Looking for His glorious appearing! Titus 2:13

Your Christian Faith Could Cost Your Job
Dec 29th, 2014
Daily NewsProphecy News Watch
Categories: Today's Headlines;Persecution;Commentary

He seemed like a shoe in for the job of Director of Public Health for the state of Georgia. A medical doctor and PhD, Dr. Eric Walsh had been thoroughly vetted for the position in over 100 pages of documentation praising the doctor being hired by the agency. That is, until Dr. Walsh’s Christian sermons were uncovered.

In a law suit filed by Liberty Institute on behalf of Dr. Walsh, it is alleged that Department of Public Health, DPH, Human Resource decision-makers decided not to hire the doctor after viewing You Tube recordings of his sermons. Dr. Walsh’s Christian faith and his sermons came under investigation following complaints about his Christian beliefs, one complaint coming from the co-chair of the county Democratic Party and a gay activist who threatened to arrange protests if Walsh was hired by the state agency.

Subsequently, several high-ranking employees of the DPH listened to the sermons and decided to withdraw their offer of employment to Dr. Walsh. Believing that the offer was withdrawn solely because of his Christian beliefs, Dr. Walsh filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, EEOC. Under United States law, discrimination in hiring based upon religious beliefs is unlawful according to the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Increasingly, the careers of American military personnel are threatened because of their Christian convictions. After Senior Master Sgt. Phillip Monk objected to the planned punishment of a Lackland Air Force base instructor’s religious objections to homosexuality, Monk was also questioned about his personal views on the practice. Following this inquiry, Staff Sgt. Monk states,” I was relieved of my position because I do not agree with my commander’s position on gay marriage. We have been told that if you publicly say that homosexuality is wrong, you are in violation of Air Force policy.”

The Liberty Institute has also filed a religious discrimination lawsuit on behalf of Monk. The accusations against Monk are a court-martial offense, which means this 19-year veteran, with an otherwise spotless military record, if convicted, could face discharge from the military, solely for expressing his Christian principles.

In British Columbia, Canada, Bethany Paquette applied for a position with Amaruk Wilderness Corp., as a wilderness guide in Canada’s North country. An avid outdoor adventurer, Bethany was a qualified applicant and an experienced river-rafting guide, with a biology degree from Trinity Western University, a Christian college that requires adherence to the Christian conviction of traditional marriage and sexual morality.

Bethany was shocked when she received an e-mail that not only rejected her as an applicant, but went on to denigrate her Christian convictions and Trinity Western University, stating that unlike Trinity Western University, Amaruk Wilderness Adventures “embraces diversity and the right of people to sleep with or marry whoever they want.” 

In subsequent e-mails, representatives of the company went on to blame Christianity for most of the world’s problems and to make derogatory remarks concerning Jesus Christ. In response to the degrading e-mails, Paquette retained an attorney who has presented her case to the British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal based upon Canada’s anti-religious discrimination laws. Paquette’s lawyer, Jeffery Trotter, is asking the tribunal to send "a really strong message" that "it is not acceptable to discriminate based on what somebody believes or where they went to school and that it is not 'open season' on Christians in Canada.”

These stories represent a few of the instances of Christians facing discrimination by employers or potential employers based on their beliefs, but these represent only a few of such allegations and pending lawsuits. Stories reporting employers denying workers the right to wear crosses, honor the Sabbath, share their Christian faith, and of course, the stories of Christian merchants facing litigation for refusing to bake cakes, cater, or perform wedding ceremonies for same sex unions, have become common in the Western press.

In fact, according to a Tananbaum Center for Interreligious Understanding’s study from 2013, six out of ten white evangelical Christian’s say that discrimination against Christians is just as prevalent as is discrimination against minority religions, and one in three evangelicals report having experienced or having witnessed such discrimination. In the present dismal Western job market, this sort of discrimination can cause Christians to experience real anxiety.

