JEWISH KING JESUS IS COMING AT THE RAPTURE FOR US IN THE CLOUDS-DON'T MISS IT FOR THE WORLD.THE BIBLE TAKEN LITERALLY- WHEN THE PLAIN SENSE MAKES GOOD SENSE-SEEK NO OTHER SENSE-LEST YOU END UP IN NONSENSE.GET SAVED NOW- CALL ON JESUS TODAY.THE ONLY SAVIOR OF THE WHOLE EARTH - NO OTHER.
1 COR 15:23-JESUS THE FIRST FRUITS-CHRISTIANS RAPTURED TO JESUS-FIRST FRUITS OF THE SPIRIT-23 But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming.ROMANS 8:23 And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.(THE PRE-TRIB RAPTURE)
LUKE 21:28-29
28 And when these things begin to come to pass,(ALL THE PROPHECY SIGNS FROM THE BIBLE) then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption (RAPTURE) draweth nigh.
29 And he spake to them a parable; Behold the fig tree,(ISRAEL) and all the trees;(ALL INDEPENDENT COUNTRIES)
30 When they now shoot forth, ye see and know of your own selves that summer is now nigh at hand.(ISRAEL LITERALLY BECAME AND INDEPENDENT COUNTRY JUST BEFORE SUMMER IN MAY 14,1948.)
JOEL 2:3,30
3 A fire devoureth (ATOMIC BOMB) before them;(RUSSIAN-ARAB-MUSLIM ARMIES AGAINST ISRAEL) and behind them a flame burneth: the land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness; yea, and nothing shall escape them.
30 And I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke.(ATOMIC BOMB AFFECT)
ZECHARIAH 14:12-13
12 And this shall be the plague wherewith the LORD will smite all the people that have fought against Jerusalem; Their flesh shall consume away while they stand upon their feet,(DISOLVED FROM ATOMIC BOMB) and their eyes shall consume away in their holes,(DISOLVED FROM ATOMIC BOMB) and their tongue shall consume away in their mouth.(DISOLVED FROM ATOMIC BOMB)(BECAUSE NUKES HAVE BEEN USED ON ISRAELS ENEMIES)(GOD PROTECTS ISRAEL AND ALWAYS WILL)
13 And it shall come to pass in that day, that a great tumult from the LORD shall be among them; and they shall lay hold every one on the hand of his neighbour, and his hand shall rise up against the hand of his neighbour.(1/2-3 BILLION DIE IN WW3)(THIS IS AN ATOMIC BOMB EFFECT)
EZEKIEL 20:47
47 And say to the forest of the south, Hear the word of the LORD; Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I will kindle a fire in thee, and it shall devour every green tree in thee, and every dry tree: the flaming flame shall not be quenched, and all faces from the south to the north shall be burned therein.
ZEPHANIAH 1:18
18 Neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them in the day of the LORD'S wrath; but the whole land shall be devoured by the fire of his jealousy: for he shall make even a speedy riddance of all them that dwell in the land.
MALACHI 4:1
1 For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven;(FROM ATOMIC BOMBS) and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the LORD of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.
And here are the bounderies of the land that Israel will inherit either through war or peace or God in the future. God says its Israels land and only Israels land. They will have every inch God promised them of this land in the future.
Egypt east of the Nile River, Saudi Arabia, Israel, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, The southern part of Turkey and the Western Half of Iraq west of the Euphrates. Gen 13:14-15, Psm 105:9,11, Gen 15:18, Exe 23:31, Num 34:1-12, Josh 1:4.ALL THIS LAND ISRAEL WILL DEFINATELY OWN IN THE FUTURE, ITS ISRAELS NOT ISHMAELS LAND.12 TRIBES INHERIT LAND IN THE FUTURE
Netanyahu: Hezbollah ‘brazenly lying’ to world about weapons sites-Israeli PM says foreign ambassadors in Beirut went on ‘fraudulent propaganda tour’ hosted by Lebanese FM as terror group had 3 days to clear the area-By TOI staff and Agencies-3 October 2018
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Lebanese terror group Hezbollah, an Iranian proxy, of “brazenly lying” to the international community over the secret weapons facilities in and around Beirut, which the Israeli premier disclosed on the world stage at the United Nations General Assembly last week.Netanyahu said in a statement Monday that Lebanese Foreign Minister Gibran Bassil took 73 foreign envoys on a “fraudulent propaganda tour” of the alleged missile sites, where he failed to show them the underground facilities where Hezbollah is reportedly storing precision-guided missiles.“Hezbollah is brazenly lying to the international community by means of the fraudulent propaganda tour of the Lebanese foreign minister who took ambassadors to the soccer field [one of the alleged missile sites] but refrained from taking them to the nearby underground precision missile production facility,” Netanyahu said.On Monday, Bassil led a group of the ambassadors around a pool complex and the sports stadium in a bid to disprove the Israeli accusations.“Today Lebanon is raising [its] voice by addressing all countries of the world… to refute Israel’s allegations,” Bassil was quoted as saying. Israel’s Channel 10 news said Monday night that Lebanon feared Israel may attack the sites.Netanyahu said the envoys “should ask themselves why [Lebanese authorities] waited three days to give them a tour.” The PM said in the September 27 address to the UN General Assembly that Hezbollah had secret missile conversion sites in and around Beirut.One of the alleged sites is located under a soccer field used by a Hezbollah-sponsored team; another is just north of the Rafik Hariri International Airport; and the third is underneath the Beirut port and less than 500 meters from the airport’s tarmac.These three are not the only facilities that the IDF believes are being used by Hezbollah for the manufacturing and storage of precision missiles.Hezbollah, Netanyahu said, took pains to clear out the exposed facilities so that foreign diplomats could tour the area.“It’s saddening that the Lebanese government is sacrificing the safety of its citizens while covering for Hezbollah, which has taken Lebanon hostage in its aggression toward Israel,” said Netanyahu.Earlier Monday, the Israeli military released a video noting that three days had passed since Netanyahu detailed the presence of the alleged facilities.“In three days you can clear out a precision missile factory, invite foreign ambassadors, and hope that the world will fall for it.”It urged the international community not to be duped by what it said were “Hezbollah’s lies.”#Hezbollah has a long history of covering up inconvenient truths and then parading foreign officials around. Maybe this time ask why missile workshop located so close to int’l #airport in heart of #Beirut?#maybethetruththistime pic.twitter.com/SFpqmw7ztq— Israel Defense Forces (@IDFSpokesperson) October 1, 2018-The Russian ambassador to Lebanon, Alexander Zasypkin, described the tour as “very good.”“On the diplomatic and political spheres, there are many statements,” he told The Associated Press. “What we saw today are facts. There is a club and stadium. I can’t imagine a secret thing happening in these places. We saw that with our own eyes.”In his UN address on Thursday, Netanyahu produced satellite imagery pinpointing the three sites being used by Hezbollah, accusing the Shiite terror group of using Beirut residents as human shields.“So I also have a message for Hezbollah today: Israel knows, Israel also knows what you’re doing. Israel knows where you’re doing it. And Israel will not let you get away with it,” Netanyahu said.Hezbollah, whose forces control south Lebanon bordering Israel and Beirut’s southern suburbs where the airport is located, has not officially reacted to the accusation.Bassil on Monday lashed out at Israel, which he said had “violated our land, air, and marine space 1,417 times in the last eight months.”Israel was attempting “to justify another violation of UN resolutions and to justify another aggression on a sovereign country,” he said.The Jewish state has fought several conflicts against Hezbollah, the last in 2006.Bassil said his government would not allow rocket facilities near the airport and that Hezbollah is “wiser” than to place them there. He said Netanyahu’s claims were based on “inaccurate” estimates without any “compelling evidence.”“Lebanon demands that Israel ceases its madness,” he said.Bassil said Monday’s tour, which included the ambassadors and several reporters, was not “a fact-finding mission,” but part of a “counter-diplomatic campaign” to rebut the allegations.Hezbollah’s leader Hassan Nasrallah recently boasted that his group now possesses “highly accurate” missiles despite Israeli attempts to prevent it from acquiring such weapons.Bassil acknowledged Hezbollah’s claims, but said “this doesn’t mean that those missiles are present in the vicinity of Beirut airport.”Soon after Netanyahu’s speech Thursday, the IDF released satellite images of the sites that it says are being used by Hezbollah to hide underground precision missile production facilities.The sites are located within close proximity to the Beirut airport.The factories, which are meant to convert regular missiles into more accurate precision ones, are not believed to be up and running. The Israeli military said the missiles are currently being constructed with Iranian assistance.The target of last month’s Israeli airstrike, in which a Russian spy plane was inadvertently shot down by Syrian air defenses, was machinery used in the production of precision missiles en route to Hezbollah, The Times of Israel learned.According to Netanyahu, these precision missiles are capable of striking with 10 meters (32 feet) of their given target. Hezbollah is believed to have an arsenal of between 100,000 and 150,000 rockets and missiles, though the vast majority are thought to lack precision technology.The army said the facilities are “another example of Iranian entrenchment in the region and the negative influence of Iran.”Holding up aerial photos of the alleged Hezbollah facilities, Netanyahu warned: “Israel knows what you are doing, Israel knows where you are doing it, and Israel will not let you get away with it.”Netanyahu accused the Lebanese terror group of “deliberately using the innocent people of Beirut as human shields.”According to the Israel Defense Forces, Hezbollah began working on these surface-to-surface missile facilities last year.Reports that Iran was constructing underground missile conversion factories in Lebanon first emerged in March 2017.Since then, Israeli officials have repeatedly said that Israel would not tolerate such facilities.In January, Netanyahu said Lebanon “is becoming a factory for precision-guided missiles that threaten Israel. These missiles pose a grave threat to Israel, and we cannot accept this threat.”
