Looking for His glorious appearing! Titus 2:13

U.S. May Sell Israel 6,900 Gps Bombs
Dec 11th, 2012
Daily NewsINN - Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu
Categories: Today's Headlines;The Nation Of Israel

The United States is considering an Israeli request to buy 6,900 GPS bombs, weighing up to one ton, as Middle East tensions rise, Defense News reported Tuesday.

The Pentagon notified Congress on Monday of the potential $647 million sale of bombs, the smallest of which weighs 250 pounds.

“The United States is committed to the security of Israel, and it is vital to US national interests to assist Israel to develop and maintain a strong and ready self-defense capability,” said a statement from the Pentagon’s Defense Security Cooperation Agency, which oversees foreign weapon and equipment sales.

“This proposed sale is consistent with those objectives,” it added. “The proposed sale of munitions will enable Israel to maintain operational capability of its existing systems.“

Israel has similar munitions and can absorb more of them into its arsenal. The additional stockpile may help replace bombs used in the Pillar of Defense counterterrorist operation and also may be linked to possible overall operations in the future, more specifically in case a conflict with Iran breaks out.

The bombs and GPS-guided tail kits, called Joint Direct Attack Munitions, or JDAMs, are built by Boeing.

The proposed sale would also include 3,450 Small Diameter Bombs.

“The notification of the sale comes at a time when tensions in the Middle East are extremely high over Iran’s nuclear program. Israel and the United States charge Iran is seeking to build nuclear weapons,” Defense News noted.

Last month the Israel Air Force staged nearly 1,500 aerial bomb attacks on terrorist targets in Gaza during Operation Pillar of Defense, which was highlighted pinpoint accuracy in bombing operations.

Sex Texts Epidemic: Experts Warn Sharing Explicit Photos is Corrupting Children
Dec 11th, 2012
Daily Newsmailonline - Daniel Martin
Categories: Today's Headlines;Moral Decline

Seattle Erects Same - Sex Wedding ‘Chapels’ Inside City Hall
Dec 11th, 2012
Daily Newscnsnews.com
Categories: Today's Headlines;Moral Decline

CNSNews.com) – The City of Seattle erected five "chapels" inside its city hall over the weekend, so the government facility could host 138 same-sex wedding ceremonies on Sunday.

Same-sex unions became legal in Washington as of Sunday due to the passage of a referendum in the November election.

"In preparation for the festivities, local artists Jennifer Zeyl and Celeste Cooning, with help from city staff, are decking out the building’s large lobby to make decorations for some 140 planned weddings,” the city’s website states. “The decorations consist of several self-contained areas that will act as individual ‘chapels’ within the lobby space.”

A reception was held for all the couples in the City Hall plaza.

“There will be food, coffee, and the chance to witness history,” the website states.

Seattle.gov’s homepage has links to pages devoted to the weddings, including a photo gallery of some of the couples and their wedding parties.

There is also a link to a blog on the Seattle Police Department’s website. The blog includes videos of LBGT police officers talking about their sexual orientation.

But some Seattle residents were not celebrating on Sunday.

Dan Kennedy, who is chief executive of the pro-life group Human Life of Washington, told the Seattle Times the day reminded him of the Roman Empire.

“I feel like I’m living in pagan Rome,” Kennedy said.

The Times also interviewed Steve Beren, a Christian and conservative political consultant.

“I feel bad for those people because they are celebrating what they are doing wrong,” Beren told the Times.

The Merriam-Webster online dictionary defines chapel as “a place of worship” or “house of worship.”

Editors note....Sodom would be envious.

Only 7% of Detroit Public - School 8th Graders Proficient in Reading
Dec 11th, 2012
Daily Newscnsnews.com - Terence P. Jeffrey
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

In the public schools in Detroit, Mich., according to the U.S. Department of Education, only 7 percent of the eighth graders are grade-level proficient or better in reading.

Detroit public-school eighth graders do even worse in math than they do in reading, according to the Department of Education. While only 7 percent scored highly enough on the department’s National Assessment of Educational Progress test in 2011 to be rated “proficient” or better in reading, only 4 percent scored highly enough to be rated “proficient” or better in math.