Organizations like the Alliance Defending Freedom, and the Christian Legal Defense, the the American Center for Law and Justice and the Liberty Institute, are busy defending Christians against illegal workplace discrimination in the U.S. and in other nations as well. Since the persecution of Christian’s was predicted by Jesus Christ, we can expect employment discrimination, as part of that promised persecution, to intensify as the the culture becomes increasingly secularized and opposed to Jesus Christ and His followers. (John 15:20)

Terror Fears Push Queen's Guards Behind Security Fences
Dec 29th, 2014
Daily NewsThe Age
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

A guardsman stands on duty outside Clarence House. Photo: Reuters

London: Royal guards have been moved from their traditional posts outside the England's palaces amid fears that Islamist fanatics may target them.

The instantly recognisable Queen's Guards have been withdrawn from their sentry boxes in front of Buckingham Palace, Clarence House, St James's Palace and Windsor Castle to positions behind locked gates or fences.

The decision was taken by Buckingham Palace and police due to fears that "lone wolf" attackers inspired by the Islamic State group might see them as a high-profile target.

Although the ceremonial guards carry rifles fitted with a bayonet, the firearms are not loaded.

Armed police already provide additional security for the soldiers, after the murder of a soldier on ceremonial duty at Canada's national war memorial in a suspected terror attack in October and the killing of Drummer Lee Rigby outside Woolwich barracks last year.

Guards have also been told not to take sentry duty alone, for the first time since the height of the IRA threat.

Some former guards said the "retreat" in the face of terrorism was disappointing. Retired Major Iain Dalzel-Job of the Scots Guards said: "I think this is a big shame. The reason people know we're around is because they can see us. But I suppose the changes are necessary as there is a significant threat."

However, Terry O'Shea, a former Welsh Guardsman, said: "Moving the guardsmen back to a more secure area seems an honourable retreat given the danger posed by the terrorists.

"You could argue that there should be a defiant stand, but how do you protect the soldiers on parade in a bright suit, shiny boots and a furry hat?"

Scotland Yard and Buckingham Palace declined to comment on security issues.

PLA Drills Sandwich Japan from North and South
Dec 29th, 2014
Daily NewsWant China Times
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

The People's Liberation Army appears to be strategizing on how it would sandwich Japan from the north and south in the event of a military conflict, says a Taiwanese military expert.

Ching Chang, a research fellow at Taiwan's Society for Strategic Studies, made the comments in response to a series of naval drills conducted by the PLA's three main fleets — the North Sea Fleet, the East Sea Fleet and the South Sea Fleet — earlier this month.

On Dec. 4, the North Sea Fleet's flagship Harbin Type 052 destroyer, the 054A Yantai and Yancheng multi-role frigates, and the Taihu Type 903 replenishment ship, traveled east through the narrow Osumikaikyo Strait southwest of Japan, before heading north to perform drills by passing through the Kuril Islands north of Japan and into the Sea of Okhotsk. Then on Christmas Day, the fleet passed through the La Perouse Strait north of the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido before returning via the disputed East China Sea.

According to Chang, this was the second time a PLA vessel has passed through the La Perouse Strait. The first time took place last July during joint military drills with Russia, when China relied on its ally to help navigate through the waters. On this occasion, however, the North Fleet navigated through the strait by itself, suggesting that the PLA is not only capable of battle in cold regions but also growing increasingly familiar with Japanese waterways, Chang said.

Meanwhile, the East Sea Fleet has conducted drills near the Miyako Strait south of the main Japanese islands. For a week beginning Dec. 6, the PLA sent fighter jets into the West Pacific to participate in air-sea live-fire drills with six vessels of the East Sea Fleet. On Dec. 12, the fleet passed through the strait on its return to China.

Judging from the paths and timing of the PLA drills, it appears that China is strategizing how it would sandwich Japan from the north and south at the same time, said Chang, adding that this is the first time that such an exercise has been carried out.

PLA vessels have been increasing their activity around Japanese waters in recent years, partly to verify the response distance and capabilities of Japanese surveillance systems and partly to become more familiar with the region, Chang said. The most important reason, however, is to expand the PLA's influence in the Asia-Pacific as a show of strength to Japan and the US, he added, noting that the drills have a diplomatic meaning akin to Chinese maritime police boats regularly patrolling the waters surrounding the Diaoyutai islands (Diaoyu to China, Senkaku to Japan) in the East China Sea held by Japan but claimed by both China and Taiwan.

