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Luis Miguel 1162 61587 Lima	RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES? 6/23/2014 6:01:07 PM
	U.S. Supreme Court cuts back climate change regulation By By Lawrence Hurley1 hour ago CNBC Videos Supreme Court issues split greenhouse ruling Watch video By Lawrence Hurley WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday trimmed the Obama administration’s power to curb greenhouse gases under a long-running air pollution program in a decision that means most major facilities, including power plants and refineries, will continue to be regulated. On a 7-2 vote, the court rejected an industry-backed argument that most emitting facilities should not be regulated for greenhouse gases under one particular air pollution program of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). But industry could claim a partial win because the court ruled on a 5-4 vote that some facilities the government had wanted to regulate will be exempted. "It bears mention that EPA is getting almost everything it wanted in this case," Justice Antonin Scalia, who wrote the majority opinion, said in a statement he read in court. The case focused only on the "prevention of serious deterioration" or PSD program, which requires any new or modified major polluting facility to obtain a permit before any new construction is done if it emits "any air pollutant." The EPA said in a statement that the Supreme Court "largely upheld" its approach. "The Supreme Court’s decision is a win for our efforts to reduce carbon pollution because it allows EPA, states and other permitting authorities to continue to require carbon pollution limits in permits for the largest pollution sources," the agency said. Industry groups, such as the American Petroleum Institute, also claimed victory. The group said in a statement that the decision was a "stark reminder that the EPA's power is not unlimited." The justices were split in multiple ways in the case. The four liberals voted with Scalia on one point but would have ruled for EPA on all counts. Conservative justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas would have ruled against the government across the board. According to the American Chemistry Council, one of the challengers, 83 percent of greenhouse gas emissions that could potentially be regulated under the EPA's interpretation of the law would still be covered as a result of the ruling, compared with the 86 percent of emissions that the EPA had hoped to regulate. Under the program, the operators have to show they are using the best technology available to reduce emissions of the covered pollutants. More than 300 facilities have already applied for permits. The Supreme Court decision is not expected to affect the Obama administration’s ability to set air pollution standards for greenhouse gases under a separate provision of the Clean Air Act. On June 2, the White House announced proposed rules calling for 30 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions from existing power plants, including coal-fired facilities. The case is Utility Air Regulatory Group v Environmental Protection Agency et al, U.S. Supreme Court No. 12-1146 Supreme Court cuts back on climate-change rules The EPA wins one part of a court ruling, but industry advocates claim victory on another. Divided court
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Luis Miguel 1162 61587 Lima	RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES? 6/23/2014 11:31:57 PM
	Middle East grows nervous Militant group's surge in Iraq fans regional fears By RYAN LUCAS and OMAR AKOUR7 hours ago Wochit Iran Rejects U.S. Action In Iraq, ISIL Tightens Syria Border Grip Watch video BEIRUT (AP) — An al-Qaida breakaway group's seizure of territory in Iraq and Syria has sent tremors across the Middle East, jolting neighboring countries into action over fears that the Islamic militants may set their sights on them next. Related Stories Iraq at risk again: How did we get here so fast?Associated Press Sunni tribesmen seize Iraqi border crossing with Jordan: sources Reuters Militants blitz through Iraq's western desertAssociated Press A guide to daily developments in Iraq Associated Press Iraq Sunni militant group vows to march on Baghdad Associated Press In Jordan, the army dispatched reinforcements to its border with Iraq last week to boost security, while in Lebanon heavily armed police busted a purported sleeper cell allegedly linked to the group, known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, in raids on two hotels in central Beirut. The region has warily watched the Islamic State's expansion over the past year across much of northern and eastern Syria. But the group's audacious offensive this month in neighboring Iraq, aided by Sunni tribal fighters and former members of Saddam Hussein's Baath party, threatens to redraw the Middle East map — putting a host of governments on alert. