Bomb Attacks in India Kill at Least 67

NEW DELHI — A series of apparently synchronized explosions tore through four towns in the troubled state of Assam in northeastern India on Thursday, killing at least 67 people and leaving more than 210 wounded, according to witnesses and police.
The bombs took aim at crowded markets and government buildings like courts and police stations, witnesses said. The attacks, among the bloodiest in recent months, left streets littered with bodies and the wreckage of cars and motorcycles, according to witnesses and photographers at the scene.More

Soldiers, UN retreat as rebels advance in Congo

KILIMANYOKA, Congo (AP) - Rebels advanced toward Congo's eastern provincial capital of 600,000 people Tuesday, sending tens of thousands of terrified civilians into a makeshift shelter as Congolese troops and U.N. tanks retreated.
The sudden influx tripled the size of the camp in Kibati in a matter of hours, said Ron Redmond, a spokesman for the U.N. refugee agency.
"It's chaos up there," Redmond told The Associated Press. "These crowds of people coming down from the north have already started turning up there."
A hundred refugees a day, mostly women and children, also were fleeing across the border into Uganda, that country's Red Cross said.More

Syria warns US of retaliation

The Syrian government has warned of retaliation if the US strikes again across the border from Iraq, demanding that its sovereignty be respected.
The warning came a day after Syria said eight people were killed in a US helicopter attack in the border village of Sukariya on Sunday.
On Monday Syria's foreign minister accused the US of conducting a planned act of "criminal and terrorist aggression" in broad daylight with "blunt determination".More

Israeli, Egyptian leaders to meet on Mideast peace

JERUSALEM (AP) - Israeli President Shimon Peres will discuss an Arab proposal for comprehensive Mideast peace when he meets with Egypt's leader this week, Peres' office said Wednesday.
Peres has been promoting the Saudi initiative recently because Israel's separate peace talks with Syria and the Palestinians appear to be making little progress.
Peres spokeswoman Ayelet Frisch confirmed the Arab peace plan would "come up" when he meets President Hosni Mubarak in Egypt on Thursday.
Saudi Arabia first proposed the peace initiative in 2002. It offers pan-Arab recognition of Israel in exchange for Israel's withdrawal from Arab lands captured in 1967. The 22-member Arab League has since endorsed the plan.
There was no immediate comment from Egypt or the Arab League on Peres' intention.
Earlier this week, Defense Minister Ehud Barak endorsed the idea as a "basis for a discussion on overall regional peace." Peres and Barak have discussed the issue with Prime Minister-designate Tzipi Livni. Her office has refused to comment.
Israel's outgoing prime minister, Ehud Olmert, has welcomed the Saudi plan, but he and other leaders want to keep small parts of the territories captured in 1967.
Israel also objects to language that appears to endorse a large-scale return of Palestinian refugees to lands inside Israel. Israel says a massive influx of Palestinians would destroy the country's Jewish character.
Peres, Israel's ceremonial president, first proposed putting Israel's various peace talks on one track last month at the United Nations, calling on Saudi King Abdullah to "further his initiative." He has since been pushing the idea in meetings with Israeli, Arab and Western officials, his office said.More

EU warns sink or swim in financial meltdown

BEIJING (AP) — The global financial meltdown is injecting a sense of urgency into a summit of European and Asian leaders that gets under way in China's capital on Friday.
EU Commission President Jose Barroso set the tone early, saying "unprecedented levels of global coordination" were needed to deal with the crisis.
"It's very simple: We swim together, or we sink together," Barroso said Thursday at a Beijing news conference ahead of meetings with top Chinese leaders.
Held every two years, the Asia-Europe Meeting — known as ASEM — has no mandate to issue decisions, but participants hope it will produce some degree of consensus ahead of a Nov. 15 meeting of the world's top economies in Washington to discuss the worst financial crisis since the 1930s.
That may be too lofty a goal for a 43-nation grouping whose members differ widely on their views toward international cooperation and intervention by global bodies. Free-trading Singapore and economic powerhouse Germany are attending, but so too are isolated, impoverished Myanmar and landlocked, authoritarian Laos.
On Thursday, politics threatened to complicate matters as well.
In a sign of Europe's enduring political differences with China, the European Parliament on Thursday awarded the EU's top human rights award to Chinese dissident Hu Jia, despite a warning from Beijing that his selection would seriously harm relations.
Charles Tannock, Conservative foreign affairs spokesman in the European Parliament, said awarding the Sakharov Prize to Hu shows EU lawmakers would continue to highlight the "authoritarian and repressive nature of the communist government" in China, now the EU's biggest trading partner.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said China expressed its "strong dissatisfaction to the decision by the European Parliament to issue such an award to the jailed criminal in China, in disregard of China's repeated representations."
But Liu also indicated that the award would not derail attempts to make progress on financial issues.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy has pledged to use the ASEM meeting to persuade Asian nations to sign up to a plan to redraw the rule book for international capitalism, calling for a global system of regulation.
Liu echoed the need for changes to the current system.
"We need to explore the possibilities of reforming the international economic structure ... (to) stabilize the international financial markets, and ensure the stable operation of the international economy," he said.
China and other Asian economies are expected to take a major hit from a drop in exports and foreign investment, even though their banks had less direct exposure to the toxic sub-prime mortgages that are wreaking havoc on U.S. and European markets.
The EU has put up euro1.7 trillion (US$2.3 trillion) in guarantees and other emergency measures to save the banking system.More

