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Luis Miguel 1162 61587 Lima	RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES? 10/16/2012 10:37:24 PM
	Also I would say it sounds like it's too little, too late Ease off on austerity, IMF warns Chancellor George Osborne Posted on October 14, 2012 This sounds like it’s too little, too late. ~J George Osborne has been warned by the International Monetary Fund that he risks further damaging the economy unless the pace of austerity slows and he faces up to the country’s “growth challenge”. Chancellor George Osborne addresses the Conservative Party Conference at Birmingham’s International Convention Centre Photo: David Jones/PA By Philip Aldrick, Emma Rowley and Roland Gribben The Telegraph, UK 9:12PM BST 14 Oct 2012 David Lipton, the IMF’s deputy managing director, suggested the Chancellor may have to take bolder measures to ease the pain of cuts to spending and instead give higher priority to rescuing the flagging economy. “Our view has been that doing nothing is not a good answer given the problems that could arise when very, very low growth becomes entrenched,” Mr Lipton told The Daily Telegraph as the IMF and World Bank annual meetings in Tokyo wound down. He also said the Bank of England should look at being more inventive in the way it used quantitative easing to aid recovery by buying assets other than gilt-edged securities. His strictures reflect a more critical IMF view about the government’s debt reduction programme. The tone has recently changed and is being echoed in a loss of confidence among Britain’s business leaders. But inside the Treasury there is irritation that the IMF has been slow to recognise policy shifts to stimulate growth. Last year the Chancellor extended the £123bn deficit reduction programme by two years to 2017 and Mr Lipton expects Mr Osborne will be forced to repeat the exercise and lengthen the extension. He said: “This is a challenge that doesn’t necessarily go away. Going forward there’s a need to keep an eye on this subject.” Vince Cable, the Business Secretary, yesterday acknowledged that the government’s biggest challenge over the next year is balancing the need to stimulate growth while maintaining confidence in the money markets about the debt programme. “We started off aiming to deal with the structural deficit in four years and we’ve now said we’ll deal with it in six because the economy has slowed down making it more difficult,” he said during a debate at the Cheltenham Literature Festival. Last week the IMF slashed this year’s growth forecast for Britain by 0.6 percentage points – the biggest downgrade for rich nations – and said the economy would contract by 0.4pc. Next year’s growth prediction has been cut from 1.4pc to 1pc. Mr Osborne arrives back from the IMF meeting to a more optimistic forecast today from the Ernst & Young Item group. It expects growth of 0.7pc in the third quarter this year to limit the full year downturn to 0.2pc and is looking for a housing market recovery to help the economy grow by 1.2pc next year. But it added that it still involves the “wrong kind of growth”, relying not on exports as hoped but on consumer spending and a recovery in the housing market, and there are mixed indicators from other surveys released today. Lloyds TSB says the squeeze on spending power resulting from the inflation rate outstripping pay rises has deepened with consumers having around £100 less than a year ago to buy non-essentials. Related articles § IMF warns of fresh global crisis unless eurozone finds a fix (guardian.co.uk) § Austerity will continue, says David Cameron, despite IMF deficit warning(guardian.co.uk)
	"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? 10/17/2012 12:40:44 AM
	90 dead in Syrian regime attacks on rebel areas By ZEINA KARAM \| Associated Press – 5 hrs ago Associated Press/Idlib News Network ENN - In this Saturday, Oct. 13, 2012 photo provided by Edlib News Network, ENN, which has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting, damaged houses lie in ruins following attacks by Syrian government forces in the town of Maarat al-Numan, in Idlib province, northern Syria. (AP Photo/Idlib News Network ENN) BEIRUT (AP) — The Syrian military unleashed heavyairstrikes and artillery bombardments targeting rebel strongholds in the north on Tuesday, killing at least 90 people according to activists. The barrage came as the U.N. food agency warned that more and more Syrians are depending on assistance from the World Food Program to stay alive with the civil war worsening. The airstrikes hit northern Idlib and Aleppo provinces, both bordering Turkey. Activists described them as some of the worst since rebels fighting to topple President Bashar Assadtook over the key city of Maaret al-Numan in Idlib on Oct. 10. The city lies along the main highway connecting Aleppo with the cities to the south, including Homs and the capital Damascus. Assad's regime has increasingly relied on warplanes in its struggle to crush rebels who have taken over large swathes of territory in the north. Rami Abdul-Rahman, who heads the Britain-based activist group Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said the airstrikes were "concentrated and intensive" and the worst in weeks. He said warplanes carried out 12 raids in the area of Maaret al-Numan in one hour. The group relies on a network of activists on the ground. Abdul-Rahman said at least 90 people were killed in airstrikes and artillery shelling. He said it is often difficult to determine "what hit a town or a village" in the immediate aftermath of a strike. The Local Coordination Committees, another activist group, put the death toll from airstrikes and artillery strikes at 96. In addition to the air bombardment, Human Rights