Looking for His glorious appearing! Titus 2:13

UNESCO Debates ISIS Erasing of Jewish History
Dec 1st, 2014
Daily NewsArutz Sheva
Categories: Today's Headlines;The Nation Of Israel

Wall fresco Dura Europos synagogue in Syria

Reuters

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) is to hold a special session on preserving Jewish historical sites that have fallen under the iron grip of the Islamic State (ISIS) terrorist organization, which has been looting and wrecking ancient non-Muslim relics.

Prof. Shmuel Moreh, a Middle Eastern Studies expert of Hebrew University who was born in Baghdad and serves as Chairman of the Association of Jewish Academics from Iraq, is invited to the special conference to be held in Paris, reports Israel Hayom.

Moreh wrote to UNESCO in June when ISIS was rapidly expanding its control, saying "our request is to keep the following main Shrines which were kept and used by the Jewish community until the last day of their forced expulsion during 1950-1952 from Iraq." The expulsion was part of the 850,000 Jews violently expelled from Arab lands following the founding of the modern state of Israel.

Those main shrines include the tomb of Yehezkel (Ezekiel) the prophet in Iraq's al-Kifl, which has been turned into a mosque. Moreh noted that "it was in the hands of the Jews until few days before their forced expulsion from Iraq. ...Now it is used by Muslims as a Mosque and the Hebrew Inscriptions were damaged during constructions by the Shi'ite Waqf."

The roughly 2,000-year-old Eliyahu Hanavi (prophet Elijah) shrine and synagogue in Damascus which was destroyed by the Muslim extremists also was mentioned by Moreh, who pointed out it too was under Jewish control before the recent expulsion.

The Shrine of Joshua the son of Yehotzadak the High Priest located in Baghdad's western portion near the Jewish quarter was seized by Turkish authorities in the late 1800s notes Moreh, adding that it was returned to the Jews in 1910 where it remained up until the expulsion.

Another site listed by the professor was the "Tomb of Sheikh Ishaq Gaon in the Jewish quarter of Baghdad. He is said to be the treasurer of the fourth Caliph Ali ibn Abi Talib. Now it is unattended and fell into ruins."

Moreh also called on UNESCO to take action on the shrines of the prophets Daniel and Jonah, important sites which shortly after the letter was written were reportedly destroyed. He noted that a pre-Islamic Church in Mosul was built over Jonah's tomb, before later being converted into a mosque during the Islamic conquest.

A final site mentioned in the letter is the shrine of the prophet Nahum and his sister Sarah in the Christian city of Al-Qoosh. Moreh noted "Professor Yona Sabar of UCLA who visited the tomb found it in a ruined condition." 

Another Jewish site not mentioned in the letter which later was realized to be in danger is the Dura Europos synagogue, one of the oldest known synagogues.

The fate of the synagogue, which was discovered in 1932 and dated by an Aramaic inscription to 244 CE, remains unknown. ISIS has been looting and destroying finds or selling them in the black market from the area, as it has done in other regions as well.

The Invasion of the Emerging Church
Dec 1st, 2014
Commentaryfbns@wayoflife.org. - David Cloud
Categories: Apostasy;Apostasy

