1-EARTHQUAKE JOLTS THE PHILIPPINES. 2-Four quakes, 591 aftershocks rock Luzon. 3-Hurricane Paul strengthens on way to Mexico. 4-Dozens flooded out of homes in Texas. 5-California faces fire warnings. 6-Canada: We won’t remain neutral as Israel battles extremists. 7-Lieberman Cedes Demands in Favor of National Responsibility. 8-PA Educational Campaign to Detach Jews from Jerusalem. 9-Feeling of Europeanness on the rise, study says. 10-5.5 tons of narcotic drugs seized throughout Iran in past week. 11-Persecution is Coming to the West. 12-Russian ship sinks, 18-member crew missing.
EARTHQUAKES
MATTHEW 24:7-8
7 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.
8 All these are the beginning of sorrows.
MARK 13:8
8 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom:(ETHNIC GROUP AGAINST ETHNIC GROUP) and there shall be earthquakes in divers places, and there shall be famines and troubles: these are the beginnings of sorrows.
LUKE 21:11
11 And great earthquakes shall be in divers places, and famines, and pestilences; and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven.
EARTHQUAKE JOLTS THE PHILIPPINES
date: 22 10, 2006
MANILA, OCT. 22, (BNA)--AN EARTHQUAKE MEASURING 4. 7 DEGREES ON RICHTER SCALE STRUCK MANY PARTS OF THE PHILIPPINES TODAY. NO HUMAN OR FINANCIAL LOSSES WERE REPORTED. THE EARTHQUAKES EPICENTER WAS LOCATED NORTH-WEST OF BOAC TOWN IN THE CENTRAL PROVINCE OF MARINDUQUE IN CENTRAL PHILIPPINES, THE PHILIPPINE INSTITUTE OF VOLCANOLOGY AND SEISMOLOGY SAID. PEOPLE IN MANY PROVINCES IN SOUTHERN MANILA FELT THE TREMOR MEASURING 2 TO 3 DEGREES ON RICHTER SCALE. IT IS TO NOTE THAT THE PHILIPPINES, WHICH IS PART OF THE SO CALLED CIRCLE OF FIRE STRETCHING AROUND THE PACIFIC OCEAN, IS SUBJECT TO AROUND 10 EARTHQUAKES ON DAILY BASIS. HOWEVER, ONLY FEW ARE FELT. THE WORST TREMOR THAT EVER HIT THE PHILIPPINES WAS IN 1990 WHICH MEASURED 7. 7 DEGREES ON RICHTER SCALE AND KILLED 2000 PEOPLE ON SOUTHERN LUZON ISLAND. AOQ/ MT
Four quakes, 591 aftershocks rock Luzon
FOUR moderate earthquakes hit the Philippines on Friday up to yesterday, triggering 591 aftershocks but causing hardly any damage, seismologists said. According to the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology, the first earthquake was recorded at a magnitude of 5.2 on Friday. The following day, a 3.7-magnitude earthquake hit followed by another with a magnitude of 4.7.
The institute recorded the last major earthquake at a magnitude of 5.7 yesterday, the strongest of the four. The earthquake struck at 2:23 a.m., and scientists located its epicenter off the northeast coast of the island of Mindoro. Neither the institute nor the US Geological Survey had any immediate reports of any damage or casualties as a result of the earthquakes or the aftershocks that were recorded in between them.
Institute Director Renato Solidum told Standard Today that the last earthquake was not strong enough to cause a tsunami, although the tremor originated under the sea. He said Sunday’s quake came from a 10-km depth in the Lubang Fault and was tectonic in origin. The earthquakes were felt in Marinduque, Oriental Mindoro, Quezon, Batangas and Metro Manila. The Philippines is located in the so-called Ring of Fire, where volcanic activities and earthquakes are common. The last major quake, with a magnitude of more than 7 on the Richter scale, struck Luzon in July 1990, leaving thousands dead and causing billions in property damage. AP, AFP, Jaime Pilapil
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.
Hurricane Paul strengthens on way to Mexico By Greg Brosnan
13 minutes ago
MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Hurricane Paul strengthened as it swept across the Pacific Ocean on Monday toward a beach resort on Mexico's Baja California peninsula and key farming areas on the mainland barely recovering from a battering last month.
The Miami-based National Hurricane Center said the hurricane, a category 2 on a five-step scale, was gaining force. It could become a powerful category 3 storm later in the day, capable of blowing down large trees and destroying mobile homes.Paul was located 455 miles south of Cabo San Lucas, one of two towns that together make up Los Cabos, an exclusive resort popular with U.S. golfers and other tourists. It was expected to pick up forward speed.Forecasters said Paul would pass near the resort sometime on Wednesday before crashing into the Mexican mainland.The Mexican government issued a hurricane watch for the southern tip of Baja California, which extends south from the U.S. state of California.Vacationers in Los Cabos, mostly U.S. visitors, were concerned but there were no evacuations.The guests are asking about it, but for now we're telling them we don't have any solid information and that the weather is very unpredictable,said Patricia Salbana, a receptionist at the Fiesta Americana Grand hotel in Los Cabos.
It might change direction, said Omar Muro, a spokesman at the nearby Inter Continental hotel. We don't want to give guests a false alarm.The state of Sinaloa, which took a hit from Hurricane Lane in September, was in the path of the latest storm. Lane missed Los Cabos before crashing into Sinaloa on Mexico's Pacific Coast, leaving a path of destruction that killed three.Paul could even throw a curveball at central bank economists in Mexico City if it destroys crops in Sinaloa, creating food shortages and pushing up inflation.Lane devastated key tomato crops in Sinaloa. That helped pushed September's inflation to its highest monthly rate in six years.If it hit there, inflation could continue to be impacted,said Mario Correa, an economist at Scotiabank Inverlat.
Farmers in the state were keeping a close eye on the storm.Obviously people are really alarmed,said Manuel Ortiz, a meteorologist at the Confederation of Agricultural Associations of Sinaloa state.(Additional reporting by Jason Lange and Gunther Hamm)
Dozens flooded out of homes in Texas 2 hours, 59 minutes ago
VIDOR, Texas - Floodwater surrounded dozens of homes and FEMA trailers in Southeast Texas on Monday after heavy rain sent the Neches River spilling over its banks.
The river was about 8 feet above flood stage Monday and was expected to remain at that level through Thursday, said Jeff Kelley, Orange County emergency management coordinator.Kelley estimated about 40 homes had been destroyed.The damage varied home to home because some had been built on stilts while others sit at ground level. In some cases, water was up to the roof lines. The area had been hit hard by Hurricane Rita last year, and Kelley said a number of Federal Emergency Management Agency trailers were still in the area. The flooding, from water flowing down stream after last week's heavy rain, damaged homes in the communities of Lakeview, Connely Road and Four Oaks Ranch Road north of Vidor, about 90 miles east of Houston.All Interstate
10 ramps between Beaumont and Vidor were closed, he said.
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.
California faces fire warnings
OAKLAND, Calif., Oct. 22 (UPI) The National Weather Service has issued fire danger warnings for several counties in northern California, the Oakland Tribune reported. The warning was spurred by a combination of gusty winds, low humidity and a series of power outages. High temperatures were also said to be adding to the threat. The Tribune reported that firefighters in Oakland and Contra Costa County were called to several small grass fires. Although the National Weather Service lifted its red flag warning for the East Bay hills late Saturday afternoon, many firefighters and weather authorities remain wary, the newspaper said.
COUNTRIES WITH ISRAEL
EZEKIEL 38:10-19
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.
13 Sheba, and Dedan,(SAUDIA ARABIA) and the merchants of Tarshish,(ENGLAND) with all the young lions thereof,(USA,CANADA,AUSTRALIA,NEW ZEALAND,EU,ENGLISH SPEAKING shall say unto thee, Art thou come to take a spoil? hast thou gathered thy company to take a prey? to carry away silver and gold, to take away cattle and goods, to take a great spoil?
14 Therefore, son of man, prophesy and say unto Gog, Thus saith the Lord GOD; In that day when my people of Israel dwelleth safely, shalt thou not know it?
15 And thou shalt come from thy place out of the north parts, thou, and many people with thee, all of them riding upon horses, a great company, and a mighty army:
16 And thou shalt come up against my people of Israel, as a cloud to cover the land; it shall be in the latter days, and I will bring thee against my land, that the heathen may know me, when I shall be sanctified in thee, O Gog, before their eyes.
17 Thus saith the Lord GOD; Art thou he of whom I have spoken in old time by my servants the prophets of Israel, which prophesied in those days many years that I would bring thee against them?
18 And it shall come to pass at the same time when Gog shall come against the land of Israel, saith the Lord GOD, that my fury shall come up in my face.
19 For in my jealousy and in the fire of my wrath have I spoken, Surely in that day there shall be a great shaking in the land of Israel
Canada: We won’t remain neutral as Israel battles extremists
Ynetnews
Week after Liberal party candidate accuses Israel of war crimes, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper shows unequivocal support for Israel. Harper: When dealing with war between Israel and terrorist organization, this country cannot and will never be neutral.Canada won’t remain neutral while Israel is fighting to defend itself against extremists, promised Candian Prime Minister Stephen Harper in a speech Wednesday to the Jewish community of Toronto. He emphasized that Israel will enjoy full support and friendship from the Canadian government.
When it comes to dealing with a war between Israel and a terrorist organization, this country and this government cannot and will never be neutral,said Harper. Those who seek to destroy the Jews, who seek to destroy Israel, will ultimately seek to destroy us all.
It is why Canada’s new government has reacted with speed and spoken with clarity on the recent events in the Middle East. Political Upheaval Israel war crime charge roils Canada politics / Reuters Leading candidate to head Canada’s opposition Liberal Party says Israel committed war crime when it bombarded Lebanese village of Qana in July Harper was one of the first to show support for Israel last July when the IDF went to war in southern Lebanon.
During the war he even spoke with his Israeli counterpart Ehud Olmert and expressed his support for action against Hizbullah.Alongside his support of Israel, Harper emphasized that the Palestinians also deserve a fair and just future and that he hopes a two-state solution can be found so that Israelis and Palestinian can live in peace alongside one another.
Issues of human dignity, of giving people the opportunity to build their community, to realize their own dreams as long as they respect the rights and dignity of others are values we also share, Harper added in regards to the relationship between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.
One week ago
Harper’s warm statements came a week after the leading candidate for the Liberal party in Canada, Michael Ignatieff, accused Israel of committing war crimes in Lebanon. Ignatieff, a human rights activist, has sparked a political storm in Canada after claiming that the IDF bombing of the village of Qana was a war crime.
Ignatieff’s comments were criticized by Harper, who said that Liberal party
leadership candidates are anti-Israel.Ignatieff denied Harper’s claims and said that he sees himself as a lifelong friend of Israel and that there is no basis for Harper’s accusations that the Liberal party is anti-Semitic.Wednesday, the organization Canada-Israel, who had invited Ignatieff for a visit to Jerusalem, decided to cancel the planned trip. We decided to wait until the political storm
subsides, said Canada-Israel National Chair Marc Gold.These kinds of visits are of an educational nature. There goal is to expose parliament members to a wide range of issues. There is no doubt that this objective won’t be achieved if everyone focuses on who said what,he added.
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)
Lieberman Cedes Demands in Favor of National Responsibility
By Hillel Fendel(INN)
MK Avigdor Lieberman (Yisrael Beiteinu) says he hopes to complete negotiations for his entry into the government this week. Party MKs say national responsibility overrides their original demands. Lieberman met with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert this afternoon, in a meeting to summarize the principles of the Yisrael Beiteinu (Israel Our Home) party into the coalition. Technical details still need to be ironed out, Olmert said afterwards, but announced that Lieberman would serve as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Strategic Threats.The way was paved for the party's entry into the coalition after the Cabinet voted narrowly yesterday to approve Lieberman's proposed legislation for a change in the country's political system. At least one minister Rafi Eitan (Pensioners) voted for the plan merely to enable Lieberman's party to enter and thus strengthen the coalition; Eitan explained that he actually objects to the proposed legislation, but voted for it because he is confident that it has no chance of passing in the Knesset.
Lieberman just last week named five conditions that must be fulfilled before he would enter the government yet none of them appear to be likely to be fulfilled. The conditions were:
* An official end to Prime Minister Olmert's convergence (unilateral withdrawal) plan must be announced.
* Jewish outpost neighborhoods in Judea and Samaria must not be uprooted.
* Legislation must be passed to change the government system to a presidential one.
* A Supreme Court-appointed public commission of inquiry to investigate the mismanagement of the recent war with Hizbullah must be established, in place of the current Winograd Commission, appointed by the same ministers it is supposed to investigate.
* Civil marriages must be allowed.
Regarding the withdrawal, Olmert has announced that it is currently not on the agenda, but has not stated that it will not return to the agenda when conditions are ripe. Similarly, Defense Minister Amir Peretz has announced that he plans to uproot unauthorized outposts in Yesha, and has met with Yesha leaders on the topic.The legislation regarding the new political system is not felt to have a chance to pass in the Knesset, at least not the way it is currently formulated. Prime Minister Olmert has even said that he himself does not favor a changeover to a presidential system. The Yisrael Beiteinu bill also calls for a minimum electoral threshold of 10%, below which a political party cannot be represented; support for this clause in the Knesset is practically nil. The call for a state commission of inquiry into the war has basically dropped from public awareness, and the Shas Party a coalition member of equal size to Yisrael Beiteinu objects strongly to civil marriages.
Arutz-7 spoke today with MK Sofa Landver of Yisrael Beiteinu (Israel Our Home) and asked her why the party had given up on practically all its demands only a few days after declaring them. Our sense of national responsibility leads us to take this position, she said. In the special situation in which our country finds itself after the war in the north, where the state of affairs is still dangerous, and with the Iranian threats to destroy us we feel that this is the time to be inside the government and influence. Now is the time to strengthen the country.A-7: Do you mean strengthening the country, or the government?
Landver: It's been just a half-year since a new government and a new Knesset were elected, and now is not the time to topple the government. The country does not need new elections now.A-7: This appears to be a major turnabout for a party that is known to be right-wing not to want to topple a government coalition that is leftist-based! Landver: No, it's not a major turnabout. We have a responsibility towards the government and towards the country.A-7: "How is it that your party gave up on nearly all its demands of just a week ago?
Landver: We will be judged on whether this is true or not afterwards, not now.
A-7: Why are you accepting only one ministerial portfolio, when Shas which has 11 MKs, just like you has four? How will you be able to have an influence in such a manner? Landver: We don't think that now is the time to add more ministers to the government; this will be too heavy of a burden on the state's resources. We will be able to have an influence in any event.
Reactions on the Right
MK Esterina Tartman (Yisrael Beiteinu) invited the National Union/National Religious Party (NU/NRP) faction to join the coalition as well but the invitation was not well-received. NU/NRP Knesset Members commented as follows: MK Tzvi Hendel: This [Lieberman's entry] is a strange, not understandable move.MK Yitzchak Levy: Lieberman painted himself as very right-wing, and attracted many right-wing votes and now he will be there to allow Peretz to remove outposts.MK Nissan Slomiansky: What can he do in the government? Nothing. He didn't even save his party's honor by getting them an extra ministerial portfolio.MK Benny Elon: A childish move, as if he thinks that he can save the country all by himself, just by his own personal magic. He doesn't even need any other ministers from his party in the government!... I call either for Olmert to form a national unity government with Netanyahu and the Likud, or for Lieberman not to fall prey to this foolishness.
Lieberman met afterwards with the NU/NRP faction.
MK Rabbi Yitzchak Levy later told Arutz-7, He told us that the right-wing has not succeeded in stopping withdrawals and that a new methodology is needed. He hopes to influence from within the security cabinet, and said that now is not the time for new elections. But we told him that he is making a bitter mistake, that he will not be able to influence, and he will thus lose his position of leadership within the right-wing. We also said that he had caused harm to the unity of the right-wing camp, and that if he felt it was so important to join, he should have tried to enlist all of us to enter together.
MK Uri Ariel said, Israel Our Home has given up on its principles and is joining a left-wing government. It is irresponsible to try to save a government in which the public, the army and the simple soldiers have no confidence.
Labor Will Have to Swallow its Pride
Yisrael Beiteinu's imminent entry into the government is very awkward for Labor, whose party guidelines are opposite those of Lieberman's party in many aspects. Labor leader Amir Peretz has expressed strong opposition to sitting together with Yisrael Beiteinu, though other party leaders disagree. The Labor Knesset faction will debate the issue this afternoon. MK Orit Noked has proposed that Lieberman himself be invited to the meeting today and speak directly with the Labor MKs.Tourism Minister Yitzchak Herzog (Labor) said today that he agrees with Peretz in principle, but Labor has no choice but to remain in the government.He said that the country cannot now afford a coalition crisis that could lead to new elections. In response to the claim that Yisrael Beiteinu will not permit diplomatic progress towards an agreement with the Palestinian Authority which Lieberman and others see as another way of saying withdrawal and surrender Herzog said he believes that the diplomatic stance of Kadima and Labor will continue to lead.
MK Tartman: It's All About Iran
Lieberman is expected to receive a ministerial post created just for him: Minister for Strategic Threats, especially the Iranian threat.
His party colleague MK Esterina Tartman told Arutz-7's Hebrew newsmagazine that Lieberman's entry into the Cabinet will enable Israel to deal with the Iranian nuclear threat.Explaining the party's decision to enter the government, Tartman said, The party chairman [Lieberman] presented the situation and the dilemmas... Logic dictates one thing, while the butterflies in our stomach say something else, but in the end, almost everyone allowed logic to win out and said that despite all, we must enter the coalition... Our intention is not to save the government from falling, but to save the State of Israel from destruction... I suggest to the entire public to listen carefully to what our enemies, such as the Persian tyrant, are saying; they aren't joking, and we are truly in existential danger... Our sense of responsibility says that we need a leader that can make decisions.Tartman bitingly dismissed the Labor Party as weak and not united. Asked if she thinks Olmert would consult more with Lieberman or with Peretz, Tartman said, How can you compare a Rolls-Royce with a [jalopy]?
ISAIAH 17:1
1 The burden of Damascus. Behold, Damascus is taken away from being a city, and it shall be a ruinous heap.
PSALMS 83:3-7
3 They (ARABS,MUSLIMS) have taken crafty counsel against thy people,(ISRAEL) and consulted against thy hidden ones.
4 They have said, Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation; that the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance.
5 For they have consulted together with one consent: they are confederate against thee:(TREATIES)
6 The tabernacles of Edom,and the Ishmaelites;(ARABS) of Moab, and the Hagarenes;
7 Gebal, and Ammon,(JORDAN) and Amalek;(SYRIA) the Philistines (PALESTINIANS) with the inhabitants of Tyre;(LEBANON)
JOEL 2:20,30-31
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.
PA Educational Campaign to Detach Jews from Jerusalem
By Hillel Fendel(INN)
Palestinian Media Watch (PMW) reports on a PA campaign to teach its youngsters that Jews have no historical connection to Jerusalem or the Holy Land.
PMW, which carefully monitors the Palestinian Authority media for its messages of hatred and incitement against Jews and Israel, reports that the religious themes prevalent in the media during the holy Moslem month of Ramadan also include messages of anti-Israel violence.One significant message that has been strongly emphasized by repeated broadcasting of the same programs, write PMW's Itamar Marcus and Barbara Crook, is the denial of Israel’s right to exist. One program, which recently appeared on PA TV three times in the course of a single week, features Dr. Hassan Khader, founder of the Al Quds Encyclopedia, who argues that the Jews have no ancient historical connection to the Western Wall of the Temple.
Dr. Khader's lesson states: The first connection of the Jews to this site began in the 16th Century... The Jewish connection to this site is a recent connection not ancient… like the roots of the Islamic connection… Who would have believed that the Israelis would arrive 1400 years [after the beginning of Islam], conquer Jerusalem and make [the Western Wall] into their special place of worship, where they worship and pray? The PA scholar emphasizes that the real name of the Holy Jewish Temple's Western Wall is Al Buraq, after Muhammad’s horse which was tied to the wall. Khader teaches that the name was given by Allah and the Prophet Muhammed.Most significant, PMW reports, is that Khader has only praise for the violence and death the Palestinians have initiated to prevent Jews’ access to the Western Wall and Temple Mount, from the beginning of the 20th century until now.Similarly, Khader indicates that [the violence] will continue if Jews insist on their right to the Western Wall.
Marcus and Crook note that the Al-Aqsa mosque mentioned in the Koran was initially understood to mean heaven; it only took up its Jerusalem connotation after the Islamic conquest of Jerusalem. Sheikh Prof. Abdul Hadi Palazzi has written that the Koran recognizes Jerusalem as the Jewish direction of prayer.Despite this, TV viewers in the PA were taught this month that the Western Wall is the single wall from among the Al-Aqsa walls for which [a Moslem] revolution took place in the past century.
Everyone knows the Al-Buraq revolution that took place on August 23, 1929 [in which Arabs rioted around the country, murdering 133 Jews]... [Some may argue:] The Al-Buraq Wall is simply a small wall, a few meters long, a number of bricks, what is it worth? What we are interested in is the Al-Aqsa Mosque, and we can give it [the Wall] to the Jews, they have no [other] religious sites.This is a highly significant matter! This site currently represents the heart of the Arab-Israeli conflict. This is the most essential point in the Arab-Israeli conflict. No one can ignore it anymore. As we said, revolutions took place for the sake of [the Wall], and for its sake revolutions are still taking place today. The first revolution in the past century was named after Al-Buraq and Al-Aqsa, and the last revolution, the last Intifada, the Al-Aqsa Intifada, we are still living it until today.[PA TV, October 13, 2006]
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.(TR 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).
Feeling of Europeanness on the rise, study says
23.10.2006 - 09:28 CET | By Mark Beunderman
Despite gloomy analyses over the EU's failure to connect to its citizens, Europe's younger generations are increasingly feeling
European next to their national identities, according to a new study. In an article in the journal Science, published last Friday (20 October), a team of Austrian sociologists found that older generations of citizens who only feel attachment to their nation not to Europe are dying out.The sociologists studied the European Commission's Eurobarometer studies from 1996 to 2004, which contain the question whether respondents feel, for example, only Italian; Italian and European; European and Italian; or only European.
