Wednesday, February 16, 2011

EXODUS OF BIBLICAL PROPORTIONS

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

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

And here are the bounderies of the land that Israel will inherit either through war or peace or God in the future. God says its Israels land and only Israels land. They will have every inch God promised them of this land in the future.

Egypt east of the Nile River, Saudi Arabia, Israel, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, The southern part of Turkey and the Western Half of Iraq west of the Euphrates. Gen 13:14-15, Psm 105:9,11, Gen 15:18, Exe 23:31, Num 34:1-12, Josh 1:4.ALL THIS LAND ISRAEL WILL DEFINATELY OWN IN THE FUTURE, ITS ISRAELS NOT ISHMAELS LAND.

Israel says Iran warships to transit Suez for Syria
JERUSALEM | Wed Feb 16, 2011 11:29am EST


JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Two Iranian warships planned to sail through the Suez canal en route to Syria on Wednesday, Israel's foreign minister said, calling the move the latest provocation by Tehran and hinting at an Israeli response.Israel sees a major threat in Iran's nuclear programme and calls for its elimination, but the countries' geographical distance has kept them from open confrontation. Syria is one of Israel's neighboring foes and an ally of Tehran.Tonight, two Iranian warships are meant to pass through the Suez Canal to the Mediterranean Sea and reach Syria, something that has not happened in many years, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said in a Jerusalem speech distributed by his office.To my regret, the international community is not showing readiness to deal with the recurring Iranian provocations. The international community must understand that Israel cannot forever ignore these provocations.(Writing by Dan Williams; editing by Philippa Fletcher)

The Suez Canal Workers Stage Sit-in as U.S. Warships Dispatched
Kurt Nimmo Infowars.com February 15, 2011


Board members of Egypt’s Suez Canal Trade Union and a group of workers staged a sit-in at the canal’s authority headquarter in Ismailia on Tuesday, Xinhua reports. The state-run MENA agency reported that the protesting workers will continue a sit-in demonstration until the Suez Canal Authority chairman responds to their demands. The workers are demanding an increase in wages.The protesters promised that their sit-in will not affect the navigation process of the strategic waterway, MENA explained.In the wake of the fall of the dictator Hosni Mubarak’s regime, Egypt as been hit by a number of labor strikes. The military now in control of the government has vowed to not allow labor strikes to paralyze the world’s most populous Arab nation.Egyptian Supreme Council of the Armed Forces warned on Tuesday that further strikes across the country will be disastrous and called for an end to all strikes, according to Xinhua.

On February 11, Dava Castillo, writing for Allvoices, reported the USS Kearsarge Expeditionary Strike Group consisting of six warships is steaming toward the Suez Canal.The arrival of U.S. naval, marine and air forces in the Suez Canal’s Greater Bitter Lake could indicate that the crisis in Egypt is swerving out of control, writes Castillo.Allvoices reports that the information on the strike group was released by DEBKAfile, a Jerusalem-based English language Israeli open source military intelligence website. DEBKAfile is a known neocon propaganda operation.More than two million barrels of oil and petroleum products pass through the Suez Canal every day. Approximately 4.5 percent of the world’s oil supplies flow through the canal and accompanying pipelines.Castillo notes that the strategic waterway is also crucial to the war in Afghanistan. Ships carry cargo across the Mediterranean Sea, through the Suez Canal, and over the Indian Ocean to Karachi, Pakistan.

HONORING THE DEFENDERS OF ISRAEL
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/142344
EXPAND GREATER JERUSALEM
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/142357
OBAMA SAYS FREEDOM IN IRAN,BUT HE OPRESSES AMERICAN CITIZENS THE HYPOCRITE
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/142355

Saar: No More Lies, We're Keeping Hevron
by Maayana Miskin FEB 16,11


Israel must make it clear that Jews will remain in the city of Hevron, Education Minister Gidon Saar (Likud) said Tuesday. We must not mislead the Arabs into thinking that one day there will be no Jews living in Kiryat Arba and Hevron, he said during a tour of Judea.A Jewish presence in the Biblical city is crucial in order to maintain our ability to visit and pray in the Tomb of the Patriarchs, one of the most important places to the Jewish people, Saar explained.He said he would act to bring all Israeli students to visit Hevron, particularly the Tomb of the Patriarchs. Currently, all Israeli students are to visit Jerusalem at least once during their school career.During his visit to Efrat, Hevron and other Israeli towns in Judea, Saar faced tough questions over his party's policies.Arutz Sheva's Hebrew-language news service asked Saar what he had to say to Jews in Judea who suffered under the Likud-led Judea and Samaria construction freeze. We are in a very difficult and complex situation, diplomatically speaking, Saar answered. I am convinced that we know how to deal with the problems that stand before us regarding Jewish settlement.

The first step Israel should take is to renew construction in majority-Jewish regions of Judea and Samaria, known as settlement blocs, Saar continued. It's absurd that there are no land sales in the cities of Efrat, Ariel, Maaleh Adumim, and Beitar Illit, at a time when building is taking place in Jewish villages in Judea and Samaria, he said.Efrat has been waiting eight years for government approval to market 1,000 housing units. The Housing Ministry prepared the groundwork for the housing, spending tens of millions of shekels in the process, yet the government now refuses to give the project final authorization.Saar was also asked to explain the difference between the Likud's platform and that of opposition party Kadima, whose party head, MK Tzipi Livni, visited Judea several weeks earlier. Livni also said during her visit that Israel should allow construction in settlement blocs.You would not want to be shown the difference between Likud and Kadima, Saar warned. Just the most recent documents revealed show that Kadima is willing to give up the very heart of Jerusalem.Recently published documents show that the Olmert administration had been prepared to give Arab neighborhoods in Jerusalem to the Palestinian Authority, and to put the Old City and the Temple Mount under international control.(Israel NationalNews.com)

Gaddafi to Arab Refugees: March on Israel
by Maayana Miskin FEB 15,11


Libyan dictator Muammer Gaddafi has called for a mass Arab march on Israel, in an attempt to force Israel into accepting Arab demands. He directed his call to Palestinian Authority Arabs and to the millions of Arabs who define themselves as Palestinian refugees that seek to return to Israel.Fleets of boats should take Palestinians... and wait by the Palestinian shores until the problem is resolved, Gaddafi said on Libyan television. Now is the time for PA Arabs to capitalize on the wave of Middle East revolts, he added.The purpose of the mass march would not be to declare war, but rather to create a problem for the world, Gaddafi explained.

Hundreds of thousands of Arabs fled Israel during the War of Independence. Many Arab leaders demand that Israel accept those who fled and their millions of descendants as citizens.In some countries, among them Syria, Lebanon, and Iraq, the descendants of Arabs who fled Israel have not been granted citizenship, and live in their own separate neighborhoods and cities.

The West is our Enemy
In the same speech, Gaddafi called on the Muslim world to unite against the non-Muslim world. The Western world, including the United States and Europe, has gone on the attack against the Islamic world, he said.Designating the U.S. and Europe white and the Muslim world green, Gaddafi said,The white color has decided to get rid of the green country... These countries should be united against the white color.While he called for Muslim unity in fighting the West, Gaddafi had criticism for several Muslim leaders – those who have some form of relations with Israel. All Arab states which have relations with Israel are cowardly regimes,he declared.(Israel National News.com)

China unlikely to be the next Egypt, EU officials say
ANDREW WILLIS 15.02.2011 @ 18:14 CET


EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - EU officials in Brussels say there is little chance of recent protests in northern Africa spreading to China, despite a range of common problems including unequal wealth distribution and grievances over working conditions. Beijing has monitored the ousting of authoritarian leaders in Tunisia and Egypt closely over the past month, with media coverage of the events heavily restricted in the Chinese press.A recent report by the European Council on Foreign Relations think-tank cites the young and urban middle class protest in Egypt, the army's unwillingness to use force and US calls for change as a nightmare scenario for those Chinese leaders who have not forgotten Tiananmen. The images from Cairo might not have stirred memories in much of China's population (less than half the Chinese were adults in 1989), [but] they must worry the party itself, says the report by Francois Godement, published on Monday (14 February).Conscious of the global implications of their actions, one protestor in Tahrir square in Cairo earlier this month waved a banner in Chinese characters saying: Egyptian people ask President Mubarak to step down.Despite the widespread pro-democracy calls which have spread beyond the African continent, EU officials say they are not preparing their diplomatic armoury to confront a similar wave of upheaval in China, citing a number of key differences.In China, there is no visibly corrupt government that protestors can concentrate on, at least not at the national level,one senior official in the EU's external action service told this website on condition of anonymity.

Chinese media censorship has successfully prevented the Egyptian story from entering mass circulation, while the intelligentsia can easily get around this using software, preventing a buildup of frustration on their part, continued the official.
Perhaps most importantly, with growth still hitting double figures in the Middle Kingdom, a section of the Chinese population is enjoying a higher quality of life compared to previous decades, with China's economy taking the world's number two spot from Japan this week.European parliamentarians have also sounded a note of caution against drawing too many comparisons.The EU should look at each region and there is no need to make a link, said Bulgarian centre-right MEP Iliana Ivanova, a vice-chair of the parliament's China delegation.I'm not saying we are giving up on the problems in China, including human rights violations, but we need to solve them objectively.Analysts say one factor preventing Europe from using Egypt's popular uprising as a means to press for more rapid reform in China is the great unknown over Egypt's future and what shape incoming governments may take.Another is that the democracy movements in north Africa have not been something Europe has embraced with open arms. Several EU governments had excellent relations with Mubarak, noted Mr Godement.Nevertheless, one Chinese diplomat in Brussels said events in Egypt were likely to have a longer-term impact on China's political leaders.Egypt is fascinating, it has set a peaceful precedent unlike Iran. People in China know what has happened ... it is likely to affect the country's next generation of political leaders,the contact said.

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

EU ministers to double lending power of bail-out fund-Homeless people in Madrid: the extra lending clout comes in the context of fears about Spanish solvency (Photo: AntarticoNorte)LEIGH PHILLIPS 15.02.2011 @ 09:25 CET

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Eurozone finance ministers have backed a doubling of the full lending capacity of a future EU bail-out fund.As of 2013, the European Stability Mechanism, a permanent rescue mechanism to replace the bloc's current bail-out arrangement, will have an effective lending capacity of €500 billion, Luxembourgish Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker, the chief of the group of EU member states that use the single currency, said late on Monday (14 February) night.

Speaking to reporters, he said he was convinced the sum should be substantial enough to soothe markets.I would think that this will be enough, he said.Currently, the temporary rescue arrangements have a headline figure of €440 billion attached to the pool, but in reality have what is called an effective lending capacity of around €250billion.This is because most of the money has to be kept back as collateral.Details of how the eurozone will be able to deliver such a level of effective lending capacity was kicked into the long grass however, to be decided upon in the coming weeks.EU leaders have set themselves a deadline of 25 March, the second day of the bloc's spring summit of premiers and presidents, to agree the details.Further meetings of eurozone finance chiefs are scheduled for 11 March and possibly 21 March.

Finance ministers already agreed that the size of the ESM would be up for review every two years, however.The fact that Germany, Europe's biggest lender, has given the nod to a hike in the fund's lending capacity, also suggests that support for its long-demanded quid pro quo, deeper liberal economic reforms, is gaining ground.Mr Juncker conceded as much on Monday, saying that additional discussions will be necessary to ensure robust oversight of member-state spending decisions.

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

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

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

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

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

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

HALF HOUR DOW RESULTS WED FEB 16,2011

09:30 AM +2.43
10:00 AM +41.45
10:30 AM +64.29
11:00 AM +73.11
11:30 AM +60.74
12:00 PM +43.24
12:30 PM +32.17
01:00 PM +35.84
01:30 PM +44.73
02:00 PM +58.01
02:30 PM +52.68
03:00 PM +58.09
03:30 PM +56.80
04:00 PM +61.53 12,288.17

S&P 500 1336.32 +8.31

NASDAQ 2825.56 +21.21

GOLD 1,375.20 +1.10

OIL 84.97 +0.65

TSE 300 15,059.20 +129.80

CDNX 2399.42 +4.84

S&P/TSX/60 808.32 +9.38

MORNING,NEWS,STATS

YEAR TO DATE PERFORMANCE
Dow +26 points at 4 minutes of trading today.
Dow +1 points at low today.
Dow +74 points at high today so far.
GOLD opens at $1,372.20.OIL opens at $84.67 today.

AFTERNOON,NEWS,STATS
Dow +1 points at low today so far.
Dow +84 points at high today so far.

WRAPUP,NEWS,STATS
Dow +1 points at low today.
Dow +84 points at high today.