Child abuse leaves ‘molecular scars’ on victims, study finds-Scientists examining sperm of those who suffered from sexual assaults find tiny alternation in some parts of their DNA-By Patrick Galey-OCT 3,18
PARIS, France (AFP) — Children subjected to abuse may carry the physical hallmark of that trauma in their cells, scientists said Tuesday, in research that could help criminal investigations probing historic mistreatment.The imprints may also shed light on whether or not trauma can be passed on between generations as has long been hypothesized.A team of researchers at the University of British Columbia examined the sperm cells of 34 adult men, some of whom had been victims of child abuse years earlier.They found that the effects of the trauma were indelibly printed in 12 regions of the DNA of those men who had experienced varying levels of emotional, physical or sexual abuse.Scientists believe these alterations, known as methylation, could one day be used by investigators or courts to weigh allegations of child abuse.“If you think of genes as being like lightbulbs, DNA methylation is like a dimmer switch that controls how strong each light is — which in turn can influence how cells function,” Nicole Gladish, a PhD candidate in the university’s Department of Medical Genetics, told AFP.“This information can potentially provide additional information about how childhood abuse affects long-term physical and mental health.”The experiment is one of a growing number of trials looking into what turns genes “on and off” at different periods of human development, a field of study known as epigenetics.Once thought as entirely pre-programmed from conception, some genes are now known to be activated or deactivated by environmental factors or an individual’s life experience.Small piece of the puzzle’Scientists involved in the study, published in the journal Translational Psychiatry, said they still did not know how methylation affects a person’s long-term health.In addition, due to the difficulty in extracting egg cells, the team don’t plan to replicate the experiment on women — statistically far likelier to have been victims of child abuse than men.Scientists said the degree of “dimming” in the DNA regions were surprising — one part of the genome of the men who were abused as children was 29 percent different to those who were not.And, because the degree of methylation changes over time, they were able to tell by looking at the men’s cells roughly when the abuse occurred.“This might help the development of tests that could be used by healthcare workers or potentially even as forensic evidence,” Gladish said.Although researchers still have little idea whether or not the imprints of abuse contained within sperm cells would survive fertilization intact, lead author Andrea Roberts said the study “brings us at least one step closer” towards working out if trauma can be transmitted across generations.“We can look at our study as one small piece in the huge overall puzzle of how intergenerational trauma works,” said Gladish.She pointed out there are several other teams working on the conundrum, including experiments on mice and other animals.“It is certainly possible that epigenetic changes in sperm cells play a role in the physical and mental health of the next generation, but we don’t know for sure.”
Iran fires ballistic missiles at Syria militants over attack-[The Canadian Press]-YAHOONEWS-October 3, 2018
TEHRAN, Iran — Iran's Revolutionary Guard launched six ballistic missiles as well as drone bombers early Monday toward eastern Syria, targeting militants it blamed for an attack on a military parade last month while also threatening regional adversaries as Tehran's nuclear deal with world powers unravels.The missiles had enough range to strike regional U.S. military bases and targets inside both Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.Iran's supreme leader has called out the two Arab nations by name, accusing them of being behind the Sept. 22 attack on the parade in the Iranian city of Ahvaz, something denied by both Riyadh and Abu Dhabi.Monday's strike was the second missile attack by Iran in a month's time, and came as tensions rise ahead of renewed U.S. sanctions targeting Tehran's oil industry that will take effect in early November."This is the roaring of missiles belonging to the Revolutionary Guard of the Islamic Revolution," a state TV reporter said as the missiles launched behind him. "In a few minutes, the world of arrogance — especially America, the (Israeli) Zionist regime and the Al Saud — will hear the sound of Iran's repeated blows." Al Saud is a reference to Saudi Arabia's royal family.Iranian state TV and the state-run IRNA news agency said the missiles "killed and wounded" militants in Syria, without elaborating. The missiles, launched from western Iran, flew over Iraq and landed near the city of Boukamal in the far southeast of Syria, they reported."Terrorists used bullets in Ahvaz," Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh, chief of the Guard's aerospace division, told the semi-official Tasnim news agency. "We answered them with missiles."The Guard, a paramilitary group that answers directly to the supreme leader, said it followed the missiles with bombing runs by seven remotely piloted drones, a first for Iran. State TV aired footage of a drone dropping what appeared to be an unguided munition.Boukamal is held by Syrian government forces, but IS still maintains a presence in the area, despite being driven from virtually all the territory it once held in Syria and Iraq.Rami Abdurrahman, who heads the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, told The Associated Press that the Iranian missiles hit the IS-held town of Hajin, just north of Boukamal.Strong explosions shook the area early Monday, reverberating east of the Euphrates River, he said. U.S.-allied Kurdish fighters have been battling IS in and around Hajin for weeks.The U.S. military's Central Command acknowledged that Iranian forces conducted "no-notice strikes" in the area."The coalition is still assessing if any damage occurred, and no coalition forces were in danger," U.S. Army Col. Sean Ryan said.IS militants did not immediately acknowledge the attack.The missile launch further adds to confusion over who carried out the assault on a military parade, which killed at least 24 people and wounded over 60.Iran initially blamed Arab separatists for the attack in which gunmen disguised as soldiers opened fire on the crowd and officials watching the parade from a viewing platform. The Arab separatists, who have long complained of discrimination in Persian-majority Iran, claimed the attack and provided accurate details about one of the attackers.The Islamic State group also claimed responsibility for the Ahvaz assault, but initially made factually incorrect claims about it. Later, IS released footage of several men that Iran ultimately identified as attackers, though the men in the footage are not known to have pledged allegiance to the extremist group.In announcing the launch, Iranian state media said the missiles targeted both "takfiri" militants — a term it often applies to the Islamic State group — and Ahvazi separatists. The separatists have not been known to work with IS in the past.Mohsen Rezaei, who formerly led the Guard, praised the missile strike on Twitter, adding that the "main punishment is on the way," suggesting more attacks could be imminent.One missile shown on Iranian state television bore the slogans "Death to America, Death to Israel, Death to Al Saud."The semi-official Fars news agency, believed to be close to the Guard, identified the six missiles used as Zolfaghar and Qiam variants, which have ranges of 750 kilometres (465 miles) and 800 kilometres (500 miles) respectively. Those missiles can reach Emirati and Saudi targets, as well as U.S. bases.Regional tensions have been mounting since President Donald Trump pulled America out of Iran's nuclear deal with world powers in May. The United Nations says Iran still honours the terms of the accord, in which it limited its enrichment of uranium in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions.Iran's already weak economy has suffered since the American withdrawal, with its currency now trading at 170,000 rials to one U.S. dollar. In May, rate stood at around 62,000. A year ago, it was 39,000.This is the third time in about a year that Iran has fired ballistic missiles beyond its borders.Last year, Iran fired ballistic missiles into Syria over a bloody IS attack on Tehran targeting parliament and the shrine of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. In September, Iran fired missiles into Iraq targeting a base of an Iranian Kurdish separatist group. The separatists say that strike killed at least 15 people and wounded over 50."The Iranian missiles are a message to more than one side," said Talal Atrissi, a researcher in regional affairs at Beirut's Al Maaref University. "It is a message that when Iran threatens, it carries out its threats, and this is important for Iran. The second message is that the sanctions will not prevent Iran from defending itself."___Gambrell reported from Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Associated Press writers Bassem Mroue and Fadi Tawil in Beirut contributed.Nassser Karimi And Jon Gambrell, The Associated Press.
RCMP put brakes on speeders in northern Alberta village-[CBC]-YAHOONEWS-October 3, 2018
Complaints about drivers speeding through a small village in northern Alberta has prompted Boyle RCMP to set up radar enforcement in an effort to catch speeders, police said in a news release Monday.Some drivers are travelling well in excess of the 50 km/h speed limit on 100 Street, Highway 858, which runs through Plamondon, 200 kilometres north of Edmonton, said police. There are a number of homes and businesses on that route.On Sept. 25 at around 6 p.m. a member of the RCMP-Alberta Sheriffs Boyle Integrated Traffic Unit clocked a vehicle travelling 114 km/h in a 50 km/h speed zone, in the main part of the village.A youth from the region is now facing a mandatory court date of Nov. 19 in Lac La Biche, said the release.The mandatory court date kicks in when a driver is speeding more than 51 km/h over the posted speed limit, police said.A conviction comes with six demerit points, and a judge or justice of the peace could further impose a fine up to $2,300 and a licence suspension of up to 90 days.