The answers of all respondents who said they had at least a partial sense of Europeanness where grouped under the heading of multiple identities and revealed that this group is on the rise while those who feel they only have a national identity are on the decline.In 2004, 58 percent of those surveyed had some sense of feeling European, a number which is set to rise to 68.5 percent by 2030 if the current trend continues, according to the study.
Media and student exchanges
We show that the younger generations ... of Europeans are more likely to have a European identity in addition to their national one. And since the younger citizens will eventually replace the older, more nationally-oriented ones, the European demos will likely change accordingly, the authors say in a statement. The sociologists said that the Europeanisation trend has a number of causes, including expanding media impact coming from and reporting about the European level, the increasing free movement of people across European borders either for tourism or work, the increasing number of students in university exchange programmes as well as the fast-growing day-to-day communication across borders.But they emphasized that the inclination to feel more European does not come at the expense of national identity.Contrary to common belief, the development of a European identity does not have to be accompanied by the decline of a national identity,they said.
Partial picture
But the results of the Austrian study may not boost the cause of the European Commission and MEPs who are seeking to re-connect to citizens, as the study only covers the period up until 2004.After that year, the union saw two failed referenda on the EU constitution in France and the Netherlands as well as increasing public hostility to further enlargement of the union. Perhaps more importantly, the study presents only a partial picture as it only covers the old EU of 15 member states before enlargement in May 2004.Within the EU-15, Luxembourgers were the most European, with a 78 percent average between 1996-2004 admitting they felt at least a partial sense of European identity.Italians came second at 72 percent, followed by the French (68%) and the Spanish (64%) while at the other end of the scale Swedes (45%), Finns (43%) and Britons (40%) felt less European.
DRUG PUSHERS AND ADDICTS
REVELATION 18:23
23 And the light of a candle shall shine no more at all in thee; and the voice of the bridegroom and of the bride shall be heard no more at all in thee: for thy merchants were the great men of the earth; for by thy sorceries (DRUGS) were all nations deceived.
REVELATION 9:21
21 Neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries (DRUGS), nor of their fornication,(Sex amoung Singles outside of Marriage) nor of their thefts.
5.5 tons of narcotic drugs seized throughout Iran in past week Tehran, Oct 23,
IRNA Iran-Drug-Seizure Anti-drug police squads seized 5.55 tons of various illicit drugs throughout the country in the past week (Oct 14-20), it was announced here Monday. Police 110 Commander Eskandar Mo'meni told IRNA the haul included 5.138 tons of opium, 317kg of hashish, 19.405kg of morphine and some 102.5kg of heroin. The police last week also rounded up 229 drug smugglers and 591 addicts who were handed over to judicial officials for prosecution, Mo'meni said. Iran, despite its unceasing anti-drug efforts, remains a key route for southwest Asian drugs on their way to lucrative markets in Europe and Persian Gulf countries. Domestic narcotics consumption continues to be a persistent problem with at least two million drug addicts in the country.
PERSECUSSION,BEHEADINGS
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.
Persecution is Coming to the West (Crosswalk.com)
Wolfgang Polzer - Concealed Affliction May Soon Turn Into Open Persecution
BLANKENBURG /Persecution is coming to the West.
Under the guise of tolerance, Bible believing Christians of all confessions are subjected to suppressive intolerance, warns a declaration issued at the Ecumenical Confessional Convention in Blankenburg, East Germany.The event, with 130 Protestant, Catholic and Orthodox representatives, was convened by the evangelical missiologist
Prof. Peter Beyerhaus. The so-called Blankenburg Proclamation speaks of a dangerous anti-Christian influence on legislation, academic life and school education.
Scientists who believe in God as the creator were subjected to public defamation. Christians, not willing to compromise their faith, had to face ridicule, intolerance, stigmatization and career obstacles.The declaration refers specifically to the plight of German homeschoolers. Approximately 150 families were subjected to fines or jail because they refused to send their children to state registered schools and thus broke the German law.According to the proclamation this concealed affliction may soon turn into open persecution. The threat could come from several directions from globalization favoring the formation of totalitarian regimes, from growing syncretism, and from Islam.Europe could be subjected to an enforced Islamization accompanied by the introduction of Sharia law. This danger was increased by the fact that the indigenous population is shrinking.The proclamation also makes reference to the correlation between faith and suffering. It was part of the nature of the Christian faith to endure disadvantages and persecution for Christ’s sake. The 20th century had been the bloodiest in church history.According to estimates by human rights organizations, 200 million Christians suffer discrimination for their faith.
Every year 170,000 Christians die a martyr’s death.
Wolfgang Polzer is senior news editor of the Evangelical News Agency idea, Wetzlar (Germany), which he joined in 1981. In all, he has spent 30 years in Christian media. Wolfgang can be contacted by e-mail at: Wolfgang.Polzer@idea.de.
1/3RD OF SHIPS DESTROYED
REVELATION 8:8-9
8 And the second angel sounded, and as it were a great mountain burning with fire was cast into the sea: and the third part of the sea became blood;
9 And the third part of the creatures which were in the sea, and had life, died; and the third part of the ships were destroyed.
IN THE SEA OF JAPAN
Russian ship sinks, 18-member crew missing
10/23/2006
The Sinegorye, carrying timber from Russia's Far East to China, sent an SOS earlier in the day. The captain said some of the cargo had broken loose in a storm and damaged the ship's hull.A Russian cargo ship sank on Monday in the Sea of Japan off South Korea's northeastern coast and the fate of its 18-strong crew was unknown, Russian news agencies and television quoted officials as saying.The Sinegorye, carrying timber from Russia's Far East to China, sent an SOS earlier in the day. The captain said some of the cargo had broken loose in a storm and damaged the ship's hull, agencies quoted Transport Ministry officials as saying.
The captain said the listing ship was drifting towards South Korea, after which all communication was lost. NTV, quoting a rescue service chief in Russia's Far Eastern port of Vladivostok, said the crew had not been in contact for 11 hours.Agencies quoted Transport Ministry officials as saying about 20 rescue vessels were on their way to the area.NTV cited preliminary information saying the ship was some 80 miles (128 km) off the Korean peninsula when the disaster happened. It said waves up to 7 metres (23 feet) high and nearly zero visibility hampered the search and rescue operation.It is late night here already, and the active phase of the operation will start tomorrow at dawn,NTV said.
Monday, October 23, 2006
Sunday, October 22, 2006
ISRAEL VOTES 12 TO 11 CHANGE GOVERNMENT
1-Tropical storm Paul heads for Mexico's Baja coas. 2-Storms, floods hit Greece for second time this week 3-A Strong Cold Sweeps the Nation. 4-Vatican calls for Catholics, Muslims to work together. 5-Fires caused by greenies. 6-Ahmadineyad: Israel was created to devour the mid eastern region. 7-Israel has no intention of attacking Iran-Peres. 8-11 rockets fired over past three days. 9-Official: Israel used phosphorous bombs. 10-Gov't Votes to Change Political System.
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.
Tropical storm Paul heads for Mexico's Baja coast Sat Oct 21, 6:00 PM ET
MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Tropical Storm Paul formed off Mexico's Pacific Coast on Saturday and looked set to turn into a hurricane as it headed toward luxury resorts on the Baja California Peninsula, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said. Charts showed Paul passing near the tip of the desert peninsula popular with U.S. tourists next week, before heading for the Mexican mainland across the narrow Sea of Cortez.Hurricanes that enter the Sea of Cortez, surrounded on three sides by land, tend to fizzle out after running aground, posing no risk to the United States.Paul was moving west with maximum winds near 50 mph (85 kph) and was expected to veer toward the peninsula and strengthen in coming days due to climatic factors including warm ocean currents, the hurricane center said.
Paul is currently on a strengthening trend, it said.The luxury resorts and golf courses of Los Cabos, on the tip of Baja California, which extends down from the U.S. mainland, had two narrow hurricane escapes last month.Hurricane Lane missed the resorts in mid-September before crashing into the mainland and leaving a path of destruction on the Pacific Coast, killing three close to areas Paul could hit later next week according to projections.Two weeks earlier, Hurricane John forced tourists to flee the resorts of Los Cabos but left the posh holiday spots unharmed. Three people, including a Briton, died when it slammed ashore farther north on the peninsula.Crossing their fingers that they would have a lucky escape for the third time in two months, civil protection officials in the resort of San Jose del Cabo said it was too early to begin evacuations but that they were tracking Paul carefully.You just don't know with these things,said local civil protection spokesman Salvador Banaga. In my opinion we've been a bit too lucky.
Storms, floods hit Greece for second time this week Sat Oct 21, 3:15 PM ET
ATHENS (AFP) - Torrential rains caused flooding in parts of southern Greece, just three days after storms triggered a state of emergency elsewhere in the region, authorities said. Around 30 homes were flooded in the southern Peloponnese and several occupants had to be rescued by firemen. Three cars were swept away by torrents, while landslides halted road traffic in parts of the region.On Tuesday parts of the Aegean islands, a tourist destination east of the Peloponnese, were struck by storms that flooded homes, hotels and businesses and forced many ships into port.A state of emergency was declared in parts of the Aegean on Wednesday, when three British tourists were reported drowned on the islands of Rhodes and Crete as a result of the extreme weather.
A Strong Cold Sweeps the Nation. W. Verno, Meteorologist, The Weather Channel Sun Oct 22, 6:08 AM ET
Northeast
Much colder weather is on the way for the Northeast. An area of low pressure will move into the Great Lakes, pushing a cold front eastward into the region today. Showers will spread across areas from Pittsburgh to Buffalo to Burlington this morning, and then arrive in Washington, Philadelphia, New York, and Boston by the afternoon.
Temperatures will be cool today with readings in the 50s and 60s. On Monday the cold front will be east of the area, and low pressure over the Great Lakes will pull much colder air across the area. Temperatures will only reach the 30s and 40s, and this combined with increasingly breezy conditions will result in lowering wind chills. Rain and snow showers will also increase in areas near the Great Lakes, as well as the high elevations of the Application Mountains.
South
A cool-down is on the way for the South. A cold front will sweep east across the southern states today, triggering showers and thunderstorms from New Orleans and Birmingham, to Atlanta this morning, and then to the east coast by afternoon. A few heavy downpours and perhaps a locally strong to severe thunderstorm will also be possible, especially along the Gulf Coast. Much cooler air will spread east and south behind the front by Monday, with afternoon temperatures only in the 50s and 60s, with 70s pushed south to neat the coast. Morning low temperatures may also become an issue Monday, and especially Tuesday morning, with readings dipping well into the 30s, with a few upper 20s as well. Some areas may see their first frost or freeze across the Deep South. High pressure will dominate the area behind the front, into Tuesday, before the next weather system approaches the area by midweek.
Midwest
Winter-like weather will overspread the Great Lakes. Low pressure near the Great Lakes will pull much colder air south across that area. Rain and snow showers will increase near the Lakes later today, but especially ON Monday and Tuesday. Windy conditions will also develop, and with temperatures in the 30s, wind chills may become a factor. Over the rest of the Midwest and central plains, conditions will slowly improve into Monday and Tuesday, as high pressure builds into the area. Temperatures will begin to slowly moderate by midweek as southern flow increases.
West
Quite weather will dominate the west. Large high pressure will build across all of the western states, cutting off the mountain snows and continuing sunny and dry weather elsewhere. A slow moderation in temperatures can be expected over the next few days, before a new weather system moves into Northwest bringing showers and cooler weather.
Vatican calls for Catholics, Muslims to work together
VATICAN CITY The Vatican is again offering an olive branch to Muslims, in the wake of Pope Benedict's controversial remarks about Islam and violence.A top Vatican official says Muslims and Catholics need to work together to defeat terrorism.The Vatican's top official on inter-religious dialogue issued the appeal during a news conference to present the Vatican's annual Ramadan message. In previous years, the Holy See released a text of the message.The official said the message was aimed at Muslim friends who share common values in facing the challenges of the world.The news conference is an indication of the Vatican's concern over the outrage caused by the remarks Pope Benedict made in Germany last month. The pontiff has since expressed regret that Muslims were offended.2006 Associated Press.
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.
Fires caused by greenies
WITH reports of 200 bushfires in southeastern Australia, in the worst drought in our history, the blame should be sheeted home to those fanatics (Tree hugger, Enviromentalists) who have studiously blocked all government efforts to burn off tinder-dry undergrowth in national parks.Our sympathy should be directed to brave volunteers who fight these fires at risk to their lives, but certainly not to those armchair ideologues who cause this calamity Hobart and the Grampians once more and wherever else there is tinder waiting to be lit by man or nature.
Once again the taxpayer has been called in to foot the bill.This expenditure is one more costly example of the failure to meet the real cause of the threatening calamity this summer.Those responsible for this debacle, the Department of Sustainability and Environment and Parks Victoria and the National Parks and Wildlife Service of NSW, have failed to carry out effective burn-offs in advance.The belated Victorian response to the inquiry by the Victorian Emergency Services Commissioner into the 2002-2003 fire is too little too late.In the Grampians, there has been inadequate fuel reduction.In Victoria, there have been major bushfires every year since 2002.In NSW it is the same woeful lack of burning off in spite of the directions of both houses of Parliament in 2001.
This deliberate jettison of government recommendations can be put down to the organised opposition of the greenies both in and out of the parliaments.They claim burn-offs for fuel reduction destroy biodiversity.In contrast, Western Australia has imposed a concerted fire management policy which has protected the state from wildfires for more than 40 years.From 1963 to 2000 the state has burned off an average of 300,000ha a year of its total of 2,500,000ha of forest. This example needs to be followed urgently in the eastern states.— JOHN ELLIS,Jindera
ISAIAH 17:1
1 The burden of Damascus. Behold, Damascus is taken away from being a city, and it shall be a ruinous heap.
PSALMS 83:3-7
3 They (ARABS,MUSLIMS) have taken crafty counsel against thy people,(ISRAEL) and consulted against thy hidden ones.
4 They have said, Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation; that the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance.
5 For they have consulted together with one consent: they are confederate against thee:(TREATIES)
6 The tabernacles of Edom,and the Ishmaelites;(ARABS) of Moab, and the Hagarenes;
7 Gebal, and Ammon,(JORDAN) and Amalek;(SYRIA) the Philistines (PALESTINIANS) with the inhabitants of Tyre;(LEBANON)
JOEL 2:20,30-31
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.
October, 21 - 10:27 AM
Ahmadineyad: Israel was created to devour the mid eastern region
TEHRAN, Iran.- The Iranian president, Mahmud Ahmadineyad, assured today that the Zionist organization (Israel) was created to devour the region and accused the West to damage all that is considered holy trying to prevent the approaching Jewish holocaust.
In the occasion of a world-wide Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian people, Ahmadineyad insisted on: this Zionist organization (as he has referred to Israel in several occasions) was placed in the region to attack and to assassinate innocents and to accomplish continuous threats that allow control to the great powers.The imposition of the western hegemony on the world is a very rare subject, added Ahmadineyad to hundreds of Iranians that attended the act celebrated in Tehran.
Also, he commented that some western countries are imprisoned by this Zionist organization since World War II and asked him self: When are these relations based on World War II going end?. The speech precluded a march in the city of Islam Sheher, Tehran province.Thousands of Iranians marched carrying placards in support of Palestine and sentencing Israel. We have come to participate in today’s manifestation to show our support to the Palestinian people and to condemn the crimes the Zionist regime commits, said a participant who marched adorned with the traditional Iranian tunic that women dress.
Israel has no intention of attacking Iran-Peres
Sat Oct 21, 2006 6:37 PM BST
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel has no aggressive intentions towards Iran, Deputy Prime Minister Shimon Peres said on Saturday, after Prime Minister Ehud Olmert cautioned Tehran it would pay a price for pursuing its nuclear ambitions.We must never consider such a thing, Peres told Channel Two television when asked if he would support an independent Israeli military strike against Iran if other nations failed to curb its uranium enrichment programme.
Israel has never shown aggressive intentions (towards Iran) it has none. I don't think we have to, or can, deal with this issue, he said, cautioning that Israel could face international isolation if it attacked Iran.Israel has said repeatedly it wants the United States and other countries to take the lead in dealing with Iran over a nuclear programme that has raised international concern the Islamic Republic could build atomic weapons.
Iran this month rejected demands that it suspend uranium enrichment, prompting United Nations Security Council to consider sanctions. It says it wants nuclear power only to generate electricity.The issue was high on the agenda of talks Olmert held this week in Moscow with Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose country, a U.N. Security Council member with veto power, has been reluctant to support sanctions.The Iranians should be afraid they must understand if they object to every compromise there will be a price to pay,Olmert, who has said a nuclear Iran would pose a threat to Israel's existence, told reporters on Thursday.He did not elaborate. But his comments were described in the Israeli media as the strongest warning yet by an Israeli leader to Iran that Israel might consider a pre-emptive strike to try to ensure Tehran cannot build an atomic bomb.
Israel bombed Iraq's nuclear reactor in 1981, an attack that Peres, then leader of the opposition Labour Party, opposed as diplomatically damaging to the Jewish state. Israel is widely believed to have nuclear weapons but has never confirmed it.Peres said in the television interview that Israel should focus on exposing the real face of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has called for the Jewish state's destruction.(Ahmadinejad) is the only (leader) calling for genocide: a member of the United Nations threatening to destroy another member of the United Nations. And ... a large part of the world is silent,Peres said.In a speech on Friday, Ahmadinejad said Europe was stirring up hatred in the Middle East by supporting Israel and warned it may get hurt if anger in the region boiled over.
11 rockets fired over past three days
JPost.com Staff, THE JERUSALEM POST Oct. 20, 2006
Eleven Kassam rockets have been fired from the Gaza Strip into Israel since Friday morning. Most recently, Palestinians fired two Kassam rockets from the northern Gaza Strip on Sunday morning. One rocket landed in the western Negev and the second landed in a Kibbutz in the Ashkelon area.No one was wounded and no damage was reported in either incident.
Ben-Eliezer: Gaza won't be retaken
On Saturday, Palestinians fired four Kassam rockets at the western Negev, a day after several other rockets hit Israel. All of them landed in open areas, causing no injuries or damage. The IDF said early Saturday that a Palestinian man killed during an operation
in the Gaza Strip had been armed, and his death was the result of a clash between soldiers and terror operatives. Earlier, Palestinian sources reported that a 50-year-old civilian had been killed shortly after troops moved into Gaza through the Sufa cargo crossing.Soldiers were searching fields and homes when the man was shot shortly after exiting his home on his way to morning prayers. Clashes between IDF troops and Palestinians in Gaza have continued consistently all week. On Friday, a firefight erupted between Palestinian gunmen and IDF units operating in the southern Gaza Strip. One Palestinian was reported wounded.
The IDF was operating in the area to locate tunnels being used for weapons smuggling from Egypt to Gaza. IDF troops operating elsewhere in Gaza on Friday also reported coming under fire, but there were no casualties. Meanwhile, one person suffered light shrapnel wounds and others were in shock after two Kassam rockets fired from the Gaza Strip landed in Sderot on Friday evening, hitting an apartment building. A spokesman for the Sderot Municipality said that the city's early warning system had been triggered shortly before the rockets landed. Earlier in the day, three Kassams struck Sderot and Ashkelon. There were no reports of wounded or damage. In addition, a barrage of five mortar shells fired from the Gaza Strip landed harmlessly near the security fence.
Official: Israel used phosphorous bombs
Updated 10/22/2006,Associated Press
JERUSALEM (AP) — The Israeli army dropped phosphorous bombs against Hezbollah guerrilla targets in Lebanon during a war there this summer, an Israeli official said Sunday, confirming Lebanese allegations for the first time.Until now, Israel had said it only used the weapons which cause severe chemical burns to mark targets or territory, the Israeli daily Haaretz reported.But last week, Cabinet minister Jacob Edery confirmed during a parliamentary query session that Israel had used the weapons during August fighting against Hezbollah, his spokeswoman, Orly Yehezkel, said. Edery was speaking on behalf of Defense Minister Amir Peretz, she said.The Israeli army holds phosphorous munitions in different forms, Haaretz quoted Edery as saying. The Israeli army made use of phosphorous shells during the war against Hezbollah in attacks against military targets in open ground.
Edery did not specify where or against what types of targets the phosphorous bombs were used.Edery said international law does not ban the use of such weapons. However, many international human rights groups, including the Red Cross, have pushed to ban phosphorous weapons.During the war, the Lebanese government accused Israel of dropping phosphorous bombs.Israel's defense minister said Sunday that air force flights over Lebanon would continue because arms smuggling to Lebanese guerrillas has not stopped.Amir Peretz, in remarks at Israel's weekly Cabinet meeting, accused the Lebanese government of failing to carry out its obligations under a U.N. cease-fire to keep weapons from reaching Hezbollah.
As long as the resolution isn't implemented, there is no other choice,he said, referring to the U.N. resolution that ended Israel's month-long summer war with Hezbollah.Peretz spoke after the U.N. peacekeeping force in Lebanon termed the overflights a clear violation of the U.N. cease-fire resolution.He accused the Lebanese government of failing to prevent Hezbollah from receiving arms from its Syrian and Iranian backers.The accumulating intelligence in our hands points to a rising effort to transfer arms, and so the legitimacy for overflights increases, Peretz said.The Aug. 14 cease-fire calls on both sides to respect the U.N. boundary drawn in 2000 after Israel ended its 18-year occupation of southern Lebanon.
Israel says it has no choice but to conduct flights across that line because arms continue to flow to Hezbollah and because of the guerrilla group's continued armed presence in southern Lebanon. Under the resolution, the region must become a weapons-free zone.Up to 15,000 Lebanese army troops and an equal number of U.N. troops have been assigned to patrol southern Lebanon. Last week, Maj. Gen. Alain Pellegrini, leader of the U.N. peacekeeping force, criticized Israel for sending its jets over the area.Peretz said the U.N. force was designed to operate against Hezbollah, not Israel.
