Looking for His glorious appearing! Titus 2:13

UN Envoy Warns Libya on Brink of Turmoil
Sep 16th, 2014
Daily NewsThe Age
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

The top UN envoy in Libya is warning that rapidly deteriorating security and worsening political turmoil have brought the country to the "brink of protracted conflict and civil strife".

Bernardino Leon, who took over two weeks ago as the head of the UN mission in Libya, has told the Security Council that during his just-concluded first official visit to the country he stressed that only a political solution - not a military one - could solve the crisis.

The increasingly fractured country was plunged into chaos following the 2011 NATO-backed uprising that toppled longtime dictator Muammar Gaddafi.

His ouster gave rise to a patchwork of heavily armed and increasingly unruly militias and deep political divisions that have split the country, with two rival parliaments and governments.

U.S. Pushes Back Against Warnings That ISIS Plans to Enter from Mexico
Sep 16th, 2014
Daily NewsThe New York Times
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

A border agent on patrol. Credit Eric Gay/Associated Press

WASHINGTON — Militants for the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria have traveled to Mexico and are just miles from the United States. They plan to cross over the porous border and will “imminently” launch car bomb attacks. And the threat is so real that federal law enforcement officers have been placed at a heightened state of alert, and an American military base near the border has increased its security.

As the Obama administration and the American public have focused their attention on ISIS in recent weeks, conservative groups and leading Republicans have issued stark warnings like those that ISIS and other extremists from Syria are planning to enter the country illegally from Mexico. But the Homeland Security Department, the F.B.I. and lawmakers who represent areas near the border say there is no truth to the warnings.

“There is no credible intelligence to suggest that there is an active plot by ISIL to attempt to cross the southern border,” Homeland Security officials said in a written statement, using an alternative acronym for the group.

 

Democrats say opponents of President Obama are simply playing on concerns about terrorism as part of their attempt to portray Mr. Obama as having failed to secure the border against illegal immigration.

“There’s a longstanding history in this country of projecting whatever fears we have onto the border,” said Representative Beto O’Rourke, Democrat of Texas, who represents El Paso and other areas near the border. “In the absence of understanding the border, they insert their fears. Before it was Iran and Al Qaeda. Now it’s ISIS. They just reach the conclusion that invasion is imminent, and it never is.”

At a congressional hearing last week, Representative Jeff Duncan, Republican of South Carolina, pushed back strongly against the testimony of Homeland Security Department officials and Mr. O’Rourke, saying they were ignoring a gathering threat.

“Wake up, America,” Mr. Duncan said before storming out of the hearing. “With a porous southern border, we have no idea who’s in our country.”

But counterterrorism officials say they are far more concerned that an ISIS militant will enter the United States the same way millions of people do each year: legally, on a commercial flight. Their efforts have focused on the more than 2,000 Europeans and 100 Americans who have traveled to Syria to fight alongside extremist groups, nearly all of them crossing over its unprotected borders. Without markings in their passports to show that they traveled to Syria, American border authorities have few ways of determining where they were and stopping them from entering the country.

Warnings about the possibility of terrorists entering the United States from Mexico have been sounded in the past. During the 2012 presidential campaign both Rick Perry and Mitt Romney, the Republican nominee, said Islamic extremists working with countries in Latin America, including Mexico, posed a significant threat to the United States.

“We know that Hamas and Hezbollah are working in Mexico, as well as Iran, with their ploy to come into the United States,” Mr. Perry, the governor of Texas, said at a Republican debate in 2011. “So the idea that we need to have border security with the United States and Mexico is paramount to the entire Western Hemisphere.”

Mr. Perry repeated his concerns in a speech last month at the Heritage Foundation in Washington in which he said that because the border was not secure, “individuals from ISIS or other terrorist states could be” crossing into the United States. “I think it’s a very real possibility that they may have already used that,” he said.

In late August, the conservative group Judicial Watch posted an article on its website about how ISIS was operating in the Mexican border city of Ciudad Juárez and planning car bomb attacks.

“High-level federal law enforcement, intelligence and other sources have confirmed to Judicial Watch that a warning bulletin for an imminent terrorist attack on the border has been issued,” the report said. “Agents across a number of Homeland Security, Justice and Defense agencies have all been placed on alert and instructed to aggressively work all possible leads and sources concerning this imminent terrorist threat.”

Judicial Watch said intelligence officials had “picked up radio talk and chatter indicating that the terrorist groups are going to ‘carry out an attack on the border.’ “ It quoted a “high-level source” saying that the attack was “coming very soon.”

Mr. O’Rourke said that immediately after that report was posted he called the F.B.I. and Homeland Security Department. They told him they had no intelligence about such an attack. Mr. O’Rourke said he spent the rest of his day arguing with members of the news media in Texas about why the Judicial Watch report was not a story. He largely failed to convince them, and the article was widely reported.

Tom Fitton, the president of Judicial Watch, said the Obama administration had a history of looking the other way on national security threats, particularly ones involving the border.

“President Obama or his administration should acknowledge this dire threat on the border, whatever its political ramifications are for the debate on immigration,” Mr. Fitton said.

Mr. Fitton said that the idea of ISIS coming across the border “goes against the narrative that the border is secure” and that Americans “don’t need to worry about illegal immigration.”

On Fox News on Monday, a county sheriff in Texas said he had received reports that Qurans and Muslim clothing had been found on smuggling routes. He said that was evidence that Muslims had been smuggled into the United States.

“If they show their ugly head in our area, we’ll send them to hell,” said the sheriff, Gary Painter, of Midland County. “I would like for them to hit them so hard and so often that every time they hear a propeller on a plane or a jet aircraft engine that they urinate down both legs. When you do that, then you’ve accomplished a lot.”

