Looking for His glorious appearing! Titus 2:13

‘We’ve Hurt People:’ Christian Group Devoted to ‘Curing Homosexuality,’ Shuts Down, Apologizes to Ga
Jun 21st, 2013
Daily NewsNational Post (excerpts)
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

The president of a leading Christian ministry dedicated to helping gays repress their sexual urges through prayer has apologized to the gay community and says the group is shutting down.

Alan Chambers, in a statement posted Thursday on Exodus International’s website, said the group wants to apologize to the gay community “for years of undue suffering and judgment at the hands of the organization and the church as a whole.”

Chambers also made an apology in a speech to his ministry’s annual conference, saying, “We’ve hurt people.”

“While there has been so much good at Exodus, there has also been bad,” he said. “We’ve fought the culture war, and we’ve lost. It’s time for peace.”

Exodus International, which is based in Orlando, Fla., was founded 37 years ago and claimed 260 member ministries around the U.S. and internationally. For decades, it offered to help conflicted Christians rid themselves of unwanted homosexual inclinations through counseling and prayer, infuriating gay rights activists in the process.

Exodus had seen its influence wane in recent years as mainstream associations representing psychiatrists and psychologists rejected its approach. However, the idea that gays could be “converted” to heterosexuality through prayer persists among some evangelicals and fundamentalists.

The announcement that Exodus would close was not a total surprise. Last year, Chambers – who is married to a woman but has spoken openly about his own sexual attraction to men – said he was trying to distance his ministry from the idea that gays’ sexual orientation can be permanently changed or “cured.”

In his statement Thursday, Chambers said the board of Exodus had decided to close it and form a new ministry, which he referred to as reducefear.org.

“Our goals are to reduce fear and come alongside churches to become safe, welcoming, and mutually transforming communities,” he said.

Some of Exodus’ former followers – disenchanted by Chambers’ evolution – had formed a new group called the Restored Hope Network, which calls itself an “ex-gay ministry” and continues to promote the idea that gays can be converted to heterosexuality.

Editors Note....The homosexual agenda is rolling over the whole of society, Sodom and Gohmorrah is back.

‘Paranoid’ Michael Hastings Told Wikileaks Lawyer He Was Being Investigated By the FBI Only a Few Ho
Jun 21st, 2013
Daily NewsMailonline
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

In the hours leading up to his death in a fiery car crash, a ‘paranoid’ Michael Hastings told WikiLeaks he was being investigated by the FBI, according to the whistleblowing website.

A tweet sent from WikiLeaks yesterday claimed: ‘Michael Hastings contacted WikiLeaks lawyer Jennifer Robinson just a few hours before he died, saying that the FBI was investigating him.’

The Rollingstone and Buzzfeed reporter, who famously brought down General Stanley McChrystal with his 2010 profile, died in a crash in Los Angeles at about 4.30am on Tuesday.

Since the award-winning journalist’s death, conspiracy theorists have suggested the crash may have been suspicious, casting doubt on whether a Mercedez-Benz would catch fire so quickly after a crash. 

Fueling the suspicions, WikiLeaks posted a tweet claiming: ‘Michael Hastings death has a very serious non-public complication. We will have more details later.’

Three hours later the website claimed Mr Hastings had contacted their lawyer a few hours before he died.

Los Angeles police are still investigating the crash but say they have found no suspicious circumstances.

Friends have said that the journalist had been concerned in the lead up to his death, but said they could not be sure if that contributed to his death.

‘He was incredibly tense and very worried, and was concerned that the government was looking in on his material,’ Cenk Uygur, a friend and fellow journalist, said.

‘I don’t know what his state of mind was at 4:30 in the morning, but I do know what his state of mind was in general, and it was a nervous wreck,’ Mr Uygur told New York Magazine.

BuzzFeed editor Ben Smith added that Mr Hastings had told friends and family ‘he was concerned that he was under investigation.’

World Health Organisation Calls Emergency Meeting to Respond to Sars - Like Outbreak
Jun 21st, 2013
Daily NewsThe Telegraph
Categories: Today's Headlines;Warning

Health experts have started an emergency international meeting to devise ways of combating a mysterious virus that has been described as the single biggest worldwide public health threat after claiming 38 lives, mostly in Saudi Arabia.

