Ten European nations propose a new EU super-president. These two entities—10 nations and a singular all-powerful leader—seem to match perfectly with Bible prophecy for these times.

Yet do they really?

Let’s take a closer look.

Last year a meeting attended by representatives of 10 European nations convened in a palatial mansion in Brussels to consider creating a powerful new presidential post to lead the greatest trading bloc in the world, the European Union.

EUobserver.com reported that “Ideas kicking around in a reflection group of select EU foreign ministers include merging the roles of the EU Council and European Commission presidents.

“A senior EU source told this website following a meeting of the club in the Val Duchesse stately home in Brussels last month (April 19) that the new supremo would have more power than either Herman Van Rompuy or Jose Manuel Barroso do today …”

The representative group of 10—convened by Germany—comprise Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal and Spain. Though the number 10 is significant to Bible prophecy relating to a Europe of the immediate future (Revelation 13 and17), it is highly doubtful that this particular group of 10 will be the final 10 nations that will take the lead under German hegemony in the prophesied future restructured European Union.

Nevertheless, the prophetically most potent consideration to which this group of 10 devoted its time was the prospect of merging its present three-tier top-level leadership into one all-powerful presidential office. Such a proposal has a most significant prophetic ring to it.

The problem that the EU leadership presently experiences is a problem of redundancy. The three top offices that presently lead the unwieldy union of 27 nations tend to trip over each other in the decision-making process.

As EUobserver.com puts it, “The EU Council president post was created by the Lisbon Treaty in 2009. But the Lisbon architecture is messy, with Van Rompuy, for instance, overseeing recent debate on EU fiscal reform, while Barroso’s commission puts forward its own ideas and implements final decisions.

“Van Rompuy and Barroso also represent the Union at international summits. But Van Rompuy is top dog in terms of protocol, while another post-Lisbon creature, the EU high representative—a job currently filled by Catherine Ashton—does day-to-day foreign relations” (ibid).

In the revelation of prophecy for our time relative to world conditions that will prevail immediately prior to Christ’s return, it is clear that a single powerful political leader in tandem with a single great religious leader will dominate a great prophesied northern power that shall hold sway globally for a brief moment in time (Revelation 13).

In respect of the prophesied future political supremo of Europe, the fact that all three senior EU officials—Herman van Rompuy, José Manuel Barroso and Katherine Ashton—are prepared to consider a merger of their powers into a singular super-presidency of the EU is vitally significant!

Keep watching for this proposal to become a reality.

However, in our watching, one aspect of this powerful super-president’s appointment to office should not be overlooked. Contrary to the observation quoted by EUobserver.com’s source—who stated that the appointment of a singular EU super-president would give the EU more “‘democratic legitimacy’ because he or she would be elected by meps”—Bible prophecy indicates that the future political leader of the final 10 will not be elected to that office. In fact, that leader will rather be drawn to that all-powerful office by flatteries (Daniel 11:21).

The questions that remain are, which political personality has the charisma, the general political appeal, and perhaps the dynastic profile, to be drawn into that office by flatteries?

Believe it or not, he is already waiting in the wings for his moment. Indications are that he even tested the water last year and found that his moment had not yet come.

Watch the inevitable rise to prominence of a charismatic political personality to the point of his eventual appointment as the super-president of a powerful European combine—a great northern superpower (Daniel 11)—ruled over by 10 kings, all yielding their own individual power to his overarching leadership (Revelation 17:12-13).

Revelation 17:12-13
“The ten horns you saw are ten kings who have not yet received a kingdom, but who for one hour will receive authority as kings along with the beast. 13 They have one purpose and will give their power and authority to the beast.

Reading in Daniel 2 v.45 the ten toes of the fourth beast (Roman Empire) were made of iron and miry clay making a brittle substance. This is speaking of the 10 kingdoms or kings which will emanate from the Roman Empire and be in existence at the time of Christ's return. Ten Horns - Ten Kings Their worldwide power will come in association with the beast. One hour indicates a relatively short time (18:10, 17, 19).

This is speaking of the reforming of the old Roman Empire. Presently the old Roman Empire has been reformed by ten common market nations in Europe today. There are more currently, but only 10 will come to prominence during the end time. In my opinion, these "ten horns" are those ten common market nations. The headquarters for these ten nations is in Rome.

These rulers of a ten nation federation will unite to give their political authority and military power to the beast to conquer the earth and make war against Christ (16:14; 19:19) The purpose of Satan through the Beast and fellow kings is to establish an invincible kingdom that Christ cannot overcome when He returns. But Christ is King of all kings, and will overcome the beast and his kingdom when He returns (19:11-21). Those who follow Christ are called and chosen by Him, and faithful to Him (19:7-8, 14)

At this point in his career the Beast will have total control of the world, for he will command ten "kings" who rule the nations of the earth: The ten horns which you saw are ten kings who have received no kingdom as yet, but they receive authority for one hour as kings with the beast.

These are of one mind, and they give their power and authority to the beast" Then the Beast's kingdom starts to come apart. He hears rumors of insurrection, which fill him "with great fury to destroy and annihilate many," in Daniel's terminology (Dan. 11 v.44).

It is to fulfill prophecy. Kings and Kingdoms, good and evil, have to do exactly what God wants. Sometimes they are not even aware of why they are doing it. God puts the idea into their head, while all the time, they think it is their clever idea.

He marches to the Valley of Megiddo, where he meets other armies of the world for the Battle of Armageddon.

SOURCE





Many people are aware of the atrocities committed by Germany in World War II, but would consider them ancient history. These people are completely unaware of the legacy which Adolf Hitler drew upon in creating his Nazi war machine. His was merely the latest resurrection of a war-making empire with a long and bloody history. Did you know that the Bible prophesied of his regime-as well as the terrible emergence of one last resurrection in our day?

From these facts and from what we see in Germany today, there are two overriding themes we ought to let sink into our minds. First, the almost overnight transformation of Germany from a devastated nation sifting through rubble and ashes to one of the most dominant and powerful nations in the world was nothing short of miraculous!

The world is witnessing history repeat itself one more time. Soon, it will all be over.

The book of Nahum is an end-time prophecy about Germany. Nahum 3:16-17 talk about this illusive power. “Thou hast multiplied thy merchants above the stars of heaven: the cankerworm spoileth, and flieth away. Thy crowned are as the locusts [Winston Churchill even called the Germans and their military machine ‘the locusts’], and thy captains as the great grasshoppers, which camp in the hedges in the cold day, but when the sun ariseth they flee away, and their place is not known where they are.”

After World War ii, the Nazis just went underground and disappeared like grasshoppers in wintertime. Suddenly, they were gone. But just as suddenly, they have burst back on the world scene.

In Revelation 17:1-3, the angel says to John, “Come hither; I will shew unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters: With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication … and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns.” God says a wondrous beast shall arise which will affect all inhabitants of the Earth.

Continuing in verse 7: “And the angel said unto me, Wherefore didst thou marvel? I will tell thee the mystery of the woman, and of the beast that carrieth her, which hath the seven heads and ten horns.

through these verses in Revelation 17 and other scriptures, that a great political beast is rising in Europe that will be joined by a great European religious beast in an unholy alliance to conquer the world. Religion is going to emotionally stir the Europeans. And then a megalomaniac will come on the scene to stir up the people as only someone like Hitler could.

The so-called Holy Roman Empire is going to rise to power one final time. In Revelation 17:9-12, it says, “And here is the mind which hath wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sitteth. And there are seven kings: five are fallen and one is”

and the other is not yet come”—but it is rising now—“and when he cometh, he must continue a short space. And the beast that was, and is not, even he is the eighth, and is of the seven, and goeth into perdition. And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings one hour with the beast.”

For a while, Germany and the European Union are going to have a great burst of economic growth as a benefit of their political union. Then, this colossal superstate, with its great military power, will turn on Israel. God says it’s going to happen.

Continuing in Daniel 8:24: “And his power shall be mighty, but not by his own power.” There are nine other nations in the beast alliance besides Germany, but the real power behind the beast is Satan (Revelation 13:4)—that’s what “not by his own power” means. There will be 10 nations or groups of nations, and this German leader, a “king of fierce countenance,” will control them all.

SOURCE

Supporting News:

“Berlin Group,” a fringe EU group of nations formed out of a German idea promoting the regular meeting of foreign ministers of the European Union’s leading economies (excluding Britain), recently launched the idea of creating the office of a European supremo.

They have recommended that a powerful new presidency be created within the EU—a super-president—a veritable “Charlemagne” having power over all EU institutions.

Shortly after the “Berlin Group” came out with that startling recommendation, Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel, anticipating the now current demise of France’s President Nicolas Sarkozy—whose candidacy she endorsed in France’s national elections—turned to Italy’s Prime Minister Mario Monti to forge a new alliance in the leadership of the EU. Berlin and Rome will now dominate EU policy decisions from here on.

Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti and European Central Bank head Mario Draghi are of the same Jesuit mind in their approach to the crisis. Merkel’s joining forces with them places the control of the EU’s purse strings—plus the influence of Europe’s dominant political power, Germany—directly under Rome’s influence.

On the other hand, The Bavarian pope at the helm in the Vatican engaged in a great crusade of “new evangelization,” against the Anglican Church of Britain.

Sources:
http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/318045/EU-plot-to-scrap-Britain
http://www.standingwatch.org/news/11496





 A European think tank with connections to Germany is asking for the construction of an EU-controlled “Grand Area” from the Polar Sea over Central Asia and Middle East to North Africa. The “Group on Grand Strategy” (GoGS) wants to create this “Großraum” (“Grand Area”) on which, according to their opinion, the European Federal State should be built. This would provide a power base to serve European raw material interests and protect against encroachment by powers external to Europe.

