Looking for His glorious appearing! Titus 2:13

Ukrainian Rebels Say They Ready for Ceasefire
Aug 9th, 2014
Daily NewsReuters
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

KIEV (Reuters) - Pro-Russian separatists said on Saturday they were ready for a ceasefire with the Kiev government after increasing gains by Ukrainian forces against rebel forces.

Steinitz: If Rocket Fire Continues We'll Most Likely Take Back Gaza Temporarily
Aug 9th, 2014
Daily NewsArutz Sheva
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Intelligence and Strategy Minister Yuval Steinitz tonight (Motzei Shabbat) told Channel 10 that the Security Cabinet will be weighing in on taking control of Gaza should Hamas rocket fire into Israel persist.

"Should Hamas continue to fire rockets at Israel over the next days or weeks, we will have no choice. We will have to seriously consider the full takeover of the Gaza Strip for a number of days or months, to overpower Hamas, and demilitarize Gaza, by getting rid of weapons, rockets and rocket production facilities," Steinitz explained.

Prof Suggests Automatic Counter - Missile for Every Hamas Rocket
Aug 9th, 2014
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Professor Yisrael Aumann

Flash 90

Nobel laureate Professor Yisrael (Robert) Aumann has an idea that could turn the tables on Hamas's rocket terror against Israel.

In a recent lecture, he described his vision for a fully automatic system that would fire a rocket back at Gaza immediately, whenever Gaza terrorists fired a missile at Israel. Presumably, these missiles would be randomly or automatically aimed in a way that would inflict civilian casualties on the Arab side, just as Hamas seeks to cause civilian casualties on the Israeli side.

Asked about the idea in an interview by NRG, Aumann said: “I'm working on it. The goal is truly that the system will be without any human involvement, no human control. This is very important, because if there is control, they will tell us that we are criminals and murderers and cruel.”

However, he explained, if there is no control of the system on the Israeli side, the responsibility for civilian deaths caused on the Arab side falls on the people who fired the missiles that set off the Israeli system. Prof. Aumann compared this to a situation in which the Arabs “take their women and children and force them to walk through a dangerous minefield.”

Would the system keep the world from blaming Israel? Prof. Aumann says that there will probably be criticism in any case, “but at least then we will feel more at ease with ourselves. If the response fire is automatic, the [Israeli] threat is convincing: when Hamas fires a rocket at Israel, it also fires a missile at Gaza.”

Hamas has terrorized Israel with rocket fire for 14 years. The rockets are effective at disrupting and traumatizing the lives of millions, even though they cause relatively few deaths. They have become even less effective since the advent of the Iron Dome anti-missile system, but now reach longer ranges with larger warheads, and are still dangerous enough to terrorize most of Israel's civilian population. Three times in the last 4.5 years, Israel has launched military campaigns against Gaza terrorists, but these always involve the inadvertent killing of a large number civilians, for which other countries are quick to blame Israel, despite proof that Hamas deliberately uses its civilians as human shields.

Prof. Aumann, a mathematician, is a professor at the Center for the Study of Rationality in the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in Israel. He received the Nobel prize for economics in 2005 for his work on conflict and cooperation through game-theory analysis. 

The Executive Committee of the University of Haifa recently refused to award an honorary doctorate to Professor Aumann, due to his pro-Israel politics. He responded sarcastically, saying "I'm very disappointed. I’ve prayed and aspired to getting an honorary doctorate from Haifa University for my whole life.”

Obama Says Tackling Iraq's Insurgency will Take Time
Aug 9th, 2014
Daily NewsReuters
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(Reuters) - President Barack Obama said on Saturday U.S. airstrikes had destroyed arms that Islamic State militants could have used against Iraqi Kurds, but warned there was no quick fix to a crisis that threatens to tear Iraq apart.

Speaking the day after U.S. warplanes hit militants in Iraq, Obama said it would take more than bombs to restore stability, and criticised Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's Shi'ite-led government for failing to empower Sunnis.