Fox News itself has covered the threats in different ways. After senior administration officials testified at a Senate hearing last week about ISIS, an article on FoxNews.com about the testimony ran under the headline “D.H.S. Confirms ISIS Planning Infiltration of U.S. Southern Border.” An article on Fox News Latino about the same hearing had the headline: “ISIS Terrorists Not Sneaking Over U.S. Southern Border With Mexico, D.H.S. Officials Tell Congress.”

U.S. Expands Action Against IS in Iraq
Sep 16th, 2014
Daily NewsArutz Sheva
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

ISIS fighters parade in Raqqa, Syria

Reuters

The United States launched airstrikes in Iraq on Monday in what defense officials said is the start of an expanded action against Islamic State extremists, USA Today reports.

Central Command, based at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, said both fighter and attack aircraft conducted separate airstrikes Sunday and Monday in support of Iraqi forces southwest of Baghdad and near Sinjar, Iraq.

The strikes were described as the first to provide direct aid for Iraqi forces fighting the Islamic group, as previous actions were conducted to protect U.S. personnel and interests. Iraqi forces requested assistance when they came under fire from militants.

President Barack Obama last week announced that a broader campaign would seek to "degrade and ultimately destroy'' the “Islamic State” (IS) group.

In total, the strikes destroyed six vehicles near Sinjar and an IS fighting position southwest of Baghdad that was firing on Iraqi personnel, the military said in a statement quoted by USA Today.

 All U.S. aircraft exited the strike areas safely.

"The airstrike southwest of Baghdad was the first strike taken as part of our expanded efforts beyond protecting our own people and humanitarian missions to hit IS targets as Iraqi forces go on offense, as outlined in the President's speech last Wednesday,'' the U.S. Central Command's statement said.

No U.S. forces on ground called in the air strike, officials said.

Since air strikes began last month, the attacks had been centered on IS fighters in northern Iraq, near dams at Mosul and Haditha and to protect refugees stranded on Mount Sinjar.

Secretary of State John Kerry met Monday in Paris with diplomatic leaders from more than a dozen countries as the administration tries to round up allies to help battle the extremists.

U.S. forces have carried out a total of 162 airstrikes across Iraq, the military said.

The CIA estimates that IS has access to 20,000 and 31,500 fighters in Iraq and Syria.

The Rise and Fall of Modern Empires
Sep 16th, 2014
Daily NewsProphecy New Watch
Categories: Today's Headlines;Commentary

The U.S. economy is the largest economy in the world. But it wasn't always the largest.

And it's unlikely to remain the largest economy for much longer.

"As Alexander, Rome and Britain fell from their positions of absolute global dominance, so too has the US begun to slip," Reid writes in a new note to clients. "America’s global economic dominance has been declining since 1998, well before the Global Financial Crisis. A large part of this decline has actually had little to do with the actions of the US but rather with the unraveling of a century’s long economic anomaly. China has begun to return to the position in the global economy it occupied for millennia before the industrial revolution."

One look at the chart and it's pretty clear that it may not be very long before we start saying the U.S. is No. 2.

"Based on current trends China’s economy will overtake America’s in purchasing power terms within the next few years," Reid continued. "The US is now no longer the world’s sole economic superpower and indeed its share of world output (on a PPP basis) has slipped below the 20% level which we have seen was a useful sign historically of a single dominant economic superpower. In economic terms we already live in a bi-polar world. Between them the US and China today control over a third of world output (on a PPP basis)."

Reid offered this prescient quote from Napoleon Bonaparte: "Let China sleep, for when she awakes, she will shake the world."

The Era of Widespread Biometric Identification and Microchip Implants is Here
Sep 16th, 2014
Daily NewsProphecy New Watch
Categories: Today's Headlines;Commentary

Are you ready to have your veins scanned every time you use your bank account? Are you ready to use a "digital tattoo" or a microchip implant to unlock your telephone? Once upon a time we read about such technologies in science fiction novels, but now they are here. The era of widespread biometric identification and microchip implants is upon us, and it is going to change the way that we live. 

Proponents of these new technologies say that they will make our private information and our bank accounts much more secure. But there are others that warn that these kinds of "Big Brother technologies" will set the stage for even more government intrusion into our lives. In the wrong hands, such technologies could prove to be an absolute nightmare.

Barclays has just announced that it is going to become the first major bank in the western world to use vein scanning technology to control access to bank accounts. There will even be a biometric reader that customers plug into their computers at home...

Barclays is launching a vein scanner for customers as it steps up use of biometric recognition technology to combat banking fraud.

The bank has teamed up with Japanese technology firm Hitachi to develop a biometric reader that scans a customer's finger to access accounts, instead of using a password or PIN.

The biometric reader, which plugs into a customer’s computer at home, uses infrared lights to scan blood flow in a person’s finger. The user must then scan the same finger a second time to confirm a transaction. Each “vein profile” will be stored on a SIM card inside the device.

Vein recognition technology is used by some banks in Japan and elsewhere at ATM machines, but Barclays said it is the first bank globally to use it for significant account transactions.
But Barclays is not the only one that is making a big move into biometric identification.

Online retailing behemoth Alibaba is going to start using fingerprint scanning in an attempt to make their transactions more secure...

Alibaba, the giant Chinese online retailer, is integrating fingerprint scanning into its Alipay Wallet app. Foxconn, the Taiwanese manufacturer of the iPhone and iPad, threw nearly $5 million at Norway’s NEXT Biometrics, which develops fingerprint scanning technology, back in May. And earlier this month it took a 10% stake for $2 million in AirSig, a Taiwanese company that uses smartphones’ built-in gyroscopes to track air handwriting. The company says AirSig provides three-factor authentication: your signature, your phone, and the way you sign with a flourish in mid-air

It is only a matter of time before more banks, online retailers and major websites start using this kind of technology. We live at a time when theft on the Internet threatens to spiral out of control, and big corporations are going to be continually looking for answers.