Watch on Sunday cited allegations that Assad's government has been using cluster bombs — which are banned by most nations. The U.S. based group cited amateur video and testimony from the front lines. The Syrian military denied the reports, saying in a statement late Monday that the allegations were "baseless and are part of media propaganda that aims to divert international public opinion from crimes committed by armed terrorist groups." Syrian authorities blame the civil war in the country on armed gangs and terrorists carrying out a foreign conspiracy to destabilize the country. Fighting also continued in Aleppo, Syria's largest city with 3 million residents and its former business capital. Activists reported airstrikes in the town of al-Bab in Aleppo province. Activists say that more than 33,000 people have died in the Syrian conflict, which began in March 2011 as a peaceful uprising against Assad's regime but morphed into a civil war. Journalists are increasingly getting caught up in the chaos. A Ukrainian woman who worked as an interpreter for a Russian TV crew in Syria was kidnapped by rebels in the west on Oct. 9, said Ukraine's Foreign Ministry spokesman Oleksandr Dikusarov. Dikusarov said that Ankhar Kochneva contacted her colleagues at a Russian television channel and said she was being held in "satisfactory conditions." He added that Russian and Ukrainian embassies in Syria are working together on securing the journalist's release. In Geneva, officials from the World Food Program said some 1.4 million people required its assistance in September in many parts of Syria, adding that aid workers cannot reach all those in need because of the raging conflict. "There are some areas that no one can reach," WFP spokeswoman Elisabeth Byrs told reporters. Aid workers — including those from the Syrian Arab Red Crescent and local charities and non-governmental groups — are unable to get to areas of Homs, Aleppo, Daraa and some rural areas around Damascus. Byrs said the WFP is also planning to provide food to more than 460,000 Syrian refugees by the end of this year. As of Tuesday, there were 343,871 Syrians formally registered as refugees or being helped by the U.N. refugee agency, its spokesman Adrian Edwards said. The vast majority of them have fled to neighboring Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey. EU countries have shied away from taking in refugees, preferring instead to give Syria's neighbors money to support those fleeing the violence so they would stay close to their country. Belgium's Foreign Minister Didier Reynders visited refugees in the Turkish province of Kilis on Tuesday, and stressed the need for "the international community to help." Turkish Finance Minister Mehmet Simsek said his country has so far spent some $220 million to aid the refugees in Turkey. The number of Syrian refugees in Turkey has recently passed 100,000, according to government officials. Also on Tuesday, Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan discussed Syria's conflict with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on the sidelines of a regional conference in Baku, Azerbaijan. After his return to Ankara, Erdogan told reporters that they had discussed ways to help end the conflict. He did not elaborate. Iran has been one of Assad's staunchest backers throughout the uprising. Turkey also initially backed Assad, but then called on him to step down, and lent its support to the rebels. The two neighbors have traded artillery fire over their border in the past week. ___ Associated Press writer John Heilprin in Geneva and Frank Jordans in Istanbul 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? 10/17/2012 12:43:12 AM
	Tunisia: Attackers set fire to Muslim saint shrine By BOUAZZA BEN BOUAZZA \| Associated Press – 6 hrs ago Associated Press/Amine Landoulsi - Women talk in the courtyard after masked individuals attacked and set fire to the popular 500-year-old Manouba shrine in Manouba west of Tunis, early Tuesday, Oct. 16, 2012. The shrine, which serves as a refuge for poor women, is also a place of symbolic worship for many Tunisians who visit the shrine bringing along food, money and candles. (AP Photo/Amine Landoulsi) TUNIS, Tunisia (AP) — Five masked men on Tuesday stormed into a 500-year-old shrine to a female Muslim saint near the capital Tunis that had previously been threatened byreligious conservatives and set it on fire, the Interior Ministry said. Hardline Islamists are suspected in the attack on the shrine of Sayyeda Aicha Manoubia, a 13th century holy woman. It was one of several recent assaults on mausoleums for local saints. The attacks come as secularists increasingly worry that Tunisia's moderate Islamist ruling party is not confronting the extremist elements that have grown more active since the country's longtime dictator was ousted last year. For centuries, local women have visited the tomb of the saint to ask for help with problems or to cure diseases, and many poor women seek sanctuary there. The ministry quoted four women staying overnight at the shrine who said the attackers used flammable liquid to quicken the blaze and stole valuables from them. Hardline Muslims known as Salafis oppose the veneration of saints, a long-standing North African tradition, saying it undermines the Islamic belief in monotheism. Salafis in Mali,Somalia and neighboring Libya have all targeted the tombs of saints. In March, religious conservatives picketed outside of the shrine to Sayyeda Manoubia and distributed pamphlets condemning this "blasphemous" practice of venerating saints. Human Rights Watch on Monday issued a report urging Tunisia's government to investigate attacks by religious conservatives against activists, filmmakers, artists and others they disagree with.
