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October 31, 2011- November 6, 2011 
 News In Review
 Vol 6, Issue 43
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The News In Review newsletter is a service provided by Understand The Times that is a compilation of the news articles previously posted on our site . Understand The Times does not endorse these events but rather is showing the church the current events.  The purpose of posting these articles is to warn the church of deception from a Biblical perspective.

 October 22 - New euro 'empire' plot by Brussels
 Artical: One World Government

European Union chiefs are drawing up plans for a single "Treasury" to oversee tax and spending across the 17 eurozone nations.

The proposal, put forward by Herman Van Rompuy, the European Council president, would be the clearest sign yet of a new "United States of Europe" - with Britain left on the sidelines.

The plan comes as European governments desperately trying to save the euro from collapse last night faced a new bombshell, with sources at the International Monetary Fund saying it would not pay for a second Greek bail-out. The single Treasury plan emerged in Brussels yesterday as Europe's finance ministers tried to find a way out of the crisis engulfing the eurozone. A full-scale rescue plan could cost about £1.75 trillion.

British sources said Mr Van Rompuy, who is regarded as being close to the German government, suggested plans for a "finance ministry" to be based either in Frankfurt or Paris. The EU already has its own "foreign ministry", headed by Baroness Ashton, the former British Labour minister, and based in Brussels.

A senior Coalition source told The Sunday Telegraph: "I am well aware of arguments in Brussels and elsewhere in favour of a single Treasury. You'd get any number of different versions of 'Europe' all running at very different speeds."



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 October 18 - Cloning Expert's Next Goal, a Mammoth?
 Article: Cloning And Geneticengineering

Would cloning and bringing back to life a mammoth that is believed to have gone extinct several thousand years ago be enough for a defamed scientist who left an indelible stain on scientific academia to make a comeback? Some of Hwang Woo-suk's supporters certainly hope so.

At the event, Gov. Kim said, "I asked Dr. Hwang the other day if he could clone a dinosaur. He said it's impossible because there were no remains of a dinosaur from which he could extract somatic cell. "I asked him, then, if a mammoth can be cloned. Dr. Hwang said there is a possibility because there are remains of a mammoth still in Siberia," he said, adding, "Dr. Hwang turned a fairy tale into reality today. I hope him to succeed in his greater challenge in the future."

Mr. Hwang didn't seem to have any immediate plans to clone a mammoth, but he is working next on cloning a Lycaon, also known as the African wild dog.

In 2009, the former Seoul National University professor was convicted of embezzlement and of falsifying his 2004 paper, which was later retracted by the journal Science. He was given a two-year suspended prison term. After the conviction, Mr. Hwang more or less disappeared from the public scene, but that didn't mean he stopped researching. Since the government had banned him from engaging in any kind of human embryonic stem-cell research, he set up a private research institute - the Sooam Biotech Research Foundation - in Gyeonggi province to focus on cloning animals.

And in that area, Mr. Hwang has been thriving. In 2005, he created Snuppy, the world's first cloned dog. His team also succeeded in cloning several more animals, including a pig, a wolf, and now - coyotes. His supporters have sporadically called on the government to renew his license in human embryonic stem-cell research, but it seems likely that Mr. Hwang's past will overshadow any of his future research.


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 October 19 - Experts warn RFID risks outweigh benefits
 Article: Technology For Global Monetary System

The growth of the now billion-dollar RFID business is prompting industry experts, from consumer advocates to company figures specializing in RFID protection, to question whether the technology can ever be made adequately secure.

Walt Augustinowicz, CEO of the RFID-protection company Identity Stronghold, distills concerns over Radio Frequency Identification to a simple tradeoff. Many retailers, he points out, are willing to exchange the security of your data for the convenience of RFID asset tracking and point-of-sale simplicity.

"RFID chips are basically tiny two-way radios that are so small they can fit inside a credit card, an article of clothing, the inside of a shampoo bottle cap, etc.," he explains. The chip, essentially a transponder, carries identifying data and can be queried and read, or "sniffed," at a distance. RFID technology is now in use in credit cards, ATM cards, "enhanced" driver's licenses, highway toll networks, and inventory tracking systems.

