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Luis Miguel Goitizolo

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RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES?
7/6/2015 10:32:36 AM

Bombs at mosque, restaurant in central Nigerian city kill 44

Associated Press

People gather at the site of suicide bomb attack at Redeem Christian church in Potiskum, Nigeria, Sunday, July 5, 2015. Witnesses say a woman suicide bomber blew up in the midst of a crowded evangelical Christian church service on Sunday and killed at least five people, the latest in a string of bombings and shooting attacks blamed on the Islamic extremist group Boko Haram that has killed some 200 people in the past week. (AP Photo/Adamu Adamu)


JOS, Nigeria (AP) — Two bombs blamed on the Islamic extremist group Boko Haram exploded at a crowded mosque and an elite Muslim restaurant in Nigeria's central city of Jos, killing 44 people, officials said Monday.

Sixty-seven other people were wounded in the attacks Sunday night and were being treated at hospitals, said National Emergency Management Agency coordinator Abdussalam Mohammed.

The explosion at the Yantaya Mosque came as leading cleric Sani Yahaya of the Jama'atu Izalatul Bidia organization, which preaches peaceful co-existence of all religions, was addressing a crowd during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, according to survivors who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.

Another bomb exploded at Shagalinku, a restaurant patronized by state governors and other elite politicians seeking specialties from Nigeria's mainly Muslim north.

Jos is a hotspot for violent religious confrontations, located in the center of the country where Nigeria's majority Muslim north and mainly Christian south collide. The city has been targeted in the past by bomb blasts claimed by Boko Haram extremists that have killed hundreds of people.

Sunday's attacks are the latest in a string blamed on Boko Haram that have killed more than 200 people over the past week in northeast Nigeria.

The extremists returned Sunday to northeastern villages attacked three days earlier, killing nine villagers and burning down 32 churches and about 300 homes, said Stephen Apagu, chairman of a vigilante self-defense group in Borno state's Askira-Uba local government area.

He said the vigilantes killed three militants.

Boko Haram took over a large swath of northeastern Nigeria last year and stepped up cross-border raids. A multinational army from Nigeria and its neighbors forced the militants out of towns, but bombings and village attacks increased in recent weeks, apparently in response to an Islamic State group order for more mayhem during Ramadan. Boko Haram became the Islamic State group's West Africa franchise earlier this year.

___

Associated Press writer Haruna Umar in Maiduguri, Nigeria, contributed to this report.

"Choose a job you love and you will not have to work a day in your life" (Confucius)

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Luis Miguel Goitizolo

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RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES?
7/6/2015 10:41:11 AM

Greece enters uncharted territory after referendum 'no' vote

Associated Press

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ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Greece lurched into uncharted territory and an uncertain future in Europe's common currency Sunday after voters overwhelmingly rejected demands by international creditors for more austerity measures in exchange for a bailout of its bankrupt economy.

Results showed about 61 percent voted "no," compared with 39 percent for "yes," with 100 percent of the vote counted. The referendum — Greece's first in more than four decades — came amid severe restrictions on financial transactions in the country, imposed last week to stem a bank run that accelerated after the vote was called.

Thousands of jubilant government supporters celebrated in Syntagma Square in front of Parliament, waving Greek flags and chanting "No, no, no!"

Early trading on Asian markets indicated investors were alarmed, as stock indexes fell.

It was a decisive victory for Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, who had gambled the future of his 5-month-old coalition government — and his country — in an all-or-nothing game of brinkmanship with Greece's creditors from other European countries that use the euro currency, the International Monetary Fund and the European Central Bank.

"Today we celebrate the victory of democracy," Tsipras said in a televised address to the nation, describing Sunday as "a bright day in the history of Europe."

"We proved even in the most difficult circumstances that democracy won't be blackmailed," he said.

Tsipras called the referendum last weekend, saying a "no" vote would strengthen his hand to negotiate a better deal for his country. His government has said it believes it would be possible to conclude a deal with creditors within 48 hours.

But European officials and most of Greece's opposition parties painted the referendum as one of whether the country kept using the euro currency — even though that was not the convoluted question asked on the ballot. Opinion polls Friday showed that 74 percent or more want their country to remain in the euro.

"Given the unfavorable conditions last week, you have made a very brave choice," Tsipras told Greeks in his address. "But I am aware that the mandate you gave me is not a mandate for rupture." He said he would seek to negotiate a viable solution with the country's creditors.

How European officials react to the referendum result will be critical for the country, and a eurozone summit was called for Tuesday evening to discuss the situation.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande spoke to each other Sunday night and agreed "that the vote of the Greek people must be respected," Merkel's office said.

The referendum result was "very regrettable for the future of Greece," said Jeroen Dijsselbloem, head of the eurozone finance ministers' meeting known as the Eurogroup, which also will meet Tuesday.