Brian McLaren did not invent emerging heresy. It is in the very air we breathe today. He is a product of it, and he in turn has become a purveyor. He grew up with the priceless heritage of being the son and grandson of Bible-believing Christians, but at some point he was converted to modern unbelief. His book A New Kind of Christian is doubtless biographical to some degree. An evangelical pastor is converted by a likable man named "Neo," who befriends him in a crisis of faith. At the beginning of the conversations, the pastor is afraid that Neo's ideas are corrupting him (p. 26), but he quenches the fear, continues to listen to the voice of the serpent, and becomes a convert to heresy. McLaren, the author of the book, considers this transformation a good thing, of course. This reminds me of the 1956 movie The Invasion of the Body Snatchers, in which the earth is invaded by aliens in the form of seed pods. Each pod is capable of transforming a human being into an alien by capturing his soul if the individual is sleeping nearby. The invasion is quiet and insidious. One by one, unsuspecting human beings are transformed into aliens with alien thinking and objectives who seek to transform everyone else. A doctor discovers what is happening and tries to warn people, even standing on a highway screaming to the motorists, "They're here already! You're next!" but he is ignored. Like The Invasion of the Body Snatchers, the emerging church is an alien Christianity. It spreads quietly and subtly, from individual to individual. It puts people at ease by downplaying its radicalness and by using the comfortable old biblical and theological terms, yet with new definitions. McLaren and his friends would tell you that they believe in Biblical inspiration, salvation, atonement, judgment, and the kingdom of God, but they re-define these terms in modernistic ways. They are "sincere and caring." They profess to love Jesus and the truth. The emerging heresy takes over the hearts and minds of those who are sleeping and are not alert to the danger, who have been lulled to sleep by the popular thinking that judging is carnal and "critics" are mean-spirited troublemakers and that preaching and teaching should be kept on a "positive note" and "not deal with personalities." It is especially effective in converting second generation Christians who often lack the spiritual dynamism and vigilance of the first generation. It spreads through the "seed pods" of literature, Internet blogs, MP3 sermons, Bible College classrooms, and friendships. It captures the hearts of pastors' sons, who then insidiously convert unsuspecting congregations. I remember being frightened by The Invasion of the Body Snatchers when I was a kid. After watching it, I awoke one night and saw a watermelon beside the refrigerator outside my bedroom door; fearing that it was a seed pod, I cried out to mom to come save me! The Invasion of the Body Snatchers was fiction, but the invasion of the emerging church is very real, and I am doing everything I can to warn and protect as many people as I can. This is a major motivation for the production of such things as the Way of Life Encyclopedia of the Bible and the One Year Discipleship Course and An Unshakeable Faith and the Advanced Bible Studies Series. We need parents and pastors and teachers and missionaries who will provide serious discipleship to the next generation to protect them from the invasion of apostasy.

Saudis Risk Playing With Fire in Shale - Price Showdown As Crude Crashes
Dec 1st, 2014
Daily NewsThe Telegraph
Uncategorized

A deep slump in prices might heighten geostrategic turmoil across the Middle East

As late as last year, Opec was dismissing US shale as a flash in the pan Photo: EPA

Let the Headlines Speak
Dec 1st, 2014
Daily NewsFrom the internet
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Cost Still a Barrier Between Americans and Medical Care
In U.S., 33% have put off medical treatment because of cost.

Gordon Brown 'to announce decision to stand down as MP tonight'
The former Prime Minister Gordon Brown is expected to announce his decision to stand as an MP at the next general election, it has been reported. Mr Brown is the Labour MP for Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath and served as chancellor in Tony Blair's government between 1997 and 2003.  

Time cloak used to hide messages in laser light
A "time cloak" that conceals events rather than objects can hide secret messages through a trick of light, making information invisible to all but the intended recipient. Like an invisibility cloak that makes something disappear in plain sight, a time cloak makes an event disappear in time. It works by manipulating light traveling along an optical fibre.  

Wanted: A new strategy for Jerusalem
The green light given to Jewish settlement in Arab neighborhoods after Operation Protective Edge gave Hamas a unique opportunity to shake off the burden of its defeat in the Gaza conflict and instigate serious riots both in the capital and the West Bank.  

Russia launches ‘wartime government’ HQ in major military upgrade
The new top-security, fortified facility in Moscow includes several large war rooms, a brand new supercomputer in the heart of a state-of-the-art data processing center, underground facilities, secret transport routes for emergency evacuation and a helicopter pad, which was deployed for the first time on Nov. 24 on the Moscow River.  

Quake rattles northern Arizona
A moderate earthquake that struck near Sedona was widely felt in the area, but there were no reports of injury or damage. The U.S. Geological Survey says the magnitude-4.7 temblor struck shortly before 11 p.m. Sunday and was centered seven miles north of Sedona and six miles underground.  

Israel's Radical Left Is Allied With Europe to Establish an Islamic State
Sweden and the United Kingdom have, at least on paper, recognized a Palestinian [sic] state. This recognition has no practical significance but its reverberations undermine the foundations of the State of Israel.  

Fed rattled by elusive inflation, but loath to sound alarm yet
Interviews with Fed officials and those familiar with its thinking show the mood inside is more somber than the central bank's reassuring statements and evidence of robust economic health would suggest. The reason is the central bank's failure to nudge price growth up to its 2 percent target and, more importantly, signs that investors and consumers are losing faith it can get there any time soon.  