Palestinian Leadership Hijack Christianity: Jesus Declared a Palestinian
Dec 29th, 2014
Daily NewsProphecy News Watch
Categories: Today's Headlines;The Nation Of Israel;Commentary

Palestinian leaders this Christmas season are bent on claiming Jesus Christ and the celebration of His birth as their own.

Despite the fact that Jesus’ birthplace of Judea wasn’t renamed “Palestine” until at least 100 years after his death, despite the fact that modern-day Palestinians didn’t adopt that name until the 20th century, Palestinian Authority officials have repeatedly claimed recently that Jesus was a “Palestinian.”

Some PA officials went so far as to claim Jesus was the first Palestinian “martyr.”

Last week, for example, PA President Mahmoud Abbas stated, “We celebrate the birth of Jesus, a Palestinian messenger of love, justice and peace.”

Palestinian Media Watch notes that Abbas’ Advisor on Religious and Islamic Affairs Mahmoud Al-Habbash announced, “Christmas is also a Palestinian holiday, because Jesus, peace be upon him, was Palestinian. He was born in Palestine; lived and was sent [as prophet] to Palestine. Therefore, Christmas has a special Palestinian flavor.’”

Ramallah’s District Governor Laila Ghannam further expressed her hope for “victory, far off as it may be” and encouraged Palestinians to “be merry” and celebrate Christmas as, “Jesus the Messiah is Palestinian,” documented PMW.

On his Facebook page, Adnan Al-Damiri, the official spokesman of the PA Security Forces, wrote last week that at Christmas we celebrate “the anniversary of love and peace, the birth day of Jesus the Palestinian.”

Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat referred in an interview to “the first martyr, the first Palestinian, Jesus.”

PMW documents that on his Facebook page, Tawfiq Tirawi, a member of the Fatah Central Committee, wished the “united Palestinian people a new Christmas that will herald liberty, as did Jesus, the first Palestinian.”

The Bible’s Books of Luke and Matthew state Jesus was born in Bethlehem, a province of Judea. Judea also contained the cities of Jerusalem, Jericho, Bethany, Bethpage, Emmaus and others.

After the Great Jewish Revolt (66-73 A.D.) and Bar Kokhba’s revolt (132-135 A.D.), the Roman Emperor Hadrian changed the name of Judea to Syria Palaestina. Some scholars have concluded this change was made to scrub the Jewish people of its history and relationship to the region.

Modern Palestinian leadership, as well, has attempted to rewrite history and the biblical text. In a 2007 in-person interview with WND, Chief Palestinian Justice Sheikh Taysir Tamimi claimed the Jewish Temples never existed, the Western Wall really was a tying post for Muhammad’s horse, the Al Aqsa Mosque was built by angels, and Abraham, Moses and Jesus were prophets for Islam.

MIRV: a Nuclear Game - Changer for India and China
Dec 29th, 2014
Daily NewsWant China Times
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Let the Headlines Speak
Dec 29th, 2014
Daily NewsFrom the internet
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

NY Mayor de Blasio Heckled at Police Graduation Ceremony
Mayor Bill de Blasio on Monday drew heckles and boos as well as cheers when he addressed graduating police cadets on Monday, two days after thousands of uniformed officers turned their backs on him at a slain policeman's funeral.  

This Era of Low-Cost Oil Is Different
The world is experiencing much more than a temporary dip in oil prices. Because of a change in the supply model, this is a fundamental shift that will likely have long-lasting effects.  

Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant unplugs from the grid for good this week
VERNON, VT -- The 620-megawatt Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant will disconnect from the regional power grid this week after four decades of producing electricity, according to the company's decommissioning website.  

Michele Bachmann Accuses Obama Of Assisting Anti-Israel Jihadists
She said she has watched Obama, “at every turn, cut the legs of our ally, Israel, and in fact embrace and lift up the agenda of Islamic jihad.” Obama’s ostensibly enthusiastic support of Iran’s leader as that nation reportedly moves toward the creation of a nuclear weapon, Bachmann said, is a further cause for serious concern.  