Obama to Start Sending U.S. F - 16 Fighter Jets to Egypt – on Israel’s Election-day
Dec 11th, 2012
Daily Newsdebkafile
Categories: Today's Headlines;The Nation Of Israel

The Obama administration took a careful look at the political calendar before announcing that the first four F-16 fighter planes - of the 20 approved in a $1 billion US foreign aid package to Egypt - would be delivered Jan. 22.

The announcement came Tuesday, Dec. 11, as Cairo and other Egyptian towns were set for massive rival demonstrations for and against President Mohamed Morsi’s decision to hold a referendum on a pro-Islamist constitution Saturday. It therefore came in for rising criticism in Washington of the wisdom of sending the jets to an unstable Egypt in the grip of a strong political confrontation.

A broad range of opposition groups – pro-democratic, liberal, secular, women and Christian – are demanding that President Morsi cancel the referendum. The Muslim Brotherhood is mobilizing its supporters to counter this protest. As the first anti-Morsi groups began gathering in Tahrir Square Tuesday, nine were hurt by masked gunmen.

The opposition has clipped President Morsi’s wings once by making him annul the near-dictatorial powers he gave himself. Forcing him to forego the referendum would further undermine his authority.

So the president fought back by authorizing the military to secure state buildings and arrest civilians in the incendiary days leading up to Saturday’s referendum. debkafile’s military sources report that Monday, six Egyptian Air Force F-16 fighters flew symbolically over Cairo.

However, the 2nd and 9th Divisions stationed around Cairo stayed in their barracks and the only uniformed personnel visible on the street were the Republican Guard troops on permanent duty in the capital’s center.

By approving another 20 F-16 jets for Muslim-ruled Egypt on the day of the competing demonstrations, President Obama showed the Egyptian people that he stands foursquare behind President Morsi and that more US military aid is on the way.

The first four jets will arrive in Egypt the day after Barack Obama’s Jan. 21 swearing-in for a second term as US president at the Capitol – and not by chance. That date also coincides with Israel’s Jan. 22 general election.
Obama is therefore using those warplanes as a signpost for the Muslim-Arab Middle East – and the Israeli voter – to show them that he is sticking unswervingly to his policy of support for the region’s Muslim Brotherhood – and especially the Egyptian president - even if Morsi did slip up by a grab for sweeping powers that alienated most of the opposition.

The US promise of new fighter planes was also a recommendation to the Egyptian army to pick the right side and opt for President Morsi if they wanted US military assistance to keep coming. Washington was also ready to consider providing them with more high-tech items in addition to those already supplied.
At all events, President Obama has made his choice, opting for Egypt’s Islamists against the pro-democracy and liberal opposition – a choice that he might have found embarrassing when he campaigned for his second term.
Israel had a dark premonition of what was coming. Obama began laying the background for his strong alignment with Islamist Egypt last month with the dramatic announcement of a ceasefire in Cairo on Nov. 20, that was delivered jointly by Morsi and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
By this announcement – and by maneuvering Israel into abstaining from a ground operation in the Gaza Strip to complete its air operation against Palestinian terrorist targets – Obama pulled the Egyptian president out of his hat as a fully-fledged international figure ready to jump to the top of his newly-minted Sunni Muslim Middle East coalition. In addition to Egypt, its chosen members were to be Turkey, Qatar and the Palestinian Hamas. Israel was to be a secret partner and contributor of high-grade intelligence.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu was ready to fit into the role cast Israel by the US president. He therefore chose to hold back from a ground incursion in the Gaza Strip and then agreed to the radical Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal visiting Gaza last week.
His reward came at the same time as Washington’s announcement of the 20 F-16 fighters for Egypt: The US has appropriated $650 million worth of ordnance to refill the Israeli arsenals depleted by the massive Pillar of Defense air offensive in Gaza.
Under this deal, the US will supply the Israeli Air Force with 6,900 satellite-guided “smart bombs;" 10,000 mixed bombs - including 3,450 one-tonners and 1,725 bombs weighing 250 kilograms - as well as two kinds of buster-bunkers - 1,725, GBU-39 bombs and 3,450 BLU-109s.