UN: Millions suffer food crisis in NKorea

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - The U.N. food agency said Thursday that millions of North Koreans face a food crisis, but a South Korean official said that Seoul has not decided whether to respond to a request for food aid to the communist country.
"Some areas of the northeastern provinces in the country ... have become extremely vulnerable, facing a situation of a humanitarian emergency," Jean-Pierre de Margerie, the WFP's country director for North Korea, said at a forum on North Korea.
Around 2.7 million people on North Korea's west coast will also run out of food in October, the WFP said in a report released Tuesday.
The food shortages have forced many North Koreans to go to hills to collect wild food to complement their daily rations and reduce the number of meals per day to two, said de Margerie.
Asked if North Koreans face starvation, he said his agency hasn't seen any evidence of starvation but said, "We have reached (a) very critical level and we shouldn't wait for another starvation before ringing the alarm bells."More

Bush to host world finance summit

President George W Bush will host the world's first global financial summit in the US on 15 November, a White House official has said.
The meeting - the first in a series - will discuss the financial crisis and ways to prevent it recurring.
Leaders from the G20 group of nations - the world's leading industrialised countries and major developing nations - will attend.
The winner of the US presidential election will also attend the summit.
The meeting, to be held in the Washington DC area, will consider the reforms needed to avoid another financial crisis and look at the progress being made so far.
"The leaders will review progress being made to address the current financial crisis," said White House spokeswoman Dana Perino. More.

African free trade zone is agreed

The leaders of three African trading blocs on Wednesday agreed to create a free trade zone of 26 countries with a GDP of an estimated $624bn (£382.9bn).
It is hoped the deal will ease access to markets within the region and end problems arising from the fact several countries belong to multiple groups.
The deal also aims to strengthen the bloc's bargaining power when negotiating international deals.
Analysts say the agreement will help intra-regional trade and boost growth.
The three blocs which struck the deal were the Southern African Development Community (SADC), the East African Community (EAC) and the the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa). More

Mystery shrouds attacks on Iraq's Christians

MOSUL, Iraq (Reuters) - In a quiet neighborhood where pear trees and roses peep over garden walls, a shattered vase lies beside blocks of concrete and dust, all that is left of a Christian family's home blown up this month.
Around the way are the ruins of two other Christian-owned homes, nothing more than rubble piled under their roofs.
All three were bombed within minutes of one another, part of a campaign of violence this month that has caused at least 1,500 Christian families to flee the city, one of the most ethnically and religiously diverse in Iraq.
Neighbors say some of the families were ordered out by unknown men just minutes before their houses were destroyed.
Recent attacks and threats against Christians have caused alarm from Baghdad to the Vatican to the United Nations.
The violence brought to the fore the plight of a religious minority that numbers in the hundreds of thousands in mainly Muslim Iraq, and exposed rifts in a part of the country where ethnic diversity has created a delicate balance of power.
Local authorities say the fears of a wave of anti-Christian violence have been overblown to provoke panic, and predict that the families will soon return.More

India bombing 'kills at least 17'

At least 17 people have been killed and 20 injured in a bombing in the north-east Indian city of Imphal, police say.
A bomb in an auto rickshaw went off near a police base in the city, which is the capital of Manipur state. Police say most of the dead are civilians.
No one has claimed responsibility for the attack. It comes two days after a suspected militant grenade attack outside the chief minister's home.
Correspondents say Manipur is home to about a dozen rebel groups.
Some are fighting for the state's independence, others for autonomous tribal homelands.
The explosion ripped through a busy market area near an oil depot in central Imphal, where many people were eating in food stalls.
"It was a gory sight... bodies spattered in blood," said local journalist Yumnan Rupachandra. More

Argentina 'to take over pensions'

The Argentine government is expected to announce plans to nationalise the country's 10 private pension funds.
The move will put the government in control of almost $30bn (£18bn) of investments, and is aimed at protecting them from the global market turmoil.
But expectations of the announcement has sent Argentine shares 12% lower, as investors fear what impact the decision will have on the stock market.
Critics accuse the government of simply wishing to get its hands on the funds.
They say the government needs the extra money ahead of a tough budget year.
As the 10 private pension funds are the country's largest institutional investors, the expected announcement has also hit the value of the peso and Argentine bonds.
Left-leaning President Cristina Fernandez is expected to announce legislation to introduce the changes.
This will then go before parliament, which is also controlled by her Front for Victory political grouping. More

Signs of the Times

I. Signs of Nature (Matthew 24:7; Mark 13: 8; and Luke 21:11)
1. Famine
2. Earthquakes
3. Plagues
4.Signs in the Heavens (Unusual weather, new discoveries in space, UFO's, Planet X etc.)

II. Signs of Society(Matthew 24:12,37-39 & 2 Timothy 3:1-4)

1. Lawlessness
2. Violence
3. Immorality
4. Greed
5. Selfishness
6. Hedonism
7. Rebellion
8. Despair

III. Spiritual Signs

1. Negative

1. False Christs & Prophets and their cultic groups- (Oprah Winfrey and New Age Religion)(Matthew 24:5,11,2-4; Mark 13:6,21-22; and Luke 21:8)
2. Apostasy in the professing church (2 Thessalonians 2:3; and 2 Timothy 3:5, 4:3-4)
3. Widespread heresy in the church (2 Timothy 4:1-4)
4. Movement toward a one world religion (Revelation 17)
5. Persecution of true believers (Matthew 24:9-10; Mark 13:9,11-13; and Luke 21:12-19)
6. Outbreak of demonic and occultic activity (1 Timothy 4:1)

2. Positive

1. Outpouring of the Holy Spirit (Joel 2:28-29)
2. Revival of Davidic worship (1 Chronicles 16:1-39; Psalm 150; and Amos 9:11)
3. Worldwide evangelism (Matthew 24:14 and Mark 13:10)
4. Understanding of Bible prophecy (Daniel 12:4,8-9)