Training the Next Generation of Terrorists At Hamas Summer Camps for Kids
Jun 21st, 2013
Daily NewsYnetNews
Categories: Today's Headlines;The Nation Of Israel

As has become customary in recent years, this summer will see hundreds of thousands of small children in Gaza enroll in summer camps organized by terrorist groups. Social activities, religious studies and sport competitions aside, the children will engage in what is the undisputed crowning centerpiece of those camps: the semi-military training that includes use of live ammunition and simulated kidnappings of IDF soldiers. 

Each year the military wings of various Gazan organizations vie for the hearts of the young recruits, eager to ready themselves for fighting Israel. Thus, this year Gazans will be able to send their children to the summer programs offered by Hamas, the Islamic Jihad and the Popular Resistance Committees. 

The terror groups take the summer camps very seriously, regarding them both as the ultimate tool of recruitment of future generations of fighters and as means to raise public support for their activities. 

The summer camps afford children their first encounters with neither live weaponry nor the ideology of resistance, inculcated zealously through Hamas' education system. The camps are rather an extension of that education, where learning to shoot a firearm is part of the curriculum. 

Senior Hamas officials say some 100,000 children are expected to take part in the various summer camps. The Islamic group's leader in Gaza Ismail Haniyeh said the goal of the summertime activities is to instill children with values, strengthen their moral core and spread the spirit of Jihad. 

However, busy Gazan parents have non-militant alternatives this summer. UNHCR, UN's refugee agency, offers a summer camp centered on sports. 

The agency said it expects some 150,000 children to attend its camps spread all along the coastal enclave. In previous years UNRWA's camp facilities were vandalized in protest for their instilling values incompatible with those of terror groups. 

Chris Gunness UNRWA spokesman said "Our summer fun weeks give a sense of normality, free from politics, to 150,000 kids – still recovering from the November bombardments and trying to survive under the longest blockade in modern history."
Read more at http://www.prophecynewswatch.com/2013/June20/203.html#sQcPtGpxSKLPKhy5.99

Torrential Flooding Threatens to Evacuate 100,000 Canada Homes
Jun 21st, 2013
Daily NewsINN - Rina Tzvi
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

As many as 100,000 people may be evacuated from their homes by heavy flooding in western Canada, Calgary city officials said,

Mudslides have already forced the closure of the Trans-Canada Highway, isolating the mountain resort towns of Banff and Canmore.

Torrential rains and widespread flooding poured down on southern Alberta on Thursday, leaving one person missing, with furniture—including cars, couches and refrigerators -- floating away, according to reports.

Communities were hit hard just south of Calgary, a city of more than a million people that hosted the 1988 Winter Olympics.

Many downtown neighborhoods were notified of possible evacuations toward the end of the day, with officials saying that the evacuations would take place in stages over the next few days.

The province reported that 12 communities were under states of emergency.

Syrian Forces Training to Storm Israel's Border
Jun 21st, 2013
Daily NewsWND
Categories: Today's Headlines;The Nation Of Israel

Thousands of Syrians are currently training in Iran to serve as a force ready to storm Israel’s northern Golan Heights, according to informed Middle Eastern security officials.

The officials said between 3,000 and 5,000 Syrian men were being trained in the event Syrian President Bashar al-Assad decides to open a front against the Golan Heights, which borders Syria.

The training is being overseen by the Al Quds Force, the elite unit of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard responsible for the country’s extraterritorial operations, the sources said.

The Syrian forces are slated to return to their country next month, the sources added.

This is not the first report of Iran aiding Syria in preparations for ground attacks against Israel.

In May, WND reported the Iranian-backed Hezbollah was establishing training camps near the Syrian capital of Damascus to prepare for possible guerrilla warfare targeting the Golan Heights, according to informed Middle Eastern security officials.

The officials said the camps are training Palestinian groups as well as special units connected to Assad’s Baath party for operations against Israel if such actions are green-lighted by Syria in the near future.

