Looking for His glorious appearing! Titus 2:13

Tufts University Hosting Islamists to Train Students in Direct Action
Oct 30th, 2014
Daily NewsProphecy New Watch
Categories: Today's Headlines;Commentary

A controversial Islamist group will gather at Tufts University on Friday for a weekend-long conference that will include training students to take “direct action” against pro-Israel and Jewish students on U.S. campuses, according to a schedule of the conference obtained by the Free Beacon.

The event, held by Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), which is run by the American Muslims for Palestine, has raised concerns among students who feel threatened by the group’s highly aggressive—and sometimes violent—tactics.

SJP is known for leading some the most hostile anti-Israel campaigns on campus, including comparisons of the Jewish state to Nazi Germany, promotion of the Boycott, Divest, and Sanctions (BDS) movement, and advocacy for the terrorist group Hamas.

SJP affiliates on several U.S. campuses have been banned by school administrators for disseminating materials described by critics as anti-Semitic

This weekend’s conference at Tufts will feature a seminar on “Direct Action” as well as numerous panels on how to promote BDS against Israel on campus.

The Saturday afternoon workshop on “planning effective, powerful and creative direct action” will teach anti-Israel activists in attendance how they can intimidate pro-Israel students using tactics that some say border on violence, and that in past instances have actually crossed the line into violence.

“Direct Action arrives at the height of a campaign when all other means of escalation have been utilized,” the SJP program says. “It is a last resort tactic that maximizes student pressure, and demands attention from all stakeholders.”

“Presently, SJPs throughout the nation are pushing the limits of Palestine Solidarity, and understanding how civil disobedience works can strengthen any campaign’s pressure and salience,” the group states. “Understanding this tactic is crucial to a stronger and more versatile SJP that seeks to publicly challenge university administrations and student governments.”

Some of the SJP’s past tactics have included distributing anti-Semitic literature, verbally threatening pro-Israel students, physically assaulting students, shouting down pro-Israel speakers, disrupting campus events, and scheduling anti-Israel events on Jewish holidays.

One SJP official speaking at this weekend’s conference has worn Hezbollah and Islamic Jihad apparel on U.S. campuses and once, while meeting with a suspected Palestinian terrorists in the West Bank, posed with a machine gun.

A Tufts spokeswoman endorsed the SJP conference as part of the “robust exchange of ideas,” which “can be challenging and uncomfortable,” according to a statement provided to the Free Beacon by Katie Cinnamond Benoit, the school’s associate director of Public Relations.

One student journalist at Brandeis, Daniel Mael, was refused press credentials for the conference, a policy that appears to be consistent with SJP’s history of suppressing media scrutiny of its activities.

“Why would SJP refuse to allow a journalist to cover a conference if there is nothing to hide?” Mael asked when contacted for comment. “More importantly, why is Tufts helping a group with a history of violence and anti-Semitism avoid journalistic scrutiny?”

Benoit did not immediately respond when asked whether barring student journalists from the conference is consistent with promoting a “robust exchange of ideas.”

One Tufts student who spoke to the Free Beacon on condition of anonymity expressed concern about SJP’s “hateful presence” on campus.

“I am saddened by the hateful presence that the SJP conference will bring to the Tufts Campus this weekend,” said the student. “I hope we can overcome SJP’s negative conference and work together towards peace through dialogue and understanding.”

Human rights advocate Kenneth Marcus said he is worried that SJP could be training its activists to create an unsafe and intimidating atmosphere for students on campuses where the group operates.

“‘Direct action’ would be fine if it just meant speaking out forcefully for what they believe in,” said Marcus, president and general counsel at The Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law.

“It’s their right to express their opinions, no matter how misguided. The problem is when Jewish students are assaulted, threatened, and intimidated,” Marcus said. “Then what we’re talking about is hate activity, and this should be dealt with accordingly. If they commit criminal offenses, or violations of school rules, they should be treated like any other criminals or law-breakers.”

SJP has been banned on some campuses and reprimanded on others as a result of its anti-Israel activism.

In August, a Jewish student at Temple University in Philadelphia was punched in the face after challenging SJP at one of SJP’s “informational” booths.

Last month at Loyola University in Chicago, SJP members surrounded a table staffed by Jewish students and “verbally assaulted” them, “hurling a variety of insults at them before creating a human wall to block their attempt to advertise trips to Israel,” the College Fix reported at the time.

At UCLA, pro-Israel activist Avinoam Baral was subjected to social media attacks by SJP members, some of whom created fake text messages to create the impression that Baral had said, “I hate Muslims.”

The fake text went viral and led Baral to fear for his safety.

SJP also caused a scandal at Vassar College in May when it posted links to a Nazi-themed anti-Semitic image that had been promoted by a white supremacist group. The group’s distribution of the racist material prompted Vassar to formally investigate SJP.

Last year, Northeastern University suspended SJP after its members “vandalized the campus with anti-Semitic messages, specifically targeting and defacing the statue of a Jewish donor and trustee of the university,” Front Page magazine reported.

SJP’s faculty advisor at Northeastern also was caught on video last year telling students that they should be proud to be called anti-Semites.

During this weekend’s conference at Tufts, SJP will continue to promote boycotts and divestment from Israel, according to the schedule.

A Saturday afternoon workshop titled, “Bursting the Campus Bubble: Learning From BDS Campaigns Beyond Campus Divestment Resolutions,” SJP will explain how students can push the anti-Israel campaign both on and off campus.

