1-WORLD QUAKES LAST 2 DAYS. 2-Hunt for hundreds killed in Philippine typhoon. 3-Storms cut power to 50,000 in Ontario. 4-Heavy winds, rain pummel province. 5-Quiet and colder for much of the nation. 6-A first for America...The Koran replaces the Bible at swearing-in oath. 7-Pope Wraps Up 4-Day Visit To Turkey. 8-NATO contacts Pak religious parties to secure Afghan peace. 9-Missionary Reports Severe Christian Persecution in N. Korea. 10-EU enters final stretch towards chemicals reform. 11-Germany unveils EU presidency logo. 12-General eyes European army after Congo mission.
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.
BREAKING BAD NEWS FOR SATURDAY DECEMBER 02,2006 BY STAN L BOWMAN JR 6:00 PM
A NEW LUKEWARM LIBERAL LEADER HAS BEEN CHOSEN, STEPHANE DION WILL BE THE LEADER NOW OF THE GODLESS LIBERALS. BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. BUT ANY LEADER OF THE LUKEWARMERS IS BOOOO I MUST ADD.
WORLD QUAKES LAST 2 DAYS (USGS)
Update time = Sun Dec 3 12:10 AM EDT
DEC 03,2006
MAP 3.1 FOX ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN ISLANDS, ALASKA
MAP 4.7 KURIL ISLANDS
MAP 3.4 UNIMAK ISLAND REGION, ALASKA
DEC 02,2006
MAP 5.1 EAST OF THE KURIL ISLANDS
MAP 3.3 KENAI PENINSULA, ALASKA
MAP 4.8 SOUTHWESTERN RYUKYU ISLANDS, JAPAN
MAP 3.9 UNIMAK ISLAND REGION, ALASKA
MAP 2.7 SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
MAP 2.6 KENAI PENINSULA, ALASKA
MAP 2.8 SOUTHERN ALASKA
MAP 4.6 CRETE, GREECE
MAP 3.3 SOUTHERN ALASKA
MAP 5.7 TONGA
MAP 3.1 HAWAII REGION, HAWAII
MAP 4.8 OFFSHORE ATACAMA, CHILE
MAP 4.6 OFF THE EAST COAST OF KAMCHATKA, RUSSIA
MAP 4.6 UNIMAK ISLAND REGION, ALASKA
MAP 5.0 EAST OF TRINIDAD, TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO
MAP 3.1 VIRGIN ISLANDS REGION
MAP 2.7 CENTRAL CALIFORNIA
MAP 3.2 SOUTHERN YUKON TERRITORY, CANADA
MAP 4.0 NORTHWESTERN IRAN
MAP 4.8 EASTER ISLAND REGION
MAP 3.0 ALASKA PENINSULA
MAP 4.4 SIMEULUE, INDONESIA
MAP 2.6 SOUTHERN ALASKA
MAP 3.1 VIRGIN ISLANDS REGION
MAP 3.0 CENTRAL CALIFORNIA
MAP 3.3 DOMINICAN REPUBLIC REGION
MAP 3.2 DOMINICAN REPUBLIC REGION
MAP 3.4 MOUNT ST. HELENS AREA, WASHINGTON
MAP 3.0 CENTRAL CALIFORNIA
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.
Hunt for hundreds killed in Philippine typhoon By Pedro Uchi ,Sat Dec 2, 8:07 AM ET
DARAGA, Philippines (Reuters) Distraught survivors searched piles of bodies for the faces of their loved ones in the central Philippines on Saturday after landslides triggered by Typhoon Durian left hundreds dead. Durian moved into the South China Sea on Friday after affecting 800,000 people in the Philippines and was expected to weaken into a tropical storm before hitting Vietnam on Monday.Villages were engulfed on Thursday around Mount Mayon, an active volcano about 320 km (200 miles) south of Manila, when driving rain and winds of up to 225 kph (140 mph) dislodged tonnes of mud and boulders from the slopes.The governor of Albay province, the worst-hit area, said a wall of water 6 feet high crashed down the volcano.We lost everything, Fernando Gonzales told Reuters, adding 100 people had been killed by the torrent.The national disaster agency said a total of 303 people had died in eastern provinces, 285 in Albay alone. At least 293 people were missing.The toll was rising sharply as rescue workers, some using their bare hands, pulled corpses and body parts from the mud.
Right now we are on retrieval operations. We do not believe there are any survivors, Cedric Daep, head of the provincial disaster coordinating council, told Reuters.Army commanders asked for dog teams to help with the grim search and sacks of lime to mask the stench of death. With roads blocked, soldiers hiked for hours to get to the disaster area.The scene wrenched my heart, Colonel Robert Morales said on radio. I could see bodies of women and children all over.Thousands of survivors crammed into schools and churches as disaster agencies called for fresh water, food and medicine.Pope Benedict offered prayers for the mainly Roman Catholic country. Canada said it was giving C$1 million ($873,000) to the relief effort and Japan pledged $173,000.
PILES OF CORPSES
Nearly 45,000 people were left homeless and entire communities isolated after power lines and phone links were knocked out and bridges washed away. Livelihoods were lost as fruit trees were uprooted and rice paddies destroyed.In the town of Daraga, bordering Mount Mayon, more than 50 bodies were stacked in front of an overflowing funeral parlor. The undertaker estimated there were around 150 corpses in all.
Photographs of the missing lined the town square. Men and women, many clutching handkerchiefs over their faces, searched for relatives among the dead.My siblings, my mother, they are gone. My niece is dead and at the plaza there are so many dead people, one woman sobbed.Villagers around Mayon thought they had escaped catastrophe in September when the volcano subsided after months of spewing lava and rocks, raising fears of a major eruption and forcing thousands of residents to evacuate.The debris left behind proved deadly when Durian struck. I was swept to sea. Big rocks were hitting me, Ramon Valderama, who lost his wife and son in the chaos, said on radio. I could only cry because I was helpless. Named after a pungent Asian fruit, Durian was the fourth typhoon to hit the Philippines in three months. Forecasters expect one more before the end of the year. In September, 213 people were killed when Typhoon Xangsane battered the north and center of the country, leaving millions without electricity or running water for days. Xangsane also killed dozens in Vietnam. (With reporting by Fred Lee in Daraga, Manny Mogato in Manila)
Storms cut power to 50,000 in Ontario
Last Updated: Friday, December 1, 2006 | 5:35 PM ET ,CBC News
Storms downed trees and hydro lines on Friday afternoon, leaving 50,000 people without power in Ontario, Hydro One reported.Environment Canada has issued freezing rain, snowfall and wind warnings for large swaths southern and central parts of the province as wicked wintry weather began sweeping across the province.Freezing rain warnings were in effect for most of southern Ontario Friday, with the exception of several pockets, including the city of Toronto.School buses in the Bancroft and Ottawa areas were kept off the roads Friday morning because of the freezing rain, and a number of police forces asked drivers to beware of black ice.By the afternoon, Ottawa police were reporting more than 15 intersections had been snarled with fallen branches, trees and hydro wires.
Snowfall warnings were posted on the Environment Canada website for some areas north of Toronto and throughout northeastern Ontario.The winter storm, which blew in from Indiana, is expected to hit many areas across central and northeastern Ontario with up to 25 centimetres of snow.Hydro One is working at restoring power.With files from the Canadian Press
Heavy winds, rain pummel province
No major reports of power outages or electrical problems in Toronto
Dec. 1, 2006. 06:47 PM,CURTIS RUSH STAFF REPORTER
More than 50,000 people across Ontario, from Georgian Bay to the fringes of Lake Ontario northeast of Toronto, were without power today as heavy winds, accompanied by freezing rain, pummelled the province. The country from Windsor through to Hamilton also experienced outages when hit by severe winds gusting up to 80 km/h. Many of the outages were caused by trees and branches falling onto power lines. In Toronto, there were no major reports of power outages or electrical problems created by the heavy rains that hammered the city all day today, according to Toronto Hydro spokesperson Tanya Bruckmueller. The GTA, especially in the northern regions, was put under a freezing rain warning by Environment Canada this morning as an intense weather system moved up from the United States. The U.S. midwest - Chicago, in particular - has hit by a snowstorm. In Toronto, the Don River became swollen and the city is monitoring conditions. The Don is higher than normal but we don't expect there will be a problem with the DVP, city spokesperson Steve Johnston said.
Last month, the city considered shutting the DVP and Bayview Extension when the Don River threatened to overflow its banks.
The sun actually broke out a little this afternoon, so we're monitoring the weather, Johnston said. The Toronto and Region Conservation Authority has sent out a high water safety bulletin and officials are warning people to keep children away from fast-flowing rivers and streams.The bulletin will be in effect until Saturday. The areas north and east of Toronto have been hammered by winds gusting up to 80 km/h with freezing rain and snow. We have over 50,000 customers without power, said Hydro One spokesperson Daffyd Roderick.Freezing rain and high winds are two things the distribution system just hates. Customers from Barrie and Penetanguishene through to Perth and Ottawa are all experiencing outages. We have been preparing for this all today (Friday) so we are staffed up,Roderick said. The most severe rain and wind is expected to lessen later this evening.
Quiet and colder for much of the nation R. Weeks, Meteorologist, The Weather Channel Sat Dec 2, 12:42 PM ET
Northeast
Windy and much colder conditions will be left across the Mid-Atlantic and New England states in the wake of yesterday's major storm. Snow showers will also be on the increase, off the east sides of Lake Erie and Ontario, and portions of the Snow Belt could see a few inches of snow into tonight. Otherwise, dry, but cold conditions will dominate the area today. A weak storm system will move southeast across the Great Lakes Sunday into Monday, bringing a reinforcing shot of cold air and scattered snow showers. At the same time, a wave of low pressure will be developing off the east coast and quickly moving northeast. This may bring some rain, snow, and wind to eastern New England late Sunday, into Early Monday.
Midwest
Cold temperatures will remain over the Midwest into the weekend, in the wake of yesterday's major winter storm.
Areas with excessive snow or ice accumulations remaining on the ground, will see even colder temperatures. A series of weak weather disturbances will move southeast across the Upper Midwest and Great Lakes into the weekend, each bringing a reinforcing shot of cold air. With each system, snow showers will be enhanced near the lakes, perhaps leading to several inches over the Upper Lakes. Gusty winds will also accompany the disturbances, and that combining with the cold temperatures, will result in very low wind chills through the weekend.
South
High pressure will build across the southern states today, in the wake of the strong cold front which moved through yesterday. Much colder temperature will be felt across the entire south today. The only exception will be across central and southern Florida, which will remain south of the cold front. This will mean a continuation of warm temperatures for that area. A wave of low pressure will be
developing off the southeastern coast on Sunday, which will result in rain showers increasing over the Atlantic coastal areas of the south. These showers should end by Monday, as the low pressure quickly moves northeast. Meanwhile, much of the rest of the south will remain dry over the next few days.
West
The west will settle into a more tranquil period into the weekend, as high pressure builds across the area. This will result in cold temperatures remaining across the area. The only exceptions will be over the interior Rockies, where upslope flow will generate a few snow showers, and across southern California where gusty offshore winds will increase, bringing a higher fire threat to that area.
A first for America...The Koran replaces the Bible at swearing-in oath What book will America base it's values on, the Bible or the Koran?
Dear Stan,
Please take a moment to read the following TownHall.com column by Dennis Prager, who is a Jew. After reading the column, take the suggest action at the bottom of this email. After you have read it, please forward it to your friends and family.
America, Not Keith Ellison, decides what book a congressman takes his oath on
By Dennis Prager - Tuesday, November 28, 2006 Keith Ellison, D-Minn., the first Muslim elected to the United States Congress, has announced that he will not take his oath of office on the Bible, but on the bible of Islam, the Koran. He should not be allowed to do so -- not because of any American hostility to the Koran, but because the act undermines American civilization. First, it is an act of hubris that perfectly exemplifies multiculturalist activism -- my culture trumps America's culture. What Ellison and his Muslim and leftist supporters are saying is that it is of no consequence what America holds as its holiest book; all that matters is what any individual holds to be his holiest book. Forgive me, but America should not give a hoot what Keith Ellison's favorite book is. Insofar as a member of Congress taking an oath to serve America and uphold its values is concerned, America is interested in only one book, the Bible. If you are incapable of taking an oath on that book, don't serve in Congress.
In your personal life, we will fight for your right to prefer any other book. We will even fight for your right to publish cartoons mocking our Bible. But, Mr. Ellison, America, not you, decides on what book its public servants take their oath. Devotees of multiculturalism and political correctness who do not see how damaging to the fabric of American civilization it is to allow Ellison to choose his own book need only imagine a racist elected to Congress. Would they allow him to choose Hitler's Mein Kampf, the Nazis bible, for his oath? And if not, why not? On what grounds will those defending Ellison's right to choose his favorite book deny that same right to a racist who is elected to public office?
Of course, Ellison's defenders argue that Ellison is merely being honest; since he believes in the Koran and not in the Bible, he should be allowed, even encouraged, to put his hand on the book he believes in. But for all of American history, Jews elected to public office have taken their oath on the Bible, even though they do not believe in the New Testament, and the many secular elected officials have not believed in the Old Testament either. Yet those secular officials did not demand to take their oaths of office on, say, the collected works of Voltaire or on a volume of New York Times editorials, writings far more significant to some liberal members of Congress than the Bible. Nor has one Mormon official demanded to put his hand on the Book of Mormon. And it is hard to imagine a scientologist being allowed to take his oath of office on a copy of Dianetics by L. Ron Hubbard. So why are we allowing
Keith Ellison to do what no other member of Congress has ever done choose his own most revered book for his oath?
The answer is obvious Ellison is a Muslim. And whoever decides these matters, not to mention virtually every editorial page in America, is not going to offend a Muslim. In fact, many of these people argue it will be a good thing because Muslims around the world will see what an open society America is and how much Americans honor Muslims and the Koran. This argument appeals to all those who believe that one of the greatest goals of America is to be loved by the world, and especially by Muslims because then fewer Muslims will hate us (and therefore fewer will bomb us). But these naive people do not appreciate that America will not change the attitude of a single American-hating Muslim by allowing Ellison to substitute the Koran for the Bible. In fact, the opposite is more likely: Ellison's doing so will embolden Islamic extremists and make new ones, as Islamists, rightly or wrongly, see the first sign of the realization of their greatest goal the Islamicization of America.
When all elected officials take their oaths of office with their hands on the very same book, they all affirm that some unifying value system underlies American civilization. If Keith Ellison is allowed to change that, he will be doing more damage to the unity of America and to the value system that has formed this country than the terrorists of 9-11. It is hard to believe that this is the legacy most Muslim Americans want to bequeath to America. But if it is, it is not only Europe that is in trouble. (End Commentary)
Take Action
1. Send an email asking your U.S. Representative and Senators to pass a law making the Bible the book used in the swearing-in ceremony of Representatives and Senators.
2. Forward this email to your friends and family today! Write your Representative and Senators Now! 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
REVELATION 17:2-5
2 With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication.
3 So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns.
4 And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication:
5 And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.
Pope Wraps Up 4-Day Visit To Turkey
Vatican Wishes To Impose Nothing On Anyone, Benedict XVI Tells Crowd
(CBS/AP) Pope Benedict XVI, in a parting message of goodwill to Muslims at the end of his first papal trip to a predominantly Muslim nation, said Friday that the Vatican wishes to impose nothing on anyone.
