Looking for His glorious appearing! Titus 2:13

U.S. to Iran Ahead of Geneva: Carry on Enriching Uranium, But Cut Down on Advanced Ir - 2 Centrifuges
Oct 14th, 2013
Daily Newsdebkafile
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

US Secretary of State John Kerry briefed EU foreign policy executive Catherine Ashton Sunday night, Oct. 13, on the areas of accord and discord quietly settled between the US and Iran. She had to be brought up to speed before meeting Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif the next day, ahead of the P5+1 talks with Iran which she chairs in Geneva  on Tuesday, Oct 15.
Both Kerry and the leading Iranian negotiator Abbas Araghchi set out their government’s official positions in public statements Sunday night. Neither can guarantee which or any parts of those statements will survive all the way to the end of the formal or the backdoor diplomatic processes.
The Secretary of State spoke of a window for diplomacy over Iran’s nuclear program “cracking open” and said:“ …we believe no deal is better than a bad deal.”

Kerry will not have forgotten how his ringing pledge of an American military strike against Syria over its use of chemical weapons segued into the Pesident Barack Obama's decision to back down.
Araghchi ruled out Tehran sending any of its enriched uranium abroad as part of any deal to ease sanctions. In so saying, he directly contradicted an earlier comment by parliament Speaker Ali Larijani that Iran has more enriched uranium than it needs and should use it as a bargaining chip in talks with the West.

debkafile’s sources in Washington and Tehran report that 24 hours before the Geneva forum, no hard and fast decisions have been reached on final areas of accord and the proposals to be put on the table  - either in Barack Obama’s tight circle of intimate advisers headed by chief of staff Denis McDonough, or in Iranian leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s bureau.

Both are held back by last-minute internal differences and uncertainties in their home bases. Major issues are expected to move up from Geneva to higher levels. Monday, Zarif confirmed the perception that no consensus was to be expected at the Geneva forum and the six foreign ministers would have to be convened to push a resolution forward.

As matters stand, debkafile can throw some light on five outstanding aspects:

1.  As his contribution to bringing negotiations to a successful conclusion, i.e. an accord signed by all six powers, Barack Obama agreed in principle in backdoor exchanges that Iran’s nuclear program can continue, including the enrichment of uranium up to 20 percent purity.

Where the two sides parted ways was on quantities of enriched material and the type of centrifuges used for its manufacture.
2.  President Obama is willing to accept the Iranian regime’s declaration that its nuclear program is solely for peaceful purposes and the country has never engaged in weapons activity. He is even willing to fall for Iranian propaganda’s claim that Khamenei had issued a fatwa prohibiting nuclear weapons, even through every Shiite authority says that Iran's supreme leader is not competent to issue religious edicts.
3.  Khamenei himself is challenged by controversy at the top of his regime between hard-liners standing out for more concessions from the West and factions more amenable to compromise.  
The influential Larijani was most likely talking for Khamenei when he offered the first authoritative signal that Tehran would consider the removal of part of its enriched uranium stocks from the country for the sake of an accord.

No sooner was his comment welcomed in Washington and European capitals as the first major breakthrough in nuclear diplomacy with Tehran, when senior negotiator Araghchi dumped a cold shower on their heads.

4. debkafile’s Iranian sources report that, for now, the hardliners are up in the seesaw rocking the Iranian regime. Their faction argues that since the United States has already agreed to let Iran continue to enrich uranium up to 20 percent, all that remains to be settled is a cap on the number of advanced high-speed  IR2 centrifuges Iran is allowed to use. This ace, they say, is powerful enough to trump any arguments about the quantities of enriched fissile material Iran is allowed to retain and keep in the country.
5.  Nothing remains of the Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s four stipulations for accepting a nuclear accord with Iran. Not a  vestige will reach the Geneva conference agenda after Washington brushed aside every one of those stipulations, which were: to halt uranium enrichment, remove enriched uranium stocks from Iran,  shut down the Fordo underground enrichment plant and suspend construction of the heavy water reactor in Arak for the production of plutonium.

Secretary Kerry threw a bone to the Israeli government in his comment Sunday via satellite to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee summit in California:  "I want you to know that our eyes are open, too. While we seek a peaceful resolution to Iran's nuclear program, words must be matched with actions. In any engagement with Iran, we are mindful of Israel's security needs."
Israelis strongly doubt whether any of the parties to a future deal on Iran’s nuclear program will match their words with actions.

The Spider in the Cornfield
Oct 14th, 2013
CommentaryArt Sadlier
Categories: Bible Salvation

There once was a spider that lived in a cornfield. He was a big spider and spun his web between two stalks of corn.  He got fat eating all the bugs that got caught in his web. He liked his home in the cornfield and planned to spend the rest of his life there.

