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Vladimir Putins Economic Hopes Drowning in a Puddle of Cheap Oil
Oct 15th, 2014
Daily NewsThe Vancouver Sun
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Now, with economic growth slipping close to zero, Russia is reeling from sanctions by the U.S. and the European Union over its land grab in Ukraine

The decline in oil prices may be depriving Russian President Vladimir Putin of his biggest ally.

Oil has been the key to Putin’s grip on power since he took over from Boris Yeltsin in 2000, fueling a booming economy that grew 7 per cent on average from 2000 to 2008.

Now, with economic growth slipping close to zero, Russia is reeling from sanctions by the U.S. and the European Union over its land grab in Ukraine, and from a ruble at a record low. Putin, whose popularity has been more than 80 per cent in polls since the annexation of the Crimean Peninsula in March, may have less money to raise state pensions and wages, while companies hit by the sanctions also seek state aid to maintain spending.

“His ratings remain high but for a person conducting such a risky policy, Putin has to understand the limits of patience for the people, business and political elite,” said Olga Kryshtanovskaya, a sociologist studying the country’s elite at the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow. “Putin is thinking hard how not to lose face while maintaining his support.”

Brent crude is down more than 20 per cent from its June high, cutting billions of dollars in tax revenue from Russia’s most valuable export. The budget will fall into deficit next year if oil is less than $104 a barrel, according to investment bank Sberbank CIB. At $90, close to the current level, Russia will have a shortfall of 1.2 per cent of gross domestic product.

The country has spent about $6 billion on currency interventions this month trying to keep the currency afloat. Russia’s largest oil company, OAO Rosneft; gas producer OAO Novatek and the largest lender, OAO Sberbank, are among companies targeted by the sanctions.

Bigger Threat

The curbs will subtract 1 per cent to 1.5 per cent from GDP and are a bigger threat than oil prices, according to Alexei Kudrin, the finance minister from 2000 to 2011 who steered Russia’s accounts back to surplus.

“The sanctions are having an across-the-board impact,” Kudrin said by phone. “It isn’t just about the loss of money but the worsening investment climate, rising capital flight and a slide in the currency.”

Russia faces weak growth even if the EU sanctions expire next year as expected, Charlie Robertson, the chief economist at Renaissance Capital Ltd., said by phone. The International Monetary Fund earlier this month reduced its 2015 forecast for Russia to 0.5 per cent from 1 per cent in July.

Contraction Foreseen

“Growth is virtually nonexistent this year and isn’t terribly much better next year,” Robertson said Oct. 10, adding that the economy could contract 1.7 per cent in 2015 if crude averages $80 a barrel.

Putin, 62, a former KGB colonel, has criticized the U.S. and Europe for expanding the North Atlantic Treaty Organization up to Russia’s borders, and he has vowed to keep neighboring Ukraine out of the Cold War-era military alliance.

Top Kremlin officials said after the annexation of Crimea that they expected the U.S. to artificially push oil prices down in collaboration with Saudi Arabia in order to damage Russia, according to Khryshtanovskaya. Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, didn’t respond to a request for comment on this issue, nor did he respond over four days of calls requesting comment about oil’s importance to Putin.

U.S.: No Plans to Extend Iran Talks Beyond November 24
Oct 15th, 2014
Daily NewsArutz Sheva
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Senior U.S. official says a deal on Iran's nuclear program is still possible by late next month.
Bushehr nuclear reactor
Bushehr nuclear reactor
Reuters

A senior U.S. official said on Wednesday that a deal on Iran's nuclear program was still possible by late next month and there were no talks now about extending the deadline, Reuters reports.

Speaking before a meeting between the U.S., Iranian and European Union foreign ministers, the State Department official said "we're working on creative ways to give us all of the assurances we need" that Iran will not develop nuclear weapons.

"There's a lot of ways to get to ‘yes’ here," the senior U.S. official said, declining to be named.

However, there were still significant gaps in negotiating positions on Iran's uranium enrichment program, which is at the heart of a decade-old dispute which over the years has often raised fears of a new Middle East war.

"We don’t know if we’ll be able to get to an agreement, we very well may not,” the official added, according to Reuters.

Iran and six world powers - the United States, France, Germany, China, Russia and Britain - aim to end a decade-old nuclear standoff by a self-imposed November 24 deadline.

That deadline was set after the sides failed to reach an agreement by a previous deadline in July

In a sign of attempts to accelerate their efforts, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton were holding talks in Vienna on Wednesday.

The negotiations are centered on curbing Iran's atomic activity, which Tehran says is peaceful but the West fears may be aimed at developing a nuclear weapons capability, in exchange for lifting sanctions.

With less than six weeks to go before the target date, Western officials say there are still important differences between the sides, especially over the future scope of Iran's production of enriched uranium, which can be used to fuel atomic energy plants but can also provide the fissile core of a bomb if purified to a high degree.

Earlier this week, senior Iranian negotiator Abbas Araqchi said that nuclear talks with world powers could be extended again if no deal is reached by the November 24 deadline.

Kerry, however, said on Tuesday that a final deal on Iran’s nuclear program is still possible despite the difficulty of the negotiations.

On Monday, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said Tehran was “certain” it would reach an accord with the West over its nuclear effort before the next deadline.

U.S. Names Anti - ISIS Campaign 'Operation Inherent Resolve'
Oct 15th, 2014
Daily NewsArutz Sheva
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

The U.S.-led military mission against the “Islamic State” now has a name: Operation Inherent Resolve.
US aircraft returns after bombing mission against ISIS
US aircraft returns after bombing mission against ISIS
Reuters

The U.S.-led military mission against the “Islamic State” (ISIS) now has a name - Operation Inherent Resolve, The Hill reports.

