Looking for His glorious appearing! Titus 2:13

U.S. Sanctions will Take Alliance to Dead End: Putin
Jul 17th, 2014
Daily NewsCNBC
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Evaristo Sa | AFP | Getty Images

Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Russian President Vladimir Putin warned on Wednesday that U.S. sanctions will take relations with Russia to a "dead end" and damage U.S. business interests in his country.

"Sanctions have a boomerang effect and without any doubt they will push U.S.-Russian relations into a dead end, and cause very serious damage," he said to reporters on a visit to Brazil.

The U.S. government on Wednesday, because of what it views as Russia's interference in Ukraine, imposed its most wide-ranging sanctions yet, on key players in the country's economy, including Gazprombank and Rosneft Oil Co, and other major banks and energy and defense companies.

Putin said he needed to see the details of the sanctions to understand their full scope. But he added that he was sure the sanctions would damage the national interests of the United States in the long run.

"This means that U.S. companies willing to work in Russia will lose their competitiveness next to other global energy companies," he said.

Putin said the sanctions will hurt Exxon Mobil which has been given the opportunity to operate in Russia.

"So, do they not want it to work there? They are causing damage to their major energy companies," he said.

The new sanctions also target senior Russian officials, including the deputy head of the State Duma, or parliament, the minister of the Crimea, a commander of the Russian intelligence agency FSB, and a Ukrainian separatist leader, several of whom had already been targeted by the European Union.

The sanctions, posted on the U.S. Treasury Department website, stopped short of targeting Gazprom, Russia's biggest gas company, which provides much of Europe's energy supplies.

U.S. - EU Add Sanctions Vs Russia. Putin Warns of Boomerang
Jul 17th, 2014
Daily NewsDebkafile
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

The US and EU Wednesday strengthened sanctions on Moscow, accusing Russia of continued support for the Ukraine separatists. US sanctions for the first time directly hit Russia’s finance, military and energy sectors, barring from US capital markets two major Russian financial institutions, Gazprombank and VEB, and two giant Russian energy firms, OA Novatek and Rosneft.

Moscow threatened serious retaliation in the worst standoff between the West and Russia since the Cold War. Vladimir Putin, on a visit to Brasilia, warned that the biting sanctions would boomerang and hurt the national long-term interests of the US, the American people.

This Friendly Robot Could One Day be Your Familys assistant
Jul 17th, 2014
Daily NewsWired
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

 

For many families, the tablet has become the central, shared computing device in the home. It’s a hub for learning, for entertainment, and for staying connected. But what if your tablet was even more interactive? What if it woke up when you came home, recognized your face, and suggested a couple of things you might want for dinner? What if, when asked a spoken question, it could tailor its answer directly to you, instead of just offering a blanket response?

A new device called Jibo can do these things, and it could mark the next step in group computer interaction in the home. But Jibo isn’t a tablet at all: It’s a robot.

Specifically, Jibo is a social robot. You talk to it, ask it questions, make requests. It talks back, provides answers, and takes care of grunt work like setting reminders or scouring the web. It’s meant to act as a helper and a partner in a variety of household experiences, much like a physical embodiment of Siri, Google Now, or any of the voice-activated concierge services available on our smartphones or tablets.

But unlike those handheld touchscreen devices, Jibo tries to act like more of a participant than a tool, as if it’s a part of the family. It has a big round head, and a face that “looks” around the room. The foot-tall, bulbous body can rotate to address the person speaking. It even leans a bit when it turns to face you, as though it’s listening more intently.

Jibo is only a prototype right now. The team behind it, headed by founder Cynthia Breazeal, who is also director of MIT Media Lab’s Personal Robots Group, hopes to bring it to market in time for the 2015 holiday season. Curious early adopters can join the crowdfunding campaign that begins today. The pre-sale price tag is $500 for early backers, and $600 for a developer kit. That’s a little more than the cost of a good tablet. And Brezeal is clear about how Jibo is designed to perform the same types of interactions families currently use tablets for, but to do so with a physical presence that fits into human lives in a more natural way than just another touchscreen.

Like a tablet, Jibo can take photos and videos. It can pull up information from the web or an app, it can act as a teleconferencing device, and it can be used to queue up books or videos. Using a mixture of facial and voice recognition (as well as an iOS and Android app), it personalizes these experiences for you. You can ask Jibo to order your favorite take-out Chinese meal after arriving home from a late night at work. Or tell it to display an e-book on its face-screen, turning a storybook into an interactive, theatrical experience for you and your child. It can recognize and greet you when you get home, or remind you to make an important phone call in between the day’s errands.

“We need technology to transcend the world of information into a more humanized realm,” Breazeal told WIRED. The connected home of the future shouldn’t feel cold and computerized, operated with Star Trek-like voice commands, she says. It should be warm and personal, interacting with us on an emotional level in addition to being able to perform useful tasks.

And thanks to the mobile computing revolution, for the first time, sensors and processors are small, efficient, and cheap enough for something like this to take the form of a robot that’s both priced and sized reasonably enough for consumers.

“Something like this is a nice bridge between devices and tablets and robots that we imagine in science fiction,” Breazeal says.

How It Works

One of Jibo’s key features is human and facial recognition. Using a stereo camera system, it can distinguish people from their background surroundings so it knows when there’s a person in the room. In particular, it can recognize faces, so it knows which human it’s talking to. When development is complete, Jibo will also be able to recognize facial expressions so it can guess your mood and cater its interactions to your current state of mind.

On-board hardware includes a 360 degree mic array so the robot can perform sound isolation, identifying when it’s being spoken to even if the person talking is not right next to it. Dual speakers supply its voice and other audio. Wi-Fi and Bluetooth radios keep it connected. A quad-core ARM processor act as the brains. On its face is a circular LCD touchscreen, and its plastic “skin” is also touch-responsive. A 3-axis motor system allows the top section to spin all the way around on the base. While it’s meant to stay plugged in the majority of the time, it does include a battery so you can move it around the house for short periods.

Interface and Design

Though Jibo is still a prototype, Breazeal’s team developed a demo to show what the robot will eventually be fully capable of in terms of looks and behavior. The appearance is close to final. Jibo actually looks a lot like Eve from the movie Wall-E, at least in the prototype I saw. The body is shiny, circular and white. The head is spherical, though a chunk is cleanly sliced out of it so a flat LCD display can act as its face. “For a while, we were excited about curved displays, but we realized that the technology wouldn’t be ready and robust enough,” Breazeal says.

Jibo turns to look at you when you talk to it.

The head and body can both rotate 360 degrees, so the robot can rotate to look at whoever is speaking to it, or just swivel and twist animatedly as it responds and interacts with you (kind of reminiscent of the Keepon robot).

As for the onscreen user interface, Breazeal added a character animator to the team to handle that task. Instead of some sort of app or list menu as an interface, or a human-like face, Jibo’s screen displays a simple, white sphere. This ball can morph into other graphical elements: a clock, an illustration of the weather, a heart, a smile. It’s designed to be dynamic and easy to read from across the room. It comes across as friendly, familiar, and expressive, all without being too cute, or verging anywhere near the uncanny valley. It’s technology humanized, but not necessarily in humanoid form.

While the prototype is expectedly rough around the edges—the LCD is low-res, and the robot’s movements are sometimes too abrupt and swift to seem natural—the potential is clear.

Jibo takes what we’ve learned from smartphone and tablet experiences, specifically from voice interactions in systems like Google Now, and builds on it. It does much of what the software on your devices can already do—learn your preferences, predict your needs—but it does everything with more personality. And whether Jibo succeeds or fails depends a lot on how that personality jibes with the humans who have to live with it.

The Current Conflict Between Israel and Hamas is Shattering Many Myths
Jul 17th, 2014
Daily NewsProphecy New Watch
Categories: Contemporary Issues;Commentary

The current warfare between Hamas and Israel shatters several myths that have been accepted as gospel by many in the international community and the media.

Myth 1: The primary cause of the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians is the occupation of the West Bank and Israel’s settlement policy.

Reality: The reality is that Hamas’s rocket attacks against Israeli cities and civilian targets have little to do with Israel’s occupation and settlement policy on the West Bank. Even if Israel were to make peace with the Palestinian Authority, the rocket attacks from Gaza would not stop. 

