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Luis Miguel Goitizolo

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RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES?
4/5/2015 11:01:48 AM

A year on, Putin's Ukraine gamble brings mixed results

AFP

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko examines a British-made "Saxon" armored personnel carrier with a Ukrainian weapon system while visiting a military base outside Kiev on April 4, 2015 (AFP Photo/Genya Savilov)


Moscow (AFP) - A year since the start of the fighting in eastern Ukraine, Vladimir Putin may not have emerged the winner in his showdown with the West but he has not lost either, analysts say.

By supporting Ukrainian separatists, they say, he took a huge risk but it largely paid off as it allowed him to punish Kiev's pro-Western authorities for seeking to turn their back on Russia and stand up to the West.

Most importantly for the Kremlin, the annexation of Crimea and support for fellow Russian speakers in Ukraine's east have given a huge boost to Putin's popularity ratings at home.

According to a February study from the Levada Centre independent polling group, the number of people who want Putin to seek a fourth term in 2018 has more than doubled to 57 percent since December 2013.

"What Putin wanted was clear a year ago -- he wanted a blocking stake in Ukraine or -- the next best option -- a manageable conflict," Nikolai Petrov, a professor at the Higher School of Economics, told AFP.

"To a large degree the Kremlin has achieved what it wanted."

Ukraine marks the first anniversary of the start of the conflict in a hugely demoralised state with its economy shattered and NATO membership a very distant, if not impossible, prospect.

"They managed to keep Ukraine out of NATO because it is struggling with two unresolved territorial disputes," Alexander Baunov, a senior associate at the Carnegie Moscow Center, told AFP.

- Calculated risk -

If Putin gambled that the West would not move to burn all its bridges with Russia nor engage the former Cold War foe militarily, he was right.

While Washington has been vocal in its assertion that Moscow has been sending troops over the border to buttress Ukrainian separatists, it has held off on supplying Kiev with lethal weapons over fears of escalation.

Economy-wise, the US and European Union have forged a united front, slapping Russia with several rounds of sanctions, but decided against radical measures like cutting Moscow off from the SWIFT banking system.

Russia has withstood the blow, and the government recently declared that the worst was over for the recession-hit economy.

After a shock slump late last year, the Russian ruble has recently rebounded following a lull in fighting in Ukraine and the steadying of oil prices.

Economists have forecast stagnation over the next few years but naysayers predicting imminent financial collapse have been floored.

In a sign that Putin may be getting ready to break out of Western isolation, he is considering whether to travel to New York to speak at the 70th session of the UN General Assembly this fall, the Kremlin said. It would be his first UN visit over the past 10 years.

Such a move would have appeared unimaginable several months ago when Putin appeared crushed under the weight of international condemnation when a Malaysia Airlines Boeing came down over rebel-held Ukraine, killing all 298 people on board.

The West and Kiev claim that Moscow-backed rebels shot the jet out of the skies by mistake, with a missile provided by Russia.

In a bid to counter raging accusations that he was personally guilty, an ashen-faced Putin recorded an unprecedented nighttime video address, urging the West and Kiev not to exploit the tragedy for political gains.

But as a shaky truce appears to be taking hold in Ukraine, Russia has apparently managed to put the worst of the fallout behind it.

That may explain Putin's jokey mood at the triumphant celebrations marking one year since the takeover of Crimea last month when he quipped that Russia "will overcome the difficulties that we have so easily created for ourselves."

-'Putin will not back off'-

To a large extent, Putin has been lucky, after rushing into the confrontation with the West without a well-thought-out plan, observers said.

"There was a set of tasks and Napoleon's famous maxim, 'On s'engage et puis on voit' (Let's jump into the fray and then figure out what to do next)," Konstantin Kalachev, head of the Political Expert Group think tank, said of the president's attitude.

Even if his tactics have often defied comprehension, Putin has made his message abundantly clear: the West should understand that a new, post-Soviet Russia is a force to be reckoned with.

"Putin will neither give up nor back off," Dmitry Trenin, director of the Carnegie Moscow Center, wrote in a recent report.

"Moscow will continue to defy US global hegemony and act in its own self-interest, guided by its own set of values and without seeking prior US or EU approval."