The pope celebrating Mass for members of Turkey's tiny Roman Catholic community a day after a stunning moment of prayer at a mosque also repeated his call to end divisions among the world's Christians. You know well that the church wishes to impose nothing on anyone, and that she merely asks to live in freedom, the pope said at Istanbul's Holy Spirit Cathedral, where he was joined by Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, the spiritual leader of the world's Orthodox Christians. The pope has worked hard during the four-day trip to convince the Muslim world that he is interested in cooperation rather than confrontation, nearly three months after touching off worldwide fury for his remarks on violence and the Prophet Muhammad.
But Benedict also has made it clear he expects Islamic nations to improve rights and protections for Christian minorities, including the estimated 90,000 Christians in Turkey whose religious roots go back to biblical times. Your communities walk the humble path of daily companionship with those who do not share our faith, the pope told the congregation filling the 160-year-old cathedral that contains the relics of a 1st century Christian martyr. In the courtyard, the pope released several white doves near a statue of the World War I-era pontiff who inspired his papal name, Benedict XV, which was erected by Turkey in honor of that pope's work as a benefactor of all people, regardless of nation or creed. The pope noted that his predecessor, John Paul II, spoke at the same site in 1979 and appealed for unity among Christians, and in particular for ending the nearly 1,000-year rift between the Vatican and the world's Orthodox. Strengthening Christian bonds should be at the forefront, Benedict told the congregation.
A day earlier, the pope joined Bartholomew at a feast day ceremony in the ancient Orthodox enclave in Istanbul, which was known as the Christian capital Constantinople before the city fell to Muslim forces in 1453.
The pope called splits among Christians a scandal to the world. Originally, the trip was envisioned as primarily a pilgrimage to reinforce Christian bonds and reach out to Turkey's remaining Christians, including Catholics estimated to number between 20,000 and 30,000. But after the pope's comments in September, it became a supreme test of the Vatican's ability to mend ties with Muslims. The pope's dramatic moment of silent prayer in Istanbul's famed Blue Mosque on Thursday capped a wide-ranging effort to win back Muslim sentiments, which included expressing support for Turkey's steps to become the first Muslim nation in the European Union. The congenial pope, said an editorial in Turkey's influential Hurriyet newspaper.
The pope had been invited by the Grand Mufti, Mustafa Cagrici, who acted as tour guide. The mufti explained the five basic conditions of Islam, then invited Benedict to join him in prayer. As the two stood side by side facing in the direction of Mecca, as Muslims must do when they pray, the pope closed his eyes, and his lips seemed to move ever so slightly. He stayed that way for a good half a minute after the mufti had finished his own brief devotions, CBS News correspondent Allen Pizzey reported from Istanbul. Cagrici told private NTV television that a moment of prayer was scheduled in advance by the Vatican and Turkish diplomats, but it was left to the mufti to decide when and where. I allocated 30, 40 seconds for it. I finished my prayer, but the pope must have been so overcome that he took much longer, he said. In his last moment in Turkey, the pope walked down a red carpet before boarding a special Turkish Airlines flight to Rome. I hope this visit contributes to peace and dialogue between faiths, he told Istanbul Gov. Muammer Guler at Istanbul's international airport.
The headline in Turkey's liberal Milliyet called it The Istanbul Peace. Another newspaper, Vatan, declared: History Written in Istanbul. Mehmet Nuri Yilmaz, the former head of Turkey's directorate for religious affairs, said the pope facing Mecca was a great gesture for the Muslim world. It marked only the second papal visit in history to a Muslim place of worship. John Paul II made a brief stop in a mosque in Syria in 2001.Ali Bardakoglu, the top Muslim cleric in Turkey, defended the tough tone he took with the pope in describing Muslim anger at his remarks on Islam. But Bardakoglu called the visit a very positive step. We have to take sides with what's ... right. We cannot accept what's wrong just to be polite, he said.CBS Broadcasting Inc. Associated Press contributed to this report.
NATO contacts Pak religious parties to secure Afghan peace ,By ANI
Lahore, Dec.1 (ANI): NATO diplomats in Afghanistan have reportedly approached several religious factions in Pakistan for proposals aimed at restoring and maintaining peace in Afghanistan. According to The Nation, a Canadian diplomat has got in touch with the Jamiat-e-Ulema Islam in Pakistan, to seek its opinion. JUI sources have confirmed the contact. The JUI is reported to have deliberated over the diplomatic missives, and come to the conclusion that there was no point in interfering in another country's internal affairs. According to sources, European and NATO diplomats are likely to meet leaders of other religious parties in the
coming days. (ANI)
PERSECUSSION,BEHEADINGS
JESUS PERSECUTED BIGTIME
ISAIAH 53:4
4 Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.
MATTHEW 9:34
34 But the Pharisees said, He casteth out devils through the prince of the devils.
JOHN 8:41
41 Ye do the deeds of your father. Then said they to him, We be not born of fornication; we have one Father, even God.
JOHN 10:20
20 And many of them said, He hath a devil, and is mad; why hear ye him?
PHILIPPIANS 2:10-11(JESUS GETS REVENGE)
10 That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth;
11 And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.(JUDGEMENT SEAT OF CHRIST AND FOR SINNERS, THE GREAT WHITE THRONE FINAL JUDGEMENT).
WE ARE CHRISTIANS WE WILL BE TREATED THE SAME.
2 TIMOTHY 3:1-5 (WHY WE ARE PERSECUTED BY THE WORLD)
1 This know also, that in the last days perilous (DANGEROUS) times shall come.
2 For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,
3 Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good,
4 Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God;
5 Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.
MATTHEW 5:10-12
10 Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
11 Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake.
12 Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.
MATTHEW 24:9
9 Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name’s sake.
JOHN 15:18-20
18 If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me (JESUS) before it hated you.
19 If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.
20 Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also.
REVELATION 6:9-11
9 And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain(BEHEADED) for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held:
10 And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?
11 And white robes were given unto every one of them; and it was said unto them, that they should rest yet for a little season, until their fellowservants also and their brethren, that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled.
REVELATION 20:4
4 And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.
Missionary Reports Severe Christian Persecution in N. Korea
Allie Martin,AgapePress, Dec 02,06
A missionary to North Korea says Christians are serving in that Communist nation, despite daily dangers and hardships, including the threat of death.Recently, a veteran of more than 100 missions into North Korea reported to the ministry Voice of the Martyrs (VOM) that Christians in North Korea live under constant danger of harassment, arrest, and torture. The missionary, who wishes to remain anonymous, told the ministry that Christians under that oppressive regime must take many precautions in order to assemble for Bible study or worship, such as gathering in groups of only three or four at a time and covering all the windows.The risks for that missionary and other believers in North Korea are high, VOM spokesman Todd Nettleton notes. If you're going to have a Christian meeting in North Korea, he says, you have to understand that you're taking your life in your hands. To be discovered to be a Christian can get you locked up. It can get you executed. So you're very cautious who you share that information with.
Because of the tremendous danger for Christians, that caution must even extend to family members within the same household, Nettleton points out. When North Korean Christians gather, he explains, other individuals, especially young children, are sent out of the room, because it's simply too great a risk to have your children know you're a follower of Jesus Christ.What would happen, after all, if these youngsters innocently said something at school that gave the secret away, Nettleton asks. Your whole family could be arrested, he says, and sent to one of the political prisoner camps where the average sentence for following Jesus is 15 years, but the average life expectancy in those camps is only five years.The missionary who filed the report with VOM has herself spent time in a North Korean prison for sharing her faith. The woman, who cannot be identified for security reasons, noted that four of her friends have been executed because of their witness.But despite the intense persecution of believers in North Korea, the missionary says people in that Communist nation are growing increasingly open to the gospel of Christ. And although tens of thousands of Christians are imprisoned for their faith in that country, Nettleton notes, faithful believers continue to persevere, gathering in secret as necessary, to share the truth of the scriptures.AgapePress
EU enters final stretch towards chemicals reform by Fabrice Randoux
Fri Dec 1, 11:32 AM ET
BRUSSELS (AFP) - The European Union has taken a step closer to tough new chemicals rules after EU lawmakers and governments hammered out the details of one of Europe's most ambitious and disputed legislative packages in years. After marathon negotiations, members of the European Parliament and the EU's Finnish presidency agreed shortly before mid night on Thursday on rules to regulate the use of chemicals to better protect people and the environment.With the backing of the assembly's main political groupings, the compromise paves the way for its adoption by the European Parliament on December 13 in a Strasbourg plenary session.Since the European Commission first laid out proposals in October 2003, the package has been the subject of fierce lobbying by both industry eager to avoid red tape and greens wanting tough regulations.I think we are doing a successful job of work here for future generations, said the rapporteur, Socialist euro-deputy Guido Sacconi, as he announced the deal on Friday in a news conference.
We're trying to ensure that the chemical substances in the medium and long term will be controlled and will be replaced when they're dangerous, he added.
The reform aims to ensure that 30,000 chemicals in daily use present no long-term risks to human health or the environment.The plan sets up a system for the registration, evaluation and authorisation of chemicals (REACH) under which companies have to register all chemicals used and provide information about them and potential hazards.Under the rules, it will not longer be up to public authorities to show the toxicity of chemicals, Instead it will be the responsibility of producers to demonstrate that they are safe.Tests provided by producers will be controlled and monitored by a new agency to be set up in Helsinki, which will be able to authorise and register substances.The rules are to be phased in gradually by 2018, with priority for chemicals considered to be highly dangerous substances produced in the biggest volumes and chemicals.The compromise agreement calls for producers to provide plans for substituting the most dangerous chemicals or developing alternatives when none exist, although they will not be banned outright as environmentalists had hoped.
The European Commission welcomed the agreement, which it said struck the right balance between the interests of consumers, the environment and industry.It is a marked improvement on the present situation regarding health and environment and at the same time it safeguards the competitiveness of the European industry paying particular attention to small and mid-sized entreprises and encourages innovation, a spokeswoman said.However, Greens members of the parliament were furious about the compromise, accusing their colleagues that brokered the deal of having sold out.The European Parliament has finally sold out to the intense lobbying of the German chemical industry and agreed a compromise ..., which will seriously limit the potential benefits of REACH in terms of protecting EU citizens and the environment from toxic chemicals, said Green MEP Carl Schlyter.The potential economic impact of the new rules is huge. Europe produces 28 percent of the world's chemicals, with an industry turnover of 360 billion euros (476.5 billion dollars), according to European business leaders' grouping UNICE.
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).
Germany unveils EU presidency logo
30.11.2006 - 11:24 CET | By Mark Beunderman
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS The German government has unveiled the logo for its six-month stint at the helm of the EU starting in January.The logo, which makes a somewhat low-key impression compared to the sophisticated designs of the Finnish and Austrian presidencies this year, shows the web address of the German presidency eu2007.de, with coloured elements reflecting the German and EU flags. I believe we have found a fresh and friendly logo. The logo promotes both the European idea and Germany as an innovative, creative and sympathetic country, a government spokesman said on Wednesday (29 November). A statement from Berlin said that the logo will be used for all EU-related public projects, products and actions of the federal government. The German presidency logo already made news before its official launch when Berlin indicated earlier this month that it prefers the use of the presidency image over a special logo promoted by the European Commission for the EU's 50th anniversary next year.A jury representing EU institutions and member states last month picked an anniversary logo stating in colourful letters Together since 1957, referring to the 1957 Rome Treaty which set the ground for the current EU.(REVIVED ROME)
But Germany does not want to use two images at the same time during its presidency, which coincides with celebrations marking the EU's 50th birthday, and will therefore not use the special anniversary logo, a German spokesman confirmed. Logos appear to be increasingly the subject of high Brussels politics, with France recently sending an official complaint to the commission over the 50th birthday logo suggesting that it fails to symbolize European unity. Finland also expressed anger that the commission did not consult it on the matter - an allegation which the commission denies.Meanwhile, the logo of the Austrian presidency in the first half of this year - a high-profile design by Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas showing the flags of all EU states - depicted the colours of the Estonian flag in the wrong order. The image of the UK 2005 presidency, showing twelve geese, was the subject of mockery last year when a variation of the logo - showing the geese falling to the ground apparently dying of bird-flu - was e-mailed around Brussels offices.
EUROPEAN UNION ARMY
DANIEL 7:23-25
23 Thus he said, The fourth beast (EU,REVIVED ROME) shall be the fourth kingdom upon earth,(7TH WORLD EMPIRE) which shall be diverse from all kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, and shall tread it down, and break it in pieces.(TRADING
BLOCKS)
24 And the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings(10 NATIONS) that shall arise: and another shall rise after them;(#11 SPAIN) and he shall be diverse from the first, and he shall subdue three kings.( BE HEAD OF 3 NATIONS)
25 And he (EU PRESIDENT) shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time.(3 1/2 YRS)
DANIEL 8:23-25
23 And in the latter time of their kingdom, when the transgressors are come to the full, a king (EU DICTATOR) of fierce countenance, and understanding dark sentences,(FROM THE OCCULT) shall stand up.
24 And his power shall be mighty, but not by his own power:(SATANS POWER) and he shall destroy wonderfully, and shall prosper, and practise, and shall destroy the mighty and the holy people.
25 And through his policy also he shall cause craft to prosper in his hand; and he shall magnify himself in his heart, and by peace shall destroy many: he shall also stand up against the Prince of princes;(JESUS) but he shall be broken without hand.
DANIEL 11:36-39
36 And the king (EU DICTATOR) shall do according to his will; and he shall exalt himself, and magnify himself above every god, and shall speak marvellous things against the God of gods, and shall prosper till the indignation be accomplished: for that that is determined shall be done.
37 Neither shall he regard the God of his fathers,(THIS EU DICTATOR IS JEWISH) nor the desire of women, nor regard any god: for he shall magnify himself above all.(CLAIM TO BE GOD)
38 But in his estate shall he honour the God of forces:(WAR) and a god whom his fathers knew not shall he honour with gold, and silver, and with precious stones, and pleasant things.
39 Thus shall he do in the most strong holds with a strange god,(DESTROY TERROR GROUPS) whom he shall acknowledge and increase with glory: and he shall cause them to rule over many,(HIS ARMY LEADERS) and shall divide the land for gain.
REVELATION 19:19
19 And I saw the beast,(EU LEADER) and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against him that sat on the horse,(JESUS) and against his army.(THE RAPTURED CHRISTIANS)
General eyes European army after Congo mission
01.12.2006 - 09:18 CET | By Honor Mahony
After its mission overseeing elections in Congo, EU troops are well on their way to being able to work as a common EU army, according to their French general.
I am very satisfied because I believe that we have a very well-functioning unit, said general Christian Damay on Thursday in Kinshasa, according to Reuters.Now we really have the beginning of a European army.Discussions about creating a European army are not new, with Polish President Lech Kaczynski recently suggesting there should be a multinational EU army of 100,000 troops to support NATO missions.He lobbied the idea both to German chancellor Angela Merkel and European Commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso, but critics say the creation of an actual army is a long way off.At the moment, the EU is working on the creation of its battle groups - small battalions of troops that can be deployed rapidly to troubled spots in the world - with the first two set to be operational from January.
General Damay's words come just as EU troops are packing their bags to leave Congo after having been in the country to monitor elections for four months - their mandate expired yesterday (30 November).
Under their watch President Joseph Kabila was re-elected on 29 October and is due to be sworn into office on 6 December The 1,400-strong Congo mission has been held up as a shining example of a successful peacekeeping mission however it also came in for criticism for having several troops stationed in neighbouring Gabon and for not having soldiers in the troubled eastern part of the vast country.There is also concern that the EU is pulling out although the situation is still unstable with tensions between President Kabila and his election rival, the ex-rebel Jean-Pierre Bemba, running high.South Africa's deputy foreign affairs minister Aziz Pahad recently urged the EU to extend the deployment of its force beyond its November 30 cut-off date, saying it was vital that the international peacekeepers do not withdraw from Congo prematurely.