These Hamas attacks are incited by the Muslim Brotherhood, Iran, Syria and others opposed to the very concept of the nationstate for the Jewish people. The best proof of this reality is that these attacks began as soon as Israel ended its occupation of Gaza and uprooted all the civilian settlements from that area. Israel left behind agricultural hothouses and other equipment that the residents of Gaza could have used to build a decent society.

Moreover, there was no siege of Gaza at that time. Gaza was free to become a Singapore on the Mediterranean. Instead, Hamas engaged in a coup d’état, murdering many members of the PA, seizing control of all of Gaza, and turning it into a militant theocracy. It used the material left behind by the Israelis not to feed its citizens but to build rockets with which to attack Israeli civilians. It was only after these rocket attacks that Israel began a siege of Gaza designed to prevent the importation of rockets and material used to build terrorist kidnap tunnels.

There are good reasons why Israel should change its settlement policy in the West Bank and try harder to achieve peace with the PA.

But even if that were to be accomplished the rockets from Gaza would continue and Israel would have to take the kind of military steps any democracy would take to protect its civilians from lethal aggression.

Myth 2: What is being experienced now is a “cycle of violence”, with equal blame on both sides.

Reality: The reality, of course, is that there is no comparison – legally, morally, diplomatically or by any other criteria – between what Hamas is doing and how Israel is responding.

Hamas is willfully and deliberately committing a double war crime by targeting Israeli civilians and using Palestinian civilians as human shields. The deliberate targeting of civilians, as Hamas admits – indeed boasts – it is doing, is a clear war crime.

Hamas has aimed its lethal rockets at Beersheba, Tel Aviv, Haifa and Jerusalem. This is a war crime. 

Moreover, it is firing these rockets from hospitals, schools and houses in densely populated areas, in order to cause Israel to kill Palestinian civilians. This too is a war crime.

This has been called Hamas’s “dead baby strategy.” It deliberately puts Israel to the tragic choice of attacking the rockets and killing some children who are used as human shields, or refraining from attacking the rockets and thereby placing its own children at risk. Israel has generally chosen the option of refraining from attacking legitimate military targets, but when any human shields are inadvertently killed or injured, Hamas stands ready to cynically parade the dead civilians in front of television cameras, which transmit these gruesome pictures around the world with captions blaming Israel.

Hamas has adamantly refused to build bomb shelters for its civilian population. It has built shelters but has limited access to them to Hamas terrorists. This is precisely the opposite of what Israel does – building shelters for its civilians and placing its soldiers in harm’s way.

Most recently Hamas has forced or encouraged civilians to stand on the rooftops of military targets so as to prevent Israel from attacking these entirely appropriate targets. Indeed a lawsuit is now being brought in Israel, against the Israeli military, urging it to ignore these human shields and to attack the military targets.

The argument is that unless the military targets are attacked, Israeli civilians will die, and a democracy has the obligation to prefer the lives of its own civilians over the lives of enemy civilians. Thus far the Israeli military has refrained from attacking military targets that are protected by human shields. There is absolutely no symmetry between the war crimes committed by Hamas and the entirely appropriate military response by the Israel Defense Forces.

Myth 3: Mahmoud Abbas is part of the solution, not part of the problem.

Reality: Mahmoud Abbas has become part of the problem, especially in recent days. He has supported Hamas in its war crimes against Israeli civilians and has characterized Israel’s self-defense actions as “genocide” against all of the Palestinian people. I have met Abbas and found him to be a decent man who genuinely wants a peaceful solution to the conflict, but he is not a man of courage who is prepared to stand up and tell the Palestinian people the truth about the current conflict. 

His willingness to join together with Hamas in a governmental partnership demonstrates both his weakness and his willingness to be complicit with evil. He speaks out of two sides of his mouth, one side when he speaks in English to Western media and diplomats, and the other when he speaks in Arabic to the Palestinian street, which he knows contains many supporters of Hamas. His public support for Hamas has made it far more difficult for Israel to arrive at a negotiated solution with the PA. It has also made it more difficult for Hamas to stop the rocket barrage and agree to a cease-fire.

The entire civilized world should be standing behind Israel as it defends itself against war crimes. That so many continue to support – or remain silent about – those who commit these war crimes tells us something deeply disturbing about their values and prejudices.

Southern Leader: Let IDF Get the Job Done
Jul 17th, 2014
Daily NewsArutz Sheva
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Chairman Ya'ir Farjoun of the Hof Ashkelon (Ashkelon Coast) Council said, Thursday evening, "Hamas is continuing significant fire but our spirit remains steadfast.

He continued, "We ask that the Israel Defense Forces be allowed to do to work in quiet and defeat the enemy in order to prevent the firing [on Israel] once and for all."

Protesters Continue Demanding Power Cutoff to Gaza
Jul 17th, 2014
Daily NewsArutz Sheva
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Protesters demand that Israel cut off power to Gaza

Courtesy OU

While the government pushes for a cease-fire in the current round of fighting with Hamas, Israelis around the country took to the streets Thursday demanding a more definitive ending to Operation Protective Edge – at the very least turning off the electricity in Gaza in order to bring about a fall of Hamas control of Gaza.

While a number of political figures and security experts in recent days have said that the only way Israel can end the threat of future rounds of rocket warfare by Gaza terrorists was to destroy Hamas, by entering Gaza and cleaning it out of Hamas influence, protesters in cities and major junctions said that cutting off power to Gaza was a non-lethal way to bring Hamas to its knees.

“We cannot tolerate a situation where we continue to supply Gaza with electricity while they fire rockets at us,” say organizers of the protests. “It is immoral, unjust, and illogical for Israeli citizens to be paying for the electricity being used to develop and fire rockets on innocent citizens. Gaza has not paid for its electricity for a long time, and now owes Israel NIS 220 million in unpaid power bills. If you or I miss a month or two of payments, they turn off the electricity in our house, but Hamas chisels its way out of the Gaza bill with no consequences.”

Former Deputy Defense Minister Danny Danon last week vowed to stop Israel's supplying of power to Gaza. "We have to stop the entry of fuel and electricity to Gaza immediately," Danon stated. "You cannot fight Hamas on the one hand and provide electricity and fuel to transport the missiles fired at us on the other."

Danon's statements echo similar calls by Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz (Likud), who made a strong argument for the move earlier this month. "We need to break away from the population in Gaza," he said. "We need to set boundaries and say goodbye to Gaza until there is peace - no fuel, no electricity, no water, no food.

"It makes no sense for Israel to give the enemy these things," he continued. "We are responsible for an area which has no authority.”

PA Claims U.S. Plotting to Torpedo Middle East, ISIS is Jewish
Jul 17th, 2014
Daily NewsArutz Sheva
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Member of ISIS

Reuters

The Middle East is falling apart, according to the Palestinian Authority (PA)'s official daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida - all because of an elaborate conspiracy on the part of the US to stoke conflict in Gaza, Iraq, Syria, and Libya. 

The article claims that US President Barack Obama's shift from the "war on terror" to the sidelines of foreign policy issues is designed to inflict damage on the Arab world without directly costing US lives.

It then bizarrely claims that the ISIS - the Islamist sect conquering Iraq in an Islamic turf war deemed "too extreme" for Al Qaeda - is "led by Jewish extremism, as represented by [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu and [Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor] Liberman."

"Not even Hitler, Pinochet and Nero - nor the ISIS in Syria, which kills whoever doesn't know the correct number of times to kneel and bow during the morning prayer - ever reached this level," it asserts, linking the ISIS with the murder of 16 year-old Arab teen Mohammed Abu Khder.

The article then swings back to the "Jewish roots" of ISIS Islamists. 

Obama Widens Sanctions Against Russia
Jul 17th, 2014
Daily NewsCNBC
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

President Obama escalated sanctions against Russia on Wednesday by targeting a series of large banks and energy and defense firms in what officials described as the most punishing measures to date for Moscow's intervention in Ukraine.

MK Cabel: Rules of the Game Need to be Changed
Jul 17th, 2014
Daily NewsArutz Sheva
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

MK Eitan Cabel said on Wednesday that he believes that entry into Gaza by land as part of Operation Protective Shield should not be limited.

