Birth Pangs of Matthew 24, Jan. 16-19, 2007

[Shammu]

Hancock Co. relief workers report mystery skin lesions
Associated Press

BAY ST. LOUIS, Miss. - State Department of Health officials are investigating bizarre skin lesion and blisters reported by many storm-relief volunteers working in Hancock County.

For the past several months, health officials have collected evidence and interviewed workers, said Robert Travnivcek, the department's district medical director.

Travnivcek said epidemiologists will determine whether the lesions are part of a disease outbreak, a rise in a common infection or simply a coincidence involving unrelated volunteers, who are all working in Hancock County and bothered by similar afflictions.

"For a long time now we've been seeing localized rashes and some of them even look like sores," said Shana Blakeny, a nurse practitioner in the emergency room at Hancock Medical Center.

Blakeny said some sores have been large enough to ooze fluid, that is collected and tested in a local lab. She said often the results have shown a staph infection, which can range from a minor skin lesion to life-threatening bloodstream disorders.

The cause of staph infections is a common bacterium that usually lives on the skin or in the nose. The bacterium gets into the body through a cut or medical incision.

For about five years the county has dealt with such cases of the disease, Blakeny said the situation has gotten worse since Hurricane Katrina.

Blakeny said it is likely locals are suffering form the same type of lesions, but have become more accustomed to the infection.

Hancock Co. relief workers report mystery skin lesions

[Shammu]

3,000 Christians added daily in China
Faithful undefeated by beatings, arrests, confiscations and destruction of churches
Posted: January 18, 2007
1:00 a.m. Eastern

© 2007 WorldNetDaily.com


Part of China's mission field

Worship services are being broken up by baton-wielding police officers, participants arrested, Bibles confiscated and Christian church buildings demolished. But still, an estimated 3,000 people every day come to a knowledge of Jesus Christ in China.

The report comes from Voice of the Martyrs, a U.S.-based Christian group that works specifically to help those members of the persecuted Christian church worldwide.

The most recent arrests happened just a few days ago, when a house church meeting in Henan province was broken up and 11 people arrested, the organization said.

(Story continues below)

"Police from Yongfeng township police station in Xiuwu county, Henan province, raided a Christian meeting in a home in Chencun village. Eleven Christians were arrested, two were released the next day and nine remain in jail," the report said.

"Police broke in and proclaimed the gathering a cultic and illegal activity," the report said.

Legal and financial help is being provided to those people during their detention.

However, VOM said that a more than 50-year campaign to eradicate Christianity from China has left that nation with the equivalent of a new mega-church being added each day.

"Chairman Mao Zedong declared the Peoples Republic of China in 1949 and quickly sought to purge society of anything religious, causing China's people to endure great hardship ever since," a VOM analysis of the nation said. "Mao's Great Leap Forward in the late '50s and the Cultural Revolution in the '60s and '70s left millions of his countrymen dead or victimized.

"Today, with its policies of forced abortion and sterilization, China's human rights record is one of the worst in the world. Authorities reportedly sell the organs of executed prisoners to meet the demand for transplants. Its system of 're-education through labor' detains hundreds of thousands each year in work camps without even a court hearing. China's 'strike-hard' policy, presented as a crackdown on criminals, is hardest on Christians, putting more believers in prison or under detention than in any other country. The confiscation of church property and Bibles continues – even Bibles officially printed by the government," the report said.

"Yet the church grows: an estimated 3,000 Chinese come to Christ each day. China's house church movement, which comprises approximately 90 percent of China's Christians, endures unimaginable persecution, yet stands on its commitment to preach the gospel no matter the cost."

Two of the people in the latest raid by police were released a day later, but nine remained in jail, according to VOM and China Aid Association, which also reported on the arrests.

Among those still being held in detention for worshiping in the home were Ju Xiang, 48; Liu Xiaoduo, 42; Wang Shegin, 40; Fu Juyi, 36; Hong Xia, 37; Xue Xianghuo, 49; and Xue Xiaona, 34, officials said.

VOM said the persecution is having little effect on the desire to know more about Christ. "In the past year, we received more requests for Bibles and Christian books from Chinese believers because they wanted to share the gospel with others," a VOM source within the restrictive nation said. "The Communist government of China does not see Christ as the most important person in an individual's life. Christians count it a privilege to believe in and suffer for Jesus Christ."

The contact said Christians simply adjust to the persecution at hand – including arrests, demolished buildings and confiscated materials.

VOM currently is supplying Bibles and copies of other Christian books, including "Tortured for Christ" by VOM founder Richard Wurmbrand, to Christians in China.

"American Christians have also mailed more than 107,310 New Testaments to China through Bibles Unbound," VOM said. "Pray God will protect believers in China and give them strength and courage to continue their faith in him."

VOM is a non-profit, interdenominational ministry working worldwide to help Christians who are persecuted for their faith, and to educate the world about that persecution. Its headquarters are in Bartlesville, Okla., and it has 30 affiliated international offices.

It was launched by the late Richard and Sabina Wurmbrand, who started smuggling Russian Gospels into Russia in 1947, just months before Richard was abducted and imprisoned in Romania where he was tortured for his refusal to recant Christianity.

He eventually was released in 1964 and the next year he testified about the persecution of Christians before the U.S. Senate's Internal Security Subcommittee, stripping to the waist to show the deep torture wound scars on his body.

The group that later was renamed The Voice of the Martyrs was organized in 1967, when his book, "Tortured for Christ," was released.