China warns Britain to stay out of its affairs
Beijing has rejected criticism of its decision to bar a group of British MPs from travelling to Hong Kong, warning that foreign nations had no right to meddle in what China considered its “domestic affairs”. ...The Foreign Affairs Committee is currently holding an inquiry into the pace of political reform in Hong Kong, 30 years after the Sino-British joint declaration was signed, something that has infuriated Beijing...  

Egyptian jihadis claim responsibility for killing American oil worker William Henderson
An Egyptian militant organisation allied with the Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for the killing of an American oil worker. Ansar Beit al-Maqdis, which now refers to itself as the Sinai Province, said on its official Twitter account late on Sunday that it killed William Henderson. It published pictures of his passport and two identification cards. It did not say when or how it killed him.  

Abbas Presents 'Plan of Attack' for Palestinian State
More details have been released regarding Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Mahmoud Abbas's speech to the Arab League on Saturday revealing that Abbas has concocted a comprehensive plan to flatten Israel politically and bypass the need for bilateral negotiations to establish a Palestinian state.  

US, Turkey Close to Deal on Joint Action against ISIS
US, coalition partners to receive access to Turkish air bases for launching air strikes. Citing officials from both the U.S. and Turkey, the paper reported that the proposed deal would allow the U.S. and its coalition partners access to Turkish air bases for launching air strikes.  

CHANCE OF FLARES
Two sunspots poised to explode are turning toward Earth.  

Earthquakes Shake Central Oklahoma
The U.S. Geological Survey reports three earthquakes in Oklahoma, including one with a preliminary magnitude of 4.2. Sheriff's officials say there are no reports of injury or of significant damage, although there were reports of people being jolted awake by the temblors.  

Khamenei tells Iran armed forces to build up 'irrespective' of diplomacy
Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Sunday the armed forces should increase their combat capability regardless of political considerations, in an apparent allusion to continuing nuclear talks with the West aimed at easing tension in the Middle East.  

UN climate talks begin as global temperatures break records
UN climate negotiators are meeting in Peru to try to advance talks on a new global agreement. One hundred and ninety-five nations have committed to finalising a new climate pact in Paris by 2015's end. The process has been boosted by recent developments, including a joint announcement on cutting carbon by the US and China.  

Ebola crisis: Huge risk of spread - UN's Tony Banbury
The head of the UN Ebola response mission in West Africa has told the BBC there is still a "huge risk" the deadly disease could spread to other parts of the world. Tony Banbury declined to say if targets he had set in the fight against Ebola, to be achieved by Monday, had been met. The targets were for the proportion of people being treated and for the safe burial of highly infectious bodies.  

Cheap Oil A Boon For The Economy? Think Again
The oil industry is no longer what it once was, it’s not even a normal industry anymore. Oil companies sell assets and borrow heavily, then buy back their own stock and pay out big dividends. What kind of business model is that? Well, not the kind that can survive a 40% cut in revenue for long. Cheap oil a boon for the economy? You might want to give that some thought.  

'We only die once ... It might as well be for Jesus'
Werner Groenewald dedicated 12 years of his life in Kabul, Afghanistan before he and his two children were killed by Taliban suicide bombers.  

Hong Kong protesters clash with police at government HQ
Hong Kong police have clashed with pro-democracy activists trying to surround government offices, in some of the worst unrest in two months of protests. Protesters fought police armed with pepper spray and batons on roads around the camp in the Admiralty district. Police say 40 people have been arrested and a number of officers were injured.  

Canada says citizen may have been captured in Syria
Canada is trying to confirm reports that a Canadian citizen has been captured in Syria, a foreign ministry spokesman said on Sunday. "Canada is pursuing all appropriate channels" to seek further information and is in touch with local authorities, the spokesman said in a statement.  

Afghan forces ill equipped to fight Taliban without NATO
Afghan district police chief Ahmadullah Anwari only has enough grenades to hand out three to each checkpoint in an area of Helmand province swarming with Taliban insurgents who launch almost daily attacks on security forces.  

WHO will miss Ebola targets it set for Dec 1
Two months ago, the World Health Organization launched an ambitious plan to stop the deadly Ebola outbreak in West Africa, aiming to isolate 70 percent of the sick and safely bury 70 percent of the victims in the three hardest-hit countries — Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone — by December 1.  