"I don't think we're going to solve this problem in weeks. This is going to take some time," Obama told a news conference in Washington.

Islamic State has captured wide swathes of northern Iraq since June, executing non-Sunni Muslim captives, displacing tens of thousands of people and drawing the first U.S. air strikes in the region since Washington withdrew troops in 2011.

After routing Kurdish forces this week, the militants are just 30 minutes' drive from Arbil, the Iraqi Kurdish capital, which up to now has been spared the sectarian bloodshed that has scarred other parts of Iraq for a decade.

The U.S. president said Washington would continue to provide military assistance and advice to Baghdad and Kurdish forces, but stressed repeatedly the importance of Iraq, which is a major oil exporter, forming its own inclusive government.

Maliki has been widely criticised for authoritarian and sectarian policies that have alienated Sunnis and prompted some to support the insurgency.

"I think this a wake-up call for a lot of Iraqis inside of Baghdad recognizing that we're going to have to rethink how we do business if we're going to hold our country together," Obama said, before departing on a two-week vacation.

Employees of foreign oil firms have been leaving Arbil, and Kurds have snapped up AK-47 assault rifles in arms markets for fear of imminent attack, although these have proved ineffective against the superior firepower of the Islamic State fighters.

Given the Islamic State threat, a source in the Kurdistan Regional Government said it had received extra supplies of heavy weaponry from the Baghdad federal government "and other governments" in the past few days, but declined to elaborate.

In their latest advance through northern Iraq, the Islamic State seized a fifth oil field, several towns and Iraq's biggest dam, sending tens of thousands fleeing for their lives.

An engineer at the Mosul dam told Reuters that Islamic State fighters had brought in engineers to repair an emergency power line to the city, Iraq's biggest in the north, that had been cut off four days ago, causing power outages and water shortages.

"They are gathering people to work at the dam," he said.

A dam administrator said militants were putting up the trademark Islamic State black flags and patrolling with flatbed trucks mounted with machineguns to protect the facility they seized from Kurdish forces earlier this week.

RELIEF SUPPLIES

The Islamic State, comprised mainly of Arabs and foreign fighters who want to reshape the map of the Middle East, pose the biggest threat to Iraq since Saddam Hussein was toppled by a U.S.-led invasion in 2003.

The Sunni militants, who have beheaded and crucified captives in their drive to eradicate unbelievers, first arrived in northern Iraq in June from Syria where they have captured wide tracts of territory in that country's civil war.

Almost unopposed by U.S.-trained Iraqi government forces who fled by the thousands, the insurgents swept through the region and have threatened to march on Baghdad with Iraqi military tanks, armoured personnel carriers and machineguns they seized.

The U.S. Defense Department said two F/A-18 warplanes from an aircraft carrier in the Gulf had dropped laser-guided 500-pound bombs on Islamic State artillery batteries. Other air strikes targeted mortar positions and an Islamic State convoy.

Obama has said this was needed to halt the Islamist advance, protect Americans in the region as well as hundreds of thousands of Christians and members of other religious minorities at risk.

U.S. military aircraft dropped relief supplies to members of the ancient Yazidi sect, tens of thousands of whom have collected on a desert mountaintop seeking shelter from insurgents who had ordered them to convert to Islam or die.

Highlighting their predicament, more than 300 Yazidi families in the villages of Koja, Hatimiya and Qaboshi have been threatened by death unless they change religion, witnesses and a Yazidi lawmaker told Reuters on Saturday.

Following the U.S. example, Britain and France also pledged on Saturday to deliver humanitarian supplies to people trapped by the militant advance.

British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said London was especially concerned by the fate of Yazidis who are cornered in their ancient homeland of Sinjar in mountainous northern Iraq.

"We are more widely looking at how to support this group of people and get them off that mountain," he told the BBC.

The Islamic State's campaign has returned Iraq to levels of violence not seen since a civil war peaked in 2006-2007 during the U.S. occupation.