The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Martin Dempsey, announced the name on CNN on Wednesday, according to the report, ending months of uncertainty over what to call the operation which began in June.

There were questions as to whether the administration was reluctant to name the military action and acknowledge a new war in Iraq, but defense officials said the campaign had simply grown to an extent where a name was feasible.

The United Kingdom and France had named their military operations in Iraq against ISIS in September Operation Shader and Operation Chammal, respectively, according to The Hill.

Having a name will pave the way for more dedicated staffing, resourcing, and organization, Pentagon Press Secretary Rear Adm. John Kirby said on October 3.

The operation, which began with airstrikes against ISIS targets in Iraq, later expanded to include airstrikes against the group in Syria as well. There have been reports, however, that these airstrikes have been ineffective thus far.

U.S. President Barack Obama told reporters on Tuesday that the effort to dismantle ISIS "is going to be a long-term campaign".

"There will be days of progress and there are going to be periods of setback," he said, adding that an influx of fighters from outside the region joining ISIS makes it a threat beyond the Middle East and into the U.S.

"We are going to have to pay attention to how all the countries in the region begin to cooperate in rooting out this cancer and we are going to have to continue on delivering the humanitarian assistance of all the populations that have been affected," added Obama.

Supreme Court Blocks Key Parts of Texas Abortion Law
Oct 15th, 2014
Daily NewsABC News
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

PHOTO: Catholic anti-abortion activist participate in a rosary procession as the state legislature meets to consider legislation restricting abortion rights in Austin, Texas in this July 9, 2013, file photo.

The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday blocked key parts of a 2013 law in Texas that had closed all but eight facilities providing abortions in America's second most-populous state.

In an unsigned order, the justices sided with abortion rights advocates and health care providers in suspending an Oct. 2 ruling by a panel of the New Orleans-based U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals that Texas could immediately apply a rule making abortion clinics statewide spend millions of dollars on hospital-level upgrades.

The court also put on hold a provision of the law only as it applies to clinics in McAllen and El Paso that requires doctors at the facilities to have admitting privileges at nearby hospitals. The admitting privileges rule remains in effect elsewhere in Texas.

Justices Samuel Alito, Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas said they would have ruled against the clinics in all respects.

The 5th Circuit is still considering the overall constitutionality of the sweeping measure overwhelmingly passed by the GOP-controlled Texas Legislature and signed into law by Gov. Rick Perry last year.

Even as it weighs the merits of the law, the appeals court had said it could be enforced — opening the door for the emergency appeal to the Supreme Court.

"We're seeing the terrible impact these restrictions have on thousands of Texas women who effectively no longer have access to safe and legal abortion," said Cecile Richards, president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America. "We're relieved that the court stepped in to stop this, and we hope this dangerous law is ultimately overturned completely."

Abortion opponents predicted they will ultimately prevail.

"This does not protect the health and safety of women who are undergoing abortion," said Joe Pojman, executive director of Texas Alliance for Life. ""This is definitely a short-term loss, but not necessarily a long- term loss."

The 5th Circuit decision had blocked an August ruling by Austin-based U.S. District Judge Lee Yeakel, who had found that requiring hospital-style upgrades was less about safety than making access to abortion difficult. Yeakel's ruling temporarily suspended the upgrade rules before they could go into effect Sept. 1 — and the order from the Supreme Court means they are on hold again.

Allowing the rules on hospital-level upgrades to be enforced — including mandatory operating rooms and air filtration systems — shuttered more than a dozen clinics across Texas.

Until the nation's highest court intervened, only abortion facilities in the Houston, Austin, San Antonio and the Dallas-Fort Worth areas remained open. And none was left along the Texas-Mexico border or outside any of the state's largest urban areas.

Some other clinics had closed even earlier amid enforcement of the rule on admitting privileges at nearby hospitals. That portion has already been upheld twice by the appeals court.

The fight over the Texas law is the latest over tough new abortion restrictions that have been enacted across the country. The office of Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott, a Republican who is the favorite in next month's governor's race, is leading the defense of the law.

Sixty Days to Beat Ebola, United Nations Warns
Oct 15th, 2014
Daily NewsSky News
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

If the deadly outbreak cannot be reined in by Christmas then the UN says there is no plan in place and it could be overwhelmed.

The UN says the ebola outbreak must be controlled within 60 days or else the world faces an "unprecedented" situation for which there is no plan.

The United Nations made the stark warning as it warned that the disease "is running faster than us and it is winning the race".

Nearly 9,000 cases of ebola have been reported so far in West Africa, including 4,447 deaths.

"The WHO advises within 60 days we must ensure 70% of infected people are in a care facility and 70% of burials are done without causing further infection," said Anthony Banbury, the UN's deputy ebola coordinator.

"We need to do that within 60 days from 1 October. If we reach these targets then we can turn this epidemic around."

But Mr Banbury told the UN Security Council the 70% target was becoming harder to meet as new infections stack up.

He urged: "We either stop ebola now or we face an entirely unprecedented situation for which we do not have a plan."

The UN's Unmeer emergency mission is following a four-pronged plan to fight ebola.

Identify and trace contacts; manage cases; ensure safe burials and provide people with information to protect themselves.

Screening for Ebola at UK Borders

"If we fail at any of these, we fail entirely," warned Mr Banbury.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) earlier said there could be 10,000 new cases of ebola per week within two months.