Drones flying into restricted airspace 'going to kill somebody,' says pilot-[CBC]-YAHOONEWS-October 3, 2018
From the ground it can be hard to see the drama taking shape in Canadian skies or sense the danger that's brewing as traditional aircraft come head to head with drones invading their airspace."They're just in the way and causing a potential hazard that someday is going to kill somebody," said David Cooke, who has a unique perspective on aviation and drones. Cooke is a retired military pilot who flew jets for the Royal Canadian Air Force, piloted reconnaissance helicopters in Germany during the Cold War, then helped teach combat flying at the air force base in Gagetown, N.B.For the last few years, he has been running his own business, Canda, flying commercial drones out of his hometown of Sarnia, Ont.He's not happy with what he describes as an explosion of irresponsible drone use. In 2014, Transport Canada reported 38 cases of drones flying too close to airplanes and airports. That number ballooned to 145 in 2016 and dropped slightly to 135 in 2017. The department's latest numbers for this year only go up to June 30. So far, there have been 48 sightings. "I don't think they're vicious criminals doing this stuff. They're just idiots out there flying around and think they can go anywhere with this little flying camera," said Cooke. The number of drones flying into restricted airspace doesn't surprise Bernard Gervais, president and CEO of the Canadian Owners and Pilots Association. His group has 16,000 members and represents people who fly recreationally and travel with their own aircraft.He said several of his members have had close calls with drones."One member, he was at 3,000 feet [914 metres]… And there was a drone following him about 20 feet [nearly seven metres] from his left wing," said Gervais. "It was scary."A spinning propeller that comes into contact with a drone could bring a plane down, he said."It's like a big, big, bird, but it's got metal parts — not just feathers."Cooke thinks the likelihood of a plane actually striking a drone is slim, despite a drone doing just that last October in Quebec.He believes the real danger is pilots overreacting when they see a drone and putting themselves and their passengers in harm's way."At Toronto Island airport, a Porter Airlines Dash 8, I think, made an evasive manoeuvre that hurt a stewardess," said Cooke. "Reacting and overreacting actually to something like that is just as much likely to cause damage or hurt somebody or kill somebody or bring down a plane." Cooke said commercial pilots are so well trained that it's unlikely they'd react dangerously, but students in flying school or people who only fly occasionally could make those kind of mistakes. Most of the drone sightings reported to Transport Canada were collected by pilots and air traffic controllers near major airports in places like Ontario, Quebec and British Columbia.In Halifax, there were only three drone sightings around the airport in all of 2017.That kind of flying is illegal; recreational drones are not allowed within 5.6 kilometres of any airport or any area where aircraft take off and land.It's not clear exactly what attracts some people to airports and other restricted airspace, but Cooke said in the last year or so he and other pilots have noticed a disturbing number of drone videos on YouTube of planes taking off and landing. The videos often feature drones getting within a few dozen metres of a plane."That's happening all the time now. More and more regularly around airports. When people see these videos online [they say], 'Well, I can do that, I want to get a better one, I'll do one with a sunset, let's do it at night,'" said Cooke. "It's really stupid stuff."Transport Canada does issue fines to offenders, but even that can be tricky. By the time a drone sighting is reported and someone starts to investigate, the drone and its user can be long gone.Since 2015, Transport Canada has only issued 60 fines. For recreational drone users, those fines can go up as high as $3,000 if they're caught flying in a restricted area.Transport Canada also gives people verbal warnings but doesn't release those numbers. Gervais said more enforcement of the rules, stiffer fines and some kind of licensing or permit program for recreational drone operators would help curb the problem and let everyone better share the sky.Félix Meunier, director of unmanned aircraft systems for Transport Canada, said the number of drone sightings in restricted airspace appears to have stabilized. He said the jump in reported sightings since 2014 is partially because more Canadians are buying drones. Transport Canada does not track who buys recreational drones nor does it license who can use them. However, it does require people who want to operate drones in restricted airspace or use them for commercial research purposes to get a Special Flight Operations Certificate.In 2014, the department issued 1,672 such certificates. Last year, 4,096 of those permits were issued. Along with the increased drone use, Meunier said more pilots now report drone sightings because they have a better sense of the dangers drones pose. "Most drone owners want to do the right thing," he said."Some of them are not aware of the danger associated with air drone use near other aircraft. So I think in general that's where things are going and if there are some efforts where we need to do more enforcement, well, we do it."
UK's Brexit minister Raab tells EU: Do not try to bully us-[Reuters]-YAHOONEWS-October 3, 2018
BIRMINGHAM, England (Reuters) - Britain's Brexit minister warned the European Union on Monday against trying to bully the United Kingdom into signing a divorce deal that would undermine the unity of the country."If the only offer from the EU threatens the integrity of our Union then we will be left with no choice but to leave with no deal," Raab told the Conservative Party conference in the English city of Birmingham."What is unthinkable is that this government, or any British government, could be bullied by the threat of some kind of economic embargo, into signing a one-sided deal against our country's interests," Raab said."I find it hard to believe that they would, for narrow political ends, seek to punish Britain in such a crass and counterproductive way," he said.(Writing by Michael Holden, Sarah Young and Andrew MacAskill; editing by Guy Faulconbridge)
Toronto fire department targets smokers who toss butts from balconies-[The Canadian Press]-YAHOONEWS-October 3, 2018
Toronto's fire service has launched a campaign to reduce blazes sparked by smouldering cigarette butts tossed from balconies.Chief Matthew Pegg says there were 51 such fires across the city last year, and another 28 this year caused by people launching cigarette butts off their balconies onto others.He says the fire service is targeting Parkdale, a west-end neighbourhood, where data shows the leading cause of fires is careless smoking.The campaign includes advertisements that will go up throughout the neighbourhood that read "don't be a flicking idiot" and "kill your butts, not your neighbours."Pegg says fire education officers will also go door-to-door in the neighbourhood to deliver the message.He says seven people have died due to fires in the neighbourhood over the last five years."Simply put, we are asking smokers to stop flicking their cigarette butts," Pegg said at a news conference in Parkdale."If a still-smouldering cigarette lands on or near combustible material, including planter box soil, peat moss, balcony furniture, couch cushions and many other item found on our modern balconies, it can easily start a fire, can destroy property and place lives at risk."Pegg said the ads will appear in transit shelters, condominiums, apartment buildings, rooming houses, restaurants, bars, construction sites and across social media."This campaign is bold, different and hard hitting," he said. "It is vastly different from gentle and generic messaging that has been used in the past."Pegg said he wants smokers to extinguish their cigarettes before discarding them."I am very serious about preventing these unnecessary fires and for preventing the incredible risk to the lives and safety of the occupants of the building where these fires occur, not to mention the immeasurable risk to our firefighters when they must fight these preventable fires," Pegg said.The Canadian Press.
New free trade deal with U.S. will see Canada's duty-free limit raised to $150 from $20-[CBC]-YAHOONEWS-October 1, 2018
Retailers say they are OK with new trade rules that will allow Canadians to buy more from the United States duty free — because dire alternatives that would have been worse never came to pass.One aspect of the new U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement announced over the weekend is an increase in the so-called de minimis threshold for duty-free shopping — the amount that Canadians can buy from a store in the U.S. and import to Canada without having to pay a duty.Under the old rules, Canada's limit was $20. That's much less than what the U.S. allows, a discrepancy that American trade officials were pressuring Canada to fix. Mexico agreed to raise its limit to $100 US from $50 previously, when officials agreed to their portion of the free trade deal in August.Canada appears to have made a similar move, raising the de minimis threshold for duty-free purchases to $150.In one sense that's bad news for Canadian retailers, because it means Canadians can buy more from U.S. retailers over the internet, before being dinged with duties. But as economist Derek Burleton at Toronto-Dominion Bank put it, "it could have been worse."Given that some had been lobbying for Canada's level to be set exponentially higher than that, the Retail Council of Canada said Monday that they will take it."That's a pretty big coup for our negotiation team," said Karl Littler, the senior vice-president of public affairs with the Retail Council of Canada, which represents 45,000 Canadian stores. "De minimis was the big one for us, and it has landed significantly better than we had feared at the outset."Far more important than the new duty-free limits, Littler says, are the thresholds at which sales taxes will be levied. Under the old rules, $20 was the limit for both — meaning you could buy something from the U.S. for up to $20 and not pay any sales tax at all on the purchase, something that gave U.S. retailers a clearly unfair advantage.The new rules will see those two figures decoupled from each other, and the tax threshold will rise to $40."We care much more about the $40 number than we do about the $150 number," Littler said. That's because while the concept of duties create a lot of anxiety, in reality they are fairly minimal when compared to sales taxes, averaging about two per cent according to Littler's calculations — although they can be higher than that for some types of products.Official data shows Canada collected $5.5 billion in duties last year, a figure that is dwarfed by the hundreds of billions that Canadian retailers sold last year. A two per cent duty is unlikely to move the needle on a purchasing decision too much, but the same can't be said about taxes, where it can add up to 15 per cent to a purchase price, in some provinces, Littler says.Put another way, under the new rules, when someone in Canada buys something online from the U.S. costing $149, they'll be spared a duty that likely would have cost them $3. But they'll have to pay $22.35 in taxes if they live in a province with a 15 per cent tax rate, as is the case in all of Atlantic Canada. In Ontario, the tax would be $19.37. In B.C., it would be $17.88.They'd pay those taxes in Canada too, but the tax-free threshold gives U.S. retailers a leg up. And that gap just got a little wider.It's something economist Brett House at Scotiabank has been banging a drum about for more than a year, which is why he lamented the missed opportunity to lower the tax threshold even if Canada was bound to be forced to raise its duty-free level."If you have to choose, push the [de minimis threshold] on duties up higher … but then push the sales tax threshold down," he said. "Every time you push it up you are making the playing field less level for retailers."Splitting the duty-free limit from the taxation limit is a great idea in principle, and House says the final numbers the sides agreed upon was likely a concession on some other parts of the agreement."If it got us something elsewhere, we'll never really know, but maybe it was a useful concession," he said.Canadian retailers want same deal-While the retailing group says the deal could have been worse, one of the biggest retailers in Canada wants the government to extend the advantage they have just bestowed on foreign retailers to domestic ones, by exempting them from import duties up to $150, too."We are also very much for reduced costs for consumers," Canadian Tire spokesperson Andrea van Vugt said Monday, "but they have just incentivized Canadian consumers to shop at foreign retailers."That's because when Canadian Tire imports products from areas outside North America, the retailer must pay myriad import duties — costs that get rolled into the retail price.Canadian Tire also has to charge sales taxes on everything, but under the new rules, "we can't sell the exact same product for the exact same price in Canada."That is why the retailer hopes the federal government will consider granting them the same level of duty exemptions that they have just granted foreign retailers."You should really be levelling the playing field here," van Vugt said.
