Looking for His glorious appearing! Titus 2:13

U.S. Coptic Christians Come to Aid of Believers Persecuted in Egypt
Sep 23rd, 2013
Daily NewsNewsmax
Categories: Today's Headlines;Persecution

Coptic Christians in America are welcoming a flood of refugees who have fled from violence in Egypt and are seeking to pressure the international community to come to the aid of those who are still being persecuted for their faith.

Since the April 2011 demonstrations in Cairo's Tahrir Square -- and continuing through the military overthrow this summer of Muslim Brotherhood-backed President Mohammed Morsi -- violence against the estimated 9 million Christians living in Egypt has intensified, resulting in an unprecedented number of Coptic Christians immigrating to the United States.

Of the approximately 350,000 Copts living in the U.S., almost one-third of those arrived post-revolution, according to Samuel Tadros, a research fellow at Hudson Institute's Center for Religious Freedom.

"It is very hard to assign exact figures to the population, but we do know that last year we had 202 churches in the U.S. and probably added a few more this year," he says. In 1971, there were only two Coptic churches in the United States.

The influx is increasing after violence occurred in August when the Muslim Brotherhood unleashed a deadly series of attacks against Copts. Andrew Doran wrote in The National Review that the "Muslim Brotherhood's systematic and coordinated attacks against Christians in Egypt are reminiscent of Kristallnacht in Germany in 1938," the series of attacks by Nazis targeting Jews in Germany and parts of Austria.

The unprecedented immigration is having an impact on the Coptic community in the United States. Tadros says many of the newer immigrants are socially more conservative and also arrive with the expectation they will receive assistance getting jobs, housing, and other financial aid.

For recent immigrants, the church community provides an invaluable resource, "especially for those who arrive without connections or family in the U.S.," says Ashraf Ramelah, president of the Voice of the Copts.

Founded in 2007, Ramelah's organization assists recent immigrants to resettle, but its main focus and challenge is to draw attention to the needs of Copts, as well as other religious minorities.

"We have sent many letters to the State Department and administration, but they have never replied to any of our requests," Ramelah tells Newsmax. He says the Obama administration is "completely failing in the mission of the United States … to promote democracy" and to combat discrimination faced by Copts.

Ramelah's experience is shared by Michael Neurier, president of the U.S. Copts Association, who has organized multiple demonstrations across the United States to draw attention to the persecution in Egypt.

Neurier came to the U.S. from Egypt after the revolution, specifically to increase awareness about the threat posed by the Muslim Brotherhood.

"We have held many public demonstrations in New Jersey, California, New York. We have held press conferences, arranged meetings with the press and met with members of Congress to try and educate people to what is really going on in Egypt," Neurier says in an interview with Newsmax.

In August, more than 200 Coptic Christians gathered in Nashville to call for peace in Egypt and for President Barack Obama to stand up against the Muslim Brotherhood, according to The Tennessean.

Triple Swarm of Earthquakes Shakes Yellowstone
Sep 23rd, 2013
Daily NewsKOMOnews.com
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Until recently, Bob Smith had never witnessed two simultaneous earthquake swarms in his 53 years of monitoring seismic activity in and around the Yellowstone Caldera.

Now, Smith, a University of Utah geophysics professor, has seen three swarms at once.

“It’s very remarkable,” Smith said. “How does one swarm relate to another? Can one swarm trigger another and vice versa?”

Because concurrent swarms have never been detected in the past, the answers aren’t in yet, Smith said. The geophysicist said he “wouldn’t doubt” if at least two of the events were related.

Temblors from the three quake swarms mostly hit in three areas: Lewis Lake, the Lower Geyser Basin and the northwest part of Norris Geyser Basin.

The largest earthquake shook the ground near Old Faithful Geyser on Sept. 15.

The epicenter of the magnitude 3.6 quake, the largest in Yellowstone in about a year, was just 6 miles to the north of Old Faithful.