“If there is a decision to take action, it should be taken as far as possible. Perhaps not to crush Hamas, but the rules of the game must be changed. Until now we have done all that was required of us in order to show restraint. But even from my perspective, there is a limit,” Cable said.

Mimicking Supermodels, Christian Girls Posting Seductive Selfies
Jul 17th, 2014
Daily NewsProphecy New Watch
Categories: Today's Headlines;Commentary

When I was in high school, Bethany and I decided we wanted to do a really cool photo shoot of ourselves.

We put on the most modern outfits we could find, layered on the jewelry, doubled the mascara and headed to a prime location—our roof. We recruited (begged) one of our younger sisters to be our photographer. We all climbed onto the roof of our house and she snapped away with the camera.

Yes, a roof is a random place to do a photo shoot, but we did it there to get that perfect "modelesque" breeze to blow our hair just right. For each picture, we posed exactly the way we had seen the professional models do it with their lips puckered, one eyebrow raised, hand on hip, and serious eyes.

Without being told how to pose seductively, we were pros and knew exactly what to do. We proudly posted our photoshoot to Facebook and waited for the compliments to come in.

Seductiveness is the new norm. 

Sadly, we live in a culture that "trains" our minds to view seductiveness as the norm from a very young age. Just take a quick walk through the mall and you'll see poster after poster featuring models striking a sexual pose. Since the invention of Pinterest, Instagram and other apps, sexualized images are in our faces more than ever before.

As Christian girls, we're being bombarded by our culture's message that seductive and sexual poses are cool, hip and normal. Taking seductive selfies isn't raunchy anymore... it's acceptable and praised. Since we live in a fallen world it makes sense that our culture praises and encourages girls to act this way.

It makes sense that the supermodels and non-Christian girls don't have a problem posting selfies like this.

The question I have for you is this: Why in the world are Christian girls posting seductive selfies?

I'm shocked sometimes when I get on my Instagram and see some of the sensual poses a few of my Christian friends are posting. What surprises me even more is the comments I read from other Christian friends who are complimenting these images and calling them "beautiful." So what's up with this? It seems like an epidemic over the past few years.

Why are Christian girls so fond of posting seductive selfies?

I know the answer to these questions because I used to be one of those girls. I used to be the girl behind the iPhone flip-phone snapping those seductive poses. I was the girl on the roof doing a photo shoot so I could show off the results to my friends.

For me, I posted those pictures because I wanted guys to notice me. I wanted people to compliment "how pretty I was." I loved hearing the praise and affirmation from my friends. It was never an accident that I posted a picture of myself. It was always intentional and planned. I had seen enough images of fashion models to know what a "hot" picture was supposed to look like.

Many of you reading this blog know exactly what I'm talking about because you've done the same thing.

The truth is, posting seductive selfies is just an outward symptom of a much deeper issue.

It's a sign of a girl who is longing for something more. It's a sign of a girl who is trying to fill up her affirmation tank through the praises and compliments of her friends. A girl who craves attention from guys and hopes they'll notice one of her pictures. A girl who wants to appear confident, but is weak and lonely on the inside. A girl who enjoys seducing guys by making them "want what they can't have."

Seductive selfies are nothing more than an image that screams, "Look at ME!" They're an opportunity to point the spotlight on yourself for a brief moment and hope that someone will notice.

As Christian girls, God calls us to a much higher standard than to play the seductive selfie game.

The whole purpose of our lives is to point others to Christ, not to ourselves. These types of photos are never Christ-centered, but are always self-centered. God calls us to live morally pure lives in every way. Posting seductive pictures of yourself isn't promoting purity or holiness within the body of Christ.

Since that day on the roof, God has convicted me about the motivation and condition of my heart. Tell me if you think seductive selfies are okay according to Ephesians 5:1,3: "Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children ... But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints."

What do you think?

First we're called to be imitators (reflections) of God to the world around us. You and I are God's children! We need to reflect the character and purity of our Father well. Second, we're commanded to stay away from any form of sexual immorality and all impurity. Did you catch that? "Any form...all impurity."

Seductive selfies don't stand a chance against these verses.

Our culture tells us that holiness and purity is lame, and that being too strict on yourself will lead to a life of boredom. If that's the case, then why are so many girls lonely, sad, depressed, insecure and needy?

God gives us standards for purity and holiness because He knows it's what's best for us. True joy and contentment won't come through the applause of your friends, it will only come through obeying and honoring God. "Blessed are those whose way is blameless, who walk in the law of the Lord! Blessed are those who keep His testimonies, who seek Him with their whole heart" (Psalm 119:1-2).

I know you want to be blessed by God. I sure do! Instead of striving after the empty applause of this world, strive for the fulfilling applause of your King.

You will never be happier than when you're living your life for God's glory.

As Christian girls we have a duty to honor our King in every area of our lives. We have a responsibility to bear the image of Christ to the lost world around us.

Will you join me in rejecting the trend of seductive selfies? Will you say no to posting self-glorifying pictures that put all of the attention on you?

Our world is in desperate need of Christian girls who are willing to stand up for God's truth by displaying something far greater than themselves.

Malaysian Plane 'Shot Down' With 295 on Board
Jul 17th, 2014
Daily NewsSky News
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

A plane which crashed in eastern Ukraine with 295 people on board was reportedly shot down as it flew through airspace deemed unsuitable for passenger jets.

The Malaysia Airlines plane, which was flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, was travelling at an altitude of 33,000 feet (10,000 metres) when it was shot down, Russia's Interfax reported.

An adviser to the Ukrainian interior ministry told the news agency the Boeing 777 was brought down by a Buk ground-to-air missile.

The wreckage of the Boeing 777, which came down in Grabovo, Donetsk

All 280 passengers and 15 crew members who were on the plane are believed to have died, he added.

A spokesman for Malaysia Airlines, still reeling from the loss of flight MH370 in March, confirmed it had lost contact with flight MH17, which took off from Amsterdam's Schiphol airport at 12.15pm local time.

The flight disappeared from radar as it flew over Ukrainian airspace, the spokesman said.

Emergencies Ministry workers at the scene of the crash

A number of videos apparently filmed near the village of Grabovo, Donetsk, where the plane came down, showed plumes of thick, black smoke rising high into the air.

TV channel Russia 24 broadcast similar pictures, while a correspondent for the Reuters news agency at the scene said he could see the wreckage of a burning aircraft and bodies on the ground.

The plane, which one eyewitness said split in two on impact, is almost unrecognisable in pictures of the crash site, with debris scattered across a vast area.

Flight MH17 is seen leaving Schiphol airport en route to Kuala Lumpur

Sky News correspondent Mark White, citing aviation sources, said the aircraft appeared to have been flying through a block of airspace deemed "not suitable for civilian aircraft".

"It doesn't mean aircraft are banned from flying into that airspace but pilots are certainly advised not to," he said.

"It raises questions about why the plane was in an area it had been advised not to fly through.

Debris from the Malaysia Airlines plane was strewn over a vast area

"Did it stray into that area by accident or did the pilot decide it was a risk worth taking, perhaps as a fuel saving measure?"

Alexander Borodai, the eastern Ukraine separatist leader, said the aircraft was shot down by Ukrainian government forces - a claim backed by a separatist from Krasnyi Luch, who told Reuters the rebels did not have weapons capable of shooting down a plane at such height.

However, officials in Kiev denied any involvement, with Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk ordering an immediate investigation into what he described as a "catastrophe".

The plane's last known position over Ukraine. Pic: Flightradar24/Twitter

The Kremlin said Russian President Vladimir Putin had offered "his sincerest words of sympathy and support to families and friends of the victims", while Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said he was "shocked" by the tragedy.

Sky's Katie Stallard, in Moscow, said media reports suggest the plane came down in an area where there has been recent heavy fighting amid continuing tensions between Russia and Ukraine.

Data from Flightradar24 indicates the plane had just passed the city of Kremenchuk, around 300km (186 miles) from the Russian border, when it disappeared.

Aviation expert Major Charles Hayman told Sky News: "It's highly likely this aircraft was flying along a fault line between Russian and Ukrainian defences.

"It's possible the Ukrainians flapped a bit, thought it was hostile and shot it down.

"It looks like someone failed to recognise this was a civilian plane."

A spokesman for Boeing said its "thoughts and prayers" are with the families and loved ones of those on board the plane, adding it "stands ready to provide whatever assistance is requested by authorities".