Cell phone security is another area of great concern these days. If someone can get a hold of your phone and unlock it, that person can potentially do all sorts of damage.

So Motorola has developed a "digital tattoo" that will be used to ensure that only the owner of a phone is able to unlock it. The following is how Motorola described these new digital tattoos...

Made of super thin, flexible materials, based on VivaLnk’s eSkinTM technology, each digital tattoo is designed to unlock your phone with just a touch of your Moto X to the tattoo, no passwords required. The nickel-sized tattoo is adhesive, lasts for five days, and is made to stay on through showering, swimming, and vigorous activities like jogging. And it’s beautiful—with a shimmering, intricate design.

It’s another step in making it easier to unlock your phone on the go and keep your personal information safe. An average user takes 2.3 seconds to unlock their phone and does this about 39 times a day—a process that some people find so inconvenient that they do not lock their phones at all. Using NFC technology, digital tattoos make it faster to safely unlock your phone anywhere without having to enter a password.

Pretty bizarre stuff, eh?

But others are taking cell phone security to even greater extremes.

For example, some people were actually implanting themselves with microchips in anticipation of the release of the iPhone 6 on September 9th...

With a wave of his left hand, Ben Slater can open his front door, turn on the lights and will soon be able to start his car. Without even a touch he can link to databases containing limitless information, including personal details such as names, addresses and health records.

The digital advertising director has joined a small number of Australians who have inserted microchips into their skin to be at the cutting edge of the next stage of the evolution of technology.

Slater was prompted to be implanted in anticipation of the iPhone 6 release on September 9.

The conjecture among pundits and fans worldwide over what chief executive Tim Cook will reveal is building.

At present the iPhone cannot read microchip implants. However, Mr Slater believes the new version will have that capability. His confidence is now lodged between his thumb and forefinger.
Of course this kind of thing is not new. People have been getting implanted with microchips for years. If you doubt this, just do an Internet search for "biohackers" and see what you find.

But it is starting to become more mainstream, and there are already some thinkers that are quite eager to use such technology for very authoritarian purposes.

For example, one prominent philosopher recently suggested that we should use implantable microchips to prevent anyone that is "deemed unworthy" from becoming a parent...

Although he admits it “sounds blatantly authoritarian” and “violates just about every core value we possess in a free society,” a noted transhumanist author has said a world government body should forcibly sterilize anyone “deemed unworthy” of parenthood by using implanted microchips.

Constitutional attorney and civil liberties expert John W. Whitehead, founder of The Rutherford Institute, warned LifeSiteNews earlier this year that political officials would long to use this seminal technology.

In an article for Wired.com today, philosopher Zoltan Istvan wrote that the notion first crossed his mind when he heard a blonde nurse say, “with 10,000 kids dying everyday around the world from starvation, you'd think we'd put birth control in the water.”

After careful thought, in an effort to “give hundreds of millions of future kids a better life, I cautiously endorse the idea of licensing parents,” Istvan wrote today.
You might be tempted to think that this is crazy talk.

But the truth is that this kind of technology is already being developed.

In a previous article, I quoted a news article which discussed how billionaire Bill Gates is funding the development of a birth control microchip that "acts as a contraceptive for 16 years"…

Helped along by one of the world’s most notable billionaires, a U.S. firm is developing a tiny implant that acts as a contraceptive for 16 years — and can be turned on or off using a remote control.

The birth control microchip, funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, would hold nearly two decades worth of a hormone commonly used in contraceptives and dispense 30 micrograms a day, according to a report from the MIT Technology Review.

The new birth control, which is set to begin preclinical testing next year with hopes of putting it on shelves in 2018, can be implanted in the buttocks, upper arm or abdomen.

Yes, I know that a lot of the things that I have talked about in this article sound really weird.

But the reality of the matter is that technology is changing at an exponential rate, and our world is going to get crazier and crazier as time goes by.

Are you ready for what comes next?

The End of European Jewry? 80% Assimilation Rate
Sep 16th, 2014
Daily NewsArutz Sheva
Categories: Today's Headlines;Antisemitism

Light fading on European Jewry? (file)

Flash 90

Research conducted by over 800 rabbis of the Rabbinical Center of Europe (RCE) and European Council of Jewish Communities (ECJC) has revealed that assimilation in the European continent has reached a shocking rate of 80%.

RCE clarified that the appalling figures were clarified through an analysis of the amount of Jewish weddings compared to the number of Jews in each city, in updated statistics confirming troubling trends the group previously reported.

Rabbi Menachem Margolin, Director General of the RCE, further noted that according to the figures gathered in over 800 communities throughout Europe ahead of the Jewish New Year (Rosh Hashana), assimilation is not the only dire threat confronting European Jews.

According to the RCE's figures, around 40% of European Jews choose to hide their Judaism, and another roughly 75% do not study at Jewish schools, signalling a crisis for the sustainability of European Jewry.

The decision to hide Jewish identity and not attend Jewish institutions comes amid a skyrocketing increase in anti-Semitism in Europe; research showed that anti-Semitic incidents in Europe spiked by 436% in Europe in July compared to the same month in the previous year.

Rabbi Margolin pointed to the influence of rising right-wing extremism in Europe, Islamic fundamentalism and the anti-Semitic spillover in the wake of Operation Protective Edge as the largest challenges facing European Jews over the last year. He noted a significant rise in anti-Semitic attacks on Jews and Jewish institutions.

The rabbi added that the rise of the far-right in European Parliamentary elections means it will be harder to find support from the government, but added that the RCE will continue doing all it can to petition the European leadership to defend its Jewish citizens.

