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Luis Miguel Goitizolo

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RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES?
5/2/2013 4:13:58 PM

May Day snow storm hits Colo., Wyo., Midwest

May brings flowers, but they could be covered by a foot of snow in parts of Colo. and Wyo.


Associated Press -

Arvid Buseman clears snow off his car Wednesday morning, May 1, 2013 in central Sioux Falls, S.D. Sioux Falls, South Dakota's largest city, got its first May snowfall in 37 years Wednesday and its largest May amount since 1944. (AP Photo/The Argus Leader, Dalton Walker) NO SALES

DENVER (AP) -- People in parts of Colorado and Wyoming pulled puffy jackets, hats and umbrellas out of the closet again Wednesday for another round of wet spring snow.

The May Day snow storm was making travel difficult on some Colorado highways, where several crashes were reported late Wednesday, and along Interstate 80 in southeastern Wyoming. Denver's airport reported about 50 flight cancellations, and other flights were delayed for de-icing.

By midday, more than a foot of snow had fallen at Rocky Mountain National Park. The heavy snowcaused power and heat outages there and in Cheyenne, which received 15 inches of snow by noon Wednesday. West of Cheyenne, 20 inches fell near Buford, while Casper saw 4 inches of snow.

Parts of the Midwest were also getting rare May snow.

South Dakota's largest city, Sioux Falls, got its first May snowfall in 37 years. The city received 1.5 inches of snow by late morning.

A winter storm warning was also in effect for parts of Minnesota and Wisconsin. Snow fell in parts of Nebraska, and western Iowa was expecting snow between Wednesday night and Thursday morning.

The storm is welcome in Colorado and Wyoming because it boosts the snowpack that provides the region's water supply. Both states are in a drought but have benefited from several rounds of spring snow. However, the recent storms have largely missed southwestern Colorado, which remains dry and at risk for wildfires.

About 5 inches were forecast for Denver, where the snow was making the roads a sloppy mess. The snow wasn't sticking much to the pavement, still warm after recent temperatures in the 70s, but it clung to grassy areas and flowers.

Denver native Chris Lujan said he's never worn a top coat, scarf and hat on May 1 before.

Greg Notz just put his hood up and wasn't fazed.

"I expect this. Yup. It's better than living where it's warm and dry and nice all the time. At least we get a variety," he said.

Snow hits Denver in May roughly once every three years. July and August are the only months that snow hasn't been recorded there, National Weather Service forecaster David Barjenbruch said.

___

Associated Press writer P. Solomon Banda contributed to this report.

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Luis Miguel Goitizolo

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RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES?
5/3/2013 10:16:45 AM

Chinese incursion leaves India on verge of crisis

2-week Chinese incursion into Indian territory leaves Asian giants on verge of crisis


Associated Press -

Indian supporters of Akhil Bharatiya Vidhyarthi Parishad (ABVP) or All India Student Council hold placards and shouts slogans against the alleged incursion by Chinese troops into Indian territory, during a protest in Ahmadabad, India, Wednesday, May 1, 2013. India said around 50 Chinese troops crossed the de facto border between the countries and went 19 kilometers (12 miles) into Indian territory on April 15 and are camping in tents in Ladakh in the eastern part of Indian-administered Kashmir. (AP Photo/Ajit Solanki)

NEW DELHI (AP) -- The platoon of Chinese soldiers slipped across the boundary into India in the middle of the night, according to Indian officials. They were ferried across the bitterly cold moonscape in Chinese army vehicles, then got out to traverse a dry creek bed with a helicopter hovering overhead for protection.

They finally reached their destination and pitched a tent in the barren Depsang Valley in the Ladakh region, a symbolic claim of sovereignty deep inside Indian-held territory. So stealthy was the operation that India did not discover the incursion until a day later, Indian officials said.

China denies any incursion, but Indian officials say that for two weeks, the soldiers have refused to move back over the so-called Line of Actual Control that divides Indian-ruled territory from Chinese-run land, leaving the government on the verge of a crisis with its powerful northeastern neighbor.

Indian officials fear that if they react with force, the face-off could escalate into a battle with the powerful People's Liberation Army. But doing nothing would leave a Chinese outpost deep in territory India has ruled since independence.

"If they have come 19 kilometers into India, it is not a minor LAC violation. It is a deliberate military operation. And even as India protests, more tents have come up," said Sujit Dutta, a China specialist at the Jamia Milia Islamia university in New Delhi.

"Clearly, the Chinese are testing India to see how far they can go," he said.

That is not China's stated view.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said Thursday that Chinese troops had been carrying out normal patrols and had not crossed the boundary.

"China is firmly opposed to any acts that involve crossing the Line of Actual Control and sabotaging the status quo," she said at a daily briefing in Beijing as she was repeatedly questioned about the dispute.