Pope says it is wrong to equate Islam with violence
Pope Francis said on Sunday that equating Islam with violence was wrong and called on Muslim leaders to issue a global condemnation of terrorism to help dispel the stereotype.  

Koran Should be Read At Prince Charles' Coronation Says Top Bishop
Dec 1st, 2014
Daily NewsMail Online
Categories: Today's Headlines;One World Church

Prince Charles’s coronation service should be opened with a reading from the Koran, a senior Church of England bishop said yesterday

Lord Harries said gesture would be a ‘creative act of accommodation’ Speaking in House of Lords claimed it would help Muslims feel ‘embraced’ Critics attacked idea insisting 'British values stem from Christian heritage'

Prince Charles’s coronation service should be opened with a reading from the Koran, a senior Church of England bishop said yesterday.

The gesture would be a ‘creative act of accommodation’ to make Muslims feel ‘embraced’ by the nation, Lord Harries of Pentregarth said.

But critics attacked the idea, accusing the Church of ‘losing confidence’ in its own institutions and traditions.

Lord Harries, a former Bishop of Oxford and a leading CofE liberal thinker, said he was sure Charles’s coronation would give scope to leaders of non-Christian religions to give their blessing to the new King.

The former Bishop of Oxford, who continues to serve as an assistant bishop in the diocese of Southwark, made the suggestion about the Koran during a House of Lords debate. He told peers the Church of England should take the lead in ‘exercising its historic position in a hospitable way’.

He said that at a civic service in Bristol Cathedral last year authorities had agreed to a reading of the opening passage of the Koran before the beginning of the Christian ritual. He said: ‘It was a brilliant creative act of accommodation that made the Muslim high sheriff feel, as she said, warmly embraced but did not alienate the core congregation.

‘That principle of hospitality can and should be reflected in many public ceremonies, including the next coronation service.’

Lord Harries’ suggestion comes more than 20 years after the Prince first said he would prefer to be seen as ‘Defender of Faith’ rather than be known by the monarch’s title of ‘Defender of the Faith’.

Charles said in 1994 he ‘always felt the Catholic subjects of the sovereign are equally as important as the Anglican ones, as the Protestant ones’.

‘Likewise, I think that Islamic subjects, or the Hindu subjects, or the Zoroastrian subjects of the sovereign, are of equal and vital importance.’ In 2006 the Prince made known that he wanted a multifaith coronation that would be more ‘focused and telecentric’ than his mother’s in 1953.

However traditionalist Christians condemned Lord Harries’s idea.

Lord Harries said the gesture would be a ‘creative act of accommodation’ to make Muslims feel ‘embraced’ by the nation

People are just so disappointed when senior Church of England figures lose confidence in the claims of the Christian faith.’

Andrea Minichiello Williams, a member of the CofE’s parliament, the General Synod, and head of the Christian Concern pressure group, said: ‘At a time when we are looking at what British values mean, we cannot have values in a vacuum. British values stem from our Christian heritage.

‘We cannot pretend all religions are the same, or have the same benefits and outcomes for the nation.’

Douglas Murray, associate editor of the Spectator, said if Muslims were included in the coronation service, there must be room to for Hindus, Sikhs, and atheists.

He added: ‘If there were to be a reading from the Koran at the coronation, surely as a matter of reciprocity, all mosques in the UK should have prayers for the King and the Armed Forces every week at Friday prayers.’

Israels Government on Verge of Collapse As Coalition Partners Turn on Benjamin Netanyahu
Dec 1st, 2014
Daily NewsThe Vancouver Sun
Categories: Today's Headlines;The Nation Of Israel

Israel’s government was on the verge of collapse Sunday night as a split over a controversial new law designating the country as a Jewish state deepened into an all-out assault by cabinet rivals on Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister.

Mr. Netanyahu signalled that he was ready to call an early general election to stifle the rebellion, led by ministers from centrist coalition partners to his right-wing Likud Party.

He lashed out angrily after his finance minister, Yair Lapid, the leader of the Yesh Atid party, publicly accused him of playing “petty politics” while ignoring weighty issues such as the budget and Israel’s foreign relations, in the latest of a series of rancorous exchanges.