One potentially bright spot in all the gloomy figures is that anti-Semitic attacks in public schools have caused hundreds of Jewish children to transfer to Jewish schools. Likewise there was a growth of 17% in synagogue attendance as compared to the previous year.

According to the figures, roughly half-a-million Jews in Europe will take part in prayers at 1,353 synagogues throughout the continent on Rosh Hashana.

Obama to Unveil Major Ebola Offensive for West Africa, UN to Hold Emergency Meeting
Sep 16th, 2014
Daily NewsHerald Sun
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Finally ... US President Barack Obama has announced plans to dramatically boost the American effort to mitigate the Ebola outbreak in West Africa. Picture: AP

The Obama administration is preparing to assign 3,000 U.S. military personnel to West Africa to combat the Ebola outbreak that has overwhelmed local health care systems and drawn appeals for help from the region and aid organisations.

The troops will supply medical and logistical support and boost the number of beds needed to isolate and treat victims of the epidemic.President Barack Obama planned to announce the stepped-up effort on Tuesday at the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.

 

Administration officials said the new push includes efforts to train as many as 500 health care workers a week and to erect 17 heath care facilities in the region of 100 beds each.

The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the plans ahead of Obama’s announcement.

The Wall Street Journal reports President Obama plans to ask Congress to approve his request for $US88 million ($97.3 million) to fund the Ebola offensive.

It is expected to have four components: controlling the outbreak where it emerged in West Africa; increasing the competence of the region’s public health system, especially in hard-hit Liberia; building local capacity through enhanced health care provider training; and increasing support from international organisations such as the United Nations and World Health Organisation.

“There’s a lot that we’ve been putting toward this, but it is not sufficient,” Mr Obama’s counterterrorism adviser Lisa Monaco told the newspaper.

“So the President has directed a more scaled-up response and that’s what you’re going to hear more about.”

The US military could help direct supplies, set up tent hospitals and deploy medical personnel needed around the world to isolate and treat those sickened with the disease in order to stop it from spreading and improve their chances of recovery.

Waiting game ... Ebola patients rest in the high-risk area of Medecins Sans Frontieres’ Elwa hospital in Monrovia. Picture: AFP

“We think these measures, this enhanced response, will help us bring this under control,” an administration official told the newspaper.

“The military has unique capabilities in terms of logistic capacities, in terms of manpower, in terms of operating in austere environments.”

The Wall Street Journal said Mr Obama would seek commitments of funds, material and health workers during a world leaders summit at the United Nations next week to build a stronger international response.

The Ebola outbreak ravaging West Africa has killed more than 2400 people since it erupted earlier this year, according to the World Health Organisation.

Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia are the hardest-hit countries.

Protection ... disinfected aprons and boots dry off at Elwa hospital in Monrovia. Picture: AFP

The World Food Program says it has stepped up its assistance to the three countries grappling with the worst-ever outbreak of Ebola.

Meanwhile, the UN Security Council will hold an emergency meeting on Thursday to find ways to scale up the global response to the Ebola crisis, the US ambassador has announced.

“It is crucial that council members discuss the status of the epidemic, confer on a coordinated international response and begin the process of marshalling our collective resources to stop the spread of the disease,” US Ambassador Samantha Power said on Monday.

The world body has set a goal of stopping the spread of Ebola within six to nine months but aid agencies are complaining that help is slow in reaching those in need.

“Our collective response to date has not been sufficient,” said Ms Power, whose country holds the presidency of the 15-member council this month.

“The situation on the ground is dire and is growing worse by the day.”

The US envoy did not specify what action the council was planning, but diplomats said a resolution was being prepared that could call for specific measures.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is planning a “high-level event” on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly that opens next week to draw attention to the crisis and the need for action.

NSA Secretly Trying to Map the Internet; Including All Devices Connected to It; in Real Time
Sep 16th, 2014
Daily NewsThe Daily Caller
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

 

Mad Science: Genetically Modified Micro Humans to be farmed for Drug Testing By 2017
Sep 16th, 2014
Daily NewsProphecy New Watch
Categories: Today's Headlines;Commentary

Developers of artificial micro-humans, or ‘mini GM humans,’ are hoping to release their technology on the market by 2017.

No this isn’t a sci-fi joke. Scientists are developing artificial humans in the same vein as GM plants with the hope that these creations will replace the need for using animals in laboratory testing.

Artificial humans will be ‘farmed’ with interacting organs that can be used in drug tests, speeding up the process of FDA and other government regulatory approvals, and supposedly without damaging rats or other animals currently used in laboratories. The GM humans will contain smartphone-sized microchips that will be programmed to replicate up to 10 major human organs.

Each GM human will be tiny – roughly the size of a microchip itself, simulating the response of humans to substances inhaled, absorbed in the blood, or exposed to in the intestinal tract.

Early versions comprising an artificial kidney, heart, lung or gut are already being used by the cosmetic industry and to observe the use of chemical drugs on non-GMO humans. 

The Times of India reported that researchers said this could replace up to 90 million animals each year in labs. Uwe Marx, a tissue engineer from Technische Universitat Berlin and founder of TissUse, a firm developing the technology said: 

“If our system is approved by the regulators, then it will close down most of the animal-testing laboratories worldwide.”

Currently, this type of technology is already used on artificial organs like hearts and livers, but the results must be verified on a ‘live’ being – animals in a lab, for instance, to prove that substances are safe when interacting with a living being with real organs. 

The problem with current testing, and obviously this proposed ‘solution,’ is that artificial organs, like animals, won’t respond the same way as a human body. We have already observed unforeseen side effects during human trials after animal trials that are far from ‘safe’ – GM crops are a perfect example of this phenomenon. 