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

CRUDE OIL +860,000 BARRELS.
GASOLINE +205,000 BARRELS.
DISTILLATE INVENTORIES -3.1 MILLION BARRELS.
REFINERY UTILIZATION

Tunisia's Biblical exodus pits Rome against Brussels
VALENTINA POP 14.02.2011 @ 17:44 CET


EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS -Italy refused EU help in dealing with Tunisian migrants and its criticism of Brussels is very surprising, EU home affairs commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom said Monday (14 February). Meanwhile, Tunis deemed unacceptable a suggestion that Italian troops be sent to stop people from crossing the Mediterranean.Ms Malmstrom was very surprised by the recent press statements of Italian officials, her spokesman, Michele Cercone said during a press conference in Brussels.Contrary to what Italian interior minister Roberto Maroni had suggested, that the EU commission is too slow and bureaucratic in helping out with the thousands of migrants arriving on the tiny Italian island of Lampedusa, Ms Malmstrom contacted Italian authorities on Saturday and asked if they needed help, said the official.

Their reply was clear: No thanks, we do not need the European Commission's assistance at this stage, Mr Cercone said, adding that despite this negative response, Ms Malmstrom proceeded in asking her own services, the EU border agency Frontex and the EU asylum support office to assess how the EU could support Italy.
Almost 5,000 people have arrived on the Italian island of Lampedusa by boat over the last five days, an exodus of biblical proportions in the words of Mr Maroni. To Italy, home of 60 million inhabitants, the exodus may seem relatively small. But to Lampedusa, where the local population is around 6,000, the recent migrant wave does pose problems. Rome has started to fly out people by helicopter and to ship them out to asylum centres in Sicily, but some 2,000 are still on the island, sleeping under an open sky.The European Commission is fully aware of the exceptional pressure on Italy and stands ready to support the Italian authorities and to show European solidarity, Mr Cercone added, without going into details as to what this support may be.

No troops, thank you

Meanwhile, a call by Italy's right-wing interior minister to send troops to Tunisia was deemed unacceptable by the north African country's new government.The foreign ministry said Tunisia is willing to co-operate with fraternal countries in order to identify solutions to this phenomenon, but added that it would not tolerate interference in its internal affairs.The issue is likely to put EU foreign policy chief Cahterine Ashton in a pickle, just as she kicks off her olive-branch-visit to the country one month after the ousting of President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali during street protests which caused a domino effect throughout the region.A spokeswoman for Ms Ashton said she expects the issue to be raised in the talks with the new Tunisian prime minister and minister for international co-operation and trade.

Italy and France fret

Italy's foreign minister, Franco Frattini, is also due to arrive in Tunis Monday night to hold bilateral talks on the immigration issue.Meanwhile, France, home to another conservative EU government keen to curb irregular migration, is warning Tunisian migrants to stay home.There can be no tolerance for illegal immigration, said industry minister Eric Besson - previously in charge of the immigration dossier. He added, however, that some individuals might have the right to claim asylum in France, including supporters of the ousted dictator.What is important to us is to make sure these people are treated properly. All have the right to seek asylum, Judith Sunderland, a Human Rights Watch expert based in Milan told this website.She warned against the dangers of labelling them all as terrorists and criminals, as the Italian interior minister has done.

EU looking to freeze assets of Egyptian regime
ANDREW WILLIS 15.02.2011 @ 09:29 CET


EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - EU finance ministers are set to discuss the potential for a co-ordinated freeze of assets held by leading members of ousted Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak's regime, following verbal requests to a number of EU member states from Egyptian authorities. Some confusion remains as to whether Mr Mubarak himself will be included on the list of names discussed by finance ministers in Brussels on Tuesday (15 February), despite the ex-president using his 30 years in power to amass a fortune in cash, gold bars and luxurious properties, both inside Egypt and abroad.

The EU may look at using a United Nations convention against corruption as grounds for freezing accounts and seizing assets, media reports suggest. Meanwhile, Egyptian state prosecutors have launched corruption investigations against three former government ministers and a member of parliament from Egypt's ruling National Democratic party.In similar chronology to the recent lockdown on the assets of former Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali and his family, Switzerland moved earlier than the EU to freeze the assets of Mr Mubarak and his associates on 11 February, the same day the former Egyptian hardman was forced to step down and fled to a holiday home in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.On Monday, Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker simply said yes when asked whether Mr Mubarak's assets should be included in the freeze, while French finance minister Christine Lagarde said the issue would be discussed at a European level.Together with France and Germany, Britain is one of the EU country's to have received an individual request from Egyptian authorities to prevent assets being quickly whisked out of the country.We will of course co-operate with this request, working with EU and international partners as we have done in the case of Tunisia, British foreign minister William Hague told the UK parliament. If there is any evidence of illegality or misuse of state assets we will take firm and prompt action.

Separately, Mr Hague also appealed to the Iranian regime of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to show restraint in dealing with internal demonstrations, inspired by the popular overthrow of the Mubarak regime.Reports said Iranian police used batons and tear gas during a crackdown on protestors on Monday, in scenes reminiscent of the anti-regime rallies in the wake of Mr Ahmadinejad's disputed re-election in June 2009.President Ahmadinejad last Friday told the Egyptian people that they had the right to express their own views about their country, said Mr Hague.I call on the Iranian authorities to allow their own people the same right and to ensure that the security authorities exercise restraint.In Egypt, widespread labour unrest appears to have continued beyond the downfall of Mr Mubarak, with hundreds of demonstrations, strikes and sit-ins at state companies and ministries taking place on Monday as employees cited grievances over low pay and poor working conditions.

The actions are in defiance of the new military junta, which banned meetings of trade unions on Sunday, in effect outlawing strikes, and ordered workers to return to their jobs.Talks between the country's new military rulers and youth activists on Sunday evening suggest senior army officials may be moving to sideline Mohamed El Baradei, the Nobel laureate seen by some as a potential presidential candidate. The military has promised to oversee a peaceful transition to democracy but Sahdi el-Ghazali Harb, an activist who attended Sunday's meeting, said there was clear rejection from military commanders to include Mr El Baradei in the transition, reports the Financial Times.Mr Ghazali Harb also expressed concern at the military's push for a rapid handover of power to an elected civilian authority, arguing that a longer transition is needed to allow new political parties to take shape and gather support.Formerly banned, the Muslim Brotherhood group is considered to be the largest and most organised opposition force in the country.

MEPs support vanguard group on EU patent
ANDREW WILLIS 15.02.2011 @ 17:42 CET


EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - MEPs have given their consent for a number of EU member states to push ahead with plans to create a single European patent, using a EU procedure known as enhanced co-operation.The decision by euro deputies sitting in Strasbourg on Tuesday (15 February) is a further step towards abolishing the current European system, under which businesses must secure intellectual property protection in individual member states separately.Last year Spain and Italy raised objections to European Commission plans to allow future EU patents to be printed in either English, French or German, the EU's three official languages, prompting 12 other member states in December to invoke a rarely-used EU mechanism to allow them to carry on regardless.Others are expected to join the list, with Europe's complex and costly patent system frequently cited as disadvantaging the region's businesses.

For far too long, EU inventors and innovative companies have faced a significant competitive disadvantage compared to their global rivals, Conservative MEP Malcolm Harbour, chairman of the parliament's internal market committee, said after the vote.I hope that Spain and Italy will soften their opposition to this proposal so that all EU countries can eventually be involved, he added.Following the parliament's decision on Tuesday, EU industry ministers meeting in Brussels from 9-10March are expected to formally adopt the decision authorising enhanced co-operation among the less-than-full complement of EU states.The commission will then submit two separate legislative proposals, one establishing the single patent and another on the language regime, although a number of stumbling blocks still pepper the road towards a final agreement.A key ruling from the European Court of Justice is expected just days before the meeting of EU industry ministers next month, regarding the legality of a European Patent Court which would hear claims under a single European patent system.If judges follow the recommendation of the court's top advisor, which last year said the new tribunal could be out of step with EU legislation and jurisprudence, the whole process could be set back considerably.

Spain and Italy may also use the courts to prevent their European colleagues pushing ahead without them, sources suggest, potentially dragging the EU patent debate well beyond its already 30 old years of discussion.

Athens in EU-IMF dispute over privatisation
LEIGH PHILLIPS 14.02.2011 @ 09:27 CET


EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Representatives of the EU-IMF 'troika' and Greek finance minister George Papaconstantinou have tried to draw a line under a public scuffle between Athens and European lenders over a demand that the government immediately sell off €50 billion in state assets to prevent insolvency.On Sunday (13 February), the minister said that the government remained committed to its privatisation schedule as the move was in the public interest. The statement of reassurance came after a statement from the EU, the International Monetary Fund and the European Central Bank insisting that the government is still abiding by troika recommendations and that the lenders have faith that Athens is still carrying out the programme agreed between the two sides in May last year.We recognise the difficult challenges facing the Greek economy and we have the deepest respect for the tremendous efforts being made by the Greek people, they said in a statement late on Saturday.Our three institutions have full respect for the prerogatives and initiatives of the government in all areas of economic decision-making, and our role is to advise and support the government.It is regrettable if a different impression was perceived at any time.The pair of statements came after an assessment team from the troika held a press conference in which they said Greece's austerity programme was broadly on track with what the lenders have demanded but that a €50 billion in privatisation of government property had yet to be implemented, some €15 billion of which should be enacted within the next two years.It is well known that there is huge potential for privatisation, European Commission representative Servaas Deroose had told reporters.

A comprehensive plan through 2015 will be finalised ... aiming at proceeds of €50 billion euros between 2011 and 2015, he said.A government spokesman on Saturday then lashed out at the troika, saying they had behaved unacceptably.We asked them for help ... not to meddle in our internal affairs, he said.Despite the mollifying noises from the finance minister, Mr Papaconstaniou still insisted that any privatisation would only cover government services and not land.We will commercially exploit public property but we will not sell off state land, he told reporters on Sunday.The decisions about how this will be done will be taken by the Greek government and nobody else, he continued.In related news, the EU's revamped, permanent eurozone bail-out mechanism is to total some €500 billion in funds from 2013, German news weekly Der Spiegel is reporting, based on information from unacknowledged sources.The schedule of Greece's €110 billion bail-out is set to be discussed by finance ministers from the eurozone's 17 member states on Monday evening.

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.

Northeast gets cold wind, Midwest warms
– Tue Feb 15, 8:11 am ET


NEW YORK (Reuters) – Temperatures in the Northeast plummeted on Tuesday as high winds swept through the region, with the mercury ranging from the teens to the low 30s.Warmer weather this week in the Plains hard red winter wheat region will melt the protective snowcover, leaving the crop vulnerable to harm from winterkill.The melting snow will help boost soil moisture but more rain or snow is needed in the driest areas.Strong winds but little precipitation is expected in the Midwest soft red winter wheat region this week. The extended outlook indicates a better chance for significant precipitation.

METEORS HIT THE EARTH

REVELATION 6:12-17
12 And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood;
13 And the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind.
14 And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places.
15 And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains;
16 And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb:
17 For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?

REVELATION 8:12-13
12 And the fourth angel sounded, and the third part of the sun was smitten, and the third part of the moon, and the third part of the stars; so as the third part of them was darkened, and the day shone not for a third part of it, and the night likewise.
13 And I beheld, and heard an angel flying through the midst of heaven, saying with a loud voice, Woe, woe, woe, to the inhabiters of the earth by reason of the other voices of the trumpet of the three angels,which are yet to sound!

Comet Crash Scene Investigated by NASA Flyby
Space.com denise Chow, Space.com Staff Writer FEB 15,11


NASA's recycled Stardust spacecraft flew past comet Tempel 1 late last night (Feb. 14), snapping photos of the site where a different probe crashed into the icy surface nearly six years ago.Before Stardust encountered Tempel 1, the comet was visited once before, in July 2005, when NASA's Deep Impact spacecraft plunged a small probe into the icy surface to determine the comet's composition.The new images from yesterday's Stardust flyby identify the Deep Impact crash site, giving scientists the unique ability to identify changes on the surface of Tempel 1 in the years between the two missions.

Crater revealed

We do have a comparison of the Deep Impact area in 2005 and 2011, and it does show an impact crater, Joe Veverka, Stardust-NExT principal investigator at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y., said in a news briefing today (Feb. 15). Erosion on the scale of 20 to 30 meters of material has occurred in the five or six years since we took the first picture. We are seeing a change, but we have to spend time quantifying the changes and understanding what they mean.The crater is about 150 meters (492 feet) across, and from the images, the scientists can see where ejecta from the impact came up and fell back to the surface.One of the bottom-line messages is that the surface of the comet where we hit is very weak — it's fragile, said Pete Schultz, Stardust-NExT co-investigator at Brown University in Providence, R.I.

Stardust's rendezvous with comet Tempel 1 brought the probe to within 110 miles (178 kilometers) of the icy body at its closest approach, which occurred at 11:40 p.m. EST yesterday (0440 GMT today). As the Stardust spacecraft trekked past, it snapped 72 high-resolution photos of the icy comet.Comet Tempel 1 is 3.7 miles (6 km) wide, and makes one orbit around the sun every 5 1/2 years. Yesterday's flyby, part of the Stardust-NExT mission, will allow scientists to examine how much the comet has changed since the Deep Impact encounter.This is exciting for us, it's the first time we've ever had the opportunity to visit a comet twice, said Tim Larson, Stardust-NExT project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.