Judge Jeanine: De Blasio Is A Coward And A Bully With Blood On His Shoes
Instead of uniting the country during these volatile times since the Michael Brown incident in Ferguson, the leaders, Judge Jeanine said, have been stoking the flames of hatred. (Video)  

It's Not the Zombie Apocalypse, but Killer Superbugs Could Be on the Way
..drug-resistant superbugs are on pace to kill an extra 10 million people per year worldwide and cost up to $100 trillion by 2050 if global governments and pharmaceutical drug developers don't focus on battling these evolving diseases.

Egypt reports 10th bird flu death this year
The death occurred last week in the southern province of Aswan, health ministry spokesman Hossam Abdel Ghaffar said. In the capital, a 42-year-old man was diagnosed and quarantined on December 26, the 25th case of bird flu in the country this year but the first infection reported in Cairo.  

Last Jew in Pakistan Fights for Jewish Cemetery
Engineer Fishel (Faisal) Benkhald, a Pakistani who according to his own estimation is the last Jew in the Muslim country, is struggling to preserve the Jewish cemetery in Karachi, Pakistan's largest city with a population of 20 million.  

NYPD cop slayings: Never forget who's to blame
Officers Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu were executed by a black Muslim thug in Brooklyn, New York, in retaliation for the deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Garner. During the funeral, hundreds of police turned their backs on NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio as he spoke. Why? Because those officers know de Blasio has blood on his hands.  

Three dead, thousands flee as storm hits Mindanao
BUTUAN, Philippines — Three people were killed, one is missing and thousands fled their homes as a tropical storm battered the southern Philippines with strong winds and heavy rain, officials said Monday. The storm, locally named “Seniang” and with winds of up to 80 kilometers (50 miles) per hour, slammed into the main southern island of Mindanao before dawn, then crossed to the central islands, the state weather buerau said.  

Magnitude 6.1 quake rocks Sulu Sea off Zamboanga City, aftershocks expected
MANILA, Philippines―A magnitude 6.1 earthquake hit the Sulu Sea off Zamboanga City late Monday afternoon with aftershocks expected, the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) said.  

COMET LOVEJOY BRIGHTENS
It's official. Comet Lovejoy (C/2014 Q2) is now a naked-eye object. Science journalist and longtime comet watcher Mariano Ribas of the Planetario de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires, Argentina, reports that as of last night "Comet Lovejoy has reached magnitude 5.0, just above the threshold for human visibility from dark-sky sites.  

Auschwitz anniversary a reminder that anti-Semitism at levels not seen since WWII
Ronald S. Lauder told Reuters in an interview anti-Semitism had reached levels not seen since World War Two, driven by Islamist extremists using hatred of Jews as a way to attack Israel, and by far-right nationalists in Europe.  

Anti-Police Protesters Plan to Disrupt New Year’s Eve Celebrations
Anti-police protesters are planning to disrupt New Year’s Eve celebrations at major metropolitan sites. The website Stop Mass Incarceration calls upon activists to not allow New Years Eve 2015 “to go down because business as usual in Amerikkka includes wanton police murder of Black people.”  

Racial unrest in Ferguson and New York a Communist Revolution
The last words of Eric Garner: “I can’t breathe” were taken directly from his lips, plagiarized and put into use by the Revolutionary Communist Party USA. The overnight outbreak of violence in Ferguson and New York, including looting and burning in Ferguson, is not a spontaneous grassroots community response to the Grand Jury decisions not to indict Michael Brown and Eric Garner. It is being fully scripted and orchestrated by the Revolutionary Communist Party USA as a beefed-up “orientation for making revolution in the imperialist countries such as the U.S.”  

Peace on Earth? I Don’t Think So
Around the world millions of Christians joined together to celebrate the birth of Jesus and to pray for “peace on Earth, good will toward men.” The 2015 World Almanac puts the number of Christians in the world at 2,347,171,000, by far the largest group sharing the same spiritual beliefs. It puts the number of Muslims at 1,633,173,000. Of the seven billion residents of planet Earth, more than six billion identify themselves as part of one of the many different faiths, to include Hindu, Buddhist, and others.  

Pope Francis's New Year's Resolution: Tackle Climate Change
Pope Francis has rocked both the religious and secular worlds this year by eschewing papal security, embracing the poor and reaching out to gay and lesbian people. And it won’t end there. For 2015 he’s got a whopping New Year’s resolution: Tackle climate change.  