IV. World Political Signs

1. Re-establishment of Israel. (Ezekiel 36:22-37:1-2; Zechariah 12:1-6; Matthew 24:32-34; Mark 13:28- 30; and Luke 21:29-31)
2. Arab hostility toward Israel (Ezekiel 35:1-36:7)
3. Russia as a menacing power to Israel (Ezekiel 38:1-39:16)
4. Asian nations capable of fielding an army of 200 million (Revelation 9:15-16 and 16:12)
5. Wars and rumors of wars (Matthew 24:6-7; Mark 13:7-8; and Luke 21:10)
6. Kingdom against kingdom - that is, civil wars and ethnic wars (Matthew 24:7; Mark 13:8; and Luke 21:10)
7. Reunification of Europe (Daniel 2:41-44, 7:8, 24-25, and 9:26)
8. Movement toward a one world economy (Revelation 18)

V. Technological Signs

1. Nuclear weapons. (Matthew 24:22; Luke 21: 25-26; and Revelation 6:8, 8:7 and 16:2)
2. Television and satellite transmission (Revelation 11:3-12)
3. Robotics (Revelation 13:14-15)
4. Computer and laser technology (Revelation 13:16-18)
5. High speed transportation (Daniel 12:4)

VI. The Accelerator Sign

1. Population explosion (Revelation 9: 15-16 and 16:12)
2. Increase in knowledge (Dan-iel 12:4)
3. Increase in violence (Matthew 24:12)
4. Increase in transportation (Daniel 12:4)
5. Rapid disintegration of society (1 Timothy 3:1-4)
6. Signs in general to be like birth pangs, that is, increasing in frequency and intensity (Matthew 24:8)

VII. Signs of Israel

1. Regathering of the people (Isaiah 11:10-12 and Ezekiel 37:1-12)
2. Re-establishment of the state (Isaiah 66:7-8; Zechariah 12:1-6; and Matthew 24:32-35)
3. Reclamation of the land (Isaiah 35:1-2,7 and Ezekiel 36:34-35)
4. Revival of the language (Zephaniah 3:9)
5. Resurgence of the military (Zechariah 12:6)
6. Refocusing of world politics (Zechariah 12:2-3)
7. Reoccupation of Jerusalem (Zechariah 12:2-6)

What To Expect When Martial Law Is Declared

Coming Soon To A Neighborhood Near You After The World-Wide Economic Collapse.

by Timothy K. Perry(Libertarian)Sunday, October 12, 2008

After the coming economic financial collapse, a state of world-wide martial law will be declared. Considering the current events which are in direct alignment with documented plans for totalitarian one-world government, (white paper plans published by the Tri-Lateral Commission, Council on Foreign Relations, and Club of Rome), martial law will be imposed without official dissent upon the various countries of the world. Martial law is military rule imposed upon civilian populations in a time of war or during a (sic) "State of Emergency". The following elements can be expected to occur once the t.v. news anchors tell people not to panic, but that a State of Emergency has been declared due to the crash, and a (sic) temporary state of martial law has been declared, which will be rescinded once the State of Emergency has passed.
What the news people won't tell you is that given the history of martial law, the suspension of such a draconian state is far more difficult to achieve than its original imposition. Esteemed reader, ask yourself the question, why dictator or group of dictators ever voluntarily relinquished their dictatorial powers? I'm searching really hard through the history files of the world to find out the handful of amazing people who did so. So far, all I can find is George Washington who declined being elected "King".
Whenever the "Powers That Be" decide to impose martial law, the following items can be expected:
:1. CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS ARE ENDED-Under martial law, the U.S. Constitution is suspended and the citizens immediately lose all the protections, safeguards, and human rights guaranteed by that document. The citizens also lose every rights and privileges granted under The Bill of Rights. The constitutions of other countries will likewise be suspended with similar conditions imposed upon the citizens of those other countries.
2. CURFEW ENFORCEMENT-Anyone caught outside after curfew can be shot dead. There are no exceptions for personal emergencies unless of course, these people have some sort of official written permission or are in possession of other material which gives them a "Get Out Of Jail Free" card.
3. WRIT OF HABEUS CORPUS SUSPENDED-This means that soldiers can bust into your house, or arrest you on the street without warrants, and can throw you into prison without explanation or access to legal counsel. They can hold you there for months, even years, since there are no time limits imposed on how long you can be imprisoned.
4. PERSONAL FIREARMS WILL BE SEIZED-Armed forces can invade your home and force you to surrender any weapons you have, regardless of your constitutional right or need to bear arms for your self-defense. If you refuse, you could be shot dead in your living room, and all your possessions seized. If you're lucky, you might just get Tasered, or butt-ended with an AK-47, to eventually wake up in a Federal Emergency Management Agency (F.E.M.A.) Detention Center with a Prison Identification Number which you will go by as a "name" instead of your old name, the one on your birth certificate.
5. PERSONAL PROPERTY CAN BE SEIZED-This means that under the excuse of "requisitioning", soldiers can kick you out of your home, and seize both your home, all the contents inside that home, as well as any vehicles, or other items you have on your grounds. They also can claim the actual real estate of the acreage as well. If you refuse or resist in some way well....I guess you can fill in the blanks or use your imagination.
The following list of Executive Orders have already been signed by past U.S. presidents are in effect immediately upon declaration of a national State of Emergency or Martial Law:
Executive Order 10995: All communications media will be taken over by federal authority: radio, television, websites, newspapers, even CB and Ham radio systems. Freedom of expression, otherwise known as the First Amendment will be canceled until further notice.
Executive Order 10997: All fossil fuels, related substances as well as all electrical power, both corporate as well as privately owned devices and generators will be seized by the federal government.
Executive Order 10998: All food, means to produce such food and related products and machinery, warehouses and collectives which obviously include corporate and private farms will be seized by the government. You will not be allowed to hoard food since this is regulated. If you are caught hoarding food, you could be shot dead, or perhaps you will be lucky enough to be Tasered, knocked to the ground, sent to a FEMA camp and be immediately classified as a "domestic terrorist", otherwise known as an "Enemy of the State".
Executive Order 10999: All modes of transportation will be placed under complete government control. Any vehicle can be seized.
Executive Order 11000: All civilians will be drafted into forced labor which the t.v. anchors will euphemistically call "volunteer labor" at a variety of designated work places or camps under federal supervision. Go watch old film reels of the slave labor images under Nazi prison camps, or if you prefer, go watch a copy of Cool Hand Luke with Paul Newman, to get a more modern updated "American flavor" of what it's like to be part of a slave labor chain gang. Of course, you must always remember, that if you go against the Boss, you will be accused of "A Failure To Communicate."
Executive Order 11490: Absolute dictatorial "presidential" control will be exercised over all US citizens, business as well as church institutions during a State of Emergency where martial law is declared necessary.
Executive Order 12919: At the direction of the president, this Executive Order allows various Cabinet officials to take over all aspects of the US economy during a State of National Emergency.
Executive Order 13010: This Executive Order allows FEMA to take control over all other government agencies.
Executive Order 12656: "ASSIGNMENT OF EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS RESPONSIBILITIES" -This order allows for the declaration of a State of Emergency during natural disaster, military attack, technological emergency, or other emergencies that seriously threaten the national security of the United States. This order allows for total, unquestioned federal takeover of every local police enforcement agencies, as well as local price fixing and wages. It also forbids reassignment of personal financial assets within or outside of the United States.
All in all, it makes me wish I was born several hundred years in the future, because by then, we will be genetically designed to obey without question, with no personal will or identity of our own. So in that case, we won't know what we've lost, because all the history books, or shall I say history "discs" will have been rewritten. Hopefully, this game plan will be abandoned, and the planned scenario will never happen to us, even though plans have been written for just such a scenario. Hopefully, the decision will be made to abandon this plan and revitalize the world economy without dramatic incident so such draconian methods are not necessary to unite all countries under the one world globalist banner. I don't think anyone is going to resist the transition to a one world police state anyway. Most people just want to be able to pay their bills and get by, and enjoy what little free time they have, no matter what group is ruling. After all, this transition is already being achieved as we speak