The fighting has exacted a huge human toll.

According to official statistics, more than 6,000 people have died in eastern Ukraine since last April, and human rights activists say scores of Russian troops sent over the border may have also perished in the ex-Soviet country.

Ties between ordinary Russians and Ukrainians have also been torn apart, with observers saying years -- if not decades -- will be needed to heal the rift.

While the fighting has largely died down, an end to the Ukrainian crisis is nowhere in sight.

"The crisis is dragging on through inertia, which is dangerous," said Petrov of the Higher School of Economics. "It has become a necessity to a large number of people."

Related Video:

Russia's rich tighten their belts


"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?
4/5/2015 11:18:14 AM

Crash pilot's profile prompts questions, deep unease

Associated Press

FILE - In this Sunday, Sept. 13, 2009 photo, Andreas Lubitz competes at the Airportrun in Hamburg, Germany. Investigators believe the 27-year-old Germanwings co-pilot locked his captain out of the cockpit during a March 24, 2015 flight from Barcelona to Duesseldorf and deliberately put the plane into its fatal descent into a French mountainside. (AP Photo/Michael Mueller)


BERLIN (AP) — The profile that has emerged of Germanwings co-pilot Andreas Lubitz has become more troubling by the day.

In the hours after Flight 9525 crashed in the French Alps two weeks ago, Lubitz was regarded as one of 150 victims in an unexplained disaster. Two days later he was the prime suspect of an unfathomable act.

By now, French and German prosecutors have little doubt that the 27-year-old intentionally slammed the Airbus A320 into a mountain, killing everyone on board, and there is growing evidence that his actions weren't just a split-second decision but the result of days of planning.

The revelations have raised questions about who knew what, when, and whether Lubitz could have been stopped.

The crash has prompted particular soul-searching in Germany. Seventy-two of those killed were German citizens, the worst air disaster in the nation's history since the Concorde crash of 2000, in which 97 Germans died.

"Germany, a byword for technical perfection where security isn't just a hallmark of quality but an article of faith and a measure of value, has been traumatized," historian Michael Stuermer wrote in an op-ed Saturday for Die Welt newspaper.

Investigators have pieced together a picture of Lubitz by analyzing the voice and flight data recorders found at the crash site, searching his homes in Duesseldorf and Montabaur, and by interviewing friends, relatives, colleagues and doctors.

So far, this is what they have communicated about their findings:

—Medical records show that before he received his pilot's license, Lubitz suffered from depression, with doctors recording "suicidal tendencies." It forced him to take a break of several months from his pilot training. Lufthansa has said Lubitz informed their flight school when he returned in 2009 that he had experienced an episode of "severe depression." But Germanwings, the Lufthansa subsidiary Lubitz joined in 2013, said it was unaware of this. But both airlines say Lubitz passed all medical tests and was cleared by doctors as fit to fly.

—In the months before the crash Lubitz sought help from several doctors, including specialists at Duesseldorf's University Hospital. The hospital declined to confirm reports that Lubitz was experiencing vision problems, but said he had come in for tests. Duesseldorf prosecutors say there was no evidence the co-pilot had any physical ailments.

—In the week leading up to the crash Lubitz spent time online researching suicide methods and cockpit door security. Safety rules introduced after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks in the United States allow someone in the cockpit to deny others entry.

—Shortly after takeoff from Barcelona on March 24, Lubitz offered to take over the controls while the pilot went to the toilet. Finding himself unable to enter the cockpit on his return, the pilot pleaded with Lubitz to let him back in. Lubitz ignored him and repeatedly accelerated the plane before it slammed into a mountainside near the village of Le Vernet.

With pilots responsible for the lives of 10 million air travelers worldwide every day, the idea that one might be harboring a dark desire to harm himself and others has prompted deep unease.

"A technical malfunction, a terrorist act, a natural disaster or human error — none of these would be so troubling," German weekly Der Spiegel wrote in its latest edition.