Dijsselbloem, who is finance minister for the Netherlands, had been a steadfast opponent of Greece as it sought better conditions during five months of bailout talks.

"For recovery of the Greek economy, difficult measures and reforms are inevitable," he said. "We will now wait for the initiatives of the Greek authorities."

Sigmar Gabriel, Germany's vice chancellor and economic minister, told a German newspaper the Greek government was leading its people "onto a path of bitter austerity and hopelessness."

Tsipras has "torn down the last bridges, across which Europe and Greece could move toward a compromise," Gabriel told the daily Tagesspiegel. "By saying 'no' to the eurozone's rules, as is reflected in the majority 'no' vote, it's difficult to imagine negotiations over an aid package for billions."

Belgian Finance Minister Johan Van Overtveldt was somewhat softer in his reaction, saying a "no" result "complicates matters," but that the door was open to resume talks immediately.

"What we certainly don't want to do is to take decisions that will threaten the monetary union," he told Belgium's VRT. "Within that framework we can start talks again with the Greek government, literally, within hours."

Time has run out for Greece, which is dealing with an economy in a protracted recession, with high unemployment and banks dangerously low on capital.

The international bailout — under which it received nearly 240 billion euros in rescue loans — expired last week, on the same day Greece defaulted on an IMF repayment, becoming the first developed nation to do so.

Of critical importance will be whether the European Central Bank decides to maintain its lifeline to Greece in the form of emergency liquidity assistance, or ELA. The assistance, now at around 90 billion euros, has been maintained but not increased in past days, leaving the country's financial system in a stranglehold.

Sunday's vote was held after a week of capital controls imposed to halt a bank run, with Greeks restricted to a daily cash withdrawal maximum of 60 euros ($67). Long lines have formed at ATMs, while pensioners without bank cards have thronged the few bank branches opened to allow them access to a maximum 120 euros for the week. Queues at ATMs swelled again as the initial results of the referendum came in.

The ECB operates on rules according to which it can only continue ELA funding if Greece is in a bailout. Without an increase, it is unclear how much longer people will be allowed to withdraw 60 euros per day.

Some analysts say Greece is so starved of cash that it could be forced to start issuing its own currency. No country has ever left the 19-member eurozone, established in 1999.

The margin of victory was far wider than expected, and is likely to strengthen the young prime minister's defiance toward Europe. Tsipras was voted into office in January on a promise to repeal bailout austerity.

"This victory for the 'no' camp will unfortunately embolden the government, but is likely to do little to convince the creditors that Tsipras is a trustworthy negotiating partner who has any ability to implement a deal," said Megan Greene, chief economist of Manulife Asset Management.

"Any deal for Greece will involve a much larger fiscal adjustment than the one on which Greeks voted today. I don't think that Germany in particular will be willing to make any concessions for Tsipras."

There was confusion Sunday night over the fate of bank safety deposit boxes, with Deputy Finance Minister Nadia Valavani saying people would be allowed to remove items but not cash from them, and Alternate Finance Minister Dimitris Mardas later said the issue would have to be legislated.

Yiannis Gkovesis, 26, waved a large Greek flag in the capital's main square with supporters of the "no" vote.

"We don't want austerity measures anymore. This has been happening for the last five years and it has driven so many into poverty, we simply can't take any more austerity," Gkovesis said.

Constantinos Papanikolas, 73, who also clutched a Greek flag, said the result meant "a fresh start, a new page for Greece and for Europe, which has condemned its people to poverty."

Opposition conservative New Democracy lawmaker Vangelis Meimarakis said he was expecting Tsipras to keep his pledge for a quick deal.

"If we don't have an agreement within 48 hours as the prime minister promised, then we are being led to a tragedy," he said.

___

Online:

Official referendum website: http://www.referendum2015gov.gr/en/

___

Derek Gatopoulos, Costas Kantouris and Menelaos Hadjicostis in Athens, Raf Casert in Brussels, Frank Jordans in Berlin and Carlo Piovano in London contributed to this report.


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Luis Miguel Goitizolo

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RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES?
7/6/2015 10:51:04 AM

More than 1 million expected at pope's Mass in South America

Associated Press

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QUITO, Ecuador (AP) — Pope Francis travels to the Ecuadorean port of Guayaquil on Monday for a Mass expected to draw more than a million people, as Latin America's first pontiff tours his home continent with a message of compassion for the weak and respect for an ailing planet.

Francis is taking it relatively easy on his first full day in Ecuador, making the quick flight to Guayaquil for the Mass at the Shrine of the Divine Mercy and then a lunch with a group of fellow Jesuits.

