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A Service of the Church of God Faithful Flock
Weekly News and Commentary - Week of January 6, 2008
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WORLD NEWS BULLETIN
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Dangerous thunderstorms and tornadoes will continue into tonight across the South. The same system will spark an outbreak of strong storms along the mid-Atlantic coast Friday.
The South Regional News reports increasingly strong storms are erupting from southeastern Louisiana to central Kentucky and will shift eastward later tonight, reaching from the Virginia Panhandle to the Florida Panhandle.
 The risks of food riots and malnutrition will surge in the next two years as the global supply of grain comes under more pressure than at any time in 50 years, according to one of the world’s leading agricultural researchers.
Recent pasta protests in Italy, tortilla rallies in Mexico and onion demonstrations in India are just the start of the social instability to come unless there is a fundamental shift to boost production of staple foods, warned Joachim von Braun, the head of the International Food Policy Research Institute.
The growing appetite of China and other fast-developing nations has combined with the expansion of biofuel programmes in the United States and Europe to transform the global food situation. After decades of expanding crop yields and falling food prices, the past year has seen a sharp rise in the cost of wheat, rice, corn, soya and dairy products. “Demand is running away.
The world has been consuming more than it produces for five years now. Stocks of grain and of rice, wheat and maize are down at levels not seen since the early 1980s,” said Von Braun, whose organisation is the world’s largest alliance of agricultural researchers.
A "strong" underwater earthquake occurred off the coast of B.C. early Saturday morning, registering a magnitude of 6.7.
The quake, the second of three to strike in the same area early this morning, hit at about 3:45 a.m. Pacific Standard Time Saturday, said Guy Urban of the West Coast and Alaska Tsunami Warning Center.
Jan. 5 2008
CTV.ca News Staff
 With the Economy at a Crossroads, The Market's In for Big Shifts
If the first three trading days of the year are any indication, 2008 is bound to test the nerves of even the most poised investors.
After the New Year holiday, the U.S. stock market reopened for business Wednesday with its worst first-day performance in years. Blame $100 crude oil and weak manufacturing data. A day later, a Commerce Department report showing a jump in factory orders buoyed investors, but on Friday the market was again slammed, this time on news of meager employment growth in December.
By Tomoeh Murakami Tse
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, January 6, 2008
http://www.washingtonpost.com/
 As Grocers, Eateries Pass On Increases, People Are Shopping More Carefully, Cutting Back
With the rising cost of milk, eggs, meat and produce contributing to the biggest jump in food prices in 17 years, consumers are starting to feel the pinch.
Some shoppers, already dealing with falling home values and rising fuel costs, are finding creative ways to save, opting for cheaper ingredients and private-label goods and leaning more heavily on discount grocers. And restaurant diners, who have been eating out less frequently, will likely face even higher prices on menus.
By JULIE JARGON, DAVID KESMODEL and JANET ADAMY
January 3, 2008
http://online.wsj.com/
 Editorial
Europe is Undergoing Vital Reforms
It appears to this observer that we are about to see another side of Javier Solana--a sterner, terser one who will not hesitate to suppress opposition. A "google alert" tonight gave me a 'heads up' on a most significant and disturbing interview Javier Solana gave to People's Daily Online. A picture of the first page of that interview may be seen by clicking the picture to the left. The interview concerned the Europe that will exist both during the 27 nation ratification process and thereafter.
Solana noted that only Ireland will be permitted a referendum on the treaty. All other countries are expected to provide ratification by cooperating parliaments. Having a familiarity with legislative processes and how they tend to go when funding to individual states/countries are involved, the legislatures are certain to play ball -- or face unpleasant Brussels consequences.
Let's hope the emergency does not happen. Let us hope my analysis is wrong. This is all getting just too eerie. A man whose present job was created with Section 666 of the Europa codified documents and who proposes through his ten permanent member Western European Union assembly emergency European powers for himself, now merging and blending with NATO "based on a classified exchange of letters between the EU's High Representative . . . Javier Solana and NATO's Secretary General George Robertson"[1]
90 churches, 600 homes torched during violence
 Nine people are dead and dozens of churches and hundreds of Christians' homes have been torched during a surge of Hindu violence in India, according to reports from organizations working there.
Compass Direct News reports that the deaths and damage have been reported since Christmas Eve, when members of the extremist World Hindu Council launched their assaults on the faithful belonging to Christianity.