Katherine Albrecht, co-author of the book "Spychips: How Major Corporations and Government plan to Track your every Move," believes speeding up transactions at the point of sale is a powerful inducement for retailers to introduce RFID technology in their stores.

"The reason you're starting to see [RFID tags show up in credit and ATM cards] is that the industry itself did some studies and found that people spend more when they actually don't have to handle their credit card. The act of looking at your credit card, and the act of then having to get out a pen and sign for [the purchase], creates many decision points at which a consumer could decide not to make the purchase."

Albrecht and CASPIAN identify three categories of RFID threats. The first is what she describes as unscrupulous retailers, who use RFID and programs like frequent-shopper cards to amass personal data about you and your purchases in order to more effectively target you for future sales and marketing efforts.

The second category, a threat simply ignored by many commercial and government entities introducing RFID technology, is hackers.

"The big threat that we face right now as citizens is an 'enhanced' driver's license,"
Katherine Albrecht insists. She points out that the third threat category identified by CASPIAN is government. While no states currently mandate an RFID-equipped driver's license or non-driver ID card, those that do are using the ID as a de facto passport.

"What they didn't tell you is that they do that by adding remotely readable RFID into your driver's license," Albrecht says - and that RFID chip is among the least secure in the industry, readable even "by the underwear shelf at Wal-Mart."

"The industry will tell you that the card has a unique ID number, not your name," Albrecht points out. "But all you have to do is be around that person once to 'sniff' that number and know [who that number represents.]"

What's worse, using RFID in government identification like passports could make it possible to target American citizens for terrorist attack. "We're making it possible," says Albrecht, "for Americans traveling in foreign countries, where America's not very popular, [to be] singled out and identified in crowds." A bomb equipped with an RFID reader could lie in place undetected for years, Albrecht asserts, before detonating in proximity to a specific ID signature.



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 October 26 - Does Joel Osteen Not Know, or Does He Not Care?
 Article: Unbiblical Christianity

Here we go again. Joel Osteen is in the news once again, this time for saying that Mormonism is just another form of Christianity. Osteen, pastor of "America's largest church," as the media repeat over and over, was speaking to The Washington Times in an interview that covered a variety of issues. It was the quintessential Joel on display.

Speaking to the newspaper on Monday, Osteen said, "I see faith in America at an all-time high." His comments came just as a major research project detailed a significant loss of vitality in America's Christian congregations. That loss of vitality can be traced, among other things, to a loss of theological and biblical conviction. Joel, of course, is proof positive that you can build a crowd without building a church. He is not inclined to deal in much theological conviction.

On Mormonism, Joel said:
"I believe that [Mormons] are Christians. ... I don't know if it's the purest form of Christianity, like I grew up with. But you know what, I know Mormons. I hear Mitt Romney - and I've never met him - but I hear him say, 'I believe Jesus is the son of God,' 'I believe he's my savior,' and that's one of the core issues.

"I'm sure there are other issues that we don't agree on. But you know, I can say that the Baptists and the Methodists and the Catholics don't all agree on everything. So that would be my take on it."

The main point of concern in Joel's latest comment is the lack of any biblical standard of judgment and the total abdication of theological responsibility. He relegates doctrinal disagreements between Christians and Mormons to the status of theological debates between Protestant denominations and then includes Roman Catholicism. There are plenty of issues there, and the issues are not the same when comparing Baptists to Methodists, on the one hand, and Protestants and Roman Catholics, on the other. Comparing any form of Trinitarian orthodoxy with Mormonism is another class of question altogether.

By now, it is clear that Joel Osteen's carelessness is deliberate and calculated. This is not the first time that he has encountered the question of Mormonism. Back in 2007, he told Chris Wallace of FOX News that Mormons are indeed Christians:
"Well, in my mind they are. Mitt Romney has said that he believes in Christ as his savior, and that's what I believe, so, you know, I'm not the one to judge the little details of it. So I believe they are."