The officials said that for the time being, Russia has urged Assad against taking any action targeting Israel.

The reports come as the U.K. Independent reported on a purported military strategy taken by Iran to send a first contingent of 4,000 Iranian Revolutionary Guards to Syria in support of Assad’s drive to defeat the so-called rebels.

On Saturday, the New York Times reported that as a way to keep the pressure on Assad, American warplanes and antimissile batteries will remain in Jordan following a military drill currently underway.

The Times further reported on CIA training for the rebels in Jordan under a covert program as well as a U.S. campaign to send weapons to the rebels via Jordan.

Editors Note.....This would appear to be preparations for the war of Psalm 83.

New Iranian President Tied to Jewish Center Bombing
Jun 21st, 2013
Daily NewsIsrael Today Staff
Categories: Today's Headlines;The Nation Of Israel

Former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad might be famous for wanting to kill Jews, but his predecessor, the allegedly "moderate" Hassan Rohani, has apparently actually done so.

An American newspaper this week pointed out that a 2006 indictment by the government in Argentina had listed Rohani as one of the co-conspirators in the 1994 bombing of a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires.

The attack, which killed 85 people and wounded hundreds more, was, according to Argentina, carried out by Hezbollah, but was ordered from Tehran.

The Argentine government investigator stated that the attack was planned and given a green light by Iran's Supreme National Security Council, which is headed by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khameini.

A former Iranian intelligence official testified in the case that Rohani was also a member of that council, as was former Iranian President Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, himself hailed throughout the West as a "moderate."

As Israelis have been pointing out since his election last week, Rohani might have more tact and style than Ahmadinejad, but he hates Israel every bit as much.

Netanyahu: the Arabs Want All of 'Palestine'
Jun 21st, 2013
Daily NewsINN - Elad Benari
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Israel wants peace, but it is not willing to sacrifice its security for it, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said on Thursday evening at the closing session of the Presidential Conference.

“For peace to be maintained, we must be strong in the present and in the future. Because a peace accord that compromises our security will not endure, and I will never compromise the security of the State of Israel and its citizens,” said Netanyahu.

“Therefore, when we talk about ‘tomorrow’ I talk about a tomorrow of peace, security and also prosperity.”

Israel, he said, “must remain strong. And the greatest threat that we face is that the most dangerous weapons in the world fall into the hands of the most dangerous regimes in the world – especially one regime. We cannot allow Iran to achieve nuclear weapons.

“Now, mind you, the people of Iran, they want a better tomorrow. The election results show that very clearly. But Iran’s dictator denies them their rights and he prevents them from materializing that better future.

“The first thing the newly elected president said was that Iran must be guaranteed its rights. He didn’t say: the Iranian people must be guaranteed their rights. He said: Iran must be guaranteed its rights. And the right that Iran stresses that it must have a guarantee on is to develop nuclear weapons.

“This is what this regime is about. So we may be seeing a change in style, but not a change in substance. In fact, the President elect is the author of a doctrine that I call ‘Talk and Enrich’ (enrich nuclear material): You smile, you talk and you move forward towards the bomb. He takes great pride in the fact that when he was Iran’s nuclear negotiator, that’s exactly what he did for many years. He criticizes the past president for not engaging in this tactic to achieve the unchanging and fixed strategy of arming Iran with nuclear weapons.

“We cannot allow the Iranian regime to play that game,” stressed Netanyahu, who said Iran will be tested not by what it says but by what it does. “And what they have to do is to abide by the international demands, stop all enrichment at all levels, remove the nuclear material that’s already been enriched and shut down the illicit nuclear facilities,” he said.

“I say to the international community: keep up the pressure, keep up the pressure and keep to those demands.

“This is fundamental for international security, and it’s fundamental for our security.

Regarding the peace process, Netanyahu once again called on the Palestinian Authority to return to the negotiating table without preconditions.

“The only way to achieve peace, the only way to negotiate a peace and to end the negotiations for peace is to begin the negotiations for peace,” he said. “We’re ready to begin negotiations now, without preconditions. And I hope that the Palestinian leadership is equally ready.