The territorial gains of Islamic State, who also control a third of Syria and have fought this past week inside Lebanon, has unnerved the Middle East and threatens to shatter Iraq, a country split between mostly Shi'ites, Sunnis and Kurds.

The semi-autonomous Kurdish region has until now been the only part of Iraq to survive the past decade of civil war without a serious security threat.

Its vaunted "peshmerga" fighters - those who "confront death" - also controlled wide stretches of territory outside the autonomous zone, which served as sanctuary for fleeing Christians and other minorities when Islamic State fighters stormed into the region last month.

But the past week saw the peshmerga crumble in the face of Islamic State fighters, who have heavy weapons seized from fleeing Iraqi troops and are flush with cash looted from banks.

Livni Presents Six - Point Plan for Gaza Ceasefire
Aug 9th, 2014
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Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Tzipi Livni

Flash 90

Justice Minister Tzipi Livni has presented a six-point plan which links a ceasefire in Gaza with a return to peace negotiations with Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Mahmoud Abbas.

Channel 2 News reported about the details of the plan on Friday evening. Livni has presented the plan to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu but he has yet to respond, the report said.

Livni’s plan includes the following steps:

• A ceasefire.
• Immediate humanitarian assistance to the residents of Gaza.
• Measures that will meet both Israel’s security demands and the economic needs of the people of Gaza, equating the interests of the parties.
• Recognition of the Palestinian Authority as the ruling party of Gaza, while recognizing the principle of one law and one military force.
• Establishment of a mechanism that would ensure that any assistance and money transferred to the PA will help the residents and not be spent on terrorism.
• Opening border crossings to Gaza while establishing a mechanism to prevent terrorism, and renewing peace negotiations with Abbas.

Speaking to Channel 2 News on Friday evening, Livni explained that her plan may be supported by the international community, adding that Hamas made acceptance of her plan easier when it announced on Thursday that it would refuse a ceasefire in Gaza unless all its demands are met, including the establishment of a port.

"It is clear to everyone today that they have no interest in compromising," she argued. "Their demands are based on agreements that they themselves do not accept (i.e. the Oslo Accords), so this plan represents the interests of the security of Israel and the world can accept it.”

Livni stressed that she is opposed to dialogue with Hamas and any agreement to its demands.

"You do not reward them for their aggression," she added, but declared, "I, like most of the members of the Cabinet, believe that Abbas is a partner."

"The conflict has shown that Hamas does not want to actually lift the blockade, because it had an opportunity to do so in 2006," said Livni, who made ​​it clear that all operational options are on the table. "Any action will be possible if Hamas continues to fire on Israel,” she declared.

Livni earlier this week had harsh words for the “sour spin”, as she put it, of the Israeli media on Operation Protective Edge.

"Take a look at the current situation and what we have achieved thus far," she said Monday. "Their leadership is still burrowed in, and they don’t dare show their heads above ground ...they have 1,800 dead and have not attained even one of their goals."

"With them, there will always be the one who will stick his head out of his bunker to say ‘We won!’, and with us, there will always be someone who will rush to cry out, 'We lost!'" she added.

Let the Headlines Speak
Aug 9th, 2014
Daily NewsFrom the internet
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Expect more tremors, say seismologists
THERE’S a rule of thumb in seismology: history repeats itself. So, sometime over the next few days, earthquake hunters predict that one, two, or possibly three quakes could rattle the country again.  

Islamist rebels repairing Mosul dam, Kurds in rush to arms
Islamic State insurgents who seized Iraq's biggest dam in an offensive that has caused international consternation have brought in engineers for repairs, witnesses said on Saturday, as nervous Kurds stocked up on arms to defend their enclave nearby. The jihadi Islamists have captured wide swathes of northern Iraq since June, executing non-Sunni Muslim captives.  

NASA releases amazing HD footage of 'Flying Saucer' supersonic near-space flight (VIDEO)
The government space agency then hinted of more ambitious plans for the red planet in the future, which will include crews. That will require new landing equipment to replace the basic Viking parachute system, which has been used since 1976, when NASA placed two vehicles on Mars.  