Gov't Votes to Change Political System
By Hillel Fendel(INN)
In its weekly Cabinet session this morning, the government voted narrowly, 12-11, to back legislation calling for a change in the political system. The vote paves the way for the entry into the government coalition of Yisrael Beinteinu, the party that made this bill a condition for its entry into the government coalition.Just seven weeks ago, Yisrael Beiteinu leader MK Avigdor Lieberman announced that he would join a national unity government only on five conditions. These included a change in the political system, the establishment of an official investigative committee into the mishandling of the recent war in Lebanon, and the non-destruction of Jewish outpost neighborhoods in Judea and Samaria. Most of these conditions are not being fulfilled, yet Lieberman appears on his way into the government.
Even the issue of the political system was no longer a deal-breaker for Lieberman. There is not necessarily a connection between the government's vote on the law, he said beforehand, and our decision whether to join the coalition. It's not the decisive consideration.The main feature of the proposed changes, as voted upon today, is a switch to a presidential system, in which the president is elected every four years and is not dependent on a majority in the Knesset. The changes also include a stipulation that Cabinet ministers cannot serve simultaneously as Knesset Members, and a rise in the minimum voter support that a party needs in order to be represented in the Knesset. It had been previously decided, by a vote in the ministerial committee for legislation, that the Cabinet would back the legislation but the narrow vote was contested by Labor's Eitan Cabel, and a full Cabinet vote was therefore held today. Kadima voted in favor, while Labor and Shas were against. The Pensioners continued their mixed approach on the bill, expressing opposition but voting in favor; one of its two ministers voted for the bill, while the other one abstained.
Shas Chairman Minister Eli Yeshai said that efforts to stabilize the ruling system is desirable, but it should be done in coordination with all the Knesset factions. After more than 50 years of statehood, let us not make superficial changes that will take us another 50 years to repair.Prof. Arik Carmon, head of the Israel Institute for Democracy, wrote in B'Sheva last week that a presidential system in Israel is not an option, as it has grave dangers for democracy.He feels that unlike in the U.S., where the president's powers are balanced by the individual states' powers, in Israel, too much power will be invested in one man, disenfranchising the supporters of the many small parties and worsening the gaps between the sectors.
Prof. Moshe Koppel of Bar Ilan University was also asked by B'Sheva to opine on the proposed changes.
We are far from being the United States, he wrote, which is almost the only country in which the presidential system has succeeded. Unfortunately, our political culture and the blurred borders separating between the military and civilian [sectors] are more reminiscent of South America, where the perpetual tensions between the legislature and the president, without appropriate release-points, has led to dictatorships (in Ecuador, for instance) or to military coups (such as in Chile). If we want stability and a separation of powers, there are simpler and better solutions than changing over to a presidential system. Making it harder to dissolve the Knesset would bring stability, and passing the Norwegian Law, according to which an MK must resign from the Knesset before he can become a minister, would bring about a separation of powers.
Dr. Reuven Hazan of Hebrew University wrote for B'Sheva: We can list several aspects of a democratic country: rule of law, control over corruption, representation for various social sectors, political participation, fewer social gaps, and more. If we take the world's 60 leading democracies, half of which are parliamentary democracies and half of which are presidential, we will see that by and large, the presidential systems receive lower scores than the parliamentary states in every parameter... True, the average duration between elections in a presidential system is 3.8 years, instead of 3.4 years for a parliamentary system but this is the only parameter, and only saves a few months between elections.
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.
Tropical storm Paul heads for Mexico's Baja coast Sat Oct 21, 6:00 PM ET
MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Tropical Storm Paul formed off Mexico's Pacific Coast on Saturday and looked set to turn into a hurricane as it headed toward luxury resorts on the Baja California Peninsula, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said. Charts showed Paul passing near the tip of the desert peninsula popular with U.S. tourists next week, before heading for the Mexican mainland across the narrow Sea of Cortez.Hurricanes that enter the Sea of Cortez, surrounded on three sides by land, tend to fizzle out after running aground, posing no risk to the United States.Paul was moving west with maximum winds near 50 mph (85 kph) and was expected to veer toward the peninsula and strengthen in coming days due to climatic factors including warm ocean currents, the hurricane center said.
Paul is currently on a strengthening trend, it said.The luxury resorts and golf courses of Los Cabos, on the tip of Baja California, which extends down from the U.S. mainland, had two narrow hurricane escapes last month.Hurricane Lane missed the resorts in mid-September before crashing into the mainland and leaving a path of destruction on the Pacific Coast, killing three close to areas Paul could hit later next week according to projections.Two weeks earlier, Hurricane John forced tourists to flee the resorts of Los Cabos but left the posh holiday spots unharmed. Three people, including a Briton, died when it slammed ashore farther north on the peninsula.Crossing their fingers that they would have a lucky escape for the third time in two months, civil protection officials in the resort of San Jose del Cabo said it was too early to begin evacuations but that they were tracking Paul carefully.You just don't know with these things,said local civil protection spokesman Salvador Banaga. In my opinion we've been a bit too lucky.
Storms, floods hit Greece for second time this week Sat Oct 21, 3:15 PM ET
ATHENS (AFP) - Torrential rains caused flooding in parts of southern Greece, just three days after storms triggered a state of emergency elsewhere in the region, authorities said. Around 30 homes were flooded in the southern Peloponnese and several occupants had to be rescued by firemen. Three cars were swept away by torrents, while landslides halted road traffic in parts of the region.On Tuesday parts of the Aegean islands, a tourist destination east of the Peloponnese, were struck by storms that flooded homes, hotels and businesses and forced many ships into port.A state of emergency was declared in parts of the Aegean on Wednesday, when three British tourists were reported drowned on the islands of Rhodes and Crete as a result of the extreme weather.
A Strong Cold Sweeps the Nation. W. Verno, Meteorologist, The Weather Channel Sun Oct 22, 6:08 AM ET
Northeast
Much colder weather is on the way for the Northeast. An area of low pressure will move into the Great Lakes, pushing a cold front eastward into the region today. Showers will spread across areas from Pittsburgh to Buffalo to Burlington this morning, and then arrive in Washington, Philadelphia, New York, and Boston by the afternoon.
Temperatures will be cool today with readings in the 50s and 60s. On Monday the cold front will be east of the area, and low pressure over the Great Lakes will pull much colder air across the area. Temperatures will only reach the 30s and 40s, and this combined with increasingly breezy conditions will result in lowering wind chills. Rain and snow showers will also increase in areas near the Great Lakes, as well as the high elevations of the Application Mountains.
South
A cool-down is on the way for the South. A cold front will sweep east across the southern states today, triggering showers and thunderstorms from New Orleans and Birmingham, to Atlanta this morning, and then to the east coast by afternoon. A few heavy downpours and perhaps a locally strong to severe thunderstorm will also be possible, especially along the Gulf Coast. Much cooler air will spread east and south behind the front by Monday, with afternoon temperatures only in the 50s and 60s, with 70s pushed south to neat the coast. Morning low temperatures may also become an issue Monday, and especially Tuesday morning, with readings dipping well into the 30s, with a few upper 20s as well. Some areas may see their first frost or freeze across the Deep South. High pressure will dominate the area behind the front, into Tuesday, before the next weather system approaches the area by midweek.
Midwest
Winter-like weather will overspread the Great Lakes. Low pressure near the Great Lakes will pull much colder air south across that area. Rain and snow showers will increase near the Lakes later today, but especially ON Monday and Tuesday. Windy conditions will also develop, and with temperatures in the 30s, wind chills may become a factor. Over the rest of the Midwest and central plains, conditions will slowly improve into Monday and Tuesday, as high pressure builds into the area. Temperatures will begin to slowly moderate by midweek as southern flow increases.
West
Quite weather will dominate the west. Large high pressure will build across all of the western states, cutting off the mountain snows and continuing sunny and dry weather elsewhere. A slow moderation in temperatures can be expected over the next few days, before a new weather system moves into Northwest bringing showers and cooler weather.
Vatican calls for Catholics, Muslims to work together
VATICAN CITY The Vatican is again offering an olive branch to Muslims, in the wake of Pope Benedict's controversial remarks about Islam and violence.A top Vatican official says Muslims and Catholics need to work together to defeat terrorism.The Vatican's top official on inter-religious dialogue issued the appeal during a news conference to present the Vatican's annual Ramadan message. In previous years, the Holy See released a text of the message.The official said the message was aimed at Muslim friends who share common values in facing the challenges of the world.The news conference is an indication of the Vatican's concern over the outrage caused by the remarks Pope Benedict made in Germany last month. The pontiff has since expressed regret that Muslims were offended.2006 Associated Press.
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.
Fires caused by greenies
WITH reports of 200 bushfires in southeastern Australia, in the worst drought in our history, the blame should be sheeted home to those fanatics (Tree hugger, Enviromentalists) who have studiously blocked all government efforts to burn off tinder-dry undergrowth in national parks.Our sympathy should be directed to brave volunteers who fight these fires at risk to their lives, but certainly not to those armchair ideologues who cause this calamity Hobart and the Grampians once more and wherever else there is tinder waiting to be lit by man or nature.
Once again the taxpayer has been called in to foot the bill.This expenditure is one more costly example of the failure to meet the real cause of the threatening calamity this summer.Those responsible for this debacle, the Department of Sustainability and Environment and Parks Victoria and the National Parks and Wildlife Service of NSW, have failed to carry out effective burn-offs in advance.The belated Victorian response to the inquiry by the Victorian Emergency Services Commissioner into the 2002-2003 fire is too little too late.In the Grampians, there has been inadequate fuel reduction.In Victoria, there have been major bushfires every year since 2002.In NSW it is the same woeful lack of burning off in spite of the directions of both houses of Parliament in 2001.
This deliberate jettison of government recommendations can be put down to the organised opposition of the greenies both in and out of the parliaments.They claim burn-offs for fuel reduction destroy biodiversity.In contrast, Western Australia has imposed a concerted fire management policy which has protected the state from wildfires for more than 40 years.From 1963 to 2000 the state has burned off an average of 300,000ha a year of its total of 2,500,000ha of forest. This example needs to be followed urgently in the eastern states.— JOHN ELLIS,Jindera
ISAIAH 17:1
1 The burden of Damascus. Behold, Damascus is taken away from being a city, and it shall be a ruinous heap.
PSALMS 83:3-7
3 They (ARABS,MUSLIMS) have taken crafty counsel against thy people,(ISRAEL) and consulted against thy hidden ones.
4 They have said, Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation; that the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance.
5 For they have consulted together with one consent: they are confederate against thee:(TREATIES)
6 The tabernacles of Edom,and the Ishmaelites;(ARABS) of Moab, and the Hagarenes;
7 Gebal, and Ammon,(JORDAN) and Amalek;(SYRIA) the Philistines (PALESTINIANS) with the inhabitants of Tyre;(LEBANON)
JOEL 2:20,30-31
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.
October, 21 - 10:27 AM
Ahmadineyad: Israel was created to devour the mid eastern region
TEHRAN, Iran.- The Iranian president, Mahmud Ahmadineyad, assured today that the Zionist organization (Israel) was created to devour the region and accused the West to damage all that is considered holy trying to prevent the approaching Jewish holocaust.
In the occasion of a world-wide Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian people, Ahmadineyad insisted on: this Zionist organization (as he has referred to Israel in several occasions) was placed in the region to attack and to assassinate innocents and to accomplish continuous threats that allow control to the great powers.The imposition of the western hegemony on the world is a very rare subject, added Ahmadineyad to hundreds of Iranians that attended the act celebrated in Tehran.
Also, he commented that some western countries are imprisoned by this Zionist organization since World War II and asked him self: When are these relations based on World War II going end?. The speech precluded a march in the city of Islam Sheher, Tehran province.Thousands of Iranians marched carrying placards in support of Palestine and sentencing Israel. We have come to participate in today’s manifestation to show our support to the Palestinian people and to condemn the crimes the Zionist regime commits, said a participant who marched adorned with the traditional Iranian tunic that women dress.
Israel has no intention of attacking Iran-Peres
Sat Oct 21, 2006 6:37 PM BST
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel has no aggressive intentions towards Iran, Deputy Prime Minister Shimon Peres said on Saturday, after Prime Minister Ehud Olmert cautioned Tehran it would pay a price for pursuing its nuclear ambitions.We must never consider such a thing, Peres told Channel Two television when asked if he would support an independent Israeli military strike against Iran if other nations failed to curb its uranium enrichment programme.
Israel has never shown aggressive intentions (towards Iran) it has none. I don't think we have to, or can, deal with this issue, he said, cautioning that Israel could face international isolation if it attacked Iran.Israel has said repeatedly it wants the United States and other countries to take the lead in dealing with Iran over a nuclear programme that has raised international concern the Islamic Republic could build atomic weapons.
Iran this month rejected demands that it suspend uranium enrichment, prompting United Nations Security Council to consider sanctions. It says it wants nuclear power only to generate electricity.The issue was high on the agenda of talks Olmert held this week in Moscow with Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose country, a U.N. Security Council member with veto power, has been reluctant to support sanctions.The Iranians should be afraid they must understand if they object to every compromise there will be a price to pay,Olmert, who has said a nuclear Iran would pose a threat to Israel's existence, told reporters on Thursday.He did not elaborate. But his comments were described in the Israeli media as the strongest warning yet by an Israeli leader to Iran that Israel might consider a pre-emptive strike to try to ensure Tehran cannot build an atomic bomb.
Israel bombed Iraq's nuclear reactor in 1981, an attack that Peres, then leader of the opposition Labour Party, opposed as diplomatically damaging to the Jewish state. Israel is widely believed to have nuclear weapons but has never confirmed it.Peres said in the television interview that Israel should focus on exposing the real face of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has called for the Jewish state's destruction.(Ahmadinejad) is the only (leader) calling for genocide: a member of the United Nations threatening to destroy another member of the United Nations. And ... a large part of the world is silent,Peres said.In a speech on Friday, Ahmadinejad said Europe was stirring up hatred in the Middle East by supporting Israel and warned it may get hurt if anger in the region boiled over.
11 rockets fired over past three days
JPost.com Staff, THE JERUSALEM POST Oct. 20, 2006
Eleven Kassam rockets have been fired from the Gaza Strip into Israel since Friday morning. Most recently, Palestinians fired two Kassam rockets from the northern Gaza Strip on Sunday morning. One rocket landed in the western Negev and the second landed in a Kibbutz in the Ashkelon area.No one was wounded and no damage was reported in either incident.
Ben-Eliezer: Gaza won't be retaken
On Saturday, Palestinians fired four Kassam rockets at the western Negev, a day after several other rockets hit Israel. All of them landed in open areas, causing no injuries or damage. The IDF said early Saturday that a Palestinian man killed during an operation
in the Gaza Strip had been armed, and his death was the result of a clash between soldiers and terror operatives. Earlier, Palestinian sources reported that a 50-year-old civilian had been killed shortly after troops moved into Gaza through the Sufa cargo crossing.Soldiers were searching fields and homes when the man was shot shortly after exiting his home on his way to morning prayers. Clashes between IDF troops and Palestinians in Gaza have continued consistently all week. On Friday, a firefight erupted between Palestinian gunmen and IDF units operating in the southern Gaza Strip. One Palestinian was reported wounded.
The IDF was operating in the area to locate tunnels being used for weapons smuggling from Egypt to Gaza. IDF troops operating elsewhere in Gaza on Friday also reported coming under fire, but there were no casualties. Meanwhile, one person suffered light shrapnel wounds and others were in shock after two Kassam rockets fired from the Gaza Strip landed in Sderot on Friday evening, hitting an apartment building. A spokesman for the Sderot Municipality said that the city's early warning system had been triggered shortly before the rockets landed. Earlier in the day, three Kassams struck Sderot and Ashkelon. There were no reports of wounded or damage. In addition, a barrage of five mortar shells fired from the Gaza Strip landed harmlessly near the security fence.
Official: Israel used phosphorous bombs
Updated 10/22/2006,Associated Press
JERUSALEM (AP) — The Israeli army dropped phosphorous bombs against Hezbollah guerrilla targets in Lebanon during a war there this summer, an Israeli official said Sunday, confirming Lebanese allegations for the first time.Until now, Israel had said it only used the weapons which cause severe chemical burns to mark targets or territory, the Israeli daily Haaretz reported.But last week, Cabinet minister Jacob Edery confirmed during a parliamentary query session that Israel had used the weapons during August fighting against Hezbollah, his spokeswoman, Orly Yehezkel, said. Edery was speaking on behalf of Defense Minister Amir Peretz, she said.The Israeli army holds phosphorous munitions in different forms, Haaretz quoted Edery as saying. The Israeli army made use of phosphorous shells during the war against Hezbollah in attacks against military targets in open ground.
Edery did not specify where or against what types of targets the phosphorous bombs were used.Edery said international law does not ban the use of such weapons. However, many international human rights groups, including the Red Cross, have pushed to ban phosphorous weapons.During the war, the Lebanese government accused Israel of dropping phosphorous bombs.Israel's defense minister said Sunday that air force flights over Lebanon would continue because arms smuggling to Lebanese guerrillas has not stopped.Amir Peretz, in remarks at Israel's weekly Cabinet meeting, accused the Lebanese government of failing to carry out its obligations under a U.N. cease-fire to keep weapons from reaching Hezbollah.
As long as the resolution isn't implemented, there is no other choice,he said, referring to the U.N. resolution that ended Israel's month-long summer war with Hezbollah.Peretz spoke after the U.N. peacekeeping force in Lebanon termed the overflights a clear violation of the U.N. cease-fire resolution.He accused the Lebanese government of failing to prevent Hezbollah from receiving arms from its Syrian and Iranian backers.The accumulating intelligence in our hands points to a rising effort to transfer arms, and so the legitimacy for overflights increases, Peretz said.The Aug. 14 cease-fire calls on both sides to respect the U.N. boundary drawn in 2000 after Israel ended its 18-year occupation of southern Lebanon.
Israel says it has no choice but to conduct flights across that line because arms continue to flow to Hezbollah and because of the guerrilla group's continued armed presence in southern Lebanon. Under the resolution, the region must become a weapons-free zone.Up to 15,000 Lebanese army troops and an equal number of U.N. troops have been assigned to patrol southern Lebanon. Last week, Maj. Gen. Alain Pellegrini, leader of the U.N. peacekeeping force, criticized Israel for sending its jets over the area.Peretz said the U.N. force was designed to operate against Hezbollah, not Israel.
Gov't Votes to Change Political System
By Hillel Fendel(INN)
In its weekly Cabinet session this morning, the government voted narrowly, 12-11, to back legislation calling for a change in the political system. The vote paves the way for the entry into the government coalition of Yisrael Beinteinu, the party that made this bill a condition for its entry into the government coalition.Just seven weeks ago, Yisrael Beiteinu leader MK Avigdor Lieberman announced that he would join a national unity government only on five conditions. These included a change in the political system, the establishment of an official investigative committee into the mishandling of the recent war in Lebanon, and the non-destruction of Jewish outpost neighborhoods in Judea and Samaria. Most of these conditions are not being fulfilled, yet Lieberman appears on his way into the government.
Even the issue of the political system was no longer a deal-breaker for Lieberman. There is not necessarily a connection between the government's vote on the law, he said beforehand, and our decision whether to join the coalition. It's not the decisive consideration.The main feature of the proposed changes, as voted upon today, is a switch to a presidential system, in which the president is elected every four years and is not dependent on a majority in the Knesset. The changes also include a stipulation that Cabinet ministers cannot serve simultaneously as Knesset Members, and a rise in the minimum voter support that a party needs in order to be represented in the Knesset. It had been previously decided, by a vote in the ministerial committee for legislation, that the Cabinet would back the legislation but the narrow vote was contested by Labor's Eitan Cabel, and a full Cabinet vote was therefore held today. Kadima voted in favor, while Labor and Shas were against. The Pensioners continued their mixed approach on the bill, expressing opposition but voting in favor; one of its two ministers voted for the bill, while the other one abstained.
Shas Chairman Minister Eli Yeshai said that efforts to stabilize the ruling system is desirable, but it should be done in coordination with all the Knesset factions. After more than 50 years of statehood, let us not make superficial changes that will take us another 50 years to repair.Prof. Arik Carmon, head of the Israel Institute for Democracy, wrote in B'Sheva last week that a presidential system in Israel is not an option, as it has grave dangers for democracy.He feels that unlike in the U.S., where the president's powers are balanced by the individual states' powers, in Israel, too much power will be invested in one man, disenfranchising the supporters of the many small parties and worsening the gaps between the sectors.
Prof. Moshe Koppel of Bar Ilan University was also asked by B'Sheva to opine on the proposed changes.
We are far from being the United States, he wrote, which is almost the only country in which the presidential system has succeeded. Unfortunately, our political culture and the blurred borders separating between the military and civilian [sectors] are more reminiscent of South America, where the perpetual tensions between the legislature and the president, without appropriate release-points, has led to dictatorships (in Ecuador, for instance) or to military coups (such as in Chile). If we want stability and a separation of powers, there are simpler and better solutions than changing over to a presidential system. Making it harder to dissolve the Knesset would bring stability, and passing the Norwegian Law, according to which an MK must resign from the Knesset before he can become a minister, would bring about a separation of powers.
Dr. Reuven Hazan of Hebrew University wrote for B'Sheva: We can list several aspects of a democratic country: rule of law, control over corruption, representation for various social sectors, political participation, fewer social gaps, and more. If we take the world's 60 leading democracies, half of which are parliamentary democracies and half of which are presidential, we will see that by and large, the presidential systems receive lower scores than the parliamentary states in every parameter... True, the average duration between elections in a presidential system is 3.8 years, instead of 3.4 years for a parliamentary system but this is the only parameter, and only saves a few months between elections.
Saturday, October 21, 2006
NBC CUTS OUT MOCKING CHRIST SCENE
1-Quake strikes off Kermadec Islands. 2-Small quake rattles northern Thailand. 3-Moderate quake shakes northwest Turkey. 4-Light earthquake shakes Northern California. 5-Tropical depression forms near Mexico. 6-AFA forces NBC to cancel scene mocking crucifixion of Christ. 7-First Anti-Pride Protest Held in Jerusalem. 8-Palestinians flock to Jerusalem. 9-Syria needs billions of dollars in investment to avert water crisis. 10-Antarctic ozone hole biggest on record, U.S. reports. 11-NKorea, Egypt, Israel, Lebanon,Syria shun chemical weapons ban.