Sunday, December 03, 2006
Saturday, December 02, 2006
US BRACES FOR CYBER ATTACK
1-WORLD QUAKES LAST 2 DAYS. 2-Quake jolts northwestern Pakistan. 3-Storm, mudslides kill 198 in Philippines. 4-Winter storm gives way to destructive winds. 5-US snowstorm shuts down Chicago airport; half a million lose power. 6-Floods in East Africa said to kill 250. 7-US dollar plunges to a 14-year low. 8-Stocks negative as economic data has investors fearing for soft landing scenario. 9-Britain planned to cut off Nile. 10-Surprise: Oil Woes In Iran. 10-Abbas, Rice call for Mideast truce to extend to West Bank. 11-Japan able to develop nuclear weapons: foreign minister. 12-Blair to signal possible cuts to nuclear fleet. 13-World AIDS Day: debates over sexual abstinence, condoms. 14-Iran's nuclear ambitions seen similar to Holocaust. 15-Shekel Becomes Safe Haven for Dollars. 16-US braces for possible al-Qaeda cyber attack.
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.
WORLD QUAKES LAST 2 DAYS (USGS)
Update time = Sat Dec 2 12:10 AM EDT
DEC 02,2006
MAP 3.0 ALASKA PENINSULA
MAP 4.4 SIMEULUE, INDONESIA
MAP 2.6 SOUTHERN ALASKA
MAP 3.0 CENTRAL CALIFORNIA
MAP 3.4 MOUNT ST. HELENS AREA, WASHINGTON
MAP 3.0 CENTRAL CALIFORNIA
DEC 01,2006
MAP 4.7 OFFSHORE BAJA CALIFORNIA SUR, MEXICO
MAP 2.5 NORTHERN CALIFORNIA
MAP 3.1 FOX ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN ISLANDS, ALASKA
MAP 4.0 FOX ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN ISLANDS, ALASKA
MAP 2.6 NORTHERN CALIFORNIA
MAP 3.0 NORTHERN CALIFORNIA
MAP 4.9 NORTHERN COLOMBIA
MAP 3.4 DOMINICAN REPUBLIC REGION
MAP 6.3 SUMBAWA REGION, INDONESIA
MAP 5.0 HINDU KUSH REGION, AFGHANISTAN
MAP 2.8 ANDREANOF ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN IS., ALASKA
MAP 2.6 NORTHERN CALIFORNIA
MAP 2.5 PUERTO RICO
MAP 4.9 TONGA
MAP 2.5 CENTRAL CALIFORNIA
MAP 2.6 SOUTHERN ALASKA
MAP 6.3 NORTHERN SUMATRA, INDONESIA
MAP 3.6 MONA PASSAGE, DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
Quake jolts northwestern Pakistan Fri Dec 1, 11:16 AM ET
PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AFP) An earthquake measuring 5.1 on the Richter Scale has jolted northwestern Pakistan, causing panic but no casualties or damage.Tremors were felt in Peshawar, the capital Islamabad and the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan at 6:12 pm (1312 GMT), a seismological department official said Friday.The earthquake's epicentre was located about 300 kilometers (186 miles) north of Peshawar in the Hindu Kush mountains, he said.Police and emergency rescue officials said there were no reports of deaths or injuries or of damage to property.However, panicked residents in Peshawar rushed out of homes and shops reciting verses from the Muslim holy book the Koran, witnesses said.A devastating 7.6-magnitude earthquake in northwestern Pakistan and Kashmir killed some 74,000 people and displaced 3.5 million in October last year.
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.
Storm, mudslides kill 198 in Philippines By BULLIT MARQUEZ, Associated Press Writer DEC 01,06
GUINOBATAN, Philippines The ash and boulders had been building up since an eruption in July, high on the slopes of the Mayon volcano. Typhoon Durian's blasts of wind and drenching rain raked it all down in a deadly black wall of debris.For nearly three hours Thursday afternoon, mudslides ripped through Mayon's gullies, uprooting trees, flattening houses and engulfing people. Entire hamlets were swamped in Mayon, on northern Luzon island.Some 198 people were killed most in mudslides on Mayon and 260 were missing, the national Office of Civil Defense reported. Another 130 were injured.With power and phone lines down, it took until Friday morning, when the first flights managed to survey the area, for the scope of the devastation to emerge.The disaster covered almost every corner of this province rampaging floods, falling trees, damaged houses, said Fernando Gonzalez, governor of Albay province, the site of all but a few of the deaths.Pope Benedict XVI, saddened by the tragic loss of life, was praying for the victims, rescue workers and others providing assistance, the Vatican said.
Our rescue teams are overstretched rescuing people on rooftops, said Glen Rabonza, the Civil Defense head, after officials briefed President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo on the disaster and the difficulties of getting to survivors stranded by seas of black mud.Bodies were wrapped in blankets and slung on bamboo poles to be carried to trucks, then covered with coconut leaves and transferred to makeshift morgues.It's terrible. We now call this place a black desert, Noel Rosal, mayor of Legazpi city, Albay province's capital, said after visiting one stricken village.Rosal said three of the five communities comprising the village of 1,400 people had been wiped out with only the roofs of several houses jutting out of the debris. He said people claimed some of the boulders were as big as cars and red hot, suggesting fresh lava from 8,077-foot Mayon.His own residence was under water that rose higher than a person in a flash flood.I was almost a goner. I had to swim, Rosal said.
Mayon, a popular tourist attraction because of its nearly perfect conical shape, is one of the Philippines 22 active volcanos. It erupted in July, depositing millions of tons of rocks and volcanic ash on its slopes, and has continued to rumble since then. Rains from succeeding typhoons may have loosened the materials.Villagers have lived with the threat of a Mayon eruption the most violent one killed more than 1,200 people in 1814 but say they never heard of debris being washed so far down or so violently.Typhoon Durian blasted ashore with gusts of up to 165 mph, running head-on into Mayon, 210 miles southeast of Manila on Luzon island.
When the water suddenly rose, we ran for our lives, said Lydia Buevos, 58, who returned with her husband and children Friday to see their hut gone. Holding a pair of rubber sandals the only possession she was able to save she said she lost three relatives to the storm.It happened very rapidly and many people did not expect this because they haven't experienced mud flows in those areas before, Gonzalez said. By the time they wanted to move, the rampaging mud flows were upon them.
The typhoon weakened Friday as it moved northward, with sustained winds of 94 mph and gusts of up to 116 mph as it headed toward the South China Sea.
Cars zigzagged on the road to the affected area to avoid uprooted trees and toppled utility posts Friday. Steel pylons had been bent down by the wind, and power cables lay scattered about like strands of spaghetti. With the sky surprisingly blue already, people dug foundations for new homes, hammering tin sheets onto leaking roofs and drying pillows, mattresses and clothes in the sun. Durian was the fourth super typhoon to hit the Philippines in as many months. In late September, Typhoon Xangsane left 230 people dead and missing in and around Manila. Typhoon Cimaron killed 19 people and injured 58 others last month, and earlier this month, Chebi sliced through the central Luzon region, killing one. About 20 typhoons and tropical storms hit the Philippines each year. Associated Press writers Oliver Teves, Teresa Cerojano and Jim Gomez contributed to this story from Manila.
Winter storm gives way to destructive winds J. Erdman, Sr. Meteorologist, The Weather Channel DEC 01,06
A fast-moving, but powerful winter storm blasted parts of the Midwest Thursday and Friday with snow, ice, and strong winds. Snowfall rates of 1-2in per hour, accompanied at times by lightning, blanketed parts of Missouri, Illinois, Wisconsin, and Michigan.
Chicago's O'Hare Airport picked up around 6 inches of snow, although lighter amounts were measured near the lake. The heaviest snow in the Land of Lincoln fell in western and central parts of the state. Up to 18in of snow was reported, with even snowplows sliding into ditches. Up to 18in of snow also buried parts of the Show-Me state, with 16in at Columbia, and around 8in in the southeast Kansas City suburbs. Of bigger concern, an estimated 2.4 million customers were without power early on Friday in central and southern Illinois and Missouri, due to accumulated ice downing tree limbs and powerlines.
Some of these same areas ended up with several inches of snow on top of the ice. Icing was also reported early Friday in parts of Lower Michigan, with some limbs downed. Milwaukee was buried under 11 inches of snow, with blizzard conditions, at times. Around a foot of snow shut down a section of busy interstate 94 in the western Milwaukee suburb of Waukesha, with three plows running side-by-side to clear the freeway.
A whopping 16.5in of snow piled on Kenosha, Wisc. Significant accumulating snow should be finished in the Great Lakes this evening. On the storm's warm side, a widespread threat of damaging winds exists through the late evening hours in parts of the Northeast. The culprit was bands of rain and thunderstorms along and ahead of an advancing cold front bringing 60 to 90 mph winds just a few thousand feet aloft to the surface. Widespread tree damage was reported in the Cincinnati metro early today, and a squall line of strong storms downed numerous trees in western and central Pennsylvania in the early afternoon. Damage from winds not associated with thunderstorms was reported as far south as the north Georgia mountains.
The most serious wind-damage threat should be clear of the Northeast by early Saturday morning.
US snowstorm shuts down Chicago airport; half a million lose power DEC 01,06
CHICAGO (AFP) Thrashing winds and driving snow closed one of America's busiest airports and left half a million people without power as a fierce storm swept across the country.
With snow accompanied by a rare December thunderstorm, some 400 flights were grounded at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport, as the city got six to 12 inches (15-30 centimeters) of snow overnight.Although carriers were hoping to resume their normal schedules after midday, the cancellations had a knock-on effect throughout the nation's aviation system, leaving travelers connecting through Chicago stranded at regional airports such as Detroit Metropolitan Airport.
We had hoped to be operating at 50 percent capacity by now, said American Airlines spokesman Tim Wagner around noon central time, but the storm is not passing as quickly as we hoped, and it could be 5:00 pm (2300 GMT) before we are fully operational.A couple of mishaps overnight suggested the airlines were right to take precautions: a Fed Ex plane slid off a runway at O'Hare, leaving it stuck in the mud, while a Northwest Airlines cargo jet was hit by lightning as it was taxiing for departure about 5:40 am, said Wendy Abrams, spokeswoman for the Chicago department of aviation.
The arctic blast, which dumped up to a foot (30 centimeters) of snow in parts of the Midwest and the plains states, also caused flight delays at regional airports as airlines struggled to get heavy equipment onto the runways to de-ice aircraft stuck at the gates.We've got iced-up planes stuck at the gates and that means incoming planes are getting backed up on the runway, said Shirley Walls, spokeswoman for Lambert-St. Louis International Airport in St Louis, Missouri.In Illinois and Missouri, more than half a million consumers were left without power as ice snapped tree limbs and froze power lines. A spokesman for the St. Louis-based power company Ameren Corp. said it had hundreds of technicians working on emergency repairs but warned of lengthy outages.
Work will be continuing around the clock, said Scott Cisel, president of the company's Illinois operations, but with the ice and snow that are on the ground, conditions are extremely treacherous for our employees as well as our customers.
Across the region, the freezing rain and sleet that accompanied the snow made for slick and dangerous driving conditions on the region's highways.In Illinois, transport authorities dispatched more than 1,000 trucks to salt and plough the highways overnight. But the rush-hour commute brought reports of dozens of fender-benders and spinouts as motorists in the Chicago area struggled to get to work.The highways around Chicago are sloppy and wet but passable, but we're advising people to use public transport where possible, said Mike Claffey, spokesman for the Illinois department of transportation.The early winter storm, which was spawned after an Arctic cold front collided with warm moist air surging north from the Gulf of Mexico, brought traffic chaos to Kansas and Oklahoma late Thursday, prompting the governor of Kansas to declare a state of emergency for more than two dozen counties.
Authorities in Oklahoma meanwhile called out the National Guard in that state to help stranded motorists.
Floods in East Africa said to kill 250 By MALKHADIR M. MUHUMED, Associated Press Writer Fri Dec 1, 11:39 AM ET
NAIROBI, Kenya - About 250 people have been killed and 100,000 have lost their homes as catastrophic floods ravaged East Africa, aid workers said Friday as rains continued to pound the impoverished region. Floods have hit Kenya, Somalia, Rwanda and Ethiopia, affecting more than 1.8 million people, according to the U.N. refugee agency. Weather experts warn that the punishing rains could continue through December in a region where a long drought has left the soil so dry it is unable to absorb the deluge.
Disease from poor sanitation is also taking its toll as submerged villages remain cut off and trucks laden with food and medicine are unable to reach survivors, according to the U.N. food agency.East Africa is one of the poorest regions in the world where most people live on less than $1 a day. It is home to more than 200 million people and regularly sees droughts and famine.
The U.N. is expected to launch an appeal Dec. 5 for an extra $17 million for flood victims. The organization already has received $10 million to help.Some 41 people have been killed in Kenya and more than 700,000 people are affected, the Kenyan Red Cross said.
The Health Ministry recently issued a cholera alert, the U.N added.In neighboring Somalia, the death toll rose to 116 after 20 people died in the north of the country in an outbreak of diarrhea, the U.N. said. Some 15 people died in floods in Rwanda, officials said.More than 80 people have died in Ethiopia, while 361,000 people have been affected in the southeast of the country.
HOARDING OF GOLD AND SILVER
JAMES 5:1-3
1 Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you.
2 Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are motheaten.
3 Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days.
EZEKIEL 7:19
19 They shall cast their silver in the streets, and their gold shall be removed: their silver and their gold shall not be able to deliver them in the day of the wrath of the LORD: they shall not satisfy their souls, neither fill their bowels: because it is the stumblingblock of their iniquity.
US dollar plunges to a 14-year low
By Ambrose Evans Pritchard ,8:58 pm DEC 01,06
Sterling has surged to the highest level against the dollar since Britain crashed out of the Exchange Rate Mechanism in 1992, leading the currency pack as investor-flight from US assets gathered pace.
Bernanke: issued inflation warnings
The US greenback was pummelled on exchange markets across the world, tumbling against the euro and yen on nagging fears that America's housing slump will spread to the rest of the economy.Yields on 10-year US Treasury bonds slid to 4.47pc yesterday, a sign that investors are battening down the hatches for possible recession next year. The US bond markets have ignored inflation warnings this week by Federal Reserve chief Ben Bernanke, picking up instead on his comments that the housing crash could be worse than feared.The pound smashed through resistance – it rocketed 3.5 cents in a 15-hour period to touch $1.9697. While the moves were dollar-driven, the pound led the charge after Nationwide Building Society reported a 1.4pc rise in house prices in November. Traders are eyeing the symbolic barrier of $2 last seen in the final days of the ERM.
Lord Lamont, Britain's Chancellor at that time, said the current surge bares no resemblance to 1992 when the UK economy was in the grip of a housing bust. The whole ERM bloc was floating up against the dollar because of Germany, so we were pulled along too, he said.He warned the dollar's relentless slide was becoming a major risk to the global financial system. My own fear is that the dollar might collapse. People are worried that the Chinese will stop financing the US deficits since it's likely they already have more dollars than they want, he said.Lord Lamont said there was a risk of a further 20pc fall, with the full strain falling on Europe.
The Asian currencies need to revalue but they're hardly moving, especially the renmimbi, he said.A clutch of weak US data over recent days point to possible rate cuts as soon as this spring, eroding the yield advantage that has kept the dollar aloft, despite a current account deficit of 6.5pc of GDP.