WHO assistant director general Bruce Aylward told a news conference the total was expected to top 9,000 by the end of this week.

He said the death rate from the current outbreak had risen to 70% from about 50%. 

When asked how the situation could develop in the next two months, he warned: "We anticipate the number of cases occurring per week by that time to be somewhere between 5,000 and 10,000 per week.

"It could be higher, it could be lower, but somewhere in that ball park."   

Some 95% of the cases are occurring in the same limited number of districts of Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea which were affected a month ago, he said.

Dr Aylward said it was "too early to say" whether this meant that the epidemic was slowing down.

The plateau in reported infections may simply be due to limitations in the ability of authorities in the region to check and record cases, he said.

Dr Aylward said there were "positive" signs of a slow down in the rate of new cases in northern Liberia and Guinea, probably due to behaviour changes among the local population.

Liberia Gripped By Ebola Virus Fear

But he warned: "This is ebola, this is a horrible, unforgiving disease - you've got to get to zero.

"With a bit of change in the behaviour of populations, with some burials happening safely, with a little bit more case management and a couple of new centres opening, you are going to slow this down very quickly."

Let the Headlines Speak
Oct 15th, 2014
Daily NewsFrom the internet
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Megyn Kelly Repeatedly Presses CDC Director in Firm Interview Over Ebola: ‘Why Not Put a Travel Ban in Place?’
“You admitted yourself that we’ve seen some flaws in the system, some areas that need improvement,” Kelly said. “Why not put a travel ban in place until we’ve shored up the system?”  

Isis in Kobani: Black flag is torn down as Kurdish fighters capture hill overlooking Kobani in symbolic victory over militant group
The black flag of Isis has been torn down from a hill overlooking the town of Kobani after it was captured by Kurdish fighters. The symbolic move came after the US-led coalition launched a series of 21 air strikes on Isis positions in and around the besieged town.  

Saudi Arabia sentences outspoken Shi'ite cleric to death
A Saudi judge on Wednesday sentenced to death an outspoken Shi'ite Muslim cleric whose arrest two years ago prompted deadly protests, the cleric's brother said on his Twitter account.  

Secretive ‘White Shroud’ Group Hunting Down ISIS In Syria, Putting Group On The Defensive
A group called White Shroud is taking on ISIS militants in Syria, hunting down members of the group in a series of guerrilla attacks meant to strike fear. The group claims to have killed more than 100 ISIS fighters in Syria’s Deir al-Zor province, turning the groups brutal tactics back around on them. White Shroud claims to show no mercy to ISIS fighters they have managed to capture.  

Powder keg on Temple Mount
The overlapping of Jewish and Muslim holidays this year, and the increased tensions felt between the two faiths have highlighted the already volatile atmosphere in the Temple Mount complex. As a site holy to billions of people around the globe the compound is one of the thorniest sticking points in the Israel-Palestinian conflict.  

Latest Updates / Second Texas healthcare worker tests positive for Ebola
Dallas nurse infected with Ebola 'in good condition'; Liberian minister in self-isolation after her driver dies of Ebola; White House defends health official overseeing U.S. Ebola response; UN worker who died of Ebola cremated in Germany.  

Hurricane Gonzalo Kills 1 in St. Maarten and Injures 12 in Antigua; Bermuda Under Alert
Hurricane Gonzalo was upgraded Tuesday evening to a Category 3 storm, only the second to reach the major hurricane status during the 2014 Atlantic hurricane season. Although Gonzalo was back over open water, the storm left its mark across the Caribbean, killing one person in St. Maarten, disrupting travel and causing structural damage to homes in Antigua and the Caribbean islands.  

Death rate from Ebola rises to 70%
West Africa could see up to 10,000 new Ebola cases a week within two months, the World Health Organization said yesterday, while confirming that the death rate in the current outbreak has risen to 70 percent.  

AURORAS ON MARS
This Sunday, Oct. 19th, Comet Siding Spring will pass only 140,000 km from Mars. The encounter is so close, the atmosphere of the comet could brush against the atmosphere of the planet. Will this spark auroras on Mars? A video from NASA weighs the odds of some very strange space weather.  

Earth's magnetic field could flip within a human lifetime
Earth's last magnetic reversal took place 786,000 years ago and happened very quickly, in less than 100 years -- roughly a human lifetime. The rapid flip, much faster than the thousands of years most geologists thought, comes as new measurements show the planet's magnetic field is weakening 10 times faster than normal and could drop to zero in a few thousand years.  

Ebola: US emergency crews rush to Boston flight as five people suffer 'flu-like' symptoms
Emergency crews wearing protective suits were seen boarding the Emirates airlines flight 273 from Dubai after it landed at Boston Logan Airport at around 2.45pm local time (7.45pm GMT). Officials confirmed five people had fallen ill during the journey but airport spokesman Matthew Brelis said: “None of the five were travelling from West Africa”.  

Ebola 'could mutate into airborne virus' ministers are warned
The British government risks “being complacent” over the threat of the deadly Ebola virus to the country, a TV scientist has warned. Lord Robert Winston said Ebola could mutate into an airborne virus that is caught like a common cold during a House of Lords debate today.  

Megaquake: West Coast Overdue, Or Are 2014 Earthquake Predictions For Oregon And California Unreliable?
In related report by The Inquisitr, geologists believe it’s possible that a lack of water in the San Joaquin Valley is decreasing the weight on the San Andreas Fault, which has lead some to make predictions of more earthquakes in the San Francisco Bay area. In 2007, a panel of experts estimated there was a 63 percent chance that the Bay area will experience another catastrophic earthquake in the next 23 years.  