Relatives of the victims of the MH370 tragedy also released a statement, saying: "Who would do such poisonous thing to a civil aeroplane?

"Passengers on board are ordinary people, just like our relatives. Why let them experience the torture? Why let other people feel the same pain as we do?"

Let the Headlines Speak
Jul 17th, 2014
Daily NewsFrom the internet
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Israel launches large-scale ground operation in Gaza Strip  The Israeli military launched a large-scale ground operation in the Gaza Strip Thursday reportedly involving thousands of troops backed by tanks and bulldozers. The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced he had instructed the Israel Defense Forces to launch the operation to destroy underground tunnels that reach into Israel.  

Web evidence points to pro-Russia rebels in downing of MH17
Igor Girkin, a Ukrainian separatist leader also known as Strelkov, claimed responsibility on a popular Russian social-networking site for the downing of what he thought was a Ukrainian military transport plane shortly before reports that Malaysian Airlines Flight MH17 had crashed near the rebel held Ukrainian city of Donetsk.  

Iraqi Kurds start pumping from seized oilfield: official
Iraq's autonomous region of Kurdistan on Thursday pumped an experimental 20,000 barrels of light crude from an oilfield recently seized from the federal authorities, an official said.  

HIV diagnoses hit 20-year high
HIV diagnoses have reached a 20-year high in Australia and there are fears one in seven people with the virus do not know they have it, putting more people at risk.  

Russia slams sanctions 'blackmail'
The US and EU bolstered sanctions against Russia over its alleged support of separatists in Ukraine, drawing an angry rebuke on Thursday from Moscow which said the measures amounted to "blackmail".  

U.S. hits oil giant Rosneft, other firms with toughest Russia sanctions
President Barack Obama imposed the biggest package of U.S. economic sanctions yet on Russia on Wednesday, hitting Russia's largest oil producer Rosneft and other energy, financial and defense firms, with what he called significant but targeted penalties.  

Honduras wants 'mini-Marshall plan' for U.S. aid on migrants
Honduran officials on Wednesday called for U.S. aid to Central America to reduce violence that has fueled a surge of child migration to the United States, with the foreign minister calling for a "mini-Marshall plan" to attack the broader underlying problems.  

Edward Snowden "owed a great deal" and deserves protection from prosecution: UN human rights chief
UN high commissioner for human rights Navi Pillay has suggested former NSA contractor Edward Snowden should not face prosecution for leaking top secret material. Ms Pillay said the world "owed a great deal" to Mr Snowden for drawing attention to state snooping.  

Typhoon takes aim at China after killing 38 in Philippines
The Philippines set to work clearing debris, reconnecting power and rebuilding flattened houses on Thursday after a typhoon swept across the country killing 38 people, with at least eight missing, rescue officials said.  

Earthquake map highlights rising U.S. risks
A new federal earthquake map dials up the shaking hazard just a bit for about half of the United States and lowers it for nearly a quarter of the nation. The U.S. Geologic Survey (USGS) updated its national seismic hazard maps on Thursday for the first time since 2008, taking into account research from the devastating 2011 earthquake and tsunami off the Japanese coast and the surprise 2011 Virginia temblor.  

Flight MH17: What the Wreckage Is Already Revealing
With the crash of another Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777, this one in eastern Ukraine, aviation accident investigators are again asking the same big questions as in any disaster: What happened and why did it happen? In the case of the disappearance of MH370 this spring, the answer at this point on both counts is that no one knows. This will not be the case with MH17. We already know a lot about what happened — if not why.  

Israel starts Gaza ground offensive
The Israeli military has begun a ground offensive against Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip, extending its 10-day-old Operation Protective Edge. It said it was in response to continued militant rocket fire and to strike a "significant blow to Hamas", which controls Gaza. Hamas said Israel would pay a high price for the ground offensive.  

Lew: cyberattacks aim to disrupt U.S. financial system
The hundreds of cyberattacks against U.S. banks and other institutions in recent years represent a targeted attempt to more broadly disrupt the U.S. financial system, Treasury Secretary Jack Lew said on Wednesday. In remarks on CNBC, Lew did not single out a suspected country or organization behind the attacks, but said they held the potential to cause massive economic damage if "core operational functions" of major financial institutions were compromised.  

Japan earthquake has raised pressure below Mount Fuji, says new study
Mount Fuji, or Fujisan as it is known in Japanese, is the highest point on the archipelago (rising to 3,776 metres) and the national emblem, immortalised in countless etchings. In June last year Unesco added it to the World Heritage list as a "sacred place and source of artistic inspiration". But it is still an active volcano, standing at the junction between the Pacific, Eurasian and Philippine tectonic plates. Though it has rarely stirred in recorded history, it is still potentially explosive.  

AA warns airlines to avoid Ukraine because of conflict
The Federal Aviation Administration said Thursday after the crash of Malaysia Airlines flight 17 that U.S. airlines have voluntarily agreed to avoid airspace near the Russian-Ukraine border. "The FAA is monitoring the situation to determine whether further guidance is necessary," the agency said.  

Microsoft to cut 18,000 jobs this year as it chops Nokia
Microsoft Chief Executive Officer Satya Nadella kicked off one of the largest layoffs in tech history on Thursday, hoping to reshape the aging PC industry titan into a nimbler rival to Apple and Google, and jolt a culture at the company that is used to protecting its existing Windows and Office franchises. Microsoft Corp said on Thursday it will slash up to 18,000 jobs, or 14 percent of its workforce, over the next 12 months as it almost halves the size of its newly acquired Nokia phone business and tries to become a cloud-computing and mobile-friendly software company.  

U.S. official: Malaysia Airlines plane shot down
The United States has concluded the Malaysian airline was shot down, a senior U.S. official told CNN's Barbara Starr. One radar system saw a surface-to-air missile system turn on and track an aircraft right before the plane went down Thursday, according to the official.  

Ebola 2014: Death toll, new cases on the rise in Africa
High numbers of new Ebola cases and deaths in Africa are prompting increased efforts to contain the deadly outbreak.  

Risk of earthquake increased for about half of US
A new federal earthquake map dials up the shaking hazard just a bit for about half of the United States and lowers it for nearly a quarter of the nation.

3.6 earthquake recorded in south-central Kansas
The U.S. Geological Survey reports an earthquake rattled south-central Kansas. The 3.6 magnitude earthquake was reported about 5:40 a.m. Thursday about 11 miles west-northwest of Caldwell in Sumner County.  

Alaska Earthquake Today 2014 Strikes West of Canada
A strong Alaska earthquake today 2014 has struck west of Whitehorse, Canada. The Alaska earthquake today July 17, 2014 began moments ago. No reports of injuries have been indicated by local news.  

20 Signs The Epic Drought In The Western United States Is Starting To Become Apocalyptic

Thanks to an epic drought that never seems to end, we are witnessing the beginning of a water crisis that most people never even dreamed was possible in this day and age. The state of California is getting ready to ban people from watering their lawns and washing their cars, but if this drought persists we will eventually see far more extreme water conservation measures than that 

Pew survey finds Jews to be America's favorite religious group
The least favorite religious group are Muslims, who are even more disliked than atheists.  

Nurse: Illegals' baggage includes TB, leprosy, polio
Organizer of Murrieta resistance: 'We are creating humanitarian crisis for American people. “Regular TB, drug-resistant TB, both are airborne and both are highly contagious. The regular strain costs about $17,000 a year to treat. The drug resistant strain may be not treatable and [if it is] will cost upward of $100,000 a year to treat,” she said. Then there’s the leprosy.  

Pentagon Confirms Successful Test Of Self-Guided Bullets
On July 10, the agency issued a statement and posted a video on YouTube showing the bullets "maneuvering in flight to hit targets that are offset from where the sniper rifle is aimed."  

Where is Obama really shipping illegal kids?
Eyewitnesses at dozens of points across the United States have begun working together to track down where the tens of thousands of illegal alien children from Central America are ending up, because the federal government won’t disclose many details of its handling of the immigration crisis.  

Scientists develop 'super black' material that the human eye can't see
Surrey Nanosystems has created a new "super black" coating that absorbs 99.96% of light, which is to say, all light the human eye can detect, the company announced last week.  