Yesterday's news included a jump in jobless claims and a shock fall in the Chicago purchasing managers index to 49.9 in
November, below contraction level. It followed an 8.3pc plunge in industrial orders. The futures markets are now pricing in a 45pc chance of a US rate cut by March.Sterling has jumped almost eight cents in the last week alone, crowning a spectacular year in which it has emerged as the favourite currency of world central banks and petro-dollar sheikhdoms.Mervyn King, the Bank of England's Governor, said British companies exporting to the US could face difficulties but insisted that the economy as a whole could cope, given the more modest rise in sterling against a basket of currencies.It takes up to two years for currency shifts to feed through an economy, so the full impact of sterling's 15pc rise against the dollar this year could hit industry just as the credit boom is turning down.
Stocks negative as economic data has investors fearing for soft landing scenario Friday, December 1, 2006 4:03 PM ET,Canadian Press: MALCOLM MORRISON
TORONTO (CP) Negative data on the U.S. manufacturing sector helped send the Toronto stock market lower after two days of record high closes.
New York markets were also down sharply after a key survey showed manufacturing unexpectedly contracted in November for the first time in more than three years.The Telstar I satellite, a Bell System project, was the first active communications satellite to orbit Earth. It was launched on July 10, 1962. From the ubiquitous technology made possible by Bell Labs invention of the transistor and laser to its scientists helping prove how the universe began, the lab has greatly influenced technology and culture. (AP Photo/Alcatel Lucent) The Institute for Supply Management said its manufacturing index registered 49.5 in November, down from October's reading of 51.2, raising concerns that the flagging U.S. economy won't be able to achieve a soft landing.
This manufacturing number indicates a definite slowdown. This is happening quickly, more quickly than I think people were expecting, said Chyanne Fyckes, chief investment manager at Stone Asset Management.
So I'm still in the hard-landing camp.Toronto's S&P/TSX composite index was down 50.02 points to 12,702.36 as investors also took in November jobless data showing a slight rise in the unemployment rate.The Canadian dollar was down 0.16 of a cent to 87.39 cents US as Statistics Canada reported that the November unemployment rate drifted one-10th of a point higher to 6.3 per cent while the economy created 22,000 part-time jobs.Just over 18,000 full-time jobs were lost during the month.The TSX Venture Exchange inched up 7.7 points to 2,839.18.The Dow Jones industrials fell 99.1 points to 12,121.87.The Nasdaq composite index declined 32.88 points to 2,398.89 while the S&P 500 index gave back 10.15 points to 1,390.5.November's ISM index came in below the average analyst expectation for a reading of 52.
The ISM report was one of two worrisome economic reports Friday. The U.S. Commerce Department said construction activity in October plummeted by the largest amount since 2001, and home building fell for the seventh month in a row.All TSX sectors were negative save for slightly positive showings in the health care and mining sectors.The gold sector was the biggest percentage decliner, down 1.5 per cent, as the February bullion contract on the Nymex faded $2.30 to US$650.60 an ounce.Goldcorp Inc.
(TSX:G) fell 88 cents to $34.83.The information-technology sector was down 1.4 per cent, as shares in Mosaid Technologies Inc.
(TSX:MSD) fell $1.23 to C$26.51 after the Ottawa semiconductor company lowered its earnings guidance for its 2007 financial year.
The company also reported a second-quarter profit of $4.7 million, ahead of analyst estimates.Nortel Networks (TSX:NT) stock was down 75 cents to $23.65 as the company's share consolidation took effect Friday in a one-for-10 scheme. The move was aimed at reducing the telecom equipment maker's shares from 4.3 billion to about 433 million.
The telecom sector also weighted on the Toronto market, down one per cent with Telus Corp. (TSX:T) down 68 cents to $55.34.
The TSX energy sector drifted 0.15 per cent lower as the January crude contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange changed direction to move 16 cents higher to US$63.29 cents on top of other sharp prices increases this week as winter weather moved into the U.S.The price drop came despite a comment from OPEC's president that the oil cartel is likely to trim production further and the amount will be decided at a meeting scheduled for Nigeria's capital this month.Petro-Canada was down 55 cents to $50.94.
In other news:
-Units in E.D. Smith Income Fund (TSX:JAM.UN) tumbled 16.8 per cent to $5.70 after it said distributions may have to be cut as the payout ratio for 2006 will top 100 per cent of distributable cash, instead of its target of 95 per cent.
-The Montreal Exchange says it will go public early next spring, but will list its shares without an initial offering. The Montreal Exchange, though a junior market, is Canada's oldest exchange and a leader in complex derivative investments.
-Axcan Pharma Inc. (TSX:AXP) grew its fourth-quarter revenue by 7.9 per cent to US$72.3 million but saw its profit for the period fall to US$8.3 million due to the impact of discontinuing one of its programs. Its shares were 21 cents lower to $16.72.
-Shares in Le Chateau Inc. (TSX:CTU.A) jumped 14.9 per cent to $57.45 as the trendy clothing retailer said it is rewarding its shareholders by raising its regular quarterly dividend by 50 per cent and paying a special $3 per share dividend to stockholders after its third-quarter profit rose to $8.4 million.
-The Wall Street Journal says billionaire investor Kirk Kerkorian has sold his entire remaining investment in General Motors Corp.
(NYSE:GM) - 28 million shares - at US$29.95 a share, a transaction worth more than US$800 million. Kerkorian's Tracinda Corp. said last week it was reducing its stake to 7.4 per cent from 9.9 per cent.GM shares added seven cents to US$29.29.The Canadian Press.
Britain planned to cut off Nile DEC 01,06
Britain wanted to control the key trade route
Britain drew up plans to cut the flow of the River Nile to Egypt to force President Gamal Abdel Nasser to give up the Suez Canal in 1956, files reveal. Military officials believed they could harm agriculture and cut communications by reducing the flow of water, newly-released documents show. The plan was outlined to Prime Minister Anthony Eden six weeks before British and French forces invaded Egypt.But it was abandoned because of fears it would trigger a violent backlash. Under the plan, Britain would have used a dam in Uganda to reduce water levels in the White Nile by seven-eighths. But planners realised that the scheme would take months to work, and could also harm other states such as Kenya and Uganda. One British official noted that the plan, while unworkable, could still be useful. It might be possible to spread the word among the more illiterate Egyptians that 'unless Nasser climbs down, Britain will cut off the Nile, Cabinet official John Hunt was revealed to have said.
No legal justification
The Suez crisis was triggered in July 1956 when the Egyptian president nationalised the Suez Canal, a vital trading route from the Mediterranean to the Red Sea. Britain and France joined forces with Israel and the three nations attacked in October 1956 in a bid to regain control of the canal, but US and UN pressure forced a withdrawal. The documents, released to the National Archives in Kew, also show the prime minister was urged to conceal the fact that his attorney-general had warned that the invasion was illegal.
At the time, UK lawmakers were claiming that the action was legal. But Attorney General Sir Reginald Manningham-Buller father of current MI5 head Dame Eliza Manningham-Buller wrote a strong letter challenging this.
I am unable to devise any argument which could purport to justify in international law either our demand that she [Egypt]... should withdraw her forces from a part of her own territory which she is engaged in defending, or the threat to occupy her territory by armed forces should she fail to accede that demand, he wrote. Then-Cabinet Secretary Sir Norman Brooks told the prime minister that he should not raise the issue of the war's legality in future speeches. The Suez crisis damaged Sir Anthony's reputation and led to his resignation in 1957.
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)
EZEKIEL 39:1-8
1 Therefore, thou son of man, prophesy against Gog,(LEADER OF RUSSIA) and say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshech (MOSCOW) and Tubal: (TUBOLSK)
2 And I will turn thee back, and leave but the sixth part of thee, and will cause thee to come up from the north parts,(RUSSIA) and will bring thee upon the mountains of Israel:
3 And I will smite thy bow out of thy left hand, and will cause thine arrows to fall out of thy right hand.
4 Thou shalt fall upon the mountains of Israel, thou, and all thy bands,( ARABS) and the people that is with thee: I will give thee unto the ravenous birds of every sort, and to the beasts of the field to be devoured.
5 Thou shalt fall upon the open field: for I have spoken it, saith the Lord GOD.
6 And I will send a fire on Magog,(NUCLEAR BOMB) and among them that dwell carelessly in the isles: and they shall know that I am the LORD.
7 So will I make my holy name known in the midst of my people Israel; and I will not let them pollute my holy name any more: and the heathen shall know that I am the LORD, the Holy One in Israel.
8 Behold, it is come, and it is done, saith the Lord GOD; this is the day whereof I have spoken.
JOEL 2:3,20,30-31
3 A fire(NUCLEAR BOMB) devoureth before them;(RUSSIA-ARABS) and behind them a flame burneth: the land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness; yea, and nothing shall escape them.
20 But I will remove far off from you the northern army,(RUSSIA,MUSLIMS) and will drive him into a land barren and desolate, with his face toward the east sea, and his hinder part toward the utmost sea, and his stink shall come up, and his ill savour shall come up, because he hath done great things.(SIBERIAN DESERT)
30 And I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke.(NUCLEAR BOMB)
31 The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the LORD come.
Surprise: Oil Woes In Iran
Flagging output from its vast reserves could diminish Tehran's influence
by Stanley Reed DEC 01,06
Few countries can match Iran in its ability to generate angst among Westerners. It appears determined to become a nuclear power. Tehran's Islamic leaders aid radical groups across the Middle East. And as the U.S. gets bogged down in Iraq, Iran's influence in the region is on the rise, fueled in large part by its vast energy wealth.Yet Iran has a surprising weakness: Its oil and gas industry, the lifeblood of its economy, is showing serious signs of distress. As domestic energy consumption skyrockets, Iran is struggling to produce enough oil and gas for export. Unless Tehran overhauls its policies, its primary source of revenue and the basis of its
geopolitical muscle could start to wane. Within a decade, says Saad Rahim, an analyst at Washington consultancy PFC Energy, Iran's net crude exports could fall to zero.That's not to say Iran doesn't have abundant resources. The country's 137 billion barrels of oil reserves are second only to Saudi Arabia's, and its supply of gas trails only Russia's, according to the BP Statistical Review of World Energy. Getting it all out of the ground, though, is another matter. Iran has been producing just 3.9 million barrels of oil a day this year, 5% below its OPEC quota, because of delays in new projects and a shortage of technical skills. By contrast, in 1974, five years before the Islamic Revolution, Iran pumped 6.1 million barrels daily.
The situation could get even tougher for the National Iranian Oil Co. (NIOC), which is responsible for all of Iran's output. Without substantial upgrades in facilities, production at Iran's core fields, several of which date from the 1920s, could go into a precipitous decline. In September, Oil Minister Kazem Vaziri-Hamaneh suggested that with no new investment, output from Iran's fields would fall by about 13% a year, roughly twice the rate that outside oil experts had expected. NIOC is likely to find that even maintaining the status quo is a mounting challenge, says PFC Energy's Rahim.
STATE HANDOUTS
Iran's looming crisis is the result of years of neglect and underinvestment. As in other oil-producing countries such as Venezuela and Mexico, the government treats the oil industry as a cash cow, milking its revenues for social programs. It allocates only $3 billion a year for investment, less than a third of what's needed to get production growing again.Compounding the pressure are policies that encourage profligate energy use. Gasoline prices are set at 35 cents a gallon, which has helped fuel 10%-plus annual growth in consumption, PFC Energy figures. The national thirst for gasoline far outstrips domestic refining capacity, so Iran will import about $5 billion in gasoline this year, or about 40% of its needs. The government is planning a $16 billion refinery building program to boost capacity by 60%. But unless Iran raises fuel prices, the new plants will just mean more consumption.An oil squeeze could spell trouble for President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The populist leader has won backing at home through generous handouts. Ahmadinejad has ratcheted up public spending this year by 21%, to $213 billion, on everything from aid to rural areas to housing loans for newlyweds. He has also promised some $16 billion in outlays from a special $30 billion fund set up to tide Iranians through future hard times. Without a healthy oil sector, Iran's social spending could bust the national budget--and reignite inflation.
Iran badly needs fresh foreign investment to shore up the oil industry. Tehran has attracted some $20 billion in funding for oil and gas projects since 1995 from overseas companies including Royal Dutch/Shell Group (RD), France's Total (TOT), and Norway's Statoil. But new investment has largely dried up in recent years because of lingering worries about the risk of war with the U.S. and disenchantment with Iran's tightfisted terms.Outsiders are offered contracts only to drill wells--rather than operate fields--and get just a small share of profits from output.
For instance, Italian oil giant ENI (ENI), a fixture in Iran since 1957, produces about 35,000 barrels per day but doesn't expect to get any bigger. Unless international sanctions are imposed on Iran and the Italian government directs ENI to abide by them, we are committed to staying, says ENI Chief Executive Paolo Scaroni. However, in order to increase our presence there, contractual terms for oil companies need to change.Endless haggling and delays have set back some of Iran's biggest oil initiatives. One top priority had been the Azagedan field in southern Iran, which is expected eventually to produce 260,000 barrels a day. But in October, Tehran scrapped a $2 billion contract, agreed to in 2004, with Japan's Inpex to develop the project. And Shell's $800 million Soroush/Nowrooz project in the Persian Gulf has been plagued by cost overruns and technical glitches. In January, meanwhile, Statoil wrote down the entire $329 million book value of its South Pars project because of productivity and quality problems with a local contractor.
GLACIAL PACE
It's not just oil that Iran is failing to exploit. The glacial pace of negotiations is also making it fall behind neighboring Qatar in exploiting the huge offshore gas field that the two countries share. While Qatar has signed up the likes of ExxonMobil (XOM) and Shell to develop the site, Iran's talks with Total and Shell have progressed far more slowly. Iran is now a net importer of gas, a situation not expected to reverse before 2010.Foreign energy companies are lobbying the Iranians to change. Executives say they would like longer contracts, which would give them more control and might boost returns. But progress is slow as many Iranian officials are reluctant to give foreigners terms that might be judged too favorable. There are indications of movement, but how far and how deep it goes is anyone's guess, an oil executive says.Can Iran fix its energy conundrum? Some experts are betting Tehran will get its act together sooner rather than later. Iran was able to boost production from 1.2 million barrels a day during the 1980-88 war with Iraq to nearly 4 million barrels with almost no foreign help, notes Bijan Khajepour, chairman of Tehran's Atieh Bahar Consulting, which advises oil companies. He thinks Iran should be able to sustain current production for the next decade. Even so, if Tehran doesn't face up to the woes of its oil industry, Iran may find itself in the unusual position of sharing the West's angst over growing dependence on imported oil.with Babak Pirouz in Tehran Reed is London bureau chief for BusinessWeek.
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)
Thursday November 30, 10:55 PM
Abbas, Rice call for Mideast truce to extend to West Bank
JERICHO, West Bank (AFP) Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas and US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice have called for a fledgling Israeli-Palestinian ceasefire in the Gaza Strip to be extended.We talked about the truce that has taken effect in the Gaza Strip and we hope it will be extended to the West Bank, Abbas told a joint news conference with Rice in the West Bank oasis town of Jericho Thursday.Under the terms of the ceasefire, which came into effect on Sunday in the Gaza Strip, Palestinian armed groups agreed to halt rocket fire against the Jewish state in exchange for an Israeli troop withdrawal from the territory.Rice also said that the United States hoped for a comprehensive ceasefire following talks focused on shoring up the five-day truce.Washington's top diplomat also praised the moderate Palestinian leader for his role in bringing about the five-day ceasfire in the Gaza Strip and for
trying to create a Palestinian unity government with radical Islamists Hamas.Thank you also for the efforts you have made to bring about the ceasefire that is now in effect in Gaza and that we hope will be consolidated so that it can be extended because we would hope in time for a comprehensive ceasefire.