“Generally speaking it needs to be 3.0 or higher for individuals to feel it,” Yellowstone National Park spokesman Al Nash told the Jackson Hole News & Guide. “This one was somewhat stronger than that and it was in an area where a lot of people are.”

Yellowstone’s recent earthquake swarms started on Sept. 10 and were shaking until about 11:30 a.m. Sept. 16.

“A total of 130 earthquakes of magnitude 0.6 to 3.6 have occurred in these three areas, however, most have occurred in the Lower Geyser Basin,” a University of Utah statement said. “Notably much of seismicity in Yellowstone occurs as swarms.”

Including smaller events that have not been verified, there were many more quakes, Smith said.

The recent swarms produced roughly four quakes that were large enough to feel.

The first, a magnitude 3.5, struck Sept. 13 about 17 miles northeast of West Yellowstone, Mont. Then, in the early hours Sept. 15, two quakes, a magnitude 3.2 and magnitude 3.4, were detected in quick succession at 5:10 and 5:11 a.m., about 15 miles southeast of West Yellowstone. The magnitude 3.6 that marked the peak of the swarm struck nearby about 4 1/2 hours later.

Taliban Suicide Attack Against Christians in Historic Pakistani Church Kills 78
Sep 23rd, 2013
Daily NewsTrue News
Categories: Today's Headlines;Persecution

Two Taliban suicide bombers struck a historic church here on Sunday, killing 78 people, including women and children, in the deadliest attack on the Christian minority in Pakistan’s history.

About 130 others were injured in the attack on the historic All Saints Church at Kohati Gate area of Peshawar. The first bomber set off his suicide vest as people were emerging from Sunday mass. The second bomber struck within a gap of 30 seconds, said city commissioner Sahibzada Muhammad Anis.

Over 30 women and at least seven children were among the 78 people killed, officials told the media. The dead included a Muslim policeman who was guarding the church.

The Jandullah group, a faction of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, claimed responsibility for the attack, saying it was carried out to avenge US drone strikes.

Jandullah spokesman Ahmed Marwat told Newsweek: “Until and unless drone strikes are stopped, we will continue to strike wherever we find an opportunity against non-Muslims.”

The group had earlier claimed responsibility for killing 10 foreign climbers in Gilgit-Baltistan and for an attack on an Inter-Services Intelligence compound in Sukkur.

Anis said some 600 to 700 people were inside the church at the time of the attack. People soaked in blood wailed for help as bodies lay strewn in the church’s courtyard.

The walls of the church were pitted by ball bearings packed into the suicide vests. Police officials said each vest contained an estimated six kilograms of explosives. Nearby buildings were also damaged by the blasts.

Bomb Disposal Squad chief Shafqat Mahmood said the heads of the bombers had been recovered and sent for forensic analysis. They will be used to prepare sketches, he said.

This was the worst attack in Pakistan’s history on the Christian minority, which has not been targeted as frequently as other minorities like Shias or Ahmadis.

The brazen attack sparked protests by Christians across the country. In Peshawar, angry Christians blocked several roads with bodies of the dead and burning tyres. They burned police uniforms too.

Christians also staged a protest at Lady Reading Hospital, where most of the victims were taken.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who left for New York to attend the UN general assembly, strongly condemned the attack on the church, saying “terrorists have no religion and targeting innocent people is against the teachings of Islam”.

Pope Condemns Idolatry of Cash in Capitalism
Sep 23rd, 2013
Daily NewsThe Guardian
Categories: Today's Headlines;One World Church

Pope Francis has called for a global economic system that puts people and not “an idol called money” at its heart, drawing on the hardship of his immigrant family as he sympathized with unemployed workers in a part of Italy that has suffered greatly from the recession.

Addressing about 20,000 people in the Sardinian capital of Cagliari, the Argentinian pontiff said that his parents had “lost everything” after they emigrated from Italy and that he understood the suffering that came from joblessness.

“Where there is no work, there is no dignity,” he said, in ad-libbed remarks after listening to three locals, including an unemployed worker who spoke of how joblessness “weakens the spirit”. But the problem went far beyond the Italian island, said Francis, who has called for wholesale reform of the financial system.