Hundreds of homes threatened by Washington state wildfire
Residents of 860 homes in Washington state have been told to leave and at least 800 more houses are threatened by a wildfire that has raced across two square miles of forest, forced part of the area's main road to close, and raised a plume of smoke that can be seen from Seattle.  

Israel says Hamas fires three mortar shells during humanitarian cease-fire window
Israel's military says Hamas fired three mortar shells into southern Israel from the Gaza Strip during a five-hour humanitarian cease-fire window Thursday.  

Stopping Agenda 21: Equipping Citizens to Fight Back
More state legislatures are passing anti-Agenda 21 legislation and more local communities are standing up to outside non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and rejecting their plans for control of private property and community development. More than 150 American cities have ended membership in the International Council for Local Environmental Initiative (ICLEI), and several communities have now rejected membership in regional councils.  

Justice Dept. Investigating Missing IRS Emails
The Justice Department said Wednesday that it was investigating the circumstances behind the disappearance of emails from a former senior Internal Revenue Service official, part of a broader criminal inquiry into whether the agency had targeted conservative groups seeking tax-exempt status.  

WHERE DID ALL THE SUNSPOTS GO?
This week, solar activity has sharply declined. There is only one numbered sunspot on the Earth-facing side of the sun, and it is so small you might have trouble finding it.  

THREE WEEKS TO COMET 67P
The European Space Agency's Rosetta probe is now less than 10,000 km from its target: 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Rosetta is expected to reach and begin orbiting the comet's nucleus on August 6th.  

Magnitude 4.5 quake reported off Oregon coast
A magnitude 4.5 earthquake was recorded Wednesday morning in the Pacific Ocean about 125 miles west of Bandon on the south Oregon Coast.  

Two Minor Earthquakes in Southern Bulgaria
A 3.2-strong earthquake was registered in the south of Bulgaria early on Thursday, the European Seismological Center announced.  

Australia votes to repeal carbon tax
Australia's Senate has voted to repeal the carbon tax, a levy on the biggest polluters passed by the previous Labor government. Prime Minister Tony Abbott, whose Liberal-National coalition beat Labor in an election last year, had made the repeal a central aim of his government. Politicians have been locked in a fierce row about the tax for years.  

Ukraine conflict: Russia accused of shooting down jet
A Ukrainian security spokesman has accused Russia's air force of shooting down one of its jets while it was on a mission over Ukrainian territory. Andriy Lysenko, spokesman for the Ukrainian National Security and Defence Council, said an Su-25 ground attack plane was downed on Wednesday evening. Amateur video posted on Wednesday is said to show a plane being hit over Ukraine's eastern region of Luhansk.  

Ukraine crisis: US and EU boost sanctions on Russia
The US and EU have bolstered sanctions against Russia over its alleged support for separatists fighting in Ukraine. The US has targeted major banks including Gazprombank, defence firms and energy companies including Rosneft. Russian President Vladimir Putin was quoted as saying sanctions would take US-Russia relations to a "dead end".  

Reports: Israel, Hamas agree to cease-fire in Gaza
Israel and Hamas have agreed to an Egyptian proposal for a cease-fire that would put an end to the 10-day operation in the Gaza Strip, according to multiple reports Thursday. The BBC quoted an Israeli official as saying that the two sides have agreed to a deal that will take effect on Friday at 6 a.m. local time.  

Russia 'to reopen Lourdes spy base in Cuba'
Russia has made a deal with Cuba to reopen an electronic listening post on the Caribbean island that was used by the Soviets to spy on the US during the Cold War, Russian officials say. The Lourdes base near Havana lies 250km (150 miles) from the US coast.  

Edward Snowden "owed a great deal" and deserves protection from prosecution: UN human rights chief
UN high commissioner for human rights Navi Pillay has suggested former NSA contractor Edward Snowden should not face prosecution for leaking top secret material. Ms Pillay said the world "owed a great deal" to Mr Snowden for drawing attention to state snooping.  

Trickle of Gaza rocket fire continues ahead of temporary cease-fire
Terrorists in the Gaza Strip continue to launch a trickle of rocket fire at southern Israel on Thursday morning ahead of a temporary cease-fire set to take effect at 10 a.m. Four rockets fired from the Gaza Strip toward Beersheba exploded in open territory on Thursday morning.  

Honduras wants 'mini-Marshall plan' for U.S. aid on migrants
Honduran officials on Wednesday called for U.S. aid to Central America to reduce violence that has fueled a surge of child migration to the United States, with the foreign minister calling for a "mini-Marshall plan" to attack the broader underlying problems.  

U.S. hits oil giant Rosneft, other firms with toughest Russia sanctions
President Barack Obama imposed the biggest package of U.S. economic sanctions yet on Russia on Wednesday, hitting Russia's largest oil producer Rosneft and other energy, financial and defense firms, with what he called significant but targeted penalties.  

Typhoon kills at least 38 in the Philippines, heads for China
The Philippines set to work clearing debris, reconnecting power and rebuilding flattened houses on Thursday after a typhoon swept across the country killing 38 people, with at least eight missing, rescue officials said.  

Explosions, gunfire heard near Kabul airport
Explosions and bursts of gunfire were heard near Kabul International Airport in the Afghan capital after dawn on Thursday and black smoke rose above the facility, which is used by civilians and the military.  

Israel, Hamas Deny BBC Reports on Cease - Fire
Jul 17th, 2014
Daily NewsArutz Sheva
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Rocket fire from Gaza

Flash 90

Israel on Thursday denied that a cease-fire had been worked out with Hamas. The BBC reported that both Israel and Hamas had agreed to a “comprehensive” cease-fire, which would go into effect 6 AM Friday. The reports, said the BBC, was based on Israeli sources.

According to the report, Israel had agreed to two of three Hamas key demands; a reopening of the Rafiach crossing (under the control of Egypt; the report said that Cairo had agreed to this as well), and the reopening of crossings into Israel to allow free travel to Palestinian Authority-controlled areas of Judea and Samaria. Israel has not agreed to another Hamas demand, the rerelease of terrorists formerly released in the Gilad Shalit deal who were arrested last month in the IDF sweep of Hamas, as soldiers searched for the murderers of Israeli teens Eyal Yifrah, Naftali Frenkel, and Gilad Sha'ar.

An Israeli official said that there was currently no agreement, and that the BBC report was “wildly optimistic. Hamas' demands are way out of proportion” to what Israel is prepared to give. A Hamas spokesperson also denied the reports.

The report came out as the UN-inspired “humanitarian” cease-fire was set to expire. The cease-fire was violated by Hamas, which fired three mortar shells at front-line communities in Israel. Israel did not respond to the attack.

On Wednesday night, the UN called for a “humanitarian cease-fire” that would last for six hours, to enable Gaza residents to stock up on supplies, but the Egyptian proposal would set a more long-term cease-fire. Israel and Hamas do not speak directly; reports said that an Israeli and Hamas team were in the same hotel in Cairo Thursday, with Egyptian officials shuttling between the rooms, presenting proposals and counter-proposals.

Meanwhile, despite the UN cease-fire, which Israel agreed to, Hamas continued firing rockets Thursday morning. A barrage of rockets was fired at Beersheva. The Iron Dome system knocked out four of the missiles. No injuries have been reported. Hamas also took responsibility for an attempt by terrorists to conduct a major terror attack in Israel by infiltrating through a Gaza terror tunnel. The 13 terrorists involved in the attempted attack were apparently surprised that they were being observed by Israeli soldiers, an IDF official said, and attempted to return to Gaza via the tunnel, at which point an Israel Air Force plane destroyed the entrance to the tunnel.

A Hamas official said Thursday that Israel would have to “pay a price” if it wanted a cease-fire. Mohammed Nazel said that Israel “has to promise, with international guarantees, that they will stop attacking Gaza. Second, they have to open up all the passages between Gaza and the rest of the world. In addition they have to allow free movement in Gaza.”

Israeli officials have said publicly that their objective in Operation Protective Edge is to restore quiet to Israeli cities. But government sources quoted in the media over recent days said that Israel also had demands for implementing a cease-fire, specifically international supervision of the dismantling of Hamas' rocket and missile supply.