The concept, which in many ways conforms directly to German interests, also perceives the “Grand Area” with a network of military bases which would be solely “European,” devoid of any specific national control.

The advisory board of GoGS belongs to an affiliate of the Bertelsmann Foundation, one of the most influential German think tanks; the political scientific sector is working on the topic “Europe’s Future” for the Foundation.

Note that the Bertelsmann Foundation was the most significant producer of propaganda for Hitler’s Nazi war machine.

To legitimize its postwar revival it deliberately lied in an attempt to cover up its insidious wartime connection with the Nazi regime and the support its ceo at the time gave to the vicious Nazi SS and to Jewish slave labor.

The Bertelsmann trail weaves its way through from its Nazi past to the postwar German elites who were quickly returned to influential positions within postwar Germany under Chancellor Adenauer. The fact of its current involvement, be it directly or indirectly, supporting the old Nazi idea of an empire extending from the Arctic to North Africa via Central Asia and the Middle East—the old German imperial vision—is deeply concerning indeed. Yet it is so consistent with the goals that its World War ii predecessors promoted as to leave no doubt that they have a common source—the old Teutonic dream of a resurrection of the Holy Roman Empire!

SOURCE 





Last year, South Korean Leader Lee Myung-Bak made the remark after talks in Beijing with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda that also saw the trio decide to start free-trade area.

The three leaders also agreed last year on a free-trade area, saying it would boost the economies of the entire region.

The issue has been on the trilateral agenda for the past decade, beginning with an agreement among the three in late 2002 to launch a feasibility study on a free-trade area.

Wen said closer regional economic integration, in response to a slow global recovery and an overall rise in trade protectionism, would help unlock new growth potential.

"Northeast Asia is the most economically vibrant region in the world. So there is huge potential for our three countries to have closer trade and investment cooperation," he told reporters.

"The establishment of a free-trade area will unleash the economic vitality of our region and give a strong boost to economic integration in East Asia."

China, Japan and South Korea combined would have the world's largest economy -- ahead of the European Union -- when measured by purchasing power parity, which takes into account differences in living costs across nations.

"Today, as we look at the global financial crisis, some countries are still pursuing protectionist ideas and have expanded them," South Korea's Lee said.

"I'm worried about this. By comparison, I believe the agreement between the three countries is an important thing."

The three nations also signed an investment agreement concluded earlier this year after 13 rounds of negotiations stretching over five years.

"To further facilitate mutual investment, it is important to have a legal framework. It will help our businesses and mutual investment," Lee said.

Later in the day, Wen met Noda for bilateral talks, with both sides pledging to push ties between the world's second- and third-largest economies further.

"Both sides must seize the opportunity, increase mutual trust... and push forward the healthy and stable development of relations between the two countries," Wen told his Japanese visitor.

Sources:
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_asiapacific/view/1200953/1/.html


While in Europe,

"A covert group of EU foreign ministers has drawn up plans for merging the jobs currently done by Herman Van Rompuy, president of the European Council, and Jose Manuel Barroso, president of the European Commission.

"The new bureaucrat, who would not be directly elected by voters, is set to get sweeping control over the entire EU and force member countries into ever-greater political and economic union.

"Tellingly, the UK has been excluded from the confidential discussions within the shady 'Berlin Group' of Europhile politicians, spearheaded by German foreign minister Guido Westerwelle.

"Opponents fear the plan could create a modern-day equivalent of the European emperor envisaged by Napoleon Bonaparte or a return to the Holy Roman Empire of Charlemagne that dominated Europe in the Dark Ages...

"Supporters of the move believe that the rival presidencies are undermining the EU’s ability to speak with a single voice. They argue that merging the two jobs will create a powerful European leader who is capable of pursuing the federalist dream of a united Europe which has been severely shaken by the eurozone crisis.

“'Such a merger would represent a massive shift of power into the hands of a single, unelected bureaucrat. The Government should be taking this far more seriously and voicing its objections very strongly.'

From a strictly human standpoint, these plans make much sense, as the many European member states become increasingly unruly and cause serious problems for themselves and the rest of Europe due to incompetent political leadership. British opposition, which is not necessarily based on right motives, will not further the "British cause" in Europe. On the other hand, even the best of motives might turn to horrible developments. It may well appear shocking that such plans are actually being formulated, but this is news that biblical prophecy has clearly reported well in advance!

Sources:
http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/318045/EU-plot-to-scrap-Britain
http://www.standingwatch.org/news/11496

While some Iliganons, mostly not directly affected by the storm simply take the rumors as rubbish. The survivors themselves are adamant that they saw it with their eyes, some of the survivors heard the siren.

Above is the photo of the mysterious boat (from Art Babao Believes on Facebook).

Some testaments from the survivors:

Baby Agapay

She and her family used to live in Duranta, Sta. Filomina. She and her son saw the mysterious boat approaching, the son waved at the boat using the flashlight. As the boat approaches, it gradually disappeared right before his eyes.


Aileen Acosta and Herald Gerona

This couple is my batchmate back in highschool in DHS (IDS). They live in Gerona compound in Tambo, in my estimation is about 500 meters away from Mandulog river.

Both of them heard the boat’s siren during that fateful night. Herald, who climbed on a tree inside the compound, saw the silhouette of people inside the boat at a distance. He was delighted that a rescue boat was quick to respond.

Erlinda Torres’ husband

I interviewed Erlinda Torres in January at Sta. Filomina evac center. Her husband was not around during the interview. She said her husband saw the mysterious boat, “huge ship surrounded with lights”. She said, he closed his eyes and when he opened it, the ship was no longer there.

Some kid

I was in Tambo Terminal evacuation center, when I heard a woman whose nephew of about 10 years old saw the boat. I forgot to asked his name though.

Others believe that the boat seen during the devastation of Typhoon Sendong was the boat of Maria Cacao and once you enter the boat, you will never had a chance to step back on the real world.

Taken from a blog: 

This article written by Nemenzo, Gemma from Filipinas (August 2008) is very timely and interesting. The title of the article is "A Different Take: An Interview with Rep. Roquito Ablan." A lot of you may not know him, but during the Marcos Era, he was a "force" back then.

Filipinos are made to believe that Ferdinand E. Marcos and Ninoy Aquino were really arch nemesis, rivals, and even foes. But from this interview, we can see the different view on what was really happening during those times. So here it is...

While writing a book about Upsilon Sigma Phi, the fraternity both Ferdinand Marcos and Ninoy Aquino belonged to, Filipinas managing editor, Gemma Nemenzo, did a one-on-one interview with Congressman Roquito Ablan of Ilocos Norte.

Ablan had the unique privilege of being close to both Ninoy, his batchmate in Upsilon (batch 1950), and Marcos, the undisputed lord of Ablan's province. With such proximity to the two political superstars of that era, the congressman had a ringside view of what was happening behind the scenes of the Marcos-Aquino saga.

Is he credible? People close to Marcos confirm that Roquito Ablan then had a direct line to the former president. Upsilonians also know that he and Ninoy Aquino remained close friends.

Here are excerpts from the interview:
I first met Ninoy at the University of the Philippines (UP) when we were neophytes in 1950. He was a professional absentee from classes. I was working with LUSTEVECO then so I had an open expense account so I would gas up Ninoy's car.

The two of us were the most hazed neophytes in our batch. Our initiation lasted one year and one semester. We joined Upsilon because it was "the only frat in UP"; to be an Upsilonian, you must be good.

Ninoy and FM (Ferdinand Marcos) were more than friends. When Ninoy was in detention, he and FM would speak with scrambler telephones. During FM's state visit to the U.S. in 1982, the two of them talked for an hour about good times.

FM was actually considering Ninoy as his successor. He admired Ninoy for his being a courageous fighter and his vigor. They were on the same wavelength.

In fact, Ninoy's "Iron Butterfly" speech against Imelda and the Folk Arts Theater was edited by FM. I know because I was the intermediary. From the very beginning, FM gave instructions to the military to be lenient with Ninoy.

I met up with Ninoy in New York on April 22, 1983, which was my birthday. He told me he needed a passport. secretary of Foreign Affairs Collantes had earlier issued a memo stating no renewal for Ninoy's passport. So I checked with FM on the phone and Joey Ampeso, a consular officer assigned in New Orleans and an Upsilonian, was asked to assist Ninoy, which he did.

During that New York meeting, Ninoy also told me that he went to see his doctor and his medical exam might require him to rest for six months because of some heart complication. In July that year, Ninoy was told by the State Department that FM was sick and that "if I don't go home, I will not be president."

In early August, FM and Ninoy talked about the latter returning to the Philippines and FM told him not to come home yet because he (FM) was weak and he couldn't protect Ninoy.

On August 17, there was an earthquake in Laoag, Ilocos Norte, so I had to be there as acting governor. I sent two planes to meet Ninoy in Taipei but the first plane, which carried a top officer, could not locate him because he was using a passport with a different name. FM's instructions were to bring Ninoy to Basa Air Base, load him in the presidential helicopter and bring him here to Manila, to protect him.

On August 20, I left Laoag at 10 in the evening so I could be in Manila in time to meet Ninoy at the airport. I didn't think much of it then, but my plane was grounded (by someone who knew the chain of command) and the second plane was prevented from taking off When I was driving to the international airport, my car was delayed because of a rally of another Upsilonian, Doy Laurel, in front of Baclaran Church. I arrived at the airport 12 minutes after Ninoy was shot. Someone met me and said "wala na si Ninoy (Ninoy is gone)." I cried like a baby when I found out what happened. If I arrived on time I could have escorted Ninoy from the aircraft and he would not have been shot, or I would have been shot along with him on the stairs.