“We’re only 15 minutes apart. Well, with a police escort you could do it faster, but that’s the distance from Ramallah to Jerusalem. There’s no reason on earth we shouldn’t negotiate. And we give Secretary Kerry all the support for his important effort, and I hope he succeeds, because we want to succeed.

“But I’ll say one thing about peace. I think the reason there is no peace has to be addressed. Not in opening the negotiations, because I put no conditions and no requirement on entering the negotiations. But in order to end the negotiations successfully we must address the question of why we’ve been unavailable, why we’ve been unsuccessful in getting peace. Why have successive governments, six prime ministers since Oslo, and before Oslo, have not been able to achieve peace with the Palestinians.

“I think it must be understood that this conflict predates 1967 by almost half a century. It predates the settlements, although that’s an issue that will have to be discussed and resolved. All these questions will be discussed.

“But the question we have to ask is why did this conflict rage from 1920, when the first Palestinian Arab attacks on the Jewish immigration office in Jaffa began, till 1967? That’s 47 years. What was that all about? I’ll tell you what it was about. It was the fervent opposition to a Jewish state in any boundary. It didn’t even exist, and once it existed, there was an attempt to put out the life, to extinguish the life of the embryonic Jewish state in the War of Independence and then in the years that followed. That was the reason.

“And then we vacated settlements. We left Gaza and it still continued. And those who are firing rockets into our towns and to our villages, you ask them, ‘Why are you doing this? We left every square inch of Gaza. Why are you doing this?’ They say: ‘To liberate Palestine.’ And we say: ‘You mean Judea, Samaria, the West Bank?’ ‘No,’ they say, ‘Palestine. We mean Be’er Sheva, Ashdod, Ashkelon, Jaffa. You know, Palestine.’ That was and remains the basic problem.”

Netanyahu noted that “Palestinian society is divided into two: those who openly call for our destruction and use terror for that effect, and those, the other half that refuses to confront the first half. And I say, if we’re going to have peace, we’re going to have Palestinian leadership that faces up to this and says: ‘We are willing to make peace with the Jewish state. We will accept the right of the Jewish people to have a nation state.’ That was and remains the underlying problem that makes peace elusive.”

What will ultimately bring about peace, he stressed, is “the willingness of the Palestinians to accept a Jewish state, to accept the right of the Jews to live in their ancient homeland as a sovereign people, this is the most important thing that will determine the success of our efforts.”

He added, “We seek peace with all our neighbors. We seek a Middle East of peace, security, stability, prosperity. We will work to ensure it for our own state. We pray that we can achieve it with others. And I hope that they will pray that same prayer too.

“That’s the tomorrow I wish for. That’s the tomorrow I know you wish for, everyone here, everyone, from Shimon Peres to the last guest here, and everyone who is listening to us out there, may we succeed.”

More DHS Insider from DC
Jun 21st, 2013
Daily NewsCanada Free Press - Doug Hagmann
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

As noted in my June 7, 2013 report titled DHS Insider: It’s about to get very ugly, the additional information provided to me that was temporarily withheld from publication is now being released. The methodical and incremental release of information was (and is) deliberate, to allow other things to play out, such as the public exposure to the name Edward Snowden and his revelations regarding just how extensive the domestic surveillance apparatus is—and who the surveillance is actually targeting.

Back to the early hours of June 7, 2013

“You’ve got to understand that they are trying to find the likes of me,” stated my source. Pretty soon, no one is going to be talking to anybody, especially in the alternative media, even about the damn weather. They won’t risk it, and I’m not just talking about a risk to their careers, either. There has been a systematic method of intimidation with some known and even “approved” media contacts, not just against them, but against their families,” he emphasized.

“Just give it two weeks at most, it will come out that no one will talk to the media,” he added. [Author note: See this article about AP CEO confirming their sources won’t talk anymore, dated 19 June 2013]. “But let me give you some details about some things I was told too. I know this is second-hand information, but it was from someone in a position of authority to know, someone I trust, and someone who I expect to reveal to [name of elected official deleted] the true extent of what has and in some cases, still is taking place. This individual is preparing to disclose much, and has obtained legal counsel, but the problem is that one misstep could be fatal in a literal sense, and [this source] knows that. If not fatal, there are other legal challenges, especially under a corrupt judiciary. By the time this appears in print, the disclosures will likely have already been made, just not made public.”