In a remarkable exchange with Chris Wallace, Osteen muddied the waters further:

WALLACE: So, for instance, when people start talking about Joseph Smith, the founder of the church, and the golden tablets in upstate New York, and God assumes the shape of a man, do you not get hung up in those theological issues?

OSTEEN:
I probably don't get hung up in them because I haven't really studied them or thought about them. And you know, I just try to let God be the judge of that. I mean, I don't know.
 



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 October 26 - New Street Lights To Have "Homeland Security" Applications
 Article: One World Government

New street lights that include "Homeland Security" applications including speaker systems, motion sensors and video surveillance are now being rolled out with the aid of government funding.

The Intellistreets system comprises of a wireless digital infrastructure that allows street lights to be controlled remotely by means of a ubiquitous wi-fi link and a miniature computer housed inside each street light, allowing for "security, energy management, data harvesting and digital media," according to the Illuminating Concepts website.

According to the company's You Tube video of the concept, the primary capabilities of the devices include "energy conservation, homeland security, public safety, traffic control, advertising, video surveillance."

In terms of Homeland Security applications, each of the light poles contains a speaker system that can be used to broadcast emergency alerts, as well as a display that transmits "security levels" (presumably a similar system to the DHS' much maligned color-coded terror alert designation), in addition to showing instructions by way of its LED video screen. The lights also include proximity sensors that can record both pedestrian and road traffic. The video display and speaker system will also be used to transmit Minority Report-style advertising, as well as Amber Alerts and other "civic announcements".

With the aid of grant money from the federal government, the company is about to launch the first concept installation of the system in the city of Farmington Hills, Michigan.

Using street lights as surveillance tools has already been advanced by several European countries. In 2007, leaked documents out of the UK Home Office revealed that British authorities were working on proposals to fit lamp posts with CCTV cameras that would X-ray scan passers-by and "undress them" in order to "trap terror suspects". Dutch police also announced last year that they are developing a mobile scanner that will "see through people's clothing and look for concealed weapons".


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 Death toll in Turkey quake soars past 500; survivors plead for aid
 Article: Signs Of The Last Times

The death toll from Turkey's massive earthquake soared to more than 500 on Thursday, officials reported, as survivors pleaded for more aid and some chastised authorities for what they consider a slow response to the disaster.

Many of those who managed to escape being crushed or buried by the 7.2-magnitude tremor, which slammed the town of Ercis in Turkey's eastern Van province Sunday, were fearful of succumbing to the cold as thousands were forced to sleep outside.

"Everyone is getting sick and wet," Fetih Zengin, 38, an estate agent whose house in Ercis was badly damaged told the news service. "We have been waiting in line for four days like this and still nothing. It gets to our turn and they say they have run out."

Turkish authorities said 534 people had been killed and 2,300 injured in the earthquake, the largest in Turkey in more than a decade, Reuters reported. Another 185 people had been rescued alive from the rubble of buildings. The search for survivors continued at some sites, but stopped at others.

A 5.4-magnitude tremor that hit the region Thursday further rattled nerves, but there were no immediate reports of additional damage, according to Reuters.



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 October 26 - Thai floods may cause global rice shortage
 Article: Signs Of The Last Times

Thailand's flooding has wiped out as much as 14% of paddy fields, drastically reducing the export capacity of the world's biggest rice exporter and potentially increasing global food prices.

The worst flooding in the country in 60 years has destroyed 1.4 million hectares (3.5 million acres) and as much as 7 million tons of crops
, the government says.

The global shortfall equates to 4.6 million tons of milled grain, 1 million more than the surplus expected by the US Department of Agriculture.

There has already been a 13% jump to US $625 a ton this year in the Thai export price, a global benchmark, and analysts have warned it may climb a further 20% by December.

Rice is a staple food for half the world's population and has faced constant demand growth since the end of the Second World War, putting hundreds of millions of people in danger of food insecurity if the price increases beyond what they can afford.

