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Luis Miguel

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RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES?

1/9/2016 5:14:33 PM

Gunman ambushes Philadelphia policeman 'in the name of Islam'

By Daniel Kelley and Jarrett Renshaw16 hours ago

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A still image from surveillance video shows a gunman (L) approaching a Philadelphia Police vehicle in which Officer Jesse Hartnett was shot shortly before midnight January 7, 2016 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania this Philadelphia Police Department image released on January 8, 2016. REUTERS/Philadelphia Police Department/Handout

By Daniel Kelley and Jarrett Renshaw

PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - A gunman claiming allegiance to Islamic State militants shot and seriously wounded a Philadelphia police officer, saying he ambushed his patrol car "in the name of Islam," the city's police commissioner said on Friday.

Edward Archer of Philadelphia approached Officer Jesse Hartnett, 33, shortly before midnight and fired 11 rounds, three of which hit the officer in his arm, authorities said. Police released still images from surveillance video that showed the gunman dressed in a long white robe walking toward the car and firing, eventually getting close enough to shoot at point-blank range through the window.

Hartnett chased Archer, who was arrested by responding officers and later confessed to the attack, police officials told reporters.

"He has confessed to committing this cowardly act in the name of Islam," Ross told a press conference, adding that the 30-year-old assailant also referenced Islamic State militants.

Philadelphia Police Captain James Clark added, "He said he pledges his allegiance to Islamic State, he follows Allah and that was the reason he was called on to do this."

A top U.S. Muslim advocacy group said it had found no evidence that Archer was an observant Muslim.

U.S. officials have been on high security alert following a series of Islamic State-linked attacks at home and abroad over the last few months.

In November, gunman and suicide bombers affiliated with Islamic State killed 130 people in a series of attacks in Paris. Last month a married couple fatally shot 14 people in San Bernardino, California, in an attack inspired by Islamic State.

Those concerns have led to calls by some Republican governors and presidential hopefuls to restrict the admission of Syrian refugees fleeing that country's long civil war.

Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney, a Democrat sworn in on Monday, told reporters he did not believe Archer's actions reflected Islamic thinking.

"In no way shape or form does anyone in this room believe that what was done represents Islam," Kenney said. "This was done by a criminal with a stolen gun."

The Council on American-Islamic Relations, the leading U.S. Muslim advocacy group, on Friday said Archer "does not appear" to be an observant Muslim.

At the Masjid Mujahideen mosque, which stands around the block from the home where Archer was believed to have lived, Imam Asim Abdur-Rashid said he did not know Archer and was not aware if he had ever prayed at the mosque.

"When it's time to pray, you get to wherever is closest," Abdur-Rashid said, adding, "There's no conflict between us and anyone in the world."

A woman who lived on the same block as Archer's mother but declined to give her name said police had responded to the house on occasion but described the suspect as "pleasant."

Neighbor Natalie King, 68, a retired public worker, said she had seen the man she knew as "Eddie" going to the mosque every Friday.

"He's a nice boy. I am shocked," she said.

NO SIGN OF CONSPIRACY

There was no evidence as yet that the shooter had worked with anyone else, Ross said.

"He was savvy enough to stop just short of implicating himself in a conspiracy," Ross said. "He doesn't appear to be a stupid individual, just an extremely violent one."

About a dozen FBI agents and city detectives could be seen on Friday afternoon searching a two-story row house in a working class West Philadelphia neighborhood where Archer was believed to have stayed at times and a second home just outside the city where his mother lives.

The house where Archer was believed to have stayed was about two blocks away from the intersection where Hartnett was shot.

Archer has a criminal history. Court records show he pleaded guilty in 2014 to assault and carrying an unlicensed gun, charges that got him a prison sentence of between nine and 23 months.

Archer's mother told the Philadelphia Inquirer that her son, the oldest of seven children, had suffered head injuries from football and a moped accident.