IDF Launches Ground Operation Against Gaza
Jul 17th, 2014
Daily NewsArutz Sheva
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Lighting flares over Gaza

Reuters

The Prime Minister's Office has issued a statement that says the IDF has embarked on a ground assault into Gaza against Hamas's tunnels.

The operation is deemed as "limited" and will probably not go further than two or three kilometers into Gaza's territory. This is deemed to be deep enough in enemy land to find the openings into Hamas's attack tunnels, like the one that was used in Thursday morning's infiltration into Israel by 13 terrorists. 

Large forces from the IDF's infantry, armor, artillery, engineering and intelligence corps are operating in several zones within Gaza after breaching the security fence that separates it from Israel, in coordination with the Israel Security Agency (ISA, or Shin Bet) and with support from the air and naval forces. The zones are in Gaza's northern, central and southern sections. The Diplomacy and Security Cabinet has authorized the IDF to widen the operation further at its discretion.

Egypt, meanwhile, has issued a statement saying that Hamas is to blame for the possible deaths of hundreds of Gazan civilians. The statement appears to have purposely been issued simultaneously with the statement from the Israeli Prime Minister's Office.

Channel 2's reporters said earlier that the IDF has unleashed a blistering artillery barrage against northern Gaza. They hinted that this type of barrage often precedes a ground invasion.

Also taking part in the shelling were tanks and naval gunboats.

More than 60 Hamas missiles rained down on Israel throughout Thursday, in one of the more intense days of missile fire since Operation Protective Edge was launched.

Hamas appeared more defiant than ever despite attempts to coax it into a ceasefire. As Israel declared a unilateral "humanitarian ceasefire," 13 Hamas terrorists infiltrated Israel by tunnel but were discovered and may have escaped back to Gaza through the tunnel.

A man was critically wounded in Ashkelon when got out of his car to run for shelter during a Hamas missile attack and was hit by another car, a television news report said.

According to Channel 2, he was taken to hospital in critical condition Thursday night.

Dror Hanin, 38, a married father of three from Beit Aryeh in the Shomron, was killed Tuesday by a Hamas mortar shell as he gave out gift bags to soldiers at the Erez Crossing near Gaza. He was the first Israeli fatality in the course of Operation Protective Edge, which has been going on for ten days.

Hacking Online Polls and Other Ways British Spies Seek to Control the Internet
Jul 17th, 2014
Daily NewsProphecy New Watch
Categories: Today's Headlines;Commentary

The secretive British spy agency GCHQ has developed covert tools to seed the internet with false information, including the ability to manipulate the results of online polls, artificially inflate pageview counts on web sites, “amplif[y]” sanctioned messages on YouTube, and censor video content judged to be “extremist.” The capabilities, detailed in documents provided by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, even include an old standby for pre-adolescent prank callers everywhere: A way to connect two unsuspecting phone users together in a call.

The tools were created by GCHQ’s Joint Threat Research Intelligence Group (JTRIG), and constitute some of the most startling methods of propaganda and internet deception contained within the Snowden archive. Previously disclosed documents have detailed JTRIG’s use of “fake victim blog posts,” “false flag operations,” “honey traps” and psychological manipulation to target online activists, monitor visitors to WikiLeaks, and spy on YouTube and Facebook users.

But as the U.K. Parliament today debates a fast-tracked bill to provide the government with greater surveillance powers, one which Prime Minister David Cameron has justified as an “emergency” to “help keep us safe,” a newly released top-secret GCHQ document called “JTRIG Tools and Techniques” provides a comprehensive, birds-eye view of just how underhanded and invasive this unit’s operations are. The document—available in full here—is designed to notify other GCHQ units of JTRIG’s “weaponised capability” when it comes to the dark internet arts, and serves as a sort of hacker’s buffet for wreaking online havoc.

The “tools” have been assigned boastful code names. They include invasive methods for online surveillance, as well as some of the very techniques that the U.S. and U.K. have harshly prosecuted young online activists for employing, including “distributed denial of service” attacks and “call bombing.” But they also describe previously unknown tactics for manipulating and distorting online political discourse and disseminating state propaganda, as well as the apparent ability to actively monitor Skype users in real-time—raising further questions about the extent of Microsoft’s cooperation with spy agencies or potential vulnerabilities in its Skype’s encryption. Here’s a list of how JTRIG describes its capabilities:

• “Change outcome of online polls” (UNDERPASS)

• “Mass delivery of email messaging to support an Information Operations campaign” (BADGER) and “mass delivery of SMS messages to support an Information Operations campaign” (WARPARTH)

• “Disruption of video-based websites hosting extremist content through concerted target discovery and content removal.” (SILVERLORD)

• “Active skype capability. Provision of real time call records (SkypeOut and SkypetoSkype) and bidirectional instant messaging. Also contact lists.” (MINIATURE HERO)

• “Find private photographs of targets on Facebook” (SPRING BISHOP)

• “A tool that will permanently disable a target’s account on their computer” (ANGRY PIRATE)

• “Ability to artificially increase traffic to a website” (GATEWAY) and “ability to inflate page views on websites” (SLIPSTREAM)

• “Amplification of a given message, normally video, on popular multimedia websites (Youtube)” (GESTATOR)

• “Targeted Denial Of Service against Web Servers” (PREDATORS FACE) and “Distributed denial of service using P2P. Built by ICTR, deployed by JTRIG” (ROLLING THUNDER)

• “A suite of tools for monitoring target use of the UK auction site eBay (www.ebay.co.uk)” (ELATE)

• “Ability to spoof any email address and send email under that identity” (CHANGELING)

• “For connecting two target phone together in a call” (IMPERIAL BARGE)

While some of the tactics are described as “in development,” JTRIG touts “most” of them as “fully operational, tested and reliable.” It adds: “We only advertise tools here that are either ready to fire or very close to being ready.”

And JTRIG urges its GCHQ colleagues to think big when it comes to internet deception: “Don’t treat this like a catalogue. If you don’t see it here, it doesn’t mean we can’t build it.”

The document appears in a massive Wikipedia-style archive used by GCHQ to internally discuss its surveillance and online deception activities. The page indicates that it was last modified in July 2012, and had been accessed almost 20,000 times.

GCHQ refused to provide any comment on the record beyond its standard boilerplate, in which it claims that it acts “in accordance with a strict legal and policy framework” and is subject to “rigorous oversight.” But both claims are questionable.

British watchdog Privacy International has filed pending legal action against GCHQ over the agency’s use of malware to spy on internet and mobile phone users. Several GCHQ memos published last fall by The Guardian revealed that the agency was eager to keep its activities secret not to protect national security, but because “our main concern is that references to agency practices (ie, the scale of interception and deletion) could lead to damaging public debate which might lead to legal challenges against the current regime.” And an EU parliamentary inquiry earlier this year concluded that GCHQ activities were likely illegal.

As for oversight, serious questions have been raised about whether top national security officials even know what GCHQ is doing. Chris Huhne, a former cabinet minister and member of the national security council until 2012, insisted that ministers were in “utter ignorance” about even the largest GCHQ spying program, known as Tempora—not to mention “their extraordinary capability to hoover up and store personal emails, voice contact, social networking activity and even internet searches.” In an October Guardian op-ed, Huhne wrote that “when it comes to the secret world of GCHQ and the [NSA], the depth of my ‘privileged information’ has been dwarfed by the information provided by Edward Snowden to The Guardian.”

Estonia - Testing Ground for Global Digital ID
Jul 17th, 2014
Daily NewsProphecy New Watch
Categories: Today's Headlines;Commentary

The founders of the internet were academics who took users’ identities on trust. When only research co-operation was at stake, this was reasonable. But the lack of secure identification is now hampering the development of e-commerce and the provision of public services online. In day-to-day life, from banking to dating, if you don’t know who you are dealing with, you are vulnerable to fraud or deceit, or will have to submit to cumbersome procedures such as scanning and uploading documents to prove who you are.

Much work has gone into making systems that can recognise and verify digital IDs. A standard called OpenID Connect, organised by an international non-profit foundation, was launched this year. Mobile-phone operators have started a complementary service, Mobile Connect, which allows identities of all kinds to be authenticated from smartphones.

But providing a digital ID that will be widely used and trusted is far harder. Businesses can check their employees rigorously, and issue credentials for gaining access to buildings, computers and the like. But what about outside the workplace? Facebook, Google and Twitter are all trying to make their accounts a form of ID. But these are issued without verification, so pseudonyms are rife and impersonation easy.