“In this workshop we will discuss the options that exist for groups looking to do BDS work beyond divestment resolutions—whether on campus or off—and strategize opportunities to collaborate with community groups on an ongoing campaign or a brand new one,” the group states in its materials.

Another “divestment on campus” workshop will explain how students can “and move the question of Palestine from the margin to the center of campus politics.”

Stone - Throwing Muslims Bloody Christians in Michigan
Oct 30th, 2014
Daily NewsProphecy New Watch
Categories: Today's Headlines;Commentary

The full U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit has decided to review a First Amendment complaint brought by Christians who were assaulted by a rock-throwing Muslim mob at an Arab festival in Dearborn, Michigan.

The case arose from the annual Arab International Festival in June 2012 when Wayne County sheriff’s deputies stood by while a Muslim mob threw rocks at Christians, bloodying them.

The officers then threatened the Christians with arrest if they didn’t leave the event.

The Christians brought a lawsuit against Wayne County over its officers’ actions, and a three-judge panel dismissed it.

But a majority of 6th Circuit judges has agreed to re-hear the case.

The case, shepherded by the American Freedom Law Center, isn’t the first time that Muslim mob violence has erupted at the Arab festival. Earlier, a group of Christians was awarded more than $100,000 in damages because of attacks there.

In the latest case, Robert J. Muise, senior counsel for the AFLC, called the decision to re-hear “great news for religious freedom and the freedom of speech.”

“The panel’s [overturned] decision rewards violence over protected speech and thus incorporates into the First Amendment what is known as a ‘heckler’s veto.’ We are confident that the full court will reverse this ‘dangerously wrong’ decision,” he said.

The 6th Circuit’s rules note that granting such a re-hearing is rare.

“A petition for rehearing en banc is an extraordinary procedure intended to bring to the attention of the entire court a precedent-setting error of exceptional public importance.”

The dissent from the panel’s decision that earlier had dismissed the case said: “The majority’s first error is its conclusion that the First Amendment did not protect [the Christians'] speech. This is not only wrong, it is dangerously wrong.”

AFLC co-founder David Yerushalmi said the First Amendment “is under assault by both Muslim supremacists and Islamists on the one hand and progressives advocating ‘hate-speech’ crimes on the other.”

“The result is a shrinking arena of free speech with government bureaucrats and cultural and civilizational jihadists dictating what is and is not acceptable speech,” he said. “Maybe, just maybe, the Sixth Circuit has decided to draw the line in the sand to protect against any further encroachment upon the sphere of this First Amendment freedom.”

AFLC said the rock-throwing incident left members of the evangelism team bloodied while deputies from the Wayne County sheriff’s office stood by. Then, when Ruben Israel, the leader of the evangelists, asked officers to enforce the law so that Christians could speak, he was told to either leave or be arrested.

“Whether you agree or disagree with the Christians’ message, there is one issue to which there is no dispute: no citizen should be stoned in a city street in America for exercising his constitutional right to freedom of speech,” Muise said when the case developed.

“And what makes this case so egregious is that law enforcement officers were present and made the conscious choice to allow the Muslim mob to silence the Christian speakers through violence. Indeed, the video of the incident looks like something you would see in the Middle East, not in the United States,” he said.

“While it is shocking to see video of Christians being stoned in the United States for criticizing Islam, it is not necessarily surprising that this incident occurred in Dearborn, Michigan, a city where the mayor and law enforcement have consistently violated Christians’ free speech rights in favor of appeasing a large Muslim population and where, in line with the Islamic legal dictates of Shariah, the Christian Gospel is treated as criminally offensive speech, and violence ‘for the sake of Allah’ is reinforced by arresting or removing the Christians. What you are witnessing on the video is the enforcement of Shariah by a hostile mob and law enforcement aiding and abetting,” Yerushalmi added.

WND reported only a few months before the stoning incident that a court had found local officials in Dearborn liable for $100,000 in damages for arresting a Christian pastor who wanted to hand out Christian tracts at the same festival in 2009.

Magistrate Judge R. Steven Whalen then recommend fees and costs totaling $103,401.96 be awarded in the case, which was handled by attorney Muise on behalf of Christian pastor George Saieg.

Muise, at the time, was with the Thomas More Law Center.

Muise also won acquittals on charges of “disturbing the peace” brought by Dearborn against a group of Christians after they were arrested in 2010 for a similar kind of speech activity.

Secret U.S. Mail Tracking Widespread With Lax Oversight
Oct 30th, 2014
Daily NewsProphecy New Watch
Categories: Today's Headlines;Commentary

In a rare public accounting of its mass surveillance program, the U.S. Postal Service reported that it approved nearly 50,000 requests last year from law-enforcement agencies and its own internal inspection unit to secretly monitor the mail of ordinary Americans for use in criminal and national-security investigations.

The number of requests, contained in a little-noticed 2014 audit of the surveillance program by the Postal Service’s inspector general, shows that the surveillance program is more extensive than previously disclosed and that oversight protecting Americans from potential abuses is lax.

The audit, along with interviews and documents obtained by The New York Times under the Freedom of Information Act, offers one of the first detailed looks at the scope of the program, which has played an important role in the nation’s vast surveillance effort since the terrorist attack of Sept. 11, 2001.

The audit found that in many cases the Postal Service approved requests to monitor mail without adequately describing the reason or having proper written authorization.