New law to allow police to collect DNA in secret from teacups

MI5 and the police may be allowed to secretly collect genetic samples from items such as cigarette butts and teacups under new laws that could massively expand the national DNA database.
The powers would allow investigators to break in to suspects’ homes to collect DNA which could then be shared with foreign governments to check for links to crime and terrorism.
The new law, being discussed by Parliament, would mean the ‘stolen’ samples – thousands of which have already been taken by the security services – would be admissible in court and at a stroke hugely expand the Government’s controversial DNA database.More

Passports will be needed to buy mobile phones

Everyone who buys a mobile telephone will be forced to register their identity on a national database under government plans to extend massively the powers of state surveillance.
Phone buyers would have to present a passport or other official form of identification at the point of purchase. Privacy campaigners fear it marks the latest government move to create a surveillance society.
A compulsory national register for the owners of all 72m mobile phones in Britain would be part of a much bigger database to combat terrorism and crime. Whitehall officials have raised the idea of a register containing the names and addresses of everyone who buys a phone in recent talks with Vodafone and other telephone companies, insiders say.
The move is targeted at monitoring the owners of Britain’s estimated 40m prepaid mobile phones. They can be purchased with cash by customers who do not wish to give their names, addresses or credit card details. More

Is Israel's booming high-tech industry a branch of the Mossad?

In 2006 the Check Point Software Technologies company, which specializes in protecting computer systems from hackers and data theft, wanted to acquire an American company called Sourcefire, which works in the same field. The great advantage of Sourcefire was that its clients include the American Defense Department and the National Security Agency. The U.S. administration, however, by means of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, did not approve the acquisition. The committee made its decision based on an opinion by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and NSA security officers. The two organizations were afraid that Check Point, which was founded by Gil Shwed and fellow graduates of Unit 8200, the Israel Defense Forces' high-tech intelligence unit, would have access to top-secret information, which it could pass on to Israel's intelligence community. The fear and suspicion currently is directed not only toward Check Point, but also other Israeli high-tech companies like Verint, Comverse, NICE Systems and PerSay Voice Biometrics, some of which work in data mining and engage in software development for tapping telephones, fax machines, e-mail and computer communications.More

LARGE SCALE IRANIAN AIR FORCE EXERCISE SIMULATES ATTACK ON ISRAEL

DEBKAfile’s military sources report that the drill beginning Thursday, Oct. 16 in northern Iran, is Tehran’s rejoinder to Israel’s big aerial maneuver last June.
Then, more than 100 Israeli fighter-bombers went through their paces over the Mediterranean and Aegean Seas, roughly the same distance from Israel as Iran.
Tehran’s media claim the exercise will test its air force’s ability to fly to Israel and back without refueling.
The exercise will also test the US-made FBX-T band anti-missile radar system delivered in September and installed at the IAF Nevatim air base in the Negev. The Iranians say they will be practicing their “state-of-the-art military equipment and flight tactics,” meaning an attempt to jam US and Israeli electronics and radar.
According to Iranian media, the entire range of Iran's fighter fleet will take part, including US-made F-4, F-5, F-7 and F-14 fighters and domestic Saegheh fighters. Mid-air refueling will be provided by Boeing 707 aerial tankers.
In mid-August, Iran's Air Force chief, Brigadier General Ahmad Miqani, maintained that its antiquated fighter jet fleet had been overhauled and upgraded to fly distances of 3,000 kilometers without refueling. That would be more than double the distance between Iran and Israel.
That is why Tabriz, in Azerbaijan, at the northwestern corner of Iran, was picked as the starting point of the exercise. The official communiqué said the planes would be flying from air fields in Tehran, Isfahan, Tabriz and Hamadan and Dezful. More