Ebola outbreak disrupts business and hurts local economy, but damage unlikely to be widespread
The Ebola outbreak, which has claimed nearly 1,000 lives, is disrupting business and inflicting economic damage in the three African countries at the center of the crisis: Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia. So far, analysts say the crisis doesn't threaten the broader African or global economies.  

RELUCTANT SUNSPOTS
Sunspot AR2135 has a 'beta-gamma' magnetic field that harbors energy for M-class solar flares. Like every other sunspot that has crossed the solar disk in the past month, however, AR2135 seems reluctant to erupt.  

Border Patrol Agent: 'These People Are Coming Here to Do Horrible Things'
Border Patrol agent and vice president of the National Border Patrol Council, Shawn Moran, debunked the argument that illegal immigrants are only coming to the United States to work on Friday’s “America’s Newsroom” on the Fox News Channel. “These are not people just coming here to work as the so-called line is fed to us. These people are coming here to do horrible things.  

Supermoon Over Miami This Weekend To Be Biggest & Brightest
South Florida is in for a celestial treat this weekend when the second of three supermoons this summer will be visible. The full moon on August 10th isn’t like any other full moon we’ve seen this year. This is a “Supermoon,” the closest and largest full moon in 2014.  

Turkey election: Candidates hold final campaign rallies
Campaigning in Turkey's first direct presidential election is entering its final day ahead of Sunday's vote. Candidate and current Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is due to hold his final rally in the central Anatolian city of Konya. The post of president, previously chosen by parliament and largely ceremonial, is being put to a popular vote for the first time. Mr Erdogan has said he wants to enhance presidential powers.  

Ebola outbreak disrupts business and hurts local economy, but damage unlikely to be widespread
Caterpillar has evacuated a handful of employees from Liberia. Canadian Overseas Petroleum Ltd. has suspended a drilling project. British Airways has canceled flights to the region. ExxonMobil and Chevron are waiting to see whether health officials can contain the danger.  

Russian Meat Importer To Europe: 'Winter Is Coming'
The FT's Courtney Weaver and Kathrin Hille talked to the CEO of one Russian meat importing firm who said she relished the opportunity for her country to strike back at the West, even though her company was going to get hit, reminding her interlocutor that Russia still controls gas supplies for many parts of Europe.  

Iselle Unloads Flooding Rain, Damaging Winds on Hawaii
Iselle will continue to bring the threat of heavy rain, damaging winds and rough seas to the southern part of the Hawaiian Islands into Friday, namely the Big Island. A second tropical system, Julio, may also bring some impact starting this weekend.  

Iraq conflict: Obama vows to stop jihadist state
US President Barack Obama has said he will not allow Sunni Muslim jihadists to carve out a "caliphate", or Islamic state, straddling Syria and Iraq. The US has been carrying out air strikes on Islamic State (IS) militants in northern Iraq. Mr Obama said there would be further air strikes if necessary but no US military operation on the ground.  

Pakistan police and Qadri supporters in deadly clash
At least four people have been killed in Pakistan's Punjab province, in clashes between police and supporters of a leading anti-government cleric. Many have been wounded in the violence, which occurred after police blocked roads to the provincial capital Lahore. The cleric, Tahirul Qadri, is due to hold a large demonstration in the city on Sunday.  

Egypt court bans Muslim Brotherhood's political wing
A court in Egypt has dissolved the Freedom and Justice Party (FJP), the Muslim Brotherhood's political wing. The ruling will effectively prevent the banned Islamist movement from formally participating in parliamentary elections expected later this year. The government declared the Brotherhood a terrorist group in December.  

Netanyahu too strong, Abbas too weak for lasting peace, says Obama
Peace has to start with Israeli and Palestinians leaders, namely Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, US President Barack Obama told the New York Times... "In some ways, Bibi is too strong...in some ways [Abbas] is too weak to bring them together and make the kinds of bold decisions that...Sadat...Begin or Rabin were willing to make."  