In addition to raising privacy concerns, the audit questioned the efficiency and accuracy of the Postal Service in handling the requests. Many were not processed in time, the audit said, and computer errors assigned the same tracking number to different requests.

“Insufficient controls could hinder the Postal Inspection Service’s ability to conduct effective investigations, lead to public concerns over privacy of mail and harm the Postal Service’s brand,” the audit concluded.

The audit was posted in May without public announcement on the website of the Postal Service inspector general and got almost no attention.

The surveillance program, officially called Mail Covers, is more than a century old but is still considered a powerful investigative tool. At the request of state or federal law-enforcement agencies or the Postal Inspection Service, postal workers record names, return addresses and any other information from the outside of letters and packages before they are delivered to a person’s home.

Law-enforcement officials say this deceptively old-fashioned method of collecting data provides a wealth of information about the businesses and associates of their targets, and can lead to bank and property records and even accomplices. (Opening the mail requires a warrant.)

Interviews and court records also show that the surveillance program was used by a county attorney and sheriff to investigate a political opponent in Arizona — the county attorney was later disbarred in part because of the investigation — and to monitor privileged communications between lawyers and their clients, a practice not allowed under postal regulations.

Theodore Simon, president of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, said he was troubled by the potential for the Postal Service to snoop uncontrolled into private lives.

“It appears that there has been widespread disregard of the few protections that were supposed to be in place,” he said.

In information provided to the Times earlier this year under the Freedom of Information Act, the Postal Service said that from 2001 through 2012, local, state and federal law-enforcement agencies made more than 100,000 requests to monitor the mail of Americans. That would amount to an average of some 8,000 requests a year — far fewer than the nearly 50,000 requests in 2013 that the Postal Service reported in the audit.

The Postal Service also uses a program called Mail Imaging, in which its computers photograph the exterior of every piece of paper mail sent in the U.S. The program’s primary purpose is to process the mail, but in some cases it is also used as a surveillance system that allows law-enforcement agencies to request stored images of mail sent to and received by people they are investigating.

Another system, the Mail Isolation Control and Tracking Program, was created after anthrax attacks killed five people, including two postal workers, in late 2001, and is used to track or investigate packages or letters suspected of containing biohazards such as anthrax or ricin.

The program was first made public in 2013 in the course of an investigation into ricin-laced letters mailed to President Barack Obama and former Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg of New York City by an actress, Shannon Guess Richardson.

Defense lawyers say the secrecy concerning the surveillance makes it difficult to track abuses in the program because most people are not aware they are being monitored. But there have been a few cases in which the program appears to have been abused by law enforcement.

In Arizona in 2011, Mary Rose Wilcox, a Maricopa County supervisor, discovered that her mail was being monitored by the county’s sheriff, Joe Arpaio. She had been a frequent critic of Arpaio, objecting to what she considered the targeting of Hispanics in his immigration sweeps.

The Postal Service had granted an earlier request from Arpaio and Andrew Thomas, who was then the county attorney, to track Wilcox’s mail.

She sued the county, was awarded nearly $1 million in a settlement in 2011 and received the money this June when the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the ruling.

Russia Test Fires Bulava Sea - Based Ballistic Missile
Oct 30th, 2014
Daily NewsRia Novosti
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Launch of a Bulava Bulava ballistic missile (SLBM) from the Borey-class Yury Dolgoruky nuclear-powered submarine.

MOSCOW, October 29 (RIA Novosti) - Russia has successfully test-fired a Bulava submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) from the Borey-class Yury Dolgoruky nuclear-powered submarine, the Russian Defense Ministry said Wednesday.

The missile was launched from the submerged submarine at a location in the Barents Sea and hit a designated target at the Kura test range on Russia’s Kamchatka peninsula, the ministry said in a statement.

According to the statement, it was the first operational test launch of Bulava in line with the program of combat training. All previous launches were part of development testing.

The three-stage Bulava SLBM carries up to 10 independent warheads and has a range of 8,000 kilometers (5,000 miles).

Earlier in October, a source in the Russian military-industrial complex said there would be two Bulava launches by the end of 2014, one from the the Alexander Nevsky nuclear submarine in November, and one - from Yury Dolgoruky in October.

In September, a Bulava missile was successfully test-fired from the Borey-class Vladimir Monomakh nuclear-powered submarine.

Bulava testing has encountered several failures in the past. In September 2013, during trials of the Aleksander Nevsky nuclear submarine a Bulava rocket malfunctioned. Following this incident, five additional Bulava launches were ordered.

Despite the test failures, the Russian military insisted there was no alternative to the Bulava as the main armament for Russia’s new Borey-class strategic missile submarines that are expected to become the backbone of the Russian Navy’s strategic nuclear deterrent force.

Peru Foils Hezbollah Terror Attack on Israelis
Oct 30th, 2014
Daily NewsArutz Sheva
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Over the past several days a Hezbollah terrorist attempted to murder Israelis in Peru only to have his plots foiled by local authorities, revealed Channel 2 on Thursday.

The terrorist, a member of Hezbollah's international arm, was apparently planning to carry out a terror attack on Israeli or Jewish targets in the South American nation, particularly locations where Israeli tourists gather.

Such targets would include the Israeli Embassy in the Peruvian capital of Lima, or institutions of the local Jewish community.

Peruvian security officials arrested the man after gathering intelligence information revealing his lethal plots. Security sources added that he had established a Hezbollah terror cell in the country.