Barack Obama

Obama campaign: $150 million raised in September

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama raised more than $150 million in September, a stunning and unprecedented eruption of political giving that has given him a wide spending advantage over rival John McCain.
The campaign released the figure on Sunday, one day before it must file a detailed report of its monthly finances with the Federal Election Commission.
Obama's money is fueling a vast campaign operation in an expanding field of competitive states. It also has underwritten a wave of both national and targeted video advertising unseen before in a presidential contest.
Campaign manager David Plouffe, in an e-mail to supporters Sunday morning, said the campaign had added 632,000 new donors in September, for a total of 3.1 million contributors to the campaign. He said the average donation was $86.More

Bush says he looks forward to hosting summit

CAMP DAVID, Md. (AP) - President Bush, looking for answers to an global economic emergency with just three months left in office, will host an international summit to discuss ways to fix the world financial system but warned on Saturday against reforms that threaten capitalism.
"We will work to strengthen and modernize our nations' financial systems so we can help ensure that this crisis doesn't happen again," Bush said at the Camp David presidential retreat.
Bush, meeting with French President Nicolas Sarkozy and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, did not announce a date or site for the summit. But Sarkozy suggested it be held in the shadow of Wall Street before the end of November.
"Insofar as the crisis began in New York, then the global solution must be found to this crisis in New York," Sarkozy said.More

Princes Harry and William begin African charity rally

PORT EDWARD, South Africa (AP) -- British princes William and Harry set off Saturday on a grueling 1,000-mile motorcycle rally in South Africa to raise money for charity. The pair joked that they had a wager on which royal tumbles from their bike the most during the eight-day off-road adventure.
"It's going to be very challenging and we're expecting to fall off many a time," said Harry, 24, before more than 80 riders set off from the holiday resort of Port Edward on South Africa's southeast coast.
A crowd cheered the riders as they hit the winding dust road bound for the southern coastal city of Port Elizabeth.More

FLESH OF MY FLESH

Jealous woman gets life for killing 2 toddlers

STOCKHOLM, Sweden - A Swedish court on Tuesday sentenced a German woman to life in prison for bludgeoning two toddlers to death and trying to kill their mother in a fit of jealousy.
The court said it was beyond reasonable doubt that Christine Schurrer, 32, had attacked the family with a "hammer-like object" in March inside their home in Arboga, central Sweden.
The Vastmland district court said the rampage was triggered by jealousy after Schurrer's ex-boyfriend ended their relationship and started a new one with the children's mother. The children were aged 1 and 3.More

US debt clock runs out of digits.

The US government's debts have ballooned so badly the National Debt Clock in New York has run out of digits to record the spiralling figure.
The digital counter marks the national debt level, but when that passed the $10 trillion point last month, the sign could not display the full amount.
The board was erected to highlight the $2.7 trillion level of debt in 1989.
The clock's owners say two more zeros will be added, allowing the clock to record a quadrillion dollars of debt. More

Iraq PM vows to shield Christians.

Iraqi PM Nouri Maliki has vowed to protect Christians in Mosul after 1,000 police were deployed in the wake of sectarian attacks in the northern city.
Mosul's provincial governor said hundreds of Christian families had fled the city in the past week to seek refuge in outlying villages.
Sunni militants have been blamed for the murders of 12 Christians over the past fortnight. More

Malnutrition getting worse in India.

Lying on a bed is a tiny malnourished child. Her limbs wasted, her stomach bloated, her hair thinning and falling out. Her name is Roshni.
She stares, wide-eyed, blankly at the ceiling. Roshni is six months old. She should weigh 4.5kg. But when she is placed on a set of scales they settle at just 2.9kg.
Roshni is suffering from severe acute malnutrition, defined by the World Health Organisation as weighing less than 60% of the ideal median weight for her height.
There are 40 beds in this centre. On every one is a similar child. All are acutely malnourished. Wailing, painful, plaintive cries fill the air. This is the Nutrition Rehabilitation Centre in the town of Shivpuri.
You might think we are somewhere in Africa. But this is the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh - modern India, a land of booming growth.
"The situation in our village is very bad," says Roshni's mother, Kapuri.
"Sometimes we get work, sometimes we don't. Together with our children we are dying from hunger. What can we poor people do? Nothing." More

New E Africa food crisis warning.

Rising food prices are putting millions of people in East Africa at risk of severe hunger and destitution, the UK-based charity Oxfam has warned.
Droughts, war and poverty have put an estimated nine to 13 million people in the region in urgent need of humanitarian assistance, it says.
The situation has been made worse by rising food prices, with wheat and rice particularly expensive.
A BBC correspondent says some people have started to eat animal feed. More

Hunger in India states 'alarming'

Twelve Indian states have "alarming" levels of hunger while the situation is "extremely alarming" in the state of Madhya Pradesh, says a new report.
Madhya Pradesh's nutrition problems, it says, are comparable to the African countries of Ethiopia and Chad.
India has more people suffering hunger - a figure above 200 million - than any other country in the world, it says.

More

Ethiopian need 'under-estimated' .

Aid agencies are warning that Ethiopian authorities are under-estimating the scale of the country's drought.
Official estimates of the number of people facing hunger and hardship stand at 4.6m but agencies warn the real figure could be more than 8m.
There is also confusion over the amount of money needed to meet the crisis, with the Oxfam agency estimating it at about $500m.
However, the United Nations reports that $772m has already been pledged. More

EU leaders vow no bank will fail.

Europe's leaders meeting at an economic crisis summit in Paris have pledged that no major financial institution will be allowed to collapse.
They also pledged to guarantee loans between banks on a temporary basis, in order to address the liquidity crisis.
The reluctance of banks to lend to one another has been a key problem of the financial crisis sweeping the globe.
World governments have been racing this weekend to throw banks a lifeline before markets reopen on Monday.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy - the current European Union head - also said leaders had agreed a framework in which individual countries would be able to inject capital into their own banks by means of preference shares. More.

Iraqi Christians flee killings.