Supreme Court blocks Texas abortion restrictions
The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday blocked certain restrictions on abortion contained in a Texas state law that abortion rights groups said would have forced all but a handful of clinics to shut down in the state of 26 million people. The high court granted a request filed by abortion rights groups that puts on hold parts of a federal appeals court decision that had allowed the law to go into effect.  

Hundreds of Muslims protest at Temple Mount: We have a right to enter
Hundreds of Arabs protested Wednesday morning at the entrance to the Lions' Gate in Jerusalem against police decision to limit the age of Muslim worshippers wanting to enter Al-Aqsa Mosque to pray to over 50s. Several Arab MKs joined the protesters including Jamal Zahalka and Hanin Zoabi, who confronted the Border Police officers at the scene and told them: "We have a right to enter."  

New test to bump up diagnoses of illness in kids
For more than two months, health officials have been struggling to understand the size of a national wave of severe respiratory illnesses caused by an unusual virus... Starting Tuesday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is using a new test to help the agency process four or five times more specimens per day that it has been.  

Obamacare website won’t reveal insurance costs for 2015 until after election
Those planning to purchase health insurance on the Obamacare exchange will soon find out how much rates have increased — after the Nov. 4 election. Enrollment on the Healthcare.gov website begins Nov. 15, or 11 days after the midterm vote, and critics who worry about rising premium hikes in 2015 say that’s no coincidence. Last year’s inaugural enrollment period on the health-care exchange began Oct. 1.  

Islamic State crisis: US intensifies airs strikes in Kobane
US-led forces have stepped up air strikes against Islamic State (IS) fighters threatening the Syrian town of Kobane, near the Turkish border. The coalition had carried out 21 strikes over two days, a sharp increase that slowed IS advances, the US said. President Barack Obama predicted a "long-term campaign" against the group, which holds swathes of Syria and Iraq.  

Ebola outbreak: Second Texas health worker 'tests positive'
A second health worker in the US state of Texas has tested positive for Ebola, health officials say. A 26-year-old female nurse is already receiving treatment after becoming infected by a Liberian man who died from the deadly virus last week. Meanwhile, the UN's Ebola mission chief says the world is falling behind in the race to contain the virus.  

Marriage Rates Hit All-Time Low in United States
The number of American adults who have never been married has hit an all-time high. The latest date from 2012 shows one in 5 adults over the age of 25 fell into that category. In 1960, it was about in 10 adults.  

Yemen on the brink as rebels oust the old guard
The Houthi rebels who stunned the Arab world with the sudden seizure of Yemen's capital will have to strive to cement their power in the face of well-armed rivals, a test of strength that could tip the unstable country deeper into turmoil.  

Palestinians, Israeli police clash at Jerusalem's al-Aqsa compound
Israeli police clashed with Palestinian protesters and shut down access to Jerusalem's al-Aqsa mosque compound on Monday in a deepening dispute over access to the area, the third holiest shrine in Islam which is also revered by Jews.  

US oil prices sink nearly 5% on weak demand forecast
US crude prices plummeted nearly five percent Tuesday as the International Energy Agency slashed its oil demand forecast in light of slowing economic growth in Asia and Europe.  

Ex-colleague shoots dead American in Saudi capital
A former employee of a US defence contractor shot dead one American colleague and wounded another in the Saudi capital Tuesday, officials said, in a rare attack on Westerners in the kingdom.  

ISIS May Have Chemical Weapons
he Islamic State militant group may possess chemical weapons that it has already used to extend its self-proclaimed caliphate, according to photos taken by Kurdish activists and examined by Israeli researchers.  

The Brakes Come Off in British Parliament's Vote on Palestinian Statehood
At some point in the process that led to the end of the conflict in Northern Ireland, there was an audible snap, a break in the link between the mother ship, the British government, and Protestant Unionism which considers itself the last outpost of British Crown on the island of Ireland. Was it the Anglo-Irish Agreement between Britain and Ireland, which that arch unionist Margaret Thatcher signed? Or was it the landing of the first helicopter from the Irish Republic at Hillsborough Castle, the residence of the British secretary of state?

Iran: Don't Stop Nuke Talks for 'Trivial Issue' Like Centrifuges
Oct 15th, 2014
Daily NewsArutz Sheva
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Iranian parliament chairman tries to distract with hint of Iran help against ISIS after nuke deal, as Iran spy chief talks 'sabotage.'
Ali Larijani, Speaker of the Iranian Parliament
Ali Larijani, Speaker of the Iranian Parliament
Reuters

Iranian parliament chairman Ali Larijani said on Wednesday that ongoing nuclear talks between his country and world powers in Geneva should not be disrupted by a "trivial issue" - such as the number of nuclear centrifuges left in the Islamic regime by a deal.

Iran in July claimed it "needs" 19 times more nuclear centrifuges than the number offered by world powers, demanding 190,000 centrifuges. Experts have warned Iran must be stripped of its centrifuges, for if left with its current 19,000 centrifuges it would have sudden breakout capacity of six to seven weeks in which it could enrich uranium quickly and achieve a nuclear bomb.

Larjiani, who was quoted by Walla!, has previously called Israel a "cancer" and admitted in July during Hamas's terror war to try and destroy Israel that Iran provided the terrorists with rocket technology.