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, who is traveling through the Middle East, warned during a stop in Cairo that the Islamic State has become "a threat not only to Iraq, but to the entire region." His words were echoed by Syrian Information Minister Omran al-Zoubi, who warned in an interview with The Associated Press on Monday that the dramatic events in Iraq threaten to implode "the entire Middle East" and undermine security in Europe and beyond. Topping the list of concerned nations are Jordan and Lebanon, two countries already grappling with fallout from the Syrian civil war. The urgency of the matter was laid bare after Islamic State fighters captured the Iraqi side of the border with Jordan on Sunday. View gallery Mourners chant slogans against the al-Qaida breakaway group Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant aft … The Islamic State has never explicitly stated its desire to expand into either country. But it openly aims to create an Islamic state that encompasses Iraq and Greater Syria, also known as the Levant — traditional names that refer to a swath of land that includes Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Israel and the Palestinian territories. An Islamic State propaganda video released last week featuring five fighters from Britain and Australia underlined how far the group is willing to go. "Look at the soldiers — we understand no borders," says one of the men in the 13-minute clip posted online. "We have participated in battles in Sham (Syria), and we will go to Iraq in a few days, and we will fight there and come back, and we will even go to Jordan and Lebanon, with no problems — wherever our sheik wants to send us." The Islamic State's estimated 10,000 fighters already have their hands full in Iraq and Syria, and there's no indication that the group has any immediate designs on Jordan or Lebanon. But governments in both countries are eager to assure their anxious publics. In Amman, officials are clearly concerned. Jordan's interior minister, Hussein al-Majali, told lawmakers last week that the kingdom is "surrounded by extremism," and that the army has fully deployed along the country's 110-mile (180-kilometer) frontier with Iraq. An AP journalist saw additional reinforcements, including tanks and armored personnel carriers, traveling toward the border on Sunday. View gallery Map provides updates on violence in Iraq's Anbar province. Jordan, a close U.S. ally with a well-equipped and well-trained military, would present a far more formidable foe than Iraq's demoralized army, making any cross-border foray unlikely, analysts say. "What is most worrisome is that radical groups may already have cells inside Jordan among their supporters," said Ramzy Mardini, a nonresident fellow at the Atlantic Council, based in Amman. "Militants in Syria have conducted attacks in several capital cities in the region of neighboring states. There's much concern that Amman isn't immune from experiencing the same." Extremists have targeted Jordan before. The Islamic State's precursor, known as al-Qaida in Iraq, was founded by a Jordanian, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. Under his leadership, the group carried out a triple bombing on Amman hotels in 2005 that killed more than 50 people. Jordan is home to a growing movement of jihadists and ultraconservative Salafis, Mardini said. Hundreds of Jordanians are known to have traveled to Syria to fight in the uprising against President Bashar Assad. Some have joined extremist groups, including the Islamic State. But a leader of Jordan's Salafis, Mohammed Shalabi, played down the Islamic State's presence in the country. View gallery Members of the Iraqi security forces take positions during a patrol looking for militants of the Isl … "There are many people in Jordan who like the Islamic State, but on the ground, they don't have organized people or members in Jordan," said Shalabi, who is also known as Abu Sayyaf. Still, there is evidence that the group has established at least a base presence. In Maan, in southern Jordan, some 200 supporters of the Islamic State held protests after Friday prayers, carrying banners that declared the city the "Fallujah of Jordan," a reference to the Iraqi city that has been a militant hotbed. Maan suffers from high unemployment, and during protests over the past year residents have called for the downfall of Jordan's King Abdullah II and clamored for jobs. It is, to a degree, that sort of discontent that the Islamic State has played off of in Iraq to garner support, although there the grievances have a heavy sectarian hue, with Iraq's Sunnis feeling marginalized by the Shiite-dominated government. Despite economic malaise and pockets of discontent, Jordan would be a stretch for the Islamic State to make significant inroads. "The Jordanian population is not supportive of these people, the overwhelming majority of the population," said Marwan Muasher, vice president of the Carnegie Endowment and a former Jordanian foreign minister. "We have a very strong army and intelligence service, so you cannot equate the threat that they posed to a state like Syria or even Iraq to the one that they might pose to Jordan." View gallery Military vehicles drive along a road in Ruweished, near Jordan's eastern border with Iraq, east … In the end, he said, the Islamic State is "a security nuisance, but it's not an existential threat" to Jordan. In Lebanon, it might be something in between. As in Iraq, there is a large segment of Lebanon's Sunni