"He's been acting kind of strange lately. He's been talking to himself," and hearing voices, the newspaper quoted Valerie Holliday as saying. "We asked him to get medical help."

She described him as a longtime "devout" Muslim.

Hartnett was taken to Penn Presbyterian Hospital and will require several surgeries for three gunshot wounds in his arm.

Archer used a 9 mm handgun that had been stolen from a Philadelphia police officer's home several years ago, but not by him, Ross said.

In New York City, where two police officers were shot dead in their patrol car in a December 2014 attack by a man angry over police killings of unarmed black men, the police department issued a memorandum urging officers to "exercise heightened vigilance and implement proactive measures" in light of the Philadelphia shooting.

"Those who carry out attacks in the name of ISIS or any other terrorist organization must be fully prosecuted," said U.S. Senator Bob Casey of Pennsylvania, using a common acronym for Islamic State. "We have to take every appropriate step to safeguard our communities and ensure safety."

(Additional reporting by Jason Szep and Andy Sullivan in Washington and Laila Kearney in New York; Writing by Scott Malone; Editing by Bill Trott and Tom Brown)

"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? 1/9/2016 5:27:04 PM
	Vietnam warns China over air safety threat 6 hours ago Vietnam's civil aviation authority says Chinese aircraft have ignored all the rules by conducting the unannounced flights (AFP Photo/Sonny Tumbelaka) Vietnam's civil aviation authority has accused Beijing of threatening regional air safety by conducting unannounced flights through its airspace to a disputed reef in the South China Sea, state media said Saturday. Related Stories Vietnam issues second warning to China over island flights AFP Beijing rejects Vietnam protest over South China Sea landing AFP China plane landings in South China Sea raise tensions: US AFP [$$] China Lands Test Flight in Disputed Island Chain The Wall Street Journal Vietnam, Philippines protest Chinese test flight on disputed reef MarketWatch La ciencia revela una crema antiarrugas mejor que LifeCell Sponsored  The Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam (CAAV) warned that the unannounced flights "threaten the safety of all flights in the region," according to a report in the Tuoi Tre Daily newspaper. In quotes published in Vietnamese official online newspaper Zing.vn late Friday, CAAV director Lai Xuan Thanh said a protest letter about the flights had been sent to Beijing, as well as a complaint to the United Nations' International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). "Chinese aircraft have ignored all the rules and norms of the ICAO by not providing any flight plans or maintaining any radio contact with Vietnam's air traffic control centre," he added. In the seven days to January 8, Vietnam logged 46 incidents of Chinese planes flying without warning through airspace monitored by air traffic control in the southern metropolis of Ho Chi Minh City, according to civilian aviation authorities quoted in the Tuoi Tre Daily newspaper report. Chinese state media on Wednesday said two civilian planes landed on an island in the Fiery Cross reef in the contested Spratly Islands, which have long been at the centre of bitter wrangling between Vietnam and its giant neighbour. The two "test flights" Wednesday followed an initial aircraft landing on Saturday, which prompted the first formal diplomatic complaint from Hanoi. The Spratlys are claimed by Hanoi but controlled by Beijing, which has ramped up activity in the area by rapidly building artificial islands, including airstrips said to be capable of hosting military jets. The recent flights, slammed by Vietnam as a "serious violation" of its sovereignty, have sparked international alarm, with the United States warning Thursday that the move would raise tensions in the disputed waters. The Philippines has also said it would file a protest. China asserts ownership over virtually all the South China Sea, putting it at odds with regional neighbours the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan, which stake partial claims. Several of these nations, including Vietnam, have also built facilities on islands they control, but at a significantly slower pace and smaller scale than Beijing. Rioting broke out in Vietnam after Beijing sent an oil rig into contested waters in 2014, and at least three Chinese people were killed. Since then the two sides have tried to mend relations. China's President Xi Jinping visited Hanoi in November but that visit also saw anti-Chinese protests. Vietnamese officials said last week they had asked Beijing to investigate the ramming and sinking of a Vietnamese fishing boat by a suspected Chinese boat. Hanoi has stepped up cooperation with the US, in what analysts say is a hedge against China's rising power.
	"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?

