Looking for His glorious appearing! Titus 2:13

Nigeria: 15 Christians 'have Throats Slit' By Suspected Extremists
Dec 31st, 2012
Daily NewsThe Telegraph
Categories: Today's Headlines;Persecution

Suspected Islamist extremists have killed 15 Christians by slitting their throats in an attack on a village in Nigeria's volatile northeast, residents and a relief source have claimed.

Let the Headlines Speak
Dec 31st, 2012
Daily NewsFrom the Internet
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Obama Administration: We Can and Will Force Christians to Act Against Their Faith
In a legal argument formally presented in federal court in the case of Hobby Lobby v. Kathleen Sebelius, the Obama administration is claiming that the First Amendment—which expressly denies the government the authority to prohibit the “free exercise” of religion—nonetheless allows it to force Christians to directly violate their religious beliefs even on a matter that involves the life and death of innocent human beings.

Registration, the Nazi Paradigm
New research into Adolf Hitler's use of firearms registration lists to confiscate guns and the execution of their owners teaches a forceful lesson -- one that reveals why the American people and Congress have rejected registering honest firearm owners.

Obama makes passing gun control measures a priority for 2013
President Obama pledged Sunday to make gun control a top priority in his second term and vowed to put his “full weight” behind such legislation. “I’d like to get it done in the first year,” the president said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “This is not something that I will be putting off.”

Christian Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani Re-Arrested in Iran on Christmas Day
Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani’s story has been both a troubling and tragic one. While his plight seemingly ended positively earlier this year, the nightmare is nowhere near over. After initially arresting him for apostasy, Iranian officials changed their minds numerous times surrounding the charges that were waged against him. Then, this fall, after nearly three years behind bars, he was released, sparking a sigh of relief among human rights workers. But on Christmas day, Nadarkhani was, once again, detained.

Peres takes swipe at undiplomatic Liberman, urges talks with Abbas
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is one of the only Arab leaders with whom Israel can reach an agreement, President Shimon Peres said Sunday... “You can reach an agreement with Abbas… one of the only leaders in the Arab world to publicly and boldly say that he supports peace and a demilitarized state, and opposes terrorism,” Peres said at...at a meeting of Israeli ambassadors ahead of an annual Foreign Ministry conference.

Obama Urges Illinois To Legalize 'Gay' Marriage
President Barack Obama is urging the Illinois General Assembly to legalize gay marriage in his home state as lawmakers are poised to take up the measure as early as this week in Springfield. “While the president does not weigh in on every measure being considered by state legislatures, he believes in treating everyone fairly and equally, with dignity and respect,” White House spokesman Shin Inouye told the Chicago Sun-Times on Saturday.

Brazil debates treatment options in crack epidemic
Bobo has a method: Cocaine gets him through the day, when he cruises with a wheelbarrow around a slum on Rio's west side, sorting through trash for recyclables to sell. At night, he turns the day's profit into crack.

Iran test-fires missiles near Strait of Hormuz
Iran's navy says it has test-fired a range of weapons during ongoing maneuvers near the Strait of Hormuz, the passageway for one-fifth of the world's oil supply. The Monday report by the official IRNA news agency quotes exercise spokesman Adm. Amir Rastgari as saying the Iranian-made air defense system Raad, or Thunder, was among the weapons tested.

Reports: Russia sends another naval ship to Syria
Russian news agencies say the navy is sending another ship to the Syrian port of Tartus, where Russia has a naval base. The reports Sunday by the ITAR-Tass and Interfax news agency cited an unidentified official in the military general staff saying the Novocherkassk, a large landing ship, has set sail from the Black Sea port of Novorossiisk. The ship is expected to arrive in the Tartus area in early January.

Senate committee report on Benghazi terrorist attack faults State Department
A scathing Senate committee report on the Benghazi terrorist attack faults the State Department for failing to adequately respond to mounting security threats in the lead-up to the assault. The report says the facility was woefully under-protected at a time when the region, according to a top department official, was "flashing red" -- yet security was not improved, and nobody recommended the compound be shut down.