The Iranian official also hinted at a type of blackmail scheme his country is leveraging on world powers, saying that a nuclear deal would build trust between Iran and the American-led coalition against Islamic State (ISIS), in a subtle hint of military cooperation that Iran has previously denied.

US Secretary of State John Kerry last month left the door open to such cooperation, after first not inviting Iran to a coalition meeting and then saying in an interview that he would be open to military cooperation.

Iran spy chief versus the Mossad

The statements amid the ongoing talks that are approaching a November 24 deadline come the same Wednesday a senior American official said "we don't know if we'll succeed in reaching an agreement, it's very possible that we won't."

The official said that disagreements had lessened, reports Walla!, but "significant gaps" still remain about the core issue of uranium enrichment, a process for creating nuclear bombs.

That assessment came after Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on Monday said Tehran was “certain” it would reach an accord with the West over its nuclear effort before the next deadline. America extended a previous deadline to the current November date, with indications it may do the same again.

Just last Monday a mysterious explosion rocked Iran's secret Parchin nuclear facility, with an in-depth report by Channel 2 indicating the blast was a chemical explosion and not ammunition accident as Iran had claimed. The report added that a transport company with a nuclear explosion on its logo may have been sabotaged as it brought dangerous materials into the facility.

Iranian Intelligence Minister Seyed Mahmoud Alawi on Tuesday made comments cited in the Iranian offical Fars News Agency saying "some (spying) services like Mossad, the MI6 and the CIA...act directly and leave negative effects. Our nuclear, defense and missile industries and advanced technologies are the arenas in which they seek to gain intelligence and carry out sabotage operations."

Hamas and Hezbollah 'Unity' in Clandestine Beirut Meeting
Oct 15th, 2014
Daily NewsArutz Sheva
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

In unofficial meeting senior official from Gaza and Hezbollah leaders come together - as Israel hatred overcomes differences.
Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh
Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh
Reuters

A clandestine meeting of terrorists was held in the suburbs of the Lebanese capital of Beirut between a senior Hamas official and senior Hezbollah members, according to reports on Wednesday.

The official brought a message from Hamas political bureau leader Mahmoud Al-Zahar, who reaffirmed the strong ties between the two Iran-backed terrorist organizations, according to reports in the Hezbollah-affiliated Lebanese Al Akhbar as cited by Yedioth Aharonoth.

In response, Hezbollah officials reportedly said the ties between the two groups are "better than what many imagine." According to the Hezbollah news source the visit was unofficial.

The two groups, while both being terror groups funded in large part by Iran, have many sharply contrasting positions, starting from Hamas being a Sunni terror group and Gaza offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood, and Hezbollah being a Shi'ite terrorist organization.

They have been at odds over Hezbollah's participation in the Syrian civil war, in which it has sided with Syrian President Bashar Assad of the Alawite minority against the mostly Sunni rebels.

However, the two terror groups are unified in their wish to destroy the Jewish state of Israel.

Hamas unveiled terror tunnels into Israel in its most recent terror war, and with construction materials being allowed in by Israel in large quantity starting Tuesday and $5.4 billion pledged by international donors on Sunday, the group continues to rebuild those terror tunnels to attack Israeli civilians.

Al-Zahar himself said on October 1 that if Hamas could get control of parts of Judea and Samaria it would be able to destroy Israel quickly.

For its part, Hezbollah apparently joined in the rocket attacks on Israel during Operation Protective Edge, and last Tuesday wounded two IDF soldiers by detonating two explosives set on the Israeli-Lebanese border near Har Dov.

Security sources warn Israel may be in danger of "losing control" of the Lebanese border, and several senior IDF officers have raised concerns about possible terror tunnels Hezbollah may be digging along the border. The IDF has refused to acknowledge those concerns publicly, instead launching a private investigation into the issue.

Fears of Triple - Dip Eurozone Recession As Germany Cuts Growth Forecasts
Oct 15th, 2014
Daily NewsThe Guardian
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Germany's economy minister, Sigmar Gabriel, said its economy 'is steering through rough foreign waters'.

Germany has slashed its growth forecasts for this year and 2015, sparking calls for a public spending boost to prevent the eurozone falling into a triple-dip recession.

Berlin now expects growth of just 1.2% this year and the same in 2015, it said on Tuesday, down from 1.8% and 2%, in the face of slowing export growth.

It came as official Eurostat figures showed that industrial production across the eurozone slumped in August by an alarming 1.8% month-on-month, meaning it was 1.9% lower than a year ago.

With reports mounting of slowing industrial output in Germany and declining business confidence, the eurozone’s largest economy is now expected to expand at less than half the pace of the UK and US over the next year.

The economy minister, Sigmar Gabriel, blamed geopolitical tensions and global economic problems overseas. He said: “The German economy is steering through rough foreign waters. Geopolitical crises have also increased uncertainty in Germany and moderate growth is weighing on the German economy.”

An October survey showed a big fall in investor sentiment in Germany, mirroring reports through the summer months of stumbling business confidence following the erosion of previously buoyant demand for German goods.

Across the eurozone business optimism in the last three months fell from net 35% to just 5%, according to Grant Thornton’s International Business Report, dragged down by a dramatic fall in German optimism, which plummeted from a net 79% to 36% over the period.

Germany’s economy has grown consistently in recent years, giving Berlin added authority in debates over EU-imposed constraints on sovereign budgets. The finance minister, Wolfgang Schäuble, has consistently campaigned for Paris and Rome to be locked into strict budget rules.

But amid signs that the German economy is also stalling, the anti-austerity movement is gaining confidence.