Flooding has damaged 13% of crop areas in Thailand, 6% in the Philippines, 12% in Cambodia and 7.5% in Laos
, according to the UN Food & Agriculture Organization.

 



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 October 20 - Mikhail Gorbachev Says Uprisings Signal and Emerging New World Order
 Article: One World Government

"We are reaping the consequences of a strategy that is not conducive to cooperation and partnership, to living in a new global situation," said Mikhail Gorbachev, former President of the Soviet Union, to a crowd of 3,600 on Oct. 19 in the Allan P.

Gorbachev was referring to the series of uprisings around the world including the Occupy Wall Street demonstrations here in the United States. "The world needs goals that will bring people together," he said.

Gorbachev then described the difficult situation faced in Russia at the time. "We needed changes in our own country; the people were demanding change, saying 'we can no longer live like this, we can no longer live as before.' This required us, the leaders of the country, to propose something bold." He said this led to perestroika, to an effort to push forward and end the totalitarian system, "to move toward democracy and freedom and step by step towards a new economy, toward market economics. But the most important thing was freedom and glasnost."

"The entire world situation did not develop properly," said Gorbachev. "We saw deterioration where there should have been positive movement. My friend the late Pope John Paul II said it best. He said, 'We need a new world order, one that is more stable, more humane, and more just.' Others, including myself, have spoken about a new world order, but we are still facing the problem of building such a world order     problems of the environment, of backwardness and poverty, food shortages  all because we do not have a system of global governance."

Gorbachev said it looks like the United States needs its military-industrial sector for the economy to prosper and if that is so, then it is a sick economy. "I do not say this to rankle anyone," he explained. "I say it to my own people as well. We need to build a society where human beings are at the center. A lot of brain power is concentrated in the military-industrial sector; we need to shift that to other goals."

In commenting on whether the objectives of Vladimir Putin, prime minister of Russia, who has announced he will run for a third term as president in the 2012 elections, are heading in the right direction, Gorbachev said the model that should be pursued is an association of nations, a union of nations that remain sovereign and politically independent and not a subjugation of nations.

He commented on the changing world: "We cannot leave things as they were before, when we are seeing that these protests are moving to even new countries, that almost all countries are now witnessing such protests, that the people want change," he said. "As we are addressing these challenges, these problems raised by these protest movements, we will gradually find our way towards a new world order."



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 October 27 - Rainbow of religious leaders join pope for peace
 Article: One World Religion

Pope Benedict XVI joined Buddhist monks, Islamic scholars, Yoruba leaders and a handful of agnostics in making a communal call for peace Thursday, insisting that religion must never be used as a pretext for war or terrorism.

Benedict welcomed some 300 leaders representing a rainbow of faiths to the hilltop Italian town of Assisi to commemorate the 25th anniversary of a daylong prayer for peace here called by Pope John Paul II in 1986 amid Cold War conflicts.

While the event lacked the star power of 1986, when the Dalai Lama, Mother Teresa and others came together to pray, Thursday's peace meeting included some novelties that the original lacked. Buddhist monks from mainland China were on hand as were four people who profess no faith at all - part of Benedict's efforts to reach out to agnostics and atheists who nevertheless are searching for truth.

Traditional Catholics condemned the Assisi meeting - just as they did the one in 1986 - saying it was blasphemy for the pope to invite leaders of "false" religions to pray to their Gods for peace.

The issue is a sensitive one for Benedict, who has railed against religious relativism, or the idea that there are no absolute truths and that all religions are somehow equal. As then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, he issued a controversial document in 2000 in part as a response to the 1986 Assisi event asserting that the fullness of the means of salvation was found in the Catholic Church alone.

And there was a lot of distinctiveness on hand. Standing on the altar of St. Mary of the Angels basilica, Wande Abimbola of Nigeria, representing Africa's traditional Yoruba religion, sang and shook a percussion instrument as he told the delegates that peace can only come with greater respect for indigenous religions. "We must always remember that our own religion, along with the religions practiced by other people, are valid and precious in the eyes of the Almighty, who created all of us with such plural and different ways of life and belief systems," he said.