One day the spider caught a little bug in his web, and just as the spider was about to eat him, the little bug said "If you let me go I will tell you something very important that will save your life."

The spider listened for a moment because he was amused.  "You had better get out of this cornfield, the little bug said, "The harvest is coming."  The spider smiled and said, "What is this harvest you are talking about? I think you are just telling me a story."

"Oh No!" said the little bug, "It's true, the owner of this cornfield is coming soon to harvest it."

"All the stalks will be knocked down, the corn will be gathered up and you will be killed by a giant machine if you stay here."

The spider said, "I don't believe in harvests and giant machines that knock down corn stalks.  How can you prove this?"  The bug said, "Just look at the corn stalks and see how they are planted in rows.   This proves the field was created by an intelligent designer".

The spider laughed and said, "This field just evolved and it has nothing to do with an intelligent designer, corn just grows that way."  "Oh No", said the little bug, "This field belongs to the owner who planted it, and the harvest is coming soon".

The spider grinned and said "I don't believe you", and he ate the little bug for lunch.

A few days later the spider was laughing about the story the little bug told him, he thought to himself, "A harvest, what a silly idea, I have lived in this cornfield all my life and nothing has ever disturbed me.  I have been here since those stalks were just a foot off the ground.  I'll be here the rest of my life, because nothing is ever going to change this field.  Life is good and I have it made."

The next day was a beautiful day in the corn field.  That afternoon as the spider was about to take his nap, he noticed some thick dust in the distance.  He could hear the roar of a great engine.   Just before he took his last nap he said, "I wonder what that could be?"

Jesus said in Matthew 25:13, "Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of Man cometh." 300 times in the New Testament we are told of His coming. Don't be like the spider in the cornfield.

Jesus said we will not know the exact time He will come for the Church. Since we are barred from knowing the timing of the rapture, any date speculation is folly.

Although we are restricted from knowing the day and hour, we are encouraged by the Lord Jesus to understand the general time frame of His return. Jesus foretold of conditions that will be in place just before His coming.

Jesus mentioned a great variety of signs; spiritual, natural, societal, and world political. All around us today we see the signs of the soon coming of Christ.

God is a God of great love and great mercy and He is longsuffering but He hates sin and disobedience and rebellion, His mercy has a limit. When the line of the limit of God’s mercy and longsuffering is crossed His judgment falls.

I am reminded of the WW2 story of a little boy in Croydon England coming home from school at lunchtime. German bombs had damaged the town hall clock. As he passed the town square the clock began to strike the noon hour. As he often did, he counted the gongs of the clock, 1-2-3----9-10-11-12- 13. He ran home as fast as he could and burst into the kitchen with the words “mommy, mommy it is later than it has ever been before!”

Friends, Jesus is coming, we do not know exactly when but we know it is nearer than it has ever been before.

My friend, God has made you and you are accountable to Him. “I have made the earth, the man and the beast that are upon the ground, by my great power and by my outstretched arm...” (Jeremiah 27:5).  The Lord said, “Behold, all souls are mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine: the soul that sinneth, it shall die” (Ezekiel 18:4).

Jesus said, “Except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish” (Luke 13:3). Repentance is an absolute requirement of salvation. Repentance, if it is genuine, arises from a deep and profound conviction by Christ’s Spirit that we are indeed wrong doers, who in sinister sin against Him have become alienated from Him.

In His wondrous grace, generosity and love He extends to us His mercy and forgiveness and acceptance on the basis of His own magnanimous self-sacrifice on the cross.

He demands that we, for our part, turn from our wicked ways, repent of our wrong doings, seek His companionship, and claim His amazing justification and total forgiveness.

“But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). “For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him” (2 Corinthians 5:21). “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God has raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation” (Romans 10:9-10).

During WW11 a US aircraft ditched in the Pacific Ocean, many of the crew drowned, but five managed to scramble onto a life raft. They drifted for twelve days in the burning sun, their skin was scorched by the sun and their rations were exhausted. Their lips were cracked, their tongues were swollen and they shrank into living skeletons. Two went mad and leaped overboard. Another died quietly in the night and they rolled his body into the sea.

There were two left, when the rescue vessel found the raft only one was alive. The survivor wept as he told the story of his companion’s death. He said, “The night before you found me it rained, the raft caught a pail of fresh water. I tried to give some to my buddy; it would have saved his life. He fought me; he thought I was trying to poison him with sea water.”