Indonesian rescue official: Missing plane likely 'at the bottom of the sea'
Indonesia's top rescue official says authorities believe the missing AirAsia jet is likely at the bottom of the sea, based on radar data from the plane's last contact. "(Because) the coordinate that was given to us and the evolution from the calculation point of the flight track is at sea, our early conjecture is that the plane is in the bottom of the sea," said Marsdya Tni Hendry Bambang, head of Indonesia's national search and rescue agency.  

The Interview makes $15m in online release
Controversial Sony film The Interview has become the number one online movie ever released by the studio just four days after its release on 24 December.  

Turkey backs Palestinians over holy site tensions
Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said Sunday that Turkey stands behind Palestinians in their efforts to oppose what he called Israeli attempts to "reduce the Islamic character" of Jerusalem. Davutoglu was speaking to reporters in the central Turkish city of Konya, a day after meeting with exiled Hamas chief Khaled Mashaal.  

Hamas bars Gaza children from Israel trip
Gaza's Hamas rulers prevented a group of children from entering Israel on Sunday for a postwar conciliatory trip meant to foster peace, Hamas and organizers said. The 37 children, most of whom have lost a parent in fighting between Hamas and Israel, were to enter Israel on Sunday and spend a week visiting Jewish and Arab communities and a zoo. They were also going to travel to the West Bank for a meeting with the Palestinian president.  

Unauthorized Muslim Construction on Temple Mount
Unauthorized work being done on the Temple Mount floor was filmed today (December 28, 2014). The work, which included the breaking up of the Temple Mount surface by jackhammer, was ordered by the Muslim Waqf.  

Islamic Banking Set to Boom in Canada
Dec 29th, 2014
Daily NewsThe Vancouver Sun
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

ISIS Closing in on Israel from the North and the South
Dec 29th, 2014
Daily NewsProphecy News Watch
Categories: Today's Headlines;The Nation Of Israel;War

The war against ISIS is taking a dangerous, perhaps inevitable turn. The terror organization has been keen to expand to southern Syria and the Syrian capital of Damascus. Now it says it has recruited three Syrian rebel groups operating in the south of the country in an area bordering the Israeli occupied Golan Heights — that have switched their loyalties to ISIS.

This switch means that Israel, the U.S.’s closest ally in the Middle East, could be threatened from the southwest by the Egyptian ISIS group of Ansar Bait al-Maqdis in Sinai and by ISIS in southern Syria.

The ISIS war is not going well at all for the US-led alliance in Syria. ISIS and al-Nusra Front, al-Qaeda’s branch in Syria, are still the dominant rebel groups in the country. The U.S.-backed Free Syrian Army is still not a reliable fighting force.

The three rebel groups that just joined ISIS could make that situation even worse. Two of the groups are small in number, but the Yarmouk Martyrs Brigade has hundreds of fighters. The Yarmouk Brigades has been at odds with al-Nusra Front and switched now to join what leaders of all thrwee groups believe is the future of Islam.

“If Israel was attacked by ISIS, America would expect a proportionate response by Israel, which is militarily capable of defending itself,” said Geoffrey Levin, a professor at New York University. “America would counsel against sustained Israeli involvement because it could threaten the tacit alliance between America, Iran, Turkey, and several Arab states against ISIS.”

“More recent reports indicated a closer alliance with [the Islamic State] due to tensions with JN [al-Nusra Front],” said Jasmine Opperman, a researcher at Terrorism Research & Analysis Consortium (TRAC). She said al-Nusra attacked the headquarters of the Yarmouk Brigade in southern Syria in early December 2014 following clashes between the two groups.

Al-Yarmuk Martyrs Brigade controlled an area near the Jordan-Israel border in March 2013. That same month, the brigade took as hostages some of the United Nations peacekeeping mission soldiers. Even so, Israel reportedly allowed the brigade to have its wounded fighters treated in Israeli hospitals.

ISIS has been known for launching surprise attacks and opening new battlefronts when it seems to be losing. ISIS also has been criticized by many Arabs and Muslims for not taking its fight to Israel and instead fighting fellow Arabs and Muslims. An attack aimed at Israel may boost ISIS’s popularity in the Arab world and refresh its recruitment and funding efforts.