Minor glitch

The first images released from the flyby showed comet Tempel 1 from a distance of about 1,600 miles (2,575 km). These pictures were the first ones taken by the spacecraft as it approached the comet. Mission scientists had hoped that the initial set of photos beamed back to Earth would be five images from Stardust's closest approach, but a minor glitch caused the probe to send the images in chronological order instead.It did not jeopardize data onboard, Larson said. Everything was safely stored in memory and was ready to be sent down. We just had to wait a little longer.

Researchers are also hoping to use Stardust-NExT to map the surface of Tempel 1. The spacecraft took pictures of many of the same areas previously seen by the Deep Impact probe, but Stardust was also able to image new terrain, and will continue to do so as it travels away from the comet.As Stardust flew by the comet, the spacecraft also encountered the comet's veil of gas and dust. Stardust is equipped with sensors that can detect when the spacecraft is hit by dust particles from Tempel 1.Stardust went through this cloud of gas and dust through the comet and had a dozen impacts on the front leading edge of the spacecraft, said Don Brownlee, Stardust-NExT co-investigator from the University of Washington in Seattle.Scientists found that the material spewed from comets is not done so in a uniform way, but instead comes in intermittent bursts and puffs. Analysis of this data could help scientists understand more about how comets form, and how these primordial objects send gas and dust into space.

1,000 percent successful

Overall, the Stardust mission managers declared the flyby an overwhelming success.
We're tremendously happy, Veverka said. If you ask me, was this mission 100 percent successful in terms of science? No, it was 1,000 percent successful.The comet-chasing Stardust spacecraft has spent 12 years in space and has traveled more than 3.5 billion miles (5.7 billion km) during that time. In 2004, the probe visited comet Wild 2 and collected samples in a small container that was later returned to Earth. After Stardust's rendezvous with comet Wild 2, NASA repurposed the spacecraft to visit Tempel 1, and renamed the mission Stardust-NExT, for New Exploration of Tempel.Yesterday's encounter, however, will likely be the final mission for Stardust, since the spacecraft used up most of its remaining fuel to catch up to comet Tempel 1, researchers said.You can follow SPACE.com Staff Writer Denise Chow on Twitter @denisechow.

FAMINE

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

FAMINE

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

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

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

Food prices hit dangerous levels: World Bank chief
By Lesley Wroughton – Tue Feb 15, 4:43 pm ET


WASHINGTON (Reuters) – World Bank chief Robert Zoellick on Tuesday said global food prices have reached dangerous levels, and warned that their impact could complicate fragile political and social conditions in the Middle East and Central Asia.World Bank data released on Tuesday showed higher food prices -- mainly for wheat, maize, sugars and edible oils - have pushed 44 million more people in developing countries into extreme poverty since June 2010.There is no room for complacency, Zoellick told a conference call. Global food prices are now at dangerous levels and it is also clear that recent food price rises are causing pain and suffering for poor people around the globe.Zoellick said although higher food prices were not the main cause leading to recent protests in Egypt and Tunisia, it was an aggravating factor and could become worse.He warned that a sharp rise in food prices across Central Asia could also have social and political implications for that region.The World Bank report comes days before a meeting of the Group of 20 major economies in France where higher food prices and the reasons for those upward spikes will be discussed.

Zoellick also said he was concerned that as countries such as Egypt, Tunisia and Jordan address causes of their social upheaval, higher food prices may add to the fragility that is always there any time you have revolutions and transitions.The World Bank chief said the international community needed to be aware of such risks and should not exacerbate problems by imposing policies, such as export bans or price fixing, that would push global food prices even higher.There is no silver bullet to resolving the potent combination of rising and volatile food prices, Zoellick said, but food security is now a global security issue.Catastrophic storms and droughts have hurt the world's leading agriculture-producing countries, including flooding and a massive cyclone in Australia, major winter storms in the United States, and fires last year in Russia.Zoellick said a World Bank team was currently in Tunisia taking a closer look at the country's transition and assessing possible financing needs, including for food assistance.He suggested that Egypt may not need World Bank funds because its financing situation is one that should be able to be managed over the short term.

NOT THE SAME EVERYWHERE

The Washington-based poverty-fighting institution said its food price index increased by 15 percent between October 2010 and January 2011 and is just 3 percent below its 2008 peak during the last food price crisis. This translates into a 29 percent rise in food prices over the course of a year.But unlike during the 2007-08 food crisis, higher prices have not yet affected all regions of the world.Across Asia and in some parts of Latin America, Eastern Europe and Central Asia, costlier food is pushing up inflationary pressures.Central Asia is a region where these good prices have increased substantially and given the poverty levels ... there is a real stress point that could have social and political implications, Zoellick said.

Meanwhile, good harvests in Sub-Saharan Africa have so far spared that region from rising prices. But he said it was disturbing to see maize prices soar about 73 percent over six months, while prices for sugar for fats and oils have risen 20 percent and 22 percent, respectively, in the past quarter alone.The World Bank cautioned that rice prices needed monitoring given measures by some countries to significantly import more rice to boost domestic stocks.He said there was less margin for error in Africa because of high poverty rates across the region, although he noted problems in Burundi and Cameroon where bean prices, an important food source, have risen by more than 40 percent.Surveys show that the poor spend more than 80 percent of their total disposable income on basic foods, and if prices rise, poor families have few -- if any -- alternative but to eat less.The bank said rich donor countries needed to focus food aid on countries such as Afghanistan, Democratic Republic of Congo, Kyrgyzstan and Mongolia, which face acute food price spikes.The bank said the international community should take steps to calm jittery commodity markets and urged poor nations to scale up social programs to protect the poor.It said countries that are large net commodity importers with low international foreign exchange reserves and limited space in their budgets may need funding help.

REVELATION 18:11-17
11 And the merchants of the earth shall weep and mourn over her; for no man buyeth their merchandise any more:
12 The merchandise of gold, and silver, and precious stones, and of pearls, and fine linen, and purple, and silk, and scarlet, and all thyine wood, and all manner vessels of ivory, and all manner vessels of most precious wood, and of brass, and iron, and marble,
13 And cinnamon, and odours, and ointments, and frankincense, and wine, and oil, and fine flour, and wheat, and beasts, and sheep, and horses, and chariots, and slaves, and souls of men.
14 And the fruits that thy soul lusted after are departed from thee, and all things which were dainty and goodly are departed from thee, and thou shalt find them no more at all.
15 The merchants of these things, which were made rich by her, shall stand afar off for the fear of her torment, weeping and wailing,
16 And saying, Alas, alas that great city, that was clothed in fine linen, and purple, and scarlet, and decked with gold, and precious stones, and pearls!
17 For in one hour so great riches is come to nought. And every shipmaster, and all the company in ships, and sailors, and as many as trade by sea, stood afar off,

Clothing prices to rise 10 pct starting in spring
By ANNE D'INNOCENZIO, AP Retail Writer – Mon Feb 14, 5:15 pm ET


NEW YORK – Shoppers looking to update their wardrobes may find their money won't stretch as far.As the world economy recovers and demand for goods rises, a surge in raw material and labor costs is squeezing retailers and manufacturers who have run out of ways to pare expenses.Clothing prices had dropped for a decade as tame inflation and cheap overseas labor helped hold down manufacturers' costs. During the recession, retailers and clothing makers cut frills and experimented with fabric blends to keep prices in check.But cotton has more than doubled in price over the past year, hitting all-time highs. The price of synthetic fabrics has jumped roughly 50 percent as demand for alternatives has risen.Clothing prices are expected to rise about 10 percent in coming months, with the biggest increases in the second half of the year, said Burt Flickinger III president of Strategic Resource Group.Brooks Brothers' wrinkle-free men's dress shirts now cost $88, up from $79.50. Levi Strauss & Co., Wrangler jeans maker VF Corp., J.C. Penney Co., Nike and designer shoe seller Steve Madden also plan increases.More specifics on price increases are expected when clothing retailers such as J.C. Penney Co. and Abercrombie & Fitch Co. report financial results this month.All of our brands, every single brand, will take some price increases, said Eric Wiseman, chairman and CEO of VF Corp., which makes clothes for The North Face, Nautica, Wrangler and Lee brands. Cotton accounts for half the production cost of jeans, which make up about one-third of VF's sales, Wiseman told investors in November.

Higher costs also will affect how clothes are made. Clothing makers are using more synthetics like rayon and designing jeans with fewer beads and other embellishments. Shoppers also will have fewer color choices.Retailers are trying to figure out whether the consumer demand that gave them strong holiday sales will last. The fear is higher prices will nip it in the bud. Stores that cater to low- and middle-income shoppers will have the hardest time passing along price increases.We have been so used to deflation for years and years, said David Bassuk, managing director in the retail practice of AlixPartners. Customers are going to be surprised.Janice Mignanelli of Washington Township, N.J., doesn't want any surprises.I'm not going to spend any more than $50 for a pair of jeans, said Mignanelli, a stay-at-home mom shopping at The Garden State Plaza in Paramus, N.J., last week. I'll just have to cut back on the extras.Even affluent shoppers, whose spending has rebounded, may bristle.It does give me some pause, said Jimmy Franco, a 47-year-old publicity executive and fan of Brooks Brothers' shirts. Instead of buying two, I may just get one and a pair of socks. There's a certain amount of money that I'm prepared to spend.

Cotton has jumped to a 150-year-high, hitting $1.90 per pound on Friday. That's more than double the price a year ago and just ahead of the $1.89 record during the Civil War, according to the International Cotton Advisory Committee. But the Civil War-era price isn't adjusted for inflation, and the cotton group says it doesn't have an adjusted figure available. The government inflation calculator only goes back to 1913, but at that point $1.89 had the same general power buying power as $41.63 does today.Cotton prices began soaring in August of 2010 after bad weather cut harvests in major producing countries including China, the U.S., Pakistan and Australia.
Restrictions on exports from India, the world's second-largest cotton exporter behind China, have also produced cotton shortages. On top of that, worldwide demand for cotton has risen as the global economy improves. Raw materials account for 25 percent to 50 percent of the cost of producing a garment. Labor ranges from 20 percent to 40 percent, depending on how complicated it is to make, Bassuk said. On the production side, many Chinese factories that shut down temporarily in the depths of the recession still haven't returned to capacity. As they ramp up, they're finding they have to pay workers more because of labor shortages, said John Long, retail strategist at consulting firm Kurt Salmon.Until now, retailers have been shifting production to lower-cost regions like Vietnam, turning to new materials and absorbing cost increases.But they're reaching the limit, according to Kevin Burke, president and CEO of the American Apparel & Footwear Association.Mom-and-pop stores are most vulnerable because they don't have as much power to negotiate better prices with suppliers as, say, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. But even the world's largest retailer is feeling the pressure.

There's no doubt there may be some price increases that come up, but we don't want to ever let that be the first answer ... that just because cotton prices are up, that we're automatically going to pass that on to consumers, said Mike Duke, Wal-Mart's CEO and president in a recent interview.Mary Hutchens, owner of Full of Beans, a 25-year-old children's clothing store in Chevy Chase, Md., worries that price increases could be a death blow. She said she has to discount heavily to stay in business and isn't sure she'll be able to pass along the costs.Everybody has changed their habits since the recession,she said.I'm just trying to hold on.

Egyptian army says it hopes for elections in 6 months
By Tom Perry – Tue Feb 15, 6:08 pm ET


CAIRO (Reuters) – Egypt's military has outlined a timetable to hand power to an elected government, insisting it does not want political power in a country where it propped up an authoritarian state for six decades.The army, praised for overseeing a mostly peaceful revolution, is running into a storm of wage and subsidy demands overtaking pressure for democracy and piling more burdens on an already teetering economy.Pro-democracy marches have subsided but thousands of workers in banks, textile and food factories, oil facilities and government offices went on strike this week, emboldened by the overthrow of President Hosni Mubarak.The Higher Military Council expressed its hope to hand over power within six months to a civilian authority and a president elected in a peaceful and free manner that expresses the views of the people, an armed forces statement said on Tuesday.

The council affirmed that it does not seek power, that the current situation was imposed on the armed forces and that they have the confidence of the people.The Islamist Brotherhood, which did not play a leading role in the revolution but has been Egypt's best-organized opposition group for many years, said it wanted the military to carry out further steps immediately.We, together with the entire nation ... are in need of a bridge of confidence between the army and the people, Essam al-Erian, a senior Brotherhood member, told Reuters, referring to lifting emergency law and releasing political prisoners.Egypt's central bank said banks would remain closed on Wednesday and Thursday after being closed on Monday by strikes.Some secular leaders fret that racing into presidential and parliamentary elections in a nation where Mubarak suppressed most opposition activity for 30 years may hand an edge to the Brotherhood.A committee headed by an independent judge that met on Tuesday has been given 10 days to draft amendments to the constitution. The plan is to then put these to a referendum.When the popular demand for the freedom to form parties is realized, the group will found a political party, the Brotherhood said in a new statement.