Thursday's meeting also included Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I and representatives from Greek, Russian, Serbian and Belarusian Orthodox churches as well as Lutheran, Methodist and Baptist leaders. Several rabbis were joined by some 60 Muslims, a half-dozen Hindus and Shinto believers, three Taoists, three Jains and a Zoroastrian.



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 October 27 - Russia: Putin advances Eurasian Union
 Article: One World Government

Russian leader Vladimir Putin is pushing a controversial new idea. He wants to create a "Eurasian Union" to integrate the independent republics of the former USSR into a single economic - and eventually political - super-state.

Putin bills it as an eastern version of the European Union. Critics see Russia's age-old imperial ambitions roaring back under a new name. Amid the debate, most observers have yet to notice how rapidly Putin's brainchild is moving from rhetoric to reality. Last week, at a meeting in St. Petersburg, eight former Soviet states signed a free-trade treaty that Putin hailed as a first step, possibly leading to full union within 4 years.

"Only in around 2015 may we approach the realization of the idea of creation of Eurasian Union if we work as energetically as we have been," said Putin, who is currently prime minister, but is widely expected to retake the reigns as president next year. "This is the matter of the future."

"We propose creating a powerful supranational union capable of becoming a pole in the modern world, and at the same time an effective bridge between Europe and the dynamic Asia-Pacific Region," Putin wrote.

"A Eurasian Union will differ from the EU in that it will be based on Eurasian values, not European ones," says Alexander Dugin, head of the International Eurasian Movement, a group of right-wing businessmen, officials and intellectuals that is thought to have considerable influence in the Kremlin. He says the EU's reliance on liberal economic institutions to hold it together is its fatal flaw, and that Putin will move to cement the economic integration of the Eurasian Union with strong central authority.

"Economics are important, but we will need to stress the political process of integration," he says. "From what we see happening in Europe it's clear that at times of crisis the whole union can split apart if it is built without strong political and geopolitical values which can transcend the crisis       The Eurasian Union must be constructed with a strong political horizon in mind."



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 October 29 - Christian church teams up with high priestess of Isis / Famous denomination welcoming paganism with guided meditations
 Article: Unbiblical Christianity

A Protestant church in California is coming under fire from some Christians over its upcoming conference featuring "guided meditations" by a high priestess of the pagan fertility goddess Isis. The fifth annual "Faith and Feminism Conference" taking place Nov. 11-13 is being hosted by the Ebenezer Lutheran Church in San Francisco, which bills itself as "her church."

Among the scheduled participants is Loreon Vigne, high priestess of Isis Oasis - a temple, retreat and animal sanctuary Vigne founded in 1978 in Geyserville, Calif. "I personally see Isis as Mother Nature," Vigne told WND, "and that she encompasses everything with her wings. She's a winged goddess. She encompasses any other goddess from any culture." Vigne, who plans to bring several other priestesses to the conference, will conduct prayers, songs and meditation.

"Guided meditation is where the audience closes their eyes and you take them on a little journey," she explained. "I've taken people to their past lives in Egypt, as [that culture] had all the secrets. They're the ones that knew. Their main concept is to know thyself, know thy heart, know thy soul and know thy purpose."

Besides honoring the goddess, the staff of Isis Oasis also provides massage therapy along with tarot and astrology readings, according to its website.

But the San Francisco event blending non-existent, heathen deities with the Christian faith is leaving some outraged.

Defending the event is one of its organizers, Rev. Megan Rohrer, the first openly transgender Lutheran minister ordained in the United States.

"I think the world is much more interested in interfaith connection than exclusivity," Rohrer told WND. "It's really not that unusual. Christianity was founded in the time of the beginnings of lots of things." While acknowledging concern about mixing paganism with Christianity is a "hot-button issue," the pastor said, "Christians that say that probably don't know what paganism is."

