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Luis Miguel 1162 61587 Lima	RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES? 11/22/2014 4:26:20 PM
	Somalia's al-Shabab kills 28 non-Muslims in Kenya By TOM ODULA1 hour ago FILE - In this Thursday, Feb. 17, 2011 file photo, hundreds of newly trained al-Shabab fighters perform military exercises in the Lafofe area some 18 km south of Mogadishu, in Somalia. Suspected Islamic extremists from Somalia hijacked a bus at dawn near Mandera in Kenya's north near the border with Somalia, and killed 28 non-Muslims on board after they had been singled out from the rest of the passengers, police officials said Saturday, Nov. 22, 2014. (AP Photo/Farah Abdi Warsameh, File) View Gallery NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Somalia's Islamic extremist rebels, Al-Shabab, attacked a bus in northern Kenya at dawn Saturday, singling out and killing 28 non-Muslims, Kenyan police said. Related Stories Somalian Extremists Line Up Non-Muslims And Shoot Them Huffington Post Kenyan bus attack kills 28; Islamists claim responsibility Reuters Kenyan police shoot dead man and make arrests in mosque raids Reuters Kenyan police arrest 10 suspected attackers from Somalia AFP Somali-American who helped Mogadishu govt killed Associated Press Al-Shabab claimed responsibility for the attack through its radio station in Somalia saying it was in retaliation for raids by Kenyan security forces carried out earlier this week on four mosques at the Kenyan coast. Nineteen men and nine women were killed in the bus attack, said Kenyan police chief David Kimaiyo. Kenya's military said it responded to the bus assault with airstrikes later Saturday that destroyed the attackers' camp in Somalia and killed 45 rebels. The bus traveling to the capital Nairobi with 60 passengers was hijacked about 50 kilometers (31 miles) from the town of Mandera near Kenya's border with Somalia, said two police officers. The attackers first tried to wave the bus down but it didn't stop so the gunmen sprayed it with bullets, said the police. When that didn't work they shot a rocket propelled grenade at it, the officers said. View gallery FILE - Armed members of the militant group al-Shabab attend a rally on the outskirts of Mogadishu, S … The gunmen ordered all the passengers out of the vehicle and separated those who appeared to be non-Muslims from the rest by asking them questions about the Quran. Those who did not seem Muslim were shot at close range, the officers said. The police insisted on anonymity because Kenya's police chief ordered that officers should not speak to the press. Some of the dead were public servants who were heading to Nairobi for the Christmas vacation, the officers said. A shortage of personnel and lack of equipment led to a slow response by police when the information was received, the officers said. They said the attackers have more sophisticated weaponry than the police who waited for military reinforcements before responding. Kenya has been hit by a series of gun and bomb attacks blamed on al-Shabab, who are linked to al-Qaida, since it sent troops into Somalia in October 2011. Authorities say there have been at least 135 attacks by al-Shabab since then, including the assault on Nairobi's upscale Westgate Mall in September 2013 in which 67 people were killed. Al-Shabab said it was responsible for other attacks on Kenya's coast earlier this year which killed at least 90 people. View gallery FILE - Armed members of the militant group al-Shabab attend a rally on the outskirts of Mogadishu, S … Al-Shabab is becoming "more entrenched and a graver threat to Kenya," warned the International Crisis Group in a September report to mark the first anniversary of the Westgate attack. The report said that the Islamic extremists are taking advantage of longstanding grievances of Kenya's Muslim community, such as official discrimination and marginalization. Kenya has been struggling to contain growing extremism in the country. Earlier this week the authorities shut down four mosques at the Kenyan coast after police alleged they found explosives and a gun when they raided the places of worship. Some Muslims believe the police planted the weapons to justify closing the mosques, Kheled Khalifa, a human rights official said Friday warning that methods being used to tackle extremism by government will increase support for radicals. One person was killed during the raid on two of the mosques on Monday. Police said they shot dead a young man trying to hurl a grenade at them. The government had previously said the four mosques were recruitment centers for al-Shabab. _________ Associated Press Writer Abdi Guled contributed to this report from Mogadishu, Somalia.
	"Choose a job you love and you will not have to work a day in your life" (Confucius)
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Luis Miguel 1162 61587 Lima	RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES? 11/22/2014 4:39:19 PM
	Report: No 'excuse for violence' in Ferguson, Obama says By Evan Perez and Shimon Prokupecz, CNN November 22, 2014 Obama urges calm in Ferguson Watch video STORY HIGHLIGHTS NEW: A number of businesses have boarded their doors and windows President Barack Obama says violence is contrary "to who we are" FBI sends extra personnel to the St. Louis area, official says The Ferguson police officer who and killed Michael Brown says he did nothing wrong Ferguson, Missouri (CNN) -- President Barack Obama joined the call for calm with word a Missouri grand jury considering whether to indict Officer Darren Wilson in the death of Michael Brown was close to making a decision. "This is a country that allows everybody to express their views. Allows them to peacefully assemble, to protest actions that they think are unjust," the President told ABC News in an interview excerpt broadcast on Friday. "But using any event as an excuse for violence is contrary to