Hundreds of Iraqi Christians have reportedly fled the northern Iraqi city of Mosul over the past week, following a wave of killings aimed against them.
Local officials say a dozen Christians have been killed in the past two weeks, triggering hundreds of fearful families to take refuge in outlying villages.
The provincial governor has accused extremist al-Qaeda elements of staging a campaign against Christians.
He has called on the Iraqi government and US forces to help. More

Russian submarine conducts full-range test of Sineva ICBM.

SEVEROMORSK, October 11 (RIA Novosti) - A Russian submarine has for the first time test launched the Sineva ballistic missile to its maximum range, an aide to the Russian navy commander said Saturday.
Captain 1st rank Igor Dygalo said the missile was launched Saturday from the Barents Sea to an equatorial part of the Pacific Ocean.
"For the first time in Navy history, the launch was not to the Kura test range in Kamchatka [Russian Far East], but to the area of an equatorial part of the Pacific," Dygalo said, adding that the launch was made to check the preparedness of naval strategic nuclear forces.
The Sineva launch was made as part of the Dvina tactical exercises of the Russian Northern Fleet, which are also part of larger-scale Stability-2008 exercises conducted with Belarus that started in September and will run until October 21. More

U.S. to Buy Stakes in Banks to Help Free Credit.

The Treasury secretary Henry Paulson said Friday that the government would move ahead with a plan to take equity stakes in financial institutions as it tried to restore confidence in the financial system.Mr. Paulson’s comments came shortly after the finance heads of the world’s major economies promised to work together to ease the global financial crisis that had roiled the markets for the last week.
“We are developing strategies to use the authority to purchase and insure mortgage assets and to purchase equity in financial institutions, as deemed necessary to promote financial market stability,” Mr. Paulson said in a news conference.More

Sarah Palin related to Princess Diana and Franklin D Roosevelt.

John McCain's running mate in the US elections is supposedly a 10th cousin of Princes William and Harry's late mother.
Mrs Palin, the Governor of Alaska, is also related to Democrat President Franklin D Roosevelt, the man who steered the US through the Great Depression and World War II.
According to research experts Ancestry.com, Governor Palin is the ninth cousin once removed of the man whose New Deal scheme is widely credited to have re-invigorated the US economy in the 1930s.
Their common ancestor is Rev John Lothrop, who came to Massachusetts in 1634.
Mrs Palin and Princess Diana are descended from John Strong and his wife Abigail Ford. Strong was born around 1605 in England and emigrated to the United States.
Ancestry.com's chief family historian Megan Smolenyak said: "When you've got candidates who have deep roots in America, there's a good chance that they're going to have some famous cousins.
"We've all got literally millions of cousins. The trick is finding that one little connection that results in something like Sarah Palin being related to FDR or Diana."
The genealogical connections are not the first made in the US presidential campaign.
Last year, Lynne Cheney, wife of current US Vice President Dick Cheney, found she was a distant cousin of Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama.More

Obama to increase aid to Israel.

US presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama is committed to increasing foreign aid to Israel, should he be elected in the November ballot. Obama would honor existing agreements concerning aid to Israel and would work toward "increasing aid to Israel to USD 30 billion over 10 years," a spokeswoman for Obama told Israeli business daily Globes. In the vice presidential debate last week, Obama's running mate Senator Joe Biden said their administration would have to hold back on plans to double foreign aid in general, in light of the financial crisis in the US. Most of US aid to Israel is in form of military aid and Israelis have received more US military assistance than any other nation. Since 1987, the US has provided an annual average of USD 1.8 billion in military assistance to Israel.More.

Picture

Freemasons Stage Our Political Charade.

by Henry Makow Ph.D.

When you shake hands, the thumb naturally extends upward or straight ahead. When it points downward, you are signaling that you are a member of the world's largest satanic cult, Freemasonry, and are committed to its goal of world government under the anti Christ. Read what Stephen Knight wrote about the Masonic handshake in "The Brotherhood" (1983): "The Master Mason applies distinct pressure with his right thumb between the knuckles of the other's middle and third finger." (p. 132)Compare Larry King's recent Ahmadinejad handshake with the one of the cover of Stephen Knight's book. I know Ahmadinejad is supposed to be one of the "good guys" for many. This is just to get Americans to abandon their country. He was dealt this role. The Masons (i.e. Illuminati) control both sides of every conflict .Stephen Knight was poisoned and died just two years after publishing "The Brotherhood." What he said about British society no doubt applies to the whole world: Culture and politics are a charade quietly controlled by these disciples of Lucifer. In other words, mankind is in the thrall of a Satanic cult. Millions are complicit in their own enslavement.Knight shows how Masons secretly control every aspect of British society. There are 500,000 Masons in England. Lodges are associated with every local government, police, bank, military unit, hospital, university, church, court and of course Westminster. What passes for politics is basically members of the same Lodge contending for office to decide how to enact the Masonic agenda. Knight documents how Masons give each other preferment in hiring, promotion and business. Non-Masons are continually hassled. It is no understatement to say that the UK is a Masonic tyranny. More

Time is running out for a peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians.

In her first foreign policy speech since winning the leadership of the governing party, she said extremists were gaining ground as talks faltered.
But she stressed her commitment to the US-backed talks that began last year.
Ms Livni was asked to form a coalition after Prime Minister Ehud Olmert quit last month amid corruption allegations.
She replaced Mr Olmert as leader of Kadima, the largest party in the Israeli Knesset, and has until 3 November to build a coalition. More

EU call for 'universal' broadband.

Brussels is considering making broadband access available for all.
The fast growth of broadband has led the European Commission to bring forward a review of the basic telecoms services Europeans can expect.
Current statistics suggest about 36% of households in EU member nations have high-speed net access.
When a majority of EU citizens are using a telecoms service, EC rules dictate that it becomes one every European should be able to enjoy.More.