3,000 Christians added daily in China

[Shammu]

Believers executed in N. Korea; Venezuela’s Chavez
pushes socialism; Honduran Christian in hiding;…
By Mark Kelly
Jan 16, 2007

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP)--The Democratic People’s Republic of North Korea is well-known as a country where Christians are persecuted for their faith. Because the government there keeps a tight lid on communication, however, only rarely does specific information leak out. This month, details about four Christians executed for their faith have been released through the World Bible Translation Center’s Gary Bishop.

One man who worked as an evangelist was executed after being caught with two Korean New Testaments in his possession, Bishop told Mission Network News. A woman and her grandmother were washing clothes when a New Testament fell out of the woman’s clothing. Somebody reported it, and both she and her grandmother were quickly executed. And an army general who had become a believer was caught evangelizing men in his unit and was executed by a fellow officer.

Despite the oppression -– or perhaps because of it -– God seems to be working, Bishop said: “People are looking for an answer other than their own government. And, I believe that's awakening the resilience of believers in North Korea to say, 'We have another answer. There is another way to believe.'"

VENEZUELA’S CHAVEZ ACCELERATES SOCIALISM -- Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has announced plans to nationalize the country’s telecommunications and electricity industries and four major oil fields, a move that sent Venezuela's financial markets tumbling. He also pledged to strip Venezuela’s central bank of its autonomy and to pressure national lawmakers to give him the power to legislate by presidential decree.

Chavez revealed the plan Jan. 9 in Caracas as he swore in a new cabinet, the day before his own inauguration for third term in office, according to a report from the Voice of America. "We're moving toward a socialist republic of Venezuela, and that requires a deep reform of our national constitution," Chavez said in a televised speech. "We're heading toward socialism, and nothing and no one can prevent it."

After his December re-election to a term that runs until 2013, Chavez pledged to take a more radical turn toward creating a "Socialist Republic of Venezuela." Critics fear he will use his sweeping victory to tighten his grip on power and establish a dictatorship modeled after Fidel Castro’s rule in Cuba.

Venezuela is the eighth largest exporter of crude oil worldwide and the fourth largest foreign supplier to the United States. Much of Chavez' plans to relieve poverty are based on revenues collected from Venezuela's energy sector. Nationalization of such industries, however, could result in the revenue stream drying up.

"Nationalization has a long and inglorious history of failure around the world," White House spokesman Tony Snow told reporters.

HONDURAN CHRISTIAN LEADER IN HIDING -- The president of a Christian organization that helps poor people in Honduras has gone into hiding after a lawyer for the group was murdered in December. Carlos Hernandes of the Association for a More Just Society received a death threat immediately after an associate, attorney Dionisio Diaz Garcia, was shot to death on his way to court, Steve Geurink of Worldwide Christian Schools told Mission Network News.

Hernandes was meeting with church and community leaders, families, teachers and school boards in the capital city of Tegucigalpa about a Christian school improvement process, Geurink said. His success may have caused corrupt elements in the local government to feel threatened.

The organization is raising funds to cover the cost of protecting Hernandes and his family, Geurink said.

ANTI-CONVERSION BILL RAISES CONCERN IN INDIA -- Christians in northern India’s Himachal Pradesh state could be subject to up to two years in prison and heavy fines for evangelizing if a bill recently passed by the government is signed into law, according to Jerry Dykstra of Open Doors, an organization that ministers to persecuted Christians. People who want to become Christians would be required to give at least 30 days prior notice to the government or face a fine.

The bill, which has not yet been signed into law, is worded in a manner that leaves great leeway for police or local government officials to define what constitutes “forcible” conversion, Dykstra told Mission Network News. Radical Hindu elements in such offices have used similar laws in five other states to punish and restrict Christian activity at their pleasure.

Of the 6 million people in Himachal Pradesh, Christians number only about 8,000.

N. KOREA, IRAQ TOP LIST OF WORST PERSECUTORS -- North Korea and Iraq are the world’s worst persecutors of Christians, according to a report recently released by International Christian Concern, a human rights group based in Washington, D.C. The annual “Hall of Shame” awards also ranked Ethiopia, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Iran, Eritrea, China, Vietnam and Pakistan in the top 10.

The worst persecution against Christians is shifting from nations with communist governments to Islamic countries, ICC President Jeff King told Mission Network News. Unrest in Iraq has forced many Christians out of that country and anarchy in Somalia helped radical Muslims gain a foothold in the Horn of Africa, contributing to a sharp rise in violence against Christians in Somalia and Ethiopia.

"Persecution must and can be fought,” King said. “Concerned individuals should get involved in the fight by contacting their elected representatives and by calling embassies and requesting fair treatment for Christians overseas."

A NEW STYLE FOR CUBAN LEADERSHIP -- Cuba will get relief from rambling speeches that lasted for hours, micromanagement of government policies and unquestioned decisions if Raul Castro continues to function as provisional leader of the country, say longtime observers of the communist nation that sits barely 500 miles off the Florida coast.

Raul Castro recently told about 800 university leaders they should "fearlessly" engage in public debate and analysis, and in late December said he would delegate more duties, according to a report from the Associated Press. He said that as defense minister he had learned to listen to and discuss differing ideas.

Those signals indicate a leadership style dramatically different from that of his 80-year-old brother, Fidel, who ruled Cuba with an iron fist for 47 years until “temporarily” ceding power to Raul in late July. In the past, Raul Castro has expressed interest in China's model of capitalist reform with one-party political control. He is seen as a pragmatist who is more likely than his brother to embrace limited free enterprise.