rule of law and contrary to who we are." Officer Darren Wilson plans to resign Attorney Gen. announces new guidelines Ferguson chief: 'I can see this through' The President's comments came as the grand jury considers whether to bring charges against Wilson, who is in the final stages of negotiations with Ferguson city officials to resign, sources close to the talks told CNN. Wilson has maintained he's done nothing wrong, and the resignation talks have hinged on whether he is indicted, the sources said. While Wilson has told associates he would resign to help ease pressure and protect his fellow officers, he has expressed concern about resigning while the grand jury was still hearing evidence for fear it would appear he was admitting fault. What charges could Officer Wilson face? The talks could still collapse, the sources close to the talks said. Wilson doesn't know what the grand jury will do and, if they opt to charge him, he could change his mind. Wilson, who has six years on the force with no disciplinary issues on his record, is currently on paid administrative leave. If he returns to duty, he will have to undergo two psychological evaluations, authorities have said. What is known, what is not The basic facts of the case -- Wilson, a white police officer, fatally shot Brown, a black 18-year-old who was unarmed, on August 9 -- are not in dispute. Most everything else about the case is, leading to emotionally and racially charged divisions about what should happen next. The officer's supporters have claimed Wilson fired only in self-defense, pointing to witness testimony and leaked grand jury documents that suggest Brown might have attacked Wilson, struggled for his gun and perhaps charged the officer moments later. Brown's backers have been likewise adamant in blaming Wilson, claiming the officer shot a young man who, according to some accounts, was holding up his hands in surrender. This dispute as to what happened at that crucial moment, the handing of the investigation from the outset and the fact that charges were not brought against Wilson sparked days of protests on the streets of Ferguson. The ensuing police response, which many have called heavy-handed, and the violence, property damage and looting of some during the protests only deepened the sense of mistrust. Dueling narratives in Brown shooting: Who says what Police: 3 more arrested in Ferguson Once the grand jury decision is made, prosecutors are expected to provide law enforcement with 48 hours notice before making a public announcement. The current plans could still change and prosecutors could shift the planned grand jury session. Meanwhile, authorities are on guard for a repeat of large-scale demonstrations and possibly violence -- as happened in the days after the shooting, when heavily armed police came face to face with angry protesters. A number of business owner boarded their doors and windows. Some people made plans to stay indoors this weekend. Others made plans to take to the streets to protest. "I hope something really good comes out of all of this. Otherwise, he would have died in vain," said Stoney Shaw, pastor at First Baptist Church Ferguson, referring to Brown. The tension was not visible, but palpable, in the words of Ferguson residents. Barber shop owner Marty Buchheit said he was seeing half as many clients these days. "I'm just waiting until this thing airs out and I see what I got left," he said. Demonstrations, as well as sporadic arrests, have continued for weeks, including some on Thursday night. According to St. Louis County police spokesman Brian Schellman, "several vocal and defiant protesters" shut down one lane of traffic in Ferguson and chased after some cars on foot. Some of those protesters left the street at officers' request, only to return to block traffic once again, he said. Eventually, after announcements to get off the street, a "skirmish line of officers" moved in and arrested three people who remained, Schellman said. One of them was pepper-sprayed after pushing an officer, according to the police spokesman. Precautions and plans Peacekeepers vow to stay during protests Prosecutor in Ferguson case speaks to CNN Truth hard to find in Ferguson The prospect of more disputes and violence after the grand jury ruling is announced spurred officials and citizens to take precautions. The school district for Jennings, Missouri -- which neighbors Ferguson -- has canceled classes for Monday and Tuesday of next week, according to its Facebook page. School district officials did not immediately return to CNN's calls for comment on why classes were canceled. On Tuesday, Gov. Jay Nixon declared a state of emergency. And, along Ferguson's West Florissant Avenue -- ground zero for violent protests -- businesses put back the plywood boards they had taken down from their windows and doors. The FBI has sent dozens of extra personnel, including FBI police officers, mostly to guard their offices around the St. Louis area and boost personnel, a law enforcement official said. Additionally a separate law enforcement official said the ATF has sent in extra personnel including SWAT team members. St. Louis Police Chief Sam Dotson said his officers are ready for whatever happens. "We've had three months to prepare. ... Acts of violence will not be tolerated," he said. "Our intelligence is good. Our tactics are good. We can protect lawful people and at the same time arrest criminals." There are concerns that communities well beyond Ferguson could see unrest after the grand jury's decision comes down. Brown's father calls for calm ahead of decision The Ferguson National Response Network has set up a Tumblr account advertising about 70 "planned responses" to the ruling. They will take place from West Palm Beach, Florida, to New York, Chicago and Los Angeles. In a video message released Friday, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder announced new guidelines for "law