The Holder hammer & the Chicago plumbers

“The revelation last month that the Justice Department seized two months of telephone records from the Associated Press (AP) last year is only a small part of the story. The public admission is that the Holder Justice Department obtained only telephone records from three locations, something like 20 lines, and records of calls from the House press gallery for about two months. That’s one of the biggest lies ever told,” stated my source.

“The truth is that it was not limited to AP, and not limited to just number identification and call duration, but was an extensive and active wiretapping operation that included every reporter’s telephone conversations, landline and cell, text messages from their personal and business cellular telephones and other electronic devices. The primary focus is on the press gallery, where everything was monitored in real time.”

“Not only were the communications of reporters compromised, so were the private communications of congressmen and their aides. Listen to what I am saying,” he stressed, “the operation was much larger than anyone can imagine. Recordings, actual voice recordings, were turned over to the Obama administration, along with transcripts of texts, other communications and contacts.”

“NSA assets were used, with the NSA acting as the collection agency for their intermediate client, the DHS. Then, at the highest levels of DHS, they sifted through the information collected. But the ultimate client or recipient of the information was the Obama White House. I don’t know if other agencies were involved in sorting through the material, but DHS, and this was limited to the highest of levels at DHS under the personal direction of Janet Napolitano, provided volumes of data directly to the Obama administration. One person inside the administration I know received the data was Valerie Jarrett,” he stated.
“The other part of the lie is that this operation lasted only two months. That’s a lie. It went on well into late last year, was halted shortly after the election, but then picked back up sometime in January,” he said. Something happened in January where there appeared to be another active wiretapping operation started, but this one appeared to be more focused, or more limited in scope. Maybe, and I’m just guessing here based on some of the things I heard, that the Obama people had narrowed their interests based on the fruits of the previous operation.”

Now the ‘Holder hammer’ is coming down on anyone who opens their mouth, or previously leaked any information that could have been or be detrimental to Obama. I can tell you that Valerie Jarrett is working, out of the White House, with DHS and other agencies to co-ordinate their efforts with Justice,” the latter a reference to the Eric Holder Justice Department. “At the same time, on the media side, there is a ‘plumbers team’ headed out of Chicago, with a long reach to the New York and Washington press correspondents. So they are not only going after those on the inside, but the journalists from the other side.”

“The intimidation factor is huge if a media contact is outside of a small circle of ‘vetted’ journalists who are completely loyal to Obama and his agenda. If you are not part of that inner circle, you are a target, it’s that simple. You are seeing the formation of a state-run media and an administration that will intimidate, punish or prosecute anyone considered unfriendly to the Obama camp from the inside and the outside. Like I said, this also involves elected officials, their staffs and even in some cases, their families. And it is all being done under the color of authority and the pretext of national security,” he added.

Loyalty to the man, not the office

It was at this point I asked my source, what were or are they looking for?

“Anything and everything,” he responded. “Obviously, it’s about loyalty to the man, damn the country and damn the law. Protect the man and the agenda, which is not just his agenda, but the people who put him in office.”

Like who? I asked.

“Who benefits? This is about dismantling the United States and nothing less. This is about foreign interests who have taken over our government without a shot. Look at Syria and our economy, both issues that are expected, at least as discussed within DHS,  to play out this year. You had it correct on both counts when you wrote about our involvement in Syria, by way of weapons shipments from Benghazi, to open another war. You also had it correct when you wrote about the killing of the U.S. Dollar. You want to know how I know this? Because the blowback from those two issues alone, one foreign and the other domestic, are what DHS is gearing up for in our ‘homeland,’” he stated.