In a search of the terrorist's hideout apartment, police found weapons and explosives which he intended to use against Jews.

The latest international Hezbollah terror attempt comes after a Hezbollah terror cell was busted in Thailand in April, where they were planning attacks on Israelis during the Passover holiday.

Unfortunately not all international terror attempts by Hezbollah have been stopped; in 2012 Hezbollah terrorists in the Bulgarian city of Burgas attacked a bus with Israeli tourists on board with an explosive, killing five Israelis as well as the bus driver.

A senior Hezbollah commander, Mustafa Shehadeh, who was behind planning the Burgas bombing and other terror attacks, died this Sunday following a long illness.

Hezbollah has also been a threat to Israel closer to home, wounding two IDF soldiers with explosives on the Lebanese border earlier this month, and according to IDF appraisals the group is likely building terror tunnels into Israel.

Despite all this, American and Arab officials revealed on Tuesday that the US is cozying up to Hezbollah as well as Iran and Hamas by providing intelligence information and using secret channels of communication.

Pentagon Warns Employees About Islamic State Threats
Oct 30th, 2014
Daily NewsAir Force Times
Categories: Today's Headlines;War

The Pentagon's internal security agency is warning military personnel and civilians who work in the building that they could be targeted by the Islamic State group or other terrorists. (AFP)

NATO Says Russian Jets, Bombers Circle Europe in Unusual Incidents
Oct 30th, 2014
Daily NewsThe Washington Post
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

MiG-31 fighter jets are not commonly seen close to Europe but some were intercepted along with other aircraft above the Baltic Sea in two separate incidents on Tuesday and Wednesday. (Ilya Naymushin/Reuters)

MOSCOW — NATO said Wednesday that it had intercepted a large number of Russian aircraft flying close to European airspace in the past two days, in an “unusual” series of incidents that brought Russian bombers as far afield as Portugal.

The aircraft — at least 19 in all — offered reminders of Russian air power at a time of the worst relations between the West and Russia since the Cold War. Russian military aircraft have significantly increased their activity in Europe since the conflict in Ukraine began earlier this year, with NATO scrambling to intercept aircraft more than 100 times in 2014. But a NATO official said the scale of the latest incidents was the most provocative this year.

Over the Atlantic Ocean and the North, Black and Baltic seas, Russian bombers, fighter jets and tanker aircraft were detected flying in international airspace, NATO said. There were no incursions into national airspace, a violation of sovereignty that would have significantly amplified the seriousness of the four incidents, three of which took place on Wednesday.

“We’re raising it as an unusual level of activity,” said Lt. Col. Jay Janzen, a spokesman for NATO’s military command in Mons, Belgium. “The flights we’ve seen in the last 24 hours, the size of those flights and some of the flight plans are definitely unusual.”

U.S. officials regard the flights as a show of force by the Putin government. “It’s concerning because it’s moving in the wrong direction,” said one U.S. defense official, speaking on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the air activity publicly. “It’s not helping to de-escalate the situation in Ukraine. It’s not helping to improve relations between NATO and Russia. It’s not helping anybody.”

At least nineteen Russian aircraft, including fighter jets and bombers, have been intercepted in four waves over Europe yesterday and today. View Graphic  

Smaller-scale incidents have also increased this year, approximately tripling from the same period in 2013, Janzen said.

In at least one of the four incidents, the aircraft had switched off their transponders and had not filed flight plans with civilian air traffic controllers. That means that civilian air traffic control cannot track them, potentially creating a risk for civilian planes.

That incident took place around 3:00 a.m. in Western Europe on Wednesday, when four Tu-95 long-range strategic nuclear bombers and four Il-78 tanker aircraft flew over the Norwegian Sea. Norwegian F-16 fighter jets scrambled to intercept them. Six of the planes returned to Russia, but two of the bombers skirted the Norwegian coast, flew past Britain — sending Typhoon fighter jets to scramble in response — and then finally looped west of Spain and Portugal, attracting Portuguese F-16s. Then the two bombers appeared to return to Russia, Janzen said.

The Tu-95 bombers are not commonly seen close to Europe, Janzen said. Nor are the MiG-31 fighter jets that were intercepted along with other aircraft above the Baltic Sea in two separate incidents Tuesday and Wednesday. It was not immediately clear whether the two incidents above the Baltic represented the same group of seven planes entering and departing a Russian military base at Kaliningrad.

There was no immediate reaction from the Russian government.

Fighter jets from Norway, Britain, Portugal, Turkey, Germany, Denmark, Finland and Sweden were involved in responding to the Russian aircraft, Janzen said. Finland and Sweden are not members of NATO, and they have long refrained from joining the defensive alliance, which was formed after World War II as a bulwark against the Soviet Union.

But military incidents with Russia this year have caused both countries to start to reevaluate their positions. Most recently, the Swedish military last week spent several days searching a vast territory for an unidentified underwater craft suspected to be Russian. Last month, Sweden said two Russian military planes had violated its airspace.

A Novus opinion poll released Tuesday found for the first time that more Swedes favored joining NATO than opposed it.

The most recent violation of NATO airspace was last week, when a Russian spy plane flew almost 2,000 feet into Estonian airspace. This year, NATO increased its air patrols based in the Baltics from four to 16 jets, a measure of the newly hot confrontation between the two military juggernauts.

The incidents appear to have set European militaries on edge this week. British fighter jets were scrambled Wednesday to bring a civilian Antonov cargo jet into a London airport; it stopped responding to radio calls from air traffic controllers while flying over the British capital. That caused a supersonic boom that was audible across a large stretch of southeastern England.