VICTORY MARCH

Pro-democracy leaders plan a big Victory March on Friday to celebrate the revolution -- and perhaps also to remind the military of the power of the street.In Tahrir Square, scene of clashes between protesters and police during the revolt, traffic flowed freely on Tuesday. Army tanks and armored vehicles around the square and other Cairo locations have now been sandbagged into position.Rumors swirled about Mubarak's health. Saudi-owned Asharq al-Awsat newspaper said it was deteriorating and the deposed president had refused to go abroad for treatment.A military source said Mubarak, 82, believed to be in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, was breathing. Another Egyptian source with links to the family said he was unwell.But a source who said he spoke to Mubarak on Tuesday described him as "fine" and receiving telephone calls.U.S. President Barack Obama condemned Iran's crackdown on unrest inspired by Egypt's uprising, and urged Middle Eastern states to take heed of their peoples' aspirations for democracy. I find it ironic that you've got the Iranian regime pretending to celebrate what happened in Egypt, when in fact they have acted in direct contrast to what happened in Egypt by gunning down and beating people who were trying to express themselves peacefully, he said. In Bahrain, Shi'ite protesters camped out in a central square to press demands for change after a day of unrest inspired by the revolts in Egypt and, weeks earlier, in Tunisia.

Analysts say large-scale unrest in Bahrain, home to the U.S. Navy's Fifth Fleet and a regional offshore banking center, could embolden marginalized Shi'ites in nearby Saudi Arabia, the world's biggest oil exporter.(Reporting by Marwa Awad, Edmund Blair, Alexander Dziadosz, Shaimaa Fayed, Andrew Hammond, Alistair Lyon, Sherine El Madany, Tom Perry, Yasmine Saleh, Patrick Werr, Jonathan Wright and Dina Zayed; writing by Andrew Roche)

Bahrain protesters camp overnight to demand change
– Tue Feb 15, 6:54 pm ET


MANAMA (Reuters) – Shi'ite protesters camped out in Bahrain's capital to press their demands for political change after a day of unrest inspired by popular revolts that toppled rulers in Tunisia and Egypt.A funeral is planned on Wednesday morning for a man shot dead when police and mourners clashed on Tuesday at a funeral procession for Ali Mushaima, a 22-year-old killed the day before in clashes between demonstrators and security forces.As evening fell on Tuesday, the number of protesters in the encampment at Bahrain's Pearl Roundabout dwindled to around 1,000 from an earlier 2,000, according to witnesses.It remained to be seen whether the number would rise or fall during Wednesday. Some people will have to return to work, after a public holiday on Tuesday to mark the birthday of the Prophet Mohammed.

The demonstrators from Bahrain's Shi'ite majority say the ruling Sunni minority shuts them out of housing, healthcare and government jobs.The main Shi'ite opposition bloc Wefaq, which boycotted parliament to protest the clampdown by Sunni security forces, said it would hold talks with the government on Wednesday.Protesters said their main demand was the resignation of Prime Minister Sheikh Khalifa bin Salman al-Khalifa, who has governed the Gulf Arab state since its independence in 1971.An uncle of King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa, he is thought to own much land and is seen as a symbol of the wealth of the ruling family.

DEMOGRAPHIC BALANCE

Activists say they also want the release of political prisoners, which the government has promised, and the creation of a new constitution.Poverty, high unemployment and alleged attempts by the state to grant citizenship to Sunni foreigners to change the demographic balance have intensified discontent among Bahrain's Shi'ites.Around half of the tiny island kingdom's 1.3 million people are Bahraini, the rest being foreign workers.Analysts say large-scale unrest in Bahrain, home to the U.S. Navy's Fifth Fleet and a regional offshore banking center, could embolden marginalized Shi'ites in nearby Saudi Arabia, the world's biggest oil exporter.King Hamad expressed his condolences for the deaths of two of our dear sons in a televised speech and said a committee would investigate the killings.Bahrain, in a move appeared aimed at preventing Shi'ite discontent from boiling over, had offered cash payouts of around 1,000 dinars ($2,650) per family in the run-up to this week's protests.(Reporting by Frederik Richter; writing by Reed Stevenson; editing by Andrew Roche)

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

NEOTAME THE NEWEST POISON SWEETNER

RELATED ASPARTAME POISON TO THE BODY ALSO
http://www.aspartame.net/

Neotame, a Sweet New Poison Posted on February 12, 2011
by thetruthergirls|SONIA-MONTREAL

http://thetruthergirls.wordpress.com/2011/02/12/neotame-a-sweet-new-poison/ (LINKS)

Someone recently tipped me off to the existence of a new sweetener: Neotame.

A simple googling of the name alone immediately brought up several websites warning that this substance is toxic. According to Monsanto spokesperson Nancy Nevi, Neotame compositionally begins with Aspartame, but through a simple enhancement to the dipeptide base’ it becomes 40 times sweeter. It was discovered by accident at a military facility during research on a chemical weapon called Neotox-II. http://www.holisticmed.com/neotame/history.html

Dr. Betty Martini, long-time forerunning anti-Aspartame activist penned an open letter to Dr Jane Henny, FDA commissioner, highlighting the evidence that aspartame is a deadly poison that can has been shown to cause brain tumors, birth defects, blindness (http://www.focusnewsletter.org/aspartame.htm) and other health problems possibly including infertility and miscarriage. In her letter, Dr Martini basically pleads with the FDA to recall Aspartame and not approve Neotame.
http://www.karinya.com/neotame.htm

She also refers specifically to several studies that showed the toxic effects of Aspartame such as :Monsanto funded a study on birth defects which was disastrous, so they withdrew their funding and Dr. Diana Dow-Edwards had to pay it herself. Then neither Monsanto or the FDA would accept it. Quite a message to the world – if a researcher will not say it is safe, the study will not be accepted.And:A pivotal study (SC18862) submitted was done on 7 infant monkeys: 5 had grand mal seizures and 1 died.According to holisticmed.com:Even Monsanto’s own pre-approval studies of neotame revealed adverse reactions. Unfortunately, Monsanto only conducted a few one-day studies in humans rather than encouraging independent researchers to obtain NIH funding to conduct long-term human studies on the effects of neotame.
http://www.holisticmed.com/neotame/toxin.html

Despite the fact that nearly 100% of independent studies on Aspartame have found it to be cause adverse effects, and that there have been no long-term studies on Neotame and those that have been conducted showed adverse reactions, Neotame is already used as an additive in 1000 foods.The Neotame website describes it as an ‘exciting’ new flavor enhancer and sweetener. I’ll bet that much is true: it’s exciting, alright- it’s an excitotoxin! And I guess it’s especially exciting to those who would like to reduce the world’s population and profit off the remainder’s sickness.http://www.neotame.com/faq.asp

The purveyors of this poison declare that Neotame fits into healthful eating;
A balanced diet including a variety of foods is the foundation of healthful eating. As part of a balanced diet, neotame provides a little sweetness without adding calories. Since when is a chemical weapon is part of a balanced diet? The makers of Neotame state that it is suitable for diabetics, even though Aspartame has been shown to cause blindness in diabetics, and even go on to proclaim safe for children and pregnant women! People of all ages, including pregnant or breastfeeding women, teens and children, and people with diabetes, can enjoy products sweetened with neotame while maintaining a healthful diet.That’s a bit like saying people of all ages can enjoy crystal meth while maintaining a healthful diet. It’s not exactly untrue, but it doesn’t change the fact that crystal meth will kill you.Because of labeling laws, it is possible for Neotame to be listed as natural flavors if it amounts to less that 5% of a product’s ingredients, so beware! The best policy is to avoid pre-made, processed and pre-packaged foods altogether, or you could wind up eating Neotox-II – I mean, Neotame. And I would be willing to wager that Neotame…Will kill you.

SPAINS SOLANA HONORED FOR EU WORK

TRUMP WAS ASKED BY CNBC WHAT HE THOUGHT ABOUT THE NYSE AND GERMANY MERGER.HE BASICALLY SAID ITS TERRIBLE.AND HE CONGRADULATED THE NYSE OWNER BY SAYING. CONGRADULATIONS TO GERMANY,THEY GOT THE BEST OF THE DEAL.TRUMP ALSO COMMENTED ON ERIN BURNETT AND MARK HAINS.ERIN IS BEAUTIFUL AND MARK IS A HARD WORKER SAYS TRUMP.TRUMP WAS NOT IMPRESSED WITH A FOREIGNER GERMANY,CO-OWNING THE NEW YORK STOCK EXCHANGE.ALREADY THERE WAS A CHANGE THIS MORNING AS ERIN BURNETT MENTIONED THERES NO HEAT WERE THEY BROADCAST FROM TODAY.MARK SAID YES ITS COLD HERE TODAY.THE NYSE BOSS IS CURRENTLY WORKING WITH THE GERMAN PARTNERS TO HAVE A NAME FOR THE NEW EXCHANGE.AND BROADCASTERS AND STOCK BUYERS ARE WORRIED THAT GERMANY WILL SHUT DOWN THE NYSE IN A COUPLE OF YEARS IF NO GROWTH IN THE COMPANY IN THE FUTURE.

REACTIONS TO MERGER-BOSS-GOVERNMENT MAN
http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=1797181744&play=1
http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=1797218352&play=1

Deutsche Boerse, NYSE Agree to Historic Merger Published: Tuesday, 15 Feb 2011 | 10:21 AM ET Text Size By: Reuters-CNBC

Deutsche Boerse and NYSE Euronext announced the creation of the world's largest exchange operator on Tuesday, dodging political issues that could threaten completion of a deal.Oliver Quilla for CNBC.com

A key compromise is an agreement to headquarter the combined group in both New York and Frankfurt. 60 percent of the group will be owned by Deutsche Boerse shareholders and the remainder by NYSE investors. However there was no name given to the propsed group. The new company will have a single tier board, with 10 seats out of 17 going to Deutsche Boerse but with NYSE Euronext taking the all-important chief executive post. NYSE head Duncan Niederauer will be chief executive and Reto Francioni of Deutsche Boerse will take on the role of chairman.In an interview with CNBC on the exchange floor shortly after the merger accord was announced, Niederauer said a name for the new exchange hasn't been decided on. But he did say that the name will not be DB NYSE group.Under the terms of the deal NYSE Euronext stock will be exchanged for 0.47 shares in the new company, while Deutsche Boerse shares will be swapped on a one-for-one basis, the exchanges said in a statement on Tuesday.

The exchanges face intense competition in their traditional stock-trading business from younger trading venues geared toward today's increasingly dominant high-speed electronic traders.NYSE Euronext and others have responded by investing heavily in technology and expanding into more profitable derivatives trading.The merger deal creates an unprecedented exchange powerhouse with more than $20 trillion in annual trading volume and operations in Germany, France, Britain, Amsterdam, Portugal, Belgium, and the United States.The pair promised the takeover would cut combined costs by 300 million euros ($400 million) a year. The companies' combined market capitalization is about $26 billion.Together, Deutsche Boerse's Eurex unit and NYSE Euronext's London-based Liffe unit would dominate European exchange-based futures trading, with more than 90 percent overall, raising antitrust questions among market regulators.After a few years off that included the financial crisis and the beginning of a global regulatory revamp, the world's exchange operators are back in the takeover game.Singapore Exchange bid for Australia's ASX late last year, and, last week, London Stock Exchange [LSE-GB 903.00 -27.00 (-2.9%) ] announced it would acquire Canada's TMX Group—hours before Deutsche Boerse and NYSE Euronext said they were in advanced talks.

Local concerns over the wave of consolidation sweeping the industry surfaced in Asia on Tuesday. Singapore Exchange tweaked its $7.9 billion bid for rival ASX to allow more Australian directors onto a combined board in an attempt to win over skeptical Australian politicians.Nationalism has long been one of the biggest hurdles to exchange mergers. The marketplaces are often symbols of national pride and important to attracting business and capital.Regulators are paying close attention to the latest round of deals, including the London Stock Exchange's bid to take over Toronto Stock Exchange operator TMX Group .Exchange users have also raised red flags over the proposed deals, which they fear will limit competition.Euronext and Deutsche Boerse are still screwing us on fees for clearing, the closing auctions and small and mid-cap trading—the areas where they still have virtual monopolies, said the head of markets at a large European bank, who declined to be named.A merger is concerning because together they will be more powerful and better placed to protect these monopolies.The LSE deal with TMX has already run into foreign ownership concerns in Canada.But despite rumblings about Middle Eastern ownership in Ontario, LSE shareholder Borse Dubai, which is owned by the ruler of the Gulf Arab emirate, has not been asked to trim its 20 percent stake, a source familiar with the matter said.Singapore Exchange's willingness to give ground and award an equal number of board seats to Australians and Singaporeans in the combined entity shows how local sensibilities are being overcome as the pressure to consolidate rises. The value of SGX's offer has not been changed under the new proposal.All the resistance ... has been political. The steps taken today should address some of those political issues, said Mark Nathan, portfolio manager at Arnhem Investments.