Recently, hardly a day passes without us running into diktats or threats of resignation, or ultimatums and such, as ministers attack the government and its prime minister

“Recently, hardly a day passes without us running into diktats or threats of resignation, or ultimatums and such, as ministers attack the government and its prime minister,” Mr. Netanyahu told Sunday’s weekly cabinet meeting.

“I hope that we will be able to return to proper conduct. This is what the public expects of us because only thus is it possible to run the country, and if not, we will draw conclusions.”

His comments were the clearest sign yet that the country was heading toward an early election, less than two years after Mr. Netanyahu formed a mostly right-wing coalition in which Mr. Lapid headed the second-biggest party.

The combative Mr. Netanyahu has faced falling approval ratings but opinion surveys indicate that Likud would again emerge as the largest party in a fresh poll, giving him a fourth term as premier. After days of talk of a “coalition crisis,” sources close to the Israeli leader said the country was “98% into an election,” the liberal newspaper Haaretz reported.

The open talk of an election followed threats from Tzipi Livni, the justice minister, and Mr. Lapid to resign if a controversial bill to declare Israel “the nation state of the Jewish people” became law.

Although its 1948 Declaration of Independence already does this, critics say enshrining it in law would undermine Israel’s democratic character, enrage the country’s Arab minority, and possibly enable future illiberal legislation.

The prime minister says the law is necessary to fend off Palestinian opposition to Jews’ right to live in Israel, but Mr. Lapid and Ms. Livni say it is a threat to the country’s democratic character since it would reduce Arabs to second-class citizenship, and that it has been introduced for electioneering purposes.

Amid the political manoeuvring, a parliamentary vote on the bill scheduled for Wednesday is likely to be postponed, government insiders suggested.

The cabinet approved the Jewish nation state bill last week against a backdrop of increasing tensions between Jews and Arabs and outbreaks of anti-Arab racism. On Saturday, arsonists attacked a mixed school in Jerusalem that promotes coexistence between the two communities.

The major issues are stuck and the prime minister isn’t doing anything about the state budget, Israel’s international relations, personal security and housing

In an unabashed personal attack, Mr. Lapid told an audience in Tel Aviv on the weekend that he had not spoken to Mr. Netanyahu outside cabinet meetings for five weeks.

“The major issues are stuck and the prime minister isn’t doing anything about the state budget, Israel’s international relations, personal security and housing,” he said. “Instead we are dealing with the pettiest of politics.

“The prime minister needs to decide that he doesn’t want elections. This crisis can be solved in a conversation between us.”

Nahum Barnea, an influential columnist with the mass circulation Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper, criticized the prime minister in even more vitriolic terms, writing: “He has gone into what people who know much more than me about psychology call a manic-depressive state. There are ministers who are certain that he is no longer functional.”

A new opinion poll published Sunday in the Haaretz daily provided little incentive for anyone to head to elections, though.

Asked which politician is most suited to be prime minister, 35% of respondents said they favoured Mr. Netanyahu, down from 42% in August, after a war against militants in the Gaza Strip. It said 38% were satisfied with his performance, down from 77% in early August. Forty-seven per cent said Mr. Netanyahu should step down before the next elections to allow someone else to hold the top job.

Yet the same poll showed shrinking support for Mr. Lapid, Ms. Livni and the opposition Labor Party. And the fact that the more liberal side of the map is split into three main parties also creates awkwardness for the opposition and may be preventing momentum for change.

The only party that showed gains was the hard-line “Jewish Home.”

One wild card is the possible entrance to the race by Moshe Kahlon, a former member of the Likud Party who has combined an agenda favouring middle-class economic issues with a tough policy on security matters, and who could, some believe, ultimately throw his weight behind a different prime ministerial prospect than the Mr. Netanyahu. He is polling around 10% in most surveys.

The poll interviewed 511 people and had a margin of error of 4.1 percentage points.

Reuven Hazan, a political scientist at the Hebrew University, said it is not in anyone’s interest, except perhaps Jewish Home leader Naftali Bennett, to push for new elections.

“But politics is not always rational, and sometimes the dynamics of hatred, the statements made off camera, they tend to take on a life of their own,” he said.

“Netanyahu is unliked by most Israeli voters,” he added. “But there isn’t anyone else to challenge him.”