Last week France’s new economy minister, Emmanuel Macron, called for a eurozone-wide €300bn (£240bn) spending boost, while the Italian prime minister, Matteo Renzi, has stepped up pressure on Brussels to adopt looser spending rules to spur investment and growth.

Their campaign has been bolstered by surveys showing Berlin’s woes may be more deep-seated.

The growth downgrades came shortly after German investor sentiment hit its lowest level since 2012, according to the ZEW Institute’s survey.

ZEW’s chief economist, Clemens Fuest, said the situation in Germany has deteriorated to such an extent that it could suffer a second quarter of contraction and fall into recession.

“It can’t be excluded that the third quarter will turn out to be negative, but I wouldn’t expect a longer recession, mainly because the domestic fundamentals in Germany are solid.”

Further gloom was cast by inflation figures that showed several large economies suffering falling prices. Sweden and Spain both saw prices decline and at a faster rate than expected.

Prices in Sweden fell by 0.4% while the Spanish consumer price index dropped by 0.2% on the year in September, compared with a 0.5% fall in August, marking the third straight monthly decline.

Schäuble dismissed fears that the German economy faced long-term decline. He said: “You can see from the forecasts that the German government expects the weakness to be temporary and that next year already, according to the available figures, it will slowly pick up.

“A growth rate of 1.2%, 1.3% is not particularly wonderful and the lowering of the forecasts compared to what we had announced is not pleasing but it’s no reason to start talking about a crisis.” Berlin aims to achieve a balanced budget with no new debt in 2015.

Gabriel said Berlin will not heed calls to abandon its much-criticised doctrine of austerity.

“There is no reason to abandon or change our economic or fiscal policy. Increasing debt in Germany will not generate additional growth in Italy, Spain, France and Greece,” he said.

But many economists were unable to share Schäuble’s optimism.

Ben Brettell, a senior economist at stockbroker Hargreaves Lansdown, said: “The most severe problems in the eurozone have so far been limited to the periphery, with the core remaining in relative good health. However, in recent months we have seen a shift. Some peripheral economies are now registering decent growth, while the core looks in trouble.”

Together, Germany, France and Italy are responsible for 66% of eurozone GDP. They all contracted in the second quarter and all look like they will contract again in the third.

Brettell said: “Given the relative size of these three economies it is perfectly possible they will drag the whole bloc into recession.”

Evidence from the Earth
Oct 15th, 2014
CommentaryCreation Facts
Categories: Creation - Evolution

Science is learning how plants are designed to regulate carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

Defination: carbon dioxide
–noun: a colorless, odorless, incombustible gas, CO2, present in the atmosphere and formed during respiration, usually obtained from coal, coke, or natural gas by combustion, from carbohydrates by fermentation, by reaction of acid with limestone or other carbonates, or naturally from springs: used extensively in industry as dry ice, or carbon dioxide snow, in carbonated beverages, fire extinguishers, etc.

Use by humans: Humans use carbon dioxide in many different ways. The most familiar example is its use in soft drinks and beer, to make them fizzy. Carbon dioxide released by baking powder or yeast makes cake batter rise.
Some fire extinguishers use carbon dioxide because it is denser than air. Carbon dioxide can blanket a fire, because of its heaviness. It prevents oxygen from getting to the fire and as a result, the burning material is deprived of the oxygen it needs to continue burning.

Carbon dioxide is also used in a technology called supercritical fluid extraction that is used to decaffeinate coffee. The solid form of carbon dioxide, commonly known as Dry Ice, is used in theatres to create stage fogs and make things like “magic potions” bubble.

First, when carbon dioxide levels go up, many plants increase their use of carbon dioxide, making more oxygen.

Second, at higher carbon dioxide levels, plants tend to make tissue that doesn’t decay as easily. This ties up the extra carbon for longer periods of time.

Third, at higher carbon dioxide levels, plant tissues discourage insects from eating them, decreasing the re-release of the plants’ carbon as carbon dioxide.

Our Creator expects us to take care of His creation. He knows, however, that we cannot control all of the possible changing conditions on planet Earth. For this reason He has built mechanisms into the creation that adjust to changing conditions and maintain a suitable habitat for human life.

Portions of the above document were taken from Letting God Create Your Day, Vol. 3, p.77 and quoted in A Closer Look At The Evidence by Richard & Tina Kleiss. The first three paragraphs were taken from dictionaries.

The heaven, even the heavens, are the LORD’s: but the earth hath he given to the children of men. (Psalm 115:16 KJV )

Ebolas Spread Raises Fears for Global Security
Oct 15th, 2014
Daily NewsThe Star
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Personel carry out duties on board the hospital ship RFA Argus as it prepares to leave its home port of Falmouth for Sierra Leone on Tuesday in Cornwall, England. The vessel, which is due to set sail on Friday, will not be used to treat Ebola-infected patients, but mainly to transport supplies and to ferry personnel.
Matt Cardy / GETTY IMAGES

Personel carry out duties on board the hospital ship RFA Argus as it prepares to leave its home port of Falmouth for Sierra Leone on Tuesday in Cornwall, England. The vessel, which is due to set sail on Friday, will not be used to treat Ebola-infected patients, but mainly to transport supplies and to ferry personnel.

WASHINGTON — The spread of the Ebola virus is raising the possibility of a global pandemic that U.S. intelligence agencies have warned is among the greatest potential threats to global security.