Hua said talks to defuse the dispute were ongoing and that it should not affect relations. "As we pointed out many times, the China-India border issue is one which was left over from the past. The two sides reached important consensus that this issue should not affect the overall bilateral relations," Hua said.

Local army commanders from both sides have held three meetings over the crisis, according to Indian officials. India's foreign secretary called in the Chinese ambassador to register a strong protest. Yet the troops did not move, and even pitched a second tent, Indian officials said.

The timing of the crisis, weeks before Chinese Premier Li Keqiang is to visit India, has surprised many here. The Chinese leader's decision to make India his first trip abroad since taking office two months ago had been seen as an important gesture toward strengthening ties between rival powers that have longstanding border disputes but also growing trade relations.

Manoj Joshi, a defense analyst at the New Delhi-based Observer Research Foundation, said the timing of the incursion raises questions about "whether there is infighting within the Chinese leadership, or whether someone is trying to upstage Li."

Indian External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid said Wednesday that while he had no plans to cancel a trip to Beijing next week to prepare for Li's visit, the government could reconsider in the coming week.

"A week is a long time in politics," he told reporters.

Indian politicians accused the scandal-plagued government of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh of floundering in fear before China.

"China realizes that India has a weak government, and a prime minister who is powerless," said Yashwant Sinha, a former foreign minister from the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party.

He demanded a stronger response. "A bully will back off the moment it realizes that it's dealing with a country which will not submit to its will," Sinha said.

Former Defense Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav called the government "cowardly and incompetent." He warned that China was trying to annex more territory to add to the spoils it took following its victory over India in a brief 1962 border war.

Defense Minister A.K. Antony countered that India is "united in its commitment to take every possible step to safeguard our interests."

Supporters of the right-wing Shiv Sena party burned effigies of Singh, Antony and other top officials Wednesday, demanding India retaliate by barring Chinese imports.

China is India's biggest trading partner, with bilateral trade heavily skewed in China's favor, crossing $75 billion in 2011.

Analysts feel linking a troop withdrawal to continued trade could work.

"The Chinese have to learn that such aggression cannot be delinked from trade," Dutta said.

Though the two countries have held 15 rounds of talks, their border disputes remain unresolved. India says China is occupying 38,000 square kilometers (15,000 square miles) in the Aksai Chin plateau in the western Himalayas, while China claims around 90,000 square kilometers (35,000 square miles) in India's northeastern state of Arunachal Pradesh.

Analysts said they were baffled by Beijing's motives, since its actions could force India to move closer to Beijing's biggest rival, the United States.

"The Chinese for some reason don't seem able to see that," said Joshi.

China's aggressive posture could also force India to accelerate its own military modernization program, analysts said.

The stand-off may eventually be resolved diplomatically, "but what it really shows is the PLA's contempt for our military capability," former Indian navy chief Sushil Kumar wrote in The Indian Express newspaper.

It could also push the government to agree to the army's longstanding demand to create its own strike corps on the border.

"By needling the Indians, they are helping us to accelerate our modernization," Joshi said.

___

Associated Press researcher Zhao Liang in Beijing 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?
5/3/2013 10:19:22 AM

Upper Midwest schoolchildren get rare May snow day


Associated Press/Austin Daily Herald, Eric Johnson - Mike Gregg trudges through the snow to walk his dog, Jake, in Austin, Minn., Thursday morning, May 2, 2013. Winter made a return appearance in southeastern Minnesota, where residents are digging out of more than a foot of heavy, wet snow. (AP Photo/Austin Daily Herald, Eric Johnson)

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Schoolchildren in Minnesota andWisconsin got a rare May snow day Thursday as a storm dropped up to 16 inches of sticky snow across a beleaguered region that was just starting to enjoy spring.

Bobbi Howe's daughters, 10-year-old Emma and 7-year-old Averie, stayed home in the southeastern Minnesota city of Owatonna, where 15.5 inches of snow made it hard for the family to open their front door. Owatonna was one of dozens of Minnesota andWisconsin school districts that canceled classes for the day.

"I'm hoping they stay outside for most of the day and I'll just provide hot chocolate when they come in," Bobbi Howe said.

For Emma, the promise of a late spring snow day felt a little less like paradise.

"It's not cool," Emma said, adding that she was tired of winter and would rather be at school. "I don't like the snow right now."

Nancy Keller of Owatonna said her three kids were getting fed up with the endless winter, too. She said several of their tennis, soccer matches and field trips already have been postponed.

"They're getting tired of having things canceled," Keller said.

Such was the sentiment in other states that also got slammed by the two-day storm which dropped a wintry mix of snow and rain Wednesday from Oklahoma, Kansas, Colorado and Wyoming into Nebraska, South Dakota and Iowa. It delivered the first May snowfall in Sioux Falls, S.D., in 37 years, knocked out power to tens of thousands of homes and businesses in several states, forced the closure of major roads and was a factor in at least one fatal crash early Thursday in Wisconsin between two semis on Interstate 94 near Menomonie.