Iran to Turn Uranium Into Reactor Fuel
Dec 1st, 2014
Daily NewsArutz Sheva
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Bushehr nuclear power plant

AFP photo

Iran will convert more of its higher-grade enriched uranium into reactor fuel under an extended nuclear deal with world powers, making the material less suitable for building atomic bombs, a diplomatic source told Reuters on Monday.

Last week, Iran and the United States, France, Germany, Britain, China, and Russia failed to meet a November 24 deadline for resolving their dispute over Tehran's nuclear program. They gave themselves until the end of June for further negotiations.

It was the second time this year they had missed a self-imposed target for a comprehensive agreement under which Iran would curb its nuclear program in exchange for an end to sanctions hobbling Tehran's economy.

As a result, a preliminary accord reached in late 2013 will remain in force. Under its terms, Iran halted its most sensitive nuclear activity in return for limited easing of sanctions.

Accordingly, Iran earlier this year eliminated its stockpile of uranium gas enriched to a fissile concentration of 20 percent, a relatively short technical step away from weapons-grade material. A large part of it was processed into oxide.

When the deal was first extended in July, Iran undertook to move further away from potential weapons material by converting 25 kg of the uranium oxide - a quarter of the total - into nuclear fuel during the initial four-month extension.

The diplomatic source said Iran would now continue this work and he suggested around 5 kg would be converted per month, according to Reuters.

In a letter seen by Reuters on Monday, Iran and the six powers asked the UN nuclear watchdog to continue checks that Tehran is honoring its undertakings, including "monitoring of fuel fabrication" for a Tehran research reactor.

The governing board of the UN atomic watchdog agency will hold an extraordinary meeting in Vienna on December 11 to discuss its monitoring of the nuclear deal extension.

The Islamic Republic hotly denies its nuclear program is meant to build a nuclear weapon, even though the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has revealed Iran is not abiding by the interim conditions in refusing to answer questions on the military aspects of its program.

Has the Hamas - Fatah Unity Government Expired?
Dec 1st, 2014
Daily NewsArutz Sheva
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Fatah's Azzam al-Ahmed, Hamas's Ismail Haniyeh

Abed Rahim Khatib/Flash 90

Despite the fact that the Hamas-Fatah unity government held its first cabinet meeting in Gaza in October and declared the "division is over," the two rival groups appear firmly divided over whether that government has expired or not.

Hamas spokesperson Sami Abu Zuhri said Sunday that the six-month mandate of the unity government agreed on in April - an agreement that torpedoed peace talks with Israel - and established in June had ended.

Abu Zuhri said "national dialogue and consensus" should decide whether to break apart the government or change its members, adding Hamas "isn't interested in incitement, but rather seeks to maintain national unity."

However, a senior Fatah official told the Palestinian Arab Ma'an News Agency on Sunday that the unity government had not been set up with a six month deadline.

The official, Faisal Abu Shahla, acknowledged that elections were to be held "within at least six months" from the formation of the government, along with several other missions, but that no agreement had been made whereby the government's term would end if those tasks were not completed.

"If the Hamas movement has retracted the reconciliation agreement and the termination of rivalry, that is a different case," Abu Shahla said, without elaborating on his ominous statement.

Apparently a key factor to be resolved before the Hamas and Fatah iron out the issue is the bomb attacks on homes of Fatah leaders last month in Gaza, with around ten explosions coming just days ahead of a Fatah rally in memorial of former Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Yasser Arafat that was cancelled after Hamas said it couldn't promise security.

Hamas denied responsibility for the attacks, although its statement that it couldn't guarantee security at the memorial in its own stronghold of Gaza was seen by many as an indirect admission of responsibility.

Hamas sweepingly won Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) elections in 2006 before violently ousting Fatah from Gaza in 2007 and taking power.

The most recent reconciliation attempt has been rocked by tensions, most notably Hamas's attempt to stage a violent coup in Judea and Samaria against the PA.

The US has shown a supportive stance on the unity government, claiming Hamas is not represented in it to justify that stance - despite the fact that one of the unity government ministers was previously the education minister in Hamas's Gaza government.

Further showing Hamas's presence in the unity government, during the government's first cabinet meeting in October held in Gaza, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh said "the division in the Palestinian people has ended. We have one government and one region."