Ukraine needs Azov Sea base to counter new Russian threat: military chief-[Reuters]-YAHOONEWS-By Pavel Polityuk and Matthias Williams-October 3, 2018
TENDRIVSKA KOSA, Ukraine (Reuters) - Ukraine will build a military base on the Azov Sea and has sent more forces to the area to counter a worsening Russian threat, Ukraine's armed forces head told Reuters, referring to an arm of the Black Sea that is a flashpoint of tensions with Moscow.Ukraine has been at loggerheads with Russia since the 2014 annexation of Crimea and more than 10,000 people have died in fighting between Ukrainian troops and Moscow-backed separatists. Ukraine and NATO countries accuse Russia of supplying troops and heavy weapons to eastern Ukraine, which Moscow denies.Viktor Muzhenko, Chief of the General Staff, said Russia had moved beyond covert fighting in the Donbass region, home of a Kremlin-backed separatist insurgency, to building up its military presence on Ukraine's borders and nakedly aggressive actions against ships sailing to Ukrainian ports.The Azov Sea, a strategic arm of the Black Sea where Russia and Ukraine share the coastline, has become a flashpoint this year. Ukraine says Russia is preventing scores of vessels from reaching Ukrainian ports through spurious inspections and detentions.Washington too has called on Russia to stop "harassing" ships, and supplied Ukraine with U.S. patrol boats. Moscow in turn says Ukraine might try to blockade Crimea."All those actions that are being taken in the Azov Sea region, are elements of building up our presence in this region for an adequate response to possible provocations by the Russian Federation," Muzhenko said.He said Ukraine had already deployed more air, land, sea and artillery forces to the area.Muzhenko ruled out suggestions that Ukrainian navy ships would escort commercial vessels across the sea to prevent them being stopped by Russian ships.Russia says its checks on shipping are lawful.SECURITY-"Russian checks on ships are intended exclusively to ensure security in the Azov Sea and Kerch Strait, they don't contradict international law as it applies to this maritime area," Maria Zakharova, Russia's foreign ministry spokeswoman, told a news conference on Sept. 22.Muzhenko was speaking to Reuters on Saturday aboard a military plane flying back from Tendrivska Kosa island on the south coast, on the last of five days of war games across different parts of Ukraine.Part of those exercises took place on the Hungarian border, which caused consternation in Budapest. Ukraine and Hungary have become embroiled in a series of diplomatic rows over the use of Hungarian in Ukrainian schools and Hungary issuing passports to ethnic Hungarians across the border.Muzhenko denied the wargames were a show of strength toward Hungary, and said they were intended to counter any chance of Russia attacking Ukraine from the west."First of all, this concerns the ability to respond adequately to threats from the Russian Federation. We are talking about protecting our communications, about a possible response to threats, including in the west," he said.Washington has continued to support Ukraine under the Donald Trump administration, including supplying Javelin missiles to Ukraine, a step President Barack Obama shied away from.Muzhenko said the Javelins had been tested and his troops trained to use them, but they had not been deployed in battle yet. Asked whether Ukraine wanted to buy the U.S. Patriot air defense system, he said various options were being considered.(Additional reporting by Christian Lowe in Moscow, Editing by William Maclean)
Turkey will resist U.S. sanctions over pastor, Erdogan says-[Reuters]-By Gulsen Solaker and Ece Toksabay-YAHOONEWS-October 3, 2018
ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkey will resist U.S. efforts to impose sanctions on Ankara over the trial of a Christian pastor who has been detained for two years, President Tayyip Erdogan said on Monday, accusing the preacher of having "dark links with terror".The case of evangelical pastor Andrew Brunson, whose next court hearing is on Oct. 12, has plunged ties between Ankara and Washington into crisis, leading to U.S. sanctions and tariffs which helped push Turkey's lira to record lows in August.Brunson is charged with links to Kurdish militants and supporters of Fethullah Gulen, the cleric blamed by Turkey for a failed coup attempt in 2016. He has denied the charges and Washington has demanded his immediate release.Relations between the two NATO allies were already strained by disputes over U.S. support for Kurdish fighters in northern Syria, Turkey's plans to buy a Russian missile defense system, and the jailing of a Turkish bank executive for violating U.S. sanctions on Iran."We are deeply saddened by the current U.S. government, a strategic partner, targeting our country without any logical, political and strategic consistency," Erdogan said in a speech to a new session of parliament.Erdogan said Turkey was determined to fight, within legal and diplomatic frameworks, "this crooked understanding, which imposes sanctions using the excuse of a pastor who is tried due to his dark links with terror organizations."Brunson's case has become the most divisive issue between the two countries. U.S. President Donald Trump believed he and Erdogan had agreed a deal to release him in July, but Ankara has denied agreeing to free the pastor as part of a wider agreement.Brunson, who has been jailed or held under house arrest since October 2016, faces up to 35 years in jail if convicted. Last month the main prosecutor in his trial was replaced, a move which his lawyer cautiously welcomed, saying it might be a sign of changing political will.In his speech to the first session of parliament since its summer recess, Erdogan held out the possibility of better relations, while adding that there was still much work to do."We can say that we started to make progress towards reaching a common understanding (with the United States), although it is not at the desired level," he said.He also repeated Turkey's accusation that Washington is protecting Gulen, who has been based in the United States for two decades, and said the conviction in a New York court of an executive of state-owned Halkbank for violating U.S. sanctions on Iran was "an example of unique unlawfulness".Tensions with Washington contributed to a meltdown in the Turkish lira in August, when the currency hit a record low of 7.20 to the dollar. It had already weakened over concerns at the extent of Erdogan's control of the economy and opposition to raising interest rates to combat double-digit inflation.Erdogan said Turkey's economy was overcoming what he described as "midnight operations" designed to break it."Our economy started rebalancing with measures we have taken, meetings we have realized and programs we have developed," he told parliament.The lira firmed more than 2 percent on Monday, reaching its strongest level in more than six weeks, on growing optimism that Brunson might be released and following a hike in interest rates and the govenrment's new economic program.Turkey's exports also rose sharply in September, the trade ministry said, but Turkish manufacturing activity slid to its lowest level in nine years, a business survey showed.(Additional reporting by Tuvan Gumrukcu; Editing by Dominic Evans)
Canadian dollar, stocks rise after trade deal reached-[CBC]-YAHOONEWS-October 3, 2018
Toronto stocks and the Canadian dollar rose at the start of trading Monday after Canada secured a deal for a trilateral trade pact with the U.S. and Mexico.The TSX was up 80 points, or 0.5 per cent, to 16,154 at mid-morning, regaining ground it lost in the past month because of uncertainty around NAFTA negotiations.The dollar jumped more than half a cent to 78.07 cents US.The new deal, called the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), also buoyed U.S. markets, especially dairy and industrials. It gives U.S. farmers greater access to the Canadian market and seems to diminish the threat of auto tariffs.The Dow Jones industrial index was up 253 points at 26,711 at mid-morning, while the broader S&P index rose 22 points to 2,935.Shares of Canada's largest auto parts company, Magna International Inc., were up nearly six per cent at $71.59, while Linamar Corp. was up seven per cent at $63.64 and Martinrea International Inc. gained 14 per cent at $15.07.U.S. President Donald Trump had threatened to impose punishing auto tariffs on Canada if it didn't reach a deal by Sept. 30..As a side deal to the new pact, the Trump administration has agreed to exempt Canada if the United States imposes 25 per cent tariffs on imported vehicles and auto parts.