BRITAIN AND 8 ALLIED NATIONS PREPARE FOR WORLD WAR 3 WAR GAMES OCT 6-16

FIGHTER jets, infantry troops, destroyers and submarines will converge on Wales next month for one of the largest military exercises of all time.
The two-week exercise – codenamed Joint Warrior – is designed to recreate a scenario in which Britain and other sovereign nations go to war against a “state-sponsored terrorist movement” – using a vast array of lethal modern weapons.
Taking place between October 6 and October 16, it will provide coordinated training for all three UK Armed Services, plus forces from EIGHT allied nations.
The whole of Wales has been designated as a flying area for the exercise, while so-called “managed danger area” ranges at Castlemartin and Manorbier in Pembrokeshire and Pembrey near Llanelli will be used for ground strafing, bombing and missile practice using live ammunition.
An area of the West Wales coast has also been earmarked as a maritime “warfighting” area for Joint Warrior.
The exercise is aimed at giving pilots, ships’ crews and ground troops vital training before they deploy to war zones like Iraq or Afghanistan.
According to the RAF, Joint Warrior will be particularly useful for Forward Air Controllers (troops directing airborne missile strikes), the role made famous by Prince Harry who became known by his call sign Widow Six Seven while directing fire against the Taliban.More

U.K. to spend 12 bln pounds to spy on calls and e-mails -

LONDON, October 5 (RIA Novosti) - The U.K. authorities are considering spending up to 12 billion pounds ($21 billion) on a database to keep information on Internet intercepts, e-mail and telephone records of everyone in Britain, The Sunday Times reported.
U.K. officials say live monitoring is necessary to fight terrorism and crime. However, critics have doubts about whether such a vast system can be kept secure, the paper said.
The British security service MI5 currently conducts limited e-mail and website intercepts only under warrants from the home secretary, the paper said.
According to The Sunday Times, the government's eavesdropping center, GCHQ, has already been allocated 1 billion British pounds ($21 billion) to finance the first stage of the project.
Hundreds of secret probes are believed to be installed on two of the country's biggest Internet and mobile phone providers - BT and Vodafone - to monitor customers live, the paper said.
According to The Sunday Times, no formal decision had yet been taken but sources said that officials had agreed in principle to the program. More.

Israel will strike before Iran gets bomb - French FM

TEL AVIV, October 5 (RIA Novosti) - Israel is preparing a military strike against Iran's nuclear facilities and will act before Tehran creates a nuclear bomb, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner told an Israeli newspaper.
In an interview with Haaretz published on Sunday, Kouchner, who is on a visit to Israel, said he agreed with expert estimates that Iran needed from two to four years to create a nuclear bomb.
"I think that you are well informed, and so are the Americans and so are we. It has always been the case between two and four years. But to make what? One bomb," Haaretz quoted Kouchner as saying.
Kouchner said that even one bomb would not make Iran immune to attack.
"I honestly don't believe that it will give any immunity to Iran. First, because you will eat them before. And this is the danger. Because Israel has always said that it will not wait for the bomb to be ready," he said.
Kouchner also urged to give international diplomacy more time to solve the Iranian nuclear issue.
"Iran with an atomic bomb is unacceptable at all...But how can it be prevented? Talking, talking, talking, and offering dialogue, sanctions, sanctions, sanctions," he said. More.

Russia's strategic bombers to drill with full combat payloads.

MOSCOW, October 2 (RIA Novosti) - Russian strategic bombers will conduct training flights with full combat payloads and live fire all cruise missiles on board for the first time in over two decades, an Air Force spokesman said.
The live firing exercises in Russia's northern latitudes on October 6-12 are part of the Stability-2008 strategic maneuvers in various regions of Russia and Belarus with the goal of practicing strategic deployment of the Armed Forces, including the nuclear triad, to counter potential threats near the Russian border.
"During these exercises, for the first time in many years, the crews of Tu-160 Blackjack and Tu-95MS Bear-H strategic bombers will fly missions carrying the maximum combat payload and fire all the cruise missiles on board," Lt. Col. Vladimir Drik said.
Tu-95MS and Tu-160 aircraft can carry six and 12 Kh-55 (AS-15 Kent) long-range cruise missiles respectively.
Drik said that the scope of the exercises would be unprecedented and involve, apart from the Tu-160s and Tu-95s, the Tu-22M3 Backfire strategic bombers, air superiority fighters, interceptors and aerial tankers.
"The number and variety of aircraft involved in the drills shows the wide range of tasks that will be accomplished during the week-long exercise," the spokesman said.
Former Air Force commander, General of the Army Pyotr Deynekin, said Russian Tu-95 bombers had conducted live firing of all their cruise missiles only once before, in 1984. More.

UN nuclear meeting indirectly criticizes Nuclear Israel

VIENNA, Austria (AP) - A U.N. nuclear conference indirectly criticized Israel on Saturday for refusing to put its atomic program under international purview, but the Jewish state evaded a Muslim-led attempt to link it to nuclear proliferation in the Mideast.
As in past years at the International Atomic Energy Agency's general conference, Iran, Israel's most outspoken foe, spearheaded the verbal attack on Israel, which is widely considered to have nuclear arms but has a "no tell" policy on the issue.
Chief Iranian delegate Ali Ashgar Soltanieh said Israel's nuclear capabilities represent a "serious and continued threat to the security of neighboring and other states."
And he took the U.S. and other Western backers of Israel to task for their "shameful silence" on what he said was the menace posed by Israel's atomic arsenal.
The meeting of 145 nations voted for a resolution urging all nations to open their nuclear activities to outside inspections and work toward the establishment of a Mideast nuclear weapons free zone.
With Israel the only country in the region considered to have atomic arms, passage of the resolution constituted indirect criticism of the Jewish state.
The resolution called on all nations in the Middle East "not to develop, test or otherwise acquire nuclear weapons," and urged nuclear weapons states to "refrain from any action" hindering the establishment of a Mideast zone free of nuclear weapons.More

Jewish 'modesty patrols' sow fear in Israel.