community that is angry over the treatment of their brethren in Syria, where the rebellion against Assad is dominated by Sunnis. The Lebanese Shiite Hezbollah group's armed intervention in Syria to support Assad has only further stoked those sectarian hatreds. A series of bombings struck predominantly Shiite districts in Beirut's southern suburbs over the past year. The Islamic State did not claim responsibility for the attacks — groups tied to al-Qaida did — but the bombings showed Lebanon to be a fertile environment for Sunni extremism. On Friday, security forces dressed in gray camouflage raided two hotels in the bustling Hamra district of Beirut, arresting 17 suspected Islamic State members. A Lebanese security official, who spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations, confirmed the arrests netted suspected members of the group. On the same day, a suicide bomber detonated his vehicle near a police checkpoint in eastern Lebanon, killing one person and wounding 20. It was not clear if the two incidents were related. But the bombing — the first since March — along with the security dragnet in and around Beirut sparked fears of renewed violence in the country. All but one of the 17 suspects rounded up in Beirut have since been released, according to security officials. While the hotel raids may have largely been for show, they still underscore how fears of the Islamic State resonate in Lebanon. ___ Akour reported from Amman, Jordan. View Gallery Middle East nervous as militants' gains grow The audacious offensive of ISIL threatens to redraw the region's map and has put many nations on alert. 'Most worrisome'
	"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? 6/23/2014 11:57:13 PM
	How Iraq reignited Iraq’s Sunni 'war of liberation’ By James Kitfield6 hours agoYahoo News CLICK IMAGE for slideshow. In this photo taken Saturday, June 21, 2014, militants from the al-Qaida-inspired Islamic … The main force of Islamist extremists apparently slipped from Syria into Iraq a few weeks ago near the Rabia border crossing, taking advantage of a well-worn smuggling route that connects Damascus to the northern Iraqi city of Mosul. Even united with their brethren on the other side of the border, the militants of the terrorist group Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) initially amounted to just several thousand fighters, and yet their plan improbably called for the capture of major cities in northern Iraq stretching from Mosul to Samarra. The success of a terrorist juggernaut that overran four Iraqi army divisions, put much of northern Iraq under militant control, and brought the extremists to the doorstep of Baghdad in a week will go down as one of the most improbable in the annals of military campaigns. Initially it appeared that whole mechanized army divisions and major cities were falling like dominoes to ragtag convoys of lightly armed militants in pickup trucks. According to a number of Sunni tribal sheiks and former senior Iraqi army officers, however, ISIL [also known as ISIS] militants were the shock troops and staging cells in a long-planned campaign by an alliance that also included disparate Sunni militias and local groups who knew that Iraqi Security Forces' defenses were weak, and essentially threw open the gates to the cities from within in Trojan horse fashion. “The fall of Fallujah, Mosul, Tikrit, Salah al-Din Province is the direct result of an alliance of different Sunni groups and fighting organizations, to include ISIL, former Iraqi military officers, former Baathists, a new generation of Sunni tribal sheiks, and Sunni resistance groups like the Naqshbandi Army and the 1920s Revolution Brigade,” said a former Iraqi general and Sunni currently living in northern Iraq, who requested anonymity because his life could be in danger if his identity were known. “It seems a deal was reached among all these groups to start a war of liberation in areas of Iraq under control of Sunni governors, and it has been met with unexpected success due to the collapse without a fight of the four army divisions in northern Iraq.” View photo . Map provides updates on violence in Iraq's Anbar province. What initially appeared as an improbable juggernaut by a well-known Sunni terrorist group has thus come into focus as a more general uprising with several key players: Savvy and ruthless ISIL militants who have honed their terrorist craft during the long war against U.S. forces in Iraq and, more recently, during three years of civil war in neighboring Syria; senior Baathist military officers schooled in offensive military operations involving organized formations; a network of armed Sunni tribes and resistance groups who once again have found common cause with Sunni Islamist extremists — all maneuvering in a swamp of Sunni grievance and resentment against a sectarian government in Baghdad. “The ISIS offensive begs the question of how a terrorist group so quickly developed this new military capacity to plan, prepare and execute a major ground offensive?” said Jessica Lewis, a former U.S. Army intelligence officer and currently director of research at the Institute for the Study of War. Given that the rhetoric now on ISIS’s website has a Baathist ring to