From Philippine Daily Inquirer:

Whenever President Ferdinand Marcos was in the mood, he would gather his loyal generals in his study in Malacañang for an hour or so of leisurely discourse on issues that mattered most to him and his martial law administration.

Over coffee and pastries, the Commander in Chief would toss a question or statement for his court to comment on or contemplate in a relaxed, casual atmosphere so different from the formality of their ranks and position.

Indeed, it was an honor to be part of the gathering because it meant one was part of Marcos inner circle.

In one tête-à-tête in late 1980 or early 1981, the conversation drifted to the  "succession issue." Marcos was already sickly then but this was not known to the public. But the generals knew. They kept the secret to themselves.

What Marcos said that day was totally unexpected of the strongman as the generals knew him.

"My best successor," Marcos said in a serious tone, "is Ninoy Aquino."

The generals retreated into silence as Marcos went on praising Aquino like an ardently admired political ally rather than an archrival. They recoiled even more when Marcos pointed out that, among the politicians around,  "Aquino is best prepared (to be president). "

Marcos declaration disconcerted the generals, but none dared ask why it had to be Aquino, the former governor and senator from Tarlac province whom Marcos himself had called a  "congenital liar, a braggart, a compulsive chatterbox and a blabbermouth. "

On top of it all, Aquino was a  "communist, " which made him an enemy in the eyes of the generals.

Most qualified 

Marcos had Aquino arrested when martial law was declared in September 1972. He was tried before a military tribunal for rebellion, murder and other crimes. Five years later, Aquino was sentenced to death, along with NPA chief Bernabe Buscayno, alias Kumander Dante, and Victor Corpus, a graduate of the Philippine Military Academy who had defected to the NPA with firearms stolen from the PMA armory.

Aquino had been in self-exile in the United States for several months when Marcos told his generals that the opposition senator was "best qualified" to be "the next president."

It was possible that Marcos may have already considered Aquino as a potential successor even before he allowed the Tarlac politician to have an open heart surgery in the United States on May 8, 1980.

On at least four occasions before May 8, 1980, Marcos sent his most trusted officer, AFP Chief of Staff Gen. Fabian C. Ver, to deliver a note to Aquino at his detention cell in Fort Bonifacio. On the last two visits, Ver asked his son, Col. Irwin Ver, commander of the Presidential Guards, to join him.

An influential group of worldwide cancer experts has warned that the astronomical prices charged by drug companies are in effect condemning some patients to death.

More than 100 leading cancer specialists have accused the world’s drug industry of “profiteering” from cancer patients in the same way that unscrupulous food vendors raise the price of basic food stuffs after a natural disaster.

The authors of the article, which appeared in the journal Blood, are all specialists in blood cancer. Blood cancers, such as Leukemia, have been proven to be very responsive to cancer drugs.

The specialists are keen to get the message across that they understand that drug companies must make a profit on what they do, but the profit should be in relation to the money invested and should not take advantage of people with life threatening medical conditions.

“What determines a morally justifiable ‘just price’ for a cancer drug? A reasonable drug price should maintain healthy pharmaceutical industry profits without being viewed as ‘profiteering’. This term [profiteering] may apply to the trend of high drug prices where a life threatening medical condition is the disaster,” the specialists wrote in the report.

One of the best known of the fairly recently developed drugs is called Imatinib. It is popularly known under the brand name Glivec, and has proven very successful in the treatment of Chronic Myeloid Leukemia (CML).

With the aid of the drug, patients can now lead a nearly normal life expectancy whereas a decade ago they would have survived for a few years at most.


When Glivec was introduced in 2001 it cost £18,000 ($27,878) per patient in the UK. The price tag rose to £21,000 ($32,526) while in the US its price has sky-rocketed from $30,000 to $92,000. However, all the research costs were recovered in two years by the initial price which generated annual revenues of $900 million.

But in 2012, the drug’s annual revenues were $4.7 billion.

“Grateful patients may have become the financial victims of the treatment’s success, having to pay the high price annually to stay alive,” the specialists write.

Ken Campbell from the UK charity Beating Blood Cancers told RT that drug companies often try and carry out a process known as "ever-greening", where they try and make as much money on a drug before its patent runs out and it can be produced generically.

In the United Kingdom, all licensed drugs must first be approved by the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) before they can be used nationwide on the National Health Service (NHS), a free service for any British resident.

NICE values a year lived - the maximum amount of money allocated to a person for the price of treatment - at about £30,000 ($46,465). If a drug costs more than this they may not approve its use. In this scenario doctors may fill out a 14-page application to the Cancer Drug Fund, if they think a patient may benefit from a licensed drug not approved by NICE.

In the United States the situation is significantly worse for cancer patients.

The 15% of the population who do not have health insurance have little chance of acquiring the drugs they need, while even those that do are often required to pay 20% of drug prices. In the case of a drug like Glivec, this is unaffordable and so in effect makes the drug unavailable. Drug prices are the single biggest cause of personal bankruptcies in the US.


But despite the advantages of the UK’s NHS, there is not a bottomless pit of money. Professor Jane Apperley, one of the authors of the report, and chair of the department of Haematology at Imperial College London, told the Independent that high drug prices still harm patients in Britain.

“Of course we need the pharmaceutical industry to go on developing new drugs. It is very exciting that a number of cancers are now becoming susceptible to these new drugs. But the rising cost is unsustainable,” she said.

In a statement to the Independent the drug company Novartis, which produces Glivec, said that they “recognize that the sustainability of health care systems is a complex topic and we welcome the opportunity to be part of the dialogue. Our critical role, as one of the many parties working towards improving cancer care, is to discover and develop innovative treatments.”

Campbell says that the statement issued by Novartis “dodged the question”.

“They talk about the benefits of it. But they say nothing about their pricing model and their price tag,” he said.

He added that “as a charity we want to see an ethical approach to drug prices.”

Novartis continued in their statement that the drugs Glivec and Tasigna have given 9/10 of patients a normal life span.

However, a source told RT that this applies only to 9/10 of people who can afford the drugs in the first place.

But Novartis insisted that they “work together with government health care systems, charities and other payers to build successful cost-sharing models.”

SOURCE

From the time that Nazi elites met behind closed doors at the Red House during World War 2 to instruct Germany’s top wartime industrialists to revive the nation’s industrial base as a means of preparing for the Fourth Reich in the case of military defeat, secret meetings of the influential in Germany have been part of its rebuilding an imperial future.

It therefore ought to come as no surprise to read reports of a secret meeting on armaments held recently by the Fraunhofer Society in Baden Wurttemberg.

German-Foreign-Policy.com reports that the secret meeting was held under the title “International Symposium on Ballistics” and “dealt with explosives and projectiles as well as armoring. Media representatives were refused access to the urban congress center under threat of using force”

Established in 1949, four years after the conclusion of World War ii, the Fraunhofer Society is the largest research institute in Germany. It is headquartered in Munich and comprises 60 institutes, employing 13,000 personnel utilizing a budget of over €1 billion.

One Munich information website claims that “The Fraunhofer Society is very interested in making the results of its innovative research public.” However, it would appear from this latest episode that when it comes to “innovative research” on explosive devices and armaments, any interest in making the results available to the public is curtailed dramatically, under threat of force, to ensure secrecy.

Over the past 20 years following the reunification of Germany, German industry has quietly retooled to become the world’s third-largest producer of military hardware. Perhaps this would not be of any general concern had it not been for that nation’s unfortunate record of instigating mass warfare in its own imperial interests.

Realizing this, German elites have been careful not to disturb public opinion which bills Germany as a democratic state bent on maintaining world peace.


At the same time they have, since the Balkan wars of the 1990s, been carefully building up German military presence in zones of combat over a wide perimeter south and east of Berlin (Daniel 8:9). Inevitably this steadily increasing military effort will involve heightened demand for armaments to resupply German forces as they risk increasing engagement in combat in foreign theaters.

Since former Defense Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg began to steadily engage public opinion in support of Germany’s armed forces, German elites have been carefully considering their options in respect of the propaganda to achieve this.

As general opinion in Europe is increasingly turning against “the German way” which is proving detrimental to European economies as the euro crisis grinds on, Germans are going to feel increasingly embattled and hard done by, by the rest of Europe.

Add to this the very real threat of Islamist extremism, most especially from Iran, and you have a highly sensitized situation building in Germany which elites will take advantage of to gain public support for an acceleration of German militarization.

There is yet another aspect to this. As German hegemony spreads globally, the German government will have no option but to increase its military power to protect both its resource bases overseas and its increasing foreign assets. This is an inevitable result of any policy of imperialism.

So, whichever way you slice the cake of the perennial German question, the course of imperialist growth upon which the nation embarked immediately upon reunification in 1991 has now come full circle to place Germany back into its inevitable role as a rising military power for the third time in a single century.

Not only have Germany’s industrialists responded magnificently to their orders to revive German industry as the backbone for a Fourth Reich, they are now placing their nation at the very forefront of the technological edge in the latest developments in the armaments trade.

Had German elites held a secret, closed-door meeting on ballistics 50 years ago, it would have set alarm bells ringing in Western diplomatic circles. Yet not even a whimper will be raised in response to this inevitable outcome of the Red House gathering of the 1940s.

This is destined to have but one clear result. A result which the prophecies in your Bible declare will bring great devastation to Anglo-Saxon nations in particular.



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Maria Labo is from the province of Capiz. Maria Labo have a happy family she had a kind  and loving husband and one son. Maria Labo was decide working abroad in England, for the sake of her family.