ISRAEL ARRESTS DEPORTED MUSLIM CLERIC -- A Muslim cleric deported by the United States for ties to a terrorist organization was arrested by Israeli authorities when he arrived in the Middle East, according to Shin Bet, the Israeli internal security service. Fawaz Damra was deported because he applied for American citizenship in 1994 without revealing his ties to Islamic Jihad, a militant Palestinian group with links to Iran and Syria that has carried out suicide bombings and rockets attacks against Israel.

Damra, who is the former imam of the Islamic Center of Cleveland, Ohio's largest mosque, was delivered by U.S. agents to the Allenby Bridge, an Israel-controlled crossing into the West Bank, AP reported. When he failed to arrive at home, family members inquired, and a lawyer was able to confirm that he was being held at Israel’s Kishon prison.

Believers executed in N. Korea; Venezuela’s Chavez pushes socialism; Honduran Christian in hiding

[Shammu]

These last two, I ask all of y'all to pray for these Christians.  Yes we know it is coming, but that doesn't make it any easier.

[Shammu]

Hurricane sweeps across Europe
POSTED: 8:02 a.m. EST, January 18, 2007

BERLIN, Germany (Reuters) -- Germans were told to stay indoors and many schools across the country closed early on Thursday as a rare hurricane bore down on the country, cutting air traffic at its biggest airport by half.

Germany's DWD meteorogical service said the storm "Kyrill" could generate winds of up to 180 km/h (112 mph) in high and exposed areas and as much as 130 km/h in lower-lying regions.

"What's unusual about this storm is that it will affect the whole country and not just certain zones," said Christoph Hartmann, a spokesman for the DWD in Offenbach.

The northwest of Germany would be the first to feel the full impact of Kyrill from early afternoon, before the storm swept across the rest of the country and moved eastwards into Poland, the Czech Republic and northern Austria, the DWD said.

Rain would likely continue into the weekend in affected areas, as the storm's force gradually dissipated, it added.

As Germans were warned on the radio and television to keep their cars away from trees and to stay indoors, authorities in states stretching across the length and breadth of the country said many schools were closing early due to Kyrill's arrival.

Rescue services around Germany said they had mobilized extra staff to prepare for potential flooding and destructive winds.

German airline Deutsche Lufthansa said it expected numerous flight cancellations and delays on Thursday, while Frankfurt airport said takeoffs and landings were cut by half.

Germany was not the only country hit. British and French rescue services rushed to pick up sailors forced to abandon a container ship after it began sinking in stormy waters in the Channel.

Hurricane sweeps across Europe

[Shammu]

Anglican Churches Request Alternative Diocese in America

By  Lillian Kwon
Christian Post Reporter
Wed, Jan. 17 2007 03:54 PM ET

More than 17 Anglican churches across the South requested the Church of Kenya to form a diocese in America.

fter three-and-a-half years of oversight from the Anglican Church of Kenya, St. Peter's Anglican Church in Memphis, Tenn., along with other congregations, put in the request to Archbishop Benjamin Nzimbi of Kenya, who visited the church over the weekend.

There were 17 churches represented at the weekend meeting, according to the Rev. Stephen Carpenter, founding priest of St. Peter's. An additional congregation in Boston, Mass., not present at the meeting, also backed the request.

The 18 U.S. churches, presently affiliated with the Church of Kenya, join a growing number of congregations that are establishing a conservative alternative to the Episcopal Church.

Nine conservative churches in Virginia recently joined the Convocation of Anglicans in North America (CANA), which was established as an outreach initiative of the Church of Nigeria. Nigerian bishops expressed delight over the continual growth of the splinter group.

Similarly, Anglican dioceses in the South and the Northeast are hoping to build its own province with approval from the Archbishop of Kenya.

Nzimbi said he will discuss the request at the February Primates meeting which will gather representatives from around the world. He hopes to have an answer by April.

"We must go slowly and assure that in every step we are giving honor and glory to God," said Nzimbi at the weekend meeting, according to Memphis' The Commercial Appeal.

Congregations began to split from the Episcopal Church when the 2an openly gay bishop was consecrated in 2003. While homosexuality triggered the exodus of churches from the national body, the conservative groups have emphasized that the Episcopal Church's departure from Scriptural authority caused their breakaway.

Early this week, Bishops in Nigeria warned the worldwide Anglican Communion that they would go separate ways if the Episcopal Church does not repent of its apostasies.

"Christian unity must be anchored on Biblical truth," the Most. Rev. Peter Akinola of the Church of Nigeria stressed.

As conservative Anglicans in the U.S. patiently await a response from the Archbishop of Kenya, Carpenter said their goal is "for the Episcopal Church to sort of see the error of its ways and reunite with all of us," according to the local newspaper.

Otherwise, they hope to establish a single Anglican communion in America, said Carpenter.

"Establishing an Anglican diocese with a bishop here in America would give all of us a new home."

Anglican Churches Request Alternative Diocese in America

[Shammu]

NIGERIA: STATE’S POLICIES SAID TO STRANGLE CHRISTIANITY

Rev. Jerry Modibo
LAFIA, Nigeria, January 15 (Compass Direct News) – As soon as Christians in this capital city of Nasarawa state tried to rebuild a Reformed Church building that Muslims burned down two years ago, more than 200 Islamists attacked the workers.