it, she said, it’s a reasonable assumption that some former Baathist military commanders have reached an accommodation with ISIS before this campaign. “If a Sunni population that once utterly rejected al-Qaida in Iraq [ISIL’s former name] and its brutal ways now finds conditions inside Iraq so bad that they are willing to fight alongside it, that also suggests it will be extraordinarily hard to find a diplomatic accommodation that brings Sunnis back into the political fold.” The current offensive began in earnest in January with ISIL’s capture of the strategic crossroads city of Fallujah, a Sunni stronghold where U.S. forces had fought the bloodiest urban battles of the Iraq war. In planting his black flag in Iraqi territory for the first time since U.S. troops withdrew in 2011, ISIL’s astute commander, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, learned two valuable lessons: First, Shiite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki had so corrupted the leadership of Iraqi Security Forces with cronyism and purges of competent Sunni officers that even its best units were unable to dislodge ISIL from Fallujah despite months of bloody fighting. Maliki has even turned some of the crack ISF Special Forces units in Baghdad into a Praetorian Guard for personal self-protection and political intimidation of his rivals, having them report directly to his office instead of the Ministry of Defense. Second, al-Baghdadi discovered that the Sunni tribes and numerous armed resistance factions who switched allegiances and found common cause with U.S. forces in 2007 as part of the “Anbar Awakening” felt betrayed by Maliki’s sectarian rule. Once U.S. troops left in 2011 the Baghdad government largely reneged on promises to continue paying salaries to Sunni tribal fighters who turned against al-Qaida in Iraq. Mostly peaceful demonstrations against Maliki in Anbar last year were crushed by Iraqi security forces who killed a number of protesters and imprisoned many more. The Sunni vice president Tariq al-Hashimi, a Maliki rival, was convicted of murder in 2012 and sentenced to death in absentia in a trial most outside observers viewed as political. A fighter with the al-Qaida-inspired Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) distributes a copy of the Quran, … As a result of those perceived sectarian slights, some Sunni tribes were once again willing to reconsider a tactical alliance with the Islamist extremists. “I still have friends among the Sunni tribal leaders in Anbar, and a younger generation is now in open revolt against the more conservative tribal leaders who crafted the ‘Anbar Miracle,’ and against the Maliki government in Baghdad,” said Robert Baer, a former longtime CIA case agent for the Middle East. A number of Sunni tribes have now joined with ISIL and a host of former Baathist officers from Saddam Hussein’s time, he said, in an open Sunni rebellion. “They are also drawing strength from a Sunni population that is pissed off, because I can assure you otherwise it would be physically impossible for a few thousand ISIS shock troops to capture northern Iraq with mostly small arms. I warned my Sunni friends against allying themselves with the likes of ISIL, but they’re not listening anymore. They’re mad, and they’re going to let Allah sort it all out.” Evidence of that planning and collusion recently emerged in Mosul, where ISIL fighters quickly handed over administration of the city to a General Military Council for Iraqi Revolutionaries, whose spokesman, Muzhir al Qaisi, is a former Iraqi general. He publicly admitted to the BBC that Mosul was too big a city for ISIL to have taken alone. The military council is tasked with operating government facilities and airports and trying to keep banks, hospitals and power stations open. Hundreds of mid- and high-level al-Qaida commanders and other Sunnis have also been released from northern prisons and, according to U.S. intelligence sources, many have joined ISIL ranks that have now swelled to an estimated 20,000 fighters. That allowed the ISIL militants, many of them foreign fighters, to gain strength as they moved from city to city intent on the next conquest. The fact that a multigroup General Military Council for Iraqi Revolutionaries is now administering governance in Mosul also helps explain why there have not yet been any popular uprisings by the local populations against ISIL’s typically heavy-handed imposition of a strict version of Sharia law. “After gaining control of Mosul the armed groups removed all the T-walls [blast barriers] and opened all the streets that had been closed by the Iraqi Security Forces, in order to send the message to the local people that ISIS was there to liberate them,” said the head of a local governing council in northern Iraq. A fighter with the al-Qaida-inspired Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) takes control of a traffic intersection … According to another Sunni tribal sheik in northern Iraq, many locals have indeed embraced the Islamist extremists as liberators. “When ISIL and the armed groups entered the northern cities, they found that people were willing to accept them because all the suffering and humiliation they endured at the hands of the