 Recent articles in the Washington Times (National Weekly Edition) have highlighted the fact that different departments and agencies of the US government have very different policies and attitudes toward Communist China. Indeed, they are so different that one could characterize the “China policy” of the US Government as “schizophrenic.” I regard these two divergent policies to be the “realist” and the “dreamer” perspectives. First let’s examine the realist perspective.
In Bill Gertz’s “Inside the Ring” column in the 12-17-07 issue of Washington Times (National Weekly Edition), two subhead sections were entitled “Cyberwarfare” and “Navy v. China” (see links below). The former subhead discusses a Congressional Report which examined China’s increasing cyberwarfare efforts against the USA. A Congressional Report is cited which states that China’s military is developing “strategic military capabilities that could be used to support power projection and access denial operations beyond the Asia Pacific region.” [Emphasis added.] This benign language means that China is developing and deploying military power which is meant to wage war against the naval fleets and territories of other nations far away from Chinese and Pacific Ocean regions. This subhead also states that “US Intelligence officials said China’s military has a large-scale program to attack US computer systems, both military and civilian, as part of efforts to cripple war-fighting capabilities in a conflict.” This language shows that China has “large -scale programs” preparing for warfare against the USA. The large size of these programs confirm that China’s national policy is preparing to wage war against the USA. These actions are not being conducted by some rogue wing of the Chinese government.
World News Bulletin is dedicated to bringing you up todate news from around the world with a Biblical Perspective and Focus. We strive to bring the why behind the news from the standpoint of Bible Prophecy.
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Picture of the Day
Trifid Pillars and Jets
Dust pillars are like interstellar mountains. They survive because they are more dense than their surroundings, but they are being slowly eroded away by a hostile environment. Visible in the above picture is the end of a huge gas and dust pillar in the Trifid Nebula, punctuated by a smaller pillar pointing up and an unusual jet pointing to the left. The pink dots are newly formed low-mass stars. A star near the small pillar's end is slowly being stripped of its accreting gas by radiation from a tremendously brighter star situated off the above picture to the upper right. The jet extends nearly a light-year and would not be visible without external illumination. As gas and dust evaporate from the pillars, the hidden stellar source of this jet will likely be uncovered, possibly over the next 20,000 years.
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 Health Alert
 A breed of Frankenfood is being introduced into human diet and cosmetics with potentially disastrous consequences, experts said last night.
Academics, consumer groups and Government officials are warning that the arrival of nanotechnology threatens dangerous changes to the body and the environment.
The particles it uses are so small - 80,000 times thinner than a human hair - that they can pass through membranes protecting the brain or babies in the womb.
BEIJING (Reuters) - China is to launch 15 rockets, 17 satellites and its third manned mission in 2008, flexing its muscle in space in a year in which it will host the summer Olympics.
Huang Qiang, secretary-general of the Commission of Science Technology and Industry for National Defence, revealed the planned launches at a news conference on Monday, the official Xinhua news agency said. He did not give details.
 Officials call it 'provocative;' Iran says ships didn't recognize each other
WASHINGTON - Iranian boats harassed and provoked three American Navy ships in the strategic Strait of Hormuz, threatening to blow up the vessels, U.S. officials said Monday.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry said Monday the confrontation was “something normal” and was resolved, suggesting the Iranian boats had not recognized the U.S. vessels. National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe said the Bush administration urges Iranians “to refrain from such provocative actions that could lead to a dangerous incident in the future.”
 SYDNEY (Reuters) - Heavy rains and flooding in northeast Australia have been both a blessing and a curse for drought-hit farmers, but more rain is needed to break a seven-year drought.
Farm officials say a series of storms have delivered heavy, but sporadic, rain in two of Australia's largest agricultural states, Queensland and New South Wales.
Amo 4:7 And also I have withheld the rain from you,
when there were yet three months to the harvest:
and I caused it to rain upon one city, and caused it
not to rain upon another city: one piece was rained
upon, and the piece whereupon it rained not withered.
 SACRAMENTO, CALIF. -- Howling winds, pelting rain and heavy snow pummeled California on Friday, toppling trees, flipping big rigs and cutting power to more than a million people.
Flights were grounded in northern California as gusts reached 80 m.p.h., sending trees crashing onto houses, cars and roads. Fearing mudslides, authorities in Orange County urged residents of three fire-scarred canyons to flee.
The $100 barrel
Oil and gold hit new highs
TRADITIONALLY, the beginning of the year is a time for bargain-hunters to snap up excess stock on the cheap. Not, this year, on the commodity markets. On Wednesday January 2nd, the first business day of the new year, oil breached $100 a barrel for the first time. Gold, at the same time, reached a record price of over $861 an ounce.