Lieberman Accuses EU of Holocaust Attitude
Dec 11th, 2012
Daily NewsINN - Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu
Categories: Today's Headlines;The Nation Of Israel

Europe has “slapped itself in the face” by ignoring Hamas’ threats as it ignored the Nazi death camps in the Holocaust, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman charged on Tuesday, a day after Europe condemned Israel for construction plans for Jews in Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria.

He told Voice of Israel public radio that Europe had turned a blind eye to a speech by Hamas chief Khaled Mashaal this past week, in which he said the Palestinians would not "cede an inch" of what it calls historic Palestine, meaning virtually all of Israel.

"Once again, Europe has ignored calls for Israel's destruction," Lieberman told Israeli public radio.

"We've already seen this at the end of the 1930s and at the beginning of the 1940s when Europe knew what was happening in the concentration camps and didn't act.

"Europe has slapped itself in the face.

“When Jews are sacrificed, you have to ask yourself who will be next. In Toulouse, the terrorist who killed Jewish children also killed French soldiers," said Lieberman, referring to terrorist Mohammed Merah, who killed three Jewish schoolchildren and a teacher in Toulouse in March. Three days earlier, he murdered three French troops, AFP noted.

"Terrorism attacks Jews but it targets all countries and Western values. Israel is just an hors d'oeuvre," Foreign Minister Lieberman added.

He also criticized Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas for failing to publicly criticize Mashaal's speech and pursuing reconciliation with Hamas, the Palestinian Islamist movement that runs the Gaza Strip.

Abbas also was silent during Hamas’ lethal missile assault on Israel that ended with a ceasefire following Israel’s eight-day Operation Pillar of Defense.

"Hamas calls for Israel's destruction and refused to recognize Israel and Abu Mazen (Abbas) supports this position while Europe stays quiet," said Lieberman.

Labor Knesset Member Yitzchak Herzog accused Lieberman of spreading "fear and anguish among Israelis by establishing a link between the current situation and the Holocaust.”

Herzog argued that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's decision to build on the “E-1” area of Maaleh Adumim, east of the capital, "endangers Jerusalem, isolates Israel and weakens Abu Mazen while strengthening Hamas.”

Let the Headlines Speak
Dec 11th, 2012
Daily NewsFrom the Internet
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Huge Asteroid to Pass Earth Tonight: How to Watch Online
The near-Earth asteroid 4179 Toutatis, which is about 3 miles (5 kilometers) wide, will zoom within 4.3 million miles (7 million kilometers) of Earth during its closest approach early Wednesday morning (Dec. 12).

HSBC to pay $1.9B to settle money-laundering case
— HSBC avoided a legal battle that could further savage its reputation and undermine confidence in the global banking system by agreeing Tuesday to pay $1.9 billion to settle a U.S. money-laundering probe. Europe's largest bank by market value will pay the biggest penalty ever imposed on a bank after facing accusations it transferred funds through the U.S. from Mexican drug cartels and on behalf of nations such as Iran that are under international sanctions.

Foxx jokes about killing 'all the white people' 2 weeks after calling Obama 'our lord and savior'
Two weeks ago, Oscar-winning actor Jamie Foxx made national headlines when he called President Obama “Our lord and savior.” ...in his new film “Django Unchained,” “I kill all the white people in the movie. How great is that?”

The Russians are fleeing Syria
It is estimated that the Russians drastically reduced their presence in anticipation of an imminent massive western intervention in Syria.

Telescope Gets Better View of Strange Thunderstorm Flashes
The high-energy outbursts that occur above thunderstorms are known as terrestrial gamma-ray flashes (TGFs) and they last only a few thousandths of a second. But even in that brief flash, they rank among the highest-energy forms of light that occur naturally on Earth, according to a NASA release.