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)
TAKE NOTICE IN THESE SCRIPTURES IT SAYS CHINA AND THE KINGS OF THE EAST (JAPAN, N & S KOREA ETC)
Japan able to develop nuclear weapons: foreign minister Thu Nov 30, 10:46 AM ET
TOKYO (AFP) Japan has the ability to produce nuclear weapons but chooses not to, its foreign minister said amid debate on breaking the nuclear taboo after neighboring North Korea tested an atomic bomb. We have the technology to develop nuclear weapons, Taro Aso, Japan's outspoken foreign minister, told a parliamentary committee.But this doesn't mean we will immediately create nuclear weapons to possess them, Aso added.Aso has been at the forefront of pushing for Japan the only country to have been attacked with atomic bombs to debate the nuclear option.Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has ruled out even discussing building nuclear weapons, but the issue has caused concern in neighboring countries.Experts have long believed Japan has the knowhow to develop nuclear weapons quickly, in part because it relies on nuclear technology for nearly a third of its energy needs.
Technologically speaking, we have the capability to develop atom bombs and we have the ability to launch satellites with rockets. We also have plutonium, under the supervision of the IAEA, or International Atomic Energy Agency, Aso said.Aso met later in the day with IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei, who is visiting Japan in part for talks on North Korea's nuclear program.Aso was responding to a question by the opposition, which has called on Abe to sack the foreign minister to show his commitment against nuclear weapons.Aso reiterated the government's view that Japan has the right to nuclear weapons despite its pacifist constitution, which was imposed by the United States after World War II.From a purely theoretical viewpoint, possession of a necessary minimum of nuclear weapons for the purpose of self-defense is not banned under the current constitution, Aso said.
Japan is particularly concerned about North Korea, which launched a missile over Japan's main island in 1998. The communist regime tested its first atomic bomb on October 9.Under a 1967 policy, Japan refuses the production, possession or presence of nuclear weapons on its soil.US nuclear bombs obliterated the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in the closing days of World War II, killing more than 210,000 people.
Blair to signal possible cuts to nuclear fleet: FT DEC 01,06
LONDON (AFP) Prime Minister Tony Blair is prepared to concede on cuts to Britain's nuclear deterrent when his government publishes plans on the ageing missile system's future, the Financial Times said.
The business daily said that, as expected, Blair would commission a straight submarine-based replacement for the US-built Trident weapons system when the plans are announced on Monday.But he will say that the number of Royal Navy Vanguard-class submarines that carry the missiles could be reduced from the current four to three and that Britain will cut the 200 nuclear warheads stockpiled.Blair will not give specific figures for the potential warhead reductions and not make a firm commitment to reducing the size of the nuclear fleet, the FT said without quoting sources.A decision on cutting the number of submarines could be taken at a later date while such a reduction in vessels and warheads could reduce the costs of replacing the whole system, the newspaper said Blair will argue.
Blair faces a fight from within his governing Labour Party on Trident, which will become obsolete in the mid-2020s and potentially cost up to 25 billion pounds (37 billion euros, 46 billion dollars) to replace.Scrapping nuclear weapons and atomic power were key pledges of left-wing Labour, particularly throughout the 1980s, but the policy was dropped when Blair became party leader in 1994 and took the party to the centre ground.
Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Hain and International Development Secretary Hilary Benn are reportedly against Trident and about 120 backbench Labour lawmakers have lobbied the prime minister to rethink.The plans will be published after a cabinet meeting on Monday and government members have already been briefed in detail by Defence Secretary Des Browne and Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett, Blair's office said Thursday.Lawmakers are expected to vote on the matter in the new year.
DISEASES
REVELATION 6:7-8
7 And when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth beast say, Come and see.
8 And I looked, and behold a pale horse:(CHLORES GREEN) and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword,(WEAPONS) and with hunger,(FAMINE) and with death,(INCURABLE DISEASES) and with the beasts of the earth.(ANIMAL TO HUMAN DISEASE).
World AIDS Day: debates over sexual abstinence, condoms Fri Dec 1, 7:54 PM ET
JOHANNESBURG (AFP) Two controversies flared on World AIDS Day as the United States and South Africa backed sexual abstinence to avoid infection and British leader Tony Blair castigated religious bans on condoms. US President George W. Bush joined other world leaders in renewing vows to combat the disease, which has claimed more than 25 million lives in 25 years and for which a cure and vaccine remain dismayingly elusive.The pandemic of HIV/AIDS can be defeated, and the United States is willing to take the lead in that fight, he said.Bush spelled out Washington's role funding AIDS drugs in poor countries, but also emphasized promoting abstinence.That tactic is derided by many AIDS activists as moralizing and unworkable, even potentially dangerous. These campaigners plead instead for sex education and availability of condoms.
Fighting AIDS includes the ABC approach, encouraging abstinence, being faithful and using condoms, with abstinence as the only sure way to avoid the sexual transmission of HIV/AIDS, said Bush.
South Africa used World AIDS Day to announce a new national AIDS plan: to halve by 2011 the rate of new HIV infections, notably by encouraging teenagers aged 14-17 to delay the initiation of sex.The future course of the epidemic hinges in many respects on the behavior young people adopt and maintain, according to the plan, launched by Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka.South Africa is second only to India in the number of HIV infections.
In a country of 47 million, 5.5 million South Africans live with AIDS or the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) that causes it.In Britain, meanwhile, Prime Minister Tony Blair hit out at religious bans on condoms, saying if all the churches and religious organizations were facing up to reality, it would be better.The danger is, if we have a sort of blanket ban coming from religious hierarchy saying it's wrong to do it, then you discourage people from doing it in circumstances where they need to protect their own lives, he said.Blair made the remarks as the Vatican is considering a 100-page report on condoms that has been requested by Pope Benedict XVI.
Since AIDS was first discovered 25 years ago in a small group of US gay men, it has killed at least 25 million people and nearly 40 million people today have HIV/AIDS, according to the UN agency UNAIDS.Despite billions of dollars poured into research, there is neither a cure nor a vaccine.The distribution of drugs that curb HIV, transforming a killer disease into a manageable one, is only now reaching a higher gear in Africa, where nearly two-thirds of infected people live.In Guinea-Bissau, thousands of students demonstrated for free HIV treatment in a country where 88 percent of people live on less than a dollar a day.However, Africa showed some encouraging signs, with an apparent decline in adult prevalence in several countries, the World Health Organization said Friday.In Geneva, the International Labor Organization (ILO) said Friday the pandemic would take a growing toll on the workforce in the years to come. In 2005, 3.4 million people of working age died of AIDS, a toll likely to reach 4.5 million by 2020, it said.
Twenty-five years into AIDS, nations rich and poor still think about the pandemic from an emergency perspective of quick fixes and short-term goals, UNAIDS Executive Director Peter Piot said in a commentary published by the Financial Times. Asian countries, where the AIDS situation varies widely, vowed on Friday to step up their action. China resolved to promote condom use among its homosexuals, amid data showing only one Chinese gay in five uses them regularly.Prevention efforts among gays will be key to the country's AIDS control, said Wu Zunyou of the Chinese Disease Prevent and Control Center. In India, which has 5.7 million infected people, protestors demanded low-cost treatment for people in the later stages of the illness, while in neighboring Bangladesh, a rally outside parliament in Dhaka drew a crowd of thousands. In Bangkok, a condom carnival promoted safe-sex with dart-throwing to pop condom balloons and races to blow up condoms. Despite extensive efforts, the stigma attached to the disease often stymies treatment, said Brazil's health minister.
Prejudice can be more aggressive than the threat of disease, Agenor Alvares said. That is why we are promoting this campaign. In New York, where the disease is more closely tied to intravenous drug users, handing out clean needles, offering free AIDS tests and treatment for drug addiction have proved effective. Over the past five years in New York City HIV diagnoses are down one-third and AIDS deaths are down by one-fifth, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said. The theme of this year's World's AIDS Day is accountability. Accountability ... requires every president and prime minister, every parliamentarian and politician, to decide and declare that AIDS stops with me, said UN Secretary General Kofi Annan.
WORLD TERRORISM
GENESIS 6:11-13
11 The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.
12 And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth.
13 And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth.
2 PETER 2:5
5 And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly;
2 PETER 3:7
7 But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men
LEVITICUS 26:16
16 I also will do this unto you; I will even appoint over you( sudden) terror, consumption, and the burning ague, that shall consume the eyes, and cause sorrow of heart: and ye shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it.
GENESIS 16:11-12
11 And the angel of the LORD said unto her, Behold, thou art with child, and shalt bear a son, and shalt call his name Ishmael; because the LORD hath heard thy affliction.
12 And he will be a wild man; his hand will be against every man, and every man's hand against him; and he shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren.
ISAIAH 33:1,18-19 Woe to thee that spoilest,(destroys) and thou wast not spoiled;(destroyed) and dealest treacherously, and they dealt not treacherously with thee! when thou shalt cease to spoil,(destroy) thou shalt be spoiled;(destroyed) and when thou shalt make an end to deal treacherously, they shall deal treacherously with thee.
18 Thine heart shall meditate terror. Where is the scribe? where is the receiver? where is he that counted the towers?
19 Thou shalt not see a fierce people, a people of a deeper speech than thou canst perceive; of a stammering tongue, that thou canst not understand.
JOHN 16:2
2 They shall put you out of the synagogues: yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service.
Iran's nuclear ambitions seen similar to Holocaust
By Abraham Rabinovich,THE WASHINGTON TIMES,November 30, 2006
JERUSALEM /Iran's reported drive to make an atomic bomb has become an existential threat to Israel that some Israelis are likening to the Holocaust especially with the United States appearing to back away from confrontation with Tehran. The alarmists include Aharon Appelfeld, a leading Israeli author who as a child survived the Nazi killing of 6 million Jews.For the first time since I'm in the country, I feel that we face a real existential danger, Mr. Appelfeld said.The memory of the Holocaust is a central element in Israel's collective consciousness, a memory made more acute by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's denial that the Holocaust happened.It's 1938, said former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and Iran is Germany, racing to arm itself with atomic bombs.Addressing a Jewish audience in Los Angeles this month, Mr. Netanyahu added his voice to a growing sense of alarm in Israel about Iran's seemingly inexorable march toward nuclear capability. In his address, Mr. Netanyahu referred to Mr. Ahmadinejad's repeated calls for wiping Israel off the map.Believe him and stop him, Mr. Netanyahu said in the speech. This is what we must do. Everything pales before it.
Israel has half assumed, half hoped that if international pressure on Iran to halt its nuclear development fails, the United States would in the end use military force.In recent weeks, however, a war-weary Washington seems to be backing away from a confrontation.In a meeting with French President Jacques Chirac, President Bush said that he would understand if Israel chose to attack Iran's nuclear installations.To Israelis, that sounded like he would prefer it over an American attack. There was likewise little comfort from Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's remark that the U.S. lacked sufficient intelligence on Iran's nuclear facilities to
carry out a strike at this time.
Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger wrote recently that military action by the United States is extremely improbable in the final two years of a presidency facing a hostile Congress.He, too, raised the possibility of a unilateral Israeli air strike. Israel has apparently long been preparing such a strike. It acquired a large fleet of F-16 and F-15 warplanes and held intensive training exercises in anticipation of a confrontation with Iran.The appointment last year of former air force commander Lt. Gen. Dan Halutz as chief of staff of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) was widely seen as preparing for that confrontation in which the air force would play a central role.It has become increasingly clear in recent years, however, that an attack on Iran's nuclear facilities would be infinitely more difficult than the successful attack on Iraq's nuclear reactor by Israeli planes in 1981.Tehran learned the lessons of that attack and scattered its facilities at scores of sites, burying many of them deep underground and defending them with modern Russian anti-aircraft missiles.
Analysts have suggested that only a superpower like the United States could mount the massive and sustained attack that would be necessary to do substantial damage by boring ever deeper into the underground sites with bunker-buster bombs on repeated
runs.
Even then, some analysts say, an attack might succeed only in delaying the program by a few years.If Israel undertook the task alone, it would face not onlyuncertainty about the results of the air campaign but also the certainty of fierce Iranian retaliation, beginning with their long-range missiles and perhaps including attacks on Israeli targets around the world. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert continues to hope for an international initiative.The big countries have to lead and we have to push them, he said. However, there is a realization in Jerusalem that there may be no one to push. Deputy Israeli Defense Minister Ephraim Sneh said: I am aware of all of the possible repercussions of a pre-emptive Israeli military action against Iran and consider it a last resort. But the last resort is sometimes the only resort.
Shekel Becomes Safe Haven for Dollars
By Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu (INN)
Four years ago, a dollar cost five shekels and everyone hoarded greenbacks. Today a dollar costs 4.24 shekels, leaving many American olim wishing they had put their money where their feet are. American olim, the Hebrew word for immigrants, who held on to their dollar bills the past three years will have lost 15 percent of their money if they convert the dollars to shekels today.The dollar traded Friday morning as low as 4.233 shekels, the lowest it has been for five years.
The year-long long and steady strengthening of the shekel symbolizes the new Israel, an economy of near-zero inflation, a robust economy and a growing reputation among the international financial community as one of the most stable economies in the world.The stronger shekel is a boon for renters and buyers because the long-time trust in the dollar steered Israelis to quote everything in dollars. A $500 a month apartment costs five percent less in shekels than it did six months ago. Today, businessmen and consumers see the other side of the coin and the shekel is becoming the more common base for transactions.The past, of course, is no guarantee of the future, and many financial advisors think the shekel is overvalued. One financial web site wrote on Friday, While we in the beginning of the year where quite bullish on shekel we are now increasingly of the view that the shekel will weaken.
Their analysis is based on the prediction that the American interest rate will rise, contrary to most expectations that it will drop in early 2007. One of the advantages of the shekel is that the interest rate in Israel has been the same or even higher than that of the dollar, attracting foreigners to invest in the Israel currency and earn a higher income.Another factor working against the dollar is the increasing flight from the American currency throughout the world. The shekel's strength has been aided by the dollar's weakness, whereas the shekel continues to lose value against the Euro.Israel today is a far cry from the days of 500 per cent a year inflation of the 1980s, when shop owners marked up their prices every day.Sweeping economic reforms and changes in the financial policy have turned the Israeli economy around. The most flattering result was this year's $4 billion buy-out of the Iscar metal working company by American billionaire Warren Buffet. He bought the Galilee-based community only months before the Hizbullah terrorist war broke out.
The ability of the economy to absorb the shock of the war and return to a growth rate of more than four percent is another sign to investors that the shekel is the best place to put money.
The constant instability of the Middle East has had virtually no effect on the shekel or the economy, and the government even has massed an enormous and little publicized budget surplus of more than $2 billion. American President George W. Bush recently asked Prime Minister Ehud Olmert how Israel manages to avoid deficits, which two years ago were a constant and growing concern.The government has made windfall profits from the tax on fuel, which has soared in the past year until it peaked in the late summer. Every time fuel pump prices were raised, the government's take rose proportionately.Another large source of the surplus has been a drastic cut in outlays for child stipends following the sweeping reforms initiated by former Likud Finance Minister Binyamin (Bibi) Netanyahu. The child support benefits for years have been a way to support a needed rise in the Jewish population. However, in the past few years it has been used by Arab families, especially in the Bedouin community, to fund their lifestyle of polygamy, which often results in dozens of children per family.