My unsaved friend that is a picture of your condition, Christ died to save you and He is earnestly reaching out to you. He is offering you salvation full and free, but you think He is trying to hurt you. You are turning away from the water of life and you will die and go to hell forever. Come to Christ in repentance and faith right now before it is forever too late.

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).

Let the Headlines Speak
Oct 14th, 2013
Daily NewsFrom the Internet
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

CNN Mocks Million Vet March as Tea Party Crazies
CNN.com covered Sunday’s “Million Vet March” in Washington D.C. against the Obama administration’s closure of military memorials by castigating the marchers as Tea Party kooks and fringe crazies. “At tea party-like rally, Obama told to ‘put the Quran down,’” the headline read.  

‘You owe us peace,’ Yitzhak Rabin’s grandson tells Netanyahu
Organizers, who put the attendance at 33,000, said this year marked the first time that all Israeli Zionist youth movements — including the Orthodox Bnei Akiva and the rightist Beitar — sent representatives to the gathering. Rabin’s grandson, Yonatan Ben Artzi, one of the speakers, called on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to take advantage of the opportunities before him to bring peace, telling him this was his chance.  

Ten Jews detained for praying on Temple Mount
Police haul men away after they sing ‘Hatikvah,’ unfurl Israeli flag atop sensitive enclosure.  

Report: Obama brings chilling effect on journalism
The U.S. government's aggressive prosecution of leaks and efforts to control information are having a chilling effect on journalists and government whistle-blowers, according to a report released Thursday on U.S. press freedoms under the Obama administration. The Committee to Protect Journalists conducted its first examination of U.S. press freedoms amid the Obama administration's unprecedented number of prosecutions of government sources and seizures of journalists' records. Usually the group focuses on advocating for press freedoms abroad.  

M-CLASS FLARE, EARTH-DIRECTED CME
October 13th began with an explosion on the sun. At 00:43 UT, sunspot AR1865 erupted, producing an M1-class solar flare and an Earth-directed CME.  

China calls for 'de-Americanized' world
The looming prospect of a US default on debt prompted China to call for the world to “de-Americanise”, amid warnings of a new global recession. Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2013/10/china-calls-for-de-americanized-world/#QB3d2mMytu1IbRBV.99  

God's warning to U.S. headlines for 75 weeks
The documentary and the book outline Cahn’s evidence that America is following in the defiant footsteps of ancient Israel as recorded in Isaiah 9:10. Like the Israelites, he explains, America has insisted on rebuilding bigger and better without considering what God was trying to tell the country through the catastrophic events of Sept. 11, 2001.  

This won't happen for another 79,000 years
The big holiday buzz this year surrounds the convergence of two other major holidays, an event that won’t take place for another 79,000 years. What’s happening is that on Thursday, Nov. 28, Thanksgiving and Hanukkah overlap for the first time since 1888, creating what many are calling “Thanksgivukkah.”  

A job engine sputters as hospitals cut staff
Hospitals, a reliable source of employment growth in the recession and its aftermath, are starting to cut thousands of jobs amid falling insurance payments and inpatient visits. The payroll cuts are surprising because the Affordable Care Act (ACA), whose implementation took a big step forward this month, is eventually expected to provide health coverage to as many as 30 million additional Americans.  

Iran rejects West's demand to ship out enriched uranium
Iran will not allow any of its enriched uranium to be shipped abroad, the deputy foreign minister says, rejecting a key demand of Western powers. Abbas Araqchi was quoted by state media as saying that "shipping the material abroad is our red line". The comments come ahead of key talks this week in Geneva between Iran and international negotiators over the nuclear dispute.  

Syria chemical weapons: OPCW plea for short ceasefires
The head of the body tasked with destroying Syria's chemical weapons says fighting is preventing access to some sites through rebel-held areas. Ahmet Uzumcu, of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, called for local, short-term ceasefires to allow experts to work. He told the BBC he hoped the Nobel Peace Prize, awarded to the group last week, would help their work in Syria.  

Malaysia court rules non-Muslims cannot use 'Allah'
A Malaysian court has ruled that non-Muslims cannot use the word Allah to refer to God, even in their own faiths, overturning a 2009 lower court ruling. The appeals court said the term Allah must be exclusive to Islam or it could cause public disorder. People of all faiths use the word Allah in Malay to refer to their Gods.  

Thousands Of Americans Storm National Mall To Protest Obama’s Treatment Of Veterans
Thousands of people converged on the World War II Memorial on the National Mall on Sunday morning and tore down the barricades blocking it off, protesting the closure of the memorial during the federal government shutdown.  