EARTHQUAKES
MATTHEW 24:7-8
7 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.
8 All these are the beginning of sorrows.
MARK 13:8
8 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom:(ETHNIC GROUP AGAINST ETHNIC GROUP) and there shall be earthquakes in divers places, and there shall be famines and troubles: these are the beginnings of sorrows.
LUKE 21:11
11 And great earthquakes shall be in divers places, and famines, and pestilences; and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven.
Quake strikes off Kermadec Islands Sat Oct 21, 9:04 AM ET
WELLINGTON (AFP) - A moderate 5.0-magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of the Kermadec Islands in the south Pacific. The quake hit 193 kilometres (120 miles) north east of the main Raoul Island at 5:23 pm (0523 GMT), the United States Geological Survey said Saturday.There were no initial reports of casualties or serious damage.The quake struck 746 kilometres south west of Nuku'alofa, the capital of Tonga, at a depth of 10 kilometres.The Kermadecs, New Zealand's largest marine reserve, are uninhabited apart from conservation officers and volunteers on Raoul Island, according to the New Zealand Department of Conservation website.
GNS Science, New Zealand's geological agency, records 14,000 earthquakes in and around New Zealand every year as the country is positioned on the boundary of the Australian and Pacific tectonic plates. Most of these quakes are small with only 150 on average felt by New Zealand residents.
Small quake rattles northern Thailand Sat Oct 21, 8:08 AM ET
BANGKOK (AFP) - An earthquake with a magnitude of 4.5 on the Richter scale struck northern Thailand, but there were no reports of casualties or damage.The quake hit the northern province of Chiang Rai, along the border of Myanmar and Laos, 790 kilometers (483 miles) north of Bangkok, the department said Saturday.The epicenter was located 40 kilometers (25 miles) east of Chiang Rai, but the department did not have a figure for its depth.
Moderate quake shakes northwest Turkey Fri Oct 20, 5:09 PM ET
ANKARA, Turkey - An earthquake shook northwestern Turkey on Friday, prompting some residents of Istanbul to flee their homes, officials and news reports said. There were no immediate reports of injury or significant damage. The quake, with a preliminary magnitude of 5.0, was centered near a lake at the Manyas nature reserve in Balikesir province about 260 miles west of the capital Ankara, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.The quake, which struck at 2:15 p.m. EDT, was felt in Istanbul, some 250 miles north.Balikesir police chief Celal Uzunkaya said there were no reports of any injuries.People in Balikesir and Istanbul rushed out of their homes when the quake struck, CNN-Turk television and the government-owned Anatolia news agency reported.Earthquakes are frequent in Turkey, which lies on active fault lines. Two devastating earthquakes hit northwestern Turkey in 1999, killing some
18,000 people.
Light earthquake shakes Northern California Fri Oct 20, 2:29 PM ET
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - A light earthquake of 4.5 magnitude shook part of Northern California on Friday morning about 74 miles northwest of the state capital, Sacramento, the U.S. Geological Survey said. There were no reports of injuries or damage from the mild event in the surrounding area, James Bauman, chief deputy for the Lake County Sheriff's department, told Reuters.The tremor hit at 10 a.m. (1 p.m. EDT/1700 GMT) and was centered near the Lake County hamlet of Cobb at a depth of 2.6 miles below the surface, according to the USGS
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.
Tropical depression forms near Mexico Sat Oct 21, 6:52 AM ET
MEXICO CITY - A tropical depression formed off Mexico's west coast early Saturday and forecasters said it could turn into a hurricane within a few days.
Tropical Depression 17-E was located about 260 miles south-southwest of the coastal city of Manzanillo, said Dan Mundell, a meteorologist at the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami.The depression is forecast to intensify into a tropical storm in the next 12-24 hours and become a small hurricane within three days, Mundell said. It is moving westward at 11.5 mph with maximum sustained winds of 34.5 mph.Its sustained winds must reach at least 39 mph to be considered a tropical storm and 74 mph to be classified as a hurricane.The system is forecast to turn northward toward the southern Baja peninsula over the next few days, Mundell said.
AFA forces NBC to cancel scene mocking crucifixion of Christ
Dear Stan,
AFA supporters have won a great victory!
The efforts of AFA Online supporters has forced NBC to cancel a scene in the upcoming Madonna special in which she mocks the crucifixion of Christ! More than 750,000 AFA supporters emailed NBC asking for the scene to be deleted from the special which is scheduled to air in November. NBC saw a potential loss of $25,000,000 and decided to edit out the scene.
We were effective because we stuck together and combined our voices. Our supporters not only emailed NBC, but they also called their local NBC stations. Those stations contacted NBC and the network listened.
The scene is gone! Please help us grow by forwarding this to your friends and family and invite them to become a part of AFA Online. If we who believe in traditional values join together, we can accomplish much.If you think our efforts are worthy, would you please support us with a small gift? Thank you for caring enough to get involved.
Sincerely,
Donald E. Wildmon, Founder and Chairman
American Family Association
1 CORINTHIANS 6:9
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,(HARDENED HOMOSEXUALS) nor abusers of themselves with mankind
2 TIMOTHY 3:3
3 Without natural affection,(HOMOSEXTUALS) trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good
GENESIS 19:5
5 And they called unto Lot, and said unto him, Where are the men which came in to thee this night? bring them out unto us, that we may know them.
ROMANS 1:18-32
18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness;
19 Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them.
20 For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:
21 Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.
22 Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools,
23 And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things.
24 Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves:(HOMOSEXUALITY,AND ALL SEX SINS)
25 Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.
26 For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature:(LESBIENS)
27 And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly,(SODOMITES) and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet.(AIDS ETC)
28 And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient;
29 Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers,
30 Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents,
31 Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful:
32 Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.
First Anti-Pride Protest Held in Jerusalem
By Hillel Fendel(INN) Oct 20,06
Thousands of hareidi-religious Jews protested Wednesday against the gay pride march scheduled for the Holy City next month and say they will be out in force if the police don't cancel the march.The protest cut off all traffic through Sabbath Square in the Me'ah She'earim neighborhood of Jerusalem. Some of the speeches were in Yiddish, but were translated into Hebrew for our Sephardic brothers,NFC reported.One of the speakers said, Everyone whom G-d has blessed with children must check the level of modesty in his own home. You can't say, I don't know about this, I'm not involved in it. We must all unite against this plot that has fallen on us, and fight against it. All of us together will fight against this scheme.Rabbi Moshe Sternbuch, the head of the Eidah Hareidit Rabbinical Court, delivered a fiery speech, promising total dedication to the goal of stopping the march in accordance with the rabbis' rulings. He quoted traditional Jewish sources saying that righteous people die because they fail to protest abominations.
We must protest against the filth [coming to] Jerusalem,he said.
Rabbi Sternbuch arned that the march could lead, Heaven forbid, to the death of tens of thousands... We don't need a public inquiry to know why the war in Lebanon occurred and why we failed: Because of the abominations in the Holy Land. The gay pride march was originally scheduled for August, and was postponed because of the war. We have no intention of clashing with the police, Rabbi Sternbuch said, but they should know in advance that if the march is held, we will arrive en-masse, with our rabbis and teachers out in front.Hevron residents Baruch Marzel and Itamar Ben-Gvir wrote a letter to Jerusalem Police Chief Ilan Franco, asking him to cancel the march because of the fear of violence that will certainly erupt.They wrote that they themselves have been banned from certain places, such as the Temple Mount, for fear that they would incite violence.
Many march opponents note that adding to the desecration is the fact that it is scheduled to be held on the anniversary of Kristallnacht, the Night of Broken Glass that presaged the Holocaust. On November 9-10 in 1938, gangs of Nazi youth roamed through Jewish neighborhoods in Germany, breaking windows of Jewish businesses and homes, burning synagogues and looting.
Over 90 Jews were killed, almost 7,500 Jewish businesses were destroyed, 101 synagogues were destroyed and 26,000 Jews were arrested and sent to concentration camps.Jerusalem City Councilwoman Mina Fenton (National Religious Party) told Arutz-7 Hebrew radio that the nation must not be silent. The march is to be held,she said, because of a compromise reached between the Jerusalem Open House [a homosexual center that is organizing the gay march] and the police despite the strong objections of the mayor, the vast majority of the City Council, and many city residents. We must all fight to have this thing canceled not just postponed.
Before the parade was postponed this past summer, Fenton worked to gather tens of thousands of signatures against the parade many of them from non-Jews. The Jews are against it, the Moslems are against it, and so are the Christians, she said, and yet the police still approved it. The public cannot be trampled upon in the name of freedom of expression.Fenton notes the provocative way in which the organizers have gone about preparing for the march including the use of the Jerusalem municipal symbol of a lion in a provocative manner.They're not simply demanding equal rights, said IsraelNationalRadio's Tamar Yonah in a show on the topic several months ago, which could be understandable. They're actually showing pride in their sexual choice, and based on photos from other parades, they dress very scantily and exhibit physical erotic contact on the streets. Is this what we want on the streets of Jerusalem?
ISAIAH 17:1
1 The burden of Damascus. Behold, Damascus is taken away from being a city, and it shall be a ruinous heap.
PSALMS 83:3-7
3 They (ARABS,MUSLIMS) have taken crafty counsel against thy people,(ISRAEL) and consulted against thy hidden ones.
4 They have said, Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation; that the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance.
5 For they have consulted together with one consent: they are confederate against thee:(TREATIES)
6 The tabernacles of Edom,and the Ishmaelites;(ARABS) of Moab, and the Hagarenes;
7 Gebal, and Ammon,(JORDAN) and Amalek;(SYRIA) the Philistines (PALESTINIANS) with the inhabitants of Tyre;(LEBANON)
JOEL 2:20,30-31
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.
Palestinians flock to Jerusalem By KARIN LAUB, Associated Press Writer
Fri Oct 20, 6:50 AM ET
QALANDIA, West Bank - Thousands of Palestinians surged through the main Israeli crossing point from the northern West Bank, braving Israeli restrictions to worship on the last Friday of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan at a major Islamic site in Israeli-ruled Jerusalem. Women and children were among those pouring through the Qalandia checkpoint north of Jerusalem. Men under 45, deemed a security risk by Israel, were barred from crossing though some had traveled for hours to in hopes of praying at the Al-Aqsa mosque, Islam's third-holiest site.The worshippers were initially told that only men over 50 would be allowed through, but an officer later announced through a megaphone that the age limit had been dropped to 45 years.Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said that between 175,000 and 200,000 worshippers were expected to take part in midday prayers at Al-Aqsa, from where tradition says the Prophet Muhammad, Islam's founder, ascended to heaven.
Prayer in Al Aqsa is different from praying in any other mosque and Jerusalem is different from any other place, said Walid Rommaneh, a 47-year-old man from Ramallah who was waiting in the crush at Qalandia for his turn to pass through. His wife, teenage daughter and young son had been admitted earlier.Dozens of younger and more agile men scaled the nearby walls of Israel's West Bank separation barrier and scattered into the neighboring Arab neighborhoods of Jerusalem. Police rounded up several and sent them back.Border police manning the crossing pushed back Palestinians trying to shove through the turnstiles but no serious use of force was seen at Qalandia, and Rosenfeld said there were no reports of any serious incident inside Jerusalem.
Last Friday Israeli forces used tear gas, stun grenades, rubber bullets and water cannon to disperse Palestinians whose anger and frustration at entry restrictions erupted in disturbances at several checkpoints around Jerusalem.
Dr Samuel Doctorian and Angel 2 the Mideast
I heard these words, Israel, Oh Israel, the great judgment has come. The angel said, The chosen, the church, the remnant, shall be purified. The Spirit of God shall prepare the children of God.I saw fires rising to heaven. The angel said,This is the final judgment. My church shall be purified, protected and ready for the final day. Men will die from thirst. Water shall be scarce all over the Middle East.
Rivers shall dry up, and men will fight for water in those countries.The angel showed me that the United Nations shall be broken in pieces because of the crisis in the Middle East. There shall be no more United Nations. The angel with the sickle shall reap the harvest.
Syria needs billions of dollars in investment to avert water crisis
Friday, October 20, 2006
DAMASCUS: Billions of dollars of investment are required over the next decade if Damascus is to avert a critical water crisis, according to a leading development agency. The Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA), the development agency of the Japanese government, has taken a lead role in tackling Syria's growing water shortages. Kazuhide Nagasawa, resident representative of JICA in Syria, recently told IRIN that over the past 20 years the level of ground water in the Barada basin, on which Damascus sits, retreated from 50 meters to 200 meters underground, leading to supply shortages and tap water in dry summer months.
In another 20 years, the water table could be down to 400 meters [below ground level] while the population of Damascus could have risen from its current figure of 4 to 5 million, to 10 million,Nagasawa said. At that point it will be difficult to survive on the limited water resources. The Syrian government will have to decide whether they want to transfer water to Damascus from the coast, or from the Euphrates,he added.Mufak Khalouf, head of the Damascus Water Supply and Sewerage Authority (DELTA), said that the Syrian government was pressing ahead with a feasibility study for a project with a Swiss company to pump water from the Euphrates River which flows from Turkey through Syria to Iraq to Damascus.The project is estimated to cost $2 billion, and was previously believed to have been scrapped due to insufficient funding. The study is due to be finished before the end of the first quarter of next year, said Khalouf. In the meantime Damascus can extract water supplies from the ground water, and we are working on rationalizing water use among residents.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb
However, international specialists warn it will not be long before the ground water upon which much of Damascus and its surrounding countryside rely, dries up almost completely.The over extraction of ground water has left it in a very serious decline, said Noriyuki Mori, a technical expert in water resource management at JICA. If this continues, it will become so low that farmers and residents of Damascus will no longer be able to extract it.
Damascus uses an average of 215 million cubic meters of water per year according to Khaled Shalak, Deputy General Director of DELTA. At present, the available water in the capital is 200 million cubic meters a year. An additional 45 million cubic meters is already needed, and that figure will have risen again by 2010, Khallouf said.Because of water supply not meeting rising demands in Damascus, water is currently being rationed to 13 hours a day.
Even in the mainly urbanized Damascus basin around 80 percent of available water is used in agriculture, with outdated irrigation methods. Across Syria as a whole, only 16 percent of farmers use modern irrigation systems, according to JICA's Mori, and yet, the agricultural sector is set to grow by some 40 percent over the next 20 years. UN Integrated Regional Information Networks
OZONE DEPLETION
ISAIAH 30:26-27
26 Moreover the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold, as the light of seven days, in the day that the LORD bindeth up the breach of his people, and healeth the stroke of their wound.
27 Behold, the name of the LORD cometh from far, burning with his anger, and the burden thereof is heavy: his lips are full of indignation, and his tongue as a devouring fire:
MATTHEW 24:21-22,29
21 For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.
22 And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened (Daylight hours shortened)
29 Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken:
REVELATION 16:7-9
7 And I heard another out of the altar say, Even so, Lord God Almighty, true and righteous are thy judgments.
8 And the fourth angel poured out his vial upon the sun; and power was given unto him to scorch men with fire.
9 And men were scorched with great heat, and blasphemed the name of God, which hath power over these plagues: and they repented not to give him glory.
Antarctic ozone hole biggest on record, U.S. reports
Thu Oct 19, 2006 3:40pm ET,
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - This year's ozone hole over Antarctica is bigger and deeper than any other on record, U.S. scientists reported on Thursday.The ozone layer shields Earth from the sun's harmful ultraviolet rays, and the layer thins out over the South Pole each year, primarily because human-made compounds release ozone-eating chlorine and bromine gases into the stratosphere.
From September 21 to 30, the average area of the ozone hole was the largest ever observed, at 10.6 million square miles ,said Paul Newman of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center outside Washington.If the stratospheric weather conditions had been normal, the ozone hole would be expected to reach a size of about 8.9 million to 9.3 million square miles, about the surface area of North America, NASA said in a statement.
THE 21st CENTURY IN PICTURES
Scientists measure the total amount of ozone from the ground to the upper atmosphere in Dobson Units, and a NASA satellite detected a low level of 85 Dobson Units on October 8 of the East Antarctic ice sheet.
Scientists from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration used balloon-borne instruments to measure ozone right over the South Pole, and by October 9 the total ozone in a column from the ground to the upper atmosphere had dropped to 93 DU from about 300 DU in mid-July.Temperature variations in the Antarctic stratosphere causes the severity of the ozone hole to vary from year to year. Colder temperatures result in larger and deeper ozone holes, while warmer temperatures lead to smaller ones. This year, the lower stratosphere was about 9 degrees Fahrenheit (5 degrees Celsius) cooler than average.
Concentrations of ozone-depleting chemicals in the lower atmosphere have been declining since 1995, and scientists estimate the ozone hole will be completely recovered by about 2065.
N Korea, Egypt, Israel, Lebanon, Syria shun chemical weapons ban Sat Oct 21, 1:21 AM ET
UNITED NATIONS (AFP) - North Korea, Egypt, Israel, Lebanon and Syria are unfairly refusing to join the convention banning chemical weapons, which has been signed by 180 countries, the head of the body monitoring the treaty has said. It is very unfair to other countries if a few countries retain for themselves the privilege of producing chemical weapons when all the others are transparent in this field, said Rogelio Pfirter of Argentina, director general of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW).The convention, signed in 1993, entered into force in 1997 and mandated the OPCW to eliminate chemical weapons, including deadly nerve gases, forever and to verify the destruction of the declared chemical weapons stockpiles within stipulated deadlines.
Pfirter, who briefed the General Assembly, bemoaned the fact that North Korea has spurned calls to join the treaty, despite allegations of the potential existence of stockpiles.Last week, the UN Security Council unanimously agreed to slap sanctions on North Korea over its first-ever atom-bomb test and demanded that Pyongyang scrap all its weapons of mass destruction.Pfirter also took Israel, Egypt, Lebanon and Syria to task for refusing to join the chemical weapons ban treaty.He said there could be no moral, strategic or legal excuse to remain outside the convention, which given the number of signatories, is considered international law.
Having even a single state outside the convention provided a major loophole that allowed the manufacture of very deadly weapons at the expense of humanity, he noted.Each OPCW member state is mandated to declare if it is in possession of chemical weapons. If so, it must undertake a commitment to destroy all stockpiles by a particular deadline, initially 2007, with an ultimate deadline of 2012.Pfirter told a press conference that while his organization, based in The Hague, was totally totally independent and technically not a part of the United Nations, it was guided by the same aspiration for peace and security.
EARTHQUAKES
MATTHEW 24:7-8
7 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.
8 All these are the beginning of sorrows.
MARK 13:8
8 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom:(ETHNIC GROUP AGAINST ETHNIC GROUP) and there shall be earthquakes in divers places, and there shall be famines and troubles: these are the beginnings of sorrows.
LUKE 21:11
11 And great earthquakes shall be in divers places, and famines, and pestilences; and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven.
Quake strikes off Kermadec Islands Sat Oct 21, 9:04 AM ET
WELLINGTON (AFP) - A moderate 5.0-magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of the Kermadec Islands in the south Pacific. The quake hit 193 kilometres (120 miles) north east of the main Raoul Island at 5:23 pm (0523 GMT), the United States Geological Survey said Saturday.There were no initial reports of casualties or serious damage.The quake struck 746 kilometres south west of Nuku'alofa, the capital of Tonga, at a depth of 10 kilometres.The Kermadecs, New Zealand's largest marine reserve, are uninhabited apart from conservation officers and volunteers on Raoul Island, according to the New Zealand Department of Conservation website.
GNS Science, New Zealand's geological agency, records 14,000 earthquakes in and around New Zealand every year as the country is positioned on the boundary of the Australian and Pacific tectonic plates. Most of these quakes are small with only 150 on average felt by New Zealand residents.
Small quake rattles northern Thailand Sat Oct 21, 8:08 AM ET
BANGKOK (AFP) - An earthquake with a magnitude of 4.5 on the Richter scale struck northern Thailand, but there were no reports of casualties or damage.The quake hit the northern province of Chiang Rai, along the border of Myanmar and Laos, 790 kilometers (483 miles) north of Bangkok, the department said Saturday.The epicenter was located 40 kilometers (25 miles) east of Chiang Rai, but the department did not have a figure for its depth.
Moderate quake shakes northwest Turkey Fri Oct 20, 5:09 PM ET
ANKARA, Turkey - An earthquake shook northwestern Turkey on Friday, prompting some residents of Istanbul to flee their homes, officials and news reports said. There were no immediate reports of injury or significant damage. The quake, with a preliminary magnitude of 5.0, was centered near a lake at the Manyas nature reserve in Balikesir province about 260 miles west of the capital Ankara, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.The quake, which struck at 2:15 p.m. EDT, was felt in Istanbul, some 250 miles north.Balikesir police chief Celal Uzunkaya said there were no reports of any injuries.People in Balikesir and Istanbul rushed out of their homes when the quake struck, CNN-Turk television and the government-owned Anatolia news agency reported.Earthquakes are frequent in Turkey, which lies on active fault lines. Two devastating earthquakes hit northwestern Turkey in 1999, killing some
18,000 people.
Light earthquake shakes Northern California Fri Oct 20, 2:29 PM ET
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - A light earthquake of 4.5 magnitude shook part of Northern California on Friday morning about 74 miles northwest of the state capital, Sacramento, the U.S. Geological Survey said. There were no reports of injuries or damage from the mild event in the surrounding area, James Bauman, chief deputy for the Lake County Sheriff's department, told Reuters.The tremor hit at 10 a.m. (1 p.m. EDT/1700 GMT) and was centered near the Lake County hamlet of Cobb at a depth of 2.6 miles below the surface, according to the USGS
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.
Tropical depression forms near Mexico Sat Oct 21, 6:52 AM ET
MEXICO CITY - A tropical depression formed off Mexico's west coast early Saturday and forecasters said it could turn into a hurricane within a few days.