US aircraft strikes Islamic State targets in northern Iraq
US warplanes bombed Islamist fighters marching on Iraq's Kurdish capital on Friday after President Barack Obama said Washington must act to prevent "genocide". Islamic State fighters, who have beheaded and crucified captives in their drive to eradicate unbelievers, have advanced to within a half hour's drive of Arbil, capital of Iraq's Kurdish region and a hub for US oil companies.  

Muslim Brotherhood stages large pro-Hamas demonstration in Amman
More than 15,000 Muslim Brotherhood supporters gathered at a pro-Hamas rally in Jordan's capital on Friday, with many chanting "death to Israel" and urging the militant Palestinian group to step up rocket salvos against Israeli towns and cities. The evening rally, the largest such protest in Amman in years, saw scores of masked youths dressed in the uniform of Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades...  

The Liberian slum where Ebola spreads death among killer virus 'deniers'
Blue crosses on houses in New Kru Town mark the few residences to have complied with the advice of visiting health officials, while countless others rely on prayer and witchcraft to fend off Ebola in Monrovia  

Russians warned not to use humanitarian crisis as 'pretext' to invade Ukraine
The United States warned Russia on Friday that any further intervention in Ukraine, including under the pretense of delivering humanitarian aid, would be viewed as "an invasion of Ukraine."  

Ukraine troops break out of encirclement, 15 troops killed
Ukrainian army units which had been trapped by separatists on the border with Russia broke out of the blockade on Friday and rejoined government forces, but 15 soldiers and border guards were killed in the operation, the Ukrainian military said.  

Analysts doubt U.S. strikes will do the job in Iraq
President Obama’s authorization of air strikes in Iraq has triggered unease among high-level former U.S. officials who say the administration still lacks a coherent strategy for beating back the growing al Qaeda-inspired militancy in the war-torn nation.  

Jihadists 'capture key base from Syrian army'
Islamic State jihadists captured the key Brigade 93 Syrian army base in Raqa province overnight, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Friday.  

Spot Perseid Meteors Before 'Supermoon' Rises This Weekend
Many skywatchers love August because the ever-reliable Perseid meteor shower peaks mid-month, but unfortunately, this year's usually brilliant meteor display may be spoiled by a bright full moon.  

Tropical storm batters Hawaii, knocking out power and canceling flights
The tropical storm known as Iselle made landfall in Hawaii early Friday morning, bringing buckets of rain to the Big Island as another storm loomed in the days ahead.  

Yellowstone National Park addresses rumors of earthquakes, eruptions, and evacuations
Yellowstone National Park and the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory posted a brief article online Friday titled "A Short Statement Regarding Recent Rumors" to help dispel rumors that have begun circulating -- again -- about a possible eruption of the Yellowstone super-volcano, reports of mass evacuations, and other such issues.  

Islamists Take Hundreds of Women Captive in Iraq
Aug 9th, 2014
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Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Hundreds of women from the Yazidi religious minority have been taken captive by members of the Islamic State, The Associated Press (AP) reported on Friday.

Kamil Amin, the spokesman for Iraq's Human Rights Ministry, said hundreds of Yazidi women below the age of 35 are being held in schools in Iraq's second largest city, Mosul.

He said the ministry learned of the captives from their families.

"We think that the terrorists by now consider them slaves and they have vicious plans for them," Amin told The Associated Press. "We think that these women are going to be used in demeaning ways by those terrorists to satisfy their animalistic urges in a way that contradicts all the human and Islamic values."

The U.S. has confirmed that the Islamic State group has kidnapped and imprisoned Yazidi women so that they can be sold or married off to extremist fighters, said a U.S. official who spoke on condition of anonymity because the information came from classified intelligence reports.

There was no solid estimate of the number of women victimized, the official said.

Tens of thousands of Yazidis fled when the Islamic State group earlier this month captured the northern Iraqi town of Sinjar, near the Syrian border. The Yazidis practice an ancient religion that the Sunni Muslim radicals consider heretical.