28 And when these things begin to come to pass,(ALL THE PROPHECY SIGNS FROM THE BIBLE) then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption (RAPTURE) draweth nigh.
29 And he spake to them a parable; Behold the fig tree,(ISRAEL) and all the trees;(ALL INDEPENDENT COUNTRIES)
30 When they now shoot forth, ye see and know of your own selves that summer is now nigh at hand.(ISRAEL LITERALLY BECAME AND INDEPENDENT COUNTRY JUST BEFORE SUMMER IN MAY 14,1948.)
JOEL 2:3,30
3 A fire devoureth (ATOMIC BOMB) before them;(RUSSIAN-ARAB-MUSLIM ARMIES AGAINST ISRAEL) and behind them a flame burneth: the land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness; yea, and nothing shall escape them.
30 And I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke.(ATOMIC BOMB AFFECT)
ZECHARIAH 14:12-13
12 And this shall be the plague wherewith the LORD will smite all the people that have fought against Jerusalem; Their flesh shall consume away while they stand upon their feet,(DISOLVED FROM ATOMIC BOMB) and their eyes shall consume away in their holes,(DISOLVED FROM ATOMIC BOMB) and their tongue shall consume away in their mouth.(DISOLVED FROM ATOMIC BOMB)(BECAUSE NUKES HAVE BEEN USED ON ISRAELS ENEMIES)(GOD PROTECTS ISRAEL AND ALWAYS WILL)
13 And it shall come to pass in that day, that a great tumult from the LORD shall be among them; and they shall lay hold every one on the hand of his neighbour, and his hand shall rise up against the hand of his neighbour.(1/2-3 BILLION DIE IN WW3)(THIS IS AN ATOMIC BOMB EFFECT)
EZEKIEL 20:47
47 And say to the forest of the south, Hear the word of the LORD; Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I will kindle a fire in thee, and it shall devour every green tree in thee, and every dry tree: the flaming flame shall not be quenched, and all faces from the south to the north shall be burned therein.
ZEPHANIAH 1:18
18 Neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them in the day of the LORD'S wrath; but the whole land shall be devoured by the fire of his jealousy: for he shall make even a speedy riddance of all them that dwell in the land.
MALACHI 4:1
1 For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven;(FROM ATOMIC BOMBS) and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the LORD of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.
And here are the bounderies of the land that Israel will inherit either through war or peace or God in the future. God says its Israels land and only Israels land. They will have every inch God promised them of this land in the future.
Egypt east of the Nile River, Saudi Arabia, Israel, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, The southern part of Turkey and the Western Half of Iraq west of the Euphrates. Gen 13:14-15, Psm 105:9,11, Gen 15:18, Exe 23:31, Num 34:1-12, Josh 1:4.ALL THIS LAND ISRAEL WILL DEFINATELY OWN IN THE FUTURE, ITS ISRAELS NOT ISHMAELS LAND.12 TRIBES INHERIT LAND IN THE FUTURE
Netanyahu: Hezbollah ‘brazenly lying’ to world about weapons sites-Israeli PM says foreign ambassadors in Beirut went on ‘fraudulent propaganda tour’ hosted by Lebanese FM as terror group had 3 days to clear the area-By TOI staff and Agencies-3 October 2018
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Lebanese terror group Hezbollah, an Iranian proxy, of “brazenly lying” to the international community over the secret weapons facilities in and around Beirut, which the Israeli premier disclosed on the world stage at the United Nations General Assembly last week.Netanyahu said in a statement Monday that Lebanese Foreign Minister Gibran Bassil took 73 foreign envoys on a “fraudulent propaganda tour” of the alleged missile sites, where he failed to show them the underground facilities where Hezbollah is reportedly storing precision-guided missiles.“Hezbollah is brazenly lying to the international community by means of the fraudulent propaganda tour of the Lebanese foreign minister who took ambassadors to the soccer field [one of the alleged missile sites] but refrained from taking them to the nearby underground precision missile production facility,” Netanyahu said.On Monday, Bassil led a group of the ambassadors around a pool complex and the sports stadium in a bid to disprove the Israeli accusations.“Today Lebanon is raising [its] voice by addressing all countries of the world… to refute Israel’s allegations,” Bassil was quoted as saying. Israel’s Channel 10 news said Monday night that Lebanon feared Israel may attack the sites.Netanyahu said the envoys “should ask themselves why [Lebanese authorities] waited three days to give them a tour.” The PM said in the September 27 address to the UN General Assembly that Hezbollah had secret missile conversion sites in and around Beirut.One of the alleged sites is located under a soccer field used by a Hezbollah-sponsored team; another is just north of the Rafik Hariri International Airport; and the third is underneath the Beirut port and less than 500 meters from the airport’s tarmac.These three are not the only facilities that the IDF believes are being used by Hezbollah for the manufacturing and storage of precision missiles.Hezbollah, Netanyahu said, took pains to clear out the exposed facilities so that foreign diplomats could tour the area.“It’s saddening that the Lebanese government is sacrificing the safety of its citizens while covering for Hezbollah, which has taken Lebanon hostage in its aggression toward Israel,” said Netanyahu.Earlier Monday, the Israeli military released a video noting that three days had passed since Netanyahu detailed the presence of the alleged facilities.“In three days you can clear out a precision missile factory, invite foreign ambassadors, and hope that the world will fall for it.”It urged the international community not to be duped by what it said were “Hezbollah’s lies.”#Hezbollah has a long history of covering up inconvenient truths and then parading foreign officials around. Maybe this time ask why missile workshop located so close to int’l #airport in heart of #Beirut?#maybethetruththistime pic.twitter.com/SFpqmw7ztq— Israel Defense Forces (@IDFSpokesperson) October 1, 2018-The Russian ambassador to Lebanon, Alexander Zasypkin, described the tour as “very good.”“On the diplomatic and political spheres, there are many statements,” he told The Associated Press. “What we saw today are facts. There is a club and stadium. I can’t imagine a secret thing happening in these places. We saw that with our own eyes.”In his UN address on Thursday, Netanyahu produced satellite imagery pinpointing the three sites being used by Hezbollah, accusing the Shiite terror group of using Beirut residents as human shields.“So I also have a message for Hezbollah today: Israel knows, Israel also knows what you’re doing. Israel knows where you’re doing it. And Israel will not let you get away with it,” Netanyahu said.Hezbollah, whose forces control south Lebanon bordering Israel and Beirut’s southern suburbs where the airport is located, has not officially reacted to the accusation.Bassil on Monday lashed out at Israel, which he said had “violated our land, air, and marine space 1,417 times in the last eight months.”Israel was attempting “to justify another violation of UN resolutions and to justify another aggression on a sovereign country,” he said.The Jewish state has fought several conflicts against Hezbollah, the last in 2006.Bassil said his government would not allow rocket facilities near the airport and that Hezbollah is “wiser” than to place them there. He said Netanyahu’s claims were based on “inaccurate” estimates without any “compelling evidence.”“Lebanon demands that Israel ceases its madness,” he said.Bassil said Monday’s tour, which included the ambassadors and several reporters, was not “a fact-finding mission,” but part of a “counter-diplomatic campaign” to rebut the allegations.Hezbollah’s leader Hassan Nasrallah recently boasted that his group now possesses “highly accurate” missiles despite Israeli attempts to prevent it from acquiring such weapons.Bassil acknowledged Hezbollah’s claims, but said “this doesn’t mean that those missiles are present in the vicinity of Beirut airport.”Soon after Netanyahu’s speech Thursday, the IDF released satellite images of the sites that it says are being used by Hezbollah to hide underground precision missile production facilities.The sites are located within close proximity to the Beirut airport.The factories, which are meant to convert regular missiles into more accurate precision ones, are not believed to be up and running. The Israeli military said the missiles are currently being constructed with Iranian assistance.The target of last month’s Israeli airstrike, in which a Russian spy plane was inadvertently shot down by Syrian air defenses, was machinery used in the production of precision missiles en route to Hezbollah, The Times of Israel learned.According to Netanyahu, these precision missiles are capable of striking with 10 meters (32 feet) of their given target. Hezbollah is believed to have an arsenal of between 100,000 and 150,000 rockets and missiles, though the vast majority are thought to lack precision technology.The army said the facilities are “another example of Iranian entrenchment in the region and the negative influence of Iran.”Holding up aerial photos of the alleged Hezbollah facilities, Netanyahu warned: “Israel knows what you are doing, Israel knows where you are doing it, and Israel will not let you get away with it.”Netanyahu accused the Lebanese terror group of “deliberately using the innocent people of Beirut as human shields.”According to the Israel Defense Forces, Hezbollah began working on these surface-to-surface missile facilities last year.Reports that Iran was constructing underground missile conversion factories in Lebanon first emerged in March 2017.Since then, Israeli officials have repeatedly said that Israel would not tolerate such facilities.In January, Netanyahu said Lebanon “is becoming a factory for precision-guided missiles that threaten Israel. These missiles pose a grave threat to Israel, and we cannot accept this threat.”