“Unless there are enough people who wake up fast enough, we will become involved in a war in Syria, with boots on the ground, facing not only Syrian troops but Russian forces. There will be blowback here in the United States. Along with this, you will see the U.S. dollar ‘collapse’ as the reserve currency, and social uprisings here in the U.S. over both. It will be DHS teamed with other federal agencies who will meet, with force, the uprisings. There will be chaos here, but it is expected to be different depending upon where you are at. Big cities will have the most problems, and plans are being made to cordon off cities and restrict travel at the time when these uprisings start. I really didn’t want to use this phrase, but expect martial law to be used ‘for the security’ of those affected by the turmoil.”

“Then, you will see the internet being regulated in a manner that will serve only the agenda of this administration. Either right before or during these events, so-called citizen journalists will be particularly vulnerable. Watch for a serious crackdown of bloggers, online news publications and websites, but not in the way that will be immediately obvious. The ‘plumbers team’ have coordinated their efforts with Internet Service Providers to identify the people like you and others who publish their information on web sites. At first they will cite violations of terms of service. Then, they will select a few ‘troublemakers’ and identify them for criminal prosecution. Others will experience hacking and other electronic attacks. And during all of that, there will be the Obama team flooding the internet with misinformation and disinformation. In fact, that is already taking place.”

During our conversation, I started to ask about certain journalists and bloggers who died, either from ‘natural causes’ or in accidents, suicides, and under other strange circumstances. My source interrupted before I could finish my question.

“Don’t even go there, don’t bother asking me, because I just don’t know, he stated in a rather agitated manner. I do have my suspicions about one, maybe two who got a bit too close to the truth and foolishly trusted certain people, but I really don’t know for sure.”

So, what will all of this look like, I asked, when it all comes down.

“I’ve thought about that myself, and have seen some DHS documents outlining different scenarios. Maybe not what you think,” he replied. “Outside of the rioting in certain urban areas, the low stocks at your local stores, and rationing of gas, maybe not as dire as you imagine. My best guess is a combination of the riots of the 1960s along with the gasoline rationing of the 1970s, at least at first. Once people who want to save the country, those with good intentions begin to organize, it will become incrementally worse,” he stated.

“Like a car careening off a cliff, but not hitting the bottom right away. It will hit jagged edges first, each time suffering more damage. Each blow will be worse than the next.”

Centralization

“Let me try to sum it up for you. It’s getting late, and I mean it’s getting late this morning and late for our country. This is all about centralization of power and pursuing an agenda that makes no sense or has any benefit to the United States.  All of the things we are seeing are related. The IRS, Syria, Benghazi, the NSA, and just about everything you can name is about one thing: the consolidation of power and the centralization of authority. This party did not start with Obama, and might not end with him either.”

I interjected my surprise at this point, noting that I thought the worst, like others, that we might not see another presidential election. “When did I mention anything about an election?”

“You’re not thinking big enough,” he admonished. Nobody is thinking big enough, or has been thinking at all, which is why we’re in this position. This is a global agenda, or an agenda of the global interests, the money interests. Do you think for one second that if a person, and I don’t give a damn who it is or what position they hold, becomes a liability to those interests that they wouldn’t get rid of them? Don’t you think those in power know this?

Cryptically, he spoke of Obama’s apparent infatuation with Abraham Lincoln and asked, rhetorically whether that means anything. A country that will fall into a civil war of sorts, and all of the things common to both. Does Obama know something, or feel something? Is that playing in to his desire for oaths only to him, and not the country? Think about it.”

Time frame

As we were parting, I felt a bit like Peter Falk playing Columbo in the 1970s television series when I said that I had “just one more question.” When is all of this going to start?

What? He turned and looked at me as if I had uttered an insult.

“It’s already begun. You’re seeing it now. If you want to know a date when our money will tank, or when the war goes hot, or when you won’t be able to get food or gas, I can’t tell you, and I don’t think anyone can. But remember what I said before, about the metals taking a hit and something happening after that. Look at the metals market. The U.S. has very little gold. Everything you see is being manipulated, from the economy to the metals to foreign policy. I believe that most politicians know how dire things are, and most are clawing their way for a seat at the global table. But if I had to answer you, and I guess I will so you’ll let me leave, I’d look for something to happen in early July as a precursor to the more major events later in the summer or fall, maybe in October.”