Texas Fireball, A Sign Of The End Of Days?
Some worry that as the Mayan calendar winds down, that an asteroid may collide with the Earth, effectively putting an end to our reign on this planet. Scientists have helped put an end to all theories about the end of the world in the coming weeks, but footage from a NASA camera may be kickstarting a whole new realm of worry. The footage from NASA’s Meteoroid Environment Office in New Mexico shows a meteor streaking across the sky in Texas. Although the timing for the footage is oddly close to the December 21st Mayan calendar countdown, it is actually closer to this week’s Geminid meteor shower.

Assessing the near-term prospects as Syria enters post-Assad era
The FSA does not operate in large units that would be vulnerable to chemical weapons. Using them in cities would be a shocking human rights violation that would force Russia and China to reevaluate support for Assad and likely lead to immediate retaliation from Turkish or NATO air strikes on chemical weapons sites, air bases, and command-control centers.

Obama replaces Centcom chief as post-Benghazi shakeup continues
The United States intends to replace the chief of military operations for the Middle East in another personnel change following the killing of four Americans, including a U.S. ambassador in Benghazi, Libya on Sept. 11.

Tornado in Yogyakarta Injures Dozen, Damages Hundreds of Houses
The National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) spokesman said on Saturday that the tornado — which had a radius of two kilometers at a speed of 60 kilometers per hour — lasted for 10 minutes and hit 10 villages in Sleman, with the Bromonila village in the subdistrict of Purwomartani reporting the most damages.

US prepares to recognise Syrian opposition
Officials say the administration is on track to recognise the new Syrian opposition council as the sole legitimate representative of the Syrian people at an international conference on the crisis in Morocco this week. The move will pave the way for greater US support for those seeking to oust Mr Assad and follows the blacklisting of a militant Syrian rebel group with links to al-Qaeda.

Earthquake shudders Timpson area once again
The earthquakes continue, but the question has remained on the minds of many as to what could be the cause of these shudders, especially after the 3.7 magnitude earthquake of May 10, 2012 which was followed by the aftershock on May 17 that measured at a magnitude of 4.3. Members of the staff at the Stephen F. Austin Geology Department in Nacogdoches have been working to track these earthquakes and discover if they are of a natural occurrence, or if they are of man-made origin.

Nature of strong quakes changing? 7.1 magnitude earthquake strikes region of Banda Sea
A magnitude 7.3 earthquake in the Banda Sea off Indonesia has been felt more than 600 kilometres away in Darwin. Geoscience Australia says there could be more aftershocks from the quake that shook the Top End of the Northern Territory overnight.

Unexplained Light Formation Spotted Above San Francisco’s Mission Dist.
A viewer told CBS 5 about some surprising video captured early Sunday morning in San Francisco’s Mission District. In the video, a series of lights fly in formation above the city before appearing to take a diamond shape and eventually disappearing.

Mayan apocalypse: Serbia's mystic mountain targeted by believers
Hotel owners around the pyramid-shaped Mount Rtanj, in the east of the Balkan country, say that bookings are flooding in, with believers in the prophecy hoping that its purported mysterious powers will save them from the apocalypse. Adherents of the end-of-the-world scenario think the 5,100ft-high mountain, part of the Carpathian range, conceals a pyramidal building inside, left behind by alien visitors thousands of years ago.

Study Shows Soaring STD Rates In Many Areas Of New York City
A study by the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene has found that large parts of the city are plagued with soaring rates for multiple STDs – including HIV/AIDS. The study surveyed 181 city ZIP codes for concurrence in rates of HIV/AIDS, chlamydia, gonorrhea, syphilis and hepatitis B, as well as two non-sexually-transmitted diseases – hepatitis C and tuberculosis.

Israel suspected over Iran nuclear programme inquiry leaks
Israel is suspected of carrying out a series of leaks implicating Iran in nuclear weapons experiments in an attempt to raise international pressure on Tehran and halt its programme.

PA Issues Ultimatum to Israel: Talk - or Else
The Palestinian Authority, feeling it is fully armed diplomatically after it won informal UN recognition, now says Israel has six months to talk – or else.