Let the Headlines Speak
Oct 30th, 2014
Daily NewsFrom the internet
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

The Pope's Embrace Of Evolution Brings Us One Step Closer To A One World Religion
If you wanted to create a religion that almost everyone would love, how would you do it? Earlier this year, Pope Francis took the unprecedented step of authorizing “Islamic prayers and readings from the Quran” at the Vatican for the first time ever. This Pope seems to have a sixth sense for making the right public relations moves, and he appears to be destined to become one of the most loved popes ever.  

Coca-Cola’s Anti-Religious Positions
Turns out the Coca-Cola Company’s Nonpartisan Committee for Good Government gave Mayor Parker’s campaign $1000.00. But that’s not the only time Coca-Cola has supported bigotry toward religious adherents in the country. Coca-Cola, taking the side of gay rights activists, attacked the legislation and made threats to the legislatures.  

Houston drops subpoenas to get speeches from pastors opposed to anti-discrimination ordinance
One of the pastors, Steve Riggle, said he didn't believe Parker was genuinely concerned about the religious freedom issues surrounding the subpoenas. "If the mayor thought the subpoenas were wrong, she would have pulled them immediately, not waited until she was forced to by national outrage to narrow them, which according to our legal team didn't narrow them at all," said Riggle, a pastor at Grace Community Church.  

Pope: Evolution, Big Bang do not push aside God, who set it in motion
The Big Bang theory and evolution do not eliminate the existence of God, who remains the one who set all of creation into motion, Pope Francis told his own science academy. "When we read the account of creation in Genesis, we risk thinking that God was a magician, complete with a magic wand, able to do everything. But it is not like that," he said. "He created living beings and he let them develop according to the internal laws that he gave each one, so that they would develop and reach their full potential."  

Netanyahu Slams International 'Hypocrisy' over Glick Shooting
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has issued a public response to the attempt on Temple Mount activist Yehuda Glick's life Thursday, calling out the international community and the Palestinian Authority (PA) in the process for "hypocrisy" regarding incitement.  

Abbas Says Closing Temple Mount 'A Declaration of War'
Israel's closure of the Temple Mount to all visitors - Jews and Muslims alike - following the shooting of Temple Mount rights advocate Yehuda Glick is tantamount to a "declaration of war," Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Mahmoud Abbas stated Thursday.  

Temple-rebuilding activist shot in Jerusalem
One of Israeli’s most well-known activist rabbis who pushed for Jewish prayer rights on the Temple Mount was shot multiple times in the chest Wednesday night and is fighting for his life in a Jerusalem hospital. Rabbi Yehuda Glick, chairman of the Temple Mount Heritage Foundation, appeared in the new documentary released by WND Films, “End Times Eyewitness: Islam and the Unfolding Signs of the Messiah’s Return,”  

Diabetes 'out of control' in most parts of England
Diabetes is “out of control” in swathes of the country, with 120 limbs amputated a week and no areas in which treatment targets are being met, new statistics reveal.  

White House cleans up after ‘chickens–t’ Netanyahu remarks
The White House was in damage-control mode Wednesday after a senior administration official was quoted as calling Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “chickens–t.” “Comments like that do not reflect the administration’s view and we do believe that they are counterproductive,” said White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest, who didn’t deny the reported origins of the comment.  

CDC admits droplets from a sneeze could spread Ebola
Ebola is a lot easier to catch than health officials have admitted — and can be contracted by contact with a doorknob contaminated by a sneeze from an infected person an hour or more before, experts told The Post Tuesday. “If you are sniffling and sneezing, you produce microorganisms that can get on stuff in a room. If people touch them, they could be infected".  

Nato reports rise in Russia military flights over Europe
Nato has reported an "unusual" increase in Russian military aircraft conducting manoeuvres over European airspace over the last two days. A Nato statement said four groups of aircraft, including Tu-95 Bear bombers and MiG-31 fighters, were tracked over seas and the Atlantic Ocean. Fighter aircraft from Norway, Britain, Portugal, Germany and Turkey were scrambled in response.  

QUIETING SUN
AR2192 is beginning a two week transit of the farside of the sun, and during that time its flares will be blocked by the body of the intervening star. NOAA forecasters are lowering the odds of a geoeffective X-flare from 35% on Oct. 30th to only 5% two days hence.  

Pentagon warns employees about Islamic State threats
Military personnel and civilians who work in the Pentagon could be targeted by the Islamic State group or other terrorists, the building’s internal security agency is warning employees in a new memo distributed late last week.  

NATO says Russian jets, bombers circle Europe in unusual incidents
NATO said Wednesday that it had intercepted a large number of Russian aircraft flying close to European airspace in the past two days, in an “unusual” series of incidents that brought Russian bombers as far afield as Portugal. The aircraft — at least 19 in all — offered reminders of Russian air power at a time of the worst relations between the West and Russia since the Cold War.  

More Earthquakes in Bárðarbunga, Heat Increases
Seismicity continues in Bárðarbunga volcano in Vatnajökull glacier. A magnitude 4.4 earthquake hit 11.5 km (7.3 miles) east of the volcano shortly before 2:30 last night and the strongest earthquake recorded there yesterday was magnitude 5.1. Geothermal heat continues to increase in Bárðarbunga.  