On the other hand, some of ISIS’s top military commanders were former officers in Saddam Hussein’s army, and they may resort to what Saddam did in the 1991 Gulf War when he attacked Israel with mid-range rockets, hoping to drag the Israelis into a conflict that he was losing.

An Israeli retaliation in 1991 could have jeopardized the U.S-led coalition that then included Arab countries like Egypt, Syria and Saudi Arabia. The same is true now.

WHY THIS MATTERS

Despite some recent tensions between the countries, Israel remains America’s closest ally in the Middle East. Attacks on Israel by ISIS or affiliated groups could further escalate war in the region, or they could further strain ties between the Obama administration and the Israeli government.

“It would be more likely a sign of desperation, as were Saddam's attempts to lure Israel into the 1991 war as a way of breaking the Arab coalition against him,” said NYU’s Levin. At that time, continuous pressure from the first Bush administration and the installation of the Patriot anti-rocket system convinced the Israelis to refrain from reacting to Saddam’s attack.

Israel could launch a preemptive attack to destroy or significantly damage these ISIS-affiliated units whether by air or by ground forces. Israel used its advanced air force to launch attacks in Syria several times since the beginning of Syrian civil war in 2011.

Meanwhile, Israel has recently boosted its defenses in the Golan Heights, saying its main concern was to prevent any major weapon transfer from Syria to Hezbollah, the Lebanese guerrilla organization that has engaged in several rounds of war with the Israelis since the 1980s. 

Is Putin Building the Next Noah's Ark?
Dec 29th, 2014
Daily NewsThe Jerusalem Post
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

The gigantic ‘ark’, set to be completed by 2018, will be 430 sq km in size, and will be built at Moscow State University.

Noah's Ark illustration. (photo credit:INGIMAGE)

Moscow State University has secured Russia’s largest-ever scientific grant to collect the DNA of every living and extinct creature on the planet, The Russia Today news outlet reported last week.  

RT claims that the collection will be the world’s first database of its kind. 

“I call the project ‘Noah’s Ark.’ It will involve the creation of a depository – a databank for the storing of every living thing on Earth, including not only living, but disappearing and extinct organisms. This is the challenge we have set for ourselves,” RT quoted MSU rector Viktor Sadivnichy as saying. 

The gigantic ‘ark’, set to be completed by 2018, will be 430 sq km in size, and will be built at one of the university’s central campuses, according to the report.

“It will enable us to cryogenically freeze and store various cellular materials, which can then reproduce. It will also contain information systems. Not everything needs to be kept in a petri dish,” Sadivnichy said.

“If it’s realized, this will be a leap in Russian history as the first nation to create an actual Noah’s Ark of sorts,” the rector added.

From Baltic to Asia, East - West Aerial Confrontations Heat Up
Dec 29th, 2014
Daily NewsProphecy News Watch
Categories: Today's Headlines;Commentary

From the skies of the Baltic to the South China Sea, a new era of confrontation with Russia and China is pitting U.S. and allied pilots against their counterparts on a scale not seen since the Cold War era.

It is, current and former officials say, a major shift for air crews who by and large have spent more than a decade flying largely uncontested missions over Afghanistan and Iraq.

Lying behind the aerial sabre-rattling are high tensions between the West and Russia over Moscow's perceived role in Ukraine's separatist conflict.

And China, as it builds up its military on the back of economic growth, has become more assertive over multiple maritime boundary rows with neighbors, some of them allied by treaty with the United States.

With Sweden complaining that a Russian military aircraft nearly hit a civilian airliner, the risk of an accident, perhaps even of conflict, is on the rise.

In August, a U.S. reconnaissance plane and Chinese fighter jet had their own near miss over the South China Sea, while Chinese and Japanese fighter pilots increasingly spar over disputed islands.

"There's been a very significant escalation, particularly in the last year," says Christopher Harmer, a former U.S. Navy pilot and now senior fellow at the Institute for Study of War in Washington. "These incidents are now happening on a scale we have not seen in 25 years."