The rebuilding came to a halt, and the Nasarawa state government subsequently banned reconstruction of the facility. The church had been planted more than a century ago by missionaries of the Dutch Reformed Church of South Africa under the auspices of the then-Sudan United Mission, headed by German missionary Dr. Karl Kunn.

“I personally witnessed the attack on the workers at the reconstruction site of the church,” said the Rev. Jerry Modibo, chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Nasarawa state chapter. “The Muslims were chanting, ‘Death to Christians, death to infidels. This town is for Muslims, we don’t want Christians here.’”

The church was known as NKST, or Nongo u Kristu u ken Sudan hen Tiv, Church of Christ in the Sudan Among the Tiv. The Tiv are an ethnic group of central Nigeria. The congregation in the Angwan Tiv area of Lafia had lost their church building in religious rioting.

Angwan Tiv is just one of many areas of Lafia town where the government now forbids building churches, Modibo said. At the same time, he said, the Nasarawa administration has financed the building of mosques across the state with public funds. Some of these mosques have been built on the premises of various government ministries and agencies.

The church leader said Nasarawa state has also built mosques in the Governor’s House and in the state House of Assembly, or parliament.

“If you are traveling from Lafia to Akwanga through Keffi to Abuja, you will see mosques being built along the road,” Modibo said. “These mosques are being built by the state government in towns and villages like Shabu, Nasarawa Eggon, Akwanga, Sabon Gida, Keffi, and Gora. Yet no single church or chapel has been built for Christians in this state.”

Christian public servants recently raised funds to build a chapel within the confines of the office of the deputy governor, who happens to be a Christian, Modibo said.

“They were ordered by the governor to stop the building of the chapel,” he said. “But there are two mosques built by the government in the same premises. That is the kind of injustice confronting us in this state.”

Gov. Alhaji Abdullahi Adamu was not available for comment, and his commissioner for information and internal affairs, Suleiman Adokwe, declined to speak on these and other issues to Compass. “Religious issues are sensitive, and I cannot therefore speak on them,” Adokwe said.

Muslim Chiefdoms

Nasarawa state policies are strangling Christian presence in the central Nigerian state, Modibo said. Officials deny Christians appointments to government institutions; at the same time, they promote junior-ranking Muslims above Christians in public service positions.

Nasarawa state has 51 “traditional rulers,” or community leaders recognized by the government. Modibo said that of this number, only 10 are Christians – the other 41 are Muslims.

“Abdullahi Adamu, the governor, did this by creating more chiefdoms to favor Muslims, and meanwhile he was stifling Christian community leaders by making them second fiddle in the scheme of things in this state,” Modibo said.

Discrimination in public service, the Christian leader said, has become a lifestyle for Christian public servants in the state. Of the 18 commissioners in government service, he said, only six are Christians.

“Last year Gov. Adamu appointed 18 commissioners, and 12 are Muslims,” he said. “Yet Christians constitute the largest population of the state – if you visit all 29 local government areas of this state and take statistics of all the people of these areas, you will discover that Christians constitute well over two-thirds of the state’s 1.2 million population.”

In addition, Modibo said, in the past 10 years appointments of federal ministers and ambassadors – based on recommendations from the state governor – have favored Muslims.

“Only one Christian in the past 10 years has ever been appointed a minister, and even then he was not allowed to complete his term of office,” Modibo said. “The same scenario played out in ambassadorial appointments – only one Christian has been appointed an ambassador in the past 10 years from this state.”

In the Christian-majority state, elections have been manipulated to perpetuate Muslim political leadership, he added.

Modibo, also a pastor with the Evangelical Reformed Church of Christ said Christians have made concerted efforts to dialogue with Gov. Abdullahi Adamu on these issues without success.

“Several attempts have been made by us to sit with the governor on a round table to discuss and find solutions to these issues, but our efforts yielded no results,” Modibo said. “In addition to personal contacts with officers of the protocol department, we have written thrice seeking to have an audience with the governor but have waited almost eternally.”

Pilgrimage to Justice

Nigerian state governments have assumed responsibility for helping to finance pilgrimages for Muslims to Mecca and for Christians to Jerusalem. Christians in Nasarawa believe the state has discriminated against them in this area as well.

In 2005, Nasarawa state budgeted and distributed 200 million naira (US$1.6 million) for Muslim pilgrims. The state budgeted 15 million naira (US$121,832) for Christians.

“Even this amount was not released for the sponsorship of Christian pilgrims after its approval,” Modibo said. From 2000 to 2005, Muslim pilgrims to Mecca sponsored by the state totaled 6,220, while the state supported only 355 Christians – and many of those encountered difficulties in obtaining the assistance, Modibo said.

“We have been facing a lot of tribulations, trials, and frustrations here in Nasarawa state,” he said. “The church here is facing the most difficult period of her life.”

Modibo noted that Proverbs 31:8-9 advocates speaking up for those who cannot speak for themselves, defending the rights of the destitute, and letting justice flow.

“So, we are demanding that there be justice and fairness to all,” he said. “All religions in this state should be treated fairly.”

NIGERIA: STATE’S POLICIES SAID TO STRANGLE CHRISTIANITY

[Shammu]

First red tide in 10 years hits SE China

17 January, 2007 -

MORE than four square miles of the East China Sea off the city of Xiamen have been struck with the first red tide algae bloom in 10 years.
According to Science Daily, local media reports said the bloom turned the water brown and killed countless fish and oysters, which are piling up on the shores in stinking mounds.
Marine experts told newspapers the red tide was caused by increasing sea temperature and recent projects to clear seabed sludge, which may have stirred up fertiliser residues in the seabed. The phenomenon occurs when pollutants cause algae to bloom, robbing the water of oxygen and suffocating marine life.