Ashland, in far northwestern Wisconsin, got over 16 inches before the storm moved on to Lake Superior. Hayward, Wis., got 15 inches and other Wisconsin communities including Baldwin, Barron, Ellsworth and Spring Valley got 14 inches.

National Weather Service meteorologist Craig Cogil said the 11 inches recorded at Forest City and nearby Britt, Iowa, by Thursday morning was the state's largest snowfall in a 24-hour period in May, the state's highest snowfall total from any storm in May, and the state's most snow recorded ever in May.

State transportation officials recommended no unnecessary travel across a large swath of southeastern Minnesota and northwestern Wisconsin. Meanwhile, the Minneapolis weekend forecast includes rain, with highs in the 40s and 50s.

But that mild respite was little consolation for fourth-grader Allie Keller, Nancy Keller's 10-year-old daughter, who had her own reasons for being unhappy with Thursday's unexpected snow day in Owatonna: "I had good hair today, so I kind of wanted to go to school."

___

Associated Press writers Gretchen Ehlke in Milwaukee and Barbara Rodriguez in Des Moines, Iowa, contributed to this report.


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Luis Miguel Goitizolo

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RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES?
5/3/2013 10:23:10 AM

Hundreds flee homes as wildfire rages near California coast


Reuters/Reuters - The Springs Fire rages along the Pacific Ocean north of the Ventura County Line May 2, 2013. REUTERS/Jonathan Alcorn

By Alex Dobuzinskis

CAMARILLO, California (Reuters) - A wind-driven wildfire raging along the California coast north of Los Angeles prompted the evacuation of hundreds of homes and a university campus on Thursday as flames engulfed several farm buildings andrecreational vehicles near threatened neighborhoods.

A smaller blaze in Riverside County, 80 miles to the east, destroyed two houses and damaged two others before firefighters halted its spread, and at least five additional wildfires were burning inNorthern California.

The outbreak of brush and wildfires marked a fierce start to a fire season in California that weather forecasters predict will be worsened by a summer of high temperatures and drought throughout much of the U.S. West.

The largest of the blazes erupted about 6:30 a.m. beside the U.S. 101 freeway, less than 10 miles inland from the Pacific coast, and quickly consumed 6,500 acres of dry, dense chaparral and brush near the communities of Camarillo and Newbury Park, about 50 miles north of Los Angeles.

Hot, dry Santa Ana winds fanned the so-called Springs Fire southward toward the ocean for much of the day, prompting authorities to close a stretch of the Pacific Coast Highway. Ventura County Fire Department spokesman Bill Nash said no injuries were reported.

News footage broadcast by KTLA-TV showed heavy smoke in the area and flames engulfing recreational vehicles parked near the evacuation zone. Later footage showed several farm sheds and other structures at the edge of an agricultural field going up in flames, apparently ignited by burning embers.

Fire department spokesman Tom McHale told KTLA that authorities were worried people could be exposed to toxic fumes that might be released from agricultural facilities.

'NERVE-WRACKING'

"The winds are a big factor in this firefight," he said. "Our concern is with pesticides and fumigants and things of that nature."

Ventura fire department spokeswoman Lori Ross later confirmed that a number of homes, vehicles and farm buildings had been damaged, but she had no details about the extent of property losses.

Emergency calls were placed to residents of two subdivisions near Camarillo and scattered houses along the coastal highway telling them to flee the fire zone, an evacuation encompassing 855 homes and thousands of people, Ventura County sheriff's spokesman Eric Buschow said.

Evacuations were also ordered for the California State University at Channel Islands campus, according to a bulletin posted on the fire department website.

"It was nerve-wracking," said Shannon Morris, 19, a first-year psychology major at the school, recounting the ominous sight of flames creeping over a nearby hill as she and a friend drove away from the campus in her car. "The whole sky was gray and the sun was like burning red."

Phil Gibbons, 57, a writer who works from home near the campus, said he realized the fire was close when he looked out his back window and saw heavy smoke blanketing his normally pristine view of a canyon.

"When I left, I was actually really, really frightened," said Gibbons, one of 70 evacuees at a Camarillo shelter. "I thought it was only a matter of time that the houses (in his neighborhood) would catch fire."

WATER-DROPPING AIRCRAFT

More than 500 firefighters were dispatched to battle the blaze, along with six water-dropping helicopters and several bulldozers. Airplanes equipped to drop payloads of fire-retardant chemicals were grounded by high winds and thick smoke in the area, officials said.

At Point Mugu Naval Air Station, a coastal installation south of Camarillo, all non-essential personnel on the coast south of the fire were sent home early, spokesman Vance Vasquez said, adding that the base was not in immediate danger.