US braces for possible al-Qaeda cyber attack
December 1, 2006
The US government has warned US private financial services of an al-Qaeda call for a cyber attack against US online stock trading and banking websites beginning on Friday, officials said today.The officials - a person familiar with the warning and a spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security - said the Islamic militant group aimed to penetrate and destroy the databases of the US stock market and banking websites.Homeland Security said it had no evidence to corroborate the threat but had issued the warning out of an abundance of caution. The department said in a statement that the threat was for all of December.There is no information to corroborate this aspirational threat. As a routine matter and out of an abundance of caution, US-CERT issued the situational awareness report to industry stakeholders, said Homeland Security spokesman Russ Knocke.US-CERT is the US Computer Emergency Readiness Team. The US government said the threat was to avenge the holding of suspected terrorists at the US prison in Guantanamo.Reuters
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.
WORLD QUAKES LAST 2 DAYS (USGS)
Update time = Sat Dec 2 12:10 AM EDT
DEC 02,2006
MAP 3.0 ALASKA PENINSULA
MAP 4.4 SIMEULUE, INDONESIA
MAP 2.6 SOUTHERN ALASKA
MAP 3.0 CENTRAL CALIFORNIA
MAP 3.4 MOUNT ST. HELENS AREA, WASHINGTON
MAP 3.0 CENTRAL CALIFORNIA
DEC 01,2006
MAP 4.7 OFFSHORE BAJA CALIFORNIA SUR, MEXICO
MAP 2.5 NORTHERN CALIFORNIA
MAP 3.1 FOX ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN ISLANDS, ALASKA
MAP 4.0 FOX ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN ISLANDS, ALASKA
MAP 2.6 NORTHERN CALIFORNIA
MAP 3.0 NORTHERN CALIFORNIA
MAP 4.9 NORTHERN COLOMBIA
MAP 3.4 DOMINICAN REPUBLIC REGION
MAP 6.3 SUMBAWA REGION, INDONESIA
MAP 5.0 HINDU KUSH REGION, AFGHANISTAN
MAP 2.8 ANDREANOF ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN IS., ALASKA
MAP 2.6 NORTHERN CALIFORNIA
MAP 2.5 PUERTO RICO
MAP 4.9 TONGA
MAP 2.5 CENTRAL CALIFORNIA
MAP 2.6 SOUTHERN ALASKA
MAP 6.3 NORTHERN SUMATRA, INDONESIA
MAP 3.6 MONA PASSAGE, DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
Quake jolts northwestern Pakistan Fri Dec 1, 11:16 AM ET
PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AFP) An earthquake measuring 5.1 on the Richter Scale has jolted northwestern Pakistan, causing panic but no casualties or damage.Tremors were felt in Peshawar, the capital Islamabad and the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan at 6:12 pm (1312 GMT), a seismological department official said Friday.The earthquake's epicentre was located about 300 kilometers (186 miles) north of Peshawar in the Hindu Kush mountains, he said.Police and emergency rescue officials said there were no reports of deaths or injuries or of damage to property.However, panicked residents in Peshawar rushed out of homes and shops reciting verses from the Muslim holy book the Koran, witnesses said.A devastating 7.6-magnitude earthquake in northwestern Pakistan and Kashmir killed some 74,000 people and displaced 3.5 million in October last year.
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.
Storm, mudslides kill 198 in Philippines By BULLIT MARQUEZ, Associated Press Writer DEC 01,06
GUINOBATAN, Philippines The ash and boulders had been building up since an eruption in July, high on the slopes of the Mayon volcano. Typhoon Durian's blasts of wind and drenching rain raked it all down in a deadly black wall of debris.For nearly three hours Thursday afternoon, mudslides ripped through Mayon's gullies, uprooting trees, flattening houses and engulfing people. Entire hamlets were swamped in Mayon, on northern Luzon island.Some 198 people were killed most in mudslides on Mayon and 260 were missing, the national Office of Civil Defense reported. Another 130 were injured.With power and phone lines down, it took until Friday morning, when the first flights managed to survey the area, for the scope of the devastation to emerge.The disaster covered almost every corner of this province rampaging floods, falling trees, damaged houses, said Fernando Gonzalez, governor of Albay province, the site of all but a few of the deaths.Pope Benedict XVI, saddened by the tragic loss of life, was praying for the victims, rescue workers and others providing assistance, the Vatican said.
Our rescue teams are overstretched rescuing people on rooftops, said Glen Rabonza, the Civil Defense head, after officials briefed President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo on the disaster and the difficulties of getting to survivors stranded by seas of black mud.Bodies were wrapped in blankets and slung on bamboo poles to be carried to trucks, then covered with coconut leaves and transferred to makeshift morgues.It's terrible. We now call this place a black desert, Noel Rosal, mayor of Legazpi city, Albay province's capital, said after visiting one stricken village.Rosal said three of the five communities comprising the village of 1,400 people had been wiped out with only the roofs of several houses jutting out of the debris. He said people claimed some of the boulders were as big as cars and red hot, suggesting fresh lava from 8,077-foot Mayon.His own residence was under water that rose higher than a person in a flash flood.I was almost a goner. I had to swim, Rosal said.
Mayon, a popular tourist attraction because of its nearly perfect conical shape, is one of the Philippines 22 active volcanos. It erupted in July, depositing millions of tons of rocks and volcanic ash on its slopes, and has continued to rumble since then. Rains from succeeding typhoons may have loosened the materials.Villagers have lived with the threat of a Mayon eruption the most violent one killed more than 1,200 people in 1814 but say they never heard of debris being washed so far down or so violently.Typhoon Durian blasted ashore with gusts of up to 165 mph, running head-on into Mayon, 210 miles southeast of Manila on Luzon island.
When the water suddenly rose, we ran for our lives, said Lydia Buevos, 58, who returned with her husband and children Friday to see their hut gone. Holding a pair of rubber sandals the only possession she was able to save she said she lost three relatives to the storm.It happened very rapidly and many people did not expect this because they haven't experienced mud flows in those areas before, Gonzalez said. By the time they wanted to move, the rampaging mud flows were upon them.
The typhoon weakened Friday as it moved northward, with sustained winds of 94 mph and gusts of up to 116 mph as it headed toward the South China Sea.
Cars zigzagged on the road to the affected area to avoid uprooted trees and toppled utility posts Friday. Steel pylons had been bent down by the wind, and power cables lay scattered about like strands of spaghetti. With the sky surprisingly blue already, people dug foundations for new homes, hammering tin sheets onto leaking roofs and drying pillows, mattresses and clothes in the sun. Durian was the fourth super typhoon to hit the Philippines in as many months. In late September, Typhoon Xangsane left 230 people dead and missing in and around Manila. Typhoon Cimaron killed 19 people and injured 58 others last month, and earlier this month, Chebi sliced through the central Luzon region, killing one. About 20 typhoons and tropical storms hit the Philippines each year. Associated Press writers Oliver Teves, Teresa Cerojano and Jim Gomez contributed to this story from Manila.
Winter storm gives way to destructive winds J. Erdman, Sr. Meteorologist, The Weather Channel DEC 01,06
A fast-moving, but powerful winter storm blasted parts of the Midwest Thursday and Friday with snow, ice, and strong winds. Snowfall rates of 1-2in per hour, accompanied at times by lightning, blanketed parts of Missouri, Illinois, Wisconsin, and Michigan.
Chicago's O'Hare Airport picked up around 6 inches of snow, although lighter amounts were measured near the lake. The heaviest snow in the Land of Lincoln fell in western and central parts of the state. Up to 18in of snow was reported, with even snowplows sliding into ditches. Up to 18in of snow also buried parts of the Show-Me state, with 16in at Columbia, and around 8in in the southeast Kansas City suburbs. Of bigger concern, an estimated 2.4 million customers were without power early on Friday in central and southern Illinois and Missouri, due to accumulated ice downing tree limbs and powerlines.
Some of these same areas ended up with several inches of snow on top of the ice. Icing was also reported early Friday in parts of Lower Michigan, with some limbs downed. Milwaukee was buried under 11 inches of snow, with blizzard conditions, at times. Around a foot of snow shut down a section of busy interstate 94 in the western Milwaukee suburb of Waukesha, with three plows running side-by-side to clear the freeway.
A whopping 16.5in of snow piled on Kenosha, Wisc. Significant accumulating snow should be finished in the Great Lakes this evening. On the storm's warm side, a widespread threat of damaging winds exists through the late evening hours in parts of the Northeast. The culprit was bands of rain and thunderstorms along and ahead of an advancing cold front bringing 60 to 90 mph winds just a few thousand feet aloft to the surface. Widespread tree damage was reported in the Cincinnati metro early today, and a squall line of strong storms downed numerous trees in western and central Pennsylvania in the early afternoon. Damage from winds not associated with thunderstorms was reported as far south as the north Georgia mountains.
The most serious wind-damage threat should be clear of the Northeast by early Saturday morning.
US snowstorm shuts down Chicago airport; half a million lose power DEC 01,06
CHICAGO (AFP) Thrashing winds and driving snow closed one of America's busiest airports and left half a million people without power as a fierce storm swept across the country.
With snow accompanied by a rare December thunderstorm, some 400 flights were grounded at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport, as the city got six to 12 inches (15-30 centimeters) of snow overnight.Although carriers were hoping to resume their normal schedules after midday, the cancellations had a knock-on effect throughout the nation's aviation system, leaving travelers connecting through Chicago stranded at regional airports such as Detroit Metropolitan Airport.
We had hoped to be operating at 50 percent capacity by now, said American Airlines spokesman Tim Wagner around noon central time, but the storm is not passing as quickly as we hoped, and it could be 5:00 pm (2300 GMT) before we are fully operational.A couple of mishaps overnight suggested the airlines were right to take precautions: a Fed Ex plane slid off a runway at O'Hare, leaving it stuck in the mud, while a Northwest Airlines cargo jet was hit by lightning as it was taxiing for departure about 5:40 am, said Wendy Abrams, spokeswoman for the Chicago department of aviation.
The arctic blast, which dumped up to a foot (30 centimeters) of snow in parts of the Midwest and the plains states, also caused flight delays at regional airports as airlines struggled to get heavy equipment onto the runways to de-ice aircraft stuck at the gates.We've got iced-up planes stuck at the gates and that means incoming planes are getting backed up on the runway, said Shirley Walls, spokeswoman for Lambert-St. Louis International Airport in St Louis, Missouri.In Illinois and Missouri, more than half a million consumers were left without power as ice snapped tree limbs and froze power lines. A spokesman for the St. Louis-based power company Ameren Corp. said it had hundreds of technicians working on emergency repairs but warned of lengthy outages.
Work will be continuing around the clock, said Scott Cisel, president of the company's Illinois operations, but with the ice and snow that are on the ground, conditions are extremely treacherous for our employees as well as our customers.
Across the region, the freezing rain and sleet that accompanied the snow made for slick and dangerous driving conditions on the region's highways.In Illinois, transport authorities dispatched more than 1,000 trucks to salt and plough the highways overnight. But the rush-hour commute brought reports of dozens of fender-benders and spinouts as motorists in the Chicago area struggled to get to work.The highways around Chicago are sloppy and wet but passable, but we're advising people to use public transport where possible, said Mike Claffey, spokesman for the Illinois department of transportation.The early winter storm, which was spawned after an Arctic cold front collided with warm moist air surging north from the Gulf of Mexico, brought traffic chaos to Kansas and Oklahoma late Thursday, prompting the governor of Kansas to declare a state of emergency for more than two dozen counties.
Authorities in Oklahoma meanwhile called out the National Guard in that state to help stranded motorists.
Floods in East Africa said to kill 250 By MALKHADIR M. MUHUMED, Associated Press Writer Fri Dec 1, 11:39 AM ET
NAIROBI, Kenya - About 250 people have been killed and 100,000 have lost their homes as catastrophic floods ravaged East Africa, aid workers said Friday as rains continued to pound the impoverished region. Floods have hit Kenya, Somalia, Rwanda and Ethiopia, affecting more than 1.8 million people, according to the U.N. refugee agency. Weather experts warn that the punishing rains could continue through December in a region where a long drought has left the soil so dry it is unable to absorb the deluge.
Disease from poor sanitation is also taking its toll as submerged villages remain cut off and trucks laden with food and medicine are unable to reach survivors, according to the U.N. food agency.East Africa is one of the poorest regions in the world where most people live on less than $1 a day. It is home to more than 200 million people and regularly sees droughts and famine.
The U.N. is expected to launch an appeal Dec. 5 for an extra $17 million for flood victims. The organization already has received $10 million to help.Some 41 people have been killed in Kenya and more than 700,000 people are affected, the Kenyan Red Cross said.
The Health Ministry recently issued a cholera alert, the U.N added.In neighboring Somalia, the death toll rose to 116 after 20 people died in the north of the country in an outbreak of diarrhea, the U.N. said. Some 15 people died in floods in Rwanda, officials said.More than 80 people have died in Ethiopia, while 361,000 people have been affected in the southeast of the country.
HOARDING OF GOLD AND SILVER
JAMES 5:1-3
1 Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you.
2 Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are motheaten.
3 Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days.
EZEKIEL 7:19
19 They shall cast their silver in the streets, and their gold shall be removed: their silver and their gold shall not be able to deliver them in the day of the wrath of the LORD: they shall not satisfy their souls, neither fill their bowels: because it is the stumblingblock of their iniquity.
US dollar plunges to a 14-year low
By Ambrose Evans Pritchard ,8:58 pm DEC 01,06
Sterling has surged to the highest level against the dollar since Britain crashed out of the Exchange Rate Mechanism in 1992, leading the currency pack as investor-flight from US assets gathered pace.
Bernanke: issued inflation warnings
The US greenback was pummelled on exchange markets across the world, tumbling against the euro and yen on nagging fears that America's housing slump will spread to the rest of the economy.Yields on 10-year US Treasury bonds slid to 4.47pc yesterday, a sign that investors are battening down the hatches for possible recession next year. The US bond markets have ignored inflation warnings this week by Federal Reserve chief Ben Bernanke, picking up instead on his comments that the housing crash could be worse than feared.The pound smashed through resistance – it rocketed 3.5 cents in a 15-hour period to touch $1.9697. While the moves were dollar-driven, the pound led the charge after Nationwide Building Society reported a 1.4pc rise in house prices in November. Traders are eyeing the symbolic barrier of $2 last seen in the final days of the ERM.
Lord Lamont, Britain's Chancellor at that time, said the current surge bares no resemblance to 1992 when the UK economy was in the grip of a housing bust. The whole ERM bloc was floating up against the dollar because of Germany, so we were pulled along too, he said.He warned the dollar's relentless slide was becoming a major risk to the global financial system. My own fear is that the dollar might collapse. People are worried that the Chinese will stop financing the US deficits since it's likely they already have more dollars than they want, he said.Lord Lamont said there was a risk of a further 20pc fall, with the full strain falling on Europe.
The Asian currencies need to revalue but they're hardly moving, especially the renmimbi, he said.A clutch of weak US data over recent days point to possible rate cuts as soon as this spring, eroding the yield advantage that has kept the dollar aloft, despite a current account deficit of 6.5pc of GDP.
Yesterday's news included a jump in jobless claims and a shock fall in the Chicago purchasing managers index to 49.9 in
November, below contraction level. It followed an 8.3pc plunge in industrial orders. The futures markets are now pricing in a 45pc chance of a US rate cut by March.Sterling has jumped almost eight cents in the last week alone, crowning a spectacular year in which it has emerged as the favourite currency of world central banks and petro-dollar sheikhdoms.Mervyn King, the Bank of England's Governor, said British companies exporting to the US could face difficulties but insisted that the economy as a whole could cope, given the more modest rise in sterling against a basket of currencies.It takes up to two years for currency shifts to feed through an economy, so the full impact of sterling's 15pc rise against the dollar this year could hit industry just as the credit boom is turning down.