	"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? 10/17/2012 10:52:10 AM
	Group: Libya militias 'executed' Gadhafi loyalists By MAGGIE MICHAEL \| Associated Press – 4 hrs ago CAIRO (AP) — Libyan rebels appear to have "summarily executed" scores of fighters loyal to Moammar Gadhafi, and probably the dictator himself, when they overran his hometown a year ago, a human rights group said Wednesday. The report by Human Rights Watch on alleged rebel abuses that followed the October 2011 capture of the city of Sirte in the final major battle of the eight-month civil war is one of the most detailed descriptions of what the group says were war crimes committed by themilitias that toppled Gadhafi, and which still play a major role in Libyan politics today. The 50-page report, titled "Death of a Dictator: Bloody Vengeance in Sirte," details the last hours of Gadhafi's life on Oct. 20, 2011, when he tried to flee the besieged city. The longtime leader's convoy was struck by NATO aircraft as it tried to escape and the survivors were attacked by militias from the city of Misrata, who captured and disarmed the dictator and his entourage. Misrata was subjected to a brutal weeks-long siege by Gadhafi's forces that killed hundreds of residents, and fighters from the city became among the regime's most implacable foes. HRW says it seems the Misratans took revenge against their prisoners in Sirte. "The evidence suggests that opposition militias summarily executed at least 66 captured members of Gadhafi's convoy in Sirte," said Peter Bouckaert, emergencies director at Human Rights Watch. The New York-based group's report says that new evidence unearthed in its investigation includes a mobile phone video clip taken by militiamen showing a large number of prisoners from Gadhafi's convoy being cursed and abused by rebels. The remains of least 17 of the detainees in the phone video were later identified in a group of 50 bodies found at Sirte's Mahari hotel, some still with their hands tied behind their back. Human Rights Watch said it used hospital morgue photos to confirm the victims' identities. The dictator himself was seen alive in a widely-circulated video made public shortly after the battle. "Video footage shows that Moammar Gadhafi was captured alive but bleeding heavily from a head wound," the HRW report says. But footage showed that he was "severely beaten by opposition forces, stabbed with bayonet in his buttocks, causing more injuries, and bleeding. By the time he is filmed being loaded into an ambulance half-naked, he appears lifeless." Bouckaert said the group's "findings call into question the assertion by Libyan authorities that Moammar Gadhafi was killed in crossfire and not after his capture." Gadhafi's son Muatassim was also videotaped alive and in captivity, only to have his body turn up at a morgue in Misrata alongside his father's. "In case after case we investigated, the individuals had been videotaped alive by the opposition fighters who held them and then found dead hours later," Bouckaert said. "Our strongest evidence for these executions comes from the footage filmed by the opposition forces and the physical evidence at the Mahari hotel where the 66 bodies were found." Another victim cited by HRW as an example was 29-year-old Ahmed al-Gharyani, a navy recruit from the town of Tawergha. He was seen alive in the phone video as rebels beat him. His body was later found in the hotel and eventually identified by his family. His hometown, Tawergha, was used as a staging ground by Gadhafi's forces to launch attacks on Misrata, but after rebels broke the siege on Misrata and overran Tawergha, the town's residents fled or were driven out by vengeful rebels. Suleiman al-Fortia, a member of the dissolved National Transitional Council from Misrata, denied that Gadhafi or his loyalists were executed. "We hoped to arrest Gadhafi alive (to try him). All the killings took place in a crossfire," he said. But HRW said that "under the laws of war, the killing of captured combatants is a war crime, and Libyan civilian and military authorities have an obligation to investigate war crimes and other violations of international humanitarian law." The group released its report days before Libya celebrates "liberation day," the anniversary of Sirte's fall on Oct. 23. Since then, the country's new leaders have heavily depended on former rebel militias to secure cities and protect borders in the absence of a strong national army or other government security forces. Calls for militias to be brought under the control of the defense or interior ministries have met resistance from some fighters. Meanwhile, some groups have been implicated in revenge attacks and communal strife, while members of one Islamist militia have been accused of taking part in the attack on the U.S. Consulate in the eastern city Benghazi on Sept. 11 that killed four Americans, including U.S. Ambassador to Libya Chris Stevens. In the aftermath of Stevens' death, popular resentment surged and thousands took to the streets of Benghazi demanding the dismantlement of the militias. The government has taken over some militia headquarters and appointed military officers to run the groups, and designated some "outlawed" and others "tolerated."