Peres: Israel would talk to Hamas if it met Quartet terms
President Shimon Peres on Monday pursued his calls for peace when addressing spiritual and lay leaders of Israel's Christian community, notwithstanding the barrages of criticism that he encountered on Sunday after telling Israeli diplomatic missions abroad that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is a leader with whom Israel can reach a peace agreement.

Merkel warns Germans of tough economic times ahead
Chancellor Angela Merkel has warned that the German economic climate in 2013 will be "even more difficult". In her new year message, she also cautioned that the eurozone debt crisis was far from over. However, she did say that reforms designed to address the roots of the problem were beginning to bear fruit.

Explosions across Iraq kill at least 10, wound 46
Explosions killed at least 10 people and wounded 46 across Iraq on Monday, police said, underlining sectarian and ethnic divisions that threaten to further destabilize the country a year after U.S. troops left. Tensions between Shi'ite, Kurdish and Sunni factions in Iraq's power-sharing government have been on the rise this year. Militants continue to strike almost daily, and carry out at least one big attack a month.

Egyptian pound falls further despite currency intervention
The Egyptian pound has fallen further against the US dollar, despite efforts by the country's financial authorities to halt its slide on the money markets. The renewed decline came as the central bank held the second in a series of currency auctions. It sold $74.8m at a cut-off price of 6.3050 Egyptian pounds to the dollar, less than the equivalent price of 6.2425 in Sunday's first auction.

Central African Republic crisis: Bozize offer rejected
Rebels in Central African Republic have dismissed the president's offer to form a national unity government. "We don't believe in [Francois] Bozize's promises," rebel spokesman Eric Massi told the BBC. He accused the security forces of attacking members of ethnic groups seen as rebel sympathisers - the government has previously denied such claims.

Colombia landslide kills five in Neiva with 25 missing
Rescue teams in Colombia have been searching for at least 25 people missing after a landslide cut off a road near the south-western city of Neiva. Five people were killed in the accident, which happened on Saturday. The Colombian authorities believe at least six cars are buried under tons of mud and rocks.

Hillary Clinton in hospital with blood clot after fall
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has been admitted to hospital in New York with a blood clot, officials say. Mrs Clinton suffered a concussion earlier this month after fainting and falling down. At the time, she was reported to have had a stomach virus and to have passed out after becoming dehydrated.

Japan Pushes World Closer to Currency Wars
Dec 31st, 2012
Daily NewsThe Independent
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Central banks consider simultaneous new policies of monetary stimulus

The prospect of a global "currency war" between the world's major economies edged closer as the new Japanese Finance Minister, Taro Aso, pledged to prevent speculators driving up the value of the yen and reiterated Tokyo's plans to alter the Bank of Japan's mandate to deliver reflation.

Israel Now Has 6 Million Jews
Dec 31st, 2012
Daily NewsINN - Tzvi Ben Gadalyahu
Categories: Today's Headlines;The Nation Of Israel

The number of Israeli Jews passed the emotional 6 million mark in November, and the total population will pass 8 million in February, according to the Central Bureau of Statistics.

The Jewish population represents 75.4 percent of the total, of which Arabs are 20.6 percent, representing a continuing trend of a higher Jewish birth rate and a lower Arab birth rate.

The other four percent of the Israeli population includes Christians, other faiths and 319,000 people who call themselves Jewish but are not recognized as such according to Jewish law. Almost all of them are from the former Soviet bloc.

As January 1 approached, the total population was 7,981,000, 1.8 per cent higher than the previous year.

The figures do not include temporary residents and foreign workers.

New immigrants account for a smaller increase in the number of Jews, with only 16,500 having come on “aliyah” in 2012.

North American aliyah was about 4,000, including those who already were in Israel and took out Israeli citizenship, Nefesh B’Nefesh spokeswoman Yael Katsman told Arutz Sheva Monday. She said the numbers are rising, and that the expectation is that the trend will continue in 2013.

British Textbook Erases Israel
Dec 31st, 2012
Daily NewsIsrael Today - Ryan Jones
Categories: The Nation Of Israel;Anti-Israel

A popular textbook used by institutions and teachers to teach English as a second language to students in the UK has been found to have a serious anti-Israel bias.