She had a good employer, who treated her well, but she did not know that here employer was a vampire. In the months she was employed, Maria was a combination maid and care giver to here employer. The employer of Maria would always provide her with half-cooked liver to eat.

After months of working for him, Maria began to feel sick. She did not know that she had ingested some blood of her vampire employer. Due to her unkown illness, Maria decided to return home to the Philippines, to live with her family.

The husband of Maria was a police officer. One day, after the husband returned home from work, Maria told her husband that she had already prepared dinner. Upon which time the husband of Maria sat down to the table and asked Maria, “Where is our son?“. To which Maria replied, “Our son is right there!“. The husband of Maria did not know what she meant. He was unaware that the meat he had eaten that day, was in fact their son!

Upon opening the refrigerator box, he was shocked to see the head of their son in the refrigerator. The husband of Maria was so angry, he picked up a big knife and slashed the face of Maria. Maria had big scar on her face, which is why she was called ”Maria Labo”.

From that day on, Maria would stalk or hunt in many different locations within the Philippines, but her husband continued to hunt for Maria because he wanted to kill her. Whenever Maria was known to be in any place within the Philippines, all or the people tried to find and kill her, to save their own children. From those days till the present, the Filipino people gave Maria the nickname of the “Aswang”, meaning Queen of the Vampires.

OLD BELIEFS

To this day, when Filipinos attend Fiestas in their province, they will not eat Dinuguan or Bofia or Atay (Liver). Or if they choose to eat, they will first put calamansi juice on the meat because it is believed you can see the true texture of the meat. They believe that the “Aswang” may trick them into eating Aswang or human blood and apply calamansi juice to the meat first so that they cannot be tricked, as Maria Lobo was by her vampire employer did to her. *Another belief is that if you look directly into the eyes of the vampire, and they will not look directly back into your eyes, that the individual may be an aswang.

It is also said that the Aswang is afraid of oil from the province. That they have use leaves and some natural woods that scare the aswang. If you use the oil you will see and know that they have Aswang in their place because the oil will boil right in the bottle.

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The horse meat fiasco in Europe has prodded scientists to look a bit deeper into what else we might be consuming. A team of South African scientists have just found traces of human tissue in meat meant for public consumption from 9 provinces.

The issue was revealed to parliament, almost as a side note, during meat inspection briefings on Tuesday.

A University of Stellenbosch scientist and his team conducted a microbial analysis that revealed traces of human elements, but said that slaughterhouse workers sometimes cut themselves . . . or other things . . . which could lead to the findings.

If I walked into a factory and the sample I randomly selected to test was a meat sample of which the person de-boning the meat had just picked his nose and then touched the meat, I would get a totally different microbial reading," he said. Delicious. Beyond the findings themselves, it brings up the global hot-button topic of the moment: food labeling. How much should we know about what we are consuming?

In addition to the troubling statements above, scientist Louw Hoffman noted that only 15% of the meat being sold in South Africa is correctly labeled, revealing other potentially harmful attributes of which consumers are currently unaware:

"In the labelling regulations it clearly states that allergens have to be mentioned and noted," said Hoffman. Allergens like . . . other people's genetic signature?

Yet, Hoffman and his team of scientists concluded that the incorrect labeling poses "no threat" to the consumers who eat it, despite some more gems uncovered:

 

Meat Musical Chairs

Briefing parliament's portfolio committee on agriculture, forestry and fisheries, University of Western Cape forensic scientist Dr Eugenia D'Amato said nearly 43% of samples she had tested which were labelled as game, were, in fact, beef.

D'Amato said horse meat had also been used as a substitute for springbok in biltong, and pork was found in ostrich sausages.

There was also a smaller proportion of kangaroo in samples. Despite the overall findings that consumers have absolutely no idea what they are eating - including human remnants - in 85% of the products, SA's Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries deputy director-general downplayed it by asserting that we are not becoming unwitting cannibals:

It is possible that (if tested) we could find traces of human DNA in meat. However, even if we do find human DNA, it does not mean we are eating human flesh.

Great. Unfortunately, we are evidently eliminating healthy microorganisms in the processing of foods, but since there is an acceptable standard of nasty foreign entities, thanks to our regulatory agencies - we have introduced a variety of contaminants into now weakened guts and immune systems.

We'd like to think that these food scandals are safe from us - overseas, it's their problem. But, big problems are usually systemic and many of the developed nations are on the same platform. As with most food scandals, they go on for years unnoticed before the beans are spilled.

It doesn't sound like anyone's literally being run through the meat grinder just yet, but it's a startling fact that we don't know much about what our food comes into contact with. And we have scientists and regulatory agencies continually asserting how safe our food supply is.

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Since Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, the popular imagination has been alive with stories of mad scientists and the chilling experiments they conduct. But sometimes, real life is even more frightening than fiction.

From zombie dogs to mind control, here are some of the scariest experiments ever


When physicists first flipped the switch on the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), at least a few people held their breath. For years, rumors had circulated that the particle accelerator could create mini black holes that would destroy Earth. In 2008, a group even filed suit to stop the particle collider from turning on, arguing that the atomic collisions could cause the end of the world.

Though it sounded slightly plausible, there's basically no chance that the LHC will destroy the Earth. A comprehensive study calculated that cosmic rays bombarding Earth routinely create higher energy collisions than the particle accelerator. According to that study, "nature has already conducted the equivalent of about a hundred thousand LHC experimental programs on Earth already — and the planet still exists."

Of course, even if the world is destroyed, at least we have a consolation prize: Earlier this year, physicists at the Swiss site announced they had found a particle that may be the Higgs boson, the elusive particle thought to give all other particles their mass.



In 1940, Russian scientists released a video of severed dog heads that were kept alive for several hours, wiggling their ears in response to sounds and even licking their mouths. The scientists claimed they could keep the animals alive by an artificial blood circulation system.

But that was just the first time scientists had created zombie dogs. In 2005, American scientists created another pack of zombie dogs. The team rapidly killed the dogs by flushing all the blood from their bodies and replacing it with oxygen- and sugar-filled saline, according to the researchers from the Safar Center for Resuscitation Research at the University of Pittsburgh.

Three hours later, the team gave the dogs a blood transfusion, and an electric shock. The dogs were resurrected, and while some had permanent damage, most were no worse for wear. The research, published in the Yearbook of Intensive Care and Emergency Medicine, suggested that the treatment could one day revive people who are hemorrhaging blood too quickly for doctors to repair their injuries.


While the CIA was working so hard to control people's minds, it turns out it's pretty easy to get people to do what you say: All you have to do is ask like you mean it.

In 1963, social psychologist Stanley Milgram had shown that Yale University students were willing to administer a deadly shock to strangers if an authority figure requested it.

But psychiatrist Charles Hofling wanted to see how obedience influenced decisions when people didn't know they were part of an experiment. In his innocuously titled 1966 paper "An Experimental Study of Nurse-Physician Relationships," Hofling described a chilling experimental protocol: An unknown doctor called real nurses on the hospital's night shift and asked them to administer twice the maximum dose of an unapproved drug to a patient. Unbeknown to the nurses, the "medicine" was actually a harmless sugar pill and the doctor was a fake.

While it's frightening that the experiment was given the green light at all, it's perhaps even scarier that 21 out of 22 nurses complied. The researchers clearly labeled the drug, so nurses knew they were overdosing their patients. The nurses also violated hospital rules by taking instructions over the phone and giving an unapproved medicine. The study showed just how much the aura of authority could cloud people's ethical judgments.


In World War II, the U.S. Marine Corps worked on a project to train bats as kamikaze bombers against the Japanese. A Pennsylvania dentist, Lytle Adams, first proposed the idea to the White House in 1942, after visiting the bat-filled caves at Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico. Adams proposed strapping tiny incendiary explosives to the animals and exploiting their use of echolocation to find roosts in barns and attics. According to Lytle's plan, the bomb-strapped bats would fly to Japan, nestle in the nooks of the mostly wooden buildings in Japanese cities, and set them ablaze.

The Marine Corps captured thousands of Mexican free-tailed bats and developed explosive devices to strap to their backs. The project was scrapped in 1943, probably because the U.S. government had made progress on the atomic bomb.

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Harrowing footage of a US cargo plane in Afghanistan plummeting to the ground immediately after takeoff and erupting in a massive ball of flames has emerged online. All seven passengers onboard were killed.

Video apparently shot from a vehicle dashcam shows the National Airlines Boeing 747 taking off from the Bagram Airfield military base, just north of the Afghanistan capital of Kabul, on Monday.


The plane’s nose pitches up heavily on its ascent, stalls, and then falls from the sky in a matter of seconds. It immediately explodes upon impact, sending a massive, think plume of smoke up into the sky.

While the video appeared within 24 hours of the crash and appears to be authentic, the date on the dash cam is wrong.

Seven passengers – all of them American citizens – were killed in the crash. Shirley Kaufman, VP for National Air Cargo, said five of the seven causalities were from Michigan.

“We are not yet releasing the identities of the colleagues we lost out of respect for their families who need a little more time to reach their loved ones,” The Pentagon Post cites Kaufman as saying.

  

She added that the aircraft was transporting vehicles and other cargo when it crashed.

The Taliban was quick to take credit for downing the cargo plane, a claim which NATO’s International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) dismissed as

“false.” NATO said emergency personnel who arrived at the scene were investigating the cause of the crash, adding that no insurgent activity in our around the base was recorded at the time.

The crash appears to be the deadliest aircraft-related accident at Bagram Airfield since its conversion into a massive base of military operations following the 2001 US invasion of Afghanistan.