The highlight of the encounter will likely be his reunion with the Rev. Francisco Cortes, a Jesuit affectionately known as "Padre Paquito," to whom the Argentina-born pope, then the Rev. Jorge Mario Bergoglio, entrusted his seminarians on study trips to Ecuador years ago.

In a recent interview with The Associated Press, Cortes couldn't fathom that Bergoglio remembered him, much less made a point of coming to have lunch.

"I don't know what to ask him," the soon-to-be 91-year-old Cortes said. "He said he wanted to see me and I'm amazed that he's coming. For the first time, I have known a pope."

The "pope of the poor" returned to Spanish-speaking South America for the first time as pontiff Sunday, stressing the need to protect the needy and the environment from exploitation and — in a nation whose president was booed as his vehicle followed the papal motorcade Sunday — to foster dialogue among all sectors of society.

Francis' only other trip back to his home ground after being elected pope was in 2013, when he visited Brazil, where Portuguese is the main language.

Children in native dress greeted Francis at Mariscal Sucre airport outside Ecuador's capital, the wind blowing off his skullcap and whipping his white cassock as he descended from the plane following a 13-hour flight from Rome.

In a speech in front of President Rafael Correa, Francis signaled some key themes for the visit, which also takes him to Bolivia and Paraguay: the need to care for society's most marginal, guarantee socially responsible development and defend the Earth against profit-at-all-cost development that he says harms the poor the most.

"From the peak of Chimborazo to the Pacific coast, from the Amazon rainforest to the Galapagos Islands, may you never lose the ability to thank God for what he has done and is doing for you," he said from the tarmac. "May you never lose the ability to protect what is small and simple, to care for your children and your elderly who are the memory of your people, to have confidence in the young and to be constantly struck by the nobility of your people and the singular beauty of your country."

It's a message that is particularly relevant for Ecuador, a Pacific nation of 15 million people that is home to one of the world's most species-diverse ecosystems but is also an OPEC country heavily dependent on oil. High crude prices allowed Correa to get take 1.3 million people out of poverty in his eight years in office.

But now that they've fallen, the generous social safety net Correa has woven is threatened. He's had to cut government spending and been buffeted for nearly a month by the most serious anti-government street protests of his tenure.

Along Francis' motorcade route into Quito, the throngs followed chants of adulation for the pontiff with jeers of "Correa out!" when the president's entourage followed.

Correa has also angered environmentalists and the nation's main indigenous group, CONAIE, by moving forward with oil drilling and mining projects in pristine Amazon forests.

CONAIE was not participating in papal visit-related events, though it was sending a 30-person delegation to one gathering, said former President Humberto Cholango. He said the Vatican said the pope's schedule was too tight.

Standing by Correa's side at the airport, Francis pledged that the Catholic Church's readiness to encourage respect for peoples' differences and foster "dialogue and full participation" to a better future can be ensured for all, particularly "the most vulnerable of our brothers and sisters."

Correa, who spoke before Francis, echoed the pope's concerns about the "perverse" global economic system, accusing the world's rich countries of unfairly exploiting the developing world's resources without reciprocating with technology transfers.

Francis, straying from his prepared remarks, thanked Correa for his "consonance of thought."

"You've cited me too much," he said.

The Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, said Francis wasn't worried about the protests against Correa. He estimated that 500,000 people lined the route that took Francis to the Vatican ambassador's residence. Many in the crowd said they hoped the pope would have a calming effect on the country's tense political situation.

Travel agency worker Veronica Valdeon called the Argentine pontiff "a light in the darkness."

"We are living difficult moments in our country, and Francis brings a bit of joy," Valdeon said.

Francis chose to visit Ecuador, Bolivia and Paraguay specifically because they are among the poorest nations in a region that claims 40 percent of the world's Catholics.

He's skipping his homeland of Argentina, where he ministered to the poorest slum-dwellers while archbishop, to avoid papal entanglement in this year's presidential election.

Francis' stops later in the week include a violent Bolivian prison, a flood-prone Paraguayan shantytown and a meeting with grass-roots groups in Bolivia, the sort of people he ministered to in the slums of Buenos Aires.

Crowds are expected to be huge.

While the countries themselves are small, they are fervently Catholic: 79 percent of the population is Catholic in Ecuador, 77 percent in Bolivia and 89 percent in Paraguay, according to the Pew Research Center.

Before leaving Rome, Francis did some hometown ministering, with Lombardi saying the pope welcomed 10 homeless people into the Vatican.

___

Associated Press writers Allen Panchana, Jacobo Garcia and Frank Bajak contributed to this report.