The shooting last July down of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 over eastern Ukraine, where government forces have been fighting pro-Russian separatist rebels, was a reminder of the dangers to civil aircraft flying over contested air space.

NATO said earlier this month that its jets had scrambled more than 400 times this year as Russian air force jets approached its air space, twice the level from 2013.

Baltic and Nordic countries in particular - all members of NATO or the European Union or both - have reported increased Russian air force activity.

Both Sweden and Denmark summoned the Russian ambassadors to complain about the near miss near southern Sweden.

"It's not only the question of increased flights... but the way they are conducting them," NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told a news conference on Monday.

Russian aircraft, he said, are not registering with air traffic control, filing flight plans or activating their transponders, a communications instrument that makes it easier for an aircraft in flight to be located.

Aviation experts say the advent of budget airlines has markedly increased the number of civilian flights through the Baltic region, at least doubling it since the Cold War ended.

"NATIONAL HONOR"

During the Cold War, ex-U.S. Navy pilot Harmer said all sides were mindful of accident risks. Most squadron commanders on both sides had been flying such missions for years.

Some of the more aggressive actions by Chinese jets in particular might be the result of impetuous junior officers rather than a central directive from Beijing, former U.S. air force intelligence officer Christian Lin-Greenburg wrote in September in the National Interest journal.

"The recklessness of the pilot may be more representative of the risk seeking behavior of relatively junior year ego-driven commanders," he wrote.

Beijing should introduce better risk management training for its officers, he said, or risk a repeat of an incident in 2000 when one of its jets collided with a U.S. spy plane. The Chinese pilot died and the U.S. plane was forced to land in China.

Outside the Baltics, experts say they worry about incidents around the Senkaku Islands between China and Japan, known as the Diaoyutai in Chinese. Centuries of ethnic divisions could supercharge matters, they say.

"You're talking about sometimes hot-headed young pilots who believe that national honor is at stake," said one Western official on condition of anonymity.

Ultimately, the risks of an accident may diminish over time.

In the Gulf, officials say Iranian and U.S.-led forces, at odds since Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution, have become increasingly adept at keeping clear of each other.

Emergency Shutdown At Ukraines Largest Nuclear Power Plant
Dec 29th, 2014
Daily NewsRT
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Zaporizhia, the largest nuclear power plant in Europe, is in southeast Ukraine on the banks of the Dnieper River. © Wikicommons

One of the reactors at the Zaporizhia Nuclear Power Plant was automatically shut down after a glitch. This was the second halt in operations in recent weeks at the plant in Ukraine’s southeast, which covers at least one fifth of the country’s power needs.

“Unit 6 at Zaporizhzhya NPP was disconnected from the network by the automatic system that prevents damage to the generator. The reactor is running at 40 percent of nominal power,” the plant’s official website says stressing that radiation at the facility is equal to the natural background, which is 8-12 microroentgen/hour.

This accident took place on Sunday morning at 05:59 am local time (03:59 GMT). Causes are still being investigated, while the Energy Ministry hopes to restart the unit in the coming days. The remaining five reactors continue to generate an estimated 4,530 MW.

Late on Sunday, the problem had been fixed and the power plant’s sixth power block had been plugged back into the network, the plant said on its website.

"Unit №6 was plugged back in after an error was corrected...At this moment all six power blocks are working,” the statement said.

The previous incident at Zaporizhia NPP happened on November 28, but the fact went public five days later, when Ukraine’s Prime Minister Arseny Yatsenyuk revealed it during the first session of his new cabinet.

At that time the shutdown was caused by a short circuit. As a result, Unit 3 was switched off and put into maintenance to resume operations on December 5.

Zaporizhia is the largest nuclear power plant not only in Ukraine, but also in Europe and also the fifth largest NPP in the world. It is on the bank of the Kakhovka water reservoir on the Dnieper River, some 200 kilometers from the rebel Donetsk region.

Ukraine’s four nuclear power plants constitute a huge part of the country's energy system. Fifteen nuclear reactors produce at least 50 percent (over 13 megawatt) of all electric power in Ukraine. Zaporizhia NPP alone produces up to 22 percent of all electricity generated in the country.