enforcement about how to approach maintaining order during First Amendment-protected events." Holder spoke about the duty of law enforcement to protect the public, while urging demonstrators to not revert to violence. He also said that some of the issues raised in the wake of Brown's death -- about things like "police practices, implicit bias and pervasive community distrust" -- are "real and significant." "I recognize that progress will not come easily, and long-simmering tensions will not be cooled overnight," Holder said. "These struggles go to the heart of who we are and who we aspire to be, both as a nation and as a people. And it is clear that we have a great deal of important work still to do." Complete coverage on Ferguson CNN's Greg Botelho and Moni Basu 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 1162 61587 Lima	RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES? 11/22/2014 4:50:47 PM
	Water supplies dry up in Brazil as droughts continue to affect world's agricultural regions, destabilizing industrial farming Friday, November 21, 2014 by: Jennifer Lilley (NaturalNews) The problem of a diminishing water supply is taking its toll on the residents of Brazil, pointing to the growing issue of a world that is running out of water and as a result, entering a global crisis which will likely have serious agricultural, social and economic consequences. In Brazil, so severe are droughts (October rain showers in the Sao Paulo area were one-fifth the normal amount) that over the past six months, more than 10 million people in Sao Paulo have been told cut water use. In Itu, Sao Paulo, where rain and groundwater is relied upon more than rivers, a reservoir has fallen to a shocking two percent of capacity; its residents no longer see water coming from a tap. Violent protests from residents who want tap water restored are taking place and in other areas, so coveted is water that its a common sight for police escorts to accompany water trucks in an effort to stave off potentially armed men from hijacking them. In other instances, people are filling their small cars to the gills with water bottles while other individuals are paying exorbitant fees to obtain water from private water trucks.(1) The troublesome issue of less water,more politics Lack of rainwater is not the only issue disrupting the water supply in Brazil; residents say that the government has failed to upgrade a faulty water distribution network, one that is losing 30 percent of its resources because of unfixed leaks. Even efforts for the production of more potable water and to implement improved environmental measures to protect the rivers that flow into area reservoirs have been met with resistance, mainly because of a government that didn't want to risk losing votes during October elections. Despite the strains that the lack of water is having on the land and its people, the government there maintains that water conservation measures are working well enough. But Tercio Ambrizzi, a professor at the University of Sao Paulo's Department of Atmospheric Science who is also a key leader with Brazil's climate change council, isn't in agreement with the government's less than tepid desire to get the issue back on track. A believer in investing in natural resources and turning to solar energy and wind farms, Ambrizzi says, " . . . we have to manage our dams in a way that we can save some more water, and we have to change . . . our energy strategy in Brazil." Sadly though, he says that "Unfortunately in Brazil, the politics comes first." Brazil is not alone with their water supply problems. The "whole world" needs to be worried about droughts California has been extremely hard hit. Since 2011, Californians of the San Joaquin and Sacramento river basins have lost four cubic miles of total water annually which translates to more water than all 38 million residents of the entire state use every year for domestic and municipal reasons. Diminishing groundwater has played a significant role in the matter there. As a result, the state is suffering. The U.S. Drought Monitor estimates that about 82 percent of California is in the throes of extreme drought and very recently, the University of California at Davis released a study that predicts 2015 to be another dry year where the state will see approximately $1.5 billion in farm losses. Already, acreage to grow corn has fallen 34 percent from 2013, while it's down 53 percent for wheat. China has also been impacted by extreme droughts, namely in their northeastern Manchurian Plain. Once considered a hub of harvest activity, zero harvest has been reported. Part of the plain is experiencing the lowest rainfall since 1951, affecting drinking water and water used for irrigation. Australia is also affected, their Canning Basin negatively impacted. But like Brazil, politics can make necessary change difficult. "Drought policy is very complex," Australia's drought policy expert and University of Canberra Professor Linda Botterill says. "It's complex because there is the welfare dimension as well as the farm business dimension, and getting the balance right between those two is particularly challenging." Clearly, the issue of fading water supplies is problematic around the globe, with food security hanging by a thread. Perhaps Brazilian farmer Juliano Jose Polidor sums up the issue the best. "I think we are getting to the hour where it's not just me who needs to be worried, but the whole world." Sources: (1) http://www.macleans.ca (2) http://www.npr.org (3)http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov (4) http://www.bloomberg.com (5) http://www.marketwatch.com (6) http://www.abc.net.au Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/047743_drought_Brazil_industrial_farming.html#ixzz3JohfqDZD
	"Choose a job you love and you will not have to work a day in your life" (Confucius)
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Luis Miguel