India's Ratangarh temple stampede deaths rise to 115
The death toll from a stampede at a Hindu festival in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh has risen to 115, local officials have said. Many were crushed after panic broke out on a bridge near the Ratangarh temple near the town of Datia. Others died when they jumped from the bridge. Meanwhile, funeral pyres have been burning throughout the night with many of the victims already cremated.  

IMF chief warns a US default could spark recession
The head of the International Monetary Fund, Christine Lagarde, has warned that a US default could tip the world into recession. In a US TV interview she said a default would result in "massive disruption the world over". The US Treasury will start to run short of funds on Thursday if no agreement is reached for it to raise its debt limit.  

Pope entrusts world to Immaculate Heart of Mary
Pope Francis on Sunday entrusted the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary and to her maternal care before the image of Our Lady of Fatima, asking Mary’s help to “revive and grow faith.”  

Iranian Jewish community to Obama: Seize 'unrepeatable' chance to mend ties with Iran
Iran's Jewish community has called on US President Barack Obama to seize an "unrepeatable" opportunity to mend ties with Tehran following Iranian President Hassan Rouhani's overtures to the US... "If the US and the international community do not make the best of this golden and perhaps unrepeatable opportunity, then it will be in the benefit of those who are against the normalization of ties between Iran and the US...  

John Mcafee Predicts Hackers will Empty Obamacare Enrollees’ Bank Accounts
Oct 14th, 2013
Daily NewsFox News
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Obamacare websites have “no safeguards” to protect Americans who enroll in the

health insurance exchanges from hackers who will “empty your bank account,” according to internet security pioneer John McAfee.

McAfee said he could create a fake Obamacare exchange website for “a couple hundred dollars” and expect a big return on the scam.

“I’ll ask you your social security, your date of birth, [so] an hour later I can empty your bank account,” he told Fox News’ Gretchen Carlson.

“And this is going to happen, it’s going to happen soon. Nothing in the Obamacare system safeguards against this,” he said.

Dollar’s Reserve Role At Risk from U.S. Budget Uncertainty: Ecb’s Nowotny
Oct 14th, 2013
Daily Newscnbc
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

The dollar’s role as the world’s leading reserve currency is at risk because of the political impasse in the United States, which has raised fears of a debt default, European Central Bank policymaker Ewald Nowotny said.

President Barack Obama and congressional Republican leaders inched toward resolving the standoff on Friday, but struggled to agree on a short-term deal to increase U.S. borrowing authority beyond an Oct. 17 limit and to reopen the government.

“If it really comes to a collapse, no one knows exactly what will happen. One expects that there are chances to postpone the effects but by the end of the year at the latest it will be rather dramatic,” Nowotny told Austrian broadcaster ORF in an interview aired on Saturday.

“It is apparent that it is extremely dangerous when the politics of a country whose currency is the world currency – it is still the most important currency – are driven primarily by very narrow domestic considerations,” he added.

“This discrepancy is very dangerous and in my view will have a negative impact on the long-term role of the dollar.”

Interviewed in Washington during meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank, Nowotny said jitters over the U.S. budget standoff were already pushing the euro higher.

Christian Youth Pastors Banned from Washington State Public School for Allegedly Speaking to Student
Oct 14th, 2013
Daily NewsFoxNews
Categories: Today's Headlines;Persecution

Three volunteer Christian youth pastors have been temporarily banned from a Washington state middle school after parents heard from students that the three were proselytizing during lunch.

KIROTV.com reports the Bainbridge Island School District has hired an outside contractor to conduct a “fact-finding” mission into the allegations concerning the three volunteer cafeteria supervisors.

“We can’t ignore this. There are just too many serious issues to consider here,” board president Mike Spence told KomoNews.com. “That’s pretty dangerous. It’s a pretty slippery slope I guess I would say.”

Meanwhile, one of the volunteers denied the allegations.

“The only time church may have come in is when they say, ‘What do you do?’ my response is, ‘I’m a youth pastor.’ Even sometimes say I’m a leader because most of the kids don’t know what a youth pastor is,” said Danny Smith.

“I don’t wanna defend myself, I want to defend my motives. It’s not about me, it’s about why I’m there. It’s not for evangelizing and it’s not for proselytizing or recruiting, but it’s just there to be there.”

The allegations concern what Smith and his cohorts said at Woodward Middle School.

Chinese State Media Calls for ‘de - Americanised’ World After U.S. Shutdown
Oct 14th, 2013
Daily NewsSouth China Morning Post
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

While US politicians grapple with how to reopen their shuttered government and avoid a potentially disastrous default on their debt, the world should consider ‘de-Americanising’, a commentary on China’s official news agency said on Sunday.