	"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? 10/17/2012 11:02:23 AM
	A crude snapshot of an old, tradition-rooted European country in these end times Catholicism and sex shops: the struggle for Poland's soul By Christian Lowe \| Reuters – 4 hrs ago WARSAW (Reuters) - At the sound of a bell from the altar, relayed over loud-speakers, about 50,000 people at an open-air mass last month in the Polish capital dropped down to kneel in the street. It was a powerful symbol of Poland's deeply felt Roman Catholicism, a reminder of the scenes in the 1980s when, inspired by Polish Pope John Paul II, people prayed in the streets and brought down Communist rule. But modernity intruded on this recent moment of spiritual contemplation. The size of the crowd meant some worshippers, who arrived late, had to listen to the mass standing outside a sex shop with signs in the window offering "exotic dances". Society in Poland is changing and with it, the relationship between the Polish people and theCatholic church. In this country where, since the end of Communist rule, prime ministers have sought the blessing of the church before making important decisions, Catholicism is losing its influence. Opinion polls show that the number of people who go to church or pray regularly is in decline. And now a series of initiatives - on in-vitro fertilization (IVF), ending state subsidies for the church, and homosexuality - is challenging Catholicism's role at the heart of the state. "We want to separate the secular state from religion," said Andrzej Rozenek, a lawmaker with the ultra-liberal Palikot movement. It surprised many by becoming the third biggest party in parliament in an election last year. "We're trying to show Poles that there are other values." HOLY ROW The changes have even reached the holiest place in Poland, the city of Czestochowa, 250 km (150 miles) south of Warsaw. A shrine on a hill overlooking the city houses the Black Madonna, an icon of the Virgin Mary. It is famous for the slash marks on its cheek that were left, according to legend, by 15th-century Christian raiders fighting the Catholic hierarchy. On a weekday afternoon, scores of pilgrims filed into the chapel at the centre of the shrine where, in silence, they strained to get a view of the icon. Krzysztof Matyjaszczyk, the 38-year-old mayor of Czestochowa, upset this atmosphere of religious devotion by proposing something radical for Poland: to allocate city cash to pay for local couples to have in vitro fertility treatment. The procedure is opposed by the Catholic church on the grounds that it departs from the natural order of procreation. "There is certainly not a small number of people who don't like this initiative," the mayor said in his office, decorated with trophies from one of his hobbies, speedway racing. Matyjaszczyk calls himself a "politician of the younger generation". As he sees it, he is simply doing what is right for a modern, European society, not picking a fight with the church. "Let's look at this topic not as an ideological, political discussion but as a situation in which one group of people need help and another group has the mechanisms to help them," he said. "You can either do it and help them or hide your head in the sand and pretend there is no problem. "I don't run away from problems. I am trying to face them." Monsignor Jozef Kloch is spokesman for the Polish Bishops' Conference. At the building inWarsaw where he works, a nun in a wimple greets visitors before allowing them into the lift. Up in his office, Kloch is scathing about the IVF initiative in Czestochowa, calling it "playing in politics, nothing more". HOLY SPIRIT Poland's ties with Catholicism are rooted deep in history, but were given a fresh intensity by Karol Wojtyla, a clergyman in the city of Krakow before he became Pope John Paul II. During a visit to his homeland, in 1979, the new pontiff gave a sermon at a mass in Warsaw. Poland was run by an unpopular Communist leadership that crushed dissent. "May Your Spirit descend and renew the face of the earth," the pope said in a prayer. He made a dramatic pause, and then added: "The face of this land." His message was clear. A year later a strike wave spawned the Solidarity movement, headed by Lech Walesa, which ultimately renewed Poland by bringing down Communist rule a decade later. Today, the suite of rooms where President Bronislaw Komorowski receives visiting heads of state includes a Catholic chapel. Ninety-three percent of Poles identify themselves as Catholics. Many church services are packed. Yet people have become less assiduous about their faith. In this, Poland is following the same pattern as countries like Spain and Italy, which grew less religious as they grew richer. Since 2005 the proportion of Poles who