Child abuse leaves ‘molecular scars’ on victims, study finds-Scientists examining sperm of those who suffered from sexual assaults find tiny alternation in some parts of their DNA-By Patrick Galey-OCT 3,18
PARIS, France (AFP) — Children subjected to abuse may carry the physical hallmark of that trauma in their cells, scientists said Tuesday, in research that could help criminal investigations probing historic mistreatment.The imprints may also shed light on whether or not trauma can be passed on between generations as has long been hypothesized.A team of researchers at the University of British Columbia examined the sperm cells of 34 adult men, some of whom had been victims of child abuse years earlier.They found that the effects of the trauma were indelibly printed in 12 regions of the DNA of those men who had experienced varying levels of emotional, physical or sexual abuse.Scientists believe these alterations, known as methylation, could one day be used by investigators or courts to weigh allegations of child abuse.“If you think of genes as being like lightbulbs, DNA methylation is like a dimmer switch that controls how strong each light is — which in turn can influence how cells function,” Nicole Gladish, a PhD candidate in the university’s Department of Medical Genetics, told AFP.“This information can potentially provide additional information about how childhood abuse affects long-term physical and mental health.”The experiment is one of a growing number of trials looking into what turns genes “on and off” at different periods of human development, a field of study known as epigenetics.Once thought as entirely pre-programmed from conception, some genes are now known to be activated or deactivated by environmental factors or an individual’s life experience.Small piece of the puzzle’Scientists involved in the study, published in the journal Translational Psychiatry, said they still did not know how methylation affects a person’s long-term health.In addition, due to the difficulty in extracting egg cells, the team don’t plan to replicate the experiment on women — statistically far likelier to have been victims of child abuse than men.Scientists said the degree of “dimming” in the DNA regions were surprising — one part of the genome of the men who were abused as children was 29 percent different to those who were not.And, because the degree of methylation changes over time, they were able to tell by looking at the men’s cells roughly when the abuse occurred.“This might help the development of tests that could be used by healthcare workers or potentially even as forensic evidence,” Gladish said.Although researchers still have little idea whether or not the imprints of abuse contained within sperm cells would survive fertilization intact, lead author Andrea Roberts said the study “brings us at least one step closer” towards working out if trauma can be transmitted across generations.“We can look at our study as one small piece in the huge overall puzzle of how intergenerational trauma works,” said Gladish.She pointed out there are several other teams working on the conundrum, including experiments on mice and other animals.“It is certainly possible that epigenetic changes in sperm cells play a role in the physical and mental health of the next generation, but we don’t know for sure.”
Iran fires ballistic missiles at Syria militants over attack-[The Canadian Press]-YAHOONEWS-October 3, 2018
TEHRAN, Iran — Iran's Revolutionary Guard launched six ballistic missiles as well as drone bombers early Monday toward eastern Syria, targeting militants it blamed for an attack on a military parade last month while also threatening regional adversaries as Tehran's nuclear deal with world powers unravels.The missiles had enough range to strike regional U.S. military bases and targets inside both Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.Iran's supreme leader has called out the two Arab nations by name, accusing them of being behind the Sept. 22 attack on the parade in the Iranian city of Ahvaz, something denied by both Riyadh and Abu Dhabi.Monday's strike was the second missile attack by Iran in a month's time, and came as tensions rise ahead of renewed U.S. sanctions targeting Tehran's oil industry that will take effect in early November."This is the roaring of missiles belonging to the Revolutionary Guard of the Islamic Revolution," a state TV reporter said as the missiles launched behind him. "In a few minutes, the world of arrogance — especially America, the (Israeli) Zionist regime and the Al Saud — will hear the sound of Iran's repeated blows." Al Saud is a reference to Saudi Arabia's royal family.Iranian state TV and the state-run IRNA news agency said the missiles "killed and wounded" militants in Syria, without elaborating. The missiles, launched from western Iran, flew over Iraq and landed near the city of Boukamal in the far southeast of Syria, they reported."Terrorists used bullets in Ahvaz," Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh, chief of the Guard's aerospace division, told the semi-official Tasnim news agency. "We answered them with missiles."The Guard, a paramilitary group that answers directly to the supreme leader, said it followed the missiles with bombing runs by seven remotely piloted drones, a first for Iran. State TV aired footage of a drone dropping what appeared to be an unguided munition.Boukamal is held by Syrian government forces, but IS still maintains a presence in the area, despite being driven from virtually all the territory it once held in Syria and Iraq.Rami Abdurrahman, who heads the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, told The Associated Press that the Iranian missiles hit the IS-held town of Hajin, just north of Boukamal.Strong explosions shook the area early Monday, reverberating east of the Euphrates River, he said. U.S.-allied Kurdish fighters have been battling IS in and around Hajin for weeks.The U.S. military's Central Command acknowledged that Iranian forces conducted "no-notice strikes" in the area."The coalition is still assessing if any damage occurred, and no coalition forces were in danger," U.S. Army Col. Sean Ryan said.IS militants did not immediately acknowledge the attack.The missile launch further adds to confusion over who carried out the assault on a military parade, which killed at least 24 people and wounded over 60.Iran initially blamed Arab separatists for the attack in which gunmen disguised as soldiers opened fire on the crowd and officials watching the parade from a viewing platform. The Arab separatists, who have long complained of discrimination in Persian-majority Iran, claimed the attack and provided accurate details about one of the attackers.The Islamic State group also claimed responsibility for the Ahvaz assault, but initially made factually incorrect claims about it. Later, IS released footage of several men that Iran ultimately identified as attackers, though the men in the footage are not known to have pledged allegiance to the extremist group.In announcing the launch, Iranian state media said the missiles targeted both "takfiri" militants — a term it often applies to the Islamic State group — and Ahvazi separatists. The separatists have not been known to work with IS in the past.Mohsen Rezaei, who formerly led the Guard, praised the missile strike on Twitter, adding that the "main punishment is on the way," suggesting more attacks could be imminent.One missile shown on Iranian state television bore the slogans "Death to America, Death to Israel, Death to Al Saud."The semi-official Fars news agency, believed to be close to the Guard, identified the six missiles used as Zolfaghar and Qiam variants, which have ranges of 750 kilometres (465 miles) and 800 kilometres (500 miles) respectively. Those missiles can reach Emirati and Saudi targets, as well as U.S. bases.Regional tensions have been mounting since President Donald Trump pulled America out of Iran's nuclear deal with world powers in May. The United Nations says Iran still honours the terms of the accord, in which it limited its enrichment of uranium in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions.Iran's already weak economy has suffered since the American withdrawal, with its currency now trading at 170,000 rials to one U.S. dollar. In May, rate stood at around 62,000. A year ago, it was 39,000.This is the third time in about a year that Iran has fired ballistic missiles beyond its borders.Last year, Iran fired ballistic missiles into Syria over a bloody IS attack on Tehran targeting parliament and the shrine of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. In September, Iran fired missiles into Iraq targeting a base of an Iranian Kurdish separatist group. The separatists say that strike killed at least 15 people and wounded over 50."The Iranian missiles are a message to more than one side," said Talal Atrissi, a researcher in regional affairs at Beirut's Al Maaref University. "It is a message that when Iran threatens, it carries out its threats, and this is important for Iran. The second message is that the sanctions will not prevent Iran from defending itself."___Gambrell reported from Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Associated Press writers Bassem Mroue and Fadi Tawil in Beirut contributed.Nassser Karimi And Jon Gambrell, The Associated Press.
RCMP put brakes on speeders in northern Alberta village-[CBC]-YAHOONEWS-October 3, 2018
Complaints about drivers speeding through a small village in northern Alberta has prompted Boyle RCMP to set up radar enforcement in an effort to catch speeders, police said in a news release Monday.Some drivers are travelling well in excess of the 50 km/h speed limit on 100 Street, Highway 858, which runs through Plamondon, 200 kilometres north of Edmonton, said police. There are a number of homes and businesses on that route.On Sept. 25 at around 6 p.m. a member of the RCMP-Alberta Sheriffs Boyle Integrated Traffic Unit clocked a vehicle travelling 114 km/h in a 50 km/h speed zone, in the main part of the village.A youth from the region is now facing a mandatory court date of Nov. 19 in Lac La Biche, said the release.The mandatory court date kicks in when a driver is speeding more than 51 km/h over the posted speed limit, police said.A conviction comes with six demerit points, and a judge or justice of the peace could further impose a fine up to $2,300 and a licence suspension of up to 90 days.