“As US politicians of both political parties (fail to find a) viable deal to bring normality to the body politic they brag about, it is perhaps a good time for the befuddled world to start considering building a de-Americanised world,” the commentary on state news agency Xinhua said.

In a lengthy polemic against American hegemony since the second world war, it added: “Such alarming days when the destinies of others are in the hands of a hypocritical nation have to be terminated.

“A new world order should be put in place, according to which all nations, big or small, poor or rich, can have their key interests respected and protected on an equal footing.”

Negotiations over how to end the budgetary impasse have shifted to the US Senate after House Representatives failed to strike a deal with President Obama on extending borrowing authority ahead of an October 17 deadline.

Bankers Fear Debt Catastrophe
Oct 14th, 2013
Daily NewsSydny Morning Herald
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Global finance leaders have warned a US debt default would be “utterly catastrophic”, as some analysts flagged a new era of US political dysfunction that could expose the world’s largest economy to increased instability.

Just days before the Thursday deadline to lift the US government’s $US16.7 trillion debt ceiling, some of the world’s top bankers said a default on debt obligations would be too terrible to contemplate and would have dire consequences on the global economy.

“World leaders are saying, ‘Get on with it and get this resolved. It’s not just about you’,” JBWere executive director Mike Kendall said.

“This isn’t the time to be tap dancing to the mid-term elections in the US. This affects everyone.”

Federal Treasurer Joe Hockey said on the sidelines of World Bank and International Monetary Fund meetings in Washington at the weekend that he was confident of a political resolution, although markets were “in for a continuing volatile period”.

Financial markets rallied across the board on Friday as US politicians signalled a willingness to push back the debt ceiling deadline as a debate over the budget continued. But talks between the White House and House Republicans broke down as the US entered a long weekend, raising the prospects of another week of market volatility.

“There isn’t life beyond default,” Deutsche Bank chief executive Anshu Jain cautioned during a finance conference in Washington DC.

”This would be a very rapidly spreading, fatal disease … you’re now talking about the underpinnings of finance,” Mr Jain said, describing a default as ”utterly catastrophic”.

JPMorgan chief executive Jamie Dimon said banks had already spent ”huge amounts” of money preparing for a default that could damage the post-financial crisis economic recovery.

”It would ripple through the global economy in a way you couldn’t possibly understand,” Mr Dimon said. ”We need global growth … We are on the verge of getting it. Please let’s not shoot ourselves in the foot.”

Attacks on Egypt’s Coptic Christians on the Rise
Oct 14th, 2013
Daily NewsYnetNews
Categories: Today's Headlines;Persecution

The Egyptian Coptic Christian community has faced increasing levels of violence since the removal of President Mohamed Morsiby the military in July, according to a newly released report by human rights advocacy group Amnesty International. The report states that the community has suffered deadly mob violence and attacks on religious buildings.

“What we see is an unprecedented level of sectarian attacks against Copts,” Nicholas Piachaud, a campaigner for the North African team of Amnesty International, told The Media Line. “We saw over 200 attacks against the Coptic community after Morsi’s removal. We also saw the scapegoating of the Coptic Christians by the security forces.”

Around eight million Copts currently live in Egypt, making the Coptic Christian community the largest minority religion within Egypt. Copts have lived in Egypt since their establishment in Alexandria, Egypt, in the 1st century AD. While they make up only nine percent of Egypt’s population, they still have a vibrant community and Diaspora. Egyptian Copts claim to be one of the oldest communities within the Middle East, and their pope is based out of Alexandria, the birthplace of Coptic Christianity. Their small numbers relative to the rest of Egyptian society has left the Coptic community vulnerable to sectarian violence, which was a regular occurrence even under former Egyptian leader Hosni Mubarak.

According to the Amnesty report the most recent round of sectarian violence was spurred by the crackdown on former President Mohamed Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood and pro-Morsi protesters in August. In the aftermath of the crackdown the Coptic community was seen as sympathetic to the military’s removal of Morsi, and Brotherhood members allegedly attacked the Copts in revenge for the deaths of hundreds of Morsi supporters at the hands of the military. The ensuing violence saw seven Copts killed and more than 100 Coptic buildings attacked and destroyed, Ishak Ibrahim, a researcher with the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights told The Media Line.

International reaction to the attacks has been relatively muted, with much of the attention focused on the violence between the military, the Muslim Brotherhood and Islamist fundamentalists.

“In Europe they don’t know what happens to the Christians (in Egypt),” Father Antonios Orshleme, the General Secretary of the Coptic Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem told The Media Line. “They say of what happens to them that ‘it’s normal.’ What’s normal?”