First red tide in 10 years hits SE China

[Shammu]

Germany: Sharp rise in Muslim converts

Report reveals more German university graduates, high-wage earners converting to Islam
Eldad Beck

GERMANY – A report prepared at the request of the German Interior Ministry revealed that 5,000 Germans converted to Islam between July 2004 and June 2005, a figure that is four times higher than that of the previous year.

In previous years the average number of Germans who converted to Islam stood at only 300.

The researchers said that while in the past most of those who converted were women who married Muslims, today many university graduates and high-wage earners are joining Prophet Mohammad’s religion.

According to Berlin Imam Mohammed Herzog – a former protestant priest who converted to Islam – the Germans are choosing Islam ‘as they respect its clear values and decrees.’

Germany: Sharp rise in Muslim converts

[Shammu]

Solana set for four-day Mideast tour
By DPA
Jan 16, 2007, 16:50 GMT

Brussels - European Union chief diplomat Javier Solana heads to the Middle East this week for a four-day tour aimed at increasing pressure for Israeli-Palestinian peace, EU officials said Tuesday.

Solana, a frequent visitor to the region, will kick-start his tour on January 18 with talks in Egypt, followed by visits to the West Bank, Jordan and Israel.

EU diplomats said Solana's visit was meant to highlight the bloc's determination to step up its presence in the Middle East and to voice support for a resumption of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.

The EU's foreign and security policy chief will reiterate backing for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's efforts to set up a national unity government including his moderate Fatah group and the radical governing Hamas movement.

Previous attempts to form a unity cabinet floundered in part over Hamas' refusal to moderate its hardline stance toward Israel, which led the international community to boycott the Palestinian government, and in part over the distribution of portfolios.

EU diplomats said Solana had 'not lost hope' that the formation of a new government would be possible, allowing European governments to resume direct contacts with the Palestinian Authority.

The EU and the US suspended direct aid to the Palestinian government last year following the victory of Hamas, which is classified as a terrorist organization by both Brussels and Washington.

European and American officials have said repeatedly that aid will only restart once Hamas recognizes Israel, renounces violence and agrees to abide by past peace treaties.

Solana will report on his trip to EU foreign ministers who meet in Brussels on January 22.

Solana set for four-day Mideast tour

[Shammu]

Merkel calls for EU constitution by 2009

By JAN SLIVA, Associated Press Writer Wed Jan 17, 7:18 AM ET

STRASBOURG, France - German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Wednesday outlined an ambitious program for her country's European Union presidency, saying the bloc must set a timetable for adopting an EU constitution. Merkel told EU lawmakers during her first appearance at the EU assembly that a decision on what to do with the constitution must be reached by June. The constitution was ratified by 18 states but rejected in Dutch and French referendums in 2005.

Merkel said she would consult all 27 EU nations to hear their reservations about the landmark charter and to determine which parts can be rescued to form the basis of a new document.

Germany wants to save as much as possible of the draft text, which was designed to accelerate policy-making and give the EU, now with 489 million people, more visibility on the world stage by creating the posts of EU president and foreign minister.

"We need a foreign minister for Europe. That's enough of a reason to adopt a constitutional treaty," Merkel told the European Parliament, earning a standing ovation. "We must give a soul to Europe; we have to find Europe's soul. Any failure could be a historic failure."

Merkel also said that completing global trade talks would be one of the priorities of Germany's six-month presidency, urging Europe to take a "resolute stand" to achieve a successful outcome.

She called for a broad partnership with Russia, but warned that the EU cannot ignore Russia's squabbles with neighboring countries. She called Russia's recent decision to cut oil exports in a dispute with neighboring Belarus worrying.

"We intend to do everything we can for a new partnership and cooperation agreement with Russia to begin under the German presidency," she said. "We need reliable partnership with Russia."

A dispute between Russia and Poland over a pipeline carrying Russian gas to Europe is holding up negotiations on a new EU-Russia accord. The issue is sensitive amid concerns in many EU nations that they are becoming too dependent on Moscow for oil and gas.

Addressing EU lawmakers two days after a new far-right group was established in the legislature, Merkel warned that tolerance is under threat and that EU countries must demonstrate solidarity with one another in order to coexist.

"Europe cannot tolerate intolerance, violence from the far right, far left, violence inspired by religion," she said.

Merkel gave no details on how to achieve the goals she outlined. She gave no hints about whether she would push for a cut in EU farm spending, which diplomats say is key to any global trade deal.

Merkel calls for EU constitution by 2009

[Shammu]

Jordan will develop nuclear power
By Akiva Eldar, Haaretz Correspondent

Jordan aspires to develop nuclear power for peaceful purposes and believes that unless all sides move quickly toward a peace settlement in the region, the recent confrontation in Lebanon is only a hint of disasters to come. In an exclusive interview with Haaretz on Thursday, King Abdullah II of Jordan spoke with Akiva Eldar:

"I can say that on behalf of the U.S. president and the secretary of state, and I've talked to both, that they're very serious and very committed to moving the peace process forward, because they realize the dynamics of the region at the moment.

"And this is the opportunity to reach out to the Palestinians and the Israelis and say, look, this is the golden chance and to an extent, maybe the last possibility. We had a conflict this summer.