As health workers, diplomats and U.S. troops fight to contain and defeat the virus in West Africa, there now are cases in six other countries; a second U.S. case has emerged; and the World Health Organization puts the death toll at more than 4,000 and rising. President Barack Obama has led urgent U.S. calls for the world to do more, saying that current efforts aren’t enough to stop a disease that in the jet age is unconstrained by national or even continental borders.

“We live in an extraordinarily interconnected world, and that is why it is so essential that we put full energy into stopping this virus in West Africa,” said Nancy Lindborg, an assistant administrator at the U.S. Agency for International Development who’s leading the aid agency’s Ebola response. “It is essential for the entire world to step forward with the kind of help that can stop this epidemic from spreading further.”

In a 2013 analysis of future threats, U.S. intelligence agencies concluded that a pandemic that incapacitated 1 per cent of the world’s population — about 70 million people today — would be “one of the most disruptive events possible.”

“I have never seen a health event threaten the very survival of societies and governments in already very poor countries,” Margaret Chan, director general of the Geneva-based World Health Organization, said in a statement Monday that called Ebola’s spread “a crisis for international peace and security.”

Obama and other officials cite Ebola as one more sign that an increasingly interdependent world is giving rise to new security threats. A pandemic, whether naturally occurring like Ebola or a synthetically created biological weapon, can paralyze economies, fray societies and destabilize countries.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta estimated in September that in a worst-case scenario, as many as 1.4 million West Africans could be infected by mid- January. A September study by scientists at the WHO and Imperial College London found that cases in Guinea are doubling every two weeks; in Liberia every three weeks; and in Sierra Leone every month.

Ebola already has taken “an extraordinary toll” on West Africa’s economy, said AID’s Lindborg, who traveled to Liberia this month.

That nation is facing a 16 per cent decline in state revenue this year, and the World Bank now projects that GDP for Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia will be $90 million less than a pre-crisis estimate, Lindborg said in a telephone interview.

“All economic indicators have dropped; markets have been disrupted; private-sector companies are having trouble keeping operations going; farmers are having trouble getting food to market,” she said.

Lindborg described the social cost of the disease, as people no longer touch each other, schools are closed and the number of orphans rises daily. Public buildings require visitors to wash their hands in a chlorine solution, and temperatures are taken religiously. Visitors are sometimes asked to wear labels showing their temperature readings.

Pandemics do far more than disrupt daily routines. They can shape the course of history, triggering political upheavals, hollowing economies and snuffing out entire civilizations. The Black Death took 75 million to 200 million lives in 14th-Century Europe and killed half the citizens of Paris. Smallpox brought by 16th-Century Spanish conquistadors and other European settlers helped eradicate the Aztecs and Incas and decimate Native American tribes. The influenza epidemic of 1918 to 1919 killed hundreds of millions.

Today, opportunistic viruses can use international aviation and shipping to spread farther and faster than any of the historic pandemics. “The fact that in an interconnected world, infectious disease can be transported across borders is one of the reasons we have to take it seriously,” Obama told state and local health officials on an Oct. 8 conference call.

The intelligence assessment last year helps drive the urgent U.S. calls for a more robust global response. The U.S. has committed more than $400 million to fight Ebola, according to the Agency for International Development, and the Defense Department is ready to commit more than $1 billion to the response effort, building transportation infrastructure and temporary hospitals.

Timor-Leste, a tiny country neighbouring Indonesia, has contributed $2 million to the global effort. That is almost the $2.3 million pledge by China, which has massive investments in Africa, according to the State Department. So far, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Oct. 8, there are “not enough countries to make the difference to deal with this crisis.”

Donald Lu, the State Department’s deputy coordinator for Ebola response, said in a telephone interview that the UN coalition to fight Ebola includes 35 countries and international organizations.

“You wonder, why is it only 35 countries?” Lu said. “There are 192 countries as defined by the UN. Where is the rest of the global community?”

Some projections are now putting Ebola’s death toll at 20 per cent in the three most affected West African nations, according Mathew Burrows, an author of the 2013 intelligence agency report.

“Multiply by 20 what was said about the 1 per cent,” said Burrows, director of the Strategic Foresight Initiative at the Atlantic Council, a Washington policy group. “That’s absolutely devastating economically, also politically, and these countries are fragile to begin with.”

The WHO’s Chan, who oversaw the response to the SARS outbreak in 2002 and 2003 and the avian flu epidemic in 2009, said in the statement released by her Geneva office that she had “never seen an infectious disease contribute so strongly to potential state failure.”

Sierra Leone, Guinea, and Liberia only recently have emerged from decades of civil war. Sierra Leone now faces a price slump in iron ore, its biggest export earner and 16 per cent of its GDP, reducing the government’s coffers just when it desperately needs resources to respond to the outbreak.

In Liberia, President Ellen Sirleaf-Johnson’s request for greater powers to limit movement and assembly to fight the outbreak has led opposition politicians to warn of a potential police state. Sirleaf-Johnson, whose son heads the National Security Agency, already faces allegations of corruption and nepotism.

Oil-producing Nigeria, which is working to contain cases with help from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, is fighting a long-running Muslim insurgency in the north.

“It’s going to be staggering to cope with the deaths,” Burrows said, “but over the longer run, you could see complete breakdown in the state, certainly fragmentation, and possibly conflict.”

The way countries respond will be key to avoiding instability and fragmentation, he said. “If authorities are not seen as helping, if they’re seen as helping themselves and you have a breakdown in trust, then there’s real loss of credibility,” he said.

Those conditions are ripe for areas to break away from central state control, leaving them more vulnerable or open to insurgents or militants. “That creates the safe havens more than anything else,” Burrows said.