1162

61587

Lima

RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES?

11/22/2014 5:59:06 PM

Israeli-Palestinian conflict shifts ominously toward religious war

Israeli riot police stand guard in the plaza at Al Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem's Old City. The hilltop where the mosque is located is revered by Jews and Muslims alike and is central to the current Israeli-Palestinian violence. (Jim Hollander / European Pressphoto Agency)

Guarded by a phalanx of riot police, the knot of young Jewish men, long sidelocks blowing in the breeze, strode across the paved esplanade of Jerusalem's most sensitive religious site. A group of veiled and black-robed Muslim women leaped up to confront them, rhythmically chanting: "Allahu akbar!" — "God is great!"

Scenes like this one, playing out recently on a windy hilltop in Jerusalem's walled Old City, illustrate the antagonism that has long colored the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Now, though, the overtly religious elements of what had long been primarily a national and territorial struggle appear to be coming to the fore.

In the Middle East, the term "holy war" sometimes serves as facile shorthand for events that are neither. In the last week, however, figures from Pope Francis to United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon have voiced alarm over the explicitly religious character of recent violence in Jerusalem and its environs.

That was crystallized this week by the horrific slaying of four Jewish worshipers in a Jerusalem synagogue and the killing of an Israeli police officer trying to defend them.

"The true danger … is that the wave of terror will turn into a true religious war, such as has not yet occurred here," columnist Ben Caspit wrote this week in the Maariv newspaper. Many commentaries have noted the large potential for a conflict now primed to draw in Muslims not only in the Palestinian territories, but across the region and the Islamic world.

In Jerusalem, great religions have crowded and jostled their way down through millenniums. That is especially true in the walled Old City, where the trumpet-like sounding of the shofar, the wail of the muezzin and the pealing of church bells blend in a cacophony peculiar to this "port city on the shore of eternity," as the late Israeli poet Yehuda Amichai put it.