Evacuation orders were lifted for some areas on Thursday afternoon as the Santa Ana winds eased and cooler offshore breezes picked up, allowing firefighters to gain 10 percent containment of the blaze.

Officials said it would be up to administrators at the university to decide whether students could return on Friday, when temperatures were expected to reach into the 90s (30s C) again, complicating efforts to fully contain the fire.

"We're not going to call this thing caught until we have a good line around it and that line can hold the conditions that are presenting at the time," Ventura County Fire Captain Mike Lindbery said.

"There's a real good chance that right after the sun goes down, we could have heavy winds blowing once again," he said.

The separate blaze east of Los Angeles in Riverside County erupted on vegetation in a roadway center divider and quickly swept across 12 acres of brush, destroying two houses before firefighters managed to halt the advancing flames.

That blaze, apparently triggered by a discarded cigarette or some other hot object, was reported completely contained within hours. It destroyed five outbuildings, 10 vehicles and a parked boat, Riverside County fire spokesman Mark Annas said.

(Additional reporting by Steve Gorman and Dan Whitcomb in Los Angeles; Writing by Steve Gorman; Editing by Cynthia Johnston, Tim Dobbyn and Peter Cooney)

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Luis Miguel Goitizolo

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RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES?
5/3/2013 10:24:57 AM

Indonesia says 2 arrested for Myanmar Embassy plot


Associated Press/Dita Alangkara - Police officers stand guard outside a house where police found explosive materials following a raid in Jakarta, Indonesia, Friday, May 3, 2013. Indonesia's elite anti-terror squad seized five homemade bombs and arrested two suspected militants who allegedly planned to attack the Myanmar Embassy to protest that country's treatment of Muslims, police said Friday. (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara)

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Hours after Indonesia announced it had foiled an alleged plot to bomb the Myanmar Embassy in Jakarta, hundreds of hard-line Muslims gathered outside the mission Friday calling for jihad in that country to fight against persecution of their Islamic brothers.

Two suspected militants were arrested the night before, and five homemade bombs were seized from a backpack they were carrying after authorities were tipped to their whereabouts, said National Police spokesman Brig. Gen. Boy Rafli Amar.

Their interrogation led to a rented house where other explosive materials were found.

Amar said the men, Achmad Taufiq, 22, and Sefa Riano, 29, were part of a cell allegedly involved in recent attacks against Indonesian police.

"They have a link with terrorism from evidence we have seized," Amar said. "We are still investigating and searching for other alleged group members." Amar would not say when the embassy attack was to have taken place.

He said the suspects told authorities they wanted to retaliate against Myanmar for recent attacks onRohingya Muslims there.

Meanwhile, up to 2,000 police were deployed Friday to secure the Myanmar Embassy and its ambassador's house before a demonstration by the Islamic Defenders Front. Several hundred protesters showed up dressed in white with some holding banners that read: "We want jihad" and "Stop genocide in Myanmar."

They gathered in the street in front of rows of police, peacefully waving flags and shouting: "Muslims unite! Will not be defeated!"

The U.S. Embassy issued a notice urging its citizens to stay away from the area. Truckloads of officers, many in riot gear, were placed at nearby buildings and hotels while water cannons and armored vehicles were parked on the street.

Similar protests with hundreds of participants were also held in the central Java town of Solo and at a Buddhist temple in Medan, the provincial capital of North Sumatra.

Sectarian violence in Buddhist-majority Myanmar has killed scores, and thousands of Muslims have been driven from their homes. Earlier this week, one person was killed and 160 mosques, homes and shops were destroyed in an area not far from Yangon, Myanmar's biggest city.

Members of the Rohingya ethnic group in particular face severe discrimination. They are considered to be illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, despite the fact many were born in Myanmar.

Indonesians have rallied in defense of Rohingya Muslims in the past, and last year jailed radical Islamic cleric Abu Bakar Bashir sent a letter to Myanmar's president threatening to attack the country over their persecution.

Ten days ago, Bashir issued a new call for jihad and urged Indonesian Muslims to go to Myanmar to fight.

Bashir is the spiritual leader of al-Qaida-linked militants blamed for a string of deadly attacks in Indonesia, including the 2002 bombings that killed 202 people, mostly foreign tourists, on the resort island of Bali.

"I can't wait to go to Myanmar for jihad to defend our Muslim brothers there," said Adit Pratama, 26, who attended Friday's demonstration, adding funds are now being raised to help Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar and for those who are ready for jihad there.

A month after initial Bashir's threat, a would-be suicide bomber surrendered to police after a change of heart, saying he had contemplated targeting Buddhists over the Rohingya issue.

Terrorist attacks aimed at foreigners in Indonesia have been largely replaced in recent years by smaller, less deadly strikes targeting the government, mainly police and anti-terrorism forces.

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

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