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"Choose a job you love and you will not have to work a day in your life" (Confucius)

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Luis Miguel Goitizolo

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RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES?
7/6/2015 3:46:33 PM

Peru declares emergency in 14 regions on El Nino worries

Reuters

A father with his children walk over the cracked soil of a 1.5 hectare dried up fishery.PHOTO: REUTERS

LIMA (Reuters) - Peru has declared a 60-day state of emergency in towns in 14 regions to brace for possible damage from the climate pattern El Nino in the rainy season, state media reported Sunday.

Peru has forecast a "moderate to strong" El Nino in the winter season and has not ruled out an extraordinary event in the summer, which begins in December in the southern hemisphere.

The phenomenon, a warming of Pacific sea-surface temperatures, has wreaked havoc on local fishing in Peru and triggered landslides in years past.

The emergency declaration orders authorities to take action to prepare for the "imminent danger" of El Nino and unusual climate conditions, state news agency Andina said.

The regions placed under the state of emergency include several key fishing and mining areas.

Unusually warm waters linked to El Nino led catches of cold-water anchovy to plummet last year, helping drag down economic growth to the weakest pace in five years.

Peru is the world's top producer of fishmeal - animal feed made of ground-up anchovy - and a major exporter of copper, gold and silver.

(Reporting by Mitra Taj; Editing by Mark Trevelyan)

"Choose a job you love and you will not have to work a day in your life" (Confucius)

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Luis Miguel Goitizolo

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RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES?
7/6/2015 4:04:43 PM

ISIS is 'acting like the permanent government' in the capital of Iraq's largest province

Business Insider

(social media) ISIS in Ramadi

It doesn't look like Iraqi forces will be able to take back Ramadi from the Islamic State anytime soon.

The terrorists are already laying roots down in the capital of Anbar province, The Washington Postreports.

Militants are performing government functions such as fixing infrastructure and distributing fuel in addition to building up defenses around the city to deter attacks.

“They are acting like the permanent government here,” a local man told the Post. “So of course people have joined them. They have the upper hand.”

A key part of the Islamic State's strategy involves taking control of territory and providing civil services to populated areas. The Islamic State (also known as ISIS, ISIL, and Daesh) seeks to embed itself into societies and implement a new way of life governed by a strict interpretation of Sharia law.

While ISIS has repaired roads, restored electricity to neighborhoods using generators, and sent hospital employees back to work, the militants have also starting enforcing a strict dress code for women, set up rooftop snipers, rigged houses with explosives, and formed a religious committee to supervise mosques so the group can maintain tight control over its indoctrination of locals.

(REUTERS/Stringer ) Veiled women walk past a billboard that carries a verse from Koran urging women to wear a hijab in the northern province of Raqqa March 31, 2014. The Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) has imposed sweeping restrictions on personal freedoms in the northern province of Raqqa. Among the restrictions, Women must wear the niqab, or full face veil, in public or face unspecified punishments "in accordance with sharia", or Islamic law.

ISIS also executes or imprisons many people who oppose its regime.

This strategy of instilling fear and providing basic services that restore some sense of order to daily life helps earn ISIS the loyalty of some who would rather give in to the militants if it means saving their own lives.

"Now there is daily life," Hisham al-Hashemi, an Iraqi government adviser and an expert on ISIS, told the Post. "There is food in the markets and electricity. It’s like normal."

(The Institute for the Study of War)

This will all make it more difficult for Iraqi forces to drive ISIS out of Ramadi, the Post notes. The longer it takes the Iraqi government to mount an effective operation to retake the city, the more time ISIS has to secure its place among the population.

As it is, the forces fighting ISIS in Iraq weren't able to hold the city in the first place. ISIS militants stormed into Ramadi in May, sending in car bombs to cripple the government-backed forcesdefending the city.

Iraqi security forces and government-supported militias, many of which are backed by Iran, say they need more time before they're able to retake Ramadi.

(REUTERS/Thaier Al-Sudani) Iran-backed Hashid Shaabi (Popular Mobilisation) allied with Iraqi forces against the Islamic State, carry their weapons as they prepare to attack Tikrit in the Iraqi town of Ouja, on the southern outskirts of Tikrit March 26, 2015.

Part of this might have to do with resource allocation, according to Michael Pregent, a terrorism analyst and former US Army intelligence officer in Iraq.

"[The militias] don’t have numbers to protect Shia areas and retake Sunni areas from ISIS, so they’re prioritizing," Pregent told Business Insider last month, adding that the militias "no intention of hurrying to take [Ramadi] back."

Iraqi security forces aren't effective enough to battle ISIS on their own, so the Shia-led government in Baghdad has allowed militias backed by Iran, a Shia theocracy, to increasingly take over the ground fight.

Some say that this means Sunni-dominated areas like Anbar province are low on Iraq's priorities list.

"Choose a job you love and you will not have to work a day in your life" (Confucius)

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