ISF and Baghdad government,” he said. “Innocent people were arrested and imprisoned daily, and all the Sunni families wanted was a return of their loved ones and guarantees that their rights and honor would be guaranteed.” The various Sunni factions are currently united in their rejection and hatred of Maliki, but their goals are different and likely to diverge at some point. Like its former al-Qaidamasters, ISIL wants to establish an Islamist caliphate encompassing Sunni areas of Syria and Iraq and ruled by the dictates of its fundamentalist interpretation of Sharia law. It hopes to provoke Shiite Iran to join the battle by indiscriminately slaughtering Shiite soldiers and bombing Shiite holy places, the better to cement Sunni support in an all-out sectarian civil war. The more secular Sunni groups and leaders, however, hate the Iranians and are disgusted by some of ISIL’s brutal tactics. They seem to see the current offensive as a means of drawing the United States back into the conflict in hopes that Washington will once again use its influence to establish a temporary, transitional government that forces Maliki out of power. On his current trip to the Middle East to rally Arab support for a solution to the crisis, Secretary of State John Kerry hinted that Washington was considering just such an option, saying in Egypt on Sunday that it was important for Iraqis to “find leadership” that could “represent all of the people of Iraq,” and bridge the country’s deep sectarian divisions. In Baghdad on Monday, Kerry met with Maliki and other Iraqi leaders from all the major sects, pledging U.S. support if they were willing to rise above “sectarian motivations.” At the same time, roughly 300 U.S. special operations forces are deploying to Iraq along with airborne U.S. surveillance, reconnaissance and intelligence platforms to gather information on both the relative strength of the ISIL-led alliance and weakness of Iraqi Security Forces, and to help identify ISIL formations and leaders for possible U.S. airstrikes. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, left, meets with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, right, at the Prime … Meanwhile, officials at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad are nervously monitoring the approach of ISIL forces into the Sunni belt surrounding the capital from three sides, knowing that the Islamist militants and their allies have likely infiltrated Iraqi Security Forces and have captured artillery pieces that can accurately range downtown Baghdad from as far away as 15 miles. No one doubts that the U.S. Embassy would be high on ISIL’s target list. The Obama administration may have only weeks or even days to engineer a political deal that peels off reconcilable Sunni tribes and once again isolates the Islamist extremists of ISIL. A possible alternative no one wants to contemplate is U.S. military helicopters hovering on the roof of an evacuating U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, signaling another historic American defeat. How Iraq moved to brink of civil war Islamic extremists from Syria and Iraqi Sunnis previously aligned with U.S. forces are easily capturing major cities. 20,000 fighters
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Luis Miguel 1162 61587 Lima	RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES? 6/24/2014 12:14:53 AM
	Ukraine truce honored Rebels agree to abide by cease-fire in Ukraine By MARKO DROBNJAKOVIC and VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV3 hours ago Fighting continues in Ukraine despite a unilateral ceasefire called by its president that began on Friday. Paul Chapman reports. Watch video DONETSK, Ukraine (AP) — Pro-Russian insurgents in eastern Ukraine agreed Monday to respect a cease-fire declared by the Ukrainian president, raising hopes for an end to months of fighting that have killed hundreds and ravaged the country's industrial heartland. The announcement came as the Russian and U.S. presidents traded demands over the conflict. Russian President Vladimir Putin urged direct talks between the government and the rebels. President Barack Obama warned Putin that Moscow will face additional costs if it does not help ease the crisis. The insurgents' pledge to respect the cease-fire came on the first day of talks between a former Ukrainian president, the Russian ambassador, European officials and the eastern separatists who have declared independence. While the government side was nominally not represented, ex-President Leonid Kuchma attended the discussions at the request of the sitting president. The negotiations were launched in line with President Petro Poroshenko's peace plan, which started Friday with a weeklong unilateral cease-fire in the fighting that has killed more than 350 people and forced tens of thousands to flee their homes. Alexander Borodai, one of the rebel leaders who took part in Monday's talks in Donetsk, said rebels would respect Poroshenko's cease-fire, which lasts through 0700 GMT (2 a.m. EDT) Friday. The insurgents had previously demanded the Ukrainian military withdraw its troops from the east as a condition for any talks, so Borodai's statement represented a softened stance that raised expectations