As the extent of Lubitz's illness became known in the days following the crash, German prosecutors took the unusual step of providing regular updates on their investigation to reassure the public. German newspapers, normally at pains to protect the identity of even convicted criminals, spelled out the co-pilot's full name to indicate the gravity of his alleged deeds

Meanwhile, the country's airlines swiftly mandated that two people have to remain in the cockpit at all times, while politicians debated the need to relax patient privacy rules — prompting a swift rebuke from medical associations who warned that rash changes to the rules could undermine patients' confidence in doctors and prevent them from seeking help, doing greater harm than good.

Few commentators, however, have raised the possibility that Lufthansa, a national institution, may have made any avoidable mistakes. Instead, they have pointed to similar incidents that are believed to have taken place in Namibia, the United States and Indonesia over the past two decades.

Conservative daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung concluded that "ultimately Lufthansa's system failed." However, given that Lubitz appeared to have gone to great lengths to conceal the extent of his illness, the paper questioned whether any system could ever account for what goes on inside a person's head.

Others evoked the phenomenon of the "Geisterfahrer" — a German term meaning "ghost driver" describing someone who drives the wrong way down the Autobahn, endangering himself and others.

The notion of an unstoppable yet ultimately rare incident resonated in Spain, which counted 51 of its citizens among the dead.

"Who could have known that he was determined to destroy himself on that day?" said Mercedes Valle, a 54-year-old doctor in Madrid. She added that the content of the black box had confirmed "there was a deranged person with suicidal tendencies left in charge of a plane."

"In the past I've seen the impact such a person can have at the wheel of a school bus or even a car. Fortunately, it's a very rare occurrence," she said.

___


Harold Heckle in Madrid 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?
4/5/2015 3:45:42 PM

Many Iranian expats in California have doubts about nuclear deal

Reuters

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By Daina Beth Solomon

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Many members of the Los Angeles-area Iranian community, the largest in the United States, are skeptical about a preliminary nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers, even though a pact could end decades of international isolation for their homeland.

The prevailing sentiment in part reflects the history of the Southern California's Iranian community, made up of those in the earliest wave of migration after Iran's 1979 revolution. Many are still distrustful of the Iranian government.

A rollback of U.S. sanctions, which have contributed to Iran’s skyrocketing inflation and inability to obtain Western medical supplies, will do little to improve the lives of ordinary people, many expatriates say. Instead, they see the government as the only beneficiary of any economic boost that might follow the lifting of sanctions, a reward for what they say is the Iranian leadership's decades of bad behavior.

“They don’t use money for their own people,” said Rafi Mehrian, owner of a housewares store in an Orthodox Jewish neighborhood of Los Angeles that displays Iranian and Israeli flags. He fled Iran on camel more than 25 years ago and never returned.

Similar to the anti-Castro Cuban community in Florida, many Iranian expatriates advocate for the overthrow of their home-country’s government, said Reza Aslan, a religious studies scholar at the University of California, Riverside.

“The anger, the hatred, that many older Iranians have toward the regime … tends to overshadow the hope for their country getting back to a full, prosperous life,” he said.

While Iranians living abroad keep a close watch on news reports of their native country, understanding the conditions that families are facing back home can be difficult, said Aslan.

Iranians from religious minority groups – such as Jews, Christians and Baha’is - have largely been unable to visit for the past three decades, further distancing them from home.

The Iranian Jewish community in particular has developed allegiance toward Israel. The majority of Iranian Jews in Los Angeles oppose the proposed deal, which has been criticized by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

A sense of anger that U.S. President Barack Obama has turned his back on Israel is shared among Iranians who emigrated as adults as well as those who left as babies.

“I am deeply concerned and disappointed,” said Sam Yebri, who founded a local organization to draw young Iranian-Americans into political activism.

Despite widespread concern among Iranians, analysts have emphasized that the expatriate community represents a diversity of opinions. And some in Los Angeles expressed optimism that the new deal, if successful, would bolster human rights and freedom for Iranian citizens.

“I think this is a wonderful thing,” said Saba Soomekh, a visiting professor of religious studies at the University of California, Los Angeles, who left Iran when she was 2 years old. “Who knows where the Iranian government will be in 15 or 20 years?”