Two Zaporizhia NPP reactors are to be decommissioned for complete overhaul in February 2015 having operated for 30 years. Unit 1 will be out for maintenance for 129 days.

The new accident at Zaporizhia NPP might deteriorate the catastrophic energy shortage Ukraine is currently witnessing, as its fossil power plants have run out of coal.

National energy company Ukrenergo has launched emergency power cuts all over the country to help sustain energy. Consumers are experiencing blackouts that last for hours every day. Ukrainian enterprises are forced to limit their energy consumption and to switch to night production.

Kiev authorities have been refusing to buy coal from the Donetsk and Lugansk regions, as they don’t want “to sponsor” the rebels, and instead turned to other countries. Those attempts were unsuccessful due to general inability to pay or the fact that the supplied coal didn’t fit Ukraine’s energy production.

On Saturday, the Russian president’s spokesman said Russia will supply coal and electricity to Ukraine without prepayment.

Throughout 2014 Zaporizhzhya NPP came into the spotlight of world media on several occasions. In May, Ukrainian police prevented a group of armed men, reportedly from the Right Sector neo-Nazi paramilitary group, from entering Europe's largest nuclear power plant.

Then the news came that Kiev had signed a new deal with America’s leading nuclear fuel producer, Westinghouse Electric Company, instead of the Russian TVEL company that has been supplying fuel rods to Ukraine for years. This was done despite the fact that using US fuel rods was banned in 2012 due to dangerous incompatibility.

In August, Greenpeace expressed concern that Zaporizhia NPP is vulnerable to ‘direct bombardment’ in Ukraine if caught in the conflict.

Chinese Military Confirms Df - 41 Flight Test
Dec 29th, 2014
Daily NewsThe Washington Free Beacon
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Al - Qaeda Urges Lone Wolf Attacks on Airliners
Dec 29th, 2014
Daily NewsThe Times of Israel
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Jihadist group’s magazine encourages operatives to target commercial airlines, praises US terror attacks

Al-Qaeda has called for “lone-wolf” terror attacks against a number of major airlines.

The winter issue of Inspire, an English-language online magazine edited by the jihadist group, urges that bombs be detonated on the planes of several preeminent US commercial airline companies — American Airlines, Delta, United and Continental — in an effort to gain publicity and “crush the enemy’s economy,” according to a report published Saturday by The Guardian, a British newspaper.

The issue, the 13th released by the group responsible for the 9/11 attacks, also advised rogue terrorists as to the prime altitude for detonating explosives; and encouraged them to blow up commercial aircraft above land, causing additional damage to civilian populations below.

In cases where an attack upon a US airline is not achievable, the magazine suggests British or French alternatives such as British Airways, easyJet or Air France or KLM — a Dutch airline that merged with Air France in 2003, according to a blog operated by the Anti-Defamation League, a US-based racism watchdog group.

“The first priority and the main focus should be on America, then the United Kingdom, then France… This goes on with the NATO countries as per the known order,” the magazine read.

The publication went on to praise lone-wolf terrorists because of their ability to stay undetected: “[They are] hard to uncover, because none knows him but Allah. He has no relationship with any group or any individuals.”

Zale Thompson, an ex-US Navy serviceman, was heralded as a “splendid” example of a lone wolf after the reclusive Muslim convert attacked a group of New York City police officers in October with an axe, injuring one seriously before being shot to death.

Zale Thompson shown in surveillance footage wielding a hatchet before attacking police in New York. (screen capture: YouTube)

Authorities confirmed that attack was an act of terror, although Thompson was not known to be affiliated with any organized terror groups.

The magazine also commended the April 2013 Boston Marathon bombing, as well as Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, a Nigerian jihadist who was given a life sentence after attempting to blow up Northwest Airlines Flight 253 from Amsterdam to Detroit in December 2009 with an explosive device hidden in his underwear.

Inspire is published by al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, a group that actively engages in “open source jihad” by recruiting operatives on the Internet.

The magazine was founded by Samir Khan, a Saudi-born Pakistani-American who grew up in New York State. Khan, a US citizen, was killed in 2011 by a US drone strike in Yemen along with ranking al-Qaeda member Anwar al-Awlaki, a fellow US citizen from New Mexico.