1/9/2016 5:40:17 PM

Militia groups meet with leaders of Oregon occupation, pledge support

By Jonathan Allen8 hours ago

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Leader of a group of armed protesters Ammon Bundy talks to the media at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge near Burns, Oregon, January 8, 2016. REUTERS/Jim Urquhart

By Jonathan Allen

BURNS, Ore. (Reuters) - Members of self-styled militia groups met on Friday with armed protesters occupying a federal wildlife refuge in Oregon, pledging support for their cause, if not their methods, and offering to act as a peace-keeping force in the week-long standoff over land rights.

During the 30-minute meeting at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, a leader of the occupation, Ammon Bundy, told about a dozen representatives of such groups as Pacific Patriots Network, Oath Keepers and III% that he had no immediate plans to abandon the siege.

"I was asked to do this by the Lord," said Bundy, a Mormon, as some of the militia members nodded in understanding. "I did it how he told me to do it."

Earlier on Friday the Pacific Patriots Network called on its members to establish a safety perimeter around the refuge in remote southeastern Oregon to prevent a "Waco-style situation" from unfolding.

In 1993 federal agents laid siege to a compound in Waco, Texas, being held by the Branch Davidians religious sect for 51 days before the standoff ended in a gun battle and fire. Four federal agents and more than 80 members of the group died, including 23 children.

The Pacific Patriots Network has previously said that while it agrees with Bundy's land rights grievances, it does not support the occupation, a position leader Brandon Rapolla reiterated during the meeting.

Bundy thanked Rapolla and handed him a small roll of bills, which he said came from donations.

"We're friends, but we're operating separately," Rapolla, a former Marine who helped defend the Bundys in 2014 in their standoff with the U.S. government at their Nevada ranch, told Reuters in an earlier interview.

The militia members are not joining the occupation, but are sleeping in their vehicles or in hotels in Burns, he said.

Rapolla said he had also taken sausage McMuffins to FBI agents who are stationed at nearby Burns Municipal Airport to monitor the occupation and had coffee with deputies from the county sheriff's office on Thursday.

The meetings were friendly, he said, and he told them that they were there to make neither side escalates the dispute.

"That's really the point of militias: it's community involvement," Rapolla said. "If something happens in your community, that's what militias are for."

Some two dozen armed protesters have occupied the headquarters of the refuge since last Saturday, marking the latest incident in the so-called Sagebrush Rebellion, a decades-old conflict over federal control of land and resources in the U.S. West.

The move followed a demonstration in support of two local ranchers, Dwight Hammond Jr. and his son Steven, who were returned to prison earlier this week for setting fires that spread to federal land.

A lawyer for Hammond family has said that the occupiers do not speak for the family.

Ammon Bundy met briefly with Harney County Sheriff David Ward on Thursday but rejected the lawman's offer of safe passage out of the state to end the standoff.

During a press conference on Friday morning, Bundy seemed to soften his position, saying: "We will take that offer but not yet and we will go out of this county and out of this state as free men."

Following Bundy's press conference on Friday morning, a lands right activist opposed to the occupation spoke to the media.

"This is about furthering an extremist right-wing agenda," Barrett Kaiser, a Montana resident and a representative of the Center for Western Priorities said, as supporters of Bundy tried to interrupt him and argue with him. "They need to be charged and prosecuted."

Local residents have expressed a mixture of sympathy for the Hammond family, suspicion of the federal government's motives and frustration with the occupation.

Federal law enforcement agents and local police have so far kept away from the occupied site, maintaining no visible presence outside the park in a bid to avoid a violent confrontation.