The base has regularly been targeted by Afghan insurgents, including the deadly 2007 Bagram Airfield bombing, a suicide attack that killed some 23 people and injured 20 more. The attack coincided with a visit by the then vice-president Dick Cheney. 

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A PASSENGER jet was moments away from crashing into a "UFO" flying over Glasgow.

A report by Britain's Airprox Board found the Airbus, with more than 200 people on board, was less than 10 seconds from smashing into the mystery object 3500ft above the suburbs of Scotland's biggest city, British media report.

But investigators have been unable to explain the unidentified threat, which did not appear on radar.

The scare happened as the Airbus 320 came to land at Glasgow in sunny weather when both pilots saw an “object loom ahead at a range of 100metres”.

The “blue and yellow object” whizzed under the plane without giving the crew any time to react.



The shocked pilot radioed Glasgow Airport control tower: “We just had something pass underneath us quite close. Have you got anything on in our area?”

The tower replied: “Negative. We’ve got nothing on radar and we’re not talking to any traffic either.”

Both pilots gave the same description of the object which was blue and yellow, “bigger than a balloon” and with a small frontal area.

After landing at Glasgow the chief pilot reported there had been a “high” risk of a collision with his jet.

The pilots suggested the object may have been a glider or microlight, but investigators rejected this. They remain baffled by the incident.

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The six decades’ old fast food franchise KFC recently rolled out Original Recipe boneless chicken in its 4,500 US locations. The new slogan: “No mess. No fuss. No bones about it.”

The company is so convinced boneless chicken is the way of the future that they’re actually considering eliminating on-the-bone chicken from its menu altogether. According to the featured article:

“McDonald’s execs began experimenting with a range of non-burger options: chicken pot-pies, bone-in fried chicken, deep-fried onion chunks. None of them were successful, until they offered customers deep fried chicken chunks. The McNugget was born.

That was 1980, when about 80 percent to 85 percent of chicken consumed in the US was unprocessed... Ten years later, the numbers had almost reversed...

While the rotisserie chicken made a bit of a comeback in the mid-‘90s, the idea of eating the whole bird was, for the most part, a thing of the past... According to internal KFC surveys, nearly four out of five servings of chicken in the US today are off-the-bone, the inverse of 30 years ago.”

Why might this be “a big deal”? Well, for one, processed chicken nuggets, regardless of brand, are far more likely to contain all sorts of additives and fillers you’d be better off without.

For example, I wrote about the questionable ingredients of McDonald’s Chicken McNuggets back in 2010. Only half of Chicken McNuggets are actual meat. The other 50 percent includes corn derivatives, sugars, leavening agents and completely synthetic ingredients.

In a 2003 lawsuit against McDonald’s, Federal Judge Robert Sweet even questioned "whether customers understood the risks of eating McDonald's chicken over regular chicken." But there’s yet another reason for my questioning the trend of going boneless, and it’s even less savory than that...
The Future of Food: Bioengineered Meat


Few are talking about this, but scientists have been working on bioengineering "cultured" meat for the past decade. According to a September 2011 Huffington Post article,scientists at the University of Maastricht in the Netherlands claimed to be as little as 12 months away from delivering the world’s first bioengineered synthetic hamburger.

As of this writing, the hamburger has yet to be presented, although I doubt that means the plan has been abandoned.

The article also pointed out that London's Royal Society had released a global food supply report, in which they called for a synthetic meat solution to feed the world’s growing population without causing environmental destruction.

“The only barriers? Overcoming the social stigma and the RS scientists say it could take another decade before it rolls out to the masses,” the article states.

Then, in February 2012, The Economist followed up on the research. Other Dutch scientists, led by Dr. Mark Post at the Eindhoven University in the Netherlands, expressed hopes of decimating animal husbandry altogether by altering how meat for the masses is produced. The article explains how this laboratory-created meat is created:

“Dr. Post's cultures, grown from stem cells, are sheets 3cm long, 1.5cm wide and half a millimeter deep. To make the world's most expensive hamburger 3,000 of them will be needed. The stem cells themselves are extracted from cattle muscle and then multiplied a millionfold before they are put in Petri dishes and allowed to turn into muscle cells.


When they have done so, they are encouraged to exercise and build up their strength by being given their own gym equipment (pieces of Velcro to which they can anchor themselves in order to stretch and relax spontaneously). The fatty cells of adipose tissue, needed for juiciness, are grown separately and then combined with the muscle cells before the whole thing is cooked.


Producing meat in Petri dishes is not commercially viable, but Dr. Post hopes to scale things up—first by growing the cells on small spheres floating in tanks and ultimately by using scaffolds made of biodegradable polymer tubes, which would both add the third dimension needed for a juicy steak and provide a way of delivering nutrients and oxygen to the steak's interior.”

Sure, companies like KFC may have a point when they say they’re just changing their meals to meet the needs of the “chicken nugget generation.” But a side effect of getting used to the idea that chicken meat doesn’t have bones is that, at any point, the meat used in these processed nuggets could be exchanged for bioengineered meat, and no one would be the wiser...

I sincerely doubt bioengineered meat would be advertised, since it’s hardly a selling point—at least in the beginning. What the potential health ramifications might be from eating such meats are completely unknown, but it’s clearly not going to be identical to meat from an animal.

More Data Ties Human Illness to Farm Antibiotics

Seeing how commercially available bioengineered meat is still a ways away from being a reality you have to contend with, let’s bring the focus back to something more relevant to the present day, namely antibiotics in CAFO meats. Animals are often fed antibiotics at low doses for disease prevention and growth promotion. These agricultural uses account for about 80 percent of all antibiotic use in the US,5 so it's a MAJOR source of human antibiotic consumption.


According to a recent NPR report,data published by a joint government program from tests conducted on supermarket meat samples collected in 2011 by the National Antimicrobial Resistance Monitoring System, reveals the presence of several disease-causing bacteria, including the super-hardy antibiotic-resistant versions of salmonella, Campylobacter and E. coli. According to NPR:

“The implications were significant — that the bacteria had become resistant to antibiotics back at the farm because farmers were overusing them. The findings, released through the joint program of the Food and Drug Administration, the Department of Agriculture and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, got little attention when they were published in February. But this week, the Environmental Working Group, which opposes some of the livestock industry's use of antibiotics, analyzed the government data and highlighted some of their startling implications in a report.”

The report in question, aptly named “Superbugs Invade American Supermarkets,” points out that many of the meats tested contained “startlingly high levels” of antibiotic-resistant bacteria on:

• 81 percent of ground turkey
• 69 percent of pork chops
• 55 percent of ground beef
• 39 percent of chicken breasts, wings and thighs

Want Safer Meat? Buy Organic Pastured/Grass-Fed


Writing for the New York Times, David A. Kessler, former commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) from 1990 to 1997, also recently sounded warning bells over the rise of antibiotic-resistant pathogens in livestock, urging the FDA to take the matter seriously. So far, the agency has only restricted on class of antibiotics, cephalosporin, from routine use in livestock.

“While the FDA can see what kinds of antibiotic-resistant bacteria are coming out of livestock facilities, the agency doesn’t know enough about the antibiotics that are being fed to these animals,” he writes. “This is a major public health problem, because giving healthy livestock these drugs breeds superbugs that can infect people. We need to know more about the use of antibiotics in the production of our meat and poultry. The results could be a matter of life and death.”

The misuse of antibiotics in livestock has now become “a direct source of foodborne illness,” EWG points out. Worse yet, because animals are given these antibiotics continuously, in low doses, pathogens are becoming increasingly resistant to the drugs, which means they no longer work to treat human disease either. The end result is that people are dying from infections that were once easily treatable.

Despite this, organic foods, which are by law produced without such pathogen-promoting methods, are the ones being consistently targeted “for safety reasons.” The truth of the matter is, conventionally grown mass-produced foods pose the greatest danger to your health, in multiple ways, and are the ones to be avoided if you’re at all concerned about food safety.

“To be safe, consumers should treat all meat as if it may be contaminated, mainly by cooking thoroughly and using safe shopping and kitchen practices (see EWG's downloadable Tips to Avoiding Superbugs in Meat),” EWG suggests.

One of the best ways to avoid contaminated meat is to avoid meat from animals raised in confined animal feeding operations (CAFOs), aka “factory farms,” and buying organic, pastured or grass-fed meats instead. Growth promoters such as antibiotics are not permitted in organic animal farming, and organically-raised animals are also healthier as a result of being pastured, so overall you’re getting far “cleaner,” healthier meat.
Organic, Cage-Free, Free-Range, or Pasture-Raised?

When it comes to chicken, there are a number of designations floating around, such as “organic,” “free-range,” “pastured” and “cage-free.” But while you may think these are interchangeable, they’re actually not. In many ways these labels are little more than creative advertising.

The definitions of "free-range" are such that the commercial egg industry can run industrial farm egg laying facilities and still call them "free-range" eggs, despite the fact that the birds' foraging conditions are far from what you'd call natural. For example, regulations on the use of the term "free-range" do not specify the amount of time the hens must spend outdoors or the amount of outdoor space each hen must have access to. Nor do they indicate that the hen must have access to a pasture diet.

True free-range hens (and eggs), now increasingly referred to as “pasture-raised,” are from hens that roam freely outdoors on a pasture where they can forage for their natural diet, which includes seeds, green plants, insects, and worms.

Large commercial egg facilities typically house tens of thousands of hens and can even go up to hundreds of thousands of hens. Obviously they cannot allow all of them to forage freely. They can still be called “cage-free” or “free-range” though, if they’re not confined to an individual cage. But these labels say nothing about the conditions they ARE raised in, which are still deplorable. So, while flimsy definitions of "free range" and “cage-free” allow such facilities to sell their products as free range, please beware that a hen that is let outside into a barren lot for mere minutes a day, and is fed a diet of corn, soy, cottonseed meals and synthetic additives is NOT a free-range hen, and simply will not produce the same quality meat and/or eggs as its foraging counterpart.