Even before this week's synagogue carnage in the Har Nof neighborhood of Jerusalem, there were growing signs that places of worship were becoming battlegrounds, including the torching this month of a mosque outside the West Bank city of Ramallah and a firebomb attack on a historic synagogue in northern Israel.

At the conflict's heart, though, is the iconic Old City plateau revered by Jews as the Temple Mount and Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary. In recent weeks, it has served as the principal rallying cry for Palestinian attackers, its fate now driving the conflict just as surely as its familiar domes dominate the ancient skyline.

Tourists visit the Dome of the Rock at Al Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem's Old City. (Jim Hollander / European Pressphoto Agency)

Many other factors have influenced the mutual acrimony of recent months: the June killings of three young Jewish seminary students in the West Bank, followed by the reprisal torture and killing of a Palestinian teen; the destructive summer war in the Gaza Strip; heavy-handed Israeli police tactics used to quell street unrest in traditionally Arab East Jerusalem. But no other single grievance has galvanized such passions as the contested holy site.

The biblical Mt. Moriah — site of the ancient Jewish temples and of Islam's third-holiest venue, Al Aqsa mosque — has for the last half-century been governed by an arrangement known as the "status quo," under which only Muslims are allowed to pray on the plateau. Jews, largely adhering to mainstream rabbinical injunctions against ascending the mount and perhaps inadvertently treading on the Holy of Holies — the inner sanctum where the Ark of the Covenant was once kept — prayed instead at the adjoining Western Wall.

For several months, though, a movement spearheaded by Jewish activists has surged to greater prominence, staging more frequent visits to the hilltop site, which at certain times is open to tourists. Followers were sometimes counseled on how to circumvent the prayer ban with tactics such as "accidentally" falling down in order to ritually prostrate oneself, or reciting prayer fragments as part of tourist-style observations about the site's historic structures.

In the view of Palestinians, and of neighboring Jordan, the formal custodian of the site, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's repeated pledges to retain the status quo were dubious, because some of those actively seeking to scrap the status quo were members of his own government, or of the Israeli parliament. On the Palestinian side, a concerted campaign of extremist rhetoric dismissed Jewish ties to the site, further galvanizing Jewish activists' calls for greater access.

Related story: U.N. human rights investigators denied entry to Israel for Gaza inquiry

Laura King, Batsheva Sobelman

As Muslim fear of a physical division of the site intensified, punctuated by episodes of violent unrest on the plateau itself, Israel imposed age restrictions for Muslim men for Friday prayers, sometimes banning those younger than 50, sometimes those younger than 35. Young Palestinian men seethed — and prayed in the streets outside barricades guarded by Israeli riot police.

Against this backdrop, a Palestinian assailant late last month made a brazen bid to assassinate Israeli American activist Yehuda Glick, one of the most vocal advocates for expanded Jewish rights to the site. Though seriously wounded, Glick survived, and amid the ensuing turmoil, Israel closed the hilltop to all visitors for the first time in years, a step Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas called tantamount to a "declaration of war."

Though the closure was brief, Jordan withdrew its ambassador in protest and warned that Israeli actions jeopardized their 2-decade-old peace treaty and a host of related accords. Secretary of State John F. Kerry made an urgent visit to Jordan this month for separate talks with Abbas and Netanyahu, winning promises of calming measures, including the lifting of the age restrictions for Friday prayers.

On Friday, midday prayers passed largely peacefully for the second week in a row, though with many hard-eyed glances between police officers and entering worshipers.

Rock-throwing clashes, which have become the near-daily norm in East Jerusalem neighborhoods, broke out later, and Palestinian protesters in the West Bank city of Hebron set an army post ablaze.

To many, the tilt toward a religion-centered conflict bodes ill for any revival of the peace process, which most recently broke down in April.

"So long as the conflict remains on a secular, territorial track, there remains hope of a solution — not so with religion," analyst Uzi Rabi told Israel Radio. "This should be a wake-up call not only to Israel, but to world players."