Organs cannot be divided into ‘fake’ computerized components. They interact with one another, the endocrine system, the brain, the nervous system, environmental cues, emotions, and according to advanced research, even our energetic bodies. 

This reminds me of how genetically modified humans are planned to be the next venture for biotechnology companies working with the United States military, with the admitted goal of producing a ‘super soldier’ that does not require food or sleep to perform Olympic-style physical feats. The genetically modified humans, or ‘super soldiers’, will even be able to regrow limbs that were destroyed by enemy fire and live off of their fat stores for extreme lengths of time. You can read more on GMO super-humans here. 

While the new GM human farms seem great on paper, since eliminating animal testing is indeed noble, they do not address possible far-reaching, negative ramifications for trying to re-create the complexities of Mother Nature’s form. It seems the pharmaceutical industry and biotech don’t learn from their mistakes at all.

Let the Headlines Speak
Sep 16th, 2014
Daily NewsFrom the internet
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

'Hidden Treasure of Rome' project unveiled
For more than a century, hundreds of thousands of historical artifacts dating back to before the founding of Rome have been stored in crates in the Capitoline Museums of Rome, where they have remained mostly untouched. "The Hidden Treasure of Rome," ... will bring those artifacts into the laboratories of U.S. universities to be studied, restored, categorized and catalogued. The University of Missouri is the first university selected for this project.  

NASA spots center of Typhoon Kalmaegi over Hainan Island, headed for Vietnam
NASA's Aqua satellite saw Typhoon Kalmaegi's center near northern Hainan Island, China when it passed overhead on September 16 at 06:00 UTC (2 a.m. EDT). Hours later, the storm crossed the Gulf of Tonkin, the body of water that separates Hainan Island from Vietnam, and was making landfall there at 11:30 a.m. EDT.  

U.S. general says cannot rule out larger ground role in Iraq
General Martin Dempsey, chairman of the U.S. military's Joint Chiefs of Staff,.....told a Senate hearing: "I've mentioned, though, that if I found that circumstance evolving, that I would, of course, change my recommendation."  

ISIS, in Magazine, Warns of 'Armageddon' Against US, West
An Islamic State (ISIS) magazine called Dabiq has warned that the United States and other Western “crusaders” are facing Armageddon at the hands of the terror group’s fighters. The Islamic State,... also employs Dabiq to promote its violent campaign to defeat the “Romans” or “crusaders” from the West, who are symbolized by photos of ...Obama and ... John McCain.

Earthquake hits Norway and Sweden
An earthquake measured to 4.7 magnitude (according to Google Alerts) hit Norway and Sweden at little over 3 PM local time.

America Is On The Verge Of Losing Its Place In The World As No. 1
"As Alexander, Rome and Britain fell from their positions of absolute global dominance, so too has the US begun to slip," Reid writes in a new note to clients. "America’s global economic dominance has been declining since 1998, well before the Global Financial Crisis. A large part of this decline has actually had little to do with the actions of the US but rather with the unraveling of a century’s long economic anomaly.  

America's Christian Heritage Under Threat, Say Ted Cruz, Mike Huckabee, Tony Perkins at 'Star Spangled Sunday'
"There's no explanation for America other than God's hand of providence," said Huckabee. There's no reason for Christians to be dispirited, he stressed. They have seen God's hand of providence in their own lives and families and also how He saved them from their sins and healed some of their family members, he said. "Is it time for us to stop complaining about what is, and start believing what will be if God's people on their faces in humility and brokenness will once again ask for His hand of providence to envelope this great land of ours,"  

White House officials warn Syria over ISIS mission
The United States would retaliate against Syrian President Bashar Assad's air defenses if he were to go after American planes launching airstrikes in his country, a senior Obama administration official said Monday.  

Ukraine crisis: Parliaments to ratify landmark EU pact
Ukrainian MPs and the European Parliament are set to ratify a key EU association pact criticised by Russia. Both sides will start the procedure at 10:00 GMT, in what Ukraine's president said would be a "historic" day. But negotiations with Russia last week led to the important free trade part of the pact being postponed until 2016.  

U.N. to dump flood of Muslim refugees on U.S.
The Obama administration has been greasing the skids for the Syrian refugees for months, WND has learned, and the refugees will soon be dumped on American cities throughout the U.S..  

U.S. Pushes Back Against Warnings That ISIS Plans to Enter From Mexico
Militants for the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria have traveled to Mexico and are just miles from the United States. They plan to cross over the porous border and will “imminently” launch car bomb attacks. And the threat is so real that federal law enforcement officers have been placed at a heightened state of alert, and an American military base near the border has increased its security.  

Ya'alon: The coming year will not be quiet on the security front
Causes of instability include the presence of multiple terror organizations in Gaza, heavy fighting in Syria, and Iran's strategy of becoming a nuclear break-out state, while remaining the number one state sponsor of terrorism in the world.

INCOMING CME
Another CME is en route to Earth. It was launched in our direction four days ago by the eruption of a magnetic filament near the center of the solar disk.  

NSA Secretly Trying To Map The Internet — Including All Devices Connected To It — In Real-Time
The National Security Agency, along with its British counterpart the Government Communications Headquarters, and several other nations are secretly trying to map the entire Internet in real-time, creating a worldwide surveillance tool on the scale of Google Earth.  

Magnitude 4.0 earthquake registered south of Guthrie
It was recorded at 3:08 p.m. roughly four miles south of Guthrie.  

Earthquake of 5.6 magnitude near Tokyo
An earthquake of 5.6 magnitude, with no alert of Tsunami as of yet, was reported in the Tokyo area. The Quake is centered under Ibaraki Pref., near Tokyo, at depth of 50 km. TEPCO said to be checking conditions of nearby nuke plants.  

