Looking for His glorious appearing! Titus 2:13

Let the Headlines Speak
Apr 7th, 2013
Daily NewsFrom the Internet
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

‘God Is Great, Hang the Atheist Bloggers!’: Hundreds of Thousands Rally in Bangladesh for Anti-Blasphemy Laws
Hundreds of thousands of hardline Islamists rallied in Bangladesh’s capital on Saturday to demand authorities enact anti-blasphemy laws punishing bloggers and those believed to have insulted Islam. “God is great – hang the atheist bloggers!” some chanted, according to the Agence France-Presse and Al Jazeera.  

Iran nuclear talks end without agreement
Negotiations designed to break the deadlock over Iran's nuclear ambitions ended without agreement on Saturday, with the two sides conceding they remain "far apart" and failing to fix another meeting. The talks between Iran and six world powers in Kazakhstan began amid guarded optimism that a limited agreement might be possible.  

China to open disputed Paracel islands to tourism
China is to begin running tourism cruises to a chain of disputed islands in the South China Sea by next month, state media reports. The Xinhua news agency said tourists would live on board ships, as the largest island has only one hotel and no fresh water. The islands, known in China as Xisha but the Paracels elsewhere, are claimed by China, Vietnam and Taiwan.  

Venezuelan candidate Maduro puts curse on rival voters
The acting president of Venezuela, Nicolas Maduro, has put a curse on citizens who do not vote for him in next week's election. He likened his main rival candidate, Henrique Capriles, to Spanish conquerors fighting indigenous people in the 16th Century. A centuries-old curse, he said, would fall on those who did not vote for him.  

North Korea tension prompts US missile test delay
The US has delayed an intercontinental ballistic missile test scheduled for next week, defence officials say. The Minuteman 3 test was put off over concerns it could be misinterpreted by North Korea, amid fears of a conflict. It could be postponed until May, in what correspondents say will be portrayed by Pyongyang as a victory.  

Study: Global anti-Semitism rises by 30 percent
Global violence and vandalism against Jews has increased by 30 percent, according to an annual survey released by The Kantor Center for the Study of Contemporary European Jewry, on Sunday. In contrast to a relative decline in numbers of anti-Semitic acts...the report noted that a “correlation was observed between the political strengthening of extreme right parties and the high level of anti-Semitic... incidents of violence and vandalism.”  

Hackers target Israeli websites
A weekend cyberattack campaign targeting Israeli government websites failed to cause serious disruption, officials said Sunday. The attacks followed warnings in the name of the group Anonymous that it was launching a massive hacking assault to protest Israeli policy toward the Palestinians. Yitzhak Ben Yisrael, of the government's National Cyber Bureau, said hackers had mostly failed to shut down key sites.  

Egypt call for calm after deadly Christian-Muslim clashes
Egypt's presidency appealed for calm on Saturday after religious insults sparked a gun battle in a poor town north of Cairo in which four Christians and a Muslim died. Fighting flared on Friday night in Al-Khusus, in Qalyubia governorate, after a Muslim in his 50s objected to children drawing a swastika on a religious institute, a security source told AFP.  

John Kerry in Turkey for talks on Israel and Syria
US Secretary of State John Kerry has arrived in Turkey, where he will hold talks expected to address relations with Israel and the conflict in Syria. After helping broker a reconciliation between Turkey and Israel, Mr Kerry will urge them to "fully normalise" relations, US officials said.  

Defense Department classifies Catholics, evangelicals as extremists
The Defense Department came under fire Thursday for a U.S. Army Reserve presentation that classified Catholics and Evangelical Protestants as "extremist" religious groups alongside al Qaeda and the Ku Klux Klan. The presentation detailed a number of extremist threats within the U.S. military, including white supremacist groups, street gangs, and religious sects.  

Saddleback Church Says Rick Warren’s Son Has Committed Suicide
Pastor Rick and Kay Warren’s youngest son, Matthew, has committed suicide, Saddleback Valley Community Church announced Saturday. The evangelical megachurch announced the death of the 27-year-old in a statement. He died Friday night.  

Protecting Yourself From Japanese Insanity
I'd hate to say it but this time really is different. Never before has there been coordinated global money printing of the scale of today. Ever. Japan intends to double its money in circulation in just two years. This is incredible stuff. But it only mimics the U.S. Federal Reserve which has tripled the amount of dollars in circulation since 2008.  

China says North Korea embassy operating normally
China's Foreign Ministry said on Sunday that its embassy in North Korea was operating as normal, and asked Pyongyang to ensure the safety of its diplomats, citizens and investments there.  

‘If Anyone Wants to Call Me a Bible-Thumper, Go Ahead’: Blaze Readers Respond to O’Reilly
Bill O'Reilly's charged gay marriage debate with conservative radio host Laura Ingraham drew a strong reaction from TheBlaze audience, particularly over O'Reilly's contention that same-sex marriage opponents often "thump the Bible" to make their point.  