"The frequency of conflict in this region is extremely alarming, and the perception, I believe, among Arabs, and partly among Israelis, is that in the summer Israel lost this round... And that creates a very difficult and a very dangerous precedence for radical thinking in the area. The stakes are getting higher and higher.

"So this is an opportunity to reach out to each other and make sure that the crisis of this summer doesn't happen again. If we don't move the peace process forward, it's only a matter of time until there is a conflict between Israel and somebody else in the region. And I think it's coming sooner rather than later.

"We all need to work together, because solving the Israeli-Palestinian problem allows us to tackle the other issues around us. All of us are looking at Iraq with concern, we don't know what's going to happen in Lebanon, although we hope that they're moving in the right direction... Whether people like it or not, the linchpin is always the Israeli-Palestinian problem."

Do you see a clear link between the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the Iranian nuclear threat and the threat of terrorism?

"Through Hamas, Iran has been able to buy itself a seat on the table in talking about the Palestinian issue. And, as a result, through Hamas it does play a role in the issue of the Palestinians, as strange as that should sound.

"If we start moving the process forward, then there's less reason for engagement on the Palestinian issue.

"But, the rules have changed on the nuclear subject throughout the whole region. Where I think Jordan was saying, 'we'd like to have a nuclear-free zone in the area,' after this summer, everybody's going for nuclear programs.

"The Egyptians are looking for a nuclear program. The GCC [Gulf Cooperation Council] are looking at one, and we are actually looking at nuclear power for peaceful and energy purposes. We've been discussing it with the West.

"I personally believe that any country that has a nuclear program should conform to international regulations and should have international regulatory bodies that check to make sure that any nuclear program moves in the right direction."

In other words, you're saying that you expect Israel to join the NPT.

"What's expected from us should be a standard across the board. We want to make sure this is used for energy. What we don't want is an arms race to come out of this. As we become part of an international body and its international regulations are accepted by all of us, then we become a united front."

Would you first deal with the Palestinian track and then move on to the Syrian-Lebanese track?

"Syria seems to be of tremendous interest in the Israeli public opinion, but I think that the priority, if you want to get the guarantees that Israel wants for a stable future, the core issue takes the priority. We have to launch the Palestinian process and then hope that things will go easier with the other players.

"You have to start with the Palestinian first and look at the other ones as a close second. I would hedge my bets on how successful the other tracks would be if the Palestinian one is not solved. And, we don't know how much of a smokescreen the other tracks would be and if we don't get the right nuances for what we need on the ground for the next year, then the future for us looks extremely dismal, for all of us in the region, if we don't move the process along.

"What happened this summer is just a taste of a lot of worse things to come if we don't change the direction of this discord.

"We're all on the same boat. The security and the future of Jordan is hand-in-hand with the future of the Palestinians and the Israelis. ... So, a failure for us is a failure for you, and vice versa."

How do you think the Americans should further the process?

"You have the road map, you have Taba, you have the Geneva Accords. So, we don't have to go back to the drawing board. Most of us know the facts and the issues extremely well. My only issue about the road map is that circumstances have changed since the road map was launched, and the sort of long drawn out phase approach, I don't think works anymore. So, we're looking at combining phases, I think, to move people as quickly as possible. The silent majority can be easily intimidated or swayed. And, I promise you, if tomorrow, [Prime Minister Ehud] Olmert and President [Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud] Abbas sit down and shake hands and launch a peace process, there'll be extremists on either side that create violence and loss of life to try and destabilize the conflict. That is a given. We have to be stronger than that to be able to move the process forward."

Would you suggest we go back to Yitzhak Rabin's formula: to pursue the peace process as if there were no terrorism, and to fight terrorism as if there were no peace process?

"I personally believe that my father's last biggest disappointment and sadness to him was that he lost a partner for peace. And, he believed that if PM Rabin hadn't been assassinated, we wouldn't be talking about a peace process today. In the last years of His Majesty's life, I saw him looking at the Middle East and realizing that there wasn't somebody with the courage to be able to take the process forward. It is our responsibility to move it forward.

"His late Majesty, when he started discussions with prime minister Rabin, they both looked at it the same way, I mean these were two statesmen that looked at it from an emotional point of view, in that 'who is my partner on the other side? What are his fears and his insecurities?' If I could put myself in his shoes then I could understand what to negotiate ... it was a unique relationship between His Majesty and Rabin. When it came to the Arab-Israeli Peace Initiative, we tried to do the same thing. An agreed solution on the issue of refugees.

cont'd next post

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Part II

Jordan will develop nuclear power

"Why do we want a two-state solution? We want a two-state solution because we envisage the future of Israel not just having borders with Jordan, Syria or Egypt. The future of Israelis, if I was to put myself in your shoes, is to be welcomed from Morocco on the Atlantic to Oman on the Indian Ocean. I think that is the prize for the Israelis. But that comes at a price and that is the future of the Palestinians. So although we're talking politics, I think that we have a physical problem and we're running out of time, maybe the wall, maybe the settlements, the lack of hope for the Palestinians will bring us to a point in time in the near future where a two-state solution is no longer anything concrete to talk about, then what happens? If we don't solve the Israeli-Palestinian issue, then we may never be able to solve the Arab-Israeli issue. Is this what we want to give our children? Do they have to be brought up like we were brought up ... in conflict or do we want to give them hope?"

If you were Israel's prime minister, would you settle for a hudna?