Certified organic poultry is also the only poultry product that is 100 percent guaranteed to be antibiotic-free.

So to summarize, what you’re really looking for is chicken and eggs that are both certified organic and true pasture-raised. Barring organic certification, which is cost-prohibitive for many small farmers, you could just make sure the farmer raises his chickens according to organic, free-range standards, allowing his flock to forage freely for their natural diet, and aren’t fed antibiotics, corn and soy. Last year, I visited Joel Salatin at his Polyface farm in Virginia. He's truly one of the pioneers in sustainable agriculture, and you can take a virtual tour through his pasture-raised chicken farm operation in the following video.


Shopping Guidelines for Real, Health-Promoting Food

It is very difficult to control the quality of your food if you’re eating in a restaurant, which is why I recommend that you prepare the vast majority of your food yourself. If you’re going to occasionally dine out, you would be best served to avoid fast food places. Reclaiming your kitchen is part and parcel of healthful living, so you know exactly what you're putting in your body. Whether you are grocery shopping or looking for dining options, the table that follows lists criteria to look for in identifying high-quality, health-promoting foods. If the food meets these criteria, it is most likely a wise choice and would fall under the designation of "real food."


 If you're "hooked" on fast food and other processed foods, please review my article about how to wean yourself off fast food in seven easy steps. If you're currently sustaining yourself on fast food and processed foods, this is probably the most positive life change you could ever make.

And if you have children, remember that feeding your children home cooked meals can have far reaching benefits, extending even to your future grandchildren. Yes, that's right! It is now well known that dietary changes can prompt epigenetic DNA changes that can be passed on to future generations. For instance, pregnant rats fed a fatty junk food diet had daughters and granddaughters with a greater risk of breast cancer. Making wise food decisions can literally "override" genetic predispositions for disease.

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Gabriel’s Revelation tablet (on show in the “Verbum Domini” exhibition in the Vatican) has been said to be an important piece of evidence for the authenticity of Jesus’ prophesies on the resurrection

Vatican Insider spoke to Biblicist and writer, Professor Simone Venturini on the subject. Professor Venturini works in the Vatican Secret Archives and teaches Biblical Science at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross. He is also the author of a number of works, including Il libro di Gesu Segreto (The secret book of Jesus) published by Newton Compton.

Professor, what is the Gabriel’s Revelation stela on show in the “Verbum Domini” exhibition in the Vatican?

“It is an extraordinary archaeological find which resurfaced back in 2000, in the Eastern part of the Dead Sea. It was on the west bank of the Dead Sea that the famous Qumran manuscripts were discovered over fifty years ago. This was purchased by Dr. David Jeselsohn, a banker from Zurich, who added it to his precious collection of old texts. Gabriel’s Revelation is a 93cm tall and 37cm wide stela divided into two columns of Aramaic text. Experts date it between the 1st century BC and the 1st Century AD. The text is composed of 87 lines and presents the Messiah in quite a different way than how he was viewed during Jesus’ time. He is not described as a glorious descendant of David who supposedly restored the kingdom to Israel, but as someone who suffered and was resurrected after three days. It is named Gabriel’s Revelation or Jeselsohn Stone, after the man who discovered it.

What does the text say?

“The first column talks about the eschatological war. When Jerusalem is under siege, God will send a sign via His Messiah, which will announce the destruction of the Antichrist and the forces of evil. In the second column, God declares that the blood of martyrs will be the instrument that will allow them to ascend to heaven. It then goes on to mention three leaders sent by God who will be killed in battle. Finally, the angel Gabriel orders his interlocutor to come back to life.”



Why might Gabriel’s Revelation be an important piece of proof of Jesus’ prophesies about his resurrection?

“In lines 80-81 of the second column, the angel Gabriel supposedly addresses these words to his interlocutor: “In three days you shall live, I, Gabriel, command you, prince of princes, the dung of the rocky crevices.” According to Israel Knhol – who studied this tablet in great depth – the “prince of princes” is meant to be Simon, one of the revolutionaries, who, the day after Herod’s death, reclaimed Israel’s independence for himself and for his people. According to Giuseppe Flavio, (The Jewish War 2, 4, 2), Simon was killed whilst standing on the edge of a gorge. His body probably ended up on the cliff’s rocks, where it putrefied. On the Jeselsohn Stone, Gabriel is supposedly addressing this revolutionary, announcing to him that he would be brought back to life after three days time.”

What do the Gospels say about this?

“In Matthew’s Gospel (27:63), the Pharisees remind Pilate of what Jesus said when he was alive: “After three days I will rise again”. The similarity between the words on the tablet and Jesus’ words is evident. The only difference is that on the tablet the angel Gabriel announces those words to a man, whereas in the Gospel, Jesus applies them to himself. Thus, the tablet is an extremely important piece of historical evidence of Jesus’ prophesies, particularly the prophesy of this death and resurrection. The words on the tablet were apparently not re-written by the early Christians, as a formula similar to the one Jesus applied to himself - in terms of his resurrection after three days - already existed.

What is the relationship between archaeology and faith?

“Faith is obviously an inner attitude and the fruit of a choice freely made by man. However, the awareness that the Gospels tell the story of a man who not only died but was really brought back to life, could indeed be a solid and effective starting point. In this sense, archaeology is the one science that can help situate the Gospels and the characters they describe, in the historical context in which they lived.”


In general, do archaeological findings confirm or contradict faith?

“Archaeological findings which came to light in the past and continue to pop up in Palestine are precious clues that confirm the historicity of the descriptions contained in the Gospels. Take the remains of Peter’s house in Capharnaum for example. Apart from the pane of glass which is still visible inside the octagonal Church, it is also possible to see one of the places where Jesus almost certainly set foot (Mark 1:29-31).Then, in Jerusalem, there is the Basilica of the Holy Sepulchre which stands in the location in Golgotha where Jesus died and was buried. Tombs similar to the one Jesus was buried in can still be seen here. Findings such as the Jeselsohn Stone are of particular importance as they carry inscriptions or texts of a religious nature, giving insights into the cultural and linguistic context in which Jesus of Nazareth lived and preached.”

In what ways are exhibitions like the “Verbum Domini” valuable and what purpose do they serve?

“The exhibition aims to create awareness among people of the history of the Bible and the way in which the text was passed down through the centuries, right from the beginning. It offered an opportunity for people to see for themselves how the Word of God was embodied in a real story that dates back a long long time ago (the exhibition includes a reconstruction of the Qumran caves) and reaches us through an unbroken chain of precious testimonies, some of which (the Jeselsohn Stone for example) the wider public is almost completely unaware of, especially in Italy.”

  

Rosa Luxemburg tells us in her article "What are the origins of 1st May?" written in 1894, that it was in Australia where the workers' cause was joined to the old Spring celebration on this day, more precisely in 1856, when the workers of this British colony began a campaign for an eight-hour working day, making a stoppage.

This was total and the action was repeated the following year. The cause of the international workers had been launched. From Australia, the May Day cause passed to the USA, where in 1886, the workers decided to create a day of stoppage and on this day, 200,000 proletarians marched in favor of an eight-hour day.

How was International Labour Day born?

And it was in the USA that the labour movement was born, which would choose this day to focus its demands. The embrionic workers' associations and unions organized themselves during the 19th century and began to fight against deplorable working conditions - a working day of between 8 and 10 hours and in many cases in conditions of extreme discomfort and/or danger. In some industries, the life expectancy did not reach 25 years of age!

The unions/associations formed the Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions - FOTLU (November 1881), later the American Labour Federation, which at its National Convention in Chicago in 1884, proclaimed that after 1st May 1886, the working day should be 8 hours. FOTLU announced a series of actions and strikes to apply pressure on the authorities to force them to implement the new working regime. Meanwhile the labour movement was brutally repressed by the Pinkerton security agents and the police.

When the day arrived, 1st May 1886, around 300,000 workers in 13,000 firms started to strike. Chicago was the epicentre of the labour movement and names such as Louis Lingg, Johann Most, Albert Parsons and August Spies will forever be linked with May 1st. The strikes and the revolutionary atmosphere created by the various factions linked to the labour movement continued during 2nd and 3rd May, but always in a climate of peace. However, everything would change the following day.


Haymarket Massacre

Due to the increasing brutality by the authorities against the peaceful labour movement, the workers decided to organise a public conference in Haymarket Square, Chicago, on May 4th. The main speaker, August Spies, addressed the crowd of workers and their families, including many children. Eye witnesses, which included the Mayor of Chicago, declared that his speech did not incite violence.

However, the police force decided to charge and attack the crowd; someone (and it is not clear whether it was a worker of an agent provocateur connected to the authorities, threw a bomb at the police and these responded by firing into the crowd.

Eight anarchist leaders were arrested and accused of instigating violence and the jury (chosen from among the corporate elitists) found them guity in one of the most blatant travesties of justice in history. Four were hanged, one committed suicide in his cell the night before the hanging in November 1887. The other three were pardoned six years later.

The day was never adopted as a public holiday in the USA but the workers' movement and its claims echoed far and wide, reaching the four corners of the world, where May 1st started to become the focal point for demonstrations in favour of workers' rights. International Socialist proclaimed the date International Labour Day in 1889.

In 1890, May Day demonstrations were generalised and worldwide, from the USA and Canada, to Brazil, Cuba, Peru, Chile, and across Europe from Ireland to Russia.