Magnitude-3.6 earthquake rattles The Geysers
The temblor struck at 9:36 p.m., centered about one mile northwest of the thermal steam fields and 13 miles southwest of Clearlake. Almost five dozen people reported to the earthquake-tracking agency that they’d felt it, reporting it as a light quake.  

Rains and winds lash Buenos Aires province, Argentina
Torrential rains and strong winds in central Argentina have caused severe flooding, damaged homes and forced dozens of people to evacuate. The Argentine capital, Buenos Aires, was also affected, with flight delays and cancellations at its two airports. The National Weather Service has maintained an alert throughout Buenos Aires province.  

US Federal Reserve ends QE stimulus programme
The US Federal Reserve has announced it is ending its quantitative easing (QE) stimulus programme begun in 2008. The Fed said it was confident the US economic recovery would continue, despite a global economic slowdown. The targets for inflation and reduction in unemployment were on track, the Fed said in a statement.  

France denies warship delivery, as Russian bombers skirt EU airspace
France's controversial warship deal with Russia is hitting the headlines again, with a cacophony of statements and denials after a Russian minister published a French invitation to the hand-over ceremony. Russian deputy prime minister Dmitry Rogozin...published a letter on his Twitter page by the French constructor of Mistral warships, supposedly inviting Russian authorities to the ceremony in St Nazaire on 14 November.  

Threat from north many times greater than Gaza, outgoing OC Northern Command says
Hezbollah is many times more dangerous than the terrorist organizations in Gaza, Maj.-Gen. Yair Golan, the outgoing head of the IDF’s Northern Command, told Army Radio on Wednesday. He warned Israelis not to expect the same level of air defense cover that the South and Center of the country received during the war with Hamas in the Gaza City this summer.  

Be Consequential
The midterm elections are upon us - and they offer us no relief.Perhaps Harry Reid will be unseated (please, Lord). But the Establishment informs us “impeachment is a dead letter.” Without impeachment, then what? Bill after bill may be passed. Obama will veto most if not all.  

U.S. military ordered to hide identities, change routines to avoid terrorist attacks
The agency in charge of protecting the Pentagon has sent out a warning that “ISIL-linked terrorists” want to attack employees and is urging them to change routines and mask their identities. The Pentagon Force Protection Agency, citing intelligence reports, says members of the Islamic State terrorist group, also known by the acronym ISIL, may use knives, guns or explosives.  

Houston Mayor Annise Parker announced she has directed her legal team to drop the subpoenas of city pastors who opposed a pro-gay city ordinance. The
It shouldn’t be a big deal that a pastor - seeing the poor living conditions, unsatisfactory schools and and high unemployment afflicting his members - should publicly support new leadership for his state. That Pastor Corey Brooks of New Beginnings Church in Chicago supports Republican Bruce Rauner for governor of Illinois seems about as natural as a thing can be.  

Houston Mayor Withdraws Subpoenas of Pastors
Houston Mayor Annise Parker announced she has directed her legal team to drop the subpoenas of city pastors who opposed a pro-gay city ordinance. The decision comes one day after an emergency delegation of seven pastors from across the country met privately with the mayor for an hour. The meeting followed a prayer vigil held by the group in front of Houston City Hall.  

Obama’s Amnesty Travesty
Steve King predicts Obama will “violate the Constitution, break the law and grant executive amnesty.”People really need to read the U.S. Constitution. It says, “All legislative Powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States." The Constitution makes no reference whatever to executive orders (EO). George Washington started the practice mostly because he had to. Traditionally executive orders have been treated by Congress as having the legal status of legislation, but only insofar as they apply to the management of how the government operates.  

Israeli Govt Disputes State Dept. Spokeswoman Saying That Throwing Molotov Cocktails Isnt Terrorism
Oct 30th, 2014
Daily NewsProphecy New Watch
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

An Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman on Tuesday disputed State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki’s assertion that the U.S. doesn’t consider a Palestinian-American teenager who was killed while allegedly throwing a Molotov cocktail at passing cars to be a terrorist.

The U.S. issued a statement offering condolences to the family of Orwa Hammad, 14, after he was fatally shot by an Israeli soldier on Friday. The Israeli military said Hammad was throwing a Molotov cocktail at a highway often used by Israelis near the West Bank city of Ramallah.

A reporter asked Psaki about the statement Monday: “There are reports out there that he was throwing Molotov cocktails at cars on a highway, and I’m wondering, if that is the case, would you still have been so speedy in putting out a statement and offering your condolences to the family? The argument that is being made by some in Israel is that this kid was essentially a terrorist, and you don’t agree with that, I assume.”

“Correct, we don’t. I don’t have any more details on the circumstances now,” Psaki responded. Watch via the Washington Free Beacon:

Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Paul Hirschson told TheBlaze that such action “qualifies as terrorism.”

“We do think that when somebody is throwing Molotov cocktails with malicious intent at cars on a highway because they don’t like Israel, I think it qualifies as terrorism,” Hirschson said.

Photos showed that Hammad, who was born in New Orleans and moved to the West Bank when he was 6, was carried out during his funeral Sunday wearing a green Hamas headband.

Asked, “is that of concern at all to you guys?” Psaki declined to comment, saying only, “I just don’t have any more on this particular case.”

The State Department’s statement Friday called for “a speedy and transparent investigation” into the incident, which took place in the Palestinian town of Silwad.