Private providers are offering their own schemes; miiCard, for example, uses bank accounts as a way of issuing a verified online identity. But these fall short of the reliability of a state-backed identity, issued by a government official, checked against other databases, using biometric data (such as fingerprints and retinal scans) and backed by law—in effect an electronic passport.

There is one place where this cyberdream is already reality. Secure, authenticated identity is the birthright of every Estonian: before a newborn even arrives home, the hospital will have issued a digital birth certificate and his health insurance will have been started automatically. All residents of the small Baltic state aged 15 or over have electronic ID cards, which are used in health care, electronic banking and shopping, to sign contracts and encrypt e-mail, as tram tickets, and much more besides—even to vote.

Estonia’s approach makes life efficient: taxes take less than an hour to file, and refunds are paid within 48 hours. By law, the state may not ask for any piece of information more than once, people have the right to know what data are held on them and all government databases must be compatible, a system known as the X-road. In all, the Estonian state offers 600 e-services to its citizens and 2,400 to businesses.

Estonia’s system uses suitably hefty encryption. Only a minimum of private data are kept on the ID card itself. Lost cards can simply be cancelled. And in over a decade, no security breaches have been reported. Also issued are two PIN codes, one for authentication (proving who the holder is) and one for authorisation (signing documents or making payments). Asked to authenticate a user, the service concerned queries a central database to check that the card and relevant code match. It also asks for only the minimum information needed: to check a customer’s age, for example, it does not ask, “How old is this person?” but merely, “Is this person over 18?”

Other governments have tried to issue electronic identity cards. But costs have been high and public resistance strong. Some have proved careless custodians of their citizens’ data. There are fears of snooping. Britain had spent £257m ($370m) of a planned £4.5 billion on a much-criticised ID card scheme by the time the current coalition government scrapped it after coming to office in 2010.

That has left a gap in the global market—one that Estonia hopes to fill. Starting later this year, it will issue ID cards to non-resident “satellite Estonians”, thereby creating a global, government-standard digital identity. Applicants will pay a small fee, probably around €30-50 ($41-68), and provide the same biometric data and documents as Estonian residents. If all is in order, a card will be issued, or its virtual equivalent on a smartphone (held on a special secure module in the SIM card).

Some good ideas never take off because too few people embrace them. And with just 1.3m residents, Estonia is a tiddler—even with the 10m satellite Estonians the government hopes to add over the next decade. What may provide the necessary scale is a European Union rule soon to come into force that will require member states to accept each others’ digital IDs. That means non-resident holders of Estonian IDs, wherever they are, will be able not only to send each other encrypted e-mail and to prove their identity to web-service providers who accept government-issued identities, but also to do business with governments anywhere in the EU.

Estonia is being “very clever”, says Stéphanie de Labriolle of the Secure Identity Alliance, an international working group. Marie Austenaa of the GSMA, a global association of mobile-phone firms, praises it too. Allan Foster of ForgeRock, a firm that is working on government ID schemes in Belgium, New Zealand and elsewhere, thinks that the new satellite Estonians will help change attitudes to secure digital identities in their own countries, too.

The scheme’s advantages for Estonia are multiple. It will help it shed the detested “ex-Soviet” tag and promote itself as a paragon of good government and innovation. It will attract investment: once you have an Estonian ID, setting up a company there takes only a few minutes. And it will create an electronic diaspora all over the world with a stake in the country’s survival—no small matter at a time when the threat from Russia is keenly felt. (Estonia is also planning to back up all its national data to secure “digital embassies” in friendly foreign countries.)

Struck by the X-road’s scalability and security, and the fact that it has already worked well for over a decade, Finland and other countries are adopting the Estonian system in whole or in part. But for foreign individuals, perhaps its greatest appeal is that it is optional. Those who like the system’s convenience, security and flexibility can apply (though Estonia’s chief information officer, Taavi Kotka, who is taking time away from his real-life job running an IT company, stresses that the ID is a privilege, not a right). Those who feel queasy about a foreign state having access to their personal data can steer clear.

Mr Kotka says that Estonia aims to do for identity what American Express cards did for international travel in the 1960s: to simplify life. But the bigger point is that government-verified identity has been divorced from location. If Estonia’s scheme takes off some other countries may well decide to follow its lead. Some may aim at volume; others, to target the top end, as with the market in non-resident investors’ passports. Soon, multiple satellite citizenship may even become the norm.

California to Impose Water-Use Fines Amid Worst Drought We Have Ever Seen
Jul 17th, 2014
Daily NewsThe Vancouver Sun
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

BRICs Leaders Challenge Global Financial Order By Creating Emergency Reserve Fund
Jul 17th, 2014
Daily NewsRia Novosti
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

BRICS Leaders Challenge Global Financial Order by Creating Emergency Reserve Fund

FORTALEZA (Brazil), July 16 (RIA Novosti) – The much-anticipated BRICS Contingency Reserves Arrangement (CRA) signed during the sixth summit of the world’s five largest emerging world economies will serve as the necessary assistance to the countries in two cases, the head of the Russian Central Bank Elvira Nabiullina said.

"This is the so-called preventive mechanism, when there is pressure on a [country's] balance of payments, to avoid a speculative attack on the national currency," Nabiullina told journalists on the sidelines of the BRICS Summit, outlining the first reason for a country to request access to such resources.

"Or there is a short-term liquidity deficit which happens when a country sees a massive capital outflow," Nabiullina added, explaining that CRA ensures effective protection of the national currencies from financial volatility.

Deputy Governor of the Reserve Bank of India Urjit Patel stressed the larger-scale implications of the deal, which mirrors the International Monetary Fund, and is intended to help the BRICS and other developing nations free themselves from Western dominance in international finance.

"I think is an important signal that BRICS countries are willing to take the lead in changing the way we think about the financial architecture of the world," Patel said during the summit in Fortaleza.

Focusing on the practical implementation of the deal, Head of Russia’s Central Bank, noted that the CRA is still subject to ratification in accordance with the legislative regulations of the constituent countries, with a special operational agreement to be concluded among the central banks of the BRICS countries.

Reports in China's official media following the move to set up the CRA and a BRICS development bank highlighted the opportunity that comes with the agreements to tap market potential and diversify exports.

"The exhilarating outcome is due to the joint efforts from BRICS members to deepen their economic cooperation and tap their potential by innovative means and methods," China’s Xinhua news agency said in a comment.

The BRICS emergency pool of currency will total $100 billion, with Russia's contribution amounting to $18 billion, and provide a buffer in conditions of capital volatility, overcoming the lack of short-term liquidity and rapidly offsetting fiscal deficit triggered by economic turbulence.

Billionaire Sprott - the Bank of England Gold Vaults are Empty
Jul 17th, 2014
Daily NewsKing World News
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

We know that production is likely to fall off because of the lack of financing, the difficulty of getting projects approved, the unwillingness to go into projects, and the massive decline in exploration.

So if you look at it from a longer-term perspective, you can see that all the catalysts are in place.  In terms of the immediacy of something, it’s going to be a failure to deliver.  I don’t know where it’s going to occur, but it will be a failure to deliver somewhere.”

Eric King:  “It almost sounds like you feel that failure to deliver is imminent.”

Sprott:  “It’s hard for me not to think it’s imminent.  When I got into the gold market back in 2000 I read Frank Veneroso’s gold book.  He suggested that the central banks, who said they had 35,000 tons of gold, probably only had 18,000 tons.

And I see data every year that suggests demand might exceed supply by 2,000 tons.  So the metal can come from only one place -- (Western) central banks.  That’s why I wrote the article in 2012, ‘Do They Have Any Gold Left?’ Then you see data points out of the U.S., where the U.S. is exporting 40 tons of gold one month, and the U.K. is exporting 112 tons to Switzerland one month, and the U.K. doesn’t even produce any gold -- so where is this gold coming from?

These numbers all reek of the suppression of the gold price and tell you the game will have an end date. I think we might be very close to that end date now. I know lots of your readers and listeners will have seen a comment by some reporter from Bloomberg who suggested that the Bank of England's vaults were empty now. [LAUGHTER.]