“But don’t try to look at dates for answers, look at events, even the small ones. Remember, their objectives haven’t changed, only their plans to adapt to the right conditions. To the unaware, it will look like everything was just one big unfortunate coincidence.”

Let the Headlines Speak
Jun 21st, 2013
Daily NewsFrom the Internet
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Gold and U.S. Stocks Pretty Much Collapsed Thursday
U.S. stocks started a downward slide yesterday after Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said the Fed may draw down its $85 billion-per-month bond-buying program sometime in mid-2014 if unemployment manages to work its way down to 6.5 percent. And that downward slide picked up steam on Thursday, sending the three major U.S. stock indices way, way lower.  

Why Is a Rare Carved Column From ‘Biblical Times’ Being Kept Quiet?
Earlier this year, a tour guide discovered a carved column in the old city of Jerusalem, but little has been reported about the treasure that experts say dates back to biblical time and could actually be part of a whole temple or place buried below. ...The Jewish Press, which first reported on the find in April, wrote that political reasons could be to blame, citing Israeli authorities as “trying to silence this discovery”.  

Singapore haze: Indonesia to make it rain to stop 'life threatening' smog
Indonesia on Friday deployed helicopters to artificially create rain to fight raging fires that have choked Singapore with smog, which has hit levels posing a potentially deadly threat to the elderly and the ill. ...Indonesia's national disaster agency said that two helicopters with cloud-seeding equipment were sent early Friday...to Riau province, where hundreds of hectares of carbon-rich peatland are ablaze.  

Government could use metadata to map your every move
If you tweet a picture from your living room using your smartphone, you’re sharing far more than your new hairdo or the color of the wallpaper. You’re potentially revealing the exact coordinates of your house to anyone on the Internet. The GPS location information embedded in a digital photo is an example of so-called metadata, a once-obscure technical term that’s become one of Washington’s hottest new buzzwords.  

World Health Organisation calls emergency meeting to respond to SARS-like outbreak
Amid fears of a new pandemic more deadly than Sars, 80 officials and doctors, including two from Britain, gathered in Cairo yesterday to examine ways of tackling Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, dubbed MERS. The coronavirus is casting a shadow over the annual Muslim pilgrimages to Saudi Arabia, where four new deaths were announced on Monday.  

Federal nullification efforts mounting in states
The Missouri legislation is perhaps the most extreme example of a states' rights movement that has been spreading across the nation. States are increasingly adopting laws that purport to nullify federal laws — setting up intentional legal conflicts, directing local police not to enforce federal laws and, in rare cases, even threatening criminal charges for federal agents who dare to do their jobs.  

Spain arrests 'Syria jihadist suspects' in Ceuta
Eight people have been arrested in the Spanish territory of Ceuta on suspicion of recruiting jihadist fighters to go to Syria and elsewhere, police say. Those detained in the raids on Friday morning are accused of being part of a network linked to al-Qaeda. They are suspected of funding, indoctrinating and facilitating travel for would-be fighters.  

EU-Turkey relations on edge after Germany blocks talks
Turkey has reacted angrily to Germany's hesitation on restarting EU entry talks. The talks were to resume on Wednesday (26 June), with the opening of a chapter on regions, after negotiations broke off in late 2010. But Germany's EU ambassador at a meeting in Brussels on Thursday said he is not willing to give the green light.

Immortality by 2035?
How's this for a weekend conference: Some of the smartest people in the world are gathering in New York to try to figure out how to build lifelike copies of humans ... to be eventually uploaded with the contents of a real human brain. It's the brainchild of a Russian multimillionaire, Dmitry Itskov. ... And he says he's perfectly serious, and that it could be accomplished by 2035.

Ice Age Starting? Largest Iceberg Cluster in Five Years Sighted Off Labrador
Jun 21st, 2013
Daily NewsThe Globe & Mail
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

The largest iceberg cluster seen in recent years is drifting south off Labrador near the Strait of Belle Isle through transatlantic shipping routes, says the coast guard.

Peter Veber, Atlantic superintendent of ice operations, said there are about 250 icebergs within a 100 kilometre radius of Belle Isle off Labrador.