Syria Says it has 'Serious Fear' it is Being Framed
Syria has accused the United States of seeking to frame the country for using chemical weapons, Syrian state-run media reported. "The U.S. administration has consistently worked over the past year to launch a campaign of allegations on the possibility that Syria could use chemical weapons during the current crisis,"

China to overtake EU and US by 2030, US intelligence says
The era of American and European economic dominance has less than two decades left to run, according to a report by US intelligence services. The study - Global Trends 2030, out on Monday (10 December) - predicts the Chinese economy will overtake the US at some point between 2022 and 2030.

Jihadists Aim to Rule Across from Golan Heights
Dec 11th, 2012
Daily NewsINN - Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu
Categories: Today's Headlines;Anti-Israel

Jihadist victories on the Syrian battlefield may put them side-by-side with Hizbullah, Hamas and Muslim Brotherhood as Israel’s neighboring regimes.

The Free Syrian Army (FSA) admitted on Monday that jihadists acted on their own to attack a key military base in northern Syria. Along with the emergence of Al Qaeda, jihadists have taken a leading role in helping the FSA finally take the upper hand in the ongoing civil war.

The capture by the Al-Nusra Front and allied jihadist groups of the base at Sheikh Suleiman dealt a significant blow to Assad's regime as it had been the last major military base west of the city of Aleppo still under army control, but it also undercut the military influence of the mainstream rebel FSA.

The Al-Nusra Front has said it wants to replace Syrian President Bashar Assad and rule an Islamic state, which presumably would include a demand that Israel surrender the strategic Golan Heights.

An AFP journalist who covered the clashes around the Sheikh Suleiman base said many fighters were from other Arab countries and Central Asia.

"We control the whole base, all the zone is under our control. The whole region west of Aleppo up to the Turkish border has now been liberated. But no chemical weapons were found, or anti-aircraft missiles," said a rebel chief, Abu Jalal.

The latest violence came two days ahead of a Friends of Syria nations meeting in Marrakesh, bringing together countries which support the anti-Assad revolt.

The London Independent said on Tuesday that Britain and other key international players are actively drawing up plans to train Syrian rebel fighters and back them with air and naval support.

General David Richards, the head of Britain's armed forces, held talks recently in London with military leaders from France, Turkey, Jordan, Qatar, the UAE, and a US general, according to a report on the newspaper's website. During the meeting, which was organized at the request of Prime Minister David Cameron, the military chiefs are believed to have held detailed strategic discussions about how to help rebels.

Britain, France and the US have pledged not to put "boots on the ground" to help the rebels, meaning Turkey would most likely host the training camps. Britain's Ministry of Defence would not confirm the report.

The possibility of the Syrian side of the Golan Heights border with Israel being manned by jihadists in a post-Assad era has not been ignored by the United States.

The United States will declare the Al-Nusra Front, a jihadist group battling to overthrow Syria's President Bashar Assad, a "foreign terrorist organization," according to documents.

The State Department has not formally announced the move to blacklist the group, but posted the declaration in the Federal Register, in a document that described the Al-Nusra Front as an alias of Al-Qaeda in Iraq.

The Al-Nusra Front is one of the most effective of several armed groups fighting to overthrow the Syrian regime, raising concerns in the West that hardline Islamists are hijacking the 21-month-old revolt, AFP reported.

The group has claimed responsibility for recent suicide bombings that killed scores of people, and has said it hopes to replace the Assad family's four-decade-old dictatorship with a strict Islamic state.

Declaring the Al-Nusra Front a terrorist group would entail freezing its assets and banning Americans from any transactions with the group, which could complicate efforts to provide aid to Syria's fragmented rebellion.

Democracies Silent As UN Human Rights Council Elects Country Where Slavery Exists to Leadership
Dec 11th, 2012
Daily Newscnsnews.com - Patrick Goodenough
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

The U.N.’s top human rights body marked Human Rights Day on Monday by electing three countries with poor human rights records as vice presidents for the coming year – including one of the last remaining countries where slavery exists.