Hamas to Abbas: Stop Spreading Lies
Dec 1st, 2014
Daily NewsArutz Sheva
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

The Hamas terror organization yesterday (Sunday) called to Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas to stop spreading lies, following Abbas's interview on Egyptian television stating that negotiations had been conducted between themselves and Israel and that they had arrived at certain agreements as a result.]

In the interview, Abbas stated he had proof, whereupon Hamas called upon him to present it.

Ebola Crisis: Huge Risk of Spread - UN's Tony Banbury
Dec 1st, 2014
Daily NewsBBC
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

The head of the UN Ebola response mission in West Africa has told the BBC there is still a "huge risk" the deadly disease could spread to other parts of the world.

Tony Banbury declined to say if targets he had set in the fight against Ebola, to be achieved by Monday, had been met.

The targets were for the proportion of people being treated and for the safe burial of highly infectious bodies.

The UN boss was speaking in Freetown, one of the worst-affected areas.

On Sunday in Sierra Leone's capital, bulldozers were clearing large areas for a new burial ground.

At the clearance site, near a rubbish tip, car after car was arriving with bodies, and several hundred workers were digging graves.

In October, Mr Banbury told the UN Security Council that by 1 December, "70% of all those infected by the disease must be under treatment and 70% of the victims safely buried if the outbreak is to be successfully arrested".

This interim goal - the ultimate UN goal is zero Ebola deaths - was set to try to bend down the upward curve in the graph of cases.

Mr Banbury said the 70% targets were being met in "the vast majority" of areas in the three worst-affected countries - Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia.

"But in some areas", he said, "including here in Sierra Leone - especially in the capital Freetown and in the town of Port Loko - we are falling short. And it is in those areas where we really need to focus our assets and our capabilities".

In its latest report on 29 November, the World Health Organization said 6,928 people were now known to have died from Ebola. More than 16,000 have been infected.

Between 200 and 300 people are dying every week. Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone are by the far the worst hit countries.

But Mr Banbury said the situation would have been even worse if the UN had not intervened:

"Early on we adopted a strategy to get this crisis under control which involves treatment centres, safe burials and community mobilisation. That strategy is working."

The American UN boss added that, even so, "there is a huge risk to the world that Ebola will spread. It may spread around this sub-region, or someone could get on a plane to Asia, Latin America, North America or Europe... that is why it is so important to get down to zero cases as quickly as possible".

Church Resignations Hit 7,800 After Gay Marriage Vote
Dec 1st, 2014
Daily Newsyle uutiset
Categories: Today's Headlines;Moral Decline

Nearly 8,000 people have resigned from the Lutheran Church since parliament on Friday approved a law allowing same-sex marriages. The Archbishop of Turku and Finland, Kari Mäkinen, had earlier made comments supporting gender-neutral marriage.

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AIPAC Wants Tougher Sanctions on Iran
Dec 1st, 2014
Daily NewsArutz Sheva
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Nuclear talks in Geneva

Reuters

The pro-Israel lobby AIPAC is urging a dramatic escalation in sanctions on Iran in response to a recent seven-month extension of nuclear talks, The Associated Press (AP) reported on Monday.

According to the report, the group wants the United States to reinstate all economic penalties on Iran suspended during the diplomacy.

It also seeks a U.S. ban on Iranian oil exports worldwide and more Iranian industries blacklisted.

The call comes a week after Iran and six world powers extended nuclear talks by seven months after failing to reach an agreement by a November 24 deadline.

Even before the talks were extended, there were growing calls among Congress members on President Barack Obama to toughen the sanctions on Iran.

Senators Robert Menendez and Mark Kirk were the lead sponsors of a bill introduced late last year to impose new sanctions on Iran if international negotiations on curbing its nuclear ambitions falter.

The bill was gaining momentum in Congress, but Obama lobbied hard against it and has more than once threatened to veto the bill if it passes.

Congressional lawmakers, including Menendez and Kirk, several weeks ago warned Obama they will work to increase sanctions on Iran if the administration makes what they consider a bad deal over Tehran's nuclear program.

The Obama administration, however, believes new Iran sanctions would harm hopes for a diplomatic breakthrough. State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said Monday the U.S. must avoid new measures while negotiations continue.