In Europe, 400 delegates attended the International Workers' Conference in 1889, in which the main demand was the eight-hour day and 1st May 1890 was declared an international day of stoppage around the world.

But May Day goes further back...

We trace a brief outline of the history of International Labour Day from the Pagan fertility festival - Beltane - to the Roman festival Floralia,



Beltane, Festival of Light

Beltane (Bealtaine or Cetsamhain) is the name given to the Festival of Light celebrated by the British Celts, welcoming the death of Winter and the birth of Spring, celebrated at the beginning of May. It is a fertility festival, symbolizing the union between male and female forces and it was celebrated by lighting a new fire, meaning new life. Cattle passed through the fire or the smoke and young couples jumped over the flames so as to be protected with the new life.

Floralia

The beginning of May was also an important fertility festival for the Romans. They celebrated the Festival of Flora, Goddess of Flowers. The celebration of Flora was called Floralia, which lasted from 28th April to 2nd May. During the Middle Ages all over Europe, this time was celebrated with singing and dancing. People went to the forests to cut down a tree, to form a Maypole. This served as a focal point for village festivities.

May Celebrations in the New World

These European celebrations at the beginning of May, celebrating the beginning of the agricultural calendar (sowing and planting) crossed the Atlantic and although such celebrations were repressed by the Puritans, they survived in the New World.

And back to the future...
May Day, long after America's heroic workers took up the cause of workers' rights after the Haymarket Massacre in the nineteenth century, sparking the movement which would become the international standard-bearer for the oppressed and after so many tremendous victories, where do we stand today?

The international labour movement won some stunning successes in the face of blatant and brutal oppression, gaining the right to a fair wage, a fair timetable, safety at work, without oppression or harassment, an end to child and slave labour, a job description and later, equal opportunities for women and nationality groups.



Today, where do we stand?

The latest "crisis" has been raised as a banner by reactionary forces that would have us go back to the time before the Haymarket Massacre in 1886. In so many workplaces, inspectors fail to enforce the working timetable, employees are forced to work overtime without pay as the onus is on keeping the job in the face of some external threat which will close the company.

Wage rises, keeping pace with prices of food and utilities have become a distant memory and real buying power has slipped back a decade or more in most countries, where once again putting food on the table becomes a fight in too many cases.

Women's working rights have yet to be properly addressed, since wages are not on a parity with men and the question of maternal leave remains to be solved.

The conclusion therefore is that we are slipping backwards and if the workers of the world do not take measures and network, then the same reactionary forces that enslaved them over a century ago will do the same thing again.

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Kraljevo tonight was engulfed by an unprecedented cloud of flies that are in swarms, with the first dusk, almost buried the entire city. Miodrag Rajkovic of the Veterinary Institute in Kraljevo says that it is a natural phenomenon.

Old Testament

The source for the name Beelzebub is in 2 Kings 1:2-3, 6, 16. Ba‘al Zəbûb is variously understood to mean "lord of the flies" or "lord of the (heavenly) dwelling". Originally the name of a Philistine god,Ba'al, meaning "Lord" in Ugaritic, was used in conjunction with a descriptive name of a specific god. The Septuagint renders the name as Baalzebub (βααλζεβούβ) and as Baal muian (βααλ μυιαν, "Baal of flies"), but Symmachus the Ebionite may have reflected a tradition of its offensive ancient name when he rendered it as Beelzeboul.
Scholars are divided, in regard to the god of Ekron, between the belief that zebub may be the original affix to Baal and that it is a substitute for an original zbl which, after the discoveries of Ras Shamra, has been connected with the title of "prince", frequently attributed to

Baal in mythological texts.[citation needed] In addition to the intrinsic weakness of this last position, which is not supported by the versions, is the fact that it was long ago suggested that there was a relationship between the Philistine god and cults of fly or apotropaic divinities appearing in the Hellenic world, such as Zeus Apomyios or Myiagros.[citation needed] It is exactly this last connection which is confirmed by the Ugaritic text when we examine how Baal affects the expulsion of the flies which are the patient's sickness.[citation needed] According to Francesco Saracino (1982) this series of elements may be inconclusive as evidence, but the fact that in relationship to Baal Zebub, the two constituent terms are here linked, joined by a function (ndy) that is typical of some divinities attested in the Mediterranean world, is a strong argument in favor of the authenticity of the name of the god of Ekron, and of his possible therapeutic activities, which are implicit in 2 Kings 1:2-3, etc.


Testament of Solomon

In the Testament of Solomon, Beelzebul (not Beelzebub) appears as prince of the demons and says that he was formerly a leading heavenly angel who was associated with the star Hesperus (which is the normal Greek name for the planet Venus (Αφροδíτη) as evening star). Seemingly, Beelzebul here is simply Lucifer. Beelzebul claims to cause destruction through tyrants, to cause demons to be worshipped among men, to excite priests to lust, to cause jealousies in cities and murders, and to bring on war. The Testament of Solomon is a Hellenistic Old Testament pseudepigraphical work, purportedly written by King Solomon, in which Solomon mostly describes particular demons whom he enslaved to help build the temple, with substantial Christian interpolations.


New Testament

Beelzebub from Russian icon of Harrowing of Hell

Belzebuth şi naşul săŭ ("Beelzebub and His Nemesis"), cartoon published on the cover of Furnica magazine. On the right, as Beelzebub, carrying a folder marked Finance Ministry, is a defiant Take Ionescu, newly appointed by a Conservative government. His opponent (and predecessor by proxy) is the Liberal chairman Dimitrie Sturdza, who opposes budgetary reform. Petrescu-Găină depicts him as a Christian missionary figure, cross in hand, ready to confront the devil.

In Mark 3:22, the Pharisees accuse Jesus of driving out demons by the power of Beelzeboul, prince of demons, the name also appearing in the expanded version in Matthew 12:24,27 and Luke 11:15,18-19. The name also occurs in Matthew 10:25.

Jesus knew their thoughts and said to them, Every kingdom divided against itself will be ruined, and every city or household divided against itself will not stand. If Satan drives out Satan, he is divided against himself. How then can his kingdom stand? And if I drive out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your people drive them out? So then, they will be your judges. But if I drive out demons by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.─Matthew 12:25-28.

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The motive is to promote the bilateral trade between China and Russia, facilitate the cross-border trade settlement of [the yuan], and meet the needs of economic entities to reduce the conversion cost, according to Chinese officials.

This latest move -- a continuation in a series of efforts by both countries to move away from U.S. dollar usage in international trade -- further threatens the dollar's reserve currency status.

The dollar has this status because it is currently the currency of international trade.

For example, when Malaysia and Germany exchange goods, the transaction is often denominated in dollars. In particular, oil -- something that all modern economies need -- is denominated in U.S. dollars, so the currency is almost as indispensable as oil itself.

The dollar reserve currency status allows the U.S. to run up high deficits and have its debt be denominated in the U.S. dollar, which in turn enables it to print unlimited dollars and inflate its way out of debt. America, understandably, wants to protect these privileges.

In fact, some allege that the U.S. wants to protect this status so badly that it invaded Iraq because the country began selling oil in euros instead of dollars. Now, the U.S. is allegedly threatening Iran because of the country's desire to use euros or Russian rubles in oil transactions.

Meanwhile, China and Russia are gradually revolting against the U.S. dollar. This latest move to shift bilateral trade away from it is significant in itself because China-Russian trade -- previously denominated in dollars -- is currently around $40 billion per year. For Russia, trade with China is larger than trade with the U.S.

Moreover, as this policy extends to Russian exports of oil and natural gas to China, it threatens the global petro-currency status of the U.S. dollar.

According to the International Energy Agency, China is already the largest consumer of energy, although the U.S. is still the largest consumer of oil. However, China, now the largest automobile market in the world, is expected to rapidly increase oil consumption.

Russia is already the second biggest oil exporter and the biggest natural gas exporter in the world.


In other words, the growing importance of Russia and China in the global energy picture -- and their phasing out of dollar usage for trading energy commodities -- would marginalize the status of the dollar.

Russian ambitions against the dollar for energy exports go back to 2006. That year, former President Vladimir Putin made plans to set up a ruble-denominated oil and natural gas stock exchange in Russia.

The ruble must become a more widespread means of international transactions. To this end, we need to open a stock exchange in Russia to trade in oil, gas, and other goods to be paid for with rubles…Our goods are traded on global markets. Why are they not traded in Russia, said Putin, according to RIA Novosti.

For China, it is promoting the use of yuan as a trade settlement currency in Asia. Recently, it allowed its currency to trade against the Malaysian ringgit. Just like the deal with Russia, the purpose of that agreement was to promote bilateral trade between China and Malaysia and facilitate using the yuan to settle cross-border trade.

Trade is the major reason for the demand of foreign currencies in the first place. So as countries like China and Russia phase out the usage of U.S. dollars for international trade -- including but not limited to oil trade -- its status as the world's reserve currency will continue to slide.

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The Pentagon has released a statement confirming that soldiers could be prosecuted for promoting their faith: "Religious proselytization is not permitted within the Department of Defense...Court martials and non-judicial punishments are decided on a case-by-case basis...”.
The statement, released to Fox News, follows a Breitbart News report on Obama administration Pentagon appointees meeting with anti-Christian extremist Mikey Weinstein to develop court-martial procedures to punish Christians in the military who express or share their faith.

(From our earlier report: Weinstein is the head of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, and says Christians--including chaplains--sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ in the military are guilty of “treason,” and of committing an act of “spiritual rape” as serious a crime as “sexual assault.” He also asserted that Christians sharing their faith in the military are “enemies of the Constitution.”)

