IDF preparing units for next war: Lebanon and West Bank

ISRAEL - The IDF Spokesman’s Office is preparing for the next war, in which the swiftness of its response will be key, Brigadier-General Yoav Mordechai, the IDF Spokesman, says. Speaking to the Globes Business Conference in Tel Aviv earlier this week, Mordechai said his unit was in the midst of preparing for a future war that will likely be more complex than the recent conflict with Hamas. “We’re not patting ourselves on the back from the last operation,” he said, referring to November’s Operation Pillar of Defense. “Militarily, we understand that this was a time-limited operation,” he said. “We made mistakes – and where we err, we correct ourselves.”

 
German ethnic policy - To Heighten Tensions with other Nations

BERLIN, GERMANY/BUDAPEST, HUNGARY/BOLZANO, ITALY - A new study published by the German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP) warns of the heightened "potential for conflicts" in the EU due to the ethnic policy promoted by Berlin.

Demand £500 million back for Tamiflu, urge MPs

UK - Ministers should demand that the pharmaceutical firm Roche returns £500 million to the NHS if it is found to have sat on trials data showing the flu drug Tamiflu to be ineffective, say MPs. The Swiss drugs giant has been accused of withholding key data on effectiveness of Tamiflu, which the NHS stockpiled in vast quantities in 2009 to protect against the swine flu threat. Roche claims the drug reduces the risk of developing flu-related complications including bronchitis and pneumonia. Dr Sarah Wollaston, a Conservative MP and member of the Health Select Committee, wrote the letter. “It could be that the previous government spent 0.5 per cent of the entire 2009 NHS budget on a drug which the manufacturers were aware was no better than a placebo.”

 
Queen gives the Bank a lesson in economics

UK - Four years ago, the Queen asked academics why no one had foreseen the “awful” financial crisis which has blighted the country ever since. On Thursday, during a tour of the Bank of England, she effectively answered her own question as she talked about “lax” City workers and a regulator that “didn’t have the teeth” to intervene. The Duke, meanwhile, was typically direct. “There’s not another one coming, is there?” he asked. Then, as he left Mr Kapadia and his group, he said: “Don’t do it again!”

 
Congress outraged by the secrecy behind [Mr] Obama's drone war

USA - Members of the US Congress convened in Washington on Thursday to discuss the United States’ ongoing extrajudicial slayings of Americans and foreigners overseas using unmanned drones. On Capitol Hill, Representative Dennis Kucinich (Democrat for Ohio) led a House Judiciary Committee discussion that demanded more transparency from President Barack Obama over how his administration carries out the targeted killing of suspected terrorists using drone aircraft. Despite the growing number of kills, the White House has remained mostly quiet on its drone program, with the lions’ share of information only surfacing through intelligence leaks made to the media.

 
French in Denial as Crisis DeepensComment

FRANCE - In the midst of the economic crisis, France's Socialists are denying reality. The minister of industrial renewal is calling for nationalization of some industries, while the president shies away from necessary structural reforms. Business leaders fear the clock has been turned back 30 years. The liberal economist Nicolas Baverez, who predicted "France's downfall" 10 years ago and has just written a book titled "Réveillez-Vous" ("Wake Up"), saw the wrangling over Florange as proof that the French left still hasn't accepted globalization, and acts as if the country were an economic and cultural preserve. "The idea of nationalization sends an ominous message to all investors," Baverez said.

Obama, Boehner hold "frank" meeting amid "fiscal cliff" frustration

USA - President Barack Obama and House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner held a "frank" face-to-face meeting on Thursday in an effort to break an impasse in talks to avert the "fiscal cliff" of steep tax increases and spending cuts. With an end-of-year deadline looming, the two leaders talked at the White House as frustration mounted over the recent lack of progress in negotiations that had become bogged down in a daily round of finger-pointing. Aides on both sides used similar language to describe the 50-minute meeting, calling it "frank" and repeating that lines of communication remained open.

 
How A Handful Of Unsupervised MIT Economists Run The World

BASEL, SWITZERLAND - Ever get the feeling that the entire global economy is one big experiment conducted by several former Keynesian economists from MIT with a bent for central planning, who sit down in conspiratorial dark rooms in tiny Swiss cities and bet it all on green until they double down so much nobody even pays attention to the game? No? You should. Jon Hilsenrath, of all people, explains why.

World’s Most Prestigious Financial Agency Warns of Bursting Bubble

USA - According to the BIS’ latest Quarterly Review financial markets are starting to behave in some of the ways they behaved before the crash. In particular, investors seem to be chasing riskier and riskier assets, despite the fact that the economic prospects are hardly all that great.

Walmart to start selling unlabeled insecticide-laced GMO corn from Monsanto

USA - America’s largest bio-agriculture company and the biggest retailer in the country are joining forces, but a happy ending isn’t necessarily in sight. Walmart will soon be stocking their shelves with GMO corn made by Monsanto.

Monsanto wins California: GMO labeling law defeated

USA - President Obama wasn’t the only big winner on Tuesday: the Monsanto Co and the billion-dollar business behind genetically modified foods were victorious in California, where a measure that would've required the labeling of GMOs lost at the polls. Proposition 37, a state-wide initiative that aimed to increase consumer awareness about the food industry’s growing use of genetically modified organisms (GMOs), was defeated by a margin of 53 to 47 percent, with nearly all of the polls accounted for Wednesday morning.

 
Eurozone agrees ECB banking supervision rules

BRUSSELS, EUROPE - European finance ministers have reached a deal on rules for supervising eurozone banks ahead of an EU summit. Around 200 of the biggest banks will come under the direct oversight of the European Central Bank, which will act as chief supervisor of eurozone banks. The agreement - a key step towards banking union - will be put before European leaders later on Thursday.

Unprecedented: Fed ties interest rate to jobless

USA - The Federal Reserve on Wednesday announced a new easing program to boost the US economy and said for the first time that it will keep interest rates near zero until unemployment falls below a newly established threshold of 6.5 percent.

Ecumenism at the heart of New EvangelisationComment

VATICAN - ‘Christian Unity: illusion or promise? Ecumenical aspects of the Year of Faith’ That was the title of a lecture given at the Lateran University on Monday by Swiss theologian Cardinal Kurt Koch, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity.

Vatican: World not ending, despite Maya prediction

VATICAN CITY - The Vatican's top astronomer has some assurances to offer: The world won't be ending in about two weeks, despite predictions to the contrary. The Reverend Jose Funes, director of the Vatican Observatory, wrote in Wednesday's Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano that "it's not even worth discussing" doomsday scenarios based on the Mayan calendar that are flooding the Internet ahead of the purported December 21 apocalypse.

 
“Just what is an APOSTLE?”
Just what is an Apostle?

Today we find the Church of God in a “wilderness of religious confusion!”

The confusion is not merely around the Church – within the religions of the world outside – but WITHIN the very heart of The True Church itself!

Read online or contact email to request a copy

Listen to Me, You who know righteousness, You people in whose heart is My Law: …I have put My words in your mouth, I have covered you with the shadow of My hand, That I may plant the heavens, Lay the foundations of the earth, and say to Zion, “you are My people” (Isaiah 51:7,16)