Tropical Depression 17-E was located about 260 miles south-southwest of the coastal city of Manzanillo, said Dan Mundell, a meteorologist at the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami.The depression is forecast to intensify into a tropical storm in the next 12-24 hours and become a small hurricane within three days, Mundell said. It is moving westward at 11.5 mph with maximum sustained winds of 34.5 mph.Its sustained winds must reach at least 39 mph to be considered a tropical storm and 74 mph to be classified as a hurricane.The system is forecast to turn northward toward the southern Baja peninsula over the next few days, Mundell said.
AFA forces NBC to cancel scene mocking crucifixion of Christ
Dear Stan,
AFA supporters have won a great victory!
The efforts of AFA Online supporters has forced NBC to cancel a scene in the upcoming Madonna special in which she mocks the crucifixion of Christ! More than 750,000 AFA supporters emailed NBC asking for the scene to be deleted from the special which is scheduled to air in November. NBC saw a potential loss of $25,000,000 and decided to edit out the scene.
We were effective because we stuck together and combined our voices. Our supporters not only emailed NBC, but they also called their local NBC stations. Those stations contacted NBC and the network listened.
The scene is gone! Please help us grow by forwarding this to your friends and family and invite them to become a part of AFA Online. If we who believe in traditional values join together, we can accomplish much.If you think our efforts are worthy, would you please support us with a small gift? Thank you for caring enough to get involved.
Sincerely,
Donald E. Wildmon, Founder and Chairman
American Family Association
1 CORINTHIANS 6:9
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,(HARDENED HOMOSEXUALS) nor abusers of themselves with mankind
2 TIMOTHY 3:3
3 Without natural affection,(HOMOSEXTUALS) trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good
GENESIS 19:5
5 And they called unto Lot, and said unto him, Where are the men which came in to thee this night? bring them out unto us, that we may know them.
ROMANS 1:18-32
18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness;
19 Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them.
20 For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:
21 Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.
22 Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools,
23 And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things.
24 Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves:(HOMOSEXUALITY,AND ALL SEX SINS)
25 Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.
26 For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature:(LESBIENS)
27 And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly,(SODOMITES) and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet.(AIDS ETC)
28 And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient;
29 Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers,
30 Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents,
31 Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful:
32 Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.
First Anti-Pride Protest Held in Jerusalem
By Hillel Fendel(INN) Oct 20,06
Thousands of hareidi-religious Jews protested Wednesday against the gay pride march scheduled for the Holy City next month and say they will be out in force if the police don't cancel the march.The protest cut off all traffic through Sabbath Square in the Me'ah She'earim neighborhood of Jerusalem. Some of the speeches were in Yiddish, but were translated into Hebrew for our Sephardic brothers,NFC reported.One of the speakers said, Everyone whom G-d has blessed with children must check the level of modesty in his own home. You can't say, I don't know about this, I'm not involved in it. We must all unite against this plot that has fallen on us, and fight against it. All of us together will fight against this scheme.Rabbi Moshe Sternbuch, the head of the Eidah Hareidit Rabbinical Court, delivered a fiery speech, promising total dedication to the goal of stopping the march in accordance with the rabbis' rulings. He quoted traditional Jewish sources saying that righteous people die because they fail to protest abominations.
We must protest against the filth [coming to] Jerusalem,he said.
Rabbi Sternbuch arned that the march could lead, Heaven forbid, to the death of tens of thousands... We don't need a public inquiry to know why the war in Lebanon occurred and why we failed: Because of the abominations in the Holy Land. The gay pride march was originally scheduled for August, and was postponed because of the war. We have no intention of clashing with the police, Rabbi Sternbuch said, but they should know in advance that if the march is held, we will arrive en-masse, with our rabbis and teachers out in front.Hevron residents Baruch Marzel and Itamar Ben-Gvir wrote a letter to Jerusalem Police Chief Ilan Franco, asking him to cancel the march because of the fear of violence that will certainly erupt.They wrote that they themselves have been banned from certain places, such as the Temple Mount, for fear that they would incite violence.
Many march opponents note that adding to the desecration is the fact that it is scheduled to be held on the anniversary of Kristallnacht, the Night of Broken Glass that presaged the Holocaust. On November 9-10 in 1938, gangs of Nazi youth roamed through Jewish neighborhoods in Germany, breaking windows of Jewish businesses and homes, burning synagogues and looting.
Over 90 Jews were killed, almost 7,500 Jewish businesses were destroyed, 101 synagogues were destroyed and 26,000 Jews were arrested and sent to concentration camps.Jerusalem City Councilwoman Mina Fenton (National Religious Party) told Arutz-7 Hebrew radio that the nation must not be silent. The march is to be held,she said, because of a compromise reached between the Jerusalem Open House [a homosexual center that is organizing the gay march] and the police despite the strong objections of the mayor, the vast majority of the City Council, and many city residents. We must all fight to have this thing canceled not just postponed.
Before the parade was postponed this past summer, Fenton worked to gather tens of thousands of signatures against the parade many of them from non-Jews. The Jews are against it, the Moslems are against it, and so are the Christians, she said, and yet the police still approved it. The public cannot be trampled upon in the name of freedom of expression.Fenton notes the provocative way in which the organizers have gone about preparing for the march including the use of the Jerusalem municipal symbol of a lion in a provocative manner.They're not simply demanding equal rights, said IsraelNationalRadio's Tamar Yonah in a show on the topic several months ago, which could be understandable. They're actually showing pride in their sexual choice, and based on photos from other parades, they dress very scantily and exhibit physical erotic contact on the streets. Is this what we want on the streets of Jerusalem?
ISAIAH 17:1
1 The burden of Damascus. Behold, Damascus is taken away from being a city, and it shall be a ruinous heap.
PSALMS 83:3-7
3 They (ARABS,MUSLIMS) have taken crafty counsel against thy people,(ISRAEL) and consulted against thy hidden ones.
4 They have said, Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation; that the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance.
5 For they have consulted together with one consent: they are confederate against thee:(TREATIES)
6 The tabernacles of Edom,and the Ishmaelites;(ARABS) of Moab, and the Hagarenes;
7 Gebal, and Ammon,(JORDAN) and Amalek;(SYRIA) the Philistines (PALESTINIANS) with the inhabitants of Tyre;(LEBANON)
JOEL 2:20,30-31
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.
Palestinians flock to Jerusalem By KARIN LAUB, Associated Press Writer
Fri Oct 20, 6:50 AM ET
QALANDIA, West Bank - Thousands of Palestinians surged through the main Israeli crossing point from the northern West Bank, braving Israeli restrictions to worship on the last Friday of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan at a major Islamic site in Israeli-ruled Jerusalem. Women and children were among those pouring through the Qalandia checkpoint north of Jerusalem. Men under 45, deemed a security risk by Israel, were barred from crossing though some had traveled for hours to in hopes of praying at the Al-Aqsa mosque, Islam's third-holiest site.The worshippers were initially told that only men over 50 would be allowed through, but an officer later announced through a megaphone that the age limit had been dropped to 45 years.Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said that between 175,000 and 200,000 worshippers were expected to take part in midday prayers at Al-Aqsa, from where tradition says the Prophet Muhammad, Islam's founder, ascended to heaven.
Prayer in Al Aqsa is different from praying in any other mosque and Jerusalem is different from any other place, said Walid Rommaneh, a 47-year-old man from Ramallah who was waiting in the crush at Qalandia for his turn to pass through. His wife, teenage daughter and young son had been admitted earlier.Dozens of younger and more agile men scaled the nearby walls of Israel's West Bank separation barrier and scattered into the neighboring Arab neighborhoods of Jerusalem. Police rounded up several and sent them back.Border police manning the crossing pushed back Palestinians trying to shove through the turnstiles but no serious use of force was seen at Qalandia, and Rosenfeld said there were no reports of any serious incident inside Jerusalem.
Last Friday Israeli forces used tear gas, stun grenades, rubber bullets and water cannon to disperse Palestinians whose anger and frustration at entry restrictions erupted in disturbances at several checkpoints around Jerusalem.
Dr Samuel Doctorian and Angel 2 the Mideast
I heard these words, Israel, Oh Israel, the great judgment has come. The angel said, The chosen, the church, the remnant, shall be purified. The Spirit of God shall prepare the children of God.I saw fires rising to heaven. The angel said,This is the final judgment. My church shall be purified, protected and ready for the final day. Men will die from thirst. Water shall be scarce all over the Middle East.
Rivers shall dry up, and men will fight for water in those countries.The angel showed me that the United Nations shall be broken in pieces because of the crisis in the Middle East. There shall be no more United Nations. The angel with the sickle shall reap the harvest.
Syria needs billions of dollars in investment to avert water crisis
Friday, October 20, 2006
DAMASCUS: Billions of dollars of investment are required over the next decade if Damascus is to avert a critical water crisis, according to a leading development agency. The Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA), the development agency of the Japanese government, has taken a lead role in tackling Syria's growing water shortages. Kazuhide Nagasawa, resident representative of JICA in Syria, recently told IRIN that over the past 20 years the level of ground water in the Barada basin, on which Damascus sits, retreated from 50 meters to 200 meters underground, leading to supply shortages and tap water in dry summer months.
In another 20 years, the water table could be down to 400 meters [below ground level] while the population of Damascus could have risen from its current figure of 4 to 5 million, to 10 million,Nagasawa said. At that point it will be difficult to survive on the limited water resources. The Syrian government will have to decide whether they want to transfer water to Damascus from the coast, or from the Euphrates,he added.Mufak Khalouf, head of the Damascus Water Supply and Sewerage Authority (DELTA), said that the Syrian government was pressing ahead with a feasibility study for a project with a Swiss company to pump water from the Euphrates River which flows from Turkey through Syria to Iraq to Damascus.The project is estimated to cost $2 billion, and was previously believed to have been scrapped due to insufficient funding. The study is due to be finished before the end of the first quarter of next year, said Khalouf. In the meantime Damascus can extract water supplies from the ground water, and we are working on rationalizing water use among residents.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb
However, international specialists warn it will not be long before the ground water upon which much of Damascus and its surrounding countryside rely, dries up almost completely.The over extraction of ground water has left it in a very serious decline, said Noriyuki Mori, a technical expert in water resource management at JICA. If this continues, it will become so low that farmers and residents of Damascus will no longer be able to extract it.
Damascus uses an average of 215 million cubic meters of water per year according to Khaled Shalak, Deputy General Director of DELTA. At present, the available water in the capital is 200 million cubic meters a year. An additional 45 million cubic meters is already needed, and that figure will have risen again by 2010, Khallouf said.Because of water supply not meeting rising demands in Damascus, water is currently being rationed to 13 hours a day.
Even in the mainly urbanized Damascus basin around 80 percent of available water is used in agriculture, with outdated irrigation methods. Across Syria as a whole, only 16 percent of farmers use modern irrigation systems, according to JICA's Mori, and yet, the agricultural sector is set to grow by some 40 percent over the next 20 years. UN Integrated Regional Information Networks
OZONE DEPLETION
ISAIAH 30:26-27
26 Moreover the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold, as the light of seven days, in the day that the LORD bindeth up the breach of his people, and healeth the stroke of their wound.
27 Behold, the name of the LORD cometh from far, burning with his anger, and the burden thereof is heavy: his lips are full of indignation, and his tongue as a devouring fire:
MATTHEW 24:21-22,29
21 For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.
22 And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened (Daylight hours shortened)
29 Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken:
REVELATION 16:7-9
7 And I heard another out of the altar say, Even so, Lord God Almighty, true and righteous are thy judgments.
8 And the fourth angel poured out his vial upon the sun; and power was given unto him to scorch men with fire.
9 And men were scorched with great heat, and blasphemed the name of God, which hath power over these plagues: and they repented not to give him glory.
Antarctic ozone hole biggest on record, U.S. reports
Thu Oct 19, 2006 3:40pm ET,
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - This year's ozone hole over Antarctica is bigger and deeper than any other on record, U.S. scientists reported on Thursday.The ozone layer shields Earth from the sun's harmful ultraviolet rays, and the layer thins out over the South Pole each year, primarily because human-made compounds release ozone-eating chlorine and bromine gases into the stratosphere.
From September 21 to 30, the average area of the ozone hole was the largest ever observed, at 10.6 million square miles ,said Paul Newman of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center outside Washington.If the stratospheric weather conditions had been normal, the ozone hole would be expected to reach a size of about 8.9 million to 9.3 million square miles, about the surface area of North America, NASA said in a statement.
THE 21st CENTURY IN PICTURES
Scientists measure the total amount of ozone from the ground to the upper atmosphere in Dobson Units, and a NASA satellite detected a low level of 85 Dobson Units on October 8 of the East Antarctic ice sheet.
Scientists from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration used balloon-borne instruments to measure ozone right over the South Pole, and by October 9 the total ozone in a column from the ground to the upper atmosphere had dropped to 93 DU from about 300 DU in mid-July.Temperature variations in the Antarctic stratosphere causes the severity of the ozone hole to vary from year to year. Colder temperatures result in larger and deeper ozone holes, while warmer temperatures lead to smaller ones. This year, the lower stratosphere was about 9 degrees Fahrenheit (5 degrees Celsius) cooler than average.
Concentrations of ozone-depleting chemicals in the lower atmosphere have been declining since 1995, and scientists estimate the ozone hole will be completely recovered by about 2065.
N Korea, Egypt, Israel, Lebanon, Syria shun chemical weapons ban Sat Oct 21, 1:21 AM ET
UNITED NATIONS (AFP) - North Korea, Egypt, Israel, Lebanon and Syria are unfairly refusing to join the convention banning chemical weapons, which has been signed by 180 countries, the head of the body monitoring the treaty has said. It is very unfair to other countries if a few countries retain for themselves the privilege of producing chemical weapons when all the others are transparent in this field, said Rogelio Pfirter of Argentina, director general of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW).The convention, signed in 1993, entered into force in 1997 and mandated the OPCW to eliminate chemical weapons, including deadly nerve gases, forever and to verify the destruction of the declared chemical weapons stockpiles within stipulated deadlines.
Pfirter, who briefed the General Assembly, bemoaned the fact that North Korea has spurned calls to join the treaty, despite allegations of the potential existence of stockpiles.Last week, the UN Security Council unanimously agreed to slap sanctions on North Korea over its first-ever atom-bomb test and demanded that Pyongyang scrap all its weapons of mass destruction.Pfirter also took Israel, Egypt, Lebanon and Syria to task for refusing to join the chemical weapons ban treaty.He said there could be no moral, strategic or legal excuse to remain outside the convention, which given the number of signatories, is considered international law.
Having even a single state outside the convention provided a major loophole that allowed the manufacture of very deadly weapons at the expense of humanity, he noted.Each OPCW member state is mandated to declare if it is in possession of chemical weapons. If so, it must undertake a commitment to destroy all stockpiles by a particular deadline, initially 2007, with an ultimate deadline of 2012.Pfirter told a press conference that while his organization, based in The Hague, was totally totally independent and technically not a part of the United Nations, it was guided by the same aspiration for peace and security.
Friday, October 20, 2006
IRAN THREATENS EU IF FOR ISRAEL
1-This Week with Rabbi Eckstein. 2-Strong earthquake rattles Peruvian coast. 3-300 evacuated from Ecuador volcano . 4-Indonesia disaster shows risks of mud volcanoes. 5-Death toll from Thai, Myanmar floods reaches 127. 6-Haniyeh: Hamas will not be moved from power. 7-Opening an Embassy for Yesha. 8-New Iranian Threats Set Off Alarm Bells in Israel. 9-U.N.: Number of ocean dead zones rise. 10-Gillerman: Iran is determined to destroy.11-PM Olmert: PA’s Moment of Truth Rapidly Approaching. 12-Ahmadinejad warns Europe it will pay for backing Israel. 13-Speculation mounts over Solana leaving job.
This Week with Rabbi Eckstein
October 19, 2006
Dear Friend of The Fellowship,
Too often, Hollywood movie producers spend millions making films that look good, but are so short on substance they aren't long for viewing. On the other hand, people of faith have entered the film market and produced movies that try to tell good stories, but are marred by poor production values. A new movie, One Night with the King, is one that I'm looking forward to seeing when I return from Israel later this month. My friend Michael Medved, a national radio show host and movie reviewer, has called the movie, a very, very powerful testament to how much the American Christian community loves the Jewish community. My staff has confirmed that it is a beautifully filmed production comparable to the best Hollywood has to offer that faithfully recounts the biblical story of Esther, one of the most compelling in the Bible. The King of Persia chooses a beautiful young woman named Esther to be his queen, unaware that she is Jewish. Esther hears from Mordecai, her uncle, that the King has entrusted the fate of Persian Jews to Haman, the King's top adviser. Haman hates the Jews, and issues an order that they all be killed.
At great risk to her own life, Esther reveals to the King that she is Jewish and pleads with him to save her people. He agrees to do so, and, in a fitting twist, gives the evil Haman the same fate Haman himself had planned to give the Jews.The story of Esther is usually associated with the Jewish holiday of Purim, still four months away. But its message is timeless. Esther's bravery and obedience to God inspires in any season. And her willingness to put her own life on the line to save her people teaches us a valuable lesson about self-sacrifice and purpose.Haman, on the other hand, represents a sort all too common today the person who hates the Jews so much that he sees in their destruction the solution to all the world's problems. We hear echoes of Haman in Iranian president Ahamadinejad's call to wipe Israel off the map in the promise by Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh that the Palestinian government will never recognize Israel's right to exist in the hateful words of radical Muslim clerics who refer to Jews as descendants of apes and pigs in their sermons.
The power of One Night with the King comes from its strong biblical message. In a world when Hamans often speak the loudest, we need more Esthers seeking to do what is right, to stand humbly before God and defend His people in the face of all difficulties.
Like Esther, perhaps God has indeed raised you and me up for such a time as this (Esther 4:14) a time when true Guardians of Israel are needed to confront anti-Semitism, to give generously to feed Israel's hungry and clothe her poor, and to comfort and bind the wounds of those whose lives have been shattered by war and terrorism. Let's continue in that duty and turn a time of great uncertainty and difficulty for Israel and the Jewish people into a time of joy and celebration.
With prayers for shalom, peace,
Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein
President International Fellowship of Christians and Jews.
Guardians of Israel Donations
https://secure2.convio.net/ifcj/site/DonationACTION=SHOW_DONATION_
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EARTHQUAKES
MATTHEW 24:7-8
7 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.
8 All these are the beginning of sorrows.
MARK 13:8
8 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom:(ETHNIC GROUP AGAINST ETHNIC GROUP) and there shall be earthquakes in divers places, and there shall be famines and troubles: these are the beginnings of sorrows.
LUKE 21:11
11 And great earthquakes shall be in divers places, and famines, and pestilences; and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven.
Strong earthquake rattles Peruvian coast 2 hours, 5 minutes ago
LIMA, Peru - A strong earthquake rattled Peru's southern coast on Friday, but no damage or injuries were reported. The magnitude 6.4 quake struck at 5:48 a.m. below the floor of the Pacific Ocean, 56 miles northwest of the coastal city of Pisco, according to Peru's Geophysics Institute. The U.S. Geological Survey reported the quake as magnitude 6.5. The earthquake was felt as a long shudder in the capital, Lima, and inland in the Andean provincial city of Huancavelica. But it caused the most alarm in Ica, a coastal city 165 miles to the southeast, where local radio reports said panicked residents rushed from their homes into streets and parks.
EARTH DESTROYED WITH THE EARTH
GENESIS 6:11-13
11 The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.(WORLD TERRORISM,MURDERS)
12 And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth.
13 And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence (TERRORISM) through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth.
300 evacuated from Ecuador volcano Thu Oct 19, 10:08 PM ET
QUITO, Ecuador - Lava and ash erupted from an Ecuadoran volcano and forced the evacuation of about 300 villagers, a local mayor said Thursday. An eruption two months ago of the Tungurahua volcano killed four people and left two others missing and still unaccounted for.We were able to take them out last night from the most dangerous zones located on the flanks where the explosions occurred Aug. 16,said Juan Salazar, mayor of Penipe, 12 miles from the volcano.The upper slopes of the volcano have been mostly deserted since August. But Salazar said about 80 families had returned to attempt to farm in the ash-encrusted ground.They saw incandescent rocks coming down on the slopes and so they evacuated, he said. No injuries were reported.
In addition to the casualties, nearly 5,000 homes were destroyed or severely damaged and tens of thousands of acres of pasture and crops were also destroyed in the August eruption, according to the Civil Defense.Experts have warned that renewed explosions could come any time from the 16,575-foot volcano located about 85 miles south of the capital, Quito.What we have seen now is evidence that something there could be something similar to the episodes in July and August,said Hugo Yepes, director of Ecuador's Geophysics Institute. Inside the ground there is a chamber of magma much larger than the volcano itself.
Indonesia disaster shows risks of mud volcanoes By Alister Doyle, Environment Correspondent 1 hour, 45 minutes ago Oct 20,06
OSLO (Reuters) - In a village in Indonesia's East Java province, a man is struggling to watch television with a volcano erupting in his living room. Risks from volcanoes that ooze mud rather than spew lava have long been underestimated worldwide, even with a cataclysmic mudflow in another part of Java that has swamped an area the size of Monaco and forced 10,000 people from their homes.Experts say the disaster, flooding the Sidoarjo region since May 29, highlights lack of knowledge about mud volcanoes, thousands of which have been found from Alaska to Australia. They range from tiny seeps to cones 500 meters (1,640 ft) tall.
In Java nobody ever studied mud volcanoes,said Adriano Mazzini, a leading Italian volcano expert at the University of Oslo who says the Indonesian disaster may signal the first time people have recorded the birth of a mud volcano.In Indonesia they have other priorities magmatic volcanoes, earthquakes, tsunamis,he told Reuters.
On Java, villages about 10-20 km (6-12 miles) north of the mud eruption Gununganyar, Kalanganyar and Pulungan are built on old, near-dormant mud volcanoes that must have seemed attractive-looking mounds to village founders.
Pulungan was the most vivid example of ignoring the risks of mud volcanoes, such as subsidence.We went to one house where a man took us into his living room. He opened the cupboard beneath the television, and there were seeps erupting, Mazzini said after a recent trip.Another home in Pulungan has collapsed and elsewhere many residents are worried by seeps of gas, mud and fluids. The volcano may have been stirred by an earthquake on May 27, two days before the catastrophic mudflow began.