AND WHILE WERE STILL ON MERGERS.THE TORONTO STOCK EXCHANGE AND LONDON STOCK EXCHANGE WANT TO MERGE.MEANWHILE MUSLIMS FROM DUBAI WOULD OWN 11% OF THE NEW COMPANY.CAN YOU SEE HOW SHARIA LAW COULD BE INFORCED HERE IN CANADA WITH INFLUENCE THEW THIS EXCHANGE MERGER.

Merger to get review MONEY: Merger to get review
By DAVID LJUNGGREN, REUTERS FEB 15,11 THE DAILY PRESS


OTTAWA -- Canada will review the London Stock Exchange's bid to merge with Canadian exchange operator TMX Group, Industry Minister Tony Clement said Monday.Under the terms of the Investment Canada Act, Clement has to review any foreign takeover worth more than $299 million.The proposed combined trading venue would have a market value of about $6.9 billion.This transaction is in fact subject to review under the Investment Canada Act. The investor has informed me that an application will be filed soon, Clement told reporters in Ottawa.Clement has 45 days from the moment the review begins to make a decision on whether the deal is of net benefit to Canada. He said he expected that period to begin in one or two weeks.He can extend that period by a further 30 days, and lawyers have said that scenario is likely.

The review process is seen running its full course as the LSE and TMX exchanges seek regulatory approval from federal authorities under the Investment Canada Act. The four Canadian provinces where TMX has operations -- British Columbia, Alberta, Ontario and Quebec -- are also reviewing the deal.The review process is a thorough one, involving consultations with the provinces and or territories affected, as well as other federal departments, Clement said.The offer for the Toronto Stock Exchange from the London Stock Exchange would create a transatlantic trading venue that would host most of the world's largest energy and mining companies, and would be 55% owned by LSE shareholders.Advocates say it will propel the TMX into a new era of growth, driving higher profits and higher-profile listings after it has been losing market share for years to upstart electronic rivals. Opponents say it is a strategic asset that should not be allowed to fall into foreign hands.Concern has arisen in some corners because of the ownership of the LSE. One single LSE shareholder -- Borse Dubai Ltd -- would hold just over 11% of the new company.

Under the terms of the Toronto Stock Exchange's 2008 takeover of the Montreal Exchange to form the TMX Group, no person or group of persons or companies acting jointly can take more than 10% of any class of voting shares of TMX without the prior approval of the Quebec securities regulator, Autorite des marches financiers (AMF).AMF spokesman Sylvain Theberge told Reuters by e-mail on Monday that AMF would likely take two or three months to start hearings on the bid. It won't be before two or three months (from now) at least,he said.Article ID# 2978904

G20 Pushes Globalist SDR and China’s Role
Kurt Nimmo Infowars.com February 15, 2011

http://www.infowars.com/g20-pushes-globalist-sdr-and-chinas-role/

On Monday, French Economy Minister Christine Lagarde said her country will work to realize a planned transition to a global financial system based on several international currencies. France is currently head of the G20.Lagarde and the G20 want to undermine sovereignty of nations by moving away from national reserves into SDRs, or Special Drawing Rights issued by the International Monetary Fund.The G20′s mid-February meeting in Paris will concentrate on reform of the international monetary system.Continuing demand for the U.S. dollar as the world’s de facto reserve currency, consequently still widening trade imbalances, and ongoing worry over how long the dollar can retain its excessively high value relative to other currencies, are sowing the seeds of renewed global financial instability, warned Robert C. Hockett, an expert on international finance and professor of law at Cornell University.Hockett said the Chinese yuan will likely be added to the dollar, euro, pound, and yen as one of the principal currency components of the Special Drawing Rights.Lagarde and the G20 are currently debating the role of China. She said France favors including the renminbi in the currencies that make up SDRs even before the Chinese currency is fully convertible.In 2009, Zhou Xiaochuan, China’s central bank’s governor, said he wants a new globalist reserve currency to be controlled by the International Monetary Fund.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_5_KCKeM4k&feature=player_embedded

On Monday, Japan acknowledged that China’s economy is now the second-largest. Due to China’s furious growth, the country is expected to surpass the United States as the world’s largest economy by 2030.China outpaced the United States in manufacturing this year. In 2009, the U.S. created 19.9 per cent of world manufacturing output, compared with 18.6 per cent for China, with the US staying ahead despite a steep fall in factory production due to the global recession, according to Global Insight, a U.S.-based economics consultancy.The G20 is dedicated to transforming the IMF into a globalist version of the Federal Reserve. The authoritarian slave labor nation of China plays an instrumental role in this proposed transformation.During recent G20 meetings, China worked closely with the United Nations to replace the dollar as the world’s reserve currency. China’s central bank insists the dollar’s global role allowed the U.S. to borrow cheaply abroad, fueling the credit boom that led to the financial crisis.A new world order is emerging, declared former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown at the conclusion of the London G20 summit. Brown later characterized the globalist takeover scheme as the emergence of one global progressive family.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDiE1RRi7mU&feature=player_embedded

The IMF considers China – with its authoritarian government and a slave labor workforce – as the economic model of the future.The signals being sent by Brown, Sarkozy, Strauss-Kahn, Geithner, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, and others should be setting off high-decibel alarm bells, William F. Jasper wrote after the London summit in 2009. We are witnessing the demolition of our constitutional system and the piecemeal replacement of it with world government. Over the coming months, the architects of this new global system intend to wring every opportunity possible out of the current economic crisis to bulldoze through our constitutional checks and balances that stand in the way of empowering the IMF, the WTO, and the United Nations.

EU SPAIN #11

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

Spain's Solana honored for work on behalf of EU
Published February 11, 2011| EFE FOX NEWS LATINO


Merida – Crown Prince Felipe awarded Friday the Charles V Prize for European unity to Spanish public servant Javier Solana, a former NATO secretary-general and long-time foreign policy chief of the European Union.Felipe used the event, held at Yuste Monastery, to deliver a message of conviction and hope in Europe, 25 years after the entry of Spain and Portugal into the project of continental unity, and urged the continued building of a Europe that has brought peace, freedom and prosperity.Among those attending the presention of the prize, awarded by Yuste's European Academy Foundation, were Spanish Culture Minister Angeles Gonzalez Sinde and former Prime Minister Felipe Gonzalez, as well as erstwhile Portuguese President Jorge Sampaio.

Past recipients of the prize include Gonzalez, Mikhail Gorbachev and Simone Veil, the first woman to hold the European Parliament's presidency.Solana, a universal Spaniard and convinced European, according to the prince, embodies the dedication to European unification and the promotion of its values that distinguished Charlemagne and Charles V.In the prince's opinion, Solana has performed his duties with particular sensitivity to the problems, crises and conflicts afflicting the world.
Solana, for his part, said that the EU is a constant journey of enhancement, expansion and reform, a process that must be adapted to the world's changing panorama in every moment of our time here, but always making more and more progress with its integration.Born in Madrid in 1942, Solana is a physicist by training who was elected to the Spanish Parliament as a Socialist in 1977, serving as foreign minister under Gonzalez after the 1982 elections.On Dec. 5, 1995, Solana became NATO's secretary-general.He later served as the European Union's foreign policy chief for a decade.

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

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

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

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

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

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

HALF HOUR DOW RESULTS TUE FEB 15,2011

09:30 AM -3.25
10:00 AM -33.68
10:30 AM -60.85
11:00 AM -48.17
11:30 AM -35.49
12:00 PM -42.49
12:30 PM -39.58
01:00 PM -41.93
01:30 PM -45.60
02:00 PM -34.85
02:30 PM -70.65
03:00 PM -56.19
03:30 PM -45.20
04:00 PM -41.55 12,226.64

S&P 500 1328.01 -4.31

NASDAQ 2804.35 -12.83

GOLD 1373.90 +8.80

OIL 84.35 -0.46

TSE 300 13,929.30 +18.60

CDNX 2394.58 +14.12

S&P/TSX/60 798.94 +0.38

MORNING,NEWS,STATS

YEAR TO DATE PERFORMANCE
Dow -38 points at 4 minutes of trading today.
Dow -60 points at low today.
Dow -1 points at high today so far.
GOLD opens at $1,372.80.OIL opens at $85.30 today.

AFTERNOON,NEWS,STATS
Dow -70 points at low today so far.
Dow -1 points at high today so far.

WRAPUP,NEWS,STATS
Dow -70 points at low today.
Dow -1 points at high today.

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

AMERICA (POLITICAL BABYLON)(NUKED BY SNEAK ATTACK FROM RUSSIA)

JEREMIAH 50:3,24
3 For out of the north (RUSSIA) there cometh up a nation against her, which shall make her land desolate, and none shall dwell therein: they shall remove, they shall depart, both man and beast.
24 I have laid a snare for thee, and thou art also taken, O Babylon,(AMERICA) and thou wast not aware: thou art found, and also caught, because thou hast striven against the LORD. (RUSSIA A SNEAK ATTACK ON AMERICA)

REVELATION 18:3-6,19-21
3 For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication,(U.S.A) and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her,(U.S.A) and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies.
4 And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her,(AMERICA) my people,(CHRISTIANS,JEWS) that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.
5 For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities.
6 Reward her even as she rewarded you,(WITH FALSE FLAG TERRORISM) and double unto her double according to her works:(DOUBLE-EMP 1ST,THEN RUSSIA NUKE ATTACKS U.S.A) in the cup which she hath filled fill to her double.(PROBABLY A RUSSIAN CYBER ATTACK WILL SET THE WHOLE SITUATION UP AS RUSSIA HACKS THE USA ARMY COMPUTERS.THEN THE EMP,THEN THE NUKE ATTACK)
19 And they cast dust on their heads, and cried, weeping and wailing, saying, Alas, alas that great city, wherein were made rich all that had ships in the sea by reason of her costliness! for in one hour is she made desolate.
20 Rejoice over her, thou heaven, and ye holy apostles and prophets; for God hath avenged you on her.
21 And a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone, and cast it into the sea, saying, Thus with violence shall that great city Babylon be thrown down, and shall be found no more at all.

A weapon of mass destruction was found in the U.S.: Shock confession of Customs officer By David Gardner Last updated at 6:06 PM on 14th February 2011
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1356645/A-weapon-mass-destruction-U-S--Shock-confession-Customs-officer.html?ITO=1490 (PICTURES-VIDEO)

A port official has admitted that a weapon of mass effect has been found by partner agencies in the U.S., raising major questions over a possible government cover-up.The disturbing revelation came in an interview with San Diego's assistant port director screened by a television channel in the city.The Customs and Border Protection Department tried to dampen speculation over his remarks, but doubts remained over whether he had inadvertently revealed a dirty bomb plot to attack the U.S. mainland.

Crucial moment: Assistant port director Al Hallor admits on camera weapons of mass effect have been found at locations in the U.S.Concern over a secret WMD bust came after U.S. cables made public by the Wikileaks whistleblower website revealed terror groups were plotting a nuclear 911.In the interview screened by San Diego’s 10News, Al Hallor, assistant San Diego port director, said weapons of mass effect had been found, although he did not specify exactly where or what they were.Reporter Mitch Blacher asked Mr Hallor: Do you ever find things that are dangerous like a chemical agent or a weaponised device? At the airport, seaport, at our port of entry we have not this past fiscal year, but our partner agencies have found those things,the customs official replied.Realisation: The assistant port director closes his eyes as reporter Mitch Blacher again asks him if weapons have ever been found in San Diego - and a public affairs officer intervenes

So, specifically, you're looking for the dirty bomb? You're looking for the nuclear device?’ asked Mr Blacher.Correct. Weapons of mass effect, said Mr Hallor.You ever found one? asked Mr Blacher.Not at this location, Mr Hallor said.But they have found them? asked Mr Blacher.Yes, said Mr Hallor.You never found one in San Diego though? Mr Blacher asked.I would say at the port of San Diego we have not, Mr Hallor said.
Have you found one in San Diego? Mr Blacher asked.The interview was then interrupted and cut short by a public relations official before Mr Hallor was able to answer the question.San Diego's Customs and Border Protection agency was unavailable for comment today.Earlier, Mr Hallor told Mr Blacher: Potentially every city in America is a target. Given the waterways and the access to the Navy fleet here, I’d say, absolutely, San Diego is a target.Shocking interview: 10News reporter Mitch Blacher interviews Al Hallor at San Diego port - where he makes the startling revelation WMDs have been brought into the U.S.Our overall arching mission is to protect the American homeland against terrorists and from weapons of mass effect from entering the country. We are the guardians of America’s borders.