Over 200,000 Yazidi have been exiled from Iraq so far, forced to flee due to the Islamic State’s campaign of ethnic cleansing.

White House spokesman Josh Earnest said on Thursday that Washington was "very concerned" over the "humanitarian catastrophe" developing in Iraq.

U.S. President Barack Obama said on Thursday he had authorized "limited airstrikes" against the Islamic State.

The United Nations Security Council issued a statement Friday condemning targeted attacks against Iraq's minorities, adding that any widespread attacks against civilian populations based on ethnic, religious or political background may be considered a crime against humanity for which those responsible must be held accountable.

Hamas Spokesman: Ceasefire Wasn't Extended Because of Israel
Aug 9th, 2014
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Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri

Reuters

Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri on Friday laid the blame on Israel for the ceasefire in Gaza not being extended, saying the Jewish state did not provide a clear response to Hamas’s conditions.

Speaking at a news conference in Gaza City and quoted by the Ma’an news agency, Abu Zuhri said that the lack of response undermined Palestinian demands and that “Israeli stubbornness led to not extending the ceasefire.”

He accused Israel of stalling and wasting time, adding that it must accept all of Hamas’s conditions.

He said that Israel rejected the establishment of an airport or a seaport and refuses to expand the fishing zone.

The three-day ceasefire expired at 8:00 a.m. on Friday morning, and Hamas promptly began firing rocket barrages at southern Israel.

On Friday afternoon, a rocket from Gaza directly hit a house in the city of Sderot. Miraculously no injuries were caused as the residents were out at the time, but significant damage was caused to the property.

Israel reportedly accepted a possible extension of the truce as early as Wednesday, but Hamas categorically rejected the move. On Thursday, the group declared that it would reject a ceasefire unless all its demands are met.

Also Friday, according to Ma’an, Hamas leader Izzat al-Rashq said that the Palestinian Arab delegation in Cairo did not receive an Israeli response to any of the Palestinian demands.

He added in a post on Facebook that the Israeli delegation was maneuvering and held it accountable for the failure to achieve an agreement.

Germany, Uk, France Call for Gaza Ceasefire
Aug 9th, 2014
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Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

The foreign ministers of Germany, the UK, and France have called for a ceasefire in the hostilities between Hamas and Israel in Gaza.

In a statement issued by the three repsective foreign ministers, they wrote that they fully support Egyptian efforts to mediate between Israel and Hamas, and were willing to assist in the efforts to achieve a ceasefire agreement.

Former Military Intelligence Head: Gaza Goals Weren't Achieved
Aug 9th, 2014
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Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Amos Yadlin

Flash 90

Amos Yadlin, formerly the head of Military Intelligence who now heads the Institute for National Security Studies, said on Friday that Israel had not achieved the goals it set for itself in Operation Protective Edge and that Hamas is not weaker as a result of the operation.

"Israel failed to achieve the goals it set for itself," Yadlin told Channel 10 News, adding, "There is an opportunity here because Israel is stronger and its citizens are strong and determined. The citizens are willing to give the IDF the three weeks to do what it didn’t do.”

“We didn’t hurt Hamas enough so that it would have someone else to make the decisions instead of Mohammed Deif,” he said, referring to the head of Hamas’s “military wing”, who is in hiding and recently threatened Israel.

"What matters most in the end is that the Hamas military will not be the strongest power in Gaza," said Yadlin. "Demilitarization of Gaza is a very troublesome and far-ranging goal.”

"Three weeks ago I said that leaving Hamas as the ruler of Gaza would be a mistake,” he continued. “After Hamas is weakened the residents will gladly accept [Palestinian Authority chairman] Abbas.” 

Yadlin concluded by saying he thinks Israel is reading the map wrong.

“There is a feeling that Hamas is on the ropes and does not want this conflict but that is not the case," he said.

Egypt Dissolves Muslim Brotherhood Party
Aug 9th, 2014
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