Stocks negative as economic data has investors fearing for soft landing scenario Friday, December 1, 2006 4:03 PM ET,Canadian Press: MALCOLM MORRISON
TORONTO (CP) Negative data on the U.S. manufacturing sector helped send the Toronto stock market lower after two days of record high closes.
New York markets were also down sharply after a key survey showed manufacturing unexpectedly contracted in November for the first time in more than three years.The Telstar I satellite, a Bell System project, was the first active communications satellite to orbit Earth. It was launched on July 10, 1962. From the ubiquitous technology made possible by Bell Labs invention of the transistor and laser to its scientists helping prove how the universe began, the lab has greatly influenced technology and culture. (AP Photo/Alcatel Lucent) The Institute for Supply Management said its manufacturing index registered 49.5 in November, down from October's reading of 51.2, raising concerns that the flagging U.S. economy won't be able to achieve a soft landing.
This manufacturing number indicates a definite slowdown. This is happening quickly, more quickly than I think people were expecting, said Chyanne Fyckes, chief investment manager at Stone Asset Management.
So I'm still in the hard-landing camp.Toronto's S&P/TSX composite index was down 50.02 points to 12,702.36 as investors also took in November jobless data showing a slight rise in the unemployment rate.The Canadian dollar was down 0.16 of a cent to 87.39 cents US as Statistics Canada reported that the November unemployment rate drifted one-10th of a point higher to 6.3 per cent while the economy created 22,000 part-time jobs.Just over 18,000 full-time jobs were lost during the month.The TSX Venture Exchange inched up 7.7 points to 2,839.18.The Dow Jones industrials fell 99.1 points to 12,121.87.The Nasdaq composite index declined 32.88 points to 2,398.89 while the S&P 500 index gave back 10.15 points to 1,390.5.November's ISM index came in below the average analyst expectation for a reading of 52.
The ISM report was one of two worrisome economic reports Friday. The U.S. Commerce Department said construction activity in October plummeted by the largest amount since 2001, and home building fell for the seventh month in a row.All TSX sectors were negative save for slightly positive showings in the health care and mining sectors.The gold sector was the biggest percentage decliner, down 1.5 per cent, as the February bullion contract on the Nymex faded $2.30 to US$650.60 an ounce.Goldcorp Inc.
(TSX:G) fell 88 cents to $34.83.The information-technology sector was down 1.4 per cent, as shares in Mosaid Technologies Inc.
(TSX:MSD) fell $1.23 to C$26.51 after the Ottawa semiconductor company lowered its earnings guidance for its 2007 financial year.
The company also reported a second-quarter profit of $4.7 million, ahead of analyst estimates.Nortel Networks (TSX:NT) stock was down 75 cents to $23.65 as the company's share consolidation took effect Friday in a one-for-10 scheme. The move was aimed at reducing the telecom equipment maker's shares from 4.3 billion to about 433 million.
The telecom sector also weighted on the Toronto market, down one per cent with Telus Corp. (TSX:T) down 68 cents to $55.34.
The TSX energy sector drifted 0.15 per cent lower as the January crude contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange changed direction to move 16 cents higher to US$63.29 cents on top of other sharp prices increases this week as winter weather moved into the U.S.The price drop came despite a comment from OPEC's president that the oil cartel is likely to trim production further and the amount will be decided at a meeting scheduled for Nigeria's capital this month.Petro-Canada was down 55 cents to $50.94.
In other news:
-Units in E.D. Smith Income Fund (TSX:JAM.UN) tumbled 16.8 per cent to $5.70 after it said distributions may have to be cut as the payout ratio for 2006 will top 100 per cent of distributable cash, instead of its target of 95 per cent.
-The Montreal Exchange says it will go public early next spring, but will list its shares without an initial offering. The Montreal Exchange, though a junior market, is Canada's oldest exchange and a leader in complex derivative investments.
-Axcan Pharma Inc. (TSX:AXP) grew its fourth-quarter revenue by 7.9 per cent to US$72.3 million but saw its profit for the period fall to US$8.3 million due to the impact of discontinuing one of its programs. Its shares were 21 cents lower to $16.72.
-Shares in Le Chateau Inc. (TSX:CTU.A) jumped 14.9 per cent to $57.45 as the trendy clothing retailer said it is rewarding its shareholders by raising its regular quarterly dividend by 50 per cent and paying a special $3 per share dividend to stockholders after its third-quarter profit rose to $8.4 million.
-The Wall Street Journal says billionaire investor Kirk Kerkorian has sold his entire remaining investment in General Motors Corp.
(NYSE:GM) - 28 million shares - at US$29.95 a share, a transaction worth more than US$800 million. Kerkorian's Tracinda Corp. said last week it was reducing its stake to 7.4 per cent from 9.9 per cent.GM shares added seven cents to US$29.29.The Canadian Press.
Britain planned to cut off Nile DEC 01,06
Britain wanted to control the key trade route
Britain drew up plans to cut the flow of the River Nile to Egypt to force President Gamal Abdel Nasser to give up the Suez Canal in 1956, files reveal. Military officials believed they could harm agriculture and cut communications by reducing the flow of water, newly-released documents show. The plan was outlined to Prime Minister Anthony Eden six weeks before British and French forces invaded Egypt.But it was abandoned because of fears it would trigger a violent backlash. Under the plan, Britain would have used a dam in Uganda to reduce water levels in the White Nile by seven-eighths. But planners realised that the scheme would take months to work, and could also harm other states such as Kenya and Uganda. One British official noted that the plan, while unworkable, could still be useful. It might be possible to spread the word among the more illiterate Egyptians that 'unless Nasser climbs down, Britain will cut off the Nile, Cabinet official John Hunt was revealed to have said.
No legal justification
The Suez crisis was triggered in July 1956 when the Egyptian president nationalised the Suez Canal, a vital trading route from the Mediterranean to the Red Sea. Britain and France joined forces with Israel and the three nations attacked in October 1956 in a bid to regain control of the canal, but US and UN pressure forced a withdrawal. The documents, released to the National Archives in Kew, also show the prime minister was urged to conceal the fact that his attorney-general had warned that the invasion was illegal.
At the time, UK lawmakers were claiming that the action was legal. But Attorney General Sir Reginald Manningham-Buller father of current MI5 head Dame Eliza Manningham-Buller wrote a strong letter challenging this.
I am unable to devise any argument which could purport to justify in international law either our demand that she [Egypt]... should withdraw her forces from a part of her own territory which she is engaged in defending, or the threat to occupy her territory by armed forces should she fail to accede that demand, he wrote. Then-Cabinet Secretary Sir Norman Brooks told the prime minister that he should not raise the issue of the war's legality in future speeches. The Suez crisis damaged Sir Anthony's reputation and led to his resignation in 1957.
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)
EZEKIEL 39:1-8
1 Therefore, thou son of man, prophesy against Gog,(LEADER OF RUSSIA) and say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshech (MOSCOW) and Tubal: (TUBOLSK)
2 And I will turn thee back, and leave but the sixth part of thee, and will cause thee to come up from the north parts,(RUSSIA) and will bring thee upon the mountains of Israel:
3 And I will smite thy bow out of thy left hand, and will cause thine arrows to fall out of thy right hand.
4 Thou shalt fall upon the mountains of Israel, thou, and all thy bands,( ARABS) and the people that is with thee: I will give thee unto the ravenous birds of every sort, and to the beasts of the field to be devoured.
5 Thou shalt fall upon the open field: for I have spoken it, saith the Lord GOD.
6 And I will send a fire on Magog,(NUCLEAR BOMB) and among them that dwell carelessly in the isles: and they shall know that I am the LORD.
7 So will I make my holy name known in the midst of my people Israel; and I will not let them pollute my holy name any more: and the heathen shall know that I am the LORD, the Holy One in Israel.
8 Behold, it is come, and it is done, saith the Lord GOD; this is the day whereof I have spoken.
JOEL 2:3,20,30-31
3 A fire(NUCLEAR BOMB) devoureth before them;(RUSSIA-ARABS) and behind them a flame burneth: the land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness; yea, and nothing shall escape them.
20 But I will remove far off from you the northern army,(RUSSIA,MUSLIMS) and will drive him into a land barren and desolate, with his face toward the east sea, and his hinder part toward the utmost sea, and his stink shall come up, and his ill savour shall come up, because he hath done great things.(SIBERIAN DESERT)
30 And I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke.(NUCLEAR BOMB)
31 The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the LORD come.
Surprise: Oil Woes In Iran
Flagging output from its vast reserves could diminish Tehran's influence
by Stanley Reed DEC 01,06
Few countries can match Iran in its ability to generate angst among Westerners. It appears determined to become a nuclear power. Tehran's Islamic leaders aid radical groups across the Middle East. And as the U.S. gets bogged down in Iraq, Iran's influence in the region is on the rise, fueled in large part by its vast energy wealth.Yet Iran has a surprising weakness: Its oil and gas industry, the lifeblood of its economy, is showing serious signs of distress. As domestic energy consumption skyrockets, Iran is struggling to produce enough oil and gas for export. Unless Tehran overhauls its policies, its primary source of revenue and the basis of its
geopolitical muscle could start to wane. Within a decade, says Saad Rahim, an analyst at Washington consultancy PFC Energy, Iran's net crude exports could fall to zero.That's not to say Iran doesn't have abundant resources. The country's 137 billion barrels of oil reserves are second only to Saudi Arabia's, and its supply of gas trails only Russia's, according to the BP Statistical Review of World Energy. Getting it all out of the ground, though, is another matter. Iran has been producing just 3.9 million barrels of oil a day this year, 5% below its OPEC quota, because of delays in new projects and a shortage of technical skills. By contrast, in 1974, five years before the Islamic Revolution, Iran pumped 6.1 million barrels daily.
The situation could get even tougher for the National Iranian Oil Co. (NIOC), which is responsible for all of Iran's output. Without substantial upgrades in facilities, production at Iran's core fields, several of which date from the 1920s, could go into a precipitous decline. In September, Oil Minister Kazem Vaziri-Hamaneh suggested that with no new investment, output from Iran's fields would fall by about 13% a year, roughly twice the rate that outside oil experts had expected. NIOC is likely to find that even maintaining the status quo is a mounting challenge, says PFC Energy's Rahim.
STATE HANDOUTS
Iran's looming crisis is the result of years of neglect and underinvestment. As in other oil-producing countries such as Venezuela and Mexico, the government treats the oil industry as a cash cow, milking its revenues for social programs. It allocates only $3 billion a year for investment, less than a third of what's needed to get production growing again.Compounding the pressure are policies that encourage profligate energy use. Gasoline prices are set at 35 cents a gallon, which has helped fuel 10%-plus annual growth in consumption, PFC Energy figures. The national thirst for gasoline far outstrips domestic refining capacity, so Iran will import about $5 billion in gasoline this year, or about 40% of its needs. The government is planning a $16 billion refinery building program to boost capacity by 60%. But unless Iran raises fuel prices, the new plants will just mean more consumption.An oil squeeze could spell trouble for President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The populist leader has won backing at home through generous handouts. Ahmadinejad has ratcheted up public spending this year by 21%, to $213 billion, on everything from aid to rural areas to housing loans for newlyweds. He has also promised some $16 billion in outlays from a special $30 billion fund set up to tide Iranians through future hard times. Without a healthy oil sector, Iran's social spending could bust the national budget--and reignite inflation.
Iran badly needs fresh foreign investment to shore up the oil industry. Tehran has attracted some $20 billion in funding for oil and gas projects since 1995 from overseas companies including Royal Dutch/Shell Group (RD), France's Total (TOT), and Norway's Statoil. But new investment has largely dried up in recent years because of lingering worries about the risk of war with the U.S. and disenchantment with Iran's tightfisted terms.Outsiders are offered contracts only to drill wells--rather than operate fields--and get just a small share of profits from output.
For instance, Italian oil giant ENI (ENI), a fixture in Iran since 1957, produces about 35,000 barrels per day but doesn't expect to get any bigger. Unless international sanctions are imposed on Iran and the Italian government directs ENI to abide by them, we are committed to staying, says ENI Chief Executive Paolo Scaroni. However, in order to increase our presence there, contractual terms for oil companies need to change.Endless haggling and delays have set back some of Iran's biggest oil initiatives. One top priority had been the Azagedan field in southern Iran, which is expected eventually to produce 260,000 barrels a day. But in October, Tehran scrapped a $2 billion contract, agreed to in 2004, with Japan's Inpex to develop the project. And Shell's $800 million Soroush/Nowrooz project in the Persian Gulf has been plagued by cost overruns and technical glitches. In January, meanwhile, Statoil wrote down the entire $329 million book value of its South Pars project because of productivity and quality problems with a local contractor.
GLACIAL PACE
It's not just oil that Iran is failing to exploit. The glacial pace of negotiations is also making it fall behind neighboring Qatar in exploiting the huge offshore gas field that the two countries share. While Qatar has signed up the likes of ExxonMobil (XOM) and Shell to develop the site, Iran's talks with Total and Shell have progressed far more slowly. Iran is now a net importer of gas, a situation not expected to reverse before 2010.Foreign energy companies are lobbying the Iranians to change. Executives say they would like longer contracts, which would give them more control and might boost returns. But progress is slow as many Iranian officials are reluctant to give foreigners terms that might be judged too favorable. There are indications of movement, but how far and how deep it goes is anyone's guess, an oil executive says.Can Iran fix its energy conundrum? Some experts are betting Tehran will get its act together sooner rather than later. Iran was able to boost production from 1.2 million barrels a day during the 1980-88 war with Iraq to nearly 4 million barrels with almost no foreign help, notes Bijan Khajepour, chairman of Tehran's Atieh Bahar Consulting, which advises oil companies. He thinks Iran should be able to sustain current production for the next decade. Even so, if Tehran doesn't face up to the woes of its oil industry, Iran may find itself in the unusual position of sharing the West's angst over growing dependence on imported oil.with Babak Pirouz in Tehran Reed is London bureau chief for BusinessWeek.
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)
Thursday November 30, 10:55 PM
Abbas, Rice call for Mideast truce to extend to West Bank
JERICHO, West Bank (AFP) Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas and US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice have called for a fledgling Israeli-Palestinian ceasefire in the Gaza Strip to be extended.We talked about the truce that has taken effect in the Gaza Strip and we hope it will be extended to the West Bank, Abbas told a joint news conference with Rice in the West Bank oasis town of Jericho Thursday.Under the terms of the ceasefire, which came into effect on Sunday in the Gaza Strip, Palestinian armed groups agreed to halt rocket fire against the Jewish state in exchange for an Israeli troop withdrawal from the territory.Rice also said that the United States hoped for a comprehensive ceasefire following talks focused on shoring up the five-day truce.Washington's top diplomat also praised the moderate Palestinian leader for his role in bringing about the five-day ceasfire in the Gaza Strip and for
trying to create a Palestinian unity government with radical Islamists Hamas.Thank you also for the efforts you have made to bring about the ceasefire that is now in effect in Gaza and that we hope will be consolidated so that it can be extended because we would hope in time for a comprehensive ceasefire.
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)
TAKE NOTICE IN THESE SCRIPTURES IT SAYS CHINA AND THE KINGS OF THE EAST (JAPAN, N & S KOREA ETC)
Japan able to develop nuclear weapons: foreign minister Thu Nov 30, 10:46 AM ET
TOKYO (AFP) Japan has the ability to produce nuclear weapons but chooses not to, its foreign minister said amid debate on breaking the nuclear taboo after neighboring North Korea tested an atomic bomb. We have the technology to develop nuclear weapons, Taro Aso, Japan's outspoken foreign minister, told a parliamentary committee.But this doesn't mean we will immediately create nuclear weapons to possess them, Aso added.Aso has been at the forefront of pushing for Japan the only country to have been attacked with atomic bombs to debate the nuclear option.Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has ruled out even discussing building nuclear weapons, but the issue has caused concern in neighboring countries.Experts have long believed Japan has the knowhow to develop nuclear weapons quickly, in part because it relies on nuclear technology for nearly a third of its energy needs.