BUILDING LIFTED
In Kalanganyar, the end of one long thin building had been lifted a meter or two over the years by the pressures from a mud volcano bulging beneath.Mud volcanoes need better study,said Antje Boetius, a professor at the International University of Bremen in Germany.She noted that they could cause disasters, ranging from subsidence to tsunamis. They mean something for humans it's not just scientific curiosity,she said.Mud volcanoes are often caused by a build-up of pressure from sediments crushed several kilometers below the surface that release methane and other gases. They are often found near oil and gas deposits, also caused by a crush of organic matter.As in Java, they can also happen near where tectonic plates of the earth's crust rub together. Mazzini said it was impossible to say how long the Sidoarjo flow would last.
He said researchers would probably never know exactly what triggered the catastrophic mudflow at Sidoarjo, releasing the build-up of pressure deep below ground.The trigger might have been a magnitude 4 earthquake two days before the mudflow began, he said, or the drilling of a gas exploration well operated by PT Lapindo Brantas Inc, which is controlled by Pt Energi Mega Persada.
Mud volcanoes are rarely deadly since they more often seep rather than explode. In 1997, an eruption of a mud volcano at Piparo, a farming village in central Trinidad, threw mud 45 meters (150 ft) into the air, covering many homes. No one died. In Azerbaijan, a large mud volcano that erupted in 2001 also released giant flares of methane.
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.
Death toll from Thai, Myanmar floods reaches 127 Fri Oct 20, 4:25 AM ET
BANGKOK (AFP) - The death toll from severe flooding in Thailand and neighboring Myanmar has reached 127 as Thai weather authorities warned of more heavy rains over the weekend in the country's south.
At least 108 people have died in Thailand since severe flooding began in late August in the country's central and northern provinces, the interior ministry said in a statement.
The death toll soared overnight after the ministry confirmed that 25 people reported dead earlier were confirmed to be flood victims.The water that inundated northern Thailand was slowly working its way south, but 16 central provinces were still suffering from the floods, the ministry said.At its peak earlier in the month, the flooding, triggered by heavy rains from Typhoon Xangsane, affected 46 of the nation's 76 provinces.In neighboring Myanmar, 19 people died in floods across central and eastern parts of the country, but in most places there, the water has already subsided.
Haniyeh: Hamas will not be moved from power
Friday 20 October 2006, 17:38 Makka Time, 14:38 GMT
Ismail Haniyeh, the Palestinian prime minister, said in a speech at a mosque on Friday that Hamas would reject any moves by Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, to oust Hamas from power.Haniyeh's convoy came under attack as it passed through the Nusseirat refugee camp in central Gaza shortly after the prime minister's speech, but the Hamas leader was unhurt.Hamas officials said the attack did not appear to be an assassination attempt, but it comes at a time of growing tensions between rival Palestinian factions that have sparked fears of civil war.
An official in Haniyeh's office said: The prime minister is alright and he is out of the area which witnessed the gunfire. His car was not attacked. Islam Shawan, a spokesman for Hamas' armed wing, said that the last car in the motorcade was hit and set alight.
There were no reports of injuries.
Pointless
Abbas has hinted that he might fire the Hamas government after efforts to form a unity cabinet foundered over Hamas' refusal to soften its stance toward Israel.Haniyeh said it would be pointless for Abbas to fire the government, suggesting any emergency administration the president appointed would not get the ultimate approval of parliament, where Hamas has an absolute majority.
He also said Hamas would reject other measures such as calling early elections. Haniyeh said: All you have here are options that have no aim but to remove Hamas from government. The wheel of history will not go backward.All these options will not achieve stability and calm and will not represent a way out of the crisis.
Haniyeh did not threaten explicit action to oppose Abbas, such as calling Hamas supporters out onto the streets.
Western sanctions
Abbas said this week that he would make a decision soon on the fate of the government. The president has not explicitly identified his options but his aides have said that he might call fresh elections, appoint an emergency cabinet or hold a referendum to let the Palestinian people decide what to do.A senior Abbas aide told Reuters on Thursday that the president was expected to make his decision several days after the Eid al-Fitr holiday, which marks the end of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan. Eid this year falls around October 23.Palestinians had hoped that a unity government would lead to a lifting of crippling Western sanctions that were
imposed on Hamas when it assumed office in March.(Reuters)
Opening an Embassy for Yesha
By Stan Goodenough,October 20, 2006
It was an event that went largely unnoticed (or was purposefully ignored) by the news media. For many of those participating, however, it was one of prophetic magnitude and an opportunity to express their unshakeable resolve.On Sunday, October 8, in front of more than 300 visiting Gentiles and invited Israeli guests, the Jerusalem-based pro-Israel Christian organization, the International Christian Zionist Center, officially opened its new offices on the road between Jerusalem and Bethel.According to an ICZC press release, the move to the area in Samaria, behind the controversial security fence and inside the territory earmarked for a future State of Palestine, was made in solidarity with the people of Israel and their undeniable historic link to all their divinely-promised land.
Because every unilateral Israeli withdrawal in the region had only increased the bellicose stand of Israel’s enemies and intensified their terrorism against Israel, with their final aim being to excise the sovereign Jewish state from their Muslim midst, ICZC director Jan Willem van der Hoeven said the Christians represented by the organization believed that Israel needs to spell out to the world as well as to her own, battered, people that this tiny piece of land is theirs and will never be forsaken by them.With members in nations around the globe, the ICZC had committed itself to tirelessly spelling this out to our own gentile leaders and governments.
Van der Hoeven recalled how, in 1981, after 13 embassies crumpled under Arab pressure and fled from Jerusalem to Tel Aviv, he had led a small group of Christians in founding the International Christian Embassy so that Christians around the world could say to Israel, You are not alone.I feel to repeat that action today, Van der Hoeven said, and open an embassy for Yesha (the targeted areas of Judea, Samaria and Gaza) here, to say like Ruth to the Jews in these endangered communities, Your God is our God and we are with you.It is on the hearts of millions of Christians, from China to Brazil, from America to South Africa, as some of you have come to say to the Jewish people, You will never have peace when you give up the land; but you will have peace when you keep it!
The land where the ICZC offices were situated was the very land Jacob had been sleeping when God promised him that the ground on which you are lying, I will give to you.This land, which included Ariel and Bethel and Shiloh and Hebron and Jerusalem, was now under the gun. And if the battle to preserve Bethel and Shiloh was lost, the battle for Jerusalem would also be lost.Among the Israeli guests asked to address the gathering were Ron Nachman, the founder and mayor of Ariel, the biggest Jewish community Samaria, and Hebrew University Professor of Arabic Studies Moshe Sharon.Stepping up to the microphone, Nachman declared: In the Bible there is no West Bank, no Occupied Territories…only the Promised Land.He reminded world leaders that the first deed in real estate was not in Washington DC, not in Paris, not in London, it was in Hebron.
But he bemoaned the fact that the Gentile nations do not see the biggest threat today: the clash of civilizations, Islam against Christianity and Judaism.Nachman said he believed it was important that Christians and Jews stand together in defense of Israel’s land.When visiting the United States, he said, I am not welcomed and not invited to speak by the Jewish establishment, because I am mayor of the biggest Jewish city in the West Bank.So I go to the Christians.The mayor, a former Knesset member, said he sees a great hope in the connection of the Jewish and non-Jewish communities in resisting the world’s efforts to rob the Jews of their land.However, he stressed, while it was good that people prayed against the uprooting of Jewish communities Gush Katif was evacuated despite all the prayers.
The fight was also a political fight and we need to fight it on that front, he said.Moshe Sharon sounded the alarm he has been speaking out for many years but which have mostly fallen on the deaf ears of politicians who believe they have to remain politically correct:The world is caught up in a clash of civilizations and is already in fact embroiled in World War III.The Middle East conflict was part of that war, but it was reaching deep into areas in the Western world.Beware Europe! You are on the way to becoming an Islamic state. There are 4800 mosques in Germany alone!! And right now in the oldest city in Finland, a new mosque is being erected that is so high it will be visible from 50 km away…Muslims were teaching that Europe is the cancer. Islam is the answer!
Sharon, an advisor on Arab affairs to a number of former Israeli prime ministers, said there could never be peace between Israel as a Jewish state and the Arabs, for as far as the Arabs are concerned the establishment of the state of Israel is a reversal of history; it was something that could not happen! The word peace simply does not exist in the Quran, he said.Returning to the podium, Van der Hoeven told the gathering that while the International Christian Zionist Center was the only Christian-led organization to fully support Jews against expulsion from the heartland of Israel by physically locating itself on the endangered land, he believed other pro-Israel groups would one day follow this example.It was the vision of the ICZC to help train the millions of Christians from every nation to stand pro-actively with Israel, spiritually, materially and politically, as Israel’s few remaining friends among the nations faded away.
New Iranian Threats Set Off Alarm Bells in Israel
By Robert Berger ,Jerusalem,20 October 2006
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says Israel no longer has any reason to exist and will soon disappear. The latest threats are adding to Israel's already deep concerns about Iran's nuclear program.Mahmoud Ahmadinejad delivers speech after attending anti-Israeli rally Friday, Oct. 20, 2006.
Israeli officials say the saber-rattling from Iran is another warning to the international community that the Islamic regime must not be allowed to get a nuclear bomb. At a pro-Palestinian rally in Tehran, Iran's president said Israeli leaders are a group of terrorists, and he threatened any country that supports the Jewish state. He also said Israel is a fake regime that would soon disappear. It was a similar statement to one a year ago, when he threatened to wipe Israel off the map.
Since then, Israel has watched the Iranian nuclear program with growing alarm. Foreign Minister Tzippe Livni says the leaders of Iran pose a threat to regional and global stability.They speak proudly and openly of their desire to wipe Israel off the map, she said. And now, by their actions, they pursue the weapons to achieve this objective, to imperil the region and to threaten the world.
So what now?
The world faces a critical test.,she noted.Israel believes the international community is moving too slowly to stop Iran, and that the U.N. must change course and quickly impose sanctions.
Ehud Olmert
However, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert visited Russia this week to urge a tougher stand on Iran, but came away empty handed from talks with President Vladimir Putin. Russia is building Iran's first nuclear reactor and opposes sanctions on Tehran.So Mr. Olmert warned that Iran would have a price to pay if it does not back down from its nuclear ambitions. It was a broad hint that if the international community does not act, Israel might launch a pre-emptive strike against Iran's nuclear facilities on its own.
POISONED WATERS
REVELATION 8:8-11
8 And the second angel sounded, and as it were a great mountain burning with fire was cast into the sea: and the third part of the sea became blood;
9 And the third part of the creatures which were in the sea, and had life, died; and the third part of the ships were destroyed.
10 And the third angel sounded, and there fell a great star from heaven, burning as it were a lamp, and it fell upon the third part of the rivers, and upon the fountains of waters;
11 And the name of the star is called Wormwood:(bitter,Poisoned) and the third part of the waters became wormwood; and many men died of the waters, because they were made bitter.(poisoned)
REVELATION 16:3-7
3 And the second angel poured out his vial upon the sea; and it became as the blood of a dead man: and every living soul died in the sea.(enviromentalists won't like this result)
4 And the third angel poured out his vial upon the rivers and fountains of waters; and they became blood.
5 And I heard the angel of the waters say, Thou art righteous, O Lord, which art, and wast, and shalt be, because thou hast judged thus.
6 For they(False World Church and Dictator) have shed the blood of saints and prophets, and thou hast given them blood to drink; for they are worthy.
7 And I heard another out of the altar say, Even so, Lord God Almighty, true and righteous are thy judgments.
U.N.: Number of ocean dead zones rise By JOHN HEILPRIN, Associated Press Writer 1 hour, 20 minutes ago
WASHINGTON - Scientists have found 200 dead zones in the world's oceans places where pollution threatens fish, other marine life and the people who depend on them.
The United Nations report Thursday showed a 34 percent jump in the number of such zones from just two years ago. Pollution-fed algae, which deprives other living marine life of oxygen, is the cause of most of the world's dead zones that cover tens of thousands of square miles of waterways. Scientists chiefly blame fertilizer and other farm run-off, sewage and fossil-fuel burning.Those contain an excess of nutrients, particularly phosphorous and nitrogen, that cause explosive blooms of tiny plants known as phytoplankton. When they die, they sink to the bottom, where they are eaten by bacteria that use up the oxygen in the water.
The low levels of oxygen in the water make it difficult for fish, oysters and other marine creatures to survive as well as important habitats such as sea grass beds,U.N. officials said. These areas are fast becoming major threats to fish stocks and thus to the people who depend upon fisheries for food and livelihoods.By 2030, the world's rivers will pump 14 percent more nitrogen into seas and oceans than that found in the mid-1990s, according to new U.N. research released at a meeting in Beijing.Researchers led by Robert Diaz, a marine scientist at Virginia's College of William and Mary, said they found new dead zones at the Archipelago Sea in Finland; Fosu Lagoon in Ghana; Pearl River estuary and Changjiang River in China; and Mersey River estuary in Britain.Other new zones found were at the Elefsis Bay and Aegean Sea in Greece; Paracas Bay in Peru; Mondego River in Portugal; Montevideo Bay in Uruguay; and in the western Indian Ocean.
The United Nations marine experts said the number and size of oxygen-deprived zones has grown each decade since the 1970s.Not all the dead zones persist year-round; some return seasonally, depending on winds that bring nutrient-rich water to the surface.
It seems like a big jump in two years,said Nancy Rabalais, executive director of the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium, who was not part of the U.N. research. She said an important factor has been the huge increase in pollution from fast-developing countries.Rabalais, who has studied the Gulf of Mexico's massive dead zone that is now the size of New Jersey, said marine creatures that swim fast enough can usually escape.The things that are left behind are the ones that usually can't survive, she said.
When you consider the size of some of these areas, it's removing what's considered the essential habitat for fishes and crustaceans.Other U.N. scientific findings released Thursday, however, raised hopes for the recovery of damaged coral reefs, which serve as the ocean's nurseries. It found that reefs bleached in the late 1990s by high surface sea temperatures are affected by how polluted the waters are.Coral reefs recovering faster are generally those living in marine protected areas and coastal waters where the levels of pollution, dredging and other kinds of human-induced disturbance are considered low,the U.N. said.
On the Net:U.N. report: http://www.gpa.unep.org/bin/php/igr/igr2/supporting.php
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 MUSLIMS TO MARCH) and I will bring thee forth, and all thine army, horses and horsemen, all of them clothed with all sorts of armour, even a great company with bucklers and shields, all of them handling swords:
5 Persia,(IRAN,IRAQ) Ethiopia, and Libya with them; all of them with shield and helmet:
6 Gomer,(GERMANY) and all his bands; the house of Togarmah (TURKEY)of the north quarters, and all his bands:(SUDAN,AFRICA) and many people with thee.
7 Be thou prepared, and prepare for thyself, thou, and all thy company that are assembled unto thee, and be thou a guard unto them.
8 After many days thou shalt be visited: in the latter years thou shalt come into the land that is brought back from the sword, and is gathered out of many people, against the mountains of Israel, which have been always waste: but it is brought forth out of the nations, and they shall dwell safely all of them.
9 Thou shalt ascend and come like a storm, thou shalt be like a cloud to cover the land, thou, and all thy bands, and many people with thee.(RUSSIA-EGYPT AND MUSLIMS)
10 Thus saith the Lord GOD; It shall also come to pass, that at the same time shall things come into thy mind, and thou shalt think an evil thought:
11 And thou shalt say, I will go up to the land of unwalled villages; I will go to them that are at rest, that dwell safely, all of them dwelling without walls, and having neither bars nor gates,
12 To take a spoil, and to take a prey; to turn thine hand upon the desolate places that are now inhabited, and upon the people that are gathered out of the nations, which have gotten cattle and goods, that dwell in the midst of the land.
ISAIAH 17:1
1 The burden of Damascus. Behold, Damascus is taken away from being a city, and it shall be a ruinous heap.
PSALMS 83:3-7
3 They (ARABS,MUSLIMS) have taken crafty counsel against thy people,(ISRAEL) and consulted against thy hidden ones.
4 They have said, Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation; that the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance.
5 For they have consulted together with one consent: they are confederate against thee:(TREATIES)
6 The tabernacles of Edom,and the Ishmaelites;(ARABS) of Moab, and the Hagarenes;
7 Gebal, and Ammon,(JORDAN) and Amalek;(SYRIA) the Philistines (PALESTINIANS) with the inhabitants of Tyre;(LEBANON)
JOEL 2:20,30-31
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.
Gillerman: Iran is determined to destroy
Yitzhak Benhorin Published: 10.19.06
Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations Danny Gillerman took advantage of the monthly UN discussion on the situation in the Middle East Thursday to warn the members of the Security Council on the threat posed by Iran. Gillerman said Iran paid Hamas USD 50 million in order to torpedo efforts to release Gilad Shalit. Today I learned that Iran had paid USD 50 million to Hamas in order to torpedo the deal to the release of kidnapped IDF soldier Gilad Shalit.
If Iran is willing to pay so much money to solve a humanitarian issue, it is frightening how much they will be willing to pay to torpedo any diplomatic initiative to block their nuclear efforts,Gillerman said, referring to an item first published by Yedioth Ahronoth Thursday morning. Although the speech was part of a routine discussion held monthly at the UN, this time it was held before the Security Council. During the meeting, UN special envoy to the Middle East Alvaro de-Soto presented his report and said that since the kidnapping of Gilad Shalit in late June, 295 Palestinians were killed by IDF forces, including 66 children, and another 1,113 were injured.
During his speech Gillerman praised the decision to impose sanctions on North Korea but warned that North Korea is only the prelude to a more disturbing story, the emergence of a nuclear Iran, armed and willing to share its state terrorist capabilities with the other unholy extremists who yearn to destroy us. He added that Israel sees the Iranian threat as an existential one, not solely to itself but to the entire world as well. The international community must be determined, clear, and unequivocal in its plan of action.
There is only one choice: the world must ensure that Iran does not attain nuclear weapons.
Are you doing everything you can?
Gilerman added that although the real, most urgent threat to stability and peace in the Middle East is Iran, We are bolstered by the surfacing of moderate voices in the region, voices that recognize the true threats facing us.Now these moderates are joining together to form an alliance against the extremists and for a historical reconciliation and mutual advancement. Ambassador Gillerman also criticized the fact that the kidnapped IDF soldiers have not been freed yet and the failure to enforce the arms embargo from Syria into Lebanon.This Council, in its unanimous adoption of resolution 1701, took upon itself the responsibility to secure the unconditional release of our boys, the Israeli soldiers Gilad Shalit, Udi Goldwasser, and Eldad Regev. I ask you now, as I did then, to do your utmost to alleviate this humanitarian crisis and bring them home.
Gillerman added that two and a half weeks after the last Israeli soldier left southern Lebanon, the situation along the northern border has begun to stabilize, but it is still early to declare it as a success. Success will be determined only to the extent to which resolution 1701 is fully implemented. There is reason to be concerned about the smuggling of arms across the border between Lebanon and Syria. Hizbullah’s rearming not only violates the essence and strength of resolution 1701, it places the entire region in immediate peril. There can be no ambiguity in policy here. The embargo must be enforced, and its violators must be held accountable,he said.
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.(TR 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).
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)
WW3 THE 3 WAVES THAT MARCH TO ISRAEL
DANIEL 11:40-45
40 And at the time of the end shall the king of the south( EGYPT) push at him:(EU DICTATOR IN ISRAEL) and the king of the north (RUSSIA AND MUSLIM HORDES OF EZEK 38+39) shall come against him like a whirlwind, with chariots, and with horsemen, and with many ships; and he shall enter into the countries, and shall overflow and pass over.
41 He shall enter also into the glorious land, and many countries shall be overthrown: but these shall escape out of his hand, even Edom, and Moab, and the chief of the children of Ammon.(JORDAN)
42 He shall stretch forth his hand also upon the countries: and the land of Egypt shall not escape.
43 But he shall have power over the treasures of gold and of silver, and over all the precious things of Egypt: and the Libyans and the Ethiopians shall be at his steps.
44 But tidings out of the east(CHINA 2ND WAVE OF WW3) and out of the north(RUSSIA, MUSLIMS WHATS LEFT FROM WAVE 1) shall trouble him:(EU DICTATOR IN ISRAEL) therefore he shall go forth with great fury to destroy, and utterly to make away many.( 1/3RD OF EARTHS POPULATION)
45 And he shall plant the tabernacles of his palace between the seas in the glorious holy mountain; yet he shall come to his end, and none shall help him.
The Third and Final Wave of WW3 is when all Nations march to Jerusalem, but JESUS bodily returns to earth and destroys them,sets up his KINGDOM OF RULE FOR 1000 YEARS THEN FOREVER.
2ND WAVE CHINA AND KINGS OF THE EAST MARCH TO ISRAEL
REVELATION 16:12
12 And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates; and the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared.(THIS IS THE ATATURK DAM IN TURKEY,THEY CROSS OVER).
DANIEL 11:44 (2ND WAVE OF WW3)
44 But tidings out of the east(CHINA) and out of the north(RUSSIA, MUSLIMS WHATS LEFT FROM WAVE 1) shall trouble him:(EU DICTATOR IN ISRAEL) therefore he shall go forth with great fury to destroy, and utterly to make away many.( 1/3RD OF EARTHS POPULATION)
REVELATION 9:12-18
12 One woe is past; and, behold, there come two woes more hereafter.
13 And the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God,
14 Saying to the sixth angel which had the trumpet, Loose the four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates.(IRAQ-SYRIA)
15 And the four angels were loosed, which were prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, for to slay the third part of men.(1/3 Earths Population die in WW 3 2ND WAVE)
16 And the number of the army of the horsemen were two hundred thousand thousand:(200 MILLION MAN ARMY FROM CHINA AND THE KINGS OF THE EAST) and I heard the number of them.