“This is not just a problem of Sardinia; it is not just a problem of Italy or of some countries in Europe,” he said. “It is the consequence of a global choice, an economic system which leads to this tragedy; an economic system which has at its center an idol called money.”

The 76-year-old said that God had wanted men and women to be at the heart of the world. “But now, in this ethics-less system, there is an idol at the centre and the world has become the idolater of this ‘money-god’,” he added.

Sardinia, one of Italy’s autonomous regions with a population of 1.6 million, has suffered particularly badly during the economic crisis, with an unemployment rate of 20%, eight points higher than the national average, and youth unemployment of 51%.

Netanyahu: Resettle Beit Hamachpela in Hevron
Sep 23rd, 2013
Daily NewsINN - Elad Benari
Categories: Today's Headlines;The Nation Of Israel

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu ordered on Sunday night that steps be taken immediately to resettle the Beit Hamachpela in Hevron, following the terror attack in which an IDF soldier was murdered by Palestinian Authority Arab snipers.

"Whoever tries to uproot us from the city of our forefathers will achieve the opposite,” Netanyanu declared. “We will continue to fight terrorism and hit the terrorists with one hand, and we will continue to strengthen the settlement enterprise with the other hand.”

Earlier Sunday evening, Economy Minister Naftali Bennett asked cabinet secretary Avichai Mandelblitt to immediately approve the entry of Jews into Beit Hamachpela, saying, "We know how to build and settle. Not to kill. This would be the appropriate Zionist answer [to the terrorism].”

Beit Hamachpela in Hevron is a home that was purchased last year from an Arab  by 15 Jewish families. The families moved in soon after the sale, fearing the building – uninhabited – would be occupied by local Arabs before the Civil Administration validated their purchase.

In August of 2012, then Defense Minister Ehud Barak ordered the removal of the residents who purchased the building despite a request by Netanyahu to allow a court to determine the course of events.

The military appeals court has since accepted the appeal of the Jews who bought the property, ruling that the purchase was made according to law. Following the ruling, MKs urged the government to allow the Jews to return to the home.

Let the Headlines Speak
Sep 23rd, 2013
Daily NewsFrom the Internet
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

UN General Assembly could see real Mideast breakthroughs
After several years of speechifying, sanctioning and pre-negotiating, the United States faces the prospect of real diplomatic breakthroughs on three of the Middle East’s most daunting crises.  

Report of Unemployment by State Doesn’t Paint a Pretty Picture
Unemployment rose in 18 U.S. states in August as many employers reported cutting jobs. Weaker hiring obviously raises serious questions about the already sluggish job market.  

‘Might Be Greatest Man Alive’: These Catholics — and a Few Celebrities — Gush Over Pope Francis’ Remarks on Homosexuality, Abortion
Here’s a look at Catholics attending Sunday services around the globe who said they were heartened by Pope Francis’ recent remarks that the church has become too focused on “small-minded rules” on hot-button issues such as homosexuality, abortion, and contraceptives. TheBlaze reported that Francis’ remarks aren’t what some social conservatives want to hear, but these worshipers applauded what they heard as a message of inclusion from the man who assumed the papacy just six months ago.  

The explosions, accompanied by shock waves that could be heard in 20 km radius, produced an ash plume that rose to about 4.5 km altitude or about 2 km
The Blaze posted a story earlier this week about a group of truckers who are planning to “shut down Washington, D.C.,” for three days starting Oct. 11 to protest the “corruption against the Constitution.” The Facebook-fueled movement, “Truckers To Shut Down America,” states that truckers will refuse to haul freight, and they’re encouraging others to not shop or bank during that period.  

Violent eruption and series of major pyroclastic flows at Santa Maria, Guatemala
The explosions, accompanied by shock waves that could be heard in 20 km radius, produced an ash plume that rose to about 4.5 km altitude or about 2 km height above the crater. Significant (but smaller compared) ash plume rose from the pyroclastic flows. Ash fall occurred in Quetzaltenango, Santa María de Jesús, Zuníl and other areas downwind.  