Israel Nabs Temple Mount Terrorists
Apr 7th, 2013
Daily NewsINN - Maayana Miskin
Categories: Today's Headlines;The Nation Of Israel

The Shin Bet, Israel’s internal security service, revealed Sunday that its operatives exposed a Hamas-linked terrorist cell in March. Members of the cell have been arrested.

The terror cell was behind recent violence on the Temple Mount. Among the attacks it carried out was a firebomb attack on police officers in which nine were injured.

Five people were arrested for membership in the terrorist cell. Most are resident of the Jerusalem neighborhood of Shuafat, an urban “refugee camp” where anti-Israel violence is not uncommon.

Among the cell members are Mohammed Ali Ahmed Farhan, 26, Mamoun Ali Ahmed Farhan, 21, and Adi Tasir Mohammed Abu Saad, 22. All are affiliated with Hamas.

Mohammed Farhan has served time in prison for previous terrorist attacks, including a 2005 stabbing and rock attacks on the Temple Mount.

The detainees have confessed to throwing firebombs at police from the Al Aqsa Mosque. They revealed that they had used a minor to bring bomb materials to the site, knowing that police were unlikely to search a child.

They said they were motivated by what they termed police desecration of the Koran on the Temple Mount. One month ago a copy of the Koran fell when a police officer moved a chair in the area.

Iran Nuclear Talks End in Stalemate With No Date to Continue
Apr 7th, 2013
Daily Newsdebkafile
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

EU foreign executive Catherine Ashton said Saturday at the end of two days of fruitless discussion in Almaty, Kazakhstan, that the positions between Iran and the six powers “remain far apart.” Iran’s senior negotiator Saeed Jalili had brought no responses to the proposals the six powers presented at the former meeting and continued to stand by Iran’s right to enrich uranium and its recognition.

No more meetings were scheduled. But a senior US official who refused to be identified said, “"There was no breakthrough but also no breakdown.Our intention is to proceed."

How Iran Could Get the Bomb Overnight
Apr 7th, 2013
Daily Newsonline.wsj.com
Categories: Today's Headlines;Warning

The West has tried to stop Iran from manufacturing nuclear weapons by diplomacy, sanctions and cybersabotage, and with the threat of military action if Tehran crosses red lines in moving toward the final stages of making a bomb. 

If Iran becomes discouraged in its efforts, an easier and more immediately dangerous option is available: buying nuclear weapons from North Korea.

When it comes to manufacturing weapons of mass destruction, the Iranian regime is in a bind. To further enrich its current stockpile of lowly-enriched uranium hexafluoride gas to weapons-grade material, Tehran would need to reconfigure its centrifuges. 

Since those centrifuges are closely monitored by inspectors of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Iran would have to expel the inspectors, explicitly breaking out of the Non-Proliferation Treaty.

Then it would take four to six months—according to the head of Tel Aviv University’s Institute for National Studies, Amos Yadlin—to produce enough enriched uranium for a bomb. During this interval, Tehran would effectively invite an attack by the U.S. and Israel, which have repeatedly stated that they will not allow Iran to produce fissile fuel for weapons. 

Since the U.S. has munitions capable of destroying all of Iran’s centrifuges above ground at Natanz and sealing off the entrances to its underground facilities at Fordo—plus the Stealth bombers to deliver these knockout punches—Iran would likely lose the means to manufacture nuclear weapons before it could make a single one.

But what if Iran buys one or two nuclear warheads from North Korea? The government in Pyongyang has already conducted three nuclear tests and claims that it has nuclear warheads that fit on its No Dong medium-range ballistic missiles. 

If that claim is true, then mounting the warheads on Iran’s Shahab missiles, which are copies of the North Korean ones, would present little problem. After all, Iran has collaborated with North Korea on missile design for more than a decade.

These off-the-shelf weapons would leave virtually no window of opportunity for a pre-emptive attack by the West and its allies. The warheads could arrive in Iran on a plane in the middle of the night and be immediately fitted onto Iranian missiles. 

Iran would not have to actually use these missiles to have a deterrent. It could renounce the Non-Proliferation Treaty and flaunt its nukes, as North Korea has done for seven years without suffering a military attack by the U.S. Indeed, such a fait accompli would give Iran the same potential for nuclear retaliation as North Korea.

Do we know for sure that North Korea has nuclear warheads it could transfer to Iran? There is little doubt that the country has the means to produce between three and six nuclear bombs annually. 

In 2011, North Korea invited a former director of the Los Alamos National Laboratory, Siegfried Hecker, to inspect a state-of-the-art uranium-enrichment plant at Yongbyon, with just such a capability. 