"I mean, you talk about the hudna. Tell me what you mean about hudna. If you and I have a problem and we want to go to the endgame, then we say, let's hold off with each other so we can have an atmosphere to sit down and talk. If it's a hudna, you do your thing and I do my thing for x amount of years and then we'll decide what happens. No, that doesn't solve the problem. In my vocabulary, a hudna is a truce that allows people to sit around the table to solve the problem, which I believe is a two-state solution, then I support that type of hudna. But a hudna to say you mind your business and I'll mind mine for an indefinite period of time really doesn't get us anywhere, does it?"

But in our case, Hamas insists on its refusal to recognize even our right to exists. So, what kind of solution can we talk to Hamas about?

"But, if you've noticed, and I'm not agreeing with either side, but even the language recently coming from Hamas, even from the Damascus bureau, is quite interesting. Palestinians are suffering terribly, and I have major concerns. I hear from Israeli politicians that we don't have a partner for peace. But the clock is ticking and we're running out of opportunity.

"Palestinians tend to ask, where is the Arab street? Where are the Arab leaders? We've always been there to support the Palestinians and a two-state solution, but today, where are the Palestinians for themselves? My concern is that as we're trying to move the process forward, it may be the Palestinians that may lose the future of Palestine if they don't get their act together, if they don't put their differences aside. At the end of the day, a cohesive Palestinian leadership that can negotiate the future of Palestine is what's needed today, and if we don't have that in six months or a year, then there may not be a two-state solution and I fear that the Palestinians may be the ones to lose."

There are Israeli politicians who say that publicly Jordan supports a full-fledged Palestinian state, but off-the-record that it is not very excited about having a Palestinian state right there in the Jordan valley and would rather have Israel on the other side of its border. What would you say to them?

"I do not know anybody, any Jordanian, who would say that there is a shred of common sense to that. The true future of our little area is going to be Israeli, Palestinian and Jordanian, and it has to be separate entities. There are also Israelis who want to push the problem to Jordan. An independent Palestinian state allows us a different future of how we move economically, socially and even politically."

Jordan never gave up playing a constructive role in the holy cities of Jerusalem. Do you see a Jordanian role in Jerusalem as part of a final status solution?

"I look at Jerusalem as being a beacon for the three monotheistic religions. Now, where Jordan plays a role is obviously from a Muslim point of view, we, as Hashemites, have a historical role in Jerusalem, but also all the Christian churches are credited to us. So, there is obviously a role for Jordan in finding a solution to Jerusalem that is acceptable to all of us. Jordan will be a very positive element in that."

You're in a very special position, because Jordan is caught right in the middle of two conflicts: Iraq and Palestine. Is the solution for Iraq sending more troops?

"Iraq is a challenge that is as important to Jordan as it is to Israel, as it is to Egypt, as it is to any other country - and to the U.S.

"All we can say about Iraq is that the president has listened to the Maliki government. He's come up with a statement saying, I'm going to benchmark you, but you need to make some major changes. "

Next month marks eight years since your coronation. You haven't visited us yet. When are you coming to Israel?

"We're hoping that in the near future, and that could be weeks or maybe in a month or two, there'll be an opportunity to re-launch our final chance for a future for all of us in the region. And, if we're successful in doing that, then this will allow me to come and visit, and to try and bring the parties closer and closer together. I'm quite willing to explain the Arab proposal to the Israeli people and to create an internal dialogue about this issue. The Arabs are coming to say we want peace, and we want formal relations. And, as a human being, I can't understand how anybody would not want that.

"We look at the neighborhood and we're all concerned. But, the people who need to be equally concerned are the Israelis and sometimes, they see the conflict happening in the Middle East and think well, that's not our problem. But unfortunately, everything that happens in the Middle East is interlinked. And so, this is a challenge we all face."

Jordan will develop nuclear power

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January 17, 2007, 11:07AM EST  text size: TT
Middle East big issue at World Forum

By BRADLEY S. KLAPPER

GENEVA

Middle East turmoil will take center stage at this year's World Economic Forum in the Swiss ski resort of Davos, with Israeli and Palestinian officials, Middle Eastern leaders and Iraqi politicians attending, organizers said Wednesday.

The lineup for this year's meeting lacks a big-hitter from The White House, but several Bush administration officials and presidential hopefuls will attend. The guest list includes Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, Jordan's King Abdullah II, Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora and key Shia, Sunni and Kurdish politicians from Iraq.

Israel will be represented by Vice Prime Minister Shimon Peres and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni at the Forum, which begins next Wednesday just a couple of weeks before a meeting between Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert as part of a U.S. effort to breathe life into moribund Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts.

"The Middle East issue is the most crucial issue for the world at this moment," said Klaus Schwab, head of the foundation that hosts the annual meeting of more than 1,000 business and political leaders and officials in Davos.

One Middle East session is titled "Enough is Enough." Another on the future of the region includes European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana and ex-Iranian President Mohammad Khatami, a frequent guest.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel will open the five-day meeting in her new role as head of the 27-nation European Union and the Group of Eight industrialized countries, and British Prime Minister Tony Blair will close it, but much of the talk in between will focus on the shift in power away from Europe and the United States to emerging countries in Asia and Latin America.

"Our world is rapidly changing and power is shifting geopolitically," Schwab told reporters at the Forum's Geneva headquarters. "Power, wealth and well-being are spread in ever more complex ways, leading to a world which is harder and harder to understand."