that the cease-fire could hold. Even before the insurgents made their pledge, the government said that there had been no fighting in the east since Monday morning. View gallery Former Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma speaks next to OSCE Ambassador Heidi Tagliavini (3rd R) and … Since the cease-fire was declared Friday, the Ukrainian government has accused the rebels of firing at government positions, while insurgents blamed Ukrainian forces for failing to honor the promise to halt hostilities. Poroshenko has said government troops will fire back if attacked. The rebels, who have declared regions on border with Russia independent and fought government troops for two months, also promised to release observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe who have been held hostage. "This will be one of the steps that will improve the mutual understanding of both sides," said Alexei Karyakin, a representative of the insurgents in the Luhansk region. In Moscow, the Kremlin said Putin underlined in his conversation with Obama that to normalize the situation in eastern Ukraine, it's necessary to "effectively end fighting and start direct talks between the conflicting parties." White House spokesman Josh Earnest said Obama urged Putin to use his personal influence with the separatists to promote peace and stability in Ukraine, stop backing the insurgents and halt the flow of arms across the border. Earnest said that while the U.S. believes a diplomatic solution to the crisis is still possible, "Russia will face additional costs if we do not see concrete actions to de-escalate the situation." View gallery Members of the "Donbass" self-defence battalion attend a ceremony to swear the oath to be … Ukraine and the West have accused Russia of fomenting the rebellion in the east by sending troops and weapons across the border. Moscow has denied that and insisted that Russian citizens who joined the insurgents were volunteers. Poroshenko's office said Monday that he has offered Russia a chance to send its own observers to join the OSCE mission in Ukraine to see that government troops were observing the cease-fire. Monday's talks involved Ukraine's ex-President Leonid Kuchma, the Russian ambassador to Ukraine and an envoy from the OSCE. Poroshenko has ruled out talks with those he calls "terrorists," so inviting Kuchma to mediate offered a way to conduct talks without the government's formal engagement. Kuchma, who served as president from 1994 to 2005, comes from the east and is an astute political player respected by both sides. His ex-chief of staff, Viktor Medvedchuk, has lived in Russia and reportedly has close ties to Putin, was also at the talks. If both sides observe the cease-fire, "then a normal peace process could start," Kuchma told reporters after Monday's talks. PUTIN BACKS UKRAINE'S CEASEFIREPlay Video Poroshenko's deputy chief of staff, Valeryi Chalyi, said in televised remarks that Monday's talks were a "move in the right direction." Russian Ambassador to Ukraine, Mikhail Zurabov, voiced hope that the talks would ensure a "lasting truce" and the "launch of an inclusive negotiation process." Putin publicly expressed support Sunday for Ukraine's declaration of a cease-fire and urged both sides to negotiate a compromise, which, he said, must guarantee the rights of the Russian-speaking residents of eastern Ukraine. Putin clearly intends to maintain pressure on the Ukrainian government in Kiev to give the country's eastern industrial regions more powers, which would allow them to keep close ties with Russia and serve the Kremlin's main goal of preventing Ukraine from joining NATO. But the Russian leader also wants to avoid more crippling sanctions from the U.S. and particularly from the European Union, whose leaders will meet Friday in Brussels, and therefore needs to be seen as cooperating with efforts to de-escalate the conflict. ___ Isachenkov reported from Moscow. View Gallery Ukraine rebels agree to honor cease-fire The promise of cooperation from a separatist leader in Donetsk comes with a pledge to release hostages. Softened stance
	"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?

6/24/2014 12:17:14 AM

Nine Nations Have Nukes- Here's How Many Each Country Has

AMANDA MACIAS JUN. 17, 2014, 12:08 PM

Desmond Boylan/Reuters

A deactivated Soviet-era SS-4 medium range nuclear capable ballistic missile is displayed at La Cabana fortress in Havana October 13, 2012.

According to a new report from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), nine nations — the United States, Russia, United Kingdom, France, China, India, Pakistan, Israel and North Korea — possess approximately 16,300 nuclear weapons. in total.

Under the Treaty on Measures for the Further Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms (New START), Russia and the United States have reduced their inventories but still account for more than 93% of all operational nuclear warheads.

SIPRI notes that "all five legally recognized nuclear weapon states — China, France, Russia, the UK and the USA— are either deploying new nuclear weapon delivery systems or have announced programs to do so."

Here are nine countries with nuclear weapons (and here is the full report):