JERUSALEM (AP) - In Israel's ultra-Orthodox Jewish community, where the rule of law sometimes takes a back seat to the rule of God, zealots are on a campaign to stamp out behavior they consider unchaste. They hurl stones at women for such "sins" as wearing a red blouse, and attack stores selling devices that can access the Internet.
In recent weeks, self-styled "modesty patrols" have been accused of breaking into the apartment of a Jerusalem woman and beating her for allegedly consorting with men. They have torched a store that sells MP4 players, fearing devout Jews would use them to download pornography.
"These breaches of purity and modesty endanger our community," said 38-year-old Elchanan Blau, defending the bearded, black-robed zealots. "If it takes fire to get them to stop, then so be it."
Many ultra-Orthodox Jews are dismayed by the violence, but the enforcers often enjoy quiet approval from rabbis eager to protect their own reputations as guardians of the faith, community members say. And while some welcome anything that keeps secular culture out of their cloistered world, others feel terrorized, knowing that the mere perception of impropriety could ruin their lives.More

Israel accuses NKorea of Mideast proliferation.

VIENNA, Austria (AP) - Israel accused North Korea on Saturday of covertly supplying at least half a dozen Mideast countries with nuclear technology or conventional arms.
The allegation was made at an International Atomic Energy Agency meeting in Vienna where world powers urged the North to stop reactivating its nuclear weapons program.
"The Middle East remans on the receiving end of the DPRK's reckless activities," Israeli delegate David Danieli told the meeting, referring to North Korea by its acronym.
"At least half a dozen countries in the region ... have become eager recipients" of the North's black market supplies of conventional arms or nuclear technology, he said - mostly "through black market and covert network channels."
While he did not name any of the suspected countries, he appeared to be referring in part to Iran and Syria, which are both under IAEA investigation, and Libya, which scrapped its rudimentary weapons program after revealing it in 2003.More.

Turkey buries 15 soldiers slain in rebel attack.Vows Harsh Response.

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) - Tens of thousands of Turks in cities across Turkey attended the funerals Sunday of 15 soldiers slain in a Kurdish rebel attack.
Turkey has vowed an all-out fight against the rebels following the killing Friday of the soldiers in a raid near the Iraqi border. Twenty soldiers were wounded and two more were missing, the government said.
Dozens of protesters gathered outside Parliament early Sunday chanting, "Down with the PKK."
Since the attack, Turkish troops have killed at least 23 rebels in southeastern Turkey and northern Iraq in the deadliest battle in eight months. The rebels belonged to the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, which has been fighting for autonomy in Turkey's southeast since 1984.
Turkey's civilian leaders vowed to respond harshly.
"Whatever the cost, the fight will go on full force," President Abdullah Gul said in televised address Saturday.More

India struggles with Hindu attacks on Christians.

NEW DELHI (AP) - Nearly a year of attacks on Christians have put India's leaders on edge, and the latest flare-up in violence drew an angry denunciation from the country's Sikh prime minister as "acts of national shame."
"We are a secular state. We are a multireligious, multicultural nation," Prime Minister Manmohan Singh told reporters during a stopover in France.
Hours later, Hindu mobs rampaged through villages in eastern India on Tuesday, attacking a Christian minister, damaging two churches and setting off Hindu-Christian clashes that killed at least one person.
It was just the latest in a string of attacks by Hindu hard-liners since December that have left dozens of people dead, dozens of churches destroyed and thousands of people homeless, many forced to live for days in thick forests until they could make their way to safety.More.

The Dalai Lama: The devil within.

The Dalai Lama has imposed a ban on the worship of a 500-year-old deity called Dorje Shugden.
Across the world 4 million Buddhist Tibetans worship this particular deity. The ban has created tension and dissent amongst the one million Tibetans living in India and in May 400 monks were thrown out of monasteries because of their religious beliefs.
In the Tibetan refugee camps, Shugden worshippers have been turned away from jobs, shops and schools. Posters with the message "no Shugden followers allowed" cover hospital and shop fronts.
The tension has been fueled by the Tibetan exile government who brandish Shugden worshippers as terrorists closely linked to China.Shugden followers in India have decided to take matters into their own hands, taking the Dalai Lama to court for religious discrimination.More

Child abductions plague China .

China is struggling to cope with a wave of child abductions which sees more than 200 babies and toddlers being stolen every day, according to some estimates.It is a lucrative business in which an abducted girl child can fetch $1,200 and a boy anything up to $5,000, more than the average annual salary in urban China. "Before I only knew people stole mobile phones and wallets. Later I knew that more than 1,000 kids have been stolen in this province, more than 20 kids living near me. It is astonishing," Sun Haiyang told Al Jazeera. The 35-year-old father knows the painful reality of the sordid business that preys on the angst of couples desperate for a child. His three-year-old boy Zhuo was last year taken from the street just 30 metres from his home in Shenzhen, southern China.The kidnapper was caught on a surveillance video. First he handed Zhuo a snack, then a toy, before walking away with the boy.The boy has never been found and the kidnapper has never been arrested."It's too easy for the gangs. For a little money they can buy a birth certificate and then permanent residency for a child thousands of kilometres away," Sun said."The government has created this environment."More.

Financial hubs see an opening up at the top.

Wall Street's long, dominant run is fading, global financiers say.

SHANGHAI - Looking down from his building's 87th floor at the glittering signs of multinational banks along the river here, Fan Dizhao declared confidently that wallstreet`s reign as the world's No. 1 financial hub is coming to an end.
The United States may be grappling with its worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, but these are go-go days in China.
Venture capital, private equity and foreign direct investment are at all-time highs. Although Shanghai's stock exchange has lost close to two-thirds of its value this year, China's big banks have escaped the credit catastrophe largely unscathed, and the economy continues to expand briskly.More.