The immediate catalysts for the rising prices were ongoing turmoil in places like Nigeria and Pakistan and the continuing slump of the dollar. To those holding euros or yen, the weakening dollar makes oil and gold look cheaper; they can bid up prices in dollar terms without spending any more of their own currency. Moreover, gold, and nowadays oil too, is seen as a haven when the dollar is weak—so the latter’s drop may be accelerating the former’s rise.
Editorial
 The Mega Picture - Sovereign Wealth Funds (SWF's) are being hailed as the saviours of the financial world, but in reality are more akin to harbingers of the economic apocalypse for countries such as the United States and United Kingdom.
The SWF's have been stepping in of late with tens of billions in financing and investments into the cash starved US banking and finance sector with financial institutions such as Citicorp selling off large chunks every other week to funds such as that to the Abu Dhabi SWF at 4.9% of the company for $7.5bn on a fixed yield of 11%, the terms are far more favorable than offered to domestic investors. Most recent speculation is that Rio Tinto maybe inline for a Chinese SWF bid of as much as $150 billion.
As petro and trade dollars flow into these SWF's, we will find increasingly larger and larger slices of important US and western world capital producing infrastructure flowing into the hands of asian and the middle eastern government controlled funds as part of a multi-pronged strategy
The effect of which is literally to gradually transfer sovereignty of the United States to these countries. Whilst there are many arguments as to the value of sovereignty to the average citizen given the observed quality of the democratic institutions where as little as 50% actually turn out to vote, and further diminished by suspected corruption in the voting process such as hanging shads and denial to thousands of democratic black voters in Florida during 2000. The transfer of sovereignty has consequences that could be deemed to be permanent and irreversible.
by Nadeem Walayat
themarketoracle.co.uk
January 3, 2008
http://www.financialsense.com/
Deu 28:43 The stranger that [is] within thee shall get up above thee very high; and thou shalt come down very low.
Deu 28:44 He shall lend to thee, and thou shalt not lend to him: he shall be the head, and thou shalt be the tail.
Biblical Perspective
The United States, Canada and Australia have been blessed with such extensive amber waves of grain for so many years that those nations have been able to help feed a hungry world. But drought and increased exports are depleting their stockpiles at an alarmingly rapid pace. Many experts are coming to the conclusion that widespread food shortages are inevitable -even in those developed western countries!
The mainstream news media barely mentioned startling U.S. Department of Agriculture report issued on Oct. 12, 2007, that showed a disturbing steep drop in world grain supplies. Most people are unaware of this significant, ominous trend, which is treated like a footnote by newspapers and a blip by television networks as they sensationalize the latest i consequential celebrity scandal or other meaningless developments.
Yet, a looming global food shortage will become one of the most shocking international developments in the not-so-distant future! Such a turn in events could trigger a worsening of tensions between nations and ignite a sharp spike in grocery costs for virtually everyone, even leading to mass starvation throughout the world. It's that critical!
Most in the western world remain oblivious to this frightening scenario as they go about their mundane lives and are absorbed by their endless pursuit of pleasure and comfort.
The abundance of wheat, barley and other crops produced in the United States, Canada and Australia has fed much of the world for decades, but the days of plentiful stockpiles in those traditional breadbaskets are coming to an end as the grain is drained while demand exceeds supply.
By Mark Mendiola
The Philadelphia Remnant Magazine
Jan-Feb 2008
http://philadelphiaremnant.org
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Health Alert
 (NewsTarget) Many health-conscious people have decided to refrain from eating meat. Additionally, many humane-conscious people have eliminated meat from their diet. Both groups have good reasons for their decisions. Interestingly, on some of the points, their reasons intersect with each other. The intersection results from the issue of how the animal's emotions before and during slaughter affect the nutritional quality and safety of the meat.
There are three major issues involved with kosher meats. Kosher meats are those listed in the Bible as derived from animals deemed edible for the Jewish people. Any animal with a cloven hoof that chews its cud is allowable; conversely, those which lack both of these characteristics are forbidden. Cattle, sheep, goats, and deer are examples of kosher mammals. Horses, dogs and pigs are forbidden. Birds are allowable according to custom, but generally, it seems that birds of prey are forbidden. Chicken, quail, and doves are kosher; eagles are forbidden.
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MSNBC Video News Clip