Triple swarm of earthquakes shakes Yellowstone
Until recently, Bob Smith had never witnessed two simultaneous earthquake swarms in his 53 years of monitoring seismic activity in and around the Yellowstone Caldera. Now, Smith, a University of Utah geophysics professor, has seen three swarms at once. "It's very remarkable," Smith said. "How does one swarm relate to another? Can one swarm trigger another and vice versa?"  

Obama’s UN agenda: Iran, Syria, Israel
Obama will open meetings at the United Nations on Monday focusing on diplomatic opportunities on three vexing issues: Iran’s disputed nuclear program, Syria’s chemical weapons use, and elusive peace between Israel and the Palestinians.  

'Big One' is due, quake experts say
Sitting on a major fault line, Oregon is "like an eight-and-a-half-month pregnancy, due any time now" for a major earthquake, a geologist with the Oregon Office of Emergency Management told an overflow crowd Friday in Medford. "We're in the zone, and we'd darn well better get ourselves ready for it,"  

Black-mob violence destroys U.S. landmark
The “high crime” part. The gang-infested part. The poor part. The urban part. The sketchy part. The part that local media calls every name imaginable except one: The black part. Otherwise, most of the 22.5 miles of this trail is a safe, sometimes bucolic experience for runners, bikers, strollers and even equestrians. As long as they stay away from the trail near Martin Luther King Jr. Parkway. Since 2011, dozens of people have been beaten, robbed, pushed off bikes and threatened in that part of the trail. All of the suspects in this violence and mayhem are black.  

Russian offers troops to help remove Syria chemical arms
Russia can send its military personnel to help in the proposed operation to eliminate Syria's chemical arms, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov says. Mr Lavrov told Russian TV that military observers could help Syria destroy its stockpiles under a US-Russian deal. He also accused the US of using "blackmail" over a UN resolution.  

Typhoon Usagi kills at least 25 people in China
Typhoon Usagi has killed at least 25 people in Guangdong province of south China, the government has said. Winds of up to 180 km/h (110 mph) were recorded in some areas, toppling trees and blowing cars off roads. Its victims drowned or were hit by debris. The storm has affected 3.5 million people on the Chinese mainland.  

Ukraine and EU ridicule Russian threats
EU personalities and Ukrainian politicians have made light of Russia's latest threat against Ukraine if it signs an EU pact. Speaking at a conference in Yalta, Ukraine, at the weekend, Sergei Glazyev, an aide to Russian President Vladimir Putin, said Russia will economically ruin Ukraine if it takes the EU path.  

A Race For The 51st State
First eight counties in northeastern Colorado wanted to secede and create their own 51st state, then came five counties in Western Maryland, and now a grassroots citizen movement from Northern California residents has begun with the Siskiyou County Board of Supervisors taking the first step in what would be a long journey, by voting 4-1 in support of a citizen-led initiative “to commence the Constitution’s Article 4, section 3 process of carving out a new state from an existing state just like the state of Maine was created out of the state of Massachusetts,” said Supervisor Marcia Armstrong.  

Somali militants say Israeli forces attempted to enter besieged Nairobi mall
Somali Islamist group al Shabaab said on Monday Israeli and Kenyan forces have tried to enter the besieged Nairobi shopping center but we unsuccessful, Reuters reported, citing the group's spokesman. "Israelis and Kenyan forces have tried to enter Westgate (mall) by force but they could not, the mujahideen (fighters) will kill the hostages if the enemies use force," Sheikh Ali Mohamud Rage...  

$270 million worth of cocaine found on Air France flight
There was something odd about the 30 suitcases that showed up on a flight from Venezuela. The colorful bags weren't registered to any of the passengers on the plane. When French officials opened them up, they discovered why -- 1.3 tons of pure cocaine were stuffed inside the anonymous bags. The street value of the stash? About 200 million euros, or $270 million.  