Despite a flurry of conciliatory interfaith gestures after the synagogue attack, including solidarity visits to the neighborhood by Muslim, Christian and other religious leaders, the dispute over the holy site appears on track to intensify, not ease.

A Tel Aviv University survey this month indicated that while a relatively slender majority of Israeli Jews — 56% — supported retaining the status quo, more than one-third wanted the prayer ban lifted, even if it resulted in bloodshed.

Columnist Nahum Barnea observed in the Yediot Aharonot newspaper that the shift from a national conflict to a religious one could unleash forces neither side could control.

"A thousand firefighters," he wrote, "will not be able to extinguish a fire that has God as the fuse."

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

Luis Miguel 1162 61587 Lima	RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES? 11/22/2014 11:25:20 PM
	Federal watchdogs uncover thousands of lost Lerner emails, decoding to take weeks Published November 22, 2014 FoxNews.com Watch video As many as 30,000 lost emails from Lois Lerner -- the ex-IRS official at the center of the agency's targeting scandal -- have been recovered by federal investigators. The IRS has already turned over thousands of Lerner emails to congressional investigators but has said the remainder are gone forever because Lerner’s hard-drive crashed in 2011. And in June, agency Commissioner John Koskinen told Congress that back-up tapes containing the missing emails have been destroyed. “The IRS has continually dragged its feet, changed its story, and been less than forthcoming with information related to its egregious violation of Americans’ First Amendment rights,” said Ohio GOP Rep. Jim Jordan, a member of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, which has spearheaded congressional probes on the issue. “These e-mails are long overdue, and underscore again why we need a special prosecutor to conduct an unhindered investigation. Hopefully these e-mails will help us get to the truth,” he continued. Lerner led the IRS division that targeted Tea Party and other conservative groups for excessive scrutiny during the 2012 presidential election cycle when they applied for tax-exempt status. Lerner in March refused to testify before the GOP-led House investigative committee, saying she was protected under the Fifth Amendment, and has since retired. VIDEO: Did IRS bother to look for emails? Some of the recovered emails might be duplicates. And it could take weeks to learn their content because they are encoded, said Frederick Hill, a spokesman for Republicans on the Oversight committee. In addition, the IRS would also have to delete information about taxpayers that is considered private before it can be released to the committee, which is headed by Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif. The federal investigators are from the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, which audits the IRS. A spokeswoman for the inspector general, Karen Kraushaar, declined to comment, saying the investigation was continuing. The investigators ignited a political firestorm in May 2013 with the initial report about the exceptionally close scrutiny. The IRS said Saturday that it remains "committed to fully cooperating with all of the pending investigations." The agency also said that it learned after the June report that the TIGTA had began an investigation of the hard-drive crash and a search for additional emails. Senate Finance Committee aides said the investigators will assess if the newly recovered data can be made readable before it can be turned over to the committee. They said their committee, which has been conducting a bipartisan investigation of the IRS's treatment of groups, including liberal ones, expects to complete its work early next year. The Associated Press 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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Somalia's al-Shabab kills 28 non-Muslims in Kenya

Report: No 'excuse for violence' in Ferguson, Obama says

Obama urges calm in Ferguson

Water supplies dry up in Brazil as droughts continue to affect world's agricultural regions, destabilizing industrial farming

Friday, November 21, 2014 by: Jennifer Lilley

The troublesome issue of less water,more politics

The "whole world" needs to be worried about droughts

Federal watchdogs uncover thousands of lost Lerner emails, decoding to take weeks

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Somalia's al-Shabab kills 28 non-Muslims in Kenya

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Report: No 'excuse for violence' in Ferguson, Obama says

Obama urges calm in Ferguson

Water supplies dry up in Brazil as droughts continue to affect world's agricultural regions, destabilizing industrial farming

Friday, November 21, 2014 by: Jennifer Lilley

The troublesome issue of less water,more politics

The "whole world" needs to be worried about droughts

Federal watchdogs uncover thousands of lost Lerner emails, decoding to take weeks

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