A core of the U.S. and international response is focused on dealing with secondary impacts such as food shortages and market declines that could destabilize the affected countries, Lindborg said. The U.S. and United Nations are supporting salaries for health-care workers and funneling additional money into the World Food Program to ensure that food instability — a potential cause of rioting —doesn’t deepen.

“Without question, this is an unprecedented, historic outbreak,” Lindborg said. “It is imperative that we stop this epidemic in West Africa.” If the global response isn’t adequate, she said, “if you play out the scenarios, they start looking very grim.”

Coalition Launches 18 Airstrikes Against ISIS
Oct 15th, 2014
Daily NewsArutz Sheva
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

U.S. warplanes hit ISIS jihadists with 18 bombing raids near the Syrian town of Kobani.
Smoke rises from the site of a US airstrike against ISIS in Kobane
Smoke rises from the site of a US airstrike against ISIS in Kobane
Reuters

U.S. warplanes hit Islamic State (ISIS) jihadists with 18 bombing raids near the Syrian town of Kobani Wednesday and Tuesday, to support besieged Kurdish militia there, Central Command said, according to AFP.

The latest raids targeted several ISIS positions and 16 buildings occupied by the group, the military said.

U.S. fighter jets and attack aircraft also bombed ISIS militants in Iraq, carrying out five air raids in the past 24 hours, it said, according to AFP.

One strike in Iraq near the Haditha dam destroyed an ISIS armed vehicle and a guard shack while four other strikes near Baiji destroyed a building, a Humvee and a machine gun and damaged an ISIS artillery piece, said Central Command, which oversees the air war.

With the battle for Kobani the center of world attention, U.S. forces have stepped up bombing raids against the ISIS group around the town in recent days.

Central Command reported 21 strikes Monday and Tuesday, saying there were signs the ISIS' advance on the town had slowed.

A British-based monitoring group told AFP fighting was concentrated on the former Kurdish military headquarters in northern Kobani, which ISIS seized Friday.

Earlier this week, ISIS achieved yet another major victory – taking over the beleaguered city of Heet on the edge of Anbar province in Iraq.

ISIS was able to enter the city, on the western side of the Euphrates river, after Iraqi troops withdrew.

BIS Warns on 'Violent' Reversal of Global Markets
Oct 15th, 2014
Daily NewsThe Telegraph
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Investors take zero-rates for granted and unwisely believe that central banks will protect them, says the capital markets chief of the Bank of International Settlements

The BIS's
The BIS's "Botta" building in Basle Photo: Bank of International Settlements

The global financial markets are dangerously stretched and may unwind with shock force as liquidity dries up, the Bank of International Settlements has warned.

Guy Debelle, head of the BIS’s market committee, said investors have become far too complacent, wrongly believing that central banks can protect them, many staking bets that are bound to “blow up” as the first sign of stress.

In a speech in Sydney, Mr Debelle said: “The sell-off, particularly in fixed income, could be relatively violent when it comes. There are a number of investors buying assets on the presumption of a level of liquidity which is not there. This is not evident when positions are being put on, but will become readily apparent when investors attempt to exit their positions.

“The exits tend to get jammed unexpectedly and rapidly.”

Mr Debelle, who is also chief of financial markets at Australia’s Reserve Bank, said any sell-off could be amplified because nominal interest rates are already zero across most of the industrial world. “That is a point we haven’t started from before. There are undoubtedly positions out there which are dependent on (close to) zero funding costs. When funding costs are no longer close to zero, these positions will blow up,” he said.

The BIS warned earlier this summer that the world economy is in many respects more vulnerable to a financial crisis than it was in 2007. Debt ratios are now far higher, and emerging markets have also been drawn into the fire over the last five years. The world as whole has never been more leveraged.

Debt ratios in the developed economies have risen by 20 percentage points to 275pc of GDP since the Lehman Brothers crash.

The new twist is that emerging markets have also been on a debt spree, partly as a spill-over from quantitative easing in the West. This has caused a flood of dollar liquidity into these countries that they have struggled to control. It has pushed up their debt ratios by 20 percentage points to 175pc, and much of the borrowing has been at an average real rate of 1pc that is unlikely to last.

China was able to act as a stabilizing force during the global downturn of 2009, letting rip with an immense burst of credit. These buffers are now largely exhausted. All of the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) countries have hit structural limits, and face difficulties of one form or another.

Mr Debelle said the markets may at any time start to question whether the global authorities have matters under control, or whether their pledge to hold down rates through forward guidance can be believed. “I find it somewhat surprising that the market is willing to accept the central banks at their word, and not think so much for themselves,” he said

The biggest worry is a precipitous sell-off in the bond markets once the US Federal Reserve and the other major central banks begin to tighten in earnest. Mr Debelle cited the US bond crash in 1994, but warned that it could be even more violent this time with a “fair chance that volatility will feed on itself”.

The picture is further complicated by a fall in the depth and inventory of market makers, the side-effect of new regulations that have raised costs and caused firms to exit this specialist business. “Market liquidity is structurally lower now than it was in the past. The question today is whether there is too little capacity. When volatility returns, it may well rise quite rapidly,” he said.

Mr Debelle may be especially sensitive to the risks, given his ring-side seat in Australia where authorities are grappling with a housing bubble and a commodity shock from China. Yet his warning is global: investors have taken on too much risk, and the illusion of liquidity can vanish almost overnight. “That strikes me as a dangerous combination and unlikely to be resolved smoothly,” he said

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