Israeli soldier killed in West Bank city of Hebron
The Israeli army says one of its soldiers has been killed in a shooting in the West Bank city of Hebron. Officials said the soldier had been on patrol in the city, which was packed with Jewish people visiting for a week-long religious festival. The 20-year old soldier died in hospital after being hit in a suspected sniper attack.  

Netanyahu Is Said to View Iran Deal as a Possible Trap
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, stepping up his effort to blunt a diplomatic offensive by Iran, plans to warn the United Nations next week that a nuclear deal with the Iranian government could be a trap similar to one set by North Korea eight years ago, according to an Israeli official involved in drafting the speech.  

Nairobi shopping mall attack: three Britons among 68 dead
David Cameron, the Prime Minister, warned that the number of British dead in Saturday’s atrocity was likely to rise and signalled some could be hostages. The Prime Minister is preparing to chair an emergency response meeting this morning. Late on Sunday night a Kenyan military spokesman said an operation to end the standoff was nearing its end, with "about 10" hostages still being held.  

Angela Merkel wins historic third term in German elections
Angela Merkel is heading for a third term as Germany’s chancellor, as exit polls showed she could even be on course for the historic achievement of an absolute majority in the country’s parliament.

Hydrogen Bomb Nearly Detonated on U.S. Soil After B - 52 Accident in 1961: Declassified Document
Sep 23rd, 2013
Daily NewsNational Post
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

A U.S. hydrogen bomb nearly detonated on the nation’s east coast, with a single switch averting a blast which would have been 260 times more powerful than the device that flattened Hiroshima, a newly published book says.

In a recently declassified document, reported in a new book by Eric Schlosser, the supervisor of the nuclear weapons safety department at Sandia national laboratories said that one simple, vulnerable switch prevented nuclear catastrophe.

The Guardian newspaper published the document on Saturday.

Two hydrogen bombs were accidentally dropped over Goldsboro, North Carolina on Jan. 24, 1961 after a B-52 bomber broke up in flight. One of the bombs apparently acted as if it was being armed and fired — its parachute opened and trigger mechanisms engaged.

Parker F. Jones at the Sandia National Laboratories analyzed the accident in a document headed How I learned to mistrust the H-Bomb.

“The MK39 Mod 2 bomb did not possess adequate safety for the airborne-alert role in the B-52,” he wrote. When the B-52 disintegrates in the air it is likely to release the bombs in “a near normal fashion,” he wrote, calling the safety mechanisms to prevent accidental arming “not complex enough.”

Catholics Support Pope Francis’ Liberal Stance on Contraceptives, Homosexuality
Sep 23rd, 2013
Daily NewsHerals Sun
Categories: Today's Headlines;One World Church

At Masses over the weekend, the faithful reflected on how they believe Francis’ comments would impact the Catholic Church.

The pope said on Thursday that pastors should focus less on divisive social issues and should emphasise compassion over condemnation.

In the United States, churchgoer Marilyn White, 73, welcomed the pope’s words.

“I think he sent a good message,” said White, from New York. “I think he’s opening a way for people to communicate, dialogue and maybe come back to the church.”

New York Archbishop Timothy Dolan said that Francis “speaks like Jesus” and is a “breath of fresh air.”

In Florida, devout Catholic Frank Recio said he was grateful that the pope is trying to shift the tone of the church.

“I’m a devout Catholic, always have been. I think the Catholic Church had gotten out of touch with the way the world was evolving,” said Recio, 69, who’s retired from a career in the technology industry.

Recio said he was glad the pope spoke about abortion, though he personally believes in a woman’s right to choose.

Boston’s Evelyn Martinez, 26, said she agrees with Francis that compassion should be one of the church’s main priorities.

“I don’t believe that someone’s sexuality should keep them away from any religion,” said Martinez, 26, a graduate student at Emerson College who attended Mass at St. Patrick’s Church on Saturday night.