"I teach English as a foreign language in a further education college in Nottingham, England. I came across the attached map and couldn't believe my eyes!" Liz Wiseman told Israel Today.

The textbook in question is "Skills in English Writing Level 1", which includes a map of the Middle East on which Israel is nowhere to be found.

While Wiseman acknowledges she was not obligated to use this particular textbook, it is one of the more popular and mainstream English Language Teaching (ELT) textbooks published by one of the more popular and mainstream ELT publishers, Garnet Education.

Garnet Education bills itself thus:

"Garnet Education is an independent English Language Teaching (ELT) publisher, specialising in English for Academic Purposes. We produce award-winning ELT books, multimedia resources and tests for students of all ages, from kindergarten to university."

This is far from an isolated incident, which is motivation for drawing attention to this particular case. It is not only in the Middle East where students, both adults and children, are being taught that Israel has no right to exist. The more students around the world are fed this brand of propaganda, the more remote prospects for true peace become.

Analyst: Palestinians Know Israelis Don't Want to Kill Them
Dec 31st, 2012
Daily NewsIsrael Today - Staff
Categories: Today's Headlines;The Nation Of Israel

For all the talk of an alleged Israeli-perpetrated "holocaust" against the Arabs of the region, a recent survey demonstrated that the vast majority of Palestinians know full well that Israelis don't want to kill them.

The survey was conducted by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research among a sampling of Palestinian Arabs and Israeli Jews.

Israeli respondents were asked what they believed the long-term goals of the Palestinians to be. Forty-two percent said they believe the Palestinians, or at least those groups which hold power, want to ultimately conquer all of the Land of Israel and destroy the Jewish population.

Conversely, Palestinian respondents were not given an option that included Israel killing all local Arabs. Instead, the worst option Palestinian respondents could choose was that Israel wants to annex the so-called West Bank and either expel or deny or deny political rights to its Arab population.

That discrepancy was curious to Israeli media analyst Dr. Aaron Lerner, who wrote to the PCPSR for an explanation.

Waleed Ladadweh, a researcher at the PCPSR, responded that after years of asking both sides about "their perceptions of the other party's ambitions," the survey group had been able to more tightly focus the questions and ignore irrelevant options.

In other words, according to the PCPSR, there simply aren't enough Palestinian Arabs who truly believe Israel wants to annihilate them to bother including such an option in its surveys.

'Jesus' Prayer Shawls Cause Minor Uproar in Jerusalem
Dec 31st, 2012
Daily NewsIsrael Today - Staff
Categories: Today's Headlines;The Nation Of Israel

Israeli anti-missionary organizations such as Yad L'Achim were in a minor uproar earlier this month after learning that Jewish prayer shawls (tallitot) embroidered with a Messianic blessing referencing Yeshua (Jesus) were being sold or given away on Jerusalem's main pedestrian thoroughfare.

Prayer shawls are popular products on Ben Yehudah St., which is a prime shopping area for tourists visiting the Israeli capital. And all prayer shawls have blessings embroidered along their hems.

But when a Jewish couple visiting the area took a closer look at their new prayer shawl, a local journal titled HaShabbat B'Netanya reported that they were shocked to read the following words:

"Blessed are you, king of the universe, who has filled the whole Torah with Jesus the Messiah and has covered us all with his righteousness."

The couple reported the incident to Yad L'Achim, which then worked to have the offending prayer shawls removed from the area. But the identity of those being the prayer shawls remained a mystery.

Yad L'Achim officials insist it was the work of local Messianic Jews, whom the anti-missionaries label as "Christians dressing up as Jews."

One of the primary tactics of groups like Yad L'Achim is to convince fellow Jews that Christianity has no connection whatsoever to Judaism, and to disassociate Jesus from his Jewish heritage.

The group also tries to make Jews who come to faith in Jesus feel foolish by repeatedly stating that only those with a weak grasp of Judaism would ever fall prey to the "missionaries."