(This version of the story corrects first paragraph to say a deal between Tehran and world powers, not Washington)

(Editing by Frank McGurty and Lisa Shumaker)






Many expatriates see Tehran's government as the only beneficiary of any economic boost from the lifting of sanctions.
'Disappointed'


"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?
4/5/2015 3:58:51 PM

Top Mormons outline support for marriage for man-woman only

Associated Press

People attend the opening session of the Mormon church conference Saturday, April 4, 2015, in Salt Lake City. More than 100,000 people will file in and out of the church's conference center over five sessions Saturday and Sunday. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Mormon leaders vowed to be a leading advocate for the belief that marriage is an institution exclusive to a man and a woman during the religion's biannual conference Saturday that also included two rare events.

The first came when the conference kicked off without the usual welcoming address from church President Thomas S. Monson, 87, who days earlier also missed a meeting with President Barack Obama while he was in Utah.

Monson, who was still present at conference and walked in on his own, skipped the speech as part of a decision to reduce the number of speeches he's giving this weekend, church officials said. He gave a short speech about the priesthood Saturday evening.

The second unusual event occurred when five people stood up and yelled, "Opposed," during a part of the conference when attendees usually raise their hands in unison in a vote of support for church leadership, drawing some gasps by surprised attendees who hadn't seen this kind of act for decades. They represented only a handful of the 20,000 in attendance.

Highlights from the conference in Salt Lake City:

___

SUPPORT FOR MARRIAGE BETWEEN A MAN-WOMAN

L. Tom Perry, a member of the faith's Quorum of the Twelve, cautioned Mormons not to be swayed by a world filled with media and entertainment that presents the minority masquerading as the majority and tries to make mainstream values seem obsolete.

Perry said strong, traditional families are the basic units of a stable society, a stable economy and a stable culture of values. He noted that Mormons investment in the topic is even deeper than other religions because they believe marriages and family are for eternity.

"We want our voice to be heard against all of the counterfeit and alternative lifestyles that try to replace the family organization that God Himself established," Perry said.

D. Todd Christofferson, another member of the quorum, added more on the topic, saying, "A family built on the marriage of a man and woman supplies the best setting for God's plan to thrive — the setting for the birth of children who come in purity and innocence from God."

Christofferson said the focus on marriage isn't meant to disparage those who don't marry, be it because they can't find a suitable partner, have physical or mental impairments or experience same-sex attraction.

"No one is predestined to receive less than all that the Father has for His children," Christofferson said.

The quorum is a governing body of the church that is modeled after Jesus Christ's apostles and serves under the church president and his two counselors.

As acceptance for gay marriage has swelled in recent years and same-sex unions have become legal in dozens of states, including Utah, the church's stance on homosexuality has softened.

Church leaders helped push through a Utah law this year that bars housing and employment discrimination against gay and transgender individuals while also expanding protections for the rights of religious groups and individuals. LGBT activists have spent years pushing for a statewide non-discrimination law, but they couldn't get traction until LDS leaders made a nationwide call for this type of legislation that combined protections for religious liberties.

But the religion has taken time during several recent conferences to emphasize its insistence that marriage should be limited to unions between a man and a woman, as God created. In April 2014, Neil L. Andersen of the quorum said, "While many governments and well-meaning individuals have redefined marriage, the Lord has not."

___

PRESIDENT SKIPS CUSTOMARY OPENING

A few eyebrows were raised when President Monson didn't come out for his customary welcome address, given instead by the faith's third-highest ranking leader, Dieter F. Uchtdorf.

Monson walked in and out of the two sessions on his own, though he had a little stumble as he was reaching his seat at the beginning of the afternoon session that led to gasps in the crowd. He recovered and sat through the session.

When he missed the meeting with Obama, church officials said that decision was to preserve his strength for the conference.

Monson has missed only one other welcoming speech at a conference since he was named president in February 2008. That was at the fall conference in October 2011.

In the Mormon faith, which counts 15 million members worldwide, church presidents are considered living prophets. Monson, the 16th president of a faith founded in 1830, has kept a relatively low profile during his tenure.

Monson's wife, Frances Monson, died at the age of 85 in May 2013.

___

SUPPORT FOR LEADERS NOT TOTALLY UNANIMOUS

Dieter F. Uchtdorf, the faith's third-highest ranking leader who was at the podium handling this portion of the conference, calmly responded when the five people stood up to cast opposing votes, causing a bit of a stir.