Drones flying into restricted airspace 'going to kill somebody,' says pilot-[CBC]-YAHOONEWS-October 3, 2018
From the ground it can be hard to see the drama taking shape in Canadian skies or sense the danger that's brewing as traditional aircraft come head to head with drones invading their airspace."They're just in the way and causing a potential hazard that someday is going to kill somebody," said David Cooke, who has a unique perspective on aviation and drones. Cooke is a retired military pilot who flew jets for the Royal Canadian Air Force, piloted reconnaissance helicopters in Germany during the Cold War, then helped teach combat flying at the air force base in Gagetown, N.B.For the last few years, he has been running his own business, Canda, flying commercial drones out of his hometown of Sarnia, Ont.He's not happy with what he describes as an explosion of irresponsible drone use. In 2014, Transport Canada reported 38 cases of drones flying too close to airplanes and airports. That number ballooned to 145 in 2016 and dropped slightly to 135 in 2017. The department's latest numbers for this year only go up to June 30. So far, there have been 48 sightings. "I don't think they're vicious criminals doing this stuff. They're just idiots out there flying around and think they can go anywhere with this little flying camera," said Cooke. The number of drones flying into restricted airspace doesn't surprise Bernard Gervais, president and CEO of the Canadian Owners and Pilots Association. His group has 16,000 members and represents people who fly recreationally and travel with their own aircraft.He said several of his members have had close calls with drones."One member, he was at 3,000 feet [914 metres]… And there was a drone following him about 20 feet [nearly seven metres] from his left wing," said Gervais. "It was scary."A spinning propeller that comes into contact with a drone could bring a plane down, he said."It's like a big, big, bird, but it's got metal parts — not just feathers."Cooke thinks the likelihood of a plane actually striking a drone is slim, despite a drone doing just that last October in Quebec.He believes the real danger is pilots overreacting when they see a drone and putting themselves and their passengers in harm's way."At Toronto Island airport, a Porter Airlines Dash 8, I think, made an evasive manoeuvre that hurt a stewardess," said Cooke. "Reacting and overreacting actually to something like that is just as much likely to cause damage or hurt somebody or kill somebody or bring down a plane." Cooke said commercial pilots are so well trained that it's unlikely they'd react dangerously, but students in flying school or people who only fly occasionally could make those kind of mistakes. Most of the drone sightings reported to Transport Canada were collected by pilots and air traffic controllers near major airports in places like Ontario, Quebec and British Columbia.In Halifax, there were only three drone sightings around the airport in all of 2017.That kind of flying is illegal; recreational drones are not allowed within 5.6 kilometres of any airport or any area where aircraft take off and land.It's not clear exactly what attracts some people to airports and other restricted airspace, but Cooke said in the last year or so he and other pilots have noticed a disturbing number of drone videos on YouTube of planes taking off and landing. The videos often feature drones getting within a few dozen metres of a plane."That's happening all the time now. More and more regularly around airports. When people see these videos online [they say], 'Well, I can do that, I want to get a better one, I'll do one with a sunset, let's do it at night,'" said Cooke. "It's really stupid stuff."Transport Canada does issue fines to offenders, but even that can be tricky. By the time a drone sighting is reported and someone starts to investigate, the drone and its user can be long gone.Since 2015, Transport Canada has only issued 60 fines. For recreational drone users, those fines can go up as high as $3,000 if they're caught flying in a restricted area.Transport Canada also gives people verbal warnings but doesn't release those numbers. Gervais said more enforcement of the rules, stiffer fines and some kind of licensing or permit program for recreational drone operators would help curb the problem and let everyone better share the sky.Félix Meunier, director of unmanned aircraft systems for Transport Canada, said the number of drone sightings in restricted airspace appears to have stabilized. He said the jump in reported sightings since 2014 is partially because more Canadians are buying drones. Transport Canada does not track who buys recreational drones nor does it license who can use them. However, it does require people who want to operate drones in restricted airspace or use them for commercial research purposes to get a Special Flight Operations Certificate.In 2014, the department issued 1,672 such certificates. Last year, 4,096 of those permits were issued. Along with the increased drone use, Meunier said more pilots now report drone sightings because they have a better sense of the dangers drones pose. "Most drone owners want to do the right thing," he said."Some of them are not aware of the danger associated with air drone use near other aircraft. So I think in general that's where things are going and if there are some efforts where we need to do more enforcement, well, we do it."
UK's Brexit minister Raab tells EU: Do not try to bully us-[Reuters]-YAHOONEWS-October 3, 2018
BIRMINGHAM, England (Reuters) - Britain's Brexit minister warned the European Union on Monday against trying to bully the United Kingdom into signing a divorce deal that would undermine the unity of the country."If the only offer from the EU threatens the integrity of our Union then we will be left with no choice but to leave with no deal," Raab told the Conservative Party conference in the English city of Birmingham."What is unthinkable is that this government, or any British government, could be bullied by the threat of some kind of economic embargo, into signing a one-sided deal against our country's interests," Raab said."I find it hard to believe that they would, for narrow political ends, seek to punish Britain in such a crass and counterproductive way," he said.(Writing by Michael Holden, Sarah Young and Andrew MacAskill; editing by Guy Faulconbridge)
Toronto fire department targets smokers who toss butts from balconies-[The Canadian Press]-YAHOONEWS-October 3, 2018
Toronto's fire service has launched a campaign to reduce blazes sparked by smouldering cigarette butts tossed from balconies.Chief Matthew Pegg says there were 51 such fires across the city last year, and another 28 this year caused by people launching cigarette butts off their balconies onto others.He says the fire service is targeting Parkdale, a west-end neighbourhood, where data shows the leading cause of fires is careless smoking.The campaign includes advertisements that will go up throughout the neighbourhood that read "don't be a flicking idiot" and "kill your butts, not your neighbours."Pegg says fire education officers will also go door-to-door in the neighbourhood to deliver the message.He says seven people have died due to fires in the neighbourhood over the last five years."Simply put, we are asking smokers to stop flicking their cigarette butts," Pegg said at a news conference in Parkdale."If a still-smouldering cigarette lands on or near combustible material, including planter box soil, peat moss, balcony furniture, couch cushions and many other item found on our modern balconies, it can easily start a fire, can destroy property and place lives at risk."Pegg said the ads will appear in transit shelters, condominiums, apartment buildings, rooming houses, restaurants, bars, construction sites and across social media."This campaign is bold, different and hard hitting," he said. "It is vastly different from gentle and generic messaging that has been used in the past."Pegg said he wants smokers to extinguish their cigarettes before discarding them."I am very serious about preventing these unnecessary fires and for preventing the incredible risk to the lives and safety of the occupants of the building where these fires occur, not to mention the immeasurable risk to our firefighters when they must fight these preventable fires," Pegg said.The Canadian Press.
New free trade deal with U.S. will see Canada's duty-free limit raised to $150 from $20-[CBC]-YAHOONEWS-October 1, 2018
Retailers say they are OK with new trade rules that will allow Canadians to buy more from the United States duty free — because dire alternatives that would have been worse never came to pass.One aspect of the new U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement announced over the weekend is an increase in the so-called de minimis threshold for duty-free shopping — the amount that Canadians can buy from a store in the U.S. and import to Canada without having to pay a duty.Under the old rules, Canada's limit was $20. That's much less than what the U.S. allows, a discrepancy that American trade officials were pressuring Canada to fix. Mexico agreed to raise its limit to $100 US from $50 previously, when officials agreed to their portion of the free trade deal in August.Canada appears to have made a similar move, raising the de minimis threshold for duty-free purchases to $150.In one sense that's bad news for Canadian retailers, because it means Canadians can buy more from U.S. retailers over the internet, before being dinged with duties. But as economist Derek Burleton at Toronto-Dominion Bank put it, "it could have been worse."Given that some had been lobbying for Canada's level to be set exponentially higher than that, the Retail Council of Canada said Monday that they will take it."That's a pretty big coup for our negotiation team," said Karl Littler, the senior vice-president of public affairs with the Retail Council of Canada, which represents 45,000 Canadian stores. "De minimis was the big one for us, and it has landed significantly better than we had feared at the outset."Far more important than the new duty-free limits, Littler says, are the thresholds at which sales taxes will be levied. Under the old rules, $20 was the limit for both — meaning you could buy something from the U.S. for up to $20 and not pay any sales tax at all on the purchase, something that gave U.S. retailers a clearly unfair advantage.The new rules will see those two figures decoupled from each other, and the tax threshold will rise to $40."We care much more about the $40 number than we do about the $150 number," Littler said. That's because while the concept of duties create a lot of anxiety, in reality they are fairly minimal when compared to sales taxes, averaging about two per cent according to Littler's calculations — although they can be higher than that for some types of products.Official data shows Canada collected $5.5 billion in duties last year, a figure that is dwarfed by the hundreds of billions that Canadian retailers sold last year. A two per cent duty is unlikely to move the needle on a purchasing decision too much, but the same can't be said about taxes, where it can add up to 15 per cent to a purchase price, in some provinces, Littler says.Put another way, under the new rules, when someone in Canada buys something online from the U.S. costing $149, they'll be spared a duty that likely would have cost them $3. But they'll have to pay $22.35 in taxes if they live in a province with a 15 per cent tax rate, as is the case in all of Atlantic Canada. In Ontario, the tax would be $19.37. In B.C., it would be $17.88.They'd pay those taxes in Canada too, but the tax-free threshold gives U.S. retailers a leg up. And that gap just got a little wider.It's something economist Brett House at Scotiabank has been banging a drum about for more than a year, which is why he lamented the missed opportunity to lower the tax threshold even if Canada was bound to be forced to raise its duty-free level."If you have to choose, push the [de minimis threshold] on duties up higher … but then push the sales tax threshold down," he said. "Every time you push it up you are making the playing field less level for retailers."Splitting the duty-free limit from the taxation limit is a great idea in principle, and House says the final numbers the sides agreed upon was likely a concession on some other parts of the agreement."If it got us something elsewhere, we'll never really know, but maybe it was a useful concession," he said.Canadian retailers want same deal-While the retailing group says the deal could have been worse, one of the biggest retailers in Canada wants the government to extend the advantage they have just bestowed on foreign retailers to domestic ones, by exempting them from import duties up to $150, too."We are also very much for reduced costs for consumers," Canadian Tire spokesperson Andrea van Vugt said Monday, "but they have just incentivized Canadian consumers to shop at foreign retailers."That's because when Canadian Tire imports products from areas outside North America, the retailer must pay myriad import duties — costs that get rolled into the retail price.Canadian Tire also has to charge sales taxes on everything, but under the new rules, "we can't sell the exact same product for the exact same price in Canada."That is why the retailer hopes the federal government will consider granting them the same level of duty exemptions that they have just granted foreign retailers."You should really be levelling the playing field here," van Vugt said.