According to a Feb. 13 report by the Congressional Research Service, U.S. intelligence believes that, in North Korea, “it is likely other, clandestine enrichment facilities exist” to produce fissile material for bombs.

North Korea has already demonstrated its willingness to engage in illicit nuclear proliferation by selling a nuclear reactor to Syria (the reactor was destroyed by Israeli bombers in 2007.) 

We also know that Pyongyang desperately needs money and that, even with sanctions, Iran has billions in oil revenue. If the price is right, then, the North Koreans have every reason to make a deal.

One ominous sign that such a deal may be in progress came in February reports by the Sunday Times of London and the Times of Israel that the Iranian physicist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh was in North Korea when it conducted its third nuclear test last month. 

Mr. Fakhrizadeh, one of the architects of Iran’s nuclear program, reportedly headed Iran’s secret “project 111,” which, according to the 2007 CIA National Intelligence Estimate, worked to design warheads that could be used on Iranian missiles. If he indeed observed the test last month, it would not have been as a tourist.

By focusing on preventing Iran from manufacturing a nuke and relying on time to plan a pre-emptive strike, the U.S. may be neglecting Iran’s far more dangerous option of buying the bomb. Stopping the delivery of a warheads shipment would not be easy. Not being ready to stop it could prove catastrophic.

Abbas Schedules Palestinian
Apr 7th, 2013
Daily Newsdebkafile
Categories: Today's Headlines;The Nation Of Israel

When US Secretary of State John Kerry meets Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) this week on arrival from Turkey, he will try and talk him out of launching what Abbas is calling in briefings to Palestinian activists a “civil intifada (uprising)” against Israel without guns. It is scheduled to April 15 on the eve of Israel’s national Day of Remembrance for its War Dead and Independence celebrations.

Kerry will remind Abbas of his pledge to President Barack Obama when they met in Ramallah on March 21 to abjure violent action while the United States is actively promoting direct negotiations with Israel. 

Abbas will maintain that his “intifada” is nonviolent – consisting “only” of mass protest marches, burning Israeli flags, pelting its security forces with rocks and Molotov cocktails, blocking West Bank highways, and staging collective hunger strikes.

debkafile reports that for the past two weeks, on one pretext or another, Abbas and his lieutenants have been fanning popular Palestinian unrest toward a climax planned to build up as an accompaniment to the first Israeli-Palestinian meeting which the US Secretary is trying to set up for mid-May in Turkey.

Kerry will no doubt warn him that even a civil disturbance may quickly get out of hand in the tense climate pervading the Middle East and benefit radical Syria, Hizballah and Hamas rather than the Palestinians’ own interests.
Abbas will counter that he can no longer keep the Palestinians in check when the rest of the Arab world is on the march – either protesting against or battling its rulers – and his job is to keep his people in the Arab flow - not on the sidelines (not to mention diverting them from protests against his own rule).
But in fact, as DEBKA-Net-Weekly's Middle East sources reported in its latest issue, Abbas has decided to take a leaf out of the shooting-while-talking textbook which brought his predecessor Yasser Arafat fame, fortune and power thirteen years ago.
In August 2000, when Arafat was invited  to Camp David by President Bill Clinton for talks with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, US and Israeli intelligence both knew he was ready to go with Intifida No. 2, the first ever suicide jihad dedicated to killing civilians.

Nevertheless, Clinton and Barak painted the Camp David meeting to their respective publics as peace negotiations - not an attempt to stave off the Palestinian leader’s belligerent intent - which is what it really was.

Abu Mazen hopes to pull off a similar dual-track stratagem.

Although he calls his intifada nonviolent, he will unleash a wave of rowdy disruptions to grab front pages and extra leverage at the US-sponsored dialogue with Israel, while pretending to play ball with John Kerry, in exactly the same way that Arafat feigned cooperation with the peace efforts of former Secretaries of State Madeleine Albright and Colin Powell.

Abbas does not need to suicide bombers or gunmen. Any violent occurrence will serve to cast the blame on Israeli security authorities and so further inflame the disorders.

Israel was given a foretaste of these tactics Monday April 1, when Abu Hamadiyeh, 64, who was serving a life sentence for attempted multiple murder, died of throat cancer while under treatment at an Israeli hospital. Mahmoud Abbas immediately seized on this death to lambaste Israel with accusations of “criminal negligence.” Thousands of Palestinian prisoners rioted and went on hunger strike. Calm was only restored with the help of tear gas.
The Palestinian leader is on the lookout for more fodder to feed his propaganda mill in the coming weeks. But he can’t promise to keep the lid on the flames he is stirring up. Neither he, John Kerry nor Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu can be sure that some untoward incident at some point won’t precipitate Abbas’s “civil intifada” into a dangerous spiral  of unbridled violence.