THE CRUCIAL CONFESSION
Reporter: Do you ever find things that are dangerous like a chemical agent or a weaponised device? Mr Hallor: At the airport, seaport, at our port of entry we have not this past fiscal year, but our partner agencies have found those things.
Reporter: So, specifically, you're looking for the dirty bomb? You're looking for the nuclear device? Mr Hallor: Correct. Weapons of mass effect.Reporter: You ever found one? Mr Hallor: Not at this location.Reporter: But they have found them? Mr Hallor: Yes. Reporter: You never found one in San Diego though? Mr Hallor: I would say at the port of San Diego we have not.He was explaining how the port checks cargo ships arriving at the port. He suggested the customs partner agencies may have found the weapons of mass effect.Former Secret Service agent and airline security director Glen Winn told 10News Mr Hallor’s comments appeared to be credible.This person was, I believe, knowledgeable, has a very important position with the port and the government and as such has that knowledge, he said.You posed some very serious questions as to security gaps and discoveries that perhaps have taken place in this area. I want to know how many and where did you find them so if I'm in that area, driving around and I see something that is out of place, I make a phone call, he added.But 10News said a spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security told them Mr Hallor was just nervous in the interview and mis-spoke.The spokesman denied officials said weapons of mass destruction had never been found in the U.S.- but would not answer questions about dirty bombs or chemical weapons.

After the interview, the Customs and Border Protection department in San Diego issued a statement denying it had dealt with any nuclear-related smuggling attempts.
CBP has not specifically had any incidents with nuclear devices or nuclear materials at our ports of entry, it said.CBP is an all-threats agency. The purpose of many security measures is to prevent threats from ever materializing by being prepared for them.And, we must be prepared to stop threats in whatever form they do materialise at the border, whether it’s an individual or cargo arriving by land, air, or sea.Regardless of what the contraband or threat is, we’re being smart, evaluating, and focusing in on anything or anyone that is potentially high-risk.
No WMDs have ever been smuggled into the US, or, a least, none have been disclosed.

There were reports more than six years ago that al Qaeda was planning to try and sneak a bomb through a secret tunnel into Arizona from northern Mexico, although it was never substantiated. Just last year, a 2,200 ft cross-border drugs tunnel was discovered in San Diego, complete with lighting and ventilation.Terror risk? U.S. officials discovered a 2,200ft cross-border drugs tunnel in San Diego last year, raising fears al Qaeda could use a similar method One reason for covering up a known attempt would be to prevent public panic. Just three days ago, acting Inspector General of the Department of Justice, Cynthia Schnedar, criticised U.S. efforts to prepare for a potential WMD attack as uncoordinated and fragmented.While the FBI had made adequate precautions for dealing with a WMD fallout, other branches of the DOJ were not sufficiently ready. With the exception of the FBI, other departments had no training, did not participate in drills and had not selected an individual to take charge over WMD response operations, she said.In addition, while the department had designated the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives as the lead agency to coordinate the use of federal law enforcement resources to maintain public safety and security if local and state resources are overwhelmed during a WMD incident, ATF had not adequately prepared for this role,she added.A year ago, the Commission on the Prevention of Weapons of Mass Destruction Proliferation and Terrorism said the U.S. government should be doing more to prevent the nuclear threat.Work to improve the nation's response to biological attacks and efforts to reform intelligence gathering and other aspects of homeland security all received an F on the report.Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1356645/A-weapon-mass-destruction-U-S--Shock-confession-Customs-officer.html#ixzz1E4CM3FUc

Monday, February 14, 2011 Our Next Pearl Harbor? Cyber War Is Imminent
By Roger Hedgecock RogerHedgecock.com


Hackers, worms, viruses, WikiLeaks, Stuxnet: Every day, in every corner of the world, we learn of advances made by those who penetrate supposedly secure computers.I believe we are witnessing previews of the next war – a war against the computers which have made our lives so much easier, so much more complicated and so much more vulnerable.Hacking used to be done by talented teenagers as a prank. It was the stuff of Hollywood movies. Then there was industrial espionage, done for money and competitive advantage.Today we hear of Stuxnet, which attacks and disables the Iranian centrifuges working night and day to enrich uranium to be used in Iranian nuclear weapons. The U.S., Israel and Germany are said to have developed Stuxnet, accomplishing what a messy bombing campaign against Iran could never have done.The Chinese hack into Pentagon computers, into Nasdaq, into American oil companies –modern-day raiding parties probing the enemy's weaknesses.The Wall Street Journal recently (on Feb. 10) reported that China continues to conduct a coordinated, covert and targeted campaign of cyber espionage against five multinational energy companies.The attacks, dubbed Night Dragon in the West, successfully took gigabytes of highly sensitive internal company documents, including proprietary information about oil and gas field operations, technological advancements in drilling, project financing and bidding documents.We could be witnessing the results of this espionage in recent Chinese acquisitions.

PetroChina is China's largest energy firm, jointly owned by private investors and the Chinese government. PetroChina recently announced purchase of 50 percent of Canadian energy company Encana's Cutback Ridge asset for $5.4 billion. The purchase gives China access to natural gas from 635,000 acres in British Columbia and Alberta.
Last year, another Chinese energy giant, Sinopec, paid $4.5 billion to ConocoPhillips for a 9 percent share of Canada's biggest oil sands project. Nearly a quarter of China's $46 billion energy project purchases were made in Canada, a principal source of American imported oil.WikiLeaks has proven there is no such thing as Internet security. The revolution in Egypt made practical use of that fact.

I interviewed cyber security expert Tom Kellermann last week. His conclusion? There is no such thing as a secret on the Internet, and no computer is safe from hackers who steal or manipulate the content.In effect, we are as vulnerable at this moment as the villagers of York, England, were in the 12th century to Viking raids.With this background in mind, I was shocked to hear of the proposed purchase of the New York Stock Exchange by the German Borse.I wasn't shocked to hear of the dethroning of New York as the financial capital of the world. That was coming on for a long time for two reasons.First, technology makes it possible to trade shares anywhere in the world. A center like New York is no longer as vital as it was in the ticker tape era.Secondly, local, state and federal governments in the U.S. have been slowly strangling the New York goose that laid the golden eggs. Taxation and regulation made free trade of stocks less and less attractive in New York.World economic trends made consolidation of stock exchanges inevitable.The NYSE itself had gobbled up the American stock exchange, and purchased Euronext, which owned the exchanges in Amsterdam, Brussels and Paris. Now competitive pressures brought on by computer technology force this further consolidation that effectively unites the economic systems of the European Union and the United States.Only this concentration of economic power, the largest number of publicly traded companies in the world, stands a chance in the new competitive world where China, India, Brazil and other emerging economies will play a larger role.But this concentration of economic clout is possible only by the instantaneous trading done today not by humans shouting bids at each other on a trading floor, but by computers talking to each other at the speed of light all over the globe.

Computers are now increasingly vulnerable to attack.In April 2010, the value of the entire NYSE plunged in seconds, wiping out trillions of dollars of equity.A trader's fat finger was blamed initially for the snafu, which was swiftly corrected. No further explanations for this disaster have ever been offered – no congressional hearings, no SEC investigation.Two weeks ago, the London Stock Exchange reported it was under major cyber attack during a switch over to a Linux-based operating system. The LSE, unlike U.S. exchanges, is not based on the Internet and was thought to be less vulnerable to cyber attacks.While LSE and British security officials were tight lipped on what actually happened (even concocting a fat finger cover story), share prices of five major companies collapsed in a second, and the LSE suspended trading for a day.America's Nasdaq suffered a wave of cyber attacks recently with hackers gaining access to non-public, insider information. Sen. Max Baucus has asked the SEC to investigate whether these hacks have given anyone a trading advantage.The fact that there is a more threatening explanation to these instances of hacking the major stock exchanges has been universally ignored.What if some group (some country?) wanted to erase the West's economic clout in one blow?

What if these recent attacks are but probes to develop and use a super-Stuxnet which erases the wealth of every investor and every listed company in one nanosecond? It must be recognized that this is possible today. Won't the further concentration of exchanges into fewer hands using centralized computer systems just make such an attack easier and more likely? In this Pearl Harbor scenario, what if it isn't the U.S. Navy attacked, but the wealth of the West that's attacked and erased from the computers on which that wealth is recorded? Are we ready for that kind of assault?

REBUILT 3RD TEMPLE (THE EU DICTATORS TEMPLE)

ISAIAH 30:10-15
10 Which say to the seers, See not; and to the prophets, Prophesy not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits:
11 Get you out of the way, turn aside out of the path, cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us.
12 Wherefore thus saith the Holy One of Israel, Because ye despise this word, and trust in oppression and perverseness, and stay thereon:
13 Therefore this iniquity shall be to you as a breach ready to fall, swelling out in a high wall, whose breaking cometh suddenly at an instant.
14 And he shall break it as the breaking of the potters’ vessel that is broken in pieces; he shall not spare: so that there shall not be found in the bursting of it a sherd to take fire from the hearth, or to take water withal out of the pit.
15 For thus saith the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel; In returning and rest shall ye be saved; in quietness and in confidence shall be your strength: and ye would not.
16 But ye said, No; for we will flee upon horses; therefore shall ye flee: and, We will ride upon the swift; therefore shall they that pursue you be swift.

REVELATION 11:1-2
1 And there was given me a reed like unto a rod: and the angel stood, saying, Rise, and measure the temple of God, and the altar, and them that worship therein.
2 But the court which is without the temple leave out, and measure it not; for it is given unto the Gentiles: and the holy city shall they tread under foot forty and two months.

DANIEL 9:27
27 And he( THE ROMAN,EU PRESIDENT) shall confirm the covenant with many for one week:(1X7=7 YEARS) and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease,(3 1/2 yrs in TEMPLE SACRIFICES STOPPED) and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.

REBUILT 4TH TEMPLE (THE TRUE MESSIAHS TEMPLE)

ZECHARIAH 6:12-13
12 And speak unto him, saying, Thus speaketh the LORD of hosts, saying, Behold the man whose name is The BRANCH; and he shall grow up out of his place, and he shall build the temple of the LORD:
13 Even he shall build the temple of the LORD; and he shall bear the glory, and shall sit and rule upon his throne; and he shall be a priest upon his throne: and the counsel of peace shall be between them both.

ISAIAH 60:9-10
9 Surely the isles shall wait for me, and the ships of Tarshish first, to bring thy sons from far, their silver and their gold with them, unto the name of the LORD thy God, and to the Holy One of Israel, because he hath glorified thee.
10 And the sons of strangers shall build up thy walls, and their kings shall minister unto thee: for in my wrath I smote thee, but in my favour have I had mercy on thee.

ISAIAH 2:1-5
1 The word that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem.
2 And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the LORD's house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it.
3 And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.
4 And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.
5 O house of Jacob, come ye, and let us walk in the light of the LORD.

MARK 11:9-10,15-17
9 And they that went before, and they that followed, cried, saying, Hosanna; Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord:
10 Blessed be the kingdom of our father David, that cometh in the name of the Lord: Hosanna in the highest.
15 And they come to Jerusalem: and Jesus went into the temple, and began to cast out them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the seats of them that sold doves;
16 And would not suffer that any man should carry any vessel through the temple.
17 And he taught, saying unto them, Is it not written, My house shall be called of all nations the house of prayer? but ye have made it a den of thieves.

EZEKIEL 40 TO 48 IS THIS 4TH TEMPLE TO BIG FOR THE MOUNT I BELIEVE TO BE BUILT 25 MILES FROM JERUSALEM.

Monday, February 14, 2011 Temple Mount Tempest Mounts
By Terry James Rapture Ready

http://www.bibleprophecyblog.com/2011/02/temple-mount-tempest-mounts.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+BibleProphecyBlog+%28Bible+Prophecy+Blog%29

It is the most incendiary spot on planet earth – the bull’s eye in the cross hairs of Mideast rage. Focus on this singular point of earthly geography, however, doesn’t come only from Jews, Christians, and Islamists. There is laser-like anger that burns far more intensely than that generated by ancient human involvements and animosities.

The Temple Mount – Mt. Moriah — in Jerusalem continues to draw the attention of seen and unseen, overtly obvious and clandestine, forces to the one place on this fallen sphere God chose as His touchstone for mankind. UFOs were recently reported by a number of sources to be hovering over as well as descending and ascending above the Dome of the Rock. Footage of video taken from various angles was reported to show strange, glowing orbs gyrating just above the Muslim shrine where the religion of Islam claims the prophet Mohammed one night rode on his horse from the now-covered stone into their version of heaven. Things going on around the golden dome and its rock, however, are more often than not at the center of much more down-to-earth controversy.