(Reporting by Jonathan Allen in Burns, Oregon; Writing by Dan Whitcomb; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)

"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? 1/9/2016 5:58:59 PM
	Israeli-Palestinian love story becomes a bestseller 8 January 2016 AFP Many bookstores have sold out of Dorit Rabinyan's Borderlife, her agent says A love story between an Israeli Jew and a Palestinian Muslim has topped the list of bestsellers after Israel's education ministry refused to allow the book on to the school curriculum. Officials feared Borderlife by Dorit Rabinyan could encourage relationships between Jews and Arabs. But the move sparked a backlash and a surge in sales. Publication abroad is also being sped up and translations are being discussed for Hungary, Spain and Brazil. Ms Rabinyan's agent said more than 5,000 copies of the book had been sold in a week, a large number in Israel's small market, and many stores had sold out. "I think this whole march to bookstores is a demonstration," Ms Rabinyan told AFP. "It is not only my fans that buy Borderlife, it is the fans of Israeli democracy. "By buying my novel they reconfirm their trust and belief in Israel's liberalism, in Israel's freedom of choice and speech," she said. Hear Dorit Rabinyan explain the block World diplomacy's Gordian knot Published in 2014, Borderlife is a semi-autobiographical story of an Israeli woman who falls in love with a Palestinian artist in New York. But the pair split up as she returns to Israel and he to the West Bank. Teachers asked to include the book in the high school curriculum, but senior education ministry officials blocked the move. A document from a debate in Israel's parliament said "intimate relations between Jews and non-Jews threatens the separate identity," reports said. Relationships between Israeli Jews and Palestinians are rare and are disapproved of by large sections of both societies. But on Thursday the education ministry appeared to soften its stance, saying the book had not been "disqualified" but merely "not included" in the high school programme. Pupils could study the book but it would not be included in the final exam, it said. Image copyrightAP Image caption"Fans of Israeli democracy" are buying the book, the author says However, the apparent block has angered cultural figures and left-wing sections of Israeli society. The magazine Time Out responded by publishing a video showing Arabs and Jews kissing to break what they called a taboo in Israeli society. There has long been friction between the right-wing government of Benjamin Netanyahu and cultural figures. In June, Education Minister Naftali Bennett removed state funding from a play that he said showed a Palestinian attacker in a sympathetic light. And in November the country's most famous living author Amos Oz said he would not attend events at Israeli embassies around the world in protest at government policies. (BBC News)
	"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? 1/10/2016 12:35:21 AM
	Monsanto Charged With Crimes Against Nature and Humanity, Set to Stand Trial in 2016 8th January 2016 By Carolanne Wright Contributing Writer for Wake Up World People are fed-up. And angry. We simply no longer accept that corporations have the right to ride roughshod over the environment or destroy the health of its inhabitants. We refuse to remain silent when faced with companies who contribute to poisoned rivers, people and wildlife — where the only concern is for the mighty dollar. No longer will we stand by and watch as beauty and the balance of nature is laid to waste. Monsanto, in particular, is known as one of the most destructive corporations of all times. In response to the ongoing damage caused by the company, a coalition of food, farming and environmental justice groups — including the Organic Consumers Association (OCA), International Federation of Organic Agricultural Movements (IFOAM), Navdanya, Regeneration International (RI) and Millions Against Monsanto, among others — have taken matters into their own hands. During the COP21 event in Paris, the alliance announced that Monsanto will be put on trial in The Hague, Netherlands for “crimes against nature and humanity” come autumn 2016. Corruption, Manipulation and Fraud Of all the corporations plundering the planet, why focus solely on Monsanto? Widely accepted as one of the most hated companies in the world, Monsanto is known for extreme corruption, exceedingly toxic poisons and domination of the food supply with patented crops. Says Andre Leu, president of the International Foundation for Organic Agriculture (IFOAM): “Monsanto is able to ignore the human and environmental damage caused by its products, and maintain its devastating activities through a strategy of systemic concealment: By lobbying regulatory agencies and governments, by resorting to lying and