Exclusive: Feds Find Anti-Israel and Pro-Palestine 9/11 Message to America on Border Fence
On September 11, 2014...a group in Mexico hung a message to America over the U.S.-Mexico border wall condemning American support for Israel and declaring support for Palestine. ...“Everyone has been discussing whether cartels would work with ISIS or other terror groups, but this indicates that political groups in Mexico’s border region may be more of a concern in terms of working with terrorists to make a political statement in America.”  

US to send 3,000 troops to Ebola danger zone as Obama administration shuffles military's mission in Africa
The United States government is sending thousands of military troops to the west African nation of Liberia as part of the Obama administration's Ebola virus-response strategy... 'U.S. Africa Command will set up a Joint Force Command headquartered in Monrovia, Liberia, to provide regional command and control support to U.S. military activities and facilitate coordination with U.S. government and international relief efforts,'...  

Ukraine crisis: Parliaments to ratify landmark EU pact
Ukrainian MPs and the European Parliament are set to ratify a key EU association pact criticised by Russia. Both sides will start the procedure at 10:00 GMT, in what Ukraine's president said would be a "historic" day. But negotiations with Russia last week led to the important free trade part of the pact being postponed until 2016.  

Warning over Philippine volcano Mt Mayon
One of the most active volcanoes in the Philippines, Mount Mayon, could erupt within weeks, scientists say. A series of small earthquakes and rockfalls had been recorded and magma could now be seen in the crater, local experts said. The alert level has been raised to three on a five-point scale. Evacuations would be ordered, reports said.  

Hurricane Odile damages Mexico's Baja California resorts
Hurricane Odile has left streets flooded, and homes and packed hotels destroyed in the beach resorts of Mexico's Baja California peninsula, triggering looting in some areas. The storm has eased since Sunday from category four to one but still packed winds of up to 160km/h (100 mph). Mexican authorities are warning of more landslides and flooding in the coming days, as the storm moves northwest.  

Nato describes Russia and Islamic State as main threats
Nato has described Russia and Islamic State (IS) as the main threats to Western security, but says it can still talk to Russia despite its invasion of Ukraine. ...“Russia considers Nato, and the West more broadly, as an adversary... IS “risks exporting terrorists to our countries...They will grasp every opportunity to undermine our values”.  

Bosnian children attend 'ISIS summer camp' in Syria
...A video placed online by the Islamic State, and translated by MEMRI, shows some of the youngest ISIS recruits, a group of Bosnian children who appear to be under 10 years old in Syria, holding the group's black flag. In the clip, the children chant "Allah Akbar," and "the Islamic State is here to stay."  

Islamic State post threatens to target 'the American depth'
...The posting on the Minbar Jihadi Media website condemned "intervention in the affairs of other peoples" and said it would trigger an equal response... "It will lead to an equal reaction of the same strength in targeting the American depth and also the nations allied to it and in all aspects," the message said in a translation from Arabic...  

Irish troops gear up for new UN peace mission in the Golan Heights
Key changes to the structure of the United Nations mission on the Golan Heights has boosted confidence here that the next contingent of Irish peacekeeping troops will be deployed there. The current 130-strong Irish contingent have been moved from their mission base at Camp Faouar in Syria to Camp Ziouani on the Israeli-controlled side over the past two days.  

Dozens of Christians 'including women and children' are arrested in Saudi Arabia after tip-off to state's Islamist police force
Islamist police in Saudi Arabia have stormed a Christian prayer meeting and arrested its entire congregation, including women and children, and confiscated their bibles, it has been reported. The raid was the latest incident of a swingeing crackdown on religious minorities in Saudi Arabia by the country's hard-line Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice.  

Key bridge destroyed in IS-held eastern Syria
Islamic State militants lost a vital supply route in eastern Syria on Monday with the destruction of the last bridge in the city of Deir Ezzor, a monitoring group said.  

US bombs IS near Baghdad for first time
US warplanes carried out their first air strike on the Islamic State near Baghdad, as world diplomats pledged to support Iraq in its fight against the militants.  

Belgian murderer Van Den Bleeken wins 'right to die'
A Belgian man serving a life sentence for rape and murder will be allowed to have doctors end his life, after a landmark ruling. Unable to control his violent sexual urges, Frank Van Den Bleeken, who is 50, argued he would never be freed.  

How Have Churches Changed When It Comes to Race, Size, Worship and the Treatment of Gays?
Sep 16th, 2014
Daily NewsProphecy New Watch
Categories: Today's Headlines;Apostasy;Commentary

A new study examining worship environments at 1,331 American churches, synagogues, temples and other houses of worship found that on the whole, the faithful have become more accepting of gays and lesbians, embracing both demographic and tactical changes over the past six years.

The National Congregations Study found that from 2006 to 2012, the number of congregations that were open to allowing gays in leadership roles rose substantially from 18 percent to 26.4 percent, according to a press release announcing the results.

Additionally, the proportion of houses of worship accepting gays for membership during this same time frame rose from 37.4 percent to 48 percent.

Those increases didn’t hold across the board, though: Catholic churches were actually less accepting of gays in 2012 than they were six years earlier. And only 4 percent of white, conservative Protestant churches said in 2012 that gays would be permitted to participate in volunteer positions.

The National Congregations Study also revealed changes as they relate to the size of congregations, demographics and the tactics used in worship over the past six years.

The results showed that American churches are shrinking on average, with the average size of a congregation now at 70 members, down from 80 when the same study was first conducted in 1998.

“The average size of a congregation in the United States is declining,” Duke University sociology professor Mark Chaves explained in a video recapping results. ”Interestingly though, the size of the congregation that an average person goes to has increased over time. What that means is more and more people are shifting from smaller congregations to larger congregations.”