This excerpt of a news item frames the most recent activity fueling the tempest atop Moriah: Muslim religious authorities are concluding a clandestine eight-month dig on the Temple Mount that is intended to erase traces of the Jewish Temple's Altar, Temple activists charge.The digs have been taking place under the Dome of the Chain, believed to have been built over 1300 years ago. For eight months, the dome - which has a diameter of 14 meters - has been surrounded by a metal fence and black cloth, which hide whatever activity has been going on there from outside inspection. The Muslim Waqf religious authority has claimed the activity is simply a refurbishing of the structure, but refuses adamantly to let Jews or tourists near.Jewish activists made various attempts to enter the Dome, but met with no success…Our Temple Mount [a news outlet] notes that according to Jewish tradition, the place where the Dome of the Chain is located is the spot upon which the sacrificial Altar stood in Temple times. Temple activists said that the Muslim digs are intended to erase the Jewish connection to the Temple Mount. (Gil Ronen, Digging on Temple Mount to Erase Traces of Jewish Altar, IsraelNationalNews.com, 2/7/11.The digs are a decades-long part of efforts by the Islamists to remove artifacts that might prove Israel’s link to the Temple Mount. There are worries by some Israeli engineers that so much digging and tunneling has been done beneath some sections of Moriah that part of the mount could collapse. Should that take place, and the Dome of the Rock or other shrines considered sacred by Muslims be damaged, fears are that such an occurrence could provide a reason for blaming the Jews. Thus a rallying point for instigating yet another war by a joint Arab coalition could be established.

Strange circumstances have always surrounded this promontory where the Jewish temples sat housing the Holy of Holies and the Ark of the Covenant. It is the very center – geographically speaking - of God’s salvation process for mankind. The Holy of Holies was the 15-foot cubed room where the heavy veil that separated God's presence from fallen human beings was ripped from top to bottom by the hand of the Almighty at the moment when Christ cried It is finished! and gave up His Spirit to death as the supreme sacrifice for the sins of all mankind. Because of reason behind that renting of the veil, all people now have direct access to God through His Son, Jesus.The second Temple – known as Herod’s Temple by some, was destroyed in A.D. 70 when the Romans destroyed Jerusalem and razed the building to extract every jewel and precious metal they could find from the ruins. The Muslims claimed the Mount centuries later and erected their shrines, claiming it for Allah based upon Mohammed’s supposed adventures – the night flight to heaven from the large, flat stone that the Dome of the Rock now covers.Israeli General Moshe Dayan, for reasons that are still a mystery, gave Jerusalem’s religious leaders of Islam the right to act as overseers of the Temple Mount, following the Israeli victory over Arab military forces in the 1967 Six-Day War. The tensions over access to the Mount have increased ever since, with the Muslim factions digging - it has been established — to try to remove all evidence that the temples ever stood there.Behind the building tempest is God’s most vicious enemy. He seethes with contempt for the Creator of all things. He hates everything associated with Jesus Christ, who died just outside the Temple area so that human beings – whom he hates, also - can be redeemed and reconciled to God, the Heavenly Father. Bible prophecy foretells that during the time of Jacob’s trouble (Jeremiah 30:7), Satan will bring his man, Antichrist, to sit in a rebuilt Temple atop the Temple Mount (2 Thessalonians 2:4). That man of sin will declare himself to be God and demand worship on penalty of death to those refusing to comply. All will have to obey by accepting the Beast’s (Antichrist’s) number and mark, or be beheaded - or no doubt die in other ways even more horrendous.

The Temple Mount is the one place on earth most coveted by Lucifer the fallen one, known now as the devil. Satan - as he is also known - couldn’t usurp the throne of God in heaven, and is determined to usurp God’s earthly throne, where God has promised that His Son, Jesus Christ, will one day rule and reign over the millennial earth.The Temple Mount tempest continues to mount. Israel, Jerusalem, the Temple Mount, and the ongoing attempt by the diplomats of earth to try to force a false peace covenant upon God’s chosen people, the Jews, should be at the center of attention of every Bible-believing observer of these troubling although exciting times.

EARTH WORSHIP

DEUTERONOMY 17:3-4
3 And hath gone and served other gods, and worshipped them, either the sun, or moon, or any of the host of heaven, which I have not commanded;
4 And it be told thee, and thou hast heard of it, and enquired diligently, and, behold, it be true, and the thing certain, that such abomination is wrought in Israel:

2 KINGS 23:5
5 And he put down the idolatrous priests, whom the kings of Judah had ordained to burn incense in the high places in the cities of Judah, and in the places round about Jerusalem; them also that burned incense unto Baal, to the sun, and to the moon, and to the planets, and to all the host of heaven.

Renewables will never meet Ontario's electricity needs
Dave Trumble President Grey-Bruce Labour Council FEB 14,11 THE SUN TIMES


Editor:I have yet to understand why the wind power lobby sees the phasing out of nuclear and coal as integral to the energy future of Ontario and beyond.No responsible or informed discussion on wind or renewable energy sources in general gives the slightest bit of credibility to the position that the electricity needs of Ontario could ever be met by these sources alone.Even with any amount of anticipated conservation added into this the amount of electricity demand will always far exceed the available power from renewables and conservation. In fact, traditional methods of producing electricity produce thousands of megawatts more than renewables each and every day in Ontario.Today (Jan 20 for example) wind was responsible for 90 megawatts of supply to the grid while nuclear was producing well in excess of 10,000 megawatts without one gram of greenhouse gases as a byproduct.

The simple mathematics of supply and demand underscore the minimal impact that wind has on the daily electricity needs and this does not even take into account the cost of wind energy at $140-plus per megawatt or solar at $400-plus per megawatt hour. Nuclear power is generally produced at a cost in the range of $40-$60 per megawatt hour. Make no mistake that once the health effects of wind turbines are taken into effect and setbacks are legislated many in the debate see wind and other renewables as having some role to play in the electricity mix in Ontario, but at no time will wind or renewables meet the baseload needs of the province.The health debate will never go away, but in simplest terms the production of electricity from nuclear energy is the most regulated industry in the world and year over year self regulates itself to less than 1% of allowable emissions to the environment. I wonder if the hundreds of trucks hauling the offshore made parts for windmills ever keep to less than 1% of their allowable emissions. CANDU reactors and all their components are over 95% sourced in Canada and have mitigated hundreds of millions of tonnes of greenhouse gases since they first came online.Almost all parties understand the controversy over the use of coal, but to suggest that Ontario will follow a path of renewables, wind and gas instead of converting existing coal plants to the use of biomass is another form of irresponsible energy policy in Ontario.

Thankfully the government of Ontario recognizes the need for nuclear power, but it is time make it clear that wind and renewables are not the answer and will only be a small contributor to Ontario's energy future.Casually disposing of nuclear and coal without looking at alternative uses for existing coal plants and thinking that wind and renewables will take their place is a guarantee for an Ontario with no future economic prosperity.Dave Trumble-President Grey-Bruce Labour Council Article ID# 2976855

EGYPT

ISAIAH 19:1-15
1 The burden of Egypt. Behold, the LORD rideth upon a swift cloud, and shall come into Egypt: and the idols of Egypt shall be moved at his presence, and the heart of Egypt shall melt in the midst of it.
2 And I will set the Egyptians against the Egyptians: and they shall fight every one against his brother, and every one against his neighbour; city against city, and kingdom against kingdom.
3 And the spirit of Egypt shall fail in the midst thereof; and I will destroy the counsel thereof: and they shall seek to the idols, and to the charmers, and to them that have familiar spirits, and to the wizards.
4 And the Egyptians will I give over into the hand of a cruel lord; and a fierce king shall rule over them, saith the Lord, the LORD of hosts.
5 And the waters shall fail from the sea, and the river shall be wasted and dried up.
6 And they shall turn the rivers far away; and the brooks of defence shall be emptied and dried up: the reeds and flags shall wither.
7 The paper reeds by the brooks, by the mouth of the brooks, and every thing sown by the brooks, shall wither, be driven away, and be no more.
8 The fishers also shall mourn, and all they that cast angle into the brooks shall lament, and they that spread nets upon the waters shall languish.
9 Moreover they that work in fine flax, and they that weave networks, shall be confounded.
10 And they shall be broken in the purposes thereof, all that make sluices and ponds for fish.
11 Surely the princes of Zoan are fools, the counsel of the wise counsellors of Pharaoh is become brutish: how say ye unto Pharaoh, I am the son of the wise, the son of ancient kings?
12 Where are they? where are thy wise men? and let them tell thee now, and let them know what the LORD of hosts hath purposed upon Egypt.
13 The princes of Zoan are become fools, the princes of Noph are deceived; they have also seduced Egypt, even they that are the stay of the tribes thereof.
14 The LORD hath mingled a perverse spirit in the midst thereof: and they have caused Egypt to err in every work thereof, as a drunken man staggereth in his vomit.
15 Neither shall there be any work for Egypt, which the head or tail, branch or rush, may do.

Army hopes to hand Egypt to civilian rule by August By Andrew Hammond and Peter Millership - FEB 15,11

CAIRO (Reuters) – Egypt's new military rulers said on Tuesday they hoped to hand power over to an elected civilian leadership within six months and that they had no desire to keep control following the overthrow of President Hosni Mubarak.The remarks carried on the state agency were the clearest indication since Mubarak was forced to resign on Friday that the high command was committed to a brief timeframe for meeting the demands of pro-democracy protesters for a new start.Some secular leaders have raised concerns, however, that racing into presidential and parliamentary elections in a nation where Mubarak had suppressed most opposition activity for 30 years may hand an advantage to the Muslim Brotherhood, probably Egypt's best organized political force.The Higher Military Council expressed its hope to hand over power within six months to a civilian authority and a president elected in a peaceful and free manner that expresses the views of the people, an armed forces statement said.The council affirmed that it does not seek power, that the current situation was imposed on the armed forces and that they have the confidence of the people, it said.The military also decreed that a committee headed by an independent judge, Tareq al-Bishry, should finish its work within 10 days on drafting amendments to the constitution. The plan is to then put these to a referendum.As the upheaval in Egypt sent shock waves around the Middle East, troubling global financial markets worried about oil supplies, clashes broke out in Bahrain and Yemen, neighbors of the world's biggest oil exporter Saudi Arabia.
Thousands of Iranians opposed to their government rallied in support of the uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia on Monday.

MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD ON TV

Existing political groupings are mostly weak and fragmented. The Muslim Brotherhood, which under the now-suspended constitution could not form a party, may be the best organized group but its true popularity has yet to be tested.When the popular demand for the freedom to form parties is realized, the group will found a political party, the Brotherhood said in a new statement.Signaling the transformation in Egypt, state television aired an interview with senior Muslim Brotherhood member Essam el-Erian, something unimaginable in the Mubarak era.The Brotherhood is an Islamist group founded in the 1920s with deep roots in Egypt's conservative Muslim society. Washington has expressed concern about its anti-American rhetoric and said it has serious disagreements with it.Pro-democracy leaders plan a big Victory March on Friday to celebrate the revolution -- and perhaps also to remind the military of the power of the street.Uncertainty remains over how much influence the military will seek to exert in reshaping a corrupt and oppressive ruling system which it has propped up for six decades.

EMERGENCY LAWS

The military has promised free and fair elections, suspended the constitution and dissolved parliament, dismantling parts of the apparatus that kept Mubarak in power after he replaced Anwar Sadat, who was assassinated by Islamist radicals in 1981.
Wael Ghonim, a Google executive who had been detained for his part in the uprising, said military council members had told youth leaders that a referendum would be held on constitutional amendments in two months, a prelude to holding elections. To placate pro-democracy activists, Egypt's army has pledged to lift a state of emergency in place throughout Mubarak's 30-year rule. Campaigners are impatient for this to happen soon. On a public holiday for the Prophet Mohammad's birthday, Egypt paused for breath as the army sought to calm revolutionary fervor and get the country back to work. A dust storm deterred protests that have flared since Mubarak quit on Friday.Facing a rash of pent-up labor demands from groups ranging from bank staff and tour guides to policemen and steelworkers, the new military rulers have urged people not to disrupt further an economy jolted by the 18-day uprising against Mubarak.With anger smoldering over rising prices, low wages and economic hardships that afflict many of Egypt's 80 million people, the military faces a delicate balancing act in accommodating demands unleashed by the revolution.Protests, sit-ins and strikes have broken out at state institutions across Egypt, including the stock exchange, textile and steel firms, media groups, the postal services and railways.

Raising wages and subsidies on basic goods are options the military could use to calm labor unrest, analysts said, though such measures would throw liberal economic reforms into reverse.There is this jubilation and exuberance of Egyptians, but the reality is there are more uncertainties than before, said John Sfakianakis, chief economist at Banque Saudi Fransi.