Two days earlier, Psaki issued a statement condemning the killing of 3-month-old Chaya Zissel Braun, who was also a U.S. citizen. Israeli authorities said a Palestinian with ties to Hamas rammed his car into a group of bystanders in Jerusalem, hitting Braun’s stroller and sending her flying through the air.

While both statements expressed the U.S.’ “deepest condolences” and appealed for calm, only the statement regarding Hammad called for an investigation.

The Oct. 22 statement described the baby’s killing as a “despicable attack”: “The United States condemns in the strongest possible terms today’s terrorist attack in Jerusalem. We express our deepest condolences to the family of the baby, reportedly an American citizen, who was killed in this despicable attack, and extend our prayers for a full recovery to those injured. We urge all sides to maintain calm and avoid escalating tensions in the wake of this incident.”

A second victim of that attack, 22-year-old Karen Yemima Muscara, succumbed to her wounds and was buried Monday.

Hirschson said he had no issue with Psaki’s message of condolences to the teenager’s family last week.

“We in Israel and most of West believe in personal responsibility,” Hirschson said. “It wasn’t the parents who threw the Molotov cocktail and if you want to give condolences that’s fine.”

Throwing Molotov cocktails at passing cars “is a manifestation of the pursuit of conflict and it does warrant, deserve stark criticism and condemnation, first and foremost from the Palestinian Authority,” Hirschson said.

“They’re doing the opposite which is disastrous,” Hirschson said of the Palestinian leadership. “They are encouraging the pursuit of conflict.”

ISIS Cell Nabbed Ahead of Morocco, France Attacks
Oct 30th, 2014
Daily NewsArutz Sheva
Categories: Today's Headlines;War

Salafist demonstration in Morocco (illustrative)

Reuters

Morocco said Thursday it has arrested two jihadists who were planning to attack banks and multinational companies in the North African country and in France.

An interior ministry statement said the Frenchman and Franco-Moroccan arrested on Monday had also been planning to join the Islamic State (ISIS) jihadist group.

It said they used the Internet to urge "individual terrorist acts in Morocco and France," citing preliminary results from the investigation.

Both men had been motivated by the actions of Mohammed Merah, a French-Algerian national killed by French police in March 2012 after murdering seven people, including a rabbi and three children at a Jewish school in Toulouse.

The ministry statement said the arrested dual national had taken out several loans with French and Moroccan banks to finance their activities.

It said the pair were arrested in Kenitra in the north as they "were busy rallying the ranks of the terrorist organisation called Daesh," the Arabic acronym for the Islamic State organization.

The detainees, identified only by their initials, were "involved in jihadist activism" by translating and disseminating press releases and video recordings of "IS (Islamic State) terrorism," the MAP news agency said.

It added that an "extremist of Algerian origin" was also arrested on Monday in the northern city of Fez, and that he "planned to join his wife," a Moroccan who had already joined ISIS.

Ebola Could Crash U.S. Healthcare System
Oct 30th, 2014
Daily NewsNew York Post
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Photo: Reuters

The U.S. health care apparatus is so unprepared and short on resources to deal with the deadly Ebola virus that even small clusters of cases could overwhelm parts of the system, according to an Associated Press review of readiness at hospitals and other components of the emergency medical network.

Experts broadly agree that a widespread nationwide outbreak is extremely unlikely, but they also concur that it is impossible to predict with certainty, since previous Ebola epidemics have been confined to remote areas of Africa. And Ebola is not the only possible danger that causes concern; experts say other deadly infectious diseases — ranging from airborne viruses such as SARS, to an unforeseen new strain of the flu, to more exotic plagues like Lassa fever — could crash the health care system.

To assess America’s ability to deal with a major outbreak, the AP examined multiple indicators of readiness: training, staffing, funding, emergency room shortcomings, supplies and protection for health care workers. AP reporters also interviewed dozens of top experts in those fields.

The results were worrisome. Supplies, training and funds are all limited, and there are concerns about whether health care workers would refuse to treat Ebola patients.

Following the death of a man suffering from Ebola in a Texas hospital and the subsequent infection of two of his nurses, medical officials and politicians are scurrying to fix preparedness shortcomings. But remedies cannot be implemented overnight. And fixes will be expensive.

AP reporters frequently heard assessments that the smaller the facility, the less prepared it is to fight Ebola and other deadly infectious diseases. The U.S. has many more medium-size and small medical centers than large hospitals.

“The place I worry is: Are most small hospitals adequately prepared?” said Dr. Ashish Jha, a Harvard University health care quality specialist. “It clearly depends.”

Modal Trigger

Previous Next

1/15

Registered nurses at the University of California Medical Center hold signs as they stage a demonstration protesting inadequate Ebola preparedness at UC medical centers on October 28, 2014 in San Francisco, California.

Other findings:

— The emergency care system is already overextended, without the extra stress of a new infectious disease. In its 2014 national report card, the American College of Emergency Physicians gives the country a D-plus grade in emergency care, asserting the system is in “near-crisis.”

— Federal data shows patients spend an average of 4 1/2 hours in emergency rooms at U.S. hospitals before being admitted, and 2 percent of patients leave before being seen. Add an influx of patients diagnosed with Ebola, or those who fear they have the disease, and the system’s vulnerable segments could wobble.

— While most providers are willing to care for people infected with Ebola virus, an August study shows many feel unprepared. Health care research group Black Book Rankings sought opinions from hospital administrators and staff about Ebola readiness and nearly 1,000 personnel at 389 facilities, including 282 hospitals, participated. Personnel at almost all hospitals in the survey said their facilities were not capable of quarantining large numbers of people possibly exposed to Ebola. And 14 percent of isolation care doctors and nurses and one in four emergency and critical care staff said they’d call in sick if Ebola patients were admitted to their hospitals.