This particular Lutheran church in San Francisco is far from what many might consider mainstream. For instance, it heavily promotes a female identity for God, with a giant banner hanging from its purple exterior declaring "God/dess loves all her children."

"We are a diverse community, standing firmly within the Christian tradition in order to re-image the divine by claiming her feminine persona," the church proclaims.

"Our Christian/Lutheran feminist prayers and liturgy reach back into the storehouse of tradition to bring forth names as Mother, Shaddai, Sophia, Womb, Midwife, Shekinah, She Who Is. They do so out of renewed insights into the nature of the Gospel empowered by the risen Christ-Sophia."

Other events at the conference include a chanting workshop with another Isis priestess, Katie Kethcum, "inclusive" hymns, sacred walks, sacred drums, sacred dance and Kundalini Yoga mantras, which the church says "are composed of basic phonetic sounds common to all languages and have been used to invoke the presence of the Divine for centuries."


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 November 1 - Everyone is called to be holy, Pope says on All Saints Day
 Article: Roman Catholic Church And The Last days

Comment from Understand the Times:
Those who are seeking ecumenical unity with Rome should read the following article and wake up. For some reason, few are warning about the One World Religion that is coming with headquarters in Rome.
 
Pope Benedict XVI said on today's feast of All Saints that everyone is called by Jesus to holiness in their own path toward sainthood.

The Pope also reflected on how today's emphasis on the "communion of saints" continues into tomorrow's commemoration of All Souls, which occurs every Nov. 2. This is the day when the Church prays for the souls in Purgatory.

All Souls Day, the Pope said, "helps us to remember our loved ones who have left us, and all the souls on their way to the fullness of life, just on the horizon of the heavenly Church."

He noted how the custom of praying for the dead has existed since "the early days of the Christian faith," and that these prayers are "not only useful but necessary," since they "not only can help them" but also make their prayers for those on earth effective.

In many Catholic parts of the world, All Souls Day is marked by visiting the graves of loved ones. In several Spanish speaking countries - particularly Mexico - this custom is referred to as the "Day of the Dead."

Pope Benedict concluded by entrusting both "our pilgrimage to the homeland of Heaven," as well as that of our "dead brothers and sisters," to the maternal intercession of the Virgin Mary, Queen of All Saints.



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 October 31 - Vatican official explains keys to New Evangelization
 Article: Roman Catholic Church And The Last Days

Comment from Understand the Times:
In order to participate in the New Evangelization it will be necessary to believe that Jesus is a wafer and that he can be placed in a container. While Rome says this is pointing people to "Jesus," the biblical definition of this kind of belief is best described as idolatry.
The secretary of the Pontifical Council for the New Evangelization, Archbishop Octavio Ruiz Arenas recently outlined the important elements of the New Evangelization called for by Blessed John Paul II and now Benedict XVI.

The concept of the New Evangelization came out of the Third General Conference of the Latin American Bishops' Council in Puebla, Mexico, the archbishop explained. The task of the Church, the council said, was to forge "an evangelization of the culture and a new quality of evangelization as well, which begins at the personal level, in the family and at the parish, in order to confront the widespread phenomenon of secularization."

Archbishop Ruiz Arenas then listed a series of requirements for undertaking this task. The first, he said, is to "give primacy to grace," as John Paul II taught. "We must be aware that it is the Holy Spirit that works in the Church. We must not fall into the temptation to think that it is our works or our plans that lead to results and to conversion," he explained.

The second is "to live as an authentic missionary disciple. Discipleship is a reality that cannot be lived in an isolated, individual way, but rather it must be lived in community. The Lord went about choosing and calling his disciples. Today he calls each one of us as well and gives us a mission.

The third requirement is to show great generosity, while the fourth is that the all the activity of the Church be an expression of love and service in search of the comprehensive well-being of the human person. This love and service speaks for itself and constitutes a form of evangelization. "By our words, our silence and our example, we make what we proclaim and celebrate believable," the archbishop said.