17 And thus I saw the horses in the vision, and them that sat on them, having breastplates of fire, and of jacinth, and brimstone: and the heads of the horses were as the heads of lions; and out of their mouths issued fire and smoke and brimstone.(NUCLEAR BOMBS)
18 By these three was the third part of men killed, by the fire, and by the smoke, and by the brimstone, which issued out of their mouths.(NUCLEAR BOMBS)
PM Olmert: PA’s Moment of Truth Rapidly Approaching
By Yechiel Spira(INN)
Upon his return from Moscow on Thursday evening, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert announced the PA’s moment of truth is rapidly approaching.
The prime minister stated that PA (Palestinian Authority) Chairman Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) must make some critical decisions. Decisions, he said, that will determine the future of the region. If Abu Mazen does not take the required steps, we will all be losers,Olmert said.While negotiations between Abu Mazen’s Fatah and the ruling Hamas movement continue, fighting between rival factions has sharply increased, with daily shootouts taking place in Gaza this week as the two terror organizations struggle for control.
Hamas emerged the victor in the PA’s general elections, but Prime Minister Ismail Haniyah is now isolated by the western community which is demanding recognition of Israel, resulting in an economic boycott of the Hamas government.
Reaching an agreement with Abu Mazen whereby a new coalition government would recognize Israel in some regard would result in international acceptance of the PA government, a move that would unlock donor nation funds for the PA and its institutions. Regarding Iran, Olmert added the clock is running out, adding that today, things are happening and the situation has changed. While stating I did not threaten Iran,the prime minister added, Iran must not realize who it is up against .Iran should be afraid.Seeking to exhibit an air of success upon his return from Moscow, the prime minister added that Russian President Vladimir Putin opposes a nuclear independent Iran. This despite the fact that during a meeting between the two, Olmert failed to receive the assurances he was seeking a stronger Russian position against Iran’s ongoing nuclear program.
Russian technology has played a strong influence in the area with regard to Iran’s nuclear development; advanced weapon sales to Syria and indirect assistance to Hizbullah. Nonetheless, Olmert attempted to exhibit an atmosphere of cooperation between Jerusalem and Moscow.The London-based Arabic Al-Hayat newspaper, quoting Hamas sources, reports progress regarding efforts to obtain IDF soldier Gilad Shalit’s release from his PA captors. Israel’s Yediot Achronot daily reported on Thursday that a deal which would have led to Shalit’s release next week was thwarted by Iran. According to the report, a deal was reached in which Shalit would have been released during the Muslim holiday of Eid el-Fitr, marking the end of the month of Ramadan. In exchange, Israel agreed to release Arab prisoners - not all at once, but in a number of waves.
According to the report, Iranian officials arrived in Damascus and with a $50 million gift for Hamas politburo Khaled Meshal, succeeding in bringing the plans to a halt. Meshal upped his demands, calling upon Israel to release terrorists who he knew the Olmert government could not release. This gave him the ability to cancel the deal, placing the blame on Israel. Regarding Shalit, who was taken captive on June 25th, Abu Mazen stated on numerous occasions that he will not enter into a coalition agreement with Hamas until Shalit is released. He also told western media sources that he insists that Hamas recognize Israel’s right to exist and declare the government’s commitment to abide by previously signed agreements.In interviews with the Arab media however, Abu Mazen stated his Fatah Party needn’t recognize Israel.
Ahmadinejad warns Europe it will pay for backing Israel
Robert Tait in Tehran,Friday October 20, 2006,Guardian Unlimited
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran added a threatening edge to his verbal onslaught on Israel today by warning European governments to withdraw their support or face getting hurt in a storm of retaliation.He also called Britain and the United States enemies of Iran whose attempts to block the country's nuclear programme at the UN security council were illegitimate.Mr Ahmadinejad was speaking in Tehran at the annual Qods [Jerusalem] day rally, staged by Iran's Islamic regime to propagate its ideological opposition to Israel. He repeated predictions that Israel would soon disappear but, in a fresh warning, said European countries could pay a much higher price than the US for their backing.
We have advised the Europeans that the Americans are far away, but you are the neighbours of the nations in this region, he said. We inform you that the nations are like an ocean that is welling up, and if a storm begins, the dimensions will not stay limited to Palestine, and you may get hurt. It is in your own interest to distance yourself from these criminals ... This is an ultimatum. Don't complain tomorrow.Mr Ahmadinejad, who last year called for Israel to be wiped off the map and dismissed the holocaust as a myth, has not previously made such a clear distinction between US and European support for Israel.
The UN security council is poised to consider sanctions in response to Iran's refusal to suspend uranium enrichment.
But Mr Ahmadinejad dismissed the security council because of the presence of America and Britain as permanent veto-wielding powers.What sort of security council is this, he asked. You want to be the judge, the jury and the enforcer.Mr Ahmadinejad's outburst came amid a carnival atmosphere in which throngs of children carrying balloons milled among the crowds. Dozens swapped paintings depicting the Israeli-Palestinian conflict for T-shirts donated by Tehran city council.A display of banners featured one bearing the phrase Israel must be wiped off the map in Hebrew. Others accused companies such as Coca-Cola, McDonald's, Nestlé and Marks and Spencer of being pro-Israel. A stall recruiting potential martyrs was selling DVDs showing volunteers from the Palestinian militant organisation Hamas preparing suicide attacks against Israel.
Speculation mounts over Solana leaving job
19.10.2006 - 17:36 CET | By Mark Beunderman
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Speculation is mounting that Javier Solana, the EU's top diplomat, will step down for health reasons with the former Swedish, Slovak and Austrian prime ministers reportedly first in line to succeed him. Intense rumours about an end to the Solana era have been circulating in Brussels for the last couple of weeks, with several reasons being cited for his possible imminent retirement. One version says it became clear to the Spaniard during the Lebanon crisis in the summer that he could never really act on behalf of the EU, with member states refusing to give him a clear mandate.Mr Solana also had to recently admit that his efforts to get Iran to halt uranium enrichment which he had exceptionally handled on behalf of all UN veto powers have stalled.
On top of this, the deadlock on the EU constitution means that Mr Solana will not get the job as official EU foreign minister foreseen for November in the shelved charter.
Highly-skilled diplomat
Generally, the Spanish socialist is seen as a highly skilled diplomat who has managed to survive seven years in the gruelling position without facing much political flak. He is seen as at least having given a positive face to EU foreign policy despite the domain being still very much in member state hands. But Austrian paper Der Kurier on Wednesday (18 October) reported that the 64-year old Mr Solana could nevertheless soon step down for health reasons.
German chancellor Angela Merkel reportedly had a long phone call with the Spaniard last week in which he said he would follow his doctor's advice and soon quit the job, otherwise he would be dead in twelve months even if this is not visible in his appearance and in his statements. A press officer in Mr Solana's office however denied the report saying there was not such a phone call. Mr Solana's mandate expires in 2009 and his post is not available,she stated, adding that the Spanish diplomat jogs every day before work.
Verheugen not interested
The Austrian paper writes that Ms Merkel, whose country will hold the EU presidency in the first half of next year, has shortlisted two favourites to succeed Mr Solana: Slovakia's former prime minister Miklas Dzurinda and Austria's outgoing leader Wolfgang Schussel. The report contradicts earlier speculation saying that Berlin has its own candidate EU industry commissioner Guenter Verheugen.Mr Verheugen however told Germany's Die Welt on Thursday that he is not interested in the post, saying he consciously said farewell to foreign policy when he left the commission's enlargement department in 2004.Another strong candidate who has been doing the rounds is Sweden's former prime minister Carl Bildt, who is back on the EU stage since he was appointed foreign minister in the new Swedish centre-right government.
Insiders say Mr Bildt is not hiding his ambitions to obtain the top job, while also having a huge network in international affairs. The chances of the rumoured candidates is set to depend to a large extent on their ability to bridge the gap between atlanticist states such as the UK, Denmark, the Netherlands and new member states and proponents of distance to Washington notably France.Mr Dzurinda is known as a strong pro-US politician and therefore difficult to accept by Paris. Mr Schussel, on the other hand, makes no secret of his opposition to Turkish EU accession which would put him at odds with the UK.
This Week with Rabbi Eckstein
October 19, 2006
Dear Friend of The Fellowship,
Too often, Hollywood movie producers spend millions making films that look good, but are so short on substance they aren't long for viewing. On the other hand, people of faith have entered the film market and produced movies that try to tell good stories, but are marred by poor production values. A new movie, One Night with the King, is one that I'm looking forward to seeing when I return from Israel later this month. My friend Michael Medved, a national radio show host and movie reviewer, has called the movie, a very, very powerful testament to how much the American Christian community loves the Jewish community. My staff has confirmed that it is a beautifully filmed production comparable to the best Hollywood has to offer that faithfully recounts the biblical story of Esther, one of the most compelling in the Bible. The King of Persia chooses a beautiful young woman named Esther to be his queen, unaware that she is Jewish. Esther hears from Mordecai, her uncle, that the King has entrusted the fate of Persian Jews to Haman, the King's top adviser. Haman hates the Jews, and issues an order that they all be killed.
At great risk to her own life, Esther reveals to the King that she is Jewish and pleads with him to save her people. He agrees to do so, and, in a fitting twist, gives the evil Haman the same fate Haman himself had planned to give the Jews.The story of Esther is usually associated with the Jewish holiday of Purim, still four months away. But its message is timeless. Esther's bravery and obedience to God inspires in any season. And her willingness to put her own life on the line to save her people teaches us a valuable lesson about self-sacrifice and purpose.Haman, on the other hand, represents a sort all too common today the person who hates the Jews so much that he sees in their destruction the solution to all the world's problems. We hear echoes of Haman in Iranian president Ahamadinejad's call to wipe Israel off the map in the promise by Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh that the Palestinian government will never recognize Israel's right to exist in the hateful words of radical Muslim clerics who refer to Jews as descendants of apes and pigs in their sermons.
The power of One Night with the King comes from its strong biblical message. In a world when Hamans often speak the loudest, we need more Esthers seeking to do what is right, to stand humbly before God and defend His people in the face of all difficulties.
Like Esther, perhaps God has indeed raised you and me up for such a time as this (Esther 4:14) a time when true Guardians of Israel are needed to confront anti-Semitism, to give generously to feed Israel's hungry and clothe her poor, and to comfort and bind the wounds of those whose lives have been shattered by war and terrorism. Let's continue in that duty and turn a time of great uncertainty and difficulty for Israel and the Jewish people into a time of joy and celebration.
With prayers for shalom, peace,
Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein
President International Fellowship of Christians and Jews.
Guardians of Israel Donations
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EARTHQUAKES
MATTHEW 24:7-8
7 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.
8 All these are the beginning of sorrows.
MARK 13:8
8 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom:(ETHNIC GROUP AGAINST ETHNIC GROUP) and there shall be earthquakes in divers places, and there shall be famines and troubles: these are the beginnings of sorrows.
LUKE 21:11
11 And great earthquakes shall be in divers places, and famines, and pestilences; and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven.
Strong earthquake rattles Peruvian coast 2 hours, 5 minutes ago
LIMA, Peru - A strong earthquake rattled Peru's southern coast on Friday, but no damage or injuries were reported. The magnitude 6.4 quake struck at 5:48 a.m. below the floor of the Pacific Ocean, 56 miles northwest of the coastal city of Pisco, according to Peru's Geophysics Institute. The U.S. Geological Survey reported the quake as magnitude 6.5. The earthquake was felt as a long shudder in the capital, Lima, and inland in the Andean provincial city of Huancavelica. But it caused the most alarm in Ica, a coastal city 165 miles to the southeast, where local radio reports said panicked residents rushed from their homes into streets and parks.
EARTH DESTROYED WITH THE EARTH
GENESIS 6:11-13
11 The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.(WORLD TERRORISM,MURDERS)
12 And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth.
13 And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence (TERRORISM) through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth.
300 evacuated from Ecuador volcano Thu Oct 19, 10:08 PM ET
QUITO, Ecuador - Lava and ash erupted from an Ecuadoran volcano and forced the evacuation of about 300 villagers, a local mayor said Thursday. An eruption two months ago of the Tungurahua volcano killed four people and left two others missing and still unaccounted for.We were able to take them out last night from the most dangerous zones located on the flanks where the explosions occurred Aug. 16,said Juan Salazar, mayor of Penipe, 12 miles from the volcano.The upper slopes of the volcano have been mostly deserted since August. But Salazar said about 80 families had returned to attempt to farm in the ash-encrusted ground.They saw incandescent rocks coming down on the slopes and so they evacuated, he said. No injuries were reported.
In addition to the casualties, nearly 5,000 homes were destroyed or severely damaged and tens of thousands of acres of pasture and crops were also destroyed in the August eruption, according to the Civil Defense.Experts have warned that renewed explosions could come any time from the 16,575-foot volcano located about 85 miles south of the capital, Quito.What we have seen now is evidence that something there could be something similar to the episodes in July and August,said Hugo Yepes, director of Ecuador's Geophysics Institute. Inside the ground there is a chamber of magma much larger than the volcano itself.
Indonesia disaster shows risks of mud volcanoes By Alister Doyle, Environment Correspondent 1 hour, 45 minutes ago Oct 20,06
OSLO (Reuters) - In a village in Indonesia's East Java province, a man is struggling to watch television with a volcano erupting in his living room. Risks from volcanoes that ooze mud rather than spew lava have long been underestimated worldwide, even with a cataclysmic mudflow in another part of Java that has swamped an area the size of Monaco and forced 10,000 people from their homes.Experts say the disaster, flooding the Sidoarjo region since May 29, highlights lack of knowledge about mud volcanoes, thousands of which have been found from Alaska to Australia. They range from tiny seeps to cones 500 meters (1,640 ft) tall.
In Java nobody ever studied mud volcanoes,said Adriano Mazzini, a leading Italian volcano expert at the University of Oslo who says the Indonesian disaster may signal the first time people have recorded the birth of a mud volcano.In Indonesia they have other priorities magmatic volcanoes, earthquakes, tsunamis,he told Reuters.
On Java, villages about 10-20 km (6-12 miles) north of the mud eruption Gununganyar, Kalanganyar and Pulungan are built on old, near-dormant mud volcanoes that must have seemed attractive-looking mounds to village founders.
Pulungan was the most vivid example of ignoring the risks of mud volcanoes, such as subsidence.We went to one house where a man took us into his living room. He opened the cupboard beneath the television, and there were seeps erupting, Mazzini said after a recent trip.Another home in Pulungan has collapsed and elsewhere many residents are worried by seeps of gas, mud and fluids. The volcano may have been stirred by an earthquake on May 27, two days before the catastrophic mudflow began.
BUILDING LIFTED
In Kalanganyar, the end of one long thin building had been lifted a meter or two over the years by the pressures from a mud volcano bulging beneath.Mud volcanoes need better study,said Antje Boetius, a professor at the International University of Bremen in Germany.She noted that they could cause disasters, ranging from subsidence to tsunamis. They mean something for humans it's not just scientific curiosity,she said.Mud volcanoes are often caused by a build-up of pressure from sediments crushed several kilometers below the surface that release methane and other gases. They are often found near oil and gas deposits, also caused by a crush of organic matter.As in Java, they can also happen near where tectonic plates of the earth's crust rub together. Mazzini said it was impossible to say how long the Sidoarjo flow would last.
He said researchers would probably never know exactly what triggered the catastrophic mudflow at Sidoarjo, releasing the build-up of pressure deep below ground.The trigger might have been a magnitude 4 earthquake two days before the mudflow began, he said, or the drilling of a gas exploration well operated by PT Lapindo Brantas Inc, which is controlled by Pt Energi Mega Persada.
Mud volcanoes are rarely deadly since they more often seep rather than explode. In 1997, an eruption of a mud volcano at Piparo, a farming village in central Trinidad, threw mud 45 meters (150 ft) into the air, covering many homes. No one died. In Azerbaijan, a large mud volcano that erupted in 2001 also released giant flares of methane.
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.
Death toll from Thai, Myanmar floods reaches 127 Fri Oct 20, 4:25 AM ET
BANGKOK (AFP) - The death toll from severe flooding in Thailand and neighboring Myanmar has reached 127 as Thai weather authorities warned of more heavy rains over the weekend in the country's south.
At least 108 people have died in Thailand since severe flooding began in late August in the country's central and northern provinces, the interior ministry said in a statement.
The death toll soared overnight after the ministry confirmed that 25 people reported dead earlier were confirmed to be flood victims.The water that inundated northern Thailand was slowly working its way south, but 16 central provinces were still suffering from the floods, the ministry said.At its peak earlier in the month, the flooding, triggered by heavy rains from Typhoon Xangsane, affected 46 of the nation's 76 provinces.In neighboring Myanmar, 19 people died in floods across central and eastern parts of the country, but in most places there, the water has already subsided.
Haniyeh: Hamas will not be moved from power
Friday 20 October 2006, 17:38 Makka Time, 14:38 GMT
Ismail Haniyeh, the Palestinian prime minister, said in a speech at a mosque on Friday that Hamas would reject any moves by Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, to oust Hamas from power.Haniyeh's convoy came under attack as it passed through the Nusseirat refugee camp in central Gaza shortly after the prime minister's speech, but the Hamas leader was unhurt.Hamas officials said the attack did not appear to be an assassination attempt, but it comes at a time of growing tensions between rival Palestinian factions that have sparked fears of civil war.
An official in Haniyeh's office said: The prime minister is alright and he is out of the area which witnessed the gunfire. His car was not attacked. Islam Shawan, a spokesman for Hamas' armed wing, said that the last car in the motorcade was hit and set alight.
There were no reports of injuries.
Pointless
Abbas has hinted that he might fire the Hamas government after efforts to form a unity cabinet foundered over Hamas' refusal to soften its stance toward Israel.Haniyeh said it would be pointless for Abbas to fire the government, suggesting any emergency administration the president appointed would not get the ultimate approval of parliament, where Hamas has an absolute majority.
He also said Hamas would reject other measures such as calling early elections. Haniyeh said: All you have here are options that have no aim but to remove Hamas from government. The wheel of history will not go backward.All these options will not achieve stability and calm and will not represent a way out of the crisis.
Haniyeh did not threaten explicit action to oppose Abbas, such as calling Hamas supporters out onto the streets.
Western sanctions
Abbas said this week that he would make a decision soon on the fate of the government. The president has not explicitly identified his options but his aides have said that he might call fresh elections, appoint an emergency cabinet or hold a referendum to let the Palestinian people decide what to do.A senior Abbas aide told Reuters on Thursday that the president was expected to make his decision several days after the Eid al-Fitr holiday, which marks the end of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan. Eid this year falls around October 23.Palestinians had hoped that a unity government would lead to a lifting of crippling Western sanctions that were
imposed on Hamas when it assumed office in March.(Reuters)
Opening an Embassy for Yesha
By Stan Goodenough,October 20, 2006
It was an event that went largely unnoticed (or was purposefully ignored) by the news media. For many of those participating, however, it was one of prophetic magnitude and an opportunity to express their unshakeable resolve.On Sunday, October 8, in front of more than 300 visiting Gentiles and invited Israeli guests, the Jerusalem-based pro-Israel Christian organization, the International Christian Zionist Center, officially opened its new offices on the road between Jerusalem and Bethel.According to an ICZC press release, the move to the area in Samaria, behind the controversial security fence and inside the territory earmarked for a future State of Palestine, was made in solidarity with the people of Israel and their undeniable historic link to all their divinely-promised land.
Because every unilateral Israeli withdrawal in the region had only increased the bellicose stand of Israel’s enemies and intensified their terrorism against Israel, with their final aim being to excise the sovereign Jewish state from their Muslim midst, ICZC director Jan Willem van der Hoeven said the Christians represented by the organization believed that Israel needs to spell out to the world as well as to her own, battered, people that this tiny piece of land is theirs and will never be forsaken by them.With members in nations around the globe, the ICZC had committed itself to tirelessly spelling this out to our own gentile leaders and governments.
Van der Hoeven recalled how, in 1981, after 13 embassies crumpled under Arab pressure and fled from Jerusalem to Tel Aviv, he had led a small group of Christians in founding the International Christian Embassy so that Christians around the world could say to Israel, You are not alone.I feel to repeat that action today, Van der Hoeven said, and open an embassy for Yesha (the targeted areas of Judea, Samaria and Gaza) here, to say like Ruth to the Jews in these endangered communities, Your God is our God and we are with you.It is on the hearts of millions of Christians, from China to Brazil, from America to South Africa, as some of you have come to say to the Jewish people, You will never have peace when you give up the land; but you will have peace when you keep it!
The land where the ICZC offices were situated was the very land Jacob had been sleeping when God promised him that the ground on which you are lying, I will give to you.This land, which included Ariel and Bethel and Shiloh and Hebron and Jerusalem, was now under the gun. And if the battle to preserve Bethel and Shiloh was lost, the battle for Jerusalem would also be lost.Among the Israeli guests asked to address the gathering were Ron Nachman, the founder and mayor of Ariel, the biggest Jewish community Samaria, and Hebrew University Professor of Arabic Studies Moshe Sharon.Stepping up to the microphone, Nachman declared: In the Bible there is no West Bank, no Occupied Territories…only the Promised Land.He reminded world leaders that the first deed in real estate was not in Washington DC, not in Paris, not in London, it was in Hebron.
But he bemoaned the fact that the Gentile nations do not see the biggest threat today: the clash of civilizations, Islam against Christianity and Judaism.Nachman said he believed it was important that Christians and Jews stand together in defense of Israel’s land.When visiting the United States, he said, I am not welcomed and not invited to speak by the Jewish establishment, because I am mayor of the biggest Jewish city in the West Bank.So I go to the Christians.The mayor, a former Knesset member, said he sees a great hope in the connection of the Jewish and non-Jewish communities in resisting the world’s efforts to rob the Jews of their land.However, he stressed, while it was good that people prayed against the uprooting of Jewish communities Gush Katif was evacuated despite all the prayers.
The fight was also a political fight and we need to fight it on that front, he said.Moshe Sharon sounded the alarm he has been speaking out for many years but which have mostly fallen on the deaf ears of politicians who believe they have to remain politically correct:The world is caught up in a clash of civilizations and is already in fact embroiled in World War III.The Middle East conflict was part of that war, but it was reaching deep into areas in the Western world.Beware Europe! You are on the way to becoming an Islamic state. There are 4800 mosques in Germany alone!! And right now in the oldest city in Finland, a new mosque is being erected that is so high it will be visible from 50 km away…Muslims were teaching that Europe is the cancer. Islam is the answer!