"Thank you. The vote has been noted," Uchtdorf said.

At the end of this segment, he reminded those in opposition they are welcome to talk more about their reasons with regional church leaders.

Two of the men who stood up said afterward they did it to express their displeasure with how few opportunities they have to express concerns to church leaders.

Micah Nickolaisen, 31, of Mesa, Arizona, said church leaders need to make room for Mormons who have serious questions and doubts without just telling them to study more scripture.

"The leaders of the church are insulated by so many layers of bureaucracy that we feel it's almost impossible for them to get genuine, authentic feedback," said Nickolaisen, a legal case manager.

Nickolaisen said they weren't kicked out of the conference or reprimanded.

Donald Braegger, 54, of American Fork, Utah, said wants church leaders to honestly address sensitive issues in history. He said he hopes other Latter-day Saints realize it's OK to show dissent and that there's never again a unanimous vote in conference, which he said is deceptive.

___

COOKIES AND KISSES

As part of the day's focus on marriage and family, Boyd Packer, president of the quorum, spoke about the joy of romance and love and the importance of a man and woman and their children being sealed in a Mormon temple for eternity. Packer, who has been married nearly 70 years, acknowledged marriage is a challenge and offered the key ingredients to successful marriages: "a cookie and a kiss."

RELATED VIDEO:

How Powerful Is The Mormon Church? - Testtube Daily Show-AR






The church's leaders want to push the belief that marriage is an institution exclusive to a man and a woman.
President skips speech


"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?
4/5/2015 5:11:56 PM

Bombing on Cairo bridge kills policeman

AFP

People gather at the site of a bomb explosion at a checkpoint on the May 15 bridge in Cairo on April 5, 2015 (AFP Photo/Khaled Desouki)

Cairo (AFP) - A bomb exploded near a checkpoint on a bridge in an affluent Cairo neighbourhood on Sunday, killing a policeman, Egyptian police said.

The bomb had been placed next to the checkpoint on a side of the May 15 bridge in the Zamalek neighbourhood, the officials said.

Two people including a woman were wounded in the blast, which tore the victim's body to pieces, a health ministry official said.

A police official said the bomb went off as the driver of a minivan pulled over to ask the policeman officer a question, probably for directions.

Militants have repeatedly detonated bombs in Cairo targeting police checkpoints and vehicles.

Sunday's bombing was claimed by jihadist group Ajnad Misr (Soldiers of Egypt), which has previously said it was behind similar attacks targeting security forces in the city.

"Once again Allah allowed our brave soldiers to plant a bomb targeting an assembly of the criminal forces," Ajnad Misr said on its Twitter account.

The group says its attacks are in retaliation for the deaths of hundreds of Islamist protesters killed in a government crackdown since the ouster of president Mohamed Morsi in July 2013.

Ajnad Misr has claimed responsibility for bombings outside the presidential palace and foreign ministry that last year killed four policemen, two of them explosives experts.

The jihadist group has said it deliberately uses low-yield bombs to avoid harming passers-by, but there has also been a rise in civilian casualties.

A bomb outside Cairo University last month wounded four civilians and four policemen.

Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood, the strongest political movement before his overthrow, has been designated a terrorist group although it denies being violent.

However, some Brotherhood members are believed to have resorted to plotting attacks on policemen after the crackdown drove them underground.

In the Sinai Peninsula, jihadists affiliated to the Islamic State group have killed scores of security personnel, including at least 15 soldiers in coordinated attacks last week.

The military says it has killed a number of militants in Sinai, and on Sunday broadcast footage of bodies of suspected militants.

Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, the former army chief who toppled Morsi and later won a presidential election, has staked his leadership on eradicating the militant groups.

Attacks have dwindled in the past year as the government tries to attract investment and tourism.

But the latest attacks have shown militants can still operate despite the crackdown and harsh verdicts against those convicted.

Civilian and military courts have sentenced dozens of people to death, although only one sentence has been carried out so far, by hanging.

Morsi himself could face the gallows if convicted in one of his trials on charges of espionage with foreign powers and collusion to carry out attacks with militants before he became the country's first democratically elected president in 2012.


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

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