Being convicted in a court martial means that a soldier has committed a crime under federal military law. Punishment for a court martial can include imprisonment and being dishonorably discharged from the military.



So President Barack Obama’s civilian appointees who lead the Pentagon are confirming that the military will make it a crime--possibly resulting in imprisonment--for those in uniform to share their faith. This would include chaplains—military officers who are ordained clergymen of their faith (mostly Christian pastors or priests, or Jewish rabbis)--whose duty since the founding of the U.S. military under George Washington is to teach their faith and minister to the spiritual needs of troops who come to them for counsel, instruction, or comfort.

This regulation would severely limit expressions of faith in the military, even on a one-to-one basis between close friends. It could also effectively abolish the position of chaplain in the military, as it would not allow chaplains (or any service members, for that matter), to say anything about their faith that others say led them to think they were being encouraged to make faith part of their life. It’s difficult to imagine how a member of the clergy could give spiritual counseling without saying anything that might be perceived in that fashion.


In response to the Pentagon’s plans, retired Lt. Gen. Jerry Boykin, who is now executive vice president of the Family Research Council (FRC), said on Fox & Friends Wednesday morning:

It’s a matter of what do they mean by "proselytizing." ...I think they’ve got their defintions a little confused. If you’re talking about coercion that’s one thing, but if you’re talking about the free exercise of our faith as individual soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines, especially for the chaplains, they I think the worst thing we can do is stop the ability for a soldier to be able to exercise his faith.”

FRC has launched a petition here which has already collected over 60,000 signatures, calling on Secretary Hagel is stop working with Weinstein and his anti-Christian organization to develop military policy regarding religious faith.   
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Preparedness 101: Zombie Apocalypse

There are all kinds of emergencies out there that we can prepare for. Take a zombie apocalypse for example. That’s right, I said z-o-m-b-i-e a-p-o-c-a-l-y-p-s-e. You may laugh now, but when it happens you’ll be happy you read this, and hey, maybe you’ll even learn a thing or two about how to prepare for a real emergency.

A Brief History of Zombies

We’ve all seen at least one movie about flesh-eating zombies taking over, but where do zombies come from and why do they love eating brains so much? The word zombie comes from Haitian and New Orleans voodoo origins. Although its meaning has changed slightly over the years, it refers to a human corpse mysteriously reanimated to serve the undead. Through ancient voodoo and folk-lore traditions, shows like the Walking Dead were born.

The rise of zombies in pop culture has given credence to the idea that a zombie apocalypse could happen. In such a scenario zombies would take over entire countries, roaming city streets eating anything living that got in their way. The proliferation of this idea has led many people to wonder “How do I prepare for a zombie apocalypse?”


Better Safe than Sorry

So what do you need to do before zombies…or hurricanes or pandemics for example, actually happen? First of all, you should have an emergency kit in your house. This includes things like water, food, and other supplies to get you through the first couple of days before you can locate a zombie-free refugee camp (or in the event of a natural disaster, it will buy you some time until you are able to make your way to an evacuation shelter or utility lines are restored). Below are a few items you should include in your kit.

• Water (1 gallon per person per day)
• Food (stock up on non-perishable items that you eat regularly)
• Medications (this includes prescription and non-prescription meds)
• Tools and Supplies (utility knife, duct tape, battery powered radio, etc.)
• Sanitation and Hygiene (household bleach, soap, towels, etc.)
• Clothing and Bedding (a change of clothes for each family member and blankets)
• Important documents (copies of your driver’s license, passport, and birth certificate to name a few)
• First Aid supplies (although you’re a goner if a zombie bites you, you can use these supplies to treat basic cuts and lacerations that you might get during a tornado or hurricane)

Once you’ve made your emergency kit, you should sit down with your family and come up with an emergency plan. This includes where you would go and who you would call if zombies started appearing outside your door step. You can also implement this plan if there is a flood, earthquake, or other emergency.


1. Identify the types of emergencies that are possible in your area. Besides a zombie apocalypse, this may include floods, tornadoes, or earthquakes. If you are unsure contact your local Red Cross chapter for more information.

2. Pick a meeting place for your family to regroup in case zombies invade your home…or your town evacuates because of a hurricane. Pick one place right outside your home for sudden emergencies and one place outside of your neighborhood in case you are unable to return home right away.

3. Identify your emergency contacts. Make a list of local contacts like the police, fire department, and your local zombie response team. Also identify an out-of-state contact that you can call during an emergency to let the rest of your family know you are ok.

4. Plan your evacuation route. When zombies are hungry they won’t stop until they get food (i.e., brains), which means you need to get out of town fast! Plan where you would go and multiple routes you would take ahead of time so that the flesh eaters don’t have a chance! This is also helpful when natural disasters strike and you have to take shelter fast.



Never Fear – CDC is Ready

If zombies did start roaming the streets, CDC would conduct an investigation much like any other disease outbreak. CDC would provide technical assistance to cities, states, or international partners dealing with a zombie infestation. This assistance might include consultation, lab testing and analysis, patient management and care, tracking of contacts, and infection control (including isolation and quarantine). It’s likely that an investigation of this scenario would seek to accomplish several goals: determine the cause of the illness, the source of the infection/virus/toxin, learn how it is transmitted and how readily it is spread, how to break the cycle of transmission and thus prevent further cases, and how patients can best be treated. Not only would scientists be working to identify the cause and cure of the zombie outbreak, but CDC and other federal agencies would send medical teams and first responders to help those in affected areas (I will be volunteering the young nameless disease detectives for the field work).

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NEW DELHI: The "acne" -- as foreign minister Salman khurshid described it -- could well turn into a deep scar on India's face, with the Chinese reinforcing their position across the Line of Actual Control and raising the real prospect of India losing access to 750 sq km in strategically crucial northern Ladakh.

While China on Tuesday rebuffed India's plea to withdraw its troops, squatting 19km inside Indian territory at Raki Nala in the Depsang Bulge area, fresh imagery from Indian spy drones has shown that the People's Liberation Army has already started using trucks to replenish supplies for over 30 soldiers stationed there. The pictures, which also show that PLA is trying to convert the track there into a proper road, are transforming what the government had called a "localized problem'' into a first-rate diplomatic crisis.

The recognition has led to India starting to toughen its response, with Army chief General Bikram Singh on Wednesday briefing the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) on the "counter-measures'' possible. While a military showdown is not imminent, India may escalate its protest from demarches into a reappraisal of bilateral ties just ahead of the visit of Chinese Premier Li Keqiang on May 20.

The audacious intrusion into the Depsang Bulge, a table-top plateau, threatens to cut off India's access to some 750 sq km area in northern Ladakh: an area roughly half the size of Delhi. The face-off site is just about 35km south of the strategic Karakoram Pass, which is at the tri-junction of China-Pakistan-India borders, and overlooks the Siachen Glacier-Saltoro Ridge to the west and the Indian observation post in the Chumar sector to the east.


Indian Army and ITBP patrols to Daulat Beg Oldi (DBO) and the Karakoram Pass have to trek across the Saser and Depsang passes - both in excess of 16,000 feet -- on foot from Sasoma, which is over 80km north of Leh. So, loss of control over the Depsang Bulge would cut off access to the areas north of the passes.

Officers who have done stints there say the Depsang Bulge is the only staging area in the region from where Indian forces can group men and machines to launch any action. This is because the bulge is the only wide open land in the region which is full of high jagged ridges of the Karakoram range in the north and Ladakh range in the south.

Government sources admitted the developments over the past 48 hours, with the third flag meeting also failing to break the deadlock, have radically transformed the nature of the standoff, and the May 9 visit of foreign minister Salman Khurshid - who had initially described the incident as just an "acne'' that would not impede the upward trajectory in bilateral ties -- to Beijing could be in jeopardy.

Chinese troops camping inside Indian Territory.

Gen Singh, on his part, gave several options to the CCS, ranging from cutting off supply lines of the Chinese troops at Raki Nala to Indian troops conducting a similar maneuver in some other sector. But the government is sticking to the "no military escalation'' policy as of now, even as it works the diplomatic channels.

But China is insisting on the demolition of India's observation post at Chumar as a pre-condition for de-escalation. As ties threaten to nosedive, the observation post that can overlook troop movements on the Chinese side has emerged as the main bone of contention.

China, which is already miffed with India's re-activation of advanced landing grounds at Daulat Beg Oldi, Fukche and Nyoma and building of other infrastructure along the LAC over the last four-five years, is uncomfortable with Indian being able to peep at the movement on the highway. The Chinese, in fact, have frequently tried to "immobilize'' the surveillance cameras positioned at the Chumar post by cutting wires.

Last year, Indian troops had intercepted two Chinese personnel on mules across the Chumar post. Though they were subsequently let off, with language being a barrier, China got hugely irritated about the incident. Holding that the two Chinese were from its revenue department, Beijing since then has been pressing hard for the Chumar post to be dismantled.


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A crocodile snatched an 11-year-old Malaysian boy as he swam in a river on Borneo island, and a search party of 200 people later failed to find any sign of him.

A newspaper report said Mohamad Azwan Hatta went swimming with a friend in the Sarawak River near Bako Ulu village when he was grabbed by the crocodile.

"It was as fast as lightning," the friend, Sulaiman Sakini, 15, was quoted as saying by the New Straits Times.

"The crocodile, as big as a boat that carries 30 people, just snatched Mohamad Azwan and pushed me aside."

Sulaiman fled in fear and shock and cowered in his room until the victim's mother came by hours later to ask where her son was.

A search party of 200 people on several boats failed to find any sign of the boy or the crocodile, the report added.