Sharon, an advisor on Arab affairs to a number of former Israeli prime ministers, said there could never be peace between Israel as a Jewish state and the Arabs, for as far as the Arabs are concerned the establishment of the state of Israel is a reversal of history; it was something that could not happen! The word peace simply does not exist in the Quran, he said.Returning to the podium, Van der Hoeven told the gathering that while the International Christian Zionist Center was the only Christian-led organization to fully support Jews against expulsion from the heartland of Israel by physically locating itself on the endangered land, he believed other pro-Israel groups would one day follow this example.It was the vision of the ICZC to help train the millions of Christians from every nation to stand pro-actively with Israel, spiritually, materially and politically, as Israel’s few remaining friends among the nations faded away.
New Iranian Threats Set Off Alarm Bells in Israel
By Robert Berger ,Jerusalem,20 October 2006
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says Israel no longer has any reason to exist and will soon disappear. The latest threats are adding to Israel's already deep concerns about Iran's nuclear program.Mahmoud Ahmadinejad delivers speech after attending anti-Israeli rally Friday, Oct. 20, 2006.
Israeli officials say the saber-rattling from Iran is another warning to the international community that the Islamic regime must not be allowed to get a nuclear bomb. At a pro-Palestinian rally in Tehran, Iran's president said Israeli leaders are a group of terrorists, and he threatened any country that supports the Jewish state. He also said Israel is a fake regime that would soon disappear. It was a similar statement to one a year ago, when he threatened to wipe Israel off the map.
Since then, Israel has watched the Iranian nuclear program with growing alarm. Foreign Minister Tzippe Livni says the leaders of Iran pose a threat to regional and global stability.They speak proudly and openly of their desire to wipe Israel off the map, she said. And now, by their actions, they pursue the weapons to achieve this objective, to imperil the region and to threaten the world.
So what now?
The world faces a critical test.,she noted.Israel believes the international community is moving too slowly to stop Iran, and that the U.N. must change course and quickly impose sanctions.
Ehud Olmert
However, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert visited Russia this week to urge a tougher stand on Iran, but came away empty handed from talks with President Vladimir Putin. Russia is building Iran's first nuclear reactor and opposes sanctions on Tehran.So Mr. Olmert warned that Iran would have a price to pay if it does not back down from its nuclear ambitions. It was a broad hint that if the international community does not act, Israel might launch a pre-emptive strike against Iran's nuclear facilities on its own.
POISONED WATERS
REVELATION 8:8-11
8 And the second angel sounded, and as it were a great mountain burning with fire was cast into the sea: and the third part of the sea became blood;
9 And the third part of the creatures which were in the sea, and had life, died; and the third part of the ships were destroyed.
10 And the third angel sounded, and there fell a great star from heaven, burning as it were a lamp, and it fell upon the third part of the rivers, and upon the fountains of waters;
11 And the name of the star is called Wormwood:(bitter,Poisoned) and the third part of the waters became wormwood; and many men died of the waters, because they were made bitter.(poisoned)
REVELATION 16:3-7
3 And the second angel poured out his vial upon the sea; and it became as the blood of a dead man: and every living soul died in the sea.(enviromentalists won't like this result)
4 And the third angel poured out his vial upon the rivers and fountains of waters; and they became blood.
5 And I heard the angel of the waters say, Thou art righteous, O Lord, which art, and wast, and shalt be, because thou hast judged thus.
6 For they(False World Church and Dictator) have shed the blood of saints and prophets, and thou hast given them blood to drink; for they are worthy.
7 And I heard another out of the altar say, Even so, Lord God Almighty, true and righteous are thy judgments.
U.N.: Number of ocean dead zones rise By JOHN HEILPRIN, Associated Press Writer 1 hour, 20 minutes ago
WASHINGTON - Scientists have found 200 dead zones in the world's oceans places where pollution threatens fish, other marine life and the people who depend on them.
The United Nations report Thursday showed a 34 percent jump in the number of such zones from just two years ago. Pollution-fed algae, which deprives other living marine life of oxygen, is the cause of most of the world's dead zones that cover tens of thousands of square miles of waterways. Scientists chiefly blame fertilizer and other farm run-off, sewage and fossil-fuel burning.Those contain an excess of nutrients, particularly phosphorous and nitrogen, that cause explosive blooms of tiny plants known as phytoplankton. When they die, they sink to the bottom, where they are eaten by bacteria that use up the oxygen in the water.
The low levels of oxygen in the water make it difficult for fish, oysters and other marine creatures to survive as well as important habitats such as sea grass beds,U.N. officials said. These areas are fast becoming major threats to fish stocks and thus to the people who depend upon fisheries for food and livelihoods.By 2030, the world's rivers will pump 14 percent more nitrogen into seas and oceans than that found in the mid-1990s, according to new U.N. research released at a meeting in Beijing.Researchers led by Robert Diaz, a marine scientist at Virginia's College of William and Mary, said they found new dead zones at the Archipelago Sea in Finland; Fosu Lagoon in Ghana; Pearl River estuary and Changjiang River in China; and Mersey River estuary in Britain.Other new zones found were at the Elefsis Bay and Aegean Sea in Greece; Paracas Bay in Peru; Mondego River in Portugal; Montevideo Bay in Uruguay; and in the western Indian Ocean.
The United Nations marine experts said the number and size of oxygen-deprived zones has grown each decade since the 1970s.Not all the dead zones persist year-round; some return seasonally, depending on winds that bring nutrient-rich water to the surface.
It seems like a big jump in two years,said Nancy Rabalais, executive director of the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium, who was not part of the U.N. research. She said an important factor has been the huge increase in pollution from fast-developing countries.Rabalais, who has studied the Gulf of Mexico's massive dead zone that is now the size of New Jersey, said marine creatures that swim fast enough can usually escape.The things that are left behind are the ones that usually can't survive, she said.
When you consider the size of some of these areas, it's removing what's considered the essential habitat for fishes and crustaceans.Other U.N. scientific findings released Thursday, however, raised hopes for the recovery of damaged coral reefs, which serve as the ocean's nurseries. It found that reefs bleached in the late 1990s by high surface sea temperatures are affected by how polluted the waters are.Coral reefs recovering faster are generally those living in marine protected areas and coastal waters where the levels of pollution, dredging and other kinds of human-induced disturbance are considered low,the U.N. said.
On the Net:U.N. report: http://www.gpa.unep.org/bin/php/igr/igr2/supporting.php
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 MUSLIMS TO MARCH) and I will bring thee forth, and all thine army, horses and horsemen, all of them clothed with all sorts of armour, even a great company with bucklers and shields, all of them handling swords:
5 Persia,(IRAN,IRAQ) Ethiopia, and Libya with them; all of them with shield and helmet:
6 Gomer,(GERMANY) and all his bands; the house of Togarmah (TURKEY)of the north quarters, and all his bands:(SUDAN,AFRICA) and many people with thee.
7 Be thou prepared, and prepare for thyself, thou, and all thy company that are assembled unto thee, and be thou a guard unto them.
8 After many days thou shalt be visited: in the latter years thou shalt come into the land that is brought back from the sword, and is gathered out of many people, against the mountains of Israel, which have been always waste: but it is brought forth out of the nations, and they shall dwell safely all of them.
9 Thou shalt ascend and come like a storm, thou shalt be like a cloud to cover the land, thou, and all thy bands, and many people with thee.(RUSSIA-EGYPT AND MUSLIMS)
10 Thus saith the Lord GOD; It shall also come to pass, that at the same time shall things come into thy mind, and thou shalt think an evil thought:
11 And thou shalt say, I will go up to the land of unwalled villages; I will go to them that are at rest, that dwell safely, all of them dwelling without walls, and having neither bars nor gates,
12 To take a spoil, and to take a prey; to turn thine hand upon the desolate places that are now inhabited, and upon the people that are gathered out of the nations, which have gotten cattle and goods, that dwell in the midst of the land.
ISAIAH 17:1
1 The burden of Damascus. Behold, Damascus is taken away from being a city, and it shall be a ruinous heap.
PSALMS 83:3-7
3 They (ARABS,MUSLIMS) have taken crafty counsel against thy people,(ISRAEL) and consulted against thy hidden ones.
4 They have said, Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation; that the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance.
5 For they have consulted together with one consent: they are confederate against thee:(TREATIES)
6 The tabernacles of Edom,and the Ishmaelites;(ARABS) of Moab, and the Hagarenes;
7 Gebal, and Ammon,(JORDAN) and Amalek;(SYRIA) the Philistines (PALESTINIANS) with the inhabitants of Tyre;(LEBANON)
JOEL 2:20,30-31
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.
Gillerman: Iran is determined to destroy
Yitzhak Benhorin Published: 10.19.06
Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations Danny Gillerman took advantage of the monthly UN discussion on the situation in the Middle East Thursday to warn the members of the Security Council on the threat posed by Iran. Gillerman said Iran paid Hamas USD 50 million in order to torpedo efforts to release Gilad Shalit. Today I learned that Iran had paid USD 50 million to Hamas in order to torpedo the deal to the release of kidnapped IDF soldier Gilad Shalit.
If Iran is willing to pay so much money to solve a humanitarian issue, it is frightening how much they will be willing to pay to torpedo any diplomatic initiative to block their nuclear efforts,Gillerman said, referring to an item first published by Yedioth Ahronoth Thursday morning. Although the speech was part of a routine discussion held monthly at the UN, this time it was held before the Security Council. During the meeting, UN special envoy to the Middle East Alvaro de-Soto presented his report and said that since the kidnapping of Gilad Shalit in late June, 295 Palestinians were killed by IDF forces, including 66 children, and another 1,113 were injured.
During his speech Gillerman praised the decision to impose sanctions on North Korea but warned that North Korea is only the prelude to a more disturbing story, the emergence of a nuclear Iran, armed and willing to share its state terrorist capabilities with the other unholy extremists who yearn to destroy us. He added that Israel sees the Iranian threat as an existential one, not solely to itself but to the entire world as well. The international community must be determined, clear, and unequivocal in its plan of action.
There is only one choice: the world must ensure that Iran does not attain nuclear weapons.
Are you doing everything you can?
Gilerman added that although the real, most urgent threat to stability and peace in the Middle East is Iran, We are bolstered by the surfacing of moderate voices in the region, voices that recognize the true threats facing us.Now these moderates are joining together to form an alliance against the extremists and for a historical reconciliation and mutual advancement. Ambassador Gillerman also criticized the fact that the kidnapped IDF soldiers have not been freed yet and the failure to enforce the arms embargo from Syria into Lebanon.This Council, in its unanimous adoption of resolution 1701, took upon itself the responsibility to secure the unconditional release of our boys, the Israeli soldiers Gilad Shalit, Udi Goldwasser, and Eldad Regev. I ask you now, as I did then, to do your utmost to alleviate this humanitarian crisis and bring them home.
Gillerman added that two and a half weeks after the last Israeli soldier left southern Lebanon, the situation along the northern border has begun to stabilize, but it is still early to declare it as a success. Success will be determined only to the extent to which resolution 1701 is fully implemented. There is reason to be concerned about the smuggling of arms across the border between Lebanon and Syria. Hizbullah’s rearming not only violates the essence and strength of resolution 1701, it places the entire region in immediate peril. There can be no ambiguity in policy here. The embargo must be enforced, and its violators must be held accountable,he said.
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.(TR 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).
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)
WW3 THE 3 WAVES THAT MARCH TO ISRAEL
DANIEL 11:40-45
40 And at the time of the end shall the king of the south( EGYPT) push at him:(EU DICTATOR IN ISRAEL) and the king of the north (RUSSIA AND MUSLIM HORDES OF EZEK 38+39) shall come against him like a whirlwind, with chariots, and with horsemen, and with many ships; and he shall enter into the countries, and shall overflow and pass over.
41 He shall enter also into the glorious land, and many countries shall be overthrown: but these shall escape out of his hand, even Edom, and Moab, and the chief of the children of Ammon.(JORDAN)
42 He shall stretch forth his hand also upon the countries: and the land of Egypt shall not escape.
43 But he shall have power over the treasures of gold and of silver, and over all the precious things of Egypt: and the Libyans and the Ethiopians shall be at his steps.
44 But tidings out of the east(CHINA 2ND WAVE OF WW3) and out of the north(RUSSIA, MUSLIMS WHATS LEFT FROM WAVE 1) shall trouble him:(EU DICTATOR IN ISRAEL) therefore he shall go forth with great fury to destroy, and utterly to make away many.( 1/3RD OF EARTHS POPULATION)
45 And he shall plant the tabernacles of his palace between the seas in the glorious holy mountain; yet he shall come to his end, and none shall help him.
The Third and Final Wave of WW3 is when all Nations march to Jerusalem, but JESUS bodily returns to earth and destroys them,sets up his KINGDOM OF RULE FOR 1000 YEARS THEN FOREVER.
2ND WAVE CHINA AND KINGS OF THE EAST MARCH TO ISRAEL
REVELATION 16:12
12 And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates; and the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared.(THIS IS THE ATATURK DAM IN TURKEY,THEY CROSS OVER).
DANIEL 11:44 (2ND WAVE OF WW3)
44 But tidings out of the east(CHINA) and out of the north(RUSSIA, MUSLIMS WHATS LEFT FROM WAVE 1) shall trouble him:(EU DICTATOR IN ISRAEL) therefore he shall go forth with great fury to destroy, and utterly to make away many.( 1/3RD OF EARTHS POPULATION)
REVELATION 9:12-18
12 One woe is past; and, behold, there come two woes more hereafter.
13 And the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God,
14 Saying to the sixth angel which had the trumpet, Loose the four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates.(IRAQ-SYRIA)
15 And the four angels were loosed, which were prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, for to slay the third part of men.(1/3 Earths Population die in WW 3 2ND WAVE)
16 And the number of the army of the horsemen were two hundred thousand thousand:(200 MILLION MAN ARMY FROM CHINA AND THE KINGS OF THE EAST) and I heard the number of them.
17 And thus I saw the horses in the vision, and them that sat on them, having breastplates of fire, and of jacinth, and brimstone: and the heads of the horses were as the heads of lions; and out of their mouths issued fire and smoke and brimstone.(NUCLEAR BOMBS)
18 By these three was the third part of men killed, by the fire, and by the smoke, and by the brimstone, which issued out of their mouths.(NUCLEAR BOMBS)
PM Olmert: PA’s Moment of Truth Rapidly Approaching
By Yechiel Spira(INN)
Upon his return from Moscow on Thursday evening, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert announced the PA’s moment of truth is rapidly approaching.
The prime minister stated that PA (Palestinian Authority) Chairman Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) must make some critical decisions. Decisions, he said, that will determine the future of the region. If Abu Mazen does not take the required steps, we will all be losers,Olmert said.While negotiations between Abu Mazen’s Fatah and the ruling Hamas movement continue, fighting between rival factions has sharply increased, with daily shootouts taking place in Gaza this week as the two terror organizations struggle for control.
Hamas emerged the victor in the PA’s general elections, but Prime Minister Ismail Haniyah is now isolated by the western community which is demanding recognition of Israel, resulting in an economic boycott of the Hamas government.
Reaching an agreement with Abu Mazen whereby a new coalition government would recognize Israel in some regard would result in international acceptance of the PA government, a move that would unlock donor nation funds for the PA and its institutions. Regarding Iran, Olmert added the clock is running out, adding that today, things are happening and the situation has changed. While stating I did not threaten Iran,the prime minister added, Iran must not realize who it is up against .Iran should be afraid.Seeking to exhibit an air of success upon his return from Moscow, the prime minister added that Russian President Vladimir Putin opposes a nuclear independent Iran. This despite the fact that during a meeting between the two, Olmert failed to receive the assurances he was seeking a stronger Russian position against Iran’s ongoing nuclear program.
Russian technology has played a strong influence in the area with regard to Iran’s nuclear development; advanced weapon sales to Syria and indirect assistance to Hizbullah. Nonetheless, Olmert attempted to exhibit an atmosphere of cooperation between Jerusalem and Moscow.The London-based Arabic Al-Hayat newspaper, quoting Hamas sources, reports progress regarding efforts to obtain IDF soldier Gilad Shalit’s release from his PA captors. Israel’s Yediot Achronot daily reported on Thursday that a deal which would have led to Shalit’s release next week was thwarted by Iran. According to the report, a deal was reached in which Shalit would have been released during the Muslim holiday of Eid el-Fitr, marking the end of the month of Ramadan. In exchange, Israel agreed to release Arab prisoners - not all at once, but in a number of waves.
According to the report, Iranian officials arrived in Damascus and with a $50 million gift for Hamas politburo Khaled Meshal, succeeding in bringing the plans to a halt. Meshal upped his demands, calling upon Israel to release terrorists who he knew the Olmert government could not release. This gave him the ability to cancel the deal, placing the blame on Israel. Regarding Shalit, who was taken captive on June 25th, Abu Mazen stated on numerous occasions that he will not enter into a coalition agreement with Hamas until Shalit is released. He also told western media sources that he insists that Hamas recognize Israel’s right to exist and declare the government’s commitment to abide by previously signed agreements.In interviews with the Arab media however, Abu Mazen stated his Fatah Party needn’t recognize Israel.
Ahmadinejad warns Europe it will pay for backing Israel
Robert Tait in Tehran,Friday October 20, 2006,Guardian Unlimited
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran added a threatening edge to his verbal onslaught on Israel today by warning European governments to withdraw their support or face getting hurt in a storm of retaliation.He also called Britain and the United States enemies of Iran whose attempts to block the country's nuclear programme at the UN security council were illegitimate.Mr Ahmadinejad was speaking in Tehran at the annual Qods [Jerusalem] day rally, staged by Iran's Islamic regime to propagate its ideological opposition to Israel. He repeated predictions that Israel would soon disappear but, in a fresh warning, said European countries could pay a much higher price than the US for their backing.
We have advised the Europeans that the Americans are far away, but you are the neighbours of the nations in this region, he said. We inform you that the nations are like an ocean that is welling up, and if a storm begins, the dimensions will not stay limited to Palestine, and you may get hurt. It is in your own interest to distance yourself from these criminals ... This is an ultimatum. Don't complain tomorrow.Mr Ahmadinejad, who last year called for Israel to be wiped off the map and dismissed the holocaust as a myth, has not previously made such a clear distinction between US and European support for Israel.
The UN security council is poised to consider sanctions in response to Iran's refusal to suspend uranium enrichment.
But Mr Ahmadinejad dismissed the security council because of the presence of America and Britain as permanent veto-wielding powers.What sort of security council is this, he asked. You want to be the judge, the jury and the enforcer.Mr Ahmadinejad's outburst came amid a carnival atmosphere in which throngs of children carrying balloons milled among the crowds. Dozens swapped paintings depicting the Israeli-Palestinian conflict for T-shirts donated by Tehran city council.A display of banners featured one bearing the phrase Israel must be wiped off the map in Hebrew. Others accused companies such as Coca-Cola, McDonald's, Nestlé and Marks and Spencer of being pro-Israel. A stall recruiting potential martyrs was selling DVDs showing volunteers from the Palestinian militant organisation Hamas preparing suicide attacks against Israel.
Speculation mounts over Solana leaving job
19.10.2006 - 17:36 CET | By Mark Beunderman
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Speculation is mounting that Javier Solana, the EU's top diplomat, will step down for health reasons with the former Swedish, Slovak and Austrian prime ministers reportedly first in line to succeed him. Intense rumours about an end to the Solana era have been circulating in Brussels for the last couple of weeks, with several reasons being cited for his possible imminent retirement. One version says it became clear to the Spaniard during the Lebanon crisis in the summer that he could never really act on behalf of the EU, with member states refusing to give him a clear mandate.Mr Solana also had to recently admit that his efforts to get Iran to halt uranium enrichment which he had exceptionally handled on behalf of all UN veto powers have stalled.
On top of this, the deadlock on the EU constitution means that Mr Solana will not get the job as official EU foreign minister foreseen for November in the shelved charter.
Highly-skilled diplomat
Generally, the Spanish socialist is seen as a highly skilled diplomat who has managed to survive seven years in the gruelling position without facing much political flak. He is seen as at least having given a positive face to EU foreign policy despite the domain being still very much in member state hands. But Austrian paper Der Kurier on Wednesday (18 October) reported that the 64-year old Mr Solana could nevertheless soon step down for health reasons.
German chancellor Angela Merkel reportedly had a long phone call with the Spaniard last week in which he said he would follow his doctor's advice and soon quit the job, otherwise he would be dead in twelve months even if this is not visible in his appearance and in his statements. A press officer in Mr Solana's office however denied the report saying there was not such a phone call. Mr Solana's mandate expires in 2009 and his post is not available,she stated, adding that the Spanish diplomat jogs every day before work.
Verheugen not interested
The Austrian paper writes that Ms Merkel, whose country will hold the EU presidency in the first half of next year, has shortlisted two favourites to succeed Mr Solana: Slovakia's former prime minister Miklas Dzurinda and Austria's outgoing leader Wolfgang Schussel. The report contradicts earlier speculation saying that Berlin has its own candidate EU industry commissioner Guenter Verheugen.Mr Verheugen however told Germany's Die Welt on Thursday that he is not interested in the post, saying he consciously said farewell to foreign policy when he left the commission's enlargement department in 2004.Another strong candidate who has been doing the rounds is Sweden's former prime minister Carl Bildt, who is back on the EU stage since he was appointed foreign minister in the new Swedish centre-right government.
Insiders say Mr Bildt is not hiding his ambitions to obtain the top job, while also having a huge network in international affairs. The chances of the rumoured candidates is set to depend to a large extent on their ability to bridge the gap between atlanticist states such as the UK, Denmark, the Netherlands and new member states and proponents of distance to Washington notably France.Mr Dzurinda is known as a strong pro-US politician and therefore difficult to accept by Paris. Mr Schussel, on the other hand, makes no secret of his opposition to Turkish EU accession which would put him at odds with the UK.
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