There are other changes afoot inside American churches, synagogues, mosques and other houses of worship, including more racial diversity in the pews.

While 20 percent of individuals attending in 1998 attended all-white houses of worship, that proportion has dropped to 11 percent in the latest wave of the National Congregations Study.

“That’s driven by important social changes like upward mobility among blacks and increasing racial intermarriage,” said Chaves, who directs the study. “And, of course, immigration.”

These trends come at a time when many churches are working to adapt to changing technologies and sensibilities. The research found that more people are attending churches and houses of worship where more upbeat music, shouting, dancing and other expressions are prevalent, including the use of visual elements and projections.

“The percentage of people attending services with drums, for example, rose from 25 percent in 1998 to 36 percent in 2006 and to 45 percent in the most recent survey,” the press release read. “The percentage attending services using visual projection equipment rose from 15 percent in 1998 to 32 percent in 2006 to 45 percent in 2012.”

Chaves said worshippers may be looking for more emotional experiences in the pews.

Hezbollah Vows to Destroy Islamic State in Syria
Sep 16th, 2014
Daily NewsThe Times of Israel
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Hezbollah fighters in military uniform carry the coffin of one of their own, Hassan Faisal Shuker, 18, who was killed in a battle against Syrian rebels in the town of Qusair, Syria, in May, 2013 (photo credit: AP)

Troops from the Lebanese terror group Hezbollah will fight alongside Syrian regime forces for as long as necessary in order to eradicate Islamic State combatants in the embattled country, the deputy head of the Shiite organization’s executive council said Monday.

“There could never be a war of words between ISIS and us, but there is the field where we will defeat them,” Nabil Qaouk maintained, according to the Daily Star, a Lebanese media outlet.

“Day after day, it is becoming clear to Lebanon, the Arab, Muslim and international communities that there is a great need for Hezbollah to remain in Syria. The current situation today imposes on Hezbollah to stay in Syria more than any other time,” he added.

Qaouk, speaking during a ceremony in the village of Aita Shaab, claimed that Hezbollah, along with the Shi’ite Amal movement, has played a key roll in containing sectarian tensions in Lebanon in recent weeks, after two Lebanese soldiers were reported to have been brutally beheaded by Islamic State jihadists last week.

Lebanese troops stand guard in a street on August 9, 2014 in the eastern Lebanese town of Arsal, on the border with Syria. (photo credit: AFP/STR)

“The beheading of soldiers by ISIS was aimed at inciting strife between Sunnis and Shiites but Hezbollah and Amal succeeded in eliminating such strife, not just putting out the blaze,” he said, using an alternative abbreviation for the Islamic State group.

On Saturday, an apparent Islamic State supporter posted a photo to Twitter showing a masked man wearing black, holding the severed head of a bearded young man over his body. The corpse is lying in a pool of blood and, in the background, a man is holding up the black Islamic State flag. An Islamic State commander later told the Turkish Anadolu news agency Saturday that his group beheaded the Lebanese soldier for attempting to escape.

The image emerged four days after DNA testing confirmed that the body of a man whom jihadists had said they beheaded was that of Lebanese soldier Ali Sayyed. Sayyed had been captured by jihadists from the Al-Qaeda affiliated Al-Nusra Front and the IS, along with some 30 soldiers and police in the eastern town of Arsal last month.

Qaouk said Hezbollah would fully support any effort by the Lebanese government to reclaim the border city of Arsal, adding that the Lebanese people would have to commit to tighten “the noose on the takfiris [the infidels] and strengthen the army so that it could free the soldiers [that remain in Islamist captivity].”

“Any delay in drafting a national defense strategy or in using strong cards would endanger the lives of soldiers and paves the way for takfiris [to launch] more attacks and provocations,” he said.

Hezbollah has sent thousands of fighters to Syria over the past two years in a bid to bolster its ally Bashar Assad, who is combating opposition forces, many of them Islamist.

Hezbollah operatives spotted near the northern border with Israel (photo credit: Courtesy/IDF)

On Sunday, a senior IDF officer warned that Hezbollah could briefly capture a chunk of the Galilee, including some border communities, in an upcoming war with Israel.

The senior IDF official warned Sunday that while Hezbollah has no immediate plan to attack Israel, a minor security incident could erupt into a full-fledged war on Israel’s northern front.

In the event of a confrontation with Hezbollah, the fighting would likely last some four months, would have the Israel Defense Forces face some 30,000 troops, would incur extensive civilian casualties on the Lebanese side, and may see infiltration into northern Israeli towns to carry out attacks, the IDF official predicted.

Ebola Crisis: UN Security Council to Hold Emergency Meeting, Discuss Scaling Up Global Response
Sep 16th, 2014
Daily Newsabc.net.au
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Photo: The United Nations Security Council will hold an emergency meeting on the Ebola epidemic on Thursday (Reuters: Luc Gnago)

The United Nations Security Council will hold an emergency meeting on the Ebola crisis on Thursday to find ways to scale up the global response to the epidemic, according to the United States UN ambassador.

"It is crucial that council members discuss the status of the epidemic, confer on a coordinated international response and begin the process of marshalling our collective resources to stop the spread of the disease," US ambassador Samantha Power said.

Ghana's president John Dramani Mahama called for the easing of restrictions on West African nations fighting Ebola, saying "panic" measures had led to isolation and undermined the battle against the disease.

Airlines have halted many flights into and around West Africa, where governments have closed some borders and imposed travel restrictions in a bid to fight an Ebola outbreak that has killed more than 2,400 people.

Experts have warned such moves are counter-productive as economies are crippled by the lack of trade and it becomes harder to move aid workers and supplies to fight the virus around the region.