— There are only four specialized containment care facilities set up to isolate and treat patients with Ebola. In any sizable outbreak, those dozen or so beds would fill up quickly.

— Despite sizable federal investments in Ebola research, there is no Ebola vaccine. And as of last week, there were no national emergency stockpiles of the waterproof gowns, full face shields and boot covers recommended by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for treating Ebola patients. The CDC’s $6.2 billion Strategic National Stockpile placed an order Thursday for some such equipment, but officials would not say when it could be distributed.

— Since 2002, CDC has given states and territories more than $10 billion to help public health care systems ramp up when facing a disease outbreak. The program has been cut by 30 percent since fiscal year 2007, which led to thousands of layoffs by state and local health departments, according to the National Association of County and City Health Officials.

— A recent survey of 2,500 members of the same association found that only one in three local health departments had participated in full-scale emergency preparedness drills.

Experts concur that training health care workers on safe Ebola treatment and education is one of the antidotes.

“We’re really going to have to step up our game if we are going to deal with hemorrhagic fevers in this country,” said Lawrence Gostin, a global health law expert at Georgetown University.

A high ranking official at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said Wednesday that the government does not expect every hospital in America to be able to treat an Ebola patient, but “every hospital has to be able to recognize, isolate and use the highest level of personal protective equipment until they can transfer that patient.”

“The moment anyone has an Ebola patient, CDC will have a team on the ground within a matter of hours to help that hospital,” Dr. Nicole Lurie, the HHS assistant secretary for preparedness and response, said Wednesday. She acknowledged “some spot shortages of personal protective equipment” but said many kinds “‘are still pretty widely available” and that manufacturers are ramping up production.

Despite Ban, Transgender Troops Already Serving Openly in U.S. Military
Oct 30th, 2014
Daily NewsBreitbart
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Last week, transgender military personnel from various countries allied with the United States convened a conference in Washington, DC to put pressure on the U.S. military to allow transgender soldiers to serve openly.

Organizers claim more than 15,000 transgender soldiers now serve in the active military or the reserves.

The Washington Post has taken up the cause in an article Monday featuring Captain Sage Fox, who spoke at the conference last week.

Fox is a transgender (male-to-female) woman. The Post reports that Fox was allowed briefly back into active duty after hormone therapy, which softened her features, and vocal training which gave her voice a higher pitch. Additionally, she had grown out her hair, and officials allowed her to use the women’s latrine and to be called “ma’am.” She was welcomed back but only for two weeks—then was placed in the inactive list.

The Post also tells the story of 29-year-old Captain Jacob Eleazar, who joined the military as a woman. Though he came out to his commanding officer as transgender, according to the Post he has been allowed to continue his military service in a dress and is supposed to be addressed by subordinates as “ma’am.” Eleazer trains new officers in the Kentucky National Guard, some of whom balked at calling Eleazer “ma’am.” Eleazer said their requests to call him “sir” were “shot down.”

“Hunter” is an anomaly among transgender service personnel. He is a transgender (female-to-male) man. According to experts, 90% of transgender military personnel are transgender women. After testosterone therapy, Hunter says he “presents very male” and that women flee when he enters the female latrine. He says he has had to attend formal occasions wearing dresses but that “You shouldn’t be afraid to see a man in a dress.”

Advocates for regularizing transgender service are buttressed by an independent commission report that says transgender persons would cause no harm to military readiness or effectiveness. The report also calls for the military to foot the bill for expensive transgender surgery, costs that range from $15,000 to $50,000. The average is $30,000, which would cost the U.S. taxpayers $225 million if only half of these servicemembers decided on surgery. Advocates insist a far smaller number would ever ask for taxpayer-funded surgery. 

China to Buy 5,000 Russian Air - To-air Missiles: Japanese Report
Oct 30th, 2014
Daily NewsWant China Times
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

China's PL-12 missile. (Internet photo)

China is likely to purchase 5,000 R-73 and R-77 air-to-air missiles from Russia, writes Toshiyuki Roku, retired commander of the Japan Air Self-Defense Force's Air Development and Test Command, in an article for the Tokyo-based Japan Military Review.

Since China's domestic air-to-air missiles such as the PL-12, the SD-10A and the PL-9C were designed based on technology from Ukraine and are still unable to compete against US counterparts, the People's Liberation Army realizes that it needs the more advanced Russian missiles to go head to head against the US and Japan in any potential future air combat, Roku wrote. He said China has already bought 1,500 R-77 missiles and 3,300 R-73 missiles from Russia.

Roku said the R-73 short-range missile developed in 1985 was considered the most powerful air-to-air missile during the Cold War, superior to the AIM-9M air-to-air missiles used by NATO air forces from 1982. The R-77 medium-range air-to-air missile designed in 1992 has similar capabilities to the AIM-120 Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missile of the United States.

Before it receives F-35A fighters from the United States, Roku suggested that the JASDF develop or purchase new missiles to maintain aerial superiority in the skies over the East China Sea. Japan's main air-to-air missiles are the AAM-4 short-range and the AAM-5 medium-range missiles, which Roku said had both been upgraded in Japan. He also drew attention to the development of Chinese medium-range air-to-air missile with Ramjet.