In total 24 heads of government or state will be present, he said. They include Africa's first female president, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf of Liberia, new Mexican President Felipe Calderon and frequent attendee Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva of Brazil.

Excluded from the "shifting power equation" that is the Forum's theme this year is Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, a left-wing critic of the United States who has been lining up allies in Latin America and Iran's hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who were not invited.

Previous key U.S. speakers at the forum have included former U.S. President Bill Clinton and First Lady Hillary Clinton, Vice Presidents Al Gore and Dick Cheney and Secretaries of State Madeleine Albright and Colin Powell. Condoleezza Rice, the current secretary, addressed the meeting by satellite link last year.

Potential U.S. presidential hopefuls Christopher Dodd, John Kerry and John McCain will attend. They will be joined by other U.S. senators including Democrats Dianne Feinstein and Patrick Leahy and Republicans Trent Lott and Saxby Chambliss.

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger was expected to attend, but had to cancel after a ski accident, Schwab said.

"We hope he'll be here next year," Schwab added.

Top Bush administration officials attending include Labor Secretary Elaine Chao and Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff. Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns and top trade negotiator Susan Schwab will be meeting on the sidelines of the Forum with two dozen of their international counterparts in an effort to revitalize stalled World Trade Organization talks.

Although the WTO's five-year-old Doha round of trade negotiations were never legally or formally suspended, momentum has been gathering for a staged "official relaunch" of talks aimed at slashing subsidies and cutting tariffs for global trade in goods and agriculture.

Perhaps conscious of the failures of previous trade meetings, the organizers of the Davos get-together are setting ambition at an absolute minimum.

"The aim of the meeting is ... to take stock on ministerial level and exchange ideas on the road ahead and how to advance the process," the Swiss Economics Ministry said this week.

The Forum will also address many of the same threats to global welfare from previous years, from climate change to terrorism and energy security to bird flu.

Stars will be less conspicuous than in previous years. Bono is back, as is Peter Gabriel, but there will be no Angelina Jolie or Sharon Stone.

While that may cool the paparazzi's interest, over 800 corporate chairmen and chief executives will be on hand, including Microsoft Corp. founder Bill Gates, Google co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page, and Lakshmi Mittal, the Indian billionaire hoping to complete by June a US$33.4 billion merger that would create the world's largest steelmaker.

Up to 5,500 Swiss army soldiers will be on duty to protect the Davos meeting, while the air force is patrolling the skies, the Swiss Defense Department has said.

Middle East big issue at World Forum

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EU ready for more military operations, Solana says
18.01.2007 - 17:43 CET | By Andrew Rettman
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Europe says it is ready for more military action under the EU flag in 2007 after its "success" in Congo last year, with the German EU presidency putting Kosovo, Bosnia, Lebanon and Afghanistan at the top of its defence agenda for the next six months.

"We begin 2007 ready to take up our responsibilities if needed - which I sincerely hope won't be the case - but we are in a position of readiness," EU top diplomat Javier Solana said in Brussels on Wednesday (17 January), after recalling that the EU's "battle group" structure reached "full operational capacity" on 1 January.

The EU now has two units that can be deployed for "crisis-management" anywhere in the world 10 days after member states take a unanimous vote, in a decision that would "as a rule" follow a UN security council resolution but that could also see the EU go it alone.

Each group brings together 1,500 soldiers from two or three member states, which hold joint training exercises and wear both national and EU insignia - a blue disk with 12 gold stars - on the model of EU police missions in Bosnia and Macedonia.

"Europe can assume very important peacekeeping and peacemaking functions in this world," German defence minister Franz Josef Jung said, while standing next to Mr Solana. "Europe is a great peace project and we will continue to make our contribution [to global stability]."

EU army by stealth?
No EU battle group has ever been tested in a real operation, but last year saw two major EU military projects: member states coordinated sending 9,000 European peacekeepers under a UN flag to Lebanon and dispatched 1,400 soldiers under an EU flag to Congo.

"Now we really have the beginning of a European army," French general Christian Damay said in Kinshasa in December, with France, Germany, Spain, Italy and Poland broadly supporting a gradual move toward a permanently standing EU force that could number several thousands of soldiers.

Other states, such as the UK and the Netherlands, are more worried about trespassing on NATO turf however, with no high-profile discussion of the concept taking place at EU level for now. "An EU 'army' is a very big word, but [any army] would be something very small," an EU official told EUobserver.

The notion of an EU army is a red rag to eurosceptic parties in Europe, but some pro-integration politicians such as British liberal MEP Graham Watson also believe the trend toward ever-closer practical defence co-operation should be subject to open discussion on political implications.

"I don't think governments can go on building a European army by stealth - we need a proper public debate," Mr Watson stated, adding that more and more policies are "being done in the council [the EU member states' secretariat] and reported after the fact."

Kosovo to dominate 2007 agenda
Apart from building-up battle group capacity, the German EU presidency will focus on managing the "EU-dominated" force in Lebanon and exploring ways for EU police to support NATO in Afghanistan.

A gradual pull-out of the EU police mission from Bosnia is also on the agenda - but a new EU police force will replace NATO soldiers in Kosovo after the region's final status is settled, Germany's Mr Jung said.

The EU is currently preparing what is expected to be the biggest-ever security operation in its history in Kosovo, involving policing but also institution-building, due to start this summer at the earliest.

Brussels is currently awaiting the result of Serbian elections on Sunday before UN envoy Marti Ahtisaari presents a proposal for the final status of the territory in February.

EU ready for more military operations, Solana says