"Now that we have a clearer understanding of the disease and how it spreads and all of the ramifications, we should not, in panic, take measures that will isolate the countries that are affected by this outbreak," Mr Mahama said while in Liberia, on the first leg of a tour of Ebola-affected countries.

"Doing that will make it more difficult for the disease to be brought under control," he said.

"As long as all of us are instituting proper screening mechanism, we can allow normal economic activities."

The worst Ebola outbreak on record was first identified in Guinea in March and has since spread across much of Sierra Leone and Liberia, where it is battering fragile economies and eating away at post-war gains.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates 20,000 people will be infected before the outbreak ends.

"The more we take measures that restrict economic activities, the graver the effect ... on our country is going to be," Mr Mahama said.

The International Monetary Fund said last week that economic growth in Liberia and Sierra Leone was likely to drop by as much as 3.5 percentage points and Guinea's by more than 1 per cent.

Second Security Council meeting over public health: Diplomat

A council diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity, said it would only be the second public health crisis to be discussed by the 15-member body, which met on HIV/AIDS in 2000.

Mr Mahama said Ghana is prepared to be the hub for moving supplies and people into Ebola-affected countries but he stressed donors must deliver quicker on their promises.

"We have received a lot of response and promises of resources. Those resources are very slow in coming," he said.

The WHO said some $600 million is needed to fight the outbreak.

Organisations like medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres have called for civilian and military bio-disaster response teams.

But former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan told news agency Reuters he was "bitterly disappointed" with the international response to the Ebola outbreak and called for the rapid deployment of specialised units, including military personnel.

"What is a bit surprising here is that many people have died and are dying ... and yet we have not acted and responded in a manner that will have a real impact on the ground," he said.

Are Bio - Martyrs Crossing Our Southern Border?
Sep 16th, 2014
Daily NewsProphecy New Watch
Categories: Today's Headlines;Commentary

The porous United States Southern border and the Ebola outbreak of recent weeks may be creating a “perfect storm” of sorts for Islamic Jihadist terrorists as they seek to strike fear into the hearts of American’s. According to a recent Homeland Security Today article, terrorists may be using the soft southern US border as an entrance for Ebola infected martyrs attempting to transmit the disease to unsuspecting victims here in the US.

Sounds like something out of a Hollywood screenplay? Well in fact, bio-terrorism has been the premise for several successful sci- fi movies and novels. Michael Crichton’s The Andromeda Strain and Tom Clancy’s Executive Orders are just too of many stories that employ biological agents as strategic threats to populations. It is not difficult to imagine that terrorists could actually utilize similar methods to achieve their evil goals. 

Dr’s James Phelps and Monica Koenigsberg Ph.D.’s, in their HS Today piece, are shedding light on what they view as the clear and present danger of Ebola infected martyrs, or bio-martyrs, infiltrating the US in an attempt to create panic and death in America. ” If luck is the confluence of preparation and opportunity, then the opportunity presented by the openness of the southern border coupled with the unprecedented Ebola outbreak in West Africa could be the luckiest moment in recent history for several potential terrorist organizations,” stated the two authors.

The article goes on to present a possible scenario for such a bio- terror attack. Consider a young Islamic West African woman who has lost her family members to the Ebola virus. She has heard the news of American doctors and nurses receiving the precious treatments that have saved their lives, while her family was left to die with no real treatment available. Recruited by Jihadist and promised a heavenly reunion with her now dead family, the grief stricken woman agrees to be infected with the virus, cross the border, infect Americans and die as a bio-martyr!

Unlikely you say? Well how many of us could have imagined Islamic Jihadist flying jets into the twin towers of the World Trade Center?

As reported in the above mentioned article, between January 1 and August 12, 2014, over 1,300 apprehensions in the Rio Grande Valley district came from persons self-identifying as originating from North African Ebola hot zones. According to Border Patrol data provided to Homeland Security Today, persons from nations bordering the Ebola hot zones including; Ghana, Guyana, Nigeria, and Burkina Faso, were apprehended in 2013 attempting to illegally enter the US via the Rio Grande Valley. Additionally, between January and July 2014, more than 70 individuals from three West African nations where the Ebola virus is rampant were apprehended, according to Border Patrol data.

Once across the border, an infected bio-martyr would become an active carrier of the Ebola virus within three weeks of contamination, and could spread the disease through coughing or sneezing on potential victims, or otherwise exposing unknowing targets to infected body fluids. Subsequently, the willing victim could commit suicide aboard a flight or subway, or at a packed football game or a crowded shopping mall. Regardless of whether casualties occurred, terror would ensue across the country and the mission of the terror organization would have been accomplished!

The promise of a direct path to Allah in the wake of their martyrdom could be just enough to entice a radicalized North African Muslim, traumatized by the death and destruction in their homeland, to become a living biological carrier of Ebola into the US.

Counterterrorism officials also warn that members of Al Shabab have been caught this year and that “an unprecedented number of Somalis”, many with ties to terror groups, have sought to illegally cross the US southern border at the Rio Grande Valley. Concerns exist also that Boko Haram, Al Qaeida, and/or ISIS are seeking to infiltrate the US in an attempt to commit terrorist acts on US soil.

Ominously, Phelps and Koenigsberg warn, “the reality is that these groups may have already have begun the process of sending bio-martyrs into the US.”

'ISIS will Brainwash Them': Jihadists'; New Curriculum Bans History, Literature and Blashemous Pics
Sep 16th, 2014
Daily NewsThe Vancourver Sun
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

An ISIS fighter from the militant group who refer to themselves distributes a copy of the Koran, Islam's holy book, to a driver in Mosul on June 22, 2014. The extremist-held Iraqi city of Mosul is set to usher in a new school year. But unlike years past, there will be no art or music, and classes about history, literature and Christianity have been "permanently annulled."