:31 UTC-04:00 2.2 km
4.8 48km E of Dehloran, Iran 2014-08-17 07:24:16 UTC-04:00 10.0 km
4.3 82km E of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatskiy, Russia 2014-08-17 06:07:20 UTC-04:00 59.0 km
4.7 13km ESE of Xiluodu, China 2014-08-17 05:11:45 UTC-04:00 10.0 km
4.3 13km S of Xiluodu, China 2014-08-17 04:45:52 UTC-04:00 10.0 km
4.3 16km SSW of Ashkasham, Afghanistan 2014-08-17 04:30:49 UTC-04:00 72.1 km
4.7 54km WSW of Bulolo, Papua New Guinea 2014-08-17 03:56:34 UTC-04:00 47.6 km
2.7 9km WNW of Medford, Oklahoma 2014-08-17 03:28:37 UTC-04:00 4.3 km
3.5 9km WNW of Medford, Oklahoma 2014-08-17 02:31:10 UTC-04:00 5.4 km
3.1 87km NNE of Road Town, British Virgin Islands 2014-08-17 02:23:55 UTC-04:00 24.0 km
3.8 9km WNW of Medford, Oklahoma 2014-08-17 02:18:43 UTC-04:00 5.5 km
2.8 26km ENE of Honaunau-Napoopoo, Hawaii 2014-08-17 00:28:48 UTC-04:00 19.6 km
2.6 2km ESE of Berkeley, California 2014-08-16 22:41:24 UTC-04:00 10.4 km
5.3 165km N of Dili, East Timor 2014-08-16 22:38:26 UTC-04:00 488.1 km
3.0 14km SW of Medford, Oklahoma 2014-08-16 22:13:43 UTC-04:00 5.0 km