MAELSTROM OF MUBARAK RUMOURS

In Tahrir Square, scene of clashes between protesters and police during the revolt, traffic flowed freely on Tuesday. Army tanks and armored vehicles around the square and other Cairo locations have now been sandbagged into position.Mubarak, 82, has not been seen in public since he resigned. He is thought to be in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, where some tourists are still holidaying despite the turmoil.
With Mubarak at his seaside residence, Egyptians traded rumors about his health. Some said he was in a coma and others that he had gone for medical treatment to Germany, where he had gall bladder surgery last March.But a source close to his family said: He's in Sharm. and I know for sure he's in good health and he is with his family.The United States, Britain and France said on Monday Egypt had asked them to freeze the assets of former officials. Paris and Washington said Mubarak was not on the list of officials.(Reporting by Marwa Awad, Edmund Blair, Alexander Dziadosz, Shaimaa Fayed, Andrew Hammond, Alistair Lyon, Sherine El Madany, Tom Perry, Yasmine Saleh, Patrick Werr, Jonathan Wright and Dina Zayed; writing by Peter Millership, editing by Alistair Lyon and Angus MacSwan)

Egypt's Mubarak in failing health: paper
FEB 15,2011


CAIRO (Reuters) – The health of former Egyptian ruler Hosni Mubarak is deteriorating and he has refused to travel abroad for treatment, the Saudi-owned daily Asharq al-Awsat said on Tuesday.A military source told Reuters Mubarak was breathing but would not give details about his status. Another Egyptian source with links to the family said he was not well but did not elaborate.What is certain is that his state of health is declining drastically, in addition there is information that he is refusing to receive the required medical treatment, Asharq al-Awsat said in its online edition, quoting a former security official affiliated to the Egyptian military high command.The Higher Military Council took over the country after Mubarak resigned on Friday following over two weeks of massive protests against his 30-year rule.The Asharq al-Awsat report said Mubarak, 82, had refused advice to travel to Germany for treatment. He underwent gallbladder surgery there last year, and since then rumors about his health have frequently surfaced.

Mubarak is refusing this (travel abroad), the paper said, quoting its source. He has asked those around him to allow him to die in his country, and I believe this is just a matter of time.Mubarak had said in his final speeches to the nation, while still hanging on to office, that he would die in Egypt.Speculation has swirled about Mubarak's health, including some talk that he may have already died.Arab diplomats, including one Egyptian, said on Tuesday they had not heard any news that Mubarak had died.(Reporting by Andrew Hammond and Samia Nakhoul, Editing by Alistair Lyon)

Egypt: Muslim Brotherhood plans political party
By LEE KEATH and HAMZA HENDAWI, Associated Press - FEB 15,11


CAIRO – Egypt's long banned Muslim Brotherhood said Tuesday it intends to form a political party once democracy is established, as the country's new military rulers launched a panel of experts to amend the country's constitution enough to allow democratic elections later this year.The military is trying to push ahead quickly with a transition after Mubarak resigned Friday in the face of 18 days of unprecedented popular protests that massed hundreds of thousands. The panel is to draw up changes at a breakneck pace — within 10 days — to end the monopoly that ousted President Hosni Mubarak's ruling party once held, which it ensured through widespread election rigging.Generals from the Armed Forces Supreme Council, which now rules Egypt, said Tuesday the military wants to hand power to a government and elected president within six months, the firmest timetable yet outlined.The initial constitutional changes may not be enough for many in Egypt calling for the current constitution, now suspended by the military, to be thrown out completely and rewritten to ensure no one can once again establish autocratic rule. Two members on the panel said the next elected government could further change the document if it choses.The military's choices for the panel's makeup were a sign of the new political legitimacy of the Muslim Brotherhood, the fundamentalist group that was the most bitter rival of Mubarak's regime. Among the panel's members is Sobhi Saleh, a former lawmaker from the Brotherhood who is seen as part of its reformist wing.

The eight-member committee held its opening meeting with Defense Minister Hussein Tantawi on Tuesday. The panel includes three judges from the Supreme Constitutional Court — one of them a Christian — and legal experts, one of its members, scholar Mohammed Hassanein Abdel-Al, told The Associated Press.The panel is headed by Tareq el-Bishri, considered one of Egypt's top legal minds. A former judge, he was once a secular leftist but became a prominent thinker in the moderate Islamic political trend. He is respected on both sides as a bridge between the movements.The military is now also urging an end to labor strikes that began spreading wildly across the country last week. The strikes gave an added element of turmoil that which along with rapidly mushrooming protests, prompted the military to force Mubarak into retirement. Strikes have continued since even as the political protests themselves have largely ended.The Supreme Council warned on Tuesday that continuing strikes and protests would be disastrous, arguing that only when they stop could the economic and social ills plaguing the country could be tackled, the state news agency MENA reported.In a nod to the anger over corruption that is fueling strikes and protests, the council acknowledged how widespread the malfeasance was in the ousted regime.

No one expected that the corruption was of this size, the council said, according to MENA. The council does not have a magic wand to end it immediately. But at the same time, it will not allow new corruption or the growth of existing corruption. MENA cited sources close to the council, but it appeared to be quoting at least some of the council's generals.The dozens of strikes, many hitting state agencies and industries, are a further blow to Egypt's economy, damaged by the three weeks of upheaval. Egypt's Foreign Minster Ahmed Aboul Gheit called on the international community to provide aid to boost Egypt's economy.The strikes eased Tuesday, mainly because an Islamic holiday meant state offices and businesses were closed. Still, smaller protests by hundreds continued in at least seven provinces outside Cairo, including by government workers and police over pay. Fishermen in the Nile Delta demanded an end to restrictions on where they can fish in a lake north of the capital. Sugar cane growers in the southern city of Luxor demonstrated demanding higher prices for their crops.Throughout Mubarak's rule, his regime kept a stranglehold on Egyptian politics.Any opposition parties had to be approved by a commission run by his ruling National Democratic Party. The constitution stiffly restricts who can run for president, preventing a real challenger. It also lifted almost all independent supervision of elections, opening the door to vote rigging that ensured the most recent parliament — now dissolved — was almost entirely made up of Mubarak's ruling party.

As a result, the existing political parties are hollow shells, with little public following. The constitution also explicitly bans any parties formed on a religious basis.The Muslim Brotherhood, banned since 1954, could not form a party but ran candidates for parliament as independents. In 2005, it made a surprisingly strong showing, winning 20 percent of parliament's seats. But it was pushed out completely in the most recent election in November and December, plagued by fraud.The Brotherhood announced Tuesday that it would form a party once promised freer laws are in place. The Muslim Brotherhood group believes in the freedom of the formation of political parties. They are eager to have a political party, spokesman Mohammed Mursi said in a statement on the Brotherhood website.Essam el-Erian, a senior leader in the Brotherhood, said the movement would not run any candidate for upcoming presidential elections, acknowledging that such a move would be too controversial.

We are not going to have a candidate for the upcoming presidential elections. Its time for solidarity, its time for unity, in my opinion we need a national consensus, he said. But he said the Brotherhood's top leadership had decided on the creation of a party. The Brotherhood seeks an Islamic state in Egypt, and Mubarak's regime depicted it as aiming to take over the country, launching fierce crackdowns on the group. Some Egyptians remain deeply suspicious of the secretive organization, fearing it will exploit the current turmoil to vault to power.But others — including the secular, liberal youth activists who launched the anti-Mubarak uprising — say the Brotherhood has to be allowed freedom to compete in a democracy alongside everyone else. Support by young cadres in the Brotherhood was key to the protests' success, providing manpower and organization, though they never came to form a majority in the wave of demonstrations.The new constitutional panel is mandated to draw up amendments within 10 days to be put to a referendum, paving the way for elections. The military specified six articles to be amended or thrown out along with changes to any connected articles that the committee deems necessary, according to the military's statement to the panel, read to The Associated Press by Abdel-Al.

This is a critical moment and things have to be dealt with on a priority basis, Abdel-Al said of the decision to focus on those select articles, which are the main ones imposing restrictions on elections and allowing the president to run as many times as he wants. This is a preliminary requirement to hold free democratic elections ... our task is to make it feasible for that to happen.The future parliament and government can decide whether to make further amendments or rewrite the whole thing, he said. Saleh, the Brotherhood member on the panel, said the goal was to cleanse the constitution to ensure freedom of political parties and other rights ahead of the election. After the transition to a democratic life and freedoms, parties and political forces can get together and work on a complete constitution,he said.The Armed Forces Supreme Council, grouping the defense minister and top generals, has vowed to hand over power to an elected civilian government. It has dissolved parliament and suspended the constitution — steps that encouraged protest leaders because both were pillars of the Mubarak regime. But it has kept in place the last government installed by Mubarak as a caretaker until a new one is named.Protesters have welcomed many of the military's moves, but remain suspicious whether it will completely hand over power or change the system.MENA's Tuesday report showed some defensiveness on the council about Mubarak. It said they praised Mubarak for his decision to resign which saved the country from untold disaster. They denied what they called fabricated stories about the former leader, arguing that he had long track record of achievements but that his rule was not without mistakes.

On Monday, the coalition of activists who organized the protest movement pushed the military for further steps. In a list of demands Monday, they called for the dissolving of Mubarak's National Democratic Party and for the creation of a Cabinet of technocrats within 30 days. They want it to replace the current caretaker government.It is unacceptable that the same government which caused this revolution with its corrupt ways oversees the transitional period, said Ziad al-Oleimi, a member of the coalition.Protesters in Tahrir Square, the symbolic heart of the uprising, have emptied the area, with the military stepping in to pack up tents and blankets in the past two days and asking people to leave. The activists' coalition called for an official end to its demonstrations, in a gesture to the interim leadership. But protest organizers are planning a new mass demonstration on Friday, seeking to bring 1 million to the square to call for the meeting of their demands — including the release of political detainees and the cancellation of emergency laws.

In a rare admission Sunday, the new interior minister in the caretaker government said there may be about 10,000 political prisoners in Egyptian prisons, and that he is reviewing their files. His comments were published in the daily Al-Masry Al-Youm on Monday. The number includes opponents jailed for years under Mubarak's regime.

OTHER HEADLINES ABOUT THE MIDEAST UPRISINGS
Middle East Protests: Iran and Egypt Face New Challenges.
Iran MPs rage against opposition after deadly demo.
Tunisia struggles to tame revolutionary spirit.
Tunisia extends state of emergency, ends curfew.
Saudi activists seek political party.
Bahrain protesters take control of main square.
Yemenis trying to oust leader protest for 5th day.
Jordan revokes restrictions on public gatherings.
S.African protesters fire, police return live fire.

HERES THE 11 PREDICTED TO FALL NEXT
Morocco:Jordan:Syria: Saudi Arabia: Iran: Libya: Yemen: Pakistan:Vietnam:Venezuela:China:
DETAILS ABOUT THE 11 TO FALL
http://israndjer.blogspot.com/2011/02/israel-leads-in-cancer-treatment.html

Middle East and North Africa rocked by protests
– Mon Feb 14, 11:09 am ET


NICOSIA (AFP) – Shock waves from the ouster of presidents in Tunisia and Egypt continued to roll across North Africa and the Middle East on Monday, with peoples long subject to autocratic rule demanding to be heard.Despite many states cautiously welcoming the overthrow of Zine El Abidine Ben Ali and Hosni Mubarak, their own populations have been seized by the momentum and are demanding greater freedoms and reform.Following is a breakdown of events, both current and planned, in the Arabic-speaking world and in Iran.

ALGERIA: Opposition leaders planned a second protest march in the capital despite a long-standing ban on demonstrations, and France called on Algiers to allow anti-government protests to take place freely and without violence.

BAHRAIN: Bahraini police used tear gas to disperse dozens of protesters in the eastern village of Nuwaidrat, as security forces deployed in the tiny Gulf kingdom following Facebook calls for a February 14 revolt.

EGYPT: The new military regime called on workers to end a wave of strikes and civil disobedience that has threatened to paralyse the country in the wake of the fall of Hosni Mubarak's government.

IRAN: Thousands of defiant Iranian opposition supporters in Tehran staged what they said was a rally supporting Arab revolts as riot police fired tear gas and paint balls to disperse them, witnesses and opposition websites said.

IRAQ: Baghdad will on March 29 host its first annual Arab summit since the US-led of invasion of 2003, in the wake of popular uprisings that transformed the political landscape of the volatile but long autocratic region.

JORDAN: Justice Minister Hussein Mujalli joins a sit-in held by trade unions and describes a Jordanian soldier serving a life sentence for killing Israeli schoolgirls in 1997 as a hero, demanding his release.

LIBYA: Facebook groups numbering several hundred members have called for demonstrations to mark a day of rage in Libya on February 17 modelled on similar protests in other Arab countries.

MOROCCO: Prime Minister Abbas El Fassi was to meet the opposition to discuss parliamentary polls, with the impact of the uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia weighing heavily on the talks.

PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES: Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas reappointed Salam Fayyad as premier and tasked him with forming a new government after his cabinet resigned.

SYRIA: Woman blogger Tal al-Mallouhi, 19, gets five years in prison after being found guilty by a security court of divulging information to a foreign country. Her blog focuses on the Palestinians, not Syrian politics.

TUNISIA: The country marked a month since the overthrow of president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.

YEMEN: Pro-democracy protesters clashed violently with police and supporters of President Ali Abdullah Saleh, with clashes also reported in Taez south of the capital, where thousands of people joined anti-Saleh demonstrations.

ALLTIME