“The shipping that is going through there are reporting numerous bergs,” he said Thursday in an interview. “We have a ship operating up on the Labrador coast and likewise our own people are saying that they’re seeing more now than we’ve seen for years up there.”

In all, the coast guard reports that the numbers are three to four times what has been recorded in the last five years.

Mr. Veber said the icy concentration includes everything from smaller “growlers” that hiss and groan as they melt, to bergy bits and towering white-blue sculptures carved by the sea. He traces it to glaciers that creep over the surface of Greenland and eventually snap into the sea.

“The lower, flatter ones that are large, they typically indicate they could have come from the Petermann Glacier on the Greenland coast. There was a significant calving that took place in 2010 and 2012.

Human Organs ‘could be Grown in Animals Within a Year’
Jun 21st, 2013
Daily NewsThe Telegraph
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Find from Era of King David May Confirm Old Testament Text — If Politics Don’t Interfere
Jun 21st, 2013
Daily NewsFox News
Categories: Today's Headlines;The Nation Of Israel

A carved pillar discovered near Bethlehem may be linked to the Biblical King of Kings, David himself, or perhaps validate the scope of wise Solomon’s majestic kingdom.

If they ever get around to digging it up, that is.

Israeli tour guide Binyamin Tropper, who thought he was the first to discover the major historical artifact, was astonished to find out that authorities had known about the pillar for decades — and had been keeping it a secret all that time.

“When I realized the significance of the pillar, I told my boss who spoke with the Israeli Antiquities Authority (IAA),” Tropper, who works at the educational field school at Kibbutz Kfar Etzion, told FoxNews.com. “The IAA then told him, ‘that’s great, now shut up.’”

Tropper may have stumbled across further proof of the real-life world behind the Biblical stories related in the Old Testament. The 2,800-year-old stone pillar could help locate those legends on a map, archaeologists say, and connect the modern country of Israel with the historical roots of Judaism.

But due to the complexities of Arab-Israeli relations, the find is being ignored, experts say, hushed up to avoid a major political battle over centuries of debate concerning who has the more legitimate claim to the Holy Land.

Ex - President Carter Seeks Weakened Sanctions on Terror Groups
Jun 21st, 2013
Daily NewsINN - Rina Tzvi
Categories: Today's Headlines;The Nation Of Israel

Former President Jimmy Carter is spearheading an effort to convince the United States to weaken sanctions on terrorist groups, The Hill reported.  

Carter and other foreign policy experts sent a petition to Secretary of State John Kerry on Thursday, asking him to exempt peace groups from policies that make it a crime to offer negotiation training and humanitarian law classes to terror groups.

“The Secretary of State can, and should, exempt peacebuilding activities from this counterproductive application of the law,” says the petition, initiated by The Charity and Security Network, which, according to its website claims “to protect civil society’s ability to carry out peacebuilding projects, humanitarian aid, and development work effectively and in a manner consistent with human rights principles and democratic values.”

“Doing so would open the door for professional peacebuilders to fully engage in helping to end armed conflicts and suffering around the world, while making the U.S. safer,” the petition continues.

The organization told The Hill that in the past, efforts to build bridges with the Taliban, Hamas and leftist guerillas in Colombia have all been thwarted.

A 2011 report by the UK-based Overseas Development Institute said anti-terrorism laws passed in the decade since the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks have created bureaucratic red tape and fostered an atmosphere of “fear” and “confusion” that has endangered the lives of aid workers, The Hill reported.

“Rigid and over-zealous application of counter-terrorism laws to humanitarian action in conflict not only limits its reach in that context,” the report concluded, “but undermines the independence and neutrality of humanitarian organisations in general, and could become an additional factor in the unravelling of the legitimacy and acceptance of humanitarian response in many of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.”

According to The Hill, the petition has been signed by more than two dozen groups and former officials, including Mercy Corps; Andrew Natsios, former administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development under President George W. Bush; retired Ambassador Thomas Pickering; and Anne-Marie Slaughter, the Director of Policy Planning at the State Department from 2009-2011.