Ukraine needs Azov Sea base to counter new Russian threat: military chief-[Reuters]-YAHOONEWS-By Pavel Polityuk and Matthias Williams-October 3, 2018
TENDRIVSKA KOSA, Ukraine (Reuters) - Ukraine will build a military base on the Azov Sea and has sent more forces to the area to counter a worsening Russian threat, Ukraine's armed forces head told Reuters, referring to an arm of the Black Sea that is a flashpoint of tensions with Moscow.Ukraine has been at loggerheads with Russia since the 2014 annexation of Crimea and more than 10,000 people have died in fighting between Ukrainian troops and Moscow-backed separatists. Ukraine and NATO countries accuse Russia of supplying troops and heavy weapons to eastern Ukraine, which Moscow denies.Viktor Muzhenko, Chief of the General Staff, said Russia had moved beyond covert fighting in the Donbass region, home of a Kremlin-backed separatist insurgency, to building up its military presence on Ukraine's borders and nakedly aggressive actions against ships sailing to Ukrainian ports.The Azov Sea, a strategic arm of the Black Sea where Russia and Ukraine share the coastline, has become a flashpoint this year. Ukraine says Russia is preventing scores of vessels from reaching Ukrainian ports through spurious inspections and detentions.Washington too has called on Russia to stop "harassing" ships, and supplied Ukraine with U.S. patrol boats. Moscow in turn says Ukraine might try to blockade Crimea."All those actions that are being taken in the Azov Sea region, are elements of building up our presence in this region for an adequate response to possible provocations by the Russian Federation," Muzhenko said.He said Ukraine had already deployed more air, land, sea and artillery forces to the area.Muzhenko ruled out suggestions that Ukrainian navy ships would escort commercial vessels across the sea to prevent them being stopped by Russian ships.Russia says its checks on shipping are lawful.SECURITY-"Russian checks on ships are intended exclusively to ensure security in the Azov Sea and Kerch Strait, they don't contradict international law as it applies to this maritime area," Maria Zakharova, Russia's foreign ministry spokeswoman, told a news conference on Sept. 22.Muzhenko was speaking to Reuters on Saturday aboard a military plane flying back from Tendrivska Kosa island on the south coast, on the last of five days of war games across different parts of Ukraine.Part of those exercises took place on the Hungarian border, which caused consternation in Budapest. Ukraine and Hungary have become embroiled in a series of diplomatic rows over the use of Hungarian in Ukrainian schools and Hungary issuing passports to ethnic Hungarians across the border.Muzhenko denied the wargames were a show of strength toward Hungary, and said they were intended to counter any chance of Russia attacking Ukraine from the west."First of all, this concerns the ability to respond adequately to threats from the Russian Federation. We are talking about protecting our communications, about a possible response to threats, including in the west," he said.Washington has continued to support Ukraine under the Donald Trump administration, including supplying Javelin missiles to Ukraine, a step President Barack Obama shied away from.Muzhenko said the Javelins had been tested and his troops trained to use them, but they had not been deployed in battle yet. Asked whether Ukraine wanted to buy the U.S. Patriot air defense system, he said various options were being considered.(Additional reporting by Christian Lowe in Moscow, Editing by William Maclean)
Turkey will resist U.S. sanctions over pastor, Erdogan says-[Reuters]-By Gulsen Solaker and Ece Toksabay-YAHOONEWS-October 3, 2018
ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkey will resist U.S. efforts to impose sanctions on Ankara over the trial of a Christian pastor who has been detained for two years, President Tayyip Erdogan said on Monday, accusing the preacher of having "dark links with terror".The case of evangelical pastor Andrew Brunson, whose next court hearing is on Oct. 12, has plunged ties between Ankara and Washington into crisis, leading to U.S. sanctions and tariffs which helped push Turkey's lira to record lows in August.Brunson is charged with links to Kurdish militants and supporters of Fethullah Gulen, the cleric blamed by Turkey for a failed coup attempt in 2016. He has denied the charges and Washington has demanded his immediate release.Relations between the two NATO allies were already strained by disputes over U.S. support for Kurdish fighters in northern Syria, Turkey's plans to buy a Russian missile defense system, and the jailing of a Turkish bank executive for violating U.S. sanctions on Iran."We are deeply saddened by the current U.S. government, a strategic partner, targeting our country without any logical, political and strategic consistency," Erdogan said in a speech to a new session of parliament.Erdogan said Turkey was determined to fight, within legal and diplomatic frameworks, "this crooked understanding, which imposes sanctions using the excuse of a pastor who is tried due to his dark links with terror organizations."Brunson's case has become the most divisive issue between the two countries. U.S. President Donald Trump believed he and Erdogan had agreed a deal to release him in July, but Ankara has denied agreeing to free the pastor as part of a wider agreement.Brunson, who has been jailed or held under house arrest since October 2016, faces up to 35 years in jail if convicted. Last month the main prosecutor in his trial was replaced, a move which his lawyer cautiously welcomed, saying it might be a sign of changing political will.In his speech to the first session of parliament since its summer recess, Erdogan held out the possibility of better relations, while adding that there was still much work to do."We can say that we started to make progress towards reaching a common understanding (with the United States), although it is not at the desired level," he said.He also repeated Turkey's accusation that Washington is protecting Gulen, who has been based in the United States for two decades, and said the conviction in a New York court of an executive of state-owned Halkbank for violating U.S. sanctions on Iran was "an example of unique unlawfulness".Tensions with Washington contributed to a meltdown in the Turkish lira in August, when the currency hit a record low of 7.20 to the dollar. It had already weakened over concerns at the extent of Erdogan's control of the economy and opposition to raising interest rates to combat double-digit inflation.Erdogan said Turkey's economy was overcoming what he described as "midnight operations" designed to break it."Our economy started rebalancing with measures we have taken, meetings we have realized and programs we have developed," he told parliament.The lira firmed more than 2 percent on Monday, reaching its strongest level in more than six weeks, on growing optimism that Brunson might be released and following a hike in interest rates and the govenrment's new economic program.Turkey's exports also rose sharply in September, the trade ministry said, but Turkish manufacturing activity slid to its lowest level in nine years, a business survey showed.(Additional reporting by Tuvan Gumrukcu; Editing by Dominic Evans)
Canadian dollar, stocks rise after trade deal reached-[CBC]-YAHOONEWS-October 3, 2018
Toronto stocks and the Canadian dollar rose at the start of trading Monday after Canada secured a deal for a trilateral trade pact with the U.S. and Mexico.The TSX was up 80 points, or 0.5 per cent, to 16,154 at mid-morning, regaining ground it lost in the past month because of uncertainty around NAFTA negotiations.The dollar jumped more than half a cent to 78.07 cents US.The new deal, called the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), also buoyed U.S. markets, especially dairy and industrials. It gives U.S. farmers greater access to the Canadian market and seems to diminish the threat of auto tariffs.The Dow Jones industrial index was up 253 points at 26,711 at mid-morning, while the broader S&P index rose 22 points to 2,935.Shares of Canada's largest auto parts company, Magna International Inc., were up nearly six per cent at $71.59, while Linamar Corp. was up seven per cent at $63.64 and Martinrea International Inc. gained 14 per cent at $15.07.U.S. President Donald Trump had threatened to impose punishing auto tariffs on Canada if it didn't reach a deal by Sept. 30..As a side deal to the new pact, the Trump administration has agreed to exempt Canada if the United States imposes 25 per cent tariffs on imported vehicles and auto parts.