The fifth requirement is that prayer be at the foundation of everything that we do. "We live in a world of continual agitation and movement, which translates into activism that runs of risk of 'doing for the sake of doing,'" he continued.

The sixth requirement is the centrality of the Eucharist, "which contains in itself the very nucleus of the mystery of the Church and constitutes the source and summit of the entire Christian life. The mystery of the faith is celebrated in it with joy, as it makes present the central event of our salvation and brings about the work of our redemption, making the redeeming sacrifice of Christ ever present in our time," the archbishop said.

The seventh requirement is continual reading of the Word of God. "We urgently need to trust in the Sacred Scriptures and be familiar with them, so that they will be the compass that guides our path," he said, recommending the prayerful reading of the Bible through "lectio divina."

He concluded by reminding young people of John Paul II's call to "cast out into the deep" in order to be "evangelizers of others: of your families, your friends and companions and of all those whose faith is weak or who are afraid to commit to the Lord. Today, you are the Apostles of the New Evangelization."

The Pontifical Council for the New Evangelization was created by Pope Benedict XVI in June of 2010 to foster a reawakening of the faith especially in Europe and the United States.



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 November 2 - Sarkozy, Obama push for financial crisis solution
 Article: One World Governement

Europe's debt drama dominated talks among leaders of the Group of 20 leading economies Thursday, with Greece's government facing potential collapse and European leaders admitting that the eurozone may face losing its weakest member. U.S. President Barack Obama, Chinese President Hu Jintao and other world leaders began the formal G-20 summit after a morning packed with bilateral meetings and a hurriedly organized meeting of eurozone officials to respond to developments in Greece - which risk fracturing Europe's common currency area and the EU itself.

President Barack Obama said the most important task at the G-20 summit is to resolve the European financial crisis and urged European Union leaders to flesh out details of their ambitious plan to rescue Greece and stabilize financial markets.

"We have found a common analysis to make the financial world contribute" to finding a solution to the crisis, Sarkozy told reporters after talks with the U.S. president. He said he welcomed Obama's "understanding on subjects such as a tax on financial transactions."

Obama said he and Sarkozy discussed developments in Greece "and how we can work to help resolve that situation." Obama didn't give any details on what the U.S. might do in concert with its European allies. "The United States will continue to be a partner with the Europeans to resolve these challenges," Obama said.

U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon urged the G-20 leaders to turn their attention to other pressing world issues, too.

"They should first of all, as leaders of this global economy, and global world, look beyond the immediate concerns - euro crisis - there are so many issues. Billions of people are going hungry to bed, and there are hundreds of millions of people who are sick, who need support," he told The Associated Press in an interview. "I'm concerned about this deteriorating international economic situation and therefore leaders should show unity of purpose, and they should get united," he said.

The G-20 leaders are slated to discuss food security, reform of the international monetary system and the volatility of commodity prices - none of which is expected to get much attention or produce any solid conclusions at a summit so dominated by the European quagmire.



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 November 3 - Iran says united and 'ready for war' with Israel
 Article: Wars And Rumors Of Wars

Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi on Thursday responded to reports claiming Israel is planning a military attack against his country, stating Tehran is "ready for war" with Israel.

"We have been hearing threats from Israel for eight years. Our nation is a united nation      such threats are not new to us," Salehi told Turkey's Hürriyet Daily. Salehi further warned that if any country would attempt an attack, Iran would not hesitate to retaliate. "We are very sure of ourselves. We can defend our country," Salehi claimed. Salehi's statements come a day after Iran's chief of staff said Israel would be severely punished for any attack on Iranian soil.

"We would make them regret such a mistake and would severely punish them," Gen. Hassan Firouzabadi told the ISNA news agency on Wednesday.

"In case of an attack by the Zionist regime, the United States would also be hit," he added, without elaborating.

Britain is also stepping up its preparations for a military strike on Iran, The Guardian newspaper reported on Wednesday. According to its report, London is increasingly concerned over Tehran's nuclear program and is preparing to deploy Royal Navy ships in the coming months to assist a possible American strike on Iran.



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