pray every day has fallen from 56 percent to 38 percent, according to pollster CBOS. Though still high by European standards, the numbers who take part in a religious service at least once a week fell over the same period from 58 percent of Poles to 52 percent. Blazej Modelski, 21, a maths student from Szczecin in western Poland, said he used to go to church as a child but now he only goes for his friends' weddings. "Young people are more independent nowadays, they try to control their fates, and they don't need the whole surroundings: the rituals, visiting church every week, learning the prayers by heart," he said. "I can't see deeper meaning in it." Aleksandra Miszczak, a student at Warsaw University, said she tried to practice her faith but struggled with the church's position on issues such as partnerships between homosexuals. "I have many friends among them and I don't get it," she said. "Why should they be discriminated against, if they love each other the same as I love my boyfriend?" The new, more secular Poland is provoking a fierce backlash from conservatives. At the open-air mass in Warsaw, the congregation was made up of trade union activists and supporters of the conservative Law and Justice opposition party. "When will Poland stop acting like a monkey and imitating the West? I'm talking about all these gays and lesbians," said a middle-aged worshipper who gave his name as Stanislaw, holding a portrait of Christ. "Only Jesus can save Poland." "FRIENDLY SEPARATION" Whatever conservatives think, however, changes in the way the state relates to the church are becoming reality. Michal Boni, Poland's Minister of Administration and Digitisation, is overseeing one of these shifts - a reform of the way the church is financed. Under the system now, the state pays the Catholic church about 20 million euros ($26 million) a year toward its costs and covers pensions and healthcare for priests. Other faiths also get cash. Boni's plan is to scrap this and instead give citizens the option of paying up to 0.3 percent of their taxes to their chosen faith, a move the church fears would cut its income. "This is not designed to be against the church," Boni told Reuters. "It is not about savings, but about a change of philosophy. I describe it as a friendly separation. The citizens should take decisions here; this is not the state's domain." Several EU states, including Germany and Italy, use the tax system to let people channel funds to religious organizations. The church accepts the principle of the reform, but says it needs not less than 1 percent of peoples' taxes, otherwise it will have to stop providing services to the poor and sick. "I hope that we will meet in the middle," said Monsignor Kloch of the Bishops' Conference. "The government says only 0.3 percent and nothing more, but we are still negotiating." Adam Bodnar is involved in another battle with the church, this one over homosexuality. A lawyer and deputy president of Poland's Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights, he has been challenging in the courts rules which say same-sex couples do not have the same rights as male-female couples. Every Polish court has rejected his challenge, but the campaign has, he said, helped shift attitudes. "We have a member of parliament who is openly gay and is accepted by a big section of society; we have a deputy who is transgender," said Bodnar. "These discussions are completely different than they were before." Abortion has proved an exception to the trend. There are tough restrictions on when a pregnancy can be terminated and polls show little appetite for easing them. This, though, may be linked to worries about falling birth rates as much as it is about church doctrine. Rozenek, of the liberal Palikot movement, said his party would take its secularizing battle to a new front: the large wooden crucifix that hangs over a door in the debating chamber of the Sejm, the lower house of parliament. He said his party will go through the courts to have it removed - and if that does not work, he and his party colleagues may physically take it down: "It's about ... being a secular country," Rozenek said. Yet when he spoke about how religion affects his personal life, this fiercely anti-clerical politician made a frank admission: his children were baptized into the Catholic faith, because his wife insisted on it. "It's a problem for me," he acknowledged. Despite the profound changes under way in Polish society, Catholicism still runs deep. (Additional reporting by Marcin Goettig, Rob Strybel, Grzegorz Szymanowski, Patrycja Sikora and Dominika Misiak; Editing by Alastair Macdonald)
	"Choose a job you love and you will not have to work a day in your life" (Confucius)
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