corruption, by financing fraudulent scientific studies, by pressuring independent scientists, and by manipulating the press and media. Monsanto’s history reads like a text-book case of impunity, benefiting transnational corporations and their executives, whose activities contribute to climate and biosphere crises and threaten the safety of the planet.” Not only is Monsanto’s responsible for creating highly toxic chemicals like PCBs and Agent Orange, the corporation also purposely concealed research which showed that the compounds are exceptionally dangerous to humans, wildlife and the environment. But Monsanto didn’t stop at hiding evidence, instead the company took it a step further by directly misinforming regulatory agencies, claiming the chemicals were completely harmless. Today, Monsanto is still up to its old tricks — this time with Roundup Ready. The company clings to their assertion that the herbicide is safe enough to drink. However, unbiased science has a different view of the chemical. The World Health Organization classifies glyphosate (the main ingredient in Roundup Ready) as a “probable carcinogen,” while a MIT researcher is convinced it’s driving the autism epidemic. And research in PLOS ONE found that food contaminated with the chemical is toxic to neurodevelopment, reproduction and the liver in animal tests. Likewise, a study in Toxicology linked glyphosate-based herbicides with IQ loss/intellectual disability, autism, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, obesity (both child and adult), diabetes, infertility and mortality. The list could go on forever, but Monsanto insists their chemical brew is benign. Recently, CBS This Morning interviewed Hugh Grant, the CEO of Monsanto. In the face of staggering data to the contrary, Grant said he was “very comfortable” with the safety of Roundup Ready. It’s this kind of rhetoric and “business as usual” attitude that has environmental justice groups up in arms. Holding Monsanto Accountable In an effort to expose the damage Monsanto inflicts on the environment and its inhabitants — and to send a strong message to other companies who disregard the well-being of the planet for monetary gain — the corporation will stand trial. “Monsanto promotes an agroindustrial model that contributes at least one third of global anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions; it is also largely responsible for the depletion of soil and water resources, species extinction and declining biodiversity, and the displacement of millions of small farmers worldwide. This is a model that threatens peoples’ food sovereignty by patenting seeds and privatizing life.” (source) The Tribunal is to be held at The Hague on October 16, 2016 (World Food Day) and will review the allegations made against Monsanto, as well as assess the damage caused by the corporation. “The Tribunal will rely on the “Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights” adopted at the UN in 2011. It will also assess potential criminal liability on the basis of the Rome Statute that created the International Criminal Court in The Hague in 2002, and it will consider whether a reform of international criminal law is warranted to include crimes against the environment, or ecocide, as a prosecutable criminal offense, so that natural persons could incur criminal liability. Recognizing ecocide as a crime is the only way to guarantee the right of humans to a healthy environment and the right of nature to be protected.” (source) Members of the steering committee for the Tribunal include Vandana Shiva, Corinne Lepage (former environment minister of France), Gilles-Éric Séralini (toxicologist researching toxicities of GMOs and glyphosate), Olivier De Schutter (former UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food), Valerie Cabanes (attorney with expertise in international humanitarian law and human rights law), Andre Leu (president of IFOAM Organics International) and Ronnie Cummins (International Director of the Organic Consumers Association). In order to finance the trial, €1 million will need to be raised by the Monsanto Tribunal Foundation. Donations can be made here. Marie-Monique on the Monsanto Tribunal Watch video Article sources www.icj-cij.org/court/index.php?p1=1 www.theecologist.org/News/news_round_up/2986570/monsanto_on_trial_for_crimes_against_nature_and_humanity.html www.articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2015/12/22/monsanto-charged-with-crimes-against-humanity.aspx www.monsanto-tribunal.org www.i-sis.org.uk/Monsanto_Tried_for_Crimes_Against_Humanity.php www.journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0128429 www.thelancet.com/journals/lanonc/article/PIIS1470-2045(15)70134-8/abstract
	"Choose a job you love and you will not have to work a day in your life" (Confucius)
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