And I suspect that is very close to the truth -- that the supply is dwindling, and someday they just give up on it. Like they should be giving up on the policy of money printing.  They accomplished nothing.  We’re so misguided on all this stuff. It’s not working.  All we’re doing is piling on the debt.  Well, there is a cost to debt and that cost gets bigger all the time.

A lot of the policy to keep the gold price suppressed is not going to work.  How could anybody honestly believe that inflation is only 2 percent?  It’s so ridiculous, and even the public is now realizing it’s ridiculous.  The central planners have played a game that hasn’t worked, and there will be a price to pay.

When you see a bank goes down, what’s the first thing you think about? ‘I want my money out of the bank.  Where am I going to put it all?  I better put it into something real.’  We keep hearing that the bad loan problems are getting worse, the trading volumes for the commercial banks are going down, the spreads are narrowing.  And I would never have my money in a bank.  They are so levered and risky.

It’s funny that it doesn’t strike people as being risky, but when you put your deposit into a bank, you’ve lent your money to the bank.  If the money is lent to someone else who is not going to repay it, you are going to be on the hook for it.  We just had the German government approve of bail-ins in that country.  So we are all set up for it. Everybody knows there is going to be a problem in the banking industry because it’s just way too levered based on any normalcy in banking.  So our day will come.”

20 Signs the Drought in the Western United States is Starting to Become Apocalyptic
Jul 17th, 2014
Daily NewsProphecy New Watch
Categories: Today's Headlines;Commentary

When scientists start using phrases such as "the worst drought" and "as bad as you can imagine" to describe what is going on in the western half of the country, you know that things are bad. Thanks to an epic drought that never seems to end, we are witnessing the beginning of a water crisis that most people never even dreamed was possible in this day and age. 

The state of California is getting ready to ban people from watering their lawns and washing their cars, but if this drought persists we will eventually see far more extreme water conservation measures than that. And the fact that nearly half of all of the produce in America comes out of the state of California means that ultimately this drought is going to deeply affect all of us. 

Food prices have already been rising at an alarming rate, and the longer this drought goes on the higher they will go. Let us hope and pray that this drought is permanently broken at some point, because otherwise we could very well be entering an era of extreme water rationing, gigantic dust storms and crippling food prices. The following are 20 signs that the epic drought in the western half of the United States is starting to become apocalyptic...

#1 According to the Los Angeles Times, downtown Los Angeles is now the driest that it has been since records began being kept all the way back in 1877.

#2 The California State Water Resources Control Board says that nearly 50 communities are already on the verge of running out of water.

#3 In a desperate attempt to conserve water, the state of California is considering banning watering lawns and washing cars. Once implemented, violators will be slapped with a $500 fine for each offense.

#4 It has been reported that a new social media phenomenon known as "drought shaming" has begun in California. People are taking videos and photos of their neighbors wasting water and posting them to Facebook and Twitter.

#5 Climate scientist Tim Barnett says that the water situation in Las Vegas "is as bad as you can imagine", and he believes that unless the city "can find a way to get more water from somewhere" it will soon be "out of business".

#6 The water level in Lake Mead has now fallen to the lowest level since 1937, and it continues to drop at a frightening pace.

#7 Rob Mrowka of the Center for Biological Diversity believes that the city of Las Vegas is going to be forced to downsize because of the lack of water...

The drought is like a slow spreading cancer across the desert. It's not like a tornado or a tsunami, bang. The effects are playing out over decades. And as the water situation becomes more dire we are going to start having to talk about the removal of people (from Las Vegas).

#8 In some areas of southern Nevada, officials are actually paying people to remove their lawns in a desperate attempt to conserve water.

#9 According to Accuweather, "more than a decade of drought" along the Colorado River has set up an "impending Southwest water shortage" which could ultimately affect tens of millions of people.

#10 Most people don't realize this, but the once mighty Colorado River has become so depleted that it no longer runs all the way to the ocean.

#11 Lake Powell is less than half full at this point.

#12 It is being projected that the current drought in California will end up costing the state more than 2 billion dollars this year alone.

#13 Farmers in California are allowing nearly half a million acres to lie fallow this year due to the extreme lack of water.

#14 The lack of produce coming from the state of California will ultimately affect food prices in the entire nation. Just consider the following statistics from a recent Business Insider article...

California is one of the U.S.'s biggest food producers — responsible for almost half the country's produce and nuts and 25% of our milk and cream. Eighty percent of the world's almonds come from the state, and they take an extraordinary amount of water to produce — 1.1 gallons per almond.

#15 As underground aquifers are being relentlessly drained in California, some areas of the San Joaquin Valley are sinking by 11 inches a year.

#16 It is being projected that the Kansas wheat harvest will be the worst that we have seen since 1989.

#17 The extended drought has created ideal conditions for massive dust storms to form.

#18 Things are so dry in California right now that people are actually starting to steal water. For example, one Mendocino County couple recently had 3,000 gallons of water stolen from them. It was the second time this year that they had been hit.

#19 At the moment, close to 80 percent of the state of California is experiencing either "extreme" or "exceptional" drought.

#20 National Weather Service meteorologist Eric Boldt says that this is "the worst drought we probably have seen in our lifetime".

Most people just assume that this drought will be temporary, but experts tell us that there have been "megadroughts" throughout history in the western half of the United States that have lasted for more than 100 years.

If we have entered one of those eras, it is going to fundamentally change life in America.

And the frightening thing is that much of the rest of the world is dealing with water scarcity issues right now as well. In fact, North America is actually in better shape than much of Africa and Asia.

Without plenty of fresh water, modern civilization is not possible.

And right now, the western United States and much of the rest of the world is starting to come to grips with the fact that we could be facing some very serious water shortages in the years ahead.

'Humantarian Cease - Fire' Holding - for Now
Jul 17th, 2014
Daily NewsArutz Sheva
Categories: Today's Headlines;Today's Headlines

Money at Gaza bank

Flash 90

A “humanitarian cease-fire” that went into effect 10 AM local time was holding, at least for its first hour. The cease-fire, requested by UN officials, is set to last through 3 PM local time, giving Gaza residents five hours to stock up on supplies – and giving rocket-weary Israelis five hours out of the bomb shelters that have become second, and in some cases primary, homes over the last ten days of incessant rocket fire by Hamas terrorists.

The IDF said that it would abide by the cease-fire as long as Hamas did. Foreign reporters in Gaza said that the army had sent text messages to Gaza residents' cell phones warning them that the IDF would immediately react if Hamas violated the cease-fire, which it agreed to. Reports from Gaza said that residents went out to go shopping and buy food and medicine, and to take money out of the bank. Hamas warned Gazans to "be aware that Israelis were tracking them to gather intelligence on their movements."

The situation Thursday was far different from that on Wednesday, when a cease-fire that was supposed to go into effect was rejected by Hamas and immediately violated. That cease-fire, proffered by Egypt, was flatly rejected by Hamas, on the claim that it had not been “consulted” with before the terms were set. Reports Thursday morning said that Israeli and Hamas negotiating teams had arrived in Cairo to discuss the cease-fire proposed by Egypt. The cease-fire was first proposed by Egypt Tuesday night and was accepted unilaterally by Israel, as Hamas continued to pound Israel with rocket fire. Later Wednesday, Israel responded to the Hamas attacks, striking back at terror targets in Gaza.

Earlier Thursday, Hamas “greeted” the cease-fire with a major rocket attack on Israel. Red Color alert sirens were sounded in communities throughout central Israel. Sirens were sounded in Tel Aviv and its suburbs, Raanana, Hadera, and in the Netanya area as well. Iron Dome batteries shot down several of the missiles, with others falling in open areas. No injuries have been reported. Minutes before, a barrage of rockets was fired at Beersheva. The Iron Dome system knocked out four of the missiles. No injuries have been reported.

Hamas also accepted responsibility for an attempt by 13 terrorists to enter Israel earlier Thursday via a terror tunnel. In the early morning hours of Thursday, the army said, IDF soldiers identified a group of 13 terrorists attempting to enter Israel via a tunnel in the southern Gaza Strip. The tunnel was one of several the IDF had recently uncovered that were to be used to smuggle terrorists into Israeli cities. IDF soldiers attacked the group. Several fatalities were reported. The tunnel has been destroyed, as well.