Technologically speaking, we have the capability to develop atom bombs and we have the ability to launch satellites with rockets. We also have plutonium, under the supervision of the IAEA, or International Atomic Energy Agency, Aso said.Aso met later in the day with IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei, who is visiting Japan in part for talks on North Korea's nuclear program.Aso was responding to a question by the opposition, which has called on Abe to sack the foreign minister to show his commitment against nuclear weapons.Aso reiterated the government's view that Japan has the right to nuclear weapons despite its pacifist constitution, which was imposed by the United States after World War II.From a purely theoretical viewpoint, possession of a necessary minimum of nuclear weapons for the purpose of self-defense is not banned under the current constitution, Aso said.
Japan is particularly concerned about North Korea, which launched a missile over Japan's main island in 1998. The communist regime tested its first atomic bomb on October 9.Under a 1967 policy, Japan refuses the production, possession or presence of nuclear weapons on its soil.US nuclear bombs obliterated the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in the closing days of World War II, killing more than 210,000 people.
Blair to signal possible cuts to nuclear fleet: FT DEC 01,06
LONDON (AFP) Prime Minister Tony Blair is prepared to concede on cuts to Britain's nuclear deterrent when his government publishes plans on the ageing missile system's future, the Financial Times said.
The business daily said that, as expected, Blair would commission a straight submarine-based replacement for the US-built Trident weapons system when the plans are announced on Monday.But he will say that the number of Royal Navy Vanguard-class submarines that carry the missiles could be reduced from the current four to three and that Britain will cut the 200 nuclear warheads stockpiled.Blair will not give specific figures for the potential warhead reductions and not make a firm commitment to reducing the size of the nuclear fleet, the FT said without quoting sources.A decision on cutting the number of submarines could be taken at a later date while such a reduction in vessels and warheads could reduce the costs of replacing the whole system, the newspaper said Blair will argue.
Blair faces a fight from within his governing Labour Party on Trident, which will become obsolete in the mid-2020s and potentially cost up to 25 billion pounds (37 billion euros, 46 billion dollars) to replace.Scrapping nuclear weapons and atomic power were key pledges of left-wing Labour, particularly throughout the 1980s, but the policy was dropped when Blair became party leader in 1994 and took the party to the centre ground.
Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Hain and International Development Secretary Hilary Benn are reportedly against Trident and about 120 backbench Labour lawmakers have lobbied the prime minister to rethink.The plans will be published after a cabinet meeting on Monday and government members have already been briefed in detail by Defence Secretary Des Browne and Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett, Blair's office said Thursday.Lawmakers are expected to vote on the matter in the new year.
DISEASES
REVELATION 6:7-8
7 And when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth beast say, Come and see.
8 And I looked, and behold a pale horse:(CHLORES GREEN) and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword,(WEAPONS) and with hunger,(FAMINE) and with death,(INCURABLE DISEASES) and with the beasts of the earth.(ANIMAL TO HUMAN DISEASE).
World AIDS Day: debates over sexual abstinence, condoms Fri Dec 1, 7:54 PM ET
JOHANNESBURG (AFP) Two controversies flared on World AIDS Day as the United States and South Africa backed sexual abstinence to avoid infection and British leader Tony Blair castigated religious bans on condoms. US President George W. Bush joined other world leaders in renewing vows to combat the disease, which has claimed more than 25 million lives in 25 years and for which a cure and vaccine remain dismayingly elusive.The pandemic of HIV/AIDS can be defeated, and the United States is willing to take the lead in that fight, he said.Bush spelled out Washington's role funding AIDS drugs in poor countries, but also emphasized promoting abstinence.That tactic is derided by many AIDS activists as moralizing and unworkable, even potentially dangerous. These campaigners plead instead for sex education and availability of condoms.
Fighting AIDS includes the ABC approach, encouraging abstinence, being faithful and using condoms, with abstinence as the only sure way to avoid the sexual transmission of HIV/AIDS, said Bush.
South Africa used World AIDS Day to announce a new national AIDS plan: to halve by 2011 the rate of new HIV infections, notably by encouraging teenagers aged 14-17 to delay the initiation of sex.The future course of the epidemic hinges in many respects on the behavior young people adopt and maintain, according to the plan, launched by Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka.South Africa is second only to India in the number of HIV infections.
In a country of 47 million, 5.5 million South Africans live with AIDS or the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) that causes it.In Britain, meanwhile, Prime Minister Tony Blair hit out at religious bans on condoms, saying if all the churches and religious organizations were facing up to reality, it would be better.The danger is, if we have a sort of blanket ban coming from religious hierarchy saying it's wrong to do it, then you discourage people from doing it in circumstances where they need to protect their own lives, he said.Blair made the remarks as the Vatican is considering a 100-page report on condoms that has been requested by Pope Benedict XVI.
Since AIDS was first discovered 25 years ago in a small group of US gay men, it has killed at least 25 million people and nearly 40 million people today have HIV/AIDS, according to the UN agency UNAIDS.Despite billions of dollars poured into research, there is neither a cure nor a vaccine.The distribution of drugs that curb HIV, transforming a killer disease into a manageable one, is only now reaching a higher gear in Africa, where nearly two-thirds of infected people live.In Guinea-Bissau, thousands of students demonstrated for free HIV treatment in a country where 88 percent of people live on less than a dollar a day.However, Africa showed some encouraging signs, with an apparent decline in adult prevalence in several countries, the World Health Organization said Friday.In Geneva, the International Labor Organization (ILO) said Friday the pandemic would take a growing toll on the workforce in the years to come. In 2005, 3.4 million people of working age died of AIDS, a toll likely to reach 4.5 million by 2020, it said.
Twenty-five years into AIDS, nations rich and poor still think about the pandemic from an emergency perspective of quick fixes and short-term goals, UNAIDS Executive Director Peter Piot said in a commentary published by the Financial Times. Asian countries, where the AIDS situation varies widely, vowed on Friday to step up their action. China resolved to promote condom use among its homosexuals, amid data showing only one Chinese gay in five uses them regularly.Prevention efforts among gays will be key to the country's AIDS control, said Wu Zunyou of the Chinese Disease Prevent and Control Center. In India, which has 5.7 million infected people, protestors demanded low-cost treatment for people in the later stages of the illness, while in neighboring Bangladesh, a rally outside parliament in Dhaka drew a crowd of thousands. In Bangkok, a condom carnival promoted safe-sex with dart-throwing to pop condom balloons and races to blow up condoms. Despite extensive efforts, the stigma attached to the disease often stymies treatment, said Brazil's health minister.
Prejudice can be more aggressive than the threat of disease, Agenor Alvares said. That is why we are promoting this campaign. In New York, where the disease is more closely tied to intravenous drug users, handing out clean needles, offering free AIDS tests and treatment for drug addiction have proved effective. Over the past five years in New York City HIV diagnoses are down one-third and AIDS deaths are down by one-fifth, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said. The theme of this year's World's AIDS Day is accountability. Accountability ... requires every president and prime minister, every parliamentarian and politician, to decide and declare that AIDS stops with me, said UN Secretary General Kofi Annan.
WORLD TERRORISM
GENESIS 6:11-13
11 The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.
12 And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth.
13 And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth.
2 PETER 2:5
5 And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly;
2 PETER 3:7
7 But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men
LEVITICUS 26:16
16 I also will do this unto you; I will even appoint over you( sudden) terror, consumption, and the burning ague, that shall consume the eyes, and cause sorrow of heart: and ye shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it.
GENESIS 16:11-12
11 And the angel of the LORD said unto her, Behold, thou art with child, and shalt bear a son, and shalt call his name Ishmael; because the LORD hath heard thy affliction.
12 And he will be a wild man; his hand will be against every man, and every man's hand against him; and he shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren.
ISAIAH 33:1,18-19 Woe to thee that spoilest,(destroys) and thou wast not spoiled;(destroyed) and dealest treacherously, and they dealt not treacherously with thee! when thou shalt cease to spoil,(destroy) thou shalt be spoiled;(destroyed) and when thou shalt make an end to deal treacherously, they shall deal treacherously with thee.
18 Thine heart shall meditate terror. Where is the scribe? where is the receiver? where is he that counted the towers?
19 Thou shalt not see a fierce people, a people of a deeper speech than thou canst perceive; of a stammering tongue, that thou canst not understand.
JOHN 16:2
2 They shall put you out of the synagogues: yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service.
Iran's nuclear ambitions seen similar to Holocaust
By Abraham Rabinovich,THE WASHINGTON TIMES,November 30, 2006
JERUSALEM /Iran's reported drive to make an atomic bomb has become an existential threat to Israel that some Israelis are likening to the Holocaust especially with the United States appearing to back away from confrontation with Tehran. The alarmists include Aharon Appelfeld, a leading Israeli author who as a child survived the Nazi killing of 6 million Jews.For the first time since I'm in the country, I feel that we face a real existential danger, Mr. Appelfeld said.The memory of the Holocaust is a central element in Israel's collective consciousness, a memory made more acute by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's denial that the Holocaust happened.It's 1938, said former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and Iran is Germany, racing to arm itself with atomic bombs.Addressing a Jewish audience in Los Angeles this month, Mr. Netanyahu added his voice to a growing sense of alarm in Israel about Iran's seemingly inexorable march toward nuclear capability. In his address, Mr. Netanyahu referred to Mr. Ahmadinejad's repeated calls for wiping Israel off the map.Believe him and stop him, Mr. Netanyahu said in the speech. This is what we must do. Everything pales before it.
Israel has half assumed, half hoped that if international pressure on Iran to halt its nuclear development fails, the United States would in the end use military force.In recent weeks, however, a war-weary Washington seems to be backing away from a confrontation.In a meeting with French President Jacques Chirac, President Bush said that he would understand if Israel chose to attack Iran's nuclear installations.To Israelis, that sounded like he would prefer it over an American attack. There was likewise little comfort from Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's remark that the U.S. lacked sufficient intelligence on Iran's nuclear facilities to
carry out a strike at this time.
Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger wrote recently that military action by the United States is extremely improbable in the final two years of a presidency facing a hostile Congress.He, too, raised the possibility of a unilateral Israeli air strike. Israel has apparently long been preparing such a strike. It acquired a large fleet of F-16 and F-15 warplanes and held intensive training exercises in anticipation of a confrontation with Iran.The appointment last year of former air force commander Lt. Gen. Dan Halutz as chief of staff of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) was widely seen as preparing for that confrontation in which the air force would play a central role.It has become increasingly clear in recent years, however, that an attack on Iran's nuclear facilities would be infinitely more difficult than the successful attack on Iraq's nuclear reactor by Israeli planes in 1981.Tehran learned the lessons of that attack and scattered its facilities at scores of sites, burying many of them deep underground and defending them with modern Russian anti-aircraft missiles.
Analysts have suggested that only a superpower like the United States could mount the massive and sustained attack that would be necessary to do substantial damage by boring ever deeper into the underground sites with bunker-buster bombs on repeated
runs.
Even then, some analysts say, an attack might succeed only in delaying the program by a few years.If Israel undertook the task alone, it would face not onlyuncertainty about the results of the air campaign but also the certainty of fierce Iranian retaliation, beginning with their long-range missiles and perhaps including attacks on Israeli targets around the world. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert continues to hope for an international initiative.The big countries have to lead and we have to push them, he said. However, there is a realization in Jerusalem that there may be no one to push. Deputy Israeli Defense Minister Ephraim Sneh said: I am aware of all of the possible repercussions of a pre-emptive Israeli military action against Iran and consider it a last resort. But the last resort is sometimes the only resort.
Shekel Becomes Safe Haven for Dollars
By Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu (INN)
Four years ago, a dollar cost five shekels and everyone hoarded greenbacks. Today a dollar costs 4.24 shekels, leaving many American olim wishing they had put their money where their feet are. American olim, the Hebrew word for immigrants, who held on to their dollar bills the past three years will have lost 15 percent of their money if they convert the dollars to shekels today.The dollar traded Friday morning as low as 4.233 shekels, the lowest it has been for five years.
The year-long long and steady strengthening of the shekel symbolizes the new Israel, an economy of near-zero inflation, a robust economy and a growing reputation among the international financial community as one of the most stable economies in the world.The stronger shekel is a boon for renters and buyers because the long-time trust in the dollar steered Israelis to quote everything in dollars. A $500 a month apartment costs five percent less in shekels than it did six months ago. Today, businessmen and consumers see the other side of the coin and the shekel is becoming the more common base for transactions.The past, of course, is no guarantee of the future, and many financial advisors think the shekel is overvalued. One financial web site wrote on Friday, While we in the beginning of the year where quite bullish on shekel we are now increasingly of the view that the shekel will weaken.
Their analysis is based on the prediction that the American interest rate will rise, contrary to most expectations that it will drop in early 2007. One of the advantages of the shekel is that the interest rate in Israel has been the same or even higher than that of the dollar, attracting foreigners to invest in the Israel currency and earn a higher income.Another factor working against the dollar is the increasing flight from the American currency throughout the world. The shekel's strength has been aided by the dollar's weakness, whereas the shekel continues to lose value against the Euro.Israel today is a far cry from the days of 500 per cent a year inflation of the 1980s, when shop owners marked up their prices every day.Sweeping economic reforms and changes in the financial policy have turned the Israeli economy around. The most flattering result was this year's $4 billion buy-out of the Iscar metal working company by American billionaire Warren Buffet. He bought the Galilee-based community only months before the Hizbullah terrorist war broke out.
The ability of the economy to absorb the shock of the war and return to a growth rate of more than four percent is another sign to investors that the shekel is the best place to put money.
The constant instability of the Middle East has had virtually no effect on the shekel or the economy, and the government even has massed an enormous and little publicized budget surplus of more than $2 billion. American President George W. Bush recently asked Prime Minister Ehud Olmert how Israel manages to avoid deficits, which two years ago were a constant and growing concern.The government has made windfall profits from the tax on fuel, which has soared in the past year until it peaked in the late summer. Every time fuel pump prices were raised, the government's take rose proportionately.Another large source of the surplus has been a drastic cut in outlays for child stipends following the sweeping reforms initiated by former Likud Finance Minister Binyamin (Bibi) Netanyahu. The child support benefits for years have been a way to support a needed rise in the Jewish population. However, in the past few years it has been used by Arab families, especially in the Bedouin community, to fund their lifestyle of polygamy, which often results in dozens of children per family.
US braces for possible al-Qaeda cyber attack
December 1, 2006
The US government has warned US private financial services of an al-Qaeda call for a cyber attack against US online stock trading and banking websites beginning on Friday, officials said today.The officials - a person familiar with the warning and a spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security - said the Islamic militant group aimed to penetrate and destroy the databases of the US stock market and banking websites.Homeland Security said it had no evidence to corroborate the threat but had issued the warning out of an abundance of caution. The department said in a statement that the threat was for all of December.There is no information to corroborate this aspirational threat. As a routine matter and out of an abundance of caution, US-CERT issued the situational awareness report to industry stakeholders, said Homeland Security spokesman Russ Knocke.US-CERT is the US Computer Emergency Readiness Team. The US government said the threat was to avenge the holding of suspected terrorists at the US prison in Guantanamo.Reuters
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