At a meeting in Geneva, members of the U.N. Human Rights Council elected Mauritania, the Maldives and Ecuador as three of its four vice presidents for 2013. Switzerland got the fourth vice-presidential slot, while Poland was elected president.

According to U.N. Watch, a non-governmental organization that monitors the HRC, none of the democracies on the HRC had “said a word about the election of Mauritania or Ecuador.”

The Obama administration last month won a new three-year term on the 47-member council, a centerpiece of its policy of deepening multilateralism through U.N. institutions.

Starting in 2013, the U.S. will be joined on the HRC by 22 other countries rated as “free” by the Washington-based democracy watchdog Freedom House, 10 countries that it says are “not free,” and 14 “partly free” countries.

In Freedom House rankings, which are based on scores for political rights and civil liberties, Mauritania is “not free” while the Maldives and Ecuador are “partly free.”

A release from the U.N.’s Geneva headquarters quoted the incoming HRC president, Polish Ambassador Remigiusz Henczel, as saying that “he deeply believed in a council that promoted and protected human rights effectively and enabled cooperation among states, cultures and religions in a fair and equal manner.”

“He sincerely hoped that together they would be able to make 2013 another successful year of the council’s work, narrowing the gap between the human rights promise and the harsh reality still faced by many people all over the world.”

Ruled by a former military coup leader, Mauritania is a North African Islamic state where conversion to another faith is punishable by death. The country’s criminal code provides for a three-day period of reflection and repentance for any Muslim found guilty of apostasy. “If he does not repent within this time limit,” it states, “he is to be condemned to death as an apostate and his property will be confiscated by the Treasury.”

Homosexual acts also carry the death penalty in Mauritania.

Slavery of black Africans has been rooted in Mauritanian society for centuries According to activists, up to 18 percent of the population may still be in slavery today.

Female genital mutilation is formally illegal but “widely practiced,” according to Freedom House. Mauritania was listed in 122nd place (out of 135) in a recent World Economic Forum report on the gap between women and men in economic participation, educational attainment, political empowerment and health and survival.

Another of next year’s HRC vice-presidents, the Maldives, is also an Islamic state where all citizens are required to be Sunni Muslims, and non-Muslim foreign workers may only practice their faith in private. Speech deemed “contrary to the tenets of Islam” is restricted.

Under the Indian Ocean island nation’s law, women may be flogged for extramarital sex and homosexual activity is a crime, punishable with banishment and flogging.

Ecuador is an electoral democracy but a country which, Freedom House reports, President Rafael Correa has turned into “one of the more restrictive countries for freedom of expression in Latin America and taken steps to assault freedom of association.”

In its latest annual evaluation Freedom House reported a worsening trend in Ecuador, citing “the government’s intensified campaign against opposition leaders and intimidation of journalists, its excessive use of public resources to influence a national referendum, and the unconstitutional restructuring of the judiciary.”

Reporters Without Borders ranked Ecuador in 104th place (out of 179) in its Press Freedom Index for 2011/2012. Mauritania was in 67th place, and the Maldives in 73rd.

Mauritania, Maldives and Ecuador have been HRC members since 2010. When the council in 2011 voted to establish the post of U.N. “special rapporteur for human rights in Iran,” Mauritania and Ecuador both voted “no.” The Maldives voted in favor.

Monday’s election results drew criticism from U.N. Watch, a Geneva-based non-governmental organization.

“It is obscene for the U.N. to use the occasion of Human Rights Day, when we commemorate the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, to elect the world’s worst enabler of slavery to this prestigious post,” said the group’s executive director, Hillel Neuer.

The HRC was established in 2006 to replace the 60-year-old U.N. Commission on Human Rights, which had drawn frequent criticism over the presence and conduct of rights-violating nations.

The Bush administration voted against the U.N. resolution that created the new body, arguing that it did not go far enough to prevent recurrence of the problems that plagued the commission.

In 2009 the Obama administration reversed in predecessor’s decision to shun the council and ran for a seat. Citing what it calls significant improvements as a result of U.S. leadership, it stood again last month for a second term.

Editors note....It will be a wonderful world when the UN takes over?